As you wait with baited breath . . .

You shall soon discover I have very little of interest to reveal . . .
I rocked up to meeting the Fulbrights (damn, if I really know how to spell that, but I'm spelling it how it looks, just like I was always told!) late as I'd forgotten to print out the Thucydides short answer assignment beforehand. The first thing I get upon arrival is Karl mouthing at me that 'You're in trouble' . . I went over immediately despite the fact that the teacher was talking, thinking it was something important - as it turns out Parker had simply said, before I arrived, that everyone with, the exception of me, should have written more on the test. Following this he introduced me to one of the fulbrights as his "best international student for this year" . . . Is he trying to get me despised ?
Besides which I'm sure that it's such a great indictment of my priorities that I can't get all of my homework done but manage to pass the English language tests with flying colours . . .

Anyway, that was my exciting news - and it consisted of my boasting . . . Hmmm.

What have I done today ?
The anime class was about Grave of the Fireflies which was just incredibly depressing - about the 1945 firebombing of Kobe and the catastrophic affect it has on the lives of two siblings . . . Some of the Korean students had an interesting take on the movie. They said that movies like this would encourage young Japanese people to be even more inclined (as a result of the atom bombs is that it's very easy to focus on victims and forget Japan's own past attrocities towards its enemies in the war) to view Japan's role in WWII as that of a victim, which as Koreans (a people horribly mistreated by the Japanese) they really can't condone.
In Hiroshima and Peace the teacher forgot to translate for us in the lesson so it was a lesson of kanji and vocab searching which wasn't so bad . . .
Then I sat with some of the Korean girls in linguistics and thus didn't have anyone who could explain what was going on . . . but I chatted to the teacher afterwards and he was nice about the fact I didn't really understand and is going to try and find me an English explanation of Japanese accents - cool!

Now I have to go pay attention to a boy.

NB for this post: Will there ever be a time when I don't want to A Blue Sky ? I somehow doubt it . . . you should all be listening to it! As I knew that where most of you are there's no abundance of literal blue skies . . . It's 蒸し暑い (むしあつい - mushi-atsui) which means humid-hot! and damn it is! You need a shower about 3 times a day just to feel vaguely clean.

So . . . where was I ?

The internet at the Kaikan went down over the weekend so I never had a chance to finish what I'd started . . .

I think I'd got to the excitingness that was Wednesday evening . . .
Following on from the unhappiness of msn convo during the day I decided that money be damned I was going to try and call home . . . Julie and I went to the yellow box building that sells things of a cardly nature and with some difficulty and dictionarying we managed to almost procure what I wanted . . . Then Karl happened along and was able to assist us further - what a champ! Of course, the word for phonebox in Japanese would be 電気ボックス (denki-bokkusu - quite literally 'phone' plus a Japanisation of 'box')
After Julie and I had done the little bit of shopping we intended at Fresta I returned with the precious card that had cost me the last of my money (luckily, it was money day on Friday last week - tee hee - literally! I only just realised what I'd written . . . To explain . . . the kanji for Friday is 金曜日. The second two kanji appear in all of the day names and pretty much just signify the word as a day of the week, but it's the first kanji that changes for each day . . . Friday or 'kinyoubi' literally translates as 'money day', as the kanji is that for gold or money - funny ね？- I love puns!)
I then checked and translated the instructions and headed to the nearby phonebooth to make my surprise call . . . Needless to say it was great . . I knew that a certain person happened to be eating their most-beloved curry items with others certain persons 'as whot are' related to me . . . it was great to hear there voices after two and a bit months . . . but it was really hot in the phonebooth!

Thursday was the usual Japanese Society class, followed after lunch by Music History. I'd only remembered at the last minute that the teacher had asked me to sing the theme of Beethoven's Ode to Joy in the class . . Some quick practise and nervousness later and I was up in front of about 200 students singing and leading them in their practise . . . it's the first time I've had to sing in the style in front a big group like that for almost a year and a half. 'Well, that seemed to go pretty well' as someone I know would say, though in the case, it's not so facetiously intended . . .

