函館！

I have arrived safely in Hakodate! I'd better be getting to bed, because I plan to wake up early in the morning to go to an onsen and then take the cable car up Hakodate Mountain for a morning view of the city. More when I get a chance!

北海道へ！

I am sitting in the computer classroom at IUC, where I am all but completely done with the Summer Program. I cannot believe how quickly it has gone by! Wednesday was my final exam. Then, yesterday was the 研究発表会 (short research presentations). I did a presentation on high-speed rail in Japan and the U.S., which was a nice opportunity for this aspiring railfan to research a topic of interest in Japanese and prepare a PowerPoint. I had been worried that I wouldn't get much writing practice out of this program, but the presentation turned out to be a good way to incorporate the Japanese I had learned in other parts of the course into my writing skills. I definitely could tell that I have made an improvement over these six weeks as I prepared and revised the draft.

I'd better run to the graduation ceremony in the next room now. I had planned to tell you about the trip, but most likely I'll next post from Hakodate, Hokkaido, where I'm staying tonight. In short, I'm really excited!

靖國神社

Before I get caught up with matters pertaining to my last week of classes and my upcoming trip, I should fill you in on Friday's 校外学習 (field trip).

We were given a choice of four different sights in Tokyo to visit after Friday's classes. I chose Yasukuni Jinja (whose name in kanji is the title of this post). Check out the link to the Wikipedia article if you need background. Essentially, it's a shrine dedicated to the spirits of Japanese who died fighting on behalf of the Emperor that has been a source of controversy for quite some time. The controversy arises from the fact that the shrine and its museum never make any mention of anything that could possibly paint Japan in a less-than-positive light at any point in its history. Having visited the museum, I can see why people are upset by it. Honestly, though, other than the fact that I was aware of some pretty significant historical negligence, it felt more like a normal museum than I expected it to feel. By this I mean mainly that the other people visiting the museum seemed like normal Japanese quietly looking around. I'm still thinking it all over.

The shrine itself. That symbol printed four times on the banner is the Imperial Seal of Japan.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take many pictures there, because past a certain point very early on in the museum, photography was prohibited. Thus, the most interesting photos that the day produced have more to do with modern Japan than traditional culture. I had been meaning for some time to get a good photo of an Engrish sign or two. Enjoy:

I saw this as I was entering the museum ...

... and this on the way out.

The latter is particularly interesting to me, because the error here results in a markedly un-Japanese effect. See my earlier post on the park sign about dog droppings for more details, but essentially, the extra period seems to impart an abruptness and lack of concern for the addressee's opinion that just won't do in Japanese in any situation that is not completely casual. In contrast, the Japanese on the sign is written in typically polite, humble style. Interesting.

Tomorrow is my final exam (already!), and I'll have more on that and next week's plans then. Now to study all that vocab ...

富士山

Big news: I can now count myself among the millions and millions of people who have been to Japan's highest mountain, none other than Fuji-san itself!

Last weekend, I stayed in at my second cousins' in Ninomiya on Saturday night. We woke up at 6:30 on Sunday morning so as to try to beat the rush and the clouds. Unfortunately, we avoided neither completely. The traffic on the two-lane roads leading to and up the mountain was pretty bad, but we did make it to 五号目 (the fifth viewing point). Most of the clouds cleared up by the time we reached the mountain, but a single snail-shaped cloud around the summit would not budge for the entire day. I hear that's not atypical. Oh, well! Take a look:

This is the "melon bread" to which I was treated as we were leaving. Yes, the Japanese eat watermelon-flavored bread. In this case, in the shape of a volcano. It was pretty tasty!

This was taken outside the restaurant where we had soba after we descended the mountain. I forgot the name of the lake in the foreground, unfortunately.

This was actually taken yesterday. It was the first time that Fuji-san was visible from the park in my neighborhood (a few minutes' walk from my relatives' house). My ojisan suspected that it would finally appear, and he was right! As you can see, though, the cloud around the summit would not leave.

I can see why Fuji-san has such a sacred aura around it for the Japanese, although in all honesty, I need to come back in winter to really appreciate it. Perfect, clear visibility basically never happens for the entire summer. Maybe I'll catch a glimpse of the top without a cloud cover before I leave!

Off to start homework now, but more soon on the last week of classes and my travel plans for next week!

東京タワー、スピーチ

The fourth of six weeks of classes is almost over. Unbelievable!

