Day one of classes and I am already preparing to riot against the homework load

Things that are awesome about this trip:

The food. Can I just swoon a little bit? Seriously, I haven’t had a bad meal. (The curry rice got close, but it wasn’t bad, just bland.) I had tempura and sushi and super good pea-and-cucumber-and-broccoli-and-ham salad for dinner, and it was SO GOOD. I bet you’re all jealous.

My host family. I really like them. And they seem not to be utterly repulsed by me. The little brother, despite his shyness, seems to have taking a shining to me, because last night he pulled out a whole bunch of picture books about Ghibli movies (he saw that I had a Totoro bandana) and started showing them to me. Oh, and last night we (me and my host mom and the little brother) went down to the river and saw fireflies! They were everywhere and gorgeous! They even landed on the little brother’s hand, so I got to see them up close. (And then I had terrible Grave of the Fireflies flashbacks and started irrationally fearing fruit drops.)

I haven’t talked much to the older brother, mostly because he hasn’t been around much (and he is also very shy), but I also got to have a proper conversation with my host father. He’s really nice, although I have a little bit of trouble understanding him, because he has a suuuuuper thick Kyoto accent and, unlike my host mother, he doesn’t make any effort to switch to Tokyo dialect when he’s talking to me. I keep having to convert “hen” to “nai” (not) and “haru” to “rareru” (can do) in my head. (At least I’m be learning Kyoto dialect this way. OH WAIT, THAT’S BAD, ‘CAUSE MY SENSEI WILL KEEP MARKING ME DOWN FOR NOT SPEAKING THE STANDARD DIALECT. AUGH.)

My Japanese teacher. We were discussing the article about the Toyota recall today, and she was explaining one of the phrases used in the article (which, roughly translated, was “the spearhead has not yet dulled” which meant that the media and governments attacks had not died down). This was how she explained it:

Sensei: [holds up a pen] Pretend this is a spear, okay? See, this is the head? It kind of looks like a spear, right? Okay. Now, Mike-san is Toyota. [proceeds to pretend to stab Mike-san with her pen] Like that, okay?

Things that are not awesome about this trip:

The homework. Ye gods, the homework. The homework, according to the syllabus, should only take about two hours per day. I’ve been working for 3 ½ hours and I’m still not done. (But I’m taking a sanity break, because I was almost at the point of curling up in a ball and crying pathetically while plotting the downfall of badly written paragraphs about cough suppressants.) Of course, it probably helps that I have to look up half the words in the handouts they’ve been giving us; how am I supposed to know the word for “bronchial tubes”?

Texting on Japanese phones. It is a universally known fact that I am the slowest texter known to humankind, and if you add in the fact that I’m texting in a foreign language with a weird keystroke system where you have to hit a special button if you want to add tenten and also you have to remember that “n” is on the key with “wa” and “wo” and not on the key with “na,” well…it took me an embarrassingly long time to write “konnichiha.” (If you were wondering why I was texting, we were all supposed to text our language practice partners today to see when they’re available. (Our partners are students are nearby universities. Mine is apparently overly fond of emoticons.))

And more about the homework: I have about 80 kanji compounds to memorize by tomorrow morning. YAY.

Also, giving having to improvise a presentation because the teacher's instructions weren't clear enough? Not fun.

Raw okra. It is so delicious, but if you eat it, it looks like you are drooling uncontrollable onto your plate. Not appetizing at all. (Raw okra exudes this…slime; I really have no better way to describe it. Imagine drool but thick and slippery. And clinging to your chopsticks. Yum.)

And things that are different in Japan (because apparently Ann wants to read more about these):

There are no light switches in my host family’s house. Instead there are little pads at the doorways and you have to hit the correct button for the light to come on. Needless to say, I hit the wrong button every single time.

Toilets. Ha ha ha. Okay, I’m done talking about this now. (Although I’ve found out that being the only foreigner who knows how to use a squat toilet has some advantages. I never have to wait in line for the bathroom.)

Sinks coming out of the top of toilets. Seriously. It is extremely odd. When you flush, water comes out of the faucet for you to wash your hands.

Bedding. Can I just say that Japanese bedding is forty times more sensible than Western bedding? You don’t have to worry about sheets and blankets and whether the sheet is flat when you put the blanket on top and whether the comforter will wrinkle the bottom blankets. It is all one thing together. Best system ever. Also, easiest bed to make in the world.

Tubs. (Okay, it took me an embarrassingly long time to remember that word. I was about to write お風呂, but then I realized that since only two people (that I know of) reading this blog speak any Japanese at all, no one would have any idea what I’m talking about.) Anyway, now that that exceedingly long parenthetical is out of the way, tubs! My family has a Japanese-style bathtub and shower. That means that you shower outside of the bathtub before you get in. Last night was showering only, so I haven’t gotten to try the tub yet.

THE SHAMPOO AND CONDITIONER ARE FRIGGIN’ EXPENSIVE.

I have now not spoken a single word of English for 33 hours (other than saying "ow" when I managed to bite my own tongue while brushing my teeth; don't ask). WHOO.

京都べん喋はる！素敵じゃないの。

。。。うそをついた。ごめんね。

(This little bit down here is for Opal, so if you haven't been following the Shizuo-claiming battle occurring in the comments in Japanese, you can just ignore this:

Opal said...

Arguing in Japanese is harder than I thought. I'm not entirely sure if I'm translating correctly... Is the "because" of the last sentence the previous sentence? My pain is like hate??? And what is the "の" in "のかい" referring to? Unless "かい" is a noun, then I understand.

It probably doesn't help that I'm using super slangy terms. Sorry about that.

Yes, it is.

No, I said "you hate pain." The そう is the "I heard" version of そう.

のかい is the super slangy form of んですか. の is ん and かい is か. (Note that guys are pretty much the only ones who use かい. Which is totally why I am using it.)

私、勝った！静雄君は私のだよ。)