Ninjas!!!
Last week ended on a really bad note, but this week has begun on a really great one (Ninja!). So I'm going to write about the bad part first, just to get it out of the way, and write down my plan to change the things I don't like because I think writing it down might strengthen my resolve, and finally I'll get to the juicy ninja bits. So you can skip around as you please, depending on what you're interested in.
From about the middle of this week up until the weekend things were rough. I wrote this explanation of my problem on Friday night:
The main problem is that I'm not making as much progress in the Japanese language as I'd like to be. I was talking to a Japanese girl I know from dance practice, and was telling me about how when she was an exchange student in America she was frustrated because she couldn't speak well enough to express herself. Because she was always quiet, she thought that people thought that she didn't have an opinion, or was stupid. I've been feeling the same way, lately. Around my host family I'm quiet most of the time, because I can't understand what they're saying to each other and when I try to talk to them about something I can't even form a simple sentence right. Sometimes it's the vocabulary I'm lacking- I'll be halfway into a sentence or a story and realize I don't know the word for "musical instrument," and the whole thing falls apart. Or what's worse- I'll realize I don't know the word for the verb I want to use (the Japanese use verbs at the end of the sentence), so I'll have laid out the location, subject, direct object, but have no verb! Other times it's the grammar that gets me. I frequently mix up particles (ga and o kill me), and it takes me a while to think about the proper verb conjugation, so I usually just speed through the verb and butcher it. In the end, the communication bridge is floating down the river.
It's so frustrating I want to pull my hair out. And it happens so often. I am really quiet a lot, and don't know what to say, and then when I do try to form a sentence I botch it. I'm really at a loss. What can you do when you just can't understand your family, and they can't understand you? And much more, when you don't even know what to say to them in the first place? I mean, I don't think I've spoken more than ten words to Chi-chan or Ko-chan (my host brothers) in the last week because I just don't know what to talk to them about. I don’t want them to think I’m stupid, or even worse that I’m mean and aloof. And then outside of the family, it's hard for me to understand the Japanese that's going on around me. Like this Wednesday, I met with my speaking partners for
lunch. We spoke mainly English, but when they started to speak Japanese with each other I became completely lost. My confidence is really shot. I haven't been able to talk to strangers around town for weeks. When I first arrived I wasn't afraid to talk to random people for
directions or just to say hello. But now, at the bus stop and pretty much everywhere there aren't English speakers, I'm completely silent. And it's starting to get to me.
So on Friday I came up with a plan. I decided I’m going to try my hardest to break the silence with my family, even if it just ends up with me fumbling over my sentences. The worse thing that could happen is that I have to pull out the Japanese-English dictionary. At least my host parents will know that I am trying and my host brothers know that I am not mean and aloof. And as intimidating as it is, I am going to try to talk to my host brothers this week. Even if it’s only, “what did you do today?” or “do you have plans for the weekend?” It will be hard, but I have to
try. And the second part of my plan was that I am going to immerse myself in more Japanese, rather than just being exposed to it for 2 hours a day during class. Instead of sitting in the international student lounge after class, I am going to go to the language lab and listen to the
dialogues and practice conversations on the computers. Or I will go to the library’s media center and watch Japanese movies. I’ve already seen two animated features- “Kiki’s Delivery Service” and “My Neighbor Totoro”- both of which were really cute. While I can’t understand a lot of the
dialogue, I get the main idea of what’s going on. On Saturday I was at the language lab for about 3 hours, until it closed down at 4 pm. It was exhausting, listening to those dialogues and speaking in the example conversations. For the last 30 minutes I was compulsively wrapping my fingers around the headphone cord and wriggling in my seat, like I had a personality disorder or something, because my brain was so tired and I was so ready to leave. Hopefully I’ll have the endurance to put in another couple of hours in every day this week. I have to improve, or the meaning of this trip is lost. I can't be a passive learner of Japanese- I have to take a more active approach.
So enough of that language nonesense, let's get down to the nitty-gritty. Today (Monday) was a holiday (Taiiku no hi), so I went to a ninja-mura (ninja village) with my friend Ashley from my Japanese class at USF and two friends I met through her- Luis (an English kid) and Ko (a Japanese guy). We make a really nutty group, and have a lot of fun doing the most mundane things. For example, car rides. The ninja-mura was located in Igaueno, a good three hours car ride away from Hirakata city. Now I'm not complaining about long car rides, because it probably would have cost at least 1000 yen to get to the place by train, along with all the hassle of transferring lines and standing-room-only and all that. Riding in a car is kind of a luxury for the average exchange student. So we drove from Hirakata to Igaueno, driving through beautiful mountain scenery, without seatbelts in the back. I'm usually a stickler for seatbelts, but in Japan seatbelts in the back aren't required and Ko's car didn't have them, so what can you do? Shikata ga nai. Memorable moments were seeing the Capcom building, eating a "Crunky" chocolate bar, and playing with mannequin arms that were in the back of Ko's car for some reason.
