speak fluent Japanese

I always expected to require a worker’s permit before starting work in Japan. Unfortunately… based of japan-guide.com’s forum… it taakes up to 3 months (or one semester) to get my worker’s permit completed, if they let me work at all.
sigh
Well I am staying there for a year this time. so it’s 1/4 of the year… still… i was hoping to get the ball rolling within a month. That’s how long it takes to get my gaijin card… i thought they’d let my worker’s permit to process for a month too. Also since I’m a student, I have limited amount of hours to work. I think 20 hours a work. I don’t mind. I was planning on one hour each day of teaching. I think one good way to advertise my teaching is posting up flyers in the Rikkyo campus. That way less chance of weird salaryman who can stalk me. I might have to buy a taser and pepperspray… those trains… you never know. Take that!!! Yea, don’t mess with gaijin women! we react!!
Well during the summer… i’ve raised $2,335. Right now I’m doing babysitting for this family. I think with what she’s agreed to pay me… i might make it to $3000 by the time I have to leave. I leave September 10th. She said $10 an hour (looks like 5 days a week) and i start work at 7 am (oof) and end around 3?? plus she gives me extra for gas money (she said about $20-$25 based off how much i drive). My mom actually pays for gas. So it’s more like a bonus for me… shhh… not teling… I wonder if the gas money is per hour though… hmm.. i’ll find out. But during downtime with the kids, i’ll study my Japanese. :-D

I have a mixi now! yay! so now i’m in contact with my japanese friends and i can practice reading and writing Japanese. I hope my grammar is correct though in my 日記. shrug
I also got a free 電子辞書 program for my sony clie (pda). Best part is that it’s made for English speakers. So it’ll have furigana under the kanji I can’t read. And if I ever do see Kanji that I can’t read, I can literally write it into the program and do a search for it. The only downside is that I have to do the stroke order exactly right… or else it doens’t know what I’m writing. Chances of me knowing the exact stroke order for a 知らない漢字… low… like 最小限 low….
In addition to that, i got another free program called Metro, which tells me how to get from one train station to another. It includes all the parts of Japan, including okinawa, also Seoul, Hong Kong, Tacoma, WA, places in Europe. Though of course, Tokyo/Yokohama area is the most important to me. It tells me how to get from Oizumi-gakuen to Ikebukuro (my dorm and location of my future school) and how long it will take.
Last program I got (also free) is called NxTrain. It tells me when my next train will leave, although I have to put the schedule in myself… pretty tedious work, but when i’m done doing it it’s pretty convienient. I know the trains in Japan are pretty consistent, but when it’s past midnight and I’m borderline on time for the last train… it’s good information to know.

So those are 私の準備です。

I’m hoping to be able to tutor English to some Japanese people while I’m there. Apparently, the hourly rate for tutoring is much higher than here in America. They used to pay $100 an hour. Now they pay a max of $50 an hour. I’m charging $40. I’ve already have some potential students. I’ve just never taught before… much less tutored… I hope I can do it right, and also tune up on my Japanese.

I found out where I’ll be living until April. I forgot the name, but it’s near Ikebukuro, where Rikkyo is. Then in April we’ll be living in a new dorm for international students. It’s so weird to think of myself as an international student. I really hope I can get into the J3 class… I’d be sad if they put me into advanced beginner…. i better get to studying my Kanji and grammar…

怠け者．．．寝たい〜〜。　じゃあ、あとで！

by the way… if anyone here has any questions about Japanese, feel free to ask me. I’ll do my best. I feel conversationally proficient. :-)

yes! i’m going back to Japan! i didn’t win any scholarships though… Monbusho is reaaallly hard. I’m leaving September 10th and school starts on Sept 14. And i’ll be living in Tokyo for a year. Awesome desu.

so i’ve been in Japan for like a few months now and i’m going home at Dec 9th. I feel like my Japanese has definately improved by a lot though i’m not even close to fluent. I have to go back to Japan again to do that…. siiigh

Rikkyo, here i come!

yaaaay! i’m going in the fall for alllll semester! I’ve taken Japanese Level 1 for my freshman year at college, and now for my sophmore year i’ll be in japan and then be in Japanese 2. Huzzah! Anyone wanna help me study for the upcoming fall? I have the Genki textbook