September 20. 2004 22:43

First day at school!

Oh, this is so exciting! Today was my first day at school, studying Story Manga in the Department of Cartoon and Comics. I woke up at nine (though I was supposed to wake up at seven, I guess I didn't put the alarm on) and got to the International Office at 10 to ask Tamiya-san about when I could meet Ogawa-sensei, who's the head of the department. She said he'd be in in the afternoon, and I could just go see him anytime. I went to the computer room to check my e-mails and stuff in the meantime, but there were no free computers, so I went to the library instead. The e-mails didn't take long, so I read a bit of Harry Potter after that. Soon it was midday and I went to eat (cheap and good ^_^), then I continued towards the manga deparment building. I was so nervous I was almost panicking! It had somehow slipped my mind that the school would be starting today until I finally got there. From now on it won't just be an overly long holiday in Japan, I'll be studying here! (And it didn't make me any less nervous as they were all nervous in my Harry Potter book...)

We were supposed to work out my class schedule with Ogawa-sensei. I got to the offices a bit early, so I took book 10 of Fruits Basket, which happened to be in the bookshelf by the offices, and started leafing that while I waited. I noticed Ogawa-sensei came, but he was talking with some other people, so I though I would wait until he was free. But then, suddenly, Matt Thorn, one of the other head teachers, was beside me, going to his office. He, just as surprised as I was, said hi and introdused himself. He isn't at all how I imagined him, with his 1 cm hair and earrings on one ear and pastel-coloured clothes, but he's very nice. Reminds me of Andy, the head of department at home, actually.

Mr. Thorn then took me to Ogawa-sensei, and we had a few words (for a moment I was alone with Ogawa-sensei and he only talks Japanese ^_^;; How unnerving was that, next to the head of the department with very bad Japanese skills), then Mr. Thorn and Ogawa-sensei briefly talked (in Japanese) and decided that I'd be participating the second year classes. Thankfully, Mr. Thorn took me in after that and went through the schedule with me. Oh that goodness there's a natural English speaker in the staff.

I'm going to have Studio hours on Mondays, Tuesday and Wednesdays, the point of which is to research (in a group) a subject they'll give us and then do a manga about it. Then on Thursdays it'll be Computer Graphics (just 1,5 hours of school that day, if I don't get extra courses), History of Manga on Friday morning and Issues in Comics in the afternoon, then Animation on Saturday. Wee, I'll even get to do animation! ^____^ I've always wanted to try animation. Seeing my pictures move is one of my biggest dreams ^___^

This schedule I have here leaves my days actually very... empty. History of Manga is the only morning class, so most of the time I only have to wake up for lunch. Counting it together, it's actually only 21 hours a week, plus the Japanese Language lessons. To get enough credits (or the same amount as in Finland), there'd have to be at least 35 hours a week, preferably 40. This really won't do... I'll have to ask Ken-san about additional classes. I don't think I can join the second years to study philosophy or economics or whatever O_o

After finishing the schedule I went to class. Mr. Thorn said a few words for me and then made me introduce myself in front of the class in Japanese, and I totally freaked and couldn't get a sensible sentence out of my mouth. I just said my name and where I came from and that my Japanese is very bad... But the students seem like nice people, some of them came to talk to my afterwards. There wasn't really any lesson, as the teacher was giving out some results from the last semester and some works back. I just sat at my empty table and watched around. Everyone is sooo good at drawing, I couldn't get myself to draw anything because I knew I'd be embarrassed if anyone came to see... But the vast amount of beautiful art around me was too powerful, so I started doodling to the back side of my schedule.

As I said, a few people came to talk to me after I went to my seat. There were a couple of girls who came and asked where I was from, and I told them about Finland. All of this was of course in Japanese, so it was very difficult for both sides. Then the Korean girl next to me, called Hyu-na, and her friend Masuda Akiko, talked to me a bit, too. Masuda-san knew a little English and Hyu-na has an electronic dictionary, so that was a bit easier. Then I just walked around the classroom and checked the pretty artwork, and then went to read a bit of manga. While I was at it, the teacher came to me and asked what I had with me, then told me to buy something that I couldn't understand, and then said a lot of other stuff I didn't understand either. Finally I figured she wanted me to just draw so they could figure out what I could do, so I drew a few pages in my small sketchbook.

