Alien, Here's Your Card

I went to take my alien card today. Wonder why the card is called 'alien card'? It's simple, coz we are alien in Japan. Yea, I'm not joking here. Well, since the 市役所 (Registration Office) opens only on weekdays, so we got no choice but to find any free period to go there. Although we got a 2-hour break after lunch today, but it still wasn't enough for us to make it on time. So, we got the permission from 大石先生 (Ooishi Sensei) to go out early from his class, have our lunch at the canteen and go to the 市役所.

Well, when we were there, we just take the card, which lasted just about 5 minutes. So the time taken for us to get there and back to our kosen was very much longer. Anyway, lucky there wasn't any incident like taking the wrong bus. But to confirm it, we asked a woman at the bus stand at the 市役所 whether the bus we were taking is the correct one. While waiting for the bus, we chatted with her as well. She was pretty friendly.

guys, this is called the alien card!

We reached the kosen at around 2.10pm and we decided to have a rest a while before attending the next class, since we have already got the permission from our Physics sensei. I hope he doesn't read this though! Later that night we got 茶会 (tea ceremony) among all the student in the 2nd floor of our hostel. Well, although it's 茶会, but basically besides tea, we eat snacks, chocolate, keropok and soft drinks.

対面式

I just came back from the 対面式 tonight. It started on 8pm and for the foreign students, we were supposed to do our 自己紹介 after the 1st grader. But to our surprise, it wasn't to be the case. So, off we go in front of the canteen with around 300 people in front of us, comprising students staying in the hostel and a few sensei as well. And although I was supposed to start off the 自己紹介, in the end, I was the last guy to do it. Anyway, it went well for all of us.

Then it continued with the 自己紹介 by the 1st grader and some from the 2nd and 3rd grader who act as their tutor. What's weird about this self introduction is that they'll be stating their names and other self particular in the loudest tone they could. You'll have too experience it to have a clearer idea how it was done.

Between the 自己紹介, there were some performances by the 1st grader. What's interesting about it is that whenever the people watching weren't impressed by the show being put on, they will start clapping their hands and chant 責任 (sekinin, which means responsibility) and the 2nd grader will have to perform. Usually it will end with the head of the hostel being asked to perform. Pity them.

Then we stop for 点呼 and the 自己紹介 continued after that. By that time, most of the students have already didn't return to the canteen. But it was quite interesting, especially some of the performers being put on (although we don't understand most of them!). So after this, we'll be waiting to see how our kohai next year do their 自己紹介.