My Thesis to You

I have a game on my computer called Stepmania. It is a computer simulation of the popular Japanese dance game, Dance Dance Revolution. Every now and then, I will run across a difficult song that will prove very challenging to pass. Despite the song's difficulty, I am able to survive, however, toward the end of this song, there is a part that is almost impossible to pass that makes me fail the song. I have named such an instance as a f--- you move.

Perhaps it has crossed your interest as to why I am describing such things to you in my rather late blog about my recent experiences in Japan. To clear things up, the past several days have been a splitting example of the f--- you move in that I have been so unbelievably swamped with school work that I had absolutely no interest to sit down and catch up with several days worth of blogging. Because I now have almost two weeks worth of story to tell, I have named this particular blog a thesis.



Sunday, April 8 - Flowers Galore
For centuries, it has been a Japanese tradition to view the majestic sakura/cherry blossom tree blooming. This practice, named Hanami (flower seeing), had been the hot topic around campus for a few weeks. The sakura had an apparent short lifespan, and I had yet to see them. I started to worry that I might not get to see these flowers since I have difficulties traveling to new places by myself and could not find anyone to go with me. Then suddenly, it was Kazuki to the rescue! My dear friend and I traveled to Zoheikyouku in Osaka; the Japanese version of the US Mint. Our journey led us to a jam-packed park in the area where many others had come to view the flowers. As we walked, I was able to witness both the majestic flowers, that were quite plentiful, and the masses of Japanese folk who were partaking in their time-old tradition of flower viewing. As we left the park, we progressed into the heart of Zoheikyouku where we joined the multi-lane line of people wandering through the aisle of sakura trees. As if in Atlanta traffic on foot, we progressed through the area, snapping pictures as we crept. At one point, Kazuki asked if I knew how to change pictures on the computer, so I later took one of the pictures from our trip and made it look like he burned down a house. I quite honestly have no idea what we did after seeing the flowers, as that was literally two weeks ago. But feel free to view the pictures under the hanami tag.

Wednesday, April 11 - Hito ga ooi
Today was the first day of school. Of course, I refer to the Japanese students, as I have been in school for a long time already. 12:00 lunch time went from very busy to unbearable. During my waiting period between classes, I noticed a group of three Japanese girls peering into the lounge. It was obvious that they thought they were not allowed to enter, so I beckoned them inside to permit them entrance. The girls asked if it was okay for them to enter and then began the typical process of practicing English with a foreigner. These girls, Yuka, Miki, and Kayoko, made similar comments to what Ai and Hiromi said about me in terms of being handsome. I think this perception is mainly due to me not being Japanese, as some Japanese girls prefer foreign looks. We talked for a short while before they all scampered out, having to go somewhere.

I also saw my friends from before the semester ended, Koichiro and Mariko. I had met Mariko only once, and when I remembered her name, she was taken aback. After we talked for awhile, their friend, Kanae, came to join the party. However, Koichiro and Mariko had to take their leave for class and so I just talked with Kanae as did Albert, who eventually joined in as well.

Outside, there were many clubs advertising themselves for the new students. Some clubs were performing their various arts, while others just sat at tables patiently. The campus had certainly come to life. I also noticed that the school facilities remained open much later than before, which I was somewhat upset about since it was unfair to the foriegn students before.

Thursday, April 12 - The End of Freedom
The main reason my blog is two weeks behind is because of the giant presentation we had in Human Resource Management that I volunteered to do the powerpoint for while the other members simply had to make their speaking parts. As a great summation of the next week's worth of work on the presentation, I had to continuously make ammendments to the project up until the day of the presentation which was a week from this entry.

In addition to the project, I had also volunteered to speak at an intercultural exchange event on Saturday, which I had a feeling would make life difficult for me. I decided that it was best to fully concentrate on completing the presentation for that so I won't have to worry about it later. I decided to do my topic on International Food in America.

Friday, April 13 - Lunch Meet
Lunch time had become atrocious. There were never any seats for to sit at since there were so many students. Of course, being an exotic foreigner, I was able to easily find an open seat and gain permission to use it. As if by divine will, the people at the table would eventually start a conversation with me. That is how I met Shiori, Ayako, Mariko, Nanako, and Saki. Shiori was apparently preparing for a job interview as most third year students go for in preparation for graduation. She had to leave before everyone else, but we all did the 'great exchange' of phone information before she left. Ayako was the flamenco club with one of my friends, Yuko. I showed everyone the picture of Kazuki burning down a house and was able to convince them that he acutally did it before telling them that I made the picture myself. I also showed Saki Saki's picture, and she said that she might have seen her before. We all continued to chat until they had to go.

After lunch, I went to work on my project in the lounge. While working, Yuka, Miki, and Kayoko came for a visit. I decided that Kayoko was the single most cutest girl in Japan, as I have to work to not daze off while looking at her. I spent their visit showing them my project thus far and then several pictures from home. Soon after, they again had to go.

Saturday, April 14 - International Exchange
I made my way to school early so I could eat lunch before presenting. From there, I went to the event's room where I discovered myself to be first: first in arriving, and first in presenting. My presentation worked as it should and all was set and ready. The room seemed to be rather scarce as it neared starting time, but at the last minute, there became standing room only, which soon after also dissipated.

