悲しい、ね？ [Sad, isn't it?]
So… It’s been about six weeks since I’ve gotten back from Japan. That makes it, what… three months since I set off? Wow. I didn’t realise all that time had passed…
And WHY have I not written a new blog sooner, I hear you ask? Well, I have been writing! I’ve been keeping track: this is attempt #836, or thereabouts. So, seeing as I’m building a little momentum here, let’s keep going shall we?
Aaand… iTunes on! So! Where was I? Ah, yes – it’s been a good while since I’ve gotten back from Japan. I’ve been so busy these past few weeks that I haven’t noticed the time passing at all! Already the end of my second proper week of lectures… and around the time I should start studying for my Japanese exam in December, and applying for a Christmas job. I should really start using that diary…
Back in Suwa, time played tricks on you too. Individual days would drag on – for want of a less negative metaphor – but all of a sudden it would be Friday and you’d be another week closer to going home. Truth be told, I didn’t miss home that much. I know that sounds terrible (love you mam and dad!), but my host families treated me like I was one of their own! Well, to be more exact I fell into the gap between child and family friend – they looked out for me, involved me in everything they did, but were also more… free with me, in some ways, than they were their real children. It was an arrangement that suited all of us pretty well, so we ran with it!
I do, however, miss my host families a lot (wow, digging a DEEP hole for myself here… I might “forget” to mention this blog to my parents)… I have never met kinder people than I did in Japan. That’s not to say that all Japanese are wonderful (in much the same way that not ALL Irish are alcoholics), but come on – my host NEIGHBOURS brought me to Tokyo. I don’t even know the name of all my neighbours’ children! (In my defence, they are all MUCH younger than I am).
*cough*
Anyway. Yeah… they left a pretty big impression on me! I feel sad – like, in my gut, as opposed to the sadness you get when, say, the cashier tells you they just ran out of crates of Bulmers – whenever I think about them! Great, now I feel hungry AND sad! But I have a tutorial in 45 minutes, so lunch will have to wait. That’s the kind of commitment I’m giving this thing!
Speaking of food, I would KILL for some tempura… That is quite an angry looking KILL (mental note: adjust font), but the Japanese restaurants here just aren’t the same as obaa-san’s home cooking! That, and my student budget doesn’t QUITE stretch to a decent meal in an actual restaurant. Though I did notice kaiten-zushi here! Kaiten-zushi is a kind of sushi restaurant where all the food is served on plates that sit on conveyor belts running all around the room. Sounds bizarre – and it IS – but it’s cheap (at least in Japan), and the variety of food is fantastic! You must perfect the art of holding a conversation while keeping one eye trained on the conveyor belt beside your table, so you can grab that piece of squid you’ve been dying to try but keep missing – you have to be quick to grab the tasty dishes at kaiten-zushi!
As you may have noticed above, I’ve decided to keep studying Japanese back here. I’m going for the JLPT (Wikipedia it) level N4 in December. Seeing as I’d go back to Japan in the morning if I could (college be damned!), I really want to improve my Japanese before I got back. I do believe that the best way to learn a language is to be immersed in it (“learn or starve”, to put it another way), but seeing as I haven’t found Dublin’s Tokyotown yet, I’ll have to settle for actually studying for an exam. It would probably be a good idea to learn some grammar to go with my new vocabulary, it may eliminate SOME of the weird looks I kept getting from people. Or I could just play the “I’m an ignorant foreigner, aren’t I adorable?” card and just keep talking anyway! That’s what my host families did: assaulted me with full-on Japanese, confident that some of it would probably sink in after a while. That’s where you learn to laugh, nod, and gesture animatedly (okay, maybe the last one was just me) at the appropriate times, and bingo! Instant conversational fluency!
In a display of classic Árann behaviour that any of my friends would appreciate, I have, in fact, been typing and typing and typing to prolong this blog – because I don’t want to say goodbye! Once I hit “Save”, it’s officially over. My trip to Japan is done. おわり。
For good.
:-(
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Advice Please!
Hello There!!
I really enjoyed your blog (especially the losing your passport bit,i think i may be your long lost sister ).
Anyway,I've been lucky enough to be shortlisted for this years award and was wondering if you had any tips/advice for the interview please.(What I need to focus researching on, what they're looking for etc.)
Also,what do you think gave you the edge over all the other compeditors??
Would really appreciate your help and hope to hear from you soon!
Best of luck in your studies!
Máirín-Rua
Thanks for reading! :-)
Always glad to hear when someone reads this and gets something out of it!
I, too, stalked the blog of the previous winner before I applied, so I know exactly how you're feeling. Not to call you a stalker - all in the name of research, right? ;-)
Anyway, about your questions:
1) The language barrier wasn't near as bad as I'd feared. Of course, I was lucky in that I had studied Japanese for the LC and did a fair bit of extra study before I went over, but even if you have no language experience you can still have a great time. Plenty of award winners have gone on this trip without a word of Japanese and they all got on just fine! The EIL support staff are great, you can contact them at any time and they speak fluent English. In my first host family, my elder host sister was studying English in high school, and my host mothers in my second and third host families studied English in their spare time, so we were always able to communicate. If in doubt: MIME. It gets you a lot farther than you'd think!
2) I can't say I wasn't nervous before I got there... I hadn't had a chance to reply to my host family before I got on the plane, so I was essentially going to be arriving with a bunch of strangers and going, "Hey... I'm the resident foreigner for the next few weeks!" But then I met everyone and any anxiety I had vanished. The people there are so wonderful and kind and friendly and accommodating! The Japanese are conscious of how different everything is over there, so they all helped make the transition as easy as possible for me. Within a few days you'll be wondering what all the worry was about! It was kind of surreal: the second I walked into the house for the first time they sat me down and gave me a cup of tea. Some things aren't so different after all!
3) Personally, being an independent (i.e. restless) individual, I was fine with travelling by myself. I saw it as a big adventure! But you're never actually alone, not really. When they say host FAMILY, they mean it: you become a part of their daily routine, one of their own kids! The only time I was by myself was the commute to and from school if my friends/host sister were busy, and when I crashed out in my room from exhaustion/humidity after school. Besides, they worry about you so much that they constantly keep tabs on you - in a nice, concerned way of course! As long as you're willing to make the effort, so will everyone else, so there's no chance you'll be lonely.
I haven't heard anything from EIL regarding the trip, but I've been onto my host families in Suwa and everything is pretty fine their end. There was a magnitude 3 - 4 quake the last day, but that was pretty much it: Suwa is pretty far away from where the tsunami struck (near Sendai). I'd say to apply anyway (it can't hurt), and to contact EIL if you have any worries. I'm sure they'll update the site if the award has to be postponed or cancelled.
Feel free to keep asking questions, it's what I'm here for! ^__^
Árann
[Whoah... I need to learn when to stop rambling on...]
Just wondering....
Hey Arann, just finished reading your blog, and I laughed along with you!
I'd like to apply for the travel award, but I was wondering if maybe you could answer some of my questions?
-Did the whole language barrier thing get in the way?
-What were you dreading going over?
-Was it scary in a foreign country all by yourself?
Sorry, I just wanted to know from a previous winner, because I keep asking myself like what happens if the flight get cancelled, or if the trip gets cancelled because of the tsunami and everything!
Arigatou gozaimasu!
Aoife