Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Happy Merry Christmas
Just a quick Christmas update--had Shakey's pizza for dinner with the other gaijin, followed by an awesome round of American card games and the exchange of presents (which is really me giving all my guy friends presents because they are incapable of buying things in advance). Doesn't feel like Christmas I suppose, since there was nothing to open from home, but that's alright. It's good to have a gaijin family on the other side of the world.
Friday, December 21, 2007
J-Christmas
It just doesn't quite feel like Christmas time, here halfway around the world. Sure, stores are filled with holiday decorations and red and green signs announcing sales and whatnot, but it's not the same. For one thing, the Christmas season usually marks the end of finals, the end of the semester. I have a full two weeks off school, but the past few have been spent going to class, taking notes, and doing other normal academic tasks. No tests to prepare for or papers to write. I'm looking forward to the vacation to be sure, but not quite the same way as I would coming off of two weeks of and late nights in the library and cramming for everything.
Another thing is the fact that in the United States, Christmas is still largely a religious holiday. More people go to church on Christmas than any other day in the year, except maybe Easter. This is also exemplified by the fact that Christmas is largely a family holiday. People come together from all over to share presents, eat home-cooked food, and argue loudly (and often drunkenly) over stupid things. But in Japan, where the predominant religions are not Christian, this is a different story. Christmas Day is more for friends and significant others than families. My host parents, for example, are going to a friends house on that day to share in the traditional Christmas Cake--which is as far as I can tell the only real tradition the Japanese have for this day. Often boyfriends will take their girlfriends to Disneyland, or some other romantic spot. Families with children will sometimes have Santa Claus come give presents in the middle of the night, but all the children I've talked to seem to know that it's actually their parents leaving things out for them to find. Many business even stay open.
By contrast, New Years Eve is a predominantly family holiday in Japan. According to Japanese religious tradition (though I'm not sure if its Buddhist or Shintoist), the New Year is a time to reflect on family matters, go to the shrine together, and pray for health and happiness for your family. For a full seven days you do everything with your family, including eating all the traditional food and drinking sake together at night. I'm not entirely sure how this all works out, but I'm pretty excited to learn.
Anyway, I suppose between these two things, I don't really feel like I'm missing out on Christmas yet. I'm sure right now at my house, Debbie is screaming at everyone to keep the house clean, my Dad is unintentionally making a mess somewhere, and my brother is sitting up in his room trying to ignore everything. Whereas I'm sitting in my room (which is devoid of Christmas decorations by the way) thinking about the whole Christmas season and wondering when it's actually going to hit me that there will be no Christmas morning with my family, or delicious Christmas dinner, or Christmas fighting over the TV and wondering which Harry Potter movie we should watch. No Heidi hopping around through the wrapping paper, no badminton tournaments, and no watching Joie freak out over his new cat toys. Such a strange feeling....
Another thing is the fact that in the United States, Christmas is still largely a religious holiday. More people go to church on Christmas than any other day in the year, except maybe Easter. This is also exemplified by the fact that Christmas is largely a family holiday. People come together from all over to share presents, eat home-cooked food, and argue loudly (and often drunkenly) over stupid things. But in Japan, where the predominant religions are not Christian, this is a different story. Christmas Day is more for friends and significant others than families. My host parents, for example, are going to a friends house on that day to share in the traditional Christmas Cake--which is as far as I can tell the only real tradition the Japanese have for this day. Often boyfriends will take their girlfriends to Disneyland, or some other romantic spot. Families with children will sometimes have Santa Claus come give presents in the middle of the night, but all the children I've talked to seem to know that it's actually their parents leaving things out for them to find. Many business even stay open.
By contrast, New Years Eve is a predominantly family holiday in Japan. According to Japanese religious tradition (though I'm not sure if its Buddhist or Shintoist), the New Year is a time to reflect on family matters, go to the shrine together, and pray for health and happiness for your family. For a full seven days you do everything with your family, including eating all the traditional food and drinking sake together at night. I'm not entirely sure how this all works out, but I'm pretty excited to learn.
Anyway, I suppose between these two things, I don't really feel like I'm missing out on Christmas yet. I'm sure right now at my house, Debbie is screaming at everyone to keep the house clean, my Dad is unintentionally making a mess somewhere, and my brother is sitting up in his room trying to ignore everything. Whereas I'm sitting in my room (which is devoid of Christmas decorations by the way) thinking about the whole Christmas season and wondering when it's actually going to hit me that there will be no Christmas morning with my family, or delicious Christmas dinner, or Christmas fighting over the TV and wondering which Harry Potter movie we should watch. No Heidi hopping around through the wrapping paper, no badminton tournaments, and no watching Joie freak out over his new cat toys. Such a strange feeling....
