Japanese Me

Okay, I’m going to try and ease back into this posting thing.  I’ve been going through some old pictures and while they may not have a large overarching theme they’re still neat.  Later I want to write some more posts about learning Japanese… but let’s start slowly, slowly. First:  Odaiba, an island in Tokyo Bay, [...]

Japan has a new political party just in time for the August 30th election, the Happiness Realization Party.  Yes, that is their proper English name.  It’s a direct translation of the Japanese (幸福実現党) which looks just as silly.  A political party with “happiness” in their name is probably full of liberal, hippie pot smokers, right?  [...]

It would be easy to make this a long post but I’m going to resist the temptation. Over the past few months I’ve been watching a mole on my back change.  I went to the doctor some weeks ago and she said yes, it’s scary, but it’s not quite hey-let’s-remove-this-sucker time yet.  (My words, not [...]

I think it’s funny and interesting that my students (largely fifth and sixth graders) think that I can understand and listen to Japanese but can’t speak a lick of it.  The two skills have no connection in their mind.  I wonder if grasping the relation is a developmental milestone, something they realize when they hit [...]

Okay, so it turns out I’m a really good blogger when I’m home all day.  Working, especially just starting with a new job… it’s a whole ‘nother animal.  I’ve already planned my lessons for tomorrow so I’ll give you a taste of what I’ve been doing. Before I get going I want to say that [...]

I popped in my memory stick and found photos of my flight I forgot to post: My leg room in Economy Plus.  It’s hard to tell in the picture but I have my long, lanky legs completely stretched out.  With my butt all the way back I couldn’t reach the seat in front of me [...]

Between rain and some new appliances being installed (another post) Ken and I have been home the past two days.  It turns out there are corners of Japanese culture I didn’t even know existed–like what to say when riding the elevator.  It can actually be stressful! If you get on the elevator and someone is [...]

I’ve had a lot of free time since I’ve been home so I’ve been hitting the books pretty hard, cramming bunches of Japanese vocabulary into my brain.  I’ve also been roaming around on delicious looking for helpful websites and forum posts about achieving fluency in Japanese.  This translators cafe thread led me to the translation [...]

It’s not complete freedom with an upcoming move and all, but hey, I’ll take what I can get. Took care of a lot of little things today.  Filled the fridge with groceries.  Filled my belly with unagi donburi.  Filled my brain with Japanese.  Filled out forms for my upcoming teaching job.  Tried to fill my [...]