And now the cool-down.

I'm back in America; regrettable it is.

It's boring here, really. But that's Japan's fault more than anything.

You know, they say that Japan appreciates the transience of things. The 儚さ (はかなさ) of things.

A few days ago, well, no, more than a week ago; two days before I left Japan, or was it the very day before? Or 12 AM of the same day? Very early, anyway, I was riding with Shouhei over to Tiki's house, when he thought I said 儚い when I was really saying something in English. It's really funny he thought I was saying that, because it's a word that's apparently only really used in novels. But if you look at jisho.org, and you see the list of meanings it gives for 儚い, you get: "fleeting; transient; short-lived; momentary; vain; fickle; miserable; empty; ephemeral." Notice that a few of these meanings aren't synonyms with the rest.

Between Japanese and English, especially with adjectives, there are few one-to-one relationships between our separate words. Even the word "word" requires different Japanese sometimes, it seems. 単語 and 言葉 can both have "word" as their best translation in separate contexts, but actually, the former is more accurately "vocabulary word." Whatever; it's confusing. In any case, many of the definitions I had to memorize for Reading and Writing Japanese were lists of words that sometimes seemed to not have much in relation with each other. I remember the definition for 届く (とどく) in my "textbook" (which was really just a packet) was this: "reach, get, carry." What? Those are like three separate steps.

とにかく (In any case), I feel like I haven't had time to appreciate the transience of my experience, the experience itself, or anything. Too much to let roll over my head, so it's not rolling. The last two weeks in Japan went way too fast because I had too much to get done. But しょうがない: there was no way for that to not happen. And then I had about 96 hours in Vancouver, no more... no, it was more like 67 hours. What? Then home. Christmas was underwhelming; but, the good thing, as usual: hanging out with my friends saves me. And now I have to get a French visa, re-energize the French part of my brain by reading, play Santa, try to secure a math job for the summer or an REU internship or something, and leave again. (adj-i) fleeting; transient; short-lived; momentary; vain; fickle; miserable; empty; ephemeral

I meant to paste "儚さ" actually. I don't think English is appropriate for this.

儚い。

Thank you, Shouhei, for the coincidence that gave me that word. Thank God for the coincidence that was Japan. Or for whatever led me there.

I guess something told me not to go back. I'm still trying to figure out what that is.

Until then,

さようなら。

9 days,

I initially was going to put a period at the end of the title but chose a comma instead. Things don't really end after those 9 days.

I'm really, really tired after these past two weeks, so I think I'll have a half-hearted effort at studying for my final oral exam and my sociology final quiz. Whatever, whatever. Whenever, wherever. You remember that Shakira song?

The song "I Want You" is an addicting drab daze. I don't know why those words come to mind when I want to describe it, but... Yeah. Oh, man, that was the best song transition ever: "I Want You" (which is by Common featuring will.i.am) to "Saturday Night Love" from DDR Extreme 2. Excellent.

There's one line in the song that I really like, and it's part of a really good stanza although it stands out on its own. "Hope the stars and the gods align me and you."

And when I'm tired, that's the hope I cling to.

FREEZE! Like me

Nothing has been more fun here than saying 「フリズビーをお送りします。ご注意ください。　[I am (humbly) sending the frisbee. Please (honorably) watch out.] って言ったりする [among doing other things]. How great is frisbee in Kansai? It's pretty damn great. Except that random-as-hell field featuring metal grates and bricks and artificial turf and basketball hoops and people playing soccer. But the dirt fields are nice. Plus, when am I going to be able to yell commands in 敬語 (keigo, honorific formal speech) again and have people get what I'm saying? Never, perhaps. But I will try to visit in April. We'll see. One last time (for Kansai frisbee) with you and me. Maybe.

Yeah, I'm about to (hopefully) complete my registration for Paris, which involves making a résumé, which in French is not "résumé." Rather, it's "CV," which means curriculum vitae coming of course from Latin. Okay, so, I have to upload a résumé to get a visa. What?! I don't have one; this is because I did not need one to work either two summers ago or this past summer. So, now, I have to make my resume (enough with the accents), for, of all things, a visa to France. Wow.

