Hi everyone,
Things here are, as usual, really good. It's turning into Fall and, despite being from Utah and have a tendency to enjoy cool air, it's VERY cool! I already miss central heating. My poor toes :( But the leafs are starting to change colors and it's so beautiful. The seasons change slowly here, unlike in Utah where we have construction and winter season and that's all. I will take a trip to Kyoto once it's REALLY fall and see all the famous Autumn leafs, please look forward to pictures.
This week I had the change to go to an Elementary school and speak to the kids. . . they wanted us to do it in Japanese. I don't think I've ever been more afraid of children. I practiced my simple answers, to the pre-prepared questions, like crazy until I had them memorized. Only four of us could go: Me, Sheng, Fefe, and U chan . . . so me and the Asians! I sure stand out. . . all the time! But it was a lot of fun. I did well and the kids were really cute. After we answered the questions they gave us they asked some more so the Otemon staff member that took us had to translate for me into Japanese. One of the little boys asked if we had boyfriends, his teacher lectured him and made him ask another question. He was really disappointed and we all laughed. As a thank you for visiting their school they gave me a 3,000 yen coupon to a book store. Which is a little over $30 so I was really surprised. I want to go by the "Making Out in Japanese" book and maybe a couple others to help me study Japanese :)
This week so many of my teachers, and even one of my Japanese language partners, got sick so many of my classes were canceled. This weekened, right now is Sunday, Friday was canceled because there will be a festival on campus today and tomorrow. So I don't have school on Monday or Tuesday. Thursday is another holiday so as of next week I will only attend two days of school . . . it kind of sucks. Too much free time is not a good thing. I'm not sure what I'll do.
Friday, since we had no school, Norihiro came over to my house and we studied. He took the TOEIC test today (the English language test) so we studied a little bit of English and Japanese. Mostly we ended up just talking and goofing off. We went out for dinner to a Ramen shop and I ate the best Ramen I've had in Japan thus far. It was so good! I suggested that we rent a movie since we had talked about movies we liked. He really likes American movies, especially scary ones and super hero ones. I recommended Thor but he wanted a scary movie. He wanted to make me watch The Shinning, I adamantly refused! We settled on Paranormal Activity, much to my despair. I'm so glad Yuka and I watched scary movies together because I was more prepared, thank you Yuka! So there we were, sitting in my room, crowded around my table and lap top, me cuddling a pillow, Norihiro very calm. And the end of the movie I had hid my face behind my pillow more then once and was squeezing Norihiro's sleeve with two fingers, while jumping and squeeking each time I got scared. . . I don't think he flinched even once. As I walked him to the train station he said that next time we should rent Paranormal Activity 2 and I should come to his house and watch it there since he has a big TV in his room. I agreed but complained a little to him about it. The day was a lot of fun though and luckily I wasn't too scared to sleep.
Saturday there was a Halloween party we attended with a bunch of little kids. We were provided by the college to help, without being informed what we were going to help with. So we hung out with little kids for a few hours, wearing costumes, and taking A LOT of pictures. I made four very cute little friends and there are pictures on Facebook.
Today is Sunday and I was able to make it to church this time. I skipped out on an all nighter that the boys planned but that didn't stop Louis from texting me at 3 AM to tell me how much fun I was missing. But I attended church and it was really nice. It was a stake meeting so I finally got to meet the Sister missionaries. I also met the Mission President and his wife. It was fun and, although my Japanese is still terrible, I'm picking up on the patterns of talking. I've hit a point where sometimes I can understand the topic of a question people are asking me and get the jist of what they're saying but not know it word for word. I'm coming along but I have a way to go. Still can't speak it but I'm doing better.
Oh, I've also come to a conclusion: Technology hates me! For those of you who know, recently my phone died. It killed over suddenly and I lost a years worth of pictures and videos and ended up spending a ton of time and money to get it replaced. Then, right before leaving for Japan, my laptop died, making me lose the start of a book I was writing, and all of my music. Friday, while hanging out with Norihiro, my ipod randomly decided to delete all of my music from itself, leaving me with 14 songs. I threw my ipod across the room and mourned the loss of my Japanese music that I can't get again . . . I've had nothing but bad luck I swear. So, my dear friends, for those of you who care, please save me some music that I can nab when I come home :)
Not much else to say . . . mellow week. I hope you're all well. Love and light!
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Monday, October 24, 2011
Osaka Aquarium and a Day with Norihiro
Dear family and friends,
I've realized a really horrible truth: In the Land of Tomorrow time moves so fast!!! I don't know what I'll do when my time bomb blows. . . probably cry. Anyways! Not going to think about that until January 31st :)
Things here are great! Mostly I'm studying and improving my relationships with everyone. I really love my host family. My host mom and I are getting very close, she's so funny, and we often have good talks. My host dad, as usual, is just hilarious. Sarah and I talk all the time, I can't imagine Japan without her. And I'm making some really fun Japanese friends.
Last week Sarah and her host family invited me to dinner. When we came through the door her host sister, who is 8, came running to meet me. She said, in very adorable English, "Nice to meet you!" Her host sisters are so cute and just chatted my ear off in the fastest Japanese! I tried to understand them but their mom had to translate for Sarah, who then translated for me, many of the words lol. Her host mom was so sweet! Sarah has told them a lot about me, just like I tell my family about her, and so she was very attentive and asked me a lot of questions. I put pictures of them on Facebook :) That night Sarah and I did homework for our Japanese Science Fiction class; we watched the first Godzilla! It was so funny! That class is a lot of fun.
I didn't do so great on my last Japanese test. Sadly I've realized my most difficult thing in Japanese: Vocabulary! I can remember rules, grammar points, conjugation, etc. but give me a list of vocabulary words and I'm useless! If I could remember all the words I'd be talking circles around everyone. One of my teachers teased me that if I kept studying maybe I would remember them in a year. . . sadly it might be true. Anyone have good tips for when they were learning a language? Please let me know.
