Hey guys,
I know you are probably full from my previous post, alerting you to the use of "caliculate" and "equilibriate," but I have decided to add another post, 'cause I'm that nice a guy.
I am still mostly at my office this week. I have the schedule for my inaka (countryside) schools, but the majority of my time, spent in Hachinohe, has yet to be divided up. What did I do? Fight ninjas, of course, it's Japan...Ok, actually, I just studied. Whatever, I now know how to write emminent, concave, and wither in pictograph (kanji) form, so HA!
And "when will this be useful to you, Greg?" you might ask. Well, it's useful when you are fighting a wizard and you can only draw upon the power of kanji to summon creatures and enact spells! "What?" Weldon and I have been emailing each other from the POV of our wizard-selves, and we have created a good basis for a story. Our wizard fight is just taking off, but rest assured, it is already of epic proportions.
And how far shall I delve into fantasy during my time in Japan? I fear to admit it. You already know too much- in for a penny, in for a pound. DnD. Yes, I wrote it, and I mean it. If you check the link though, maybe you'll think twice about who plays it and who doesn't! In order to limit your exposure to any harmful nerd-rays, I'll limit it to a few things. 1) I'm using the world I created for a book I was writing, ergo, I am in charge of the game and couldn't be happier stretching my creative muscle. 2) I am really looking forward to it.
There's a rainbow! I just took a picture with my phone. It's huge, and beautiful.
This past weekend was good. Friday night I met up with Seth and got a drink near the station/where I live. He was headed to Tokyo, so we decided to chill for awhile at a ramen/sushi/bar place. It was pretty good. Interestingly enough, when they poured out Nihonshuu, they kept pouring until it spilled over and started filling the saucer. You are supposed to sip off the top, and then pour in the stuff in the saucer to refill that sip you took. Pretty cool. We also talked to a guy who's accent is the equivalent of this in English:
"Hwhay herrow, whatcha ood ewe fawks laik for dinnr?" He actually had the sushi-chef translate his Japanese into normal Japanese so we could talk to him. Side note, for the first time ever, someone thought Seth was older than me! Rock on!
Saturday I went to the biggest farm in Japan, Koiwai Farm. It was cool, and the homemade ice cream was even cooler. Hilights of the farm include chasing sheep, climbing a jungle gym, and being all manly and shooting arrows at a target (while grunting at times). Laura got on a horse and conquered her fear of horses! Or heights! Or...something like that.
Afterwards we hit up Morioka, a big city nearby. We went to a tree that grew to eventually split a boulder in half. It's called Ishiwarizakura. Awesomeness. Afterwards, we hit up the mall, walked around, and then called it a night. I got home around midnight.
Sunday was good, we hung out for Natalie's birthday party. It's time for me to go home, so I'll continue this post tomorrow. Mata, ne!
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Culture and Analogies
Ok, you caught me. I was going to try and eke by this week without a post, but, well, you didn't get one last week, and I would hate to deprive you of your second air.
I haven't had any schools to go to yet. They are dividing the schedule a different way this term. The head English teacher from all the schools will get together and choose when they want the 9 of us ALTs, as opposed to randomly getting what the Board of Education threw at them. We'll see how it works. I think, until then, I'll be at my office, probably until the end of next week. I have no problem with this though, I get to study, study, study.
On Wednesday I had piano, and I spoke with my teacher after class because she wanted to know what was different in America. I told her the truth: everything. Then I tried to describe heating, air conditioning, and not ever bowing(she was all "bikurishita! bikurishita!" [surprised!]). It was cool because it's like the same thing that happens when I try to explain Japan to people back home. I don't think you really understand how different places can be until you are there. Things you assume remain constant worldwide(ex. stopping at a red light), are by no means constant. It was funny to think of my classmates in Middle School bowing in perfect unison when Mr. Dixon entered the room. "What do you do?" my piano teacher asked. "Nothing," was the reply. This seemed to confuse her even more.
What else has gone on? I went boxing on Wednesday night, good times. Good stress relief (if you can call what we do here stressful). I also plan on buying Matt's scooter when he leaves Japan. He let me try it out after boxing. Wicked Awesome. It goes about 60 km max, and filling up the tank is only about 4-5 dollars. It's pretty fun to drive, I can't wait to get it.
