お待たせ~

Totally forgot to update yesterday, and therefore, that is what tonight's post shall be about! I won't be writing about today's antics because, put simply, all I've really done is get into studying properly and get frustrated at a very poor internet connection, which is quite possibly something I don't exactly feel driven to write about.

In any case, yesterday marked the first day of classes at Hosei, along with the creation of my bank account. The bank account came first, along with my first time experiencing rush hour on public trains. I can happily say that I don't feel much intention to experience them often, as for the first part I had a man sneezing and hitting my elbow each and every time, and on the second part of the journey I had a woman's ponytail in my face. If it wasn't for aircon, the whole experience would have been a whole lot worse.

Creating a bank account was a simple affair, most in part to Kondo-sensei from Hosei University. We did get a few odd looks in the branch when about fifteen foreigners walked into a Mitsubishi bank, but the staff didn't waste any time in finding us a seperate room, potentially due to the noise that was being made, I'm not sure. While I do have a bank book, I think it's two weeks until I have an account proper, but with some budgeting then that shouldn't really be an issue.

I had a rather substantial five hours to kill between that and the start of class, so I went with Daniel across to Shibuya to direct him towards the Softbank store where I got my phone, as he was still in need of one, and then arranged to meet Kim, another student from Sheffield. Apart from Daniel, who I live with and sort of kind of doesn't really count for that matter, Kim was the first person from Sheffield who I've arranged to meet, and it was pretty fun. Didn't really do a great deal apart from having another wander, finding a rather barren park situated on the roof of a carpark, going to a beef bowl restuarant and then making an ever so brief visit to a Taito arcade.

After that, I returned back to Iidabashi for Hosei University, navigating the Yamanote circle line by myself after having abrief introduction to it from Daniel on the way to Shibuya, and then had about half an hour to kill before class started. During that time, I had the fortune of bumping into Hide, a Hosei student who came to Sheffield last year. For the second time that day, it was a great feeling to see a friendly face. I was unfortunately able to join him later in the evening for some yakiniku, and he apparently didn't receive my message to say so as I'm still getting used to my phone!

For my Japanese class, I'm in group three out of four, which I believe is upper intermediate, one down from advanced. It feels like it's about my level, as while the grammar we covered was something that I had covered previously, I still don't feel completely solid on it. The kanji is also a mixture of new and old, so I am at least guaranteed of covering something new to me. Oddly, with the flashcards for this week, I have a mere fourteen to learn for next Friday, as opposed to around sixty to learn over the weekend, which is what I was only barely coping with at Sheffield.

It's a wonderful change.