So what does the title mean? Literally, "My head is gaijin!" As in, "atama ga itai!" ("My head hurts!") Gaijin (外人) is a slang term for foreigner. Since it literally means "outside person", it's generally a pretty rude word to use. However, foreigners have been calling themselves "gaijin" for decades, so I think at this point it's become fairly standard to use.
I'll try to update this bad boy every Wednesday. Like most European schools, Nanzan University does not have afternoon classes on Wednesdays, nor is there anything due on Thursdays for my Japanese class, so I get to sit pretty. Rather than write about daily life, I plan to use this blog for semi-pretentious musings about Japan. You know, like every other person who's ever lived abroad.
But you probably want to hear about all of the exotic places I've been to, right? Here's a token picture for you:
This is Inuyama "Castle". Except it's not actually the donjon (keep) . The samurai weren't exactly thrilled when the Meiji Emperor decided they were irrelevant. To quell rebellions, the Meiji government destroyed most of the castles in Japan. We did the rest in World War II. (The castle in Nagoya has an authentic sixteenth-century elevator.) However, this watchtower is one of the few original castle-ish structures remaining in Japan, so it is now considered a national treasure.Now that I've gotten that out of the way, here is something I would like to address: the monstrous size of bugs in Japan. Seriously, people, what the fuck? Not only have I gotten more bug bites in the month I've been here than in the past five years combined, they get infected and turn interesting colors, something that never ever happens to me at home. Observe, dear reader:
This one comes with a cute story: I finally got the internet to work at my homestay, so I was in my room checking in. It was around dinner time and I hear my host dad call "Rachel! Rachel!" and I reply, "I'm coming!" Then he says in English, "Rachel, I have something goodfor you!" And this was the surprise.
These bugs do not joke around. One day I sat outside to do some homework and when I woke up the next morning I had three bites on my stomach. Also, the best way to impress Japanese people is to catch a bug out of midair and kill it. The more you know.
