Last two weeks in Japan, first two weeks back in the US

Time to wrap things up in this blog, I guess. The first part of this is things I've written here and there complied.
This will probably be my last post on this blog.

1. Last two weeks in Japan

August 2nd-6th, I went to Aomori with Satoru and Etienne! The night bus there was painful, as night buses usually are for me, as I'm not very good at sleeping in general, and especially not on buses. But the city was quite nice, Satoru's family (mostly his mother, though talked with this brother and father a bit too) were totally awesome and lovely and generous. We participated in the Nebuta Matsuri, with costume, jumping for hours, and all, which was slightly embarrassing at first, but actually quite fun. The Nebuta are really awesome in person. We also went to the beach a couple times, went canoeing (!!), and enjoyed onsen each night. A really excellent trip! On the night bus back, maybe partly because my being sick was reaching a peak, I slept more than I've ever slept on a night bus before. Not enough to not sleep half the day when I got back, but enough to make the ride non-miserable. XD

Because of Obon and the dorm staff being quite 勝手, I had to get my room ready to check out of in five hours on the ninth. But I did it, somehow. 学んだことは：信じれば・・・何とかなる。ｗｗｗ I actually needed up moving out into the floor lounge for a little while. I was feeling homeless for a little while, but then I started getting offers to stay with people from mall sides, and realized I could never be homeless in Tokyo. <# I love those people so much. I did end up storing most of my luggage in Alden's room. XD

Went to Hana's family home in Kobe with him and Joon Woo. His mother showed us some sadou, Joon Woo and I walked around various areas of Kobe, the three of us when up into the mountains and played with sheep and cows before eating gyuudon, and I took a day trip from there to Hiroshima to see Miyajima and the Genbaku Dome.Kobe is such a nice city, I remember constantly thinking that I'd like to live there. I had very little time on my day trip to Hiroshima (partly due to taking the cheapest trains to get there, which take a very long time), but I really enjoyed that as well. Miyajima is really かっこいい, and the Peace Park was quite moving. And, of course, again Hana's family's generosity blew me away.

Went back to Tokyo Friday morning to wrap things up there.

Had a small farewell dinner Friday night with Etienne, Erika, Miyamoto, Alden, Ryuutarou and Chou, and then I saw Akabane and Taiga briefly afterward, which was really nice. +) But really hard to say goodbye.
Stayed up 'til around four re-packing, taking a package to to post office at two, feeling weird about leaving... And then got up, hurriedly got ready, got sent off by Aprille and Ayu, took a taxi to Kichijouji, a bus to Narita, and a plane to Detroit.

2. Since I've been back in the US.

When you sign up for study abroad at UofM (and probably at many other schools), you're required to attend a whole series of informational meetings and such. One of the big themes of them is about dealing wit culture shock and depression that can set in upon arrival.I was fortunate to never experience this in Japan. Not to say I didn't commit any faux pas or was never surprised, but there was never a sense of "shock," and certainly no depression. But, coming back to the US, there was some of both.

Now I suppose I'm mostly used to it again, though not quite entirely.

My sense of time is also a bit distorted. It's almost hard to conceptualize my time in Tokyo in-line with the rest of my life. Rather, they almost feel like two separate lives. I keep referring to two years ago (the 2008-09 school year) as "last year"... Or maybe I'm just in denial about my time on exchange being over and still want to call it "this year." +P

Besides people (and food, public transit, weather, Heiwa Nakajima, etc.), I really miss speaking in Japanese. More than I even thought I would, and I definitely thought I would. There's really no one around me right now who I can speak it with, though reading and playing on the internet in Japanese has helped. I need to find some Japanese people soon, though. Definitely looking into JSA as soon as I can.
besides general missing the language, I guess it's not surprising, but those things that I can't really say in English I really miss. Wanting to say 出た！ when Jason deployed his special technique in a game (which I'd heard of from others), and realizing I couldn't, and couldn't think of a good way to say it in English... Really made me miss Japan in general.
I think only twice so far have I actually accidentally said something in Japanese during an English conversation (where the other party doesn't speak any Japanese). One was searching for an English word and saying "何という," and the other, an example of something I can't think of a natural way to say in English, "いろんな意味で."

Though i will say that prices here, especially on food, are way cheaper. I didn't notice so much when I went to Tokyo, probably because I hadn't been shopping for myself much beforehand, but coming back the difference has been quite striking.

