English
日本語 Japan Night at Wharton
Tonight after work I went to UPenn’s Japan Night event. Sushi, beer, sake, and Japanese entertainment, who could say no?
It was so fantastic. I haven’t had an experience like that since I was in Japan. Actually, it was really an ordinary kind of event, but because it made me remember the time I was in Japan, it really seemed fantastic to me. Since I’ve started practicing langauge with Emiko, I’ve become much better at Japanese; maybe even better than I was in Japan while I was speaking only Japanese… but I hadn’t really noticed it until today when I was surrounded by people speaking Japanese. Also, since I’m such a shy person and I never go out to parties, this is a very rare kind fo experience for me.
Emiko knew a lot of people there, which was good because my Japanese and my social skills aren’t good enough to engage her in conversation for such a long time. Plus, I was able to practice listening to much more rapid speech, and surprisingly I was able to understand a whole lot. More than half, anyway, and that impresses me. Of course, I couldn’t hope to be able to speak that much just yet… I actually did break out of my shell a bit and spoke to some people who know my coworkers at the JASGP from conversation club (I really ought to keep going — damn my laziness) about the JET Programme. The more I talk to people about it, the more I really wish I was going there this year instead of next. >_<
Walking back through the city I was just overcome with nostalgia, which is both the best and the worst feeling in the world. Whats worse, I get nostalgic for things I haven’t even done… like going to a big college like that, or living in the city on my own and walking around at night, or various things like that. Sometimes I start to regret that I didn’t do things differently, but of course that’s a silly thought because if I had done things differently, I would regret not doing things the way I have now. Even nostalgia for things you haven’t done is a wonderful feeling if you can keep it from turning into resentment.
On the train ride home, since my brain was still in Japan mode, I read from my Japanese books a bit, and I read much faster than I expected to. My brain is a bit tired now, but it sure got its long-overdue exercise tonight and I’m really happy for it.
Now I really want to move out of my hosue and live by myself in the city. It’s not that I’m not free enough, but everything in the suburbs goes to sleep at night, and there’s something so fantastic about walking through busy city streets in the middle of the night, past bars, parties, colleges — even if you don’t go to any of these places, walking past them is nice. The parts of me that want to go back to college (and want to go to a really huge, diverse college) are really just these very same parts — the parts that want to be surrounded by activity all the time, free to chose whether or not to join in. Where, on a whim, I could just up and do something that I’ve never done before… become something else for a short time just to try it out.
That’s sort of the romance of watching movies by yourself… which I think I’ll do now.
