Language Abilities=not complete fail

I'm really excited that I'm able to communicate, at least on some level, with many of the Japanese people that I encounter. What I'm particularly excited about, is being able to communicate with my host mother!

At first, I felt like I would never be able to communicate with her, because her regional speech was slightly different than I was accustomed to hearing, and she spoke very quickly. But now I'm able to talk to her about things that I've done in school, and about the friends I'm making.

I was also able to listen to a lecture on homelessness and the Burakumin community in Japan, in Japan. I was able to understand perhaps about 70% of the lecture. I was extremely happy, especially because much of the language and vocabulary used was not vocabulary that I've encountered in my textbooks-most books don't actively bring up social issues and discrimination in Japan.

This is really exciting to me, especially because I was not confident in my ability to speak Japanese. In fact, while I was packing for my trip, I pretty much had a meltdown and broke out the books for some emergency study time! I'm happy because I'm also improving, and I can even feel people responding to my Japanese differently! Well...I do have my first major test tomorrow, so I should probably head home to study!

Fujisan

I realize that the last post was a bit vague, but I find that I'm left with very little free time, and even less time where I have access to internet. When I do have both, I find that I'm more interested in posting on facebook than on my blog, which is kind of a shame. Sorry!


Anyways, this past weekend I was able to climb to the top of Mount Fuji! In Japanese, this mountain is revered as being a sacred natural being, so it is addressed as Fuji-san, just as one may address a stranger or person of higher stature.

It may not have been the most physcially demanding mountain that I have ever climbed, as the conditions were certainly favorable, but it certainly was the most impressive. I was actually able to see the sun rise above the clouds, and it was so pretty that I wouldn't mind doing it again. However, as a Japanese cotowaza or saying goes, "You are wise to climb Fuji once and a fool to climb it twice." I guess once was enough-for now.

This weekend, I think that I'll be bumming around in Osaka, and I may be able to go to a very interesting Karaoke place or something.

Best!

Finding humor in the Mistakes I make!

I'm doing my best to live by Japanese standards, but it's far more difficult than one might expect. For example, I eat to loud, I don't say good morning loud enough, I don't say good morning early enough and so on and so forth. At first I was rather distraught by the sheer volume of mistakes I was making, but now I've come to view them in a different light.

Culture Shock

Let me start by saying: It has been my dream, for as long as I can remember, to come to Japan. I didn't care if it was to study, travel, or reside in Japan. As long as I was able to go, I would be happy. When I entered college, it was never a question whether or not I would go abroad to Japan, it was just a matter of how long, where, and when. I had spent two years studying the language, and countless (well, not really countless because I'm only 20) more studying the culture, and history of Japan. I finally made it to Japan, and I'll be here for the next four months!

I've been in Japan for nearly two weeks now, but it seems like I have been here for so much longer. I've already attended a full week of classes, moved in with a host family, opened a bank account, gone shopping, visited one of Kyoto's many temple's, hit up an izakaya, and done purikura. It's safe to say that my scant two weeks here have been chock full or adventures and learning!

My preconceived notions of Japan would are far from the truth. Not only are the people here not ninja's, they also aren't part of an intergalactic crime fighting team hell bent on saving the entire universe. Even the more mundane preconceptions, such as the Japanese eat tofu and rice at every single meal and read manga on the trains, don't seem to be true. However, for every shattered daydream stands a new piece of cultural understanding. Not all Japanese soups are meant to be slurped, nor are all young Japanese males obsessed with anime, manga, and video games. In fact, there are far too many things to write down in this blog that I've already learned, but I was told to shorten my blog entries, so that may be more easily digested.

I've come to fully realize my identity as an American; in America, I have never really felt, per se, AMERICAN. However, here in Japan I realize that there are many irreconcilable aspects of my personality that could only truly be attributed to being born and raised in New York. Also, before coming to Japan, I never understood why Americans were stereotyped as being, fat, loud, and ignorant. But I, being about average weight, with slightly above average familiarity with Japanese culture/language, and fairly considerate for an American college student, have been made to feel like a large, blundering fool that is incapable of doing anything correctly. I'm not sure whether or not it is depressing to look around and see some students making better impressions than I, but far many more desperately drowning (sometimes completely unaware of their scraggly, waterlogged states). Ah well, I can't do anything perfectly (no matter how badly I may wish I could), the only thing I can really do is to pray that the mistakes I make won't be beyond horrible, or anything that the gaijin card can't cover. Wish me luck!