The town of Igaueno was ninja-crazy. At every pedestrian crossing signal there were cute little ninja statues, about the size of lawn gnomes, and there were pictures of ninjas on the sides of the bridge rails. There were even ninjas on the town sign. The ninja village itself was even crazier. Everything was ninja-this and ninja-that. I kid you not, they had a "ninja ticket office." So it made for a great inside joke that ran all day: going to the ninja gift shop, finding ninja ice cream, etc. Some of the ninja stuff was educational and some of it was purely entertainment; I enjoyed both.
Here's some of the educational side. Ninjas did not wear black, which could be soon on moonlight nights- they actually wore dark navy blue. They practiced prophecy, sorcery, and mixed chemicals- you hear that Chris, the Ninjas were chemists! They used guns sometimes. They slept on their left sides to protect their heart from enemy attack. Their primary function was to gather information, so they would train to improve their memory. They often associate certain memories with body parts, so if they had to remember something particularly important they would cut a particulary part of their body. They didn't eat meat and bathed frequently so as not to emit a body odor. They could predict the weather using signs from nature. They looked at the dilation of cat's eyes to determine what time it was. They used kunai for digging- not for fighting, like on Naruto. They communicated by rope-letters before Japan had its own alphabet. Let's see... that's all I've got.
Here's some of the entertainment side. We went on a tour of a ninja house, where our ninja guide showed us the hiding places ninja use to spy on people and store weapons. Very cool. We also saw a ninja show, where a ninja cast performed on a ninja stage. The first act was a guy that cut bamboo in half using a katana. The second act was a guy that threw shuriken. The third act was a girl that was ambushed by another ninja while playing a flute, but it turns out the flute was actually a concealed knife and she slayed the ninja. It was really funny because after delivering the final blow to her adversary, her serious face turns all smiles as she happily explains how to use the concealed knife weapon. And she played (or rather, the stereos played) the flute music from Kill Bill, which was very cool. She also demonstrated how to use the dart-blower, popping a balloon from across the stage. The fourth act was a guy throwing some scythe-looking weapons across stage and into the side of a wall. Then a guy came on stage with a hundred-yen coin and an umbrella. He threw the umbrella up into the air, and kept it spinning in place while rolling the umbrella in his fingers. It was kind of intermission, I guess... it was really ridiculous and made me feel like I was watching a dinner show in Las Vegas or something, but entertaining, nonetheless. The last act was the ninja girl using two scythe-like weapons to fight off other ninjas. It was very Soul Caliber. After the show I got a group photo with one of the ninjas. And I threw down 200 yen so I could throw real shuriken- it was worth every yen.
After the ninja festivities were over we got a bite to eat at a curry shop and headed home. The car ride back was really fun. We played a Japanese game where you say a word, and the last letter of your word has to be the first letter of the word the next person says. I forget the name of the game, "something-tori" I think. It's really fun, and talk about tango practice! After a while our interest kind of fizzled out (we kept getting stuck with words beginning with "ru," a common last letter for Japanese verbs but one of the least common beginning letters). So Luis and I decided to drill each other on the Japanese names for your fingers. The thumb is "oya-bi" (parent finger). The index finger is "hito-sashi-bi" (people pointing finger). The middle finger is "naka-bi" (middle finger). The ring finger is "kusuri-bi" (medicine finger). The pinky finger is "ko-bi" (child finger). I would put up a finger, and then Luis would name it as fast as he could, and then I'd quickly put up another finger. I tried it, and it was surprisingly taxing on the mind. It was really fun in a childish way because I got to flip off Luis in rapid succession. When we couldn't take any more of the finger drills, me and Luis dug out the mannequin arms from the back of Ko's arms and proceeded to be deadly distractions to the driver. We took his hat, grabbed the steering wheel, stuck the mannequin fingers in his ears, and Ashley grabbed his but with the mannequin hands. Good times. Ko payed one of the tolls using the mannequin arm, which killed us, but the guy at the toll window wasn't amused.
