70 decided to devote himself to a stricter study regime so he moved to the capital and became an in-house student. But, his life there was not at all easy. He wrote, “It costs two yen a month for a rice soup and pickle dormitory, the fees for school are 1.10 yen a month, and the remaining 0.90 yen goes to various costs.” In order to earn this four yen, he worked hard at part-time jobs and battled fatigue while studying. The passion for studying philosophy was something that all of the students at the time shared. In those days the academic year started in September and finished in July of the following year, the same as at Western universities, and a day’s worth of classes were from one in the afternoon until five. It is interesting to think what classes must have been like in those rooms with their tatami mat floors. They did not use translated works as textbooks and the instructors gave classes interpreting the original works in real time as they taught. This was a period when many new Japanese words were still being created through the translation process, which meant that translated books were difficult to read. In some cases they were actually more difficult than the originals. That is not to say this method was without its problems. At times the instructor struggled to come up with the appropriate Japanese phrasing, and this confused the students even more. One noted that, “If the class lasted for an hour, we needed thirty minutes for questions.” In the end one of the students came to be known as “Dr. Question” because he would always press the instructors with tough, direct questions, and another was called “Dr. Explanation” because he would reverse the roles and eloquently ex-plain things to the instructors.
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