MIDTERM AUGH MIDTERM

I have a midterm in a little over 14 hours. FRIG.

So, yeah, my 中間試験 is tomorrow morning. It's on three of the readings we did in class, the keigo emails we had to write, and 8 lessons of grammar (which amounts to about 60 or 70 grammar structures). And then we have an oral test too.

AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH.

しかし、今日出した宿題に間違いが一つしかありませんでした！やった！

Okay, I'm gonna go friggin' study for this friggin' test. If I don't post tomorrow, it's 'cause the 中間試験死神 killed me dead.

The internet connects THE WORLD

My little host brother has gone partially deaf. It's...actually pretty bad. I guess it started about two or three days ago, but my host parents would be talking to him and he just wouldn't notice. At first they thought he was ignoring them, but then they realized that he really couldn't hear them AT ALL, so my host mom took him to the hospital. It seems that he has a really bad ear infection, so he's on antibiotics.

On a lighter note, I told my little host brother and host mom that I had posted a link to LHB's video and that my mum and friends had watched it and said that he was good dancer.

Host mom: Did you hear that?

Little host brother: Huh?

HM: Her mom and friends watched your video.

LHB: Video?

HM: The dancing one?

LHB: What? How?

HM: The internet connects the world, you know.

LHB: [wide-eyed stare] REALLY?

Also, I was talking to my host parents about traveling in Asia the other day, and somehow it came up that I'd never had kim-chi. "What? Never had kim-chi? Shock! Horror!" So my host mom gave me kim-chi tonight. It was not as bad as my father claims it is, although it certainly has a very...distinctive taste.

And guess what! You get more pictures! YAAAAY!

On the platform, waiting for the train to Osaka.

Okay, let's fast forward past the rest of the Osaka trip.

Here we all are on the train to Nara!

What an incredibly stylish mustache.

SHE IS A CAMERA NINJA. (In case you couldn't tell, we didn't have a whole lot to do for an hour on the train.)

Well, look who was being sensible and studying on the train. PSSH. (And our residential director was drawing him as a detective. Long story.)

Lunch. It was tasty.

HA HA, NO KIDDING.

Run, little girl! Run before the deer eats you!

Notice how I'm standing a safe distance away from the deer.

The pagoda at Koufukuji! And I don't have any other pictures of it, because they wouldn't allow people to take pictures of ANYTHING.

The walkway up to Kasuga Taisha was lined with stone lanterns. It was seriously like something out of a Ghibli movie!

Yes, those are heart-shaped ema. Kasuga Taisha's specialties are marriages and fertility.

Kasuga Taisha! WHOO! (The rope around the tree means it's sacred.)

I'm pretty sure this guy's job is keeping the man-eating deer out of Toudaiji.

Shrine in the middle of a lake!

Toudaiji! Also known as the largest wooden building in the world!

Purification by incense, also known as let's-give-Cal-an-asthma-attack.

Here're some pictures of the statues both inside and outside.

Here we have my classmate attempting to crawl through the space the size of the Buddha's nostril. And she made it!

This is Sentokun, the official Nara 1300th anniversary mascot. In the words of our teacher, "Sentokun is きもかわいい (creepy cute)." In the words of one of the students, "Is he a monk? Is he a deer? Is he a baby? I HAVE NO IDEA."

You know this is the real reason why everyone's here in Japan: men's pocky.

And now I need to go do homework! I'm doing a presentation on this article tomorrow.

Also, I'm going to get to teach a class in week 5 or 6 of the program, so I need to pick a reading and come up with some activities to do. I'm thinking of doing a reading from a light novel (because they're about at our reading level and no one in the class knows what they are but me, plus I have two of them with me), but I'm trying to decide which one I want to do, what the in-class activity will be, and what I'll assign as homework. Hmm. I need to turn in my lesson plan on Monday.

Anyway, g'night, everyone!

P.S. Opal, でも is more like "however." And in terms of formality, it goes (with formality increasing) でも、しかし/ただし/だが.

