get a move on

It's a brand new office! Still workin the whole full-of-boxes look a bit perhaps, but it's bigger better and roomier! It's like a real office building, I have to ride up in the elevator with other people and everything. I'm definitely feeling the lack of fantastic yummy lunch places around every corner--don't get me wrong, there are some, but it's not the same--but it's actually not that far of a walk to get to the Omotesando area, so I foresee going to my old lunchtime haunts rather a lot actually. The only downside is the morning commute, which is now 20 minutes longer and involves a bus from Shibuya station. Bleh.  But it's really only a pain in the morning--evenings I've been walking from the office to Shibuya, which actually only takes about 15 minutes. It's kind of a nice walk, especially after spending all day sitting on my butt in front of a desk, it's nice to move around. Of course, we'll see how long that lasts once it gets colder. But I can always take the bus if I want.

Sunday I went to the school festival 浜大際 at 横浜私立大学. (same thing we went to with IUC last fall, where I met Jacky and Naoko and Ai-chan). Didn't get to see Ai, but Jason and I headed over and met up with Jacky and Naoko, and hung out with them at the festival for the afternoon. Much fun to be had! ^_^

There we are at an Alice in Wonderland theme cafe that one of the clubs was putting on.  Jacky was quite interested in the cat-girl.  ;-P Not the best picture, but I didn't take it, so. Anyway, it was awesome, and then we went to Thrash Zone after--my first time since like, June. Yum!

This issue of Metropolis-- my bar review! The Belgian beer bar I went to with Jason, Ben and Felicia is running in this issue. A little on the expensive side, but definitely worth it--well, except for that Pink Killer thing, that was just...gross.
Oh, and slightly awkward, but I'm in the podcast too! Yeah, Metropolis has a podcast, who knew. Well, I knew but I have to admit I never actually listened to it before now. Kong comes in every Tues afternoon and Hiroko and Beau always go in to record segments of it, but this week they asked if I wanted to come in, too! I was kind of nervous, I didn't really know what I was sposed to talk about--mostly just ended up being Keeping Tabs. Anyway, go to the Metropolis main page and scroll down to the Tokyo Metpod-- I'm on the most recent one, Nov 5. You can listen to the whole thing, or fast-forward to my part, which is about 3/4 of the way in maybe? Anyway, it's ok but it's SO WEIRD listening to it, I'm like "that's not what I sound like." lol.

finally (phew!) new PV. apologies to Rei & co (it's been a little less than a week for them) but my favorite wacked-out visual kei band, Acid Black Cherry, has a new pv out, called Jigsaw! Incidentally, this is not it. This is their second-to-latest PV, 20+∞ Century Boys, which only just got a decent version of it posted to youtube. (Jigsaw isn't posted at all yet, aside from the 30-second preview version)
anyway, enjoy! The setting is the band (dressed up as dorky high school girls) is staking out a concert waiting to meet...well, themselves...but there are three "cool" girls who keep getting in the way.  it's love.

endings and beginnings

Also, IUC is over!
waaahhhh.....
But, here are some pictures from the end, courtesy of Matsumoto-sensei, IUC's resident photographer. At every IUC event, he's forever popping out of corners and snapping so many photos that when you flip through them, they play almost like a movie. >_<
Anyway, here's me giving my final presentation:
The group of us (most of us anyway) who took shodo
And receiving my graduation certificate.

Which, this time, they didn't forget! Lol (unlike a certain HIF graduation ceremony I attended)...

Oh yeah, and I did really well on my final test!!! ☆★☆

Oh, and speaking of endings/beginnings, in a few short hours, my parents will be arriving in Tokyo! Whee!! Along with my 幼なじみ Rebecca and her mom. \(^_^)/
So, just to let you know, I probably won't be making many posts on here for the next couple of weeks, as we'll be travelling around Japan. Needless to say, I'm sooooo excited!

