久しぶり！ｌｏｎｇ ｔｉｍｅ ｎｏ ｓｅｅ

So wow, it's been quite a while since my last post! And I have been quite the the busy bee since then!

So two weeks ago AJ and I went to our friend Hiroshi's older brother's house for homemade Japanese food and drinks. I got to mystify everyone with my Japanese capabilities so I was basically playing human dictionary for the entire evening. At the end of the evening, a young man named Senjin asked for my phone number and stuff because we had talked together for most of the night and the next day we made arrangements to meet up for dinner later on in the week.

So last week we met up for dinner a few times and we decided to start dating.
Bluntly put, yes, but I don't have the time or the energy to really go explaining everything, haha. One night we went out for sashimi (I ate maguro (tuna) to my heart's content) and another night we went out of yakiniku (you order various kinds of raw meat and then grill it yourself at your table).

Last weekend I went on a group trip (with other English speaking students) to Enoshima (WHICH WAS BY THE OCEAN AND GORGEOUS) and to Kamakura. I got to stay at a ryokan (Japanese style inn) for the first time so I had a lot of fun with everyone. We went to a bunch of temples and shrines in Kamakura and visited the oldest Buddha statue in Japan (I have now seen the biggest one and the oldest one). I took a ton of pictures so hopefully this week I'll have those up on Facebook!

Last Friday I woke up super early for a class trip to Tokyo Disney Sea! I had a great time hanging out with my good friend Christina and went on a few rides and saw the sights. The park was absolutely beautiful. I'm glad that I got to go at least once.

After that I got lost on the trains for a bit. My return train didn't go where I wanted it to. It was supposed to automatically change lines but I wasn't paying attention and ended up out in the middle of nowhere so I had to do a lot of backtracking. The only problem was that there were 20 minute gaps between trains so  there was a lot of waiting involved. I was looking at some timetables and this guy was like "ARE YOU OKAY?!" and I was like "YES IM FINE" because apparently I looked confused and bewildered... but I always look confused and bewildered. I got to a platform where I saw that the train I wanted bound for Nishi-funabashi was... and all of the platforms said they were bound for Nishi-funabashi! LIES! So I hung out for 30 minutes waiting for the train that would hopefully take me back to the Tozai-line where I could transfer and head back home. Luckily I read a marquee that said "the next train for platform 3 is actually going to be at platform 4" so I got on the right train. Eventually I made it home, changed, and then headed out to meet up with AJ in Naka-meguro.

AJ showed me around to the places he likes to go and I got to talk to a lot of the staff and I had a great time. And as a bonus, I was in the clear for my last train! I got home and then slept forever.

Yesterday I had to be at Nogizaka by 6:30 PM, which wasn't a problem, but I had forgotten that I had to go to the bank in Shinjuku which closes at 6:00 PM and I was running late. I got into the section of the bank I wanted at 5:57 PM. I made it. I was very pleased with myself. From Shinjuku I headed to Nogizaka and arrived there EXACTLY at 6:30 PM.

This is where things get funny. My friend Hiroshi had been invited to the house of a man named Watanabe for the usual Japanese nomikai (making a ton of Japanese food and hanging out and having drinks). Watanabe I think is someone from the same company as Hiroshi? But higher up. Anyway, last week Hiroshi had invited Senjin to go with him and Senjin asked, "I got a girlfriend recently so is it ok if she comes with?" and Hiroshi said that was fine. Senjin decided to leave out the fact that it was me that he was dating so he could mess with Hiroshi for a bit. He wasn't planning on telling him at all until I showed up in Nogizaka but Hiroshi kept asking him questions about the new lady friend and while I was on the train I got a text from Senjin saying that he let the cat out of the bag. When I arrived I got the funniest look from Hiroshi ever. After that we met up with Hiroshi's girlfriend Miki and then we all went to Watanabe's.

I ATE SO MUCH GOOD HOMEMADE JAPANESE FOOD. Everyone pitched in 1,500Y and got to eat. I think about 20 people total showed up so we all crammed into the living room and had a great night socializing and Hiroshi telling people that Senjin hadn't told him about me until 30 minutes before we showed up. He was a stickler about this. Whenever I was introduced Hiroshi's brother Wataru would tell people, "this is Amy. Her Japanese is pretty good so be careful what you say... BECAUSE SHE KNOWS." And whenever I heard this I laughed and he would go, "SEE? SHE KNOWS." I did a looooooooooot of speaking and had a great night with everyone. A lot of people wanted me to teach them English and the girls fawned over my "tiny face." A lot of people asked Senjin since I'm American if he spoke English or not. He always answered, "not really, we just speak to each other in Japanese" and everyone always freaked out over that.

