Final Posting

It was very fun to find topics to write about. I think it was a great opportunity to organize my thoughts about my American life. But it was kind of difficult for me to write creatively and constantly. Also I was not comfortable to reveal my private life. I did not know how much I am suppose to reveal my life.

I was very surprised how many companies or products other people and I mentioned in blog! I definitely think that blog would be a PR tool. Blog could be for both consumer's and companies, I think. If you can create an interesting, informative and funny blog, and that it would be popular and maybe you can get a great influence on the society.

Social Networking

In America, we have facebook, In Japan, we have mixi. They have very similar functions such as messaging people, putting pictures and notes. I seems like every county has some kind of social network system. Both of them started the service recently. Facebook started in 2004, mixi also started their service in 2004! What a coincident! And now both of them have a huge amount of people. Facebook has 109 million people. mixi has 2million people! And I am pretty sure these numbers are growing.

Post Election Feelings

Now the election is over. I can tell who is a Democrat and who is a Republican. Democrats are smiling and look happy, Republicans look disappointed. I was watching the results with my American friend. Surprisingly, when she found out Obama would win she almost cried tears of joy:))). She jumped on the couch and hugged me, called people and told them that Obama would win, and she was super excited!! I was really amazed how much people care about this election and how much hope they have that things will get better.

I know I have already talked about this, but I think this topic is the most important thing that is going on right now. Also this is the most interesting topic for me as a Japanese girl in America.
When I talked my dad in Japan, he said he bought a lot of American dollars. I asked him why, and he said, after election it will go up because the excitement of American people will lead to more spending and dollar will be worth more all over the world, even if it is only temporary.

THE Night Before the Election

It’s the night before the election! It is the first and probably the last American election that I will get to witness in America. More and more people are getting passionate about it. I was really surprised when I saw people wearing Obama t-shirts. In Japan, if someone wears a politician’s t-shirt, she/he would be an extreme right-wing person. It’s really different. I kind of want to get all those election products and bring them home:))).

Happy Halloweeeeeen!!

It’s really fun to see people wearing a variety of costumes. My friend Julie had a crazy sassy pink cowboy hat! My other friends were Native Americans. It is AMAZING that stores sell lots of fun costumes and encourage people to dress up. I think in general America has more fun events than Japan does. Well…maybe Christmas and New Year’s Day are exceptions. The funny thing is though…Christmas is for couples, and New Year’s Day is for the family in Japan. Yes, it is opposite from American customs.
To be honest I don’t remember when the Japanese National Day is….or any other holidays. I guess I am not patriotic enough. But actually, I don’t think any of my Japanese friends remember any holidays.

A Dog being a Cow

Election!

Today I saw lots of Obama stackers. To me it’s very interesting because Japanese people tend to be apathetic. We don’t really talk about who we are voting. We find this topic as a taboo to talk about in public. According to Asahi Newspaper, only 32.5% of people age 20-24 voted in 2007. Japanese government has been trying to increase this number. So it is very impressive that people actually talk about election, express their opinions, and exchange their opinions.

Job Hunting

I started to write job applications since last week. Job hunting process is really different from America in Japan. After graduation, you have to be hired right away otherwise, you would look really bad. That’s why I already started to write job applications. So far, I wrote 10 applications, I don’t know if they are going to respond me or not, though. This whole job hunting process frustrates me a lot. Those companies I am applying are great companies which get over 50,000 job applications each year. Even if they reply to me, each company will interview me about 5 times. First and second interviews would be group interviews. I really hope to be hired….but since I am not in Japan, I cannot attend many interviews….this would be a huge problem.

You Have To Drive Here

Yesterday, my Japanese friend called and asked me if I could take them to wall-mart. And I said yes, even though my other friends who are from China asked the same question the day before yesterday.

When I was in Japan, I had a car but I drove once a week just for fun. However, it is different here. YOU HAVE TO DRIVE to do anything.
If you walk to go anywhere, people almost look at you as a strange person. When I am in Japan, however, I always walk to grocery stores, stations, or even shopping malls with many shopping bags. For example, when I was in high school, I used to walk for 20 min to the station, take trains for 20 min and then walk for another 20 min from the station to my high school. It is DIFFERENT…. I don’t walk here at all…That’s why I gained 25 pounds in 3 years….

Anyways, I was surprised when I saw all the cars here in the U.S. A lot of people have actually Japanese cars, Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi, Suzuki, Subaru, Mazda, and Nissan. Though Japanese cars are popular in Japan, people still want to have cars from other countries, like my family. My parents have Volvo and Jeep. I don’t think we have ever had a Japanese car.

Gray parts use right-handed cars. Whenever I go back home I get really confused which one is which. One time I almost drove right side (that was scary).

What I Do on Weekends: Watch Movies

Last weekend, I watched two movies, Juno and There Will Be Blood.

Juno is a cute movie which shows today’s teenager’s pregnancy. It also contains American today’s culture and values.
There Will Be Blood is visually beautiful. I liked the pictures a lot! This movie contains American historical and religious stories.

As an international student, I have to improve my English. I have tried to study so hard, but it did not always work well. However, I found the way to improve English easily. I have been doing this since I decided to come to America…..I try to learn English through movies (with English subtitles)! I think this is the best way to get used to listen to English, know American culture (possibly other cultures too), work on vocabulary (slung)…at least for me. My first year at Drury, I used to watch one movie a day (now, I am too busy too see a movie very often, even though I try to) every day I learned new things. Because I did not have any background of American culture or anything, every day, I was really confused. But gradually, more movies I see, it solved my confusion. For example, I learned about American discrimination, history, eating habit, trend, lifestyle, etc!! (This is a lot). Also when I go back to Japan every break, I try to watch American movies….so that way I wouldn’t completely forget English or American cultures or values. I definitely recommend international students or people who want to study in America to watch movies as many as possible!! It is better than just memorizing vocabulary; you can get the image of words and know how actually people use those words. Movies are fun…well for me more than that!!

My First Posting

To start my blog experience...I would like to introduce myself.

I came to Missouri from Japan to attend Drury University three years ago. My hometown is Tokyo which is a big city and it is quite different from Missouri. I grew up in Japan until I came here. When I came here that was actually my first time to communicate with people in English (it was hard!). My first impression of Drury University was “quiet,” although I got used to it now. My first semester was the hardest time for me to adjust American life (by the way, the title of my blog means Yuri’s American life in Japanese). I didn’t know anyone, American culture. I missed my family, dog, friends, school, my house, the Japanese language, etc. Now I know a lot better about American culture and got more used to my American life than my first year. But I have only one year left here. I should learn and have fun as much as possible my senior year at Drury.

I think my blog is going to be about my perspectives as a Japanese student in America!