Sakuragawa ようこそ！

Today is two weeks to the day since I moved into my new apartment here in Sakuragawa.  Its also my first day of work as an ALT!  This is quite a relief, as I was going a bit stir crazy around here.  Thats not to say that life is bad, though I've had a couple tough days, but this is not big city Japan.  The only people who can speak half decent English are the Japanese teachers of English, and even then it can be a struggle.  Since my Japanese has a long way to go as well, there are a lot of short sentences and checking of dictionaries.  I'm also the tallest, whitest, gaijin-ist person for miles, so I feel super conspicuous everywhere I go, particularly when I'm running along Sakura-gawa (Sakura river, after which the town is named) or practicing rope dart.  People out here are definitely not used to foreigners, especially weird ones, so they are a little bit standoffish at times.  Most of my interactions have been great though, a smile and some effort goes a long way!

I'm also finding out how frustrating it is to be illiterate.  Man, does it suck not being able to read.  Sometimes you don't realize how great a gift is until its gone; this is certainly one of those times.  Labels and simple instructions can up half an hour easy, and the instructions for my rice cooker?  Forget it!  The thing has more functions than Apollo 11.  I'm working really hard on it though, really digging back in to kanji practice and chugging through my manga with a pencil and my dictionary.  Kanji, as it turns out, is not the hardest part of Japanese.  They make sense, and once you get it, you get it.  Theres just lots of them.  The real difficult part is katakana- the syllabary used for loanwords brought into Japanese.  Not only are the loanwords not always from English, often they aren't, they can be odd portmanteaus, or shortened like slang, sometimes both!  For example a convenience store is called a combini (コンビ二) and a computer is pasocon (パソコン）.  Those I have, but katakana will pop up in random places, like the grocery store, on signage or packaging, on TV, and sometimes its really hard to figure out what they're trying to say!

I have to say, the language barrier has made it a little lonesome out here; thankfully Im working now and finally getting traction in this town.  Today was basically a throwaway day at Momoyama JHS (桃山- Peach Mountain).  The day began with the introduction of the new teachers, myself included, to the returning students.  After that assembly, I checked out my desk in the teachers room and flipped through the textbooks we'll be using for the year.  They strongly reminded of the French textbooks we used in school, so I have some sympathy for the kids.  Hopefully I can bring a spark to it and really get them excited about practicing English, using my tall gaijin, urban boy cool factor!  After about an hour, we all filed back into the gym to greet the first year students.  The formal procession and opening ceremony took a little over an hour, and the gym was packed with the parents of the youngsters looking proud that their broodlings had made it halfway through the education system.  The kids themselves were really cute. They wear uniforms at school here, so everyone was dressed alike, but there were more than a few ill-fitting outfits- parents hoping the kids will go through a growth spurt, I guess!  The parents were also dressed in their finest.  Among the women I saw a couple gorgeous kimonos, a few smart skirt and blazer combos and a few nice but simple outfits.  The men were all in suits, of course.  Apparently white shirt with white tie is very fashionable in Japan right now!  After we were released from the entrance ceremony ( SO MUCH BOWING!) I had another couple hours in the teachers room, where I got to chat with a couple of the teachers over lunch and try out some Japanese.  It wasn't awful, and most everything was communicated pretty well, so that is a relief!

After school, I took advantage of a brilliant sunny day to do some running, rope dart and yoga.  I'm finally getting my distance back up on my runs, which I'm very happy with, and is very important because... I've started kickboxing at the local gym.  The owner, Yamazaki-san, doesn't speak any English at all, so my workout was mostly show and tell, with bits of Japanese thrown in.  The best part is, I'm pretty sure he wants me to teach his child English in exchange for training, with is OK by me!  Not that I can't afford it, but would be a super perk nonetheless! Yamazaki-san is also a seriously tough dude... I'm gonna learn a lot! After an hour hitting pads and working on technique I hit the showers and am now icing down my shins.

Anyhow, thats all for now!  Check out Facebook for some photos of the houses around here and stay tuned for my next report... the joys of driving in Japan!

~狐~

Mission Update

Its been a little while since I've mentioned my main goals- specifically Japanese immersion and learning taijitsu.

