Hello and welcome to Lost Usagi. My name is Bikky and I will be your own personal tour guide through this land we know as...Japan! Well... at least I will be your tour guide once I get to Japan. :) As of today (8/10), I am just under one month away from departing for Japan. During this month of waiting, I will be giving you some insight on pre-study abroad procedures, general information about Japan, and some info about myself.
Seeing that this is my first post, I will start by introducing myself. As I have already said, my name is Bikky and, as you have probably guessed, I am a college student. I have been attending California State University, Fullerton (Cal State Fullerton/ CSUF for short) for the last few years and am currently studying Illustration and Japanese Language and Culture as my double-majors. I have chosen to study abroad through the California State University (Cal State) system, during which time, I will be focusing on studying Japanese literature, arts, and culture.
Now, before I continue telling you about myself, I need to note that while choosing to study abroad through the Cal State system is easy, actually getting into the program is not. In a later post, I will explain what Cal State students should expect when applying for the Cal State studying abroad program.
Now, continuing on with my introduction...
I am an aspiring artist who loves Japanese art, particularly anime (ah-nee-meh) and manga (mahn-gah). For those who are not familiar with these terms, anime is a Japanese borrowed word for animation. This word is borrowed from the English language. In Japan, the term anime is a generic word for any animation, regardless of the animation's country-of-origin; while in the West, anime refers to just Japanese animation. Where anime is a borrowed term, manga is the Japanese-original term for comics. Just like the term anime, the Japanese people use this term to refer to comics of any origin, while the Western audience uses this term for comics that are from Japan or made in the style of Japanese comics.
I love to read manga and watch anime when I am not studying or working on my own comic. Currently, my comic, which is a manga-style comic, is still in production, so you can't quite read it yet. :( Outside of working on my own art and enjoying anime and manga, I love to teach kids, hang out with friends, and play video games.
I chose to study both Illustration and Japanese out of my love for anime and manga and my desire to write my own comics. I began coming up with comic ideas during my early years of high school and have been tweaking and polishing those ideas throughout college. Currently, I have two stories in the works. One story is still in the early writing process, while the other one is already being drawn. Both stories will be a long, ongoing fantasy story, rather than being a Sunday morning-newspaper-type comic.
Hmmm...what else about myself....Oh! How I came to study Japanese.
I began studying Japanese in high school. It was not my first choice of foreign languages, but due to district-related hiccups in my education, I was forced to take Japanese my freshman year of high school. Honestly, I cried when I found out that I had to take it, because I had always dreamed of learning Spanish. But, as soon as my tears dried, I became excited to learn Japanese. Not surprisingly, I absolutely fell in love with this language almost as soon as I started learning it. And as I learned the Japanese language, I was exposed more and more to the Japanese culture. Soon, I found that I had not only fell in love with the Japanese language, but also with its culture....hence why it is one of my majors.
I continued studying Japanese throughout high school, but was so worried of failing it in college that I did not take any Japanese classes my first year at Cal State Fullerton. But, after that year, I knew I could not avoid studying the language any further. So, I picked up my Japanese studies again the next year and soon added it as my second major.
Now, I am tired of still not being fluent in Japanese. That is why I chose to study abroad in Japan this year. I will be staying in a little district of Tokyo called Nishi Waseda. I will be studying at Waseda University, which is one of only two Japanese universities that partners with the Cal State system and is one of the top schools currently in Japan. During my year, I will be staying in a dorm so that I can focus on my studies better.
Well, I guess this concludes my first post. I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit about myself and will continue to tune to learn more about my experiences in studying abroad in Japan.
'Til next time, Bye-bye!
New Japanese Vocab
Anime (ah-nee-meh)- means animation, used by the West to identify Japanese animation
Manga (mahn-ga)- means comics, used by the West to identify Japanese-style comics
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