Epic 3: 強くなりたい

I have a lot to say and not a lot of time to say it. After my first day of class finished up, I was sort of dreading a long and uneventful weekend before things finally got rolling on Monday. However, things didn't quite end up that way. After returning to the student village I ran into a few people who I've seen around and was invited to go karaoke with them. I was admittedly quite thrilled because ever since the first night here I haven't really been out and about all that much - just going to school, grabbing dinner, and coming back home.

Although I totally stink, it was a lot of fun. This place is great. Far less expensive than the one in Shibuya that I went to before in Tokyo, and they actually give you all-you-can-drink soda and tea during your karaoke session. Yes, really. They also have special pricing where for approx. $20 per person you can karaoke as long as you want as long as at least one room is available to other guests.

I also signed up for a tour to Kobe and Nara which happened over the weekend. Although usually temples and shrines aren't necessarily my thing, I did want to make a return visit to Kobe, and plus an overnight trip sounded like a lot of fun. And it was. It really, really was.

The person who drove us around, Colin-sensei, is a cool guy. A former Yamasa student and now married to a teacher who is from the area, he is actually far past the "bitter gai(koku)jin" phase of living in Japan and had a lot of really good insight into Japan, its people, and its culture during the trip. He is also a huge Star Wars nerd and spent a lot of time debating semantics of the "extended universe" (known to the rest of us as 'the books') in terms of what is and is not technically canon material.

I couldn't remember the names of all the places we visited if it killed me, but there were some really cool highlights. And low-lights, I suppose.

Highlights:

1.) The temples we saw were absolutely gorgeous, including the one where Last Samurai Was filmed. That one required you to take a gondola up a mountain in order to access the grounds. How often do you get to see something like that? Not very often. Todaiji, too, which is self-explanatory. Largest wooden building in the world.

2.) The people that took the trip with me were all very cool. It was nice to get to know a couple of my non-English-speaking classmates a bit better as it lessens the "gap" between the chugokugo speakers and the eigo speakers.

3.) A crazy, tightrope-walking Japanese magician performing in the "foreigner district" square of Kobe. Now when I say "foreigner district" I mean the OLD foreigner district, where there are Western-style houses and embassies from hundreds of years ago that are now museums.

4.) Pasta in Japan that did not have ketchup on it, was actually tasty, and was Western-style.

5.) Rest stops in Japan are awesome and have better food than most sit-down places in the States. No I'm not kidding. They have just about everything you can think of, and it tastes really good.

6.) Talking to the locals in a pub in Himeji.

7.) Deducing enough from an all-kanji menu to order food and help other people order food gave me a huge high.

Lowlights:

1.) Making a wrong turn in Himeji when looking for somewhere to eat at night and ending up on what one person in the group called "Rape Road"...basically a seedy, dirty, grimy alleyway which seemed to have a lot of Gentlemen's Clubs and other businesses of questionable ethic...and sadly also the only place in the general area with any sort of restaurants at all. Both myself and the other American who went on the trip had a really bad feeling about the places we were walking, but the girls couldn't decide on a place to eat and chivalry dictates we stay with them until they do and just try to ignore the possible yakuza giving us the stink-eye from across the street.

2.) Getting poked and prodded in places by the locals in the pub in Himeji who were trying to compare sizes of hands, shoes, and yes, other stuff too. Once they reached into my personal space, I called it quits for the night and went back to the hotel. Apparently I was the only one that had this issue. They didn't bug Colin or Will. Just me. Grr.

3.) The hills of Kobe make your feet hurt. But at least it's good exercise.

4.) No matter how good the company, being stuck in a Japanese-designed minivan for 4-5 hours at a time is not comfortable.


After returning last night, I went to class today and had what was the single most intense Japanese lesson I have ever had. Most of it was review...actually the sensei pulled me aside after class to ask if I had seen the stuff before. Yes, actually everything covered in "Minna no Nihongo II", I most certainly have studied, and been tested on, before. The bigger problem is that because I haven't studied the language officially (just on my own time) for the past 5 years, my conversation is weak. Reading and comprehending is fine. The issue is with speaking. Fortunately, this program is specially designed to remedy that problem. I suppose it's nice that I don't have to worry about new grammar points, but the way they use joshi (particles) and continually test/attempt to trick you over and over again is going to drill the fundamentals into me. In a lot of ways it's going to make my Japanese much less sloppy.

The bad part about being in SC class though is that I don't get access to the chukyu stuff, like the "Nihongo Cafe" where you can interact with local residents. One of my biggest balks with this program is that although you're forced into using Japanese with other gaijin, there really isn't much ability to interact with native speakers other than class and at stores ... you know, buying stuff. You can only order food in so many different ways before you realize you're getting zero practice.

That's not to say the classes are bad or not worthwhile. I'm on the hunt for some programs that will allow me face time with some locals without sounding forced. I was really, really upset earlier today when I heard Nihongo Cafe wasn't open to SC, and I'm not here long enough to where testing into chukyu would matter (if I do all the modules, the test will happen right before I leave to return to Minnesota)... 無理. Hence my little outburst earlier.

I feel better now though. I do wish I would have retained more, but I am learning quite a bit. Doing the math, each day of classes here is equivalent to about a week of Japanese at college and that doesn't include the time speaking it outside of class or the fact that I'm going to be on a homestay in less than two weeks. This place truly is Japanese Boot Camp.

絶対に強くなれる！