It's deffinately been a while... too long

Wrote this out earlier, but never published it cause i didn't finish it. 
Reasons why I have not gotten around to updating sooner include the following: kansai trip, followed by a debate about politics, next was happyoukai.

KANSAI TRIP
In as little words possible: awesome! Fun! I'd do it again some time in the future!
We hit the following cities: Hiroshima, Kyoto, Nara, and Osaka. well, Tokyo of course too, but that was mainly just to transfer onto the bullet train. Hiroshima and Osaka style Okonomiyaki are indeed quite different in experience, taste, and creation of. Hiroshima has soba/noodle stuff in it and every thing else the Osaka one has. Osaka's contents are mixed, and hiroshima's is stacked. Both are delicious, but i perfer Osaka. Genbaku museum/memorial park. I finally got to go see the monument dedicated to Sadako and all the other children who suffered from the effects of radiation years after the a-bomb was dropped. It also serves at a monument of world peace, in addition to every thing else in the park, existing to make sure everyone remembers what happened.

発表会のスピーチ

 Every year, students on the JSP program have a presentation day: Happyoukai. Despite the english word Happy in it, it's a stressful time. But as it turns out Happyoukai has a japanese meaning of giving a presentation. ha ha, so go figure. Well, it's in Japanese because I heard that my Japanese teacher from high school was shown my blog, so she'll understand it. and it will be a break from all the english here for her. But whether you're presenting or not, there is a sort of happy air to the actual presentation at Happyoukai. Like you stress out about it and all, but once the show gets goin, it's just all around better if you do your best to have a good time and let your hard work shine through. I mean you put in all that hard work to preparing for your part, and then it's show time. Might as well let your light shine as brightly as you can right? It makes for a better presentation too don't you think? an obviously stressed out to no end speaker vs. a speaker who emits confidence in what is being spoken about. Both give it their best shot of course, but it might just be me personally...i prefer the later.

