time (management) etc

I really want to write something on time management, but I have no ideas at the moment. So let me apologize in advance for the weak content.

My time management
Because I have homework, and hours in which I enjoy doing some things and don't want to be bothered by study at that time, I need to manage my time.
.
For example, I do most of my reps in the morning, if I have lunch at home I do a few more and when I arrive home from school I do the last ones. Of course there are exceptions. There are days at night in which I still have like 200 reps.

Then, of course, not only reps, but actual study from school. I have japanese classes everyday (one class per skill) and culture classes everyday too (except for thursday). Not all classes need previous homework, but most japanese language classes do.

And then there's the time in which I enjoy doing certain things (taking walks, going to the mall, going to the café, internet, reading,,  slowly studying, - this because I tend to do everything asap in order to save time).

Wait, what? Why do I feel the need to save time?
Actually, I view all this personal time management thing as a pseudo training for the future. Just like I consider learning as much japanese asap important in order to prevent having to study it when I have a job. ...Again...to save time, now that I think of it.
But why is it so important? I actually don't now. It's just something I've been doing for a while, and have been getting better at it.

And now I'm feeling a little tired (damn it, I've been feeling tired every day .__. ) so, I'm going to bed, hopefully will be able to play a bit of nintendo ds, but I honestly believe that as soon as I lie down I will want to sleep.

So anyway, tomorrow I'll go back to the portuguese employment system report and will make the points I've written up until now into a well structured text (I'll try at least), written obviously in japanese. I also have several homework, but let's take it easy and focus on one at a time.

21

So I turned 21.

Don't know why, but I'm getting used to the ideia of being 21 faster than in previous years. It usually takes me around a week to get used to it.

Now it's 1.23 am in Japan, I'm drinking my night milk. It's late, I know. 

My head aches (had to do some mental exarcises today for the hamasaki ayumi essay - ended up changing it a bit) and I'm physically tired too (wore my backpack all day). Tomorrow I'm going to kyoko station and roundabouts to buy something to offer myself. I might stay there doing my potential homework too.

Not that much of a day, but I was happy to have like 3 hours ago a Chinese and a Japanese friend coming over with takoyaki. 

this morning I had no coffee and had to take the maccha thing instead. I feel sleepy many times ever since I came to Japan, but this morning was specially hard. For the first time I felt the effects of not having coffee in the morning. 

This past week I've been so busy I barely have time to read. I don't know how, but time flies. 

(gotta hurry otherwise will fall asleep)

So this Ayu turned 21. 

作文 [８００字）

明日は文章力のクラスのための作文です～。訂正されてから、またここに投稿します～

私自身として、浜崎あゆみという歌手を勧めずにはいられない。なぜか、この人のおかげで私の人生を変えたのではないかと思う。

浜崎あゆみは日本の有名な歌手。モデルや女優としても活躍している。福岡県福岡市出身で、１９７８年１０月２日に生まれた。ファンによく「あゆ」と呼ばれている。浜崎あゆみ自身「Ｃｒｅａ」として、作曲を手がけている。ジャンルはポップ、「JPOP」である。

浜崎あゆみを勧める理由はさまざまある。あゆの曲の歌詞は（全部とは言えない）大変深く、聞き手に共感をさせる。あゆの原点であり、あゆにしか作れない曲がたくさんある。だが、私にとって、彼女の全てに共感する。表情、歌唱力、声質、雰囲気、容姿、ファッション、言動、歌の内容、など。

あゆの曲の特徴というと、「私」のかわりに、「僕」を使い、「複数を目指すときに「・・・たち」、「・・・ら」を使う。彼女の曲を詳しく分析すると、煌びやかなスタイルの反面、自身の心の闇の部分も歌詞に綴ることがあり、もう言ったとおり、男女を問わず多くの人から共感を得ている。

浜崎あゆみはＣＤは様々あるが、一番お勧めなのは昔の浜崎あゆみの「A Song For XX」、「Loveppears」、「I Am」である。

浜崎あゆみは、私にとって、非常に大切な人である。私が浜崎あゆみを聞き始めたのは２００８年である。そのときに、声質や歌唱力が魅力的だった。聞き続き、さらに好きになり、歌詞がわかるために、２００９年の始まり、日本語を勉強し始めた。日本語側落葉になり、あゆからいろいろ学んだ。歌詞の中の言葉や言外、「Ayu Ready」という番組も大変助かった。聴解の練習として、日本語の様々な表現、言葉なども覚えた。日本の文化の私の知識にもよく役立った。

