The Weekly Mansion Kameido is fairly nice considering how hard it is to find housing, but it is expensive. The inside is narrow and the set up is a little weird (as you can probably tell...the faucet knob controls both the sink and the shower), but it's nice to have private space. There are around 55 or so other EAP students staying here and we all go to Japanese Language Institute (JLI) together on the train. We had our placement test yesterday and I didn't do very well, but classes start tomorrow, so we'll see how it goes. Japanese here is definitely different from in the states, so it might not be bad that I have to start from a lower level. I've heard that we're going to have 2 hours of homework a night. We had our orientation for EAP and JLI today, which was tiring because we had to go all the way to ICU (International Christian University) for it. I spent the rest of the day walking around the Kameido station looking at stores and such with Dorothy and Hana, we're all going to Sophia and it turns out Hana and I both know Sylvia and Dorothy's boyfriend plays taiko...small world!
A few other random notes...
- I tried MOW, the ice cream Yamapi endorses. It's yummy!
- Yellow watermelon is also delicious!
- UNIQLO is everywhere.
- Foods I've eaten (because Mom asked ^.^): ramen, saba shioyaki, asparagus/cream sauce spaghetti, sandwiches, aloe yogurt, bread and apricot jam, lemon water, shabu shabu, and all the delicious homemade dishes that Itakura-san served.
- Japanese trains are insane. You think it won't hold any more people or that someone is gonna go crazy from being so crammed in, but it works.
おばあちゃんへ：こんにちは！お元気ですか？日本はとても楽しいと思います！クラスと比べると、日本の日本語はもっと難しいから初級の一番上のクラスを入るかもしれないです。そして、上智大学のクラスを始まる前に、もう一つのテストを取るそうです。そのテストは上智のプレイスメントだと言われた。話すのはまだ恥ずかしくて、難しくて好きじゃないだけど、頑張っています！品川、渋谷、大台場、浅草に見に行った。今、亀戸に住んでいるけど夏のクラスの後、平和台に引っ越す。心配しないで、先生と友達もいるからね。元気でね！
