Alright, I meant to post the pictures from my Tokyo and Kyoto trip, but this app on my phone for this website is giving me a little trouble. It insists I have no pictures on my iPhone, when I know for sure that's baloney. Tasty, but nevertheless annoying baloney. I'm working on getting real Internet, so as soon as possible, I'll try to post those pictures. On the upside, I had fun and got to spend the whole time with a pretty lady. I'm sad she had to leave, but the two weeks she was here were fabulous. No one else McGuyver's a cake out of pancakes and ice cream for me, that's for sure.
So yeah, a little bit more wait, but on to my japaneseyness. Hit a bit of a snag after not using much Japanese for a few weeks, and I'm trying to get back into it. I gave a student some advice today based on what I'm dealing, so it kind of worked out, but I feel the advice can work for lots of things that people usually put off; get into a routine/habit. Took me long enough to catch on, but now I'm trying to form good habits for Japanese learning. I'll let you know how it goes. Again, short update just to fill all the peoples in, but I'm working on the pictures! Thanks everyone! Hope you're starting your new year right!
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Hello internets and merry Christmas eve! This will be my first Christmas in Japan and my first Christmas away from my family. I hope everyone is doing well and makes a little time for their family (scratch that, a lot of time). I've really wanted to rent the Charlie Brown Christmas from Tsutaya, but other people keep beating me to it! It doesn't feel like Christmas eve at all, since I've barely heard any Christmas carols or seen any Christmas TV specials or anything. New years is the big family holiday here, so I guess I have to settle for the 28th to the 2nd being my Christmas time, when I get to rescue a pretty girl from the airport and take her to Tokyo and Kyoto!
But let's move on to my...less than stellar attention to this website. I have a couple new pictures from a few of my excursions to different places over the past few months... Wow, it's really been that long? I'm surprised anyone puts up with me. I always have the intention of posting stuff, and then I don't. I feel like if I don't have a significant amount to write or it's not particularly relevant and interesting, I don't write. Sorry y'all. On the upside, I should take many pictures while I'm in Tokyo and Kyoto for the new years season, so it shouldn't be too long until my next update! After that...well, we'll see how it goes. Oh yeah, and it's almost 2013! The world's not over, by the way. I don't think I've made a new years resolution for years, but this year, all of my students have been making new years resolution cards for the English goals. I'm a language student too, so I'm gonna join them and try to achieve me language learning goals this year! Here are my goals for 2013 (in no certain order): 1 - pass the JLPT 3 in June/July 2 - have AT LEAST one 5-minute conversation in Japanese per day 3 - read/listen to ONLY Japanese news and weather 4 - learn 10 new vocabulary words and phrases a day and use them I'll edit these if I feel they can be expanded, but let me talk about why I chose these particular goals. 1) Passing the JLPT is the least important of those included, and I really don't think a test can accurately assess language prowess. This is more to encourage my students to do their best since many of them are taking the TOEIC and Eiken tests for various reasons. It's also the most easily measured with either a pass or fail. 2) This is what I consider the most important goal, and the time constraint is a bit arbitrary. My aim with this goal is more to get me out o my shell by talking to and meeting more people in Japanese. And it should be more than once a day, but having some number should motivate me to be more forward in instances when I normally wouldn't be. 3)+4) These two are really pretty similar to most language students' goals, and I think they're pretty self explanatory. And that's it! I'd love to hear feedback from anyone with ideas on other goals, especially those who have experience with or can speak other languages. I've also included some pictures of Aizu covered in snow! Again, thanks for reading, everyone, and have a great Christmas and new year! 良いお年を! So it's been a while. Yo everyone. I've been pretty busy la... Nah, screw that, it's just making excuses. I'm just the definition of procrastination. I mean, I went to a place called Oyakuen last weekend, which is an old herb garden that belonged to the Aizu lords for years, got a bunch of sweet pictures, and then didn't post them anywhere. What's up with that? So the first pictures are from Oyakuen.
Strangely enough, I didn't mean to go to an old, historic-y type place at all that day. I was just looking for a nice park so I could get out of the apartment for a while. I've just got a way of picking 'em pretty good I guess. Oh, and on the way, I passed by some shrines and stuff, and I couldn't pass them up. (^-^) THIS weekend, I was pretty busy. I went to Sendai and some of the towns nearby with one of my students on Sunday, and we checked out some of the places that were damaged pretty heavily by the earthquake and tsunami, as well as some historic buddhist temples. It was kind of eerie standing where there used to be a whole town. Shinchi-machi (the last place we went) looked at first sight like it was just an empty plain, but as we drove by, we could see all the foundations of houses and remnants of roads that were leftover after the cleanup. The only building that was still standing was an old elementary school, but the damage was pretty obvious. You'll see it in the pictures. I don't even have any family in Japan, but it was very eye opening and a bit depressing. Today, I met with a friend from my volleyball group and a friend of his and we checked out places all around Aizu. The first was Kitakata, which is famous for having the best ramen in Japan. I agree. Everything was amazing, and the whole bowl was devoured in minutes. Best ramen I've ever eaten in my life. And I loved ramen BEFORE today. Then we went to some places near Inawashiro, a small town very near Aizu that is home to Japan's second largest lake (as far as I was told). It was a great day, though I didn't really take any pictures. You'll just have to believe that it was super awesome cool. And that's all I've got for now. I'd promise a speedy update, I already know what would come of that, so I'll save you the disappointment. See? I'm such a nice guy. But until next time, じゃね~! |