Anyway, I realized that I forgot to tell you about the end of my excursion to Tokyo last Saturday. After the Yale Club of Japan BBQ, I thought I would go to 麻布十番温泉 (Azabu-Juban Onsen), because it was walking distance from the barbecue and, according to my Lonely Planet, Japan's "Best Inner-City Onsen" (I think they meant "urban" without the connotations of "inner-city," but you get the idea). Unfortunately, it turns out that the place closed down in March of 2008 (at least according to Wikipedia). How disappointing!

The walk to Azabu-Juban was certainly not a waste, though. I just pulled up out my Lonely Planet map of the area and figured I would see what was close. Turns out 東京タワー (Tokyo Tower) was also within walking distance, so I went there.


I bought a ticket to go up to the Main Observatory, and that was a great decision. It was absolutely mesmerizing up there. I spent more than an hour walking around and just sitting. I also got a delicious ミルクプリンチョコサンディー (that katakana is pronounced miruku-purin choko sandeii ... see if you can guess what it means!). Unfortunately, it was a bit difficult to take pictures through the glass in the dark, but you might get the general idea of how awesome the 360-degree view of the metropolis was from this:

Yes, those are my feet. No, I am not about to die. I am standing on one of the windows aptly labeled "Look Down."

Pretty neat, don't you think? It's tough to convey how mesmerizing it was to be up there ...

The other order of business for this post is, of course, スピーチ (speech). I realized that I haven't written much about my actual classes, which is a shame, so I figured I would share a particular exciting moment from this week. In my class at IUC, every day one of the seven students is required to give a speech; there's a rotating schedule. Today was my day to give a speech, I think for the third time, and this time, I chose a topic that has been of great interest to me since a Yale friend sent me a link to this New York Times article last month. The topic of the speech I gave today was アイビールック、またはアイビースタイル ("Ivy Look" or "Ivy Style"). Apparently, since about the early 1960's, there has been a consistent segment of the Japanese public that is quite taken with the idea of dressing preppy. If you know me, you can imagine how delighted I was to learn this. Originally (perhaps even today), this style of wardrobe was inextricably associated with the Ivy League in the Japanese mind. Even better, right? So anyway, I wrote a speech about this phenomenon and delivered it to my classmates today. Definitely one of the most useful and personally relevant things I've done with my Japanese since I started. For some more background, here are the Japanese links I showed my classmates today:

• A magazine cover from last year
• A post on a Japanese style blog
• Van Jacket
• A diagram from a Japanese anthropology textbook*

*Just kidding, as I'm sure you've figured out.

This is undoubtedly one of the greatest things about modern Japanese culture.

On the note of "Ivy Style," I'll close with this, which I should have included in my last post, since it was taken at the barbecue on Saturday:

神様のため、国のため、イェールのため
"For God, For Country, and For Yale"

Thirteen time zones away from dear old New Haven, the words ring no less true.

外国人墓地、渋谷、中間試験、六本木

I'll try to keep this post quick because I don't want to start my fourth week of classes off any more tired than I need to be, so let me pick up where I left off in Friday's post, which was describing my day last Sunday (5th July).

I forgot to mention that while I was in Yamate, I went to the Yokohama Foreign Cemetery (横浜外国人墓地), which was pretty interesting and actually quite relaxing to walk through, since it is so peaceful compared to the places in which I spend most of my time. There were all sorts of different graves and some pretty notable people in the history of Japan buried there.

On Wednesday, I went up to Tokyo for my first real time. I say "real" because while the kabuki production at the National Theatre was a great experience, I only saw about three blocks of Tokyo then (we were on the subway or train the rest of the way there). The reason for the trip up on Wednesday was a dinner at a restaurant in Shibuya (渋谷) graciously organized by a member of the Yale Japanese faculty visiting Tokyo. There were a bunch of Yale students there. I knew some of them already from Japanese class back in New Haven, and I met some new ones. The students at the dinner Wednesday were mostly doing Light Fellowships at the Sun Academy Nihongo Center in Tokyo. I'm glad I went, because it hadn't occurred to me how comparatively little I get out here until I talked to them. They all live within the same block, so I gather that they often have the opportunity to venture out into Tokyo with each other to hang out. While I have a great living situation, the very thing that makes it so great (living with relatives in a real Japanese family and experiencing home life) is what makes me farther away from other students. Hopefully, I'll get up to Tokyo a couple more times and see the Elis who are there.

On that note, I actually went up to Tokyo again on Saturday, this time to Roppongi (六本木) for a Yale Club of Japan (warning: website mysteriously outdated) barbecue. The barbecue was at the U.S. Embassy Compound, which was pretty cool to see. There were 70-some Yale people and 40-some Dartmouth people (the event was co-sponsored with the Dartmouth Club of Japan) there. Kudos to the woman in Yale's Office of International Affairs who sponsored all the current undergraduates so that we wouldn't have to fork over precious yen for the barbecue!