P.P.S. Okay, once again this has NOTHING to do with anything, but Ludo's new video came out yesterday. And MY GOODNESS. It is so low-budget (I mean, how much does whipped cream really cost?) and bizarre, but I love it for some irrational reason. (Mom, don't watch, 'cause if the toothbrushing turned your stomach, this'll make your stomach attempt to stage a jailbreak by way of your esophagus. Not even kidding.)

P.P.P.S. I want it with whipped cream on it~~~

P.P.P.P.S. ...but not literally.

And then she did a strip tease

So today we had our debate in class. It was about an article called 「日本人とアイデンティティ」(Japanese people and identity) written by some famous clinical psychologist who used to teach at Kyoto University and who apparently knows nothing about Western fairy tales 'cause he says that all of them are about male main characters vanquishing beasts and then marrying captured damsels.

Anyway, I was on the side against him, and we would certainly have won...if the teacher hadn't been more worried about giving everyone a chance a speak. Is it my fault that I have a lot to say?

In any case, I started off the debate by saying that Mr. Fancy Pants Psychologist was wrong and knew nothing because the number of fairy tales that follow that pattern are really small, and anyway the most popular fairy tales nowadays are about girls saving themselves or saving men ("Rapunzel," "Beauty and the Beast," "Snow White and Rose Red," etc., etc.) SO THERE. (Except I was about forty times more polite when I was actually saying it.)

Then someone on the pro-Mr. Fancy Pants Psychologist said that maybe that was true but it was less important what the currently popular fairy tales were and more important to look at the versions of fairy tales from the past.

And then someone else on the pro-Mr. Fancy Pants Psychologist side said that anyway there were lots of stories in which girls had to be saved by guys, like "Snow White" and "Little Red Riding Hood."

And I was so waiting for someone to mention Little Red Riding Hood, but I had to wait for FOREVER to say anything because the teacher was giving everyone a chance to speak and kept saying, "Hold on, we need to let other people talk." But THEN after everyone chimed in, I got to counter the argument and said that if, like the pro-Mr. Fancy Pants Side said, traditional versions of stories were more important than current ones, their argument broke down. Because in the traditional version of Little Red Riding Hood, she saves herself.

Pro-Fancy Pants Side girl: No, the hunter saves her.

Me: Nope. In the original version, when Red gets to the house, she finds that the wolf has eaten her grandmother so she...gets naked.

Sensei: You mean she's made to get naked?

Me: No, she takes off her clothes by herself. To...make the wolf...not...notice? Um, confused?

Pro-Fancy Pants Side guy: Like a strip tease? [attempts to pantomime a strip tease]

Me: YES! EXACTLY! (Also, why do you know that word?) Anyway, she does...that word he just said and then says she has to use the bathroom and runs away. SO SHE SAVES HERSELF, SEE?

Pro-Fancy Pants Side guy: But isn't it more important which version is more commonly known now?

Me: That's not what your side said earlier.

Sensei: OKAY, LET'S MOVE ON TO A DIFFERENT TOPIC NOW.

By the end of the debate, everyone was ending all their arguments with, "WE'VE WON." (そうなんじゃないでしょうか。勝った！)

(But, really, my side won. Totally.)

Lessee, what other exciting things happened today?

Actually, not a whole lot.

Hmm, well, what can I talk about then?

It's been pretty hot lately, although it rained this morning, so that helped cool everything down. But now it's gone back to being hot again. UGGGGH, JAPANNNNNNN, WHY CAN'T YOUR WEATHER BE NICERRRRR?

In other news, I was really proud today because someone mentioned 裏切り, and I immediately remembered what it meant! Why? Because it's part of the title of the first theme song for Durarara!! (裏切りの夕焼け). Yeah, okay, so I'm a fangirl. But it helps my Japanese improve, right? (You'd be surprised how many random words I pick up from songs. I learned a surprising amount of vocabulary I use on a relatively frequently basis from Bump of Chicken songs.)

Also, I just finished writing a three-page paper (due tomorrow, and actually it wound up a little bit longer than three pages) entitled 若者における神道の文化 (Youth Shinto Culture). It is approximately as exciting as it sounds, which is to say VERY EXCITING. It's also probably the longest paper I've ever written in Japanese.

And now I am super tired and would like to get to sleep at a somewhat reasonable hour tonight, so I bid you all good night!

