Final Update

So here I am, sitting in Narita Airport, with no wireless access, feeling sorry for myself.  I said goodbye to my homestay family outside of the security gate, and now I’m waiting at the real gate waiting to board the plane.  As much as I miss everyone back at home, I really don’t want to leave Japan yet.  I know people won’t be too happy to hear that, but still.  I’m leaving a lot of good friends behind, and unlike the friends (and wonderful girlfriend ) that I left behind when I came to Japan, I don’t know when I’ll be able to see any of them again, if ever.  That’s a terribly depressing thought.  Pardon my rambling.  And pardon me while I put some Vanessa Carlton or something on my iPod.

Well, since I’m at the airport already, I guess that means that this update will have to be posted when I get back to the States.  Sorry about that.  The powers that be (or really, one of the very few powers that be) commanded (or requested, depending on how you look at requests from powers that be) that I do a final update.  But instead of talking about what I’ve been doing, like most of these updates have, I’m supposed to talk about my overall impressions of the program, Japanese culture, Japan, being back in the United States, etc.  Each one a huge topic by itself.  Hmmm…punishment for having left home for a little over two months perhaps?

I think I’ll tackle the topics above in the order that I wrote them.  So that means the LSA+ program as a whole is up.  *ahem*  “Please step forward to receive your judgment, Mr. Tokyo LSA+.”  At least, that’s what I imagine they say in courts.  I guess I don’t watch enough crime television (or enough television period, really).  On a completely unrelated side note, “judgment” apparently doesn’t have an “e” after the “judg.”  What is this nonsense?  I don’t think I can possibly spell that word correctly on my first try.  The “e” just feels so natural.  Anyway, moving on.

The LSA+ was amazing.  Most definitely one of the best experiences of my life, and I’d gladly recommend it to anyone considering Japanese at Dartmouth.  It’s definitely one thing to speak a language in a classroom setting, once or twice every day (Oh yeah, drill counts as a class!), and another entity entirely when you’re in a country where roughly 99% of the population speaks that language.  Relying on a new language 100% for daily communication hammers home a few things.  One, it’s amazing how much Dartmouth manages to cram into our brains in just one year.  Fantastic really.  Two, it’s amazing how little Dartmouth manages to cram into our brains in just one year.  Also fantastic.  Being in Japan is a constant rollercoaster, where you alternate between being very proud of yourself for something (that you can actually recognize that obscure kanji on that sign you saw from the train window, or you can check-in at an airport entirely in Japanese, or something like that), and convinced that you’re never going to get any better at this god-damn impossible language (for instance, when you see the same kanji eight times in one day, and it only sticks on the eigth time…although maybe that’s just me.  Damn you 期!).  I honestly can’t decide if I really like or really loathe that feeling.  On one hand, it’s great motivation to keep studying.  On the other, it’s very depressing when you realize you’re not nearly as good at Japanese as you thought you were.

It was also very interesting, this program, because unlike class at Dartmouth, I didn’t learn much particularly tangible in class.  Me, being me, had studied all but three of the grammar patterns we learned in class (either at Dartmouth or by myself), and most of the kanji wasn’t really new either (although the ones that were new were very useful).  “So Christian, you’re saying you didn’t improve?”  No, that’s not what I’m saying at all, although until about a month or so into the program, I was kind of worried that I wasn’t improving at Japanese (stupid stupid stupid).  I just did most of my improving outside of class.  That was probably the biggest downer about the program – I really would have liked to see the class be a little more challenging.  But of course that would be difficult, because the range of skill levels of the people on the LSA+ was astounding.  But in any case, I thought that actual class itself, for me, was a little bit redundant, and (ironically enough) actually detracted from my Japanese learning.  But if a student’s main complaint about a program is that the class wasn’t hard enough, you’re obviously doing something right.

Like I said, I did most of my learning out of class – either by talking to my homestay family or my friends from my Hip-Hop Dance club.  I learned a lot of really useful words (like 蚊に刺された – I was bitten by a mosquito), stuff you wouldn’t really expect to learn in class (like 弱虫 – literally weak bug, but it means coward), and some awesome words that aren’t immediately relevant to everyday life but awesome anyway (like 逆立ち – handstand).  I also, as the first sentence of this paragraph indicates, made some really amazing friends that I’m going to miss a lot.  We had a bunch of really fun times, dancing, going shopping for headphones (because I’m an idiot and broke my new pair less than a week after I got them), going to dinner, going drinking, talking until 2:30-3:00 in the morning about Japanese, English, and learning languages, etc.  I’ve got Skype, Facebook, e-mail, and the prospect of returning to Japan (LSA+ director’s assistant perhaps?) to keep me from being too sad, but still.

The friends I made were definitely an invaluable part of this program, and are definitely part of what made it so enjoyable.  The Dartmouth kiddies do interact a lot, but there’s only so much you can do with the same 15-20 people (most of whom you’ve have class with and are already really good friends with) in a small area where you don’t know what’s what, and people tend to disperse by around 5:00 at the latest, so you’ve got pretty much the end of the day all to yourself if you don’t make any Japanese friends.  Also, Dartmouth kids, and I’m pretty sure this is safe to say, no matter how good they are, won’t be able to teach your about conversational Japanese nearly was well as, you know…real Japanese people.  Having conversations with you.  In Japanese.  Makes sense, right?

