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終わりのメロディー

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留学終了
The End of Study Abroad

こんにちは。Dogentricks.comです。朝２時ですけど、このブログを終わりたいんだ。間違いいっぱいあったら許してください。

Hey guys. Dogentricks.com here. It’s 2 a.m. but I want to get this blog out. If there are a ton of mistakes, please forgive me.

僕は信じられない一年間日本に住んでいて, ついに帰ってきた。留学生の経験を考えると、四つのことが浮かぶ。

After living in Japan for an unbelievable year I have finally returned to the states. If I think about my time in Japan, 4 things come to mind.

一つ目は日本で出来た友達のことである。留学生として日本人の友達だけではなくて、色々な国の人の友達が出来た。例えば、エクアドルの元気なダビッドさんは僕が日本で出来た一番仲いい友達だと思う。ダビッドさんと何回も横浜に行ったり、大学のカフェでコーヒーを飲んだり、未来の事を考えたりしたことがある。面白いことに、彼は英語を話せずに、僕もスペイン語を話せずに、簡単な日本語だけ使って、お互いに心の感情を自然に伝えられた。九月からダビッドと一緒に日本語も日本の文化も頑張って勉強したのだ。僕たち二人とも前よりも日本のことを大分わかるようになったと思う。

Friends. As an exchange student I made not only Japanese, but friends from all over the world. For example, the enthusiastic David from Ecuador is probably the closest friend I had during my stay in Japan. Countless times we hung out in Yokohama, drank coffee in the college cafe, and spoke about our futures. The funny thing is, he can’t speak English and I can’t speak Spanish, so we always used nothing but basic Japanese and still managed to communicate our true, heart felt feelings. The two of us worked hard for 9 months and learned more Japanese and culture than I thought would be possible.

もちろんダビッドだけではなくて、素晴らしい友達いっぱい出来た。友宏の優しさや上手な料理は決して忘れない。冷静な篤史と、社交的なユウスケと、いつも面白いことばかり言っていたシンヤと四人で煙が多くて息しにくいサイゼリアで食べたいた経験も、一生思い出す。後はイッセイ、ヒトミ、コウスケ、ダイスケ、ナツミ、カノコ、トシ、ヒロヒサ、タイキ、ユイ、モモカ、ルーク、ロジャー、ジョセフ、今すぐ思い出せない友達も、皆の親切を有り難いと思っている。

Of course it wasn’t just David, I made a dozen of wonderful friends. I’ll never forget Tomohiro’s kindness and amazing cooking. Eating with the cool Atsushi, sociable Yusuke, and ever comical Shinya in the barely breathable atmosphere of Saizeria is another experience I’ll remember for the rest of my life. To Issey, Hitomi, Kosuke, Daisuke, Natsumi, Kanoko, Toshi, Hirosami, Taiki, Yui, Momoka, Luke, Roger, Joseph, and every other friend I can’t remember off the top of my head now, thank you.

二つ目はホームステーの家族のことである。国際寮は楽しかった。友達も出来たし、自分で料理を作るようになったし、勉強もいっぱいできた。しかし、寮にすんでいた間、ずっと困っていた。「せっかく日本に来たのに、なんでまた外国人と住んでいるの？」と自分に何回も聞いていた。しかも、寮に住んでいた間、日本語はあまり上手になってないので、引っ越すことにした。斉藤の家族と一緒に住むことにしたのだ。

Family. I had fun in the international dorm. I made great friends, learned to cook by myself, and managed to study a ton. But, I was always a bit troubled in the dorm. “Though I’ve come all the way to Japan, why am I still livi
ng with foreigners?” I asked myself. Moreover, when living in the dorm I never got too good at Japanese. So, I decided to move. I decided to live with the Saitou family.

