Andrew's Birthday

This past weekend was Andrew’s birthday.  However, this post is not about the day of his birthday but about the eve of his birthday in which we had a pizza adventure and everyone partied into the night leading to a very happy and content birthday boy.

Let’s start by talking about Andrew.  Andrew is my boyfriend of more than 1.5 years.  We discovered love over the summer after having taken one year of Japanese classes together at UF.  Ever since we got together in the beginning of August of 2010, we have shared our desires, struggles, and development with the Japanese language.

Andrew is a very shy person, but once you get to know him and help him open up to you, he’s really funny and dorky and just a really nice guy to be around.  Even if you don’t know him, he’s a very nice guy and is willing to go above and beyond to help someone in need.  This is why he makes the best and worst computer tech guy.  He’s super helpful in making sure your computer problem is solved and will go to lengths that most computer tech people working from abroad don’t even bother to try to get to, BUT because of his kindness and knowledge, sometime computer-illiterate people take advantage of him, leading him into a dark unrelenting grip of I-have-another-computer-problem-please-drop-everything-and-help-me-now.

Anyways, as Andrew is a 人見知り（ひとみしり）, or in romanization, hitomishiri kind of guy, meaning that he’s a shy guy who only opens up his true nature to you once having established a friendship.  Anyways, parties aren’t usually his thing.  Last year, I helped throw him a birthday party with our mutual friends and some friends from his work and high school with jello shots, cake, and video games.  It was just ok.  Kinda meh.  Not super exciting or high energy.  Non-video gamers got bored.  Andrew was done with the party before it was done.  Whatevs.

This year was different.  The party was to be held at 7 pm in our shackmates’ house instead of ours since they have a room to spare for entertaining guests.  We invited some friends who came to Japan with us from UF, and I invited one of my good friends who lived at the dorm with me last semester, Ryan P.  Before the party started, shackmate, Tina, and Andrew and I rode our bikes for 30 minutes to the Costco in the SNOW.  UPHILL.  DOWNHILL.  BOTH WAYS.  lol

I feel like I’m telling that grandpa story…  Anyways, we bought 3 ginormous square pies of cheese pizza and strapped them to the back of Andrew’s bike.  We bought juice and 24 cans of Coca-cola among other things and loaded them into the baskets and rode back in the cold night for 30 more minutes.  The pizzas only fell off once, but with minimal damage to the goods.  Oh man, I am in no way physically in shape so this was a very arduous journey of endurance for me…whew!

As for the party itself, it was a blast.  It had a slow start with a few friends trickling in with just some simple chatter and catching up, but as soon as most people invited came over, we got to drinking and eating pizza.  So good!  About an hour or two later, Marissa, a friend from UF, texted about how to find our shack, and when I went out to meet her, I saw that she had brought not only Ryan P. but also some other friends from seminar house.  This was unexpected, as we didn’t expect so many guests, but they were definitely a welcome addition.  ^___^  They joined the party, and we played more card games and continued the good times.  Everyone got along fine, and we probably didn’t finish til about 2 am at least.  I mean, this wasn’t some wild party, but a really nice get-together.  We had cake, Adam juggled, we huddled by the heater and got comfy under the kotatsu, and just generally had a nice time.  Andrew really enjoyed the party and made friends with the people from seminar house and had a pretty happy birthday.  All in all, success.  I was really happy to see that I was able to help throw a party in which no one was bored and Andrew was content and happy.

:)

Valentine's Day~

Last week had everyone’s favorite holiday: Valentine’s Day!  Woohooo~  No, but really, Valentine’s Day is only as horrible or as fantastic as you make it.  And in Japan, the extremes of each can really happen.

Valentine’s Day is celebrated differently in Japan, and if you’ve ever watched a school-based anime or Japanese movie/drama, then you probably know the gist of it already.  In Japan, only women give men chocolate for this holiday, and there are many different types of chocolate.  For example, there is obligatory chocolate, as in for co-workers and bosses; chocolate for friends; and chocolate for love interests.  There’s also a reversal chocolate, which is chocolate given by guys, so it’s not the case that men don’t give chocolate, but it’s rare.

One of my teachers here at Kansai Gaidai helped explain all these different types of chocolate, and she talked about how it may seem like a lot of trouble for the females to be buying/making all this chocolate and then getting up the courage to give chocolate to someone they actually really like and want a relationship with.  However, she also told us that it’s just as hard on guys, because it becomes a competition for which is the most popular guy, a.k.a who gets the most chocolate from the ladies.  ;P

Our sensei told us that her younger brother wasn’t very popular so that he would always get chocolate from her and their mother, and sometimes, that’s all he got.  When her brother’s friends would compare (“I got five.  How many did you get?” “I got three.  You?”), he always was able to say at least he got two, although he never said they were from family.  So sad!  Poor kid!

