Here's a few things that have happened lately though:
- Took the Japanese driver's test because my international license expires in August. Passed the written part, failed the driving part because supposedly I was driving too slow. It's a strict test on an empty course and you have to do exactly what they want. I was crushed. Not used to failing things. Was pissed at Japanese procedures and impracticality for a while, especially because of how much a bitch it was to do all the paperwork and all the stupid questions I had to answer (for example, "How many questions were on the written test you took in America and how many questions did you have to answer correctly to pass?" I took the test 7 years ago, how the hell am I supposed to remember something like that???).
- Over-prepared for a typhoon that didn't even really get that close to Kumamoto. It was just ugly and cloudy and a little windy all day. So much for all the food I stocked up and the DVDs that were rented.
- Re-took the driver's test the day before yesterday and passed! Having my friend Don there is probably why I passed the test. He walked me through the course during lunch pointing out everything I needed to do. There's this weird scooter blocking movement that needs to be done on every turn that I didn't know about. It was his third time taking the test, my second. We both passed. THOROUGHLY RELIEVED. I don't know if I could have handled failing it again. It's a pain in the ass of a process. Everytime you go you pretty much have to take a whole day to do it. But now I am officially licensed to drive in Japan, despite the fact that the course bears little resemblance to driving in real life, and the fact that the maneuvers and manners they expect you to have down pat for the test no one actually does on the road. Sort of ridiculous, but I played the game and now it's done!
- Host family got a new puppy, a 3 month old Border Collie named Sora. Adorable, energetic bundle of fur! Tsubasa, the 14 year old Yorkshire Terrier is confused and terrified by the new arrival.
- Went to the Ogawa Matsuri (Festival) and ate a lot of festival food like yakitori (meat on a stick), ikayaki (squid on a stick), shaved ice, taiyaki (pancakes shaped like fish and filled with custard or beans), etc. The little downtown area of Ogawa was closed off for the event and everyone just walked around eating, playing games, drinking beer. My junior high school kids got dressed up in yukata (the summer kimono) or jimbei (a shorts and shirt set made of light printed material) and basically bombarded me and my other foreigner friends when we arrived, asking lots of questions and flipping out in general. It was chaotic fun. Matsuri are awesome, I love them. When I'm at one there's just such an aura of Japanese-ness, if that makes sense, from the glow of the lights coming from the food stalls to the organized pandemonium of people running around but still respectful and tame (hard to explain), kids trying to catch goldfish, all kinds of adorable trinkets to win, little adorable Japanese kids yelling for their moms. Afterwards we met up with my host family and drank some beer at the makeshift beerhall at the Matsuri and talked to whoever was there, mostly older men and women.
Some of my girls in yukata/normal clothes. They look so different not in their uniforms!
Mari with the ikayaki she'd been craving all night.
Me with some of the (sweeter) boys from Ogawa Chugakko.
Other than all this, work has just been insanely busy. The Board of Education came to evaluate the school yesterday and I had to prepare for lessons and go over them with the teachers I was teaching with until they were perfect, they take these evalutations very seriously even though we only got watched for 5 minutes out of the 50 minute lesson. I stayed at school till 8:30 one night to finish decorating a board that was blank that the teachers wanted something put up just for the evaluation visit. It's good, I like being this busy, I feel useful.
This weekend is full of goodbye parties and me probably starting to have to pack. I'm really content with life right now and still completely love Japan. I'm excited and nervous about going home. I think it will be a good vacation and I'm excited to see people, eat food, and go to Santa Cruz. But I'm even more excited about having another year here. I feel like I've changed so much and there's just so many things to explore, so much more Japanese to learn, many more delicious bento and sweets to be consumed.
Sorry for the hasty update devoid of the usual plethora of pictures. I have a lot of good ones but no time right now. Maybe see you in the States!
No comments:
Post a Comment