finally caught a cold, for the first time this semester. which is actually amazing, considering how often i normally get sick (and considering how often my friend amy, who's also in japan, is getting sick - she's normally a lot healthier than i am too). on the one hand, with all the of the stress of adjusting to japan, i expected to get sick pretty often, but on the other hand, my lifestyle here is healthier overall than my lifestyle in the states. my host mom's cooking is almost always packed with vegetables, and i'm getting regular, daily exercise in the form of biking to school. also, i'm getting a lot more sleep here, thanks to the wonderfully light work load. much as i miss america and can't wait to eat junk food again, overall i honestly prefer my lifestyle here.
you know what also sucks? not having heating in my room in winter. it sucks as much as not having A/C during the summer. i have an electric blanket-thingy under my bed, which means my bed's nice and toasty, but the rest of my room's a brisk 55 degrees. which isn't all that cold, but that sure as hell ain't room temperature. my room does have some kind of light fixture that's supposed to give off heat - at first i thought it was broken because i swore it wasn't heating the room at all, but apparently it's fine, it just doesn't work very well at all...
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Friday, November 30, 2007
I swear I'm going to update this blog more often, even if it kills me.
It's been, what, a month since my last update, so it'd be kinda futile to try to talk about everything I did and everything that's happened since then. I will try to write about some of the stuff I've done at some point though, and post some pictures! Especially because Kyoto's really really gorgeous right now.
One thing I really love about Kyoto, and that's totally different from America, is how easy it is get around on bike. My commute to school is about 30 minutes each way, but it's a straight, easy ride and I ride along a major street. The city's amazingly bike-friendly because the main streets are incredibly wide, and they really help make the city layout easy to figure out. Also, unlike in America, so many people ride bikes, so bikers are given a lot more consideration on the road.
I learned how to bike for the first time the summer before the program, and I gotta say it's probably one of the best decisions I've ever made. It was tiring and scary at first, especially because bikers here go pretty fast and tend to try to squeeze through narrow spaces. I've had tons of close calls and a couple of minor crashes. But biking has literally saved me at least a couple hundred dollars at this point, because I can get to almost anywhere in the city without taking a bus or taxi. It's also made a huge difference in my social life, because I can go anywhere without having to worry about how to get there or about catching the last trains at night. Plus it's great exercise and a good way to see the city, even though I do get tired of it. I'm definitely going to miss biking when I go back to the states. I'm planning to get a bike, but it'll be almost purely for exercise purposes - St. Louis is definitely not bike-friendly, so I'll probably only be biking in the park or maybe to the grocery store.
Another thing that I love about my life here is how much more time I have. It's hard to believe that back in Wash U I complained about the 10 minute walk to the library. I had time to exercise maybe once or twice a week, if I was lucky. Here, at least one hour of my day is spent on bike commuting to and from school, I eat dinner with my host family at a leisurely pace, and I still somehow get around 7 hours of sleep almost every day. Living in Japan is definitely stressful in its own way (I'll get into that sometime...), but I'm really not looking forward to going back to the stresses of Wash U.
One thing I really love about Kyoto, and that's totally different from America, is how easy it is get around on bike. My commute to school is about 30 minutes each way, but it's a straight, easy ride and I ride along a major street. The city's amazingly bike-friendly because the main streets are incredibly wide, and they really help make the city layout easy to figure out. Also, unlike in America, so many people ride bikes, so bikers are given a lot more consideration on the road.
I learned how to bike for the first time the summer before the program, and I gotta say it's probably one of the best decisions I've ever made. It was tiring and scary at first, especially because bikers here go pretty fast and tend to try to squeeze through narrow spaces. I've had tons of close calls and a couple of minor crashes. But biking has literally saved me at least a couple hundred dollars at this point, because I can get to almost anywhere in the city without taking a bus or taxi. It's also made a huge difference in my social life, because I can go anywhere without having to worry about how to get there or about catching the last trains at night. Plus it's great exercise and a good way to see the city, even though I do get tired of it. I'm definitely going to miss biking when I go back to the states. I'm planning to get a bike, but it'll be almost purely for exercise purposes - St. Louis is definitely not bike-friendly, so I'll probably only be biking in the park or maybe to the grocery store.
