So, it's been eventful and I have failed to write about it, so things are stacked up!
I went to a fall fire festival in Kyoto, and it was a great experience. The most I can say about this festival was that it's a fall harvest thing, there were lots of people in traditional dress carrying around huge torches that were on fire, the town it was in was really old and traditional-looking, it was ridiculously crowded, and I forgot my camera to document the coolness of all the fires. So, no pictures, sorry.
In other news, on halloween me and some friends went to shinsaibashi to go to a club where you could get in for free with a costume. Long story short, the line was huge, we were with an underaged person so couldn't get in (after waiting in line for 1.5 hours), and I lost my wallet. Yippee!
My Japanese friend Yuki immediately called the police but nobody had turned it in. The next day we went to the police in Hirakata and filed a report, but my wallet has yet to be returned by good Japanese Samaritans. Needless to say, I've stopped hoping. Yuki also helped me replace a debit card I lost (I only kept one in my wallet, my momma taught me never to keep all my means of cash together and boy was she right!), and get a new train pass. So the moral of this story is: be careful, don't keep all your important things in one wallet or one purse (like, say, all your Ids, cash, train pass, important pictures) and if something happens, hopefully you have a patient Japanese friend you can trust to help you sort everything out. I still haven't replaced my alien registration card or my school ID. I will have to carry around my passport from now on.
All in all, I'd estimate that Halloween stunt from which I had zero amount of fun has cost me about $200. So I'm not doing anything special for a loooong while. Yeah, I have terrible luck. I have never lost that wallet in the past 4 years that I've had it, but of course I lose it in Japan.
Moving on...I finally discovered where my host mother works, and why she can return home so quickly at basically any time. So the other day I returned home from school early, and upon texting my mother if anyone was home, she told me to go to obaasan's house to get the spare key. Now, obaasan lives about a block away, maybe (it's hard to tell with the way streets are in these neighborhoods), and I only saw their place one time during my first week here. So, the last time I tried going to obaasan's, I went to the wrong house and confusion and embarrassment ensued. I sucked it up and tried again, and luckily this time I did not ring the wrong doorbell.
So the grandmother invited me in, and what's this?! In a room of the house, there's my okaasan and 2 little boys practicing their calligraphy. Apparently, she teaches a small group at a time in my obaasan's house! Alert the Scooby gang, this MYSTERY IS SOLVED! Though, I wonder if she hadn't told me that this is where she teaches and I just didn't understand. Actually, I'm 99% certain that's what happened.
So I stood there awkwardly and asked what kanji they were drawing, and what the ink was, and it looked fun so I wanted to try, but I figured it might not be appropriate so I didn't ask. And then my obaasan invited me in for matcha (green tea) and manju ( a sweet pastry sort of thing), and we chatted...sort of. It was more of her talking and me stuttering nonsensical answers back.
I will say though, I seem to be able to get the gist of what people are saying more easily now. Most of the time they talk waaaay too fast so by the time I've finished processing what the first sentence meant (structure, grammar points, vocab), they are already done with everything they were saying. But sometimes I just go with my gut instinct of what I THINK they said and do my best to answer. I can tell when I've got it completely wrong because of the way they just nod and smile, it's exactly what I do when Japanese people's English makes no sense.
Answering seems to be way more difficult than listening, of course. Because then I have to stop and think laboriously (vocab I want to use, sentence structure, correct grammar, polite speech...oh crap I can't say this sentence, try something else- okay sentence structure, etc) and so I'm rather slow. And for some reason when I'm trying to speak, I completely bastardize the Japanese language and my skill level drops dramatically.
Apparently, if I go by the essays I can write in class, I should be able to speak conversationally with these people with decently complex structures (for 3rd level okay). But what comes out are awkward simple sentences and no fluidity at all. So maybe I should start carrying around a notebook and write everything I want to say and just point to it during a conversation.
I wish there was a way to record myself talking and compare where I was when I got here to where I'm at now, and where I will be months from now. I feel like there is no difference, but I know that's just my pessimism talking. I've learned a buttload in the past 2 months and sometimes I find myself reading signs and thinking 'wow, a month ago I wouldn't have understood any of this kanji' and I feel a little surge of encouragement.
Speaking wise...I still feel like I haven't gotten much better, but when I really think about it, I am taking the simple things for granted. You don't become perapera (fluent) over night! I suppose I could record myself talking, but it's not the same as how I would be naturally so it's kinda pointless. I am thinking of introducing some phrases I use all the time in my next videos for the interested folks.
To wrap up this blog, me and Yuki went up a mountain and watched the sun set over Hirakata city (Sort of, cause the sun set on the side where a bunch of trees were blocking it >_<). It was so we quite cold that day so we didn't say long after the sun went down, but here are some pictures from the excursion.
That's it for now!
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