Yesterday, in a kindhearted attempt to absolve me of my boredom, Tou-san took me to work with him - more specifically, the preschool he cooks for. And it reminded me of two immutable facts of Sara's life:
1. Kids love Sara because her facial expressions are funny.
2. Kids love injuring Sara because her facial expressions are funny.
There was a reason I left my job at the daycare. And it was a very, very good one, if I do say so myself. Though I did glean (to my... fortune) that the less interested you are in children, the more interested they are in you. Good fun. I also watched Cars (Kaasu - really) in Japanese, which was... unusual. Actually, I've been watching quite a bit of Japanese television lately, and the only thing it's told me is that if Japan had a writers' strike, no one would bat an eye, because everything is game shows, comedy shows, and game/comedy-shows. And the rare satsujin jiken (murder mystery) special, one of which I watched today with Kaa-san. Naturally, it was hilarious (as well as very educational - my words today are ayashii (suspicious), fushigina (mysterious), and shougen (witness).)
Also - fashion. After careful observation, I have decided that Japanese fashion is some of the weirdest stuff this side of Nibelheim. For one thing, tartan is popular. For another, tartan is popular. And, lastly, people wear tartan and they are not Scottish or in kilts or both. I'm still a bit puzzled over that last part, but I'm sure some sort of enlightenment will come in the near future. Hopefully.
...Okay, truthfully, the tartan thing is still odd, but more odd is that it's really okay to wear it with stripes or florals or stripes and florals. Nobody matches. Jeans are a rarity. The Japanese like long shirts (empire/babydoll shirts are a hit), puff sleeves, tartan, cowboy boots, kneesocks with ballet flats, wavy hair, bright colors, big costume jewelry, and a multitude of other clashing things. Nobody has their ears pierced but everybody wears hairties with plastic strawberries or ladybugs on them. Shirts are almost always overly long, though this isn't too much of a problem since everybody is thin (why, I have no idea, considering the amounts of rice and other delicious carbs everyone ingests). It's very confusing, but I get the feeling I'm actually rather unfashionable. It makes me wish I'd brought weirder clothes instead of things that actually match.
Anyway, in closing, I gotta say, if I'd known beforehand that I'd be able to walk into a store and get a Deluxe Edition Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE volume for 600 yen or so (less, because they're on sale), I'd have left Randolph decades ago. Which is saying something, because I haven't even been around for decades. And I'm not kidding. You are going to have to use a crowbar to get me out of this country.
...I'll let that sink in for a bit. Yeah, Elise. Cake buffet. AND THEN.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Zenbazuru, Or, Too Much Free Time
Answers to comments can be found in the comments. Ahem.
Have recently taken up origami to assauge boredom. Now I'm trying to do zenbazuru, ye olde thousand crane challenge. (For Japanese students: can be broken down to sen-ba-tsuru, only with tenten on the actual crane part. You know how the Japanese are with their tenten and combining words.) This morning my skills improved to the effect that I can make cranes without thinking about them and in midair. I'm now working on doing them with my eyes closed. (They turn out okay, but they're usually lopsided in some way. Hmmm...)
Also popped over the hyaku-en store last night to buy origami and other necessities. Now I have paper with hearts, cherries, Winnie the Pooh (or 'Pooh-san,' as I have discovered he is called here), glow-in-the-dark stars, and witty Engrish statements on them. (The Engrish really is quite amusing. I even gave in and bought a notebook with a hedgehog on it and the quote 'I am really quite good at the needlework thing.' Because of course I am.)
And then. And then. I discovered the hidden treasure of Japan:
the furuhon-ya.
Or, better, the used book store.
OHMYGOD.
Nevertheless, I remained quite calm. Really. Quite, quite calm. Okay, I thought. Books. Lots of books. 105 yen a piece. Okay. They're in Japanese. That's okay. We're good. Books. Cheap books. Everywhere. In good condition. Right. Nice books. Tasty, delicious - no, no - books, everywhere, cheap and for only a hundred yen apiece and ohmygod that was definitely just a Yukine Honami illustration I saw dearest Jesus *LUNGE*.