However, in case the last few sentences gave the wrong impression, the other Dartmouth students on the program were amazing.  I’m really glad I got to spend more time with some of my best friends in a new country, and I’m really glad I got closer to some other people.  And I definitely learned a lot (of Japanese) from them.  The one regret about the LSA+ paticipants is that they tended to be very cliquey.  I don’t know if that happens every year, but by around week three, groups were pretty much set.  That’s fine, since everyone had their friends, but I think it would have been nice to get to know some of the people that I didn’t really have the chance to get to know.  But at the same time, if I’d gotten to know everyone on the LSA+ really well, I would have had no time for my (already made) good friends, my new Japanese friends, or my homestay family.  What a conundrum.

Final note about the LSA+ – actually being in Japan.  Not in terms of learning the language, but in terms of being a “tourist,” or a “sightseer,” or whatever you want to call it.  Exploring a country that’s not your own.  So many amazing things to see, to do, to eat.  I think the LSA+ program as a whole did really good job of taking us places that are quintessentially “Japanese,” especially on the Kansai trip (which was so much fun, I can’t even articulate how great it was).  Definitely added uncountable amazing experiences to my “list of things I will never forget,” and for that I’m very grateful.

All in all, the LSA+ was amazing.  I think I’ve said that a few times.  Anyone currently in Japanese at Dartmouth should go, and anyone currently not in Japanese at Dartmouth should get themselves signed up, if not to learn an amazing language, but to be able to go on this program.  And with that, I think it’s time to move onto Japanese culture.

…I must admit to being a little bit silly here.  It’s now September 12^th – I never got around to finishing this after I landed in the States, but I have resumed finishing this up, once again at the insistence of the powers that be.   Unfortunately, I don’t know if the other two sections that I plan to write, on Japanese culture and on being back in the US, will be as long as the one about the LSA+ program above.  Forgive me, gracious readers.

I’ll start with Japanese culture.  Obviously, it’s completely different from American culture.  I’m sure there are tons of tiny details crammed into my head about how things differ, but even if I tried I don’t think I could readily come up with them.  Most of them are instinctive and not really talked about, and you have to learn from following the example of the people around you.  It’s not really something I ever gave much though to, to be honest.  It was just something that you did.  It iddn’t even really occur to me at how different everything truly was until my mom told me to stop slurping my soup in the Japanese restaurant last night – in Japan, it’s rude not to slurp your soup.  Just one of those things, I guess.

But really, I don’t quite know what I should be saying here.  As different as everyone’s backgrounds were from mine, it definitely didn’t get in the way of making friends.  The people I met were pretty much like any other group of twenty year olds, with pretty much the same concerns, interests, etc.  I figure where we really differed was in how we approached those concerns and interests.  But overall, I found Japanese culture to be very easy to adjust to.

In fact, once I’d adjusted, I found myself getting slightly annoyed at some of the people on the LSA who just flagrantly disregarded culture norms.  I’m sure I disregarded (mostly unintentionally) my fair share of culture taboos (like eating in the train – I was so hungry!), but for the most part I tried to respect the country’s way of running (like not shouting across streets, or campus, or whatever).

There are certain things that are definitely different from American culture though, and I think I’ll be drawn and quartered if I don’t mention at least some of them here.  As some of you (may) know, the Japanese don’t wear shoes inside.  Unless they are special inside slippers that don’t go outside.  Ever.  The Japanese are very fussy about purity, cleanliness (and with that, uncleanliness), etc.  And someone, somewhere, decided that outside was unclean, so nothing that has touched the ground is supposed to touch the floor of your house, thus defiling it.  So you take your shoes off in this little area that every house (and traditional restaurant) in Japan has, and then step up a little step into the main house.  Fun fact – I took the laces out of every pair of shoes I had minus one to make getting in and out of shoes easier.  Quite brilliant, if I do say so myself.

Other things that are different…well, people are significantly quieter, and much less forceful with their opinions.  I sometimes wondered if the people I was speaking to had an opinion on what we were talking about, but I eventually got used to the fact that in Japan, it’s apparently not polite to have really hard, definitive opinions in public.  Or something.  I think it ties into this concept that the Japanese have, that you have a “public” face and a “private” face, and sometimes even a “self” face that no one ever gets to see, and what you can say when you’re wearing each face differs.  It’s a little weird to Westerners, I think, but it makes for a very smoothly operating society, and no one there thinks it’s weird, fake, dishonest, or what-have-you.

But really, everyone was really cool and I’m glad I got to meet them, and that really they’re not nearly as different from American people as some would think.  Superficially maybe, but…meh.

