KGB's Nippon Blog Adventure

いまから新しい冒険

kgb — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 03:25:31 +0000

久しぶりこのブログをアップデイトして書き続けることにしたんだ。最近日本語を使うチャンスは少ないし下手になる心配があるの。だけど、このブログで出来るだけ日本語で日々の生活の話をしたいと思ってる。さらに面白い見たことや体験したことを話し出す気がしてここに書いたらいいだろうと考えてた。

では、今夜はもう眠くなったので明日話しを書いてみる。おやすみ〜

This is not a real entry

kgb — Mon, 23 May 2011 04:39:06 +0000

I have been reflecting recently on the absolutely terrible job I’ve done of keeping up with this blog. Time isn’t an issue, because I have copious amounts of it. I think it’s more my laziness and lack of desire to write things about my day-to-day goings-on, especially now when I pretty much have fallen into a routine of waking, eating, classing, bathing, and sleeping.

…

Holy snacks! It’s always extraordinarily weird to start writing something in one place then picking up in a place on the opposite side of the planet. So, yes, I am back in the Americas, and I’ll spare all the unnecessary detail of my rather unexciting homecoming. Though, this is actually a bit of a falsity because I came back in the midst of quite vicious wind storms (tornadoes, actually) which was no small matter. Still, I’d rather not go on and on about that, so instead I will say that though I am no longer in Japan, I have made a conscious decision to continue using this particular blog for all of my Japan and Japanese related experiences. Perhaps this means it will eventually degenerate into gabbings of a silly fangirl who can’t get enough of 小栗旬 in all his absolute adorableness, but until then we’ll just keep things loose.

keitai tanka

kgb — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 16:36:53 +0000

北海道

雪が集まり

毎日は、

寒く寒くて

ふとんで眠る

２月ファンタジー

kgb — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 13:46:10 +0000

２月もう来てびっくりしたの。すっごく早かったんだ。１月ってどうやって過ごしたか覚えてないや。。。授業が始まって毎日学校に行ったりしてたが、面白い物なんてあまりなちゃったかな。そう言うけど、日本語は少しずつ安くなってつれて日本の友達を作ることも安くなってきたの。だが、まだまだ勉強しなきゃやなあぁぁ。

じゃ、今月の口癖は「もっともっと日本語を使おう！」ってのだよ。

I should update more often. Oh, and a Happy New Year.

kgb — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 06:45:17 +0000

Despite the huge spans of time that have elapsed between most postings, I have the impression that I’ve done more than one might assume from reading these 6 or 7 entries. It’s been 4-ish months since I settled in, so at this point my life has a pretty established routine: get up in the morning, eat breakfast, go to class, return home, eat dinner, talk to host family, take a bath, go to bed. Sometimes I deviate with the occasional weekday night impromptu 飲み食べ放題 (nomitabehoudai=eat&drinkAMAP) with friends, but generally that’s been the run of things.

Recently, I’d been feeling frustrated with my language and communication abilities, but then I decided getting down about the things I can’t understand was also interfering and affecting what stuff I can understand. Something of a catch-22, but I came to the conclusion that I’m just going to blaze ahead. Actually, what really helped encourage me out of this slump was having my parents come visit for Christmas during which time I had to work as interpreter/translator for the two of them since they’re completely unfamiliar with the language. Of course it wasn’t all roses, but consciously using Japanese and English every day for my parents’ benefit was a good exercise in realizing just how much I do know. So, thank you, parents!

Right, it’s also 2011 now. Funny to think that I began writing this entry last year and am just now finishing it up. It’s fitting of my procrastinating tendencies. So far this year has been a good one–went to the shrine to pray for good fortune, etc. with the host family, then enjoyed お節 (osechi) which is comprised of a variety of delicious foods. Since I’m not in America this year I forwent any New Year’s resolutions, but if something happens to pop up that’s worth doing I’ll try sticking to it.