...Surprisingly, after going through an entire shelf of the used manga section (then I had to leave nooooooo), I only bought two books. (Yes, one was a Yukine Honami. The first volume of Rin!, to be precise.) I'm already regretting not buying more, but oh, the time will come. Yessss...
...I really have too much free time now, don't I. Oh dear.
-sara
Have recently taken up origami to assauge boredom. Now I'm trying to do zenbazuru, ye olde thousand crane challenge. (For Japanese students: can be broken down to sen-ba-tsuru, only with tenten on the actual crane part. You know how the Japanese are with their tenten and combining words.) This morning my skills improved to the effect that I can make cranes without thinking about them and in midair. I'm now working on doing them with my eyes closed. (They turn out okay, but they're usually lopsided in some way. Hmmm...)
Also popped over the hyaku-en store last night to buy origami and other necessities. Now I have paper with hearts, cherries, Winnie the Pooh (or 'Pooh-san,' as I have discovered he is called here), glow-in-the-dark stars, and witty Engrish statements on them. (The Engrish really is quite amusing. I even gave in and bought a notebook with a hedgehog on it and the quote 'I am really quite good at the needlework thing.' Because of course I am.)
And then. And then. I discovered the hidden treasure of Japan:
the furuhon-ya.
Or, better, the used book store.
OHMYGOD.
Nevertheless, I remained quite calm. Really. Quite, quite calm. Okay, I thought. Books. Lots of books. 105 yen a piece. Okay. They're in Japanese. That's okay. We're good. Books. Cheap books. Everywhere. In good condition. Right. Nice books. Tasty, delicious - no, no - books, everywhere, cheap and for only a hundred yen apiece and ohmygod that was definitely just a Yukine Honami illustration I saw dearest Jesus *LUNGE*.
...Surprisingly, after going through an entire shelf of the used manga section (then I had to leave nooooooo), I only bought two books. (Yes, one was a Yukine Honami. The first volume of Rin!, to be precise.) I'm already regretting not buying more, but oh, the time will come. Yessss...
...I really have too much free time now, don't I. Oh dear.
-sara
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Pros & Cons
PROS & CONS
+ I am on the computer every day!
- I am on the computer every day.
+ I find myself content with simple things and have been feeling very relaxed, domestic, et al.
- I am bored out of my skull.
+ So this is what three meals a day feels like.
- It feels like ten additional pounds on each thigh.
+ My Japanese is improving daily.
- But it still sucks.
+ I learn a new kanji every day.
- Kanji suck.
+ I am reading a lot of books.
- Only two of those books are in English and are not some kind of textbook. The others are picture books from Shimon-chan's private library.
+ I don't have to talk to anybody when I don't feel like it.
- I couldn't talk to anybody even if I did feel like it.
+ I listen to a lot of Angela Aki.
- I wish I was listening to Tracy Chapman.
+ Chocolate and rice are always on hand.
- Chocolate and rice are always on hand.
+ I sleep regular hours.
- I sleep on a tatami mattress (which means it is incrementally softer than your average hardwood floor).
And the best/worst of the lot?
+ I am in Japan and listen to Utada Hikaru's newest songs on store intercoms...
- ...but I forgot to load said newest songs onto my iPod, and now "Stay Gold" is stuck in my head on constant repeat.
+ I am on the computer every day!
- I am on the computer every day.
+ I find myself content with simple things and have been feeling very relaxed, domestic, et al.
- I am bored out of my skull.
+ So this is what three meals a day feels like.
- It feels like ten additional pounds on each thigh.
+ My Japanese is improving daily.
- But it still sucks.
+ I learn a new kanji every day.
- Kanji suck.
+ I am reading a lot of books.
- Only two of those books are in English and are not some kind of textbook. The others are picture books from Shimon-chan's private library.
