Busy, Busy Busy - But That's The Way I Like It!

Well, I realize I've been a bit behind on posting. To be honest, the work week takes its toll! I leave my house at 8am, and return at 8pm. With squeezing a job in most mornings, I'm pretty much at a loss for energy in the evenings. Saturday is a day for fun, and Sunday for rest. I'm not saying that I am not enjoying life; Personally, I prefer to be this busy. I do better when I have something to do at all times.

During the work week, nothing much exciting has been happening. I'm enjoying all of my classes, though attendence is really low. I've been using my break time to really study Japanese, and have got the Hiragana downpat. The Japanese have 4 writing systems. Hiragana is for new Japanese words, and Katakana is for foreign words brought into the Japanese language. These are both phonetic, like our alphabet, so, once you learn the sounds for the symbols, you can read anything.

Then, there's the Kanji, or Chinese symbols, and Romanji, the roman alphabet. Yikes! I'm working on Katakana next. It's really interesting, like cracking a code. One day, it all looks like a bunch of symbols, and the next you can sound out a sentance. Exciting!

Other than that, I found a language tutor, and we're going to meet 3 times a week. Teaching and learning is what I do during my day.

As I said before, Saturday is a day for fun. The weekend before last, I had a long weekend (monday and tuesday were free days due to a national holiday and a school festival). My friends and I took advantage, touring the Imperial Palace Gardens, Ueno Park, and having a fun night out in Shibuya. We had a great time together - take a look!

This weekend, we headed to Yokohama, a city just south of Tokyo, for their Oktoberfest. It was fun, though outrageously expensive. We managed to have a good time anyway, and meet some interesting Westerners, mainly those from a nearby Navy base. Then, We headed to Roppongi, the very American and slightly seedy section of Tokyo, for dinner and a few drinks. It was a good time! I'll get those photos uploaded soon... right now, I've got to get ready for work. My first full work week, here I come!