Arggh!!! So close to finishing my field report it’s frustrating; definitely, definitely get it done tomorrow. In other news, Carly has arrived safe and sound, and popped in to uni today. Even though I knew it was coming, I was still surprised… Of course, the weather was crappy today; it couldn’t be a nice day for Carly. I worked on my field report until about 10:30 this morning, and then got to uni. We had our last presentation in Speaking, and then spent the rest of the lesson revising; this final exam is not going to be fun at all! After that, I went to lunch with Nathan, Jo and Kim, and we ate at the 3rd cafeteria; I had kitsune udon, which was a nice change. Getting back to the CIE, I handed in the forms required for the refund of the seminar house deposit, and Carly snuck up on me while I was doing it. She’s dyed her hair a really nice brown, a bit similar to my natural hair colour. We soon got reacquainted, and then went to sit with Katie and Ash for a little while before class.
Religion was really short today. We just talked briefly about Christianity and ancestor worship in Japan and that was it; all gone. We also had to do a course evaluation at the end of class; we were done at least an hour early. From there, we went to the cafeteria to get ice cream; I got plum, and Carly got honeydew melon. I actually liked the melon a lot better; the plum taste was too strong. After that, we made our way but to the dorm, and then I spent the next couple of hours working on my report while Carly slept; she was seriously jet lagged. Eventually, 6:30 came around and that meant it was time for me to make dinner. I decided to make okonomiyaki since I had all the ingredients, so got to it. I made one for Carly too, but she turned it down saying she wasn’t hungry and she didn’t really like okonomiyaki anyway; oh well, saves me cooking tomorrow night. After eating, I working on my report a bit more, and then went up to clean the kitchen; about half the people came, but we got it done. Wishing everyone a good night, I went up to Rachael and Sarah’s room, to harass Carly and Rachael as they were watching FFVII: ACC; it really is pretty. Then it was time for Carly to make her way back to her hotel; at least it wasn’t raining at that point. Well, I’d better get some sleep now. I feel like I have things under control. I just have not try not to worry so much, and I’ll be fine…
11:16pm セミナーハウス 天気：雨天 Just been working on my field report, and I’m about halfway through; gosh I wish I didn’t procrastinate so much. On the plus side, I did yet my homework for Reading and Writing finished this afternoon, so that leaves tomorrow afternoon free to finish the report… Today, it was raining, but the usual cold that comes with the rain was absent, so it wasn’t so bad. Getting to Speaking, five presentations took place, thanks to the fact that all of them were a reasonable length. We also got the schedule for oral exams and I’m up on Thursday; not really looking forward to it. I have no idea what I’m going to talk about. After class, I went over my sakubun a couple more times, sitting with Katie in the lounge. Soon, Reading and Writing came, and I actually did really well. I remembered the entire thing, and it ended up being just over 2 pages (800 characters), which is perfect; I’m hoping the content is okay. I got out feeling relieved (another thing to tick off), and went to have some Makkas for lunch. After that I rode home in the rain, and after putting the washing away, had a big long nap; I felt pretty guilty afterwards. But, I did get my homework done, and also made a list of everything I have to do so far as tying up any loose ends with the university; there’s quite a lot. At 6:30 I went and had dinner, and then sat in the kitchen till about 8:30, talking and watching TV; and laughing of course. Getting back to my room, I was soon visited by Rachael, who came to exchange FFVII: ACC disks with me. The one she got recently with the PS3 doesn’t have subtitles, so she swapped it with the disk that she originally gave me. It doesn’t bother me at all, since I’m sure I’ll buy the regular DVD version when I get home anyway. I sat with her in the computer room for a little while, helping her a bit with her presentation for tomorrow; she’s in Saigo sensei’s other level 4 class. Finally, I came back in here, and got stuck into my report. It’s only worth 20% of my grade, so I need to stop fussing and just get it done. As I write this, Carly’s is on her way here from Tokyo by night bus, so we’ll be seeing her at uni tomorrow I’m sure. It’ll be nice to catch up, and we’ll be able to finally plan Tokyo properly…
I’m at karaoke now. Ash, Rachel and I were bummed out about the fact that there was no free time the other day, so we decided to come again tonight! However, I haven’t been here as long as they have. I just came from 王将 (Osho – “King”), a gyoza place right next to Midori; there’s one near Hirakata station too, but we opted for this one since it is closer by bike…
