時々私はやっと日本にいる事はまだ信じられない。もちろんここは前に思った通りと違うけど。というのもいい事も悪い事もあるからね。でもだいたいここに来てよかったと思う。本当に。そんな経験をもらえる機会はあまりないでしょう？その上にすごく面白くていい友達を使う事ができた。さっきあまり日本人の友達を使わなくて心配してきたけどその事に気にせずにがんばって進まなきゃと思い始めたね。そんなに対したものないでしょう？きっとその問題がよくなる。それを信じているの。とにかく今でなきゃいけなくて、後でポストするつもりなんだ。
Just some thoughts I wanted to write down. I’ll have another post in English (and probably Japanese again) up soon. I’ve been so bad about this, sorry. But let me tell you, some crazy things have been happening…but all mostly fun. 
Sorry for the lack of posting! I’m around, but a lot of times I’m just to tired to recount everything that’s been going on (and it’s a LOT) and when I put it off I just feel that much more overwhelmed when I think to write a journal post. It’s a vicious cycle! But I’ll try to be better from now on. I hope.
Life has more or less settled down since I’ve arrived, so I think I’m getting more accustomed to Japan. It’s funny, because the one question every Japanese person seems to ask me is 日本に慣れてきたの？(Are you getting used to Japan?) And I can’t help but think, isn’t the real question, 日本は私の事に慣れてきちゃったの？(Has Japan gotten used to me?) I’d like to think so, but I’m not quite sure if that will ever really happen. At the very least I’ve gotten used to the occasional stares.
Recently I’ve become a bit of a karaoke fiend–I can’t help it, I love to sing and Japan does karaoke as it’s really supposed to be! Aka, you and some friends making fools of yourselves. But apparently I’ve impressed quite a few people (AKP friends and Doshisha students alike) with my mad karaoke skills. I even had one girl come up to me and ask me to “sing for her” (her words, not mine) next time I go out to karaoke! Haha.
Since I last wrote classes have begun for me but since everyday is fun I really don’t feel like studying, hah! But lucky for me the amount of work I get here is ridiculously small compared to my usual Williams load. So I can’t really complain. But I do anyway…I’m going to be so spoiled when I get back to the States, that’s all I can say. This is a place that, after class (I usually only have one class during the day) I can hop on a train with friends and go to a temple in a neighboring town. That’s one thing I love about Japan, or at least, Kyoto. I’m so close to so many wonderful things it’s not hard at all to keep myself busy.
One thing I’m a bit apprehensive about, however, is the advancement of my language skills. I’m seriously realizing how far I have to go and it’s pretty intimidating, especially when you haven’t quite made good friends with Japanese students yet (but I’ve met a few, so let’s see where it goes from here…!). One thing that made this difficult was the fact that the Japanese students are on break until…well, tomorrow! It’s kind of hard to meet people when they aren’t around. Luckily for me I think things might be changing this week. For one thing, I’m in a class that’s half AKP students and half Japanese students…I can’t wait until we finally meet them on Tuesday! And another thing, I’m going to be teaching some students in the English Club conversational English every Monday starting next week. I’m really excited about that–I’ve always been interested in language exchange…I’m hoping we both learn a lot from each other.
I have yet to find a club/circle to join yet…though I might end up taking the koto or shamisen, I haven’t made up my mind yet. The problem is money…signing up for these things is expensive, and I need to save up my money in order to buy my train/bus passes for next month. Transportation here, while really convenient, is also めちゃ面倒くさい, or really bothersome. It’s SO expensive! I think I’m probably going to spend about 200 dollars for this next month, it sucks. I hope I don’t have to take money out to do this too, because that would be really annoying. Oh well…at least it’s for convenience. That’s what I’m telling myself.
Anyway, I’m going to get back to doing my homework–I will try to update again soon. I’ve barely even spoken about other things that are going on (such as some of the amazing people I’ve befriended in AKP, among other things ), but this is just to let people know what’s been floating around in my mind lately. And man, I’ll get to sending postcards/e-mails soon…本当にだめな人ね、私！
またね！
ちゃんとアップデートすろのに弱いね。まあ、しょうがない、しょうがない。実は、これから英語と日本語で書くつもりなんだよ。さっかく京都に行くから日本語がわからない人のために英語を使うもん。じゃ、
If you could understand that, good for you, if you couldn’t…good for you as well. This blog for now on will be bilingual (as in, posts will be in English and Japanese), though I suppose things might skew towards the English side because of who I suspect will be reading this mostly. Either way, welcome and どうぞよろしくお願いします。
As I’m sure most of you are aware of, I’ve been living in Kyoto for about a week now. It’s kind of amazing, because it totally feels like more time has passed since then- so many things have happened!
