Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Hiroshima & Miyajima

このポストには、日本語が全然ありません。もしわけありません。

Hey guys. Not a very text heavy post, but I feel like you should be getting something out of this blog, so here are some of the pictures I took while in Hiroshima and Miyajima. Huzzah for AKP sponsored field trips!







That's all for Hiroshima, since, unfortunately, Blogger is something of a pain when it comes to posting photos. Now, for Miyajima!







Yea, that last one is of the sign in front of the aquarium. Because Romelle and I thought it was ridiculously cute. Not exactly cultural, but you've got the lovely pictures of the torii to make up for it. Unfortunately, the tide was out for most of the day, so it wasn't as scenic as it could have been.

I'll apologize, once again, for being so lax in the updating of this blog. It's a busy life here in Japan!

Monday, September 29, 2008

Life. (生活)

I really should post more often, but... I do have a life here, after all.

もっとポストしたした方がいいけど。。。京都に、生活があるからね。

Which, I guess, is something I should be writing about for the folks back home. Sorry about that.

そして、その生活について、アメリカの人々のために、書いた方がいいな。ごめんね。

I'm doing well, though, and having a great time. Being in Kyoto has only made me want to live in Japan after college even more. I should probably start looking into those Square-Enix jobs, then...

でも、元気で、本当に楽しんでいるよ。京都に住んでいるのは、大学の後で、日本にまた住みたいの感じがもっと強くしたんだな。そして、そんなSquare-Enixの仕事。。。ちょっと研究した方がいいな。

Sorry for the lack of photos in this post; I'll try to remember next time.

このポストに写真がなくて、ごめんね。今度、覚えるように頑張るよ。

Until next time, then.

じゃ、またね。

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Weekend Adventures. (週末のアドベンチャー)






Even though I’m sitting here writing this Sunday evening, it won’t actually be posted until Monday. Which is, I guess, now. Just know that this is somewhat old news.

日曜日の夜に、これを書いているのに、月曜日までにポストことをしない。まあ、それ今だね。でもさ、これ、ちょっと古いニュースーだな。

Today was a pretty exciting day, so I thought it was worth posting about. Kelly and I went to Kiyomizudera! (After, admittedly, failing to do so yesterday.)

今日本当に楽しかったから、したことについて書いた方がいい、と思った。ケリーと私は清水寺へ行った!(昨日失敗したからね。)

We met up at Kyoto Station, and had some delicious ramen for lunch. I should have taken a picture of the delicious takoyaki I had yesterday, but all you get is the ramen.

始めに、京都駅に間に合って、おいしいラーメンを食べた。昨日食べたおいしいたこ焼きも写真を取った方がよかったけど、ラーメンしかあげない。



Afterwards, we waited in line for a bus to Kiyomizudera. It was a long line, and when we got on the bus, it was super crowded. Not a pleasant ride. Kelly almost had a panic attack.

そして、清水寺までのバスのため待って並んだ。長い間待っていて、バスに乗ったら、超込んでいた。楽しくなかった。ケリー本当に好きじゃなかった。(「パニックアタック」って。。。)

Luckily, since Kelly had asked her Okaa-san, we knew where to get off today. Did so, and followed the crowd up to Kiyomizudera. It was a long walk. And I mean long. Uphill. Also super crowded.

ケリーはお母さんを聞いたから、今日、バスから出かけるところ知ってた。ラッキーだった。その後、清水寺まで、皆の後ろに歩いた。長い間だった。本当に長い。めっちゃ大変。も超込んでいた。

We started taking pictures when we got to the temple itself. It was quite pretty, if still majorly crowded. However, we were there for the good-fortune-granting water, not the scenery.

お寺に着いたら、写真を取って始まった。きれいだったけど、まだめっちゃめっちゃ込んでいた。しかし、私たちは望みの水のために行った。

So, after much walking and a little confusion, we finally made it to the spring. Had to wait in a line there, too, but that was understandable. Nida had told us that the three springs each had different wish-granting powers (money, study, and love), but all the signs said that there was no difference, and that they all granted wishes, no matter what. As Kelly and I couldn’t find any distinction between the three springs, we chose to believe the signs. And then spent a while creating our really detailed wishes. We also found out that it’s the Great Merciful Goddess (who according to the legend is actually a hermaphrodite) who grants the wish, as it’s her temple.

そして、たくさん歩いて、少し迷っていたあと、水までに着いた。そこにも待って並んだけど、それ分かれるね。ニダによると、水の三つは別々の力が持っているけど、サインによると、違いがない。全部、望みをくれる、と言った。も、ケリーと私は違いを見つけられなかったから、サインに信じて選んだ。そして、本当に長い望みを作ってた。も、望みをくれるのは観音様(話によると、実は同性愛者だ)だと言われた。観音様のお寺だからね。



The rest of the post will be only in English, as it is late, and I am tired.

