At first, I blamed my none-too-frequent blog posts on a lack of internet in my own apartment. Now, about a month after the happy home internetting event, I find myself still posting intermittently so, in an attempt to post at least once a week, I shall begin to chart my growing grasp of Japanese in […]
Month: April 2007
Greatness
When I was 15 – unreasonably angry and burning with a blistering passion for greatness that would extinguish itself by the time I was 18 – I made a list of possible careers. In my diary (hunched over my desk, pausing at intervals to enjoy a handful of crackers) I wrote: Broadway actress Novelist Lawyer […]
No More Questions or Why I Love Weird Al
Each day, the names of the adult students taking classes are printed out on a sheet and taped to the wall of the teacher’s lounge. At this tender stage in my Japanese cultural training, I still find many of the names foreign. Worse, I often have a hard time telling the difference between male and […]
Momo is the old Pink
New knowledge gleaned the other day that made me happy; in the olden Japanese days – before the katakana English word “pinku” was used – “momo” was the word used to describe the color “pink.” 🙂
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O Hana Mi, O Hana Mi … How Lovely Are Your Customs
Yet another of Japan’s most excellent traditions is that of O Hana Mi (literally, “flower look”) – around the beginning of April, friends and family gather to gaze at the beautiful clusters of cherry blossoms cropping up all over the country. Sometimes parties are organized – my school held a sushi rolling-and-corsage making do a […]
A Story of Words
A couple of weeks after I arrived in Japan, I came across a rather cunning little device while nosing around at a department store: “Word cards” are often used by Japanese students to help them remember English vocabulary – one precise mini flashcard at a time. Ever-determined to improve my mortifying Japanese, I snatched up a set and almost immediately began […]