Category: Katie in Kyoto

This week, I finally had my first face-to-face classes! Because of that, I headed to campus early to make sure I could find all my classrooms ahead of time. At Doshisha, the classroom names are abbreviated (like S34), and I’m really thankful that in an exchange student group chat someone shared a list of what the initials stand for—otherwise, I would’ve had no idea which building to go to.

Now that in-person classes have started, campus feels much livelier. There are students everywhere, and the energy is different from when I first saw campus. I also attend classes on two different campuses, so it’s been fun exploring both of them in during my free time.

I was also really nervous about meeting my classmates for the first time. I tend to struggle with socializing, and since most of my classes only meet once a week, it’s been a bit harder to connect with others. But I’m hoping I can slowly start to open up more as the semester goes on. I’ve noticed that I feel more comfortable talking to new people when I’m with friends, but I’ve also talked to people on my own, which I’m proud of. Hopefully, I’ll get to know my classmates better and maybe even hang out with some of them outside of class.

As for the classes themselves, this first week has been pretty simple. Out of the seven classes I’m taking, three are taught entirely in Japanese. Two of those are for learning the language, and one about Japanese society. I also haven’t had much homework, aside from the Japanese language courses that gave pages of homework. The few assignments I’ve gotten so far have been fairly simple—mostly readings, short essays, or comparisons.

Honestly, it feels a little strange that things seem so easy right now and because each class only meets once a week, I’m not used to having so much time between assignments, so I always feel like I’m forgetting something.

This week there was also a welcome party for the semester, which was a lot of fun. We were split into groups and made paper lanterns while getting to know each other. It was a fun talking to one another while also helping each other when someone got confused on how to make the paper lantern. We also played a few card games. My friends and I wanted to play a certain card game and because a few people didn’t know what it was it was interesting, and hard, trying to explain the rules.

This week has been a roller coaster of emotions and it’s still a bit overwhelming honestly, but I feel like I’m adjusting okay. I’m hoping that for this week I try to socialize more to slowly make new friends both in class and outside of it.

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This week has been fairly simple. It felt like I didn’t do much, yet, at the same time did a lot somehow. This week I spent more time in my room, either getting things done or just taking it easy. Every now and then, I’d visit a small, lesser-known shrine near my dorm, and one day, my friends and I went up to the observation deck at Kyoto Tower—which had an amazing view!

That said, I realized I’d been spending more money than I expected this early into my time in Kyoto. So, this week, I tried to be more mindful. I stayed in more often, looked for free or low-cost places to explore, and even bought groceries so I could cook simple meals instead of eating out all the time. Even though I didn’t go to as many touristy spots, I still did quite a bit.

Although not necessarily visiting places, this week was when class registration opened. There are two registration periods, advance registration, the one that opened, and general registration, which will be open this coming week. The advance registration also had two stages. In the first stage, I applied for three classes but only got into two. During the second stage I applied for another two classes—and luckily got both. I say luckily because when a lot of students register for a certain class it becomes a type of lottery system, and it chooses which students attend the class at random. While I now have four classes, with general registration coming up, I’ll need to think about which classes to keep and which ones to drop so I meet the required credits for both Doshisha and for University of Denver.

Aside from that, campus was really lively this week because of club recruitment. For three days, there were a lot of clubs and performances to recruit new members into their clubs. I went with my friends for two out of the three days, and we were surprised at how packed the campus was—it was the busiest we’d ever seen it. At first, I personally felt a little overwhelmed, but once we started walking around, I was having fun looking at all the clubs there were. Students were handing out flyers and happily explaining what their clubs did. Some even spoke English, but we tried replying in Japanese, which kind of surprised them, and they would always say our Japanese was good. Everyone was super friendly, and we had a lot of fun just exploring and watching the performances.

By the end of the first day, we had so many flyers—some even doubled or tripled of the same ones! We went back on the second day thinking we might see different clubs, but most were the same as the first day. So, we skipped the third day, but overall, it was a fun experience and a good way to learn more about campus life here.

Lastly, my friends and I joined a picnic event where we got to meet both Doshisha students and other international students. We were split into groups and introduced ourselves in Japanese. It was a bit tricky to understand each other at first, but once we understood, everyone got excited. A little later, our group split again, and I was with one of my friends and three Doshisha students, all second years. They were super friendly and asked us all sorts of questions—why we came to Japan, what was our favorite Studio Ghibli movies, and more. They were not afraid to ask questions, and even though my Japanese isn’t perfect, they were always so happy when I answered, which helped me grow comfortable talking with them.

At one point, we played a type of trivia game in English which were trick questions. Even though they were hard to figure out, everyone had fun guessing. Our group didn’t win, but afterward, we started chatting with other groups. What started as a group of five eventually grew to nearly thirteen people. The picnic lasted about three hours, and by the end, I was really glad I went.

So, even with a slower pace, this week was definitely one of the most memorable ones by far during my time in Kyoto.

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