将来の私の夢は日本語を使う仕事なので、浜崎あゆみはその希望に非常に影響を与えているといえるのではないだろうか。日本のポップの一部なので、浜崎あゆみは絶対にお勧めである。

あとね、今日は稲荷神社行きました。

奈良

So I went to 奈良 and intend on going back there someday because it's really beautiful it has deers everywhere, it is full of nature など. It's actually really interesting to finally see all these (these what? what are there? monuments?) things that I had only seen when I studied for the subjects of History/culture/geography of Japan.

I created an album just for today's pics, check it out:
http://s1273.photobucket.com/albums/y407/ayupt/Nara/

鹿のフン、鹿、あゆ

東大寺

大仏　（でかっ！）

Now I'm going to relax a bit, today was a very tiring day. Tomorrow I'll dive into my endless (endless, because well, time doesn't stop, and as soon as one week ends, the other begins) homework (I even made a list!).

1 month

１ヶ月前、日本に着いた。
I arrived to Japan one month ago.

ここでの生活は居る人たちが居ないから、完璧だといえない。
I miss a few people, my stay in Japan would be perfect if they'd be here.

日本語の授業はオーケーですけど、日本の文化のクラスは一番好き。
Japanese classes are nice and all, but I like culture related classes the best.

日本語で本を読んでて、速読が結構速くなったと感じてはいるけど、本によりますね。
I've been reading books in Japanese and my reading speed (depending on the kind of book) has increased considerably, or so it feels. Again, it depends on what I read.

よくわからないですけど、話す力は前と同じだと感じている。まあ、口から速く出る、かな？
My spoken Japanese remains the same, it probably just comes out more quickly. Not really sure.

聞くこともたぶん、よくなった。なぜかとゆったら、すごい速く話している先生が居て、全部、全部とは言えないけど、９５パーセントぐらい？
My listening skills are probably increasing too (I'm sure they are), because I have teachers who speak incredibly fast  and I can understand almost everything.

一日中、眠い。大問題。日本に来て、自分の体の限界がわかるようになった（なっている）。たとえるなら、ポルトガルでの図書館で勉強してたらば、眠くても、勉強し続けられたけど、日本ではそれは全然無理。なんかね、頭が、重くなっちゃって、中に何もないぐらい感じられる。
I'm constantly sleepy. I've arrived to Japan and actually started understanding how my body works. This is really weird to some extent because in Portugal, for example when studying in the library I used to feel sleepy but was able to continue studying, here if I start getting sleepy my head starts feeling heavy and like if it has nothing inside, so I need to stop otherwise it's just impossible to keep going without turning into a zombie.

たまに起こった。無理やりの昼寝。ポルトガルでこんなのをしたこと覚えないぐらいまれなことです。それでね、起きたら、「え、ここどこ？何時？授業？もう朝？」、道に迷ったみたいな感じかな？昼寝ってこうなの？怖くない？起きたら、すごい怖いよ。
It has happened a few times, involuntary naps. I wake up and feel so lost I just look at the watch and worry about going to school.

・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・

この投稿の終わりとして、いつもと同じに、特別な曲。是非、聴いてください。

あの瞬間思い出したら、愛しく、恋しく、暖かく感じて、うれしくて、うれしくて、元気がなくなっちゃって、目が不思議にきらきらして・・・

なんだろうね。　

絆を見る

金閣寺へ行った。
京都駅の近くで友達を待てて、やっぱり早く来たので、知らない、大勢の人の絆を見ようとした。　
親子、友達、恋人・・・・
いろいろ思い出して、暖かく感じて、胸キュンした。

 GoogleのPicasaというやつでできないから、Photobucketに移動しました。私が京都工芸繊維大学へ行った日の写真も含まれている。

ご参考にどうぞ。
http://s1273.photobucket.com/albums/y407/ayupt/Facebook/Life%20in%20Japan/

追伸：明日はなんかの祭り（名前まだわかんない）を見に行って、その後また写真をアップロードする。

weekEND!

I just returned to my bedroom. I went to the library for 1.30h to study (read) with a chinese friend, came back and then got out again to a コンビニ with another chinese friend. (both N1s and completely fluent, one of them worked for 3 years in China for a japanese company)
I have a cup of milk on my left side, and I'm going to continue writing (started before going to the library).