Another thing that I love about my life here is how much more time I have. It's hard to believe that back in Wash U I complained about the 10 minute walk to the library. I had time to exercise maybe once or twice a week, if I was lucky. Here, at least one hour of my day is spent on bike commuting to and from school, I eat dinner with my host family at a leisurely pace, and I still somehow get around 7 hours of sleep almost every day. Living in Japan is definitely stressful in its own way (I'll get into that sometime...), but I'm really not looking forward to going back to the stresses of Wash U.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Good god, I totally fail at updating this blog. One big reason is that I don't have internet at my home, and when I'm at school I'm usually too busy or too tired to write...
So what's new? Last weekend I went to Tokyo Disneyland and met up with Amy, Abel, Scott, Joyce, and Monica again (WashU/Jet peeps I met up with when I visited Amy in Minakami before KCJS), and I got to meet Michelle and Glenn. It was tons of fun, of course. It was Abel's first trip to Disney, so we hit up all of the major rides. I've been to Disney once before, but I went with my mom, who hates rides and waiting in line, which means I didn't exactly get to do a whole lot. So a lot of this was new to me too. It was *ridiculously* crowded though. Most of the lines were at least an hour long, so by the end of the weekend I was pretty thoroughly exhausted. I probably should have taken pictures, but Amy brought along her fancy high-tech camera, so basically any pictures I took were easily surpassed by hers. It was really nice to see everyone again though. Much as I'm enjoying KCJS, I do miss my WashU friends a lot.
This past week was midterms, which wasn't too bad, just kind of a lot of work. For Japanese class, we first had an oral exam, then we had to do a group presentation on interviews we had conducted with Japanese students. I'm not sure about how the presentation went - basically, all we had to do was memorize what we had written on our essay, but I'm pretty bad at reciting blocks of text from memory. It's probably less work and less stress than generating responses, but overall I think I actually do better when I have to come up with my own answers...
Lastly, we had the written final yesterday, and I'm really not sure how that went. It did make me realize that I'm *terrible* at kanji. I managed to forget some very basic stuff - I forgot the "sei" of 男性 and 女性 which means I lost points both, and it took me waaaay too long to remember the kanji for 作る. It was pretty damn "special," especially because these are all first-year, maybe second-year kanji. I always knew I was weak at kanji, so the summer before KCJS that was all I studied. By the end of the summer, I had learned/reviewed 500 characters, which I'm convinced was what got me into the C-level class - a lot of the kanji that appeared on the placement test were kanji that I'd studied over the summer. But of course, now I've gone and forgotten practically all of what I learned. Go me!!!
Right now though, it's fall break, which means I have a week off from school! And despite the fact that practically all of KCJS has gone to Tokyo/Okinawa, I'm going to be staying in Kyoto the whole week (for a lot of reasons, which I won't go into because I'm tired of having to explain my decision :-P). All the same, I actually think fall break will be fun. But as lame as it sounds, I think I *really* need to at least review some kanji. It's pretty incredible that I forgot such basic stuff...
So what's new? Last weekend I went to Tokyo Disneyland and met up with Amy, Abel, Scott, Joyce, and Monica again (WashU/Jet peeps I met up with when I visited Amy in Minakami before KCJS), and I got to meet Michelle and Glenn. It was tons of fun, of course. It was Abel's first trip to Disney, so we hit up all of the major rides. I've been to Disney once before, but I went with my mom, who hates rides and waiting in line, which means I didn't exactly get to do a whole lot. So a lot of this was new to me too. It was *ridiculously* crowded though. Most of the lines were at least an hour long, so by the end of the weekend I was pretty thoroughly exhausted. I probably should have taken pictures, but Amy brought along her fancy high-tech camera, so basically any pictures I took were easily surpassed by hers. It was really nice to see everyone again though. Much as I'm enjoying KCJS, I do miss my WashU friends a lot.
