(no subject)
Edit: Now with really random pictures.
Possibly I hand wrote this entry when I was bored one night last weekend, I think. I should really work on posting more frequently. Sorry guys. Anyway, really rambly thoughts typed up from my (adorable and kind of Engrishy~) notebook!
This just in: I fucking hate transitive and intransitive verbs. I have been studying them for approximately two days and I already know I detest them. It is straight memorization disguising itself as grammar. I have the memory of a goldfish, but pick up grammar patterns fairly quickly. A class period of using a new grammar pattern is usually enough to get it in my head, but I can spend hours and hours studying vocab and still barely remember it for (ten to twenty word :/) vocab quizzes. (Oddly enough, kanji doesn't fall into this category. Little pictures! For words! I am kickass at kanji!)
But yes, intransitive verbs do not count as a new grammar pattern, text book. They count as making me re-memorize verbs I already spent hours memorizing. :||||
In other news, lol grammar rants.
In other other news, my host mom bought me a giant Oguri Shun poster calender. The hell, life. So bizarrely awesome sometimes.
So there's a Japanese boy in my popular culture and media class (read: lets study sociology by talking about manga dorks and metrosexual Japanese pop stars!) who is adorable and I have decided we should become friends. He is adorable and speaks English very well (the class is taught in English, so impressed by the Japanese students taking it!) and is apparently something of a dork, based on the class he's taking. Quote:
Boy: (while we were introducing ourselves) ...and I like to read manga. (Looks sort of embarrassed.)
Prof: So, in Japan, if you like manga does that automatically make you an otaku?
Boy: Yes.
Prof: (clearly not expecting such a cut and dry response, rephrases himself in Japanese in case Boy just didn't understand.)
Boy: Yes. You're an Otaku.
Prof: Oh. Okay.
I have noticed this is actually true, though! It's weird. Because it's definitely not weird to see people on the train readnig mango or playing gameboy. And it's really fun playing my DS on the train when I have a long ride and not getting strange looks. Or rather, getting strange looks because I'm white, not because of the gameboy. :PPP Anyway, people obviously like anime/manga/whatever, but they seem to sort of do it half-secretly. Being into anime in Japan seems to be just as dorky and socially awkward as it is in America. Maybe even more as there is sort of that geek chic thing going on in America recently. It's a really bizarre contradiction. (Like, idk, everything else in this country.)
Jpop, on the other hand, is not at all. You know how everyone you know of who likes jpop got into it because of some anime or equally dorky thing? Oddly enough, Japanese pop stars are known and liked in Japan because they are actually popular!
This leads to what I call the incredible ice breaking power of Matsujun. Everyone here knows Matsujun. I have started at least, like, five or six conversations on the topic of Matsujun. Mostly someone will hear me and Casey mention him or seeing Casey's Jun keychain on her purse and pipe up with "Ehhh! Matsujun?!" inclduing on one buss back from Hirakata-shi at 11 at night. And, like, they don't actually seem to immediately assume you're a huge dork! Being weirdly, obsessively knowledgeable is still, you know, weird and obsessive (remind me to take a picture of the page in the magazine I found where they measure every member of Kat-tun's ring fingers) but just knowing who they are/some of their songs/having a favorite member is suprisingly unlame. Sugoi, ne? ^_^
So, ending with a list of awesome things I have been compiling:
♥ The hyaku-en (about one dollar) boss cafe au lait I found in a kind of sketchy vending machine on my walk home. (It's usually 120 yen.)
♥ Melon pan, my new love.
♥ 69 yen notecards.
♥ 69 yen tiny, ring bound notecards. No, seriously. I shell out, like, three dollars for notecards like this back in the states, and half the time they are out of the tiny ones that are good for vocab, and all the time even the tiny ones are a bit too big.
♥ Everyone here (and by everyone, I mean all my gaijin gakusei) understand and share my good notecard fetish.
♥ Fushimi Inari and then Kyoto with Kelly on Tusday!
♥ I had my first okinomiyaki this past week, and it was totally as good as I imagined it would be!
♥ Festival this Saturday! The goldfish and dango and fun kind!
♥ my new cell phone! Oh my god, guys. I get free tv. On my cell phone. And internet! And I can text people in America! And I've basically been using it as an ipod since it can hold a good amount of music!
Also, some really random pictures, including that take a picture of yourself right now meme.
My speaking partner Ai and I in the Japanese garden on the Kansai Gaidai campus. (This is kind of a bad picture of me... :/ Ai is adorable, though.)
The things I bought Abbey and Maartje, which they will be sent as soon as I can figure out where a post office is. Y^_^Y
A Johnny's store nearby, though not the Johnny's store which is in Osaka. But, you know, walls and walls of pretty pop stars. It was a bit overwhelming.
The sneaky picture we took of Casey next to Matsujun selling us cell phones.
At dinner one night they gave me an orange and a juicer with my drink. askdlfjasd I was so surprised and amazed.
Casey breaking several Japanese laws in one day! (She bought a cell phone and is drinking alcohol, even though she was still 19 at the time. :P She turned 20 this past weekend.)
The vending machine/claw game thing (I forget what those are actually called) that was literally five feet from the front door of the restaurant the previous picture was taken at. You run into these things everywhere, people. It's seriously creepy and hilarious.
