Flyjin

I can't believe it's already Thursday night! This week has flown by but I am super exhausted. My classes have been relatively uneventful and I am looking forward to the weekend and next weekend's Golden Week holiday. On Monday I had Japanese class in the morning, and then lunch with a bunch of Japanese friends -- we got our food in the cafeteria and then took it to a nearby classroom, which was great because we actually had space to move our elbows. Seriously, the cafeterias are so crowded at lunch it was insane. But I had my delicious lunch and then economics, which was basically a review of a class I have already taken at Wellesley. After classes were over two of my friends and I went to do some shopping in Harajuku, where I made my first real purchases other than food. I got a super cute floral backpack and also "blinged out" my phone (see below), so now if anyone was considering taking me seriously they definitely won't. Harajuku is fast becoming our favorite place for shopping, and I can't wait to take my sister there! (Start saving your money now.)

My phone~

On Tuesday I had my usual classes (Japanese and super-boring anthropology), and I was pretty exhausted so I came home right after school and did some work before going to sleep early. I still really like the topic of my anthropology class, but we don't do very much in class. That said, we have an interesting homework assignment for next week (comparing Avatar to Princess Mononoke, a Japanese anime film), and the professor cancelled class for Friday, so overall I'm pretty happy with the course.

Yesterday (Wednesday) was a beautiful day. It has started getting really nice during the day but still gets pretty chilly at night. Yesterday I had Japanese in the morning and then we had our (last!) "orientation" meeting in the afternoon. The first part was actually really interesting -- we met with Dr. Slater again and he talked about a lot of unique Japanese social characteristics such as the ideas of uchi and soto -- i.e. the concept of "insider" vs "outsider." One of his most interesting points was discussing the difference between "maturity" in the US vs Japan -- at home, you are considered "mature" if you are an independent, self-sufficient adult who can make their own decisions and knows how to interact in social situations. In Japan, however, being "mature" is seen as recognizing that you actually are dependent on others, and so you must take responsibility for your own actions and how they affect others. Pretty interesting distinction. Also, Dr. Slater mentioned the term "flyjin" (pronounced fly-jean) -- it is a play on the word "gaijin" (guy-jean), which means foreigner in Japanese, and "flyjin" is (jokingly?) being used to poke fun at all of the foreigners who fled Japan after the disaster. I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that people still thank us for staying here or for deciding to still come, and that hasn't changed.


Yesterday I didn't get home until pretty late after my NGO management class, so I did some homework and then went to bed. Today was also a really long day. I had Japanese in the morning, then had lunch with some friends -- I came in late and they told me to sit in this chair that was basically in the middle of everyone, so I was bombarded from all directions by Japanese for about 30 minutes. Immersion. After lunch I had economics where we had another in-class problem set, and then later at night there was a volunteering information session. Peace Boat and Second Harvest Japan were both there to talk about what they have been doing, and how we can get involved. I unfortunately can't go volunteer next week during Golden Week, but I am looking at dates later in May.


Nothing too exciting to report from this week -- but these next few weeks should be great. Saturday I am going to Yokohama with SISEC, and then next week I have Tuesday-Thursday off from school so I am going to Kobe and Osaka! I am visiting our family friends and also am trying to meet up with one of my high school teachers, who is currently teaching at an international school in Osaka. Then, the next weekend is my BIRTHDAY!!! It's on a Friday (Friday the 13th!), and my birthday is also normally during finals period at Wellesley -- so I finally get to have a real celebration. AND this will be my first time ever celebrating my birthday in the time zone where I was born. SO EXCITED! Have a great weekend everyone!