Sunday, December 16, 2007
The little things
It really is all about the little things in life. For instance, today for lunch Asako-san gave me a bagel and cream cheese. Real, honest to God Philadelphia cream cheese. I was so happy I nearly cried.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Updates anyone?
I could try to describe how busy I've been over the past month, but I don't think that describing anything could paint an accurate picture of my life right now. Things are getting better, to be sure, since the holidays are coming and I'll have more time to myself. Still trying to get things under control though, so just bear with me for a while longer!
Since Sophia University is on the strange Japanese academic year, my fall semester doesn't end until the beginning of February. So while my family in California (and Texas/Washington/Illinois) was enjoying Thanksgiving food, football, and quality family togetherness, I was cramming for my midterms, trying to remember half a semester of Japanese that I'm pretty sure I slept through. I didn't do so badly compared with some of my classmates. My Japanese course this year is repeating a lot of the things that I learned in my two years at GW, which makes for a good refresher course during the turbulence of getting settled in here. For the first time, my Japanese midterm included an interview section--me talking to my professor one-on-one for seven minutes. Sitting there waiting for my name to be called was nerve-wracking, but I managed to get through it okay. My biggest problem was that I kept speaking to him in plain form, when I should have been using my more formal verbs. You can read the last post I made for all about the verb forms.
My midterms for my other classes were just papers, so nothing too painful other than trying to find time to sit down and write them. I've started teaching English every week now on Saturdays from 11am-5pm. My classes are mostly kids, which makes for some interesting fun. They spend most of the lesson screaming at me (or each other) in Japanese, while I stand there with a smile plastered on my face telling them "Eigo de! eigo de!" ("In English! In English!"). My ability to understand Japanese has thankfully improved exponentially, so most of the time they can ask me questions in Japanese and I can understand what they're talking about. But answering them in Japanese? Not going to happen. Not only is my speaking ability not that great, but it's supposed to be an English class. They can learn English the same what I'm learning Japanese--by having the teacher talk to you so much that you just start to understand.
Like I said, things are settling down around here. There's only one week left until winter break (two weeks off!), so I'm trying to spend some weekends at home with my host family to make up for the fact that I won't be at home much over the break. Not that I think they mind particularly. Sunny (Taiwanese homestay sister) is leaving in about a week, so I think our family is going to have a big dinner tomorrow night to wish her well. I'm still not sure about my winter break plans (I really hope they include a trip somewhere, but you can never tell). I'm sorry about the lack of updates in both the blog and the photos, but as soon as something interesting happens, I'll be sure to let you know.
Since Sophia University is on the strange Japanese academic year, my fall semester doesn't end until the beginning of February. So while my family in California (and Texas/Washington/Illinois) was enjoying Thanksgiving food, football, and quality family togetherness, I was cramming for my midterms, trying to remember half a semester of Japanese that I'm pretty sure I slept through. I didn't do so badly compared with some of my classmates. My Japanese course this year is repeating a lot of the things that I learned in my two years at GW, which makes for a good refresher course during the turbulence of getting settled in here. For the first time, my Japanese midterm included an interview section--me talking to my professor one-on-one for seven minutes. Sitting there waiting for my name to be called was nerve-wracking, but I managed to get through it okay. My biggest problem was that I kept speaking to him in plain form, when I should have been using my more formal verbs. You can read the last post I made for all about the verb forms.
My midterms for my other classes were just papers, so nothing too painful other than trying to find time to sit down and write them. I've started teaching English every week now on Saturdays from 11am-5pm. My classes are mostly kids, which makes for some interesting fun. They spend most of the lesson screaming at me (or each other) in Japanese, while I stand there with a smile plastered on my face telling them "Eigo de! eigo de!" ("In English! In English!"). My ability to understand Japanese has thankfully improved exponentially, so most of the time they can ask me questions in Japanese and I can understand what they're talking about. But answering them in Japanese? Not going to happen. Not only is my speaking ability not that great, but it's supposed to be an English class. They can learn English the same what I'm learning Japanese--by having the teacher talk to you so much that you just start to understand.
Like I said, things are settling down around here. There's only one week left until winter break (two weeks off!), so I'm trying to spend some weekends at home with my host family to make up for the fact that I won't be at home much over the break. Not that I think they mind particularly. Sunny (Taiwanese homestay sister) is leaving in about a week, so I think our family is going to have a big dinner tomorrow night to wish her well. I'm still not sure about my winter break plans (I really hope they include a trip somewhere, but you can never tell). I'm sorry about the lack of updates in both the blog and the photos, but as soon as something interesting happens, I'll be sure to let you know.
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