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Hi There!
On March 8th I will be leaving the U.S. to study abroad in Nagasaki, Japan. I'll try to stay in touch as best as I can through this website. See you soon :)
2/9/10
Today I made a Japanese style Yakitori dish for dinner with my dads help. It was good for a first time try I think. I also spent 30 minutes trying to find a legitimately "free" website host so thank you Yola!
My journey will begin March 8th at 12 pm when I fly out of JFK for Narita International Airport. For those of you not familiar with Japan I will start with a map!
This is a pretty basic map of Japan. The names of the four main islands are in red and the major cities are listed in blue. The university I will be attending is on the island of Kyushu in Nagasaki. For the month of March I will be in Hyogo, next to Osaka, with Mio <3 ! As you can see Nagasaki is pretty far south and, I believe, an 8 hour shinkansen (bullet train) ride from Tokyo. Right now I'm pretty nervous about being able to communicate properly but as usual I'm not doing much to fix it haha... Anyway! I'll probably be using some Hiragana, one of the Japanese alphabets, so I will insert a chart to help you all out. |  |
That is Hiragana and is used frequently and thats honestly all you need to know for now! Okay, its time to hit the hay, おやすみなさい！ That means goodnight in Japanese but I'll let you sound it out : )
2/20/10
Today has been a rough day. Earlier this week while I was visiting my friends at Marist I learned that a friend from high school had passed away. He was only a year older than me and it pains me greatly to think of how lonely he must have felt with those last few breaths. My best friend Andrea and I went to calling hours at 1 and then to his funeral at 3. It was really hard to say goodbye but he looked very peaceful in his coffin. His sister read a poem he wrote which explained everything. I'm glad we all understand a little bit more now. I was a little disappointed at the lack of school "representatives" there but the presence of the tech teacher and his wife gave me great comfort. In closing, Justin Aeschbacher, may you forever rest in peace and in our hearts. We'll miss your silky hair and perfect hugs but along the lines of your last poem I hope we can all walk in the sun light together...
"Maybe it's not my weekend, but it's going to be my year."
Now a little more about 日本 (Japan),
Politeness:
Not counting the rest of tonight I have 16 more days until my flight.
The time has flown by! It has been difficult dealing with importing my
medications and has gotten to the point where I will be Skyping with
an American doctor in Japan who believes can locate a legal medication
for me to take for my ADD. I'm most worried about the language. I used
to be pretty good at Japanese but I haven't spoken or really studied it
since December 2009. After spending a few evenings with a friend who
went to Japan and trying to understand his Japanese I realized I don't
know common phrases that are basically slang. At Marist we were taught
the extremely polite form of Japanese which is best for adults but the
majority of Japanese people I will be interacting with will be students
and they tend to feel strange if you speak very politely to them.
Imagine someone calling you "Mrs" or "Sir" all day when you are only
18? Or how would you feel if when you asked how some one was they
replied with "I am very well thank you for asking." instead of a one
worded answer? The Japanese are very polite people and appreciate the
same level of politeness back. It is not a contest but a low bow is
expected instead of the American handshake. I believe as a foreigner it
is my job to be polite as nice and polite as I can to best represent
myself and the USA. Not to stereotype but if you have ever met any one
from Asia they are usually soft spoken and polite in order to give you
the best interpretation of themselves as they can. If you were visiting
a friends house for the first time would you immediately start being
rude and obnoxious? No, you would want to make the best impression you
can. This is very much like Japan except they take it to the max. As I
mentioned before a formal greeting of "its nice to meet you" (はじめまして。）
is accompanied with a respectful bow. As a foreigner (がいじん) I will bow
as much as I can with every greeting, thank you, and excuse me. Since I
will be living there for 5 1/2 months and possibly teach there I would
like to be as polite as I can be and give myself and Americans a good
name.
3/7/10
Hello Everyone!
Tomorrow at 12 pm my JAL flight #5 will be taking off for Tokyo, Japan. I am excited on the inside but I may seem very indifferent. I have not fully realized that I am going to Japan to live for 5 1/2 months. I came to NYC on Saturday because it is where the majority of my family lives. So I got to say goodbye to my brother, step sister, my boyfriend, and some of my favorite cousins. They're all sad to see me go but excited because they know I'll "do well." Everyone keeps telling me I am going to do really well but I'm not sure I know what they're talking about. Life? School? Flying? Hahahah it just seems very odd to me. I don't have much to say except that I'm a pretty nervous flyer so I've planned out how I'll escape the burning plane and perfected my terrorist tackling skills. Just kidding ;) Wish me luck tomorrow, and I'll see you all on the other side :) Be safe while I'm gone. And a very special MAOW! and >^.^< to "you!"
Much Love,
Jill soon to be aka Jiru <3
