SCHOOL LIFE: Thursday, October 21 and Monday, October 25

 On Thursday, I'm ashamed to say (but proud to be honest) that I left out two of the classes I regularly attend. The first period was a struggle, as I operated on little sleep, no coffee and a hang-over from the night before. The drinking from the night before, however, was not a totally selfish endeavor, and even had relevance in my studies (though it's a bit of a stretch to let it excuse being unprepared for classes) but I'll get to this in a long over-due post. Regardless, I was racking my brain to get through the lesson, made even more taxing by the fact that the lesson was supposed to focus on a video and instead was changed to the same study material but through reading comprehension. The class read news articles on the Japanese workers who were imprisoned in China for entering a restricted area and their delayed release, the COP-10 global summit being held in Nagoya in order to discuss ways to preserve ecosystems, a Japanese shogi (Japanese chess) player who lost to a computer making it the first instance of a human player losing to a computer program, and lastly, a bear who wandered into into a populous area in the Yamagata prefecture and injured several people before being shot. Aside from the instructor's pitiful reaction to the death of the bear, there wasn't really anything relevant outside of the standard language practice.

 The second period was a no-go, in what normally is Private/Civil Law. I do not have the 5000 yen ($60) law text book for the class, so I am often lost as to what the professor lectures on about. The main purpose of the class, for me, is to practice Japanese listening and try to retain vocabulary through text translation. So while I may not understand what the lecture details, it does provide a good opportunity for language learning. In addition, observing Japanese students and how they study in these kinds of classes, and how the professor treats the students, has been the most insightful look into the Japanese college experience in the exchange thus far. The lack of coffee, however, could not sustain this.

 After wandering about with a member of the Folk Song Club, also unwilling to bother with trying to understand his second period class (Micro-Economics or something like that), and a bit of an extended lunch period, I made my way to "Interchanging Societies". The lecture of the day focused on population density in relation to train stations in Japan. The density of the population seemed to correspond to the train stations, as well as affecting the behavior of people in those areas. Japan's rail system was compared to other nations, and although the vast United States topped the charts in overall railway length, its use utterly paled in comparison to Japan in usage. The use of railways certainly appeared to be Japan's greatest triumph in terms of infrastructure, used both for people and freight. The lecture mainly reminded me how much better things could be, regardless of the relative size of the US, if trains were more well utilized.

 To top the day off, I missed seminar. I'm sure I'll have something to do in that class before too long, so I can't make a habit of it.

 Moving on to today, Monday's classes:

 First period was the aforementioned Private/Civil Law class. I repeated what I usually do and only managed to catch a little of what was going on in the professor's lecture. Mainly it concerned the rights of women involving pregnancy, as well as the rights of the father in such cases. I wish I could have understood a bit more about what was lectured but will have to read up on the subject on my own time.

 Second period was Chinese Communication II. I can't really say, without stretching the limits of my imagination, anything was educationally relevant in this class. The instructor requested me to repeat Chinese phrases in English for the benefit of her and the students in the class. The manner in which I translated the phrases out loud drew laughter out of the students in its deliberate resemblance to English language-learning sound bites. That's as far as my imagination can go on this one.

 Third period was Technical Japanese II. This class was interesting in that the relativity of salary to seniority in the traditional Japanese work system was discussed. In modern times, the concept of rewarding the most talented with higher salaries regardless of when they enter a corporation is a relatively recent concept. The the system in Japan before has been to employ people at a lower level and retain them as they grow in seniority as part of the corporation. This fosters a system of loyalty and makes it relatively rare for corporations to lay off employees in comparison to other countries, particularly the US, which may offer salaries based on skill rather than seniority. The drawback, however, is that corporations become less flexible during economic recessions due to the other sacrifices they make while retaining employees. The professor asked the students what they thought the best system was: skill or experience. Typically, the students chose skill as a better decider of salary, citing its obvious benefits for corporations. When asked my opinion, I gave a somewhat cynical response in that I didn't think of either system as more favorable and rather offered that the systems work better for certain cultures than others. The issue of Confucianist roots in Japanese culture, and by the association of the predominantly Chinese class body, Chinese culture, was brought up by the professor as a reason that salaries based on seniority are better-suited for cultures like Japan. I also joked that due to the overwhelming majority of senior citizens in Japan compared to young adults and below, it's only natural for Japan to continue a system of seniority. The Japanese business system nonetheless contains both systems, but the traditional way still continues its prominence. And while unemployment in Japan may be low due to less company lay-offs compared to other countries, the recession has made it more difficult for Japanese college graduates to find full employment within corporations. Regardless of systems that emphasize talents or seniority, either case seems to be struggling in the recession.

 And that was the make-up of last Thursday and today's classes. On a side-note about these entries: if they seem lazy or forced, it's the best I can do when describing one goes on during a day, something I've never been skilled at doing, especially on a regular basis. These blog entries are simply to give an idea of what's going on, and the utilization of this blog for other aspects of the contract has been long-delayed. Along with the special interest study of music, which is by no means a lost cause and will be detailed with this week. In terms of cultural studies, I have some ideas for blog entries that will be put into work. Visiting different areas is another thing I want to revive from last quarter, which was made interesting in regard to the photos I took. I have no real functioning camera at the moment, a situation I hope fix in the near future.

 In any case, I'll continue the pace I've been add while adding more into November. Until then, stay tuned.