Changes in Aspect

So today, I hung out with a couple of friends.

One of them I had seen a couple of months ago, when I was in Kumamoto. She had just moved from Kumamoto to Tokyo to find a job (as many, many Japanese newly graduated people do). Aiko was aikawarazu genki (doin' fine as always), which was good.

The OTHER friend, Yoshiko, was a friend who I met when she came with the Kumamoto Kita-High School to Hellgate high school when I was a sophomore. That means that I haven't seen her in...

...


...


SEVEN YEARS!!


Before we met, I had actually not really thought about how long it had been, but of course it came up in conversation (over some delicious Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki in Shibuya), and it's crazy how much time has passed.

The passing of time...

Speaking of which, it was the first time that I spoke to Yoshiko in Japanese. The first (and second) times that I met her- when she was in Montana for those 10 days, and then when I was in Kumamoto for those 10 days- I didn't speak any Japanese. Of course, we tried to use both English and Japanese, because I didn't want to hog all the learning all for myself, but the conversation just sort of... flowed into the direction of Japanese. It didn't feel weird, but it really showed me how much has changed. In these seven years, my life has gone from having this sort of "yeah, Japan is interesting, enough for me to sign up to host this student" to "yeah, Japan is interesting enough for me to save money to see my friends there," to "yeah, Japan is interesting enough to take at college while a senior in High School," to...well, you get the picture. I mean, I'm really pleased with where I am now, but it was really interesting to see just how much has changed.

Speaking of changing, I think it's funny that, in Japanese culture, as far as I can tell it's a GOOD thing to tell someone that they haven't changed at all, after not having seen them for a long time. Aiko said to Yoshiko "you haven't changed at all! You just put on makeup now!" and Yoshiko was happy about that!

"I'm glad!" she said.

I mean, I know that there are differences in the word "change," and that it can be both negative and positive, but I mean come on! Aiko and Yoshiko hadn't seen each other in TWO YEARS. I would think that it would be bad if the other person HADN'T changed a little, at least. Hadn't done anything in those two years to merit some sort of change in their personality, hopefully for the better.

I can't imagine anything worse than imagining myself having spent the last two years, and have nothing different about me to show for it.

But, I suppose that that's a cultural difference. I am glad they didn't tell me I didn't change. I was SUPER lame in high school.

Now I'm just cultivated... or something.

Other than that... Oh! I bought my ticket for Okinawa! I am going to Okinawa with some friends after New Years. We are only gonna go for a few days, but it's gonna be such a blast. More than anything, I want to learn a lot about the Ryukyu, the native Okinawan people. I realize that my friends may not feel the same way. But that's ok! I LOVE going out on my own on trips. I suppose I am like my parents in that respect. I think it's pretty common for all of us to split up on trips. It's actually one of my favorite things to split up, and then meet up the next day, or later in the day and talk about what we did that day. I love it.

I am also so excited for going to Kumamoto, which I will do a couple of days before Christmas, and will stay there until Okinawa, for the winter vacation. I decided to take the night bus, because an airplane ticket would have been around $400, and the bus was less than half of that! Plus I can sleep on buses no problem... I hope.

Now that I have the tickets, and that I know that there is not much time left until the break, I know that I have to try really hard for the rest of the time.

GRAD SCHOOL APPLICATIONS (gotta finish!)
KANJI IN CONTEXT (let's get AT LEAST halfway, Jamie!)
CLASSES (keep doing your best! But MORE MORE MORE MORE!!)



My new motto: Head down, power through.


...I feel like the path between me and the end of quarter is PAVED in candy bars and mikan oranges. And LOTS of tea.

I hope you are all doing well! Stay warm warm warm!!

Jamie