A Breif Recap...

１０月２３日、火曜日 - Transend Workshop

After the Kurama Fire Festival, I woke up around noon and went up to the university for the workshop hosted there for my Dynamics class. I signed up because the speaker of the workshop is the founder of the organization Transcend, which works for "peace through peaceful means." I thought that not only would I learn something, but I could put this event on my resume and it would make me look unique--this guy normally does not give workshops to college students.

At least I get the resume part. According to this guy, China is the best place in the world to live and America thinks that it is the chosen people, who choose the chosen president, who then is God's voice on earth. Oh, and apparently we're not an enlightened society either because a recent survey suggests that nearly three fourths of the United States still believes in a higher being.

Another issue is that whenever he would back his statements up with proof, that proof would be incredibly vague. For instance, he once backed up his claim that our media lies to us by saying that a Japanese reporter (no name, no affiliation given) once told him that the western reports of tiananmen square were horribly wrong. If I had not heard a comment (that was well backed up, mind you) before that sounded somewhat similar to his claim in this particular case, I would never have been inclined to believe his statement. A name and maybe the newspaper the reporter worked for would have sufficed but please, don't use a source if you aren't going to name it. Much of his dialogue in explaining China, Korea, and the United States was delivered with this vague approach to sources (I heard a friend of mine say...).

Another complaint is that he only answered the questions he wanted to answer, and if he didn't want to answer the question asked, then he would turn it into some other question that he did want to answer. Ruth asked how China intended to lead the world in health care and education for ALL of its citizens when it hasn't addressed its human rights issues--such as womens rights and the fact that people disappear whenever the government so much as thinks that they have said something against the government--and his responce was how health care and education would be accomplished in China because the Chinese government was capable of doing so. Human rights never came into the answer. Our resident representative of the former Soviet block (whose name I can't remember, but he's in my Dynamics of Modern Japan class and he speaks up frequently) is old enough to remember a time when human rights were ignored in his country in much the same way they are currently ignored in China. He asked basically the same question as Ruth, only his specific example was freedom of religion since he attributes that to a cause of unrest within his home country and he wanted to know how China intended to address the freedom of religion issue. The guy's answer had nothing to do with that question.

And lastly, according to this man, Johann Gultung (sp?), the model for peace in ALL areas of the globe should be based off of the model of the European Union. We should therefore have an Asian Union, a Middle East Union, a Central American Union... Etc. Which tells me that this man has yet to learn that just because you design something that works very well for you doesn't mean that it works at all for anyone else. Asia is not Europe. It does not think in the same way as Europe. Therefore a European model is not going to work for Asia because Asia simply is not Europe. Something based off the European model but made distinctly Asian by Asian countries for Asian countries might work, but I highly doubt we'll be seeing an Asian Union that looks just like the European version any time in the future.

I've said my piece, so I'll end my rant.

１０月２４日、水曜日 - Shinto Midterm
Studied absolutely none for my Shinto Midterm and received a B. So, I shall study for my second test and write a really good paper about my (hopefully soon to take place) trip to Meiji's tomb and Nogi's shrine, and I'll walk out of that class with an A. Provided her tests remain as simple and easy as the one she gave on this day. Went home and studied for seven hours for an Anthropology midterm.

１０月２５日、木曜日 - Anthropology Midterm
Seven hours of studying (which I never thought I'd ever have the fortitude to pull off in my life) payed off and I missed only five points on the quiz, four of which I am currently contesting due to the wording of the question. I want my 99! So, provided that I get started on my research project soon and survive the second test, I should also be able to walk out of the class with another A.

１０月２７日、土曜日 - Halloween Parties
I spent Saturday afternoon at my host mother's halloween party, where I finished carving a pumpkin for the children there and we dressed up in makeshift costumes. The only costume my host mother owned that would fit me was a witch's costume, so for halloween I was a witch. With a black trash sack tied around my neck as a cape...

