Thursday, April 22, 2010

4月22日 Day 29: Kate Gets Lost

Today was full of lessons in epic, epic failure.

Today in Modern Japanese fiction, I learned this new phrase, 生きよ堕ちよ (ikiyo ochiyo) which means, "To live is to fall," and that is exactly what I did.

I went to school and endured Japanese class with my Thursday/Friday sensei who I really don't like. The class' lesson today was a HUGE step backwards, we learned short/informal form (食べる、食べた etc.) because apparently people still don't know how to use it in Japanese M2... Naturally, I dozed off because I had actually retained that information. I even saw a Korean guy smacking his head against our textbook in frustration, muttering to himself, "OMG SERIOUSLY?!"

Sensei definitely noticed my lack of interest and made me read aloud, which is probably my biggest weakness. She was so passive aggressive about it too, "Who's listening, who's listening...? AH-- KEEEITO-SAN! Nemui desu ka? (Are you sleepy?)" DAMN RIGHT, I'M SLEEPY... GAAAAHHH! I wanted to punch her in the face!

Anyway, I went to Modern Japanese Fiction, which was lovely and not a complete waste of my time. My professor is this sophisticated Chinese woman who married a Japanese man. When telling us about formal Japanese speech that no one uses anymore, she said, "My mother-in-law used to speak like that. She's dead now. Haha." EVERYONE burst out laughing. PRICELESS.

Then I went home, went to the grocery store and then to the post office to withdraw money. I thought I'd be real slick and take a shortcut. I had been taken down that road before and saw all the familiar landmarks, but I got SO lost...

On top of that, it was raining cats and dogs and windy as all hell. So rainy and windy in fact, that my umbrella broke (X_X). Great. Lost and wet with a busted umbrella. Here's the path I took: (green represents the eventual path I took to get home.)


  1. Started at the grocery store outside the train station, picked up some essentials and school supplies.
  2. Walked to the post office. Withdrew money. Got cocky.
  3. Tried to take shortcut home from post office. Walked for about an hour, saw familiar buildings and landmarks from previous excursions, with no idea why I was lost. Got about 3/4 of the way home gave up, and turned around, drenched.
  4. Serious backtracking. Ended up back at the train station, walked home in a complete circle. Bought a new umbrella, completely humiliated.
My hair and jeans were basically soaked through. My legs had denim stains on them because they were so wet. I had arranged for my friends and me to eat in Harajuku (at a restaurant I had never been to before), so I hopped in the shower, washed the shame off, and e-mailed a map to my phone so I wouldn't get lost going to this restaurant.

We went to Sakura-tei, where my new friend Kana works. We had okonomiyaki, yakisoba and every dessert on the menu (for 10% off, thanks to Kana). It was delicious. Guess it kinda made up for the fact that I got uber lost.

Hey, it wouldn't be an international experience if I didn't get completely lost every once in a while, right? BLEH, hope it doesn't happen again any time soon... Golden Week is coming up!

Ugh, I have Fundamentals of Religion tomorrow. Not excited. The professor basically just yaks about his opinion on religion, pisses people off, and then gets too whimpy and Japanese to calm down the arguments, side comments and personal anecdotes that people subsequently feel compelled to share. UGH.

At least I have Contemporary Japanese Society afterwards, which is by far my favorite class. THEN IT'S THE WEEKEND AND I'M FREEEEEEEEEEEEE~!

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