First Week

Over the next few days I learned hiragana and katakana (memorized), a few kanji and a few common phrases. As is my custom, I designed a kana (hiragana and katakana) cheat sheet. Unfortunately, while my host family is very nice and helpful, they mostly speak in full sentences of Engrish or Japanese, or they try to explain complex kanji that I won`t be able to use.

I`ve been to a video games store, and I`ll either buy Star Ocean: First Departure, or MGS: Portable Ops in Japanese. Also, Gavin, I`ve heard the rumours and if I can, I`ll sell off my 2000 go get a 3000, but don`t explain what this means if you understand. I`ve also been to a bookstore, and I`ll be buying some manga once I`m done reading Shogun.

The computers here aren`t what I was expecting. This one at least is a mediocre IBM with all its warranty stickers intact and all legitimate, legal, store bought software. There are a few wireless signals around here, but nothing strong enough to use my PSP. Granted though, their cell phones more than make up for their computers; televsion, GPS water resistance, and more.

As for the house I`m living in, it`s small, but comfortable. My room is very traditional with sliding doors and shoji. There isn`t enough room for furniture, so while I site on a wooden chair for supper, there`s a floor based half-seat thing in front of the television or you can sit on a thin cushion. My older host brother just got back from Canada, (we joke that he`s the foreign Canadain and I`m the alien, as the Japanese Customs Angecy apparenly calls me), and my younger host brother speaks very, very little English, but he`s good at video games and chess, he`s beaten me in European chess, and in shogi, where I was scared to learn that you can summon the dead to fight for you. And they have an upright in excellent condition that I have taken to playing.

So, by now some of you are probably what I`m up to. The answer to that is the same as always. Nothing. So far I`ve only been outside the leach of my host family`s sight and house for about two hours and that was entirely spent inside a private school being ushered around by teachers and students. When I asked about my curfew (fun fact, the French word for curfew also means cover fire), they didn`t seem to think I`d be going out that much (8:00PM, 20h00). I finished Shogun, a new record for my reading. I`ve played a few games of chess against my host brother (3, 1 for him). I`ve kept up to date on all my sites. I`ve watched a few movies. I`ll be making a grammar cheatsheet (not to mention, I`ll be making a phys12 cheatsheet for Burke`s class). I would go for a run, but I don`t think I`d be allowed out for that long. Well, hopefully I`ll get more freedom　once I get to school.