Japan: My Obsession
I have what can mildly be termed as an obsession with all things Japanese, so once you get me started on the subject, I can go on and on. For that reason, I'll let you decide what parts of this obsession you want to learn about. Just click the topic below and it will take you to that part of this page:
This entire obsession began with one simple decision: the decision to be a Rotary exchange student to Japan. I spent the year after high school in Japan as a Rotary Exchange student. I lived in Sendai with four different Japanese families, went to Japanese school (even wore the not-so-cute little uniform), and tried my best not to stick out like the gaijin I was. And the rest, as they say, was history. (You can read what I've put up about my exchange by going to my Japan '96 - '97 page).
But what made me pick Japan? I knew I wanted to be an exchange student by the time I was 14. I had been exposed to other exchange students through my mother's Rotary club and they just seemed like the neatest bunch of people. I wanted to be one. So my parents suggested I try a short-term exchange (one month long) to see if it was something I really wanted. I spend a month of the summer I turned 16 in Ahauss, Germany. And once I got home, I was ready to get on the plane and go back. The next summer I spend another short-term exchange in England. I had fully caught the travel bug.
After going to Europe a couple of time, I knew that for my year abroad (which I wanted to do more than ever) I wanted to go some place entirely different. Germany and England are great, in fact England was by second choice for the year-long exchange. But the culture was just so, well... similar. I craved something more, well... foreign.
At about the time that I was trying to pick a country, I had a good friend who was an exchange student from Japan, Minaho Arai, nicknamed Miho. Miho, as all good exchange students do when they find out you want to go abroad, told me I should go to Japan and shared with me all the neat things there. For some reason, (I still really don't know why) I decided that she was right and that I should go to Japan.
Looking at that decision now, I must have been on crack. What was I thinking? Going to Japan? Having to take your shoes off everywhere, learning to bow, and having to somehow figure out how to tell the difference between "chopsticks" and "bridge" (both are pronounced "hashi") and "peach" and "thigh" (both are pronounced "momo"). And not only was I going to have to learn how to get by in a new culture, but how to speak (and write) a new language! Which lead me to an adventure that is still going on...top
It is obvious why I first started to learn Japanese. I had to be able to communicate in my new home. It's tough even just going to the bathroom if you can't read the signs (just take my word for that one). So I took a few classes the year before I was to go on my exchange. And then I got there and discovered that everything they taught in class had little to no actual bearing on what was really spoken in the country.
After almost a full year in Japan, I was getting along in the language pretty well. I could carry on conversations; I could ask for directions, and even more importantly, I could understand the answers! But then it was time to come back home and speak English. I was only home for a little bit before it was off to college. My first class (regrettably) was Intro to Shakespeare. I have Japanese notes in the margin of Romeo and Juliet. It was a tough time, to say the least. My second class, however, was Japanese 205 (the highest level offered by my college). It was pretty easy, but did expose me to some needed grammar instruction. After all, I spoke just like a Japanese high school student. My grammar and formal Japanese needed a little help.
To get that additional help after my Japanese class was over, I started looking for books to help me improve my Japanese. Once I moved back home to Texas, it was even more imperative that I do self-study. Not a huge call for Japanese speakers in Texas. But I refused to let my Japanese deteriorate. In fact, I had this mad idea to actually improve it.
And it was that desire that led to...top
I never meant to start collecting textbooks, but that's what happened. I do collect at a slower pass now compared to when I first started this accidental library. Unfortunately, the reason for the slowdown is just that I have bought most of the books available at Barnes & Nobles and quite a few which you can only get on-line.
I started off just by dropping by the language section of bookstores when I visited, which turned out to be quite often. I picked up a lot of books. I outgrew most of those books rather quickly. That started me looking for the more advanced (and therefore obscure) books. I ended up buying quite a few from online.
It is still progressively difficult to find Japanese language books that meet my needs. I'm in that hazy middle area of intermediate language ability. Introductory textbooks are too easy but I can't yet jump into reading Japanese books. Though, I still have a hard time saying no to books written in Japanese. Even though I'm not quite advanced enough to read regular Japanese novels, I do have a few tucked away for when I do get to that level. Until then, I practice and try to work up to the novel-reading-level by reading some bilingual comics from Kodansha, a column published in Japanese and English on the Asahi Newspaper site, and some advanced Japanese readers (which can be tough to find). I've already found a few other advanced books that I think would be helpful, but to get those, I will have to start buying from Amazon.co.jp (Amazon's Japan-based site) and foreign publisher sites, such as The Japan Times.
But my collecting doesn't stop there. I have Japanese pop CDs, MP3, some Japanese movies and TV series. Dan even ordered TVJapan through Dish Network so I could watch Japanese tv shows. For some reason, I love watching the weather. They also show these great sushi making/eating competitions which are hilarious. I've even got Dan hooked on the Japanese drama, Musashi, which is about the famous swordsman Miyamoto Mushashi. (It was shown with English subtitles so Dan (and I) could understand all of it). I even have a fair number of Japanese stuffed animals, all that I have picked up on my trips there. I have Tarepanda, Totoro, and a very cute Hello Kitty couple dressed in traditional wedding clothes which McDonald's was giving away the last time I was there.
But I do have a goal related to all of this collecting. Ultimately, I would like to be able to take the Japanese Proficiency Test at level one and pass. Right now I am probably hovering at a strong level 3, perhaps even a passing level 2. (The Japanese Proficiency Test has four ranks which start at Level Four, which is a basic understanding, up to Level One, which is pretty much as fluent as any non-native can hope to be. You must pass Level Four with 70% correct and all other levels with 60% correct). But that test is just a way to grade my Japanese. Passing Level One would mean that I would be able to fully immerse myself in Japan on those rare times I get to go back to my other home....top
It has been quite some time since my year as an exchange student, but I have been able to go back to Japan since then. Though I wasn't able to visit my city of Sendai, I went with my college to our sister school in Tokyo for 12 days. I think they let me go only so they could have a translator, but for a free trip to Japan, that's just fine by me!
But even as great as that trip was, it wasn't going "home". So for our second anniversary (timing just worked out that it would be such), Dan and I are going to Sendai for 8 days to see the Tanabata festival, Sendai's most famous festival. I am so excited I can hardly stand myself and I have a year to go! My parents have helped us out by giving us the gift of frequent flyer miles to use towards the plane tickets, so many thanks go out to them! My Travels page has more information about the trip planning.
The upcoming trip will be Dan's first visit to Japan. I am a little worried if he will like it. Japan is such an important part of me, as is he, I wouldn't know what to do if the two didn't get along. I've already warned Dan that I hope to make many more trips back...top
Last updated 3-Sep-04