皆川たちの手紙をもらった！

Yes, I got a letter from my host family! Really, from my host mom, but she updates me on everything and is really the sweetest lady in the world, I swear. I was actually getting a bit concerned, because I sent a letter in May and a little greeting card in June and hadn't heard from them since they sent me a birthday card back in March. But, yesterday I got a cute little letter and all is well. My host parents were sick for a good portion of the spring, so they've been busy.

Anyway, I took a picture of the first page, so you can see both the cuteness and the handwriting:


There's a second page, too, and I guess my reading skills really have improved, because I can read all of it easily. She said that they want to come to my college graduation, in both English AND Japanese (to make sure I understood, I guess?), so... I don't really know what to say because that is a really long way to go to see someone graduate. I'm going to tell her that, of course, they'll be invited, but don't feel obligated. Isn't that crazy, though? I read that sentence twice and was just like '...for real?' They're like my Japanese grandparents, seriously.

Speaking of Minagawa-tachi, I realised that most/all of you don't know what they look like because my only picture is a physical print. But, with the wonders of my digital camera, I was able to capture it. So, if you're curious, this is my host family, AKA Minagawa-tachi/皆川たち:


お父さん (otousan), お母さん (okaasan) and ゆうき (Yuuki). I have another host sister, too, はるよ (Haruyo), but she's married and doesn't live at home anymore. Haruyo is the one who took me to see The Lion King in Tokyo. And that is the dining room (which doubles as primary living area) in their house.

And now, because it's way too hot, I'm going to go collapse away from my computer. I really want the heat wave to end, because this is uncomfortable. And my afternoon bus never seems to have A/C. I've taken to quick, cool showers when I get home so I don't feel disgusting all night. Can it be under 85 again, please? That'd be ace.

More of the same, really

First of all, I've found a 60-hour online TEFL (synonymous with TESOL/CELTA/the 20 other acronyms that all amount to the same thing) course that I think I'm going to register for after I get my second check. The first check will be next Thursday, so I'm going to wait a little longer before doing anything that costs much money. It's $310, accredited, and is a 40-hour basic Teaching English as a Foreign Language certification course plus a 20-hour extra grammar course that will up my overall qualification. Considering my total lack of practical teaching experience (and my inability to change that before I'll be applying for work), this is the best I can do to make myself more competitive. I'm planning on calling the school that offers these online classes when I get closer to registering to ask some final clarification questions, of course, but I think it'll work out well.

Can you tell I'm getting a little anxious about this? It seemed so far away for so long that I wasn't really thinking about it, until I realised that, if I do want to go back to Japan, I'm going to have to start figuring things out in September. Almost a year before I'd be leaving. And right now I'm in a sort of liminal space, waiting until I can do something.

And, you know, it's kind of funny - I'm putting all this work into being an English teacher when it's only a short-term ambition. I have no intention of teaching forever. Really, I (like a lot of other people) am planning on using teaching as a means to something else. Basically, this is my skillset: I'm very fluent in English, I'm going to be fluent in Japanese, I can read, I can speak well, and I can write. I still want to do the graduate program at TIU, but that's just more school, nothing permanent. Actually, what I'd really like to do ultimately is write books about Japan in English. Not travel books or books on subjects that have been done to death (because, really, do we need another book on geisha?), but rather English language books on things that don't get much attention. There are so many topics that foreigners, for whatever reason, just don't touch and I want to take them on.

I want to take pictures of the things travel writers and tourists don't really look at. I want to write about teenagers and the elderly and the assholes at immigration. I want to go to towns 95% of the foreigners who go to Japan have never even heard of and document them, or take the long way to Kansai from Tokyo, rather than the shinkansen, and write about the people I meet. And maybe no one would buy the books, but I would have so much fun writing them that I wouldn't even care.

It's kind of crazy how motivated you get when you realise that, actually, you do have somewhere you want to end up. And it's just vague enough that it will drive my mother nuts worrying that I'm going to finish school and not know what to do with myself.

Just a little daunting

I don't know if y'all know this, but in Japan there is a government-created list of all the kanji one must know to read the newspaper (you can get it as a wall scroll and everything). The list is comprised of the 1,945 kanji students learn in elementary and junior high school. Everything not on that list, and therefore not considered a 'practical' kanji, must be accompanied by phonetic readings. In order to pass the JLPT at Level 1 (the highest level), one must know an additional 90 or so kanji that are not considered practical. Because you have to know all sorts of ridiculousness to pass that stupid test. I could, at this point, breeze through the JLPT at Level 4, and probably get through Level 3. I don't know enough kanji to get any farther, even though technically I've studied enough hours to qualify for the Level 2 exam.

Japanese is hardcore.

Anyway, the point of this little mini-lecture about how many kanji one needs to know to be considered literate in Japanese is that, well, I want to be literate in Japanese. In fact, I'm starting to consider applying for the graduate program in international relations at TIU (you know, that one school I spent four months at and blogged about... yeah, that one) after I graduate. Actually, I'd be applying in the winter after I graduate, because the Japanese school year starts in March, so I'd be chilling in Seattle for a few months first. Anyway, despite TIU being international and all that, there is exactly one American attending the university as a regular student (I know this because I've met her, and she has a web comic¹), which means getting in as a 白人² from アメリカ will be a challenge. If I were Chinese or South Korean? 構わない³ Coming at it as an American is a little more difficult.