I'm sure this year will be tremendously fun and valuable, but I do really, really miss Japan.

To cover the events that were still in the future at last entry:

I finished my papers the day before yesterday! Yay, real summer break~
Kind of related, I also found out that Kage-sensei is taking a one-year sabattical at UofM next year! In the Political Science department and Center for Japanese Studies. Why, may major is poli sci, and my minor Japanese... I guess I'll see her there. XD

Kendo was fun, though kinda sad. I was also told that my tare is done (I don't actually remember ordering it or anything... But I'll totes be happy to get it), so I guess I'm definitely going next week to get it. XD

Yesterday was great fun, though definitely did renew my feeling of needing improve my listening comprehension. We bowled int he morning (Sakoya is so good fff), had Yakiniku for lunch (I am depressed that my body no longer is happy to eat a ton of meat with nothing else), bummed around for a while, went to karaoke, and finally izakaya. I'm sure it'll be the last time I see some of them before I go to the US... But hopefully not all of them. XD

Today I have many errands to do before boarding the night bus with Etienne and Satoru to Aomori this evening. I guess I should get out and do them~

富士山に登らぬ馬鹿、二度登る馬鹿

Uh oh, I haven't updated this blog in a while. Summary version, gogogo. To actually force myself to keep it short, I'm make everything into... Three sentences or less each!


July 15th: I went to beach with Erika, Etienne, Chen Ken, Yisha, Ayu, Trang, Mina, Francesco and Alden of AIKOM, as well as Ryuutaro and an Indonesian guy named Nugu who I net for the first time. Afterward some of us also went to Enoshima, where I'd never been, and it was beautiful. I especially enjoyed talking with Ryuutaro for the first time really since the Kii Peninsula trip, it was great meeting Nugu, and generally an excellent day. (Okay, those were some long sentences... >_>)

July 16th: The official AIKOM 15 Completion Ceremony, and campus farewell party. Practically everyone cried at the ceremony/reception, and then the nijikai afterward was twice as lively as usual. It was a really wonderful, and really heartbreaking night.

Sometime: I sent by sea-mail (the cheapest) a box to myself, since I have too much stuff to get back to carry to the airport. I'm gonna have to send another one or three yet, I think...

July 18th: I had a luncheon with Heiwa Nakajima Foundation, which was, as always very ritzy, with incredible catering. This was different from the normal meetings I have with them, in that some 40 of their ~100 scholarship recipients from across Japan gathered and basically socialized for a few hours. This included the lecture on some really academic topic in exceedingly difficult to understand old-man Japanese that comes with Heiwa Nakajima, and also a gift of necktie (the print is hard for someone under 40 to wear, I think).

July 18th (night): Although some AIKOMSei were gone to Okinawa, we wanted to do something that last night before the first AIKOMsei, Deww, really left Japan the next morning. The in-Tokyo AIKOMsei plus Takao brought a ton of food and sparklers, and it was quite a nice time, even if our nighttime picnic did get some strange looks. XD

July 19th: At the AIKOM completion ceremony, I'd remarked to Miwa that I'd found Japanese food saltier than food in the US, which shocked him. He decided (probably correctly) that this was probably because I never cook and, thus, living by myself, almost always buy prepared food in one form or another (bento, restaurant, etc). Since he lives with his family in Tokyo (Jiyuu Gaoka), invited me for dinner, and I went and enjoyed his mother's delicious cooking and fun conversation.

21 July: I ate Kobe Beef in Ginza with Trang, Shahenda, Stephan, Fujita (the restaurant was his recommendation), Matsunaka and Trang's tutor! I hadn't seen Matunaka (aka Oolong-cha-san) in ages, so that was especially nice. +D
Afterward we went to a cafe and sipped drinks and chatted for a while, and then to a 和紙（Japanese paper) shop, where I bought a couple souvenirs for peeps in the US.

21 July (night): Nomikai with Boccha-sensei and company. This night was particularly fun and memorable, and also ostensibly a send-off party for Stephan with that group. I especially enjoyed getting to talk to the group of Boccha's other's class that I got to know on the Yokohama trip in June.

