Ugh.

I have been refraining from writing this for 4 weeks because I never gave a shit. But if you wish, you can watch as I scrape up all of the memories from my "academic" routine at Tamagawa as I possibly can. Be forewarned that this will be full of ass kissing, an account only suitable for the eyes of an off-kilter professor. I also warn you that it will be dull, and probably not worth reading. I wouldn't read it. 

"Well I don't think I'll make it through another day

It's eight o'clock and all ain't well
My brain hurts so much it's startin' to decay
And I'm livin' in my private hell
Didn't somebody tell me this would be so great
Be the best thing I ever had?
How come they never told me 'bout the word "exaggerate"
How'd somethin' so good get so bad?
'cause hey, I gotta know
Am I slow?
Where do I go from here?
Do abc's
And 123's
Mean that much to me, that much to me, me, me, me, me, me, me

Be cruel to your school
'cause you may never get another
Be cruel to your school
In the name of rock and roll."

I was admittedly reluctant to join the Tamagawa program. But in the end, I was more than happy with the friends I made, things I learned, and experiences I came away with. I thought that making a daily account of everything that happened in every class would be repetitive and monotonous, so I combined the things that affected me the most from my experiences at school into this journal.

At first, I was slightly overwhelmed by the schedule that Kathy Riley handed us. After getting lost on the train system for a good chunk of hours, even after the amazing welcome party the students threw for us, it was a little distressing to have to arrive at school, which was 2 hours away from where I was staying, at 9 in the morning on many days. But I learned to get up very early and catch the train to make it to school on time, so although I was often quite tired in the morning, for the most part I made it to classes on time and ready to interact with the students. 

The first class we experienced was one of Mr. Rowland's English classes. Diana and Rory went to visit one of Kathy Riley's classes. The students were maybe first or second year students, and they were hesitant to really engage in conversation with Alec and I. The students' current assignment was to take photos and information about their favorite musicians and compile them into a sort of scrapbook compilation they could use as a guide when giving presentations. We were split up and put into groups with the students as they practiced giving their speeches. Among the favorite artists were bands like Mr. Children, a Japanese group, and Green Day, an American band. The levels of English ranged from beginner to high intermediate, and it was fun helping the students along when they had trouble with forming sentences. It was also very handy to help in Japanese as well. It was interesting to see how some of the students worked hard and were very passionate about using English to describe their favorite artists, whereas some were just blatantly apathetic about the assignment altogether--one student explained to me in a bored, monotone droll that she would rather be hanging out with her boyfriend. The students were overall fairly shy, but I hope we helped them with their English.

One of my favorite activities came from one of Mrs. Riley's classes. The students were a bit older, maybe third and fourth years, and we sat around in a circle asking each other the questions from the Inside The Actor's Studio questionnaire survey. It was a really amazing way to expand both English and Japanese vocabulary, to break the ice, and to learn things about the students. We went around in a circle each asking a question from the list, such as, "What is your favorite word?", "What profession would you like to attempt someday?", and "If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say after you die?". Some of the answers turned out to be quite humorous--for example, Rory confessed that he's always wanted to be a dinosaur--and I learned from other students that they would like to be poets, ice skaters, and film directors. 

In another intermediate English language class, the four of us completed one of the English language grammar quizzes that the students were assigned, and ironically some of our answers were different from those on the answer key. It kind of made me realize that English is an infinitely difficult language, because there are so many different ways to phrase one thing and get one idea across. We listened to the professor's enthusiastic lecture as the students were called upon at random and struggled filling in the proper English grammar. 

Another one of my favorite activities was in an advanced-intermediate English speaking class which Noriko, one of the friends we made from the culture club, was in. Each student went up and wrote their names on the board for us, explaining what the kanji meant and how it related to them as people. I found it fascinating, considering that my name is relatively boring...and my last name is made up. The students made kanji for our names--mine are far too complicated for me!--and we played a word game in which you must say a word, then another player starts a new word with the last letter of the previous word. I kept track of all the words, and in the end it turns out I knew most of them in Japanese. This also turned out to be a good place to talk about visual kei music with some of the students in the class who were fans. 

One of Rowland's communications classes was quite interesting because, not only did it focus on learning English, but it also had an emphasis on the practice of interviewing other people--what kind of questions to ask, and that you should not remain silent for too long, etc.. The students went around and interviewed other people in the class, trying to find out information to fill out their chart. Most of them seemed surprised when they found out I was in a band.

Mrs. Suzuki's non-verbal communications class was also a lot of fun. Four native students at a time went up in front of the class to demonstrate a non-verbal sign, such as "okay", "eating", "good job", etc.. Afterward, we would go up to the front and demonstrate the differences in the American gesture. We came to find that Americans tend to have an extreme amount of hand gestures for just about everything, including a wide range of those strictly for vulgar use. There were many that the Japanese students didn't know. 

The sustainable agriculture class was very interesting, mostly considering the almost vulgar teaching style of the professor. The students were also a bit older in this class, my age, so it was easy to talk to them. We sat in threes, a pair of Japanese students to each American. It was nice to just kind of talk about what they were studying in a casual setting, and find similarities in our interests. There were also snacks, which was really thoughtful. Diana and I made two good friends from that class. 

