Holiday Season in Japan!

I've done it again, I totally forgot about my blog. It's hard to come on here and update every day, especially when I'm just trying to enjoy every last day I have left. The end of my stay here in Japan is inching closer and closer, it's hard to even think that within months I'll be setting foot back in Australia for the first time in almost 12 months.

I think instead of long winded accounts of my time since my last blog entry, I'll keep this one shorter and a bit more focused. It's that time of the year again, it's Christmas time, a time that even comes around every year here in Japan! This country with a tiny percent of Christian population, even here the holiday comes in full force.

Walking down the streets of Kyoto it's hard to forget that the holiday you either love or hate is drawing nearer and nearer. Bright lights hang from the shopping streets, giant Santa's climbing chimneys hang from the roof. Kyoto Station has an amazing, gigantic Christmas tree making it even more beautiful than usual. That, and no matter where you go there are fantastic light displays everywhere. Here they call them simply 'Illumination', and they're a much bigger part of Christmas here than they are in Australia.

One of the biggest, is Kobe's Luminaire. I went to see this with a few friends about a week ago, and it was amazing. It's essentially a gigantic light structure that is put up every year and has been going since the tragic Kobe earthquake. Words and photos can't do it justice. It is just amazing.





One thing is very different about the holiday season in Japan, though. It is very commercial (One could argue it's commercial everywhere, though), with little meaning beyond the decorations, lights and gifts. That, and instead of spending it with family members, it is a night for couples to spend together and go out for dinner. Meaning places are always booked out with mass amounts of couples wanting to spend a special night together.

In reverse, the upcoming New Year celebration is a very family orientated event for Japanese people. Lots of people living away from their extended families in other prefectures travel home for the period and there are a lot of traditional things to take part in. I'm looking forward to both experiences!

So how am I spending Christmas night? I will be going to dinner with my girlfriend, Erika and hopefully having a great night out, despite my predictions for awful crowds. I hope everyone back home has a very Merry Christmas, and of course a Happy New Year!

Chevalier College

Recently a group of kids from Chevalier College in Bowral, NSW, came to my school for about 2 weeks. Chevalier is sister schools with Murasakino, so it's a common event for kids from there to come here and kids from Murasakino to go to Chevalier for short exchanges. This group were students of Japanese at Chevalier and ranged in age from 13-17. They came with their Japanese teacher, as well as some other teacher aides as a class trip.

I'd been asked to help them out during their time here. Both by just being a bridge for communication and by helping teach them Japanese along with the people who usually teach me Japanese, a group of university student volunteers.

It was a great 2 weeks. It was very odd to have this group of 14 or so Australians suddenly hanging around the place, but I soon got used to it and it was a welcome change. Actually, being around them made me notice just how much I myself had changed since I came here. At times it was hard to fit in, and I found myself being more comfortable around the Japanese students than the Australian ones! That said, they were a great bunch of people, and it was a pleasure having them around for that time.

Birthday

On December 3rd I finally turned 18. Back home in Australia this means I'm a full fledged adult. Gaining the ability to drink, smoke, vote, and a million other responsibilities I'm sure. In Japan it means I'm allowed to marry haha.

Japan's age of adulthood is 20, meaning most of the things Australian kids do to celebrate their coming of age are off-limits here for me. Interestingly enough, I am old enough to go to clubs and gamble in Pachinko parlours (Most other forms of gambling are illegal), but not anything else. My birthday started off lacklustre. I didn't feel like I'd turned 18, and it was a school day to boot.

A lot of people just had no idea it was actually my birthday, although I had received some really nice midnight emails from friends wishing me the best, and one of my closer friends at school went to the effort of buying a present, which made me really happy.

It got better, I guess. By the end of the week I had eaten 3 different cakes from different people, each with my name written on a sign made out of chocolate on the top. They were really delicious, and it was the first time I can remember receiving a personalised cake like that in a fairly long time. So to get 3 in one year was amazing!

I am 18 now. The change didn't happen over night, I think I've slowly becoming more and more like an 18 year old adult over this whole year. If I had spent this time in Australia, I feel like I might have been able to drink and all, but I probably still would have had the mindset of a kid.

JLPT

December 2nd marked the 2007 日本語能力試験 (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) for me here in Kyoto. I was fairly confident about it, seeing as I ended up opting to take 3rd Level, despite being told I should be able to go for 2nd Level by a few people. After sitting the exam I can say they were probably right, after all. Level 3 was a bit too easy and I often found myself finishing the exams too quickly and having a lot of time left over.

I suppose in retrospect it might have been better to challenge myself a bit more, although there's always next year. The results get sent out in February so then I'll know for sure exactly how I did.

The day started off pretty routinely. I woke up, got ready, and got a lift from my host dad to a nearby train station where I was meeting some friends who were also taking the exam. From there we walked to Kyoto University and were running a bit short on time. En route I noticed I'd forgotten to bring any form of ID. The book we got sent told us to bring either our Alien ID Card or a Passport along, and I had neither. After panicked emails to host family and whatnot, it turned out I didn't even need them. They weren't asked for even once.

Did anyone else reading sit the exam? I'd like to know how others thought about the difficulty.