Well, this should be interesting…

I decided to dust the cobwebs off of this journal *cough* *cough* and
see if it still works.  It’s been two years since the grand Nerd
Tour, and I’m preparing for another Grand Adventure in 2007.  Yes,
it will be “Nerd Tour 2007: Japan!”  I plan to go over to Japan
with my friend for Worldcon 2007 in Yokohama, and hopefully spend a couple of months just roaming the country afterward. 

I decided to start preparing early, by taking Japanese courses at
George Mason University.  So far, I’ve taken JAPA 101 and 102 in a
brutally intensive Summer session.  Each class lasted 5 weeks,
averaging 9 hours per week of classwork, and an equal amount of
homework.  It was like the proverbial “drinking from a firehose”,
but I managed to make a B in both classes, and more importantly began
learning the language! 

I’ve gotten two of the three writing systems down pat, hiragana and
kataka, and will start learning kanji this semester in JAPA 201. 
My vocabulary is still sparse, and I have a very hard time following
the teacher (she is a native speaker) due to my poor hearing, and my
even poorer brain!  But, apparently I can pronounce the words I
know well enough to be understood, so I guess that’s something!

I’ll try to post here occasionally (I’m not as comfortable with this as
Speaker), to update the world (yeah, right) about the preparations for
“Nerd Tour 2007: Japan!” as I make them, and any milestones I set and
reach.  Hopefully I’ll be able to insert some にほんご as I learn it,
so that anyone who knows Japanese can get a good laugh!  🙂

That’s it for now, stay tuned campers!