Japanese Students, UNITE!

Minasan konbanwa!

I have a confession to make: I love Japan.

I love the people and the culture, but most of all, I love the language!

I got into the language thanks to my best friend Josh. Initially I took it in high school so that Josh and I could speak "in code" and talk about people behind their backs where the chances of them knowing what we were saying were slim to nil. So while my intentions weren't the best at first, they took a rapid change the first day of class.

I enjoyed the challenge of writing something other than Roman letters. And what’s more – there are THREE different alphabets. The first two two years of high school were a lot fun thanks in part to this course!

Fast forward to 2007

I was surprised to see that UIS offered Japanese and jumped all over the chance to take it like white on rice and a glass of milk on a paper plate in the middle of a snowstorm! It got better from there. Class size: 7. I KNEW this class was going to rock!

And it did! Maeda Sensei is an extremely fun and effective professor. During the second week of class, he announced he was going to hold a Japanese student dinner for the exchange students from Ashikaga and all students currently taking Japanese.

The legendary, awesome, ALL Supreme Maeda Sensei (L)... and another professor.

It was held at New Buffet City for the low price of 5 dollars. Hey, for a college student, you take what you can get! The back room was packed with host families and their exchange students and those taking the language course and their friends as well. I ate so much, I got sick. But it was worth it!

Chowin' down at New Buffet City with new friends.

Classmates Mat and Emily are on the right - they RULE!

The dinner provided an opportunity to mingle with current friends and make some new ones. It was a LOT of fun and hope there will be more events like these in the near future!