The last topic to be covered is being back in America, and what it’s like.  I’m even more at a loss as to what I should say here than I was in the previous section.  To be very honest, I haven’t experienced much of a culture shock while being back.  Sometimes I think people are being too loud, but really, that’s about it.  I haven’t done too much except laze about the house though, see friends, etc.  Perhaps I’ll have different opinions when I go back to school.  But I don’t really expect I will.  Culture shock may just not be my thing, I think.

Being back is great though, so no worries there.  The food is (still) good, it’s nice and warm (but not too hot), and it’s been great to see everyone who wasn’t in Japan.  So no complaints about being back from me.  That’s really all I can say.  I loved being in Japan, it’s a great place, and I really look forward to going back.  Thanks for reading.

17-18 August: Kansai Part Two

The 17^th was our second to last day on the trip, and everyone was beginning to feel a little bit sad about having to go back and actually go to school again.  This sadness was compounded by where we were – Hiroshima!

We threw our bags into a coin locker at the beginning of the day, after arriving at Hiroshima Station from Nagasaki, and then off we went to the Atomic Bomb Museum.  Two hard hitting museums, back to back.  I can’t really decide which one I liked more – the Nagasaki one had fewer people and focused more on individual stories, but the Hiroshima one was much bigger and had a lot of information about the current state of nuclear weapons in the world today, which was nice, and very informative.  In any case, both were very depressing and sad.

Before the museum proper, we were allowed to explore the Peace Park that surrounds the museum.  It’s built around the epicenter (or really hypocenter, because the bomb exploded in the air) of the bomb, in what was once completely leveled by the blast.  It’s shocking how much was actually just flattened.  There are two pictures up on Facebook, at the end of the Hiroshima section.  The museum had a replica of what the area looked like before the bombing, and one of what it looked like right after the bombing.  Very scary.  Go take a look.

Anyway, after leaving the museum, we took a taxi back to the station, bringing our “Types of Transportation Ridden” total to the max (I think).  So far I’ve been on a train, bullet train, street car, taxi, car, boat, and airplane while in Japan.  So cool.  Back at the station, we got on another train and then a ferry, to Miyajima Island.

Miyajima is apparently one of the holiest places in Japan – so holy that regular people (read: non-Buddhist or Shinto monks/priests) were not allowed to set foot on the island by law.  That’s pretty holy.  Going along with the holiness, it’s an absolutely beautiful island, and I think one of people’s favorite destinations overall.  Also, the Japanese-style hotel/inn that we stayed in was really awesome.  I would have been so happy to sleep all day in those beds, they were so comfortable.

After some exploring of the island by ourselves, we met back for dinner with everyone, and it was a full meal – three or four courses I think.  Very delicious.  Then, after dinner, we went and watched Taiko drumming, which was very impressive, especially in such an enclosed space as the room we were in.  Then we went to the public baths and relaxed before heading back to our room and playing cards until 1:30ish in the morning.

After that, we woke up and explored the island again, and this time I brought my camera.  Temple followed shrine, and overall everything was very enjoyable.  I think my pictures explain where I went better than I could have.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and we had to leave the island and get on a shinkansen back home.  About five hours on a train later, we touched down in Tokyo, and a few of us had dinner together before heading back to our homestay families.  That’s really all I have to say about that, other than a strong recommendation that people go to all the places I mentioned.  Just amazing, and very fascinating.  You may want to learn Japanese first though…

12-16 August: Kansai Part One

So I’m finally sitting down to blog about my adventures in the land of Kansai, and “points west,” as Dorsey-sensei is very fond of saying.  I don’t know if I can really do the trip justice though – it was definitely one of the most fun trips I’ve ever taken, despite the heat and the grumpiness that sometimes invaded the group.  I’ll start off with saying that Kansai definitely has a more “Japanese” flavor than Tokyo does, and I really enjoyed that.

I’m trying to reconstruct all my memories from the trip, and it’s proving difficult.  I have the itinerary, but it’s still very difficult.  It’s hard to remember what/where I hate for all my meals, who I ate with, the order that we went to things, etc. etc.  Because of this, I’m afraid that this update won’t be as long as I previously thought.  Oh well, I’ll see what I can do.

On the first day, we left Tokyo at a rather (very) early hour, and got on yet another shinkansen.  Shinkansen are a recurring theme of this trip.  Anyhow, we all got these rail passes, which let you ride any JR (Japan Railways – the biggest, at least I’m assuming it’s the biggest, rail company in the country) train for free, within the specified date.  We got one for the entire trip, and there was a big snaffoo about not losing them, because they’re very expensive, and can’t be replaced.  They’re actually interesting, in that Japanese people aren’t actually allowed to get, because then JR would lose crazy amounts of money.  But foreigners can!  And I’m a foreigner!  Yay!  Anyhow, we used our rail passes throughout the entire trip, and it made the whole “getting on trains” thing much easier.  At least I thought so.  Although constantly reaching in my bag and putting it with my passport (because it was a safe place and I wouldn’t lose it if it was there) did get slightly annoying.