Last week honestly seems to be a bit of a blur . . . just school work . . . hanging out with friends. . . eating dinner. . . going to bed. . . repeat. . . As I said in my last email I made friends with a Japanese guy named Norihiro. He's one of the language tutors so he's part of the "group" now and everyone is always calling him or texting him to do something. He hangs out with the boys a lot, which results in them teaching him really bad things to do and say lol. Norihiro happens to have a motorcycle and I asked him for a ride one day. He drove me to the station, a drive which on the bus takes about 20 to 30 minutes, took about 10 to 15 minutes on the back of a bike. It was a little scary and very fun :) The next day Norihiro attended one of our late classes so on the way walking down to the bus I asked him for another ride. He immediately agreed which made me very happy. It was dark and cold so, instead of holding his shoulders like the first time I wrapped my arms around his waist and off we went. When I got home I told my host mom and she teased me horribly. She said it's bad for a girl and a guy to be holding onto each other like that, in Japan. She gave me such a hard time about it, all the while laughing at the fact that I more or less cuddled Norihiro in public, that I worried about it a lot. I text him and apologized if I made him uncomfortable (he's so shy I assumed he wouldn't tell me if it bothered him). He replied that there must be a misunderstanding because I did nothing wrong and he had been comfortable. This resulted in even more teasing, the next day, from Sarah, as she insisted that he liked it. Since then I haven't asked for a ride lol.
Friday came and I had the full intention of not going out on the weekend and only to do homework and study. And since the forecast called for rain I knew it wouldn't be a problem. I was talking on Skype with Norihiro, texting so I could send him pictures of Utah. He wants to do a study abroad in the US and since Otemon has a connection with Snow College I recommended there. He asked what my plans were for the weekend and I said just homework and he said we should do something. I agreed. He made plans, after I told him about the bad weather, and it resulted in him planning a day to the Osaka Aquarium. So, instead of homework, bright and early Saturday morning I met with Norihiro in Umeda. He, of course true to his character, took care of me by translating and guiding me where we should go. I realized, after spending many hours with him one on one, that my Japanese is crap and his English is very basic lol. Our conversations therefor were simple and often I was pulling out my book and he was pulling out his dictionary. But we managed and we both agreed that by the end of the Semester my Japanese and his English will be perfect! We had lunch before going to the aquarium at a little ramen shop that had a huge shelf full of Manga. A family, a dad with two daughters, were in there. The dad was foreign with blue eyes and his little girls, probably no more then 5 and 3, were so cute! Norihiro and I watched them as they giggled and played, speaking the cutest Japanese ever. When we reached the aquarium there was an entertainer outside on the courtyard that a large crowd had gathered around. Norihiro and I stopped to watch for a while and I'm glad we did. The guy was hilarious! I took a video and put it on Facebook but sadly the act I recorded was probably his least funny one. We watched him for at least half an hour before going to the aquarium. The aquarium, right on the bay of the sea, was really beautiful. They played the most calming music that it was so relaxing. As we looked at all the fish we would both say things like "Kirei" or "Kawaii" (Pretty, Cute) etc. Then, upon deciding to mix it up, at the next tank I said "Oishiso!" (looks tasty). This made Norihiro bust up laughing and he agreed by saying "Tabetai!" (I want to eat it). So, despite the language barriers, Norihiro and I were able to have conversation and have a lot of fun. After the aquarium we got icecream and I pulled out my ipod for us to listen to. Norihiro is a great lover of music, he plays the guitar, and was thrilled to see I had Spitz songs (thank you Trevor) as well as a small collection of Jazz music. I recommended Jack Johnson to him and he really enjoyed the sound. After icecream we found our entertainer was back, he had on a new shirt and looked freshly showered, so we watched him for another half hour or so. On the way back it started to rain like crazy. I pulled out my umbrella and, when Norihiro didn't pull his out, I offered to share. So he took it from me, since he's taller, and we shared my umbrella while Norihiro got us lost lol. It took a while to find the right subway to get back to Umeda but we did. Once there we walked around the station for a while and around the city. Eventually we got hungry and made our way to a small restaurant for dinner where, as usual, Norihiro payed for most of the bill and I ended up paying about 500 yen (about $6.25). While we had dinner Madison, one of the Aussie boys, text us so we met up with him for a while. He wanted to go out drinking and it seemed like Norihiro wanted to go. I figured I would go home when they went. Right as we met up with Sheng, who was going too, Norihiro said he didn't want to. I assumed he was tired so asked if he needed to go home. He said no and that he had time. So, just he and I, carried on our night. We went to a book store and looked at Japanese and English books, looked around an import foods store, went to a pachinko parlor and got pictures in a booth. I caught the last train home that night and, upon further introspection, I'm not sure what Norihiro and I did to pass 12 hours together but we did it lol. Our conversation, though difficult at times, was casual and fun. He's really kind and as eager to learn about English as I am about Japanese.
My hanging out with Norihiro one on one for 12 hours resulted in A LOT of teasing from my host parents and Sarah, it's Monday and it still hasn't died out lol. Ooki Chan insisted that a Japanese boy with an American girl walking around Umeda until the last train was a bad idea, all while laughing at me. When I showed her the pictures of use from the booth she had a lot to say about how good looking he was and has since told me, a few times, that she's jealous of the attention I'm getting. The umbrella situation, as it's now referred to, aparently is proof enough that Norihiro has good tactics, as Oniisan says. It's no use trying to tell them he just wants to practice English and that he's really interested in coming to Utah for school lol.