弟、お母さん、お父さんいた。皆ずっとものすごく優しくくれていた。何回も失礼なことやってしまったのに、怒られたことは一回もなかったのだ。一番楽しかったのは、夜、仕事が終わって、自分はとても疲れて、込んでいる帰り電車に乗って、１０時にやっと家に着いたらソファに座って、お母さんと変な番組を見ながら話すことだ。アメリカと日本の違いとか、友達の必要さとか、家族というものとか、ライブの楽しさとか、彼女の強いやる気とか、何でもについて２時まで話してしまったのは普通なことだった。そして弟と遊ぶと、自分の子供の時を思い出して、何か懐かしかった。最初から本当に自分の家族みたいな感じがしていた。

I had a little brother, a mother, and a father. Everyone treated me with an almost unimaginable degree of kindness. Though I did a countless number of rude things, I was never yelled at or scolded. My favorite memory was always coming home from a long day of school and work, sit down on the couch with my host mom and talk late until the night as we watched ridiculous television. The difference between America and Japan, the necessity of a friend, the meaning of family, concerts, my girlfriends incredible drive; we talked about everything until 2 a.m. on a regular basis. In playing with my host brother I remembered my own childhood and was warmed in nostalgia. From the very beginning, it was as if they were my own family.

三つ目は秋茜のことである。この話題についてもう何回もブログを書いたいたけれども、僕の秋茜に対する情熱はまだまだこれから！だから、もうちょっと書かしてください。
Akiakane. I’ve written about this topic several times before, but my passion for this band can’t stop just yet – let me write a bit more.

僕という存在は「日本」というと、「日本」だけではなくて、「日本とソフトボール」と言ってしまうのだ。何故かというと、初めて日本語を勉強したかった理由はソフトボールが作った「とこしえに」という曲の歌詞を知りたかったからだ。もし「ソフトボール」というバンドはなかったら、僕は日本に行かなかっただろう。もし「ソフトボール」というバンドはなかったら、僕は日本語が出来ないだろう。ですから、もし「ソフトボール」というバンドはなかったら、このサイトもないだろう。もし「ソフトボール」は本当になかったら、僕はどんな人間になったのだろうか。考えるだけで恐い。

As Dogentricks.com, when I say “Japan,” it’s not simply, “Japan.” It’s “Japan and Softball.” If you ask why, it’s because the reason I first studied Japanese was to understand a song called “Tokoshieni,” written by Softball. If the band known as “Softball” had not existed, I probably wouldn’t have gone to Japan. If the band known as “Softball” had not existed, I probably wouldn’t be able to speak Japanese. So, if the band known as “Softball” had not existed, this site probably wouldn’t be here. If “Softball” had really never existed, who would I be? It’s honestly scary for me to think about.

とにかく、ご存じのように、僕にとって、「ソフトボール」というバンドは僕にすごく大きい影響を受けたのだ。そして、2003年ソフトボールは解散して 、ボーカルのモエさんが新しい秋茜というバンドを作ったのだ。しかし、あの時の僕は日本語が出来なくて、ただソフトボールが解散したことしかわからなくて、ソフトボールのライブに行く夢がなく
394;ってしまったのだ。秋茜が生まれたことをずっと知らないで、生きてた。そして去年の九月十日来日して、日本語がちょっと出来るようになって、秋茜の生まれたことをわかるようになって、もう一度前の夢が蘇った。

Anyway, as you well know, for me the band known as “Softball” had an enormous impact on my life. Then in 2003 Softball broke up. Lead vocalist Moe-san formed a new band known as Akiakane, but at the time I could understand little Japanese and knew only the fact that Softball had disbanded. My dreams of going to a Softball concert vanished in this ignorance. I lived for years without knowing anything about Akiakane. And then I can to Japan September 10th, developed my Japanese abilities and eventually learned about the birth of Akiakane. With this, my dream came back to life.