22 July: Was a sort of Farewell dinner ("Last Supper") for Sebastian, Yang Rui and Trang (making them the second, third and fourth AIKOMsei to go) leaving for their home countries tomorrow. I'm pretty close with Sebastian and Yang Rui in particular, and lately with Trang too. Remarkably, as more and more people kept showing up, even with two AIKOMsei outside Japan and seven traveling outside Tokyo, we had, at the peak, 15 AIKOMsei, meaning more than half of everyone, and everyone who was in Tokyo but one (and she had a good reason) there in the Mitaka Gasuto (our true home). XD

23 July: Send-off party for Stephan that included a fishy ("atmospheric") izakaya in Shinjuku, a cockroach (very related to previous point), and karaoke.

24 July: I went to the Hanabi Taikai (Fireworks Festival) in Choufu-shi with Chabashira plus Wu Di and Chen Ken! It was really pretty and really fun to spend the evening with all of them.

25 July: instead of working on essays as originally scheduled, I went to Tokyo Disneyland with Hatakeyama! Getting up at five to get into the park when it opens at 8:30 am, staying until it closes at 10 pm, and getting back after midnight, combined with the (as always, since the rainy season ended) 35-degree temperatures totally wiped me out, but it was a blast. XD And he really did know the park cuh-razy well; as expected of the Disneyland-otaku with the one-year pass.

27-28 July: There is a saying in Japanese, "富士山に登らぬ馬鹿、二度登る馬鹿。" which means approximately "He who never climbs Mt. Fuji is a fool, as is he who climbs it twice." After climbing it all night, reaching the summit just before sunrise (~4:30), and getting back to the starting point around 10, this saying completely matches my feelings. Climbing Mt. Fuji was a beautiful, moving, fun, amazing experience, I am so glad I took the chance to go, and I definitely recommend that all of you definitely do it if you have the chance, but, never again. XD

29 July (today!): After sleeping about 16 consecutive hours after getting homef from Mt. Fuji, I went to campus and finished another paper, meaning I have just one more left! After that I met a small group (seven of us?) including Zoe and Takao, for a little last fun with Bastien, at another fairly nearby Hanabi Taikai (fireworks festival). This time wasn't so crowded (...still quite crowded though), and so a little less stressful, and great fun.

Tomorrow: Hopefully I'll finish my last essay! ...But we'll see. Also, send-off party for Zoe and Yisha (and Bastien?)! We're losing numbers fast...

Day after tomorrow: Kendo!

Two days after tomorrow: Fun with the group of Boccha students (but not Boccha himself) I first got to know on the June Yokohama trip! Quite looking forward to this!

Three days after tomorrow: Going to Aomori with Satoru for a ~3 day (plus 2 days of travel) homestay, including enjoying Nebuta Matsuri, one of the three biggest festivals in Japan, and canoeing!

A lot going on lately...

信じられないことに

Today was my last class of the semester, of my 3rd year of university, and my last class at TouDai.
(I still have four papers to write before I'm really done, though...)

Tomorrow I'm going to the beach with AIKOMsei and some other friends!

The day after tomorrow is the AIKOM completion ceremony, after which I'll be an AIKOM graduate, and AIKOM 15 will be officially over (AIKOM 16 begins, of course, on October 1st, or whatever the appointed day is for them).

On Monday, the first AIKOM-15-sei will return to her home country.

Exactly one month from today I will return to the US.

この最後に一ヶ月、存分楽しんで、学ぶようにする！

I'm sure my life will be quite different because of AIKOM.

送別会の季節が始まった

The season of Farewell Parties has begun.

Yesterday was the first, the Farewell Party for AIKOM at the dorm.
I couldn't take any pictures because I was wearing a kendougi and hakama (it was a costume party with the ビミョウ theme of "日本っぽい" ("Japan-ish")), but here are some stolen from Facebook (from Kouki and Wu Di).

It was really a fantastic time that involved sushi, dancing, singing ３月９日 (sort of the AIKOM 15 theme), a surprise break into a coordinated dance number by some of the other AIKOMsei, a costume contest, cake, a sideshow (ヤベェェェ), video messages from the AIKOM Office Staff (the reaction from everyone to Kimi-sensei's was priceless) and from Ryudo (in the US now), the distribution of the plaques with messages all we AIKOMsei wrote to each other, fireworks, and then a nijikai covered by the rich alums that come to dorm events once in a while. Tears were shed, a lot of hugging went on... Ahhh, I had such a good time, but I am going to miss these people so, so much.
Me (with sword borrowed from Kouki-senpai), facing off with Mina (as Kiki of Kiki's Delivery Service) and her 現代箒.