Today, in the cafeteria, I met the most American Japanese person ever. He saw Sarah and I sitting at a table talking, our class had been canceled, and asked, in English if he and his friends could join us. We agreed. He enthused, loudly, "Ok!" and sat down. He explained to us that he had done a year abroad in Los Angeles so his English was quiet good. He admitted though that he's not a student of Otemon but of Osaka University and was just there visiting some friends. He was so goofy and wild that he almost reminded me of Zac at times, including his style. Sarah and I have lovingly nicknamed Genki Boy (Lively or energetic boy) in secret lol. He took down our names and said he would add us on Facebook. I hope to see more of Genki Boy because he was so funny. On top of that he speaks Kansaiben, the dialect I want to learn :)
Not much else to report. Just studying. . . or actually right now procrastinating. . . Japanese. I hope you're all doing well. I love you guys and think about you all every day. Hugs and kisses! Until next week :)
I've realized a really horrible truth: In the Land of Tomorrow time moves so fast!!! I don't know what I'll do when my time bomb blows. . . probably cry. Anyways! Not going to think about that until January 31st :)
Things here are great! Mostly I'm studying and improving my relationships with everyone. I really love my host family. My host mom and I are getting very close, she's so funny, and we often have good talks. My host dad, as usual, is just hilarious. Sarah and I talk all the time, I can't imagine Japan without her. And I'm making some really fun Japanese friends.
Last week Sarah and her host family invited me to dinner. When we came through the door her host sister, who is 8, came running to meet me. She said, in very adorable English, "Nice to meet you!" Her host sisters are so cute and just chatted my ear off in the fastest Japanese! I tried to understand them but their mom had to translate for Sarah, who then translated for me, many of the words lol. Her host mom was so sweet! Sarah has told them a lot about me, just like I tell my family about her, and so she was very attentive and asked me a lot of questions. I put pictures of them on Facebook :) That night Sarah and I did homework for our Japanese Science Fiction class; we watched the first Godzilla! It was so funny! That class is a lot of fun.
I didn't do so great on my last Japanese test. Sadly I've realized my most difficult thing in Japanese: Vocabulary! I can remember rules, grammar points, conjugation, etc. but give me a list of vocabulary words and I'm useless! If I could remember all the words I'd be talking circles around everyone. One of my teachers teased me that if I kept studying maybe I would remember them in a year. . . sadly it might be true. Anyone have good tips for when they were learning a language? Please let me know.
Last week honestly seems to be a bit of a blur . . . just school work . . . hanging out with friends. . . eating dinner. . . going to bed. . . repeat. . . As I said in my last email I made friends with a Japanese guy named Norihiro. He's one of the language tutors so he's part of the "group" now and everyone is always calling him or texting him to do something. He hangs out with the boys a lot, which results in them teaching him really bad things to do and say lol. Norihiro happens to have a motorcycle and I asked him for a ride one day. He drove me to the station, a drive which on the bus takes about 20 to 30 minutes, took about 10 to 15 minutes on the back of a bike. It was a little scary and very fun :) The next day Norihiro attended one of our late classes so on the way walking down to the bus I asked him for another ride. He immediately agreed which made me very happy. It was dark and cold so, instead of holding his shoulders like the first time I wrapped my arms around his waist and off we went. When I got home I told my host mom and she teased me horribly. She said it's bad for a girl and a guy to be holding onto each other like that, in Japan. She gave me such a hard time about it, all the while laughing at the fact that I more or less cuddled Norihiro in public, that I worried about it a lot. I text him and apologized if I made him uncomfortable (he's so shy I assumed he wouldn't tell me if it bothered him). He replied that there must be a misunderstanding because I did nothing wrong and he had been comfortable. This resulted in even more teasing, the next day, from Sarah, as she insisted that he liked it. Since then I haven't asked for a ride lol.
Friday came and I had the full intention of not going out on the weekend and only to do homework and study. And since the forecast called for rain I knew it wouldn't be a problem. I was talking on Skype with Norihiro, texting so I could send him pictures of Utah. He wants to do a study abroad in the US and since Otemon has a connection with Snow College I recommended there. He asked what my plans were for the weekend and I said just homework and he said we should do something. I agreed. He made plans, after I told him about the bad weather, and it resulted in him planning a day to the Osaka Aquarium. So, instead of homework, bright and early Saturday morning I met with Norihiro in Umeda. He, of course true to his character, took care of me by translating and guiding me where we should go. I realized, after spending many hours with him one on one, that my Japanese is crap and his English is very basic lol. Our conversations therefor were simple and often I was pulling out my book and he was pulling out his dictionary. But we managed and we both agreed that by the end of the Semester my Japanese and his English will be perfect! We had lunch before going to the aquarium at a little ramen shop that had a huge shelf full of Manga. A family, a dad with two daughters, were in there. The dad was foreign with blue eyes and his little girls, probably no more then 5 and 3, were so cute! Norihiro and I watched them as they giggled and played, speaking the cutest Japanese ever. When we reached the aquarium there was an entertainer outside on the courtyard that a large crowd had gathered around. Norihiro and I stopped to watch for a while and I'm glad we did. The guy was hilarious! I took a video and put it on Facebook but sadly the act I recorded was probably his least funny one. We watched him for at least half an hour before going to the aquarium. The aquarium, right on the bay of the sea, was really beautiful. They played the most calming music that it was so relaxing. As we looked at all the fish we would both say things like "Kirei" or "Kawaii" (Pretty, Cute) etc. Then, upon deciding to mix it up, at the next tank I said "Oishiso!" (looks tasty). This made Norihiro bust up laughing and he agreed by saying "Tabetai!" (I want to eat it). So, despite the language barriers, Norihiro and I were able to have conversation and have a lot of fun. After the aquarium we got icecream and I pulled out my ipod for us to listen to. Norihiro is a great lover of music, he plays the guitar, and was thrilled to see I had Spitz songs (thank you Trevor) as well as a small collection of Jazz music. I recommended Jack Johnson to him and he really enjoyed the sound. After icecream we found our entertainer was back, he had on a new shirt and looked freshly showered, so we watched him for another half hour or so. On the way back it started to rain like crazy. I pulled out my umbrella and, when Norihiro didn't pull his out, I offered to share. So he took it from me, since he's taller, and we shared my umbrella while Norihiro got us lost lol. It took a while to find the right subway to get back to Umeda but we did. Once there we walked around the station for a while and around the city. Eventually we got hungry and made our way to a small restaurant for dinner where, as usual, Norihiro payed for most of the bill and I ended up paying about 500 yen (about $6.25). While we had dinner Madison, one of the Aussie boys, text us so we met up with him for a while. He wanted to go out drinking and it seemed like Norihiro wanted to go. I figured I would go home when they went. Right as we met up with Sheng, who was going too, Norihiro said he didn't want to. I assumed he was tired so asked if he needed to go home. He said no and that he had time. So, just he and I, carried on our night. We went to a book store and looked at Japanese and English books, looked around an import foods store, went to a pachinko parlor and got pictures in a booth. I caught the last train home that night and, upon further introspection, I'm not sure what Norihiro and I did to pass 12 hours together but we did it lol. Our conversation, though difficult at times, was casual and fun. He's really kind and as eager to learn about English as I am about Japanese.