The rest of the week is a bit of blur now . . .
We had a new Chinese girl come to the first of our Friday Japanese classes.
At Art club I was just putting the finishing touches on a biggish bowl I'd been working on when I suddenly poked a hole through the side as I didn't realise how thin a particular section had become . . . arggh!
Then Karl taught me how to make えび丼 (Ebi-don - battered prawns on rice with a special sauce) It was a mixed success, as the sauce was far too salty and I didn't have enough rice to balance it.
Then, despite being very tired, I stayed up til about 3am talking to Wizard on the intermanet - and I mean talking!! Where I could actually here his voice . . .
Which segues so perfectly into the events of last night that I'm going to skip the weekend . . .
Last night I was up til almost 2am talking to that individually named, Thebarton-adjoining suburb dwelling zinester we all know and love. It was the best, Jerry, I mean, Aliese. And it mainly in thanks to Wiz that we could do so at all! So here's a big bloggy hug for Wiz!!! Also got to speak with the parenticles for a good hours or so . . . how much did that beat having to type a whole of stuff!
It's amazing to me how much the medium through which one communicates can so entirely affect the course and outcome of a conversation/communication. Until I was forced to rely solely on the written word for communication with my loved ones, I hadn't realised how much verbal and visual communication meant to me. I know that tone of voice is very important to understanding meaning, but I think that I might also be a person who is particularly reliant upon these forms of communication. Maybe it's also the influence of growing up with television and the telephone so readily accessible . . . also transport . . travel, these days, from one part of, or entirely separate, country is entirely different to what it used to be. Maybe this is shaping society to be less capable of dealing only in a written format, because we now give precedence to verbal and visual forms of communication . . . anyway . . .
It's like my lady P so recently attested. The future is now!

Back to the weekend . . . truly in brief! as my tummy's hurting and I want to go home . . . I think we're congregating to watch Grave of the Fireflies tonight. A Studio Ghibli affiliated film, though not by Miyazaki, which first screened as a double feature with となりのトトロ (Tonari no Totoro - translated to English as My Neighbour Totoro. This is the movie I have to give a presentation about next week)

Saturday, I recovered from the late night talking, posted and tried to do a little homework before the Nomihoudai with the English language speaking kids. It was a great night . . . and I am finally finding myself pretty much able to carry on the majority of my conversations in Japanese! Yay! Sure, the conversations aren't that advanced but I am starting to be able to branch out into different areas of conversation! Much drink and food was consumed - some really nice traditional Japanese stuff. Then a large group of well-inebriated youngsters hit a karaoke joint. I had a great time and even managed to get in some Japanese songs that I'm trying to learn, plus the ubiquitous Blondie, ELO and other assorted classics. Monday's Japanese teacher has been teaching us some songs in class and so we sang one of them, to the delight of our Japanese companions. The other songs I did were all anime theme songs . . . Jpop here I come!

Sunday afternoon Julie and I did some lovely wandering in weather that was just verging on too warm. Went to the English-language Peace Park Library, I got some photos developed, we had a late lunch of sushi and checked out the
English-language books at Kinokuniya - Oh! there was this oh-so tempting tofu cookbook, but I think such a purchase it hardly likely to encourage me to reduce my already excessive intake of the substance!

Today in International Relations we had to spend the class taking some American Fulbrights around the campus . . . I arrived a little late and . . . oh the bus!
must dash!
Suspense!

A week of nonpostiness

The week in brief, if I can . . . Not reknowned for being brief . . . Thus Wizard still doesn't know about how 'I want to EAT them'.

Julie has just given me another haircut - 'she's a mod, yeah yeah yeah yeahhh' - but I should recacp on chronological order . . .

Last Sunday, after my mopey post, I went downstairs to have some lunch . . . I had thought that the people who'd said they were coming over had decided not to because I received some emails which I mistakenly thought were from them as I didn't read the kanji very carefully . . . opps! So a group of kids were downstairs and after a bit we started watching a movie . . . I think it was called Ping Pong but probably pronounced Pin Pon in true Japanese style. It was pretty enjoyable and nice to hang out with some people, but I still felt a bit weird so I went off and tried to do Thucydides revision and test preparation . . . and that took most of the afternoon and evening - damn Thucydides! I'm here to study Japanese not test my ability to persevere with weighty tomes! But it felt good get such a handle on it . . .