Anyway, moving on.  After getting off the shinkansen, we arrived in our first location – Gifu Prefecture.  Then we got on a nice bus and went to Inuyama Castle, which was our first sightseeing stop.  Everyone gave one presentation (in English) on one of the stops we stopped at, and it just so happens that mine was first.  So I got to give a speech about Inuyama Castle (its name means “Dog Mountain Castle,” it’s one of Japan’s national treasures, and possibly the oldest castle in the country).  I didn’t know this at the time, but it’s actually not in Gifu – it’s in a neighboring prefecture (Aichi), and the castle sits on a river that splits the two.  So, I guess you do learn something new every day.  After touring the castle, we were set loose for lunch, and Kevin, Dan, Larry, and myself went exploring for a food place.  We found a café that served the most delicious curry toast and fruit juice smoothie things, but it was very expensive so we didn’t order very much.  That wasn’t a problem for anyone except me, but I stopped off at a convini and got second lunch, which was very good.

After that, we got on a bus to our hotel, where we were going to go out on boats and watch cormorant fishing.  However, the weather gods of Japan decided that they’d had enough of gaijin watching traditional Japanese food production methods, and so they conspired to prevent us from having fun.  What that really means is they made it rain so much that the water was too murky and the current was too strong in the river were the cormorant fishing happens, so they had to cancel all the boats going out.  We did get to see a presentation of comorant fishing though, and the guy giving it wore a really cool hat.  I didn’t bring my camera to the presentation though, so there are no pictures of the awesomeness that was his headpiece.  So sorry.  Then we went back to the room and hung out and talked until we fell asleep.

After waking up on day two and having breakfast (this part of the trip was consistently the hardest part of the entire trip – we were required to be at breakfast at around 7:15 on most days…sleeping in was 7:45…and after late nights and all day walking around, waking up so early was pretty hectic), we boarded another train, had some transfers, and touched down in Kyoto.  I was all excited, because I didn’t bring my itinerary with me, so I thought we were staying in Kyoto, but no.  We were off for Nara, which was the old capital of Japan.  As in, from around the year 600A.D. or so.  And America thinks it’s big stuff…

Anyhow, after getting to Nara, we got on a bus to see the recreation of the old capital city.  It was the 1300^th anniversary of the capital’s founding, so they rebuilt the South Gate (the important one, according to Shinto), and the actual place where the Emperor sat.  It was very fun, but unholy heat beat down on us, and there was no respite in something as useful as shade.  I’d like to point out that while I had a pretty bad farmer’s tan before going to Kansai, I now feel like a Mexican on my lower arms, neck, etc.  Very interesting.

Then we got on another bus, and went to a shrine.  This was the first experience our group had with the deer in Nara.  Very cute.  And very annoying, because it seemed like every four feet, someone had to stop to take pictures of the deer.  It was totally fine at first, because everyone really did want pictures of the deer, but after the 10^th picture, I don’t really see the need for more.  But we finally managed to get to the shrine, and touring it was super cool.  They had these fancy steel lanterns that were very pretty (highlight of the shrine).

Then we went to another shrine – Todaiji Temple.  This place is important because it holds the largest statue of X Buddha in the world.  The world!  I say X Buddha because it’s of a specific variety of Buddha, one that I think starts with a V, but I can’t remember, and it’s early in the morning so I don’t want to look it up.  If anyone wants to and then tell me, that’d be great.  But in any case, this thing was monstrous.  Pictures are up on Facebook (for everything actually, but this place is in the collection as well).  The other highlight of the trip was one of the supporting beams has a hole carved in it, supposedly the size of one of the Buddha’s nostrils.  I don’t think anyone has actually gone up and checked though, hence the supposedly.  Anyhow, if you crawl through the hole, you apparently get super good luck or something.  So we all took turns going (or trying to go) through the hole.  Everyone made it through, one way or another – either by being pulled through or pulling themselves through.  Good fun.

After that, we went to Nara park, which had…more deer!  Which meant more pictures.  But it was a very beautiful place, and there were lots of street vendors selling stuff, which was fun to watch.  Then it was dinner, and we split up and went exploring.  If memory serves me correctly, I ate with Evan, Larry, Mandy, and Shermaine at this small place that served wonderful, wonderful udon.  I was very happy.

After dinner, we went and explored the lantern festival that was going on, and got some really cool pictures.  My camera had just died at this point, but Evan’s camera has this awesome mode where you can change the shutter speed, and so we played around with that, making people (and ourselves) look like ghosts against a backdrop of amazingly lit lanterns and buildings.  Really fun.  Then we went back to the hotel.

Then we woke up again, and people are wont to do.  We had breakfast, and left the hotel, and I, organized person that I am, left my new favorite hat in the hotel room.  I only noticed it two days after we left the hotel, but they still managed to get it back to me.  That definitely made my week.  But yes, after Nara, we began our two day jaunt into Kyoto.  The first day was both one of the best and worst days of the trip.  By that I mean, I really, really, really enjoyed everything we did on the first day, and most of the other people were tired, grumpy, and didn’t like going to four shrines in a row, so they didn’t like it so much.

