絶望した！また生きているのは絶望した！

My, oh my, phone the neighbors, wake the kids, this is an extravaganza you won't want to miss.

Yes, after 28 days of grueling noveling and now with my fifth book under my belt, I will now make my triumphant return to the world of the blogosphere. So, what all has happened in the last four weeks? Pretty much each day followed the same schedule.

1.) Wake up

2.) Get out of bed

3.) Drag a comb across my head

4.) School

5.) Homework

6.) Novel

7.) Back to sleep

Every now and then, I'd throw some eating in there - you know, staying alive and all that good stuff. This was a tough novel for me - for the first time I was writing completely in first-person. I probably won't be doing it again for a while - it's much tougher for me than third-person. What's more, this has been by far the hardest NaNoWriMo month for me yet - I can't say I'm particularly surprised. Still, the book is done, I'll tuck it away for a year or so and let it cool down, and now my workload is significantly lighter. So, taking things in order...

The week that I made my last post, I had two major presentations in two different classes - both of my philosophy seminars. Naturally, my brain was temporarily blown out as a result. With these presentations, I always adopt a 'let's get this over with attitude' when it comes to the actual day of presentation. That way, I don't feel on the hook for a long period of time; so, when both of my presentations were split by the ends of their respective class periods, requiring me to continue each a week later, that really put a bit of a damper on things. Still, I got them done and they went well. I also had a speech in Japanese class that went really well. We did the entire class in one three-hour class period - it was actually the fastest-moving class I've ever had in that subject. Small favors.

I've started working out with some friends at one of the local sports clubs over here - running though classes and such. It's great practice for me because I'm now a contractor with Sports Club Oasis and will be teaching event classes for them all over the city and surrounding area. It's a really exciting opportunity and one that I'll be able to resume when I return after graduation - it's starting to look like this is the place for me to be and that I will be able to find work here. Furthermore, I've heard from several friends that an English-speaking personal trainer in Tokyo would make bank because there are hardly any available. If things go well on these first few events, they may even consider giving me a regular class during the week, which would be just about the best thing ever. Miraculously, through these few run-throughs that I have done, I've discovered that I actually am capable of teaching a full hour-long class IN JAPANESE. I really didn't think my skills were at that level yet. Granted, there is still some polishing and vocabulary I could use, but I can make it through without issue.

I also finally started my work with BTS/BFS over here. I've done some transcribing work with some of the program videos so that they are set to go to the translators. Basically, I watch a video, pause it every few seconds, and write out a verbatim script of what it being said. It's long work, but it's work nonetheless, and it's with the company that I love and hope to be able to find eventual long and full-time employment with. I can think of no better way to start than with what I'm doing right now - building connections, interning, networking. This is good stuff. During the year I'm back at Rice, I'm going to try and see what I can do with regards to becoming a BTS trainer - it'll be much more convenient for me to travel to Georgia from Texas than it would be from Japan. We'll see what happens.

We're into the Advent season at TUC - the church is all decorated up and Christmas is in the air. Next Sunday is Choir Sunday, when our choir is doing this crazy 20-minute performance piece in place of the sermon. We've been working on it ever since I joined the choir, so this will be very exciting. I was also finally presented to the congregation, along with about twenty others, as new members of the church. There were five baptisms and about fifteen new members yesterday, so it was a very exciting time.

We did have the campus festival during this last month - a weeklong period in which classes are canceled and all of the clubs and organizations of Mita Campus put together a big festival. Most of us exchange students - not particularly involved with either the festival or the supporting clubs, took this simply as a well-deserved week off. Many of my friends went traveling to Hakone, Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Kobe - all kinds of wonderful places. I was considering going to Karuizawa - the place is really fun, inexpensive to get to, and above all, the Winter Festival was beginning right in the middle of the break. Unfortunately for me, due to the national holiday causing a long weekend on the Monday after, every hotel in the city was booked solid. As such, I decided to stick close to home and grind out some work for school and BTS and to get a bit ahead of the game. It was a working holiday, to be sure, but there was at least one day where I did go out and have some fun. My friend Dana and I did a tour d'Ikebukuro, going to all the anime shops and availing ourselves of all sorts of wonderful little stuffs. Later that night, my housemate Clio and I went out and saw the movie Saw 6 in theaters. Being an American horror movie, we went there mostly to laugh at it and make constant comment. We bought our tickets and went to Wendy's for dinner - where I proceeded to have a Li Shengshun-caliber dinner in a period of 10 minutes, wanting to get back to the theater on time. We walked into the theater, and it seemed that the movie had just started. There were all the usual elements, and we enjoyed it, but it seemed that there was more going on than we knew about with the plot. Then, when the credits started rolling after only 45 minutes, we started to wonder if something was up. Looking at our tickets, we saw that we had actually arrived an hour early and come in halfway through the flick. As such, we stuck around to watch the first half second, which made the second half make a lot more sense. Then we left, already knowing the ending.

Thanksgiving isn't that big a day over here in Japan - for most people it's just Thursday. In fact, it was one of the first days back from break, so it didn't really seem like a holiday at all. Still, I had a fantastic microwave beef-bowl as my Thanksgiving dinner, and I was very grateful - as I have been for so many of the things that have gone on here.

Looking forward, I've got a couple of papers coming due in the next few weeks - nothing terribly difficult. One's for Japanese Literature, and I'm comparing/contrasting the works of Ueda Akinari and H.P. Lovecraft in regards to the mechanics of the ghost story. The other one's for Popular Music in Postwar Japan, and I haven't chosen my topic yet. Other than that, we've got three weeks until Christmas break, and I'm just going to have to keep on keeping on until that time. I think we're gonna make it.

So, until next time...

絶望した！