P.S. If you're one of the people who has emailed me in the past few days and hasn't gotten a response yet, it's not 'cause I hate you. It's just that I don't have tiiiiiiiiiiiiiime right now. So don't worry. You will get a response. It just might be....very....slow... Sorry, guys!

P.P.S. Opal, from most polite to least polite forms of "but," it's が、けれど、けど. So you had it backwards.

P.P.S. Now I'm listening to 「裏切りの夕焼け」 kind of obsessively. （ああ、朝日は昇る！ビルの谷間！今信じれば変わるのさ、無意味じゃない、あの夢を)

P.P.P.S. (Yes, that is totally the part of the OP where Shizuo shows up. PFFT.)

P.P.P.P.S. Oh, yeah! Aniplex picked up Durarara!! I am super happy.

Boy scout shrine adventure story

Okay, so, first off, my boy scout shrine adventure story.

So yesterday (Sunday) I went with my host mom and my host brothers to the local shrine (Shimogamo) because both my host brothers are boy scouts, and the boy scout troop apparently meets at the shrine every other Sunday. Anyway, my host mom asked me if I wanted to come along, and I said sure, ‘cause I am always up for going to shrines. So we had a nice walk over (and my little host brother taught me the names of a bunch of bugs) and then we got to shrine where the other boy scouts were slowly assembling. Or should I say “boy” scouts. ‘cause about half of them were female. Several of the troop leaders were also female. Anyway, my host mom introduced me to a bunch of the adults who were involved in the group (including an eighty-five-year-old guy who was delighted that I understood Japanese and even more delighted that I was interested in Shinto and proceeded to tell me all about the shrine). Anyway, once everyone was assembled, we all lined up and marched into the actual shrine (we were waiting outside the gate before). And then everyone lined up in front of the area where you're supposed to pray and did the traditional two bows, two claps, one bow. But then they started chanting this thing that I could only understand about 15% of. After that they did the two bows, two claps, one bow again and then marched right out of the shrine...after which all the boy scouts went and got booklets stamped by the local shrine maiden.

This is not the sort of experience I would ever expect to have with a boy scout troop in the US.

Anyway, afterward I asked my host mom to explain it to me:

Me: That thing you were saying in front of the shrine...what did it mean? It was really hard for me to understand.

Host Mom: I don't know.

Me: You...don't know?

HM: Yes.

Me: You mean you don't know what it means?

HM: Yes. Well, it's supposed to be a prayer to the deity of the shrine, but I can't tell you what the words mean. Maybe you should ask the boy scout troop leader. He might know.

Me: Then how did you learn it?

HM: Well, when you say it enough times, you just remember how it's supposed to sound.

Me: Is it the same for every shrine? Or do you have to learn a different one for each one?

HM: I think it's the same. The other shrines I've been to have had the same one.

So then she asked my older host brother if he had the paper with the chant written on it, and sure enough, he did. And no wonder I couldn't understand what it was saying, 'cause it was written in classical Japanese, from back when を was used for things other than marking the object of the sentence! CRAZY. So I could understand about 10% of it, and the rest of it was completely incomprehensible.

So then I asked about the booklet stamping.

Me: At the end, after they were done praying...the shrine maiden stamped the boy scouts books. Is that for a badge?

HM: No. They just do it for fun. It doesn't have any meaning.

AND THIS IS WHY I STUDY SHINTO.

(Actually, there are more complicated reasons why I study Shinto, but they'll have to be saved for tomorrow when I'm actually writing my paper about Shinto.)

Anyway, that was yesterday. Today I had class in the morning and then lunch and then had to give a presentation in the afternoon comparing electronic books and paper books. We were supposed to rehearse beforehand with our other classmates, and I completely bombed the rehearsal. I have no idea what was going on, but I could not form coherent thoughts. Finally I just stopped and told the other members of my group, "I'm sorry, but I can't practice." And they didn't understand that I was saying that I COULDN'T practice and thought that I was just really nervous, and I couldn't think of a better way to explain it (seriously, I cannot practice presentations, even in English; it just doesn't work) so finally they gave up. And when the time came for me to give my presentation, they were all wincing and prepared for me to bomb it, and I didn't, so yay for that. My only comments from the teacher were that I said "um" (or the Japanese equivalent) too much, and that I needed to use the more polite form of "but." And then afterwards one of the girls in my group came up to me and said, "Okay, I get it now. You can only perform without rehearsing, right?" And I said, "YES, THAT WAS THE WORD I WAS LOOKING FOR."