My hanging out with Norihiro one on one for 12 hours resulted in A LOT of teasing from my host parents and Sarah, it's Monday and it still hasn't died out lol. Ooki Chan insisted that a Japanese boy with an American girl walking around Umeda until the last train was a bad idea, all while laughing at me. When I showed her the pictures of use from the booth she had a lot to say about how good looking he was and has since told me, a few times, that she's jealous of the attention I'm getting. The umbrella situation, as it's now referred to, aparently is proof enough that Norihiro has good tactics, as Oniisan says. It's no use trying to tell them he just wants to practice English and that he's really interested in coming to Utah for school lol.
Today, in the cafeteria, I met the most American Japanese person ever. He saw Sarah and I sitting at a table talking, our class had been canceled, and asked, in English if he and his friends could join us. We agreed. He enthused, loudly, "Ok!" and sat down. He explained to us that he had done a year abroad in Los Angeles so his English was quiet good. He admitted though that he's not a student of Otemon but of Osaka University and was just there visiting some friends. He was so goofy and wild that he almost reminded me of Zac at times, including his style. Sarah and I have lovingly nicknamed Genki Boy (Lively or energetic boy) in secret lol. He took down our names and said he would add us on Facebook. I hope to see more of Genki Boy because he was so funny. On top of that he speaks Kansaiben, the dialect I want to learn :)
Not much else to report. Just studying. . . or actually right now procrastinating. . . Japanese. I hope you're all doing well. I love you guys and think about you all every day. Hugs and kisses! Until next week :)
Monday, October 17, 2011
Karaoke and Osaka Castle
Hey everyone,
Wow, I can't believe it's only been a week! So much has happened that I don't even know where to start!
Monday in my Management class there were a few extra students. . . and not white people! I started up a conversation with the nearest one and he ended up being a Japanese student studying English. He speaks very little English but he's going to attend two of our classes as he wants to become a translator. Also he's one of the language partners for us to study Japanese with. If you have been looking at any of my most recent pictures you will already know him, his name is Norihiro. Tuesday we had the day off because of a holiday and Sarah and I wanted to see a movie so we invited everyone, including Norihiro, on Monday after class.
Tuesday rolled around and only three people showed up for the movie: Me, Sarah, and Norihiro! Poor Norihiro is so shy, probably one of the most typically Japanese boys I've met so far, but he braved us. He spent the whole afternoon with us and took very good care of us, helping order our food at lunch and buy our tickets at the movie. We went to Planet of the Apes, which I really liked, and then out for ice cream. When we went to buy our ice cream Norihiro insisted on treating us. It's a habit of his, to be very kind and want to treat people, I've noticed. We met up for the movie at 12 and didn't leave until 6 so we had a lot of time to ask Norihiro a lot of questions. He asked many in return as well. We found out that it was his birthday on Friday, he turned 20, so we insisted that we had to go out with him and he agreed.
Friday rolled around and we all met up, all of the exchange students and Norihiro, and went out to dinner and Karaoke. There are quiet a few pictures on Facebook if you care to see. I officially went to Karaoke . . . and I didn't get home until 8 AM! It was a lot of fun though and I got to see some really fun sides of my classmates that I haven't seen before. Some of them have sides I'm not so fond of . . . I'll tell you a little of what I learned about some of them :)
Norihiro: True to character he tried to help pay for dinner and Karaoke, even though it was his birthday and we wanted to treat him. At both the restaurant and Karaoke he took care of everything, speaking to the waiters and bartenders. In a Karaoke box when they bring drinks they have to take the equal number of glasses out, so they don't pile up. At one point in the night there weren't enough empty glasses so, Norihiro taking care of us, downed some large shot of something strong to give the bartender the glass. I laughed as he coughed when he finished and asked if he was ok. Soon thereafter his English speaking abilities increased, as did his courage. We ended up being able to talk him into showing us him stomach muscles after hearing he was strong. It took a little coaxing but finally he lifted his shirt up with a bashful smile. I think mine and Sarah's jaws hit the floor and all the other boys turned a shade of green. This skinny little 20 year old Japanese kid has a very amazing 6 pack! Sarah even got a picture of it. . . it's on Facebook . . .girls, seriously, go look at it. It made my night :)
Ismail: This scrawny little boy from Morocco got me to show my "Cox". At one point in the night he got a handful of my bottom as I walked past him. I went nuts on him. I don't think I've sworn much since coming here, amazingly Japan brings out a mellow side of me, but I sure let him have it. I even gave him a solid, extremely hard, punch on the shoulder. He apologized and insisted he was drunk and he didn't mean anything by it. He didn't learn his lesson though and kept trying to put his arm around me and even asked if he could hold my hand or kiss my cheek. I sure let my mouth fly with him though and for the rest of the night. . . and even today when I saw him, I pretty much ignored him and blew him off when he tried to speak to me. He had WAY too much on Friday, he couldn't even stand, but I'm not sure I want to go out with him around again. He's lucky I'm nice and didn't hit him in the face. He's so tiny I could snap him in half and almost did. Sarah was proud of me for freaking on him though.