こんにちは私の名前はジャネル東田です。ハワイから来ました．そうそふと

そうそぼたちは日本のくまもとけんからハワイに行きました．つまり私は日系人で

す．今ウィラメット大学の三年生です．高校までハワイに住んでいましたからアメ

リカ人だけどオレゴンのウィラメット大学でカルチャーショックをうけました．

ハワイにはハワイでしか使わない英語があるらしいです．例えばアメリカの

呼び方が違います．ハワイの州は島ですね．ほかの４８の州は遠いところにありま

す．だからハワイに住んでいる人はそこをメインランドとよんでいます．４９番目

の州のアラスカはちょっとはなれていますからアラスカを入れるかどうかは人によ

って違います。オレゴンに住んでいる友達と話すとき、メインランドという言葉を

使いました．そのときその友達はええ？メインランド？分かんないと言いました．

私はびっくりしましたけどなるほど、ああ、そうかメインランドというのはハワイ

の言葉だから分かりづらいんだなあと思いました．入学してオレゴンに住んでいる

友達と話すようになってからは全然きをつけていませんでした．ハワイの言葉を使

いました．

ハワイでプールはいつも外にあります．大学を選んでいる時、ウィラメット

大学のしつがいプールを見て、別に何も思いませんでした．プールはプールですか

ら外にあるか建物の中にあるかは大事じゃありません。あるとき、私たちウィラメ

ットの水泳のチームはカリフォルニアへ二日間のし合いに行きました ．カリフォル

ニアにつくと、みんなはひやけをしましょうと言いました．もし日陰にいなかった

ら、ドンドンエネルギーがなくなってしまいます．ほかのチームの人たちは全部た

いようから隠れていました．そして、何で泳ぐことより日焼けの方が大事なのかと

考えました．オレゴンに戻ったある日私のはだが白っぽくなっているのに気がつき

ました．そしてチームメートたちが日焼けをすることにドキドキする気持ちがち

ょっと分かってきました．オレゴンの天気はたいていずっと曇りなので、日焼けは

しにくいです．オレゴンに帰る前に友達といつもはだの色をくらべて、写真を撮り

ました．

ウィラメット大学でステレオタイプのことをわだいにしたら、それはだめだ

と考える人が多いです．ハワイにはたくさんのいろいろなステレオタイプがありま

す。例えば、韓国人は辛い食べ物をよく食べるとか、アメリカ人はちょっとかって

だとか、中国人はいつもねぎるとか、フィリピン人は時々黒犬を食べるとか、いつ

も勉強しかしないいわゆる、ガリ勉を日本人みたいとか言うものです。ハワイで有

名な漫才にも使われるし普通の人も使います．たくさんじょうだんがあります．ハ

ワイでは面白くて楽しいと思われていますけどウィラメット大学で言わない方がい

いです．本当に失礼なことだと思われます．もしそんなじょうだんを言ったら、は

なれてしまう友達もいます．私はその経験があります．

それから、どうしてメインランドとハワイの人でじょうだんと失礼のきょう
かいがとても違うのかなと思いました．一つしか理由を考えられませんでした．ア
ロハはけっこう有名な言葉ですから、知っているかたも多いでしょう．アロハはこ
んにちはの時もさようならの時も使えます．この言葉はあいじょうやしたしみがか
んじられるものです。使う時、この言葉は愛をこめていうものです．ハワイの人は
小さいころからこのフレイズを聞いてそだちます。育つにつれてアロハスピリット
の意味が深くかんじられるようになります。アロハスピリットの気持ちと意味はだ
んだん分かってきます．私にとってこのフレイズの意味するアロハスピリットとは
みんなと一緒にいっしょうけんめいえんかつにじんせいをおくる、とかいい人にな
って、だれにでもしんせつにやさしくしてつだってあげるとか、ほかの人からされ
たくないことをしないで、悪いことを言わない方がいいということです．だからほ
かの人がへんけんだと思うようなじょうだんでも、へんけんのようなネガティブな
気持ちがありません．ハワイの人にとっても、人によってアロハスピリットの説明
の仕方が違いますけれども、気持ちは同じです．メインランドには同じ意味のフレ
イズがありません．ハワイでみんなはアロハスピリットの気持ちといっしょにある
からいっぱいいろいろなじょうだんが出来るのだと思います．
アロハという言葉は有名だけどハワイに住んでいる人によってはもっとふか
い重い意味があります．そういうことをわかってもらえたらうれしいです。ありが
とうございました．

While abroad -Maintaining a blog assignment - part 3 of 3

So I read through the directions, and given that it is past 2am here, I will not write an entirely new entry right now. Instead any of my previous entries should be fine if i read the directions properly. goodnight.

While abroad -Maintaining a blog assignment - part 2 of 3

5. Describe the perceptions of the U.S. in your host country. Are there a range of perceptions or are they general? Are they what you expected? Do host-naitonals ask you about the U.S.? What do they ask? 

hmm, I think in a conscice fashion, perceptions of the U.S. in Japan is like how people in Hawaii view japan. A lot of people in Hawaii want to go to Japan, think that the true japanese citizen looks obviously different from a local American-Japanese person who was born and raised in Hawaii. There are probably a range of perceptions out there throughout Japan, however, after getting my hair cut, I get a more of the surprised, not so interested, confused reaction from Japanese people. I think the perfect example of this was when we recently went to an elementary school to play with the fifth graders during P.E. All the study abroad students were divided up and assigned to a group of three fifth graders. when my group saw what I looked like they didn't seem to be too thrilled in comparrisson, and even more disbelieving when I started trying to talk to them in Japanese. One of the two boys actually wandered over to another group, where the study abroad student could not in any way be mistaken for a japanese or chinese person and could barely speak japanese. The other two kids in my group had to periodically tell him to come back and that he was being rude. this wasn't the first time i felt like it may have been a bad desicion to get my hair cut.


However, the trump for this was, it was because i did not look stereotypically American that my host family wanted me. The fact that I looked a little like one of them in my passport photo (pre hair cut) helped to ease their worries about hosting for the first time and the receptiveness of the grandparents to foreigners in general from what they told me. 


Thus far, my host family has asked me any thing. These questions range from what the weather is like, culture-shock experiences going from hawaii to Oregon and Hawaii to Japan, and any other combinaiton of japan, oregon, and Hawaii; the weather; to the everyday question my host mom asks: what did you have for lunch?