残りは、遅くて、疲れたから、英語だけだ。本当にごめんなさい。

We spent most of our time in line trying to work out any loopholes from our wishes, though admittedly, now that I know that the Great Merciful Goddess has taken my fate into her hands, I feel a lot better about it. I think she’ll understand if I accidentally drank out of the “fortune” spring… (Yes, I’m sure you all know what I wished for.) Regardless, if you know for a fact (though I don’t see how you could) that I didn’t drink out of the “love” spring… don’t tell me. It said on the signs that the temple itself didn’t support the idea that the springs were separate, after all. I believe the signs. “Wish-granting,” they said, and so a wish I made.

I also thanked the Great Merciful Goddess as I left. She’s a pretty awesome deity, if I do say so myself.

After drinking from the spring, we headed back down to civilization. Just as long a walk going back, in case you were wondering. And apparently, we just missed the rush, as it seemed to be far more crowded going back downhill than it had been coming up. Lucky. Regardless of the crowds, we both felt extremely good about ourselves, quite positive our 運命 (unmei; fate, destiny) was definitely on the up and up. (…and still is. Stupid English language and its limitations and connotations and whatnot.) Yea, we pretty much wished for the same thing. We’re simple gals.

However, upon reaching the bus-stop, we were both quite exhausted, and our feet were aching with every step. (And no advil to boot.) We were desperate to sit down, but unfortunately the buses around Kiyomizudera are notorious for being crowded beyond belief; we waited about fifteen minutes for our bus to come, and it was packed. Again. Luckily, after a few stops we were able to grab a seat.

Extremely luckily, as we were on that bus for another hour, almost.

Unfortunately, while the bus did go back to Kyoto station, it took perhaps the longest, most roundabout way to get there imaginable. However, we were pretty tired, so it was nice to sit down for a while—even if our butts were numb by the time we actually got to the station.

(A side note, which talking about the station reminded me of: while we were heading towards the ramen restaurant in the station, we found something which I called the “sparkly” store, and had to go in. They were selling, among other things, sets of five earrings—all different, all together. Only in Japan, we thought. And both wanted a set badly. Especially me, as it would have been perfect for my five ear-piercings. Would have bought them, too, if they hadn’t been about ten bucks each. Maybe some other time…)

Understandably, by the time we were back at the station, we both had a case of the munchies. We therefore set of in search of a パン屋 (panya; bread shop) and tasty treats. Found one at the back of the station, where I bought melon pan and milk tea, and Kelly got some sort of bun and lemon tea. The surprising part was that my melon pan was actually melon pan; it tasted like melon! See, for those who don’t know, melon pan usually tastes nothing like any sort of melon—which is not to say that it’s not tasty. However, this melon pan was filled with some sort of paste that tasted just like cantaloupe. Very surprising. (You know… I wonder why I’m not losing any weight yet, and it’s probably because of my horrible snacking habit. CURSE YOU, MELON PAN!)

After our snack, we went our separate ways—poor Kelly had to take the bus home. At this point, we could write a novel about our bus misadventures, I’m quite sure.

Came home, and luckily got a seat on the train, as apparently the around-five-o’clock train to Otsu-Kyo on Sunday isn’t all that crowded. Per usual, people avoided me, sitting four to a booth to avoid sitting with the 外人 (gaijin; outsider, foreigner). However, someone sat down across from me at Yamashina, which made me quite happy.

I love wearing my sunglasses on the train; I can people-watch without seeming nearly so sketchy. For instance, had I not been wearing them, I would not have noticed the guy across from me staring at me a few times. (Admittedly, I’m far more lenient with this behavior when it’s a young guy doing it. Most everyone else, it just gets old very quickly. At least with a young guy, I can fool myself into thinking that he’s staring because I’m good-looking.)

Bonded once again with my okaa-san over variety shows; the ones one tonight were quite amusing. One involved a race between two guys in Tokyo, trying to walk seven kilometers (from whatever JR station they started at to the television station) in the heat in paper shirts that fell apart when they got wet. They weren’t allowed to wipe their sweat off, but they were allowed to do pretty much anything to keep cool: one guy went to a “cooling down” salon, where they washed his hair with a special treatment to make it cold, and the other got a bag of ice chunks from an ice cutter. The latter actually went to far as to go into a department store and get sweat-preventing make-up put on to keep his face from dripping (the surprising thing was, it worked.) It was a highly entertaining show.

And now, as this post has become far longer than I’d ever intended it to be (likely because I switched to English-only mode), I’ll end it here. Thank you, and good night (or morning, as the case may be.)

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Kyoto Life. (京都の生活)

Sorry for the wait; there's less opportunity to use the internet than I thought. Well, I suppose I could use the internet more, but there are more interesting things to do. I'm in Kyoto, for crying out loud!

