I kept on thinking I ought to update, and now it's already March!
I'm starting to be silly now in this just because I can. >.>
I had a good, productive week, kept myself busy with writing the 5-6 speeches and reports I have to prepare with varying degrees of urgency. Yes, I have that many, that I've lost count. I have one morning ceremony that I have to do on Monday, a speech about myself and the differences between Japan and America Friday, a 15-minute speech in English on 4/17, a 20-30 min speech on me and Japan/America at no set time as of yet, a speech contest about anything I want in Japanese, a short essay in English about anything I want, my Japanese Feb/March report, and my second quarterly report in English. Phew. Whoa, 8 things to write. Yeah. It's a good thing I got my yaruki (enthusiasm) back, because otherwise I'd be really fucked. I do still have my nasty "WHAT'S THE POINT????!!!!" moments from time to time, but then "OH SHIT I HAVE TO MEMORIZE THIS THING!!!!" takes over, just like at school. I'm beginning to view work as just really long, stiff study hall, where being interrupted to get/distribute the mail is an added-in test to my concentration. That makes it a little easier for me to swallow.
I have a three-day weekend next weekend, thank God, which I'm hopefully either spending in Osaka with a friend, or venturing out to Nagasaki. However, I have to be back for Monday because I was roped into visiting someone that day to see their hina doll display (why can't we do a different day is beyond me, thanks for ruining my potential travel plans...) so I don't have much time to explore, either way.
I got fed up waiting for anyone to give me any compensation for my camera and went ahead and bought one here. It's a Casio Exilim... something or other. To get the features I wanted and to have it in English, I had to buy a more expensive one with video-recording capabilities, which I really didn't care to have. Oh well. It was going to be cheaper than having my parents buy something, insure, and then send to me, plus that would take more time than I wanted to take, as I knew I would finally get to see Matsuyama castle during my last business trip March 2. I was unhappy with it at first, more because it was tricky for me to get used to, and I was still resentful I had to buy it at all, but once I went on the trip, I was glad to have it, and I've more or less adjusted to it, I think. I just wish the pretty purple version had still been available... once again I'm stuck with boring old silver, just like everyone else's, and therefore, much easier to be misplaced and mistaken by someone with a similar model. >.< (Oh, thanks by the way, to everyone who gave me advice/sympathy on buying a new one! It was very helpful!)
Speaking of, yeah, I got to go to Matsuyama for my last business trip with the recruiters. Since Japanese companies have new employees start at the same time every year, there's a "recruiting season" even more strongly defined than we have in America. Anyway, since I'd been on trips with them piles of times before, and I still hadn't seen Matsuyama castle, they let me go ahead and see it. So, I took the tram down to the mountains, and then got a ride up to the castle grounds. There was a ropeway, and a chair lift... anyone wanna guess which one I took? ;) It was fabulous, being so many feet off the ground in just that tiny chair, floating by the sakura trees... this was where I started getting acquainted with my new camera. I had no choice but to adjust quickly, since everything went by fairly quickly. ^_^;
The castle itself was very nice... the grounds were swamped with people, especially elementary school kids on field trips, having a picnic either before or after exploring the castle. Also, the displays inside were in Japanese and English, so it was much easier for me to get an idea of what significance the displays and stuff actually had. Then, I reached an area where you can try on a (replica) suit of samurai armor. There was a very boisterous group of Japanese trying one on before me, and though it was awkward, I waited nearby, to make sure I got a turn, though I wasn't sure if I'd be able to put it on by myself, much less take pictures. But then, as they were finishing up, they turned to me and asked if I wanted to try, and I said yes, and then they offered to help me put it on! I accepted gratefully, and what followed was a flurry of activity and getting to know you questions as about three different people helped put each article on me and tie it into place. I had read the directions for putting it on (English version) on a nearby wall, so there were some parts--like the armbands--that I knew how to put on better than they did! XD It turns out they were grad students from Kyoto, who have traveled around a bit. I think they said they had been to Africa for something or other! They knew a little English, but I'm so used to speaking Japanese with natives by now, it was hard for me to go back. After I was finished, mask and helmet and everything, they took some pictures for me. It was really heavy, and because of the way we'd tied it, it looked good, but it was hard to move around in! I hope we made some kind of mistake somewhere, because otherwise, I don't know how those samurai would have moved around! Still, I was really really happy I ran into them and they were nice enough to help me out.
After that, I reluctantly made my way back down the mountain, ate a convenience store lunch and wandered about as much as I could get away with before I had to return. There was practically no one at the career fair by the time I got back, so we left about an hour earlier than scheduled.
Let's see, what else... I've been going to coffee shops and hanging out with friends a lot, so there isn't much free time, but I have been getting more into FF9, getting into reading it in Japanese, but knowing when it is and isn't worth stopping and looking up something in kanji. I just wish my TV screen was the right size for it, because the top and bottom of the screens get cut off a bit.
I'm still batting around ideas with friends and family coming to Japan, where to go and what to see. I'm really looking forward to traveling with people! And then I finally get to go home. I'm so excited! My parents painted my room the shade of purple I wanted, so it's really intense and awesome and sooo much better than my boring beige walls here, not to mention I finally get to do all the other things I've been missing so much.
I just hope I can squeeze in all the stuff I wanted to do before I have to leave...
Oh, also, my teacher lent me this great comic/essay book called "nihonjin no shiranai nihongo." It's a manga about a Japanese woman teaching Japanese to foreigners, the different types of people they are, and the questions they ask, the sort of misunderstandings they have, etc, and I read it (in Japanese) in like two days. It was heartwarming and funny, and there were lots of parts where I was like, "Yeah, I ask questions like that," and "Wow, that must be how my teachers feel sometimes!" I really, really enjoyed it, and I learned some cool stuff too. XDD I don't think it's out in America, but if you ever come across it somehow, I highly recommend it.