Q & A time, Part 2

Well, I was going to start off by saying I left it alone for a half-week extra because no one asked anything, but, lo and behold, come the finishing of last weekend, there were more questions than I expected. So it turned out to be a good thing for me to leave the extra time.

So, here we go.

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Even though you have only been gone for about a month, what is the most you miss about Illinois and Iowa?

Are kids in Japan just as individual as here in the United States? Do they have funky hairdos too? :)

Do you spend a lot of time with your home family?

April 25, 2007 5:39 AM, Mom, Dad, & Grandpa

Well, as amazing as the food has been over here, pastas are done without much justice. I'd love to go sit at an Olive Garden and pull out a gorgeous Caesar Salad. Other than that, it gets kinda troublesome when I can only understand half of what's going on - especially with jokes. Humor completely escapes me, and it makes me feel stupid.

Everyone's an individual. Everyone has their own separate personality, and ways of acting. About hairstyles though: I used to believe anime hairstyles were exaggerated. They aren't. At all.

My host family and I spend a lot of time together. We went out on Thursday to a citywide celebration in another town, and spent the day there. It was a blast.

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What weird questions do you get asked from 'the natives'?

Will you get to see a tea ceremony?

Any fun fashion trends you've noticed?

Do you take showers or baths?

Do people ask to talk to you in English just so they can practice their English speaking? I've heard this happens.

What kinds of songs does your choir sing? How many people are in it? SATB?

Am I getting annoying yet?

April 30, 2007 8:10 PM, Kerrie

Well then. Starting from the beginning...
The questions that I'm asked by most people have revolved mostly around food. As in, "What do you think the best Japanese food is?" I've been asked that by just about everyone. Apparently, it's kind of a big deal.

I will get to see a tea ceremony. There's a class on campus featuring Traditional Japanese arts, which focuses on kimono wearing, tea ceremony, and flower arrangement.

Fashion trends: I'm currently working in them. I'm slowly but surely becoming more and more used to the fashion here (although it should be interesting when I come back home).

I take both showers and baths, depending on what I need. Most of the time, a quick shower in the morning (5 minutes maybe), and a nice, hot, long bath at night.

I've been asked to help with other's English. The most notable being when I was asked by a guitarist to check his pronunciation as he sang and played Simon and Garfunkel. So naturally, I sang along, throwing in harmonies when I could, which only added to the bemusement of the musician (and everyone else around).

The choir is singing around 4-5 songs, mostly in Japanese. There's one song that's a spiritual, so they all look to me for pronunciation. It's all SATB music.

Of course. Not. :)

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Since you have classes once a week like that, do you usually do your homework from that days class or do you wait until the night before or what? Doesn't it make it hard to remember what you learned the week before?

April 30, 2007 8:16 PM, Anonymous (anyone care to claim this?)

I'm a bit of a procrastinator by nature. That being said, most of our work has been large projects due by the end of the term, so the work load hasn't been bad. I'm an extensive note taker, so that helps in the remembering. Plus, I can use my laptop for notes in class, so that's nice.

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Are there any plans for concerts with your choir?

May 1, 2007 10:51 PM, Megan S

We've got a concert scheduled for the 10th of June. Anything past that, I don't know. We'll see.

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I don't know how much Japanese you are using. Do you speak it mostly or "American"? Let us know.

May 2, 2007 2:42 PM, Cassy

Well, it depends on the situation. Most of the time, I'll practice furthering my Japanese ability. However, if the person I'm talking to wants to speak English, if it's easier to communicate in English, or if I just want to frustrate someone :), I'll speak in English (or, in Japanese, 英語 (Eigo).

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Completely unrelated, but you got elected as secretary of Computer Club for next year. :)

May 2, 2007 4:57 PM, Brian

Sweet. A position of power. Me likey. :) Thanks of thinking about me, guys.

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j00|2 534|2(|-| - http://offtonippon.blogspot.com/ - c|1c| |\|07 |\/|4+(|-| 4|\|y c|0(V|\/|3|\|+5. 5|-|17!!!!

this is actually what it said when i searched in google with the hacker language on!!!!!!

May 3, 2007 4:05 PM, Calvin (my brother)

Hrm... maybe I should put some meta tags into the heading for the blog. I figured that it would be advertised better than that, since Blogger is owned by Google. Sad news indeed.

For those who can't read the l33t, it says:
"your search: http://offtonippon.blogspot.com/ - did not match any documents."

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What is the best thing you've eaten while over there?

How often do you actually eat rice?

Does the water swirl in the toilet clockwise or counterclockwise?

How is the climate? Get sunburned yet?

Meet any interesting ladies? ^.^

What is your favorite word that you've learned while over there?

Will you support my ban on pants between the hours of 1am and 6am in the apartment? This seems random, but trust me, it's crucial.

What time do you land in Chicago on the return trip, and on what day? (It may be the same day as me, in which case we'll have to set up a rendezvous).

Speaking of French, I have one final very important Question:
Do you hear the people sing? Singing the songs of angry men?

May 3, 2007 10:36 PM, Jesse

Ahh... Back on the food. :)

Actually, my favorite meal so far has been a big heaping bowl of udon, a thick-noodled pasta soup, with various other ingredients. Other concoctions have been quite tasty as well:

as you can plainly see. I ate this after you guys went out for DQ...pwn'd.

Rice is served with almost every meal. Breakfast is the one exception.

I'm still in the Northern hemisphere, so water still swirls...*goes to check*...counter-clockwise.

I've sunburned a couple times, but it hasn't been that bad. It's rainy a lot here, so that stops the sun a bit.

Onna, ne? Well, there are a couple that have me interested. Ai-chan and Natsu-chan. Here's a photo of both of them together:

Ai has to be the first person I've actually used the word kawaii "eng: cute" for: she does the whole "Squint your eyes while giggling" anime-thing, and it works flawlessly. However, of the two, I'll probably ask Natsuki out first, because I've talked to her more, and we seem to get along well.

Favorite word? Let's see... The most amusing one I've heard so far has got to be "tabenai-yo" (lit. "Don't eat that.") Heard most often around in the home stay, towards the triplets. Another good one is "sugoshi" (lit. "a bit"). Shiritori (a word game) comes in handy a lot, and I play with my host family. The most fun to say: "tsukareru" - "to become tired."

A ban on pants... I am an early riser, so I would say push it back to 5AM and it'll be all right. Feel free to be more lenient with the weekends though.

I land back in O'Hare at 1:50 on 4 August. I do have a connecting flight to the Quad Cities, though. I think that we should have a party somewhere (Davenport, maybe?) on the 5th or 6th, giving us enough time to get sleep and get rid of the jet lag. Scott, Mom, Cassy, Brian, and Sean: I leave the planning up to you guys. Jesse, grab some of your own people to plan out, too. :)

"It is the music of the people who will not be slaves again! When the beating of your heart echoes the beating of the drums, there is a life about to start when tomorrow comes!" God... that's gonna be in my head for days..... :)

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Well, thanks everyone for participating in Q & A time. I'll probably throw another one of these up towards the end of the trip (July, probably).

Until next time!