While abroad -Maintaining a blog assignment - part 1 of 3

I do not think i did this assignment right.... so here goes the revisions.

1. What did you assume before you left that you are not finding in your host-country, host-culture and/or host family and friends? Discuss why you think you made those Assumptions?

Alright, where to start. .. what I assumed to find while abroad. I assumed to find a good time. A good portion of my summer had been filled with drama and an emotional roller coaster ride, that just really ended with me being so glad i was not returning to the Willamette campus, where I now have people who backstabed me over the summer, and had considered wonderful friends before. Studying abroad in Japan had been a dream of mine since high school, when I first went with my high school on a sight seeing trip. Thus going to Japan had seemed in some respects like a dream come true, an escape from all the drama, nightmare, responsibilities, and the like. But how could it not? 
After being fortunate enough to be selected to recieve scholarships for the first time in my educational career, my expectations probably grew a bit more to encompass being able to restart and upgrade a lot of things i would not be able to other wise. For example, updating my wardrobe. I think Japanese fashion is amazing and wonderful. thus i had expected to be able to go up with enough clothes, and buy a lot of new clothes that were more fashionable and higher up than my normal attire of: t-shirt, (board)shorts, and slippers/shoes. Yes, i said slippers ;p but thus far i haven't really bought nearly as much clothes as i originally thought i would. Instead I have acquired an excess of cell phone charms.

There may also have been a bit of expectation that once i was actually living in Japan, language accuisition would become more easier. However, that is proving to not be the case. Japanese vocabulary has increased a little bit. My mid term grade was passing, and nothing more. Yes, grades aren't every thing i know, but getting myself to be happy with the grade is still some thing i am working on completely understanding.  

Ghibli- Future ...

Hey hey! so stuff that happened. 

Mid terms, Kawagoe Festival, bonding with my host family, not my taisho debate 4-6 page paper, what i believe to be THE low point in study abroad (the other one was a falsie in comparisson to how i felt this past week), prep for the Kansai Trip (shuppatsu: tomorrow), and Ghibli Museum. Loads of thinking in the lieu of it all though. hey, i spelled that word right! XD what if going to japan helped expand my english vocab too? hmm...ah oh well. 

Mid-term grade in Japanese classs: Passing so far. Awaiting my grade for the history mid term... I hope i passed that too at the very least. After the japanese mid term, my brain was basically shot. so took the weekend a little more easier than i should have. barely studied for the exam on the following monday. >_<''''~ Working on not being too terribly hard on myself though, so hopefully it works out (being happier about not A grades. Will pass fo sho though).

Leaving for Kansai trip tomorrow morning, bright and early! didn't research for it much at all cause i was just kinda over every thing... sporadic periods of inspiration to study hard. the rest of the time i was like no more studying! it's all evil. So EvIl, but i need to know about the Taisho period. I know nothing. 

Kawagoe Festival. Lots of fun! ... but sooo much foooooooddd. Good food, games, spent a bunch of money T_T. Was charged the children's rate for a game that vaguely resembled pinball, while the friend i went with got charged the adult rate even though we're bascially the same age. Didn't win any of the games. I'm better off just buying a stuffed animal from the store. I was after a cute stuffed animal...or Arashi merchandise. Ended up buying a poster of them later on the way back to the station. ^_^ it's apparently their 10th anniversay poster: it was all wrappedup and in a box, a bit russian roullette style. there was AKB48 there too, but I'd personally much rather have a picture of Arashi up on my wall since I like a bunch of their music. <3 Second day of Kawagoe Matsuri JSPers got to help pull a neighboorhood's float. We really didn't get to pull in the way we thought we would cause of the danger the dashi(float) presented to the ppl closest to it's direciton of travel (and consequently the place where you get to feel like you're helping to pull it). Later, met up with a the same guy from Kauai, and basically hung out with him in Kawagoe into the early evening. Went to the old-fashioned candy lane and walked around the older store area: sweet potato ice cream, sweet potato steak fries, fabric store, chopstick store, looking for the vendors with the small octopus tako-yaki (they put an entire tiny octopus in one tako-yaki ball! and it tastes goood. lol, ate one ^_^. 

