Updates! JLPT and Allergies?

There are seriously so many things I've been wanting to blog about but don't have time to-

Typhoon
Hotaru (Fireflies)
Kyoto
Matsumoto
McDonalds (CAUSE IT IS DIFFERENT)
Being Adopted

I dunno just so many things I wanna tell you all but this week I am super busy! Why? Cause the JLPT is on Sunday. I am taking the N4 the second easiest exam to take in the tiers of the JLPT.

For those of you who probably don't know the JLPT is the Japanese Language Proficiency Exam. In order to get my Japanese major I must pass the N3 exam. It is going to be hard. But this semester I am taking the N4 in order to ease myself into it.

The JLPT is seperated into 5 levels to test your ability with the Japanese Language ranging from the easy N5 to the near fluent amazingness N1. Someday I would like to work my way to N1 but for now baby steps.

I found two great sites. One is called JLPTBootcamp
http://www.jlptbootcamp.com/

and the other is a site suggested by Mac the guy who runs the boot camp website. It is called Japanesepod101

http://www.japanesepod101.com/

Overall  both of these have caused a bit of a flareup in my determination. As well as some recent circumstances but to that later. Really I find it hard to commit or be determined about anything. It is weird to be that way when you've done it and it backfired so fantastically that you can't bear to do it again. I think however, it is life. That eventually everyone goes through it. It is still hard to talk about and now coming to terms with chances are I'm probably not going to be able to do a job that requires that level of physical activity stings.

Japanese is more than a hobby for me. I really do enjoy the language and I really do want to master it. But in order to do so I really need to step up my game. Sometimes I feel really inadequate despite people telling me how my pronunciation is good and my speaking skills are pretty well off. But for me not being able to read and write, recall vocab words or remember the right grammar is frustrating.

I'm getting better. I notice I can start to understand songs and lyrics when singing them, I can get the basic jist when listening to someone provided I know most of the vocabulary. But reading is still a thorn in my side. People who think they don't have to learn Kanji will have a tough thing coming to them. The Japanese use Kanji a lot and you are expected to know it. I can semi-read a couple things, and by semi-read I mean knowing that 八事 means Yagoto. But it isn't me seeing it and being like ah it says Yagoto. It is me just knowing it cause I see it everyday when I go to school. To be honest I don't know which kanji means which but I am assiming the first is ya- and the second is goto. It isn't reading it as much as associating it with a place. Does that count as reading?

Even though I am getting better I can't be satisfied with this because this getting better is still so baby stepped. At least in my eyes. It is hard for me to remember I should take my time and not rush my education.

Also my lack of Japanese knowledge is proving somewhat dangerous to me.

Twice in Japan I have had an allergic reaction to Tree Nuts. In America it was something I never gave thought to. It was so easy to avoid. I would rarely have to ask if desserts had them in it. And if they did I avoided them. It was obvious what contained what and usually it was in desserts so it was all good. Here it is different. 

My first encounter was at the choir club, It was late after practice and they often have the habit of sharing snacks at the end often some sort of souvenir from travels around. One of the girls offer me a small square cookie. They tell me it is a coffee cookie, and I ask if there are nuts in it. They said no.

So I took a bite and it took around a minute or so before my throat began to hurt. My lips were tingling and my mouth and all up in my throat was hurting. I look down and sure enough there were chopped up nuts in the cookie. I try to ask them what they were and at this point communication was getting harder. I didn't know the words for Pecan (ペカン literally pekan) or Walnut (くるみ kurumi) and when I tried saying them they had no idea what I was talking about. I began to try to explain to them I had an allergy and they began freaking out at the end of it I ended up drinking water, not going to a hospital, and not really knowing what to do. The pain lasted for at least and hour and a half and the soreness for around up to 2 hours afterwards. At the worst of it, it hurt to swallow, and it was just really painful. And at the end I was exhausted and tired.

At this point I hadn't experienced a reaction like that since the time I was at a rehearsal dinner (which was years ago!) and ate some cake with walnuts in it. And at this point the walnuts consumed in that cake were bigger than the ones in the cookie and the reaction was pretty comparable to it. After talking about it with my Mom, I began to carry the over-the-counter allergy medicine from target I brought to Japan with me at all times. Just in case.

Then we have today, I've been adopted by our Japanese neighbors from down the street (more on that in another post this is already WAY too long) Kimiyo is the sister and she is very kind. Today we went out for lunch where she treated me to shabu shabu (a lot of food!) and we enjoyed eachother's company. I even successfully ate crab. However at the beginning of the meal the waitress placed the meat in a tannish sauce that I was told was sesame based. However when I ate it it wasn't before long when my throat began burning I even got a bump on my lip.

To be honest I really didn't beileve it was a reaction at first until the pain really began to flair up. It took me 3 times to ask and confirm there was something in there nut related but I didn't know what kind. While the pain subsided not too long after the soreness lasted pretty much almost all day and I am still somewhat tired. I took the medicine and while it took the edge off a bit it didn't help too much (but I admit I didn't take it until after the pain in my throat subsided mostly cause I actually forgot I had it on me until I was back at school talking about it to a friend).

I think the worst thing is, because it hurt to swallow I didn't end up eating too much of the food (I did eat a lot, but not as much as I think I should've) which caused Kimiyo to think I didn't enjoy the meal. But I did! It just hurt to swallow the food so it was hard to eat. I explained it to her but I am unsure if she understood. I just hope she doesn't hate me. She is such a nice lady I don't want her to get upset with me! She did tell me I can call her anytime and that we can get lunch again so maybe I didn't upset her too much.

And with that I need to sign off... I must go back to studying and writing papers. Ah the life of a student!