Class, yakiniku, and pumpkin ice cream.

Well, I started class. My schedule is pretty light. This is a good thing, because I have a feeling I'm going to end up studying my butt off...
I have comprehensive Japanese five times a week for an hour and a half. That's mainly studying grammar, doing a little speaking.
I have speaking and listening twice a week for the same length of time, and that's pretty self explanatory. That class is going to be the death of me. I hate speaking under pressure. My oral comm class last year was in English and I still had a hard time with that!
Finally, I have writing, which meets once a week.
I would tell you how writing is, but I actually missed my two classes today. I woke up this morning feeling really sick. I have to admit that I have not been eating well, and when you pair that with walking a lot every single day and staying up to study, it was a recipe for disaster.

So, tonight when I got invited to go eat yakiniku, I thought to myself, "forget my budget, I am eating well tonight." It was the best beef I've ever eaten in my life. The portions are pretty small, but the beef is so rich. Apparently the cut of beef my friend Jen and I ate is the muscle from the cow diaphragm. It was so delicious. I had that with some properly made rice (I am horrible at cooking rice). Afterwards we stopped by a 7-11, and I noticed there were halloween themed ice cream treats in the cooler. I found one that said it was pumpkin flavored and snapped it up. It was amazing.

One thing I really like about Japanese desserts is that they never overdo it on sweetness. Even their chocolate bars are pretty delicate. You get just the right sized portion, and you never feel like you need to drink water or something to wash down all the sugaryness.

Another random thing...
Ritsumeikan has classes set up much like high school. At Memphis, there are only so many set class slots, but classes can overlap. At Ritsumeikan, they actually have set periods. You still choose your classes (well, I'm in the intensive Japanese track, so classes are set for you, but anyway) and you can have all of them together, or far apart, etc, but class periods never overlap. There is also a set lunch period, so even if you have class all day, you'll get an hour for lunch.
There are also chimes that tell you when class begins and ends.