This past week was midterms, which wasn't too bad, just kind of a lot of work. For Japanese class, we first had an oral exam, then we had to do a group presentation on interviews we had conducted with Japanese students. I'm not sure about how the presentation went - basically, all we had to do was memorize what we had written on our essay, but I'm pretty bad at reciting blocks of text from memory. It's probably less work and less stress than generating responses, but overall I think I actually do better when I have to come up with my own answers...
Lastly, we had the written final yesterday, and I'm really not sure how that went. It did make me realize that I'm *terrible* at kanji. I managed to forget some very basic stuff - I forgot the "sei" of 男性 and 女性 which means I lost points both, and it took me waaaay too long to remember the kanji for 作る. It was pretty damn "special," especially because these are all first-year, maybe second-year kanji. I always knew I was weak at kanji, so the summer before KCJS that was all I studied. By the end of the summer, I had learned/reviewed 500 characters, which I'm convinced was what got me into the C-level class - a lot of the kanji that appeared on the placement test were kanji that I'd studied over the summer. But of course, now I've gone and forgotten practically all of what I learned. Go me!!!
Right now though, it's fall break, which means I have a week off from school! And despite the fact that practically all of KCJS has gone to Tokyo/Okinawa, I'm going to be staying in Kyoto the whole week (for a lot of reasons, which I won't go into because I'm tired of having to explain my decision :-P). All the same, I actually think fall break will be fun. But as lame as it sounds, I think I *really* need to at least review some kanji. It's pretty incredible that I forgot such basic stuff...
Monday, October 15, 2007
Homestay
I chose live with a host family for the semester. I was actually pretty worried about my decision - having lived in a dorm for the past two years, I've gotten pretty accustomed to living on my own and taking care of myself. I was also kind of nervous about communication, and I've heard some scary stories about how Japanese people are so indirect and indecipherable. On the other hand, I figured this would be the best way to really experience Japanese everyday life, practice my Japanese, and best of all, eat home-cooked meals every day.
Overall, I'm really happy with my homestay situation. I really like my family. My family consists of my host parents, who are both in their late sixties, and their 30-something year old son. The dad is a kimono designer (which is sooooo cool), so he works at home. I'm not sure what the son does - he leaves early in the morning before I wake up, and he gets home pretty late, after the rest of the family has eaten dinner. My family's been hosting students for almost 20 years now, and I can really tell they've had experience. They're very straightforward about communicating, which means I never have to worry that I'm doing something wrong and they're not telling me about it.
Another great thing - I have no curfew! I know some other students have host parents who really worry and insist that they come home fairly early. My parents don't mind at all if I stay out late, as long as I let them know beforehand. Along the same lines, I love the fact that I still feel independent. I've heard other students have host parents who do their laundry, take them shopping, and so on. Which would probably be pretty convenient, but I actually prefer doing things on my own, really. Also, the food is amazing, but I think that's true for all of the host families. I think just about every student in the program insists that his/her host mom is the best cook.
I have a room of my own on the first floor of the house, across from my host father's workshop. I do feel a little cut off from the rest of the family, because they all generally stay on the second floor. Once I leave the dinner table, I usually go to my room and don't see my family at all for the rest of the night. On the other hand, I get a bathroom of my own, and I can do whatever I want in my room without worrying about disturbing other people. The picture on the left is of my room. Thankfully, my host parents never try to come into my room or do any sort of cleaning for me, so I can be as messy as I want.
One complaint that's not really my host family's fault: because gas/electricity is so expensive in Japan, I have to be really conscious of energy usage. Which means, during the first month of the program when Kyoto was still ridiculously hot and humid, I couldn't keep the A/C or even the fan running at night (I cheated and left the fan on several times though...). It was pretty disgusting - I'd take a shower at night and wake up sweaty and not too excited about starting the day. I can't take long showers either, because water's expensive too. Now it's gotten a lot cooler, which is great, except now I'm beginning to anticipate the opposite problem. There have been a couple of nights when I didn't sleep too well because I was cold. And of course, I can't use the heater at night either. Right now it's still bearable, but I'm worried about what'll happen once the actual winter sets in. I can't even try to cheat and leave the heater on, because apparently the noise is audible throughout the house, and my host mother has trouble sleeping as it is. I already whined plenty about the weather in St. Louis, even when I was free to manipulate the temperature in the dorms as much as I wanted, so this is one aspect of life that really hard for me to adjust to.