Madison: Silly boy from Australia only speaks Japanese when he's drunk! I'm not sure what that's all about but it made me laugh really hard. He turned to me while we were at Karaoke and said something so fast I couldn't understand a word of it. I told him to speak English and he looked at me like I was crazy. He then proceeded to break down what each word he said was. He's nuts lol.
Sheng: He speaks very good English when he's drunk, increasing a lot. For some reason when he's sober though he has a hard time with simple conversation. But when he's drunk he understands everything. At one point in the night someone asked him if he wanted another drink, he loudly announced that he was drunk and if he had anymore he'd be able to speak as good of English and me and Sarah. We laughed so hard. He doesn't talk with a drunk voice, he just sounds normal, so in very clear English he will say "I'm drunk" and it almost sounds more like a joke lol. He has an amazing singing voice though so Karaoke, with him singing in Chinese, is a lot of fun. He's also very willing to dance when Sarah and I ask and willingly attempts to sing English songs he doesn't know. I've said it before and it still stands true: Sheng is one of my favorite people here.
Sarah: Sarah doesn't go too crazy when she drinks but at the end of the night, when we left Karaoke, we went to a bar because she wanted some food and Xay wanted a few more drinks. We ended up talking about our breasts, for some reason, which resulted in her grabbing my chest to compare our sizes (I'm kind of used to it with my crazy sisters and friends lol). I couldn't stop laughing though so Sheng, who was sitting between us but had been leaning forward to talk to Colin, didn't know what had happened. He leaned back and insisted to know what we were both laughing so hard about. We didn't explain to much but instead asked him to teach us how to say "big boobs" in Chinese. He did, with much giggling whenever we would say it. Sarah then proceeded to get Colin's attention. She called his name, when he looked at her, she simply said what Sheng had taught us. Colin, very comically, placed his hand over his heart and gasped. He insisted that his heart was pounded just at her words. Sarah then got Xay's attention and said it to him too. He just laughed as we all giggled over how freaking hilarious we think we are lol. This has now become a sort of calling card for Sarah and I so Sheng lol. Today, when we saw him in the morning, we randomly said it and he gave us a huge smile. We also made ourselves some labels during one of the classes, Sheng taught us how to write "big boobs" in Chinese, and we included a label that said "made in Australia" for Sarah and "made in America" for me. We took a picture. . . that's also on Facebook . . . along with Colin asking how much they cost lol. Please no one judge me, I can't be held responsible for my crazy girly behavior with Sarah. We just have so much fun.
Saturday I mostly slept, trying to recover from such a crazy sober night!
Sunday I went to Osaka Castle with Norihiro and Louis. Louis later told me that they planned to go and that Norihiro asked if Louis was bringing anyone else. Louis said no but said it was ok if Norihiro did. Norihiro then invited me. I feel special :) I suppose it's because I told him on Tuesday when we went to the movie that I really wanted to see it. Either way I was so happy he invited me. Osaka Castle was amazing! Pictures are on Facebook. Norihiro, of course, bought our lunch despite our trying to stop him. He also bought our tickets into the Castle without so much as a word. He turned around from buying his, we were standing in line, and handed both Louis and I a ticket. I gave him a look and said his name in a very "How could you?" kind of way. He just smiled and insisted "Daijyoubu!" (It's ok/don't worry about it). He's crazy stubborn about his kindness. The kid's going to go bankrupt taking care of us so much.
When I got home on Sunday I showed some of the pictures to my host mom. She got one look at Norihiro and said "He's pretty! So handsome!" and insisted I had to bring him over sometime. This set us both off giggling and I ended up telling her about his amazing stomach too lol. Since her reaction to him was so positive I showed his picture to my host dad. He simply smiled and gave a very approving nod. I think they both like him because he's Japanese and speaks Kansaiben (the dialect they speak) lol. Either way my host mom loves it when I bring "pretty boys" over to the house. Both she and my host dad really like Xay. But Oniisan likes him because Xay brought him Sake, not because Xay's pretty lol. I told Xay that my Host Mom calls him pretty and this made him very happy. His response was "I am pretty".
As you can tell everything here is good. Every day is an adventure. I'm studying like crazy and hopefully soon I can start speaking more Japanese then basic "good morning" type stuff. Nihongo o muzakashi! (Japanese is difficult) On the upside of that my English is getting worse, from speaking very basic, broken sounding English with people, so maybe my Japanese will get better lol. I'll come home sounding like an idiot I'm sure. All is well though. I love and miss you all. Please take care! Until next week xoxo
Wow, I can't believe it's only been a week! So much has happened that I don't even know where to start!
Monday in my Management class there were a few extra students. . . and not white people! I started up a conversation with the nearest one and he ended up being a Japanese student studying English. He speaks very little English but he's going to attend two of our classes as he wants to become a translator. Also he's one of the language partners for us to study Japanese with. If you have been looking at any of my most recent pictures you will already know him, his name is Norihiro. Tuesday we had the day off because of a holiday and Sarah and I wanted to see a movie so we invited everyone, including Norihiro, on Monday after class.
Tuesday rolled around and only three people showed up for the movie: Me, Sarah, and Norihiro! Poor Norihiro is so shy, probably one of the most typically Japanese boys I've met so far, but he braved us. He spent the whole afternoon with us and took very good care of us, helping order our food at lunch and buy our tickets at the movie. We went to Planet of the Apes, which I really liked, and then out for ice cream. When we went to buy our ice cream Norihiro insisted on treating us. It's a habit of his, to be very kind and want to treat people, I've noticed. We met up for the movie at 12 and didn't leave until 6 so we had a lot of time to ask Norihiro a lot of questions. He asked many in return as well. We found out that it was his birthday on Friday, he turned 20, so we insisted that we had to go out with him and he agreed.