A brief rundown of where we went – you can look the places up on Wikipedia or Google or something if you want more information (I encourage you to, they’re fascinating): Ryoanji Temple with it’s Zen Rock Garden (so cool – they have it set up that if you sit on the viewing platform, you can only ever see 14 or the 15 stones at any one time), Kinkakuji Temple, Ginkakuji Temple, and Heian Jingu.  All very beautiful, fun places.

After that, we were set loose for dinner (we had lunch on own earlier in the day, and Dylan, Julie, Mandy, and I went to a place that Dylan had visited three years ago – the food was still delicious) in the Gion District of Kyoto.  We ran into a Dartmouth professor crossing the street, which was really weird, and really cool.  We had a nice conversation and then we went in search of food.  And did we find it – the most delicious okonomiyaki I’ve ever had.  So good.  And then after dinner, we went to this bar, simply because of the name – “Happy Space Bar Mushroom.”  You couldn’t make this stuff up.  It was so cool.

Then we went back to the hotel and knocked out, which was great.  Followed by waking up, realizing I’d lost my hat, and exploring Kyoto on our own for the day, which really consisted of going to another famous shrine that has about a billion and one torii gates lining everything.  It was very beautiful there, but I think it had significantly too many mosquitoes.

From there, we caught a train and then a bus to a ferry, which would take us to Nagasaki.  It was an overnight ferry, and a very good experience – it was Dylan and Erkia’s 19^th birthdays, so we had a grand time and everyone was really relaxed.  That’s all there is to say about the ferry.  Oh, the view from the top deck at night was gorgeous.  Simply gorgeous.

After we got to Nagasaki, we dropped our stuff off at the hotel and then went sightseeing.  Nagasaki had a huge population of Christians in the Edo period, and there’s a long history of persecution and terrible things that went down there, so we went and saw one of the more famous sites – a hill where a bunch of people (including children) were crucified as an example of why you shouldn’t be Christian.  After that, we went to a church and a museum about the Christian persecution, and then were turned loose to explore Nagasaki.

Evan, Larry, and I went off to these beautiful gardens, which we spent quite a long time in.  Then we looked at the oldest church in Nagasaki, but it was too expensive to merit going in.  Then, we went to Dejima, which is the man-made island that the Japanese quarantined all the Dutchmen to in the 1630s or so.  If you think that sounds bad, keep in mind that they kicked everyone else out, so at least the Dutch got to stay…We were going to meet up with Dan at the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb museum, but by a weird twist of fate, we ended up spotting him at Dejima, so we went together to the museum.  That was a very heavy and good experience, but after an hour and a half, we were pretty ready to get out of there and stop being depressed.

We then went to the Peace Park and then the biggest church in Japan, which was closed, but we still saw it from the outside.  Then we went to dinner, and spent altogether too much money on too little food.  But it was ridiculously high quality (among the dishes we got was horse sashimi…snap!).  Then we went to this ropeway, which is what the Japanese call cable cars, and went up a mountain and looked over the city of Nagasaki at night, which was gorgeous.  The way the city is laid out is very interesting, with it extending up into mountains and hills and looking very quaint.  At this point, Larry decided that Nagasaki was the most beautiful city he’d ever been to, and I’m pretty sure he’s sticking to his guns on that one.

After that, we got back to the hotel, but Evan, Larry, and I were still wide awake, so we went down to the lobby and talked until around 1:30 in the morning.  Mostly about Japanese, but we also started teaching Evan Spanish.  I’ve decided that at some point at Dartmouth, I want to audit Spanish 2 or 3 or something, and then take Spanish 9, so I can get my Spanish back…slash improve it.  I’ll probably do that this winter or something.  And then I’ll be semi-trilingual.  That makes me happy.

I’ve got to go to school now, so I’ll post this up now, so people can amuse themselves with reading.  I’ll finish up the telling after school today.

18 August

Back in home with the homestay family!  Kansai was an absolute blast – everyone had an amazing time and everywhere was so gorgeous.  I’ll write a long update tomorrow (and I do mean long, a lot happened.  I’ll try and keep it manageable though), but just wanted to let everyone reading know that I’m back, and still alive.

In addition, I’m uploading pictures to Facebook now – both from the trip and a few pictures of my homestay family from before the trip.  Peruse them at your leisure.  I won’t have tagged or captioned most of them (I am very tired and I have school tomorrow, yay!), but I’ll get around to that eventually.

Until tomorrow then.

August 10

Oh, look at me, fulfilling people’s wishes and blogging every day before I leave for Kansai.  Which, in case you all have forgotten, is tomorrow (my tomorrow – Thursday).  I’m very, very excited for this trip.  I’m rather enamored with what could be considered “traditional” Japan, and Kansai (particularly Kyoto and Nara) are, while maybe not the “hub” of tradition (although I think you could make that argument), at the very least steeped in tradition.  I can’t wait to go to all the temples and shrines and gardens.  Oh yes, I am very excited.  The only thing that I am/was worried about is that I wouldn’t get to speak any Japanese on the trip, because I think (know) the majority of people will be speaking English all the time.  And no one wants to be the asshole who responds (badly) in a different language when asked questions.  But it’s alright, because Larry and I made a pact to speak some Japanese together, so I won’t forget everything I’ve learned!