少なくとも、秋茜はソフトボールと同じように素晴らしい。それはライブに行ったらすぐ気がついた。そこでも友達も出来たし、毎回は泣きたいほど楽しかったのだ。そして、僕が行けた最後のライブで秋茜はありえないほど凄いギフトをくれたのだ。そう、「とこしえに」をやってくれて、僕は同じステージで秋茜と歌った。

To say the very least, Akiakane is just as breathtaking as Softball. I quickly realized after going to their shows. There too, I made several incredible friends and was brought to tears nearly every time out of pure enjoyment. At the very last concert I could make it to, Akiakane did the most impossibly breathtaking thing I could ever imagine. Yes, they played “”Tokoshieni”" for me during the encore and I ended up singing on stage with Akiakane to the very song that originally inspired me to study Japanese.

Translation:

Moe-san: “Thank you! Thanks. So, there is a guy here, who loved Softball and then began studying Japanese, who came to several of our shows, he’s right over there, ‘Kevin,’ yes, that foreigner. *Laughs* Kevin is going home soon, and this, well for the time being, will become his last concert. Well, he says he is definitely returning to Japan, but we think that he’d love to hear Tokoshieni. *Cheers* We haven’t played this song in a long time and so it might not be the best…haha but we’d like to try playing it.”

Japanese fan says jokingly, “Be sure to listen!”

Get the Flash Player to see this player.


その５分は死ぬまで決して忘れない。

Until the day I die, I will never forget those 5 minutes.

Now click the play button below on the left.

最後に、一番大切なのは彼女のことである。彼女に対する気持ちについて本を書けるかもしれないけれども、頑張りながら短くして、本当の気持ちを表したいと思う。とりあえず、日本にいる間に「love」という言葉をわかるようになったと言いたいのだ。僕の親友のAustin Wangは「love」というのは、相手をいつも自分より大切にすることである。この表現を最初聞いた時、知ろうとしても知れなかった。ところが、今の僕は「love」の定義を知っていると思う。相手はいるからだ。

Lastly and most importantly, my girlfriend. I could probably write a book about how much my Risa means to me, but I’m going to do my best to keep this in concise and truly meaningful. I think what I really want to say is that I now know what, “”love”" means. My best friend Austin Wang once told me, “”Love is always doing the good for the other.”" The first time I heard that, even if I wanted to know what it meant, I wouldn’t have been able to. But, I now do know what “”love”" means, because of her.

吏紗と付き合えば付き合うほど、もっと好きになる。前の関係と違って、時間が経つと他の女の人を見てしまうではなくて、吏紗はどんなに素晴らしい人をもっとわかるようになっているのだ。しかもそれだけじゃなくて、彼女は僕に何回も素晴らしいことやってくれた。感動的な誕生日ギフ|
88;を貰って、また泣いてしまった。

The more I hang out with Risa, the more I like her. Unlike all of my past relationships, instead of becoming more interested in other women as more time past, being with Risa just affirmed my beliefs of how wonderful of a person she really is. Not only that, but she has done more thoughtful, amazing things for me than I could possibly imagine. Her birthday present to me this year was so thoughtful it made me cry.

彼女は僕よりいい人だと信じている。簡単に言える。間違えない、彼女は自慢しないし、頭もいいし、才能もあるし、優しいのだ。素晴らしくて、いつも笑顔をさせたいと思っている。いつまでも大切にしようと思っている。距離があっても、しばらく会えなくても、大事にしようと思っている。

I believe that she is a better person that me. It’s easy for me to say. She’s modest, smart, talented, and caring. That beauty is is why I want to make her smile; why I want to take care of her. Through distance and time, I want to see her happy.

複雑にする訳はない
時間は短い
これは僕たちの運命
僕は貴方のため

There’s not need to complicate
Our time is short
This is our fate
I’m yours


吏紗、いつもありがとうございます

Risa, thank you for everything

Homesick?

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Here is a full translation of the blog below:

Homesick

10 months have passed since I came to Japan. In that period, I never once was homesick. But, in the past few weeks, I have become extremely anxious to return to the States.

