osaka-geidai

So, today was my first day of school. I went a little early to get some lunch, and I found the bike parking lot fairly packed (I still found a spot near the front). There is also motor-bike "biku" parking which was equally as packed. The school was very busy. I'm not used to such a large school and the crowds were overwhelming. I went to the cafeteria first. Normally I would go right up to the lunch line and order verbally, but it was so busy that I had to order a meal ticket for a specific meal. While standing in front of the ticket machines, a young man, whose name I never quite got, came up to me asking where I was from. He is a claranet major and last semester he lived in Baltimore and went to... wait for it... UMBC. He showed me his ID card. He helped me pick out lunch--Udon with beef (I wasn't informed about the beef) and we ate together. After lunch, I went to find my class, and ended up in the printmaking office. I showed the secretary my schedule and she called someone on the phone and told me to wait for a few minutes. I was getting nervous because my class had already started. She made me a cup of coffee (I actually thought it was tea at first because it was so weak) and I waited for a while. Hana-Sensei, the printmaking department chair arrived and helped me sort out what classes I would go to for the week. I tried to explain that I had a meeting for this at 17:00, but she didn't seem to care. Then she walked me to class, Junior Blockprinting with Ichien-Sensei, who will be my primary teacher this semester. He was very excited to meet me and invited the entire class to meet me, pointing out which of the students spoke fair english. They kept asking Hana-Sensei if I was really going to be in their class the whole semester in excited voices (They didn't think I could understand that, I assume, or else they would have asked me.) Hana-Sensei left and we cleaned the studio in preparation for the semester. The tables in the studio are extremely low and we are supposed to sit on little cushions and wear slippers within the work space. There are workspaces where you can wear real shoes, also. I'm going to have to get a pair of slippers and a cushion to sit on for next class. We then had a lengthy meeting. On the 26th, we're going on a field trip to Kyoto to buy paper and other supplies. Also, I can buy chokoku-to or traditional wood cutting tools, but they are about 2000yen each, and I need a set of 4. I opted to buy the cheap set at the school store for 1150yen. We'll see how these work out for me and maybe I'll buy the nice ones if I feel like I need them. Also, I got my first assignment: 21.5cm x 29cm monochromatic image. I have no idea what I'm going to do, but I did buy my hangi or woodblock. It's much smaller than I thought. I'm going to have to learn my metrics a little better. After class, I went my second meeting with the scheduling people. This one was significantly less traumatic. Here is my unofficial schedule (I'll be receiving an official one tomorrow):

• Japanese 1: Monday, 10:50-12:20
• Japanese 2: Monday, 13:20-14:50
• Printmaking III: Monday, 15:00-18:10
• Printmaking III: Wednesday, 13:20-18:10
• Printmaking II: Thursday, 13:20-18:10
• Printmaking III: Friday 13:20-18:10

As far as they'll explain to me, each class is worth 2 units, except for japanese which is worth 1 unit. My guess is that this course load is roughly equivalent to 15 credits at mica, if not 18. That can be sorted out later. I certainly have a full schedule.

Also, the architecture at the school is really cool. Here are a couple pictures. More to come.