I'm sorry, I can't afford to write long drawn out posts anymore. I am pretty exhausted. And I am apologizing to myself as well, as I am not keeping a diary and I want to remember everything about Japan but doing that and simultaneously keeping up with living in Japan is too much. But I'll share a brief rundown of events from New Years onward.
I just spent my break relaxing, reflecting, light studying, light traveling.
On New Years I went to a local shrine at midnight and prayed and drank sweetened rice wine. Which wasn't very alcoholic. But under the influence of some Muslim friends, I feel less compelled to drink alcohol this year, although I'm allowed to ;).
The next day I spent lazying around, attempting to study with my Indonesian friend. In spite of a lot of stores being closed for the most significant holiday in Japan, a lot of stores also host their best sales during this time of year. But I haven't done much shopping.
Instead, I went hiking in at a mountain in Chiba (Nokogiriyama) and had dinner at a local seafood restaurant.
Yesterday I went to Kamakura with a Japanese, Taiwanese and Thai friend, where we saw many temples, shrines, did lots of hiking, ate some really long udon and so on.
And today was Seijin no Hi, the day that celebrates youth becoming adults. People who turned 20 last year are invited to dress up (in Japanese formal attire, Western formal attire, whatever attire you desire) and attend a ceremony held by the city. According to the Chinese friends I went with, it is more like a graduation ceremony from kindergarden than a ceremony for becoming an adult. Indeed, this ceremony was perhaps the most American I have ever seen Japanese act. During the course of the ceremony, there was shouting and movement and general disorder. Of course, afterwards all the youth goes into town dressed up and parties, drinks, etcetera. I went to a family restaurant with a very kind Japanese gentleman who took us to the ceremony. He told me stories about his struggles after the war, how he had to care for his family of five after his father passed away, how he considered himself too old for marriage after 30, and then how he found his current wife (who he calls his "past girlfriend").
After that, I've been working on homework assignments, and trying to evoke my past feelings about the environment. As an American college student, I considered myself very environmentally aware. As an American college student in a foreign context, I couldn't be more clueless. I even forget to do simple things like turn off my heat when I leave the room (my electricity bill for December was scary). My friends from Australia made painful faces when I told them this. *Sigh* I actually came to Japan with good conscious effort to be an upright representative for America, but apparently everyone else is also holding this strategy for their respective countries, so the competition is scaring me away a little bit. (My psychology confuses even me XD).
At the same time, I'm getting way too influenced by foreigners it seems. In any situation I usually assimilate just to fit in, but there are way too many viewpoints and it's tiresome to try and acclimate all of them. But I don't want to act like an American either. I just want to act like myself, but I can't remember how! I like the way foreigners think, so I think that I want to adapt to everyone's culture! I'll try to focus mainly on Japanese culture, although I'll be needing more Japanese friends to do that >_<
Anyways, the quality of my writing has been declining lately, as I'm trying to save it for my essays, so it's about time I get started on my homework. Here are some pictures from my recent events, though:
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