*Faithfully transcribed from the notebook in which I wrote during my homestay this past weekend.
*I have also since actually finished this post and included help for the Japanese (scroll over).
___________________________________________________________________________________
I need to write about my homestay weekend. I do NOT want to forget anything.
Day 1 --> 金曜日
I was the very last person to be picked up from SANC's Asakasa [Nogizaka] office. I got there at 3 pm and paced, tried nervously speaking 日本語 with the 先生, fanned myself and others in the 329741 degree room, and in general flipped out from excitement and worry 'til Kobanawa-san came for me at 6 pm.
I would have easily waited more for that man.
My ♥ kind of sank when I saw it was an otoko の 人 b/c they're generally not as bubbly and they mumble a lot. I also felt he would be stern and judge me for knowing practically no Japanese though I've been studying for like 10 months.
ちがう！
He's practically the nicest, warmest, happiest man I've ever met. He knows English well so [he] is able to help me search for unknown words or explain something new in a way (i.e. a language) I can actually understand. He works for Deutsche(?) Bank and is very wordly, having studied at UCSD [University of California at San Diego] and traveled a bunch (Quito!). He also thinks I'm really cool ^__^. Yay ego boost.
His wife is super nice, too, and his two musumee, ゆか (五） and かなえ （九） are so KAWAII!
My 1st grave/embarrassing/hilarious mishap was right after arriving at their gorgeous house. Both お母さん AND お父さん were helping make dinner and ゆか brought me a plastic cup with an aluminum foil lid that she got out of the fridge and made "どうぞ” motions. She took what looked like orange Jello our of it and handed it to me. As she's telling me it's "スライム (slime), I stick it in my mouth.
Instant panic from お母さん AND かなえ。 ”食べない！”
Translation? "That's not FOOD, you moron!"
...
Needless to say, I found a bathroom ASAP and disposed of the NOT-Jello.
In spite of starting my homestay weekend looking like I'm retarded [and poorly fed] (or maybe because of it...), and reenacting what I'm sure is every single faux pas a Gaijin could possibly commit, they have been SO nice. I'm completely in love with こばなわ and company.
たとえば、 I mentioned to お父さん that we were gonna climb ふじ山 at some point, and he instantly pulled out a corresponding map (map を pull out ことにしている) and gave me advice on how to get there (bus from Shinjuku), when to go (mid-July is kind of あぶない), which of 4 routes to take to reach the summit (一ばんかんたん、 もちろん), and why it's awesome (::insert recounting of two times he climbed ふじ山 here::).
_________________________________________________________________________________
To be continued when I'm not falling asleep at the keyboard ^__^
______________________________________________________
Continuation:
We talked A LOT (as best as I could--and I SWEAR I stuck to 日本語だけ。 English would have been too easy) and covered lots of different topics. I would tell him about my 友達 and once after I mentioned Nick-chan, he said,
"そう、 アリちゃん の ボイフレーンド だ ねえ。”
HAHAHAHAHA. 何 です か？！
When he picked me up from the SANC オヒス, we just chilled and chatted with one of the 先生 for a bit (名前 を わすれちゃった。。。 じつは, I don't think I ever knew it). I mentioned how I went to Kyoto last year and explained the Genji class and that Nick-chan also went. That, plus the fact that me and him are together and hug-y a lot, made 先生 think we're really together. Turns out, while お父さん and 先生 were talking and I was tuned out because I ceased to understand, that misinformation was relayed. お父さん thought the whole thing was hilarious and decided he rather likes Nick-chan, too, I think ^__^
I also have to say I am in the SWEETEST guest room EVER. It's a real life 和しつ, a たたみ room! I think they worried I might not be used to it and would be uncomfortable, but I was ecstatic and declared it perfect. I wish my apartment had a 和しつ!
Day 2 --> 土曜日
Slept great, though it WAS a little あつい in the morning (ahem). Granted, it was ~34 degrees Celcius outside (37 degrees C is body temperature, or 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, to put that into perspective), so whatevs. We went to a humongous スーパー to get ingredients for lunch and dinner, and on the way saw my first ever 日本 の gas station. At the スーパー, they were giving out food samples (COSTCO-like!) and one lady managed to get ゆか to accept a "jelly." Then she turned to お父さん and me while we were walking away and said,
”お母さん と お父さん も？”
”へええええええ！”
SOMEHOW, I was mistaken for ゆか's mom, my お父さん's WIFE.
Does that mean I looked like a 日本人？？？？？？
Y-A-L-E love all the way in Japan =]
![Y-A-L-E love all the way in Japan =]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzjNf7UE2Ebw2WbcWPIC7JDxDXefq142VBuIRDGbDAQP1_7PvCwr6JTLftGpPOJCATOpvx4xSDYwukkBiW3Pl6jB7IiQLZW5c7GMlpK_P-VKcmkvtX5hs-CNhqh2z7egFdSX2VtZ7FKS4w/s1600-r/Y-A-L-EResized.jpg)
domingo, 28 de junho de 2009
quarta-feira, 24 de junho de 2009
Culture Time: Kabuki and Calligraphy!
So until now, I've clearly been living in Japan, but just recently it REALLY started to feel like Japan.
