"Your Japanese is really good!"

Apart from the super pricey fresh fruits and vegetables, what annoys me the most in Japan so far is the fact that people feel the need to comment on my Japanese all the time. Yes, it is really nice if they tell me how good my Japanese is. BUT

1) telling me 日本語お上手ですね after all I said was 初めまして doesn't really make me feel like they mean it. Yes, you can tell by only one word. From the intonation. Sure. Of course. Can I tell you that my kanji abilities severely suck?

2) Even people I have become friends with do it. 日本語上手だね、ユリア。Should I come a bit closer so you can pat me on the head? Seriously, I have "friends" who have nothing else to say when it comes to compliments.

3) The other way round, some people still assume I can't find the way home from the train station or even university. Or they think they have to explain everyday words like pork or chicken to me. The same people who complimented my Japanese before. Hello, if I can speak a complicated language like Japanese, I can figure out how to reach a destination as well. Especially if I go there everyday. I do it all the time when you're not there to hold my little white hand. And chivalry does not mean to assume the girl in front of you is brain-dead. It's nice when you want to carry my bag. I carry it every day, but sure, why not? It is not so nice to ask me if I am sure that this direction of the Yamanote line is the right one to get to my dorm. Um, yeah, I think it is. I use it at least once a week, and it never failed to get me home. Thanks, but...

Same with chopsticks. "You're really good at eating with chopsticks, aren't you?" Actually, I'm not. I can eat, but it doesn't look very elegant. Anyway, do I compliment you on your abilities of eating with fork and knife? No, I don't! Because I think that's really rude. "Look, mummy, the monkey in the zoo can eat with a fork!" Give me a break.

Maybe Japanese people are still not used to foreigners speaking their language. But come on, folks, Japanese is not, I don't know, Clingon. Normal people can totally learn it if they try a bit. Maybe it's because Japanese usually don't speak foreign languages. Although many students go on study abroad programs nowadays. And I don't run around telling them, "OMG, your German is soooooo great!!!" I feel like I'd belittle them. Of course their German is good - they studied for it. Plus, if they're my friends, I like them because we have a similar music taste or drool over the same actor, and not because they're able to declinate nouns.

Don't get me wrong, I like compliments. But for the last three months, 90% of the nice words I have received had to do with my Japanese language abilities. Isn't there anything else about me you can like? No? Did you try? Try to look past the Japanese slang I picked up in TV dramas, past my apparent "fluency" (which means just nodding when I don't understand something - praise my acting abilities, how is that?) and notice that I am not "just another gaijin who speaks Japanese", but that I might have some other qualities as well? I can be quite nice and funny if I don't get all pissed off about compliments on my Japanese. ;)

And I really, really wanna see someone in Berlin address some foreign(-looking) person with "Your German is really good!" A "shut up" is probably the least angry response they might get.

About Christmas in Japan

Some of you might been wondering how I spent Christmas in Japan. So, let me enlighten you.
(Speaking of light, the illuminations were ... well, the ones in Omotesando are nice, but the rest of Tokyo feels like, "Christmas? What's Christmas?)

Since Japan is not a Christian country, they don't really celebrate Christmas the way Europeans or Americans do. Instead, they're having parties with their friends or, really popular, dates. So on December 25th, the streets and stores are brimming with couples.

