一週間の活動One Week's Activities

This last week has just been pure chaos. Every day, there was something going on. So, the highlights...

今週は大混乱だった。毎日、何かしたよ。さあ、総集編は．．．

Tuesday was a day for teaching English. Well, that and a trip to the arcade... yeah, I spent too much time in the arcade this last week. Anyway, I went back to Rakuto Middle School for another day of helping to teach English. This time, it was just me. Since I had to do everything, I wonder if maybe I'm not quite energetic enough to really be a good teacher... oh well, I have time (and the chance) to practice, right?

火曜日には英語を教えた。そして、ゲームセンターに行った．．．多分、行き過ぎた。とにかく、洛東中学校に英語を教えに行った。今度は、僕だけ。もっと元気にすればいいかな．．．まあ、練習の時間があるね。

After that, I was planning to meet my language exchange partner late in the day for dinner. Since I had time to kill, I went to the arcade and played another round or two of the Gundam game. It's addictive, and expensive to boot... which means whoever made that game is certainly good at their job.

その後、ランゲージパートナーと会う予定があった。暇な時間があったから、ゲームセンターに行って、また戦場の絆をした。

Anyway, my language partner. He's a student from Kyodai who wants to learn English... our conversations are interesting, to say the least. His English pronunciation needs a little work, but I feel like he has a better grasp of vocabulary than I do... We met at a McDonalds at the intersection of Imadegawa and Kawaramachi streets; I tried their teriyaki burger. It was okay, I suppose.

とにかく、ランゲージパートナー。彼は京大の大学生だ。僕らの会話は面白いよ。彼の英語の発音はちょっと．．．でも、僕より単語が上手だ。僕らは今出川川原町にあるマクドナルドで会って、僕は照り焼きバーガーを食べてみた。まあまあだった。

Oh, and on the subject of "interesting conversations"... somehow a discussion on environmental problems turned into power sources, and from there into nuclear weapons. To be fair, he brought up the atomic bomb first... but how am I supposed to answer "we've had a nuclear weapon used on us"?

そして、「面白い会話」って．．．なんとか、環境問題についての会話は発電所についての会話に変わった。その後、原子兵器！まあ、彼は最後の話題を始めるけど、「日本は原子兵器を使われた」の返事はどうすればいい。

His topic was better than mine... I wanted to talk about Japanese schools and universities, but realized in short order that I didn't have all that many things to ask about. So that was also awkward, although for a different reason. I did learn that in Japanese universities, students will refer to themselves as fifth or even sixth year students if they end up repeating their senior year. Don't American universities kick you out if you have to repeat a year more than once?

でも、その話題は僕のよりいいと思う。僕は日本の教育を話したかったけど、早く何も聴きたいことがなくなった。違う理由だけど、その話題もばつが悪い。でも、面白いことを習った．．．日本の大学で四年を留年したら、五年生と六年生と言う。アメリカの大学は、一回以上留年したら、除籍しないの？

That was it for Tuesday... on Wednesday, I got sick. Ugh. Just a cold, but I felt kind of off all day... and then on Thursday I was completely out of it. It didn't help that I had to wait for my class at 5 in the evening. Both days were interesting... I went to a fire festival on Wednesday and worked on plans for fall break on Thursday. But I also went to bed about as early as I could manage both nights, which worked out to around 10. I don't think I've gone to bed around 10 since high school.

それは、火曜日の終わり。水曜日は、風邪を引いちゃった。うぐぅ．．．風邪だけ、でも、機嫌がちょっと悪かった。そして、木曜日は、めちゃくちゃだった。しかも、木曜日にすごく遅い授業があった。水曜日に護摩に行って、木曜日に秋休みの予定を立てた。でも、すごく早く寝た。まあ、10時ぐらい。そんなこと、高校生の卒業した後からしたことがないかもしれない。

Thankfully, I felt a little better today. Which was good because I had two midterms to take. Japanese came first, and actually wasn't all that hard. There were a few questions that I just didn't answer, but on the whole it was fine. The other midterm was my Japanese Religions midterm, and that... I don't know. Maybe. I probably wasn't detailed enough, but I wrote all I could.

今日、もっと元気になる。よかった。というのは、中間試験が二つもある。最初は日本語の試験だった。答えられない質問があったけど、大体だ丈夫だと思う。他のは日本の宗教の試験だった。それは．．．まあ。多分もっと詳しく答えればいいのに。

Also today: the Festival of the Ages, Jidai Matsuri. One of Kyoto's biggest festivals (alongside the Gion Festival), the Festival of the Ages features a procession of people dressed in historical costumes, from the time of Heian-kyo's founding up to the Meiji Restoration. About the only word that suffices to describe this particular festival would be "awesome".

そして、今日は時代祭りがあった。時代祭りは、京都の三大祭りの一つだ。歴史的な服を着て、行列する。その歴史は、平安京の創立から明治時代まで。かっこいいよ。

The costumes were beyond description. Actually, I went a little early with some classmates, because the teacher of our Kyoto history class wanted us to interview some of the participants in the parade. So we got a close look at the costumes. And we interviewed people. Mostly Meiji-era heroes, like Sakamoto Ryoma and Nakaoka Shintaro.

その服は．．．うまく言えない。すごかった。実は、僕はクラスメートと一緒に早く行った。というのは、京都歴史の授業のために行列の参加者をインタビューした。だから、服をよく見えた。僕の場合は、明治時代の志士をインタビューした。たとえば、坂本龍馬と中岡慎太郎。

So yeah, it's been a crazy week. And things aren't going to change, because this weekend will top everything I've yet done in Japan. You see, fall break is starting; I have all of next week off. But I've been to Osaka twice, climbed Mt. Hiei, gone to Okayama Prefecture, seen the Jidai Matsuri... what could possibly top that?

だから、今週は大混乱だった。そして、今週末も．．．今週末は、今前のすべての活動よりかっこいいよ。秋休みは始まるから、来週は全部休みだ。でも、大阪に二回行ったり、比叡山を登ったり、岡山県に行ったり、時代祭りを見たり．．．全部より何のほうがいいか。

Next up: Tokyo.

次、東京。