so as “shocked” as i was about my mock result, and as stingy as i had been with money and time, i have come to the conclusion that maybe i really should start studying, as much as i have already unconsciously giving myself up long time ago ..

so the past weekend, actually, last friday, i finally bought the book that has all the grammers for Level 2 exam, and i tried to look through it as much i can in the weekend, i even had to give up seeing my lovely friend on Sunday … cause … recently i just had been going out, dinning out, eating out, hanging out, … way too often, no energy, no time, no money.

and very interestingly, on Sat, one of my interesting classmates asked me out, and i got to TONS of Japanese with her since i cannot speak Mardarin, right? so, wow, i had a very good time with her already, PLUS, what i do not realize is, just after talking with her for a few hours, i already found myself, the Jap. oral, getting better, plus my strong “insist” on studying on SUN, i also studies on SAT morning too before going out, oh GEEZ.

yes, i can completely feel my Japanese gets a little better after that.

THIS WEEK, is the ONLY week, that not ONE day i am late for school … since this school is not as strict as my former school, i am late every single day, … till recently our new Monday teacher kept warning me … “Yan san, if you keep being late like this, your student visa can be jeopardized …  -_- , she is strict, alright, … but i cannot NOT like her, because she is the BEST teacher for the week, and i can understand her the best, and she looks like a teacher the most, i really enjoy her class, i want to listen to her talking, … i don’t know how much she like or not like us, but she is a very good Japanese teacher.

i want to get to her class on time, i really do.

back to the main topic, anyway, what i wanted to say is, this week or so, i have been trying to “LISTEN” in class, which obviously i have never really tried to. foreign language can always “go through my left ear and left through right ear”. and yes, i can almost completely understand what the Monday teacher said. the worst is the Wednesday teacher, a male one … -_- … cannot understand … lose interests in the first 3 seconds of his talk …

i am really happy to realize i can actually understand what the Monday teacher said when i tried to …

it ALL thanks to the 30 marks on my listening part out of 100. that is such a shocking reminder for me, “GEEZ, PLEASE LISTEN”.

i guess i never did.

yes, i really don’t listen. at all.

talk about studying, it really has never been my fav. thing in Japan. However, when your Japanese is as poor as mine, really is なにもできない。。。cannot even get a part-time anywhere you want.

even though my coming to Japan is to get away from the”crab” in US, but coming to here, and knowing one day i have to leave, and imagining leaving with nothing … -_- … so i applied the 二級能力試験 … as great as i thought, when I took the mock exam in school last last week, gosh … 180 out of 400, 240 is the passing point. that is just exciting.

i know i am poor in it, but geez, the most amazing part is the listening, 30 out of 100, really have to give it a “WOW” .

no matter what language i am with, the listening part is just awesome … even English, well, Cantonese is a little better, i guess i can hear it even that is like miles away, but for foreign languages, i really have a way to pass it by naturally …

Shoot. It’s been almost 2 months since I arrived in Japan. I remember wearing a thick coat and a scarf on my way to Minami-Otsuka for the first time but the weather has changed dramatically since then. It’s getting hotter and hotter everyday and has almost reached 30 degrees today.

I chose Japan because I knew the experience would be either so special or a complete nightmare. Luckily it’s a little bit of both. On one hand it’s so different from where I come from (I was born in Korea and moved to the UK when I was 10) but then again I think it has combined characteristics of both countries. The nightlife is almost identical as that of South Korea – getting pissed and singing your heart out in a karaoke bar/dazzling neon lights and immaculately well-dressed ladies – probably because they are neighbouring countries. But the overall atmosphere has that unique sense of lonliness and coldness, characteristics that may only exist in island countries, like the UK and Japan.

Most travellers come to Japan to experience something completely different and it certainly is a unique place. I have a little over a month left here in Tokyo and will keep you guys posted.

Gambatene.

Just moved in to Higashi Ikebukuro and am happy with the house. It’s the quietest of the 7 places I’ve lived in Tokyo these past 5 years!

Have now met all three house-mates, and they all seem cool – Japanese, Bangladeshi, Italian and me, Saskatchewanean.