Today Senjin and I went for lunch in Asakusa-bashi and I made lots of bad puns and he gave me dirty looks. Afterwards we went to a beeeaaauuutiful Japanese garden together in Ryougoku. I saw a seagull for the first time in forever! There were turtles, too. And GIANT KOI. It was really peaceful. And the weather today was sunny and warm so overall it was very refreshing. Afterwards we both still had free time so we went to Shibuya! We went to a building called Shibuya 109 which has 7598475483 clothing shops and boutiques and... I was taken shopping. Ehehehe.

We're trying to make plans for the next few weeks since my time in Japan is running out. We're both hoping that after I graduate I can somehow move back here. Or something? I have been loving my time here and a lot of people have helped me have a lot of wonderful experiences.

I feel like my English vocabulary has gotten very limited as I write this, haha. Earlier today I was on Facebook writing on someone's wall and my English made absolutely no sense. I'm gonna try and study for my grammar test tomorrow while my Japanese is still fresh in my mind.

I think this is the best summary I can do. And now to go be productive again since I have consumed an entire carton of coffee.

I am not European!

Whenever I find myself having a conversation with a Japanese person they eventually ask where I'm from. Usually they are surprised to hear that I'm American. I find this a bit odd. What I find even more odd is that 95% of the Japanese I talk to assume that I am European.

Strange.

Moving right along! Here are the events of my week:

Tomorrow:
- turn in extra-curricular class assignment
- turn in homework
  - textbook problems
  - study notebook problems
  - reading comprehension problems
- units 46 & 47 test
- study forever

Thursday:
- biggggggggg midterm exam
- meet with friend at 8:00 at Takadanobaba

Friday:
- possibly meet up with Dorothy for photographic purposes

Saturday:
- go to my friend Hiroshi's event


WEEEEEE.

渋谷 ［Ｓｈｉｂｕｙａ］

Had a crazy week of tests last week, and this week is the big one! On Thursday we have our 中間試験 (chuukan shiken) which is basically our midterm. Sooooo everything we've learned in every category up until now.

It's a pretty momentous test.

Last week I had several kinds of tests, and most important of all, our first 会話 (kaiwa - conversation) exam with Japanese guests in the classroom! We were split into groups randomly of two or three people and were prompted on topics and how to go about starting the conversation. Of course, the guy in our group (who is infamous for being late or not showing at all), turned up late, so the girl and I were joking with our guest that it was okay to ignore him or give him really difficult questions. We had 30 minutes to fill and we did it without any problems.

... I wasn't really expecting problems as I had spent the previous evening with two Japanese friends and then on the phone with another Japanese friend so 4+ hours total of conversation. Most days that I hang out with Japanese friends or even with AJ I speak in Japanese. Being in the classroom is only a fraction of my learning.

Since Friday was a holiday (no school!) my Korean classmates invited me out with them to an underground Korean izakaya with a bunch of people from our class. Also one of our classmates works there so we got to harass him a lot. I learned a bunch of silly Korean drinking games and got to talk to people in a non-classroom environment so it was really fun. Afterwards different groups of people headed to the stations so I headed home.

Friday early afternoon I got a text from my buddy AJ asking if I wanted to meet up with him in Shibuya for lunch. So I checked my handy-dandy train map and figured out how to get there and what exit to go to and was only KIND OF late. We went to a Thai place and had some really good curry. Afterwards we went to Harajuku to just chill and walk around...

... and literally chill, because if I forgot to mention, it was snowing like crazy all day on Friday. Even as far as Osaka there was snow. Hnnrrgh.

After much waiting, we met up with AJ's friend Tsuyoshi and eventually Tsuyoshi's friend Daisuke. After much discussing, we decided to go to a club in Shibuya (after much resisting (AJ) and convincing (Tsuyoshi)) called Womb so we walked there from Harajuku. Since Tsuyoshi and Daisuke really wanted us to go they paid for us to get in and pretty much everything else. I mostly hung out in the lounge and chatted with people and since I went with three guys I was always being kept an eye on. I got to practice speaking with a lot of people and talking about Seattle (because everyone was asking) and hearing people tell me about their trips to the states and where they went and stuff. Mostly groups of girls wanted to talk to me so it was really fun. Lots of interesting bathroom conversations.

And then we all went to McDonald's at 6:00 AM and it was the best breakfast I have had since I have been here.

I got home around 8:00 AM and went straight to bed but was careful to not mess up my sleep schedule. And since it was only Saturday I got two full days of rest and study in.


Hmmm so I guess that's all that's really happened this week that's out of the norm!

Speaking of out of the norm: THE WEATHER.

It was kind of even BARELY snowing this morning and no one outside had their umbrellas so I ignored it. Got out of classes and it was pouring. Get home from being drenched by the rain and now it's blizzarding. Thankfully I had purchased an umbrella this weekend to prepare for the snow. I was sad because I felt like buying an umbrella was having my status as a Seattle-ite revoked. Oh well. I would have looked ridiculous without it.

