04 April 2007
The Return...
I am going to skip over the part where I bemoan the fact that I have not posted a single word on this feeble little website for six months and jump right into an update on what exactly has been going on in my world since I last took the time to sit down and write something significant.
In the scant past six months, an entrance exam was passed, a romance was forged, a move to the big city was completed, a prodigal son returned home, a rival was bested in a thrilling four-lapper, and now a new school year awaits.
Cryptic enough for ya?
I stand now at the brink of a new term, my first as an "Emu-ichi" which is to say a first year masters student. It is my second time in graduate school, my first in a foreign language and likely my last on both counts. I came here as a research student and I am now going for a degree I already have. Still, this is Japan and as the saying goes "出る釘は打たれる" (deru kui ha utareru" or the "nail that sticks up gets hammered down" so I am just going with the flow.
The blustery northern winds blowing off Mt. Hie have finally subsided and the winter has officially come to a close. The evenings are still brisk, but it has not deterred people from heading down the Kamo River to fraternize and imbibe various fermented beverages. The sakura, or cherry blossoms, are now out in force, and the cacophonous crowds have started to descend in droves on the glens of Yoshino, and parks such as Maruyama in Kyoto and Ueno in Tokyo.
The season's sentiments have even been expressed in song, a tradition that is as annual as the festivities that they celebrate. Check out the article I wrote for the Japan Times detailing this year's hits...
In other news, my friend the Dries, aka Drizzle, has begun is own blog as well. He has been a bit more diligent than I as of late, and it may be worth a peak as our sagas tend to overlap quite a lot...
My friend Yang yang has also some web-related news, launching the beta version of his website Lang-8, which aims to bring people together through language exchange. Using his site, which uses a similar template as the hit Japanese site Mixi, friends can write diaries in the language they are studying and then see comments and edits that have been made by native speakers. A perfect site for those wishing to improve their language writing skills.
I don't have enough time for a sly sign off note at the moment, perhaps next post...
In the scant past six months, an entrance exam was passed, a romance was forged, a move to the big city was completed, a prodigal son returned home, a rival was bested in a thrilling four-lapper, and now a new school year awaits.
Cryptic enough for ya?
I stand now at the brink of a new term, my first as an "Emu-ichi" which is to say a first year masters student. It is my second time in graduate school, my first in a foreign language and likely my last on both counts. I came here as a research student and I am now going for a degree I already have. Still, this is Japan and as the saying goes "出る釘は打たれる" (deru kui ha utareru" or the "nail that sticks up gets hammered down" so I am just going with the flow.
The blustery northern winds blowing off Mt. Hie have finally subsided and the winter has officially come to a close. The evenings are still brisk, but it has not deterred people from heading down the Kamo River to fraternize and imbibe various fermented beverages. The sakura, or cherry blossoms, are now out in force, and the cacophonous crowds have started to descend in droves on the glens of Yoshino, and parks such as Maruyama in Kyoto and Ueno in Tokyo.
The season's sentiments have even been expressed in song, a tradition that is as annual as the festivities that they celebrate. Check out the article I wrote for the Japan Times detailing this year's hits...
In other news, my friend the Dries, aka Drizzle, has begun is own blog as well. He has been a bit more diligent than I as of late, and it may be worth a peak as our sagas tend to overlap quite a lot...
My friend Yang yang has also some web-related news, launching the beta version of his website Lang-8, which aims to bring people together through language exchange. Using his site, which uses a similar template as the hit Japanese site Mixi, friends can write diaries in the language they are studying and then see comments and edits that have been made by native speakers. A perfect site for those wishing to improve their language writing skills.
I don't have enough time for a sly sign off note at the moment, perhaps next post...