Yesterday, the SANC senseis took us to a kabuki show. I'm sure you all have an image of what kabuki is like--white-painted faces, ridiculously elaborate costumes, ornate sets, only-male actors, and a language you don't understand. Well, that pretty much sums it up!
This particular kabuki show that we went to see was at the National Theatre of Japan, a really gorgeous space a short train ride from SANC. The stage was ginormous and had a runway-like platform connecting it and backstage (but a backstage behind the audience; the "runway" ran from the stage, through an aisle in the audience, and then through a curtain behind us).
For the first 30 or so minutes of the performance, two men (who I'm pretty sure played two of the protagonists) were dressed in what I can only describe as what Rei from Sailor Moon would wear (oh, the ignorance. I'm sorry, Japan) and explained a lot of things to us.
Well, they explained things to those who could understand (i.e. Nick) and then the rest of us would get the summarized English version via whisper. From what I got (because Nick not only translated for me, but also for Adam, and therefore missed some stuff himself), the two men were teaching the audience about the different aspects of kabuki theatre. All the sound effects and music are done by people that are either on stage in a corner, or behind blinds. And there are ninja-helpers (that's what we called them, anyway) that are dressed completely in black (like ninjas) and scurry around the stage to bring props to the chatacters, or take props away. We were told to pretend we didn't see them, haha.
After the explanation (which we guessed was for the benefit of all the school children present), we were given a 20ish minute intermission before the start of the actual performance. So we SANCers kinda milled around in the gift shop area, and when the announcer lady person started talking, I decided to head back to my seat. I walked past a pack of school girls 20-strong, and they ALL STARED AT ME and squealed, "kawaii!!"
...
Now, I will happily take that. Apparently those Japanese school girls found something cute about me. Probably my non-Japanese AND non-White look, haha. But I just found it so odd, you would think that a cute American BOY walking past would get that treatment...I'm not gonna look into that too much, haha.
The kabuki show was cool, especially when the Monkey God took out his red and gold BO (SUGOIII!) and started doing cool stuff with it. I would hit Nick excitedly and be like, "I CAN DO THAT TOO!". It was pretty awesome. Made me wish we had brooms in our apaatos.
After the actual show, we were given special treatment (thank you SANC/Light!) and were taken backstage to see how things work with the sets and the trapdoors the characters sometimes used. It was cool and I picked up some tidbits of knowledge from asking Nick, like how only characters that were divine could use the trapdoor to rise out of the floor, and how the basement area under the stage was referred to as the Japanese word for "hell," and was alleged to have ghosts down there. We even got to stand in the middle of the gigantic stage as someone pulled some kind of lever and the floor started rotating! It was very very cool, an enormous circle of floor in the middle of the stage could rotate a full 360 degrees. I love sugoiiiii things. =]
***
Today was our first Calligraphy class, and it's all thanks to Adam-chan. Adam is kind of a beast when it comes to Calligraphy (he started 3 years ago and is AMAZING at it), and he talked to the senseis about offering a class. We cycle through because there are too many of us that are interested, and I got to be in the first batch because my hand went up the fastest (typical).
After class and lunch, we took the train with the senseis to the SANC office (not located where we have class) where the NICEST little sensei was waiting for us. She taught us the names for all the different types of brushes (which I have since forgotten because I couldn't write anything down), taught us how to pour the ink and hold the brush, etc.
It was an hour and a half of pure bliss.
I'm really big on fonts and handwriting (only semi-artistic thing I can do, haha), and this was like Christmas coming early. I could literally just draw strokes for hours. It was so relaxing, and so much fun, and every time my brush made contact with the paper, it was a new creation. We started with simple horizontal, then vertical, strokes (harder than it sounds), and worked our way up to simple kanji. I must have used 46 trees' worth of paper (I feel bad about it, actually). Our first kanji was 川 (kawa, which means river), and from there we worked our way up to 明日 (ashita, tomorrow).
It was so simple an act, and yet so beautiful. I've resolved to find SOME way to continue this back in the US--I wish I could do this every day, but sadly I can't even settle for every week. Since we're rotating, 4 different people get their turn next week. But never fear oh devout blog-readers: Rene and I realized that if we take out everyone else in the program, we can do Calligraphy every week ^__^
Stay tuned for progress on that one.
Yesterday, the SANC senseis took us to a kabuki show. I'm sure you all have an image of what kabuki is like--white-painted faces, ridiculously elaborate costumes, ornate sets, only-male actors, and a language you don't understand. Well, that pretty much sums it up!
This particular kabuki show that we went to see was at the National Theatre of Japan, a really gorgeous space a short train ride from SANC. The stage was ginormous and had a runway-like platform connecting it and backstage (but a backstage behind the audience; the "runway" ran from the stage, through an aisle in the audience, and then through a curtain behind us).
For the first 30 or so minutes of the performance, two men (who I'm pretty sure played two of the protagonists) were dressed in what I can only describe as what Rei from Sailor Moon would wear (oh, the ignorance. I'm sorry, Japan) and explained a lot of things to us.