I didn't expect my speech to be anything special, but it really didn't matter since I was first and there was nothing to compare it to. Everyone else primarily presented about their cultures which was both interesting and boring at times. The main event, as I had anticipated, was Nabil doing a traditional dance from Dubai. For pictures, please refer to the nabildance tag. I also have a video with no place to put it. After the presentations, we had chat time where I met two more girls who I have pretty much forgotten since I saw them only once. Later, I went with Kazuki for karaoke.

Sunday, April 15 - All Work and Some Play
I worked on my project all Sunday until Nabil came by that evening and we all went to Round One. I needed the break, but I felt that it would not be enough.

Monday, April 16 - Death
As I expected, I was completely burned out on Monday from having so much work to do. Apart from the project, most of my classes kept throwing homework at me and I wasn't too interested to hear it. After dragging through my classes with an alcohol-less hangover, I went to the computer lab with Yu (group member) to discuss what he wanted added to the powerpoint. I ran into Shiori in the lab and after I finished talking with Yu, I went to dinner with Shiori who was looking for something to do that evening. We talked about how she wanted to become a flight attendant and how her interviews were going. After talking in the restaurant for about two hours, we walked to the station in search for something to do. We went into a store where she looked at some magazines for awhile. Soon after, she discovered that she had to go since the buses in Kyoto stop early. My evening adventure helped me feel a little better, but I was still mostly dead and I still had all the work I had to do.

Tuesday, April 17 - And Her Name Was Milk
Lunch presented the same problem as usual with no seats readily available, and so I scouted out a cute girl with an open seat and asked if I could sit. I allowed the automated process of being talked to to take place. Sure enough, one of the girls at the table began a conversation. This girl's name was Miruku, which is the Japanese pronunciation of milk. She was with her friend, Yuki, and they were sitting at the table with another girl, Miho, who they did not know. I could tell that Miho was in a higher grade than Miruku and Yuki since her English homework was much more advanced than the English that Miruku and Yuki were using. In fact, as Miruku struggled to communicate with me, Miho would occasionally chuckle since I would look at her, knowing she knew what they wanted to say.

Most of the conversation came from Miruku, who seemed to have a much more assertive personality than any other Japanese girl I had came across. Yuki and Miho seemed to remain as simple spectators for the entire time. I eventually told Miruku that she was very animated (with the help of my dictionary) because she would constantly move while talking. She was very entertaining. All of us also participated in the 'great exchange' of phone information before parting ways.

Later that evening, I saw Miruku in the CIE as I was thinking about heading home. We went into the lounge where we joined some of her friends, a different Yuki, Masato, and one who's name I did not catch. We continued to talk for awhile until Yusuke pulled me away to ask me about the project. After I helped him figure out what to do, I returned to the girls to talk with them until they had to go.

Wednesday, April 18 - More Names
In the lounge, I found Mariko and her friend Yoshie, who I had met briefly before. Mariko soon had to go to class, and she was replaced by Yuko, my classmate. I worked on my project while occasionally talking to Yoshie and Yuko. Both of them had an impending class and so they had to go eventually. Soon after their exit, however, I was joined by a new group of girls. I can remember only two of their names, which were Hisaka and Risa. Albert had also joined the party soon after their arrival. I spent my time showing them various pictures on my laptop since my ability to work on my project was once again interrupted. We all talked until I had to go to class. After I went back to the dorm, Miruku sent me a message asking where I was. I told her I was very busy up until Friday, so we set up an appointment to meet for lunch on Friday.

Thursday, April 19 - The SuperNova
At long last, the day had finally arrived. All I could think about all day was getting rid of my presentation. The day inched by like a legless dead mule on a conveyer belt going the opposite direction. Finally, the time came for us to give our presentation. As opposed to my usual speeches, I was extremely unprepaired for this one since all of my time was spent on making the powerpoint. I was fortunate to have typed out a speech for me to read to the class, although I had no time to practice it. My part was substantially shorter than everyone else's though, so it wasn't so bad for the presentation. I was surprised that we actually spent the entire class presenting, as I thought we would come up 30 minutes short.

After the presentation, I went to meet Einar so he could take my laptop home for me. I was on my way to Kyoto. I was going to meet my friend Aya, who I met from the website I became a member of a while ago. Aya has a dream to become a singer, so we were planning to go to karaoke so I could see what she was all about. Once we met, I could tell that she had a voice just by how she talked. She had been studying English for only a year via private lessons. It seemed that they had spent a large amount of time perfecting her pronunciation, as she had very clear speech. What they hadn't spent a lot of time on was vocabulary, so we had some difficulties communicating at times.

For some odd reason, we ended up driving aroud Kyoto for two hours looking for a place to eat. Once we finally found a place and ate, we went to karaoke for an hour. She had me start out before taking her turn. As I later had to get a friend to help me translate for her, listening to her sing was like listening to a CD. With the exception of a few 'l' sounds and 'th' sounds, I could swear that I was listening to an American pop star singing on a professionally made CD. She said that she would sound bad since she had a bit of a cold, but I couldn't hear it.

After karaoke, we both had to go back home since it was getting late. When I finally got home, it had been 13 hours since I left that morning.

I'll type the rest later! I have to go to class now!