Oh, and I suppose I should change up the PV, hmm? Let's see, I've got to pick a good one, since it might very well be up for a good long while.
OK, I can't resist. What else, but the new PV by DoReMii's favorite twins, ON/OFF.
<3

御無沙汰致しております。

So, I'm not dead. Not in the literal sense, anyway. I've just been super busy, and before I knew it it had been over two weeks since my last blog post. Ouch.
But, things have been a mix of fun and stress lately. IUC is over--well, almost entirely. Classes have ended, and we took the test last Monday. I actually really appreciate the way IUC handles the exit test: for the written part in the morning, they give the exact same placement test that kicked our asses at the beginning of the program. Which makes it really easy to gauge how far you've come. Don't know how I did for sure yet--we find out at the final evaluation session on Friday--but it was SOOOOOOOOOOO much easier this time around! Especially the kanji section, because this time, I actually *knew* most of them! (^_^)d
So, all that's left now is the Final Presentations, which take place Tuesday and Wednesday, and then we'll be done for real!
I promise to post another, more detailed IUC wrap-up post later.

In other news....
On the Job Front:
I've been applying for jobs!!!! And starting to get some results. A lot of my resumes haven't been making it past the initial screening by the recruiting companies, but I actually had a real live interview last week (which sadly, also ended in a rejection, but!). It was an editorial position with a company that publishes textbooks to teach English. There was an interview, and a test, all in Japanese. See, it's standard practice for Japanese companies to administer a test as part of the interview/hiring process--and since they're designed to test the Japanese abilities of Japanese people, they're....um.... "hard" is something of an understatement.
But, it was a good experience, to sort of get the first Japanese-interview nerves out of the way a bit.
And even MORE importantly, I have another interview on Thursday! And this time, it's in English (i.e. I actually stand a fighting chance). This next interview is for an Editorial Assistant position with Metropolis, an English-language weekly magazine in Tokyo. It's an Arts & Entertainment, resaurant reviews type of thing, sort of Time-Out style. Crossing my fingers extra hard, cause this seems like it could be a really good thing.
Anyway, I'll keep you posted. And I promise to write more later, with some pictures and potentially some updates on the "fun" part of my last few weeks. But now for sleep, cause I have to get up in the morning to practice my presentation.

Lastly, finally getting around to changing the PV.
For the first time, I will be featuring the wonders of Japanese girl-idol groups. This one, Perfume, has recently taken IUC by storm, with their peppy blend of electronic-synthesized-pop.
The song is "Polyrhythm," which shot the group to fame after it was chosen to feature in...I kid you not... a recycling commercial.
See how long it takes before the synth makes your head explode. (^_~)

どうも、お久しぶりです！

apologies for the lack of posts recently, but I've been busy as all hell. while in terms of classwork, IUC has slacked off a lot in recent months, in terms of everything else I've become too busy to even think. actually that's a lie, the thinking part I've got down pat--haven't been sleeping well lately cause my head's so busy that I have trouble falling asleep at night. I just keep thinking about the fact that I don't have a job, or that I haven't done my project work for the week, or that it's been 3 days since I last took a SKIP quiz....the list goes on.
Slightly better news tho, I've put in applications for a whole mess of different jobs this week, and I'm not even done with all of them yet. remains to be seen whether i hear back from anyone or not, tho. but i tell you, after this, I'll never complain about having to write a cover letter or do a job interview again--as long as it's in English!!
so anyway, おわびを兼ねて and to let you know i'm not dead, just wanted to put in a quick post. also to change the PV.
Did you think the 70s were dead? Well, you were wrong!
this week is Superfly's song "Hi-Five." (sounds like a band, but it's actually just the girl, as a solo artist).
She also does covers of Eagles and Stones songs, among others.
wow.

screening party

Also, the reason we all went to go get tacos in the first place was to pregame for the movie screening! ^_^ Last term, the Friday speaking class--not me, that's when I was taking business Japanese--filmed a movie! It's a murder mystery...sort of? They wrote, filmed, directed, and edited it themselves, so it was rather an interesting production. Lol. But, since the editing and stuff finally got finished, last night we had a screening party up at the big house on the hill, that Ben, Connor, Bridget, and Travis are sharing (cf Thanksgiving).
It was a super party--Amy brought "和風 Rice Krispy treats"--so called because there are no Rice Krispies in Japan, so she used cornflakes instead. But they were really good! And Senda-sensei brought over some fantastic guacamole! XD
Yes, that means the teachers were there, too--Senda, Akizawa, and Kouno. (getting drunk with your teachers is always interesting.....)
Anyway, it was a much-fun party. The movie was a big hit, and we've decided that the next step is to release a subbed version, and make it the next Youtube sensation! ^_^ So, everybody watch out for that!
No pictures in this post, either--I took a few, but sadly certain IUC students who shall remain nameless have forbidden me under pain of death to let them see the light of day, either here or on facebook. So, sorry, no luck this time.

