The End, More or Less

As I've said in the past few posts, I'm back in the United States, which marks the end of my study abroad trip to Japan. It was fun, educational, expensive, and delicious, though if you were to ask me to put those in order, I don't think I could.

The best thing about going has to have been the people I was able to meet. I made a number of friends with whom I identified with in a surprising number of ways, and I was able to experience and relish in the rich variety of languages and accents, as well as getting to see little bits of the world from other people's points of view.

One of my goals while I was in Japan was to eat ramen. Sure, it sounds silly, but I'd only eaten instant ramen prior to coming to Japan, and I did so on a daily basis for upwards of eight years. So I wanted to eat lots of varieties of ramen. While I was able to try a number of shops' ramen - probably around 30 - I still couldn't tell you whether I like the miso-, soy-, or salt-based ramen best.

While tasty, my primary reason for coming to Japan was not to eat ramen, or gyuudon, or takoyaki, but to study Japanese, and my stay there was - of course! - invaluable to that end. I'm still very weak with kanji and my vocabulary is very small compared to a native speaker, but the difference between when I left and my current ability is no less than marked.

Writing on this blog was an experience all of its own, and I'm glad that I did. I'll be able to look back on this much like I might a journal.

For those of you that have been reading this whole time: your time and your comments are appreciated.

For who have supported me in other ways, be it in the form of money, cookies, a partner for Super Smash Brothers or DDR or that taiko game, or help defrosting my fridge because I forgot and was late to miss plane, I cannot thank you enough.you for your efforts and your friendship. I don't know how I would've survived this year without the help I received from others.

I hope that many others have the opportunity that I did, and I hope that maybe this log will help one or two of those people out at some point.

Good day and best wishes.
- William Lockwood

Crass Algument

I was pretty much just spacing out in Basic Japanese today, largely because the prof was going on about Gion matsuri. Gion matsuri is a festival to protect Kyoto from evil spirits and takes place once a year. It lasts about a week and a half.
We're required to go to it on Thursday, and there are no study-abroad classes that day.

So, I was spacing out, abusing my dictionary, and suddenly K and Y (names changed to protect those involved?) started arguing.
Y:"Why are you laughing at me?"
K:"I'm not laughing at you."
Y:"I said [his accent is nearly indecipherable when he's in a good mood, so I lost what he was saying here]"
K:"And if I want to laugh - "
Teacher: "Stop, stop."
They both ignore the teacher and keep arguing, with the teacher doing his best to stop the argument without raising his voice. Y gets upset at being interrupted, and the teacher points out that it's his classroom, and if he says to stop, they ought to stop. Anyway, the three of them go back and forth for a bit, then the teacher starts lecturing to the class about asking questions that are on-topic and not arguing with everything that anybody tries to say.
With about a half hour of class left, B and H both start packing up their stuff with. H is from Afghanistan, and people always think he's Y, so I sort of understand. B is tired to being lectured at instead of being taught Japanese. H leaves, but the teacher convinces B to come back, and promises they'll get back on track.
W has no idea what's going on, and neither does A. They both thought they were following what was going on, but it would seem they weren't.

By now, the readers are completely lost and wondering if the FBI, DHS, or the SPCA* will come save them from this alphabet soup, only to realize the irony of such a dream, and to wonder how the SPCA got involved.

*Society for the Creation of Creative Acronyms

Chikaku Ramenya?

Judo club is in about an hour, so it's once again time for ramen.
Yum.