Also that and the last time I was walking around without one a guy in a truck was like YOU LOOK COLD WHERE ARE YOU GOING WANT TO GET LUNCH WITH ME. And then later I got asked out in the same area by an old man.


Also a group of like eight girls in Harajuku station freaked out at me and I just stared at them and they were like YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE :D


And I really hope the snow stops soon. There's already close to two inches out there. Hnggghh.

And now back to studying I go.

PS: HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

Conversations [ I ]

I am going to start posting silly conversations (translated, of course) that I have had during my time over here.

( with tall friend, Yuuki )

"Amy, how tall are you? What's your height?"
" ... I don't know..."
"You don't know? You don't know your own height?!"
"In America we don't use centimeters so I'm not sure what my height is in centimeters."
"You don't use centimeters in the US? Do you use inches?"
"Feet then inches."
"Ohhhh..."

while walking to the station

"Amy where are you going? We need to go this way."
"Oh."
"Amy... do you get lost a lot?"
"Yes."
"Hahaha I thought so. Do you know how to get to the station from here?"
"Nope!"
"Alright I'm going with you then."

at the station

"Do you know how to get to Takadanobaba from here?"
"Yeah!"
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah!!"
(very skeptical look)
"I'm going to ride with you until Takadanobaba."
"BUT IM FINE"
"IM GOING WITH YOU"
"HHHNNRRRGH"

at Takadanobaba

"I totally fell asleep. Did you sleep?"
"Not really."
"I had a really weird dream."
"Oh?"
"Yeah I was bowling and like, no matter what, the last pin wouldn't go down."
"... What."
"THE LAST PIN WOULDNT GO DOWN!!"

Amy's translation skills in action.

節分 ｛Ｓｅｔｓｕｂｕｎ｝

So today's the Lunar New Year here in Japan. This day is called "Setsubun." Today in class we got to take a little break from the usual grind to learn about Setsubun.

Apparently everyone has an 'inner demon' or some kind of personal issue and you uh slay that demon by throwing soybeans at demons... or someone dressed like one. ITS SUPER SERIOUS. Also you eat one soybean for every year of your age plus one for the coming year.

Today I was roughly 154 years old.

You're supposed to yell, "Oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi!" which basically means "the demon is outside and good... good luck, GOOD SOMETHING is inside (your house)." So the teacher had us yell that and then two guys dressed up like demons attacked our classroom where we retaliated with, you guessed it, soybeans.

After we beat the tar out of them with soybeans they came back inside the classroom and our teacher briefly went over terminology such as 'horns' and we were all quietly listening... until suddenly one of the Korean girls started "ONI WA SOTO, FUKU WA UCHI"-ing again and started hucking soybeans so naturally we had to all join in again.



The other night I saw my friend Ayako for the first time in about three years! She was an AU student when I was a freshmen at CWU. And since Kentarou is a mutual friend (they know each other through hip hop dance stuff they do at AU) he joined us too. It was awesomeeeee. I'm supposed to see some more familiar faces this weekend, so I'm pretty stoked.

NOT SO STOKED ABOUT 9 AM LECTURE ON SATURDAY MORNING.
Blargh.


Tonight is the first night I haven't had homework since classes started! ... But I do have a test tomorrow! That makes three tests this week. Japanese teaching pace is awesome.

And so is bean throwing day.

Turk

Also I made friends with a guy from Turkmenistan (well, he's from North Carolina) on the train who also lives in Kasai.

Why am I so cool.

SO I HAVEN'T POSTED IN FOREVER

For some reason I thought I had posted since my last post, but I guess not.

Finishing my third weekend in Japan! I've made a lot of progress in class, can travel just about anywhere on my own, made new friends, and got to see a lot of familiar faces.

When I met up with AJ and his friends (two Japanese girls) I had an amazing time. Got to practice a lot of speaking (AJ wouldn't let me use English but for some reason he was allowed to) and AJ bought me my very first, and hopefully only, PASMO!

At train stations you can get tickets in different ways. If you don't know how far you need to go on the line, you can just by the most expensive ticket and if you get off early, you can use something called 'fare adjustment' so you can get compensated for the money on the ticket that you didn't use. Instead of buying tickets every time I now have a PASMO card. There are two cards: PASMO and Suica. You pay 500 yen to buy the actual card and then you can add however much money you want to put onto it. Whenever you pass through a train gate you just tap the scanner with your card and it'll automatically deduct the correct amount and tell you your current balance. Since AJ bought me my PASMO card, he wanted to put my name on it is "WHITE FURY." Except he misspelled it and now I'm "WHITE FURRY." It's incredibly amusing. I finally got my student pass so I went to the station and had them combine my PASMO and my student pass. So now if I'm using my card to go to school, it'll know to deduct it from my student amount. If I go anywhere else, it'll deduct it from my personal amount.

