A New Lease On Life

So here I am, it's 2016 and guess what? I was thinking of making a new blog. But then I remembered something....

I have a 3 year old blog languishing in the void, waiting to see a new blog post!

So, instead of making a whole new blog child, I decided Rising Sun Fun should get a little lovin' (after 3 years of neglect, but who's counting?) She might even get a new name, but we'll save that for a later date....

Anywho, for anyone who might stumble across this, let me (re) introduce myself.

I studied a lot of Japanese as an undergrad, and documented some of my study abroad shenanigans here (peruse my old posts at your leisure)

I'm now a grad student studying not Japanese, but Financial Economics. Which doesn't leave me much time to do anything else, which is pretty sad sooo...

To make up for the lack of foreign language international lovin' in my life, I'll be blogging to:

1. stay focused on my language self study 
2. pass time (duh!)

The kicker is that, I won't just be studying Japanese; I feel comfortable enough with my mediocre language abilities to rekindle my relationship with another language boo-thang or two, but I'll leave those other languages as a surprise. Stay tuned, and maybe you'll see what I'm up to this year.

Well, that was long! It was also kinda lame, so I'll try to be less lame in the future. However, I make no promises.

Until next time,

じゃね

日本語能力試験

昔々ある所に女の子は日本語能力試験という試験を受けました。

女の子は、ティーシアと呼ばれました。

合格しなさそうでした。

かわいそうでした。

I  wrote you a story. I am sorry, but my non Japanese-speaking/learning friends will need the google translate. But since I am kind, I will tell you the gist of the story; I took the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) today, and do not think I passed it. I took the N2, or second hardest level; but I won't even lie, I barely studied at all. So, I'm in this weird place where I think I either just passed it, or more likely just failed it.

I plan on assuming I failed, and will begin leisurely studying in anticipation of taking it next year. I'm a little bummed; assuming I did not pass this test (which I doubt), this will be the first time I've had to repeat a standardized test...there's a first time for everything I guess 仕方がないね

I'm also a little freaked out because it's already December... my time in Japan is running out really fast, but I don't want to talk about that right now...

I will follow this up with a more fun post eventually (and pictures!!)

じゃ、
ティーシア

横浜（１１月２０日）

久しぶり！

It's really been a while, hasn't it? Good. Sometimes it's good if one is scarcely available (well, even less available than usual, considering I am in a different country from all my family and most of my friends)

Moving on.

Guess what I did today? I went to Yokohama today! And I did various things in Yokohama, all of which were enjoyable. Let me tell you what happened.

Today (Wednesday) was a holiday for the Bekka students, which meant we didn't have to go to classes. Yay! Well, because of that Level 4-tachi (Hannah, Ariya, Soyeong and Rei) originally planned to go to Yokohama, and Hana extended the invitation to me because, duh. We all know each other and it would be fun. We met at 8am, which was a little early for my tastes, but mostly because I forgot about a paper that was also due the same day as the Yokohama day-trip and so stayed up a bit late to start/finish/submit it.

So, we met around 8ish am, ended up taking a bit of a walk to JR Tsudanuma and from then on began our journey to Yokohama; we went to Tokyo Station and explored for a bit, and bought food because of reasons. (The reason was hunger.) After about an hour of derping around in the huge Tokyo Station, we found the right platform for a train that would take us to Yokohama. Without counting the time we spent walking around Tokyo Station, our commute was around 90 minutes, not too bad at all.

When we got to Yokohama Station, we caught a subway train that would take us to our first destination; The Cup Noodle Museum. I won't lie, I was a little skeptical about going to such a place, but the museum was actually really great. That's what I get for judging something with no basis. So, our first order of business was to make our own package of cup noodles; we had to buy the noodle container and then we decorated it to our hearts content, picked what type of broth base and what toppings we wanted to add to the noodles, and then watched the cool process of ensconcing our noodle cup in protective shrink wrap. This is a condensed version of the process, but since you weren't there you will just have to deal. (I will also make it up by posting pictures.)

