First signs of a routine

This is the second full week of classes for us today. I'm getting used to it, though tomorrow morning I'll be riding my bike to Mitaka-Dai station for the first time. I hope Yidan doesn't choose to do the hard route, because I'd rather not get hit by cars when I've only been here for less than a month.

Other than that, milestone: I used my rice cooker for the first time, and it works beautifully. Only 5448 yen at the store above the supermarket, and wow, fresh rice in my own apartment/room. I nearly died of happiness as I munched on my curry rice.

The next step is to go to Inageya and get legitimate groceries. I've got soy sauce, oyster sauce, olive oil, salad oil, and sesame oil. Now I need to get miso paste, garlic, vegetables (horenso and negi, maybe others if they're out there, like bell peppers) and meat. I'd get honey, but Joyce, the girl who lives across from me, said that the local honey here is crap and nothing but sugar, so I'm asking Mom to send some.

Today in Dynamics of Japanese Cultural History, we finally got to pick what topics we'd be studying. Last week, we got put into teams, and I wound up with the ancient Japanese era (Jomon, Asuka, Yayoi, and Heian). The topics I'll be doing, along with Rie, who'll be tutoring me with the Japanese history books, are Himiko (卑弥呼) and onmyouji (陰陽師).

Himiko is the legendary first empress of Japan, and was said to have governed the country using magic. We don't know whether or not she really existed, since written records didn't exist yet, but she's said to be extremely powerful.

Onmyouji were sorcerors, specializing in yin-yang magic. I'm not too clear about what else there is about them, since what I do know about them comes from anime. But Rie says she'll help, so I'll hope for the best. Maybe we'll see something on the museum trip this weekend.

Need to sleep now. There's a quiz tomorrow.