Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu! Kotoshi mo yoroshiku onegai itashimasu.
(Basically "happy new year!" in a really really nice polite way--said at the beginning of the new year, rather than at the end of the old one)
Zōjō-ji, a temple in Tokyo (in front of Tokyo Tower) where I rang in 2010 with my family.Happy New Year, and with that I seem to be in the doldrums of my year abroad. A ton of stuff has happened since I last updated (almost a month ago? Is that possible??), and fortunately it's all been generally good. However, I've been back in school two weeks already after break, and it's been a bit frustrating. Japanese is truly a fiendishly difficult language, and advancement is slow. That said, I've improved significantly, and my knowledge is certainly quite useful in terms of getting basic information from people, buying things, getting schedules and whatnot. But still, thinking back on my summer in Russia, with its relative great similarity to English coupled with the intensity of the program itself, I improved much faster than I feel I am at Japanese. Interestingly, speaking of Russia, I have found that I miss it, and of course the people I met there too. I'd like to start a blog in Russian (and a blog in Japanese), but my first priority is catching up on my work. I had been under the impression during October and November that classes here at Kindai (金大、the short name of Kanazawa University) are very easy, so I didn't really take it seriously. The program here is indeed comparatively relaxed, but in the past several months of my life I have come to understand more that study itself is quite important to me, and I see its value. So, I've got some catching up to do, and that's my first priority.
I had mentioned before in this blog that while studying in Russia, I came to reconnect with my love for music, literature, and study itself. Looking back on it now, with my living situation there being in my host mother's apartment (at least a twenty minute walk away from friends, with no TV I could watch), with my computer being broken, and with very very little money to speak of, I found that I was much less distracted and was able to focus much much better on studies. However, the experience of being able to focus on those things was very good for me, and it taught me that it's quite alright to actually study sometimes. I do enjoy it when I'm actually doing it, and real friends will understand and always be there afterward anyhow. In Japan, though, although the living situation is a ton of fun, there are many more distractions!
In other news, it's snowing in Kanazawa right now. That's no surprise, because it rains and/or snows every day. It's been snowing since yesterday afternoon and is expected to continue snowing until tomorrow evening, I think.
It's been over a month since I last updated, so in the future I will be sure to update more regularly. Since my last update, I took a trip to Osaka and Kyoto in mid-December that was a massive ton of fun. I have some great pictures from that trip, not to mention great memories, and I got a chance to learn some about the Kansai region with an excellent guide! Then there were various sorts of holiday events, including some international student parties and things, some crazy storms, and I had my very first ever actual "gig" playing guitar, where I played and sang a song at the International Student Winter Party or whatever it was called. It was a ton of fun, and it felt very rewarding.
Anyway, during the winter break, my family came to visit me here in Japan, and we explored Kanazawa, Kyoto, Nara, and Tokyo together. Here are a few pictures...
Feeding the world-famous friendly deer in Nara.
Crowds lined up for Hatsumoude (the first shrine visit of the year) on January 1 at Meiji Jingu in Tokyo.
Kinkaku-ji, Kyoto's famous Golden Temple.
With Matt at my favorite shrine, Fushimi-Inari Taisha in Kyoto.
The Tenno of Japan (Emperor Akihito) addressing the public on January 2. I was there!
Maiko (舞子) in front of Kiyomizudera (temple) in Kyoto. (Geisha in training!)Some interesting articles I've been collecting over the last month:
The issue of the American base in Okinawa
Japanese goodwill toward the United States
A new international air travel agreement between Japan and the US
BBC perspective on the above
Perhaps an interesting piece of history concerning The Far Oriental
Some curious news about a famous Zashiki Warashi
Crazy weather news
More crazy weather news
Awesome science news about exploring Titan
Huffington Post article about "two Obamas" that seems rather astute
Glimpse.org blog story about "how to party with your Japanese boss"
Recent news concerning Gilad Shalit, the national son of Israel
Concerning my academic interests, this article on understanding culture through language was fascinating
Food words
Know your Fish
A cool blog about the Aspiring Polyglot
Another cool blog about East Asian Stuff
Finally, something interesting that a friend showed me.
We remember that famous picture of Obama form the campaign:
But then there were the parodies. Here's the question: how do you translate this into Japanese?
The answer:
It just so happens that "frog" and "to return" are homonyms in Japanese (kaeru is the word), a fact that becomes obvious when written in kana. The above text "meiji jidai ni kaeru" can therefore be translated literally as "Return to the Meiji Era" or just as correctly "Frog to the Meiji Era" -- indeed, a pun.
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