If You Change Your Mind, I'm the First in Line

Sorry to make you wait, dear readers! Had a week off Uni and been flitting rapidly between "Too busy doing stuff to write" or "Can't focus long enough to write." But I'm getting ahead of myself, aren't I? I still need to recount the events of Friday the fourth, so here goes! Lessons started off with a review of new expressions learned this week, though everyone seemed to be sort of dazed and in little mood to speak up. Somehow we stumbled through it and moved on to an exercise in using quotes to back up arguments, which I don't think went amazingly well, but there's plenty of time to improve! Later that day I went to my Culture & Art lecture, the content of which included growing interest in Japan in the latter half of the nineteenth century, Japanese art gaining recognition and a few bits and pieces about the differences between Japanese and Western art at the time. Quite a few technical arty terms got thrown around; I was able to understand them alright, but they felt somewhat unfamiliar on my ears, like when you taste a new food for the first time.

So with that, my little holiday began. Writing from the end of it I can say that it was a lazy one - I spent lots of time at home, didn't go travelling like some other students do, but I enjoyed it and managed to get some amount of work done, so I have no regrets. It'll be more interesting if I recount what I did do rather than sticking rigidly to chronological order and including the days when I just stayed in and studied.

In spite of the time off facing me I felt somewhat downhearted on Saturday (5). Perhaps it was homesickness, or a sudden lack of confidence in my abilities, or just a bit of bad mojo. I went a-walking and found myself in Sakae, where I sat in a park and spent some pleasant time reading. At the moment I'm getting through The Pillow Book (http://tinyurl.com/6anb69n) as I'm thinking of writing about Sei Shonagon for my Culture & Art final paper and want to get an idea of what kind of person she was. Taking this time out to relax and drift into the past refreshed me considerably, and I followed it up by buying a few bits and pieces from the Jump Shop - retail therapy for the win!

On Tuesday (8) I visited Atsuta Shrine, partly just to get me out of the house, partly to see if I could find anything interesting that I missed the first time I went there, and also to gather inspiration for this term's Japanese Religions reflection paper. The shrine seems the same as ever, nestled in dense greenery as if sheltered in its own private world. This time I lingered near to (as entry is forbidden) the main shrine a bit longer, taking in the elegant decoration on the fixtures. Though I went away with a few new ideas, I found the journey there and back much longer than I remembered, so much so that I took the tube for the last leg of the journey home. I must have become either soft or impatient since my days of taking a whole day to see a certain place with nothing but water for nourishment!