Monday . . . Had no classes so stuck around the Kaikan . . . get Thursday's reading about Koreans in Japan done by mid-morning and then braved the office staff to ask to use the room on the second floor for some singing practise for my lesson the next day. I've been feeling a little under the weather for about two weeks and thus had been rather slack about my singing - I keep getting reflux and being really burpy after practise and lessons so I slacked off to see if there really was a correlation . . . I don't know about singing . . . I've dedicated a whole lot of time in my life to furthering my ability but it seems that with every small advance I've ever made another obstacle springs up in its place. These days I wonder about whether I should abandon any dreams of ever persuing such a career and focus on trying to make a go of language and Japanese - maube return to Adelaide next year to try my hand at honours in linguistics or Japanese. Maybe it's time to stop being a salmon on that particular aspect of my life . . .
After a good solid hour of singing I was feeling pretty good about things; one of the Chinese girls was impressed by what she'd heard and I managed to have a reasonably conversation in Japanese.
Oh yeah, I also had an incident with the bloke who opened the room for me where he was trying to 'lend out' this random silver plastic package and torch to me. I couldn't quite understand why but eventually accepted what I thought might be some kind of fire blanket, managing to convey that I had brought a big torch with me from Australia and as such would not require theirs. I tried to ask her what it was . . . she said she thought it 服 (fuku), clothes, and that you were to wear it in case of fires or earthquakes . . . hhmm . . . crazy looking piece of apparel.

In fact, after I'd had some lunch and was back in my room trying to spend the afternoon usefully employed, he came up to ask me to proofread an English translation he'd done of an explanation of what he was distributing . . . he said to me in English, the usual Japanese expression of 'do you have time?' (時間がありますか？） which always sounds so antiquated and amusing . . . I had to read it carefully twice and then didn't know what to say . . . he said something along the lines of 'there are mistakes but you can understand?'. Well, I could only respond in the affirmative . . maybe I can borrow the copy he gave Julie so demonstrate . . .
(Walk up and down the stairs and I return with paper in hand - success!)

To you, residents (as Julie said, in case you don't know who you are)
About distribution of carrying-out bag and a light
Then it has little colour pictures of the item, which is when I finally understood that it wasn't a blanket or jacket at all, but a bag.

You really need to hear Julie read this, as her use of emphaaasis (oh, no! I have lost my emphaaasis!) is perfect, but . . . .

Now, an "urgent carrying-out bag" and a "light" are distributed a sake at the time of disaster, such as a fire and an earthquake. Preserved food, water,etc should prepare an attached sheet for reference, please put it into "urgent carrying-out bag", and keep it in the suitable place of your room. Please do not enter, although there is a place which writes a name and the address.
In addition, this should be the thing to lend out to a resient, and when leaving from Hiroshima Kokusai Koryu Kaikan, please return it to our office.

For a minute I thought this last bit meant you should lend the bag out to people who come to stay with you and I couldn't quite see it fitting with the outfits of anyone I know . . . perhaps Zaphod Beeblebrox.

Oh, bablefish! - it's a massacre in your name. My tummy hurt from too much laughing! It hasn't done that since I last saw that tormentress named Pippa.

But back to Monday . . . ended up getting on the computer to start compiling Thucydides test notes for myself, and Julie, should she return in time for the test. Resultingly, I chatted to people online for quite a while as my afternoon slipped away and my notes grew and grew but never seemed to reach an end . . . By evening I was thoroughly disenheartened . . . annoyed I hadn't managed to get through the International Relations stuff and actually start studying the important stuff - Japanese! Did manage to get around to updating my diary that I'm keeping in Japanese, but that was about it. I come to Japan and what I have to do ? Spend half my time in my room reading English language texts - arrggh! No matter how interesting, I can't see the sense in it!