+ I don't have to talk to anybody when I don't feel like it.
- I couldn't talk to anybody even if I did feel like it.
+ I listen to a lot of Angela Aki.
- I wish I was listening to Tracy Chapman.
+ Chocolate and rice are always on hand.
- Chocolate and rice are always on hand.
+ I sleep regular hours.
- I sleep on a tatami mattress (which means it is incrementally softer than your average hardwood floor).
And the best/worst of the lot?
+ I am in Japan and listen to Utada Hikaru's newest songs on store intercoms...
- ...but I forgot to load said newest songs onto my iPod, and now "Stay Gold" is stuck in my head on constant repeat.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
On Communication
Day 4. At home. Latest discovery: someone who appreciates Hikaru no Go as much as I do. (Finally.) Turns out my tou-san has the whole complete series in tankoubon, so I'm slooooowly making my way through my favorite bits. (FYI, for the uninitiated, tou-san - or otou-san, as it should be - is "father" in Japanese.) Tou-san seems to be a big seinen fan... most of his collection consist of these ultra-violent, ultra-sophisticated series from the older Jump magazines. Hmmm... and then there's that weird super-shoujo volleyball series that clearly came out of the Beribara Age. There must be 32 volumes of it in my room... I don't even know if I want to read that. Anything published by Margaret Comics should usually be given a wide berth, after all... but...
[/endmangatalk]
...Erm, anyway! Normal human things beginning here. My English is getting weirder and weirder... I actually had to proofread that last paragraph. Proofread. I haven't proofread anything of mine since at least the eighties. And my sentence structure is all over the place. Lord Almighty. Next thing you know, I'll be misspelling shit. (Not that shit's a very difficult word to spell, you understand... four letters, relatively simple syllabic structure... anyway.)
Communicating has been... interesting. I'm slowly building up my vocabulary, but it seems to still be stocked with useless words. (Yesterday's most memorable word was "hirune" - nap - and today's seems to be either "betsubetsu" (different) or "saboten" (cactus). Betsubetsu's kinda useful, truth be told, but saboten? Eh? What the crap.) Surprisingly, the most fluid conversations I've had seem to be with Nobu and Shimon, my little brothers - though that may be because my responses tend to consist of me going "ehhh" a lot and saying things like "dame" (stop), "abunai yo" (that's dangerous), and "suwaranaide" (don't touch that). Nobu - full name Nobuhito, aged 5 - is, quite simply, ADD embodied in a cute Asian child (though he's thankfully very easy to distract). He's finally gotten the hang of talking to me, I think - he at least kind of understands that I don't actually get everything he says, so he repeats himself accordingly and is always willing to teach me stuff (i.e., this morning he corrected me when I said "de" in a sentence when I meant "yo," and yesterday he stopped me mid-drink to demonstrate the proper way of drinking miso soup without a spoon). We've also established a bit of a running joke with me threatening to eat him... ehhh... but! Yesterday Shimon-chan (aged 2) actually reached out for my hand when we were walking down the stairs, and I got to help him with that. Awwww... kawaii da!! (And then there's the whole "Sara-onee-chan" thing, which has a definite ring to it. Warm fuzzies up the wazoo, I tell ye.)
Talking with Tou-san and Kaa-san's an experience too. They have a little electric dictionary that we use a lot in conversations when we find a word neither one of us can really explain. I had a long talk with Kaa-san over lunch yesterday in which I explained my basic history, my parents, my sisters, my parents' jobs, my family situation, my family's favorite foods, and some of my favorite foods. Typically, it took about two hours. It was pretty good, actually, considering how we communicated almost entirely by typing certain words into the dictionary and passing it across the table to make a point. (Needless to say, I did not get to use "saboten" in a sentence.)
