Ah, sweet victory. 'Tis good to bask in thine warmth once again.
If you couldn't tell, I'm in a particularly good mood right now.
Let's start off with the thing that has been occupying a good hundred and thirty percent of my time since my last post - preparation for and taking of final exams. In all, to wrap up this semester (excluding those classes I finished before Winter Break), I was responsible for two papers, one presentation, and three MASSIVE exams in order to get to where I am now, which is a little place I like to refer to as 'sweet freedom'.
First off was my final paper for my graduate seminar on Kant's 'Die Religion Innerhalb der Grenzen der Bloßen Vernunft', or, for those of you who don't speak German, 'Religion Within the Bounds of Bare Reason." My paper topic almost literally fell into my lap, thanks to the theology reading group that I am a member of at Tokyo Union Church. We chose a book called "A New Kind of Christian" which was about the changes that are happening in the church and what they mean for the life of the church as a whole. It was a perfect book to juxtapose with Kant and critique it by Kant's reasoning - the two authors see eye-to-eye on many different levels. Fifteen pages later, we were done with paper number one. We celebrated the end of the seminar with a Tabehodai/Nomihodai party (all you can eat and drink) at an Italian place near the school. The evening was great fun, and the best part for me was that the restaurant's menu even had a "Kami no Shizuku" wine recommendation. For those of you who don't know what that means, "Kami no Shizuku" is a Japanese serial comic about a pair of wine connoisseurs trying to find the twelve greatest wines on the planet. Along the way, the discover all kinds of spectacular wines, and the series has actually been called by experts to be an exceptional guide to wine. Now, I like Japanese comics, and I like wine, so this was a win for everybody - we ordered a decanter for the table and all agreed it was a great choice.
Here's a pic of the recommendation from Kami no Shizuku.
Next up was my other seminar, this one on the book "An Encouragement of Learning" (Gakumon no Susume), written by the founder of Keio University, Yukichi Fukuzawa. This was a class I was very excited to take because the history of this school is really a spectacular thing. Fukuzawa was a mid-level samurai who lived both before and after the Meiji Restoration (one of the key events in modern Japanese history, when Japan's doors were finally opened to the West). He observed the societies that he lived in during both periods and wrote this book and founded the school because of his passionate beliefs about the importance of education, especially after it became available to so many more people after the Restoration. We took the book in chapters and would each present three times on a complete chapter. My final chapter presentation was on the last day of the class, and I turned in my final paper (the assignment being 1000 words on what we learned by studying the work) on the same day. We also had a conclusion party of the same type for this class - all you can eat and drink at a cool little izakaya (pub) in Tamachi.
Here are a couple pics from that night:
Sakura Chu-Hai - an alcoholic drink with a small branch of cherry blossom in it.
Now, the tests. I had three of them, as I mentioned before. Two were on the same subject, but in different classes - that subject being kanji, the Japanese pictograph alphabet that is a near mirror of the Chinese alphabet. The first kanji exam was in the kanji-only class - a whole semester-long class focusing on learning 250 of these characters. Kanji has never been my strong suit, and many of us were worried about the exam, which was cumulative. As such, we all took a great deal of time to study up. Mercifully, and much to the credit of the professor, the exam wasn't the terrifying monolith we were expecting. As a matter of fact, my friend Dana agreed with me that it was actually kind of fun, and would only have been improved by the addition of one of the professor's kanji-based "Where's Waldo"-type games. Still, having one question on the test be - "Write your favorite kanji and why you like it" - filled the bill for me.
By the way, my favorite kanji is 東. It's pronounced 'higashi' and means 'east'. The reason is that when I look at this kanji, it really seems to be the quintessential kanji - a kanji's kanji, if you will. This is the first one I think of when I think of these characters.
Anyway, the second and third exams were in the JLP Level 3 core class. These were the big ones. First off was grammar, which took place yesterday morning. To give you some idea of the breadth and depth of what we have covered in this course, all I can really say is that we went through two entire textbooks in a single semester. Twenty-five chapters, each with multiple grammar points - very few of which built off of each other. I spent a great deal of time between the end of the first kanji exam and this exam studying like a madman. I even spent four hours on Wednesday afternoon creating a study guide. Test day came, and I was as nervous as I've ever been about any final exam - this one was, I thought, going to be brutal. As a matter of fact, as I ascended the eight stairwells to reach our classroom, I felt a little like a prisoner heading for the gallows. Still, once I got my brain going on it - it was just a five-page exam, it wasn't any harder than, say, the SAT (which I enjoyed). It was definitely a taxing exam, but I got it done and I think did rather well. There was only one question I could not come up with an answer to - so as a result, I drew this:
I think it went over well.
Finally, there was my last kanji exam. 26 new combos. One good afternoon of study got me all set for that one. I think I might have aced both the reading and writing on this one - what a way to go. I was also a bit worried about his one at first, but on advice of my friend and Group Ride teammate Dena back in Oregon, I put on my hardcore remix of "O Fortuna" as I entered campus and it got me all revved up.
After that, every member of the class had a 10-minute interview with Kim-sensei, the Level 3 coordinator and our Thursday-class professor - great gal. I drew the lucky number one a few weeks ago, so I got to go first, and thus finish the entire course first. The interview was more a one-on-one exit interview than a test-style interrogation. We talked about how I felt with my progress and what I felt I had achieved over the semester, which was quite a lot. I thanked her for all her help over the semester and headed out the door.
My joyous exit should have had a film crew - that's the only thing that could have improved it. I descended the stairs while "There She Goes" by the Boo Radleys blasted in my headphones. I walked out of the building and tossed my hat in the air, Mary Tyler Moore-style. I pulled out a bit of cash at the bank and went into the corner pub, where I ordered a half-pint of Guinness (my first time drinking that divine ambrosia) and some fish and chips in celebration. Once it was in my hands, I raised it to the sky and shouted "Let's get pissed!" in a Scottish accent. That's how I celebrate.
After that, it was off to Ryogoku to meet up with my new house manager and check in to my new place. I'm moving over the course of the next ten days, and then I'll fly back to the States for a little visit. We're all set, and my new place is great - if a little funky. I'm moving from a house with six people to a house with thirty five. It's gonna be a change, but it's a much shorter commute, a rooftop balcony, an actual lounge area with a couch, as opposed to just the kitchen, and all other sorts of cool things. Now I'm home and ready to go have a little Friday-night movie night with my Sakura House housemates.
In the near future, Clio, Elena and I are going to a costume party hosted by Sakura House to celebrate the new year. I'm going as Lambo from Katekyo Hitman Reborn, an anime I'm a big fan of, and they're going as other anime characters as well.
On another note, here are some pics from my phone that I haven't posted yet:
This was a delicious apple pie baked by my friend Julie Fukuda when she invited me over to her place to help polish off their New Year's leftovers.
This is a poster in Tsukishima station, featuring the character who is the anthropomorphized version of the station - Izayoi Tsukishima, from the series Miracle Train: Welcome to the Oedo Line. The show is about six anthropomorphized train stations who travel around on a magic train and solve their passengers' problems. Tsukishima loves making monja-yaki, a Tokyo specialty. Not surprisingly, the best monja-yaki in Tokyo is in Tsukishima. And that is what the next two pictures are.
When you first get an order of monja-yaki, it looks like the first picture. When you cook it up, it looks like the second picture. It's basically a batter without egg - a bit water and OH SO TASTY! Anyone who comes to visit me is going to go with me to go eat some - you will love it.
Until next time...
絶望した！
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