My Class Schedule

So today is the second day of classes, and I've gone to each of them at least once. I wouldn't be lying if I said I came to Japan to take on a heavy course load. I plan on taking enough classes to ensure that I get a solid grasp of Japan from a scholastic point of view, but I decided that I want to spend more time actually out in Japan. Not to mention I need to work on my writing. So I've decided on 3 classes.

JPL 102
Japanese Language, taught by Yosuke Hashimoto. One class up from Japanese 101, but there's a pretty big difference. Namely, sensei has yet to speak a whole sentence in english. I wonder how well he knows english actually, I feel that he is feigning a lack of english proficientcy in order to better immerse us in the Japanese language. I like him. He speaks in very basic Japanese for us, and he is very helpful in engaging the class in small discussions. I have his class at 9:00, four days a week, with friday off. I feel very confident that he is a very good teacher.

~JPL 131~
This is an offshoot 1 credit class of independant study. I've talked to Hashimoto-sensei briefly about it, but we'll be really putting together a syllabi next wednesday. As I've said, I plan on studying Japanese game language, he seemed very supportive of the idea.

Manga Mania
A study of Japanese Pop culture, taught by Darren Ashmore. Ashmore sensei, is an anthropologist and enthusiastic geek. He's a connoseur of manga, anime, comics, star wars, star trek, etc etc etc. He is easily the most enthusiastic professor I have ever met. His office is covered with all sorts of relics from all areas of popular culture. The man has his own phaser in a glass case on his desk. The first day he ran through the syllabus he very quickly mentioned every anime I have ever known about. The list of anime I know is pretty small, but he kept going. not every anime he talked about was on the syllabus, he'd tangent, and the class would egg him on. Given a period of time he could probably list a majority of all manga ever produced in order of release, and then proceed to recite the same list alphabetically by artist. I hyperbolize, but he is very much a Professor of Anime.

The class itself is an in depth look at anime and manga, looking at theme, motivations, reactions, and inpirations, with the historical context that it comes wrapped in. I'm sure I'm ready to return home with a wealth of knowledge.

Introduction to Japanese Society
Another class by Ashmore Sensei. He says that this class is a series of case studies looking at various aspects of Japanese culture. This will be accompanied by field trips. It's taken from a very anthropological point of view, but Ashmore stresses that it's very much based on induvidual interpretation. As an anthropologist he says, that facts are few and far between, that everything is biased or different based on who perceives the event. Therefore, he wants the class to be centered around a forum of discussion. We'll see a lot of Japanese culture, interpret it's meanings and significance and discuss our conclusions. Should be a lot of fun.



Speaking of fun, tommarrow we got on a field trip to Manga Soho, a huge japanese pop culture mecca. From descriptions, I'm a little intimidated. You will see video very soon.