Another thing about PASMO, a lot of convenience stores and other transportation (buses) accept PASMO cards (given that you have enough money on them). I bought shoes recently at a store called Randa in Big Box in Takadonobaba and at the register they had a scanner for PASMO. For SHOES. YOU CAN BUY SHOES WITH YOUR TRAIN PASS Japan is ridiculous.

Anyway.

I CAN GO ANYWHEREEEEEE.

Around a week and a half ago I trekked to the Softbank in Harajuku by myself in order to finally get a cell phone. After much heckling from friends. The reason I went specifically to the Harajuku branch of Softbank is because they have English speaking staff there. Also Softbank is the only phone company in Japan that sells prepaid phones. When I arrived I told them in Japanese that I'd like to get a prepaid phone and if an English speaking representative was available or not. They said they'd go check and they had me wait and I played with iPads and overpriced Disney/Apple/Softbank merchandise.

After a little while the man I had spoken with approached me, explaining that their English speaking staff were unavailable and there would be a very long wait and then asked if I would be okay with speaking Japanese. I decided to give it a shot. A very nice older man asked me about which phones/plans I wanted and how they worked and prices and stuff and it was incredibly simple. Mostly yes or no questions or "this one" or "that should be fine" etc etc. I was expecting him to ask me for identification and my address so I was prepared. He was like "uhmm I'm going to need..." and I was like "OH MY PASSPORT AND ADDRESS AND STUFF?!" and he was like "YESS THATS CORRECT" so he was very pleased that I was ready. He was showing me how to do certain things on the phone and I was even asking him questions about stuff. When we were all done he was asking if I was a study abroad student or what and said that my Japanese was very good and I didn't even need to use English. Bwahahaa. He wished me good luck on my studies and then I trained back hoooome.

I've gotten to meet up with my amazing friend Dorothy a couple of times now! It's been great catching up and talking about our experiences here and classes and stuff. Turns out we both have the same textbook! She's starting winter break soon so hopefully we'll be able to go out and have shenanigans. And as a bonus, her train stop and my train stop are on the same line (Tozai Line)! So if I wanted to go straight to see her I wouldn't need to make any transfers/do any running around in random stations.

Although switching train lines is something I love doing everyday. I feel like I'm in a bloodstream flow visiting different areas of the body and then looping around. Weeeee.

Last weekend after going on a mandatory trip to the Tokyo Edo Museum I met up with my friend Shu! I hadn't seen him in about a year, and he hadn't used English in a long time, but his English still blew my Japanese out of the water. We had fun on trains and made really dumb jokes and people just kind of stared at us.

Yesterday my friend Kentarou drove out in the freezing cold to see me and take me out to a movie and then see the sights that my area has to offer. There really aren't any, as it turns out, haha. But I am really close to Disneyland. Apparently I should be able to see distant fireworks from my building.

Speaking of Disneyland, my level three class is taking a class trip to Disney Sea in the spring! Apparently the school is helping pay for everyone's tickets so instead of being like 5,500 yen it'll be 1,980 yen. I'm really excited. I really like the group of kids we have in class. It's a great learning environment because not everything is easy but class is always interesting and fun.

My teachers always ask me:
"So how come you speak Japanese really well?"
"Uhm I studied it for three years at my university..."
"So did a lot of people here. Out of all of the English-speaking students your accent and pronunciation are very, very good. WHY."
"... I dated a Japanese guy for two years and hung out in a household of four Japanese guys and their Japanese friends."
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH THATS WHY."
"Mmhmm."
"You should enter the speech contest at the end of the semester! You'd definitely win."
"NO."

Unfortunately I missed a day of class last week not only because I had a cold I was getting over but also because a member of my CWU family back in Ellensburg passed away and I had just found out about it and was having a rough time sleeping. Fortunately, I've become friends with an amazing person named Varya who had me stay with her in Ikebukuro for a few days where we played dress up and hung out and she would make me breakfast and do my hair.

The day that I was gone one of my Korean classmates texted me asking if I was ok and to get better soon.

Today I woke up (to a text from Kentarou informing me that it was morning) and then promptly closed my curtains and slept the rest of the day. It felt awesome. So now I am studying for my makeup kanji test and another test on two units we just finished. And homework. Wooo!

Also when I woke up this afternoon it was snowing. Giant flurry of little flakes. Thankfully it stopped.

Also Kentarou just informed me that it's cold outside. And that he is dying. He wants me to re-teach him English. I think it'll be impossible.



Alright I think I covered most of everything. I'm usually not home very often or on my computer. Usually I'm out at school and then exploring or with friends after classes get out.

I am a busy lady, but busy in a good way. And now back to studyinggggggg.