Friday rolled around and we all met up, all of the exchange students and Norihiro, and went out to dinner and Karaoke. There are quiet a few pictures on Facebook if you care to see. I officially went to Karaoke . . . and I didn't get home until 8 AM! It was a lot of fun though and I got to see some really fun sides of my classmates that I haven't seen before. Some of them have sides I'm not so fond of . . . I'll tell you a little of what I learned about some of them :)
Norihiro: True to character he tried to help pay for dinner and Karaoke, even though it was his birthday and we wanted to treat him. At both the restaurant and Karaoke he took care of everything, speaking to the waiters and bartenders. In a Karaoke box when they bring drinks they have to take the equal number of glasses out, so they don't pile up. At one point in the night there weren't enough empty glasses so, Norihiro taking care of us, downed some large shot of something strong to give the bartender the glass. I laughed as he coughed when he finished and asked if he was ok. Soon thereafter his English speaking abilities increased, as did his courage. We ended up being able to talk him into showing us him stomach muscles after hearing he was strong. It took a little coaxing but finally he lifted his shirt up with a bashful smile. I think mine and Sarah's jaws hit the floor and all the other boys turned a shade of green. This skinny little 20 year old Japanese kid has a very amazing 6 pack! Sarah even got a picture of it. . . it's on Facebook . . .girls, seriously, go look at it. It made my night :)
Ismail: This scrawny little boy from Morocco got me to show my "Cox". At one point in the night he got a handful of my bottom as I walked past him. I went nuts on him. I don't think I've sworn much since coming here, amazingly Japan brings out a mellow side of me, but I sure let him have it. I even gave him a solid, extremely hard, punch on the shoulder. He apologized and insisted he was drunk and he didn't mean anything by it. He didn't learn his lesson though and kept trying to put his arm around me and even asked if he could hold my hand or kiss my cheek. I sure let my mouth fly with him though and for the rest of the night. . . and even today when I saw him, I pretty much ignored him and blew him off when he tried to speak to me. He had WAY too much on Friday, he couldn't even stand, but I'm not sure I want to go out with him around again. He's lucky I'm nice and didn't hit him in the face. He's so tiny I could snap him in half and almost did. Sarah was proud of me for freaking on him though.
Madison: Silly boy from Australia only speaks Japanese when he's drunk! I'm not sure what that's all about but it made me laugh really hard. He turned to me while we were at Karaoke and said something so fast I couldn't understand a word of it. I told him to speak English and he looked at me like I was crazy. He then proceeded to break down what each word he said was. He's nuts lol.
Sheng: He speaks very good English when he's drunk, increasing a lot. For some reason when he's sober though he has a hard time with simple conversation. But when he's drunk he understands everything. At one point in the night someone asked him if he wanted another drink, he loudly announced that he was drunk and if he had anymore he'd be able to speak as good of English and me and Sarah. We laughed so hard. He doesn't talk with a drunk voice, he just sounds normal, so in very clear English he will say "I'm drunk" and it almost sounds more like a joke lol. He has an amazing singing voice though so Karaoke, with him singing in Chinese, is a lot of fun. He's also very willing to dance when Sarah and I ask and willingly attempts to sing English songs he doesn't know. I've said it before and it still stands true: Sheng is one of my favorite people here.
Sarah: Sarah doesn't go too crazy when she drinks but at the end of the night, when we left Karaoke, we went to a bar because she wanted some food and Xay wanted a few more drinks. We ended up talking about our breasts, for some reason, which resulted in her grabbing my chest to compare our sizes (I'm kind of used to it with my crazy sisters and friends lol). I couldn't stop laughing though so Sheng, who was sitting between us but had been leaning forward to talk to Colin, didn't know what had happened. He leaned back and insisted to know what we were both laughing so hard about. We didn't explain to much but instead asked him to teach us how to say "big boobs" in Chinese. He did, with much giggling whenever we would say it. Sarah then proceeded to get Colin's attention. She called his name, when he looked at her, she simply said what Sheng had taught us. Colin, very comically, placed his hand over his heart and gasped. He insisted that his heart was pounded just at her words. Sarah then got Xay's attention and said it to him too. He just laughed as we all giggled over how freaking hilarious we think we are lol. This has now become a sort of calling card for Sarah and I so Sheng lol. Today, when we saw him in the morning, we randomly said it and he gave us a huge smile. We also made ourselves some labels during one of the classes, Sheng taught us how to write "big boobs" in Chinese, and we included a label that said "made in Australia" for Sarah and "made in America" for me. We took a picture. . . that's also on Facebook . . . along with Colin asking how much they cost lol. Please no one judge me, I can't be held responsible for my crazy girly behavior with Sarah. We just have so much fun.
Saturday I mostly slept, trying to recover from such a crazy sober night!
Sunday I went to Osaka Castle with Norihiro and Louis. Louis later told me that they planned to go and that Norihiro asked if Louis was bringing anyone else. Louis said no but said it was ok if Norihiro did. Norihiro then invited me. I feel special :) I suppose it's because I told him on Tuesday when we went to the movie that I really wanted to see it. Either way I was so happy he invited me. Osaka Castle was amazing! Pictures are on Facebook. Norihiro, of course, bought our lunch despite our trying to stop him. He also bought our tickets into the Castle without so much as a word. He turned around from buying his, we were standing in line, and handed both Louis and I a ticket. I gave him a look and said his name in a very "How could you?" kind of way. He just smiled and insisted "Daijyoubu!" (It's ok/don't worry about it). He's crazy stubborn about his kindness. The kid's going to go bankrupt taking care of us so much.
