Today I'm going home for the first time in 1.5 years. I'm not looking forward to the reverse culture shock. I am looking forward to seeing my family.
Wish me luck.
We filmed another entry in the "friendship series" of short movies. All Pete's brainchildren, they've been featuring various friends and acquaintances we have here. If you notice, there's a common theme between the two pieces. Can you guess what it is?
The lighting is much better in this one.
As many of you know from reading here before, the Japanese winter is particularly harsh on foreigners. Not because it's especially cold or anything; in actuality it's quite "warm" compared to the frigid temperatures of my native Massachusetts. The problem is that houses in the 関東 (kanto: the "central" area of Japan surrounding Tokyo) area are uninsulated and lack any form of heating.
This leads to the use of stinky (and poisonous!) kerosene space heaters and the like. It's not something I prefer to use whilst sleeping, so generally I just hunker down under a massive layer of blankets to sleep. On very cold nights I might use an electric heater but electricity is quite expensive even here in the "country" and I am loathe to waste it.
It presents a problem. One of my quirks is that I need fresh air to sleep. I can't, for example, sleep fully under blankets. If I could, I wouldn't have a problem, but as it stands I sleep with my face exposed to the cold air. My face is fine, but it's my (rather prominent) nose that causes discomfort. My nose gets extremely cold at night. I have compensated by trying to sleep like a mummy with only my nose sticking out, but of course ... my nose still gets cold!
I expressed my situation today to my coworkers. They all agreed it was because my nose is "so tall."
Pete, Will, and I filmed a short film while out camping in Tochigi. I have to say, it's a fun little flick and I really enjoy how well the music fits.
Unfortunately it's pretty washed out due to the camera's white balance or something (it was a very bright day), but so be it. A cute film. Just click below for the YouTube video.
Break out my slippers and my bathrobe, because it's uncle-land for me!
My sister this morning (evening in the States I guess) gave birth a month early to a healthy baby girl. Woohaw and OMG at the same time!
And thus the frantic search for a pre-Christmas plane ticket begins. Wow.
Yesterday I (along with thousands of other hopeful foreigners) took the level-2 Japanese Level Proficiency Test (日本語能力試験 if you must know). There are 4 levels, 1 being the highest. Suffice to say, level 2 is pretty difficult.
There are three sections. The first is devoted to "Writing and Vocabulary" even though there's no writing, just kanji recognition. I did okay on that section, but not great. The second is "Listening" which I feel very confident about. The third is "Reading and Grammar," which totally rocked my world (in a bad way). I think I guessed on about 90% of those questions.
Well, at the very least it goes to show my strong/weak points.
Thankfully it's over, but it does make me want to improve my reading skills.