The next morning I set off for Yokogawa Station to get some money out and walk to the Ashtramline to meet my singing teacher. It was a warm morning but I decided i was going to be too early so I kept walking along the Ashtramline for some much-needed exercise. Did this for about an hour before catching the Ashtram, and after a confusing phonecall from my teacher to locate her, made it to my lesson. I tried to discuss the whole reflux thing with her . . she suggested that I need to try breathing through my nose more so that my nose warms the incoming air and filters it of dust, etc. Damn, it was difficult to try to implement. I've never been good at breathing through my nose - ever! It was something I was told, even as a kid, by the ENT. Because of all the talking I didn't sing much and the lesson finished surprisingly punctually, as to save myself the bus fare back to the Ashtram, and as I had plenty of time before the afternoon test, I walked back down the hill. On a roll, I turned to follow the Ashtram again rather than return to the station and board it . . . thus ensued my epic quest to walk to Shudo . . as far as walks go, for me it was a pretty short one, only about an hour and a quarter, but it was quite warm. I've been so sedentry lately that it felt great to get out and wander around . . . I'm not a big fan of gyms and aimless exercise. I much prefer the incidental exercise involved in getting to a destination . . . like riding or walking to Uni or into town. It was great to be able to get a closer look at some of the outlying suburbs, rather than just whizzing past them. I made it to Shudo in time for checking emails, some lunch at Patio (one of the eateries) and some last minute revision. Man, I was so overly prepared for that test! Everyone else had had to bring their books to school and some of them only managed a few words on each person . . . in contrast I had so much text in the small spaces provided that I had to use different colours interchangeabley so that the teacher would be able to follow what I'd written! Sweet as a nut!
He then said that as Julie had missed the test and others hadn't done so weel he'd give another in two weeks - oh! arse! Surely I don't have to do that one too - I did fine!
But at the start of July we are at least having a class dinner party by way of compensation . . .
Attended Art club without much inspiration . . . I was excited that I might soon be seeing my much-missed Julie soon! When I got home I went straight to see her and it was very happy reunion! We talked for hours, instead of doing my homework, and I ate too much of the peanut butter she was so good as to remember to bring me back! What a lovely lady. Then, as she had become sick again whilst away I left her to rest. By the time I got to have dinner it was about 11:30 so I satiated myself with some museli and went to bed, no longer a lonely person!!
I hadn't realised how much I rely upon having her around . . . she's great!

Dudes! I told you I was no good at brief!

Wednesday.
Julie stayed home.
Anime class was 千と千尋の神隠し (せんとちひろのかみかくし - Sen to Chihiro no Kami kakushi)-otherwise known to English speaker as Spirited Away.
I got worried about my linguistics assignment that I still hadn't done, work through lunch and talk on msn . . though not very happily, to certain persons. Which caused me to not have time to go get some lunch . . . Went on an empty stomach to Hiroshima to Heiwa (Hiroshima and Peace) - which was reasonably informative as it was the Japanese version of a talk he did for the Arizonian students and thus the presentation was all in English with lots of pictures.
Subsequent to that, struggled through nihongogaku - Japanese language studies - where we practised reading and recoginising different intonation patterns in Japanese - it's hard for the Japanese students - my head just swims!

Damn, it's just getting to a good bit in the week but I'm going to break here and go watch the Hiroshima and Peace video with Julie and make some lunch.

Me at Iwakuni

Img_0112
Originally uploaded by Yukata Me.

I am tired it's 2:30am and I'm talking to Wizard and it's great to hear his voice but strike me pink if I can string any more sentences together than this . . .
This week has been busy but I'll leave that til I'm more coherent - have a picture instead . . .

Feeling kind of emo so here I am . . .

I just went and bought a whole of lot vegies for reasonably cheap which goes a fair way to making me feel a little brighter. I have an idea that I should go out for a walk . . . Maybe go over to a Japanese garden that is apparently really nice, with my exchange student card it's supposedly free. I was also thinking that I should go and print out some of the photos I have taken recently - of Toukasan, etc. as yesterday, Karl showed me how you can go in to a shop and pick and choose which to print for only 19yen each. But then I know that in all likelihood today will be spent doing nothing much and listening to No Sleep Ad Hoc and not doing study that should be started. Even more than that, I'll probably submit to the urge to cooking some of what I just bought - Had a bit of a coup, as here I have only seen corn cobs for ridiculously high prices - at festivals they sell roasted for 500yen - Dude! That's about $6! But got two this morning at the Fresta Sunday morning vegie sale table for only 100yen each! Sweet!

