This last week I have been rather busy compared to January. Last Wednesday I went to Kyoto with Kazu (the tutor I went with that told me to get on the wrong train with her thus making me lost) and her friend Ayumi. Ayumi also had a guest from Australia who spoke very good Japanese. It was nice to have another English speaker to talk to, although I admit so far in my life every single Australian I have met is quite the talker. Via me for instance would ask this particular girl a random question like do you have a pet? And she could talk on and on without interruption for the next 15 minutes straight. No she rarely asked me questions back. That was a long day and I did not get home until late. I did take some photos but my cameras batteries were on and off dieing so I stopped. I will post them once I venture out to buy new batteries.
On Thursday I then in the afternoon, after classes, went with them to Osaka Castle. We did not get to view the inside of the castle as we came so late in the day so when my Mummy comes I will take her there and we can look inside. Then we went down town to Umeda which is the city center I suppose with the most businesses or something. We went to a restaurant and I ordered some French fries but when they arrived after a small taste observation I realized they were coated in garlic butter (way to make French Fries even more unhealthy then they all ready are) so I sent them back and received plain ones. Too when we were walking around a man that try’s to usher people into his given restaurant (like carnies yelling at you to play their game) made some comment in Japanese that I would have never noticed in a billion years but the Australian girl did. She began laughing hysterically and said that the man pointed at me and said aloud “Is that a gay dude dressed like a girl?” or something like that towards me. Ha, it was pretty funny. Who ever comes to visit me will understand since 30% of the male population dresses insofar as metro-sexual as a “straight” male does and to be shocked that I look like a gay dude in my attire was comical. Being androgynous is wicked. So I got home late yet another night.
On Friday I had classes all day long and I had to take photos for the schools brochure. They wanted to take photos of me talking for some odd reason, I mean why? So that my mouth can be wide open in the photo and look silly ha-ha oh well. I also had to write up a little thing for the brochure. This is what I wrote and Yasuko was supposed to translate it as best as she could.
I think that everyone should be an exchange student at some point in their life. Studying abroad gives you the chance to immerse yourself into another culture. This type of opportunity assists me in becoming a globally rounded person. By learning the ways of another culture you can come to appreciate things that you may have more or less taken for granted. As well you may find some practices that one culture appreciates that you may then want to incorporate into your own life style.
One thing that I really appreciate about the Japanese culture is the extensive ancient history. I am lucky to have a scholarship to Osaka since it is situated near very beautiful historic cities such as Nara and Kyoto. I also very much enjoy all of the different types of pottery used for displaying a meal. This makes the meal more aesthetically pleasing and interesting as my family typically uses matching dishes to present food, which I now realize is somewhat boring. I am learning how to perform the traditional Japanese tea ceremony, and am excited to show my friends and family back home in Canada.
No matter how much I miss my friends and family I would never give up this opportunity to experience another culture, and suggest that if you ever get the chance to, take it!
So that’s my little simple essay thingy they will use. I had criteria I was supposed to talk about. Anyway that night it was Dong Yong’s going away party and I drank for the first time in 2 months and some. It was kind of fun but not super great. I ended up staying up until 4:30 in the morning. This was probably a bad idea because 2 weeks before Yuki had called and told me on the Second of February (that Saturday/Morning) Akio, her husband, would take me to climb Mt. Kongo. I had not heard from her since and she did not tell me what time so I was not sure if it was still on. She ended up waking me up with a phone call at 7:00am 2 and half hours after I got into bed. Ugh, so I agreed I would be ready for her to pick me up at 8 am and at some food and then lied in my bed until she came. Once I was in the vehicle and then on the bus up to the mountain I was seriously kicking myself and thinking “what the heck am I doing, you fool, you should have said you were sick”. I had popped 2 ibuprofen advil though so that I could hopefully over ride the headache which mostly worked. Other then that my stomach felt …well hung over. Once we started climbing it was really fun though and I got the hang of things, it took us 2 hours to get to the top. The higher we went the more snow there was so it was nice. I don’t really remember much because I was so tired it was kind of all a blur but I know it was really fun. I will take Eileen and Cara up the mountain hopefully. It was rather intense of a hike, more then I was expecting…like an A3 or 4. I definitely needed to use my hands at time and pull myself up and if I lost my balance and fell back I most likely would have mangled and or killed myself. We had to where spikes on the bottom of our feet once we got so high because of the ice. It was fun. The only think that sucked is it’s the 2end most climbed mountain in Japan other then Mt. Fuji so although we went up the most difficult way it was rather busy and especially when we got to the top since there are a lot easier ways to climb up. There were really elderly people climbing up the way we went too so that was inspiring makes me feel like I can always be active no matter what my age. So I hope to stay active.
Once I got home around 3pm I crashed into my bed and took a nap from 3-5pm, and took it easy that night. The next day I went to Clive another teacher’s house with Michelle for lunch, we ended up staying until 8pm and arrived around 1pm. It was fun with rather good conversation he was a very knowledgeable older man. He is from England originally. So my accent really sticks out between him and the Australian that is Michelle. Ha this is so long I’m even getting tired of typing. Okay well I will end it here and then talk more about what happened the next day… or well yesterday by this point for me. I love you all so much, sorry trying not to be too boring but I also want to keep you updated out of consideration for my loved ones. I love you all very much, never forget it!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment