Kita-Chu's Awesome-Sensei and I spoke of three students' names today. I remarked that 油田（あぶらた ABURATA), meaning oil and field was odd. He concurred.

He brought to my attention 汐月（しおつき SHIOTSUKI). He could not explain the meaning of the first kanji, except that it has a relationship to salt. Jim Breen's dictionary tells me it means eventide; tide ( Read more... )

Last night I gave my Livestrong bracelet, which for me was primarily fashion over social responsibility, to a Japanese woman whose husband and son died of cancer. Unaware of the trend into which I had bought, she shamed me with her praise of my contribution to what she came to believe was a phenomenal cause. I will redeem my shallowness, however, ( Read more... )

I get slightly annoyed when I see and hear Japanese people Anglicize their language. The sentence 'I drink water' (僕は水を飲む boku-wa mizu-wo nomu) mirrors its English equivalent perfectly. Direct objects are direct objects, subjects are subjects, and verbs are verbs ( Read more... )

In conversations with Shohei I made known some thoughts concerning Christianity and Japan. The crux of my argument was that with the opening of Japan, Christianity became largely a religion of the elite. Intellectuals, businessmen, and socialites were Christians. It's telling, for instance, that ENDO Shusaku is known popularly as a comedic writer, ( Read more... )

Today I spoke with Jason about his Independence Day plans, and then I read past journal entries of my own previous Independence Day adventures. Later, Jasiri - an exboyfriend - IM'ed me out of the blue asking about a particular Independence Day when he visited me in Vermont. A bit later, Ned and I partook in an online memory session about last year ( Read more... )

I won't explain the title above. You need to know Japanese. Trust, however, that it's hilarious. randomcarbon: I have this track.... and it's in French
randomcarbon: and ... one line goes, et puis je fume, which means and then I'll smoke.
randomcarbon: which is fine and all, but the fu sound bothers me.

Will: ... it bothers you?

randomcarbon: I ( Read more... )

Justin, Nichole, pman5000, Wendy, John and I braved the wilds of Tochigi- and Fukushima-kens this weekend, armed with little more than a tent a single canteen for the six of us ( Read more... )

Being the first of the month, Japanese cinemas reduce their fees significantly. Will and I partook in the steal by seeing Batman Begins - a film that I uncharacteristically had been wanting to see for some time. I rarely anticipate movies ( Read more... )

I posed to Okasan the same questions raised in this post concerning literary instances of violating the sacredness of one's home. She responded at length, and largely in a fearful manner. She recounted an instance some four years ago that took place in Setagaya (Tokyo). An intruder made use of a family's possessions, and then proceeded to murder ( Read more... )

With my sister and mother dolled up in the manner of Paris Hilton, the three of us are tilling a plot of land for farming, by hand. The two ladies had been working on the project for some time before I joined them, and expressed nothing but indifference to the occasional turkey - three, four times the size of a normal turkey - hidden under the soil ( Read more... )