Hung out with a Japanese friend yesterday . . it led to me feeling a bit hopeless because we talked in English a fair amount. Basically because she wanted to which isn't so good for me - and sometimes I would ask her questions in Japanese and she'd answer in English - have I chosen the wrong type of person to befriend ? From looking back at emails I sent her after I first met her, the majority of what I wrote was in English so I suppose that the lengthy decision-making process that we went through, via phone emails, which was all in Japanese was at least, productive . . . When I first met her the fact she spoke good English was a plus, but now it's a little inhibitive . . . In a way, I can't work out why why I'm respoding in this manner. In seems to be a sensible way to approach friendships, to find people who have similar interests, rather than just fuss about language, but I am here to learn the language . . . and when my friend left she said we must both practise Japanese and English, respectively very hard from now until next we meet so that we will be more able to talk to each other more readily . . . so she is encouraging me to speak Japanese . . . and if nothing else, it's all cultural exchange, ね？

And she did teach me a number of new words . . .
On our way back from Fresta to get groceries we saw the crescent moon which she said in Japanese is 三日月（みかつき-mikatsuki) the kanji mean third day moon. In my denki jisho (電気辞書-electronic dictionary) this is variously translated as new moon or crescent moon.
Full moon, she said, is mangetsu - 満月 (まんげつ). Man, she said, means round, and getsu or tsuki, the reading varies, depending on the context means moon or month - the lunar month connection.
The other day in music history class we studying Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, which quite uncommonly, I have always liked (and wished I could play) and so I learned the Japanese for Moonlight - 月光 (げっこう) which you read gekkou (pretty much like the little lizard critter). Whilst in Parco yesterday, from one of the highest floors, we had a great view of the city, and though the morning had been damp, by that time in the late afternoon, the sun was glancing out through clouds over some of the skyscrapers . . . so I learnt the word for sunlight too - nikkou -　日光 (にっこう).

We went the Art gallery together and discussed the works - which is partly why I liked her because she is applying to study art in London or New York. She wants me to come and visit her house, which is near Miyajima - which is nice - she said we could go to the aquarium at Miyajima and that her Mum will teach me how to make sushi - as her Mum made chirashizushi for her to bring to the cooking night we had a while back and I ate most of it and then got to keep the rest for my lunch the next day. So that's more of what I want to do; meet random people and their families and learn to cook Japanese food - yay!

I think I should stop being quite so hard on myself for not using Japanese all of the time - I suppose I can't help but compare myself to others who are rather more advance than I, at present. So, last night, we made a variant form of Tacos for dinner, which what ingredient I could scrounge, and a tofeese cake which was sweeter than usual but still very good - I added currants this time . . yummo! Tacos were pretty good though rather unauthentic, but now I have lots of vegie leftovers for lunch today - speaking of which I'm feeling peckish despite having only eaten breakfast before I went shopping . .

Last night, after my friend had gone to catch her train home and I had spent a lot of time cleaning up and packing away leftovers I felt rather melancholic. I was hit hard by the absence of those about whom I care most. It is one of the fist times this has happened in a whole big hunk. Of course, I frequently has recourse to miss these people, but I generally have other people around to fill the hole quickly, so the attacks are much less extreme; are diluted. However, after the events of the day, which weren't bad, they were good, but were the kinds of things that I would usually do with friends and family, so it felt weird to have struggled through a day of such commonplace activities in such a foreign setting . . . it really brought home their absence . . .
I think I'm also missing Julie too - the readily available easy female contact, that of someone I feel really comfortable with . . .


On more quirky notes . . .

In Tower Records at Parco yesterday we were discussing music taste and I randomly galnced about to see the recent CD by New Buffalo - bloody hell Japan . . .

I have recently, through some of our Japanese class homework, found that 'to record' in Japan is, funnily enough, 録音 which is pronounced roku-on, which quite obviously, to me anyway, sounds like 'rock on' but with the crazy Japanised accent. Thus we have to keep talking about rokuon-teepu (rock on! tapes!) and yet, it's a country full of terribly infectuous J-pop.

I think there was something else I intended to say but hey, I've already gone a long way to fulfilling my own prophecy about how my day would eventuate, so I better not disappoint with the rest . . what shall I go cook now ?

Oh yeah, on Friday night Karl and I watched Hero(英雄 - kanji seems to be the same for both Japanese and Chinese, so that's another word for the vocab list)and it was good, Aliese.