The class that was probably the most confusing was an economics class taught by Mr. Oda. He was very enthusiastic and a wonderful teacher, and the students loved him very much, but he spoke so rapidly that I pretty much had no idea what he was talking about. We were supposed to participate in an activity in which (I think) three students compared the social effects of speaking and listening across cultures. Rory and I were grouped with a young Japanese man who had trouble explaining in English what we were supposed to do so, for the most part, we just sat there and tried to communicate as best as we could.

One of Mr. Rowland's seminar classes in which we compared the possible stereotyping of Japanese characters in American movies was one of the most interesting. We watched clips from movies, old and modern, with Japanese characters, and then sat in groups discussing their portrayal. In a lot of respects, the students remarked that the portrayals were, though slightly stereotypical, more or less accurate. In other cases, such as that of Japanese people being notoriously short, and the female character being loud and overbearing, they assessed that the portrayal was untrue. It was very cool coming from an outsider's prospective, where almost all the views a foreigner has of a certain place or more or less stereotypical until you can really become involved in the culture. 

Mrs.Riley's seminar class contained an activity in which we watched a short film in English about the comparisons between male and female social interaction, universally. Upon discussing it with the students, I found that in most cases, the differences between males and females--for example, men unconsciously interrupting conversations, women being more versed on color names, etc--were more or less the same in Japan. One of the differences was the more reserved nature of women in conversation in Japan. Another very interesting thing about this class was the food anthropology presentation given by a guest speaker--I believe she was Bulgarian, and was also fluent in English and Japanese, which was really amazing. She gave a slide show presentation on local and gourmet foods, delicacies, and food that most of the Japanese students thought was a native Japanese food, but actually isn't. It was very welcomed to hear a presentation on something so seemingly irrelevant at first glance, but food anthropology is really a big part of all of our lives. The differences in the food since I've gotten here, for example, have been staggeringly different.

The most interesting thing Diana and I participated in was going over to the elementary and junior high quadrants of Tamagawa, and watching the younger kids interact bilingually. We got to see the elementary school children line up, hundreds of them in one room, and practice singing for their concert. It was incomparably adorable. It was also fascinating to watch some of them come up to Diana and I and start confidently speaking in English. The levels of English vary so deeply within Tamagawa--some students younger than eight years old were having fluent conversations with me, whereas some my age cannot even introduce themselves completely. Sitting in on the classes was a lot of fun. The English language activities, such as those involving naming the names of weather and food, were very smart and the students looked like they were having the times of their lives. The next day, all four of us went to the junior high hall, where we sat in on a class of, again, extreme varying English levels. But the International Baccalaureate students were all very studious and dedicated, while still letting their personalities shine through. Their assignment to create an invention and advertise it in English led to some ingenious ideas and hilarious posters. 

The classes ran for a few hours each, and we had maybe three of them or so a day, five days a week. It was a little heavier than the 'few hours for three days a week' I thought it was going to be, but making friends with the students made it worth it. Each class, we each stood in front of the class and got into a routine of introducing ourselves. I would give my little spiel about how I'm studying Japanese and rock music, and we would usually be paired up with some students to do an activity. Because the students were all studying English, I don't feel as though I learned any Japanese in this respect. But I feel like I helped the other students become a bit more relaxed in their speech through conversation with a native speaker. Among the students in the classes we visited, I met a girl named Hikaru, who is a big Marilyn Manson fan like me, and we have been keeping in contact. Diana and I also met young men named Tomoya and Toshiki, who we sometimes go to Machida to play music with in the studio. We have also been hanging out with two young men named Atsushi and Yohei, who have become good friends of ours, and we see them often. So, because of the classes, we have made a good deal of friends, and because of this we have been improving both our Japanese and our English outside of class, which I think is invaluable experience that cannot be taught. 

The chat sessions were my favorite part of each day--the hour would come, and students from both the cultural comparisons club as well as the friends we made from classes would come and we would talk casually in both English and Japanese about our experiences in Japan so far. The chat sessions would bleed into lunch, and we would go to either Rindo, the main dining hall, or Mos Burger to eat. It was very helpful having our Japanese friends there to help us order the food...it's more difficult than it seems. As for the Japanese lessons, they essentially mirrored the chat sessions; there was no strong structure to the lessons so much as a casual exploration of what we wanted to learn. At this point, I usually spoke to the other students in Japanese, and had them help me out when I didn't understand a particular word or phrase. This exercise proved to be extremely useful, and it helped me get into the groove up speaking conversationally outside of class.

The cultural comparison club students were so nice and generous, leading us from place to place and giving us advice. We had many excursions after class; going out to eat, karaoke--we even went to Hello Kitty Land. The welcome party was very thoughtful and fun, and the farewell party was just exquisitely amazing. There was endless food, a slideshow, and the students presented each of us with a scrapbook of memories for us to take back to America. In the classes, I feel as though I contributed a good deal to the English speaking skills of the students, especially to those at a lower level. But where I really learned about comparing cultures socially and improved my Japanese was outside of class, when the friends we made took us out and helped us through the difficulties we had as foreigners in a strange place. I appreciate every one of them, and I still keep in contact with them. Because of the cultural comparisons club, I have new, close friends I will never forget. Because of the presentation class, I have a group of musicians I can play locally with. And because I met a particular student from the sustainable agriculture class, I have accidentally fallen in love. I feel that I have a great connection with the Tamagawa program now, and would like very much to come back and participate next year. The students are dedicated, kind, and thoughtful, and the teachers are enthusiastic and always willing to help. I would recommend this program for any student looking for an unforgettable experience in a heartbeat.