Oh, I just thought of one: keep a more regular entry writing schedule. Not only will it keep everything I do fresher in my mind, it’ll be an exercise in self-discipline, which is something that I’ve had a severe deficiency of for quite a while now. よしょ！２０１１年が来て頑張ろぜ！

Three Times Scenic Travel by Bus (part II)

kgb — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 03:20:31 +0000

~~Since it’s a rainy Sunday~~, I figured I’d take the time to pick up where I left off and continue my tale of my three day fall trip across southern Honshu. After our first evening, we packed up and headed to Hiroshima for an afternoon of exploration and, most importantly, a visit to the atomic bomb museum and peace memorial park. I’m pretty sure everyone was feeling some amount of trepidation, but at the same time I think it was something we all understood as necessary. Afterwards a lot of people were depressed and guilt-ridden, and though I wasn’t feeling hot myself I’ll admit that I am conflicted in my reaction. It might be that I have no soul, or that I come from the American South, but with these types of memorials and museums a major point is to have an emotional impact, not necessarily out of spite or anger, but with anything that’s attention grabbing there is a need for strong presentation; so, even after being confronted with life-size images of half-melted people and scraps of clothing belonging to school-aged victims of the bombing, I couldn’t conjure what I felt would have been an appropriate response. That is to say, I didn’t even get misty-eyed reading about the intense pain and loss that countless families experienced. On the other hand, I couldn’t stop crying while watching Grave of the Fireflies, which probably indicates some kind of emotional stunting or defect. At any rate, going to the museum was meaningful, and though I’m something of a pessimist a lot of the time, I do think it is important to consider how precious this existence is that we’re given.

Despite my cool reaction to the museum, what followed was a painfully moving firsthand account of the day Hiroshima was bombed given by an older Japanese woman who knew no English, but had essentially memorized a script and spoke to us, if not fluently, skillfully enough to be taken as someone who had spent some time with the language. I’m going ahead to say it was not a pleasant atmosphere, but listening to this woman speak with so much determination and spirit, afterwards I was thankful to have listened to her story.

Receiving letters is an exciting affair

kgb — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 14:29:12 +0000

I received this letter written from myself just recently. If I may say, I found it amusing.

Dear me of the recent future,

I’m in Kyoto now, and it’s pretty humid, but otherwise I’m feeling all right. The weather isn’t too unbearable, but I’m certainly looking forward to more autumnal temperatures. So, before I even made it into the Kansai airport, while I was stuck over the Pacific Ocean somewhere, I met a very nice older Japanese woman who invited me to visit her over in her town. It was highly unexpected, but I really hope I can take her up on her offer. Finally, before the end of this fall semester I’d like to see how many keychains I can find related to cute animals, or household appliances. I’m almost certain there will be a lot of the cute animals, but the appliances might pose a bit more of a challenge. At any rate, I’ll do my best to have fun.

Until then, I’ll take care of myself–

9•8•2010

I’ll admit I forgot about my mission to look for keychains, but this letter has rekindled my ardor and now I’ll work harder than before!

Three Times Scenic Travel by Bus (part I)

kgb — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 01:16:45 +0000

２週間前秋の旅行があり広島も、くらしきも、宮島もいった。全部楽しくておもしろかったと思う。最初の日バスでくらしきにいって「日本の古いおもちゃ博物館」というミュージアムを見つけたんで色々な面白いものを集められたそう。ミュージアムは部屋が六つあるし、北海道のや本種のや昔からおもちゃあるし、スゴク楽しい時間だった。その後バスに乗ってすぐ旅館にいったの。日本に来る前旅館に泊まったことがないから、すばらしい経験だった！

So, about two weeks ago now, everyone packed up and headed out for our fall trip to Hiroshima, Kurashiki, and Miyajima. Basically, it was awesome. I got to stay in not only one, but two traditional style Japanese inns, onsen included. Plus, we had these amazingly extravagant 和食 (Japanese style) meals for dinner and breakfast which consisted of at least six courses of various types of fish, meat, and pickled vegetables. I loved it.

Before the inns, we spent the first day sight-seeing in the historical district of Kurashiki. There was the obligatory おみやげ (omiyage) shop along with various restaurants and shrines, but the real highlight for me was visiting the traditional toy museum. This place had a huge assortment of toys from Hokkaido to Kyushu, some of which were kind of disturbing, but all in the most fascinating way. I also experienced a strange wave of nostalgia because the rooms all had this old musty, moldy smell like my grandparents’ basement. Afterwards, I just did some aimless walking until we had to rejoin with everyone at our bus.