From left to right: William as a vampire, Akine without costume, myself with the temporary addition of Yamaji's cap, Yamaji as "party Ranger," but temporarily without his cap, Sho (mostly hidden), and Hana as "Modern man (ironic)."


Fiona as some kind of Gloomy monster, in line for curry.


...No caption I can think of really works, so I'll just let it go. Well, I will say that I pleasantly shocked to see Zhemin in any kind of costume, though I guess if MSC did it...



AND today was another farewell party, thrown by Chabashira. Pictures aren't on Facebook for me to steal yet, and the only couple I took are lame, so. +P But it was also fun, touching, and involved some tears. XD <# I'm really sad to part with these people.

私と漢字の物語

I ended up with a lot more time than I expected this evening. Unfortunately, I didn't really do anything productive with it at all. But I did write this.

私と日本語の漢字との関係を一言で説明すれば、「ストックホルム症候群」だ。
日本・日本語で、「ストックホルム症候群」はよく使われているだろうか？通じるだろうか？
ストックホルム症候群というのは、簡単にいうと、連れ去られた人が連れ去った人を愛するようになることだ。

実は英語で、ストックホルム症候群("Stockholm Syndrome"）はちょっとスラングのような使い方もある。

例えば、私と漢字との関係の話。

初めて漢字に会った時、どちらかというと、嫌いだった。韓国語のように、日本語を全て仮名にすればいいのにと思っていた。
漢字のない日本語が勉強したかった、でもそんなことはない。
漢字との時間は辛かった、でも逃れられなかった。
で、何十時間も漢字と過ごしたら、いつのまにか。。。
漢字が好きになった。

今なら、漢字のない日本語は想像できない・・・というか、想像したくない。

Translation:

If I were to sum up my relationship with Japanese Kanji [Chinese characters used in Japanese], it would be "Stockholm Syndrome."

In Japan/Japanese, is "Stockholm Syndrome" often used? Is it understood?
Stockholm syndrome is, to put it very simply, where someone who has been kidnapped comes comes to feel some kind of love for their kidnapper.

Actually, in English, "Stockholm Syndrome" also has a slang-like use.
For example, my relationship with kanji.

When I first met kanji, if I had tosay anything, I hated kanji. If only Japanese could switch to being written all in kana [phonetic characters] like Korean, I thought...
I wanted to study Japanese without kanji, but there was no such thing.
The time I spent with kanji was painful, but I couldn't escape.
And then, after spending some tens and tens of hours with kanji, before I knew it...
I liked kanji.

Now, I can't imagine Japanese without kanji... Or rather, I don't want to imagine it.

能力試験、終わった。

結局、I never really wrote an entry about the Kii Hantou trip. I guess what I said before, which is that was simply one of best weeks I hope to ever spend, is enough.

Highlights from June, based on other things I've been writing down:

• Saw the movie 告白 (Confessions) in theater. It was quite good! Though totally different from what I expected (I think the movie posters were intentionally misleading - but I think I like the kind of movie it was more than sort of thing it was advertised as, anyway). That I was able to understand it so well was even better.
• More earthquakes~
• Carpal tunnel auuugh studying hurts so many parts of my body
• After much sweating, as Yaguchi sensei didn't reply to my email, and still didn't, and still didn't, I finally ended up going with Robert (of Chicago, not of AIKOM) and his mother to Takayama for a couple days. Included were exciting times at Nagoya station, finding that the last direct train to Takayama had already left, three-story portable shrines, a Higurashi-esque village, a lot of cicadas actually crying, onsen, snow-capped mountains, wasabi-flavored soft-serve, the longest ropeway (cable car) in Japan (in Asia?), and much more.
• Robert then stayed in the dorm with me for six days or so! Highlights include karaoke (kind of a failure, but kind of a success), my (and his, I guess) first real venture to Akihabara (...kind of a failure, but kind of a success), a return to Kasai-Rinkai Kouen (and its Ferris Wheel), and spending, together, over 8000 yen at Book-Off.
• Getting a little more decisive about the future, and finding that law school is probably not where it's at.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y77_v4WgAGk There's been a lot of talk about goodbye parties and the end of the AIKOM 15 exchange, etc. lately. Bawwwwww
• Heiwa Nakajima decided to give me another month of scholarship money, since I decided to stay until the middle of August. Unexpected 120000 yen? Yaaaaay~~
• It was kind of close (only a day or so to spare), but I met my goal of 2000 Anki cards (my main [and pretty much sole] engine of formalized Japanese study) by the end of June. +D
• Went with Chabashira to Kawagoe. +O It was... Not very impressive. XD+ I had a good time talking to people, though.
• Went with Bocca-sensei to Yokohama. Very much fun talking with people.
• Went with Boccha-sensei (actually my group was with Arai-san) on the "Magical Mystery Tour" yesterday, which turned out to be to list of sites in Shitamachi. The place Boccha-sensei recommended the most on our list of destinations was closed for renovations, but we got to eat local specialty cuisine, as well as popsicles in the park, so that was nice. Before this, I'd only ever really talked (or tried to talk, anyway) with Arai-san when he was drunk, and though he was still Arai-san when sober, I got to know a much more おとなしい side of him, which was nice. XD
  