But, about my day.  Firs thing, we had a test, as you learned from yesterday’s blog.  Comparatively, I don’t think it went that well, which is slightly upsetting.  We’ll see when I get it back, but I was very meh walking out of the test.  But to be honest, I don’t really care, since I’m doing well in the class.  Anyway, after the test, we still had class.  Tuesday and Thursdays are 3-hour Japanese language classes, and it’s just so long.  My mind wanted to give up and just let my body die, to escape the class.  It’s very disappointing when Japanese class bores me, since I love the language so much.  But if I’m not learning anything in the class…I sat next to Larry and talked about Japanese, for the most part, in between answering questions from the sensei.  We (Larry and I) have this system where whenever we find weird Japanese, we share it with each other, under the title of “Today’s ‘Make you go “Eh?”’ Japanese” (or really, 「今日のEh?の日本語」).  Yesterday, it was actually two things – the first is that the word for ‘gullible, naive’ is actually the word for ‘easily deceived/swindled.’  The reason that makes me very happy is because I’m reading a manga called (translated from Japanese) “The Black Swindler.”  It’s very, very good, and it taught me the word 騙す, which means to cheat, swindle, or deceive.  That’s the word that is in gullible.  Awesome?  I think so.  The second piece of odd Japanese, which really did make me go “Wait, what?” is a proverb sort of deal.  It’s a chant against evil or ill fortune, and, in Japanese, it is 「くわばら、くわばら」(kuwabara, kuwabara).  In English, it is “Mulberry field, mulberry field.”  Sense-making phrase?  I think not.

Anyway, back to relevant information, like the interesting part of my day yesterday.  Kevin, Larry, Julie, and I went to Roppongi, Japan’s notoriously famous (redundant much?) party district for foreigners.  But did we go to club?  No.  We went to see an art museum.  Read those words again, mom and dad.  Your son voluntarily went to an art museum.  And enjoyed it!  What has this world come to?

But seriously, this place was awesome.  It’s called the Mori Art Museum, and it’s a museum (by the way, I’m having a lot of trouble typing “museum” this morning.  I keep wanting to add an ‘a’ in the second half of the world somewhere) that specializes in (or caters to?) modern art.  Now, normally I’m not the biggest fan of modern (especially abstract) art, because I think a lot of the artistic justification and blathering about what this piece means (“The red square in the upper left corner symbolizes the artists existential crisis with society, and the black square stands for his overwhelming despair over the loss his childhood pet goldfish”) is complete bullshit.  That being said, however, this museum was really cool.

The museum has themes, apparently, and this time around it was “Japanese Conceptions of Nature.”  Already, it sounds awesome.  And then you get inside the museum.  Some of these pieces were so awesome.  Like, jaw droppingly (Microsoft Word wants to correct that to droopingly, which is NOT what I want to say at all) awesome.  I can’t even really describe them, but they were just really fascinating (although some of them were pervaded by the aforementioned artistic bullshit).  A lot of really creative stuff going on.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Then we went to dinner, which was awesome.  And then walked around Roppongi, and then went home.  Awesome times.  After that, I studied for my vocab and kanji quiz which I have today (what’s with all these quizzes and tests, you ask?  No one knows, I answer).

Now, before I sign off to go study a bit more, I leave you with some fun facts about animal words, which are today’s vocab topic.  Firstly, the word for mouse and the word for rat are exactly the same.  The Japanese, I guess, treat them as equally despicable vermin.  I vote for adopting this method of thinking in America.  Secondly, and this isn’t really so much as an interesting fact as a jubulation, I now know the word for tiger in Japanese (tora, for anyone interested).  Finally, and this one actually is cool, is the kanji for butterfly.  Evan has this theory that you can tell the character of any language by their word for butterfly, and so far, the theory has proven pretty sound to me (have gave me a bunch of examples, which I promptly forgot).  In any case, the kanji for ‘butterfly’ is ‘insect in the world above the trees.’  Awesome.  In a word.  But then again, the kanji for ‘turkey’ is ‘bird with seven masks.’  I guess mask could also be coverings.  Either way, it makes no sense.  At all.  But it’s weird enough that I remember it, which is fine by me.

I leave you with that.

August 9

Once again, the time of the test is upon us, and by us I mean me.  And that means that yesterday, not much of note actually happened.  But seeing as some people will be dreadfully put out if they don’t get an update…

After school yesterday, we went out for food (Erika, Kevin, Evan, me).  It was delicious – tonkatsu, and I managed to spend under a thousand yen, which was good.  The restaurant was pretty pricey, but delicious enough to make it worth it.  After that, we walked back and hung out at Kanda for a little bit (Evan has no internet at his new homestay family, and Kanda does, so he likes to spend some time there…).  Much rumpus ensued.