Lovely + Odd

It's been raining miserably for the past several days--that chilly, icky kind of rain where the wind is blowing it all over you and your umbrella is completely useless, even when it's not turned inside-out.
But on Friday, it finally decided to be sunny and warm, and I was in heaven! ^_^ Cause it was so nice, Jason and I went to the combini after class and took lunch outside, to sit along the water behind IUC. It was sooooooo nice! XD
View to the right.... View to the left.... Walking home, we went via Aka Renga for a change of pace. We browsed a little bit around the shops inside--browsing only, since (fortunately?) I had forgotten my wallet at home that day. Outside Aka Renga, they were planting a big display of flowers. It smelled fantastic!
Then, we happened upon some sort of pottery fair thing that was starting up in Odori Koen (where I live). This photo only shows a part of it, but there were lots of stalls on both sides of the park, taking up a whole block. Bowls, cups, teapots, chopsticks, wooden dishes...lots of different things. And some of them were just gorgeous.
And, last but oh-most-definitely not least, another stellar example of Odori Koen scenery.
This is just...

...

Priceless.

but, it's not Halloween!

Fun stuff! so, Wed afternoon i stayed late at school--first for my weekly project meeting with Senda-sensei, and then after attempting to do some more of the aforementioned bungaku reading. (which, incidentally, was a resounding failure--i was deathly sleepy and kept nodding off in the middle of sentences). anyway, i packed it in around 4:30 and started to head for home, since Wed is my night for kyudo practice. but, on my way home i got distracted in the plaza between Queen's and Landmark, by a guy who was putting on a fire juggling show! which of course, thanks to YAGS, is forever associated in my mind with Yale and Halloween. ^_^
anyway, he was doing a pretty good job, so i sat down to watch the end of his show (which actually made me about 15 mins late for kyudo...but whatev). The funniest part, though, was that right about that time, it decided to get incredibly windy, so the poor guy's fire kept going out. lol.
and of course, being me, i also took a video!


(the sound in the background is the wind blowing--i told you it was strong!)
Then, he finished up with a bang by juggling while riding an extremely tall unicycle--just getting on it was rather a production. he had to have a guy from the audience come up and hold a big pole that he used to support himself while he climbed onto the thing. i have to say, i was amazed that he managed it at all!
anyway, it was lots of fun, and even though it made me late for kyudo, it also gave me the energy to actually go to kyudo, which was a good thing--i'd been so tired at school that i was actually contemplating skipping

in which things take a turn for the worse

(WARNING: this is going to be another of those posts in which i am too lazy to capitalize things)

4th term has begun! it's only been a week, so why does spring break seem so long ago? i guess school has that effect on you...? still, there's no afternoons, and only 2 out of my 3 classes are going to involve actual work. well, that last is an assumption--i mean, i still have IJ--we spent T/Th this week doing the last 2 chapters of the keigo book 待遇表現, which was really no work at all, tho it's not really clear what we're going to be doing next in that class. we're having a mini-発表会 next week though, so i have to write some kind of a speech between now and then. (pick a topic... pick a topic....)

Now, onto the hard stuff:
we've moved on to Meiji literature in bungaku, as of this term. (for those of you shaky on your japanese history, that's post-1860, after the collapse of the shogunate). on balance, not that long ago i suppose, but it's long ago enough that everything's written all weird! (T_T);; sort of along the lines of the way Shakespearean-era things use different spelling and stuff like that... it's not all that bad actually, just takes some getting used to. and this was my first time reading anything in that kind of Japanese--but once i got myself broken in, it felt pretty much the same as regular japanese. right now we're working on Natsume Soseki's 夢十夜 "Ten Nights of Dream," which i was actually super happy to get to read. i've read them in english in a j-lit class i took sophomore year at yale, tho that was long enough ago that i didn't remember much other than the fact that i liked them. but, for anyone who's read anything else by Soseki, they're (to my mind at least) very unlike any of his other works.
less fortunately, next up, according to Otake-sensei, is Higuchi Ichiyo and possibly Izumi Kyoka--both of whom are authors that, again, i've read in translation for j-lit classes at Yale, and really enjoyed--but who are apparently a bitch to tackle in the original japanese. Ichiyo especially, according to Otake, has a habit of using a variety of different spellings for her characters' names, within the same story. as well as another equally charming habit of writing single sentences that take up an entire page. i exaggerate not in the least. (ack!) before we even get to start reading her, we have to spend a whole class learning various techniques for "how" to read her works! お楽しみ。。。(please note the sarcasm)

on Friday i have my first 現代小説 "Modern novel" class, so i'll report on that later. the first reading was a Murakami Haruki short story (that i *swear* i've read before....) which was interesting and not too difficult. so hopefully that class stays fun.