It was actually quite fun, even though the pic I tried to draw a few days ago didn't work at all. (Now I ripped the first page off, because it's just awful.) Drawing at school has a totally different feeling to it than drawing at home. It flows much better. I drew a random face (I have trouble with faces nowadays, I can't get them symmetric), then a pic of a Japanese Vampire Slayer that's been hanging in my head ever since I saw that mobile phone hanger with a cross in it (it made me think about a Slayer having one of those and then giggle), then a little fairie boy and flowers, some random guy, and my first Harry Potter fan art. (We'll see if I ever do any more.) First came just Harry, then I thought I might do the other two as well. They're actually quite nice, especially Harry, quite well what I've imagined them to be. Of course, I'm very much affected by the movies.

When I finished these two, I decided to continue my manga, but Mr. Thorn came to interrupt me. He showed me the computer labs and I told him about the teacher telling me to buy something, and he asked around the students for a list of the things I would need. After a while we got a few of the first year students to go to the art supply store with us and collect the things they had got with their starter pack. I didn't have any money, which made me a bit miserable about it, but Mr. Thorn lended me whatever I needed to get them. Now I have a bag full of wonderful manga making things, like special manga paper, pen tips and screen tone. I'm so excited about this! I'm going to use these all! ^____^ I just can't wait until tomorrow, when we start really working.

At six there was an exchange student meet and party at the cafeteria, because of the Canberra group of about 20 students, who will be here for 3 weeks. We went there straight after shopping, missing the introduction but being just on time for the toast. I was given beer, as everyone else, which I had to sip before I changed it for coke. I don't drink beer at home either because I don't like the taste, but here it's extra bitter. I tried the cold tea, too, but it was as horrible as it was the last time I tried it, in Finland. Yesterday I wanted something really good and decided to try if the traditional bean paste candies were worth anything, but I was gravely mistaken if I thought foreign candy was ever gonna be good. I couldn't get two down without almost getting them back up straight away. Should've believed the bad feeling traditional foreign candy has given me ever since the Malaysian ones. The food at the meet, on the other hand, was very good. We were given lunch boxes to take it home as well, so I'll have some for tomorrow morning.

It was great to meet all the exchange students, and I talked to some of the Canberra group women as well. Then there was Komatsu Toshihiro, who seems (read it from his card) to be the Dean of International Education, and he was very interested in Finland, as he had just been to Helsinki. Apparently there is going to be an agreement between Kyoto Seika and the University of Art and Design in Helsinki. we had an interesting talk about how fast the night comes here in Japan and how, even though the day basically is shorter in Finland, the nights seem longer here. In Finland, the twilight might take hours, so it doesn't get totally dark until when it's really late. Here it's dark at seven o'clock, so I feel like it's really late. In winter there's snow in Finland, too, so it keeps the surroundings a bit lighter.

After a couple of hours of small talk the party ended, as the Canberra group needs to get going at 9 and walk around for the whole day tomorrow. I got the schedule for the group as well, and I'm thinking about joining them on some days. There's this really interesting day about calligraphy on Wednesday, apparently they're going to try it out themselves and do something with their names, and I really want to go with. Then there's the Tango visit, to the sea shore, on the weekend, and the Comb Festival etc. on Monday and a visit to Nara on the following Wednesday. I hope I can ditch school for those days, because I really want to go.

I was really supposed to tell you about the weekend as well, I went to see a festival with Noh and Koto performances and then sightseeing and stuff, but I really ought to get to bed (to read my Potter, I know I can't help reading a few pages), so I think I have to leave that for later. I hope I'll have time to write about it later on.