Let's start!

I'm in the SILAC (Short Intensive Language Acquisition Course) program, which has an emphasis on conversation and students can start any week. This contrasts with the other programs which are considered long term, and run from 1 quarter to 2 years.

At the start of a SILAC course, each student takes a placement test so they be assigned to the class that is closest to their level.  For me, the speaking test was the hardest, because listening and speaking are the two skills I have the least opportunity to practice at home.  In principle, students should at least know hiragana before attending Yamasa, but it won't prevent anyone from studying at Yamasa. Yamasa uses the immersion method -- Japanese taught in Japanese.

Are you asking me what hiragana is?

Japanese is written using 4 sets of symbols:  Kanji, hiragana, katakana and occasionally the Roman alphabet -- all used together. Hiragana is phonetic, and any Japanese word can be written in hiragana. It's the first thing kids learn to read in school.

After the placement test, we had an orientation, followed by an entrance ceremony.

Some things have changed at Yamasa since I was here last.  The biggest difference is one of the staff has left as started his own school.  I don't know if there were issues or he just wanted to go on his own.  Nice guy; brought a can of Guinness to the top of Mt. Fuji to share.

Tomorrow, my actual classes start.

Dinner tonight is two of these yummy, fluffy, steamed dumplings with meat stuffing.  If anyone asks if you want nikuman, the answer is "yes!"

Here's a random street, just to give you an idea of how things look in the residential area around the school.  I love these roof tiles!