And, you know, I'll need to be fluent in Japanese.

That's kind of the big problem, actually. I can figure out the practicalities. I'm smart and capable, I've been to Japan, and I know people in Kawagoe who could help me out. But if my Japanese isn't strong enough, it won't matter because I couldn't get through the program anyway.

Then there's that thing about me probably not having a Japanese class next year (thanks, bio 110), which means I'll have to continue studying on my own.

You know what this means? It's time for me to practice some serious self-discipline and spend the next year and a half or so learning as much Japanese as I possibly can while living in the States and finishing an English degree. I have textbooks (four of them, actually), I have dictionaries, I have a kanji study book and I have the internet. I also have a host family in Japan who I need to write to more frequently, anyway.

But, as the title says: a little daunting.

---

¹ Gai-Gin.com
² はくじん: hakujin: white person
³ かまわない: kamawanai: no problem

ｋｉｓｓ ｓｈｉｎｉｎｇ ひとみ に くちずけて。。。

That's the first line of the chorus of a song called Shining Collection (by a band called Iceman), for the record. I didn't just make it up. If you've never heard of Iceman (I'd be surprised if you HAD, honestly), and you like music with a lot of synthesizers, check them out. Or, better yet, ask me about them because they're not even all that popular in Japan, let alone abroad, and you probably won't find much. They also broke up, like, seven years ago. But I found a video of a live of Shining Collection on youtube for you (the quality's kind of crap, sorry), because I can't really describe them. Kenichi Ito's got the crazy red hair, Daisuke Asakura's the blonde, and I don't really care about Rin, the singer, so whatever. It's all about K.Ito and DA.



See, this is why y'all should keep up with my blog. Exposure to Japanese culture beyond Sailor Moon and Hamasaki Ayumi. I've been spamming you with Takarazuka, now you get some semi-obscure synthesizer pop. Next time, I'll share some of DA's independent work, from the Quantum Mechanics Rainbow series (no, for real, that's what it's called), because I know I can find video online. That man is ridiculous. And so, so gay. I love him.

This is actually a Japan-centric entry (pretend that's special) in general, because I'm starting to consider what I want to do post-graduation and, roughly four months after my return to the States, I know that it's gotta involve going back to Japan. I'm starting to really miss it. Culture shock has been long since dealt with, at this point it's just a sort of longing. I've been saying JET, or KET, or Interac (but not Aeon, because they suck), but I'm starting to consider applying for Bekka. Bekka's a really intensive one-year Japanese language program, offered at various universities and intended to prep foreigners for passing Japanese university entrance exams. Do I want to go to a Japanese university? Maybe, maybe not. If I did, I'd want it to be TIU because I want to go back to Saitama-ken. But, regardless, a language program intended to help me pass the exams (which are terrifying) will definitely result in fluency. And that's my ultimate goal here.

That aside, my classes for next term have been chosen. It'll be a really easy semester: 100-level math, 100-level biology, and a 400-level English. If Fujiwara-sensei will give me the ok, I will also take 400-level Japanese, but the bio, which I need to graduate, conflicts two days a week, so she needs to assess the needs of the Japanese Studies majors before deciding if I can take the class or not. I'm really nervous about the possibility of not having Japanese, because it'll be so hard to progress while living in America without any sort of class. I'll study on my own, yeah, but I'll lose so much.

Right now, I'm just not thinking about it, because fretting over something out of my control is pointless. If I don't get into the class, I don't get into the class. I'll find a way to get back to Japan and finish learning to speak this language one way or another, even if I have to take a year off from studying properly.

And I am, as we speak, ignoring my philosophy reading. So I'll wrap this up by telling anyone who doesn't know yet to look up amazonfail. Just type it into google, you'll get the whole story fast enough. Short version: amazon.com stripped the sales rankings of most GLBT novels, thus all but removing them from search results. People are hella pissed. I'm laughing at the Amazon execs who are now forced to do massive damage control to try to save face.

All I can say is, well done, guys, way to get yourself bad press. I don't know what you thought you were going to achieve, but it definitely backfired.

ETA: I forgot to mention, in the flood of randomness, but I also spent my weekend at Sakuracon in Seattle. It's a big anime convention, delightfully dorky, and (when I wasn't being scarred for life by people showing off way more than they ever should, or being subjected to the Rick Roll song for the millionth time) a lot of fun. I can pretty much sum it all up with this picture, featuring me (dressed as Reno from FFVII), my sister (with her plastic jewelery) and Phillip (being... himself). Taken myspace style, while sitting in the back of open-mic karaoke (where we could rate performances without the performers noticing), for extra fun.

Seriously, that's... pretty much it, right there. The best photos from this con were taken like this, while chilling late at night and mocking bad singing. Good times, good times.