For those of you who don’t know, I’m currently studying abroad as a part of the Associated Kyoto Program (AKP), which gathers together about 40 or so students from a consortium of several liberal arts colleges, throws us into various homestays and hopes for the best. I met my most of my AKP partners in crime for the first time on Monday, when we were boarding the plane in San Francisco to Osaka Kansai Airport. Everyone was feeling pretty dokidokiwakuwaku (excited and nervous) and I guess because of that we hit it off pretty well. The plane ride was torturous though, jeez. It’s funny, because earlier this year I flew to Korea–but since that flight was a red-eye it was much more bearable than our Japan flight, which was 11 hours of cramped spaces and limited movie choices. I didn’t sleep much either (which in retrospect was the worst idea ever considering that I didn’t sleep prior to starting this trip), so when we finally got to Japan I was feeling a weird mixture of exhaustion, hunger and pure elation.
Our first week here we stayed at the Kyoto Tower hotel, which is right across from Kyoto Station which is, if you have to know, a freaking badass station. I could spend hours there and still not be bored, there’s so much to do! Anyway, I was in a room with two other students, and we got along very well. For a pretty random placement we worked really well with each other. During these few days on our own we did some orientation at Doshisha, and generally played around Kyoto (though our playground was generally limited to the Shijou area due to our limited knowledge of places to go). So much shopping to do, so …much time, it seems! But don’t worry, I haven’t blown all my savings on manga and the like. That’ll be for later. >
A day before we were to meet our host parents we got together with some students from Doshisha who helped us figure out how to get to our homestays from campus and helped us get our Alien Registration Cards (or…at least, sign up for it). I feel a bit bad because be the end of the day (this was a day-long thing) I was pretty exhausted and actually feeling kind of sick, so I didn’t have the energy to speak much Japanese with them (plus, man, if anything I realized how much more Japanese I have to learn because it was really hard understanding what they said a lot of the time…especially the boy, Takumi). Still, they helped me a lot so I’m really grateful.
At the time I was super nervous because when we had gone to see my host parents’ house no one was there…so I had no means of verifying if they were actually nice or not before I’d meet them the next day! So I was really on pins and needles the day we met our host parents. Okay, for those of you who don’t understand, the picture I got of my host parents was…to be honest, really scary. They looked totally strict and weren’t really smiling in the picture? I had no idea what I was up against.
Meeting my host mom was…really interesting. I was called over and while inwardly freaking out I prepared myself to properly introduce myself (Hajimemashite, Saaka to mooshimasu, douzo yoroshiku onegaishimasu…) but as soon as I started she said, “Aa! Yasmin desu ne! Yoroshiku, yoroshiku!” (Oh! You’re Yasmin right? Welcome, welcome!) and before I could say anything more she started introducing me to her OTHER friends, who were other people’s hostmoms! It turns out that she and a group of other families have been hosting AKP kids for years now, so they know the whole song and dance veeeery well now.
My hostmom…is a very shaberi na hito, or talkative person. It’s wonderful. My hostdad at first seemed a bit less inviting, but as the days passed he really started opening up. He often likes to explain certain ‘Japanese’ things to me, and teases me a bit at times too. All in all, my host parents are very warm people, so I feel pretty comfortable talking to them even if my topics are limited due to my limited Japanese at this point. One of the most hilarious conversations I had with them had to do with the fact that I bought a bus pass for the number 5 bus, but since that bus is pretty slow my host parents advised me to take the number 6 one. The conversation went as thus:
Me: But it just says “number 5″ on my card…will that be all right?
Host Mom: It’ll be fine, since you’re a foreigner after all.
Me:…What?
Host Dad: Just go on the bus. If, when you are getting off and show the driver your card he gives you trip, speak in English to him. He won’t understand and let you off.
Me:…What? I-is that really okay??
Host Dad: Don’t worry, if I say it’s okay, it’s okay!
As I said. These people really know what they’re doing.
Anyway, I’ll talk about other things later, but for now let me share some pictures. Only about 12 of them, but hey, better than nothing. When I become less lazy I’ll upload the rest of my pictures.
Shot from the bus as we left Osaka Kansai Airport
Inside the bus
The wonderful dinner I had my first night here. Me eating said dinner. What? I was hungry!
A sign in Shijou that was too funny not to take a picture of. Best bastardization of a Shakepearean phrase ever.
Me with a few AKP pals in Shijou.
A temple close to Kyoto Station- we didn’t get to go inside though. 
The area around the temple.
Me with the students who helped me do all that stuff I mentioned. Their names were Aya and Takumi.
Lunch at the Doshisha dining hall.
Candid Welcome Party shots.
One more shot from the Welcome Party. We were all supposed to dress nicely.
Okay, that’s it for now. Keep your eyes on this for more posts later!