So this past week ended kind of blah, but the beginning of the new week was fantastic and the future is looking bright. More news to come, but maybe not as exciting as ninjas....
From about the middle of this week up until the weekend things were rough. I wrote this explanation of my problem on Friday night:
The main problem is that I'm not making as much progress in the Japanese language as I'd like to be. I was talking to a Japanese girl I know from dance practice, and was telling me about how when she was an exchange student in America she was frustrated because she couldn't speak well enough to express herself. Because she was always quiet, she thought that people thought that she didn't have an opinion, or was stupid. I've been feeling the same way, lately. Around my host family I'm quiet most of the time, because I can't understand what they're saying to each other and when I try to talk to them about something I can't even form a simple sentence right. Sometimes it's the vocabulary I'm lacking- I'll be halfway into a sentence or a story and realize I don't know the word for "musical instrument," and the whole thing falls apart. Or what's worse- I'll realize I don't know the word for the verb I want to use (the Japanese use verbs at the end of the sentence), so I'll have laid out the location, subject, direct object, but have no verb! Other times it's the grammar that gets me. I frequently mix up particles (ga and o kill me), and it takes me a while to think about the proper verb conjugation, so I usually just speed through the verb and butcher it. In the end, the communication bridge is floating down the river.
It's so frustrating I want to pull my hair out. And it happens so often. I am really quiet a lot, and don't know what to say, and then when I do try to form a sentence I botch it. I'm really at a loss. What can you do when you just can't understand your family, and they can't understand you? And much more, when you don't even know what to say to them in the first place? I mean, I don't think I've spoken more than ten words to Chi-chan or Ko-chan (my host brothers) in the last week because I just don't know what to talk to them about. I don’t want them to think I’m stupid, or even worse that I’m mean and aloof. And then outside of the family, it's hard for me to understand the Japanese that's going on around me. Like this Wednesday, I met with my speaking partners for
lunch. We spoke mainly English, but when they started to speak Japanese with each other I became completely lost. My confidence is really shot. I haven't been able to talk to strangers around town for weeks. When I first arrived I wasn't afraid to talk to random people for
directions or just to say hello. But now, at the bus stop and pretty much everywhere there aren't English speakers, I'm completely silent. And it's starting to get to me.
So on Friday I came up with a plan. I decided I’m going to try my hardest to break the silence with my family, even if it just ends up with me fumbling over my sentences. The worse thing that could happen is that I have to pull out the Japanese-English dictionary. At least my host parents will know that I am trying and my host brothers know that I am not mean and aloof. And as intimidating as it is, I am going to try to talk to my host brothers this week. Even if it’s only, “what did you do today?” or “do you have plans for the weekend?” It will be hard, but I have to
try. And the second part of my plan was that I am going to immerse myself in more Japanese, rather than just being exposed to it for 2 hours a day during class. Instead of sitting in the international student lounge after class, I am going to go to the language lab and listen to the
dialogues and practice conversations on the computers. Or I will go to the library’s media center and watch Japanese movies. I’ve already seen two animated features- “Kiki’s Delivery Service” and “My Neighbor Totoro”- both of which were really cute. While I can’t understand a lot of the
dialogue, I get the main idea of what’s going on. On Saturday I was at the language lab for about 3 hours, until it closed down at 4 pm. It was exhausting, listening to those dialogues and speaking in the example conversations. For the last 30 minutes I was compulsively wrapping my fingers around the headphone cord and wriggling in my seat, like I had a personality disorder or something, because my brain was so tired and I was so ready to leave. Hopefully I’ll have the endurance to put in another couple of hours in every day this week. I have to improve, or the meaning of this trip is lost. I can't be a passive learner of Japanese- I have to take a more active approach.
So enough of that language nonesense, let's get down to the nitty-gritty. Today (Monday) was a holiday (Taiiku no hi), so I went to a ninja-mura (ninja village) with my friend Ashley from my Japanese class at USF and two friends I met through her- Luis (an English kid) and Ko (a Japanese guy). We make a really nutty group, and have a lot of fun doing the most mundane things. For example, car rides. The ninja-mura was located in Igaueno, a good three hours car ride away from Hirakata city. Now I'm not complaining about long car rides, because it probably would have cost at least 1000 yen to get to the place by train, along with all the hassle of transferring lines and standing-room-only and all that. Riding in a car is kind of a luxury for the average exchange student. So we drove from Hirakata to Igaueno, driving through beautiful mountain scenery, without seatbelts in the back. I'm usually a stickler for seatbelts, but in Japan seatbelts in the back aren't required and Ko's car didn't have them, so what can you do? Shikata ga nai. Memorable moments were seeing the Capcom building, eating a "Crunky" chocolate bar, and playing with mannequin arms that were in the back of Ko's car for some reason.