When I got home on Sunday I showed some of the pictures to my host mom. She got one look at Norihiro and said "He's pretty! So handsome!" and insisted I had to bring him over sometime. This set us both off giggling and I ended up telling her about his amazing stomach too lol. Since her reaction to him was so positive I showed his picture to my host dad. He simply smiled and gave a very approving nod. I think they both like him because he's Japanese and speaks Kansaiben (the dialect they speak) lol. Either way my host mom loves it when I bring "pretty boys" over to the house. Both she and my host dad really like Xay. But Oniisan likes him because Xay brought him Sake, not because Xay's pretty lol. I told Xay that my Host Mom calls him pretty and this made him very happy. His response was "I am pretty".
As you can tell everything here is good. Every day is an adventure. I'm studying like crazy and hopefully soon I can start speaking more Japanese then basic "good morning" type stuff. Nihongo o muzakashi! (Japanese is difficult) On the upside of that my English is getting worse, from speaking very basic, broken sounding English with people, so maybe my Japanese will get better lol. I'll come home sounding like an idiot I'm sure. All is well though. I love and miss you all. Please take care! Until next week xoxo
Sunday, October 9, 2011
First Date in Japan
Hello everyone!
Wow, so much has happened since I last wrote! So I guess I'll start with last Saturday: I stayed out all night with the other international students finally. We went to a bar, I drank water the whole night, and talked the whole time. It was a lot of fun and I became very close with many of them. I didn't get home until around 7 AM though. I went right to bed and woke up around 11:30 and my voice was gone, much to the amusement of my host parents. Since I woke up so late I didn't go to church, instead we took a trip to Umeda (Osaka). It was my first time going there and I loved it! I was so excited to see everything. It is the largest city I've ever been in. We went to a Imported food store and bought pasta, so I could make it for my host family that week.
Monday, my voice was still gone which got me lots of laughs. Many of the other students said I sounded so cute. Tuesday my voice was back but I was SICK. My throat hurt so badly and I had a really bad cough. So, for a week, without fail, I wore a mask and coughed really badly at night. My host family didn't know what to give me for medicine as I'm used to different things. I told them it was fine since it was only a cold. But many of the students at school, specifically Sarah (the Aussie girl), Xay (the British Chinese boy), and Colin (the Chinese boy) were very concerned about me. They insisted I get stronger medicine then just throat drops or stay home and rest. I didn't do either though and now, finally a week later, I'm starting to feel a little better. In fact last night I got my best sleep in a week. I got nine and a half hours and woke up much later then usual. I'm sure I'll be almost 100% tomorrow :)
Tuesday Xay and I ended up talking for about two and a half hours at school. We had a really good time and in the end I invited him to come to my house for dinner, as I was cooking pasta that night. He agreed but on the way he got very nervous. He insisted that he was "meeting the parents" lol. I told him it didn't count since he's not my boyfriend but he was nervous regardless and when he met my host family he was on the best of behaviors. So I made Fettuccine Alfredo for Xay and my host family. It ended up so good and they were all surprised at how well I cooked. I felt very complimented when Xay even said he was surprised at how good it tasted. He's a harsh critic lol. Since then my host mom has been more trusting with letting me help make dinner. I think I proved myself :)
Friday night some of the students went out again. I was home but feeling like a little kid being left out I joined them at the bar for a few hours. There was only four of us, Sarah, Xay, Ismail, and I at a Jazz bar near the station. It was a lot of fun but I insisted on catching the last train home even though everyone else was going to stay out all night. Xay offered to walk me, he's very much a gentleman, and he also needed some air after taking a REALLY strong shot. When we got to the station I still had time to spare so we walked around for a little bit talking. When I went to leave he asked me how people say goodbye in the US. He explained that in London if it's a close friend or family you kiss on one cheek and hug. I said that I do that with my family and close friends too. He asked if we were close enough that we could do this. I felt that he was making a simple goodbye too complicated, since he was a little drunk lol. He insisted that he wasn't making it complicated he just wanted to know if we were close enough to hug and kiss goodbye. So I gave him a kiss on the cheek and a big hug, he returned both, and left for the night.
No sooner had I arrived home and I received a text from Colin asking why I left the bar. He and Sheng got there only a few minutes after I left. He wanted me to come back but by this point I felt so ill I said it wasn't possible. He asked if we could study the next day together and I agreed. Saturday I woke up and finally caved into buy medicine after a horrible nights sleep of constant coughing. In the afternoon Colin text me and asked if I had plans, which I replied I didn't. He invited me to have dinner together and go to Umeda and I agreed. So, I officially had my first date in Japan . . . with a Chinese boy! lol
We met at his station, Kamishinjou, and took a train to Umeda. We had dinner at a really cool restaurant where you got to cook your own food in a sauce. We ate so much! I ate more that night then any other night in Japan yet. We stayed in the restaurant for maybe 2 hours and talked so much. We are very similar in some ways and it was a lot of fun to spend one-on-one time with him to really get to know him. He was wearing a bracelet made of Tigers eye beads and was very surprised when I knew what it was. He insisted that I'm very cleaver and I only proved it further that night by being able to find my way around Umeda when he got a little lost. He's studying Japanese and English so it's very fun to talk to him as he'll use words in the three languages he speaks. He's going to take the TOEIC test this November (Test of English for International Communication), which is a very difficult test for nonnative speakers, so he likes speaking a lot of English to practice. At one point in the night I thanked him, in Japanese, for passing me something. He said something in Chinese very quickly, more of less chewing me out lol. I asked what he said and he told me to stop telling him thank you because it makes him feel as if there is a distance between us. I explained that in the US we say thank you as a way of telling someone we appreciate them and the things they do for us. He understood and said I could thank him in English then, but not Japanese lol. He said in China they are more casual and don't always say thank you. It was really interesting to talk about the differences between our countries as well as the traditions in Japan which we are currently experiencing. The bill for dinner ended up being a little less then 4,000 Yen (About $45) and he insisted on paying the whole thing. I even offered to help but he refused. We walked around a little bit and upon seeing the big red ferris wheel we decided to go ride it. Colin also paid for my ticket there. . . I'm an expensive date I think . . . but it was a lot of fun and the view was amazing!
