wet textbook. nureta kyookashoo.
In fact, I've put off this post for a while now for a few reasons, but mainly because I wanted it to be well-composed, given the amount of things I had to cover (of course I know that's totally counter-intuitive because obviously the longer I wait the more things build up). The other big reason for not writing is that my eyes have been hurting and I've felt nauseous while reading or even looking at a screen of any kind for the past four or five days. I don't feel like my vision has gotten any worse, but it's been a serious problem with all the research and reading and paper-writing and video editing I've had to do lately.
This research and video editing I refer to, of course, is in relation to my visual anthropology (視覚人類) film project, which has recently been complicated. I won't go into detail, because I don't feel it's necessary, but in short, my subject has changed to focus on multi-cultural couples, as I will not be able to film in the church. And you know what? It's a great burden lifted off my shoulders--the worry that, even though I love going to this church in Osaka, I would have another reason for being there that I believe would distract me from God's purpose. Maybe that sounds a little weighty, but the fact of the matter is, I like being free to worship God, and while I like my last project idea, I just think this is better for everyone. And, conveniently, I still get to hang out with the same awesome people and hopefully meet some cool new ones :) Unfortunately, another girl in my class said she wanted to do something multicultural--foreign people in Japan, specifically mixed race, but now it sounds like our plans might overlap too much...and since I've already been blessed with wonderful Christian people willing to help me organize this project, I really don't want to give that up. So I would love for people to pray that this works out. It's a project I'm personally attached to, but I also have time constraints...
Anyway. I'm sorry if this all sounds a little more formal than usual, but I have been swimming in the world of academia a lot lately...
So. Some interesting highlights of the last week or so:
- There's a guy who plays his violin in random places on campus quite frequently, and he's good at it. I love it. I felt really serene or calm or peaceful or whatever word you want to use.
- That reading/writing test I thought I did terribly on? 90.25%. Score.
- I started writing a story. Then I started writing a play. Now I'm thinking of doing NaNoWriMo again. While I'm in Japan. With tons of things to do. Oh dear. But HOO-RAH for inspiration! Finally!
- Went to a kaiten-zushi (回転寿司) place--commonly known as "conveyor belt sushi"--for the first time with three people from the church (which I managed to get to BY MYSELF and on time with only taking one wrong turn, and I got all the trains right).
- One of those people I went with? Taught him how to say "I work at a nursing home". I think it was rather entertaining for all of us :)
- Went to the library for the first time and found the gender-specific "copy corner"; guess they don't want people making out when they're supposed to be making copies...
- Also, Japanese keyboards are different, and they aren't in the CIE building so I hadn't seen them until I went to the library. Which you would love, Reba.
- I went to a hookah "bar" (Cafe Istanbul) and smoked hookah for the first time. Totally overrated, probably won't smoke it ever again, but I'm not ashamed of the experience.
- There's a delicious Indian place called New Dehli right across from campus that, I am convinced, is trying to make me fat.
- I've been spelling a lot of English words wrong since I started speaking Japanese more I think, even though I had two hour-plus conversations with Japanese guys in English this week...oops.
- One of those guys is from Kobe and likes Maroon 5, Jack Johnson, Jimmy Eat World, and Billy Joel, and I feel like his friend (one of the few Japanese people I've met more than once) was trying to set us up. Why do I feel like this is definitely not the worst thing ever.
- I ran for 20 minutes at 5:30 in the morning three days in a row--does that deserve two medium fries, two cokes, and a hamburger from McDonald's on two of those days? Probably not. No regrets.
- Weird/crazy weather is hard to deal with sometimes, but it does awesome things to the sky.
- Apparently I really love Japanese sweet potato everything (セツマイモ、setsumaimo). And rice. This is a good thing. Oh and Asian pears. Thanks Kyle.
- Played guitar with Trevor at 930 on a Monday night under a bridge by the river in Neyagawa near some drunk people. That was awesome.
- Found out my host dad has a guitar but hates practicing it so he keeps it in the "penthouse", which I'm pretty sure is the attic. Got to play it for the first time today. Definitely going to be a regular occurrence. Love it.
- Talked to my lit prof for an hour and half about "my paper", which was mostly him ranting about the problems of structured education. Pretty much all of which I agreed with, but that poor Japanese girl outside that probably thought "a few more minutes" actually meant "a few more minutes"...
- Yukio Mishima was a fascinating human being. Look him up.
- We get cookies in class a lot. That's cool.
Yep. That about sums it up. Imagine if I had tried to work all that in in one well-composed blog post. OVERRATED.
So that's all. I have a poem about Hiroshima to share with you, but I think I'll save it for next time. Expect a serious post. Going to Hiroshima Saturday, Shikoku (island) Sunday.
じゃあね。（Ja-ne.）
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