城陽市役所と他の用事The Joyo City Office and other errands

While I'm in Japan, I have to have a registration card documenting my status as a foreigner. So today, after classes, I went with my host family to the Joyo city office to turn in the necessary forms.

日本にいる間に、外国人登録証が持っていなくてはいけない。今日は、授業の後で、ホストファミリーと申込書を出しに城陽市役所に行った。

In keeping with government practice, I had to write the exact same thing several times. Is it really so hard to just write important information once? Oh, and one would think that since this was absolutely necessary, that they would be relatively quick about handling it. Nope. I get to wait a full month before it's ready. I can go pick it up on the 6th of October. It would seem that the Joyo city office is a little slow, hmm?

いつも通りの経世だ。同じ事を何度も書かなくてはだめ。大事なことを一つだけ書くことは本当に難しいかな。そして、これは絶対に必要だから、速くした方がいいだと思う。そうだけど、僕は一ヶ月待たなければならない。この登録証は10月6日にもらいます。城陽市役所はちょっと遅いみたいね。

As annoying as the city office was, we did go to what was effectively a mall after that. That was fun. We had ice cream, and then I got to go shopping again! I had less free time for this one, though. Either way, I did go to the bookstore, and picked up a copy of a magazine called Nyantype there. Considering that the chapters of Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force, the newest Nanoha manga, are being released in that magazine, I don't see how I could avoid buying it. Even if it is kinda hard to read.

市役所は面倒くさいけど、その後城陽市にいるショッピングセンターに行った。楽しかった。アイスクリームを食べて、また買い物に行った。まあ、今度はもう少し暇な時間があった。でも、本屋に行って、「娘TYPE」（ニャンタイプ）という雑誌を買った。魔法戦記リリカルなのはForceの新しいマンガがあるから、買わなければならない。でも、ちょっと読みにくい。

寺町通、新京極通Teramachi, Shinkyōgoku

Who wants to go shopping?

買い物に行きたい人は誰？

Classes were over quickly for me, today. I was done by lunch. But I don't yet have a key to the house, and my host father wouldn't be home until around 4. I had to do something, right? So instead of taking the subway all the way back to Okubo Station, I only went as far as Karasuma Oike. I proceeded to walk down Oike to Teramachi street.

今日は授業は早く終わった。昼ご飯まで終わった。でも、家の鍵がないし、ホストのお父さんは４時ごろ家に帰る。何かしなきゃね。だから、地下鉄で大久保駅に行かなかった。烏丸御池で電車を降りて、御池通を歩いた、寺町通まで。

Teramachi is... interesting. It's called a street, and marked as such on maps. But in reality, it's a shopping mall. It and its neighbor, Shinkyōgoku, are home to dozens upon dozens of shops, some that are well known (Kinokuniya, anyone?) but many more that aren't.

寺町は面白かった。通って言うし、地図でも「寺町通」と言います。そうだけど、寺町はショッピングセンターだ。寺町と隣の新京極には、店がいくつもある。この店の中で、人気な店がある（たとえば、紀伊国屋書店）けど、たいていの店は人気じゃない。

I had three main objectives. The first, to find Nanoha StrikerS DVDs. The second, to find the Nanoha Force manga. The third, to track down a game store and buy a dōjin game called Touhou Sky Fight.

目的が三つあった。一つ、魔法少女リリカルなのはStrikerSのDVDを見つける。二つ、魔法戦記リリカルなのはForceのマンガを見つける。三つ、ゲームの店を見つけて、東方スカイファイトという同人ゲームを買う。

The first was only a partial success. I mean, I've already seen the entire series, so it was low priority to begin with, and I did find some of the DVDs. But they didn't have the first DVD, and I didn't feel like getting any of the other ones. The fact that they were nearly 6000 yen didn't help.

一つのは、ミスじゃないけど、勝利もない。まあ、もうシリーズをぜんぶ見たから、最初から低順位だし、小さいマンガの店にDVDを見つけた。でも、第一のDVDがない。そして、僕は他のを買いたくない。というのは、DVDは六千円くらいだ。

The second was possibly the easiest. Kinokuniya is a bookstore after all.

二つのは一番簡単だ。紀伊国屋書店は書店でしょね。

The third was also a success, although it took nearly an hour of searching through Teramachi and Shinkyōgoku to find a decent game store. After the ridiculous price tag on the DVDs, it was nice to get two Touhou games for less money than it would take to buy one game in the U.S.

三つのも勝利けど、ゲームの店の見つけるために寺町通と新京極通を探さなきゃだめで、一時間くらいかかった。でも、そのDVDは高すぎるの後で、二つの東方ゲームを買えるのはいいね。

So yeah, I went shopping today. And I had way too much fun in the process.

