• Long Walk Down a Longer Road

    Long Walk Down a Longer Road

    Peder and I left our pousada in Trancoso and started out for our day’s 30 km walk at around 11am. The plan was to follow the coast all the way to Arraial d’Ajuda, a neighboring […]

  • Bushido and Jump-Rope (VIDEO)

    Bushido and Jump-Rope (VIDEO)

    “They are an intriguing people. From the moment they wake, they devote themselves to the perfection of whatever they pursue. I have never seen such discipline.” -The Last Samurai. Seeing that fantastic archery demonstration the […]

  • Mostar

    Mostar

    Although I’d suspect that most people have never even heard the name “Mostar,” a relatively small town in the Herzegovina region of Bosnia-Herzegovina, it turned to be one of the most intriguing places I’ve ever […]

  • Golden Week 2: Archery

    Golden Week 2: Archery

    Picture yourself looking up at a blue sky peeking through a huge canopy of leaves on a perfectly clear day in Kyoto. As the faint sound of Japanese flutes recedes softly into the background, it’s […]

  • Dare to Dream

    Dare to Dream

    Somewhere around six months ago, I was sitting in my apartment talking on the phone with my mom. From just outside my window I could hear Buddhist monks chanting at Ninnaji, an enormous wooden temple […]

  • Thaipusam: Masochistic Mayhem

    Thaipusam: Masochistic Mayhem

    Warning This post contains some graphic images. If blood makes you queasy, you may want to skip it. I’ve mentioned a few times how, although I do travel mostly without plans, I also do so […]

I was last seen 5 months ago in Los Angeles, .

Friday the 13th

 Japan, Public  4 Responses »
May 132005
 
Nobody messes wit da Jesus. Nobody messes wit da Jesus.

Happy Friday the 13th! Thanks to the new commentors on my last post, and especially to David, a long-time reader and Kyoto-related-advice-giver who’s going to be passing through here tonight and invited me to hang out for a bit. Hopefully we’ll be able to meet up before he continues on to the Kobe Matsuri, which I unfortunately won’t be able to attend.

But that’s OK because the Aoi Matsuri, one of Kyoto’s three biggest festivals of the year, is this Sunday!

Unfortunately I don’t have a lot of time right now but I just wanted to throw up a quick update to let you all know that I am indeed NOT dead. The weather has been really spotty this week, and I’ve had a lot of homework, so I haven’t had quite as many opportunities to go out as during the previous week. Sunday, for instance, I spent preparing my speech for my Speaking and Listening class. I chose to do it on the time my friends and I were forced to sneak onto an overnight train from Madrid to Barcelona without the correct ticket. Dylan one-upped me…well, actually more like one THOUSAND-upped me…by telling of the time he accidentally rode his bike into the side of a yakuza’s car and 逃げた’ed. Unky Alex was the special guest star who played the part of the Yakuza. LET’S BEST FIGHTING!!
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Golden Week 1: The Hike

 Japan, Public  1 Response »
May 032005
 
This picture is Kyoto in a nutshell. The old and the new sharing a space too small for them to coexist without sometimes intruding on each other’s turf. This picture is Kyoto in a nutshell. The old and the new sharing a space too small for them to coexist without sometimes intruding on each other’s turf.

You know, every time I finish a post I’m already thinking about what I want to write next time. There are so many interesting things, from little cultural differences to wacky experiences, that don’t make it into my posts due simply to a lack of time. Yet before I get a chance to write about them, something else always unexpectedly comes up and prevents me from doing so. And so my list of “interesting things” builds and builds.

Yeah, life here is pretty tough.

Daimonji, with the kanji for “big” (大, pronounced dai) visible from the streets of Kyoto Daimonji, with the kanji for “big” (大, pronounced dai) visible from the streets of Kyoto

So, Golden Week (a week of consecutive holidays) has finally arrived, and I’m lovin’ it. No class means that I have enough time to both study and go back to exploring Kyoto, a city where ten years wouldn’t be nearly long enough to unlock all of its secrets and treasures. I started on Friday, our first day off, with a climb to the peak of Daimonji, something I’ve been intending to do since I took that hike up into the surrounding hills three whole months ago. If you haven’t all figured this out by now, I love outdoors/physical activities, unfortunately they often conflict with my main reason for being here: to learn Japanese. But the day was once again gorgeous, so I packed up my gear – one Tupperware of broccoli, one of grilled chicken, one of rice, a bottle of water, my cameras, and 500 kanji flashcards – and I headed off.
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School and Fitness

 Japan, Public  3 Responses »
Apr 282005
 
Some koi asking for a hand-out, Kyoto Some koi asking for a hand-out, Kyoto

Wow has school ever picked up. I assumed when I got here that my schoolwork would be significantly easier than computer engineering was back home, and while this is obviously true, I’m almost finding myself more strapped for time here than there. Personally I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I’m horrible at memorizing – ALL of my formal education has been in subjects like logic, math, physics, etc – never rote memorization. So while a lot of the people here are able to look at a Japanese word once or twice and remember it forever, I have to see it fifty times.

Going for a stroll through Kamogawa, Kyoto Going for a stroll through Kamogawa, Kyoto

As a result, I’ve been struggling to keep up with all of the grammar, vocab, and kanji they’ve been throwing at us. And on top of this, I have to start preparing my kenkyu – a 10-minute PowerPoint presentation and speech which will be recited entirely in Japanese.

Of course that isn’t to say that I don’t love Ritsumeikan. I do. I just today submitted the paperwork to apply for an extension, so keep your fingers crossed for me, hopefully that’ll go well. I also have a bunch of video footage that I DO plan on editing together for a “check-out-how-much-this-school-rules” clip sometime in the near future. Everything from ju-jitsu and karate to archery to cheerleaders to jumpropers. You ain’t never seen school spirit like this!
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