Midterm Week

Last Friday: Pop. Culture Essay Due-easy

Tuesday: Spoken Japanese Oral Exam-easier than I thought it would be, but still pretty hard

Wednesday: Reading/Writing Japanese Reading Exam-easy as pie

Thursday: SPJ Written Exam-ugh, I don't even want to talk about it. XD

Friday: RWJ Written Exam-not too bad

Next Tuesday: Ethics Exam-I'm looking forward to this, which is weird, because I'm not a huge fan of tests. I don't hate them, but I don't like them either. I think it's because I'm really liking this class, and the test is essay question based, so I'll get to talk about what I've gotten out of the readings at length!

So, that's my week in a nutshell. Originally I was supposed to have the Ethics test on this Tuesday, but the professor took pity on us, which I am of two minds about. On one hand, I like having the extra time to study, but on the other hand, I would have liked to get everything done and over with in a week.

Last Saturday's outing to Kyoto was fun. The cake we made is called Yatsuhasi, and I wouldn't actually call it cake. It's closer to a chip texture. It came in thin rectangles, and we got to put them on the open cook tops and do various things to them as they moved down the rows. You placed them in two rows of four and then put a wooden block on top. There were six 'stations' sets of rows with a block over them. The one on the far right would be taken off, and they were all moved down, with pauses where you changed the order of the eight rectangles in each set, to make room for the new set. It's really hard to explain without having the materials in front of me. But they were tasty! Apparently they come in all sorts of flavors, but our were cinnamony and reminded me a bit of snickerdoodle cookies!

This Saturday, I'm helping out with an English Learning Camp that Kansai is hosting. A bunch of Elementary students are coming to Kansai, and getting a tour of the campus, and then they'll come through the rooms where we, the foreign students, will be. There'll be booths for the different countries, and the kids will ask us questions about our countries, families, schools, etc.

Then on Sunday, I have a meeting with my presentation group. My pop. culture class has been split into groups to present on the next few weeks topics. My topic is one that's close to my heart: Otaku! Mostly what we're dealing with is the differences between how the Japanese view otaku, which is mostly negatively, and how the term has been adapted/used/received abroad. One thing that has surprised me the most is that none of the Japanese students I've interviewed have known where the word originally came from or what it meant before it was used to describe anime and manga lovers. I've learned through my own research, and by living on Otaku Hall, that it originally meant house or home or family. Later it came to be used as a formal way of saying 'you'. When used this way it indicated distance, it wasn't used by close friends. This is why scholars think it got morphed into meaning what it does today. A big stereotype of otaku culture, is people who stay at home and only talk to others who are interested in their specific interest. They distance themselves from the rest of society. Another thing I've learned about this, is that most Japanese define otaku as being obsessed or interested in only one thing, to the exclusion of all else. Otaku have one interest, and are always researching and learning more about that one thing. This is different to the way a lot of Westerners use the term: to refer to anyone who is interested in anything Japanese, regardless of the depth of that interest.

Well, I got a little carried away, talking about that, but it ties in to what I've been doing and thinking about lately, so consider it a look into my head!

So, I realized today, that I've been in Japan for almost two months exactly. I'm halfway through, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. :\ I'll let you know when I figure it out.

Have a good weekend folks!