Class is every Tuesday and Friday, from 6:30 to 8:30 in Gifu city.
I don’t see any way around this: we were all unprepared. This class is HARD and is gonna demand some major attention! Which means.. less time for whatever else it is I do. Damn. But, if I can endure this horrible new pain that I’ve incurred upon myself, my Japanese language level *will* increase ten-fold. The text book has zero English in it. Not even any roman characters. All hiragana/katakana and kanji (my most feared enemy). I think I may have to translate the chapter sections so as I know at least what I’m looking at. The teachers are very nice, and speak no English. The class is an interesting variety including 3 Canadian Sanyo interns (Alex, Ben, and myself), some Americans, a South Korean, a Philipino, a Brazilian, and others. I can honestly say I probably have the worst skill level there. That’s okay. I will overcome and conquer. I will, right? Right?
Definitely gonna have to “practice” karaoke in a personal booth, at some point, so’s we’re not so ear-bleeding-bad.
After the “slap in the face,” (more like a punch in the gut and kick in the crotch) we went to an izakaya for dinner. Dinner was good. I think I already mentioned it, but I really like izakayas! Lots of variety for food and very social. Then we went to a pub where Ben proceeded to sing bad karaoke. It costs 100 yen to punish the other inhabitants of the bar with your choice or audio torture. They have a HUGE database of songs! Anyways, I bought Ben a shot of tequila for his courage, (I had not had nearly enough to drink to partake much more than clap and sing along away from the mic), played a couple games of darts with Alex, and finally had a pino-colada in Japan!
I definitely cannot do that every night we’re in Gifu, or I’ll have no money for… food… and … stuff.