日本のピザ

アメリカと日本は何がちがいますか。もちろん、たくさんの違いがあります。歴史とか文化とか。。。でもそんなことを話したくないんです。実はこのスピーチのために大切な違いをお話ししたいんです。それは、たった一つのことです。

まず、どうして日本のピザはピザじゃないんでしょうか。アメリカのピザも本物のピザじゃないですけど、イタリアのピザにもっと似ています。日本では、コーンやフライドポテトやケチャップやマッシュポテトがのっています。おいしいですがピザと認められません(み)。普通のトッピングはペッパロニとかソセージとか野菜です。でもタコ？何ですか、あれ？

もちろん、日本料理にはたくさん好きな料理があります。例えば、豚骨ラーメンは最高です。でも日本の外国料理はたまに違います。日本のピザは食べられます。しかし、もしアメリカに帰ったら、先ず絶対にピザを食べるつもりです。

Saju Reading in South Korea

I want to say I don't believe in superstitions. That means astrology, horoscopes, tarot cards, palmistry, all of them, I've never believed in.

So when our host and owner of Zen Backpacker's Hostel in Busan, June, told us he can give us free fortunetelling, we skeptical at best. However, it was just a harmless fortune and it's not like we had to believe them. At the very least, it'd be a fun way to pass time before our night out on the town.

The 5 Elements of Saju

Perhaps I should explain his method of fortune telling. It's called Saju or the four pillars method. It requires your birth year, month, day, and time. Within each category, there are two corresponding characters based off of the Chinese Zodiac. These form the four pillars. Each character has one of five elements. Each element represents a season: Spring is wood, Summer is fire, Autumn is metal, and Winter is water. This makes sense, but what is the fifth element? In between Summer and Autumn is the mediator, Earth.

After inputting my birthday specifics into a computer program, June was able to see right away something different about my reading. Out of 8 possible (4 pillars of 2 symbols each), 5 were yellow. I was a majority Earth.

Like the idea of yin and yang, ideal people should be balanced. As Four Pillars Korea says, "Saju is the four pillars of destiny. If we consider the five elements as a happy life, the four pillars make the destiny of a life incomplete." I'm not. Not even close. The fact that I'm mostly Earth meant several things according to June.

His biggest takeaway for me is that life comes easy. I am skilled at many things and can adapt easily. When he  asked what my future prospects is and I responded with, "I don't know," he said that's good. It's better that way so I can pursue anything when the opportunity comes.

June also mentioned that people look to me for leadership (he mentioned that the current Korean President has a similar reading) and people will "bow" down to me (his word, not mine). In other words, it's easy to influence people to do things and I'm influential in my circle of friends.

The downside, though, is that it may make me lazy. Because I don't have to worry, I don't work very hard. Like the current President, he's not super successful or spectacular but at the same time, no one has any complaints about him. There's flexibility in my life to an extent but he mentioned that because of this, I can be too picky. A lot of opportunities present themselves to me but I have a hard time focusing on one. I pass up a lot of chances that other's would have taken.

After he finished with me, some of my other friends got their fortune told too. It was interesting hearing each other's fortunes--we all had a good laugh about the predictions and personalities traits he described. One thing I could shake though, was how mine seemed scarily accurate. How much of it was true and how much of it was me making his reading fit me? I'm not sure, but it hit me hard enough for me to decide to write a blog post about it.

So here's to my fortune and seeing where fate takes me. And I'll work on being less picky but no guarantees...

Why I'm Learning Japanese

There were several reasons why I came to Japan. Experience hanami, travel throughout Japan, see different parts of Asia, and try something new like taiko.

The main reason, though, was to learn how to speak Japanese. Growing up, I had very little interaction with the Japanese Language. My Japanese consisted of food names, and maybe 'hello' and 'thank you.' Other than that, though, it was pretty pathetic.

In middle school, I took French because it was the only language offered in 7th grade. This lead to me taking it in high school and eventually adding it as my double major after studying abroad in Bordeaux. So no help from school with my Japanese.

Throughout this entire time, my grandma was the only one who spoke to me in it. She has always had this weird notion that I understood her. And I kinda did. Between her mixture of English words and me guessing the context, I could make some sense of what she said. But that's all it was--a guess.

So when I went back home for a few days and I was going to see her for the first time in over a year, it was my true test. How far have I come in a year?

My Grandma in Japan!

It went from gibberish to... Japanese? My comprehension turned from less than 5% to maybe 80-90%. It was incredible. After years of poor communication with my grandma, it's like I now had access to a completely different side of her.

Did I accomplish my goal? I'd say no, not yet. I'm still not comfortable responding Japanese. I didn't really speak back in Japanese. I just responded to her with English. 

So I've come a long way, but I still have a long way to go.