3rd term thoughts

The nightmare is over!
Lol.
Well, not a nightmare, exactly, but 3rd term has been pretty draining. After 4 months of having the same classes every day, the switched-up schedule took some getting used to. Sometimes literature, sometimes pop culture..and IJ thrown into the mix twice a week. IJ which, more often than not, ended up getting the short end of the stick, homework-wise. Oops.
The hardest part overall was definitely the lit class. We've been going at a pretty fast clip, and along with each short story, we also read a related scholarly article, and wrote our own essay. Some of the stories were longer and harder than others; I actually think the first story we read, the Endo Shusaku one, was the easiest even though it was the longest (and, I think, the oldest). Some of the stories I liked, and a couple of them made me want to bang my head against the wall.


I had my end-of-term interview with Ari-sensei on Friday morning. As expected, she talked about how I need to work on upping my kanji skills over the next term, and introducing some more formal words into my vocabulary. Which is something I've been sort of self-conscious about too, mostly because I feel like since most of the other kids here are grad students and stuff, they're all coming from a background of lots of reading in Japanese for their coursework. So I worry sometimes that I'm kind of behind in that sense. So, that's my goal for 4th term! ;-)
Oh, and I made the mistake of telling Ari-sensei that I didn't really have any plans over break--which got me stuck with a whole mess of homework that I'm now expected to do over break. Joy! *note sarcasm*
I should've taken a page out of Molly's book. When Otake-sensei asked if she had any plans over break, Molly was like "Yes, I have a friend coming. The whole time. Lots of traveling. No time for homework. Sorry. Two weeks. Whole time. Yup."
Wish I'd done that! >_<

i get to leave when?

I have to say, I am completely on board for this whole no afternoon class thing. Monday, when I went to leave school at 12:30 in the afternoon, I felt like I was doing something wrong, and kept half-expecting one of the sensei to come chasing after me to bring me back.
;-P
I'm suddenly finding myself with all this free time on my hands that I don't exactly know what to do with. The homework load has noticeably lightened. And I know part of that is due to this being the last week before break, and that it will be increased later once the project work gets going, but for now...I'm enjoying life. ^_^
Also, the weather lately has been gorgeous, and only slightly chilly, so I've been in *such* a good mood.

project work

since I talked about how we went to the library for a project work research orientation I spose I should also mention a little bit about what I've decided to do my project on.
I felt a lot better about it after talking to Ari-sensei last week. I was thinking the project had to be actually researching something, you know, like "the economic policies of the Taisho era" or something like that. but it turns out that, according to Ari-sensei, the majority of students just come in with something along the lines of "I want to read this book in Japanese." and then find something sort of similar to present about at the end.
so! my topic's not entirely hammered out yet, but I've decided to do something about translation. if possible, I would love to be able to write about, I guess you could call it "theories of subtitle translation"...? some of the issues would be common to regular translation, but what I really want to examine for example (in the case of Japanese to English), is the balance between conveying Japanese culture and making things understandable to someone coming from an American cultural background. How best to translate certain expressions, pop culture references, things like that. do you translate them literally and let the viewer fend for themselves? add some sort of explanatory note? change the reference into one from American culture that has a similar meaning?
Questions like that are really interesting to me.

Oh, and-- wonderful news about my advisor, too! I had just assumed that the project advisor would be the same as our regular advisor (i.e. Ari-sensei for me). but then the other day Otake-sensei came up to me before class asking about when we should schedule my weekly project work meeting, and I got really confused, until I realized that my project advisor wouldn't necessarily be Ari-sensei. and then I got kind of worried that it might be Otake-sensei. which wouldn't be bad, it's not as if I dislike her--it's just that I've had very little interaction with her, and she's known to be one of the stricter sensei at IUC.
but then the other day they posted the assignments, and I have Senda-sensei! YAAAAYYY!!!!
everybody is really jealous of me! ^_^ (especially Jason, who has "Kawasaki-sensei" as an advisor--someone that none of us have ever heard of, or have any recollection of ever seeing. lol)
so, all in all, i'm getting really excited about this whole project thing!
;-D

