MAN I can't believe it's been almost a week already since my last post. It seems like so much is happening! But I'll just start from last Thursday (day after last post) :)
Found a local guitar shop that pretty much looks like a walk-in closet off the street and is chock-full of guitars, but not much else. I just wanted to replace my host dad's guitar strings, so I didn't try to find the one my friend told me about that sounded more "accessible", if you know what I mean--the owner of this shop didn't speak any English, and my Japanese was kind of failing, but the place had a nice homey feel (like lots of shops in Japan) and I got a free pick :)
I'm still having "vision" problems, and it goes like this: I read more than like, two sentences, and then my eyes hurt, and I feel like there's a ball in my throat, and then I feel nauseous. Reading glasses don't seem to be doing much at the moment, and I try to just break up the studying/reading more, but I'm a full-time student...
Maybe my host mom will take me to get my eyes checked this week? Not sure I'll have time...
Saw a guy holding (Swix?) ski poles at the train station the other day. 'nuff said.
Had my first mid-term on Friday--the oral test for my Speaking Japanese class--and I guess it went OK...but I feel like I studied way more in the rest of the semester than I did for all my mid-terms...anyway, I don't really know how I did. My teacher said "yoku dekita" (よくできた), which means "good job" basically, but I'm not so sure.
I've been trying to write down a lot of vocab words--both in English and in Japanese--but I feel like it's been an off-week for my speaking skills (and definitely listening skills). I hardly understood any of the sermon on Sunday, and on my written mid-term for my Speaking Japanese class that I took today, I feel like I did pretty poorly on the listening comprehension. Uuuuugh. Idk. I'm frustrated, but determined not to give up. My professors keep using examples like "I'm glad I didn't give up/quit studying Japanese" in our grammar lessons and I think it's actually rubbing off...
But I skipped all the shopping, haha. Saturday I went to Teramachi near Umeda with Kyle again, had some good pizza, tried yakiniku (焼肉)--which is basically just deep-fried chicken (sometimes other meat) with special spices--and bought some more souvenirs. Oh! I forgot--before that, I went to Osaka and got 4150 out of the 4250 refunded for that extra ticket I had to buy back from Hiroshima :) AND I spoke Japanese with the ticket people; that was a good day for Japanese I guess :)
Anyway, today is really the good part. After my test I hopped on the bus to Hirakata-shi-eki (枚方市駅) and caught the train from there to Tanbabashi, then switched lines to go to Toji for a flea market that happens every 21st of every month. But I hadn't been there before, and I only made it to Kujo because I forgot/didn't realize I had to make another transfer before that. So I think I ended up paying an extra 140 yen or so since I got the wrong ticket and was too lazy to try and get a refund, then wandered around an older side of Kyoto until finally I saw the temple from a bridge over the highway (my sense of direction REALLY sucks, I've decided). And when I got there, I thought, 'oh yeah--TOTALLY worth skipping class for'. (Did I forget to mention that? Yeah. No one else wanted to skip their classes, but this was probably my only opportunity to go, and I only missed one class, in which my professor doesn't expect us to do the readings or take notes and just gives us handouts of the lectures summarized...awesome.) I'm not really sure how much money I spent yet, but a bunch of you are going to get awesomely unique presents. So if I don't have lunch money for December, it was worth it ;)
Shoot--I forgot to tell you about the interviews! Well, I interviewed two couples for my anthropology project yesterday (Sunday), and was very happy/satisfied with the results (although I may be in over my head with editing...and I should've done more research...but we'll see what happens). I don't know if any of YOU will get to see the finished project--privacy issues, you know--but at the very least I can say that I've already been educated through this process of filming and interviewing and meeting people from all over the world, from significantly different walks of life (I think).
One last thing for today: as I was leaving the house this morning (or was it yesterday?) and as I returned home today, two different women who live on "my" street said "ohayo gozaimasu" (おはようございます) or "itterasshai" (行ってらっしゃい) and "okaerinasai" (お帰りなさい) to me (in addition to the lady who works as a crossing guard in my neighborhood who always says "itterasshai"). And you probably don't know what those words mean but the point is that people are starting to recognize me, and it's nice to feel welcome, to feel part of the community, even if just a little bit, for a little while.
Tomorrow more adventuring awaits with a sort of "native" festival (if I can call it that) out in the boonies after class--woohoo!
Oh one more thing--stopped for lunch at a kissaten on the way to the temple/market called "Kyoto Ippongi Coffeeshop", and was a little disappointed to find that, while the small places like these are nice and homey, if they're placed near tourist locations or just busy areas of town (hard not to do), you pretty much have to eat and leave because customers are waiting! I really just wanted to sit and write in there all day... :( But not everywhere is like that. I'll find a good one besides Starbucks someday!
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