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.
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.
posted by Eleanora Martinez at 6:00 AM
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