man, my exchange school is so great!

they saw on my health certificate that i had aniridia and asked about it (admitting they know nothing about it lol, but usually no one does so i'm used to it) and i explained about my eyes and what kinds of stuff i tend to do for studying or need in class. i'm too tired of other struggles in life to put up with struggles in class due to my eyes anymore, so i made it really clear, i NEED large-print books or e-books, i DO handwrite worse and learn how to write more slowly than other people, etc. i can technically get by in life with normal-print books but it's going to take me 5x as long to read a page; same goes for handwriting, it's going to take me 3x as long to write that note. i really don't want to do stuff like be in japan and constantly panic over that i have to take 10 hours to read my 1 book chapter per week that i have to do for class.

anyway they replied saying that there's 40 students (10 per year) taking "visually impaired education courses" (= learning how to deal with visually impaired people) and 1 teacher at the school is entirely blind. they also have a deaf teacher who's apparently famous for being a super good teacher, so says my twitter friend. they sent an email to the local library asking how many large-print books they have, and said if i ever need any the school can order them to the school library for me! as a moving closing note, they said "We would like to support you as much as we can, so that you can have enjoyable and meaningful time in Sendai". it really means a lot to me. i've never asked for so much help from a school before. i'm already going to be extremely out of my element in japan, i really don't want to try struggling in ANY way with my eyes either. even though i was raised with the american "never ask for help because that means you're weak!!!" mindset, it never pays with this kind of thing.

in other news i'm buying this electricless handheld sewing machine tonight and will practice with it on fabric i was going to toss before leaving for japan, to see if it's worth taking with me / using:



if it's worthless i'll toss it before i leave and try an electric one in japan (which i'm planning on doing anyway, unless this handheld one is better than i imagine). the funny thing is the reviews! english-speakers have nothing but complaints and say they're worthless, the thread comes undone etc; japanese people only complain that it takes a while of practice (3+ times) before you can get a good straight line, they fix the thread at the end by knotting or burning it; swedes have zero complaints, say it works great, fix the thread by cutting it a certain way.

made "anko" (sweet azuki bean paste) by chopping up dates, simmering them in water for a bit to make date juice/paste, and then cooking the beans in it instead of normal water. tasted just like it should!! normally people use a ton of sugar instead; i've tried honey before and the results weren't so good.

i tried making sushi rice, added some of the date juice to the water it was boiling in; after the rice was cooked i dumped out the extra water, added in more date juice and let it cook a bit more. it did turn out sweet. i thought i'd try putting kimchi juice in with it and letting it ferment for a day or two then tasting it, but my wife wanted to eat it after just a few hours so i didn't get to see how the "fermented" taste would be... well, next time.

watched a youtube video about an american lady in japan... okay, good, she's at least learning japanese. comments that this video (with a japanese person) is in english "so that you guys can all understand" etc, i'm okay with that. no idea how long she's been in japan but it seems like at least a few years, based on some stuff she said.

BUT.

then she said stuff like "sometimes there's kanji i don't know on the menu and google translate doesn't help". what was one of the kanji she didn't know? freaking HORSE MEAT. 馬肉. i fully understand there being kanji you don't know but if your level is so low that you don't know "horse" and "meat" you need to stop talking as if you're good at japanese... these are kanji you learn (or should learn) in your first year of studies.

in some ways "westerners" in japan are waaaay better than those i've seen anywhere else (you are, after all, going to a country and language completely different from the rest of the world in daily life in a lot of ways so it takes a certain kind of person to stay and live there), but then there's still plenty of normal ones that are left. i really REALLY do not want to be around these people. i don't want to be influenced by someone who still can't speak japanese or still doesn't eat japanese food after 10 years of living in japan. i don't want to look up, realize a year has passed and the majority of my company has been foreigners so we've taught each other language and culture mistakes and never experienced, well, japan for real.... that's not what i'm going to japan for.

i keep being weak and thinking i'm being too harsh. they're still just people, it's not their fault they're foreign, if they're nice then it's fine to be around them etc etc. buuuuuuut no, i have to stop that, that's falling into their trap...