I can’t believe I’m already a third year student (and it’s the last day of Golden Week, where did the time go?). That means this is my fourth year in Japan, and that next year will be my last year… And yet, I still feel as though I just arrived :p

Apparently, this is me. (Drawing done by someone from my zemi)

Anyway, now that I’m in my third year, I’m officially in ゼミ(full name: ゼミナール (seminar), but I’m just going to alternate between zemi and tutorial). A small digression here, when my cousin was over, I was talking about this to her and it seems like Osaka Uni has a different system, so if any of the Osaka people are reading this, would you like to contribute a piece about how your uni is like? Ok, back onto topic, I’m in zemi now; or to be accurate, I’m in two zemi.

My main zemi is Ootsubo sensei’s class (Corporate Finance), and my sub zemi is Jitsuzumi sensei’s class (Internet and the Economy). Each teacher specialises in one area, and that’s what I’ll be studying for the next two years. Oh, and a bunch of other classes, because I still have about 50 more credits to earn before I can graduate. I don’t even know how Rena plans to get all her credits by the end of this year.

And in one of those amazing coincidences that make me feel like I’m back to robotics club in AC, both my zemi’s have very few girls. In fact, in my main zemi, I’m the only one (oh hello Robotics Club 2.0). We’ve also had one zemi trip/overnight stay, and ok, having your own room is cool and all, but it’s also tough being the only girl.

But on the whole, most people are nice.

Since I’m on the topic of zemi, I guess I might as well rattle off what I’ve learnt in choosing zemi (your experience will probably be different, but oh well, as a reference):

• Make sure you’re interested in the subject (duh) and that you have something to learn from the teacher.
• You can’t decide who your current batch is, but you can talk to the seniors and get a feel of whether or not you can take two years in the class.

 Actually, I think that’s the two most important things. Other things people do consider would be “does this zemi help with my job prospects” and “how tough/rigorous is the zemi”. I’m pretty sure I should have considered the second question as well, because last month, I ended up having to write 4 reports in 4 days. When I was talking to my friend, she mentioned that she was surprised I even took that sub zemi because it’s very rigorous. And, I missed that memo (ok, the hint was: no one there had another zemi, and no one from another zemi was there).

Lastly, things I have done so far:

Go Hawks!

• Homework (lots of it)
• Make chocolate tarts (that is a result of the homework – I make sweets when stressed)
• Go to my first baseball game (and I had to make everyone explain everything to me)
• Go on my first overnight trip with my zemi (ok, it wasn’t that bad)

Ok, evidently my brain still isn’t working to well because this is really just disjointed ramblings at this point. I also feel the need to mention that unlike this year, I don’t have a day without classes this sem (I’m making up for all the credits that I got last term that I found out doesn’t count towards graduation).

So yeah, this term year is going to be a tough one. But obviously I still want to blog, so to end my post, here are two questions:

1. Who would like to guest blog? (This question is for MEXT scholars, especially those in other universities)

2. What do you want me blog about? (This is more important, hence the bolding) What part of school life, of life in Japan in general, learning Japanese/surviving a life of studying in Japanese do you want to know about?

Feel free to let me know in the comments, or email me through the widget on the right ^^