Tuesday, December 19, 2006

I'll be home for Christmas!

So today is my last day of school! Tomorrow I leave for home. I have a long trip ahead of me. It will take me about four hours to get to the airport. (If I could drive to a station half an hour away that would probably make the trip less than three hours, but I can’t leave my car there. So I have to take a train up north, wait at the station for an hour, and then go back down the way I came, sort of. And of course I have to be at the airport ahead of time. Then I have one stopover in CA and I am there for 6 hours! So lets enjoy some math!:

Home to train station: 3 minute walk
Station A to Station B: 45 minutes
Wait at Station B: 73 minutes (but I can catch an early lunch)
Station B to Kyoto: 81 minutes
Wait at Kyoto: 13 minutes
Kyoto to Airport: 48 minutes.

Time spent in airport 2.5-4 hours (depending on which train I catch)
Japan to CA: 10 hours
Time in CA airport: 6 hours
CA to home airport: 5 hours
Airport to house: 1 hour (if lucky)

TOTAL TRAVEL TIME: 1,733 minutes OR a whopping 28.8 hours (with possible add on time here!) Luckily the trip back involves less stopover time.

But, anyway, it's all worth it to be home for Christmas. :)

-Lisa

Thursday, December 14, 2006

things really do break!

My clock broke...

(See below post for context!)

:-P

uh oh!

uh oh! look at this quote from my last post: " the front left right." I meant to say the front left Light. I'm confusing my Ls and Rs now!

I think a good 2 weeks in America where I can hear and speak lots of English will be welcomed.

Things break! But I "ganbarimasu" (perservere!).

I was just speculating today and a lot of my things have been broken and fixed since I've gotten here!

Here we go:
The pipes in the shower (a few months ago my shower was leaking on my downstairs neighbor and they had to come and fix it).

My gas burner (turns out I just had the thing on it wrong, and the problem fixed itself easily)

My cell phone: It's not broken persay, but there's something wrong with the settings so some people can't call me. I need to go to the store and get it fixed, but I have to wait until someone Japanese can come with me.

My computer: my computer has broken twice, and it's brand new! I still need to get the second repair done.

My car door handle: that just broke monday, now I have to get in the passenger side. This is okay since I usually go to the passenger's side by accident, as it is the reverse from American cars and I get confused.

My car light: the front left right needs to be replaced. I will go to the nearby Honda car shop this weekend to fix above problems.

My digital camera: thought it was broken but I've since figured out it was probably faulty batteries.

My gmail account: it hasn't been working today, and the gmail site says they are working on the problem. Hence any unanswered emails there may be.

Things not yet broken, but I'm expecting it to happen if life keeps up with this pattern of breakyness!: my heaters, my refrigerator, my washer, my car itself, my apartment. (can entire apartments break?)

Things that will never be broken, which is why none of the above breakage is a big deal: my heart, my spirits, my might! :-)

Oyasumi Nippon (Goodnight Japan). Good morning America. Buona sera Italia (Good everning Italy).

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Under the table - Last Friday's elementary visit

I am taking cover under the table in the abandoned lunch room at a nearby elementary school. Four small elementary girls are hiding with me, making surprisingly little noise. “Mo ii kai?” (are you ready?) yells a distant voice. “Mada da yo!” (not yet!) yells one of the girls. I have not been so small in years. The table looms above me, and I have become aware of the small details of the floor; pieces of dust and the pattern of the tile. The girls lead me through the game. “Get under the table,”they instruct with simple Japanese and gestures. 

"Mo ii kai!" yells the voice again, getting closer. "Mo ii yo!" responds the girl next to me, signalling we are ready to be searched for. We crouch even smaller, but we are breathing too loudly. I pull my hood over my head to camoflauge me even more. But we are found!

Next we hide in the locker, four of us in the small space. Then we hide in the kitchen, where there are big pots for cooking rice. Then we hide in the closet, where there are extra tables folded up. Each time one girl yells "Mo ii kai?" until she finds us.

When the game is over, and I am back in the teacher's room, the teachers chuckle as I explain that I was hiding under the table in rough Japanese. When you are and English teacher in Japan, you never know what sort of game you will be pulled into!

-Lisa

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

天気はちょっとへんですね

On Monday I was driving to school and I noticed it has snowed... in the mountains! They were a beautiful white at the tops. It was a little strange because there is still lots of green everywhere, and even many flowers. Many leaves have not fallen off the trees as well.

Then I went up to Fukui city by train in the Afternoon to get my re-entry permit (a stamp that allows me to return to Japan after going abroad). Fukui city is north of the prefecture, and about an hour and a half by train. Halfway up, after passing through a super long tunnel, we came out the other side and everything was white! It had snowed there too. I sort of dozed off on the train but when we got to the city there was no snow. Instead, there was a sun-shower. It was really strong rain, but it was only in patches. I could see it raining about 20 feet away but it was dry where I was. Then I saw a rainbow!

I got my re-entry permit in the fourteenth story of a building. After I was done the sun came out and I saw a beautiful view. 天気はちょっとへんですね。The weather is a little strange, eh?

(pictures coming soon)

Sunday, December 03, 2006

The Test of DOOM! :-)

Yesterday I took the Japanese Proficiency test. Paul and I left for the train station at 5:55 to catch a 6:40 train to Kyoto. It was raining as we drove, but cleared up by the time we got to the station and parked. As our train approached Kyoto, the sun rose, and the view was beautiful as the train passes Lake Biwa, the biggest lake in Japan. We got to Kyoto and grabbed some coffee (we needed to be perked up quite a bit), and then stood in line for about 45 minutes just to catch a bus to the test site, at Kyoto University. It seemed that everyone was at the station trying to get on the bus to take the test. There were people from all over Asia, and a few westerners. (I was actually surprised how outnumbered the westerners were.) When we finally got on a bus and got to the test site, we made it just in time for the 9:45 start time.

The test went well for Paul. I think it went well for me too, but I’m not sure if I passed. It was entirely in Japanese, including all the directions, and it the first Japanese test I’ve ever taken. I think my best section was the listening section, since I listen every day. Second was the kanji/vocabulary test. The most difficult for me was grammar, since I haven’t studied much grammar yet. There were many times when I had to guess, because I didn’t know the words being used or hadn’t studied a grammar point yet. I think an increased vocabulary would help me immensely, but there are only so many words you can learn in four months! (Besides, many of the words I learned that are useful for my daily life, like the word for “self introduction,” weren’t on the test).

So, I’m not sure how I did but it was a good experience. Afterward, Paul and I were gonna enjoy Kyoto but we felt really tired so after awhile we decided to go eat and then take a train home. We went to this restaurant we had been to before, although last time it had had a set menu. This time it was a little more pricey but we decided to eat there anyway (why not treat ourselves after all the hard work right?). So we sat down, and waited... and waited... and waited. The waitress never came, and we were hungry and wanted to go home. We waited about 15-20 minutes and finally decided to leave! The only other place we saw was a McDonalds so ate there! So much for sushi haha.

Well, gotta go now. More to come later.

-Lisa