Advertisement
Published: April 7th 2005
Edit Blog Post
_
_ Last semester I walked into the student lounge of the Center for
International Education building on campus and noticed a classmate of
mine laughing and talking around the table with not one, but three very
good looking Japanese ladies. Understand that this classmate of mine
was just a little geeky, in a cool way, but still geeky if that makes sense.
Immediately I approached him and asked, “What’s your secret, how the
heck did you pull this off?” He looked at me with a grin on his face and
responded, “Well, to be honest, I just sat down.”
Truthfully, just about any native English speaking man can find an
attractive Japanese girlfriend regardless that he may be a complete nerd
in his home country. Actually, being in Japan now automatically makes me
five times cooler than I would be if I were in America. Its paradise, it really
is, but putting the glamour of the role as western man aside it must be
known that this position does come with its share of difficulties, let me
explain. Usually Japanese girls tend to hang together. That’s totally
I NEED FOODS
I got this email and shortly after this sign was posted:
There have been some raccoon dogs around the Nakamiya
Campus and in Seminar House #3.
Please do not feed or touch these animals. They are wild animals
and may bite. They also carry parasites, and are dangerous.
Therefore, they should be completely avoided.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
cool,
but this means that meeting one Japanese girl really means you are
meeting eleven Japanese girls. The scenario typically goes something this
like this.
“Hello, we would like to be your friends, will you be our friend?” they
ask. “Yes, of course, let’s be friends my name is Spencer,” I say. Taking
turns speaking my new friends then begin to introduce themselves. “My
name is Tomoko,” says Tomoko. “My name is Kumiko,” says Kumiko. My
name is Ayako,” says the next girl. My name is “Ayako too,” says the
other Ayako “My name Yuko,” says my next new friend and this continues
until all eleven of my friends have introduced themselves. We then speak
for a few minutes, sometimes exchanging e-mail addresses, and then we
go on our separate ways always saying that we will see each other
soon.
The real problem is that I can only learn and memorize so many new
names each day. Moreover, it is rare for a day to go by without meeting
someone new. This is all just fine until I see those I have
For those of you who can't get enough
Explain this to me and ill give you 10 bucks. met again for
the second time. Actually, most of the time when I do finally see them
again, this can be days and other times weeks, I do not know that I have
seen them. Instead they see me look at them as though they are a
stranger and they say, “Supensa san!!” When I hear this I immediately
look back at them and say, “Hi, Hello, How are you?” From that point we
chat for a few minutes, I try my best to not repeat something I have
already said, and again we continue on our separate ways. It’s really
hard when I am leaving the cafeteria and from one the tables I have just
passed I hear, “Supensa san!!” If I don’t know who has said my name,
which is most of the time, I then must scan the table quickly making sure
to keep eye contact to a minimum until they say something else or until I
can clearly see that they are waiting for my response. At that point, I am
then able to look them in the eyes and then speak with
S U M O -- N I G H T
here is a melody of sumo shots from sumo night a few weeks ago in Osaka. them.
I sincerely try my hardest to keep the names straight, but getting them all
right simply can not be done therefore I have given up. Tomorrow starts
the first day of the semester for the Japanese students. This means that
all the students I met before Christmas are finally coming back from their
spring vacations. For the last three months I have been at Kansai Gaidai
with only the Japanese students that are taking classes in English, which
is probably less than one percent of the students enrolled at Gaidai. It’s
going to be interesting to see how if I can make it through the rest of the
school year without getting called out on not knowing someone’s name.
Lastly, just so you know it I am not the only one that has this problem. If
you are to ask any of my international classmates if they too have this
problem they will say, “Absolutely.” Sure, you may think that living here
is the high life, and maybe it is, but just so you know it doesn't come easy.
*Cheers Spring is Here
Awww... Cute, ne
In Hirakata there are several happy little animals on the sidewalks and I wanted to share them with you.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.194s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 6; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0657s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
anonymous
non-member comment
kansai gaidai ni ikimasu
Hi, I'm going to Kansai Gaidai for the next academic year, so I found your travel blog _very_ interesting. Of course, I am greatly pleased to hear about the star role the internationals play at Japan. I hope it doesn't only apply for Americans, but eg. Czechs, too. :) I'll be checking back to your log. I'm looking forward to visiting Japan, never been there before. Best wishes! - Filip - Filip H