My Daily Life

Currently my day is filled almost completely with the study of Japanese. I go to class each weekday morning for 3 hours. Usually afterwards I spend an hour or two figuring out where to eat, eating, then coming back home. I don't really consider it my home though, just the place where my things are. When I return home (the word is still convenient), I check various things on the internet and then begin studying. I study the things that I have learned that day, review things from previous days, do whatever homework I may have, look up the vocabulary words that will be used in the following days classwork, and study for the kanji quizzes that we have each day. Because of the immediately useful nature of Japanese in Japan, it studying doesn't seem like a chore. But still, the idea of actually remembering the myriad things that I am taught is overwhelming. I'm not sure how language is learned really, but I do think that is impossible to remember everything at once, and that my brain tries to determine what is important and remember those things. I hope, and hypothesize, that absorbing new language related knowledge is a skill that can be improved. So, in the future, perhaps learning will be less difficult. The only thing I can do, really, is read write and say sentences and words, and hope that they will somehow be absorbed.
While I study, I often communicate with friends and family over skype (michael.busby217), AIM (busbychan), and E-mail (mbusby@gmail.com or zombusbydenwa@ezweb.ne.jp for my cellphone). I also listen to music, write, draw, reflect, and occasionally update this blog. Sometimes I go out and socialize, like last night, but prefer to go do that only with Japanese people, so that I can practice Japanese. Also, when it is late and I have finished studying, I sometimes go buy dinner.
Last night was fun, but the concert that I wanted to go to was sold out. So my friend and I ended up just walking around, eating, getting ice cream, and talking. It was good for my Japanese, even if less exciting than seeing Cornelius. I think that each day I learn at least a couple words and or kanji, but think that I will have to learn at a faster rate if I wish to become proficient by the end of my stay. Maybe I'm underestimating how much i'm learning, but I have my sights set on being able to do more than hold simple conversations. I think, my desired level would be that of being able to remember new words and forms after being taught only once.

While here, on top of studying Japanese, I hope to study martial arts, see if I can do some fine arts just for fun in my spare time, and to travel all over Japan. Much of the traveling, though, I may postpone until my parents get here, and I change to a visitor's visa.