Lessons in...Life!

In no particular order:

1. High School Musical music makes a lot of things better.

2. Great friends + your own will to act/fix things (that part's important, you need to pick yourself up, too) = amazing

3. I will never look like anything but a Gaijin (foreigner) here.

4. Number 3 loses its cuteness factor really quickly.

5. I can speak a little, but can't be spoken to--1st graders have a much more advanced vocabulary than I do and in general I can't understand what people say to me (which is why the Ming-Allie team is great).

6. Japanese children are THEE MOST ADORABLE THINGS EVER. I spent all day squealing "KAWAIIIII" because my heart just melted everytime I saw one. I want one now.

7. Being able to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince before most of the world is AWESOME. Midnight screening starts in 3 and a half hours!

8. I was crazy to start this trek known as Learning Japanese. I was not mentally prepared for it. Japanese is not like any other language I've dealt with--you learn so much material, grammar and vocabulary and kanji and readings, and yet there's still SO MUCH you don't know. Two years' worth of study in another language is enough to allow you to traverse its country and its lingual subtleties with ease. In Japanese, when you hear from all sides that even at the fourth year level they haven't reached the other side of the mountain of fluency (or even proficiency), you know things are different. It makes me think that I can never stop learning Japanese. At any point I might want to stop, or decide I want to do something else, but I will not know enough, and more importantly, I will not have finished. None of us can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and we're just struggling through this blindly, reaching out and hoping for the best, celebrating the mini triumphs and coping with the various frustrations inherent in Japanese. But guess what, guys. There are plenty of people who didn't even make it this far.

9. Instant Karma ("just add water!") comes in both Bad AND Good flavors.

10. Spending 8 hours at Starbucks studying for the midterm is a great way to completely flabbergast your senseis to the point where they actually ask you what you did to do so well on the kanji and vocab sections (for once).

11. Spending all your time with other people can be taxing, but being on your own makes your thoughts too loud.

12. Laundry machines in the monthly mansions spend 3249057 hours to wash one load. Plan accordingly.

13. Shopping (preferably at Shibuya 109) is a great de-stresser. Best part is trying on clothes; it's like a box of chocolates--it either doesn't fit you at all because Japan doesn't normally even carry your size, in which case depression will ensue, OR it'll fit and you'll look and feel great because that's positive body image confirmation and everything looks better when you wear the fashionable high heels they provide for you in the fitting rooms.

14. Japan is wonderful in so many ways.

Here, the Sun Sets on the Unworthy Ones

I've been existing for the past week in a mild state of stress, worry, and inadequacy, mostly occulted by flashy festivals, good friends, and occasional Good Karma.

But all those things need to RELAX for a second, and let me be something less than happy right now. Anything less than happy. Japan is not the problem. This is not that "down curve" we keep on making jokes about.

When I got to Yale, a part of me, that Overachiever Allie with a straight 100 average her entire life and the kickass college application and all the awards, stopped being. I was no longer the best, and so I had to come to terms with that. At Yale, EVERYONE is amazing, and I gain nothing from killing myself to beat everyone in everything. Hence the birth of Mediocre Allie. I struggled through almost every single one of my classes, struggled to get, maintain, and/or eventually lose leadership of things that were important to me, and struggled through simple person-to-person relationships.

And then sophomore year I decided to be slightly ambitious again, for afterall, now I had a plan. Transforming now into Poor Life Decisions Allie, I made the motherload of bad decisions and took Organic Chemistry and Intro Japanese together, along with the 23957 activities and shows I did. So, because of no time, things had to be sacrificed, and though Japanese was more important than Orgo (says the ex-Chem Major), the glory I had amounted in the first week of Nihongo class (in which we learned Hiragana and Katakana, which I had taught myself during the summer) came crashing down. Introducing: Dumbest Kid In Class Allie.

But I told myself things would be different this summer. After SOMEHOW getting the Light Fellowship (??), I would be in Japan, learning Japanese through sheer osmosis because I'd be surrounded by Nihonjin and of course their knowledge would just seep into my head.