Despite the fact that they chinese, I want to make it clear, that japanese is the only language we are using. 残念なことに、even though I keep doing my chinese reps, I can't focus. Still, I often hear my chinese classmates speaking in chinese among themselves, so I can actually get some daily listening practice.

And...

WEEKEND! Yay. I never thought I would ever say this. but, finally, weekend! Still not safe though, loads of homework to do, but I came here for reason, and it wasn't to play around (well, that one too).  
And I thought I'd never be this relieved for having 2 days without classes. It's like, classes aren't hard, but somehow I get really tired at the end of the day.

I went for the first time to the university library two days ago. Was there for around 3 hours doing homework and reading (I can focus).
Actually, studying in the library is a bit of a hard work because somehow I get really sleepy when I'm there, maybe the thing doesn't have that many oxygen, dunno.
I'm always sleepy to be honest. And I freakin' don't know why. I've been waking up sooner than usual (my usual is 6.30), true, but still...

BUT ANYWAY. As I said on twitter some days ago, I started reading a book called 「語学で身をつける」. Basically:

- how one can use its language skills to work
- how to improve skills
- how people learn differently and on how they should change their goals according to their job/occupation/age/etc
-language acquisition methods (just finished reading this - it actually divides the process in 5 stages)
- on what one can to do improve certain skills (作文力、翻訳など）

Well, it's interesting. I'm just not sure how this reading books thing really works because:

I read, I understand (of course there are times I can't really grasp the whole thing - those times when I start あくびing mostly), but does that mean I learned what I read? I mean, does the brain absorb the information and put it to use?
I've probably read more online/through books in japanese that in portuguese. And if I have not, than I will soon, because there's a lot of things I want to read while I'm here, and they're not written in portuguese nor english...

Now to change the subject for a bit... Instead of the now boring 食堂 I went to a restaurant near the university and ate 親子丼.

Okay, now continuing with the reading subject...

Besides 日本経済・経営 my favorite classes so far are 文章力 (learning how to write texts in appropriate japanese is going to be honestly useful in the future, not only that, the practice I have from reading japanese online is also a big plus because I'm pretty familiar with the partterns) and 読解. In the reading class we are reading japanese literature and, holy crap,the thing is seriously deep, to the point that my jaws are aching from my 我慢. It's like, all the things I've lived and seen are all comprised in that tiny bit of text. I could give examples, but I will abstain from doing that because the past 2/3 days were a bit of a pain thanks to that. And I'm sure the next time I read this, some years from now, that I'll still remember the kind (and I will keep all study materials, of course).

And then I've been communicating with friends in Portugal, China and Scotland, we all apart, but we all feel the same. And of course, there also other people I miss so much. This is kind of sad and beautiful at the same time. Again, I'll abstain from writing otherwise I'll end up in tears. Again.

Don't get me wrong, I like being here. Just like a friend of mine who's studying in Scotland said, "some people are just unique".

What's actually pressuring me is the fact that I'm apart from people I like, the fact that I want to read some books, want to take the N1 (and still couldn't find the damn mock tests!), the JBT and still have to brainstorm on the master course (this one is particularly hard, because I hate wasting time, and to take a master course here I'd have to wait 1.5 years since I'm not on time to enter the next semester and I'm not really sure on the scholarship thing, it's pretty hard to get one from what I heard) and on the subjects and 内容 I'll have to chose for the reports, and want to start practicing translation too, and want to visit several places.

So, hurrah! Weekend. 

micro-agressions?

I seriously don't like writing so frequently. I mean, I like, because I have so much to share. This is supposed to be about my Japanese study, my Japanese study blog, but since I'm now in Japan, it's becoming more and more like a Japan life/Japanese journal.

Anyway. Today I went to the center of Kyoto alone for the first time. It was a bit scary on my way there because I got off on the wrong station, and had to ask for help a couple of times. It was scary, because I had time pressuring me. I got out of school at 4.30pm and had to be there (nasic, the place where I went to pay for the room rent and bed sheets) before 6pm. I arrived at around 5. Not bad.