Since I didn't have a date (did I hear pathetic?) and couldn't celebrate with my family either, I met up with a German friend who's in Keio at the moment (like 90% of my friends? ^^;) on the 24th (German Christmas day) and tried to find the most German-ish Christmas lunch in Shibuya. My normal 24th food is Potato soup with sausages, hers Potato salad with sausages. (Yes, Germans do like sausages. But we have to keep it simple on the 24th because the 25th usually involves eating a looooot with the whole family.) Of course, neither of them was anywhere to be found. So we ended up at a place called Shakey's that had an all-you-can-eat pizza and pasta buffet plus drink for only a bit more than 1.000 Yen per person. (*___*) We sat there and ate until we were really full, had a nice chat and then moved on to do Purikura. xD Afterwards, we ate a bit of Baumkuchen my parents had sent me and then parted. At home, I skyped my family, called my Grandma and all that kind of stuff.
Yesterday, I did karaoke with a friend from one of my classes here. We called it a "date with Arashi", because out of the 4 hours (!) we spent in the box, we sang 80% Arashi songs. XD (Gosh, my throat hurts. I'm really bad with songs by guys because my voice is not low enough.)
And today, I'm gonna meet another German friend who's over from Kyoto. So I'm not lonely at all. :)

I hope you all had a nice Christmas as well!

I got tickets for Garnet Crow!!!

First of all, Merry Christmas to you all! May yours be as happy as mine, although I miss my family.

I got tickets for the Garnet Crow 10th Anniversary Tour next year!!!
One for Nagoya and one for the final concert in Osaka!
As I'll be in Germany until March 21st, I'll probably make a journey through Japan after that and stop by in Nagoya and Osaka for the concerts until the 2nd semester starts.

I can't believe it!!! <3<3<3

俺、知らないわ！

Some of you might remember an old post of mine here where I talked about the difference between men's and women's words in Japanese. As I learned a lot of my Japanese from TV dramas, that sometimes use weird dialogues or mark characters as male/female by letting them use explicitly female language (as if the viewers were all blind ^^;), I kinda let some わ or のよ slip from time to time.
So when I was out drinking* with some Japanese people from the German language department (ever tried not to mix Japanese and German after the third drink? xD), I asked them about their opinion on the topic. They confirmed my recent observations: Phrases like わ have become something men use now, whereas women younger than, hm, 40, don't really use those anymore.
This would actually be an interesting topic for a term paper or something like that, wouldn't it?

*For all those who now frown upon me for drinking, let me tell you I drink very rarely, I never drink so much I lose my memory or can't get home anymore, and I used this gathering for research purposes!

Shopping again ^^;

Sorry for posting about shopping so much lately, but I haven't really had time to get out of Tokyo so far due to busy university schedules. (I would have had a long weekend because today is a national holiday, but we never get Mondays off. >___<)
I'll probably travel to Kyoto and Osaka in the Christmas holidays, so bear with me until then! m(_ _)m

Anyway, I went with a classmate (I really like my class now - you know, the one I got put into because the normal class for people from my programme was already full) and she showed me this store called Forever 21. For around 9.000 Yen, I bought a pullover, a knit jacket, a long-sleeved shirt, a T-shirt, a skirt, long pajama pants and a pair of tights. I love this store!
Now I still need a pair of boots to keep my feet from freezing off in the winter that is sure to come - it's already getting cold, and some areas fake a christmasy feeling (without much success, though. ^^;)

Beauty

Today, I went to a beauty salon and got my hair done.
Cut, treatment and perm - for about 70 Euros (9.000 Yen). Well, it only needs to be redone after half a year, so... It is a hell lot of money, but I worked in saved before I came here, and since I study really hard, I thought I should do myself something good.
Then I got a Shiseido eyeshadow for 1.500 Yen - I think that's quite okay for Shiseido.

And now I' beautiful! xD
Well, at least better than before.

早慶戦

Today I went to 早慶戦 - the baseball game between Waseda and Keio university.

As a Waseda student, I wanted to support my university's team, but I ended up going with my friend who's in Keio and who I don't see all that often, so I sat in a Keio seat and ... well, felt a bit awkward. But since I have NO clue about baseball anyway, I couldn't really cheer for a team. ("What's going on now? Is that good or bad?" ^^;)

I couldn't even see half of the game because some stupid cheerleader was blocking my sight. But no one really seemed to watch. Everyone was busy making hand movements or singing the Keio song. ^^;

Anyway, Waseda lost. ^^; 残念だわ。