Been a While

Well, two weeks have slipped by and no blog. So much for a blog-a-day. But in my defense, I've entered a new phase in my Japanese studies. Since I am now able to slowly read Kana (Hiragana and Katakana), I decided to bite the bullet and quit using Romaji (Roman letters) to help me learn Japanese. Let me briefly explain. I started learning Japanese by reading Japanese words written using the English alphabet (Romaji), e.g. the Japanese word for book would be "hon" in Romanji. So most of my Japanese study book was actually written in the English alphabet. (example 1)


Example 1


Recently, I started writing my exercises using Kana. (example 2)

Example 2


I then realized that reading Romaji would not help me learn to read Kana more proficiently. So I switched from the Romanized version of my book to the Kana version. (example 3) Since I don't read very quickly yet, this has increased my study time dramatically to do the same amount of work.



Example 3


So just as I was beginning to feel comfortable with my lessons, I found a way to make them harder and more time consuming! Although difficult, it's pretty exciting to actually be doing my lessons completely in Japanese. As a side note, you may have noticed that my Japanese writing is much better than my English writing. Weird. So, long reason as to why I haven't blogged in a while. Anyhow, on with the blog.



We were in Tokyo yesterday and I have to share this picture. In the past I've talked about the level to which Japanese people will dress up their dogs and here's another example. This man was very proud of his dog and was quite happy to let me take their picture.

This was a little lamb coat (notice the little cotton ball tail) worn over her separate ruffled dress!



And, of course, the ears! What you can't see in this photo, is she was also wearing a beaded necklace.


Tokyo never fails to amaze me. Every district has its own distinctive style. With each visit I am more surprised and impressed with the variety of architecture. The following five pictures were taken in Ebisu Garden Place, a plaza consisting of shops, restaurants, and business offices near the Ebisu train station. The third picture features Marcia looking very model-like.

















Last week I had my first official Mt. Fuji sighting. The winter months in Japan are the clearest and, therefore, the best for long range viewing. Marcia's office is on the 14th floor of a building in downtown Yokohama so I was able to get this shot.



Now before you say, "Wow! What a great view. Marcia's living large! What a great office.", she can't see Mt. Fuji at all from her specific office. This shot was a taken from the men's bathroom. The two best views of Mt. Fuji are from the men's and women's bathrooms.




Well, I should probably go study some Japanese.
Ja mata.

Wow!

Quite the rush today. Someone asked me for directions. The cool part was I knew the answer. Once in a while I have to step back and look at the whole picture. I am slowly gaining knowledge and experience in this new place where I live.

Back To It

Yesterday Marcia went back to work and I started the new year with the idea to get out more and let the whole Japanese environment teach me instead of staying in the house so much. With that in mind I took the car for a drive to find a local athletic club that we may join. I've been driving the car about once a week but, I always had Marcia for a navigator. I figured it was time to go it alone. The car, a Toyota Corolla, is equipped with GPS, but all of the buttons, directions and vocals are in Japanese. So I'm driving on the left side of the road, trying to figure out the GPS and listening to a woman's voice give me directions in Japanese. Not to mention that everyone walks in the streets on the less traveled roads because there are no sidewalks. My neighbor, David, says driving these streets is pretty much like walking except you're sitting down. The club I was looking for is in a residential area on a hill with narrow winding streets. I found out that the GPS does not like narrow winding streets in residential areas once you make a few wrong turns and stops telling you to turn left or right which are the only two phrases that I recognize on the GPS so far. She, the GPS voice, does continue to talk to me but she's probably just telling me what an idiot I am for passing the same intersection for the third time. I drove through some streets that were so narrow I thought my mirrors were going to scrape the buildings on both sides of the car. When a car is coming the other way, both vehicles immediately look for wide areas to pull into to let the other car pass. Anyway, my ten minute drive took an embarrassingly long time. The good news is that I did eventually find the club and I learned a lot about the GPS and now know how to recognize when I'm lost. The drive home was less eventful with only a couple of wrong turns. You might ask how this is helping me to learn Japanese. I stopped people in the street (at least six times) while I was driving and asked directions. Sumimasen, YCAC wa doko desu ka. (Excuse me, where is the YCAC?) The directions given to me were in Japanese with a lot of pointing. Every person I stopped was very friendly and quite willing to help. So GPS + friendly locals + my limited Japanese + luck = success. One thing I've learned while living in Japan is that attempting any new task (even ones that seem quite simple in the States) usually turns into an adventure and definitely takes a lot more time than planned.
Ja mata

Home Again

How strange to say "Home again" and mean back in Japan. Marcia and I had a wonderful visit in East Aurora seeing family and friends. Our visit reaffirmed how important it is to maintain as much contact with every one that we know in the States. We have wonderful friends there and realize the responsibility we have to keep the channels of communication open so that we don't become a faded memory.


The number one person I miss.... My son Stephen. This picture is deceiving in that Stephen is about 5 inches taller than I am and a hulk.



Wonderful neighbors/family/friends - Larry & Deb. Don't know what I'd do without them.



Ditto except for the neighbors part - Ann & Joe.


My very old dog Abby (13 years). What can you say about a man and his dog?

These guys are the best: Don, Al, Larry, Marcia, Mark and me. They are the members of our band, Quick Shot. We were all able to get together on our visit home and have a wonderful band practice/get-together. What a great night!




We arrived back in Japan with temperatures 10 degress lower than temperatures in Buffalo and cold rain. How weird is that? This morning we awoke to bright blue beautiful skies and crisp temperatures.
View from our living room balcony.


Last night we eased back into Japanese culture very gradually with a dinner out at TGI Fridays. I had a southwestern caesar salad and Marcia had a cheese burger. Remember, I did say eased back in gradually. With the Japanese language swirling around me, I realized how little studying I did while I was in the States. However, I think the break was good for me. I realized that it's very easy for me to get obsessed with my studies and to create pressure to achieve goals that are unnecessay and counter productive. Learning is much easier when it's fun and relaxed versus stressed and forced. I guess that's going to be my only new year's resolution.....Don't study to the extent that I forget to explore this wonderful country and.... Stop being so impatient. I guess that's actually two resolutions. I haven't been a student since my graduate days in the eighties when I studied Sociology so I guess I should give myself some slack about this whole learning process. I keep saying that I'm going to blog more often. This time I mean it!

Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu! (Happy New Year!)