Well, they explained things to those who could understand (i.e. Nick) and then the rest of us would get the summarized English version via whisper. From what I got (because Nick not only translated for me, but also for Adam, and therefore missed some stuff himself), the two men were teaching the audience about the different aspects of kabuki theatre. All the sound effects and music are done by people that are either on stage in a corner, or behind blinds. And there are ninja-helpers (that's what we called them, anyway) that are dressed completely in black (like ninjas) and scurry around the stage to bring props to the chatacters, or take props away. We were told to pretend we didn't see them, haha.
After the explanation (which we guessed was for the benefit of all the school children present), we were given a 20ish minute intermission before the start of the actual performance. So we SANCers kinda milled around in the gift shop area, and when the announcer lady person started talking, I decided to head back to my seat. I walked past a pack of school girls 20-strong, and they ALL STARED AT ME and squealed, "kawaii!!"
...
Now, I will happily take that. Apparently those Japanese school girls found something cute about me. Probably my non-Japanese AND non-White look, haha. But I just found it so odd, you would think that a cute American BOY walking past would get that treatment...I'm not gonna look into that too much, haha.
The kabuki show was cool, especially when the Monkey God took out his red and gold BO (SUGOIII!) and started doing cool stuff with it. I would hit Nick excitedly and be like, "I CAN DO THAT TOO!". It was pretty awesome. Made me wish we had brooms in our apaatos.
After the actual show, we were given special treatment (thank you SANC/Light!) and were taken backstage to see how things work with the sets and the trapdoors the characters sometimes used. It was cool and I picked up some tidbits of knowledge from asking Nick, like how only characters that were divine could use the trapdoor to rise out of the floor, and how the basement area under the stage was referred to as the Japanese word for "hell," and was alleged to have ghosts down there. We even got to stand in the middle of the gigantic stage as someone pulled some kind of lever and the floor started rotating! It was very very cool, an enormous circle of floor in the middle of the stage could rotate a full 360 degrees. I love sugoiiiii things. =]
***
Today was our first Calligraphy class, and it's all thanks to Adam-chan. Adam is kind of a beast when it comes to Calligraphy (he started 3 years ago and is AMAZING at it), and he talked to the senseis about offering a class. We cycle through because there are too many of us that are interested, and I got to be in the first batch because my hand went up the fastest (typical).
After class and lunch, we took the train with the senseis to the SANC office (not located where we have class) where the NICEST little sensei was waiting for us. She taught us the names for all the different types of brushes (which I have since forgotten because I couldn't write anything down), taught us how to pour the ink and hold the brush, etc.
It was an hour and a half of pure bliss.
I'm really big on fonts and handwriting (only semi-artistic thing I can do, haha), and this was like Christmas coming early. I could literally just draw strokes for hours. It was so relaxing, and so much fun, and every time my brush made contact with the paper, it was a new creation. We started with simple horizontal, then vertical, strokes (harder than it sounds), and worked our way up to simple kanji. I must have used 46 trees' worth of paper (I feel bad about it, actually). Our first kanji was 川 (kawa, which means river), and from there we worked our way up to 明日 (ashita, tomorrow).
It was so simple an act, and yet so beautiful. I've resolved to find SOME way to continue this back in the US--I wish I could do this every day, but sadly I can't even settle for every week. Since we're rotating, 4 different people get their turn next week. But never fear oh devout blog-readers: Rene and I realized that if we take out everyone else in the program, we can do Calligraphy every week ^__^
Stay tuned for progress on that one.
domingo, 21 de junho de 2009
SANC: Study Hard, Party Hard...Just Like Yale!
Tomorrow, we second years have our first weekly big test (apart from the kanji and grammar quiz that we have every morning), covering all the grammar (like 4 or 5 new structures) and all the kanji (120 of them...roughly what we took most of first YEAR to learn), and all the vocab (I'd say about...200+ words) we've done so far.
o.O
Who said SANC is not demanding?? The second years are easily doing more work than the 3rd and 4th years COMBINED, womp womp. And all this studying (PLUS the like 2357 worksheets they gave us as homework at the end of the day on Friday) has fallen to Sunday, like a good Yalie and college student in general. I mean, between going to the Imperial Palace (not that we even SAW it, the palace grounds are ginormous and the Palace itself is only open for two days a year--New Year's and the Emperor's birthday), walking around Ginza and adamantly not buying anything (basically 5th Avenue with a really awesome Yoshinoya) (haha I love how EVERYTHING is a comparison to New York), following Rene as he struts into Dior like he owns the place and comforting him as he complains they didn't have the bag he wanted to show us (the same Rene who then plays the Stereotyping Card when me and Ming suggest going to him to see if we're dressed well enough to go out that night), and checking out the "cool stuff" (omoshiroi mono or sugoi koto, takeyour pick) at the Sony Building we read so much about in Japanese class (a building whose facade was upstaged by the Hermés building), we clearly didn't have enough time for homework during the day.
And then at night....let me just say we made full use of my cards (which I need to get back...), did speed karaoke in 30 minutes, and enjoyed Roppongi, and got home at 6 because the Tokyo subway closes between midnight and 5 (WTF, right??), which means we HAD to stay out that late =]
And in general annoyed every single person in Tokyo in one night (a fact which we realized, as me and Hee-Sun would randomly proclaim, "Ohhh noooo, we're WARUI GAIJIN! We're BAD FOREIGNERS! Everyone hates us..." LMAO).