Que c'est bon que les français n'espionnent pas sur les américains qui veulent entrer dans leur pays. Ou peut-être que j'ai tort. (It's a good thing that the French don't spy on the Americans who want to enter their country. Or maybe I'm wrong.) Si c'est vrai, ne me tue pas!!! (Don't baise me in the cul, France. [Not giving a translation.])

I went to Nagoya today with my economics class. It was pretty すげー (sugee, hyper-masculine for "great"). I'm really happy right now too, and satisfied. Don't know why. Maybe it's because my body is finally 100% behaving and I wasn't dripping snot like a melting snowman, like I had been all week. Good.

And now plans are set for my mom to go to Kyoto tomorrow and have a good time seeing temples and stuff with my host mother and me. Except it might rain. Dammit.

That's okay. From here on out it's only finals.

I acted too late to be able to send gifts home; now I have to choose from the stuff I don't need until 3 weeks from now. Think about that; that's 21 days and that's December 29 when I can expect my shit back. Not great. And that's of course assuming I send it today, I mean tonight, which is obviously not happening. And I have to send stuff home because I simply have too much crap that I don't need, like summer clothes and random pages of random stuff that I got back from my classes and need to show to the Japanese department at Tufts to get the credit I want to get. And I get this.

Ah, Borat, I miss referencing you.

Yeah, and I have to buy a Playstation so that I can play the DDR games that I bought. Also, I have to make sure it ships rapid/express or whatever the option is. But it's only about 60 dollars.

I know, I could possibly get a better deal. But I don't want to have to install a modchip, against which the games might possibly have a mechanism built within. That's what happened with the DDR games I bought 3 years ago; didn't quite work with my good old modded Filipino Playstation. And unfortunately, they don't sell PSOnes in stores anymore (Go ahead and try. Even in Den Den Town, el primo electronics-district in Osaka, they didn't have any. Why???), so my only option is Amazon. Luckily, my experience with Japanese used products is that the Japanese don't even use the products they sell off, or at least it doesn't seem like it; they're all in pristine condition when I get them, the goods are, that is. Excellentそう. (It seems like it might be excellent.)

God, why wasn't my writing this vibrant over the past two months, when my life was so vibrant with everyone else? I guess it's more vibrant now, that is, my life. And even as my Hirakata life is coming to a close, at least for this year, anyway.

Hey, but 2009 starts real soon. A new year.

And something else to go on to. Man, I'll miss you.

ひまですか。NOという感じです

I learned something new and very important today. Attention all gaijin Japanese speakers!!!

When you say ひま (hima), it means "having absolutely nothing to do." A corollary remark to this is that when you're talking to or about someone and you have to be ていねい(teinei, polite), then don't ask them if they're ひま. That's rude because it implies that they haven't found anything to do and they are seeking out something to fill their time like a beggar. Yes, thank you 日本語 for having yet another word that's so commonplace with your friends but impolite otherwise and which has a sticky translation into English (generally translated as "has free time"). The correct term for this if you want to say or ask whether a person has "free time" is 時間がある (jikan ga aru; "there is time (free for someone to do something)").

My mom's coming to visit on Tuesday (she's currently in Tokyo for a business conference) and I'm going to go to Kyoto with my host mother who will show her around Kiyomizuderu or something like that. We're gonna talk about that this morning. Yes, yes, yo. Saves my host mom the trouble of cooking dinner but it also creates the trouble of going around Kyoto with my host mother. Wait, wow-- I just realized I haven't spent time out with my host mother at all! (Because she's never 時間がある.) That's why I found the idea so odd at first, and the experience something I'm not used to. Whoa...

Exciting.

Tomorrow I'm scheduled to go to Arashiyama and then Monday to the Toyota factory in Nagoya. And I thought I was going to be severely cutting down on traveling for the next few days. Whatever, more happy for my camera.