Howdy from Kyoto

Hey all...I'm sorry it's been so long (over two months!) since I've made my last post. I wish I could blame it on the fact that I've been incredibly busy, as had been the case until July 2005. In fact, I have been so idle that I haven't been able to summon up the psychic energy to think of things to write about and then actually type them out. I will try to make myself write a little bit a few times a week as a minimum.

I still haven't gotten around to fixing the formatting of the pictures on my last post either, but I'll try to get that done within the day.

So here's a list of news about Anna and I:

1. We have started taking lessons on how to wear kimono, and Anna ties a mean obi now.
2. We participated in the "Sports Festival" of one of her elementary schools.
3. The next day we were invited to a similar festival in which adults from the community can participate.
4. At said festival, I won first prize in the obstacle course, and was rewarded with soy sauce.
5. I found a Japanese woman named Satoko with whom I started a language exchange.
6. The iPod I got her got broken in an accidental drop. ；＿；
7. I got the results back from the JETRO Business Japanese Proficiency Test.
8. We have become friends with two awesome Japanese couples. Being friends with other couples is so nice...it makes socializing a lot simpler in many ways.
9. I bought a Japanese Super Nintendo, a Chinese device capable of playing Nintendo (NES) games, and have been wasting embarrassing amounts of time playing Rockman (a.k.a. Megaman), MarioKart, and Super Mario RPG.
10. I started a blog in Japanese, not for an audience but more so I can practice my written Japanese and hopefully have an excuse to build my vocabulary and sentence patterns. If you're' interested, you can check it out at http://jerblogjapanese.blogspot.com/.

I also got my visa extension approved by the Japanese immigration authority, and more recently even got permission to work up to 28 hours per week. I can't work full time because I haven't yet graduated from university. I have a few job offers that I will jump on very soon, which will give me some income as well as help me figure out what to do with the vast expanses of free time which I have been largely wasting up until now.

I have done two relatively useful things with my time:

1. Give a speech to veteran host mothers/host fathers at Konan University -- where I did a successful exchange three years ago -- taking about tips for what to do and what not to do in order to have a good relationship with their host students. I gave the speech entirely in Japanese and I felt like it was really flowing. Rawk!
   
2. Give a speech to the incoming students for this year's exchange. I thought about this one a lot and prepared three single-spaced pages of tips and guidelines packed with my own personal experience as well as problems some of my friends and peers encountered. I did this in English as their Japanese levels were all over the board, and I was pretty nervous, but five or six of the 33 students came up to me and thanked me for making such a helpful presentation! That was a pretty awesome feeling.

Moving on, Kyoto is beautiful but it is absurdly muggy in the summer. I never had a problem with sweat until I moved here, but all of a sudden I find myself drenched after just a few minutes outside in the 95% humidity, with the sun blazing down on my pale-ass white skin. Natives here seem to have adapted to the climate. I, on the other hand, perpetually look as though I have been for a swim with all my clothes on. Anna sweats more than Japanese do, but nothing like me. I have started to think that I am a freak of nature. If I had a video camera, I would try to capture the sheer outrageousness of my Kyoto sweat.

Also, one of my favorite temples, Higashi-honganji, will be under construction until 2010! The rebuilding is to repair roof tiles and other wooden parts which have succumb to frost damage. The occasion is to celebrate the 750th anniversary of the sainthood of Shinran (親鸞), founder of the Jōdo Shinshū (浄土真宗) school of Pure Land Buddhism. I guess I will have to wait until my next trip to Japan to enjoy its beautiful architecture again, as the Goeidō (御影堂), or "Sacred Picture Hall," is now enclosed in massive scaffolding.

More later.