Anyway, other than that, not much to comment on. Kaa-san let me make gyoza yesterday, which was fun, and today I vaccuumed and studied and drank mugicha (barley tea, my new favoritest drink ever, succeeding Diet Coke and orange juice in a long dynasty of liquids that occupy more space in Sara's bloodstreams than blood itself does). I hope to buy some origami paper and a notebook sometime soon. Things are very simple, I feel domestic, etc. etc. I am not homesick, and I doubt I will be until they start teaching higher level mathematics in school a month or so from now. (Like math isn't incomprehensible enough in English.)
Hope everybody is fine and dandy today (which is Tuesday for me and Monday for you lot - God bless the International Date Line),
until next we meet,
-sara
(P.S. The phrase "until next we meet" is something I always, always, inexplicably attach to the person of Seymour Guado, probably because he's the only person I ever heard actually use it and because I heard it from him first. It's like how the word "disaster" reminds me of that single-toothed old ancestor-ghost-lady from Mulan, and "eliminate" reminds me of Freakazoid. All that. Yeah.)
(P.P.S. I also watched Pokemon in Japanese yesterday. It was that episode where Meowth - or Nyaasu, as it were - goes back to his home city and we learn how he came to learn English/Japanese/humanspeak. Needless to say, it was surreal, though it gave me some small joy to see that Ash/Satoshi is voiced by a girl no matter what country he shows up in. And that James/Kojiro is just as gay. No, probably even more gay. Ah, Japan.)
[/endmangatalk]
...Erm, anyway! Normal human things beginning here. My English is getting weirder and weirder... I actually had to proofread that last paragraph. Proofread. I haven't proofread anything of mine since at least the eighties. And my sentence structure is all over the place. Lord Almighty. Next thing you know, I'll be misspelling shit. (Not that shit's a very difficult word to spell, you understand... four letters, relatively simple syllabic structure... anyway.)
Communicating has been... interesting. I'm slowly building up my vocabulary, but it seems to still be stocked with useless words. (Yesterday's most memorable word was "hirune" - nap - and today's seems to be either "betsubetsu" (different) or "saboten" (cactus). Betsubetsu's kinda useful, truth be told, but saboten? Eh? What the crap.) Surprisingly, the most fluid conversations I've had seem to be with Nobu and Shimon, my little brothers - though that may be because my responses tend to consist of me going "ehhh" a lot and saying things like "dame" (stop), "abunai yo" (that's dangerous), and "suwaranaide" (don't touch that). Nobu - full name Nobuhito, aged 5 - is, quite simply, ADD embodied in a cute Asian child (though he's thankfully very easy to distract). He's finally gotten the hang of talking to me, I think - he at least kind of understands that I don't actually get everything he says, so he repeats himself accordingly and is always willing to teach me stuff (i.e., this morning he corrected me when I said "de" in a sentence when I meant "yo," and yesterday he stopped me mid-drink to demonstrate the proper way of drinking miso soup without a spoon). We've also established a bit of a running joke with me threatening to eat him... ehhh... but! Yesterday Shimon-chan (aged 2) actually reached out for my hand when we were walking down the stairs, and I got to help him with that. Awwww... kawaii da!! (And then there's the whole "Sara-onee-chan" thing, which has a definite ring to it. Warm fuzzies up the wazoo, I tell ye.)
Talking with Tou-san and Kaa-san's an experience too. They have a little electric dictionary that we use a lot in conversations when we find a word neither one of us can really explain. I had a long talk with Kaa-san over lunch yesterday in which I explained my basic history, my parents, my sisters, my parents' jobs, my family situation, my family's favorite foods, and some of my favorite foods. Typically, it took about two hours. It was pretty good, actually, considering how we communicated almost entirely by typing certain words into the dictionary and passing it across the table to make a point. (Needless to say, I did not get to use "saboten" in a sentence.)
Anyway, other than that, not much to comment on. Kaa-san let me make gyoza yesterday, which was fun, and today I vaccuumed and studied and drank mugicha (barley tea, my new favoritest drink ever, succeeding Diet Coke and orange juice in a long dynasty of liquids that occupy more space in Sara's bloodstreams than blood itself does). I hope to buy some origami paper and a notebook sometime soon. Things are very simple, I feel domestic, etc. etc. I am not homesick, and I doubt I will be until they start teaching higher level mathematics in school a month or so from now. (Like math isn't incomprehensible enough in English.)