Overall, I'm really happy with my homestay situation. I really like my family. My family consists of my host parents, who are both in their late sixties, and their 30-something year old son. The dad is a kimono designer (which is sooooo cool), so he works at home. I'm not sure what the son does - he leaves early in the morning before I wake up, and he gets home pretty late, after the rest of the family has eaten dinner. My family's been hosting students for almost 20 years now, and I can really tell they've had experience. They're very straightforward about communicating, which means I never have to worry that I'm doing something wrong and they're not telling me about it.
Another great thing - I have no curfew! I know some other students have host parents who really worry and insist that they come home fairly early. My parents don't mind at all if I stay out late, as long as I let them know beforehand. Along the same lines, I love the fact that I still feel independent. I've heard other students have host parents who do their laundry, take them shopping, and so on. Which would probably be pretty convenient, but I actually prefer doing things on my own, really. Also, the food is amazing, but I think that's true for all of the host families. I think just about every student in the program insists that his/her host mom is the best cook.
I have a room of my own on the first floor of the house, across from my host father's workshop. I do feel a little cut off from the rest of the family, because they all generally stay on the second floor. Once I leave the dinner table, I usually go to my room and don't see my family at all for the rest of the night. On the other hand, I get a bathroom of my own, and I can do whatever I want in my room without worrying about disturbing other people. The picture on the left is of my room. Thankfully, my host parents never try to come into my room or do any sort of cleaning for me, so I can be as messy as I want.
One complaint that's not really my host family's fault: because gas/electricity is so expensive in Japan, I have to be really conscious of energy usage. Which means, during the first month of the program when Kyoto was still ridiculously hot and humid, I couldn't keep the A/C or even the fan running at night (I cheated and left the fan on several times though...). It was pretty disgusting - I'd take a shower at night and wake up sweaty and not too excited about starting the day. I can't take long showers either, because water's expensive too. Now it's gotten a lot cooler, which is great, except now I'm beginning to anticipate the opposite problem. There have been a couple of nights when I didn't sleep too well because I was cold. And of course, I can't use the heater at night either. Right now it's still bearable, but I'm worried about what'll happen once the actual winter sets in. I can't even try to cheat and leave the heater on, because apparently the noise is audible throughout the house, and my host mother has trouble sleeping as it is. I already whined plenty about the weather in St. Louis, even when I was free to manipulate the temperature in the dorms as much as I wanted, so this is one aspect of life that really hard for me to adjust to.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
procrastination yay
I have my *first* (English) paper due on Monday, and I can't bring myself to write it. I dragged myself to the Kyodai Kaikan (basically, the building that acts as the KCJS center) early just to get started on this paper, and I still haven't even picked a topic. Some things never change.
One thing about living in Japan - it's crazy how much money I spend here. I just bought tickets to a Daft Punk concert in December and to Tokyo Disneyland for Halloween. I'm super excited, and both are really rare opportunities that I'm sure I won't regret, but that's still a lot of money. Besides that, I spend a lot on little things that add up, without thinking about it. Things like train/bus fare, vending machine drinks ($1 for a tiny can of coffee?!), entrance fees, etc. tend to really build up. I don't have a job here either, and I can't work legally, unless it involves teaching English. Also: shopping here is *amazing.* There's sooooo much stuff I want to buy! Some of the stuff is very reasonably priced too. But again, when you buy lots of small, cheap stuff, it still ends up costing quite a lot...