I've finally gotten into studying kanji. The 2000 characters I need to memorize to become in Japanese reading. Well, after the 2000 on their own, I need to memorize the different combinations. And the different pronunciations when a kanji is next to a different word. It's definitely a big task, but it's time to stop putting it off. I also finished the Minna no Nihongo Book II, so I need something to do at work, lol.
Tonight there is a "congratulations for getting into graduate school" party. Dinner at the Brazilian Restaurant, then karaoke. Lookin' forward to that.
Today, there occurred something that I think is a good analogy of Japanese Culture and thought process. So, we were taking old papers downstairs to be recycled from our office. They tied these up in twine, which is a requirement for recycled papers, though we didn't use them in the past in this office. That part is important. Now, this time, with the strings tied around stacks of paper, each of my coworkers took one stack in each hand, since it was easily liftable by the strings. In the past, they would always take a huge stack and balance it in two hands in front of them, holding a lot more. Now that there were strings, they were taking much less per trip downstairs. For some reason, everyone but me did this. I'm not sure why. It seems natural that they would realize they can hold more, like they have in the past, if they hold the papers the same way they did in the past. But, now that there were strings, did they feel compelled to use them? Am I looking too much into this? Perhaps I'm so confused at all of the random standing up and bowing that occurs during the day I'm just going haywire.
I swear, I don't have anything else to say. My life this week is just going to the office and studying. We could compare study notes? Funny to think that, I leave an institution of study, and now I'm spending so much time studying. It's like a bad habit I can't get rid of. Well, now that you've gotten your meager post, I'll go back to the studying, thank you very much.
Have a good day.
I haven't had any schools to go to yet. They are dividing the schedule a different way this term. The head English teacher from all the schools will get together and choose when they want the 9 of us ALTs, as opposed to randomly getting what the Board of Education threw at them. We'll see how it works. I think, until then, I'll be at my office, probably until the end of next week. I have no problem with this though, I get to study, study, study.
On Wednesday I had piano, and I spoke with my teacher after class because she wanted to know what was different in America. I told her the truth: everything. Then I tried to describe heating, air conditioning, and not ever bowing(she was all "bikurishita! bikurishita!" [surprised!]). It was cool because it's like the same thing that happens when I try to explain Japan to people back home. I don't think you really understand how different places can be until you are there. Things you assume remain constant worldwide(ex. stopping at a red light), are by no means constant. It was funny to think of my classmates in Middle School bowing in perfect unison when Mr. Dixon entered the room. "What do you do?" my piano teacher asked. "Nothing," was the reply. This seemed to confuse her even more.
What else has gone on? I went boxing on Wednesday night, good times. Good stress relief (if you can call what we do here stressful). I also plan on buying Matt's scooter when he leaves Japan. He let me try it out after boxing. Wicked Awesome. It goes about 60 km max, and filling up the tank is only about 4-5 dollars. It's pretty fun to drive, I can't wait to get it.
I've finally gotten into studying kanji. The 2000 characters I need to memorize to become in Japanese reading. Well, after the 2000 on their own, I need to memorize the different combinations. And the different pronunciations when a kanji is next to a different word. It's definitely a big task, but it's time to stop putting it off. I also finished the Minna no Nihongo Book II, so I need something to do at work, lol.
Tonight there is a "congratulations for getting into graduate school" party. Dinner at the Brazilian Restaurant, then karaoke. Lookin' forward to that.
Today, there occurred something that I think is a good analogy of Japanese Culture and thought process. So, we were taking old papers downstairs to be recycled from our office. They tied these up in twine, which is a requirement for recycled papers, though we didn't use them in the past in this office. That part is important. Now, this time, with the strings tied around stacks of paper, each of my coworkers took one stack in each hand, since it was easily liftable by the strings. In the past, they would always take a huge stack and balance it in two hands in front of them, holding a lot more. Now that there were strings, they were taking much less per trip downstairs. For some reason, everyone but me did this. I'm not sure why. It seems natural that they would realize they can hold more, like they have in the past, if they hold the papers the same way they did in the past. But, now that there were strings, did they feel compelled to use them? Am I looking too much into this? Perhaps I'm so confused at all of the random standing up and bowing that occurs during the day I'm just going haywire.
I swear, I don't have anything else to say. My life this week is just going to the office and studying. We could compare study notes? Funny to think that, I leave an institution of study, and now I'm spending so much time studying. It's like a bad habit I can't get rid of. Well, now that you've gotten your meager post, I'll go back to the studying, thank you very much.
Have a good day.
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