ah, yes, the low point... um, just felt like i was done w/Japanese. I learned my year's worth already, and just felt like i didn't want to learn any more. then would get these urges to try learn as much as i could and do it issyoukenmei style, talk to japanese citizen students here I made friends with, try do the homework with their help...then an annoying person on the same program would be like oh that's so kantan, you don't get it? sit there in front of me and do his homework in like literally 7 minutes and be like you're not done yet? I like didn't have to think. get admiration and praise from the japanese ppl i was sitting with, say he would help me, explain the grammar points, then while i was doing the work, talk so loud with
the people at the table that i couldn't think properly, ask me if i was done yet and if not why not, and it just annoyed me so much that i was just like i'm not doing any thing for you at all. you need a pen? sorry, you bascially just called me a bitch the last time you talked to me. other than that, just been struggling with Japanese, the debate stuff, and yea...school work is school work. 
Although we did take a trip to the same elementary school my host sister goes to and got to play games with the 5th graders there. For another time, I felt like a disappointment cause i think my group of 3 fifth graders were expecitng someone who looked a bit more foreign since a couple of them migrated towards other ppl who looked less japanese. lol. hurt my feelings at the time, but eh... just need to remember that it's for the same reason that my host family was a bit more relieved or less stressed out about hosting a study abroad student before i came here. part of the selection process i guess. So i guess there's ur pros and cons. Not always the kind of mentally weird japanese person cause you can't speak japanese perapera. But also make people here feel a bit more comfortable and get free membership cards to places. ^_^ mr. donut, medicine store, hair cut place, yup. 


Lastly, Ghibli. No picture taking allowed in the museum T_T so sad. but man, that place was amazing! There might not be very much there, and I wouldn't mind going again by myself or with people who don't mind me spending at least an hour gawking at the drawings/set up in the room dedicated to the making/birth of a miyazaki film. It's unreal, the artistry, colors, lines, composition, ...so sharp and clear though it's with paint brushes. I wonder if it's japanese paint brushes...hmmm. regardless, it's probably the expensive kind of paint brush. o-(>.<)-o then spent a lot of money at the omiyage store.. may have gone a little nuts, didn't get much, but it was expensive. I get espensive taste? maybe. but had enough money on me. Almost completely done with everyone's omiyage stuff. the wardrobe update needs to be worked on a little more. leather jacket. but any ways, ghibli museum. one of the rooms was dedicated entirely to how animation came to be, different kinds of animation, displays of the afore mentioned. ok, clay animation right (night before christmas, corpse bride, movies like that) a spinning thing with tons of miniaturized models on it. it starts and stops every so often, but when it starts spinning, the lights turn off, and turns back on to reveal a view of running cats, mei jump ropeing, bats flying, etc. There was also a sort of holligraphic birds circling the robot from laputa so pretty. definately inspiring, but i still don't know what i want to do for my thesis. sotsugyou ronbun. although, if i can't think of any thing else, i wouldn't mind researching manhole covers across japan to take care of the japanese one....or i could do an examination of disney and miyazaki films. animation. 


将来に何になりたいかな？何になるかな？明日の朝ご飯何を食べるかな？笑う。on that note, i go bed now. is past 1am, waking up at 545am i believe. but figured i'd better write some thing now before Kansai cause my host mom told me to not bring any hw with me on the trip, so i can enjoy and she knows i've been trying to work super hard on the debate prep. I should be posting again in about a week since i don't intend on bringing my computer with me. c u all later next time. lots more to come!
 

A Place

So thankful. ...where to start?

It's been a while since i last wrote. Almost a month- well duh, right ;p. but lets see. during that time, i hit the bottom. Honey moon phase ended. Now is like a test of character for me now i think. which direction will i go now, what will i take away from this experience? who knows right now? I don't.

