So another semester of Japanese is staring us in the face and dang I wish I had studied over break. I am actually surprised at how quickly I am remembering all the old stuff, and learning the new things. I actually really like teiru, it was difficult to understand at first but now that I kind of get it I think it is really useful. ni ikimasu is okay, I don't really like using that kind of pre-made sentence structure if I don't have to, but I can see it being useful in certain situations, or opening the door to a new way of making sentences.
One thing about Japanese that is really exciting for me is that I am going to Japan this summer! My friend Ross (he is studying animation at SVA in New York) and I bought tickets this winter break, a round trip leaving May 15 and returning June 15. We are basically going to go there with some clothes and minimal cooking equipment, buy some bikes in Tokyo, and head south and then loop north, and camp out as much as we can, and visit temples and castles and just kind of hobo around for a month. One thing that sounds really fun is for when we are in cities, one of his Japanese friends told him internet cafes are really cheap, and you can basically rent a booth for 8 hours for about $15, so we might spend the night that way a few times. So I guess this semester I better really get on top of my Japanese!
I am really excited about this semester though, I think it will be really good. I have a bunch of really interesting classes; besides Japanese I have a computer music class, Technosonics, with Matthew Burtner, who is a great professor, if you ever have a chance to take a class with him go for it, I say. I also have Chinese American Identity, Language, and Culture, which is really interesting so far, and the discussions we have in class are fascinating. I also have a class called Dracula, which is about the evolution of the vampire myth from ancient Slavic myths to contemporary American film. Besides all that I have a really fun and well paying job, I have two bands in the works and have been working on lots of really fun solo stuff recently, and generally am just rocking out. So I was nervous the first day of Japanese, but now I am super-confident about learning the heck out of this language. I guess I should probably study a bit before I say that though!
Sorry I didn't do this in Japanese by the way I know that kind of defeats the purpose - I am on my work computer which can't type in Japanese and I had so much to say about this semester's Japanese and other stuff I didn't really know how to write it in Japanese.