10:21pm カラオケ
Just sang; Yay, I feel good… So yeah, I went with Chelsea, Rebecca, Brett, Liz and Julie to Osho and it was amazing. Since it is a gyoza place, of course I had to get some and it was delicious ~ 餃子 (gyoza) is basically a Chinese dumpling that consists of a meat and/or vegetable filling that is wrapped in thin dough; it resembles ravioli. I also tried the チャーハン(chahan), Chinese fried rice, which was equally yummy. We got there at about a quarter to 9, so spent a good hour sitting and talking, which was great. Also great, was how cheap my meal was; I got to finish off Liz’s and Julie’s meals as well. As for the rest of my day, well… It was raining quite heavily up until about 5 or so this evening; not fun. In Reading and Writing today, we read part of the story in chapter 6, called むかし夕日の公園で (Mukashi yuuhi no koen de – “Once upon a time at the park of the setting sun”). It’s really well written, full of description, so it actually feels like we’re reading a real Japanese story.
It’s actually turning out to be really scary. This kid, who’s in a park surrounded by tall buildings at sunset (so it’s quite dark already) all alone, is thrusting his arm deep into to sandpit in the corner of the park, trying to gauge how deep it is. He’s arm is submerged up to his shoulder, and his fingers have just hit something. He can’t quite grab onto it, but what feels like women’s hair is starting to twine around his fingers… and that’s as far as we’ve gotten; so much suspense right now!!! After that, I went to my speaking class and dived straight into my presentation, and that went pretty well, although I did go overtime; we all did. And this time we really knew about it because Saigo Sensei brought in a time, and it beeped rather obnoxiously after 5 minutes; he was on the ball though, and was quick to silence it. That done, I went over to the club room and practiced Miyabi with Maarika and Mori Sempai until about 1, when I had to get to class; I ate some onigiri in the lounge before-hand.
In Gender and Sexuality, most of the lesson was taken up watching “Shinjuku Boys”, which was a documentary about Onabe, working in a club in Shijuku. Onabe are women who identify more strongly as men, and display hetero-normative masculine behaviour; the male equivalent is Okama. You could say they are transgender, and a few were taking hormone treatments; gender re-assignment surgery was illegal in Japan at the time. The doco cented around three “women”, who worked at this particular club where Onabe dress up as men (and act like men) and serve women; presumably straight women. It get’s stranger… two of them were in a relationship, one with a girl who identifies herself as straight and sees “him” as a guy, just with a penis, and the other one is with a drag queen who had had his genitals removed; that was a very interesting case. The third was more of a play “boy” (it serious didn’t take me long to refer to this person as a he), who reminded me of the guys in the host club in the other doco we watched; basically playing on women. I found the whole think fascinating. We also got our review sheet for the quiz next week, and the final take home exam criteria sheet; that was just depressing. Somehow, I’m going to squeeze everything in.
After class, I went to the club room once more, and after a bit more practice, we got set up in the club hall on the first floor, in preparation for the all the culture club presentations. This went from 5 till 6:30, and there were some great performances; I wish I had brought my video camera. Before we performed, two guys played an amazing piece on acoustic guitar and after us was the chorus club. They sang Angela Aki’s “Tegami”, which made me mega happy; it’s one of my favourite songs to sing at karaoke. It made me miss high school choir a lot though. It was nice to see that there were two international students in the club (both guys), which was great considering there were only two other guys. I would have been right there to support them, had I not joined the koto club. But then I think, “been there, done that”, and I’m glad I’m trying something new. Our performance went quite well, and I think that’s the biggest crowd I’ve performed in front of; at least 30 people. I’m really happy with the progress I’m made, and when I look back, I really have come far from my humble beginnings playing Sakura sakura. Maybe, I’ll be able to pick up the koto again someday. The event ended with the dance club, and we got to see ballroom, tango, salsa and contemporary; the cotemporary performance was definitely the best. By that time, it was 6:30 and after packing up, I had to rush home in order to make it in time for the meeting at 7; well, I didn’t have to rush that much.
