Things are sinking in, im starting to get a study routine goin, i finally feel like i have a bit of order in my day to day life – whilst still living in my lovely chaotic lifestyle.  It’s good.  I feel this order is really opening my eyes to what is going on around me, which really helps with time management too.  It felt like before i had no time and things were just a blur, however now i can sorta make time for study, uni, emailing and even gaming.

So what’s been happenin?  Well the Japanese students have returned to Uni. The result?

The relationship between MYSELF and the other Japanese students is completely non-existent.  Something i’m not entirely happy about.  But i’m having a LOT of trouble speaking Japanese here.  I’m waaay too intimidated! And it isn’t just intimidated to speak to the Japanese people, it’s just speaking Japanese in general.  Example (Today in class):

Teacher: What does Kyoko’s father do for work?

Correct Answer: He is a company employee (yeah, pretty vague…)

But No! I had to be cool:

Me: … … … Uh… *pause for like 30 seconds* he… goes… to the company

日本語FAILです!

I KNOW how to say it! I do! I swear! I even knew at the time! I was tellin my buddy Annie about this yesterday and said i needed to practice speaking, so she asked me, in Japanese, what the time was now – i froze up again! Guuhhhhhhhhhh….. I KNOW how to tell the time! It took me a good 30-40 seconds to say it was 2:45.  gah…

OH speakin of my epic japanese skills! I had a test the other day, and there were a couple of listening comprehension questions.  Basically I listen to a bit of conversation, and have to answer questions written down on my test paper.  The question was worth 1.5 marks and it was “what does so-and-so do for work?” – i didn’t quite catch it on the listening thing, so i wrote down: “I don’t know, but she drives a car everyday” – i got 1 mark for it! LOL

Ok lets hang around the Japanese studies for another paragraph or two… or three:

Things move REALLY quick in terms of study material here.  So quick that i wasn’t prepared for one of my quizzes and managed to fail – awesome… but I was tested on Monday for chapters 6 & 7 in my text book in my Spoken Japanese class, and then YESTERDAY I had a quiz on all the vocabulary in chapter 8 (another 40 new words or something)! Not only that, I ALSO had a quiz on MORE vocabulary and Kanji (chinese characters used in Japanese – there’s a couple thousand of em) in my Japanese Reading and Writing class, same day!  OH and 4 pages of homework (approximately took me 1-1.5 hrs to finish).  So Wednesday afternoon I was dreading the study I had to do that night and dreading the next day even more so.  I got crackin on my homework and knocked that outta the way.  Then moved onto the Reading and Writing – because i’m better at that than Spoken.  I finished THAT after about an hour or so and looked at my Spoken Japanese study and was immediately discouraged – i’d already failed a quiz for this class…  There’s too much! How could i remember everything in one night?  So… i opted for the best possible solution: Play Left 4 Dead online with Paul (mate from Australia).  Then i went to bed.

I woke up early and headed into Uni and started cramming vocab into my tiny brain.  But soon enough it was quiz time.  First quiz was the Spoken vocabulary quiz – fun -_- … … I kept cramming in class as she started handing the quizzes around.  When she got to me i closed my book, as i did I saw 1 word: つくる (to make).  I put the book away, looked at my quiz and what’s on there? つうる – YAY! I know one! I looked at the rest of the questions… and… i knew ALL of them… ALL OF THEM!!!!! I can’t believe i lucked out here, the words on the quiz were probably the ONLY words i knew.  So i completely smashed it.

Next class was reading and writing, i did the quiz AND got my results back in the same lesson: 20/20 YAY! I don’t know how i managed to tackle today.

This Sunday is the NRL Grand Final in Australia (Rugby).  Melbourne Storm vs. Parramatta Eels!  I’m going for the Storm, for sure.  Oh and the good thing is there’s an Aussie Bar in Osaka which will be showing the match – also armed with meat pies and Bundy Rum!  Ahhh! I’m definitely going and its gonna rock! I’m inviting a bunch of people including non-aussie’s to come and experience it with me – i’m sure they’ll love it.

Also on Sunday I went to Tokyo to see the Tokyo Game Show with my buddy Paul (Theres another Paul here!).  That’s right, i made a DAY trip outta Tokyo!  Now unfortunately the only pictures i got was of the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) on the way to Tokyo before my phone died – GAH!  So here are the pix:

Photo’s! BAM! (lol at the guy on the bottom right)

But yeah, Paul and I got up early and made our way to Kyoto Station.  From there we got our Shinkansen tickets and away we went!  The shinkansen was AMAZING – by far my fav thing of the day. Inside it looks like a plane, and it just feels like a plane too – EXCEPT u get to look out the window and watch everything fly by at ground level as opposed to looking down at the earth from 12387192837123 feet in the air.  Loved it.

The game show itself was a tad disappointing.  It wasn’t bad! But, i think my expectations were just too high.  Everything there was awesome, but it was just too crowded.  I really wanted to have a go of the Bayonetta Demo but the line would’ve been 50 minutes long, just to play for 10 minutes.  So i kinda stayed away – which REALLY lessened the experience.  The Cosplayers were good tho (For those that don’t know: “Cosplayers” are people who dress up as game and anime characters).  Some looked REALLY good, other’s were dodgy as.  Sorry, some butch Japanese girl dressed up as Tidus from Final Fantasy X really didn’t look the part.  However there was a good Cloud and Sephiroth… Unfortunately NO PHOTOS! GAAAAAAAAH!

So Paul and I left early, bound for Akihabara – The Electronics District.  Now i think in my last post i mentioned Den Den Town in Osaka (electronics district)? Sorry, but Tokyo’s Akihabara wins.  Hands down, it is infinitely cooler than Den Den Town.  But much like Den Den Town – Porn was to be found everywhere.

So Paul and I left Tokyo around 6:30, and reached Kyoto around 9. I got home around 11pm or so (Paul and I had some dinner too at Hirakata Station).  Lovely day, thoroughly enjoyed it!

As for now, i’m gonna go catch some zzz’s.

Ciao for Now!