My first week in the house has been not so much in the house though. Went to a party at Fujiten Ski Resort in Yamanashi and decided it would be fun to ride a bicycle there. Turned out to be quite a mission but thanks to my friend scoping the route on Google Earth and printing off the critical junctions, we made it there without any major wrong turns.

Good to be back in the Tokes and ready for a little routine starting Monday.

Wow, today I was SOOOOO tired … late for school again of course~. More students came to our class this morning and they seem pretty decent, ok nice~. One of them was just sitting in the classroom to have a “trial” lesson, so do not know if he would come back to our class or not. Hope he would, cause he seem pretty nice.

Anyhow, I was all exhausted because yesterday night I spent HOURS calculating the expenses in Japan, from Feb-Mar. It was quite, to put it bluntly, bloody. And can be sort of complicated cause there are some expenses that have receipts and some do not, some were paid by credit card and some do not … what a mess.

To calculate exactly how much I spent on Misc, Food, … is quite impossible. But I do have the estimated amount, wow … -_-
Anyway, back to the main topic, today, with my extremely exhausted mind, I went to open my FIRST bank account in JAPAN. It was somewhat exciting due to the fact that my Japanese is just “TOO great”.

I finally have the urge to get this going despite the trouble that probably an outsider cannot (or do not want to) comprehend is because Oakhouse is having this “Premier Membership” thing going on, and I am doing all this to save a few. -_- My money is “scarce”, so hope it will all be transferred safely and so I can continue my safe living in Japan.

Despite my extremely poor Japanese skills, (esp. my grammar, wow, it is hard to find anyone that can beat me on this) the account seemed to be opened safely. And to my surprises, I seemed to understand a little more than I expected. Everything that the kind bank lady said made so much sense. It was a very nice experience. Just love how polite and sincere she is, and her patience.

I seriously feel very good to have done this by myself. Even though it is such a tiny thing, the satisfaction is high. It was EXCITING. Because it is a completely different language, a language that I have never thought, in my wildest dream, that I can study till now. The whole thing is a little late, but I guess LATE is better than NEVER. Thank You LORD.

My first movie in Japan — Keroro ~.

Haha. Never thought it would be like this. That is the power of POSTER. I saw Keroro’s movie poster just about everywhere. And the place that they put which really got my attention is at the very station that I get in and out every day — 中村橋. Crying out loud I have never even seen Keroro’s animation or manga once! HAHAHA.

Saturday night I went to see my friends at Coffee House and I showed them the Keroro’s flash, which I had downloaded from Keroro’s website, on my cell. I also showed them the Keroro pamphlet which describes how to get Keroro’s goods from riding trains (of Seibu Ikebukuro) and stopping by at different stations to get stamped (Just another reason why I love Japan, isn’t that cute? Making the kids ride the train, hahaha!!)

I pointed to one of the goods on the pamphlet and asked one of my Japanese friends how to get it (since my Japanese not good), and she looked at me with a gentle smile and a polite disbelief look and asked, in English, “YOU WANT THIS???!!!”

HAHAHAHA!!!! Funny!

Ok, maybe not funny to you. ^^

OK, I woke up sooooo late today cause these days it just has been CRAZY! ぜんぜん自分の時間がないんです！It has been going on for just WAY too long. Before, it was because I barely had my space at home so I had to go out all the time, right? Now, after like months, I finally have space of my own. I feel soooo blessed, I really do. I cannot believe the comfort of it again. In US, it is so easy for me to have this “comfort”, because over there the space is vast, and it has always been my comfort zone. But in Japan, I really never even dreamed of being very comfortable here. It feels like such a luxury for a foreigner that has no income. Haha.

And today, except I had gone to Shibuya to do some volunteer work, I got to see 夜桜 with my lovely friend! She is awesome. I like her soooo much >.<! SOOOOOOO pretty those sakura, even at night. Wow~. I was so mad at myself not having enough energy to go see the “cherry blossom” that Oakhouse was holding at 1pm, gosh I don’t even remember that station’s name … however, the night time one can definitely compensate the loss to a certain extent~. ^^