Slow Down Before You Burn Out

It’s nice that you can work at your own pace when you’re studying Japanese (or any subject) on your own.  It makes it a lot easier to accomplish greatness sooner than if you were to take a class on your subject of choice.

However, there is a risk involved, and that risk is burnout.  I studied Japanese intensely on a couple of occasions, and when I couldn’t keep up the pace, I quit altogether.

Now I’ve been back at it for almost a month, and every day I’ve been learning 25 kanji characters, 25 vocabulary words, and 25 sentences.  This is great and all, and I feel like I learned a lot, but now my reviews are piling up every day.  I used to have all of my studying done by noon, and now it’s later in the evening when I finally finish my routine.

I can feel it: exhaustion.  I’ve had this feeling a couple of times before, and both times I gave up on my favorite hobby.  I’m not going to let that happen again, so today I made the decision to learn 15 new kanji characters, 15 words, and 15 sentences instead of 25. 

I’ll probably retain the information better, and it’ll make my reviews easier.  I don’t know if I’ll go at this pace permanently, but I need to take a little break to catch my breath without going cold turkey.  I’m going to continue studying every day, but now that I’m four weeks into college classes and I have scholarship essays to write, I need to slow down the Japanese pace a bit. 

Until next time,

Adam

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The Last Night – Adam in Japan #7 – Finale!

I had an amazing time in Japan, but eventually, all good things must come to an end.  I also want to say that my first trip to Japan couldn't have been spent with a better group of people.  We had an award ceremony on our last night together, and this is what I wrote afterwards:

During the award ceremony, everyone received a certificate for completing USA Summer Camp, and we also got an award that is entirely in Japanese, so I'll have a fun time translating it.  Then we got individual awards, and mine was the "Best Director" award.  It felt pretty good to win the award for directing a horror film with my team, and I only say "pretty good" because I was "incredibly" honored to win what I believe is the most special award on the team.

My team voted for me to win the "Eric Spindler" award.  Here's some backstory: he was a counselor who passed away before he could come back to USA Summer Camp for a second year.  In his honor, someone from each team is given an award for being devoted to the campers.  You have no idea how great I felt, but it's just going to make me feel sadder about leaving my team.  I'll have to consider coming back to camp again in the future because I made so many great friends here in Japan.

Our last night together was so much fun, but it was a sad night, too.  We all gave speeches at the end, and I threw together a montage video for everyone to watch.  I had to make it without anyone knowing about it, and I barely finished it by the deadline.  Overall, I was happy with how it turned out, though.

Well, I hope you enjoyed reading about my time in Japan throughout these seven posts, and I’ll blog about it again when I return in the near future.  But for now, I need to continue studying Japanese every day because I really do feel like I’m improving quite a bit.  I’ll continue to keep you guys updated on all of the progress that I make using the Japanese Level Up method.

We had fake family drama for the campers.  This was our full family.

And this was me with my ex wife and our baby and my mistress... Family drama...

Just waiting at the Narita airport.

And we're back in Milwaukee!  The adventure is officially over.

Until next time,

Adam
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Homeikan over Homestay? – Adam in Japan #6

During my trip to Japan, there was a three day period where we could live with a host family, but three of my teammates and I decided that we’d find a hostel to stay at instead.  We thought it would be fun to plan our own adventure during this time.  And guess what?  It was a blast!

We stayed at a nice little hostel called Homeikan.  The two girls stayed in a building a few blocks from where Will and I stayed, and we got lost looking for their hostel on the first day, even though we had a map.  But by the last day, we were experts at getting around the area without any assistance.

This is what our room looked like.  It was nice and relaxing.

We even had complimentary tea!

Okay, the girls are around here somewhere... But on a side note, isn't this picture just beautiful?!

We finally found the building where the girls were staying after 20 minutes.

This was our map.  I believe we were at the Morikawa Bekkan, and the girls were at Honkan or Daimachi Bekkan.

