Sometimes I have so many things I want to write about that I just don't write at all because it just seems too daunting. I will do my best to whittle at it, but also accept that I just can't get in everything I had in mind.
Rapid Fire Catch-Up!
Weirdest food: Slice of fish consisting of just its spine, fins, and the bones and flesh in between, dried out till it's crunchier than a pita chip, and eaten plain. I did not, in fact, eat this, because I was so incredibly stuffed that it was just impossible, particularly when the idea of eating a skeleton was not so appealing.
Silly Word Mix-ups: Katai versus Kaitai. The first means "hard" -in the solid way, not the difficult way, the second means "want to buy." So I said "Japanese clothes are hard" instead of "I want to buy Japanese clothes." It was quite amusing! I had another good one, but I have forgotten. I often get "dobutsu" and "daibutsu" confused. Not such a great one ... Dobutsu = animal, Daibutsu = Buddha. Oops. OH I remembered the one I forgot! My mandolin needed to get new strings. My friend [who has been teaching me to play and is amazing at mandolin] and I were talking about it, partly in Japanese and partly in English. I asked who was supposed to change the strings... me, or someone else? and she said "You." Me: "Oh me? Okay, how do I do it?" And then there was this muddled confusion moment... and then I remembered that the best mandoliner in the club is namedゆう which sounds like "Yuu." Ohhhh languages make life so much more interesting...
Sports: Badminton is over, and I went from being a complete flailing dysfunctional thing and utterly disappointing my PE teacher to making it into the 2nd best group in my class [out of 4 groups]. I thought that maybe I had started on a path of success in PE, but that is mostttttttttt definitely not true at all. Volleyball is NOT my sport. When my PE teacher saw me once again flailing dysfunctionally, he just kept repeating "むり！むり！Unberievable!" [むり＝impossible.] I really think I should have lied when he asked if we played volleyball in US PE. Somehow, I'm really not embarrassed at all... I just feel bad for the people who get put on my team...
Host Family: I'm starting to feel sooooooo much more at home here. I'm getting used to it a million times faster than I got used to my first house. Yes. 1 million. [Probably cause I already somewhat understand the culture/language/school system etc] AND my sister could give birth any day! My host mom and I were planning tomorrow, and at the end, my host mom added "...if the baby isn't born, of course!" I'm so excited. [Usually I think pregnancy is gross and babies are a strange phenomenon. I still think that, it is just impossible not to get excited when everyone else is so happy.]
Today was great. I didn't have school [today is some national holiday for ... I'm not sure... maybe uncles?] so I slept till 11:30 and then we went to the most wonderful place. [actually 2nd most wonderful place... I'll get to that.] We drove to the mountains [which was only about 7 minutes or so] and up onto this tiny little road and wayyyy deep in the woods. The place was a restaurant, but I really had no idea what it was when we drove up. There were a bunch of little log cabin buildings and piles and piles and piles and piles and piles and piles of firewood [!!!! wood stoves are rare in Japan!!!! I was superrrrr excited!!!!] and little dirty statues and sprawling dangling masses of somewhat dry plants in various pots and containers. Inside, it was cozy cozy cozy [wood stoves are theeeeee coziest things EVER] with lots of little mismatched treasures, such as a marionette Indian man and a chart of Egyption hieroglyphs and paintings. It was so full of woodenness. I'm not so good at describing it. There was also an old graceful brown dog outside and a delicious scent of post-rain forest dirt and pine needles. Basically, I am completely in love with that place and felt so perfectly at home and realized how much the forest is part of me. Being in Japan has made me realize how desperately in love with mountains and trees I am.
Anywayyyyy then we went to Kosenji, my #1 favorite place in Japan. [I've written about I think twice, and I actually wrote my college essay about it.] It was particularly fun this time because it was all about my host sister's belly [also know as the baby. How weird is it that right now it's just this big lump that's distorting her body, and within a few days it will be a person? Right now, she's one person... but that exact same growth will very soon make her 2 people. Pregnancy is seriously strange. I have similar emotional reactions to both pregnancy and monkeys.] We all fanned the incense smoke onto her belly[/the human being within her skin] and rang the bell for her. ALSO there is this little stream with a cup next to it and last time I was alone and thirsty and I wondered if the water was drinkable... now I know it is! And that it is supposed to help you live long. A skinny mountain stream runs down through the woods and then is channeled into a stone trough that has been covered with wonderful moss and then the water shoots off in a perfect clear arc. Yumyumyum.
Then I just wasted the day away doing nothing, which is a nice way to spend a day off, especially after being a crazy over-committed girl for the past, oh I don't really know when it started, for the past really long time. Yay I finally get to do nothing!
Realization: Japanese grammar is not simple. I've been convinced that it is really simple for nearly a year. But a few days ago I was attempting to read something in German and I had this moment of discovery. "Wait... the words... the order... it's the SAME! The words are in the same order! What?!" So Japanese conjugation and tense-changes may be simpler than most other languages, but that does not at all mean the grammar is simpler. All the words are completely utterly entirely mixed around. That makes it very very complicated. So now I can stop feeling guilty that I'm not better at Japanese.
Japanese achievement!!!! I have the kanji-understanding-level of an average Japanese 10 year old! Yayyyyy!!!
Ok, so every single time I just absolutely have to apologize about my writing. I wrote this pretty much exactly the same way that I would say it out loud. I hope that makes it interesting and not just crazy.
Also! If any of you ever have something specific you want me to write about please let me know! I don't want this just to be a documentation of what I'm doing, I want it to be a little peek into Japanese culture and more... I'm not so eloquent/able to figure out what I'm trying to say right now. Anyway, if you're curious about something, comment on this post or send me an email or contact me on facebook or write me a letter or talk to me on skype or speak to me through a dream... there are a ridiculous number of ways to keep in touch. I'm kind of impressed by humanity and technology and development right now. Speaking of which, this is completely off topic, but I've recently realized how much I love right now. People [including me in the past] often talk about wishing they lived in the 60s or 1800s England or some other idealized time period. I was thinking about this a few days ago [not sure why] and thinking about which time period I would live in if I had complete freedom to choose, and I realized I would choose the one I'm in with no regrets. Or, not enough regrets to make me think I made the wrong decision.
Also realized I just love anything related to strawberries. Japanese cutsieness is definitely leaving its mark on me.
Sorry that I overuse "just."
and ramble.
PS I'm back to my happy wooden gears feeling, but this time more... like an elegant old navy blue umbrella with wooden spokes and stem that opens and closes smoothly and with a satisfying swoooosh click.
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