If you ask why, it’s because my lifestyle is different. Of course I love studying Japanese, I have a great group of wonderful friends, and my girlfriend is perfect. Moreover, I’m not troubled towards money and am basically free to do the things I want. So, why is it that I suddenly became so homesick?

It is because my lifestyle is different. To be more specific, I’m dying to train. Before coming to Japan, for a period of 4 years i thought of one thing and one thing only – Tricking. Everyday I woke up thinking about tricking. All throughout class I thought about tricking. And I trained my ass off everyday, training and tricking every free minute I had. I religiously followed an absurdly strict diet. That was my lifestyle and I loved it. I felt strong, I felt like the things I did carried meaning, and I felt like everyday I was become a little bit better as a person. The thing that made me happiest is that I inspired those around me to exercise and could see the change in not only myself, but others as well. I pushed myself to ridiculously heights, so much that I couldn’t move my body. I can easily say that I worked much harder than I do now, and that I loved it.

But, that can’t be helped. Before coming to Japan I decided that I was going to spend my time in Japan studying Japanese. Coming all the way to Japan and spending my free time tricking instead of practicing Japanese with my friends is not only a waste of a once in a lifetime opportunity, but a waste of money as well. Furthermore, I had a ton of injuries when I first came to Japan and doubt that I could have tricked well anyway. So, I worked my ass off and studied Japanese for 10 months.

Studying was pretty rough at first. More than rough I would say it just wasn’t too much fun. Of course I had come to Japan, but I had very few Japanese friends and thus very few chances to actively practice Japanese. When speaking with my dorm friends I’d switch into Japanese to save the atmosphere and only speak with my girlfriend in Japanese out of nervousness. This left me with one way to study – watching dramas. Though I came all the way to Japan, I ended up sitting in my room in front of my computer and repeated what I heard in Orange Days.

But because it’s Japan, even that was fun. I often went on dates with my girlfriend, and hung out with my dorms friends, exploring the unseen corners of Tokyo. I never really felt like I was good at Japanese, but I continued to study while having fun. Then I went to Osaka and hung out with a ton of people that could speak no English, and finally found confidence in my speaking abilities. I can back to Tokyo and started a completely different lifestyle.

A new quarter at school started and I made a ton of great Japanese friends. I became close with the fans of my favorite band and went to a ton of incredible shows. I spoke more and more Japanese every time that i met my girlfriend. Lastly, I moved into a home of Japanese people who can’t speak English. In my current lifestyle, I hardly ever use English. I’ve become much better at Japanese that I had previously predicted and am satisfied with my progress as an exchange student. Of course I want to become much more fluent, but I never thought I’d be able to write a blog like this in Japanese before coming to Japan.

Huh? Tricking..? The light inside of me that is tricking slowly faded and faded as I become more used to Japan and Japanese. I never thought I’d be able to forget, even momentarily about tricking, the thing that literally made me a new person. Honestly, it makes my chest hurt to think about. I noticed my declining passion two weeks ago while I was walking home from work. Akaiyami by THE BACK HORN came on my iPod – for the first time since coming to Japan.

Roughly one year ago, every morning I rode my bike to gym in Seattle’s light rain. The trip takes about 10 minutes, and during that I time I always listened to THE BACK HORN’s Akaiyami. 2 weeks ago that song came on my iPod and a carpet of goosebumps covered my arms as I suddenly remembered the fierce passion that I pulsed in me every second, everyday. I looked down at the ice cream I was holding by my thinned arm and nearly started to cry. “”What’s happened to me?”" I thought to myself. “”This is not the person I want to be, this is not Dogen.”" I know that if I could see myself now through the eyes of myself one year ago, I would be very, very disappointed. From that moment, I went tricking.

As I imagined, my body had become very weak and I couldn’t trick very well. Nonetheless, it was the best I felt in months. I honestly think if the only thing I ever did was train and trick I’d be more than happy for the rest of my life. “This is IT!” I thought to myself. “This is what it means to LIVE, to MOVE, to BREATH!” and since that day, the old fire that used to glow inside me has once again been ignited in a passionate glow.

