Back at School After What Feels Like Forever

今日の日本語の言葉: saikin (最近) - lately/recently

This word has been brought to you by just how much I've felt things have changed lately. It's so great, and so cool, and I am so grateful. Holy cow. o.o

So I woke up this morning after having slept in to 6:30 (can you believe it? The sun had been up for an hour by then), and I lounged around not really wanting to go to school. For some reason, this weekend has felt so much longer than it actually was. It felt longer than the whole summer had been, with regards to going back to school afterward. I swore I missed more than just a day of school, based on feeling.

Anyways, I thought this was going to be your average Tuesday morning with some breakfast, a shower, a little Skyping with Anna... until Anna sprang up an idea. I had no one to go to Hokkaido with me, right? So... why doesn't she just go to Hokkaido with me? Are we crazy people? Yes, we are. And man does it feel nice. I totally want this to happen! It would be in February during her break, and I would be missing a week of school (I cleared it with the school already, since they know I can work my butt off when I want to). It'll be so fun! And I won't have to go alone! And of all the people that I want to travel Japan with, Anna is at the top of the list, mainly because she and I appreciate similar things when it comes to Japanese culture, I think. Thus, we can agree to do more things together than I could with other people (like even eating meals with Ian).

If this does happen, I am going to be bonkers ecstatic. I mean, I've been ecstatic this whole time already, but like, now it's just... blowing my mind to the point where I don't want to think about it, just in case it doesn't happen. But nothing really seems to be in the way, so... maybe tomorrow I can start planning. Flights from Tokyo to Hokkaido are only around $100 if you book them way early, so I should do it as soon as I can anyways. Woohoo!

Ahem. Anyways, exciting news aside, I did end up going to school today. On the train, I candidly took a shot with my awesome silent American Patriot Act-ish phone of these guys whom I found so amusing. If you watched them move and stuff, the four of them (the fourth guy is slightly blocked) are like men straight out of a shoujo (for girls) anime. There's the nerd who knows tech so well, and is very uptight and follows the rules; there's the cool laid back guy who jokes around and doesn't care about being serious; there's the smooth talking "sexy and I know it" guy who is the eye candy of the group, and then the last guy you can't see is the innocent one who is so damn naive it's adorable. That's the vibe you totally get when you watch them. I was trying so hard not to laugh. It was perfect!

On a side note, I also love how Japanese businessmen dress generally in black and white. It's so classy. In America, there's always the "trying to up your fellow businessman by wearing green today, or a combination of gold and blue the next day, with snazzy ties and everything" feeling. I just like the black and white stylish suit thing. Plus, it makes for wonderful eye candy when you see all the men lined up on an escalator. It's like a nonstop runway for people with my style taste (I like shopping at White House | Black Market). *squee*

School was pretty fun, and actually pretty hard and tiring today. I got my kanji textbook, and apparently, we had about six sheets for homework assigned yesterday. My teachers said it would be fine for me to turn it in tomorrow, but I never want to lug home more paper than I need to, or think about doing more homework outside of school than I need to. So I finished it all in class.

However, the tough part was the kanji. I got my kanji textbook that morning, and was too busy in class to study for the kanji test, which I still had to take, even though I wasn't there. I could do it, and I believed I could do it, I just wasn't sure how well I could actually pull it off if I didn't study, or didn't know what kanji was actually on the test. Luckily, I had a quick moment as I was actually walking into the kanji classroom to glance at my textbook. The good thing about paying attention to everyday kanji outside of class is that you tend to know the starter set already. I recognized them all, could probably write them all, but the problem was the multiple readings. Kanji isn't simple in that there's just one or two pronunciations of it. Often there are three, if not four, and it all changes depending on how it's used and what kanji it's next to. Even native Japanese people have problems with it. For example: 町 can be pronounced as "machi" or "chou" in location names, like Tamachi and Hamamatsuchou, but there's no way of knowing unless you actually live there. So when Japanese people travel into unfamiliar territory, they often butcher the name by using the other pronunciation by mistake. It's common, so at least I don't feel bad when I do it. But now I know why they don't have Japanese scrabble! "How many tiles are there?" "Uh... 3,000?"

I know that I got at least two or three things wrong on that test. Darn. But I vow that won't happen again! I've done my studying for the night, and the new kanji we have are much easier than the ones we have yesterday. I'm happy that the kanji stuff is moving so fast though. It's very nice to see it fly by, and I can actually see it becoming a challenge—and you know how I like challenges. School just got a lot more interesting ever since I came back from Nagasaki. I like it!

When I got out of school, I stopped into a コンビニ ("konbini" - convenience store) with Saya and got some snacks. It was foggy outside, and it was kind of cool to see the tall buildings obscured up top by the fog. It was my first time seeing that in Tokyo so far.

At the コンビニ, I got some ultra sweet strawberry jam filled bread, which I was hoping wasn't too sweet when I got it out of piqued curiosity. But no. It was way too sweet. WAY too sweet. I am not having that again if I can help it. How do people eat that? It's like drinking strawberry jam. *shudder*

When I got home, I sat down to a nice dinner of... what I think was chop suey, actually. It was such a surprise! But then again, my host mom lived in Iowa for at least a year, I think, so it shouldn't be a surprise. And all her children have been to America—Ryosuke at least four times—so it really shouldn't be a surprise that he likes chop suey either. But... still. I was a bit confused before I started eating. It was a nice and pleasant surprise.

After dinner, Yoshiko-san let me try some of the castella that I bought for the family from Nagasaki. There was matcha (green tea) castella, and some regular castella from Fukusaya, which is the most famous castella type of the most famous Nagasaki castella brand. And it was actually quite delicious! I had one slice with three cups of milk though, because it was way too sweet to be eaten by itself. There were whole sugar crystals slightly charred onto the brown edges. Very sweet, but spongy and well absorbant of milk when eaten together. :3

After dinner, you know what I did. I sat around writing the previous post which I just put up about an hour ago (yeah, I know I said this one would be up in a half an hour after that one, but I got distracted telling people to vote because I can't and I want to come back to a country where I have women's rights, so someone has to vote to try to put Obama back in office in my stead #GObama). I'm going to go to bed soon, because I'm tired, and I want to be under warm covers. But before I go, I finished my sketchbook cover! I put in their names, and a little placard that says it's my sketchbook! And I added Travis and Armando, who are assistant and auto mechanic respectively. I've come to realize that out of all of them, one of them always is grumpy and easily irritable (Sherlock, Alexei, and Travis)—and they're usually the side that I write between the two. Does that say something about me? xD

Anyways, good night for real now, everyone. Thank you, as always, for reading. Have a nice day, go out and vote, and if you can't... uh... sleep and have a nice day! The election results will come in right before school for me tomorrow, or while I'm at school, so it'll nerve wrecking. GAH. Excitement!

お休みなさい、

マギー