本blitz

. . . While she was so mean regarding some things, she never begrudged any extravagance when it came to eating. If she decided she wanted to something - lettuce, potatoes, mushrooms - she agreed to the price on the spot. She bought them in abundance and walked all the way home showing no pain, no matter how her shoulders might ache, or how unsightly she might look, or how far the journey was. If she found out that her favourite food or what she needed for a new recipe was in season and inexpensive, she would stand rapturously in front of the wagon or trailer, her mouth open like a child's. This special expression on her face would appear only when she found out that the object of her desire was cheap as well. Thrift and gluttony frequently create a dilemma, but they do not contradict each other if the food is in season and abundant . . . .

Remind anyone of anyone ?

So maybe, price is still, sometimes, an issue . . . and I have been known to catch the bus once or twice at the end of a long day with the prospect of an hour and a half walk home, burdened by about 8 kgs of produce . . . it brought a simle to my face regardless . . . I am not alone.

Speaking of which, I need to go do some shopping tonight . . . I wonder if I can make it to the weekend - I only have 千五百円 (suppose that's about $20Au, but doesn't go far here) in my wallet and won't have another currency influx til the 20th . . . how low can I go ? (anyone for limbo?)

I felt a great urge to start up the computer, despite it being 1am, when I read this . . . I forced my way through the reminder of chapter four of Thucydides last night, finally reaching the finishing line at about 12. Instead of sensibly going to bed at this point I decided my tired eyes could accommodate my miind which desired a little lighter reading before repose - thus did i come across this little gem.

Success!!! Thucydides has been mastered - now there's just the other bloody half of it to go! I also have to go back to the text and prepare for the test by doing the short assignment questions that Parker has set . . . hummpf!

My life used to be one mad 本(ほん - hon - book) blitz - for many years, any spare moment I had I would whip out a book. Then with the onset of Uni, following the study nightmare of Yr 12, my reading level waned . . . that's about 6 years of limited bookage. Some might protest and say that I certainly have been reading, but in comparison to those bygone days of my early youth, I have been reading nothing.
Life has recently flipped this on it's head . . . and currently adorning my bedroom floor (what little there is) are a scattering of about ten books on a range of topics . . . all very well and enjoyable, but it's tough going getting back into peak 本blitz condition and I really should get back to the kanji!

Last night, a memory came to me of being at a High School Sports Day and my friend and I, having taken many books to help pass an otherwise unappealing day, ensconced ourselves in the shade, only to be reprimanded by some long-since forgotten pedagogue and forced out into the sun to hours of boredom . . . stupid compulsory Sports Days . . . I think I skipped a few after this experience.

Oo - better go beat the bus-rush home after 4th period . . . still haven't had any lunch!

A long day becoming night . . .

Damn it's getting late and I'm still at Uni despite the usual Wednesday desire to pike after third period. The thought of an entirely Japanese language class is usually fatiguing after the early morning entailed by first period Anime class.
I stayed up late watching 耳を澄ませば (Trans. badly, as far as Karl is concerned, to Whisper of the heart, where literally translated it would be something like 'if you listen hard . . .') which was the movie for today's class. I'd never heard of it before coming here - I think it's a lesser known Studio Ghibli work as it was only produced by Miyazaki Hayao, as opposed to being directed by him. It was pretty good. Pretty standard young romance type flick, but nice to see it in a Japanese context; an environment that I am becoming increasingly familiar with.

In the class I just had - Japanese Linguistics - we started looking at regional dialects of Japan. Some are so way out they sound like a different language and even the Jap students can't understand them . . . others just have slight variations in intonation compared to standard 'textbook' Japanese, but it's pretty hard for me to distinguish this kind of stuff accurately, and imitating correctly it is also difficult. For the first time, the teacher tried to speak English to me - he's a pretty kooky young guy . . . I understood what he was trying to explain already anyway . . but hey! He also keeps telling me I can write my assignments in English but I figure it's better from my langauge skills to try in Japanese . . . I assume his English must therefore be reasonably passable - especially as a linguist - he probably understands far more than he'd be willing to admit or speak - like a lot of Japanese people - and like me with Japanese really!
My usual translator friend, Kaori, was abent from class today, but it was enjoyable to note just how much I could understand these days without help!

