Donions!

I’m almost free! Yesterday I had my last two exams, so now all I’ve got are a couple more classes. My Japanese exam was pretty terrible–I left the kanji section almost entirely blank–but at least I managed to finish it in time and had some time to check it over. And honestly, I don’t really care that much about my grades in the class (especially since they don’t transfer back to Vassar); what’s more important to me is that I learn new stuff on my own that I can use in everyday life here. My other final was an in-class essay for my Japanese literature class, which I had only begun preparing for that day. It was open-notes, so I brought in a couple books to use for quotes and some notes I’d scribbled down. I thought it was going to be awful, but I actually think I did pretty well! It’s weird, for some reason I write a lot better under pressure. And during the final, my teacher said she was reading my previous paper, which I thought was terrible since I wrote it so quickly, and she said it was fantastic! Why didn’t I major in English? I’m clearly way better at it than computer science. Crap.

After that I went to go tutor the two daughters of another one of Nami-san’s friends, Chizako-san. She lives in Nishiazabu (Minato-ku) which is actually very close to where I live, Yoyogiuehara. I could also see Roppongi Hills from her house. Not a bad location! Chizako-san speaks the best English out of any of Nami-san’s friends, which is probably because of her ex-husband, who as far as I can tell can’t speak any Japanese. He also has an accent, so I don’t think English is his first language, but I couldn’t tell where he was from the one time I met him. Chizako-san’s daughters Isabella and Elisabeth are 4 and 7 respectively, and adorable. They can also speak pretty decent English! I was surprised at how quickly they could speak and think in English, especially the older one. The younger one was clearly having trouble understanding though, as she kept talking in Japanese–but I mean come on, she’s 4. We played card games the whole time, and it was a really relaxing way to end the day. When it came time to pay, I asked Chizako-san only for 1,000 yen, since that’s how much I charge everyone else per hour, and she was really surprised. She had taken out 3,000 yen so I think she was prepared to pay a lot more, but happily accepted my price and said I should come over more often and for longer. When I got home, Nami-san said she had called and said I was a really nice kid, which made me really happy.

I ended the night drinking with Nami-san, Akio-san, and Tatsuo-san, which I hadn’t done in a while because of studying for tests. I was surprised by how much I could understand from their conversation. I’m really starting to feel like I belong here. Last semester I still felt like an outsider, not understanding much about the language or the culture. But I’m finally getting that sense of home. I’m so glad I chose to do a year as opposed to one semester.

Also Erika just told me she’s trying to apply for a program in Kyoto for the summer! And it ends the same time my program ends, so we could both go back to LA together! I still feel pretty bad that I won’t be able to visit her in Paris because of lack of money. It’s gonna be hard not seeing her for so long, but I think it’ll be worth it.

Thanks for reading. I’ll leave you with some new music I’ve discovered recently. It sounds so familiar for some reason, but I don’t think I’ve heard it before.