I Own This Town.
Apr. 8th, 2007 01:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sechan19This morning I again woke very early in the day - before 6am this time - despite the long commute and previous late evening of getting acquainted over wrestling on the AFN. I sat in bed going over my old Japanese textbooks in preparation for the coming placement test. I also spent a good deal of time feeling trepidation at the thought of having to figure out the Tokyo Metro system.
I needn't have worried.
I managed the commute with ease and even did well enough on the placement exam to land in third-year Japanese (the only American who did so, I'd like to boastfully add). So I guess I hadn't forgotten as much of the stuff as I'd thought.
The school opening ceremonies were very amusing. The students are primarily American, Korean, or Chinese, and consequently every announcement, introduction, and speech was delivered in four separate languages. Japanese, then Korean, then English, then Chinese. It was fun trying to decipher as much of the Japanese as possible, and I again did better than I would have expected.
It's about 5pm here now, and I'm just about ready for a nap. My family, though being basically American (the husband is from Tennessee and speaks no Japanese; the wife is from Japan and speaks English so well that she teaches it professionally; they both like watching WWE: Smackdown!), have set up a very traditionally Japanese tatami room with a floor futon and low-lying furniture. The space is cozy and welcoming, and I think I'm going to be very comfortable here. Sometime this week, Fujiko-san and I are planning a trip to the supermarket so that I can buy some Japanese food and snacks.
That ought to be fun. Kusa mochi ga hoshiin desu! ("I want kusa mochi!" - a sticky rice ball with sweet red bean paste.)
Yum.
I needn't have worried.
I managed the commute with ease and even did well enough on the placement exam to land in third-year Japanese (the only American who did so, I'd like to boastfully add). So I guess I hadn't forgotten as much of the stuff as I'd thought.
The school opening ceremonies were very amusing. The students are primarily American, Korean, or Chinese, and consequently every announcement, introduction, and speech was delivered in four separate languages. Japanese, then Korean, then English, then Chinese. It was fun trying to decipher as much of the Japanese as possible, and I again did better than I would have expected.
It's about 5pm here now, and I'm just about ready for a nap. My family, though being basically American (the husband is from Tennessee and speaks no Japanese; the wife is from Japan and speaks English so well that she teaches it professionally; they both like watching WWE: Smackdown!), have set up a very traditionally Japanese tatami room with a floor futon and low-lying furniture. The space is cozy and welcoming, and I think I'm going to be very comfortable here. Sometime this week, Fujiko-san and I are planning a trip to the supermarket so that I can buy some Japanese food and snacks.
That ought to be fun. Kusa mochi ga hoshiin desu! ("I want kusa mochi!" - a sticky rice ball with sweet red bean paste.)
Yum.