I am attempting to start of new regime of study - really focussing on trying to do a solid hour or so of Japanese language related study everyday! I need to be more proactive on the langauge front!
In my Sunday post I mentioned that I should have been studying, instead of posting and chatting to a certain someone in Auslandia, I never really got around to it and (thankfully most everyone else was unprepared as well) as a result did not go very well in the test - luckily some of the kanji I studied two weeks ago, when I was being diligent, came back and I think I'll manage to pass it! But I want to be doing well, not average!

On an English note . . . Today I was elated to realise that I'm actually half way through chapter 4 of Thucydides (bloody great tome of dense, 2 millenia old prose about the Pelopponesian War that we have to read for International Relations), not as I mistakenly remembered, only half way through chapter 3! Thus I am now in front on the reading stakes (having, only last week, been the slackest, having barely started!) and it seems likely I will manage to get it all done in time for the proposed text next week. It's a ridiculous amount of reading for exchange students in a country in order to study a language other than their mother tongue, but it's been quite enjoyable in the main. Apart from Karl, the others are much less inclined to agree . . . Thank goodness for my training with The Simarillion!!

Why am I still here ? I'm going home!

In further updates on the homestay idea . . I have enquired about it at the ofice and presume my interest has been 'duly noted'.

Cultural thievery

I've had a really great weekend but now it's at an I'm wishing a done a little more study instead of making museli this morning. I should be studying right now, for a test tomorrow, but after a full weekend of not really sending or receiving emails I couldn't resist the siren call of the ether.

Friday afternoon I met Ayumi(あゆみ),who lived with my family for 3 months when I was about 15. We went and picked up her little boy, Yuu(ゆう), who initially found me a little disturbing but soon warmed. Then we hung out at her place for the evening, chatting and new and old times, unfortunately it was predominantly in English as her English is still very good and my Japanese really needs work.

I have been considering what I can do to improve this situation - what can I do to really start throwing myself into using my Japanese more . . . I'm actually considering applying to move to homestays for next semester . . . A number of people have asked recently why I'm not in a homestay, Ayumi included. I think that food issues were a large consideration, as was freedom to come and go and also be able to have people to come and stay with me . . . but I don't really have that freedom at the Kaikan anyway, so I'm thinking it really might be a good thing to do. A American girl who moved into homestays from the Kaikan just after our arrival was saying to me last night that it's quite a cheap option and that with prior notice the food thing probably wouldn't been that hard to overcome. As yet I haven't managed to really meet anyone who I have been able to con into teaching me lots of Japanese style cooking so I'm still making thing up. Though, yesterday, Ayumi did take my shopping with her where she does her shopping and she showed me different things I could eat and explained how to use them - that's was lots of fun (though I got a mountain of 'gaijin stares'), but I am thinking in a homestay it might save me time as I wouldn't have to cook when I didn't feel like it (nor would I usually have to buy food either) and I could learn dishes from the family . . .

It does seem a little dumb to uproot myself when I was just getting to like my little room and feel at home here . . I'm not sure . . .

But back to Friday, we just stayed at Ayumi's house . . . exchanged presents and I showed her some recentish photos of the family, feed Yuu and ate some curry for dinner ourselves, then she and Yuu had a bath and I dried Yuu while she was getting out. We then looked at some photos of Yuu over the past year and a bit, then all lay down to encourage Yuu to go to sleep. We talked for a few hours, til eventually her husband come home and she showed me how to use their bath setup and I took a bath and had a good night's sleep. She has also proposed that I go with them on some trip to Miyou (don't know anything about the place) on the 2nd of July. This is the same date as some proposed Kaikan activity, but I think going with Ayumi could be a great experience so I'm opting for that - apparently, we might even go canoeing!

The next morning was a slow one, then we went shopping and they dropped me home.
I tried to get through some more of Thucydides and soon enough it was time to head into Hondori for meeting up with the Internationl Link club for their Nomihodai evening. That turned out to be a laugh with some pretty good food to hand for once! I have now perfected my knowledge of one of the many Japanese drinking songs. But it ended very early, having started at about 6:30pm so Julie and I were on our way home by about 9:30 or so. I was feeling happily inebriated and suggested we watch a movie, Shall We ダンス？ (dance), which I borrowed a whilt back from Imaishi Sensei, but hadn't yet had time to watch. That kept us up til 1ish, was quite enjoyable and I now have even less desire to see what is sure to be a crappy remake with Richard Gere.

