American Gaijin
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Anime
I honestly don’t have a whole lot of experience, or interest, in anime or anime-inspired things. I have seen some anime, and I was impressed with it technically. By which I mean, there is often a lot of care put into how the higher quality animes are animated. I remember watching “Akira” and being really impressed…
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Tokyo
I’ve never been to Japan. It’s possible I may never go to Japan. Nonetheless, YouTube has many interesting videos about many interesting places. Recently I saw some videos about driving through Tokyo. Now American cities, generally, are not very impressive. Most cities – even large ones – have a small downtown core, and sprawl out…
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Always the Same
I am sitting here, in my apartment, which is neither expensive nor not, in a suburb of Austin, Texas. I can hear traffic roaring by on the tollway outside, muted by the double-paned windows that the builders thoughtfully put in, when they realized that the noise would be otherwise intolerable. Traffic is slowly picking up…
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Home
I am going to push through on a post here, and I’m not sure exactly what form it will take when it comes out. I honestly don’t want to write it, and I’m not sure why. Maybe it sounds stupid, or maybe it even feels stupid. I have lived only in America for what feels…
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The petals of our tears
Namida no hanabiratachi ga harahara The blooming of the sakura trees in Japan is a joyful, yet bittersweet moment, as they, in a very real way mark the passage of time. The passage of time is both a time for new beginnings, and bittersweet goodbyes. Sometimes goodbyes are temporary, sometimes they are permanent, and sometimes they…
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空気
I’m going to try a different approach to posting today. Let me know if you like it. I have never been to Japan, but many things come to mind when I think of it. I imagine the crisp air of fujisan. The roar of trains, such as the shinkansen, as they come whooshing by. The fragrant…
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Questions
Like in many places in the world, I’m not really able to go anywhere except for necessities. This has given me a lot of time to think. One of the things I’ve been thinking about is: Why am I so frustrated with Japanese right now? I have settled on an answer: because I do not…
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Covidity
This blog is nearly always about topics Japanese, but not always. Today, as with most people in the world, other things are on my mind. And I think I’m going to post about that, today. We can talk about Japanese some other time. The world – MY world – has begun to see severe disruption…
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Systems vs. Goals: Why I am Failing at Learning Japanese
A couple of years ago, I was watching a Morning Musume video and saw lots of strange characters flashing along the screen, along with a bunch of gibberish. And then I thought to myself, “I would like to learn Japanese”. And thus, a goal was set. Two years later, I am wholly unsatisfied with my…
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Continuing Introspection
The past month or two has – whether I want it to or not – been a time for stepping back and reflecting on things. Primarily: why am I doing the things I’m doing in my life? What do they accomplish for me? With that introspection comes a lot of other kinds of introspection as…