School days

So the last time I wrote on here was sunday and I told you how very excited I was for my first day at school.
Well, that turned out differently. I went there on monday, all ready and excited. I had dutch cookies in my bag to share with my new classmates. But I came there only to hear that today was no classes and I would meet my supervisor/tutor the next day.
A bit bummed out I walked around the university a bit and went for a short cycle around the neighbourhood of the uni.

My wonderful blue bike really brightens up the already beautiful scenery.

It was very sunny and lovely out as you can see.
Also I finally had my Japanese phone working so I texted my Japanese friend Miku who was an exchange student at my school in the Netherland last year, we met up in the cafeteria, had some food and walked around the university grounds. She introduced me to her classmates and we even met new fun people. It turned out to be a good day to not have any class.

In the evening I finally cooked a proper meal for myself. Japanese curry rice, the curry here is more sweet and not spicy at all, it is it's own sort of curry not to be compaired to indian curry or whatsoever.

Curry rice with steamed brocolli and fried tofu.

So the next day I was definitely ready to meet my tutor, pick my classes and meet my new classmates!
The first two thing did happen... but again they told me no classes today. It got a bit annoying because I wanted to get into the working mode like the rest of the exchange students.
But I did get to pick my classes! It is super relaxed here, they tell you not to pick more than 3 or 4 because they want you to have time to explore Kyoto and Japan, how amazing is that?! This school is in many many ways the most wonderful school ever.
My classes are as following:

Monday: Japanese painting from 13:00 till 17:50
Japanese painting is something I look forward to the most, you learn how to make your own pigments and paint by taking items from nature like shells, rocks and leafs. We will be painting animals and plants with those paints in a traditional way and in the last few weeks they will teach us how to work with gold leaf, which is something I have always wanted to master. Eventually we will be painting and gold leafing a traditional Japanese fan. Truly a dream come true. Alas this class will start in two weeks.
Tuesday: Free! No class!
Wednesday: Illustration/Design class from 14:40 till 17:50. The assignment for the coming 3 weeks is to make a 1085mm x 765mm big illustration of our take on the story of Little red ridinghood (roodkapje in Dutch).
After that a new assignment. The red ridinghood is just a start up assignment.
Thursday: Sometimes the wednesday class moves to this day but usually this is a free day. I used this day today for working at my space in the classroom.
Friday: Etching from 13:00 till 17:50. This is a printing technique where you scratch into a copperplate. It is a deep printing technique. I have never done this before so this is also great!

So yeah, it is basically sleep in alot and having alot of freedom to work and explore. I am very happy I picked this school and all the teachers and staff members are so nice and friendly.

After picking the classes I went to BookOff, where you can buy secondhand books for very cheap, like 1 euro. I bought 4 manga books to start reading Japanese and 1 picture book which is amazingly gorgeous.

The manga and beautiful picture book I bought.

And so it turned wednesday which is yesterday as I a writing this.
Finally the day of my first class and to meet my classmates!
I went to the teachersroom at 14:30 and my supervisor would take me to my first class. He is a very sweet man, this is his first time suporvising anyone and he is taking such good care of me. The first time we met he was so taken aback that he didn't speak any english but meeting him today he spoke it very well. He also makes sure to bring me to every new class and teacher I have.
In the teachersroom he introducted me to the whole illustration department staff and made them introduce themselfs in english while I am fully capable of introducing in Japanese.
Actually the whole Japanese is going really well, I can read and write both Hiragana and Katakana now and already alot of Kanji is seeping into my brain. Also conversation is going easier because I am forced to use it everyday.
Once I met all the teachers, Nakamura-sensei (sensei means teacher and you put this behind the person's lastname to address them by) walked me through the hallway towards my classroom. The whole illustation staff was following behind me because seeing this was the first day they too had to introduce themselfs (again) to the third year students. Oha-san told me the illustration department of Seika is very different from all other departments, they are highly involved with their students and really value a close working connection with them.
We entered the classroom and everyone was sitting behind their big working benches already. I walked up to the whiteboard infront of the class and with everyone staring at me I introduced myself in full Japanese. I told them my name, how old I am, where I am from, that I can speak and understand a bit of Japanese and closed with "Yoroshiku onegaishimasu" which I think the best way to translate that sentence is "I might cause trouble for you but please take care of me/work well together". It is a thing every Japanese person says when meeting new people in a less casual and more formal environment.

I got seated right upfront next to a silent boy and across from a sweet Taiwanese girl who dresses very pretty and looks super cute.
Than the teachers introducted themselfs and the 'Little red ridinghood' assignment was handed out. Nakamura-sensei sat beside me the whole time to walk me through the assignment, which was very sweet of him. He even made sure that I got an english printed translation of Little red ridinghood. Finally when the introduction was over he left me to read the story.....it was hilarious! The story was translated from Japanese into english by I am guessing a english speaking japanese person. At one point the wold asks 'little redcap' "what do you have underneath your apron little redcap?" I made me laugh so hard people asked why the story was funny but I really couldn't explain. There were way more of these crazy things in the translation and actually it kind of became a whole different version of the original. But oh well, it is sweet they did it especially for me.

After 10 or so minutes the first two girl started talking to me. They are both from Taiwan but they have been living in Japan for a long time. One is named Etsu and the girl across from me is named Momo. We talked and laughed and dress little things together as a second way of communication.
I brought the dutch cookies, stroopwafels, with me and gave these to them and told them that they could share it with the rest. So Etsu went past the rest of the class with the bag of cookies and pointed towards me with every cookie offered. Eventually the half classroom came flogging towards my desk and the most brave girl started to talk to me with the rest of the girls behind her.
I say girls because there are only 3 guys in my class, really unbelievable.

The rest of the day I spend making some sketches of the wolf but which isn't for the final design itself.

Silly, lazy sketch of the wolf in grandma's clothes

 In the night, after dinner me, some other exchange students and Otoo-san and Okaa-san sat outside until 00:30, drinking and eating. Ni-kun from China was mixing gin tonic and Okaa-san had snack and made a big serving of yakisoba. We laughed so much and it was good to finally socialise with Otoo-san and Okaa-san.
We also heard wild deer calling out to each other somewhere in the forest. I can hear them calling now aswell as I am typing this, pretty cool.
It was good I didn't have any class today, thursday, so I was able to sleep in after this.

I slept until 11 today but lazed around the dorm until 13:30. After lunch and going to withdraw money from the 24 hour supermarket I finally got to my working place at the uni.
I will take some pictures of the uni and my classroom later, I keep forgetting! But here is some pictures of what I did today. Basically I made some sketches and set up a plan of what I wanted to do to finish the assignment in 3 weeks.

My desk, it is pretty big actually and has 3 drawers in it for storing my stuff.
The whole classroom is very clean and neat.

For the final design I started to make a forest pattern for the background.
This pattern will be linked together into a diamond pattern to serve as a setting.

cutting the print

Thanks again for reading along my Japanese experience here!
Next post I hope to get some good photos of Kyoto Seika in and out and maybe put up a video.