The town of Igaueno was ninja-crazy. At every pedestrian crossing signal there were cute little ninja statues, about the size of lawn gnomes, and there were pictures of ninjas on the sides of the bridge rails. There were even ninjas on the town sign. The ninja village itself was even crazier. Everything was ninja-this and ninja-that. I kid you not, they had a "ninja ticket office." So it made for a great inside joke that ran all day: going to the ninja gift shop, finding ninja ice cream, etc. Some of the ninja stuff was educational and some of it was purely entertainment; I enjoyed both.
Here's some of the educational side. Ninjas did not wear black, which could be soon on moonlight nights- they actually wore dark navy blue. They practiced prophecy, sorcery, and mixed chemicals- you hear that Chris, the Ninjas were chemists! They used guns sometimes. They slept on their left sides to protect their heart from enemy attack. Their primary function was to gather information, so they would train to improve their memory. They often associate certain memories with body parts, so if they had to remember something particularly important they would cut a particulary part of their body. They didn't eat meat and bathed frequently so as not to emit a body odor. They could predict the weather using signs from nature. They looked at the dilation of cat's eyes to determine what time it was. They used kunai for digging- not for fighting, like on Naruto. They communicated by rope-letters before Japan had its own alphabet. Let's see... that's all I've got.
Here's some of the entertainment side. We went on a tour of a ninja house, where our ninja guide showed us the hiding places ninja use to spy on people and store weapons. Very cool. We also saw a ninja show, where a ninja cast performed on a ninja stage. The first act was a guy that cut bamboo in half using a katana. The second act was a guy that threw shuriken. The third act was a girl that was ambushed by another ninja while playing a flute, but it turns out the flute was actually a concealed knife and she slayed the ninja. It was really funny because after delivering the final blow to her adversary, her serious face turns all smiles as she happily explains how to use the concealed knife weapon. And she played (or rather, the stereos played) the flute music from Kill Bill, which was very cool. She also demonstrated how to use the dart-blower, popping a balloon from across the stage. The fourth act was a guy throwing some scythe-looking weapons across stage and into the side of a wall. Then a guy came on stage with a hundred-yen coin and an umbrella. He threw the umbrella up into the air, and kept it spinning in place while rolling the umbrella in his fingers. It was kind of intermission, I guess... it was really ridiculous and made me feel like I was watching a dinner show in Las Vegas or something, but entertaining, nonetheless. The last act was the ninja girl using two scythe-like weapons to fight off other ninjas. It was very Soul Caliber. After the show I got a group photo with one of the ninjas. And I threw down 200 yen so I could throw real shuriken- it was worth every yen.
After the ninja festivities were over we got a bite to eat at a curry shop and headed home. The car ride back was really fun. We played a Japanese game where you say a word, and the last letter of your word has to be the first letter of the word the next person says. I forget the name of the game, "something-tori" I think. It's really fun, and talk about tango practice! After a while our interest kind of fizzled out (we kept getting stuck with words beginning with "ru," a common last letter for Japanese verbs but one of the least common beginning letters). So Luis and I decided to drill each other on the Japanese names for your fingers. The thumb is "oya-bi" (parent finger). The index finger is "hito-sashi-bi" (people pointing finger). The middle finger is "naka-bi" (middle finger). The ring finger is "kusuri-bi" (medicine finger). The pinky finger is "ko-bi" (child finger). I would put up a finger, and then Luis would name it as fast as he could, and then I'd quickly put up another finger. I tried it, and it was surprisingly taxing on the mind. It was really fun in a childish way because I got to flip off Luis in rapid succession. When we couldn't take any more of the finger drills, me and Luis dug out the mannequin arms from the back of Ko's arms and proceeded to be deadly distractions to the driver. We took his hat, grabbed the steering wheel, stuck the mannequin fingers in his ears, and Ashley grabbed his but with the mannequin hands. Good times. Ko payed one of the tolls using the mannequin arm, which killed us, but the guy at the toll window wasn't amused.
So this past week ended kind of blah, but the beginning of the new week was fantastic and the future is looking bright. More news to come, but maybe not as exciting as ninjas....