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Silly Japanese Dream

Last night I had a dream about Japanese. I was sitting across from a bunch of idols. Don’t ask how it happened, it was a dream, dreams don’t have to make any sense at all. I didn’t think any of them spoke English, and my (now dead) father was sitting next to me. I was struggling to put together even a basic sentence, so I said something like “watashi no haha chotto baka desu”. Of course, in my waking state, there’s so much wrong with that sentence. In my dream… Read More »Silly Japanese Dream

My Most Embarrassing Japanese Mistake

So ready for a laugh at my expense? Here ya go. Back when I was first starting to learn Japanese, I was trying to find all of the Japanese stuff I could. I found a World Market at the local mall, and they had a litle stuffed toy – it was a hamster holding a waffle. The cutest, most kawaii thing ever. I knew enough Japanese to read some of the stuff on the tag, but not quite enough to really read it. Of course, that didn’t stop me. On… Read More »My Most Embarrassing Japanese Mistake

Restarting Japanese – and More

I really liked the format of my last post. The use of separators gave it a flow that I haven’t yet been able to achieve in any other way, and I intend on continuing to do that. The other day, the smoke alarms in an apartment in my building started going off for no reason. I left my building and wandered around until I actually found the apartment in which they were going off. I found it, and the apartment was inhabited by a Mexican grandma-type – older lady, very… Read More »Restarting Japanese – and More

Today’s Japanese Book Haul

Today I went to Half Price Books again. There wasn’t much manga, but there were a few interesting books 8 picked up. First up was another dictionary. I didn’t know Takahashi Minami wrote dictionaries, but hey. This book was pretty cool. I like this book. It has a very nice cover, and I like reading about Shinto. This book is quite interesting, it’s an English language book about Japanese social issues. Seems really useful. The only manga they had. Volume 13. Wonder if I’ll like it enough to find the… Read More »Today’s Japanese Book Haul

My Japanese Book Collection

I have books. I have piles and piles of books on almost every conceivable topic. They are overflowing my bookshelves, occupying a futon, and basically just making a wonderful mess in my house. So I bought a bookcase with manga sized shelves. These are most of my Japanese books. I have been collecting Japanese manga. Etc, over a period of a few years now, and this is the result. Books, books, and more books. Maybe someday I’ll even read most of them. Wonder what I’ll do when this bookcase starts… Read More »My Japanese Book Collection

Japanese Books I Bought Today

So today I went to Half Price Books, and I bought some Japanese language books.  Let’s take a look at what I found. I spent less than $100 on everything you see. First, I found some dictionaries. I like dictionaries. I’m not sure why, as I can find everything I need online, but these are in good condition, so I thought why not add them to my collection. It’s also why I didn’t feel too badly snarling them – the online dictionaries are available to everyone else too, so it’s… Read More »Japanese Books I Bought Today

I Love how Japanese Women Talk

It’s funny how, in all my studies of Japanese, and their obsession with all things cute, the thing I love the most is how some Japanese women say “ka”. They pronounce it “kaw”, and it’s the cutest thing ever. It’s funny because the Japanese have built entire industries on being cute. Idol culture, schoolgirls, kawaii culture, mascots. Animal faces on everything, etc., and the cutest thing is how some women say “ka”. I first heard that pronunciation on a game with Japanese voiceovers, and I thought they were doing it… Read More »I Love how Japanese Women Talk

An Update on Japanese

So, I’ve gone all over the place on this blog, and I haven’t posted about Japanese for a long time. And I kinda don’t want to, really. But this blog is ostensibly about Japanese, so, I guess I’ll write about that. I’ve lost all interest. True, if I abandon Japanese for much longer, I’ll start to forget it, and it’s a useful enough skill that I don’t want that to happen, but I’ve lost interest in Japanese, I’ve lost interest in Japanese culture, I’ve lost interest in Japan. All of… Read More »An Update on Japanese

Japanese: Off The Rails

This has not been an easy week for me. The combination of over a day of no power, several days of no water, being stuck in with literally nowhere to go and nowhere to get there even if I wanted to, because of six to nine inches of snow – gives me a lot of time to think. Or try to avoid thinking. This blog has gone off the rails. I’m not apologizing for it because it’s my blog and if I want it to go off the rails I’m… Read More »Japanese: Off The Rails

Why I’m learning Japanese

I have mentioned several times on this blog that Ihave no idea why I’m studying Japanese. Well, dear reader, I’ve figured it out. And I may quit. My mother tells me that from a very early age I loved learning. And Iguess that’s true. But there’s something else I’ve also loved, and that’s collecting. I don’t know why, but from a very early age, I’ve liked collecting things. I never had anything good to collect, so I just ended up collecting random, stupid things. Things that a child with little… Read More »Why I’m learning Japanese