Half-Japanniversary

So I've been here six months as of today!

I don't want to do the Big Introspection post, because I'm sure I'll have more to say in another six months and I don't want to be redundant unless I'm bitching about something funny.

So all I'll say is: I was a big mess before I came here, and I'm less of a mess now. Hopefully, I'll be even less of a mess in another six months!

Thanks, Japan! Looking forward to another Year(?) of you.

PS: Okay, I do want to talk about this, because it's awesome, even if all my Facebook friends are sick of reading about it. I've been reading Harry Potter in Japanese, which is really fun for a variety of reasons, but what's especially been fun recently is noticing how much faster I can read now than when I started.

Case in point: When I read the first chapter, I could handle maybe a page and a half a day. Back in October, I read one chapter of 18 pages in six days (really four, I think, because there was a weekend there?) and I was super, super excited.

Today, I finished another chapter of 18 pages. Which I started this morning.

One of my big goals in coming here was to become fluent in Japanese, or at least significantly closer to. Not that I don't like the JET course, although I don't, but having this kind of actual, tangible sign of progress is what's really keeping me moving forward with studying. Eighteen pages in one day! I usually don't even manage that with English books, these days.

Okay, sorry -- I really needed to brag/be excited about that, and it is Highly Uncouth to brag in this country. (Remember I was talking about stereotypes awhile back? That's another that is 1000000000% true.)

Anyway. Happy Japanniversary to my fellow first-year JETs, and many more to those of us who want them!