Then, I left there, met Ruth at Gotenyama Station (the stop between Makino and Hirakata City Station), and road the keihan line all the way to Kyobashi, where we switched trains and headed to Justin's apartment where we were promised a small (maybe 5 or 6 people) party with pizza, cola, and a scary movie. It turns out there were at least 20 people there, and most everyone did not know everyone else. So, we introduced ourselves and sat on the floor (because there was no where else to sit) and had fun. We did indeed have pizza, from Dominos. It was probably the most expensive Dominos I've ever had (Ruth and I split what they called a medium but what we thought was a small, and the cost came up to 1300 yen). At Dominos Japan, you can order the ocean on your pizza (according to Kyle, Justin's roommate), but we ordered something remotely American, except for the fact it had corn on it. It also was no where near as good as any other pizza I've had in Japan either.

After interesting conversations and having to explain for the thousandth time where in the United States is the state of Arkansas (to an American, no less!--to which I said we're the little state better known as the state of Walmart and therefore we own your souls...), we finally turned off the lights and started our movie of the evening, the Descent.

The Descent is a movie about six rather unintellegent women who decide to go caving in Chattanooga, TN (I loved the images of TN; looked like home) in an undiscovered cave, without an expert among them, and after commiting several idiotic mistakes (Ruth and I were picking the movie apart at the beginning since she's a hiker and a mountain climber and I know just enough about caving to be dangerous) find themselves caved in and therefore have to find a new way out. What stands between them is mountains of uncharted underground territory, and a clan of (for lack of a better word) critters who were once humanoid, but having evolved in the darkness are now blind, hunt by sound like bats, ugly as all get-out, and oh, by the way, eat raw meat, including the unfortunate human who dares to try and discover their cave. I shall neglect to tell you the ending on principle but being a person who hates most scary movies, I shall also recommend not seeing this one.

So then Ruth and I had to endure the hour long train ride home, where we got home and stayed up until 2 texting each other back and forth whilst we tried not to be afraid of the dark. She somehow managed to go to sleep while I snoozed with the light on until 7:30 in the morning when the sun rose and I could finally turn out my light. Consequently, I missed Kamigamo Jinja on Sunday, and I'm told that I missed a lot of interesting things. I could care less; I wanted sleep and so I got what I wanted. I can always go to Kamigamo another day.

１０月３０日、火曜日 - Dynamics Midterm.
So here's the test: four questions, given to us two weeks in advance, and a requirement to write an in-class essay on two of the questions, which two being our choice. It can't get any easier than that. All you have to do is study for the two questions you think easiest to answer and then actually write the paper in class. Each should be approximately two pages. Time has yet to tell how I did on the test, but I am sure I did well. We'll probably find out for sure tomorrow.

１０月３１日、水曜日 - Halloween Proper
I spent Halloween Proper mostly in bed. I woke up and made it to my speaking class where apparently I looked so ill that everyone insisted that I go home and go to bed. I tried to eat lunch but found myself feeling too nauseous to eat. So, I road home, surprised my host mother (who promptly asked if I had a fever, to which I said I didn't think so), and went to bed. I woke up around 4pm starving and wondered why until I realized that I hadn't had anything to eat. So, I took the two second trip to the 7-11 two blocks away, got myself a sandwich, ate it, and got home just in time to go to the second halloween party at my host mother's school where I got my picture taken with the jack-o-lantern that I carved. I then went home and went promptly to bed at 8pm, without dinner.

１１月１日、木曜日 - Return of Anth Project Proposals
So we finally got our lovely anthropology project proposals back (after a month of waiting). I am now officially approved to interview college students on what they think of Meiji and Nogi (which will eventually become a small part of my honors thesis, I hope). And guess what! We have a month in which to do all these interviews, so I shall start moving quickly. Fortunately, I already have several contacts in mind.

I now currently smell (and hear the crackle of) home made tempura downstairs, so I shall leave you with that. My workload is ever increasing as we get closer to the end of the semester so I appologize in advance if updates get even less frequent than they have been. My best to everyone!