JAPAN | Tuesday, 8 Mar 2016 | Views [386]
I was starting to run low on tea, so on Saturday I decided to return to Mariage Frères. Only not the Mariage Frères that I'd already been to, because that would have been too easy. Recall that the website put Osaka as ... Read more >
Tags: books, pastries, survival japanese, tea
JAPAN | Sunday, 6 Mar 2016 | Views [433]
We did have classes on Friday, which was a disturbing change of events after two consecutive three-day weekends. And, because we'd taken the test the day before, we were already well on our way to a new chapter. Complete with new grammars, new vocabulary, ... Read more >
Tags: coffee, malls, trains
JAPAN | Saturday, 5 Mar 2016 | Views [460] | Comments [1]
Thursday, we had our first full test in Japanese class. So instead of just asking about grammar or vocabulary, every aspect of the past three textbook chapters were potential questions. And, because we only have them every three chapters, it was a rather ... Read more >
Tags: class, grammar, japanese, test
JAPAN | Friday, 4 Mar 2016 | Views [586]
Chapter two (which we’ve moved past, but whatever) was about speech styles. It focused for the most part on speech levels, but there was a bit where they discussed other things, such as tanshukukei and shouryaku.
Neither of those are super ... Read more >
Tags: coteaching, ellipses, grammar, japanese
JAPAN | Wednesday, 2 Mar 2016 | Views [442]
I haven’t had that much experience with different Japanese textbooks, so it’s hard for me to know what works and what doesn’t. But Tobira is starting to grate on me by not placing like concepts together. The grammars are grammars ... Read more >
Tags: books, grammar, japanese, spirtuality, textbooks
JAPAN | Tuesday, 1 Mar 2016 | Views [394]
By Monday, it had become increasingly clear that we had settled into the pace of the class. Which is to say we were moving very quickly.
To get some idea of that, consider our homework for Monday (and, per CET policy, homework assigned over the ... Read more >
Tags: coffee, grammar, japanese, kanji, roof, umeda
JAPAN | Sunday, 28 Feb 2016 | Views [373]
It was once again a warm but rainy Saturday, and Mondial Kaffee was already on my mind. So I decided to head out.
As before, I didn’t have any difficulties getting on a train that brought me directly to the nearest train station. And from ... Read more >
Tags: coffee, google maps, gps, lost, trains
JAPAN | Saturday, 27 Feb 2016 | Views [547]
Last Monday, Yamaguchi-sensei had asked what we’d done over the weekend, and had been disappointed when none of us responded “I went to Osaka Castle!” Apparently the plum blossoms are supposed to be particularly beautiful this time ... Read more >
Tags: beautiful, castle, coffee, park, sakura, trees, water
JAPAN | Friday, 26 Feb 2016 | Views [396]
Friday was Nicole’s 21st birthday, and also a class-free day, so on Thursday, we met up to celebrate it. The planning process was a little scattered, to put it mildly.
Nicole, one week prior: “It’s my 21st birthday, so let’... Read more >
Tags: bar, birthday, drinks, food
JAPAN | Wednesday, 24 Feb 2016 | Views [277]
After two hours of class on Wednesday, were were set loose on the world to work on our project. Since we're in the data collection stage, this meant finding willing volunteers (read: gullible victims) and giving them a survey and interview. So Dan and ... Read more >
Tags: literature, proejct, survey
JAPAN | Tuesday, 23 Feb 2016 | Views [415]
Tuesday began the normal way, with several hours of Japanese class. We were finishing up chapter , which was nice, since chapter 1 wasn’t particularly interesting, and especially in conversation classes, I was starting to get sick of the same ... Read more >
Tags: culture shock, genies, japanese, yokai
JAPAN | Sunday, 21 Feb 2016 | Views [353]
Likes several other western holidays, Valentine’s Day is celebrated differently in Japan. To get a rough idea, imagine that you’ve never lived in America, but have seen Valentine’s Day in movies and commercials (a lot of movies and ... Read more >
Tags: chocolate, holidays, valentines day
JAPAN | Saturday, 20 Feb 2016 | Views [478]
Saturday was another fake-spring day. I'm not sure if there's a real word for this, but it seems like there should be, because it's a phenomenon I'm very families with. In early March, or February, or sometimes even January, the weather will suddenly ... Read more >
Tags: coffee, metro, oreo, trains
JAPAN | Friday, 19 Feb 2016 | Views [418]
We had a four day weekend starting on Thursday, which probably would have made for a decent reason to leave Osaka and go somewhere. Except that I didn't really want to leave, and I did have a lot of work to get done. So I just stayed in the vicinity ... Read more >
Tags: cafes, coffee, flowers, pancakes, roofs, walking
JAPAN | Thursday, 18 Feb 2016 | Views [377]
A semi-significant part of Japanese class has been working on our projects. I’ve been ignoring that on the blog for the main reason that I’ve been doing ignoring it whenever possible. On Wednesday, that ceased to be possible. So here’... Read more >
Tags: interview, japanese, literature, project, survey
JAPAN | Tuesday, 16 Feb 2016 | Views [474]
It’s been awhile since I’ve given you a Japanese lesson, so I think it’s time for another one. Slight disclaimer here that this lesson has absolutely nothing to do with what we were learning about in Japanese class, but those were ... Read more >
Tags: cards, games, grammar, japanese, past
JAPAN | Monday, 15 Feb 2016 | Views [400]
On Monday, we did the usual Monday thing of working on kanji before meeting with the high schoolers. We also got back the results of our first kanji test. I was not too happy with the points that I missed.
It’s going to be hard for ... Read more >
Tags: graph theory, high schoolers, kanji, ramen
JAPAN | Sunday, 14 Feb 2016 | Views [585]
At noon, my building headed over to Aikawa for an event with the Ariyama-sans. In this case, the only Ariyama-san present was the son, and, after checking to make sure everyone was present, or at least accounted for, and making a few announcements, ... Read more >
Tags: beer, buildings, food, houses, okonomiyaki
JAPAN | Saturday, 13 Feb 2016 | Views [432]
Saturday morning and afternoon were calm and uneventful, at least for me. We'd received word (via email, so it is used for something) that Return of Kings was planning a large gathering in Umeda, so we should avoid it. If you don't have enough Facebook ... Read more >
Tags: food, french, okonomiyaki, spelling, yarn
JAPAN | Thursday, 11 Feb 2016 | Views [370]
Friday, we met up at the train station at 7:40 to go to the elementary school. In a shocking change of events, everyone who lived in the same apartment all left at the same time and arrived in a group at the train station when we were supposed to. ... Read more >
Tags: animals, classes, elementary school, library, proverbs, swimming, windows
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