It's been rather nice the last week or so. I've had my nerd and OCD energies flowing almost non-stop about a number of things, but mostly Japanese. It's been a disgustingly long time since I did anything more than I had to with Japanese and it's nice to give it the attention it deserves. Job/life satisfaction is at an all time high. Though I have ( Read more... )

Warning: More overlong musings on the Japanese language below.

I think Japanese is one of the most obsessively thorough languages in the world linguistically.

First, while most languages limit themselves to one set of characters to express their language Japanese actually has 5. This may seem like overkill, and GOD is it, but it's not as redundant as ( Read more... )

An awesome book I have received from one of the supporting cast at Naka Chu (Mid Middle School). It is called Productive Kanji Study and he even put a 'Teacher's Copy' sticker on it before giving it to me ( Read more... )

Ishikawa-sensei: Tonah kawai-to nah...
Me: Eh?
Ishikawa-sensei: That purinter, toner,
Me: Empty?
Ishikawa-sensei: Yes. Empty. 'Tonah kawai-to nah'  (toner changed and...)
                      Low level joke.
Me:
Ishikawa-sensei:

Yesterday I was surprised to have an unknown Japanese fellow come knocking at my door. He told me he had an American friend in town who did not speak Japanese and wished to get some companionship for said friend. I said sure, how about tomorrow ( Read more... )

Went to Shizuoka to catch the Terminator 4 flick today. It was good, I would have liked it better if it hadn't ignored the TV show, but it was good ( Read more... )

One of the best parts about teaching middle school instead of elementary is getting to join the kids for sports clubs three days a week. Last Thursday I joined the baseball team at Hon Chu. I'm out of shape and not very good with a baseball, but the students still seem to appreciate my coming out ( Read more... )

Hello everyone ( Read more... )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsGGO9nRIX4

Awesome!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfJQeG2XHCs

Not Awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cw3KKtaStOw WARPAINT (Howard Greenfield / Barry Mann)

Darling, oh Darling, you're not the same.....

With your lipstick, powder and paint
You're all dressed up like a-what-a-you ain't
You spray your hair a different shade
We're goin' to a movie, not ( Read more... )