iiiiii desu neeeeeeeee

Prior to taking classes here at Obirin, I had studied the Japanese language for a year at Northeastern. I am by no means an expert, but I could make due. I knew, for instance, how to say “Oh, good job” in Japanese; “Oh, ii desu nee”. I knew this, intellectually. I had no idea, however, what the actual impact of this statement was.

“OOOOHHHH IIIIIIIIIII DESUUUU NEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!”

This phrase is inescapable. It is ubiquitous, omnipresent, and terrifying. Every morning at 9 AM, I arrive at my Japanese IIB class and within minutes am verbally beaten with these words with all the force of a drill instructor berating his platoon. The assailant is Eric Masuyama, our Japanese professor. Masuyama-sensei, as we call him, is one of the most unabashedly enthusiastic people I have ever met in my life. On top of that he is nothing if not absurd in every way; he is well over 6 feet tall (incredibly impressive in this country), has a gold tooth, is unreasonably muscular, and inexplicably has a single earring; a letter “J” bedecked in what I can only assume are diamonds.

The man is fantastic. Apart from the fact that he is by leaps and bounds the best professor of them all here at Obirin, he is one of the best professors I’ve ever had in my entire life. Masuyama understands education and pedagogy; our Japanese class, which I feared would be the most difficult and boring to endure, has turned out to be not only the most entertaining, but one of the most easily accessible and rewarding. We have a fantastic group of students, including many from Northeastern: myself, Jeremy, Jarrett, Karie, Craig, and Chris, in addition to several from other schools. Perhaps because of this pre-existing camaraderie between we Northeastern students, the class has a wonderful, laid-back atmosphere that is extremely conducive to learning. I feel that not only do we ourselves want to learn and succeed, but we wish the same for our classmates. It sounds cheesy but it’s true.

Unfortunately the Masuyama experience is not an everyday one. For some reason that is beyond my understanding, the structure of our class schedule is such that we alternate every other day between having Masuyama and another professor, Ikota-sensei, teaching our class. Ikota is a decent enough professor, and in a vacuum would probably be considered a very good professor, but she pales in comparison to Masuyama. Both are very good however and when utilized in conjunction with the excellent and eager atmosphere create one of the best learning environments I’ve ever been in.