After we put our cup noodles in a bag (the bag is so cool, I'm not even joking) it was lunch time, so we went to the Noodle Bazaar, which was one of the dining area in the Museum. There, you could buy various international themed noodle dishes; they had Vietnamese, Korean, Italian, Thai, etc etc inspired noodles dishes, and they all looked delicious. The food was pretty cheap (300 yen), but everything was a half size so everyone bought two different dishes. After eating our delicous food, we decided to explore the museum more, and they had an area where there were a lot of interactive art displays, all of which were related to cup noodles and nurturing ideas/innovation. It was really cool, and we took a lot of silly pictures. After looking at everything in that part of the exhibit, we left the museum. The Noodle Museum was a great start to our Yokohama adventures.

After the Museum, we decided to walk to 中華街, or China Town. On the way, we passed the huge ferris wheel and mini amusement park in Yokohama and decided on the spot that we were going to ride it at night because it would be super pretty. Since it was still relatively early, we took a lot of detours on the short walk to China Town. We walked into a bunch of shops and pretty much window shopped, with Rei giving informative commentary about what different things were, what they meant/were used for, etc. It was really cute, she was really happy when we got to China Town and there were kanji everywhere. We ended up leaving the area for dinner, however, because we needed to find a place where everyone can eat; Ariya does not eat pork (she is Muslim), and we quickly determined (well, Rei did, being as she is from Taiwan and thus speaks Chinese) that all of the restaurants probably use lard after asking a restaurant worker. So, we made our way back towards the ferris wheel and ate at a restaurant in a big shopping mall/restaurant building. It was DELICIOUS, I still think of that meal sometimes.

After dinner we, you guessed it, rode on the ferris wheel. I was a little freaked out at first because the ferris wheel is high and I am weak to high things/areas, but I quickly got over my fear because, well, a ferris wheel is not a roller coaster. The way you got in the ferris wheel is kind of ridiculous, it never really stops moving so you kind of have to run-jump into it; it's been a long time since I rode a ferris wheel, but I don't remember ever entering that way. The view was beautiful; it was a good decision to ride it at night. After the ferris wheel, we all decided to go home.

That was a fun day. I hope I get to go back to Yokohama one of these days.

じゃ、
ティーシア

dorm room

(Old Post)

Saturday is my room cleaning/major laundry day, so excuse the bare bed and clothes hanging up.

Yatsu International Dormitory (谷津国際寮）

Yes, that's my laundry in the window.
Can't hang out outside because it was raining.

Hildegarde says "Heeeyy"
Also, my bed can fold up.
Much better than a bunk bed.

  

This is my bathroom. A little bare, but easy to clean.

Good closet space. And hi luggage!

This is my room. It's pretty cozy. I have an air conditioning unit, which was pretty handy when it was super hot.  The only issue I have with the dorm (and I guess a good part of Japan) is that there is no central heating in the building.

So, the lovely Roxy Dao and Momoko informed me that I just have to change my air con to 'heat setting'. When I actually bothered to look at the remote for my air unit, I saw that, yes, that is all I had to do. How glorious. Much warm. So heat. wow. No freeze.

So, this isn't 一人暮らし (hitorigurashi, single life) per se, but I've gotten a good sense of how much food I actually need (not think I need), resigned to filling out paper work (been used to that though), paying rent monthly (cries).

Living alone for real won't be that bad. Assuming I have an income flow of course (obviously). I mean, quasi doing it in a country where I am not a citizen and don't even fucking fluently speak the language erases a lot of anxiety I didn't even know I had about living alone back in the states, where I can successfully understand all forms
given to me without the aid of a dictionary (yeah!)

Vlog #2

Vlog #2:Typhoon, Sakura Matsuri, La La Port, Ueno Zoo from Latesia Manuel on Vimeo.

