A New Start

Well this failed miserably as a travel blog - my fault - but while Japan was a great experience, it was quite overwhelming. Too overwhelming, quite frankly, to have the energy needed to start consistent writing - something I've never been too good at in America. So my blog shall have a Renaissance, if you will.

Nothing drastic - just that now I will post of my domestic adventures. They are equally as weird, worldly, and wander-ful. A new school year has started and so many adventures have already been had. I will only tell of one, though - my adventure to Valhalla.

I will define a few things to clarify and make the story sound far more coherent.

Valhalla is the name of the house a wonderful group of my friends currently live in. This group is lovingly called the Terrific Republic.

The Terrific Republic is an ever expanding group of kids based out of East Hall. They accepted me my freshman year, becoming the first group of friends I made up here. This year is the first year without that core group living in East. Now they are centralized in that house off campus.

So now you know how wonderfully eccentric this group of kids is and will forever be. In a nutshell - we're all oddballs.

Back to the main venture...

This Labor day weekend I became a true-blue Boonie when I bought myself a bike and a nice pair of Chacos (Hey, I got a job, so I had to celebrate somehow). After 2 days of minor adventures around campus, on Monday I decided I really wanted to venture further. "Well why not to the great estate of Valhalla?!" I thinketh.

So I look up the house on google maps and it was not terribly far away, but it was farther than I had ridden. After acquiring the proper directions and writing them on the most convenient of notepads (i.e. the back of my hand), I seize my helmet and make my way to my trusty steed.

All began swimmingly. I knew already how to make the first leg of the journey.

It all started with that street - the one that would appear sooner than it aught. I figured google was wrong and turned onto a road earlier than expected, but it was suppose to lead me to the right place eventually. This would have been a fine decision, had I realized this road diverged and changed into another. I was blissfully ignorant at the time.

It was in this state I encountered my first big Boone, mountainous hill (at least in my mind). I road up it thought with a feeling of triumph. I continued on, out of breath, but confident. The confidence be extinguish in a short moment when I came across the "Dead End" sign, needing one more road to turn onto. Alas the road was not there and my exhaustive efforts were in vain.

To make a long story short (too late), I will merely say I went up 2 more wrong and, more importantly, steep hills before I found the right one and the steepest one. I didn't make it up very far when I hit the last one, though. I accepted my defeat and walked up the hill, arms in front of me and head down.

I reached the top.

Mounted my mechanical mare.

And flew down the hill, to Valhalla.

I was quickly embraced by the familiar faces of my younger and not so formidable years.

Blogging about blogging

Hey gang,

Sorry for the lack of updates. When I started this blog for my trip, I guess I was under the impression that I was going on a vacation. I thought I would have a lot more free time. I forgot about the whole school part and how much time that would consume. So when I have down time, I go out and explore rather than get online. So I hope all can forgive me.

This week has been crazy. It was Gion Matsuri, so on top of school, we were all exploring the festival. It was also my family's annual beach trip. This being the 1st time I ever missed it in my almost 20 years of existence - I skyped them as much as I could, generally at very strange hours. But it was good to chat with the family. I miss them all, though I must remember that I'll be able to pester them in person soon enough.

I have an exam tomorrow, which I am not too worried about. I have to memorize a bunch of Kanji tonight. While not the most exciting evening, at least it is not the most terrible task. The tough part is the motivation. I love Japanese, but it is always so hard to concentrate on something you are expected to do, rather than on something you would like to learn out of your own interests.

I just started using smart.fm to learn a lot of Japanese vocabulary and it is awesome. In fact, I procrastinated studying today by studying the vocab on that sight. It works so well for my learning style. It is very engaging for me and has visuals - so rock on, smart.fm.

This week is our last full week of classes. I am thrilled and sad. I am not going to miss the actual classes (even though I learned so much from them), but I am going to miss the teachers. They were all really great. I hope this trip will not be my one and only interaction with them. I now have a goal to one day come back here and be able to speak to them on a level slightly over an elementary one. They are all so fascinating.

Well, I should not be on here for too much longer or else I will never study. I have many tales to tell you all. I hope that after my exam tomorrow I will feel like I have the time to give uploading vlogs and pictures another chance.

Farewell for now.

Time Flys When You're Learning Japanese

I can't believe it is already July. Kyoto is awesome, Japanese is awesome, Yoshi is awesome, CLS kids are awesome, Machya Frappes are awesome, Takeshima Sensei and Takata Sensei are awesome, and I am losing all ability to diversify my English vocabulary.

