Angela's Ashes

An excellent read.......If I was a book critic I'd have nothing to criticize this book about! Here are two of my personal favorite excerpts (the second one's long, but has a great sense of ironic humor from the perspective of a 12 year old):

"There are bars of Pear's soap and a thick book called Pear's Encyclopedia, which keeps me up day and night because it tells you everything about everything and that's all I want to know."

"There are four big books, Butler's Lives of the Saints. I don't want to spend my life reading about saints but when I start I wish the rain would last forever. When you see pictures of saints, men or women, they're always looking up to heaven where there are clouds filled with little fat angels carrying flowers or harps or giving praise. Uncle Pa Keating says he can't think of a single saint in heaven he'd want to sit down and have a pint with. The saints in these books are different. There are stories about virgins, martyrs, virgin martyrs and they're worse than any horror film at the Lyric Cinema.

I have to look in the dictionary to find out what a virgin is. I know the Mother of God is the Virgin Mary and they call her that because she didn't have a proper husband, only poor old St. Joseph. In the Lives of the Saints the virgins are always getting into trouble and I don't know why. The dictionary says, Virgin, woman (usually a young woman) who is and remains in a state of inviolate chastity.

Now I have to look up inviolate and chastity and all I can find here is that inviolate means not violated and chastity means chaste and that means pure from unlawful sexual intercourse. Now I have to look up intercourse and that leads to intromission, which leads to intromittent, the copulatory organ of any male animal. Copulatory leads to copulation, the union of the sexes in the art of generation and I don't know what that means and I'm too weary going from one word to another in this heavy dictionary which leads me on a wild goose chase from this word to that word and all because the people who wrote the dictionary don't want the likes of me to know anything.

All I want to know is where I came from but if you ask anyone they tell you to ask someone else or send you from word to word."

~~Angela's Ashes, by Frank McCourt~~

picture perfect pinholes

Apparently I missed it, but Wrodlwide Pinhole Photography Day was April 27, 2003. The pictures are really quite amazing given that they were taken with various cyndrilical objects without any lenses. Check 'em out or make your own pinhole camera to take super fun pictures!

"Shot with my home made polaroid positive/negative 4x5 pinhole Camera"
Copyright 2003 Pablo Hare. All rights reserved.

r-e-s-p-e-c-t

Aretha Franklin sang about it. We're supposed to show it to everyone who deserves it. Why is it then that when Americans travel to foreign countries they feel that they can throw respect out of the window? On the Kyoto buses there are some purple seats. Even if you can't read the Japanese saying "please---thank you" and explaining how they are priority seats for the elderly, pregnant or disabled, you can see the pictures and read the...um...ENGLISH. Today there were two wonderful (<---laced in thick, syrupy sarcasm) representatives of America on a crowded bus. Most people who ride the bus in Kyoto are either elderly or college students. College students usually have strong, strapping young bodies and are capable of standing for their 15 minute ride to wherever, but the elderly deserve a rest. They've been standing for who knows how many years. But instead of even bothering to look and see if anyone needed their seat, these people just hogged 2 priority seats and stared out the window while a couple of elderly people hung onto the side of the seat. I was so appalled at their behavior and wanted to point out their rudeness, but sometimes it's just better to bite your tongue. However, when you who is reading this blog ever go anywhere where you are taking up a seat that otherwise could be used by someone with not quite so strong of legs, please give it up. Have respect for them - they've lived long and they deserve it. Sacrifice a little please!

Movable Type tips

The other Kristen in Japan has put up an extremely useful article on how to understand Movable Type code. Check it out if you're clueless and need some help with the codes.

digicam & a haircut

I've been having a great time with my super fun birthday present, the Sony Clie (thanks Craig and Dad!!). It has a digicam, which is not the greatest in the world, but is very handy to have when I need to snap a shot of something quickly without wasting a bunch of film. The one below is my new "Japanese" haircut. I was pretty nervous about it, but it seems pretty cute now. The main difference is that Japanese are really into layers and tapering your hair at the ends so that it looks really whispy. I'll be posting more digicam pics on the photolog, so keep checking!

our new addition

Everyone, meet Shisa!

business and nostalgia

As you may have picked up on, my posts have been few and far between recently. Life has been quite busy on my end of the world. I spent the last 2 weeks in Okinawa, taking tests for a potential Japanese translation job with the Army and also hanging out on the beach attempting something of a tan. In the process, I picked up a stray kitty and fell in love so I ended up bringing her back to Kyoto with me. Her name's Shisa, the warrior guardian dog of Okinawa, because she really toughed it out there. My friend, Elisha, and I found her on the side of the road almost ready to be smooshed by some evil cars. I quickly grabbed her and she fought bravely to bite and scratch me particularly because she couldn't see what had grabbed her because her eyes were all gunky. We cleaned her up, and I took her to the vets to try and see if there were any kennels in Okinawa. They told me the kennels were all full and to try the kennels in Kyoto, but by that time it was too late - she's a new member of the family now. I think her mom was hit by a car near the same area, and because she is only about 5 weeks old or so, she would have died by herself. I'll put up some pictures soon!

In other news, I'm busy finishing up my Fulbright project. I'll be posting my report soon for all who are interested in reading it and/or critiquing my thoughts. Seeing as how my government money ends soon, I need to get a job. I'll be working on that all next week. That, along with my law school applications that are going to be a major chore over the next month, will keep me pretty busy. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I am studying for the level 2 Japanese proficiency exam, which requires knowledge of 1000 kanji and something like 6,000 words, so I'll have to set aside time each day for those studies too.

Friends are coming and going from the area - that's one of the down sides to an international community. They always seem to be leaving back to their home countries or onto another place to study. A few honorable mentions are Assaf, Simon, Jocelyn, Sandy, Beth, Scott, Keiko, Chris, all my classmate from Doshisha last year and Sam Shepherd, the director of JUSEC. It's been a good year - keep pursuing your dreams and never stop travelling. I hope I have the opportunity to see you again in the future!

subtle differences

Jyozu and umai. You'll learn these words if you learn Japanese. Actually you'll probably learn (and hear) jyozu well before you learn umai. This is a great subtlety in complements within Japan. Similar in concept, but entirely different in usage and true meaning when spoken. Jyozu means skilled or talented. Umai means absolutely terrific a.k.a. VERY skilled. Any time you attempt to do anything in Japan - be in speak the language, use the chopsticks, paint calligraphy or whatever someone will inevitably say "ah - jyozu desu ne!!" which is translated as - "that's great, you're so skilled" but really means "keep trying, you suck but you're at least giving it an effort." It's designed to make the recipient of the complement feel good, and yet know they have more to do. When you start to hear "ah, umai desu ne," then you know you're getting somewhere. That means there really impressed. Super impressed if they say "homma ni umai da yo ne!" or something along those lines. If you hear that, you know they're truly surprised at your skills. If you hear jyozu, keep trying :)
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