End of 2nd Month, 2005.
February has been another month of amazing drama. The ups and downs of school, giving and recieving some great blows in Karate, snowboarding in Nagano, and not one missed day of work due to colds, though I probably should have stayed home that one day. I am really eating this place up. I have also run into a lot of good blogs out there in my time out of class. "Drunkuncle" as previously posted, and also Linda Yu's "Kinokonoko" which is a lesson in photoblogging in itself. I have run into various blogs from other JETs in Japan, and even read some reports from an American living in Iraq. If it's out there, you can probably find it, so keep on blogging. If you read this blog and like it, or better yet dislike it, then post me a comment.
I would like to change the title of this blog into something more readable...it's just that Kanji is so cool. I was sitting at my desk about this time yesterday reviewing some new kanji, which usually draws some attention from the teachers around me curious about what I am learning. Discussing the matter with my school's maintenance man is frustrating...I can never get straight answers from him...or from most people in Japan...they love to manuver around questions, makes them seem smart. So I said, "I heard The Japanese Design Sense is so good because Japanese kids have to study the intricacies of Kanji from an early age." Maintenance guy says, "Kanji came originally from depictions of their basic meanings." Ie: the kanji for "eye" actually looks like an eye...that is if you draw it with 5 straight lines and rotate 90 degrees. The conversation continues to the tone of "yeah, yeah, Kanji is really cool, right on Japan!" Kanji, and therefore the Japanese language, is deeply rooted in traditional meanings unlike English where meaning manifests differently at different times and within different groups of people (for the same word). A single word's meaning in English can evolve, whereas in Japan, meaning of individual Kanji stays the same. Big generalization, I can already feel Professor Nussbaum pulling out his red pen on that one. There is something to it though...language and culture are interconnected. Japan is a tradition place. Japan is a very traditional place. This means that the Japanese have a correct form for everything they do, from brushing their teeth to building cars. Japanese have impeccable design sense and are amazingly intelligent when it comes to equations, memorization, and "the way it should be done." Sounds like the exact oposite of a certain place...I won't tell you its name, but I know you know it. If "the Japanese" lack anything it is that flare of pioneering creativity that comes from a lack of tradition...
Nagano Goryu ski resort.
Jason, Andy at end of the day at Goryu. Photo courtesy of Kamikurechi.
Whiteout conditions at the top of the mountain
At the top we couldn't see more than 5 meters in front of us, and at one point we came to the edge of a long run we had not yet been down. Eyes fully open, but all you could see was white. We plunged ahead anyway. Almost immediately after I took this photo the cloud lifted enough to see at least another 100 snowboarders in the immediate area that we couldn't previously hear or see. I preferred to be in the cloud.
February 11th was a national holiday, the perfect chance to gather together at the dojo, go for a hike up to a frozen waterfall, and have a short practice in the cold.
Jason and Andy at "Kankeiko"..."Cold practice."
Yes, it was cold. No, we were not wearing shoes (at least in this photo).
It's March now, the 3rd month of 2005, so look for some posts soon, such as: "The 15" Rims" (I get to put on the real wheels meant for the Works once it stops snowing). "Spring Break" (Okinawa???). And hopefully not "Broken Rib" (which could happen for a number of reasons...a dirrect hit by Jason in Karate, getting all excited and overconfident on the ski slopes, or even just by having a severe cough). Stay well.
I would like to change the title of this blog into something more readable...it's just that Kanji is so cool. I was sitting at my desk about this time yesterday reviewing some new kanji, which usually draws some attention from the teachers around me curious about what I am learning. Discussing the matter with my school's maintenance man is frustrating...I can never get straight answers from him...or from most people in Japan...they love to manuver around questions, makes them seem smart. So I said, "I heard The Japanese Design Sense is so good because Japanese kids have to study the intricacies of Kanji from an early age." Maintenance guy says, "Kanji came originally from depictions of their basic meanings." Ie: the kanji for "eye" actually looks like an eye...that is if you draw it with 5 straight lines and rotate 90 degrees. The conversation continues to the tone of "yeah, yeah, Kanji is really cool, right on Japan!" Kanji, and therefore the Japanese language, is deeply rooted in traditional meanings unlike English where meaning manifests differently at different times and within different groups of people (for the same word). A single word's meaning in English can evolve, whereas in Japan, meaning of individual Kanji stays the same. Big generalization, I can already feel Professor Nussbaum pulling out his red pen on that one. There is something to it though...language and culture are interconnected. Japan is a tradition place. Japan is a very traditional place. This means that the Japanese have a correct form for everything they do, from brushing their teeth to building cars. Japanese have impeccable design sense and are amazingly intelligent when it comes to equations, memorization, and "the way it should be done." Sounds like the exact oposite of a certain place...I won't tell you its name, but I know you know it. If "the Japanese" lack anything it is that flare of pioneering creativity that comes from a lack of tradition...
Nagano Goryu ski resort.
Jason, Andy at end of the day at Goryu. Photo courtesy of Kamikurechi.
Whiteout conditions at the top of the mountain
At the top we couldn't see more than 5 meters in front of us, and at one point we came to the edge of a long run we had not yet been down. Eyes fully open, but all you could see was white. We plunged ahead anyway. Almost immediately after I took this photo the cloud lifted enough to see at least another 100 snowboarders in the immediate area that we couldn't previously hear or see. I preferred to be in the cloud.
February 11th was a national holiday, the perfect chance to gather together at the dojo, go for a hike up to a frozen waterfall, and have a short practice in the cold.
Jason and Andy at "Kankeiko"..."Cold practice."
Yes, it was cold. No, we were not wearing shoes (at least in this photo).
It's March now, the 3rd month of 2005, so look for some posts soon, such as: "The 15" Rims" (I get to put on the real wheels meant for the Works once it stops snowing). "Spring Break" (Okinawa???). And hopefully not "Broken Rib" (which could happen for a number of reasons...a dirrect hit by Jason in Karate, getting all excited and overconfident on the ski slopes, or even just by having a severe cough). Stay well.
posted by smithamcd at 10:22 PM
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