Field trip!

this week was actually really fun, because on Thursday we went on a field trip! well, sort of anyway. at any rate, it meant no class. of course--as is invariably the case--"no class" does not equal "sleep in," as we had to meet at the Motomachi/Chukagai station at 9:15 (normally the time I leave to go to school).
first we went to the 文学館 (Literature...Museum? yet another addition to the list of words I understand the meaning of, but only in Japanese). Which was...meh. They had exhibits about different authors, showing their drafts, or early editions of their work, stuff like that. It was ok.
we stopped in Chinatown for lunch, and that was REALLY yum. also, i discovered both a niku-man place that sells veggie-man too, AND a street of restaurants with meals actually under $10. whee! now i just have to remember how to get there.... which is more of a problem than it sounds, because Chinatown is crazy confusing. it's stuck right in the middle of Yokohama, but once you enter the gate, the streets get all windy, and all go off in different directions from the streets outside. so i invariably get lost, and wind up in the complete opposite direction from where i thought i was heading.
After lunch, we went to...the LIBRARY! hehe. which is a lot more fun than it sounds. the Yokohama central library is enormous. we went to get us all library cards made, and for sort of a research orientation for our project work. i found a lot of good books--and i discovered the library's amazing magazine selection. they have several different Japanese trade magazines about publishing and editorial, which was sooooo cool to find. i'm definitely going to start checking those out. but best of all, they also get Publisher's Weekly! so now i can start reading it again! (i had been debating buying myself an online subscripton, despite the expense, but now i don't have to!)
so, all in all it was a really fun day. although, as field trips always do, it turned out to be actually longer than a regular school day.

we made a movie!

As promised, here's the short movie we made in Business Japanese, "A Day in the Life of a New Employee". Hope everyone enjoys the embarrassment as much as we did making it. ;-P

Cast
Sarah: Outa (Japan Commerce Co, Sales Dept.) / Receptionist / Suzuki-san
Katy: New Employee
Misa: Itou (Sun Commerce, Sales Dept.)
Sean: Tanaka-san / Nomura-san / Receptionist
Staff
Director: Ari-sensei

Scene 1: First day on the job
Scene 2: Telephoning Japan Commerce Co.
Scene 3: At the receptionist for Japan Commerce
Scene 4: In the reception room
Scene 5: Exchanging business cards, Take 2 (take 1 was better...)
Scene 6: Ending the business meeting
Scene 7: Leaving the company
Scene 8: At the receptionist
Credits!

good things come in...4s?

Re: the fact that that whole "3rd term is easier" thing turned out to be a big fat lie. The other day after morning class (cutting into my lunchtime--how dare they?!) we had an orientation for 4th term. I kind of thought that it was supposed to be the same as 3rd, but apparently not.

First: the Good News!
Up until now, we've gotten to experience the pleasure of no-afternoon-class Wednesdays. Once a week, every week. And I thought that was pretty good. But it turns out, in 4th term, we have NO afternoon class! XD
My current M-Th morning class (literature) will continue into next semester, as does the Tues/Wed IJ grammar class. That one becomes 上級日本語 High-Level Japanese. My current Fri morning class, Business Japanese, ends after this term, and gets replaced by a new class. The choices are Speaking, Listening, Writing, 日本文化論 Japanese Cultural Theory (something like that, anyway), or 現代小説 Modern Fiction.
I haven't decided what I'm going to pick yet. I mean, the obvious choice would be the Modern Fiction class, as it's about "the short stories of current, widely-read authors." But, on the other hand, the Culture class sounds pretty interesting, too (Ari-sensei's heading it up). Also, taking two lit classes at the same time is definitely nothing to sneeze at. Or I could pick the listening class, for a bit of a break. Since my listening skills are definitely the best of the bunch (and by bunch, I mean the bunch of my other skills, or lack thereof), it would make for a bit of a slack class.
I dunno, I'll talk to Ari-sensei about it, but I'll probably end up going with the other lit class. From a future-use point of view, it's definitely the best choice. I'm just a little nervous about the workload, hence putting off the inevitable.