Hope everybody is fine and dandy today (which is Tuesday for me and Monday for you lot - God bless the International Date Line),
until next we meet,
-sara
(P.S. The phrase "until next we meet" is something I always, always, inexplicably attach to the person of Seymour Guado, probably because he's the only person I ever heard actually use it and because I heard it from him first. It's like how the word "disaster" reminds me of that single-toothed old ancestor-ghost-lady from Mulan, and "eliminate" reminds me of Freakazoid. All that. Yeah.)
(P.P.S. I also watched Pokemon in Japanese yesterday. It was that episode where Meowth - or Nyaasu, as it were - goes back to his home city and we learn how he came to learn English/Japanese/humanspeak. Needless to say, it was surreal, though it gave me some small joy to see that Ash/Satoshi is voiced by a girl no matter what country he shows up in. And that James/Kojiro is just as gay. No, probably even more gay. Ah, Japan.)
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Famirii Rabu
Well.
Met my new family yesterday, and am currently writing this from their home computer. I've been specifically told by AFS to not use the computer too much, so these posts may become more and more infrequent... eh. Anyway, let me go over everything from when I last posted.
That takes us to... Monday? Sure. The beginning of... ORIENTATIONNNNN. Yeah, I just got out of about a week of ORIENTATIONNNNN, thanks. Anyway, first day, met up with about thirty or so other kids going to Japan in L.A. and made BFF with them (since, curiously enough, the vast majority of them were just socially adept anime nerds. Imagine that.) 'S all good. Then we became even better biffles on account of being stuck in a plane for fifteen hours together. Still all good. And then we get to Japan.
OHMYGODJAPAN. (Liek, srsly. We were squealing. Even the boys were squealing.) A common conversation, at this point, ran something like this:
Sara: So, you excited?
Other Girl I Am Not Allowed To Release The Name Of: Yeah, I can't wait to meet my host famiohmyGOD WAS THAT A BOAT
S: Yeah, but I wonder what we'll be doing for the next couple of days befYES, YES IT WAS OHMYGOD WE ARE LANDING I THINK MAYBE
OGIANATRTNO: Yeah, I was wondering about that tYES, YES WE ARE TOTALLY IN JAPAN OHGOD
Actually, we found ourselves frequently forgetting that we were in fact in Japan because of all the English we were speaking - which made sighting something like a, oh, I don't know, taiyaki vending machine especially cool. (Yeah, I bought something off it. Two taiyaki for only 300! Woohoo!
Ah, have to eat breakfast. Um, the week abbreviated: we had an extremely awkward hygiene talk in which we learned about something called puberty, I went over Rainbow Bridge and consequently died and went to heaven, and took a bath with at least twenty strangers. (If you're confused, Wikipedia it, fools. Japanese public baths. Yeah. Um.)
Anyway, cheers and, until next time,
-sara
Met my new family yesterday, and am currently writing this from their home computer. I've been specifically told by AFS to not use the computer too much, so these posts may become more and more infrequent... eh. Anyway, let me go over everything from when I last posted.
That takes us to... Monday? Sure. The beginning of... ORIENTATIONNNNN. Yeah, I just got out of about a week of ORIENTATIONNNNN, thanks. Anyway, first day, met up with about thirty or so other kids going to Japan in L.A. and made BFF with them (since, curiously enough, the vast majority of them were just socially adept anime nerds. Imagine that.) 'S all good. Then we became even better biffles on account of being stuck in a plane for fifteen hours together. Still all good. And then we get to Japan.
OHMYGODJAPAN. (Liek, srsly. We were squealing. Even the boys were squealing.) A common conversation, at this point, ran something like this:
Sara: So, you excited?
