February 12, 2007

フ~~~ン

日本語を読める読者があれば、久しぶり日本語で書かなかったので、ごめんなさい m(_ _)m 日本語で書くのは時間がかかり、いっぱい間違うものだ。。。

今はスピーチコンテストのスピーチを書いているところだ。 書き終わった後で、このサイテではこうと思うので、お楽しみにしてね!! (^_^)ノ へへ。。。木曜日に発表しなきゃ。。。だって嫌だもん ><

スピーチにちょっと満足していない。 僕の日本語能力がまだあまり高くないので、抽象的にあらわすことが難しい。 僕の書いたや話したことが子供っぽいということを感じている。。。

生活について大切で書きたいことがちょっとなさそう。。。学校を卒業後できる仕事を探しているのに、まだ見つからなかった。。。日本で働きたいけど、できるかどうか、今分からない。 ギャ~、仕事を探すこと、大嫌い。。。

一人でバレンタインデーを過ごすのも大嫌い。。。フ~ン。。。バレンタインズが近づくと、寂しさが増えている。。。 (T_T)

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February 2, 2007

Setsubun / 節分

Study, study, study. Yet again, not much to report, other than that we had a test this week and I scored 95% on the written portion (yay me) but only about 60% on the listening...I was well aware that my listening comprehension sucked a camel's ass in hoisin sauce, but damn...

Tomorrow is setsubun, the end of the old season and the start of the new. It is traditionally believed that this is the day on which all the bad spirits that have congregated in your home can be expelled by...throwing beans at them. Oh, and shouting "Demons out! Fortune in!" while doing so (obviously I'm paraphrasing greatly, but that's the gist). Or, at least according to Wikipedia, if you live in Aizu you can shout "Demon eyeballs, smash-smash!". Apparently it is also traditional to eat the same number of the irimame beans (which are roasted and not unlike peanuts, quite nice really) as years you have lived, but I can't say I entirely understand why.

Also, Japanese households symbolize this exorcism-for-all-the-family by having an unfortunate family member put on a demon mask (the more I think about this, the more it reminds me of Hallowe'en), and run around growling and generally spreading bad karma. This demon is then chased from the homestead by being pelted with beans. Surely this must give rise to all sorts of bean-related injuries every year, but who am I to argue with tradition.

As a footnote, the friend I mentioned in the previous post who applied to NHK wound up getting the job, and will later this month move to Toyama prefecture to become a full-fledged local newsreader, on TV and everything, so very well done to her. Ah, it's good to cultivate these showbiz connections...

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January 24, 2007

...

As you might gather from the post infrequency, there's not been too much to report as of late...just lots of study really, as well as occasionally seeing friends and such. This term is going well so far, and feels slightly less daunting than last term. I am studying manga comics in one of my elective classes and have been officially designated an otaku by the teacher of said class...even though she meant it as a kind of perverse compliment (she is one too and we have similar favorites), I don't read that much! Honest!

Still worried about my post-Yamasa future...I keep meaning to update my CV, search for jobs etc., but I haven't had the time...the whole resumé thing seems to be slightly different here. I saw the CV of a Japanese friend of mine the other week (who was in the process of applying to NHK)...she had to pick up a special resumé form (that you can get from any convenience store) and fill it out, by hand, with her academic background, employment history, personal statement and so on and so forth. And one has to do this for every job one applies for, apparently. Personally (mainly because my handwriting is abysmal) I prefer the good old word-processed, couple-of-pages-of-Times-New-Roman, references-that-you-haven't-spoken-with-in-10-years approach. Hey, it's gotten me work in the past...well, occasionally.

Well, better go...I have homework exuding from every orifice like some kind of homework-ridden Edgar Allen Poe nightmare creature...yes. Argh, must sleep.

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January 11, 2007

First day o' term

Term started today. Have passed the time thus far this week shopping, meeting a few people, overcoming jetlag, watching bad films and generally attempting to get my head back into Japanese mode...it's definitely been good to have a bit of time out before term started again to get myself re-adjusted.

So yes...to my surprise, in terms of classmates, my class this time round is exactly the same as last term's (with the exception of Stephanie-san, who sadly left). Quite why they've done this I don't know (they've always mixed us up each term in the past), but, since I really liked my old class, it's all good news (teachers are completely different this time around though). Also, this term we have the dubious honor of being 'H' class (each class is assigned a roman letter, 'A' being the top): 'H' transliterated into Japanese becomes etchi, which is also a kind of catch-all term for anything lewd, perverse, indecent or sexual. So that's us, we're the etchi class. Uh-huh-huh, uh-huh-huh-huh. Cool.

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January 7, 2007

Happy new year! / あけましておめでとうございます

Happy new year to all...

I am now safely re-ensconced in my little room in Okazaki after 2 weeks back in the UK visiting the fam, hence am feeling generally very jetlagged and uprooted at present. I didn't manage to sleep at all on the overnight 12hr return flight from London-Tokyo, and as a result my sleep cycle is completely shot...woke up at about 5am this morning. Hopefully I can realign it soon.

Anyway, except for the travelling and the tiredness caused thereby, I have had a very nice 2 weeks...very glad to have had the opportunity to see friends and family and to remind myself what life in the UK was like. I also had a good chance to relax. However, it being Christmas and all, I feel like I may have over-indulged on the food and beer fronts, and I worry that all the weight people kept telling me I'd lost is slowly returning to me...

My 2 weeks back have also, as I say, left me with a strange feeling of uprooted-ness, kind of like I don't know where home is any more...add to that the directionlessness and worry of not really knowing what I'll be doing in 3 months time (it looks like I'll be here for another 3 months unless I find a job or something by then) and we get a kind of feeling of discombobulation (now there's a word I should use more often).

So, nose goes well and truly back to the grindstone soon...I am a little worried (there's that word again) since all last term I felt like I was at the bottom of the class, was generally behind all my peers and was constantly playing catch-up...and now I have barely spoken, written or read a word of Japanese in the last 2 weeks (it just didn't seem...possible to even think about that stuff for most of the time I was away in a non-Japanese speaking country, if that makes any sense at all), so I'm afraid I'll be even further behind...

Oh yeah, and it's totally cold here and is actually snowing outside as I type! Criminy!!

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