And now, totally unrelated, I'll put up pictures of my apartment, just because I finally took some the other day:
PS SANC's official song is "Love Story," Taylor Swift.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wRkoGKQ8qQ
o.O
Who said SANC is not demanding?? The second years are easily doing more work than the 3rd and 4th years COMBINED, womp womp. And all this studying (PLUS the like 2357 worksheets they gave us as homework at the end of the day on Friday) has fallen to Sunday, like a good Yalie and college student in general. I mean, between going to the Imperial Palace (not that we even SAW it, the palace grounds are ginormous and the Palace itself is only open for two days a year--New Year's and the Emperor's birthday), walking around Ginza and adamantly not buying anything (basically 5th Avenue with a really awesome Yoshinoya) (haha I love how EVERYTHING is a comparison to New York), following Rene as he struts into Dior like he owns the place and comforting him as he complains they didn't have the bag he wanted to show us (the same Rene who then plays the Stereotyping Card when me and Ming suggest going to him to see if we're dressed well enough to go out that night), and checking out the "cool stuff" (omoshiroi mono or sugoi koto, takeyour pick) at the Sony Building we read so much about in Japanese class (a building whose facade was upstaged by the Hermés building), we clearly didn't have enough time for homework during the day.
And then at night....let me just say we made full use of my cards (which I need to get back...), did speed karaoke in 30 minutes, and enjoyed Roppongi, and got home at 6 because the Tokyo subway closes between midnight and 5 (WTF, right??), which means we HAD to stay out that late =]
And in general annoyed every single person in Tokyo in one night (a fact which we realized, as me and Hee-Sun would randomly proclaim, "Ohhh noooo, we're WARUI GAIJIN! We're BAD FOREIGNERS! Everyone hates us..." LMAO).
And now, totally unrelated, I'll put up pictures of my apartment, just because I finally took some the other day:
PS SANC's official song is "Love Story," Taylor Swift.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wRkoGKQ8qQ
terça-feira, 16 de junho de 2009
I'm Totally a 日本人...JK DAKE!
*JK dake is copyrighted by Rene Bystron.
*oh, and try mousing over anything that you don't understand, I've supplied explanations for most japanese words/phrases, either romaji or Japanese.
My previous post was very choppy and awkwardly put-together, as I noticed when I read through it again. If you must know, that post was a conglomeration (SAT word) of multiple days' worth of writing, in short, 10-minute bursts. Today (Tuesday) was the first day I had any time to myself, to relax, to listen to Grace Kelly, and to actually do homework, haha. What the hell have I been doing with my time? Well, it's broken up pretty well like this:
A) Class. We have class from 9:30 am to 12:50 pm, with 2 10-ish-minute breaks in between the sections of class. SANC is located in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, a really short walk from this ginormous transportation hub, Shibuya Eki (Station). Shibuya Eki itself is a 20-minute bus ride from our apartment buildings (both buildings are about 3 minutes apart), which are affectionately and appropriately named the "Monthly Mansions."
B) Exploring. This is Day 2 and we've already explored a good chunk of the surrounding Shibuya area, where there are TONS of shops, department stores, boutiques, restaurants, ramen shops, Starbucks (essential, but sadly it costs 400 yen--4 bucks--for a smaller than "tall" drink...WOMP WOMP), and best of all, PEOPLE. There are always always people walking around, it's like one of Tokyo's answers to Times Square (yes, I did just make that comparison. I CAN, I'm a New Yorker).
C) Searching for something and failing. I must have looked at every denshi jisho in greater Tokyo, specifically in Akihabara (the famous Tokyo "electric town" where they sell every electronic item you could have ever imagined), looking for one that would suit me and not make even Mr. Light gasp upon looking at the price tag. On Monday (my second day of looking for one, mind you), we spent a good 5ish hours after class, in a group of about 6, looking for those damn things. We perfected the art of saying, ”すみません。 電子辞書 が ありますか, except of course, when it was Rene's turn to ask someone something and instead of struggling in Japanese like the rest of us, stepped aside and presented them to Kisho (as if they won a prize), and stated, "これは 日本人!” ("Here is a Japanese person!").
(If you're curious, we did end up getting them, all four of us got the same one, Canon Wordtank G90, and are still thanking Mr. Light profusely.)
D) Eating. You knew this one was coming. Though I feel like my appetite has adjusted to Japanese standards--I get full faster than I do back in the states. So since I only need a little bit of delicious Japanese food to satisfy me, I save MAD MONEY. Lunch for me is usually a bowl of rice with awesome meat on top, or maybe a bowl of soba. Today I paid 380 yen, which is less than 4 dollars. HELL EFFIN YEAH. And tonight, me, Ki-chan and Mattie didn't feel like cooking so we went in search of ramen and found this kickass, tiny little place by the Shibuya mansion (or where we think it is, none of us have actually been there yet) with awesome food, including fried rice. Totally going back there. And I've decided I'm going to try to friend the guy who works there (by himself), God knows he could use some amusement in his life, I'm sure.