Notes for clarification:
The toy guns I was talking about weren't little pistols; they were modeled after large, assault rifles. And they were rather realistic looking, as opposed to the bright, cartoonish toy guns I am used to seeing. 

no title necessary

((Edit: this post is from a few weeks ago when he [Christian] actually arrived in Japan. He has since been working at his new job for a few days. I was just being lazy and did not post it on time))

GUESS WHO LANDED IN JAPAN TODAY?
IF YOUR GUESS WAS CHRISTIAN, YOUR GUESS WOULD BE HYAKU PASENTO CORRECT.

Ugh, I can't even; I wish I had hung out with him more at Dartmouth (but I was busy being a weird, shy/introvert that did not think I deserved friends, but that's a talk for another time)

But anyway, it was nice talking to Christian; he ended up coming to KUIS, and I got to see him for a bit. Apparently Bekka has changed a lot since he studied at KUIS (2 years ago).

Well anyway, I was really happy to see Christian. I will miss his face when I return to cold Dartmouth (I'll be going back in the winter, chill, I'm not that mopey about going back to the states)

One of these days, I'm going to go out and visit him, but he lives a little far from me... shouganai, ne?
We also have tentative plans to go to a club, which will be AMAZING, LET'S BE HONEST.

Naho suggests Feria...

Hannah managed to get a picture of me looking uncharacteristically cheesy/happy and Christian being cool per usual.

Good Job Hana-pe.

The Struggle Bus Chronicles, Japan: 化粧水

for all my lovelies who cannot read Japanese/did not feel like google translating the blog title (I see you), this little bit is entitled keshyousui, which is face lotion. 

So, I forgot to bring my go to facial moisturizer from home (woops), and only brought travel sized facial cleansers (yes, I use separate product for my face and body, like my momma and grandma taught me) so, I'd been planning to buy said products for weeks. However, my facial endeavor was halted due to the glaring fact that I CAN'T READ LOTS OF KANJI/SOMETIMES READING LARGE BLOCKS OF JAPANESE HURTS MY BRAIN. I also forgot to bring a large sized face wash, but I bought one of those already; I remembered what I used with the Kitagawa family last year and just got that.

Well, I only dislike attempting to read Japanese in small print. Because, it's small, and I have to squint. I'll look into reading glasses one of these days.

I'm not familiar with the terminology used for Japanese personal products, so for the first couple of weeks I got so overwhelmed looking at the shelves packed full of bottles with labels I couldn't read and bright confusing labels, I couldn't tell the difference between a moisturizer or lotion. I soon became able to determine what was probably a cleanser vs a moisturizer (75% accuracy), but then I started noticing a kanji that I did understand: 白（しろ、white). I then noticed, in small catchy lettering, that many of the bottles had some helpful English words on them, that went a little something like this: 'Moisture, Emulsion, Brightening, Whitening'

Moisture? Okay. Emulsion? Sure, okay.

Brightening? Hmmm, what you mean?

Whitening? Uhhhh.....no.

And then, all of a sudden, I started noticing that a lot of bottles had 白 or Whitening/Brightening somewhere on the bottle. I then concluded, like the smart person I am, that lots of these 75% either facial cleansers and/or moisturizers had a 95% chance of containing some sort of skin "whitening/brightening" element. I became even more confused, because I'm not sure if whitening/brightening actually means something different in the Japan cosmetic market like it does in the USA, so I was so paranoid. Like, there's a good chance my basic Japanese knowing self would have accidentally bought a whitening lotion/cleanser, and then started freaking out as my face magically got lighter (I'm dying y'all, hellpp) 

I'm not here for that. I am also not here to throw shade or talk ill of people who use lightening products either. I'm just still not over the fact that I struggled so hard/it took me so long to find the patience to wade through search through the endless assortment of facial products and find a plain old moisturizer. In case your wondering, it took me three weeks to find a facial moisturizer.

3. Weeks.

I did not really expect buying basic toiletries to be such a struggle. But, I should not have been surprised.