Quite frankly, I had a bad week. Transitioning back to Victoria wasn't perfect, but I'm back on track with the Japanese! I got caught up on my kanji and I've got myself up to 352! I don't think I'll manage 50 every day, but sometimes I just get on a roll. The stories are fun to make up and mnemonic memory tricks are fun to learn and play with. I'm just imagining what the world would look like if everyone knew how to learn like this...

I've been pretty good about my immersion environment the whole time, though I'm still waiting for an mp3 player (should be soon). But its constant when I'm at home, which is alot, and its quite the novelty to feel the language slowing down. This requires a bit of focus, but once I have a word in my memory and recognize it in use, I'll "hear" it even when my attention isn't focused. Very neat phenomenon.

As far as taijitsu goes, I got to one class here in Vic before I decided to take some time off training and let my shoulder rest- I'm nursing a sprain. I've been pretty good about keeping my fitness up though, and practicing the techniques that I know.

Anyhow, I'm up late *again* so I'm going to hit the hay. I'll have more thoughts on learning Japanese later... some interesting revelations!

I think I'm Learning Japanese, I really think so!

AJATT Update!

Here I am- midway through my first week of immersion! I feel a bit like I'm in the foothills of the mountains... But compared to my disastrous attempt to learn Japanese in college this to infinity and beyond- I've learned more in a week than I did in entire semester of "this is really hard, make sure you're committed" intensive Japanese instruction.


Here is my progress so far.

1. Create immersive environment- 6/10 I've taken down all my posters (even Casablanca!). I got rid of my exit sign... if anyone can get a hold of one in Japanese, I'd be super stoked! I've stocked up on anime and got the word out on Japanese dubs (saving my pennies!). I'm going to use the method proposed on one of the AJATT comments to label everything in my apartment with post-its bearing the kanji/kana for that object. Apparently there is a new coffee shop in town ran by a Japanese-speaking couple (he's Western, but fluent, she is Japanese) so I'll stop by there tomorrow and also check out the Japanese market here in town!

Step 1 Challenge: Get rid of my books! Replace with Japanese. Same with DVD collection. Switch over computer OS to Linux Mint Japanese. Stop reading the net in English.

2. Learn the Kana: 3/10 I'm already very comfortable with the hiragana (2 days baby!), and I'm making inroads on the katakana.

Step 2 Challenge:Keep practicing hiragana, brush up on how to apply phonetic modifiers. Learn katakana by next week.

3. Learn Kanji: 0.5/2042. I've got my hands on copies of "Remembering The Kanji" I, II and III. KANJI. I thought the Kanji would be really daunting, but after reading the Heisig introduction and thinking about it a little, I don't think I'll have a huge problem- more on that later.

P.S. James Heisig is a genius. Like Mr. Khatzumoto. And, shockingly, bloody interesting! Also like Khatzumoto... ok, shoutout over ^-^.

Step 3 Challenge: LEARN KANJI!. More specifically, start with learning to properly use Surusu and get into kanji reps.

So, there it is, my first AJATT update! Remember kids, Foxx says "Jump with both feet... then you can hit the ground running!"

As far as taijitsu goes? Its flat out awesome. Its like Sun Tsu and the slaves who came up with Capoeira had a baby and that baby was Ninja. Best of all its both FUN (I climbed trees at practice- with approval) and (heres the really important part!) easier to study in Japanese. Also fits the criteria of 'living like a Japanese person.' I know they're not ALL ninjas. But I can dream.

I find myself very familiar with many of the movements and strikes, only having to make minor adjustments to what I already know- fencing steps, karate strikes, moving and rolling, parkour. I'm grateful for the corrections and experience of the group as well. It makes training more fun and your mistakes are pointed out for you! It also helps that half of the lesson- the names of the kata (heh), phrases for bowing etc. are all in Japanese. Ultimate crosstraining. Its all the sports I love- with that sweet Nihon sauce on top. *Grin*

Daily Tarot Reading: What Energy should I bring into my day? on my Llewellyn Tarot deck.

3 Card Spread- 8 of Pentacles, 10 of Pentacles, 2 of Cups.
My spreads have been *extremely* clear as of late- this one is: Diligent, dedicated hard work and a healthy respect for tradition and discipline will lead you to putting your whole heart into / falling in love with something. And its so, so true.


Thats all!
TTFN

Foxx