1998.06.03 WED

Being in Japan is pretty darn weird, sometimes. On one hand (the one which I'm most often frustrated by) I barely know the language here - most of the time I only have a superficial grasp of what it is I'm doing, and the rest of the time I manage a bad imitation of having a clue. On the other hand, there's a lot of people here who think just like me.

For example, there is a manga (comics) club here, which I'm starting to get into. Most of the time in that club I'm struggling with the Japanese-English dictionary, trying to figure out how to say what I want to say in a way that can be understood, but it's fun nonetheless. A lot of times I just sit there and watch the other members talk about stuff, and occasionally I can comprehend enough of the situation to make a quick comment or two. Most of the people here are really friendly though - they're very patient and try to help whenever they can.

In Japan, the 'clubs' are called 'circles' - in Osaka Kyoiku University, there is a separate building for the circles to reside in. This building's also conveniently located right next to our dorm, another reason I go there fairly often. A lot of times people just go there and hang out - we don't actually draw much in that building, most of the time we just talk, usually for about an hour or so each day. There's a big 'log' which everyone can write in - basically a record of the circle's activities from day to day. Every so often we draw in that book, but so far whenever I've been going people tend to just ask me about America.

Seems like my timing was off for the manga club - they usually make two books in the spring and two in the winter, but in the summer the only thing they do is compile a 'name list' - basically an address book of the people in the club. Each person gets a page in the name list, where they can draw whatever they like, and list their basic statistics and stuff like name, address, phone number, and stuff like that. I don't think that there's much else for the club, but I'm guessing that won't stop us from drawing other stuff on the side... ;b

Well, I've got lots more to say, but it's mainly just complaining about different faux paus of mine this week that would only make me feel worse to talk about. Classes are going okay, I just wish I could skip ahead to the point where I already understood the language ;b