もう～本当に早すぎる起こしたよ！友人のせいだもん！私のへんに何時か忘れちゃったらちょっと困るかな。それに今日は休みなの．．．（T_T）普通に七時半ごろおきなくちゃだけど。
今仕事があるから忙しくなるし、天気も暑すぎてきたんでいつも疲れているの。ここに夏がものすごく大変だよ！でもね、仕事がなかなか面白いと思うわ。「キャンパスツー」をして、この大学に入りたい人に。私はここにもう入っているからこの所にどんなに入りにくいか忘れちゃったね？十七パーセントしか入ってあげなかった、今年に。今でもびっくりだよ！いや、どうやって私が入ったかな．．．考えただけでちょっと怖くなるよ。もう入ってよかった！本当に。（笑）
じゃあ、ちょっと寝なおそうかと思っているからまたね。
シェディー
私はそんなにうらやましいようになるかわからなかった。みんなの思いを考えたくなくなった。ただ好きなことだけしたい．．．それだけだ。なぜもう面白くない時だったら人々が忘れるの？なんか悲しいと思うね。あの人のことを忘れずに進まなくちゃいけない。あの言葉がいらない。代わりに、自分でなるべく上手になろう。
あいにく、まだちょっと悲しくて怒るの。
ああ、暑い。
ちょっとうたた寝をしたと完全にあせびっしょりに成った。もういやだよ〜〜 こんな天気絶対に嫌いなの。でもね、冬の時よりいいから不平を言うはずはないでしょう。
さっきこのジャーナルに書くつもりと書いたけどインタネットが急に通じなかったから書くことはできなかった。そんな場合は普通に兄に直してもらうけど留守だったから大問題になったんだよ。でも彼がついた後で早く直して．．．どうやってそんなに早かったか分かんないなあ。
当分に「キューティーはニーフラッシュ」というアニメを見ているの。すごくかわいいね！セラームーンみたいと思う。だから好きでしょうがないね？（笑）でも、本当に本当にかわいい、あの番組．エピソドを八つしか出さなくてイライラなんだよ。わ、もっとみたい！(T_T)
．．．ちょっとオタクらしいでしょうね．恥ずかしい！
では寝なくちゃよね。またあとで。
シェディー
今日は「Blog Like The World Is Going To End」という日だった．．．ものすごく面白かったわ。みんなよくできて驚いちゃった！気がついた時は遅くなり過ぎたんで遊べなかってなんか悲しみ感じているよ。（T＿T）まあ、しょうがないじゃないな．
でもゲームできなくても楽しい日だったよ。小学生の五年生を教えたし、親友と久しぶりに話せたし映画を三田だから。
でも、遅くなったから寝るつもりで、明日のうちでこの話がつずく。おやすみね。♥
気分がちょっとよくなった。今兄ちゃんといっしょに映画を見たばかりで面白かったと思った。ちょっと前にもう見たけど、なんか楽しい映画だったんでまた見ることはかまわない。それに、私にいい憂さ晴らしだった。
オンラインコミックは休んでいる、自分のために描きたいから。何かを気がついて、たびに自分のスケジュールを作った、いつもがんばりにくい。その場合は楽すぎると思う。大変な時は絶対にそれよりいい。たいだじゃなくて、ただ私のためにしか描いてないうちで、全然何も済ませないんだ。いいことかどうか分かんないけど．．．
でもこの休みはやっぱりいいアイディだね。デッドラインを心配しないで描けて、よかった。
でも今ねた方がいい。もう午前三時四十分だよ。ばかばかしい！みなさん、おやあすみ。それとも、『おはよう』かな。（笑）
どうすればいいか分からないの。今年の始まりから気が重くなったと感じている。すべてががっかりだし何もしたくないしいつも疲れているんだ。どうすればいいでしょう。父のことはずっと考えているけどだれとも話すことができない。私．．．ただ父が大丈夫になることがほしい。それだけだ。本当に怖じけている。もういやだ、このこと。
今日コミックを描いてみたけど見にくなった。ちょっと休んでもいいでしょうか。ちゃんと気を入れれる時まで。どうでしょうかな。
ここに初めているからどうぞよろしくね．
実は、二月にこのジャーナルを出したけど、今すぐ目的は分かってきたの。（笑）日本語を勉強するために書くのに決める。なぜなら、九月三日から日本で 留学するつもりだけど、夏休みのうちでなるべく日本語を思い出したいよね。それに、日本に行く前にもっと言葉を習う必要があると思っているからがんばりた いの。日本語を話せる所がなくて本当に困るんだけど、この方も大丈夫かもしれないね。
じゃあ、紹介しようか。ヤズミンサーカというよ。それとも、友達が私に”坂本安子”といっている。（笑）でも、私にシェディーといってください ね．♥女の人で四月に二十歳になった。(うわああ、’歳’という漢字は大変だよ！そんなに細かいなの？いや、こわい．．．）趣味は読んだり、描いたり、音 楽を聴いたりする。大学の二年が済んで専門は日本語を勉強に決めてしまった。でも、それを勉強するのに、大学を出た後で漫画家になるつもりなんだよ．ちょっとおかしいけど、漫画家になることは夢だからしょう がないよね。ここで私の絵が見つかっている。
では、当分の間ここで済ませる．また後で〜
-シェディー