HOWEVER, I finally found a moisturizer (with the help of Ikuko). I actually got two things; Freshel Moisture Lotion, and Freshel Moisture Emulsion, both with Kanebo. The Moisture Lotion is actually, well, not any type of lotion I'm used to. It's a liquid, which is quite cool and different for me, but I read somewhere that liquid moisturizers are more common in Japan/Asia as a whole due to the lighter nature of it being useful in hotter climates/just the fact that the Asian beauty market is ridiculous/where dreams are made of (unless you are in my boat, and have no illusions of being able to buy any makeup other than lipstick, eyeshadows, mascara aka anything that doesn't need to match your skin tone)

Well anyway, here are pictures of me holding my 'moisture lotion' and 'moisture emulsion'. I've been using them for a few days, and my skin is agreeable to them, so I think I made a good choice. The big one is the liquid lotion (clear, slightly viscous/sticky) and the small one is the emulsion (opaque, milky looking, a more creamy liquid texture).

Me actually reading the How To Use instructions on the back.

Me realizing I've been applying the emulsion the wrong way.

I'll probably make it a point to study the words on the back of these bottles; I'm sure I'll get some good vocabulary words out of it.

All I can say is stay tuned; the Struggle Bus Chronicles will be an ongoing series.

Vlog #1: oh heyy

This video isn't perfect, but I hope you like it!

Classes, Free Time, Tests from Latesia Manuel on Vimeo.

first week of classes

久しぶり！(but not really...)

So, this week I finally started classes. The first day of classes was cancelled because of a typhoon, so we ended up starting on Tuesday. Other than that, it's been a pretty good week; the first few days were boring because all we did was go over syllabus for the most part, and I had to force myself to enter school mode because not having to do anything academic for two weeks was pretty awesome, I must admit. I think I'll be fine in level 3; there are a lot of things I recognize, but was never 100% confident in my ability to use them appropriately. I feel like I would die in level 4, but maybe I'm just talking bad about myself (I'm actually not tho)

So, I have to take Intensive Japanese A3, which is grammar or something, Intensive Japanese B3, which is kanji or something, and Interaction 3, in which we apply our Japanese skill to various life situations. These three are compulsory, I don't really care to go into detail describing them; they're all intensive Japanese language classes. I have two out of three mandatory electives picked; skill up kanji because, duh, kanji; skill up written expression because it's with level 4 (what up Hannah!) and I suck at writing things in Japanese.

The third class is being a little taihen. I attended Japanese Sociolinguistics, but I'm not really feeling that as a class. It's taught in English, there are no Japanese students in it... yeah, no. Also, Socioling is on a during the last class period on Wednesday, and I have 3 other classes before it; I was a bit too tired by then for my liking. I didn't attend the first class of the Study of Japanese Culture II because I was tired (I had my compulsory classes before it), and just wasn't interested because I took a similar class at Dartmouth; but of course, after I miss the first class I read closer and realized that it is the one elective taught in English AND open to both exchange students and Japanese students open to students of my level. All I can really do is hope it's not full, check the student enrollment list at Kaede lounge on Monday and check it out next Wednesday if there is room. Me and Hannah both want to check out Skill Up Oral Expression, which is another level 3/4 combo course, BUT it meets on Monday; so the first class was cancelled because of a typhoon. Guess what next Monday is? A national holiday! Which means that we won't get to even check that class out until THE WEEK AFTER NEXT WEEK, but luckily the add drop period was extended one week because of all this Monday foolery. But still.

My level advisor/head honcho thinks I should take the Self Directed Learning course because I told him my grammar is weak (he whole-heartedly agrees), but I don't really want to take that; the way that class is described, I basically come up with my own study plan to increase my competency in an aspect of the Japanese language of my choosing. I feel like I can do that on my own. I get all flustered when I speak, I want to take Skill Up Oral Expression. So yeah, I don't think I'll be doing Self Directed Learning (I have a history of respectfully disregarding the advice of well-intending advisors. I know my weaknesses better than anyone)

So yeah, classes. They're coming together.