On one of the days off, we went to the Meiji Shrine, which was a place that I wanted to visit for a long time. 

We're approaching the entrance!

I really wish my camera was capable of dealing with bright lighting.  Either way, I still like this picture.

Visitors from around the world leave prayers or messages for others to read.

We also got to walk across one of the world’s busiest intersections, the Shibuya Crossing, and we took a walk through Yoyogi Park.

It rained at Yoyogi Park, and we had one umbrella.  I was the only one prepared for rain, apparently.

There was a nice little coffee shop near our hostel, so we ordered tea and coffee there one morning.  Oh yeah, and the Tokyo Dome was near our hostel, too, so we went bowling and played Mario Kart on one of the arcade machines. 

It rained heavily on our way back, and we didn’t have our umbrellas with us, so I had to buy a raincoat.  I think it looks pretty darn cool, though.

I also want to mention that I went to a Bubba Gump Shrimp restaurant during our time off, and it was so weird but cool being served in English.  And it was nice to be able to order expensive alcoholic drinks, since I was 20 when I went to Japan, which meant that I could only drink legally while I was there, and that right would be revoked when I returned to the states.

This was the Homeikan team!

I was able to order alcohol, and I didn't even have to show an ID.  It was nice.

The restaurant locations are on the tables.

I ordered nachos!

I had the exact change to pay for my meal.

When you put this sign up, the server stops at the table.  Otherwise it says "Run Forrest Run" and they just keep moving.  It's a cool concept.

As you can see, the menu was in English, too.

This was a pretty neat Starbucks.

And I don't know what this building is for, but it was near our hostel.

The only downfall about the time off was that my camera suffered from water damage and broke.  The SD card was fine, though, and that’s all that really matters.

Well, that’s it for today, guys!

Until next time,

Adam

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Tokyo Skytree! – Adam in Japan #5

That’s right, everyone.  When I had some time off, my friends and I went to the Tokyo Skytree!  But if you saw my second Lang-8 blog post, you’d know that I didn’t actually go up to the top.

You’re probably wondering, “Why would you go all the way to the Skytree and NOT pay to see an amazing view?”

Well, one of the only valid responses would be a fear of heights.  And no, that’s not the reason I didn’t ride the elevator to the top of the Skytree.  So here’s the story…

Eight of us were having a good time while the other half of our team was still at their third camp, so one of the activities that we did was sing karaoke.  After that, we decided that we’d go to the Skytree.  What we didn’t know is that it closes around 8 or 9 at night. 

It was okay, though.  We still had 20 or 30 minutes to spare when we got there.  However, I failed to anticipate that one of the guys on my team would have to use the restroom.  The girls went on ahead, but my friend Will and I decided that we’d be nice and wait for him instead of ditching him.

Once the three of us were back together, we went down the escalator to the main floor to look for the girls, but we couldn’t find them.  To make matters worse, I was the only one with a working cell phone that could send messages without the need for a Wi-Fi connection.

“They wouldn’t go without us, would they?” we wondered.  No, that was out of the question.  Naturally, we thought they were waiting for us, and they were in one of the shops.  We got distracted looking for them, and I bought some Pokémon cards and figures while we were in one of the stores.

The Skytree closed, and we failed to find them.  When we returned to the hostel, it was confirmed that they went on without us.  Oh well, I’m not going to blame them at all, and it was actually a somewhat comedic situation. 

So there you have it.  That’s why I didn’t go to the top of the Skytree.  It's okay because I plan on returning to Japan a couple more times while attending college, and I’m planning on moving to Japan once I’m do with school.  So it’s all good… I’ll see the view from the Skytree someday, and when that day comes, you’ll see all of the photos that I take.

It's the Skytree!

At least we found Doraemon at one of the stores...

I bought Pokemon cards and figures instead of going to the top of the Skytree. 

Until next time,

Adam

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