I've never felt so stupid. And lost. And incapable. I'm so self-sufficient normally that this not being able to do ANYTHING by myself in this city because I can't speak Japanese and I can't understand when I'm spoken to is killing me. I hate bothering people, I don't like relying on others for everything, and I just don't know what to do here. I can't fend for myself. What have I spent almost an entire year doing if I can't even understand when the lady at the bus company's Lost and Found tells me to write down my name and address? This is just really overwhelming. But at the same time it's not like I have someone else to blame. We're being taught things, given the tools to unlock the Japanese language. But what can I do when I just don't know them? There have been no days where I've been able to successfully finish all my written homework AND prepare for the next day's readings and quizzes and A-san--B-san. It's because I'm back to being Dumbest Kid in Class Allie, and I could easily spend more than 6 hours a day doing all this work because I'm so slow at it. And STILL not know everything I should know at this point. I'm so blanketed by the SANC student community, but if I were on my own, I would have perished by now.

Japan abides by Survival of the Fittest, and I'll be the first one off the Island.

SEE, Japan IS Diverse

I'm a terrible blogger lol. Let me try to make it up to you guys...though I'm aiming for less detail because my cell phone is currently traveling around Shibuya on the #64 bus...without me...like the worried mommy I am, I need to be alert for news of my baby, I mean, phone.

Reasons Why I Think Japan is a Tiny Bit Diverse, or At Least Has Been in Strange Ways in the Past Week or So:

1. July 4th.

Everybody celebrates July 4th, right? I mean, it's July 4th. Fireworks and barbecues. It also happens to be Independence Day. Who wouldn't celebrate independence?
Oh. You mean it's not a worldwide independence? It's just a celebration of independence for the United States? Oh. Well. Huh. Good point. Then I guess I can see why Japan wasn't throwing a party that night...

Japan might not have been throwing us a party, but for us SANC kids and all the ex-pats out there, they gave us the tools to start our own party (riiiiight).
Long story short, we had great company, great (American) food, great second-language conversations/mess-ups, great (American) karaoke songs, and a terrible night out after that haha. BUT 2 am gyooza (dumplings) makes everything better, I swear.

2. I SPOKE SPANISH.

So Sunday we went to Harajuku, the fashion-forward area of Tokyo made famous by Gwen Stefani's Harajuku Girls (those 4 Japanese chicks she takes everywhere). Diana/Usagi, Ming, John, Tommy, Kisho, and I ventured out to the land of gigantic 100 yen shops, heavenly crepes, all the clothes I've ever wanted, purikura, and cosplay.
Purikura is where you enter a photo booth with a green screen behind you and take pictures with your friends that you can later add things like kanji, words, stars, background colors, cupcakes, and even pigs and little poop things to (Nick...). The end result is an AMAZING quality picture that makes you smile everytime you look at it =]
And cosplay is the main attraction in Harajuku, basically people dressed up in elaborate anime/character costumes. You pass by, gawk at them, giggle a little at the pink hair-ed ones, and then surreptitiously take a picture. If you're REALLY lucky, you get a picture with them, not just of them. And if you're suffering from a backlog of Bad Karma like we apparently were (I can pinpoint the reason for every BK incident...same reason every time haha), you'll miss the cosplay-ers(?) completely.
Post Harajuku, we went to the Meiji Shrine (again for Minty, Kisho, and me), where I experienced pure happiness. I passed a man who was with a little old lady, and as I glanced at them, I thought, "They look Hispanic..." (Just saying, I'm ALLOWED to say that because I'm Hispanic haha). Since I had been bitchin' for 3 weeks about wanting to run into random Spanish-speaking people in Tokyo (usually a rant that started when all the Chinese-language kids had some sort of epiphany together and I was like *sigh* another language I don't know), I didn't think twice and just asked, "Ustedes hablan español?"

"Sí!"

=D

I talked to them for probably 5 minutes, because I didn't want to keep my friends waiting, but as was pointed out at the time, I had the BIGGEST smile on my face. They were from Mexico, were spending a total of 2 weeks in Tokyo(quince días, como decímos nosotros), and were really nice and just as happy as I was to have someone to talk to in their native tongue =] We were each other's first Hispanic-person encounters--Good Karma!

3. Chinese Valentine's Day

Is today! And though I don't yet fully understand the whole concept (the story goes something like two lovers separated by the Milky Way, are able to unite once a year, on the 7th of the 7th month when the stars align and allow them a bridge to get across to each other), I'm so excited because we're going to a matsuri (festival) in Asakusa tonight! WHY Japan regularly celebrates China's version of Valentine's Day, I have no idea, but my guess is because the heavens want to give me and Nick a chance to take couple-pictures at this festival.

Or maybe I was RIGHT about my entry title =]

Homestay Diaries--> with updates =D

*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？？？？？？　

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.

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

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 =]