Micro-agressions 

(Just want to make sure that I don't like this expression, at all.
Japanese people are really kind when they help you, speacially if they are the one's that approach you. So this expression sounds a bit rude from my point of view. But I have read about this a few times and this was the expression that it was used, so I'm using it. I'll try to make up my own expression for this phenomena someday.)

When I was in the wrong station a woman saw I was a bit lost/confused and gave me some directions. She started speaking in english (and pretty fluent!) but changed to Japanese after I started talking.
It's funny, that even though she talked in english, how I automatically replied in Japanese. It's like I was conscious that she spoke in english, but I could only produce Japanese, once again, my mind was set in the Japanese mode.
The fact that I'm not interested in replying in english might also have some influence, but in the heat of the moment, one just doesn't have time to think about all this right? One just replies and thinks about it later, what I'm doing now.
Now that I think about it, this is very interesting, and I probably only felt this for the first time after coming here.

Continuing.

Not only when that woman assumed I could not understand Japanese  but also in the train when I asked for help.
I was in the train, and was not sure in which station I should get out, and asked this guy (mid twenties?) that was standing on my side,

「あのっ・・・・すいません。京都駅で降りたいんですけど、どの駅で降りたらいいですか。 」
( I'm still now sure what the name of the station is, but I think it is 七条 something...)

「京都駅は次。」

「あ、ありがとう(ご)ざいます！」

Than, we turn faces, and the after some seconds in silence the guy turns to me again and 「日本語、上手ですね。」

So, was this really a compliment, accompanying the fact that he was surprised I could speak japanese or was it just the standard way to compliment a (every) foreigner? I mean...c'mon, what I said can be said by anyone with a travel guide, gotta be honest.

Also, I was not really sure how to answer, let's see:

いいえ、まだまだです。(this is what I replied)

Okay, this is (the parcial?) correct answer, because not only is true, as one is lowering itself. But the person made you a compliment, so, should one thank or not?
I think that answer I wrote above has some kind of an hidden "thank you" inside. Because I know I actually do know some Japanese  for me, replying that way already feels like a "thank you", as in "thank you, still not there yet, but will continue working to get better. 「まだ」 implies that one will continue doing something it is doing at the moment.

By saying "thank you" one is acknowledging the fact that one (itself) is indeed 上手. Thus, making itself look cocky, at least to the Japanese people. In the west, this is no "problem" I think.

The most important thing from today was the fact that. I'm now home. I studied everything in the morning in advance, because I knew I had to go take care of these payments.
And I'm bored! I'm bored to the point of looking back and thinking something like: "today was fun, today was challenging, scary at first, but fun now that I think about it. I want to repeat it."Ironically or not, today I started reading a book 「語学で身を立てる」 so I think it's kind of appropriate.

Besides, before all this I had this 日本経営 class, in which we spoke about the differences between Japanese and american 就職, 雇用, about the 単身赴任、年功序列 (I was actually the one who brought this one up, and next class intend on bringing the "Japanese-women-and-their-lower-status-at-Japanese-companies" subject next class). And got out of the class pretty confident because it reminded me of so many things I saw and lived when I was in Braga.

Also a bit of a complex matter to me, because I'm going to have to make some important decisions, and this class kind of opened my eyes a bit and made me even more clueless. I will leave this subject to another time, because I still need to do some brainstorming before I can write something about it. For those who are curious in knowing what I'll talk about, let's say something like company loyalty.  This is REALLY a complex subject for me at the moment and I seriously need to brainstorm first before I can say something.

So, I was bored. Actually writing here is becoming an hobby rather than just a diary. This blog is something I'll be able to read like forever, so it's going to be interesting to read this some years from now. I've been writing here a lot of things, Japanese language related, Japanese  japan life related, feelings, etc. you can expect picture, and when the opportunity comes, videos.

And I cannot end this post without congratulating, once again, 浜崎あゆみ for her 34th anniversary. She has been by my "side" ever since I started studying Japanese  Actually she is actually the main reason why I started studying it. So if it wasn't for her I'd never be here, I'd never met the most amazing people I know and idolize, I'd never be able to speak Japanese  I'd never become this sensitive, I'd never be me.
Hence having posted the "honey" song in the morning.

おめでとう ♥

１９７８年１０月２日、お誕生日

今日は！浜崎あゆみの誕生日です～ ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

曲ひとつ聴きましょう。

お誕生日おめでとう～　♥♥♥♥♥

それだけ。ごめんね。