Unfortunately, I need to wait until I go home before I really start my training. I’ve got finals all this week, no money, more Akiakane shows I want to go to, more people I want to meet, chilling out with my girlfriend, and a bunch of personal things I need to take care of before I go home. Joining a gym with 3 weeks to go would be foolish, to say the least.

But, I want to trick.

For the time being, I’ll poke around at that fire. Once I get home I’ll light my lifestyle back into a blazing flame and train my heart out. This time around, I’m not letting it go out.

Thank You

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“Dear Kevin,

After reading the email you sent to the lead singer of SOFTBALL, I decided that I should finally write to you. This will be quite a long email, and I know you must get a lot of mail like this, but I hope you’ll read with patience and without any reservations. Just for the sake of making a baseline for this letter, my major interests are Tricking and Japan. I’ll start by explaining how I discovered both. I’ll start with Japan.

I remember my first real contact with japanese culture. I had just started 7th grade, and one day when I got home from school, I saw my big brother and his friend watching Naruto. Ofcourse at the time I was oblivious as to what it was. They explained it was an ANIME, a japanese animation. Just from hearing “”Haruka Kanata”" from Asian Kung-Fu Generation got me instantly intriqued. So I pulled up a chair and watched. Even though I didnt know it then, but that was the most life changing event in my life, because from that spawned things that make up a big part of me today. After seeing my first episode of naruto I was instantly hooked. From that point on watching anime became a part of my daily life. Ofcourse from that came also my love for the language and music. About the same time I got into Anime I discovered a show called “”Madventures”". It’s about 2 guys going around the world and filming a sort of documentary style series. It remains my favourite show even today. After that I decided: “”This is what I want to do when I ‘grow up’, I want to travel, I want to go to Japan, This is my dream”".

If I remember correctly It was around March 2006, nearing the end of 8th grade. Just another guy night, playing poker, watching movies etc. Me and a friend of mine were bored and we were watching random videos on Youtube. He told me he had found a cool website and started typing, www.bilang.com. In the end, that event was also a lifechanging event. The first trick I had ever see nwas probably one of Hans Wikkeling’s Double Legs. I just watched with my jaw open for atleast 2 hours. Something like I had never seen before. “”I wanna be able to do that”", I though to myself. I started stretching and working out, but not for long…

…Enter 9th grade. During that one school year my life completely changed, partly due to own actions, partly not. I hit rock bottom, and completely forgot any dreams about going to Japan and about Tricking. During 9th grade, picking on me got from something I could have lived with to something that made me want to disappear from the face of the earth. I was sorta fat, had long black hair, watched anime, doenst go hand in hand with being popular. It was considered weird not doing what everyone else did. Being different was hard. I barely finished school. After the sommer break, I began to further continue my studies, unwillingly though. I have never liked studying, I even lied to my parents I was going to Lukio(something like high school, the system here is a bit different), when in fact I was Spending my day walking around in malls, wasting my life. But the the best thing happened to me last christmas. I accidentally stumbled across dogentricks.com. Suddenly, both things I used to be so passionate about, Tricking and Japan, they came back to me. I instantly told my parents of the situation that I had been skipping, and I quit school. I’m currently working in a storage (not as bad as it sounds, well maybe paywise), small bit by bit saving money, maybe one day I’ll be ready and live my dream and go to Japan. And what comes Trickingwise, I’m training, strecthing, watching what I eat. The first time ever in my life when I take of my shirt and pump my muscles in front of the mirror I see pecks and a six-pack, instead of sellulite and spare tires. I just want to say, Thank You So Much Kevin. Your site gave me my life back, my dreams, my passion. It has bben such an inspiration to me, thank you. For you, Softball might be the most influential thing in your life, but when it comes to me, you are. Once more, arigatou gozaimasu.

Best of wishes to both you and Risa,

*******”