Oh, I also have a tutor!  Ayana <3 She's nice, and I like her, and we're going to asobu somewhere, along with Hannah and Saeko. It's going to be good times. Of course, the wonderful Yukina is an omnipresence via Line (and I will see her and the fam again very soon, I'm quite sure)

And sweet baby Jesus, I've been meeting so many people this week. Like, in such high volumes that I don't remember most of the people's names, just their faces, which is super awkward for me. I've also signed up for a Language Exchange, which will involve me meeting and speaking with a KUIS student(s); they help me with my Japanese, I help them with English, we become friends (?), BOOM. I had two people respond to my language partner ad, which is a little overwhelming for me to be honest, because, meeting people is actually a big thing for me.

Next week I get to catch up with Nami; we're eating lunch together! I haven't seen her for a couple of weeks, but we've been keeping contact via Line as well, so all is well; I need to redeem myself and be more talkative around her, she saw me at my worst right off the plane, waaaahhh

I'm going to a college fair in Akihabara tomorrow (Saturday); that will be interesting I'm quite sure.
I might do a vlog post about my extended weekend in a couple of days.

Jya

つづく

host families redux

9月12日, 木

Guess what I did today? I went and visited my first homestay, the Kitagawa family! I went to go have dinner with them and spend the night. At first I was worried I forgot how to get to the town they live in, but it all came back the minute I walked into Kaihinmakuhari Eki; board Keiyou sen train bound to soga, switch to Sotobo sen at Soga and get off at Toke Eki, try to find okaasan amongst the throng of high schoolers and salary men.

My family lives in a small town called Asumigaoka, inaka (country as they put it). Everything was so natsukashii, I couldn't even. I chatted with okaasan for a while, something I struggled with last year (read as could not do). No matter how bad I feel my Japanese is, I do need to accept I did improve a lot. Okaasan and I were the first one's back; she's cooking dinner ( I can't cook washoku so I am kind of useless to her), so I'm watching this  word game/charades type of show as Cookie (the doggie) alternates between asking for pets, grooming, and sleeping. And Cookie remembered me! That made me happy, good dog. Sadly, Cookie is quite old, so her health is warukunatteiru-ing. Apparently she wasn't able to walk for a while, but she's doing much better now (as in she can walk again...sorta...carefully)


I feel like old sweat; I hope I don't smell how I feel (probably do). oh, and i got a blister from my shoes, which makes sense since I didn't break them in) but no regrets. Anyway, Otousan and Yukina are both commuting, so they both get in a little late. We kept Otousan out of the loop that I was coming because we wanted him to be surprised; he was, haha. (We had to tell Okaasan because she was the only one home at the time, we told her I was here days after Yukina and I started planning my visit).  Yukina arrives not long after Otousan, and it is good times. Everyone is quite surprised (pleased) that my Japanese is so much better than last year; we were able to chat, and I actually sounded like a semi articulate person and understood basically everything they said, vs last year when I understood basically nothing. You know, if level 3 means I can understand and talk to my family over here, I'll take it.

Kitagawa Cookie is cuter than you. Sorry.

9月13日, 金
So cue Friday morning, and we have to get some bonding in before I go back to KUIS for health exam (vaguely described in aforementioned post). Otousan is gone I believe (doing fun stuff I think, I can't remember if he has Saturday off), so Okaasan, Yukina, and I kind of derp around (well, I derp around, Yukina gets to sleep in because she has a real person cool job and a long commute every day), and Okaasan is doing chores and whatnot so the house doesn't turn into a cesspool of regret (I don't think that would ever happen though); we depart around 10 o'clock and drive to a nearby mall full of restaurants and stores. We amble around for a while, because they want to take me to a restaurant, but it's not open yet. We end up looking at clothes (Yukina needs more work clothes), but mostly take a bunch of 試食 (shishyoku; free samples) from stores, all of which were really good and quite generously sized. And, once again, Kitagawa family for the win: yesterday I told Okaasan how I was struggling to grocery shop (it's not that easy when you don't know what all the signs, labels mean), and how I couldn't find salt/pepper in the grocery close to my home, so we went to a grocery store in the mall and they helped me find seasonings, instant miso (they had miso paste at the store near my dorm, which means I would need to buy dashi and toppings separately...yeah, no #poorstudentlyfe). Yep, everything was great until she paid for my stuff (it wasn't that much, but I was not aware she would buy it for me. Nice, sneaky nihonjin; is this because I brought them omiyage)?


