Summer Vacation Is Officially Over

I am now officially enrolled at Otani University, a small Buddhist University in northern Kyoto. By small, I mean that it takes me two minutes to walk from one end of the campus to the other. By Buddhist, I mean that it was founded to study Shinran's Pure Land Buddhism, and now has the largest library of Buddhist texts in Japan.

I wasn't expecting to actually enroll in classes. I thought that I would study some Japanese, do some independent research, and consult my advisor when I got stuck with something. This will not work, apparently. The university says that in order to keep my visa I must take classes, my advisor says that I don't know enough to just jump right into my research, and I really don't have too many reasons to disagree with them. Yes, I would rather have an infinite amount of free time in which to travel at a moment's notice. But I am also excited about learning all these interesting new things!

Monday 9am: Reading the Vimalakirta sutra
Tuesday 9am: Lecture in Early Buddhism
Tuesday 10:30am: Reading Modern Works on Buddhist History
Wednesday 1:00pm: Reading Historical Sources on Shugendo
Thursday 9am: Lecture on the History of Chinese Buddhism

Aren't you intrigued? I am.

But on the down side, I have truly discovered the inefficiancy of the Japanese education system. I believe that I have already been completely convinced that I could not actually go to school here. Let me explain. Most schools end summer vacation and start their second semester the first week of October. Having been told nothing different, that is what I assumed. But no, school started last week at Otani, and nothing was done to hurry the process of registering so that I could actually attend the first classes. Also, I have been waiting patiently to buy a commuting ticket and change my cell phone plan until I had my Student ID card (a magic piece of plastic that reduces prices by half). I was promised I would get it today. Today they say, you can have it Friday. One more of these delays, and I am going to have to make one myself. It costs me $10 a day just to get to and from school! A little consideration on their part would be nice! End of rant.