I had time enough to get back to my room, and talk to Hugo about the night bus. He recommended a site to me that was really comprehensive, and we found a bus from Hirakatashi to Tokyo, which is wonderful. I’m going to have a lot of luggage, and I’m not going to want to lug it too far. So, I have to book that very soon. The meeting, our last meeting, was over in about half an hour, and afterwards Yuji approached me about the farewell party a.k.a. “Academic Party” (I love Yuji so much, xD), and asked if I would make my Milo biscuits for everyone again; I guess they really were a hit. Since I would receive money to pay for the ingredients, I was more than happy to oblige. Also, I get to play the koto for it; that’ll definitely be my last time. I’m going to try and play Miyabi; I’ll have to fust the first and second koto parts so it doesn’t sound too empty. So, that’s something else to look forward to. After that, we were pretty much off, as so as everyone was ready. Since Julie didn’t have a bike, she rode on the back of mine; I was a bit wobbly at first, but soon got used to it. Suddenly, I’m feeling very tired. I’m going to have a good sleep in tomorrow, and the get my sakubun done; hopefully…
I’ve just been practicing my presentation a bit more. Yes, I haven’t presented yet. Why, because all the other presenters today went overtime… I got to uni at 11:30 this morning, which gave me some time to eat lunch. I had katsudon from the cafeteria, which I hadn’t eaten in ages so I really enjoyed it; one of the last times I’ll be able to. After talking with Rachel and Julie for a bit, I got to class and after a bit of stuffing around, the presentations for underway. Well, the first guy talked about Japan’s fishing industry, and didn’t really address any problems; which was kind of the whole purpose. He ended up taking almost 15 minutes and remember, these are only supposed to be five minute presentations. So I was like okay, the others aren’t going to take that long; wrong. The other two ended up taking at least 10 minutes if not more, leaving me with no time to present. Saigo Sensei apologised and said I would be first up tomorrow; well, at least I won’t miss out again this way. When I told him my presentation was probably going to be long too, he advised me to shorten it, and I have done just that; culled the crap out of it. It’s still about 7 minutes, but that’s better than 10; it also means that I have less to remember, which is great.
After that, I sat around in class, waiting for religion to start. Today’s class was really interesting. We focused on 水子供養 (mizuko kuyo) or, memorial services for unborn babies; yes, they do this in Japan. Jizou is very much associated with this, being the main deity that cares for aborted or miscarried foetuses, and there are practices such as buying a Jizou statue at a temple and dressing it in hand-made clothes; as a representation of the unborn baby. The same can be said of Kannon (being a Mary-like figure in Japan), but to a much lesser extent. You can also address ema (vocative tablets) to the mizuko, expressing your apology. And if you think this kind of thing is odd, it gets better. Not only is Japan really big on memorial services for pets (they have many pet cemeteries), but such practices to show appreciation extend to dolls, rosaries, brushes, needles, and even termites!!! No joke, the professor showed us a memorial plaque which had written on it, “Termites, Rest in Peace”, in Japanese on it. Now, if you were an exterminator, this would be the right thing to do right?! It could be seen as pacifying the angry termite spirits, or showing gratitude towards them for providing business; sounds a bit weird, I know. I found the whole thing fascinating, although there is a limit to what is and isn’t a potential candidate for commemorating in such a fashion; it can’t be anything.