Along with eating goes cooking, and I'll just say I'm glad I'm not a complicated eater. I cook my simple dishes of chicken or beef with tomatoes and asparagus and things like that, and then bring it over to Mattie and Ki-chan's room and laugh as they gape at my dinner plate, which they call a snack. Though I must say I'm very impressed with their cooking abilities. Men are now forever safe from my scorn when it comes to actually being able to make edible food.
E) Karaoke. No lie. I've been in Japan for less than a week, and I have gone karaoke-ing twice already. It's so much fun, especially because SANC people are hilarious and crazy, and you can do it basically whenever. Both times it's been on a complete whim, though Monday's was clearly necessary because we had been wandering Akihabara for hours and were getting frustrated and tired and needed to lift our spirits so we wouldn't be Debbie Downers (also copyrighted by Rene Bystron). It's also SUCH a Japanese thing to do, and I mean, when in Rome... =]
I'm hoping to have pictures up soon, but for now I have to go memorize these 20 kanji and like 40 new vocab words. And read things. At a faster pace than we read them today, haha.
Tomorrow (Wednesday) is my コーヒー の デート, so I'm really excited to sit down and people watch. Especially since Nihonjin are my favorite people right now =]
*oh, and try mousing over anything that you don't understand, I've supplied explanations for most japanese words/phrases, either romaji or Japanese.
My previous post was very choppy and awkwardly put-together, as I noticed when I read through it again. If you must know, that post was a conglomeration (SAT word) of multiple days' worth of writing, in short, 10-minute bursts. Today (Tuesday) was the first day I had any time to myself, to relax, to listen to Grace Kelly, and to actually do homework, haha. What the hell have I been doing with my time? Well, it's broken up pretty well like this:
A) Class. We have class from 9:30 am to 12:50 pm, with 2 10-ish-minute breaks in between the sections of class. SANC is located in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, a really short walk from this ginormous transportation hub, Shibuya Eki (Station). Shibuya Eki itself is a 20-minute bus ride from our apartment buildings (both buildings are about 3 minutes apart), which are affectionately and appropriately named the "Monthly Mansions."
B) Exploring. This is Day 2 and we've already explored a good chunk of the surrounding Shibuya area, where there are TONS of shops, department stores, boutiques, restaurants, ramen shops, Starbucks (essential, but sadly it costs 400 yen--4 bucks--for a smaller than "tall" drink...WOMP WOMP), and best of all, PEOPLE. There are always always people walking around, it's like one of Tokyo's answers to Times Square (yes, I did just make that comparison. I CAN, I'm a New Yorker).
C) Searching for something and failing. I must have looked at every denshi jisho in greater Tokyo, specifically in Akihabara (the famous Tokyo "electric town" where they sell every electronic item you could have ever imagined), looking for one that would suit me and not make even Mr. Light gasp upon looking at the price tag. On Monday (my second day of looking for one, mind you), we spent a good 5ish hours after class, in a group of about 6, looking for those damn things. We perfected the art of saying, ”すみません。 電子辞書 が ありますか, except of course, when it was Rene's turn to ask someone something and instead of struggling in Japanese like the rest of us, stepped aside and presented them to Kisho (as if they won a prize), and stated, "これは 日本人!” ("Here is a Japanese person!").
(If you're curious, we did end up getting them, all four of us got the same one, Canon Wordtank G90, and are still thanking Mr. Light profusely.)
D) Eating. You knew this one was coming. Though I feel like my appetite has adjusted to Japanese standards--I get full faster than I do back in the states. So since I only need a little bit of delicious Japanese food to satisfy me, I save MAD MONEY. Lunch for me is usually a bowl of rice with awesome meat on top, or maybe a bowl of soba. Today I paid 380 yen, which is less than 4 dollars. HELL EFFIN YEAH. And tonight, me, Ki-chan and Mattie didn't feel like cooking so we went in search of ramen and found this kickass, tiny little place by the Shibuya mansion (or where we think it is, none of us have actually been there yet) with awesome food, including fried rice. Totally going back there. And I've decided I'm going to try to friend the guy who works there (by himself), God knows he could use some amusement in his life, I'm sure.
Along with eating goes cooking, and I'll just say I'm glad I'm not a complicated eater. I cook my simple dishes of chicken or beef with tomatoes and asparagus and things like that, and then bring it over to Mattie and Ki-chan's room and laugh as they gape at my dinner plate, which they call a snack. Though I must say I'm very impressed with their cooking abilities. Men are now forever safe from my scorn when it comes to actually being able to make edible food.
E) Karaoke. No lie. I've been in Japan for less than a week, and I have gone karaoke-ing twice already. It's so much fun, especially because SANC people are hilarious and crazy, and you can do it basically whenever. Both times it's been on a complete whim, though Monday's was clearly necessary because we had been wandering Akihabara for hours and were getting frustrated and tired and needed to lift our spirits so we wouldn't be Debbie Downers (also copyrighted by Rene Bystron). It's also SUCH a Japanese thing to do, and I mean, when in Rome... =]
I'm hoping to have pictures up soon, but for now I have to go memorize these 20 kanji and like 40 new vocab words. And read things. At a faster pace than we read them today, haha.