お待たせしました;思ったの方が、実よりインターネットを使い経験がある。(それ、絶対間違ったかも。。。)じゃ、多分もっとインターネットを使えるけど、もっと面白いことあるよ。京都にいるんだぞ!

Classes started on Monday. Up until today, Japanese class was only review. Unfortunately, they put me in a class that's boring me to tears, and I have no idea why. My electives seem fun, even though I already have homework for both.

月曜日に、授業始まった。今日まで、日本語の授業はレビューばかりだった。残念だけど、今本当につまらない授業にいって、どうして全然わからない。選科が楽しそう、もう宿題あるのに。

I got my phone on Monday, which was super-exciting. It's gorgeous; it makes me so happy. I went with AU, if only because I have some experience with it, and the AKP plan is with AU, so I can cmail everyone now. Well, everyone who did AKP, anyway. Everyone who's gotten a phone on their own so far has gotten AU too, so.

月曜日に携帯電話を買って、すごくエキサイティングだった。超かっこいい;私に嬉しくする。AUの携帯を買った、ちょっと経験があるし、AKPのプランもAUのし、そして今、皆にcmailできる。まあ、とにかく、AKPのプランをした人。自分で携帯を買った人々もAUの携帯を買ったからね。

I really should post some pictures. But, of course, that would mean I'd have to take some pictures, and I'm pretty awful at that. I never remember to do it.

写真をポストした方がいいね。でも、むろん、もっとも写真を取らなきゃいけなくて、本当に取るのことが下手だ。全然思い出さない。

I get the feeling that I should write more, but at the moment, nothing comes to mind.

もっとかい書いた方がいいの感じあるけど、今、頭に何もない。

Guess that's all for now, then.

じゃ、それ、以上、かな。またな。

(先生達、こんなに下手な日本語を使って、ごめんなさい。)

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

In Kyoto. (京都に)

We arrived in Kyoto yesterday, and now here I am, using the Doshisha computers to write in my blog.

昨日京都に着いて、今同志社のコンピューターでブログに書いている。(怠け者だよね。。。)

I'm little tired, but so far everything is amazing.

ちょっと疲れたけど、今まで全部すばらしい。

Other than the plane ride, of course. That was awful.

むろん、飛行機の時間以外に。それ、ひどかった。

It's so muggy. It's disgusting.

超蒸し暑い。気持ち悪い。

... I'm in Japan.

。。。日本にいるよ。

Monday, September 1, 2008

Tomorrow. (明日)

Well, it's tomorrow.

じゃ、明日だね。

That was quick.

早かったよ。

It's a little hard to believe, but... I'm finally going.

ちょっと信じられないけど。。。やっと行っている。

My stomach is aching. I'm probably not going to be getting a whole lot of sleep tonight.

おなか痛い。今夜、あまり寝られないだろう。

Oh boy. Here we go.

まったく。さあ、行くぞ。

Friday, August 29, 2008

Nerves. (緊張)

I leave on Monday morning... only three days left at home.

月曜日の朝に、出かける。家に。。。三日間しか残っていない。

I'm getting nervous, even though I didn't think I would be.

思わなかったのに、超緊張になっている。

Oh, dear.

やれやれ。

Monday, August 25, 2008

Pre-Japan Introduction (日本の前の序言)

Well, I've decided to start an webblog recording my travels in Japan during my study abroad. Hooray!

じゃ、留学時の日本の旅行についてブログを始めるのが決めて来ました。よし!

As you can see, I've decided to make this blog bilingual, partly for my own benefit, and partly to show my sensei how my Japanese is (or isn't) progressing.

見ての通り、このブログをバイリンガルするのが決めてしました。これ、一は私のための事なんですが、先生に日本語の技量を見せるの理由もあります。

Of course, the Japanese text will not always be an exact translation of the English text. My Japanese simply isn't good enough to make that plausible, and occasionally, I use expressions that just aren't translatable.

むろん、日本語はいつも英語の適訳じゃありません。まだ日本語が下手し、時々訳せない分を使いますから、無理です。

On a side note, I have no idea why this first post is so formal. I guess I kind of feel like I'm writing an essay...

ちなみに、どうしてこの一番目のポストはこんなに堅苦しい、わかりません。ちょっと作文の漢字がありますね。。。

My following posts will definitely be more casual.

これから、絶対もっと無造作になりますよ。

(By the way, I'm getting a lot of my vocabulary from online dictionaries... so if I say something weird, please tell me!)

(ちなみに、インターネットの辞書から、たくさん単語をもらっていますから、変な事と言えば、ぜひ言って下さい!)

Well, I leave for Kansai on the first of September, so until then!

じゃ、9月1日に関西へ行きますから、その時まで!

(ちなみに、このブログの名前の冗談がわかったら。。。それは最高なんです。)