10:18pm セミナーハウス
天気：雨天
Still no luck in finding my phone. I went down to the station at about 9:30 this morning, and talked with a women at the Keihan bus line office. All I got from her was a number to call, for the bus depot. I was going to get Dan to help me call up, but he didn't show this afternoon... I walked back to the uni, and stopped at the police station. I was able to get across to them all the information. They didn't have any phones, but now they're notified that mines missing at least. I was happy that I could communicate with them well enough to get all the facts across. After that I went to the post office and got the postcards sent.
After speaking class, Joanna and I walked over to the cafeteria to get some lunch, and on the way a Japanese girl came up to me and asked me where I was from. Mayaka was her name, and she was looking for a speaking partner; of course I already have one. Joanna took charge of the conversation and asked her if she'd like to eat with us; she accepted. We all had katsudon; it's sooooo yummy. Pork, egg, and rice. We talked for a while after lunch and then made our way over to the CIE lounge to study some more before the map quiz. Upon entering, Mayako suddenly decided she should go. She seemed a bit lost and disheartened. I have her email address though, so I'll try to stay in contact with her. She teaches English at a primary school in Kyoto 4 times a week.
In the lounge, I saw Seimu and went to talk with him. I told him about joining the koto club and so he introduced me to a girl at another table who had played the koto for some years. After a short while, he left me with her, and 3 other girls; he had to study. Unfortunately they started asking me some embarrassing questions about what I thought about Japanese girls, what I like about them etc. I found myself in a very sticky situation, all because I said I didn't have a girlfriend. In history, I explained my predicament to Joanna and Kelly, and Kelly told me that as soon as he got here, whenever someone asked him if he had a girlfriend, he straight out told them he did; after that they left him alone! Lol, I should probably try that. The map quiz turned out to be easy enough; it's just a matter of just how exact we have to be in marking the location.
After class I spent a bit of time with Christina. She's joined the break dance club, and also wants to join ballroom dancing; good luck to her. I left her at the vending machines and made my way over to the washitsu. Our first task was to clean the tatami floors, for the arrival of the sensei; I wasn't all that surprised about this. It wasn't so bad. One of us vacuumed, I helped scrub the floor with a few others, and the rest began to bring down the koto from the 3rd floor. One koto in particular was very beautiful. It was of a dark wood that had a pattern of circles radiating out from the middle; like tree rings.
After cleaning and setting up, we had to take turns using the koto again, as there weren't enough tsume. Unfortunately the ones I had didn't fit properly, so after a short practice I surrendered them to another student. I'll have to start learning every one's names! Charlie and I talked, and listened to one of the Japanese girls practicing. At about 6, the sensei arrived. Before the practice session, we all bowed and ushered onegai shimasu (again reminiscent of Karate). As we didn't all have tsume, for this session, the international students watched, while sensei instructed and played along with the girls. Oh my gosh, sitting in seiza for over an hour is not fun!!! It's something I'm going to have to get used to if I'm serious about this though. The pain goes away as soon as you stand up, and I felt fine afterwards; it's just the during part that sucks!
Part way through, a man came in and practiced on his Shakuhachi with the koto! ~ the Shakuhachi is a bamboo flute~. The sound it makes (very airy) stirs the soul. He was obviously a very experienced player. His breath control was very good, and you could tell he put a lot of spirit into it. The sensei also sang, as did one of the other girls, in a very Japanese way. I don't really know how to describe it. It employs a lot of vibrato and melisma; basically a lot of pitch changing on one syllable. Watching there hand movements and technique was great. I don't know how far I will progress in a year, but I hope I can at least master the basics. The music was definitely worth having to sit in seiza for so long.
After the class, sensei presented us with deep fried sweet potato (焼き芋 - yaki-imo). It was actually really nice, and I don't even like sweet potato that much. We'll be getting our own tsume next week, which I'm really happy about. We'll all be able to practice properly then. So, we packed up and went our separate ways for the evening. It's pouring with rain now, but I was lucky to walk home in the dry. I was going to cook spaghetti bolognese, before I realised that I hadn't left the mince to defrost. So I'll cook it tomorrow. Instead, I decided to be lazy, and have noodles. As it's my group's week on kitchen cleaning duties, I made it even easier on myself by only having to wash my chopsticks. I think that, since I have koto on Mondays and Tuesdays, I'll make them my easy food nights, cause it's not very fun having to come back and cook at 8:30 after having a big day.
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