What would I bring

So I was reading another JET hopefuls blog Flying sound. He has just finished the interview process of the application and recounted some of the questions that they asked him. This has given me a ton to think about. The most worry some question was "what would you bring to Japan to teach people about America?" After a few days of thinking about what I would do I decided that I would bring my cooking skills. Several great advantages of this; first is that taking a skill instead of an item takes up much less space in my luggage, second is that every one like food! Thinking about it food is one of the biggest defining factors of any and all culture,s so it seems like one of the easiest ways to teach about America.

Japanese progress

It has been a month sense I have started going back to college to learn Japanese and I must say that I love it! It is such a logical language. So far I think I am keeping up fairly well with the curriculum and i have been studying other aspects of Japanese in my free time so hopefully one day my several ways of learning it will converge and I will jump ahead of my current standing as a Japanese 101 student. I have employed several methods to study outside of class. I have been using Rosetta stone software to learn straight up expressions and sentences. I spent some time reading the Japanese for Dummies book and though it was fun and it helped a little. More over I bought a Nintendo DS and the Japanese Coach game. It is really great to learn tons of vocabulary and I can use it anywhere which is a huge plus. I watch anime with no subtitles just to listen to them talk and then I re watch it with sub Oh yah and I make note cards ... hundreds and hundreds of them :( I think at the rate that I am going, if I can keep up the pace, I will be ready to apply for the JET program next December. Often times I think about the large amount of money, effort, and time that I am putting into this and I wonder if I am foolish for doing so just on a bet that I may get in to the program. Its very discouraging to think about it so I usually put it out of my mind and think about alternatives if I don't get in. oh well here are some pictures of my study material as well as a look at how some of my hiragana is going. I personally think it has improved and looks much less like a 5 year old's hand writing and more like a 13 year old's hand writing. I am getting better at recognizing the writing but I still have a long way to go be for I stop sounding like a hooked on phonics commercial.

mmmm soooo good!

I want to announce to the world that their are some things that America Bastardized from other countries (including Japan) that turn out bad... BUT I have found one of the things that turned out great! and it is pure gold baby! I was in Walmart spending the last of my cash on food for the coming week when I walked past the ethnic food section much to my suprise I found Golden brand curry mix making me jump for joy in the middle of the isle. Upon closer inspection I noticed that there were some very dirty bottles that looked like they had been on the shelf for half of an eternity. I was shocked at what I saw, Tabasco Soy Sauce. I snatched up one of the sticky and dust covered bottles and tossed it in the buggy with partal glee and partal horror. So when I made it back to my girlfrends house I took it to the sink and gave it a nice scrubbing befor opening it up. After that I ripped of the seal, poured some into the palm of my hand, and tasted it woah moma is it good! I should have guessed that spicy soy sauce would be good due to my love to Wisabi and soy sauce mixed to gether for sushi. I was just suprised at how well tabasco did it. so to all the people out there who like spicy food and soy sauce you should try it out. you wont be sorry!

I know I know I should post more often but I have an excuse!

So I have not added a post in a very long time. Life has been very hectic and I have been with out a sure form of internet for more than a day at a time as of late. Things are starting to get back to normal now... Thankfully! I just moved from my home of seven years and relocated back to my fathers house in order to save money in the event that I am accepted into the JET program. I would really like to save enough to pay for my plane ticket and have enough left over to auto pay my Student loans for at least two years. There are other benefits that come with this move the fist is that I don't have to worry about covering others rent which I have had to do numerous times with the 17 room mates that I have had at various times in that house over the years. It gives me a great quiet place to go to study Japanese a few days a week. More over my direct family members are my most trusted friends so it is nice to live with one of them again, they are always good company! I only stay at my fathers about 2 days out of the week because he lives 15 miles away from my job so the rest of the time I spend at my girlfriend's new apartment that is about 2 miles away from my work and 3 blocks from the school that I am taking Japanese from. hopefully everything will continue smoothing out and life will get back to or become less busy than it was before :)

Japanese 101

So at the end of last week I started taking my first Japanese class. So far it is easy, not that I thought the first day would be super hard. We talked about what Japanese words everyone knew and the professor asked that we learn seven words all of which are very easy: iie, hai, Sayoonara, Knonnichiwa, doomo, doozo, and desu. Lucky for me I already know all of those so I decided to learn most of the Japanese sounds and started learning some Katagana. So here it is A,I,U,E,O:

I hope that at the end of the semester I can look back at this and feel embarised about how poorly I wrote it. Ahh well my next class is tomorrow I hope that I learn lots! well everyone take it easy!

Gender specific food

So I went to the Asian food store today to get some fun food. Here is what I got :) Hot curry mix (my favorite), Noodle soup base and Soba noodles (for a delicious treat), and Men's Pocky? what? Now don't get me wrong the pocky is delicious but I don't understand. There is no women's pocky that I know of. It's dark chocolate so is that a literal translation of what dark chocolate is in Japanese? Anyone know what this is all about?

The new year

ok so I have reviewed what all has happened this year like so many crappy end of the year shows and I have discovered that it has been a great year! here is what has happened and I have learned in a nut shell:

1. So at the beginning of the year I started going out with my current girlfriend. she is a trip and then some. Lots - O - Fun!

2. I was able to have my Bachelor of fine arts senior show. its a nice addition to my artists resume.

3. I got my first "real" good pay, benefits, insurance, job at the McWane Science Center.

4. I graduated from college. Finally after 7 years.

5. I learned that Taco Bell Fire sauce is good on almost anything. Hot dogs and cup of noodles to name a few.

6. Finally I have a goal that I really really really want to accomplish. Having something that I really want to do is a great thing to happen to me. I find that in these scenarios the best comes out of me and it always seems to change my life for the better. which brings me to my goals for the year.

This will be the first year for me to do new years resolutions, and I want them bad enough that I think it will be easy to keep to them.

1. Learn to speak Japanese well enough to talk to a five year old with only a little difficulty.

2. practice singing so I don't completely embarrass my self at karaoke.

3. save up enough money to pay for my plane ticket to Japan and save enough money to pay my student loans for a year assuming I get the position.

4. and I guess I'll throw in some exercise for the year so I can have a little more energy.

finally I found this great quote. I think my last resolution for the year is to attempt to live by it.

I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it.
-Pablo Picasso