Things here are really good, other then having a cold. It was a very fun week. Not sure what else to write. . . I feel like I just talked about boys the whole email . . . lol. Oh well! Japan is, as usual very fun. Hope you're all well. Love and miss you all!
Wow, so much has happened since I last wrote! So I guess I'll start with last Saturday: I stayed out all night with the other international students finally. We went to a bar, I drank water the whole night, and talked the whole time. It was a lot of fun and I became very close with many of them. I didn't get home until around 7 AM though. I went right to bed and woke up around 11:30 and my voice was gone, much to the amusement of my host parents. Since I woke up so late I didn't go to church, instead we took a trip to Umeda (Osaka). It was my first time going there and I loved it! I was so excited to see everything. It is the largest city I've ever been in. We went to a Imported food store and bought pasta, so I could make it for my host family that week.
Monday, my voice was still gone which got me lots of laughs. Many of the other students said I sounded so cute. Tuesday my voice was back but I was SICK. My throat hurt so badly and I had a really bad cough. So, for a week, without fail, I wore a mask and coughed really badly at night. My host family didn't know what to give me for medicine as I'm used to different things. I told them it was fine since it was only a cold. But many of the students at school, specifically Sarah (the Aussie girl), Xay (the British Chinese boy), and Colin (the Chinese boy) were very concerned about me. They insisted I get stronger medicine then just throat drops or stay home and rest. I didn't do either though and now, finally a week later, I'm starting to feel a little better. In fact last night I got my best sleep in a week. I got nine and a half hours and woke up much later then usual. I'm sure I'll be almost 100% tomorrow :)
Tuesday Xay and I ended up talking for about two and a half hours at school. We had a really good time and in the end I invited him to come to my house for dinner, as I was cooking pasta that night. He agreed but on the way he got very nervous. He insisted that he was "meeting the parents" lol. I told him it didn't count since he's not my boyfriend but he was nervous regardless and when he met my host family he was on the best of behaviors. So I made Fettuccine Alfredo for Xay and my host family. It ended up so good and they were all surprised at how well I cooked. I felt very complimented when Xay even said he was surprised at how good it tasted. He's a harsh critic lol. Since then my host mom has been more trusting with letting me help make dinner. I think I proved myself :)
Friday night some of the students went out again. I was home but feeling like a little kid being left out I joined them at the bar for a few hours. There was only four of us, Sarah, Xay, Ismail, and I at a Jazz bar near the station. It was a lot of fun but I insisted on catching the last train home even though everyone else was going to stay out all night. Xay offered to walk me, he's very much a gentleman, and he also needed some air after taking a REALLY strong shot. When we got to the station I still had time to spare so we walked around for a little bit talking. When I went to leave he asked me how people say goodbye in the US. He explained that in London if it's a close friend or family you kiss on one cheek and hug. I said that I do that with my family and close friends too. He asked if we were close enough that we could do this. I felt that he was making a simple goodbye too complicated, since he was a little drunk lol. He insisted that he wasn't making it complicated he just wanted to know if we were close enough to hug and kiss goodbye. So I gave him a kiss on the cheek and a big hug, he returned both, and left for the night.
No sooner had I arrived home and I received a text from Colin asking why I left the bar. He and Sheng got there only a few minutes after I left. He wanted me to come back but by this point I felt so ill I said it wasn't possible. He asked if we could study the next day together and I agreed. Saturday I woke up and finally caved into buy medicine after a horrible nights sleep of constant coughing. In the afternoon Colin text me and asked if I had plans, which I replied I didn't. He invited me to have dinner together and go to Umeda and I agreed. So, I officially had my first date in Japan . . . with a Chinese boy! lol
We met at his station, Kamishinjou, and took a train to Umeda. We had dinner at a really cool restaurant where you got to cook your own food in a sauce. We ate so much! I ate more that night then any other night in Japan yet. We stayed in the restaurant for maybe 2 hours and talked so much. We are very similar in some ways and it was a lot of fun to spend one-on-one time with him to really get to know him. He was wearing a bracelet made of Tigers eye beads and was very surprised when I knew what it was. He insisted that I'm very cleaver and I only proved it further that night by being able to find my way around Umeda when he got a little lost. He's studying Japanese and English so it's very fun to talk to him as he'll use words in the three languages he speaks. He's going to take the TOEIC test this November (Test of English for International Communication), which is a very difficult test for nonnative speakers, so he likes speaking a lot of English to practice. At one point in the night I thanked him, in Japanese, for passing me something. He said something in Chinese very quickly, more of less chewing me out lol. I asked what he said and he told me to stop telling him thank you because it makes him feel as if there is a distance between us. I explained that in the US we say thank you as a way of telling someone we appreciate them and the things they do for us. He understood and said I could thank him in English then, but not Japanese lol. He said in China they are more casual and don't always say thank you. It was really interesting to talk about the differences between our countries as well as the traditions in Japan which we are currently experiencing. The bill for dinner ended up being a little less then 4,000 Yen (About $45) and he insisted on paying the whole thing. I even offered to help but he refused. We walked around a little bit and upon seeing the big red ferris wheel we decided to go ride it. Colin also paid for my ticket there. . . I'm an expensive date I think . . . but it was a lot of fun and the view was amazing!
Things here are really good, other then having a cold. It was a very fun week. Not sure what else to write. . . I feel like I just talked about boys the whole email . . . lol. Oh well! Japan is, as usual very fun. Hope you're all well. Love and miss you all!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