Next: the Bad News
Well, not exactly bad news, but... The reason we have no afternoon classes is because, during 4th term, we're supposed to be spending the afternoons doing dun dun dun...Project Work! Theoretically, at least. (Flashbacks to HIF, anyone?)
I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm sure the project will be rewarding, and interesting, full of fun facts to know and tell. It's just...I have no idea what to do my project on! Nothing. Complete blank. Worse, a void. I mean, I know there are lots of things I'm interested in--Japanese culture, fiction, publishing, dramas... I'm just not sure how to get a research topic out of that. You know?
Aaannndd...we're supposed to turn in a little sheet thingy outlining our project proposal "as detailed as possible." By noon Monday, according to the paper. (A fact which I just now realized. Eek) I guess I'll have to shoot an email to Ari-sensei over the weekend, see if she can meet me before class Monday--or before lunch, assuming I can get an extension past the noon deadline. lol.

So, anyway, that's the skinny on 4th term. As far as we know, at least. ^.^
As we've seen, the good folks here at IUC sure do like to shake things up.

the snow continues

Rather frustrating, actually. We've been having a lot of snow lately. Well, in a manner of speaking. For example, last night it snowed--lightly, granted, but continuously--for several hours straight. Which was all well and good, it was very pretty to watch while I was freezing my butt off in the dojo at kyudo last night. But the weather lately has been stuck in that bimyou territory where it's cold enough to snow, but still above freezing, so none of it sticks. Which, all in all, makes me feel kind of cheated.
Like I said, I was watching the snow from kyudo last night. Which meant I got home pretty late, and stayed up even later finishing that stupid essay for lit class. zzzz........
So now I'm pretty tired. Oh, and speaking of the essay, remember how I was complaining about the fact that the teachers decided to leave the length "up to us"? Well, it turns out the other lit class actually got a page range! Why them and not us? *pouts* But according to Ben, they were told 1-2 pages, and mine came in at about a page and a half, so that makes me feel somewhat better. I'd been afraid that it was a little short. I totally sent it right off as soon as it was finished last night, tho, I was so tired. I didn't even proofread it. *gulp* (almost like being back in college again...)
Today in class was pretty sad, too. In lit this morning I was barely functioning, and to top it all off, everybody was out (sick or... just out) so our normally 6 person class was reduced to just me and Misa. Eek. Well, Amy L showed up for about half an hour--she came in late, and then went home during the mid-morning break (why come at all then......?). But that hardly counts. And of course, during afternoon class I was in the throes of depression due to UNC's miserable loss to Duke. I was frantically checking the score during breaks, then parked myself in front of the computer during lunch, refreshing the Yahoo sports scores page every 2 minutes until the game was over.
....I guess Senda-sensei will be happy.

cause i've still got a speech to write...

but i realized that i haven't updated a blog posting lately (a real one, anyway) and that needs to be done!
absolutely nothing to do with the fact that i'm drawing a complete blank on what to write my speech about... nothing at all. nope. (too much protesting?)
also am realizing that recent posts have been horribly lacking in photos, too. whoops. haven't really done anything photo-worthy lately, so...sorry. i'll try to remedy that soon, and take some pics of, well, something.

on to the past week--on the bungaku front, we finished up our first short story. now the homework is that we're all supposed to write our own critical essay about the story (which we'll be doing for all of them from now on). and the length is "up to us." i HATE it when they do that! i mean, "up to you"--what does that mean?! does that mean 1-2 pages? 3-4? gah! whatever. i do actually have things to say about this story, so that's something i suppose.
pop culture class is also still fun. we're in our movie unit now. we got to watch "Shall We Dance"--the amazing Japanese version (DVD of which i own), as well as the embarrassing Richard Gere + J-Lo American remake--and compare the two. that was friday, then today we discussed Miyazaki's "Spirited Away," one of my FAVORITE movies. so even though i'd seen it a million times before, i rewatched it over the weekend as "homework." hehe. god, i love this class.
friday afternoon, we also had a screening of "Battle Royale," cause we'll be discussing that in a few days. it's a super famous movie, and i'd always heard of it as one of those must-see films. and it was, cinematically speaking, very good, i thought. but, it was seriously the most disturbing movie i've seen in recent memory, if not ever. it's based on a book that caused a huge controversy (as did the movie). the premise of the story is that Japan has gone to the dogs, so they decide to pass the "battle royale act," which means they randomly select one class of 9th-graders, send them to a deserted island for 3 days, and make them kill each other off until there's only one left standing. (as incentive, if there's more than one person left alive at the end of the 3 days, then everybody dies)
....you can see where the controversy comes in. like i said, it was a really interesting movie from the perspective of social commentary, and sort of getting inside the kids' heads, seeing what makes people kill each other, and how they all deal with the stress and everything. but, when it was all over, we all felt pretty shell-shocked.
i find myself torn between wanting to see the movie again, with subtitles---and *never* wanting to see the movie again.

