I just finished Beedle the Bard.  It was so cozy.  I just quit Grad School for a couple hours and had my Hogwarts time ( Read more... )

Gov. of Tokyo Ishihara Shintaro's reaction to the death of Ueno zoo's giant panda Ling Ling : いてもいなくてもいいんじゃないか。("Who cares if she's alive or dead?" basically) 
Hardly the most offensive thing he's said, but honestly, she's a panda for goodness sake, who says mean things about pandas.  They say these comments might affect Japan's efforts to acquire ( Read more... )

Translations of Hiraide Takashi by Sawako Nakayasu in Poetry Magazine and Octopus.  He seems like a really interesting poet, and Sawako Nakayasu's translations are always great.  It says Hiraide has a book coming out in English (Nakayasu's translations)!  I wonder when there will be another issue of Factorial, it seems like it's been a while. 
(I ( Read more... )

Hee to go with what I wrote about Hillary, there is a city called Obama,　小浜 , in Fukui prefecture! They are making manju with his face on them. Oh I miss Japan sometimes, so funny.

Japan Times, "For Fukui city of Obama, choice of U.S. candidate is a no-brainer"

Poetry Kanto updated with the new issue.

Well my grad school applications are almost done. I've mostly been hibernating. Here is a list of poems I have been reading lately, they are stark yet cozy like winter ( Read more... )

Here I am, back in Chicago. I've mostly been just biding my time and plotting my future plans, in a simmery mysterious way ( Read more... )

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Last night I had dinner with Sousou's friends. We took lots of sentimental pictures in front of a florist. I want to pack everybody up in a dubious box with my Potter books and mail them to my parents ( Read more... )

I had such a great trip! Now I'm home, kind of disoriented as happens sometimes.

Keiko OguraI saw Keiko Ogura speak at the Peace Memorial Museum. It was a really amazing event. Every year on the anniversary of the bombing, survivors speak out about their experiences--in English. Though her story was really upsetting and intense, Keiko was so ( Read more... )