A Homeless Blog

Friday, November 25, 2005

Going on a trip

Well...this is gonna be brief.

I'm done with the language study! Sad to leave my good friends here at the Yamasa Institute, but excited to go on a two-week travel. So, I might not be updated this blog for a while...due to lack of time and internet connection. But after that, it should be a relatively big update with lots of pictures (^^)

So...I'll be back!

posted by Bikku @ 1:44 AM 6 comments

Monday, November 21, 2005

Nagoya-style Unagi-don

Went to Nagoya yesterday to meet up with a good friend, Erina-san. We went to the Tokugawa Art Museum and Garden...totally wonderful. It's a good luck we got to see the full collection (all that is known to publicly exist) of the Genji Monogatari, the once-in-a-ten-year exhibition. All in Japanese though, but good thing I have Erina-san to explain it to me.

Another good luck is a live A Capella concert by the lake in the Tokugawa Garden. Very beautiful, but it was quite cold :S

Anyway...coming to the point today. Erina-san taught me how to eat Unagi-don the Nagoya style. There are three steps as you'll see on the illustration below...

Let's Begin ! ! !

Round 1: Standard Unagi & Rice

Round 2: With Seaweed & Scallion too

Round 3: All with Wasabi & Tea (o-cha) !!!

...until there's none left :9

I had a very good time in Nagoya, especially with the Unagi-don dinner (well, you'd know that by now). Special thanks to Erina-san krab (^_^)V

posted by Bikku @ 7:42 PM 3 comments

Friday, November 18, 2005

V (^__^) V

I have never understand why (mostly Asian, and especially Japanese) people show the "V" sign or "Peace" sign when pose in a photo...in group or solo. I actually thought it was silly and thought that I would never do such a thing.

Amazing not so long after I spent some time in Japan, my two fingers just pop up automatically when in a photos. Seriously. It could be peer pressure, I think. But I'm still under amazement how such culture absorb so quickly. Not only to me...Swiss, Spanish, American, and many more all do it. More amazingly, the environment we are in are full of international students...not so many Japanese. Interesting?

Anyway...I guess that's it for today. This blog is getting shorter, which should please some readers. But I'll go on a long trip soon...so probably no updates for a while, follow with lots of photos :P

posted by Bikku @ 12:10 AM 4 comments

Monday, November 14, 2005

Mod-chan

I'm so sleepy now, but somehow I feel like I should write something on the blog...don't know why. So, I'm gonna (really-) briefly write about Mod-chan.


Mod-chan is a daughter of a friend of the host family of my friend (complex? :P) A couple of my friends and I visited this host family the other day. Very good experience. Got to talk (actually listen) in Japanese a lot, even though I could only understand about 30% of anything.

My favorite moment was to play with Mod-chan, who taught me how to make an Origami Totoro. Very cute. Mod-chan was also a nice sister; I could tell from her act of helping her sis with the Origami.

In all, I guess this blog is dedicate to Mod-chan...no more, no less (^^)

posted by Bikku @ 1:03 AM 1 comments

Friday, November 11, 2005

Incoherent

I'm so tired, but not unhappy. So...I'm just gonna update this blog real quick and without any coherent :P

The big test just passed, and I did much better than I thought. I've made many good friends here. Many friends mean lots of fun time & parties, less personal & sleeping time. I really need to sleep soon. Not only that...have to clean the apartment, do the laundry, catch up with class, etc.

Learning Japanese language has taught me a few things about myself though:
1. I use my eyes more than my ears
2. Since I've not been much of a talker, it took me forever to remember and sing a line of a Japanese song
3. It's hard for me to remember (or memorize) a new word or even a name (So, a plain/blunt memorization tasks or homework is not totally useless for a kid :P)

Well...I think that's it for today!

posted by Bikku @ 2:01 AM 3 comments

Saturday, November 05, 2005

My View of Japanese (Language)

I've been more or less 'casual' about writing this blog, and I want to keep it that way (although my head is full of all the serious thoughts). Today's story evolved from my 2-month experience with the Japanese language.

Though difficult as many people might already know, the language also explain so much about Japan in many senses. Here are a few observations...

Verb is at the end of a sentence: This is like the first thing a foreigner would notice about the language...because it's difficult for them. But well...there's no right or wrong. Just because we are used to the verb in the middle doesn't mean it makes more sense to be there.

This tells me a lot already. Communication usually comes in a batch of sentences. Mostly, I can never really understand the point until the sentence is over. It explains (at least to me) why Japanese are polite and patience (not quite the words I'm looking for, but sort of). Not only because they have to wait until the end of a sentence, but also because they absorb the essence of the language into their life. Patient, they've become.

Various forms: Japanese language has soooo many forms of things. Plain form. Polite form. Super polite form. Honorific form. Humble form. Form for self. Forms for referring to others. And I'm not making these up (except the "Super Polite" one :P)

So what does it tell me? Japan's social system is not only seen in practice, but also embedded in the language. The first word that came to my mind was "tight". I see this as both good and bad thing. The social system, which has (or had, I don't know) worked well since after WWII, is pretty difficult to penetrate. People seems to be happy about their life.

But, some people might say that it sucks (please excuse my language). The system is so strict; there's no flexibility...especially for younger people. Those who comes from a more-liberal social system would feel uncomfortable, especially in the work environment. Everything must be accordingly.

Tough position, indeed. All I can say is that social unity comes at a cost of individual freedom.

Language barrier: Sorry I'm going beyond the language itself. But I can't leave out the great hardshell of Japan. Here...nobody speaks English (of course, it's an exaggeration). But if you are here, you'll understand what I mean. They do speak English, but only when they really really have to. Japan also translate everything into Japanese, for example, books. Tons of foreign books in Japanese.

Anyway, I just recently learned that Katakana is not just for a foreign language. What's written in Katakana might sound similar to English (or any other language), but it's not. It's Japanese, and should be read accordingly...otherwise nobody wouldn't understand what you are talking about.

The language itself is quite difficult to master. I heard it'd take at least a year to actually use (talking and reading and writing) Japanese in everyday work & life. In a way, the language barrier protects Japan from various things outside. It's not easy to get immediate employment because of the language. It's also not easy to sell things to a Japanese if you cannot communicate well with them.

Well well well...there is no conclusion for this blog. Just scattered ideas and impressions of the country related to its language. Anybody, any more ideas? I'm just going back to my vocabs laew la. A big test next week /(o o')\

posted by Bikku @ 1:11 AM 11 comments

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I started this blog because I felt lost...without a destination. I didn't even believe I could continue this blog for so long (due to past experiences). But, here I am still...blogging away.

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