有來燦兎羅

According to the local Japanese government, that is how my name will be spelled in kanji.

Basically, anyone who lives in Japan receives an official seal with their name on it. For those of us whose name isn't Japanese, they assign kanji that have similar pronunciations to your original name. They used my first name to create this awesome mix of mainly old and uncommon kanji. I picked it up with my bank book today (they e-mail we received said we were only receiving our bank book) and I was so excited to see that my seal came in! I was worried that us one-semester-only students wouldn't receive any.

Anyway - I talked with my host family and did some extra research. The first kanji is basically "to exist" though people rarely use it for that anymore. The second is an old version of the word "to come." The third means brilliant, resplendent, or bright. My host family described it as having light from the sun wash over you. The fourth is rabbit (which I love because A. they are adorable B. I like sailor moon and that's the name of the stupid main character C. bunnies and the moon...D. back at home, my friends joke that I'm a bunny since I hop and bounce so much in our light-saber fights). Finally, the last kanji means universe or space, according to my host family. However, when I looked it up, I could not really find a single definition or a stand-alone definition. Many results had to do with Latin and included scattered things, shells, and the Frilled Shark (which is one of my favorite deep sea creatures, by the way). Overall, I think it fits me very well (though, the kanji for dragon being thrown in there somewhere would make it even better, but oh well).

Today was a lot of preparation, homework, and more music practice (I forgot how much I love instruments and how my fingers feel after playing). Of course, classes are very interesting, but most of them meet only once a week, so there is not a ton of information being thrown at me.

We discussed the river culture in Japan today in Environmental class, which was very fascinating, especially for me coming from the desert of Las Vegas. Rivers aren't really part of our landscape or romanticized; however, we do have a lot of controversy around the Colorado River, dams, and so on. Also, we have a bunch of drainage ditches throughout the city to handle flash floods, showing the ever-present danger of water and temporary rivers. The rivers in the cities of Japan have been largely reconstructed to fit the new form of the city and then, as Japan went through a phase of turning from hard-core industrialization to reconnecting with nature, reconstructing the reconstructed or restricted rivers to seem more "natural." Many of these friendly rivers are basically beautiful drainage ditches - I both appreciate the mix of the urban with the beautiful nature but also am concerned about the concept of flooding and the heavy alteration of the landscape. Either way, this class is one of my more interesting ones.

Tomorrow I depart for Tokyo after a busy day of classes. I know I have said this before, but I am so excited! Tokyo is a must-go and must-see for practically anyone visiting Japan and it will be my first full weekend trip. Hopefully, I'll be able to take more of those later during my time here.

Good night and good day!