The weekend before this chocolate-intense holiday, my shackmates and I melted bars of chocolates, put them in molds of hearts, flowers, and cute animal heads, and then we let them cool putting them into cute pink and red bags to hand out to all our friends.  It was pretty fun, and I really hope that maybe the custom of “making” chocolate will catch on in America.

Valentine’s Day in itself was also fun.  I gave chocolates out to friends, and I received some home-made goodies, too.  Homemade chocolate just shows a lot more personalization and time and effort than just buying chocolate, so I feel like I really got more out of it here then back at home.  I gave some love chocolate to Andrew, and he liked them, but I’m pretty sure there are leftovers still waiting for him in the fridge, ha ha.

Now I did give chocolate, friend chocolate, to some guys, but you see, I’m not giving the wrong message—I’m investing.  Another interesting thing about Japan that’s related to Valentine’s Day is another holiday, White’s Day.  White’s Day is on March 14^th, and on this day, most guys have to give obligatory chocolate to all the ladies who gave them obligatory chocolate, and if they liked a girl who also liked them enough to give them love chocolate, this is the day they can reciprocate and let the lucky lady know of his feelings for her, too.  Thus!  I am hoping to get some White’s Day chocolate in return…I’m hoping…heh heh.  At least Andrew better give me some since he was very Japanese and didn’t give me chocolate this year.

*Note:  The descriptions of the types of chocolates are very basic and not very detailed.  If peeps be interested, I can definitely give more information with proper Japanese labeling and all.  Ooooooor, the internet is very helpful for these things.  ;D

The Night Before the First Day of School

Sooooo….tonight’s the night before the first day of classes for the spring semester for international students at Kansai Gaidai.  Most Japanese students won’t be around since they just started their spring break between semesters just a couple days ago or so.  The only Japanese students who will be around are those who have decided to take afternoon lecture courses with us international students.  Kinda sucks…less break, you know?

Anyways, I’m sitting here at the kotatsu in my shack enjoying the warmth of my last school-free moments.  I’m a bit anxious, as usual, because I’m excited for school to start, but I’ve been a lzy bum all winter break long.  Thus, I’m also anxious because I haven’t studied much at all, and my Japanese is going down the drain, as is what’s prone to happen during any school break.  I did make one good productive choice and reviewed 2 out of the 6 lessons of kanji, but that’s about it.  No grammar.  No vocab.  No nothing…. (｡ŏ﹏ŏ)

This semester I will be in level 5 reading/writing (aka kanji class) and level 5 speaking (aka grammar and vocab class).  I’ve signed up to take two lecture courses: Monsters, Ghosts, and the Making of Modern Japan, which covers Japanese folktales and creatures of myth, and Intersection of Fantasy & Real Life in Modern Japanese Literature, which is a literature class in which we read the professor’s favorite obscure Japanese books translated into English.  Lengthy titles, right?  I actually didn’t get into the first class, and instead I’m in Survey of Japanese Art, a class in which an old professor lectures you to sleep while describing all the art since Japan existed.  I hope that maybe I can get into the Monsters class before the end of the week….we’ll see.  I’m on the waiting list, and I asked the head of the Japanese department back at my home institution to see if she could get me into the class via emailing the staff here at Kansai Gaidai.  We’ll see.  If not, I’m pretty happy with my class schedule because I’ll be done by no later than 3 pm every weekday.  ^__^

Right now, I am getting ready by pretending to review grammar and then picking out my outfit for tomorrow, the first day of school, which is also forecasted to be a cold and gloomy day.  Oh yeah~!  :P  Heh heh.

I’ll get back to recapping how Tokyo and Seoul went.  To tell you the truth, Tokyo was meh.  If you want to visit Japan, I really recommend the Osaka/Kyoto/Nara area.  It’s so much more cultural here in the Kansai region, and there’s so much more to see, both modern and historical.  Tokyo’s cool for like 2 days.  Then…it’s pretty much Times Square x50 and too expensive.  Thus, my Tokyo post will be kinda meh, and then I will write as much as I can about Seoul!  I loved Seoul, the good and the bad…except maybe the pollution, but, yeah, Seoul.  Awesome.