So then I went and bought toothpaste and found out that fluoride has been banned in toothpaste in Japan for 50 years (or so says my residential director), and then I went home and studied like a maniac and had dinner which was delicious and awesome. And now I am writing this blog post, but it's getting really late, so I think I'm going to stop here and go to bed.

Oh, wait, completely random closing note! My little host brother likes Michael Jackson. A LOT. And 'cause he can't exactly sing the songs (since they're in English and he can't figure out the lyrics), he decided to teach himself the dances instead. And it turns out that he's actually a pretty good dancer for an eight year old.

Okay, sleeping time! I have a debate tomorrow afternoon and then I have to write a 3 page paper. HRRRG.

宿題が眠れないほどある

It is 11:13 p.m. and I just finished my homework (出来たばかりだ), so I'm going to have to tell my boy scout shrine adventure story at a later date.

Anyway, today I went on a boy scout shrine adventure in the morning (seriously, I will tell this story later, because it's a good one, I swear) and then spent the rest of the day doing homework. WHEE. (Well, to be fair, I Skyped my parents to say "Happy Father's Day" to my dad, but I was doing homework while I was talking to them.)

UGH, NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS WEEK. We're having a debate on Tuesday, my long paper's due on Wednesday, I have to give a news presentation on Thursday, and Friday is our midterm exam. Guess who probably isn't going to be sleeping at all this week.

Plus I have to give a presentation tomorrow afternoon contrasting paper books and electronic books. Yeah. Well. We'll see how that goes.

Sorry for being all boring today, but I'm gonna go pass out now, you guys.

Also, the deer will kill you TO DEATH

So we went on a field trip to Nara today, which was awesome yet exhausting. We spent pretty much the entire day in this giant park (full of temples and deer, but more about that later), walking around and seeing different things.

We went to Koufukuji first, which was awesome if only for all the historical artifacts they had there. There were a bunch of Buddhist statues dating from the 8th century. EIGHTH CENTURY, GUYS. Anyway, there was a museum too, which was really crowded, so it was kind of hard to see anything, and it took forever to get anywhere because aside from having a million people trying to see all the statues and artifacts and the old ladies trying to read every single placard and stopping up the flow of people, you also had a bunch of people with prayer beads, standing in the middle of the museum aisle and praying and no one could walk past them because they were blocking the pathway. So, yeah, that was a little less than awesome, but oh well. There were some really cool statues, and I was amused that I actually knew who a lot of them were without reading the placards. (Yay, Popular Religion and Peasant Rebellion in China!) (Actually, I was also amused that I apparently knew more about most of the buddhas/bodhisattvas than the people praying to them. When we entered the main shrine there was (what I assume was) a family praying to Yakushi (the main buddha of the shrine), and the girl turned to the father and said, "Who is this again?")

After that, we went to Kasuga Taisha, which was a big shrine complex, so needless to say, I was swooning all over the place. I must admit that I tend to find Buddhist temples a lot less interesting than shrines (partially because you always have to pay to get in and you can't take pictures and all the statues' expressions are so bland, except for the guardians who are AWESOME and usually look like they're about to kill someone and have huge veins standing out on their foreheads), but since the temples tend to be a lot more impressive than the shrines, that's where we've mostly been going. BUT ANYWAY, we went to this shrine, and it was huge and there were all these stone lanterns along the pathway and we got to go into the back of the shrine and walk around back there and it was AWESOME. Pictures coming...sometime.