Tomorrow (Wednesday) is my コーヒー の デート, so I'm really excited to sit down and people watch. Especially since Nihonjin are my favorite people right now =]
sábado, 13 de junho de 2009
Exploring Tokyo...Has Led Me To Neglect You, Oh Blog-y One
I apologize! Though I do feel like this will be a trend. My decision this summer--on one hand, TOKYOOOOOOOOOO, with all its soba shops and yummy curry places and drunk old men who think Rene is... and really expensive boutiques and really expensive Starbucks (but it's STARBUCKS!) and wonderful people on the street and in stores who don't speak English so I can practice my Japanese, and.... and on the other hand is recounting all these stories and happenings while sitting in my beyooooooootiful apartment. Hmmm.
SO. I got to Tokyo on Thursday, late afternoon. Flew over from Newark, direct to Narita in Tokyo, with Ming. Thank god we planned that out, making that entire trek by myself would have definitely been scary. It took us two hours to get from the airport to our hotel for two nights, the Shinjuku Washington Hotel. In which we heard the greatest announcement ever:
"Foreigners, please be aware that portable telephones may not be used on the bus, as they annoy your neighbors."
Thank you, Japan.
Ming-chan (it sounds so cute, I use it as often as possible now, lol) and I wandered around the Shinjuku area around our hotel that night and saw a lot of lights and people and expensive boutiques. OH. You guys would be so proud of me. I'm a New Yorker and therefore an avid jay-walker, but in Japan, they don't jay-walk!. I'm doing my very best to curb this habit (haha, get it?), in my efforts to assimilate as much as possible. I also refuse to speak English to the Japanese on the street, trying to cultivate my what-are-you-talking-about-i'm-not-american-i'm-colombian persona. So far, asking question hasn't been TOO much of a problem, but the thing is...I can't understand the responses!! Haha, FAIL.
Ki-chan (Kisho, competing with Ming-chan for cutest Japanese nickname EVER) kept me and Ming-chan awake that night so that we wouldn't be jetlagged (partial SUCCESS). The next day, we went on the LONGEST TREK OF OUR LIVES. Our hotel was in the Tokyo district of Shinjuku, and we wanted to get cell phones, which we thought could only be found in the Softbank in Harajuku (another district, famous for the crazy teen fashion Tokyo is known for). It was a nice day, we didn't have that much to do, and we were very very ambitious. And poor navigators. We walked, roundtrip, a total of like 5 or 6 hours.
Turns out, there was a Softbank TWO BLOCKS away from hotel.
...
As much as we complain about our feet being tired, and that the temperature rose to a little under 3235972867 degrees Fahrenheit, it was a lot of fun and it was good company. It basically started a trend for this summer--walk a lot, accomplish very little, and have a lot of fun doing it. =]
Oh, and you need to be 20 in Japan to get a cell phone...which is problematic, seeing as I will remain 19 until October. Womp womp, Nihon. Luckily, Ming-chan signed off as like my guardian haha. Let's hope I don't run into this problem at clubs too (though I already have a strategy for that)!
Fellow SANCers (Sun Academy Nihongo Center) arrived the next day, and on Saturday morning we met our sensei (plural) as we had a quick orientation in the hotel lobby, were given packets of information (in JAPANESE, dear lord they're serious haha), and were taxi'ed to our new apartments. I'd just like to interject that doing anything involving one humongous suitcase and one medium-sized wannabe humongous suitcase in 293057867 degree weather is NOT fun. We had a little bit of time to appreciate the amazingness that is our apartments and then continued on to SANC where we had a (gasp) placement exam. Me and my fellow 二年生 laughed on cue at the laughably difficult exam that did not place us any differently (we are, after all, 2nd year students in the 2nd year class) but just showed us that we know nothing, haha.
Getting around Tokyo transportation has been fun and confusing and intense, haha. And if you want to take that as a metaphor for my life in Tokyo so far, go for it =]
PS
There's SO MUCH MORE I want to tell you guys/future me about. But this is already long...I think I'll double post. Or write it but post it tomorrow; I don't want to overwhelm you guys. Especially since it's 7 in the morning back home, haha.
SO. I got to Tokyo on Thursday, late afternoon. Flew over from Newark, direct to Narita in Tokyo, with Ming. Thank god we planned that out, making that entire trek by myself would have definitely been scary. It took us two hours to get from the airport to our hotel for two nights, the Shinjuku Washington Hotel. In which we heard the greatest announcement ever:
"Foreigners, please be aware that portable telephones may not be used on the bus, as they annoy your neighbors."
Thank you, Japan.
Ming-chan (it sounds so cute, I use it as often as possible now, lol) and I wandered around the Shinjuku area around our hotel that night and saw a lot of lights and people and expensive boutiques. OH. You guys would be so proud of me. I'm a New Yorker and therefore an avid jay-walker, but in Japan, they don't jay-walk!. I'm doing my very best to curb this habit (haha, get it?), in my efforts to assimilate as much as possible. I also refuse to speak English to the Japanese on the street, trying to cultivate my what-are-you-talking-about-i'm-not-american-i'm-colombian persona. So far, asking question hasn't been TOO much of a problem, but the thing is...I can't understand the responses!! Haha, FAIL.
