Thanks, ojiisan!

First real Japanese class today - actually a double, so three hours of it. It was... Really hard. XD But I'm sure I'm gonna learn a ton. Kondou sensei, the sensei we had for the second half, seems so sweet, too. Reminds me of all my Michigan sensei. <#
I also went to a Japanese history class that I think may take, along with quite a few AIKOMsei.

Sunday was the welcome party for Mitaka dorm, especially celebrating the presence of the international students (mainly AIKOM), apparently. It was really weird to me to see a school-sponsored event where alcohol was not only allowed, but provided. XD It was quite fun, though.
Afterward, a rich alum of the dorm took everyone who wanted to go (I think around fifty of us) out to eat and drink. I actually got seated at a table with him, along with Yisha and Shahenda (and some other residents of the dorm), though, which kind of put a damper on much of the night, I think. Eventually we got away, guilty though I feel for saying it like that. It was pretty fun then, though. I also had sukiyaki for the first time, which was fantastic.

Then, yesterday was a national holiday, so we had no classes. I went with Zoe to Kichijouji an hour after a large group went to try to get cell phones, but they took much longer. We had a nice lunch at a pizza buffet, and then I came back and napped and wasted time.

I would have been able to get the first 200,000 yen of my scholarship tomorrow, but because I went along with the AIKOM office making my bank account, it'll take until at least next week. ;_;
Related, to save money I bought a lot more ingredients to cook today. Just now I did my first real cooking here, making a sort of fried rice with egg, bean sprouts and what might be Wooster sauce. All I know is that it's by Kikkoman (a very prevalent brand of soy sauce in the US) and it says "derishasu soosu" (delicious sauce). Since I couldn't really figure out many of the bottles (curse you, kanji!), a brand I know and the word "delicious" seemed as good a route to take as any.
Anyway, the end product is quite decent, surprisingly. XD
This reminds me of something I've noticed myself doing, and asked a few other AIKOMsei about, getting the report that they do it too. When in a store, shopping (especially somewhere like the 100yen shop, which has all kinds of things), it's terrible, but I very often find myself trying to figure out what a strange item is just by looking at it and handling it before even trying to read the label. XD+ Denshi jisho will help with that, hopefully.

Also related to buying things, today I went into a bicycle shop because one of my bike's tires leaks air from the nozzle. Not really knowing anything about bikes or their tires, I thought maybe the little plastic cap on the end was defective, so I asked for one... And the guy let me have one for free. Whoa. I mean, sure, it's probably only worth five cents, but I was still really touched.
Of course, I then went back to the dorm, where my bike was, and actually poked around with it a bit more, and found that that cap doesn't really do anything anyway, and what I really need is a different little piece. So I'll definitely have to go back to that guy to buy it tomorrow. +)