You may have noticed that I skipped 中間試験. Have no fear. Well, maybe you should, because the kanji mean "midterm exam," which I took on Friday. I studied a lot, so I can only hope I did well. I think I did well, but it's tough to say since we hadn't really had any graded assignments in a traditional sense, so I don't have a bar relative to which to gauge my performance. In any event, I'll find out soon. Quite soon, actually, since it's getting late and my fatigue is about to reach headache level. I think that's my cue to sign off. More in a couple of days!

言葉！山手

It's Friday night, and I'm tired out from another long week, but a post seems rather overdue! There's one update I've been meaning to blog briefly for a while but keep forgetting. That's the 言葉 (kotoba) you see in the title. 言葉 means "word," but in this case it's the name of my new 電子辞書 (electronic dictionary), which is in the form of another iPod touch application. Kotoba! is completely free, and for this reason, among others, I give it a 10 out of 10. (It freezes every once in a while but is always back up running within 20 seconds, and it's not often enough to be a significant bother anyway.) The great thing about this is that the dictionary files are loaded into your iPod, so I no longer have to waste battery life (which WiFi drains comparatively quickly), bandwidth, and page loading time when I want to look up a word I hear in class, which happens quite a lot. I keep my iPod out on the desk in the classroom next to me at all times and rely heavily on Kotoba! then, on the street, at home with the relatives, anywhere ... in short, it's great. I highly recommend it to any Japanese speaker.

Now, to the past week's sights:

On Sunday, I went to 山手 (Yamate), a neighborhood of Yokohama that has historically housed a great number of 外国人 (foreigners). Most of the buildings there looked like there were plucked right out of Europe. I took a bunch of pictures of the park, but this one is the most interesting:

You might be able to guess the general meaning of this sign even if you can't read it. It asks dog owners not to let their dogs off a leash and to take care of anything they leave behind (you know what I mean). If you consider the grammar of this sign, I think you'll agree that this is both hilarious and culturally significant. An excessively literal translation of the second bullet point reads "as for dog droppings, let's owners always take it home." You really can't render a literal translation of the grammar of this sentence without sounding awkward, because the Japanese is designed to adhere to standards of politeness that we in the Anglosphere simply lack. The form of the verb "to take home" is volitional, meaning that it's equivalent to the English "let's take home." However, the subject of the verb is "dog owners," and what creates the problem for English speakers is that the imagined speaker of this sign (the embodiment of the park authorities or what have you) does not have a dog. If we analyze the grammar of the sentence on English terms, it seems downright odd, because the subject could not actually participate in the "let's" invitation.

In reality, of course, the sentence makes perfect sense; one just has to avoid analyzing a language as different from English as Japanese is on English terms. This sentence is an example of the Japanese tendency to state commands to specific groups of people as if they are something we all want to (and, what is more, can) obey. In general, the cultural mindset of the Japanese highly values politeness and group connections, as you may have read elsewhere. These emphases are reflected in countless Japanese constructions and forms of syntax, and both are seen here. The idea is that it is more polite to write the above than "please pick up after your dog" or "dogs must be kept on a leash." Further, rather than separating the rule-giver and supposed obeyer in the situation, the sentence creates community between them; another awkward but somewhat correspondent way to translate the idea behind the sentence would be "let's bring about a situation in which owners always take their dogs' droppings home." I've read other examples of this type of public notice in one of my JSL textbooks at Yale, but I forgot which chapter it was, so hopefully you get the general idea from this one. Pretty interesting, huh? Of course, language is always a window into culture, but I love the moments where I realize consciously that I've become able to see something specific from both sociolinguistic sides.

Well, I've gone on another grammar rant again--apologies. Anyway, the reason I was in Yamate was to go to Yokohama Christ Church, the English-speaking congregation of Yokohama. Christ Church shares the same building with 山手聖公会 (Yamate Sei Ko Kai), and on the first Sunday of every month, the two congregations have a joint bilingual service. This Sunday happened to be such a Sunday, which was pretty cool. The sermon was preached in English by an Englishman (any sermon is better in an English accent, of course), and the liturgy was in Japanese. The English priest had printed out a translation of his sermon into Japanese, which the Japanese congregation read while he preached. The bulletin was side-by-side English and Japanese, so it was pretty easy to follow everything.

I was going to write about a few more of the past week's events, but I've gotten carried away and more tired, so I'm going to call it a day for blogging. I'll be back tomorrow with the rest of what I was going to share.