Pulling Through the Grey Area

I frequently have too much on my plate. Especially as far as hobbies and interests go. As soon as I start to make progress on one thing it spawns an interest in something else.

Sometimes it feels like I am downloading 30 at once so everything goes really really really really slow. (How about that for a 21st century analogy.) I was always kind of mediocre at Japanese. I'd have little speed bursts. The same thing happens with guitar. And piano. And electronics stuff. And tech stuff. The most stuff I started learning, the slower each one got at each one. This is the first time when I have kind of "stopped" everything except one. My Japanese has improved a lot...but it works a lot like my Jazz guitar. I can hear things just fine. I know what I want to say. When it comes to forming my own ideas on the spot, I choke...kind of. It's not a horrible fall on my face kind of thing. I can get simple basic stuff out and be fine, but when it comes to doing what i really want to do, I can't do it as well as I'd hope... this sounds likes it getting sad. It's not.

My speaking, the hard part, has gotten a lot better. I think this has to do with my complete immersion in Japan. (Other than my occasional computer uses and secret TV shows that I download from time to time.) I don't have a guitar near me. I have a piano, but no sheet music. I can't really push myself with music or electronics or anything of this sort. I can do what I already know well and tighten that up some, but I can't move forward. My Japanese, however, that seems to be moving ahead juuuuuust fine. I wish there was a land where people only spoke in Jazz. ii-V-I's and alternate changes, piano fingerings, guitar technique, and composition terms. Oh yeah. It's called Music School.

COUNTDOWN To Hiroshima/Miajima/Himeji: 3 days.