The trend seems to be that it has to be something that is important in a person’s life, such as calligraphy brushes, or sewing needles, which that person has potentially used for their welfare; they have transferred part of their soul into it. There are also services for trees, which I was happy to hear about but again, it can’t be just any old tree. We then talked more about abortion and the great debate in America (and certainly in other countries), pitting pro-choice against pro-life; it’s always interesting to hear people’s views, especially when they have come for a variety of different background. At the end of class, we got out 1000円 rebate for the Tenri field trip, and I joked it would be going straight to groceries. It’s actually not that funny, because that’s exactly where it did go; I went to Kirindo and Fresco straight after class. Getting back, I was soon off to the post office, sending my first box home. I opted to send it by boat, and it turned out to be surprisingly cheap; easily half as much as air travel. This made me very happy, and very relieved, so I purchased another box (only cost 200円) and got that packed up with the rest of my books and two jumpers; it’s quite heavy, but I think it’ll work out fine. I have another box to send too, but I’m thinking it’s going to cost less than 100 dollars all up, which is great; in total I’m sending about 15kgs of stuff home. I’ll get those sent off tomorrow, and then it’s done; I should see them again in a month or two.
I was very glad to get that all sorted, now I just have to worry about getting all the other stuff on the plane; I’m going to have to buy another bag… I spent the rest of the afternoon working on my reading and writing homework and writing kanji, and then went up for dinner at about 7. Earlier on, I had decided that I would just make scrambled eggs for dinner, but a better though came to mind; I would make French toast. Since I had never made it before, I asked Katie how, and found it surprisingly simple. I ended up making two slices of that, and then scrambled eggs with the rest of my eggs; it turned out to be a wonderful meal. I’m definitely making French toast more often now; so good!!! Tonight, Ash happily announced that see was an aunt; her older sister had her baby yesterday. I always find it strange when young people are aunts or uncles (I knew some in high school), but I guess that happens when there’s a huge age gap between you and your older siblings; 10 years, in Ash’s case. I stayed in the kitchen until about 8:30, and then practiced my presentation for a bit, and also got started on my field report; I got as far as the title page… Anyway, I’m going to have an early night tonight, and not just for my sake, but for Hugo’s also. He got back from Tokyo this morning, after being on the bus all night, so he’s very tired. Goodnight…
Finally got my presentation finished!!! It feels like the last three days have all merged together, and I’ve been working on my presentation continuously. Tomorrow, classes resume and the final, nauseating drop on the rollercoaster ride that has been my time in Japan is upon me; I don’t know if I’m ready to take the plunge. I have just over 20 days left here, and it feels like nothing; all of a sudden, I’ve got too much to do. I’ve written everything I have to do down (as far as assignments and exams are concerned), and I think I can get it all done satisfactorily. As for all the other stuff well, I’ll just have to squeeze it in where ever I can. Tomorrow, I am definitely going to get my two packed boxes sent off, and get one more, larger box to stuff things in. Anyway, that’s tomorrow. Today it was kid’s day, not that I got to enjoy it since I was inside all day… I got up at 9, and after breakfast and shower, I worked on my presentation for two hours, then played KH, then worked on it some more. I had lunch a bit after 2, and then worked on my presentation until 6:30, finally getting the script finished; great day right.
I printed it off, and found Yuji in the kitchen, and he was generous enough to check it over for me; that was such a big help. He told me my way of writing was very easy to follow, and he only fixed or changed a few things; I was very happy with myself. I then had dinner, and after dishing out the pasta bake from last night, I put the rest in the freezer; hopefully it’ll be okay. I sat and talked with Katie and Sarah for a little while (the end was on all of our minds), and then came back down here to fix up the script and power point presentation. Happy with all that, I read it over a few times, and timed it. Well, it turns out that it’s about 9 minutes long, and it’s only supposed to be 5; whoops. In a way it gives me a lot of stake just in case I forget some sentences, which I’m sure I will. The only memo we’re allowed to have has to be written on the designated piece of yellow paper that has 10 lines; one sentence per line. The problem is, ever though I’ve written really small, most of my sentences don’t fit on line. But, it is a memo after all, so I guess that’s good enough. I’ll have a few hours in the morning to memorise it, and then I’ll be performing at 12. Even if it doesn’t go that well, I’ll be glad to get it out of the way tomorrow; means I can move onto the next task. Well, I’m going to have and early night tonight. Hugo’s returning in the morning…
