Nihongo

I went to a Meet Up group for Japanese, and I actually reinforced all the Japanese that I've learned so far. Even though I can speak Japanese with mom, it's just different when you have to express yourself to new people. It felt nice to be around people who like Japanese and I could talk all I wanted about specific Japanese things and their eyes don't wander.

I think I really needed to connect with a group like this. These days, I had been feeling as though my whole Japan experience was slowly melting away. I know that I keep it within me, but at times, when all I see is English, and all I hear is English, I stop caring. It was so much more fun to be able to look at anything in Japan and learn something new. On the train, besides people watching, I'd make out the advertisements hanging from the silver bars, and I'd noticed that as the months went by, I could decode more and more of the kanji around me. Now, on my commute to and from work, I obsessively study car makes and models; something I never had an interest in before. I reckon after learning to consume so much information every minute of the day, I can't stop even now. I miss seeing kanji everywhere!

The best part was when we all took a purikura-like shot at the end of the meet-up with Aaron's sony vaio. It made me all natsukashii!