Other Girl I Am Not Allowed To Release The Name Of: Yeah, I can't wait to meet my host famiohmyGOD WAS THAT A BOAT
S: Yeah, but I wonder what we'll be doing for the next couple of days befYES, YES IT WAS OHMYGOD WE ARE LANDING I THINK MAYBE
OGIANATRTNO: Yeah, I was wondering about that tYES, YES WE ARE TOTALLY IN JAPAN OHGOD
Actually, we found ourselves frequently forgetting that we were in fact in Japan because of all the English we were speaking - which made sighting something like a, oh, I don't know, taiyaki vending machine especially cool. (Yeah, I bought something off it. Two taiyaki for only 300! Woohoo!
Ah, have to eat breakfast. Um, the week abbreviated: we had an extremely awkward hygiene talk in which we learned about something called puberty, I went over Rainbow Bridge and consequently died and went to heaven, and took a bath with at least twenty strangers. (If you're confused, Wikipedia it, fools. Japanese public baths. Yeah. Um.)
Anyway, cheers and, until next time,
-sara
Sunday, March 16, 2008
First post!
So.
Um.
...Hi? This is Sara, reporting for duty. Let's see. I left Randolph yesterday in order to start a kinda-new life abroad in Japan, where I'll be staying for about a year as a high-school student. This is basically my travel blogthing, wherein I shall post whatever I want whenever I want (though I'm going to try to aim for a post weekly). There will be PICTURES! and OPINIONS! and WIT ABOUNDING! besides, so I hope you enjoy yourselves.
(...Okay, now that the mission statement's outta the way...)
I'm not technically in Japan yet - just in L.A. I won't actually be leaving until the 18th, which is when I and a boatload of other odd American children will fly over the sea to go live with strangers and eat rice with every meal. (It is also because of that rice that I've taken to calling everything I've eaten for the past week or so a "Last Meal." For example: Sara's Last Deep-Fried American-Chinese General Tsou's Chcken. Sara's Last Bowl of Cheerios. Sara's Last Leprechaun Skillet Dish From The Black Stallion (Which Is Delicious, By The Way, And Should Totally Be Ordered At The Next Available Opportunity). And so on. It's been very sad.) Even then I won't meet my family until the 22nd (is that when it is? I think so), so it'll still be some time before things get interesting here. *heavy sigh*
In the meantime, however, feel free to Wikipedia Obihiro or comment as to how I can make this blog slightly more interesting. (If you suggest schoolgirl pictures, you will be ignored. And probably kicked in the shin.)
Until then,
cheers!
-sara
Um.
...Hi? This is Sara, reporting for duty. Let's see. I left Randolph yesterday in order to start a kinda-new life abroad in Japan, where I'll be staying for about a year as a high-school student. This is basically my travel blogthing, wherein I shall post whatever I want whenever I want (though I'm going to try to aim for a post weekly). There will be PICTURES! and OPINIONS! and WIT ABOUNDING! besides, so I hope you enjoy yourselves.
(...Okay, now that the mission statement's outta the way...)
I'm not technically in Japan yet - just in L.A. I won't actually be leaving until the 18th, which is when I and a boatload of other odd American children will fly over the sea to go live with strangers and eat rice with every meal. (It is also because of that rice that I've taken to calling everything I've eaten for the past week or so a "Last Meal." For example: Sara's Last Deep-Fried American-Chinese General Tsou's Chcken. Sara's Last Bowl of Cheerios. Sara's Last Leprechaun Skillet Dish From The Black Stallion (Which Is Delicious, By The Way, And Should Totally Be Ordered At The Next Available Opportunity). And so on. It's been very sad.) Even then I won't meet my family until the 22nd (is that when it is? I think so), so it'll still be some time before things get interesting here. *heavy sigh*
In the meantime, however, feel free to Wikipedia Obihiro or comment as to how I can make this blog slightly more interesting. (If you suggest schoolgirl pictures, you will be ignored. And probably kicked in the shin.)
Until then,
cheers!
-sara
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