Yes, it's all in Japanese. And at the end of every lesson we have to submit comments, so that they know we paid attention. And paying attention to five hours of lesson-grade Japanese... gets kind of expensive. Especially with my sleeping habits, or rather lack thereof. So I'm kind of pooched last couple of days. Add a measure of not-so-common cold, and... I was none too shiny, let me tell you.
Also, last week was my birthday. I thought I would have a small party in an izakaya. It turned out a "small party" became an overstatement, and three of us ended up eating nabe and cake and watching Sasuke. I got some very nice presents (thanks everyone, really!), but I was pretty much blown away by one in particular, consisting only of words. Best birthday present ever, especially considering it had no substance whatsoever. Thank you, you know who you are. Everyone else, you most likely don't, and won't.
As for the obligatory Japan weirdness: pre-printed envelopes. Sometimes you get those: for instance, a company might send you an envelope addressed to themselves, so you can give them a reply easily. Nothing weird yet, eh? I'm sure things work like that everywhere. Everywhere that mail and printing exist, that is. However, because of Japan's politeness rules, things take a sharp turn towards weird: after the company name, there is a character 行 that means "for", but it is kind of self-effacing (when said by them), or rude (when said by you). Basically, but not quite, "for the humble Acme". All Japanese cross that character out, and write two other ones: 御中, so that the address says "for the honoured Acme". However, even stranger is you get an envelope that needs to be self-addressed, for example for the university to notify me of my having passed (or not) the entrance exam. There's a blank for your name, and "for honoured Mr/Mrs" character 様 there (different from the ones above, because you're not a company). You need to fill in your name, cross off the polite 様 "for", and put in the humble 行 "for". When they send it back to you, they will cross off the (now rude) "for" that you wrote in, and re-correct again to 様, so that the envelope you finally receive would read something like
MATH Amadan
So Japanese.
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