The Halfway Point

We've reached February almost. It's hard to believe I've been in Japan six months.
I thought I'd take the time to look back into the recesses of my memory and see what I can remember. It's a little hazy, but here we go.

The flight was long. I couldn't sleep and my laptop died so that just made matters worse. Sure there were movies you could watch but I didn't want to ruin my appreciation of the Indiana Jones movies by watching what I knew would be a crappy sequel.

When we got there I had expected some kind of feeling/realization that I was in Japan that would somehow come over me instantly but that didn't happen. It helped that I was on a group flight with people in my program.

We took a bus from Narita to Tokyo. Everyone was too excited to sleep. When we arrived we set our stuff down in our hotel rooms and then left immediately to go eat at Shakey's.

Then the now infamous Julien made his dramatic appearance by being obnoxious and loud and generally annoying.

Our opening ceremony also sticks out in my mind for being Harry Potter-like. It was held in the 200 year old Okuma Auditorium, which by itself is already a grand thing.
There were fancy curtains and an orchestra and a British dean, who gave a memorable speech and then gave the same speech in perfect Japanese...

A few months later the excitement of being in Japan faded, as school started and things became routine. I feel like my Japanese has gotten better, or at least my listening comprehension. I didn't particularly like my classes this semester, the lecture classes felt like a waste of time.

My host family has been awesome. I've heard countless horror stories about other people's host families, so I feel lucky in a way. I think choosing a host family was a smart decision in the end, because I like being able to practice Japanese with them. Also, having breakfast and dinner cooked for you as well as your LAUNDRY done for you is the best thing in the world.

So I'm content here, even though I was getting a little homesick during Christmas. My mom will visit me in two weeks so that'll help.
My goals for this year are to study Japanese harder, and to make more Japanese friends. Somehow I feel like I haven't made that many friends at my school. The majority of my Japanese friends I had met back home and they returned here.

Time is going by fast. Before I know it I'm going to be back home, so I want to enjoy my time here to the fullest as much as I can.

Now, for fun, here's a Japanese translation. Note I didn't bother with the whole thing, nor did I try to make it a literal translation. Japanese is not often translated literally because it just doesn't work that way:
今なんか気づいた。 　二月だ！　僕は６ヶ月日本にいた！信じられない！
懐かしいね。
ちょっとイベントを思い出そう！
飛行機に乗っていた時、めちゃつまらなかったのでパソコンが死んだし、なかなか寝られなかったし、見た映画は最悪だったし。１０時間ごろ！最低。。。
始めて着いたら、高田馬場のホテルに泊まった。　荷物にチェックしてからレストランで夕ご飯を食べた。　所にはピザ食べて、私たちが自己紹介をした。　
そして、悪名高い人が会った。"ジュリエンさま”と言う名前。。。
その人はすごく煩いし、乱暴だったし、みんながびっくりした。
入学式も思い出深いだ。　超ハリー・ポッター感じだった。　オーケストラがあったし、 オーディトリアムはグランデだったし、それに 学生部長はイギリス人だったし。。。
彼の日本語はぺらぺらだけども。
ところでホストファミリはとても親切だ。よく手伝ってくれる。ご飯を作ってもらうのが最高だと思う。　
　楽しい時は時間が早く過ぎるね。

Adventures in Japan

This weekend I hung out with a Japanese friend, she had invited me to see Flamenco dancing. I accidentally went to Akihabara at first since her text message mentioned Akihabara and Nishiropi or whatever the place was called. Luckily it didn't take too long to get on the train going back the other direction.

The little bar was literally right next to the station, gotta love the trains in Japan!
The entrance fee was 2000 yen but you can get a "free" drink as well, so I got a beer and soon after the dancing started. The girls wore traditional Spanish dresses and had the clapping thingies in their hands and simultaneously tap danced while a man played acoustic guitar and another guy sang in Spanish. The audience was yelling "yaaaahiii" and all these words in Spanish. I was somewhat culture shocked seeing Japanese acting like Spaniards.

Another thing I noticed was that I was the only foreigner there and somehow that made me feel proud. The guy in front of me who videotaped the whole show asked me in Japanese where I was from and if I was a Spaniard, to which I replied that I was from America and spoke zero Spanish, only Japanese and English.

After we got out we went to a museum in Ochanomizu with my friend's two friends. There was a torture exhibit with iron maidens (iron maaaiden! excellent!! -bill and ted) and a guillotine.

We went to a shrine near Akihabara and I prayed to some god of business to improve my Japanese. On the toori (wooden Shinto gate) there was a sign displaying how to enter properly. You have to do a figure-eight around the posts in some overly complicated fashion.

Then we went to a maid cafe in Akihabara, it was my first time. There was a band playing near the maid cafe, a Japanese punk band I guess. There were tons of Otakus (Japanese geeks) clapping along. I wanted to head bang but I felt out of place already.

After quite a long wait we finally got to go into the maid cafe. Upon entering the maids say "okaerinasai goshujin sama" which means "Welcome back, master!".
I ordered tea which doesn't come with any special incantation, but if you order a special drink like a cocktail or something that requires stirring, the maid will say a rhyme and everyone has to repeat after her. "Moe Moe...Nyan Nyan..." It is basically gibberish meant to be cute. I got my picture taken with the maid we talked to.

We went to a Spanish restaurant afterward that was expensive but delicious. I didn't know what language to speak because my Japanese friends were speaking a mix of Spanish and Japanese and I'm not very good at either one.

All that adventuring made me pretty tired. The girl acting as our tour guide was also power walking everywhere to boot. The last activity was watching Christmas lights near Tokyo Dome. I want to go back there to ride the Ferris wheel and roller coaster.

Pictures (click for full view):