STUDY ABROAD: WEEK 45

JULY 6

It’s been too long since I have danced at Shirakawa Park. The weather today was a bit iffy, but it started out nice and sunny. Five of us were practicing, doing our own thing when I noticed someone watching in the corner of my eye. We made eye-contact and he spoke to me, ‘Do you speak English?’

Had he not asked this in a perfect American accent, I would have assumed he was Japanese. On the contrary, he was actually from Michigan! On top of that, he was a break dancer, but he was in Japan on a three-week internship as an engineer. Of all the people!

At the time he had just finished touring the science museum, so he happened to notice us as he passed by. He wasn’t meeting his friend until later that evening, so we offered him the chance to rest, or to join us if he’d like. It had been ‘months’ since he’s practiced, but he jumped right into it, despite the light rain that started to fall. Eventually, we moved our group to the basketball court, which was covered by the overpass and practiced there. As the first English-speaking break dancer I have met in the past year, I eagerly took his well-pointed advice. Now I’m trying to figure out how to do thread while I’m in a shoulder freeze. Thanks, Albert. Be seeing you again I hope.

JULY 7

I started packing and preparing for the move. What I really mean is that I’ve put away all my winter things nicely, and I have filled up my large orange luggage with things I am not using now, but will need later. It never hurts to start early. Then, evening practice in the Naka District.

JULY 8

After weeks of waiting, my group has finally been able to present our survey to the class. All the themes had a relation to school, and ours was about the commute. Almost a month ago we started our surveys by asking a few volunteer students who came to our class basic questions in regards to our research. We didn’t have to actually create another survey on our own accord, but since we only had two questions to investigate, and already eight people’s answers, we decided it was an opportune time.

I was in charge of the survey, but we divided the other research and presentation creation amongst the three of us. Not only were we to present on Japan’s school commute, but our home countries as well. As far as information goes, we filled our twenty minutes greatly, and that was before playing the video material. I wish our member had shown us the video beforehand, rather than playing the five minutes’ worth during the real presentation as we were on the clock. There were no questions to be asked, which may or may not have been a good thing. I think people just wanted to go to their next class. There will probably be a question session at the beginning of class next week.

JULY 9

It’s the second to last week of the semester, which means today was the second to last Business Japanese class we will have. Next week also happens to be the final exam, which will be similar to the midterm where we had to do role-plays. However, we also have to write a thank you speech, and practice new role plays such as telephone conversations ad lib. I hope I don’t get picked for the telephone conversation!

JULY 10

Our morning started out with a guidance meeting for the students who are going to return to their home countries soon. Granted, some of us are ready to go home, but I’m not. We spent about an hour or so being talked about canceling our Internet contracts, preparing for water and electric bills, returning our bikes to the university, cleaning up our rooms, and, of course, final paperwork. My only comfort was that if anything happened, I would still be around later to deal with it. But the harsh truth was very clear: in less than a month I would be saying good-bye to some of the most important people in my life, my second family.

Like I said it was depressing, but we couldn’t wallow in it. We still had more immediate preparations to make. The day after tomorrow four of us, Joy, Rachael, Aurianne and I were heading to Mt. Fuji. Joy and I rode our bikes to Donki for some last minute preparations, in particular headlamps. We intended to climb the mountain over the course of the day and into the night so that we could see the sunrise. Then, we hurried home to work on our final presentations for culture class tomorrow. Once again, we can present on anything we want, and I was still undecided until yesterday.

JULY 11

(I woke up just in time for the clouds to give way to the dawn.)

My second to last presentation topic of the semester, of my undergraduate career was this: Okami. Okami has several meanings when translated, all which depend on its kanji. The basis for my presentation was a Capcom video game that came out a few years back when I was in high school. In this game you played as Amaterasu, a god or okami, who comes down to Japan to save the people from the dark ages as a wolf, also okami, and your powers are used by drawing symbols on paper, the final kami. The main reason I chose this as my final subject was because this game opened my eyes to Japanese folklore. Every character, every story within the story has a link to a Japanese folktale. I’m a fan of folklore, and another big theme that I enjoy is past meets present. This game does exactly that, as it is a modern tool depicting old stories. I highly recommend it.

That said, I kind of tripped through the presentation itself. Maybe that was karma, or some foul curse that said any video I planned to use in my culture presentation would betray me. In this case, the voice over of the video was faster than I could read, but it wasn’t a real, clear language. So I constantly had to pause, read, and play the video again. It made my presentation much longer than the intended ten minutes.