LIVIN THE LIFE (recap of events i did since last post. see fb for photos)
*host sister's Udoukai (sports day)
* made beef stew, macadamia nut cookies, and Sweet Potato desert with host family and host family's cousins/relatives :D fun and delicious.
* met Uncle Masaki, got a new hair cut shortly after - short, cute japanese hair cut
* Bridging scholarship reception thing on a thursday night. Roppongi. Food. Met lots of people.
* Explored Akihabara. Bought an electronic dictionary. red.
* Went to Disney Sea with a few of my fellow JSP classmates
* A friend's 21st Birthday Party at their host family's house/restraunt. the place was Hawaii themed. unreal!
* Lunch Buddies for a couple days, then ventured to Crayon and Bunbun for lunch a few days later. Delicious
* Switched cell phones (using my own now. the pink one)
* Went to Nabe Party with friends I made at Tokyo International University
* Went with Host Family Cousin to a huge outlet mall for shopping
* Attended a Free Coffee making class. Making coffee w/o the coffee maker machine.
* Attended a Free Frozen Food bento making class
* Got extra help from the japanese language teacher.
* Met up with Randy and Brandy at shibuya for L&L and exploration. Ended up spending essentially the whole day with Randy. After Shibuya, Harajyuku, then to Takadanobaba. Village Vangard and delicious, spicy Chicken and Mutton Curry with ginormous Nan. yummmm!...
* Ate at another small, hole in the wall restraunt. Hamburger steak ^_^ so good. Explored the area around where i live. 

Reflection and thoughts:
That's a lot of stuff actually... and like, wow. perhaps this may turn out to be a thesis like project later on in a little less than a year. Mid terms are this coming Friday for Japanese language. I hear it'll b a 3 hour long test on basically every thing we've managed to cover in the 12 hours of class a week schedule. some in the class say it's not enough, so went to the teacher asking to speed up the pace and actually give us more usefull grammar that can be applied to every day conversations. More vocab that can enable us to talk and converse better with the natives here. I was reminded a little of christianity where ppl say that there's such a thing as becoming a fat christian child, continually only depending on mentors to give you what you need to grow, never trying to do things for yourself. learn of your own will. can call this preaching if you will, but nothing i say will make a dime's difference if you think you already have all the answers or have a closed mind. yes, danger, but reality will continue to be what it is no matter how you feel about it. Feelings are some thing, but not every thing in the world will change just because you feel it should. your out look and how you view things has a powerful impact on how it affects you.
So many things happen. This is really quite a semester on steroids. like you're here for a limited amount of time, so i want to do every thing and any thing under the sun. i know i can't, and i also want to spend time w/my host family too. they know so much. I am a child again. and again. lol, the walls of the candy store are slowly fading as curiosity grows in favor of adventure in the outside world i can see snipets of through the windows. Like just really living with my host family, and not just doing "Japanese" things with them. Taking the time to try learn/at least translate all the kanji i can make out on a portable cell phone charger, trying to write down all the vocab i can and review them each night, actually just getting an electronic dictionary for better, quicker communication, and being sure to spend time in the house trying to talk with them instead of just going out all the time. Best foot forward. Really trying to meet half way.
I was on a movie set. place: japan. character background: born and raised in Hawaii, stereotypical ukulele playing, rubber slipper wearing, tanned skin, japanese-american, just barely learning how to surf standing up, knew enough japanese to get buy, speaks "hawaiian english", always wanted to go to Japan, smiles with a hawaii surfer girl aura, and relationships that also seem to have come out of a picture-esque story from what other ppl could see. Now almost half way through, some thing has changed. I've known it wasn't always about the glitz, glam, fashion, hype surrounding someone, some thing, etc. setting: came from a summer filled with drama, trying to rebuild myself identity. Who i was to myself. I thought Japan was the perfect opportunity for it. It still is, and I want to take advantage of this opportunity, especially since there are things i need, like a new pair of sandals that don't give me blisters after like half an hour of walking in them. X_X not fun. but...ah this thing is long enough, an idk how to word things - put all the feelings i have right now into words. they need to sit and stew, mature if you will for a bit longer. ;p
Janelle is in japan, baby! yes!
She's such a tourist, but not that oh my gosh she's such a tourist, tourist. :D if ya get what i mean. ..yeah? (a friend was teasing me about how we say yea a lot in HI)