Then, I went home.  That was not particularly exciting.  Once there, I studied for a bit, then discovered that Singapore Airlines only allows two pieces of checked baggage, and one carry on item.  This is a drastic problem for me, because I was intending to buy a third bag to put all my stuff in.  I think I’m going to have to look into shipping options.  I am rather frusternated, to be honest.  That’s a very stupid policy for airlines to have.

And then I studied some more.  Yay!  That’s about it.  Sorry for the short, uneventful update.

6-8 August

Time to blog about the weekend!  A lot of it happened, but I can’t really expound too much on it – there just isn’t a way for me to talk about fish markets for 2,000 words or something like that.

Starting with Friday:  After school, a bunch of us were going to try and go to this aquarium and then the biggest (possibly?) Ferris Wheel in Japan.  Unfortunately, the aquarium closes at 4:30, and so by the time we were done with lunch, it didn’t make sense for use to take a half hour train ride and pay lots of money for only 45 minutes in an aquarium.  So we decided to reschedule that, and went to Julie’s penthouse to hang out.  Her homestay situation is very odd – apparently her homestay mother just leaves her alone all day pretty much, and most of the time she’s alone at night to.  She likes it, but it seems like a waste of a homestay situation to me.  Anyhow, since we were alone and her homestay mother had bought her a bunch of beer and the like, we decided to hang out, play a few drinking and card games, and then go out to dinner.

Except after the card games, we decided it would be a good idea to cook instead.  The food was actually pretty good, but, me being me, I decided that I needed more food.  Some other people were okay with that, so we went out to dinner anyway, which was awesome.  Then we all parted ways, and Kevin and Evan and I all boarded the same bus, since they were going in the direction of my apartment complex.  Great fun on the bus ensued.

On a completely unrelated note, on Friday I also discovered this awesome website with a bunch of homemade breakbeats (Wikipedia for the win if you don’t know what those are), that the creators have put online for free download.  Suffice to say, this makes me very happy.

On Saturday, I enjoyed the rare pleasure of sleeping in.  It’s so hard to do in this country.  I think the Japanese work ethic has invaded my psyche or something.  Anyway, after I woke up, my family and I went to the Tsukiji Fish Market (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsukiji_fish_market), which was super cool.  We didn’t go to buy anything, we just went to go have a look around and stare at the craziness that was happening.  I couldn’t help but compare it to the fish market we went to in Hong Kong, and noticing how much more organized and clean it was.  Don’t get me wrong, it was still a market, but…wow.

After that, we went to Ginza, which is comparable to Manhattan.  It’s apparently the most expensive land in all of Japan (per square foot, or whatever unit of measurement they use here.  Tatami mats?).  It’s pretty much shopper’s heaven, so it wasn’t all that interesting for me, since I didn’t have anything I wanted to buy, and even if I did, all the shops are ridiculously upscale, so I wouldn’t have been able to afford anything anyway.  Speaking of affording things, I may have to dip into my Savings account soon, I’m running out of money in a bad way.  I think I only have about $100 left in my Checking account.

Sunday was pretty uneventful.  Sleeping in, homework, hanging with the family.  Nothing to really write home about.  Fun though.

On a completely unrelated note, I’d like to point out that I find the Japanese home dynamic incredibly odd.  I was talking to my homestay mother about a week ago, and just remembered what she said – something to the effect of it being best when the Japanese wife and husband aren’t fighting, but the husband isn’t at home (presumably because he’s working).  She said this in response to me asking if she was ever lonely without Mikio-san (my homestay father) at home, because he’s always at work – sometimes for 4-5 days in a row before coming home.  Apparently, it’s not uncommon.

I know that people spending the week in the city and then coming home for the weekend isn’t unheard of in America, but it’s still not nearly as common as it seems to be in Japan.  Also, apparently, Japanese companies reassign their employees to different branches of work, sometimes across the country.  However, children are really important in Japanese culture, and stability for them is number one.  So instead of upping and relocating the entire family for five years (the typical cycle of different branch assignment), just the father will go.  And the wives seem happy about it (being cycled through branches like that means that you’re high enough in the company to be considered valuable, or something like that).  I just don’t understand the Japanese home dynamic.

Another (less serious, more funny) note about Japanese culture for all you readers who are interested – in Japan, everyone reverses into their parking spots.  I mean everyone.  Literally.  I have not seen a SINGLE car parked the “normal” (by American standards) way.  I asked my homestay mother about it and she seemed completely perplexed – apparently she thought everyone parked like that (I don’t know why, there are plenty of American movies in Japan).  After talking for a bit, and working around some difficult Japanese, it turns out that the Japanese would prefer a little effor to park in exchange for a really easy exit.  Also, my homestay mother seems to think that it would be incredibly 大変 (taihen – terrible, dreadful, difficult, etc. – made up of the kanji for ‘big’ and ‘strange’) to reverse out of a parking spot.  Apparently it sounds impossible.  Then again, my homestay mother can’t parallel park, so, I don’t know if she’s a representative sample of the Japanese driver.

