Looking back so far...

I've come to realize that the most interesting experiences I've had in this country... somehow end up involving food. Tonight was no different.

I went downstairs after finishing my homework and chatted with my host family. My second host brother who lives in Hokkaido (the northern-most island in Japan) is here for 2 weeks because he has an art exhibition in Osaka (he's an artist and his stuff is really awesome. Here's his blog where you can see some pictures, although it's in Japanese, so try just clicking random stuff: http://www6.plala.or.jp/seiji_honda2008/)

Anyway, whenever he comes down he brings lots of... interesting snacks. Today my host father issued me a challenge (he even used the English word "challenge" to dare me to do it) and put a small plate of brown liquid with small black things floating in it. I tasted it, and it was absolutely delicious. My host mom and dad then gave me the Japanese word for it, of which I understood a few words here and there and put together that it was some time of squid. I was wrong.

They looked up the word in the dictionary which gave the following description: "fish guts pickled in squid ink." Whoa. With this information in mind I tried another bite. Somehow not quite as appetizing as the first one, and when my host mom asked me some question I can't remember, I gagged a little bit in the middle of my answer, although she didn't seem to notice.

I went for a third go, and, in the end, it was pretty good. The texture is like eating a slug with a thick rubber band inside it, and it stuck in my teeth like a bear in a trap, but, somehow, it was good.

I honestly think that if I had tried this before coming to Japan, though, I most likely would have ejected it from my mouth at high velocity the second it hit my tongue, but I'm just so used to eating weird variations of sea food that I almost feel like no food from this country can phase me anymore.

I told my host family that it was delicious (honestly because there is no word for just "good" in Japanese, it's either delicious or it's so-so or it's horrible) at which they offered me another challenge for the future: Natto. A.K.A. rotten soybeans. Oh boy.

This semester

Well, I won't beat around the bush. Last semester my classes were awful. My Japanese teacher was Satan realized in Japanese Person form, my electives were on par with a community college course on spirituality, and the only Japanese I learned all semester was slang from my Japanese friends.

This semester, however, looks awesome.

My Japanese teacher tells jokes in class, there is laughing, there is discussion and conversation, in just a few days I can already tell my Japanese has gotten better.

I'm also taking Japanese religion, which seems like it's going to be pretty dry. Straight up info, most of which I know already, and a teacher who drones on and on. But, it's good stuff to know in light of the culture, and it seems like, at the very least, it'll be like any normal (boring?) lecture class at Middlebury.

My translation class, on the other hand, is going to be awesome. The teacher is lively, funny, and really really really knows her stuff (from what I gather she's a rather famous interpreter...) Our homework is actually fun and engaging, and besides getting a little practice for a possible career path, it's really interesting to investigate exactly how English and Japanese differ, what makes them unique languages, and how not just to convey information from one to the other, but ideas.

That's all I have to say at the moment, that things are looking good for the next four months.

P.S. with Obama's inauguration in 5 days (6 for you guys, I guess) it's just so awesome to know that America elected a president with integrity, who we can trust in to solve our current problems (Guantanamo closed in the first few days of office? I'm sold). It's good to be proud to be American.

Mo' Pictures

So these ones include pictures from when I went skiing in Nagano at a place called Nozawaonsen, as well as a day trip to the city of Nara that I just returned from.

In other news, it snowed last night!

Pictures!