When I look back on this term I realise my Japanese is indistinguishably better from what it was when I got here. Trying to learn a language is like growing a plant. Firstly, for a plant to grow you have to spend time caring for it in the right conditions (i.e. sunlight/surrounded by Japanese people) and giving it the right things (water/vocab and grammar). Doing these things has been effort but without them your 'plant' can't grow right? Secondly, even when you do these things it takes time and patience to see any results. There is no point checking your progress everyday; you only notice the results after comparing it to a significant amount of time in the past.
(can't believe I just wrote that in all sincerity)
Lessons have still been up and down like I said in my last post, but I'm starting to get into the teaching style a bit more now. Last week we rounded off the term with a kind of speech symposium. I spoke about student lifestyle in the UK and Japan like I mentioned in my last post. I enjoyed this task since it involved interviewing and meeting lots of new people, whilst getting a chance to see if my own assumptions reflected Japanese students' own experiences. Since I am a foreigner in Japan I was obviously careful to come to some very diplomatic conclusions- a hallmark of the 'Japanese speech' in my opinion, but overall a really positive and useful activity. On the other hand, I was set an essay last week entitled 'my christmas holidays'. I mean seriously? 'my christmas holidays'? Would you wanna read on??: "I spent my holidays mainly lounging around in a onsie watching internet TV and drinking tea" (which is by the way 100% what I intend to do)
I turned 20 a week ago. Those of you who have me on facebook will know that I didn't deal with this particularly well. Apologies. This may have been the wine talking. At least I am now legal to drink here now not that made the slightest difference anyway since clubs accept my university card and store ID checks are nothing more than pressing an 'I am over 20'-button on a touchscreen. I did have a nice sit down meal with some friends for my birthday which turned out to be a really lovely evening. My Japanese friends bought me some really thoughtful presents including a Kobe university cap, a calendar of Japanese proverbs, incense sticks and concert tickets to name just a few.
me looking ridiculous with my presents
I also can't believe I've left it this late to talk about christmas. Unfortunately, christmas isn't such a big thing over here. Most people don't even get the day off work. People also eat chicken instead of turkey, which is why my only christmas plan so far is to get KFC with friends. I'm not hugely bothered about spending christmas away from home since it doesn't even feel like christmas here anyway. The most christmas-y thing I've done was going to a light festival in Kobe called luminarie (french for...something), ru-mi-na-ri-e ルミナリエ in Japanese. Luminarie is a memorial set up for the victims of the Kobe 1995 earthquake. It was essentially a cathedral made from fairy lights with haunting choir music in the background, obviously beautiful albeit slightly bizarre.
Rather than Christmas, in Japan it's all about new years, and for the first week of the new year I hear everything comes to a complete stand-still. I have decided to go to Tokyo on Thursday to meet up with a good friend since I have been in Kobe for 3 months now, which is far too long to be in one place for. I also hope my megabus experiences will prepare me for the 10 hour coach journey. Pleasant.
One last bit of exciting news, I have decided for definite to come back to the UK just for a couple of weeks in February to check up on things back home. I'm looking forward to it already. In the meantime there's a couple more weeks of term when we go back on the 6th, and my tryout in the Orchestra which I'm excited but kind of nervous about, a week with a Japanese family, and a potential trip to Sapporo on the cards. Exciting stuff!
Until next time minasan,
Sean