Today was another slow and lesiurely day . . . I slept in til 10am, even with the balcony window open . . it's getting hot inside these days so I like the fresh breeze but I get a lot of noise from the street. I read more Thucydides, though now I wished I stuck to my original idea of getting a start on my Japanese homework. Then I decided to try my hand at making up Japanese style vegie curry and more museli for the next two week's breakfasts. This really somehow took up the while mid-afternoon . . . then Julie and I had to get into our Yukata (summer kimono) for heading off to meet people at near Hondori for the Tokasan festivities.

We ended up being quite late . . opps! and as we walked the half an hour to the mall precinct and I was feeling quite weird about the whole foreigner wearing traditional clothes thing. I had asked people a number of times before if it wasn't weird for white people to wear Yukata but everyone seemed so keen that eventually I succumbed, and a lady from the Overseas centre at Shudo lent me a beautiful pink one of her daughter's. As we were late it took us a while to locate everyone but the miracles of the telephone proved their worth and we found our group. We ended up at a traditional style eatery that provided the perfect backdrop for photos of ourselves dressed to the nines and despite my leg going to sleep on me twice, with a few Ume shuu (梅酒) tucked away I started to feel happy with the whole scenario.

After this Marie (actually Japanese name for all it looks Anglo, and she's the girl I met who loves LOTR too), Julie and I went to do Purikura - the whole photobooth sticker craze . . . we had to a wait a while because everyone was there in their Yukata, but it was fun and we ended up with some cute images. Then we dashed back to the 'park' (really more like a piazza as it was all paved) where there was tradtional dancing going on - dancing around a big tower adorned with lanters and with J-pop and folksongs blaring from speakers. We eventually got involved and it was one of the most enjoyable experiences of my trip so far. There were a lot of gaijin about, a large contingent of the Arizonians, most of them in Yukata also, but everyone seemed so happy about getting into the spirit of the occasion. There were lots of older women leading the dances and they smiled so happily at us as we struggled with the unfamiliar steps, that you couldn't help but have fun and feel welcomed. I was little perturbed by one overly friend young guy who squeezed my hand a little more than was necessary . . . but I decided it was getting time to hit the books anyway, so Julie and I had a nice stroll home in the fresh night.

I feel good that I got over my inhibitions and am really glad that Julie put up with my insecurities and idenitiy issues long enough for me to get over them and enjoy myself! Yeah for 祭！！ (fesitvals)

I know there's sure to be have been mistakes in this post but to hell with editing tonight! I'm tired and need to go study kanji . . .

Iwakuni details

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Originally uploaded by Yukata Me.

This photo is one that I quite liked from our visit to Iwakuni during Golden Week.
I had a really nice time and met some lovely Japanese girls that were friends of Karl's. I really meant to have caught up with a least one of them again by now but am always so busy.

On our return from Iwakuni that night we went to a cook-your-own Okonomiyaki place near Hiroshima Station. It cemented my belief that I now prefer Hiroshima Style Okonomiyaki to Kansai style . . . . On reflection that probably doesn't mean much to anyone . . . Enjoy the mystery . . . I'll try to explain it when I get some time soon!

美術部 and me

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Originally uploaded by Yukata Me.

This is the firstest photo I have managed to get onto my computer from my fancy but slightly incomprehensible dijicame (digital camera for those who can't speak engrish).
Last night I went and stayed with Ayumi, a girl (though you'd really have to say she was a woman now as she's even had a baby!) who stayed with my family about 8 or 9 years ago. I had a really lovely time and we are plan to get together again in July. This morning when I wanted to take photos and my camera was full she got her husband to download them to a CD for me so life is sweet and I can now plaster my face and assorted images about the place! Yippee!

Oh! and Karl has just fallen off his bike and is peeved and sore.

Tonight we're off to nomihodai - all you can drink for exchange students from all over Hiroshima. Karl and Evan are planning to wear their Jinbe - pyjama-like summer attire. Julie and I, on the other hand, are waiting for tomorrow and the Toukasan festival to bring out our borrowed Yukata . . . sounds culturally weird and fun all at the same time . . . Will be sure and put up pictures of me . . . In a stroke of good fortune that Yukata I have been lent is pink! Woohoo!