WAIT... DO I ACTUALLY LOVE THIS PLACE?
2026.04.14
During class yesterday, our sensei taught us the Japanese rock paper siscors, Jan Ken Pon. She drew a representation of the different hand positions on the whiteboard:
I literally cannot stop laughing about the “paper” on the right. It looks like a deformed cauliflower.
WATASHI NO SENSEI
Our Sensei is pretty chill. Her name is なぎら先生 (Nagira sensei). She’s very tall, wears glasses, dry-humored, and, I’m sorry, but terrible at drawing. We watched her attempt to write the hiragana character ひ for the longest time. She kept on drawing it incorrectly then erasing it, then having to draw the grid, then attempt to draw it again. It reminded me of my brother because I cannot read a single thing he writes. Her handwriting is probably the Japanese equivalence of my brother’s.
I’m beginning to understand slowly what she’s talking about. It’s been confirmed that she knows practically no English since I was telling her about my venture to Osaka Castle:
I told her “Osaka castle ni ikimashita (I went to osaka castle)”
She said: “?”
Me: “Castle… Ano… Osaka no ookii tatemono (Osaka’s big building)”
Nagira Sensei: “?”
I proceeded to show her a photo of the building and she said: “Oh! Osaka Jo!”
Me: “Joe?”
She wrote some stuff on the whiteboard for me to understand. What I like about Nagira Sensei is that she will explain something to the extreme. Instead of just telling me “that’s Osaka Jo”, she will explain the entire etymology of the word through her awful drawings. I appreciate that.
I enjoy learning Japanese so far. I will teach you a new word: ちがいます (chigaimasu). This word means “that’s wrong.”
WHO IS OSAKA TO ME?
I crafted a table of things I like versus things I don’t appreciate as much about Osaka:
| LOVE! <3 | meh. | |
|---|---|---|
| Many food/shopping areas, especially in train stations | People (men) staring at me | |
| Lower sugar + delicious food | Nothing is open before 7:00 AM | |
| Everything is guaranteed good quality/reliable | Internalized xenophobia | |
| Super cheap | ||
| Walkable | ||
| Safe no matter where or what time | ||
| Variety of foods/shops | ||
| Everyone speaks Japanese to me | ||
| Style of clothes/hair is cool to me | ||
| Clean most places | ||
| People are usually chill | ||
| Able to wear a mask without feeling weird about it | ||
| Conbinis everywhere |
Notice how the ‘meh.’ list is so small, yet that stuff has been picking at me since I got here. There’s a lesson in that.
I really like Osaka. I want to note that I also enjoy being alone which is half of the experience.
OTHER STUFFF?
Other things going on with me include:
- finishing this audiobook “Love Song of Johhny Valentine” by Teddy Wayne. It’s about a tween boy popstar based off of Justin Beiber. He is struggling between being a tween boy going through puberty and being a popstar with the responsibilities of an adult. I feel bad for him.
- figuring out what I want to do when I get back to states. Maybe go back to school.
- watching too many k-pop youtube shorts.
Oh, here is a video of my dorm BTW:
The song was playing while I was recording which is unusual because it typically stops playing music when you begin recording. I went with it anyway. The song is “I’m a Lady” by Santigold.
Okay, I genuinely have nothing else to write about + I’m hungry, so I’ll see ya’ tomorrow. じゃね！