Ki-chan (Kisho, competing with Ming-chan for cutest Japanese nickname EVER) kept me and Ming-chan awake that night so that we wouldn't be jetlagged (partial SUCCESS). The next day, we went on the LONGEST TREK OF OUR LIVES. Our hotel was in the Tokyo district of Shinjuku, and we wanted to get cell phones, which we thought could only be found in the Softbank in Harajuku (another district, famous for the crazy teen fashion Tokyo is known for). It was a nice day, we didn't have that much to do, and we were very very ambitious. And poor navigators. We walked, roundtrip, a total of like 5 or 6 hours.
Turns out, there was a Softbank TWO BLOCKS away from hotel.
...
As much as we complain about our feet being tired, and that the temperature rose to a little under 3235972867 degrees Fahrenheit, it was a lot of fun and it was good company. It basically started a trend for this summer--walk a lot, accomplish very little, and have a lot of fun doing it. =]
Oh, and you need to be 20 in Japan to get a cell phone...which is problematic, seeing as I will remain 19 until October. Womp womp, Nihon. Luckily, Ming-chan signed off as like my guardian haha. Let's hope I don't run into this problem at clubs too (though I already have a strategy for that)!
Fellow SANCers (Sun Academy Nihongo Center) arrived the next day, and on Saturday morning we met our sensei (plural) as we had a quick orientation in the hotel lobby, were given packets of information (in JAPANESE, dear lord they're serious haha), and were taxi'ed to our new apartments. I'd just like to interject that doing anything involving one humongous suitcase and one medium-sized wannabe humongous suitcase in 293057867 degree weather is NOT fun. We had a little bit of time to appreciate the amazingness that is our apartments and then continued on to SANC where we had a (gasp) placement exam. Me and my fellow 二年生 laughed on cue at the laughably difficult exam that did not place us any differently (we are, after all, 2nd year students in the 2nd year class) but just showed us that we know nothing, haha.
Getting around Tokyo transportation has been fun and confusing and intense, haha. And if you want to take that as a metaphor for my life in Tokyo so far, go for it =]
PS
There's SO MUCH MORE I want to tell you guys/future me about. But this is already long...I think I'll double post. Or write it but post it tomorrow; I don't want to overwhelm you guys. Especially since it's 7 in the morning back home, haha.
terça-feira, 9 de junho de 2009
CAKLFMNQUYFQERTMVA!!!!!
The title of this post, in the as-of-yet undiscovered language Sheernervousexcitement, roughly translates to:
OH MY GOD TOMORROW I LEAVE FOR JAPAN AND I'M SO EXCITED AND YET SO NERVOUS BECAUSE I'LL BE THERE FOR TWO MONTHS BUT OH MY GOD I'LL BE THERE FOR TWO MONTHS AND IT'S GONNA BE AMAZING BECAUSE IT'S JAPAN AND I LOVE JAPAN AND I CAN'T WAIT AND OH MY GOD I LEAVE TOMORROW.
I think the title says it all, right? =D
OH MY GOD TOMORROW I LEAVE FOR JAPAN AND I'M SO EXCITED AND YET SO NERVOUS BECAUSE I'LL BE THERE FOR TWO MONTHS BUT OH MY GOD I'LL BE THERE FOR TWO MONTHS AND IT'S GONNA BE AMAZING BECAUSE IT'S JAPAN AND I LOVE JAPAN AND I CAN'T WAIT AND OH MY GOD I LEAVE TOMORROW.
I think the title says it all, right? =D
quarta-feira, 3 de junho de 2009
Motivation...or Just Simply a Refusal To Be So Damn Mediocre
Had lunch and spent some time yesterday with my friend J, my next-door-neighbor and best friend from when we were little. We always go out to this Japanese place in Sunnyside, Queens, because he loves Japan and everything Japanese maybe more than I do (maybe). He's actually Peruvian, but REALLY wishes he were Japanese, haha.
So the usual, "what are you doing this summer" came up, which makes me cringe when I hear it because I feel like it emphasizes even more the difference between me and not-Yale. Within the Yale community, the Light Fellowship is kickass and going to Japan for 2 months is really cool. BUT you KNOW the person reassuring you of your coolness went to volunteer at an orphanage in Cairo last summer, spent last Spring Break in China teaching elementary school kids English, and is working for Morgan Stanley in the city this summer. Paid. So it's all relative--everyone's doing crazy amazing shit. Because we can. And because there's no one or nothing (really) to tell us we can't.
And what I hate more than saying, "I'm going to Tokyo for two months to do Japanese language study, all paid for," is realizing that I don't want to ask THEM what they're doing. Because the conversation is fated to continue in this manner:
"Well nothing as cool as what YOU'RE doing, Miss Yale going off to Japan..."
=(
There are so many expectations, all the time. Even for something as simple and generally un-complicated as a summer doing language study, albeit in a different country. And people don't mean any harm, I doubt they even realize how uncomfortable they make me feel. Because, YEAH, I DO have it good, I'm traveling the world and doing all these things I want to do, but I cannot figure out a way of telling people about it without shining light on their lack of jet-setting adventures. And that's not what I want to do at all, I try really hard to NOT be "that jerk."
Which brings me back to lunch with J.