And then we went to Toudaiji, which is probably one of the most famous temples ever, and it was ridiculously crowded, because everyone and his brother was there for school trips it seemed like. So I thought that it being a temple and ridiculously crowded it would not be worth it (plus I had a headache, probably from dehydration, even though I had been drinking massive amounts of water all day). BUT BOY WAS I WRONG. It is probably my favorite temple I have ever been to. (Well, maybe. Kiyomizudera still holds a special place in my heart.) First of all, it is a friggin' old temple (first built in 728), and it is most famous for a giant Buddha statue. I had seen pictures of that statue before, BUT MY GOODNESS IT IS SO MUCH BIGGER IN PERSON. (It's 15 meters tall, okay? That's frickin' tall. Also, the temple is the largest wooden building in the world.) So I walked into the temple and it is entirely possible that my jaw hit the floor, and I probably stood there just staring at it for a while. AND IT JUST GOT BETTER FROM THERE. The statues were really expressive, and there was a ton to see, and even though it was crowded it was really easy to get from place to place. Also, there was a pillar with a hole in it which is supposed to be the same size as the Buddha's nostril, and if you can crawl through it you'll be enlightened. I didn't have time to do it (and given how small the hole was, I'm not sure my hips would have fit), but one of the other students did. Pictures coming...sometime (because this temple, unlike pretty much every other one I've ever been to, was perfectly okay with people taking pictures). Yeah.

Also, one of the guys in the program (blond haired, blue eyed, most obviously American guy there) kept being stopped by middle schoolers who needed to talk to a foreigner for their homework. AND THEY ONLY STOPPED HIM. It was very odd.

ALSO ALSO, what is with Americans and restaurants? Every time I run into an American in a restaurant in Japan, I wind up dying a little bit inside, because they are SO RUDE and complain about EVERYTHING and inevitably don't speak any Japanese at all and treat the waiters like they're stupid. UGH. Seriously, if I was going to go to all the trouble to travel to another country, I would at least read up on proper etiquette and basic phrases so I would know how to order food. I mean, it's not as though it's terribly difficult. You just say what you want and then "onegaishimasu." LESSON 3 OF JAPANESE 1, GUYS. Also, I don't care you if you think the waiters don't speak English, they can still differentiate a loud complaining voice from a regular one.

[/exasperation with rude Americans]

Also, THE DEER. Nara's known for its wild deer, which roam the park we were in and aren't scared of humans in the slightest. When we entered the park, there were big signs saying, "Warning! These deer are wild and may kick you, bite you, knock you over, or head butt you!" And everyone laughed at the sign.

Well, everyone but me. I've been around deer enough to know that you don't mess with them if you want to stay alive.

Anyway, first deer we see, everyone surrounds it and tries to pet it and starts squealing over how cute it is. And what does the deer do? It eats our residential director's map. Oh yeah. Bet you didn't see that coming. So there our residential director is, fighting with a deer, saying, "No, no, no, I NEED that! Don't eat that!" And of course everyone in the general vicinity is snickering quietly. Finally our residential director managed to get the map back (well, parts of it anyway), and we continued onward.

But had everyone learned their lesson? No, of course not. The next time we stopped (some people wanted to get shaved ice because it was freakishly hot), a deer came trotting up to our group, and once again everyone started squealing over how cute it was. And this deer was very friendly, and let everyone pet it, but then suddenly it caught sight of a toddler nearby, turned around, charged the toddler, and jumped on his leg. And my only thought was, "Oh gods, I am going to have to punch this deer, because it is about to maul this child to death." Fortunately, I was saved from having to get in a fist fight with a deer because after knocking the child over and probably scarring him for life, it got bored and wandered off, leaving the screaming child's frazzled mother to try to figure out how to explain to her son why the nice, cute deer had suddenly decided to beat him up.

Throughout the day, we kept coming across children who burst into tears every time a deer came near them. I WONDER WHY.

In any case, it is getting late and I am exhausted, and I'm getting up early tomorrow morning to do homework and go out with my host family, so, yeah. G'night!

(OHWAITOPAL. How can there be only one episode left????? I mean, SERIOUSLY? The light novel series's 8 volumes long right now, so obviously there's more story. I think I know what I'll be doing during all my free time next semester. IN ANY CASE, I don't think it'll be terribly hard to read, because on the train ride back from Osaka yesterday I tried to read it, and, without a dictionary, I could understand about 85% of it. So if you want to do some sort of translation thing, lemme know.)