Thought I'd share that with all of you at this late hour in Kyoto - in the minutes before I go to sleep.
Oyasumi-nasai

Updates! Get Your Updates Here!

Kyomizu Temple

I live here

Imperial Palace Mote

Pre-departure

I have a video too, but I keep having technical difficulties, so later my friends. In summary - all is well.

Break from the Internets

Hello all,

I know I said I'd post pictures and vlogs - and I have a whole bunch prepared, but I'm going to take a break from the internet for at least the next two days in order to catch up on some work. I keep distracting myself with making vlogs and post entries. Yet I never have the time to finish them because I always have to re size my pictures and edit the length of my videos, so I need to take a short break so that I do not fall behind in my immersion experience. I'm trying to memorize 30 new vocab a day + 5 kanji + 1 grammar point + 5 hours of speaking/listening comprehension... all on top of my school work (so on top of other memorization). This reprieve should give me time to actually make posts once I've gotten into a routine.

I'll also not be Skypeing - at least not at length - for the next two days. I'll be up in case I need to talk to the parents, but I wont really engage. Sorry all (all 6 of you who read this), but I'm still adjusting to my life abroad. And what do you know?! Intensive language study is... intense.

In conclusion, I will say, more exciting and entertaining posts are coming to this website soon...

Talk to everyone mid-week or so. Signing off...

The Sun Does Shine in Kyoto

[I wrote this post on Thursday, but due to some technical problems it took me a while to get the video up, so that is why I am posting it now - on a Saturday morning that is definitely not sunny. More updated posts coming soon.]

Konbanwa All,

It is Thursday, June 17 - about 18:00 in Kyoto. Things are getting a lot better. Today it was actually sunny all day. It had been nothing but clouds and rain since we got here, but they don't call it the rainy season for nothing.

I'm starting to get a grasp. I still am quite terrible, but I can sense progress. With that in mind, I can actually enjoy this experience. I'm still jet lagged though, so it is hard to motivate myself to go too far from the apartment. I think it is more important that I get on a somewhat of a normal routine before I start wandering around in a strange land. I'd prefer not to fall asleep on the streets of Kyoto. Especially since the only story I heard of someone getting robbed in Kyoto was from this one rather annoying student at our DC orientation. He told us how a friend of his got drunk and fell asleep (passed out?) on the street. And what do you know?! He awoke to find his money and debit card gone. Imagine that...

Anyway, here is that tour of my apartment that I promised plus some other things. It is a bit long, but there is lots of movement. Plus I'm a little less jet-laggy. A little.






Man, I'm terrible at vlogs. Oh well - I'll get better eventually.

So yes, that's where I live. It is pretty dang nice and big compared to most Japanese apartments. The video doesn't do it justice, especially when I'm using my computer as a camera. And unfortunately I forgot to show you the wonderful pink toilet paper. Oh well, another time.

Lets see... what else?...

My classmates are pretty great. We seem to all get along and with our varying skill levels we are able to figure out what is going on at the end of each class. We make sure we understand what homework we have. It is tough when you assigned homework for the language you're learning in the language you are attempting to learn. The people in the more advanced class are nice too, but since they are above and beyond me, it is hard to socialize with them.

And I must continue my dialogue about Takeshima sensei. I wish I wasn't so tired and could fully express how awesome she is. Hopefully I can get a picture of her and all my senseis on here at some point. Maybe once I can learn how to politely request such a thing without stumbling on my words. It is a comfort to know that my teacher crushes not only transcend gender and age and the that fact that sometimes they are married, but it can even transcend language and culture. My anthropological heart swoons... Any-who...

Tomorrow I'll post some pictures of my pre-departure and some arrival photos. I've gotten behind on uploading them. But that is for another post.

Talk to everyone later!
Ja ne!

Speaking Japanese is Hard

Well, I made it to Kyoto safely and I'm somewhat settled in my apartment. Though I haven't had much time init other than to sleep. I'm a bit weary, but I thought I'd at least post a vlog of me rambling about some of my "adventures" so far. That way, everyone will be somewhat up to date and I can save some time for sweet sweet sleep and for studying. So enjoy my fatigued ramblings:



I wish I had brought my copy of When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris. I think it would be comforting to read about his experiences in Japan and the difficulty of learning the language. I feel kindred to him right now. Well that is it, kids. I'm extremely tired. It is about 11PM in Kyoto. 10 AM for you east coast Americans.