So International Friendship day was today, for once since I started living in Fairbanks the UAF Japanese club didn't have a booth. It was so damn liberating not having to stay at the booth keeping sushi I knew no one would buy warm while everyone else got to walk around eating and watching the dances. We arrived at 2pm, after a night of hanging out ( Read more... )

All my friends are on exchange having the time of their lives, Japan is exactly the anime based, video game, maid cafe paradise they thought it was and worst of all everything is working out OK for them. Where the fuck was my awesome exchange trip? Not like my trip wasn't amazing in it's own right but I was in Japan...maybe a week and then any ( Read more... )

...even though I know it. Story time kiddies!

When I was first learning Japanese, maybe the summer of my second year I got the opportunity of a lifetime to go to Japan for two weeks, it was a lovely trip that culminated in a week long home stay in Fukui going to a real Japanese high school, I was nervous as I always am but I manned up and went... ( Read more... )

I was walking to class and had a few musings that I felt were worthwhile to write down.

The first one was about people, people remind me of those glass floaties the Japanese used to use when fishing to show where their nets are, they're different colors, different sizes and various thicknesses of glass...people are these floaties bobbing in the ( Read more... )

I think the art of letter writing is dead.

I don't mean in the archaic sense of writing something on a peice of paper, putting it in an envelope, putting a stamp on said envelope and sending it through the postal service HOPING it will reach it's destination, no that art form has been dead for almost a decade now holding steady in small protected ( Read more... )

  I was walking from class today and saw the leaves on the sidewalk, the pavement was stained from where the rainwater had pulled their color out leaving shadows of leaves. It was quite pretty, but also a little bit haunting...the silhouettes reminded me of those left by people during the Hiroshima bombings. I took pictures, partially for the ( Read more... )

This evening I pretend to be French. I pretend my dorm is some little loft overlooking the cityscape that is Paris. Lights are dimmed, the pale halogen bulbs fade away to lamplight, and a mug of tea sits on my desk (it is far too late in the evening for coffee, and I have no wine) I listen to French street music, haunting in it's simplicity. I  ( Read more... )

According to a recent survery on the parental gaming site What they Play parents are more afraid of their kids playing a violent video game than they are drinking underage or watching porn. WTF people! Also in the little tidbit I watched on Yahoo! 17% of people who own GTAIV are underage, who bought these kids a game where running people over with ( Read more... )

 
 So I'm a bit confused at the moment, which shouldn't surprise most but...anyway.

I have a friend who is attending the same university I did while on exchange to Japan, I've explained a few things, like how the apartments are set up and what to expect weather wise upon arrival, and today I found a picture of the subway map and circled some stops of ( Read more... )

 It's summer vacation!

I made it through my spring semester with only minor ego bruising and I survived the major case of reverse-culture shock I got coming back from Japan. Seriously, that stuff will kill you and more exchange programs need to make a point of explaining this to students. I mean, I was told it could happen, but was given nothing to ( Read more... )