(P.S. いーざーやーくーん。あーそーびーまーしょーうー。)

(P.P.S. If Izaya doesn't get his face pwned in some incredibly embarrassing way, I will have to go to Ikebukuro and PWN IT MYSELF.)

[/Durarara!! fangirling]

Osaka and why I never want to work for the government

I'm exhausted to the point that I'm having trouble staying conscious, so this might be a bit shorter than usual. Still, I'm writing something, and that's good, right?

So we had class in the morning today, and then we all took the train to Osaka (which was about an hour ride). Once we got to Osaka (which, by the way, all the rumors are true about: people really do cross against the light), we headed over to the American Consulate, where they proceeded to take away all our electronics. Yes, all of them. Including our electronic dictionaries. I'm okay with giving up my camera. I'm okay with giving up my cell phone. But you do not take away my denshi jisho. It is my love and my life, okay? How would you feel if they said to you, "Sorry, but we're gonna have to take away your wife and lock her in this closet over here for a little while"? Well, anyway, I had to give it up, and that did not make me happy in the slightest. Then we went upstairs and waited in this big room while a certain member of the consulate staff made sweeping generalizations about Americans, Japanese people, Osakans, Tokyo-ites, Virgianians, and pretty much anyone else he could. This did not particularly endear him to me, because anytime anyone starts a sentence with "all [type of people]" and doesn't end it with "need to eat" or "like to breathe," a small part of my soul dies.

So then we had our "security briefing," which was basically the exact same one we had in Washington, D.C. (don't stab anyone, don't do drugs, don't start riots) and then listened as the members of the consulate staff waxed poetic about the foreign service. And while I'm sure that the foreign service is a wonderful experience for some people, every time I hear about it, I want to do it less. Part of the reason for my total aversion to the foreign service is that every time we get the The Foreign Service Is Awesome Sauce Spiel (tm), the driving argument behind joining the foreign service is not "it's a wonderful job" or "I feel like my work is really benefiting my country" or "everyday I am excited to go into work" (all of which, I feel, would be entirely reasonable reasons to join the foreign service), but "it's really easy to get in and they pay you a lot." And while money is pretty important, I think that doing a job I, yanno, care about that doesn't involve my moving every three years on the whim of someone in some office somewhere is also pretty important. (Yes, I just used a Hanna-ism. Sorry about that.)

But I digress.

Anyway, after the security briefing, some people went to karaoke, and the rest of us decided to go "shopping." Now if you know anything about me, you know that I hate shopping with a burning, fiery passion, so I, of course, made a beeline to the nearest bookstore (as did two other people). And at the bookstore I found a copy of Durarara!! (the light novel). Guess who owns a copy of Durarara!! now. (And, yes, Opal, I picked you up a copy. Think of it as an early birthday present. Also, I flipped the book open to a random page and the first thing I saw was 「いーざーやーくーん。」I may or may not have started giggling like the fangirl I am.)

Anyway, the three of us wandered around the bookstore for a good long time and were intensely amused by the Japanese translations of English book titles. (My absolute favorite has to be No Country for Old Men becoming 「血と暴力の国」(Blood and Violence Country).) And then we met up with one of the dudes' friends (who was really nice and is studying lolita fashion and working at Baby the Stars Shine Bright, which if you've ever watched Kamikaze Girls you know is a big, honking deal in the lolita world), and we went over to Shinsaibashi, which is a popular district of Osaka among young people. We wandered around there for a little bit, somehow wound up going into a punk-visual-kei-lolita fashion store (long story), and then went to get okonomiyaki for dinner, which was pretty much delicious. (Although by that point I was so hungry that I probably would have eaten the ridiculously buckle-heavy shoes in the punk-visual-kei-lolita fashion store.) And then we hopped on a train and came back to Kyoto. And now I am typing this.

I have probably forgotten all sorts of important things, but it is late and I am tired and I need to get up early tomorrow morning so I can go to Nara.

(Oh, one more thing! There was a little sign up advertising the Durarara!! light novels with each of the main characters saying something about the story, and Izaya's said, 「私は人間が好きだよ。この本を買ってくれる君もよ。」さいかだよ！彼はさいか！)