We departed Kurashiki and made our way to our first night’s inn which was pretty much isolated on top of a hill with an amazing view of the sea and mountains. And to top it off, when we were shown our rooms the extraordinarily lovely staff made and served us delicious green tea. I had to bite my fist to keep from squealing with joy. Things only got better: later on we had something like a 15 course Japanese style dinner, followed by some entertainment involving taiko drums, 60s-esque ballads, and traditional dancing. It was quite the night.

大阪、ヤホオオオ！

kgb — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 04:52:32 +0000

昨日（９月２３日）大阪に水族館に行きました。スゴク楽しかったよ。お魚がいっぱいいて写真をたくさんとったの。それで、後私たちは「Giant Ferris Wheel」という乗り物を乗った。本当にスゴかった！

So, last week I went to the big aquarium down in Osaka. It was awesome. There were lots of fish, and people. Lots and lots of people. Apparently it’s a big ラブラブ (love love) spot for couples.

I’m going to digress for a moment to talk about the Japanese word for aquarium, 水族館 (suizokukan). When isolated the characters read individually as “water” “family” “house”, which occurred to me on the train and I found pretty amusing. That’s something I really like about Japanese: it’s straightforward and simple, and if you can recognize kanji for its root meaning, you can usually make a pretty good guess at the more specific meaning. Though perhaps if you were to say to someone (in English), “Oh, I went to the water family house in Osaka,” that person might also think you went to some amusement park, spa, or possibly a store that specializes in bathtubs.

So fine.

That said, back to the aquarium. Naturally, there were a lot of big ocean fish, but there were also river otters and sea lions, plus some turtles. I think the biggest attractions were the penguins and dolphins; they seem most aware of the fact that they have an audience of people, so they tend to be more showy. Personally, my favorite animal in the whole place was the sun fish. They’re pretty bizarre looking, like they’ve had their back ends amputated, but it’s relaxing to watch them swim because they’re never in a hurry. Or, they weren’t when I saw them. I also enjoyed petting the manta ray and tiny sharks. Admittedly, I was slightly weirded out, but it was cool anyway. Afterwards, I bought a dish towel with a whale shark on it to take back to my host family, and I got a whale shark stamp as a memento of the trip.

To wrap up the day’s fun, a couple of my other friends and I rode on the Giant Ferris Wheel and got a nice panoramic view of Osaka. It was quite nice.

大阪

温泉の話

kgb — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 01:40:25 +0000

This is my Onsen Story.

On Sunday (9/19), since I didn’t have class Monday because it was Show Respect for the Old Folks Day, I went with my host family to an onsen in some northerly prefecture. The drive itself was cool: we went up through mountains and tunnels and little towns, and I kept getting this sensation that I could easily be making the drive from Tennessee over to North Carolina, only instead I was in Japan and couldn’t read any of the road signs for all the 漢字 (kanji).

After about an hour and half ride we arrived at the onsen (the name I couldn’t recall), which was part of what appeared to be a sort of mountain resort. There were some tennis courts, walking paths, covered pavilions, and ground golf, which seemed like miniature golf only apparently in Japan everyone gets to use ridiculously oversized putters, not just the super novices.

So, having parked the car we ventured into the onsen. I was feeling pretty excited, but before I could race into the changing room and disrobe we decided to get lunch; only, I wasn’t really very hungry since about 2 hours before that we had breakfast. I’m beginning to wonder if the Japanese have super metabolism, or maybe they just never pass up a dining opportunity. Whatever the reason, we got lunch at the restaurant next to the onsen. Naturally, the menu was in Japanese and indecipherable to my toddler knowledge, so I referred to the pictures and got something that looked fried and delicious which turned out to be しか (deer). I was not disappointed: it was delicious.

Afterwards, it was finally time for the really fun part. I’m just going to cut to the chase and say that yes, it was amazing, but being totally exposed in a giant hot spring with Host Mother (who is pretty much the quintessential cute older Japanese woman) was something of a surreal experience. Not to get into too much detail, but I did find myself wondering where I should look. Outside at the mountains? Down in the water? Or maybe I should just close my eyes altogether? Luckily, my eyesight without corrective lenses is kinda bad, so that helped to alleviate minor awkwardness. But all in all, it was a terrifically good time and when the weather gets cooler I’d like to go to back and just soak in the outside tub. ハァ〜いい感じそうだと思ってるな〜〜〜

温泉話は、それで終わり。