買い物に行った。それは楽しすぎた。

僕の部屋My room

I said I'd take some pictures... well, I did.

写真を撮るつもりと言った．．．撮ったね。

Yeah, they're bad. This is what happens when you only have a cell phone camera with crappy lighting. But anyway, that's the one corner of my room...

まあ、悪いだね。ケータイのカメラだけあるし、照明は悪いだから、当たり前でしょ。とにかく、これは部屋の角で．．．

And this is the opposite corner. The room is on the second floor of the house, and has tatami mats for a carpet; six in all. Thankfully, it has an air conditioner... the weather can best be described as "too damn hot" right about now.

これは向こうの角だ。部屋は家の二階にあって、床は畳だ、六畳。エアコンもある．．．今の天気は暑すぎるね。

This was in the first photo... it's kind of a combination desk/dresser kind of thing. Right now it's closed, so the "desk" part of that isn't really obvious.

これは一つ目の写真がある．．．机と箪笥の物だ。この写真で閉めているから、「机」のは明らかじゃない。

Once you open the top part up, though, it's much clearer.

開けたら、もっと明らかになる。

That's my room. There's not a whole lot of stuff, but it's not like I need a lot... besides, I'm sure that I'll end up buying more stuff later. I'm in Japan after all.


僕の部屋だ。たくさんの物がないけど、たくさんいらないね。そして、買い物に行くつもりだ。日本にいるから。

始まりThe Beginning

It's still hard to believe that I'm really in Kyoto. (Well, technically, Joyo... I'll explain in a sec.) Let's see, what's happened so far...

京都にいるのがまだ信じにくいね。（まあ、城陽市にいる．．．後で説明する。）何があったんですか．．．

Trains here in Japan are really awesome. I mean, I already knew that, but it's one thing to know that, and entirely another to actually ride them. I took the Haruka train from Kansai International Airport to Kyoto after I arrived. They actually cleaned the train before we could get on, at the airport station. And I've ridden on Kyoto's Karasuma line, which is a subway line that's really useful for getting to Doshisha.

日本の電車はすごいよ。もう分かったけど、分かるとこの電車を乗るのは違う。日本に着いた後に、「はるか」と言う電車を乗った、関西国際空港から京都まで。空港駅で、乗る前に、電車の勤務者は電車を掃除しました。そして京都の烏丸線も乗った。それは同志社大学に行くためにとても便利な地下鉄線だ。

And now, I've been out to Joyo, south of Kyoto. Well, that's where my host family lives. So now I've been out on the Kintetsu Kyoto line, to Okubo Station. I'm sitting in my room as I write this. Later tonight, once I've unpacked, I'll take a few pictures.

そして今、僕は城陽市に行ったことがある。まあ、ホストファミリーは住んでいる場所だ。だから、近鉄京都線に乗ったことがある。これを書きながら、僕の部屋にいる。今夜で、荷解きした後で、写真を撮るつもりだ。

But that's today. I haven't said anything about yesterday. Yesterday was... interesting. We took a placement test in the morning. That was, I think, the single hardest test I've ever taken. I did passably well on the kanji questions, I suppose, but the reading ones were nearly impossible. I don't yet know the results, but I doubt I did all that well, at least on the written portion of the test.

これは今日だ。まだ昨日のことは話していない。昨日は．．．面白い。朝は、プレースメント試験を受けた。それは、受ける試験の中に、一番難しい試験だと思う。漢字の問題はまあまあけど、読むの問題は難しすぎた。まだ成績を知らないけど、成績は悪いだと思う。

There was also an interview portion of the test. That was actually, somehow, fun. Well, since I said that I liked magical girl anime, I ended up explaining Sailor Moon. I've said so many times that the words I learn from anime aren't ever going to be used, but when you have to explain anime...

そして、面接試験があった。それは何だか楽しかった。まあ、魔法少女のアニメが好きって言ったから、セーラームーンを説明した。何度も「アニメから習った言葉は全然使わない」と言ったけど、アニメを説明する時は．．．

The evening was also great fun. Why? I went out with some of my friends to a karaoke place. I've been wanting to do karaoke for a long time now. And it was amazingly fun. I repeatedly sung anime songs, like Hare Hare Yukai and Zankoku na Tenshi no Thesis. I also sang some Nana Mizuki songs, and topped it all off with Caramelldansen. (And I did the dance to that last one.) I can't properly express how much fun I had.

