Finally I'm Better! Hooray!

If you couldn't tell from the title, I've finally recovered! Well, mostly! So yay!
Most of the reason for my miraculous recovery is my being a KY. KY is an abbreviation for Kuuki Yomenai which means "Can't read the atmosphere (of the party, room, world, etc.)". It's basically Japanese for Party Pooper. :) Instead of going out with everyone on Halloween to scare all the Japanese people with our silly costumes, I decided to go home, even though my friends were sad I couldn't come (Yay friends!). I got home around 5:30 or 6:00 and changed into comfy clothes. I wanted to lie down a bit before dinner, but somehow I ended up falling asleep for 14 hours until 9:00 AM the next morning. I felt a lot better after that. :) Hooray for KY me! :D

Let's see....hmmm...updates!

I expect this week I'll finally be able to go back to kendou and ballet, so that's good news, especially since I'll probably be taking lots of classes next semester and may not have time for kendou. :(.

It looks like I did pretty well on my midterms! My speech test was easier than I thought and my teacher gave me a high grade for fluency, which made me really happy.

Morikawa-sensei, one of our E class teachers, talked to us last Friday about what we'd most likely be doing next semester and it sounds really fun (if slightly challenging). First, we're going to read "Moonlight Shadow" by Yoshimoto Banana together as a class. During class time, we'll go over hard kanji or grammatical structures in the book. We'll also be studying kanji from a kanji textbook and grammar from a grammar book designed for people studying for the JLPT (Japanese Language Placement Test - this big standardized test that is really important for all jobs involving Japanese). Also, we're going to watch some more Japanese movies or dramas in class to work on our listening skills. There also might be an extra "Academic Japanese" class to work on advanced grammar, so I'll probably participate in that as well. After we finish "Moonlight Shadow", we each get to pick a Japanese book we want to read and do it on our own (with help from the sensei if we get stuck, of course). After we finish, we'll have an oral exam during which we summarize the book in Japanese for our sensei. It sounds interesting!

I've been reading, or, I should say, attempting to read, lots of manga in Japanese (right now I'm on DeathNote, it's quite good!) lately, so that should help hone my reading skills for next semester. :)

Oh! Miyazaki update!
I'm sure I mentioned how great "Gake no Ue no Ponyo" was when I saw it in theatres. It was adorably cute and just over all completely darling. However, my friend Zoe and I watched the Studio Ghibli movie released just before Ponyo for the first time last night. It was called "Geddo Senki" and, while amazing, it was anything but darling or cute. It was directed by Hayao Miyazaki's son, Goro. The name "Geddo Senki" roughly means "The War Chronicles of Ged", but really it's based on the Ursula K. LeGuin novels about "Earthsea". It hasn't been released in the US yet because there's a rights battle going on over the title. Some people want to name it Earthsea, but the SciFi channel just finished a TV series version of the books under that same title and it's all complicated and silly.
Anyway, the movie was EXCELLENT. The Japanese voices were really great, though the translation of the English subtitles was a little sketchy at parts. The animation and the backgrounds were beyond gorgeous, as to be expected from Studio Ghibli. However, it was quite dark for a Studio Ghibli film, and also not a little creepy, especially towards the end. The characters were really compelling and the music, though not composed by Miyazaki's usual Joe Hisaishi, was beautiful in a haunting way. I don't want to talk too much about the plot because it could ruin it for any of you who might see it, but, suffice to say, parts of it reminded me of Full Metal Alchemist.
I highly recommend it to any Miyazaki or Studio Ghibli fan (or anime fan in general...or, really, anyone :) ), especially one who wants something a little more adult than Ponyo :).


Alrighty, enough with the silly movie talk! Some exciting things are coming up soon...

This weekend, my Art History class is taking a field trip to Kyoto!
Next weekend, the ryuugakusei are taking an overnight field trip to Kanazawa!
The weekend after that (a four day weekend! yay!), I may be going to Tokyo for the first time!


I think that's about all for now, but I'll write again soon!
I love and miss you all!

Love,
Christy