Last Full Day

I can't believe the semester is almost over.
I'm so sad about it... I had the most amazing classes this semester with the best teachers and I learned so much... Both about Japan and myself. I'm also really sad to be leaving my friends behind. Though some people will be returning next semester, the majority of my friends will be going home. And a lot of them aren't American, so I'm not even sure if/when I will ever see them again. It's all very depressing.

But I also feel like it's time for me to go home for a while.

Xmas Party

Tonight was the Christmas Party at Seminar House 4! Unfortunately, I left my camera at home...it was charging and I completely forgot about it. Since I was a guest, the dorm policy was that I couldn't actually go into the kitchen/dining room area to eat (which was incredibly lame), but that didn't stop friends from stealing food for me. The theme was, of course, international food, since we have students from all over the world living in Sem4. I ended up having okonomiyaki, Thai spring rolls, and risotto for dinner. I suspect that there were other delicious tidbits available, but since I couldn't actually check it out myself... Sem4's Otousan and Okaasan were particularly vigilant.

I came home to discover that one of my Host Family's old exchange students, Michelle, had come to visit. She's in her mid-20's, I think, and is in the process of traveling around Japan to visit her friends. We had a long talk about studying Japanese and dealing with graduation. Michelle, like me, was unsure of what she wanted to do after college, so she became a teacher with the JET program. She taught English to high-schoolers in Japan's least-populated prefecture, about 4 hours west of Osaka.
I've always been on the fence about JET, since I've heard that volunteers have little-to-no say about their placement and work schedule. Talking to Michelle, however, made me feel like maybe this is something that I really want to do.

Finally

DONE WITH EXAMS. YES.

After a good week and a half of feeling constantly pressed for time and forcing myself to be anti-social, my seven finals are over with. Yes, seven finals. For four classes. Go figure. The work load has been pretty manageable all year, so this must be our professors' last hurrah or something.

Things were really getting down to the wire last night, when I had to type up a 7-10 page paper/final project. I didn't mean to leave it until the last moment (I figured that written tests took precedent), but I felt safe-ish, since I already had a solid four pages written. Because of some last-minute formatting issues in the campus computer lab, I ended up handing it in about 10 minutes late. But that did not dull the triumph of being done.

Exam Count

Speaking Japanese: Oral interview (12/11), Written Final (12/16)
Reading&Writing Japanese: Oral interview (12/11), Composition (12/12), Written Final (12/15)
Popular Culture as Social Practice: 5-6 page paper (12/17)
Issues in Contemporary Japan: 7-10 page research paper/final project (12/17)

oh no

This post is dedicated to my dad:

I just thought he would like this car.

A Note on Fluency

No matter how hard I practice, I seem to have a mental block about numbers. My brain can translate simple sentences into Japanese pretty easily, but if someone asks me about time or price, it takes me a lot longer to translate.
If my Okaasan asks me what time I went to bed last night, I always stare at my watch before I realize the answer isn't there. And then I stumble around for a bit before I manage to spit out 十一時 (11:00) or 十二時 (12:00).
Maybe it has something to do with right brain / left brain. But this really shouldn't be as difficult as it is.

Nara is my new favorite place

I spent the night at my parents' tiny hotel room last night so that we could get up early this morning to head to Nara! Nara is famous for it's shrines and temples, which are located in its massive Deer Park. I'm going to shamelessly copy and paste from Wikipedia again:

Tame deer roam through the town, and especially in Nara Park. These deer might be considered "tame" if the visitor does not have any "shika sembei - Deer Biscuits" when they see them.

According to the legendary history of Kasuga Shrine, a mythological god Takemikazuchi arrived in Nara on a white deer to guard the newly built capital of Heijō-kyō. Since then the deer were regarded as heavenly animals to protect the city and the country. Snack vendors sell small biscuits to visitors so they can enjoy feeding the deer. Some of the deer have learned to bow in response to tourists' bows. They nudge, jostle, and even bite for food.

I hung out with Santa while we waited for our express train from Kyoto to Nara.

As we made our way through the park, we came across several vendors. They were selling the flat, thin biscuits in packs that tourists can feed to the deer. Not wanting to miss out on being harassed by ungulates, the three of us bought shika sembei.

The second you buy those biscuits...the deer know.

As you can see, deer are everywhere.

Fawn!

^ Here's a video of my mom and a deer bowing to each other. She really got a kick out of that.

After wandering around a feeding deer, we went to go see the Daibutsu. It's a giant bronze buddha...the hand is as large as six tatami mats (that's the size of my room)! Totally awe-inspiring. If I was religious...seeing something like this would really make me believe, you know?

Wafting incense around you wards off illness.

In the back of the building, there's a giant column with a hole in the bottom. Legend has it that if you can fit through the hole, you can become wise. This is a little cruel, since only children, flexible, and/or skinny people can make it through.

Victory.