He took some Japanese in high school; I remember because he would teach me random words in the dojo (karate school). But apparently he never took it seriously and though he's gonna be a senior in college, he just finished his first real year of Japanese (like me!). Aaaaaand I happened to have my Easy Kanji Book with me (I carry unnecessary things in my bags because I hate light bags because they slip off my shoulder, lol) and he was going through it, and well...within a span of 3 minutes, I was basically called a fatass (he didn't want his California roll!) and a dumbass. He literally danced around happily because he was smarter than me at something for a change (his words, not mine).
T__T
I pretended I wasn't hurt and steered the next 3 hours' worth of conversation AWAY from Nihongo and my clear lack of skill at it. Upon arriving home, I whipped out the--wait for it--HOMEMADE KANJI INDEX CARDS (::dramatic music::).
I told you I was serious about Japanese! In between Orgo lecture, Orgo lab, other classes, RB rehearsals, RB Board meetings, PorColombia Junta meetings, PorColombia planning in general and even teleconference calls with PorColombia Nacional, Alianza E-Board meetings, Alianza general meetings, work (allll the way at the Admissions Office), and varying things such as VIHDA, Sabrosura, Harvard-Yale with RB, both semester RB shows, Xplosion!, Branford Independence Day, running Bulldog Days, and 4 consecutive weeks of Tech, I somehow found time to make Kanji cards and try to learn the 200+ Japanese characters that make up the third, and hardest, writing system. Try is the key word there.
So the Kanji cards have been found, dusted off, and put to work. I'm methodically going through them, making sure I go over and over the ones I've already worked on. I feel like I'm gonna have 4587584363 Kanji thrown at me this summer and I do NOT want to have to revisit any Kanji 1 - 219. Yeah I suck at this language in general (I'm right there with you Rene), but at least there's something I can do! I just have to prove to myself (and a little to J) that I've been given all these privileges for a reason. Damn right I deserve all this!
I'll take some motivation with that, please. Thanks.
So the usual, "what are you doing this summer" came up, which makes me cringe when I hear it because I feel like it emphasizes even more the difference between me and not-Yale. Within the Yale community, the Light Fellowship is kickass and going to Japan for 2 months is really cool. BUT you KNOW the person reassuring you of your coolness went to volunteer at an orphanage in Cairo last summer, spent last Spring Break in China teaching elementary school kids English, and is working for Morgan Stanley in the city this summer. Paid. So it's all relative--everyone's doing crazy amazing shit. Because we can. And because there's no one or nothing (really) to tell us we can't.
And what I hate more than saying, "I'm going to Tokyo for two months to do Japanese language study, all paid for," is realizing that I don't want to ask THEM what they're doing. Because the conversation is fated to continue in this manner:
"Well nothing as cool as what YOU'RE doing, Miss Yale going off to Japan..."
=(
There are so many expectations, all the time. Even for something as simple and generally un-complicated as a summer doing language study, albeit in a different country. And people don't mean any harm, I doubt they even realize how uncomfortable they make me feel. Because, YEAH, I DO have it good, I'm traveling the world and doing all these things I want to do, but I cannot figure out a way of telling people about it without shining light on their lack of jet-setting adventures. And that's not what I want to do at all, I try really hard to NOT be "that jerk."
Which brings me back to lunch with J.
He took some Japanese in high school; I remember because he would teach me random words in the dojo (karate school). But apparently he never took it seriously and though he's gonna be a senior in college, he just finished his first real year of Japanese (like me!). Aaaaaand I happened to have my Easy Kanji Book with me (I carry unnecessary things in my bags because I hate light bags because they slip off my shoulder, lol) and he was going through it, and well...within a span of 3 minutes, I was basically called a fatass (he didn't want his California roll!) and a dumbass. He literally danced around happily because he was smarter than me at something for a change (his words, not mine).
T__T
I pretended I wasn't hurt and steered the next 3 hours' worth of conversation AWAY from Nihongo and my clear lack of skill at it. Upon arriving home, I whipped out the--wait for it--HOMEMADE KANJI INDEX CARDS (::dramatic music::).
I told you I was serious about Japanese! In between Orgo lecture, Orgo lab, other classes, RB rehearsals, RB Board meetings, PorColombia Junta meetings, PorColombia planning in general and even teleconference calls with PorColombia Nacional, Alianza E-Board meetings, Alianza general meetings, work (allll the way at the Admissions Office), and varying things such as VIHDA, Sabrosura, Harvard-Yale with RB, both semester RB shows, Xplosion!, Branford Independence Day, running Bulldog Days, and 4 consecutive weeks of Tech, I somehow found time to make Kanji cards and try to learn the 200+ Japanese characters that make up the third, and hardest, writing system. Try is the key word there.
So the Kanji cards have been found, dusted off, and put to work. I'm methodically going through them, making sure I go over and over the ones I've already worked on. I feel like I'm gonna have 4587584363 Kanji thrown at me this summer and I do NOT want to have to revisit any Kanji 1 - 219. Yeah I suck at this language in general (I'm right there with you Rene), but at least there's something I can do! I just have to prove to myself (and a little to J) that I've been given all these privileges for a reason. Damn right I deserve all this!
I'll take some motivation with that, please. Thanks.
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