canada and germany come to japan.

Tadaima! Sorry for the lengthy vacation I apparently took from my blog...my most dedicated reader (at least as far as comments go!), my former roommate Jen, admonished me for not posting more often. And look, it worked - I'm back!

Actually, I've just been busy getting into classes here - and though the culture courses seem rather routine in terms of workload, my language class is already pushing me to my limits! The linguistic professors here are superior - they are so well-educated, well-traveled, and exceptionally personable, matching their lessons to their students. Which is great, unless you are in a class labeled "beginning Japanese" where YOU want a true beginners' course, and since everyone else in the class has actually studied Japanese previously, the teacher opts for "review of beginning Japanese." It's going to be good for me in the long-run because I'm having to work double-time to keep up - but right now, it's really challenging! Ex: over four days, I self-taught Hiragana reading and writing. Then, over one night, I self-taught Katakana reading and writing. (Each of these scripts has about 46 characters, so it's like learning 2x the English alphabet for each. Hiragana and Katakana have the same 46 sounds, but different characters for each - so it gets way confusing.) My brain is now fried. And it's only the second week of classes! And I haven't even had a quiz/test/exam yet! Oh, boy...

The other reason I hadn't written is that there's not been any *big* news as of late. Nagoya is...far away...and Nisshin, the "city" where NUFS is located, is...uneventful. But finally - and just in time to keep Jen content - TWO things happened!

::drumroll::

1. As I sat practicing Katakana characters in those little gridded blocks (kind of like when you had to practice cursive in second grade) at my desk, I began hearing a ruckus outside my balcony. Now, ruckus is not unusual in the evenings, as local teen bands apparently use the tiny mobile-home-ish sheds behind the I-House parking lot for weeknight rehearsals. But this ruckus was familiar in a way, so I had to open my balcony door and listen in more closely. And suddenly, I recognized - through a painfully flat pitch and awkward Japanese accent - "He was a skaterboy, she said 'see ya later, boy," he wasn't good enough for her..." So, I have been listening to The Best of Avril Lavigne (if you can call it that) a la Japonais for the past hour...and it continues. Right now we've gone back to Skaterboy, which I think is this chick's forte. She doesn't quite have the range for some of Avril's other musical masterpieces.

2. Before I moved on to doing my homework (which obviously I have now stopped in order to write this post...I am SUCH a model student), I was procrastinating by making plans for my first trip since arriving here at I-House. And TOTALLY by accident, I fell into what may be the greatest vacation of my not-quite-twenty-one-year-old life: OKTOBERFEST, IN JAPAN! Is it too good to be true? YES! - but it's still true!!! Yokohama City, Japan's second largest city (and a suburb of Tokyo), hosts its own German-themed festival beginning next weekend. I'll catch the second weekend during my three-day stay in Yokohama. I'm also hoping to check out the jazz bar scene, as the annual Yokohama Jazz Promenade will also be taking place that weekend. Other than those events and the city's downtown attractions, I'm hoping to squeeze in a day trip to Kamakura, a great site nearby for some historical sightseeing. I can't wait. This is definite motivation to survive class for the next two weeks, as well as all sorts of varied musical performances (oh god, they're reprising Skaterboy for the millionth time...Jen, how I long for the days [nights] of karaoke at Christy's when at least "Sweet Home Alabama" sounded halfway in-tune...)

I'm going to take a walk now. Between Katakana and Avril, I've got to get some peace of mind back before continuing on the homework (: Matane!