One thing about living in Japan - it's crazy how much money I spend here. I just bought tickets to a Daft Punk concert in December and to Tokyo Disneyland for Halloween. I'm super excited, and both are really rare opportunities that I'm sure I won't regret, but that's still a lot of money. Besides that, I spend a lot on little things that add up, without thinking about it. Things like train/bus fare, vending machine drinks ($1 for a tiny can of coffee?!), entrance fees, etc. tend to really build up. I don't have a job here either, and I can't work legally, unless it involves teaching English. Also: shopping here is *amazing.* There's sooooo much stuff I want to buy! Some of the stuff is very reasonably priced too. But again, when you buy lots of small, cheap stuff, it still ends up costing quite a lot...
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
KCJS
I guess I should start by talking about my study abroad program here in Japan. The full name is the Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Studies (KCJS for short). This group consists of 49 students from various schools throughout the US. There are two other students from Washington University here, so I wasn't completely alone.
About classes: we all have around two hours of Japanese language classes in the morning. There are five levels of language classes, A being the lowest and E being the highest. All the students took an exam at the beginning of the semester to determine our placement. I'm currently in the C class. The language classes are quite a lot of work, but that's to be expected. I'm also taking two non-language classes - one is a survey course of pre-modern Japanese literature, and the other is a intro to the Japanese economy. To be honest, these classes aren't *nearly* as hard or intensive as the classes at Wash U. I'm really thankful for that, not just because I'm lazy and hate work - it gives me more time to explore the city, hang out, and try some activities. And I came to Japan mainly for the novel experience, not to spend more time in a classroom or at home reading/writing papers. Not to mention, I don't think I could handle a Wash U-level workload along with the stress of living in a foreign country. I guess my main complain would be that my classes run for 3 hours straight, which is a looooooooong time regardless of how interesting the lecturer or the discussion may be.
Another *really* nice thing about our schedule - we don't have classes on Fridays. Fridays are usually used for field trips, guest speakers, special exams, etc., but we never have regular classes. Obviously, I think this schedule should be implemented by every school. Also, for a country with such an emphasis on work ethic, there are lots of Monday holidays (pretty random holidays too - Respect for the Aged Day? Seriously?). I still have the non-language class on Monday, but not having the morning language classes on holidays is still a nice break. Again, this is a pretty big contrast from Wash U which doesn't ever give us Mondays off, even for the major holidays that the rest of the country celebrates.
About classes: we all have around two hours of Japanese language classes in the morning. There are five levels of language classes, A being the lowest and E being the highest. All the students took an exam at the beginning of the semester to determine our placement. I'm currently in the C class. The language classes are quite a lot of work, but that's to be expected. I'm also taking two non-language classes - one is a survey course of pre-modern Japanese literature, and the other is a intro to the Japanese economy. To be honest, these classes aren't *nearly* as hard or intensive as the classes at Wash U. I'm really thankful for that, not just because I'm lazy and hate work - it gives me more time to explore the city, hang out, and try some activities. And I came to Japan mainly for the novel experience, not to spend more time in a classroom or at home reading/writing papers. Not to mention, I don't think I could handle a Wash U-level workload along with the stress of living in a foreign country. I guess my main complain would be that my classes run for 3 hours straight, which is a looooooooong time regardless of how interesting the lecturer or the discussion may be.
Another *really* nice thing about our schedule - we don't have classes on Fridays. Fridays are usually used for field trips, guest speakers, special exams, etc., but we never have regular classes. Obviously, I think this schedule should be implemented by every school. Also, for a country with such an emphasis on work ethic, there are lots of Monday holidays (pretty random holidays too - Respect for the Aged Day? Seriously?). I still have the non-language class on Monday, but not having the morning language classes on holidays is still a nice break. Again, this is a pretty big contrast from Wash U which doesn't ever give us Mondays off, even for the major holidays that the rest of the country celebrates.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Intro
Quick intro: Hi, I'm Clara, and I'm spending the semester studying abroad in Kyoto. This is going to be my (hopefully interesting and informative) blog about my experiences here - school, everyday life, etc. Feel free to leave a comment or ask me some questions!
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