Random Catching Up - an Uninspirational Summary

There's been numerous house parties, a bizarre yakuba enkai involving volleyball, small silver fish and really bad jyakoten (wow, how do you spell that in English?), an evening of dinner/karaoke with the most sincerely kind and coolest ALTs ever, a typhoon (!), an earthquake (!!), a trip to Kyoto (!!!), and a small crush in my life all since the last time I blogged ten or so days ago.

I'd like to write a more meaningful summary about it all since it really has been a lot of fun but unfortunately I am out of time. Why? There are last minute details for tomorrow's Ehime AJET bbq/camping party in Niihama which I helped plan (we're expecting 50 people). And after an all-day all-night party involving sports, cooking, moonviewing and stargazing (I bought two bottles of sake and lots of dango just to get it right), I'm off to a concert in Misaki on Sunday with the ekaiwa folks. For those of you who are familiar with the layout of Ehime, you got it right.... just as soon as Aaron and I manage to book a rental car then the four of us ("Triple-A plus K") will drive from the southernmost tip of Ehime to the northernmost tip and back again all within 24 hours. We hope to live to tell the story!

Monday I'll visit the sumo dojo in Nomura to reserve seats for Ehime AJET and make a pitch for a community-AJET fundraising sumo event. Next Friday I'll be in Misaki again for a music performance and moonviewing party, Saturday I'm off to Oita-ken on Kyushu island to watch some famous O-kagura dancing, Sunday I return to Misaki by ferry to participate in the Aki (Autumn) Festival. The following weekend is my own community's Aki Matsuri and I'll be doing my part to pull the Ushi Oni (cow-demon) while singing folk songs and drinking lots and lots of sake.

In between all of this, and hopefully during my more sober moments, I'll try to update my blog and call home. But please consider this my heartfelt apology if I fall out of touch for yet another few weeks. PS JoJo - I WILL be in touch soon!!! I mean it!!!

Zou Desu Ne!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words so I won't bore you with any of my own, suffice to say that the enormous elephant on top of the Ikata-Mobile made a lot of people in town smile.

Tokyo Triptych

Why I love my san-nen sei kids...

We were teaching them the following grammar structure:
It is "_______" for me to do something (for example, "It is interesting for me to study English. It is fun for me to travel.")

The JTE gave them a fill-in-the-blanks handout.

The last sentence was "It is impossible for me to _________."

They were stumped. Only one student out of 35 could complete this sentence. Her answer was "It is impossible for me to fly."

No limitations...hurray for them!

Revelations, Tokyo and a Definate Course of Action for the Short-Term (Probably Maybe)

I strongly suspect that I need some outside perspective. I just spent 24 of the past 48 hours on a bus contemplating my post-Japan plans/options, exploring my (career) goals, defining the values that are most important to me, and really thinking about the kind of life I want to have and what I'd like to contribute to the world. It was pretty heavy stuff.

It turns out that 36 hours alone in Tokyo was just enough time to interview with the assistant director of admissions for an American International Business school and realize that I must do a joint-degree program, specifically involving the two-year economics program at his school. On the basis of that realization I've made a few important decisions about my future:

(1) I'm shooting for History PhD program (or might consider a master's program if fully funded which is unlikely) AND a master's degree in economics. No, you are not hearing things. Yes, I said economics. No, I have never formally trained in economics or mathematics in university. Yes, it will probably be a tough sell and will require a lot of hard work and preparation.

(2) It no longer matters to me how long the process (of school, applications, etc) takes. I just need to get past the point where these things are even an issue so I can focus on whats really important, like doing some interesting research, maintaining great friendships/relationships, working hard, living life. Interesting...in a lot of ways the life I hope to build for the future is exactly like the one I have right now here in Ikata. Isn't that a lovely thing to be able to say?

(3) I'm going to study - and eventually master - Japanese and Russian at school. And the people who discouraged me from pursuing Japanese (yes, there are such people) can just go back under the rock of negativity from which they crawled out. Hey - In ten years I may even try my hand at Chinese...

(4) The option to study Russian for a few months in St. Petersburg after leaving Japan looks better every day. If I'm not accepted into my first-choice international econ program I will probably wait a year before going to school and instead spend a few months in Russia. Truthfully, I'll be required to spend much of my first year studying the language anyway and right now my priority is travel. So, it seems like the right choice.

(5) Yes, travel. I'll have to spend at least a year doing research in Russia in order to produce a thesis. With the double business-degree option I'll have the opportunity to spend an additional 1-2 semesters abroad at exchange schools. This is incredibly exciting. Did I mention how important travel is? I once had a fleeting notion that I could camp for two years as a graduate student in order to use my rent money for international travel during holidays. Don't worry, approximately 30 seconds later I admitted the plan was not at all viable. Still, a person who would even entertain such a silly notion should make choices that will allow travel to be a realistic part of her future, don't you think?

Ok, so with all of this decided the game plan is to prepare for the GRE, apply to my first-choice economics program and two closely-related programs at other schools, continue to make progress on my other grad school application materials even though I may not actually apply for another year, save as much money as possible for Russia, and gently ease my family into the notion that best-case scenario I'll be in America next year but probably not in Chicago.

ｹｰｷですよ。