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| Its the fourth week of studying Japanese and some of my original classmates whom I learned "konnichi wa" and "onegai shimas" with are taking off at the end of the week. The time here is just flying by. Kind of sad to see them go, but also interested in meeting the new people that will join our class next week. Between classes, I try to get some ping-pong in with other classmates and I've noticed my ping-pong has improved a lot more than my Japanese... maybe I should be studying ping-pong instead. The other day we were playing "around the world" and we had like 10 different countries represented... kind of funny, us talking in mixed Nihongo, zhongwen, and English... that's one of the neatest things about studying here is the variety of people that you get to meet.
Haven't found a church yet here, though to be honest, haven't been looking very hard. A couple times, we've streamed Overlake's Illuminate sermons from on-line, but I'm not very motivated to find a church here as I doubt it'll match what I believe... though, of course, church isn't all about me, is it? Hehe... I'd like a bi-lingual one so I can listen to Japanese too-- but I guess you can be picky in a country where like 1% of the population is Christian, eh?
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| This weekend, went with Quan and my classmate Andrea from Germany to Toyohashi. We first went to a shinto shrine to the fox god. There was this path in the forest that led to this clearing filled with fox statues carved out of stone. It was pretty neat.
Afterwards, we went to an Edo period way-station where they had reconstructed two inns, one where noblemen stayed, and one where commoners stayed while traveling through Japan. The larger inn for the royalty had like 30 rooms all separated with shoji screens and gardens and walkways interspersed inside and around the inn. Sorry Stone, I tried to find a ninja, but I think they only come out at nighttime there.
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| Good news! There's a renter for our house! They should be moving in this week sometime meaning we have someone to pay our mortgage... and they don't have pets!
Ok a couple pictures:
First is the landmark building here in Nagoya, the Nagoya train station I mentioned in my first post.
Second is our apartment! I love our place! Unfortunately we live on the third floor and the moving guys had to lift the sofas over the balcony because the sofas wouldn't fit up the stairs.
And finally, me shopping at the little midget store... um... can you believe Japanese furniture is so small? Or maybe that's why our American couches wouldn't fit into our apartment... *boggle*
Ok gotta go to class... this week's been brutal... nihongo no benkyoo wa muzukashii desu yo... tai hen desu ne... 
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| Sorry I haven't blogged. We just got internet access in our apartment this evening and I've only been able to check e-mail occasionally.
Well school finally started! As a complete Japanese language beginner, I was able to skip my first test! Woohoo! The initial placement test-- haha. They took all of us newbies and put us in a room for 3 hours writing hiragana and katakana. Somewhere after college, I lost that little bump on your middle finger you get from writing with a pen-- you know with typing and computers and e-mail and all-- so my hand was seriously cramping after about 20 minutes of tracing characters... I didn't realize school was going to be so brutal! haha...
Right now my class is made up of 10 other students from Taiwan, China, Canada, U.S. and Norway. The Japanese only aspect of the class I was nervous about at first-- but the teachers are really good at communicating without resorting to any of our native languages. Its interesting how everyone either speaks Chinese or English-- so that's kind of how we hang out after class-- English speakers and Chinese speakers. The exception being the really cool students who can speak well enough in Nihongo to only communicate in that...
Ok gotta go-- my typing is keeping wife up... and she goes to work at 5 am and makes the money- so I must go.... bye!
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| Konnichi wa!
We arrived in Nagoya last Thursday with a mild sense of deja vu.
Quan and I visited Nagoya a month ago to arrange housing and the trip
allowed us to get a feel for the sprawling metropolis, our new home for the next year.
Now, coming back in August, the first thing that struck us as we
disembarked was the sweltering heat and humidity. Our arrival
coincided with the hottest time of the year, as well as the start of
the rainy season. The temperature was in the high 80s, and the
humidity was closer to 90%-- just sitting, you get drenched in sweat--
probably the reason why the Japanese prefer to shop, travel, eat, and
basically stay indoors as much as possible.
We're staying in the Nagoya Marriott Associa Hotel, courtesy of the
Boeing Company, until our remaining luggage arrives by boat on
September 1st. The hotel is
part of Nagoya Station, a massive complex that combines two shopping
centers, mass transit and railroad hub, as well as numerous restaurants
and two underground boutique malls. Located in the center of the
city, thousands of commuters, shoppers and tourists flow in and
out of Nagoya station at all hours. Just watching the swarms of
Japanese people moving about their daily business reminds me of how
different Japan is from Seattle.
Invariably, my experiences in Japan draw comparisons in my mind to my
experience teaching in China. I don't apologize for it, because
even though they are as different as America and Europe, it is my
closest frame of reference.
Even superficially, there is little in common apart from race.
Baotou is a poor industrial town, in the hinterlands of China, the
average person making $2.50 a day. Nagoya is also an industrial
city, but home to such corporations as Toyota, Kawasaki and a thriving
commercial and business center. Where $5 in Baotou would get me a
five course dinner for four including drinks, $5 in Nagoya will get me
one bowl of rice and some thin slices of pork. Fashion in Baotou
was a knock-off "Playboy" belt buckle on a belt that wraps one and a
half times around your waist. While fashion in Nagoya is Gucci,
Louis Vutton, Juicy, Armani.
Also my own perspective has changed. In China, I was a single,
recent college graduate, teaching English, and trying to avoid getting
a regular job. In Nagoya, I'm ten years older, married, an ex-pat
accompanying a spouse working for a major corporation, and planning on
studying Japanese.... oh and still trying to avoid a regular job... I
guess some things don't change.
Anyways, why blog? Like who cares? I guess, the primary
person I'm writing to when I pen down these thoughts is to myself-- as
a way to try and process, understand, and remember the big and little
things that happen while in Japan. Part of writing this is to
give some structure to those amorphous events that make up living
overseas-- those experiences that get "lost in translation".
Maybe by writing them down now, when I look back on my thoughts, I can
gain fresh perspective on events that transpired.
And, I guess after two years of having this blog and never posting an
entry, I guess it was also time to pony up and start writing or stop
hogging space on the internet... haha. If anything, I promise
I'll update this blog more frequently than I have done in the past!
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