Nihon Nerd

Here we go again. Another week in Japan. Wow. Still can’t believe it. Am I really here? Hmm… Lemme go check. Hold on. Checking. Just a sec. Looking out in the window. Ah. Yes. Mmmhmm. Lots of buildings with Japanese signs. Lots of Japanese people. Interesting. Very interesting…

OK, I’m back. So I’m about 74.% sure I’m still in Japan. It’s been a crazy week. I think? No joke, I’m having a hard time remembering what happened. Everything has moved so fast since I’ve been here. Ahhh! Let’s just get straight to it, because I have my first にほんご テスト (Japanese language test) tomorrow. Ooooooh boy.

Aight, here’s my highlights, lowlights, and goals for next week:

Highlights

Started my INTENSIVE Japanese language class. Yep, I’m diving right in. I’ve only been here 3 weeks and I already started a THREE MONTH language course where we meet EVERY DAY for THREE HOURS. OMG! What was I thinking? Besides wanting to learn the language super quick so I can actually function and not feel completely helpless and worthless when interacting with non-English speakers? Actually, wait… That’s pretty much the only thing I was thinking. Not sure why I asked then. Sorry! Bad rhetorical question, Michael! Bad.

Still, I gotta admit – a part of me wished I waited until I got settled first before committing to a 3 month course.But y’know what? I want to learn! TEACH ME! TEACH ME ALL THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE THINGS! I’ll talk more next week about how the class is going as I’ll have about 2 weeks under my belt. But I will say it’s been super humbling so far. And this coming from someone who practically has no ego nor shame. Lol!

Called a restaurant and asked them their business hours, holidays, and happy hour… ALL IN JAPANESE! Did this today in my language class. Holy crap was that scary! Granted, I was reading off a sheet, but it was still nerve-wracking as all hell to speak only in Japanese for the first time. The best part? I was SO FOCUSED on what I was saying that I remembered LITERALLY NOTHING that was spoken to me. Hmm… That’s actually like most conversations I have English, too, now that I think about it… But I did it! My classmates were impressed because I do a lot of “Mmm…Mmmm…” when listening and apparently that made me sound authentic to them. Honestly, that’s just me pretending like I have a clue what it’s being told to me. Spoiler alert: ZERO CLUES.

Applied for 2 apartments in the neighborhood I want to live in. They’re both stupidly humble (and quite cheap per Tokyo/San Francisco standards), but they’d be perfect for me right now. I sooooooo hope I get one of them. Not having a permanent home for 3 weeks now has really taken a toll on me (more that in the lowlights). I’ve been praying every night to the apartment gods. I don’t know what I should pray though, so I’ve just been chanting, “Rent, Rent, Rent, Rent, Rent…” over and over. We’ll see if it works…

Successfully tested payments on my website. This is pretty big, because it means I’m SUPER close to opening up shop. I was (finally) able to link my corporate Japanese bank account to my payment processor, so I now receive funds when people buy stuff. To test it out, I bought one of my own mailers with my own money, so I’m effectively paying myself. Aww yeahh! I’M GONNA BE RICH! Since it’s my first payment, I gotta wait until next week for it to land in my payment processor account. Then I can test a transfer from my payment processor to my bank account. Once I’m able to confirm that works, I’ll be good to go! Oh, and MAD PROPS to my friend Duong who’s been helping me build my website. Even though my website is stupid simple and using Shopify, there’s still a lot of manual tweaks that need to be made that go outside my realm of expertise, and Duong has been so very awesome to help me out along the way. She’s seriously the best and I owe so much to her. Y’all have no idea. Yay for friends!

Shibuya station discount foods. Mmm… discounted foods….

Lowlights

No apartment yet. Ugh. So I was living on my office floor for a few days, but that was kinda sad. And uncomfortable. Mostly uncomfortable (ma poor back!), so I’ve been staying at a cheap-ass Manage/Internet cafe in Shibuya. While it’s crazy cheap (about $18.40 for 12 hours), it’s a little janky. Lot of snoring. Alarms going off for LITERALLY 2-3 minutes before being turned off… And then coming back again. And then getting turned off… And then coming back again. And then getting turned off. And then com… JUST WAKE UP, JACKASS! Ugh x 2. But yeah. It’s not the best, but it’s better than sleeping on my office floor (ma poor back, remember?), so I guess I can’t complain too much.

Language skillz suck. There’s been a few times when I had to attempt to converse with people who can’t speak English. Yikes. I’m awful. It’s pretty demoralizing when you can’t speak nor convey what you want to get across. This is why I’m happy I chose to dive into my language class. BABY STEPS!

No more Quest Bars. Before I came here, I stashed a crapton of Quest Bars (a popular protein bar) to eat for breakfast. Sadly, I ran out because I figured by the time I ate my last one, I’d have an apartment. Hahahaha. Not even close, dude. Wha-whaaaaaa. So now that I’m out of Quest Bars, I gotta buy breakfast, which means I gotta be even MORE frugal with my ALREADY CRAZY FRUGAL ¥1,000 meals. Totes fun times without the fun. So just “totes time.” Sure, that works.

Next Week’s Goals

Enjoying New Japan Pro Wrestling. I’m going to see my favorite Japanese wrestling promotion on Monday. I hope I can have fun. Am I allowed to do that here? I hope so! Because I’m gonna go nuts. Soooo looking forward to this. I’ve been so stressed since I got here that’ll be nice to actually relax and enjoy myself a bit. Can’t wait!

Confirm my website payments work and do the final prep work to launch. It’s getting real. I can’t wait.

Stay strong with my Japanese language classes. So far, so good, but I know it’s gonna get harder and harder. I MUST STAY STRONG! NEVER GIVE UP, NEVER STOP SOUNDING A STUPID FOREIGNER TRYING TO SPEAK JAPANESE!

Rent an apartment. RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT, RENT….

OK… I gotta study. Thanks for reading. Seriously. It means a lot to me. See ya らいしゅう!