let's see, what else...oh yeah, business japanese is going pretty well too. i only have it once a week (fri mornings), which makes it kind of a nice, low-prep class. i.e. we do useful things *in* class, and there's lots of conversation practice and things that i think are helpful, but there's not a whole lot of outside-class work. which is really a good thing, because nobody really has the time to do much prep for such a relatively minor class, on top of everything else. and i think the teachers realize that. altho maybe it's a different story in the other fri morning classes (i.e. reading, speaking, writing classes respectively). but i'm happy with my situation.

ok, wow, this post got long. so i guess i'll wrap up now.
oh! but, it snowed yesterday!! ^_^ a sunday, so as far as potential vacation days goes, it was a waste of perfectly good snow as far as i'm concerned. but it was certainly pretty while it lasted.

eek, almost 10pm. ok, i spose i'll suck it up now, and go and try to write my speech. that's seriously the hardest part of all this--trying to figure out *what* to write about. after a while, you run out of topics...
ok, bye for real now. and i promise to try and include some pictures next time!

brushes with fame

I. LOVE. YOKOHAMA.

hehe. sorry, just have to share my insane excitement right now!
They were shooting a tv commercial in Queen's Square this morning! Now, Queen's Square being what it is, this is nothing new. There have been several times coming to and from school where things like that have been going on.
What makes today special, is that a) they were shooting on the bridge to IUC so we walked right by, practically through the shoot
b) they were doing a take right as we walked by, so I got to see everything
c) it was Oguri Shun!!!!!!!!!

yes, I am a total J-dorama fangirl, so getting to see Hanazawa Rui live and in person, not 10 feet from me, is enough to keep me excited for WEEKS. it was really sad, tho, that no one else knew who he was, and so failed to understand the depths of my excitement.
my only regret is that i didn't think to grab my cell phone and try to snap a picture--for which lapse I am *kicking* myself. kicking myself.
guess i'm not as japan-socialized as i could be, yet.

reflections--first week back

soooooo tired!
so, it wasn't even a real week (had monday off) but i'm still pretty tired. it's tough getting back into the swing of classes and things after being on break for so long (i say "so long," but it flew by)
like i said in the last post, it seems like this term is going to be a pretty heavy workload, but i am also really excited about all my classes. i have to get back into the whole college-like "not having the same classes every day" mindset, tho. lol. it's actually kind of hard, after having the same schedule every day, for so long. and since we didn't have a full week, i still haven't quite got a handle on the scheduling, and how i should pace myself. which probably explains part of why i'm so tired. anyway, here's for some particulars on the classes!

IJ
the standard grammar class like we were having every morning before. we're even using a continuation of the textbook from before, so there's not much to report there. though it's nice to be back in Ari-sensei's class again. i keep getting flashbacks to first term, which is kind of nice b/c then it reminds me how far i've come since then.

Bungaku (Literature)
a lot of work! and it's headed up by Otake-sensei (my first time having her) who has the reputation for being one of the strictest sensei at IUC, so that had me a little worried. but she seems nice, at least. we're going to be reading a variety of short stories by different japanese authors, along with some kind of criticism/scholarly article about each story/author we cover. this week was Endo Shusaku's "Kageboshi." i liked the story and Shusaku's writing style a lot, and language-wise, i had a much easier time with it than i was afraid i would. but i'm still a pretty slow reader when it comes to Japanese, and at 30+ pp, this one took a *long* time. i started it over break, then on Wed afternoon went over to tully's to read the second half or so. ......3 hours later i finally finished it. when i was done, i still had taishyu bunka reading to do for the next day, and i tried to start that, but it was just absolutely useless. after 3 hours of nonstop shusaku, my brain had turned into complete mush. i started at the page for a while, trying to decide if those little symbols swimming around were actually words or not, then packed it in and went home, where i proceeded to be utterly useless for the rest of the day. so i think the moral there is that i'm gonna have to pace myself a little better.