That’s all for today folks.  Oh, quick reminder – on Thursday I’ll be going to Kansai (Wiki again!), so I won’t be updating for about a week, starting on Thursday.  My apologies.  I’ll be back with tons of pictures though!

5 August

You get a blog update because I’m nice, even though I really should be studying vocab right now.

Thursday was an interesting day because we didn’t really have class.  We had our oral tests, but since those are individual type deals, they cancelled the language class and had us scheduled throughout the day.  Mine was at 11:05, so I techinically didn’t have to come to campus until then, but I felt the need (slash was asked) to come a bit earlier (10:00) and help a few people study.  That was fun, because I got to talk to some of the people who were there just because they were, and in helping people study, I got to study myself.  We had a great talk about North Korea, and how crazy it is.  Good times.

The oral test itself wasn’t actually too bad.  But at the same time, it wasn’t a walk in the park either.  I’m actually a lit bit unsure as to how well I did – the sensei did their annoying (and very Japanese thing) of always smiling, even when you mess up.  I remember in Spanish, if you messed up, they’d give you a look and you’d know you were wrong, so you could try and correct yourself on the spot.  But when it’s all smiles, you end up second-guessing yourself, etc.  Not the best time.  But it wasn’t really that hard, so hopefully I did fine.

After that, we had an hour and a half or two hours before Dorsey-sensei’s class started, so Evan, Larry, Darn Briggs, Erika, and I went to kaiten zushi for lunch.  We were going to go to that Italian place I’ve mentioned (twice?) before, but when we got there it was crazy crowded, so we decided to go for sushi instead.  Not my first choice – as delicious as sushi is, it’s very hard for me to eat enough of it to fill me up, given the amount of food I like to put in my stomach.  I mean, I could get that much sushi, but that would put a serious dent in my wallet, even at a cheap place like kaiten zushi.

After that, we went to Dorsey’s class and talked about the new song we’re studying (which is a very good song).  Then class was over, and Rachel said she wanted to go to Shibuya to shop, and a bunch of people said, “Hey, that’s a good idea.  And we’ll be back home in time for dinner!”  Not wanting to be left out, and since a few people that I haven’t had the chance to really hang out with were going  (modified noun phrases in English are killing me, they’re so different from Japanese.  Gah!), I decided to go.  But before we went, more and more people started dropping out, until it was just Rachel, Eric, and I.  I didn’t want to abandon them with so few people going, and since I really don’t make it into Toyko that often on my own, I decided to stick it out and go with them.  And I had a blast.  Super fun, exploring and the like.  We crossed the busiest intersection in the world!  Apparently, ever time the light changes, over 1,000 people cross it (on average).  It was madness.  Here’s a YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXtOdSgf6Ic

Then I came home and realized I had a ridiculous amount of homework for no apparent reason, and so I stayed up too late doing that, and now I have to finish studying vocab and the like this morning.  Upsetting.  That’s about it!

Oh, and on Wednesday, we went to this awesome shrine that enshrines every dead Japanese soldier (including the war criminals!) as gods.  Very controversial.  Very revisionist history.  Very fun.

3 August

Yesterday was taken over by the test and dancing, so there’s really not much to say here.  I’m a bit bummed though, because the number of times that I’ll be able to dance with my friends is decreasing significantly too rapidly.  Wednesday is the last day for two weeks (they’re taking a break because the school is closing down), and then after they start up again, I’m only in the country for a few days.  Horribly upsetting.

Other than that, it’s really just trying to cram as much Japanese knowledge into my head as I possibly can.  That, and procrastinating on my final project, which I haven’t started.  I really should get on that…

Sorry this is so boring and short.  Have to study vocab before school.  I really don’t like this ‘two quizzes every day’ shenanigans that’s going on.  But what can you do?

2 August

Short blog update this morning because I’m studying for my test today.  I don’t know what it is with this program, but we have so many tests.  It’s ridiculous.

Monday was fun – went to school, etc. etc.  Nothing special there.  After school though, Erika, Evan, Dan Briggs, Larry and I went down to Kaihin Makuhari station to meet Larry’s girlfriend (who’s interning in Japan – awesome!) for lunch and hanging out.  We had an awesome time playing this game Evan and his friends back home invented – were you go around in a circle, each saying a word that has absolutely no connection to any of the words that have already been said (clear connection).  Think word association, but the opposite.  Very fun.  Then we had a great time at ramen, and then went into this big supermarket/mall cross thing to hang out and and explore, and then we all went back home.  And then I studied.

Not a very eventful day, sorry that I’ve got no fabulous insights into the world of Japan.  Other than an old one, which I don’t think I’ve posted – you know in Japan, they’ve got these little ridges along paths you can walk, for blind people?  They’re absolutely brilliant, I think America should adopt them.  Very helpful, even though I have yet to see a blind person in this country.  That’s the other thing – you never see anyone with any sort of handicap here.  Do they not exist?  Are they locked away in their houses, forbidden by society to emerge?  Am I just particularly unobservant?  Only time will tell.