So, once we were done eating free things/buying me spices so I can cook better and not starve, we went to the restuarant, which was a natural food buffet (almost literal translation, I forgot the actual name)  which was awesome! I didn't eat too much, because they were going to weigh us for our health check and I am vain; also, my sleep schedule is back in order now (I think), but my appetite is still not as strong as it used to be; not sure if it's because of the heat or jet lag anymore to be honest. And I ate well at dinner last night (it was tempura! yum) so I wasn't too worried. It was a fun time, because we got to chat more, and we ended up having a bilingualish conversation about health in Japan and America, and the prevalence of high fructose corn syrup in American food, particularly cheap unhealthy food. I think I've already had more complex conversations in this past week, then I did in two months last year? Of course, in true "I'm a mom and I do what I want" fashion, Okaasan paid again, but I am resigned to this. I at least promised to visit again, and cook for them one day; before the restaurant, we were eating shishyoku in a specialty type food store that had foreign/trendy foods (they had cream soda! (my great-grandma used to love cream soda <3) and oatmeal is apparently becoming quite trendy, but that store was so expensive, waa). Well anyway, they had these tiny, expensive cans of coconut milk in the store, and I mentioned about how I make it at home sometimes, so basically I'm going to cook them food one day. Gotta make it good, they're a crowd used to good food. They are also quite skeptical of cooking rice in a pot vs a rice cooker, haha. So, I departed from them, but I will be back. The Kitagawa saga will gain more chapters.Also, we ended up taking a family photo, but it's on Okaasan's nikon (she's so cool) once Yukina figured how to set the timer and we ended up propping it up with every book in the house. So, once again, no picture. We're an attractive bunch though, so you can imagine 

So, we depart from the restaurant around 12:35 and make a quick drive to Kamatori Eki, where me and Yukina get in a train; I have to go for my health exam (hehehe), and Yukina is going to the dentist (頑張ってね） I already wrote about the health exam, so after that Hannah and I hang out around Kaihimmakuhari Eki because we're off to visit one of her old host families from last year! We were supposed to meet Noah (a Dartmouth first year, well, second year now, doing an exchange at Keio), but turned out he couldn't meet us at Kaihim so we ended up eating shishyoku and eventually buying food at a new bread shop/convenience store/supermarket hybrid of wonder that had just opened; it was really good! After that, we went to Shim-Matsudo to go to the Indian Restaurant owned and run by Hannah's family (whose name I forget....hehe). Noah came about an hour after us, just in time for dinner. We have good times, basically. Dinner was great; another highlight of Friday was sending strange pictures of our faces to Kazuki and Masahiro as we waited for our transfer train.

dinner at Hannah's homestay family's restaurant, Babu

me and Hannah being attractive at Nishi Funabashi

Kazuki responding in kind to our lovely photo

9月15日、日
I accompanied Hannah to visit her other homestay family from last year, the Watanabes! They are so cute, I can't even. (I was supposed to go to a bbq turned into indoor party with Masahiro today, but because of the typhoon and the fact that I am feeling quite broke after paying my dorm fee, I had to cancel). We had lunch with them, and chatted about various things for a few hours before departing. Well, by departing, I mean they took us to another department store where we bought rain ponchos for the impending typhoon (on the first day of classes of course), and bento boxes and whatnot; of course, they tricked us and payed for it. Nihonjin paying for stuff seems to be a trend; I should have known something was up when they had us put our things in the basked Hannah's Otousan was holding. At least everything was only 100 yen; that actually doesn't' make anything better.In conclusionSo, uh, yeah, the last few days have been good. I need to stop writing now because I may be slightly tipsy and want to go to sleep. Don't judge me; I'm of age in both Japan and the USA.


Oyasumi!