夜も楽しかったよ。なぜって？友達とカラオケをしに行った。絶対にカラオケをしたい。そして、すごく楽しかった。僕は何度もアニメの歌を歌った。たとえば、ハレ晴レユカイや残酷な天使のテーゼ。そして、水樹奈々の曲を歌って、Caramelldansenも歌って。そして、Caramelldansenの舞も舞った。うまく言えないけど、すごく楽しかった。

So yeah... this is the start of one hell of an adventure.

これはすごい冒険の始まりですよね。

ようこそ、京都へWelcome to Kyoto

I've finally arrived. I'm in Kyoto.

着きましたね。京都にいる。

It's been a long trip. I'm really tired, actually. Sleep would be good right about now.

．．．長い旅だった。疲れすぎた。今、寝た方がいいだと思う。

旅行準備Preparations for Travel

... I have one more day in the United States. That's it. Come Tuesday morning, I will be on a flight to Japan.

アメリカにいる残り時間は一日だけだ。火曜日の朝、僕は日本への飛行機に乗る。

I still can't quite believe it. I've got a visa, so I should be able to enter Japan. With some help from my parents, most of my luggage is already packed. I've got the airline tickets. Tomorrow, I'll go out and buy souvenirs. If reality was an anime, I believe I'd be saying "Preparations, complete!" right about now.

まだ信じられていない。査証を持っているから、日本が入ることが出来るはずだ。両親が手伝ってくれたから、もう荷物を詰めた。飛行機の切符を持っている。明日、お土産を買いに行くつもりだ。現実はアニメのなら、僕は今「準備、完了！」と言う。

Summer vacation is over. This is the beginning of my junior year. A junior year that will be spent studying in Kyoto, Japan. There's really only one other thing I can think of to say.

夏休みは終わった。これは三年生の始まりだ。京都に勉強する三年。たった一つだけの言いたいことがある。

I'm headed off to Japan.

行ってきます！

オタコン２０１０Otakon 2010

Right after Otakon ended, I went on a trip up to Maine. Every summer, my family and I go up to Maine for a vacation. And there's no Internet access where we go. That's kinda why it took a week to get around to talking about Otakon.

オタコンの後で、僕はメイン州に旅行した。毎年、夏に、僕の家族とメイン州に行って、休みがある。そして、行った所にインターネットがない。だから、今前にオタコンのことを話せなかった。

It was fun. I don't think I can put the fun into words, actually. Lots of awesome cosplayers, buying stuff... Unfortunately I wasn't able to put a cosplay together myself. My twin brother did cosplay, as Thoma Avenir from Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force. Our parents helped him put it together. Over the entire weekend, we met all of two people that recognized it. Out of twenty thousand or so people... two.

楽しかった。うまく言えないけど、楽しかった。たくさんの人のかっこいいコスプレや買い物．．．残念だけど、僕はコスぷれすることが出来ない。僕の双子の兄は魔法戦記リリカルなのはForceからトーマアヴェニルのコスプレを作った。僕たちの両親は手伝ってくれた。週末で、二人だけそのコスプレを気づいた。二万人中。。。二人だけ。

I bought way too much stuff, as always. Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle and Lucky Star DVDs, a new Nana Mizuki CD, a Fate Testarossa figurine, and a Otakon T-shirt. The best purchase was the Nana Mizuki CD, Impact Exciter; there isn't a song on there that I dislike.

いつも通り、買いすぎた。翼クロニクルとらきすたDVDsと、新しい水樹奈々CDと、フェイト･テスタロッサのフィギュアと、オタコンT-シャツを買った。一番いいのは水樹奈々CD、「IMPACT EXCITER」と言った。そのCDで、好きじゃない曲がない。

Oh, and my brother and I ran into his Japanese teacher from the Naval Academy, and talked for a bit. I did want to practice Japanese, but... having spent two years studying Japanese, you'd think I could manage better in conversation. Apparently not. I didn't say anything ridiculous, and I was at least able to use Japanese, but I was very halting. I'm not exactly outgoing in English either, so when I have to process the different language, I become even more reserved. All the same, it made me feel like a first-year student again.

そして、僕たちは海軍大学校の日本語の先生と話した。日本語の練習をしたかったけど．．．二年間に日本語を勉強してきたから、ちょっとうまく会話することが出来ると思った。そうだけど、出来ない。とてもバカなことを言わなかったし、日本語を使ったけど、訥々に話した。英語でも元気じゃないから、日本語を使う時、もっと慎ましくなる。さすがに、また一年生を感じた。

Ah well, I am studying abroad to improve my Japanese. Just three more weeks...

まあ、日本語を練習するために留学するね。あと、三週間．．．