• Talked a lot with Hatakeyama lately, and also made plans to go to Disney Land, about which he is apparently very 詳しい (he has a season pass +O )
• Was supposed to go Firefly viewing with Chabashira tonight, but it rained. D+

Also, today I wrote two short things in Japanese.
The first, written for fun (...holy cats, getting to a point where I can write for fun like this? FFFF)

先週、傘が壊れた。
友達が新しいのをくれたのに、
それも電車に忘れてきてしまった。
それから、試験の勉強で忙しくて、新しい傘を買い に行かなかった。
で、今日、
雨に降られた。

おわり。

Translated (needless to say, not as fun in translation, since nothing is):

Last week, my umbrella broke.
Although my friend gave me a new one,
I forgot that one on the train.
Since then, busy studying for a test, I didn't go to buy a new one.
And, today,
I got rained on.

The end.


And, second, about the test I took today that I've been studying for for so long...

今日、初めて日本語能力試験を受けた。気づいたらそんな公式な試験は４年ぶりだった。

いつも日本語で書かれている漫画を読んでいるおかげか、文章の理解はあまり難しくなかった。
よく日本人の友達・サークル のメンバーと飲み会に行っているおかげか、聴解も難しい問題はなくて済んだ。
でも文法・語彙はちょっと。。。　まじめな勉強は不足しているせいか な？笑

試験をとる前には、一番心配になっていたのは聴解だった。普段は読むことなどより、聞き取りが弱いと思うからだ。でも、取ったら、 逆に聴解は多分一番よくできたと思う。意外だったけど、文句はない。笑

多分（そんなに自信はないけど）合格ぐらいはできたと思うけど、合 格してないかもしれないし、合格だけじゃなく、点数も結構大事だそうだから、それはちょっと気になっている。でも、９月に結果がわかるから、その時まで、 今回の試験はともかく、勉強でがんばり続こう！

今日はN2（前の制度の２級とほぼ同じはずの）を取ったが、もし落ちても、１２月の試験 は、N1を狙おうと思っている！（間に合うかな？いや、信じればできるから。。。）

Translated:

Today, I took the Japanese Language Proficiency Test for the first time. Thinking about it, it was the first time in four years that I'd taken such an official test.

Perhaps it was thanks to the fact that I'm always reading manga in Japanese that the reading comprehension section wasn't too difficult.
Perhaps it was thanks to the fact that I often go drinking with Japanese friends and club members that I also managed the listening comprehension section without any great problems.
The grammar/vocabulary section, though... Perhaps because my "serious" study is lacking? XD

Before taking the test I was most worried about the listening comprehension. This was because, usually, I think that, more than reading and such, my listening skills are weaker. But, after taking it, I think that I probably did best on the listening comprehension section. Unexpected, but I'm not complaining. XD

Probably (although I'm not all that confident), I think I at least passed, but I may not have, and besides passing, I've heard that the actual score is also pretty important, so I'm somewhat concerned about that. But, I'll know the result in September, so until then, putting this time aside, I'll continue studying hard! [argh there is no non-weird way to translate this into English that I can think of]

Today I took N2 (which is supposed to be about the same as 2kyuu in the old system), but, even if I failed, I now want to aim for N1 in December. (I wonder if I'll make it in time... No, if you believe, you can do it!)