Taishyu Bunka (Pop Culture)
FUN!! i'm super excited about this class. right now we're doing a unit on CM (that's japanese for "commercials." i'm serious) and that's really neat. we get to watch videos like "2007 CM, Best 10" and then talk about what they were CM for, what we thought was interesting about the way each product was portrayed, things like that. the next unit is manga, and then there'll be a unit on movies--we get to watch Spirited Away, Shall We Dance, Battle Royale...i'm really excited about that. and the readings should be really interesting too. though, as in bungaku, it definitely seems like this term they're upping the level of the articles and things we're given to read. it's much more the kind of journal articles and things like what i would use for a Yale paper, but in japanese.

Business Nihongo
Ari-sensei again! only have this class once a week, on friday mornings. they split us up into 2 sections--i'm in the "not particularly interested in business/econ" group.^^ which means that the class will mostly focus on keigo (polite japanese) and the kinds of conversations you'd encounter working in a japanese company. like, this morning we went over the 自己紹介, the self-introduction that you have to do on your first day, as well as the 1-minute 自己PR spiel, which is something that gets asked a lot in job interviews in japan--basically "tell us in 1 minute why we should hire you" kind of thing. so that's really great, especially since i plan to start looking for jobs in japan for after IUC (something else i need to do...)

i guess that's it for now. i'm going to go bum around for a bit and then head to bed i think.

new video! (sorry, didn't realize the other one had gone away. like i said, sometimes they get taken off of youtube)

Alice Nine, "Ruri no Ame" (Sapphire Rain)
i'm only halfway into this group, musically-speaking. the lead singer has a really distinct voice, which...i have to decide if i really love or not. but i think this is an absolutely *gorgeous* video, which is why i'm posting it ^_^

i've been had!

so, i know it's only just been the first day of classes, but i'm beginning to suspect that whole spiel they fed us about "2nd term is the hardest, 3rd term will be much easier" was nothing more than a clever ruse to fool us into がんばって-ing and making it through those last few weeks before break.

Lies!

...I better go finish my homework now.

以上！

picking classes? without shopping them first!?!

This week we also found out about the plan for 3rd term, which starts up in January, after the break.
Up til now, we've been having simple morning class (grammar-focused) and afternoon class (newspaper articles, videos, current events discussion), the same every day. But apparently during 3rd and 4th term at IUC, you get to choose from a variety of elective-type classes, so the curriculum becomes more tailored to students' particular interests. So this week we got the information about the different options, and picked our top choices. There are three groups of courses plus another set of optional after-school courses that you can opt in to.
Group A (pick 1):
政治・経済　Business/Economics
美術史 Art History
文学　Literature
文化人類学　Anthropology
法律　Law
歴史学　History/Historiography

Group B (pick 1):
Reading
Listening
Speaking
Business Japanese

Group III (pick 1): [no, I don't know why it's III and not C, it just is]
現代史　Modern History
大衆文化　Popular Culture
ビジネス・社会　Business/Society

Optional Classes:
書道　Calligraphy (Shodo)
古筆 Old-style Writing
文語文法専門 Classical Japanese
ビジネス Business

So, the ones I picked were Literature (A), Business Japanese (B), and Popular Culture (III). In the optional classes, I'm continuing on with shodo, which I've been taking this semester at IUC, too (I've mentioned that, right?). I also checked the box for the optional business course, because it might be interesting; I was a little worried about whether it would be over my head, but Ari-sensei said I can just go to the first lecture and see what I think, so I figure I might as well give it a shot. I didn't really have any trouble deciding the other stuff--since I'm not in any way grad school bound, anything I do in relation to Japan after IUC would definitely be work-related, so Business Japanese was a no-brainer. And since 1) I'm interested in publishing, and 2) my reading skills could use some work--the Literature course is definitely the best thing for me out of A-group (altho the Anthropology also sounded neat).
The way the schedule will work, we'll have A-group M/Th mornings; B-group F morning; and III-group in the afternoon (except Wed when we have afternoons off, like now). Tu/W mornings, we'll be continuing on with IJ, which is the grammar textbook we're using in our current morning class, so I guess that will be pretty much the same type of deal as now.
It sounds like a lot of work on paper, but as I've mentioned before, it's supposedly easier than 2nd term, so... We'll see. I'm looking forward to the change of pace.