Possibly I hand wrote this entry when I was bored one night last weekend, I think. I should really work on posting more frequently. Sorry guys. Anyway, really rambly thoughts typed up from my (adorable and kind of Engrishy~) notebook!
This just in: I fucking hate transitive and intransitive verbs. I have been studying them for approximately two days and I already know I detest them. It is straight memorization disguising itself as grammar. I have the memory of a goldfish, but pick up grammar patterns fairly quickly. A class period of using a new grammar pattern is usually enough to get it in my head, but I can spend hours and hours studying vocab and still barely remember it for (ten to twenty word :/) vocab quizzes. (Oddly enough, kanji doesn't fall into this category. Little pictures! For words! I am kickass at kanji!)
But yes, intransitive verbs do not count as a new grammar pattern, text book. They count as making me re-memorize verbs I already spent hours memorizing. :||||
In other news, lol grammar rants.
In other other news, my host mom bought me a giant Oguri Shun poster calender. The hell, life. So bizarrely awesome sometimes.
So there's a Japanese boy in my popular culture and media class (read: lets study sociology by talking about manga dorks and metrosexual Japanese pop stars!) who is adorable and I have decided we should become friends. He is adorable and speaks English very well (the class is taught in English, so impressed by the Japanese students taking it!) and is apparently something of a dork, based on the class he's taking. Quote:
Boy: (while we were introducing ourselves) ...and I like to read manga. (Looks sort of embarrassed.)
Prof: So, in Japan, if you like manga does that automatically make you an otaku?
Boy: Yes.
Prof: (clearly not expecting such a cut and dry response, rephrases himself in Japanese in case Boy just didn't understand.)
Boy: Yes. You're an Otaku.
Prof: Oh. Okay.
I have noticed this is actually true, though! It's weird. Because it's definitely not weird to see people on the train readnig mango or playing gameboy. And it's really fun playing my DS on the train when I have a long ride and not getting strange looks. Or rather, getting strange looks because I'm white, not because of the gameboy. :PPP Anyway, people obviously like anime/manga/whatever, but they seem to sort of do it half-secretly. Being into anime in Japan seems to be just as dorky and socially awkward as it is in America. Maybe even more as there is sort of that geek chic thing going on in America recently. It's a really bizarre contradiction. (Like, idk, everything else in this country.)
Jpop, on the other hand, is not at all. You know how everyone you know of who likes jpop got into it because of some anime or equally dorky thing? Oddly enough, Japanese pop stars are known and liked in Japan because they are actually popular!
This leads to what I call the incredible ice breaking power of Matsujun. Everyone here knows Matsujun. I have started at least, like, five or six conversations on the topic of Matsujun. Mostly someone will hear me and Casey mention him or seeing Casey's Jun keychain on her purse and pipe up with "Ehhh! Matsujun?!" inclduing on one buss back from Hirakata-shi at 11 at night. And, like, they don't actually seem to immediately assume you're a huge dork! Being weirdly, obsessively knowledgeable is still, you know, weird and obsessive (remind me to take a picture of the page in the magazine I found where they measure every member of Kat-tun's ring fingers) but just knowing who they are/some of their songs/having a favorite member is suprisingly unlame. Sugoi, ne? ^_^
So, ending with a list of awesome things I have been compiling:
♥ The hyaku-en (about one dollar) boss cafe au lait I found in a kind of sketchy vending machine on my walk home. (It's usually 120 yen.)
♥ Melon pan, my new love.
♥ 69 yen notecards.
♥ 69 yen tiny, ring bound notecards. No, seriously. I shell out, like, three dollars for notecards like this back in the states, and half the time they are out of the tiny ones that are good for vocab, and all the time even the tiny ones are a bit too big.
♥ Everyone here (and by everyone, I mean all my gaijin gakusei) understand and share my good notecard fetish.
♥ Fushimi Inari and then Kyoto with Kelly on Tusday!
♥ I had my first okinomiyaki this past week, and it was totally as good as I imagined it would be!
♥ Festival this Saturday! The goldfish and dango and fun kind!
♥ my new cell phone! Oh my god, guys. I get free tv. On my cell phone. And internet! And I can text people in America! And I've basically been using it as an ipod since it can hold a good amount of music!
Also, some really random pictures, including that take a picture of yourself right now meme.
My speaking partner Ai and I in the Japanese garden on the Kansai Gaidai campus. (This is kind of a bad picture of me... :/ Ai is adorable, though.)
The things I bought Abbey and Maartje, which they will be sent as soon as I can figure out where a post office is. Y^_^Y
A Johnny's store nearby, though not the Johnny's store which is in Osaka. But, you know, walls and walls of pretty pop stars. It was a bit overwhelming.
The sneaky picture we took of Casey next to Matsujun selling us cell phones.
At dinner one night they gave me an orange and a juicer with my drink. askdlfjasd I was so surprised and amazed.
Casey breaking several Japanese laws in one day! (She bought a cell phone and is drinking alcohol, even though she was still 19 at the time. :P She turned 20 this past weekend.)
The vending machine/claw game thing (I forget what those are actually called) that was literally five feet from the front door of the restaurant the previous picture was taken at. You run into these things everywhere, people. It's seriously creepy and hilarious.