Progress Report

 Art, Japanese Language, Music, News, Photography, Technology  Comments Off on Progress Report
Jul 252013
 

So I start a lot of projects on this blog, and some get finished, some don’t. I use David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” approach to constantly examine what I want to do vs. what I can do. GTD is a lifesaver in that regard. It helps keep me focused when sometimes it feels like I’m being torn apart by ducks.

So here are some short updates on projects I’ve been wanting to work on/finish.

The Grammar Songs

I discovered that in order to make it work, I need to improve both my Japanese and my music production skills. I studied music from 4th grade all the way through college, so I know a lot about performing music, but I don’t know as much as I should about composing and producing it, which are two entirely different skill sets.

I’ve been using Coursera to work on the production side, and now I need to work more on the composition side. And when it comes to writing lyrics, that’s the result of daily writing exercises.

My Japanese is pretty good, but it’s not quite at that level yet, so I’m working on it. Same goes for melodies. I’m looking for a way to get more music theory under my belt.

Japanese Studies

Those are going pretty well. JOI makes it easy to load up on classes for grammar, conversation, and vocabulary when I need to, and they meet my level, which is a godsend. Being an advanced student in a room full of beginners can be helpful sometimes, but it’s hard to make progress that way. So I’m glad JOI has classes that meet my needs. That’s going well so far.

Also, because of work, I work with Japanese people on a pretty regular basis. The only downside is that since we’re in the US, we mostly speak English and follow US business customs. Not all the time, but a lot of it. Those times when I need to slip into Japanese Mode it comes in really handy.

3D and 2D Art

Well… that had to get put on the “I’ll do it after the JLPT” pile. There’s just too much going on right now, and too many projects require my attention, so I find it’s best to whittle it down to what I can handle. I still want to get into it, but I need to find the right time/place to do it.

I sketch whenever I can. I’m not very good at it, but it’s relaxing, and it’s fun. It also helps me with my photography, and my eye for how I want to compose photos.

Where ARE the Photos?

That’s another thing that’s being put on the shelf for now. I have a giant pile of photos to edit, and just no time to do it. Editing requires big chunks of time for me, and unless I’m getting paid to do it, I just do it when I can. I’m going through the older stuff and gradually adding it, though. I don’t know of a good way to bump old posts up to the top of the site just because they have new material. Maybe I’ll create a new tag?

Calligraphy/Shodo

Well, ever since my class in Raleigh ended, I’ve been going to my usual calligraphy classes. Before the classes in Raleigh ended, though, I spent some time studying Edo-moji, and that was a lot of fun. Now I’m trying to decide what to do next in calligraphy/shodo.

Other Site Stuff

I recently moved the site over to Suffusion, and I like it as far as CMS/frameworks go. I can’t really call it a template, because it’s more like a framework you have to set up and tweak yourself to get it to really sing. My current design is a little Spartan, but I’m from the Jakob Nielsen school of web design. It needs to be easy to read, and accessible first above everything.

New/Old Teachers and GTD

 Japanese Language  Comments Off on New/Old Teachers and GTD
May 242012
 

I started working with my new/old tutor last night over Skype. New because now we’re working over Skype, but old because she was one of my teachers at Yamasa, and is the wife of one of the guys I hung out with at Zig Zag every now and then. They’re both wonderful people.

She’s going to help me get my business Japanese back into shape, although part of our lesson is just chatting in regular Japanese. I need to do that as well, because, you know, you don’t use it, you lose it.

The calligraphy classes in Japanese have also been great. M-sensei has been a lot of fun to work with. She’s not only a good instructor, but also a good calligrapher, too.

I’ve also been getting back into GTD lately. It’s nice to have a clean inbox, but getting through all of those papers was not fun. They call it “Collect,” but I needed a bulldozer for it.

Keeping Up My Yamasa Momentum

 Japanese Language  Comments Off on Keeping Up My Yamasa Momentum
Jan 252012
 

I’ve been back from Japan for a month now, and I’m worried. Worried that my Japanese is going to rust and fall apart, because I don’t have much of a chance to use it here. So I’m getting into high gear to find a way to keep it going.

I’ve had some luck on that front. I got in touch with a local group that is offering a 書道 class. Turns out it’s just me and the teacher, and we can do the class in Japanese. Awesome!

I’m going to spend some time working on learning how to write hiragana properly in calligraphy, and hopefully learn some Japanese poetry along the way. I don’t know if it will be useful, but it’ll be interesting. Since I’m still studying Chinese calligraphy with my Chinese artist friend, I’ll have the kanji covered. It should be a lot of fun.

Now I need to find a teacher I can work with over Skype to polish up my business Japanese.

Toughing it out

 Food, Japan, Travel  Comments Off on Toughing it out
Dec 202011
 

Ugh.

I felt like crap today, so I had a late start.

It’s the season for it, and when I push myself too hard over a long period of time, I can’t say I’m surprised. I woke up, and my throat was sore. I had a nice little red patch on the back of my throat from the heater blowing right on me, and maybe an incipient cold? Oh, I hope not. The last thing I want on the flight back is a cold. That would be the worst.

So I really took it slow today.

First I went to Bic Camera in Shinjuku around 1 or so. I gazed longingly at the PS Vitas (Vitae?). The WiFi models were back in stock. Nobody was buying the 3g Models… and nobody was really buying the WiFis, either.

I think that the days of the handheld gaming machine are numbered to be honest. Smartphones are killing them.

I searched in vain for something for my youngest godson. He’s tough to shop for, but I don’t think Bic will have anything for him. (They do have a decent toy section, though.)

Sekaido

I hiked a bit in Shinjuku to try to find Sekaido, where I shopped 4 years ago for office and art supplies. It’s a good store, with lots of good discounts. It has just as nice a selection in some respects as Itoya, only with much lower prices. (Like 20% off the top just for starters.)

I found it, and did some shopping there. I saw two girls get in a screaming match. That was awkward. Especially because they kept moving it around where I wanted to be.

Can’t we all just get along?

I found some good bokujuu, which is ink that’s already been ground into a liquid form for 書道. Purists don’t like it for many reasons, chief among them is a firm belief that you should grind your own ink stick and make your own ink.

That’s great if you’re getting paid for it, or if you have lots of time to grind ink. It’s not so great if you’re just an amateur like me who likes to practice, and has scant free time. Grinding ink takes 20-30 minutes. And when you use it up, it takes another 20-30 minutes to grind some more.

I found a bunch of different kinds of ink to play with when I get home. Of course that’s all going in a box by sea mail, because I don’t want an inksplosion in my suitcase.

I got some bubble wrap and a few fun cool unique Japanese souvenirs for people back home, and headed to the Post Office.

Whirlwind of Packing

The Post Office in Okazaki is more together, to be honest. I never could find the forms I needed to fill out to actually send my packages. But I did get to buy the boxes. I think this will make 6? 7? Jeez.

I went back to my room and started filling them up… after I did some suitcase triage. The room looked like a tornado hit it. A very very messy tornado, full of stuff mostly for other people.

Don’t ask me how this story ends, because even I don’t know.

I got one big box filled, but the little box full of ink isn’t full yet. There’s still room for something. I’ll have to find something to put in it later.

I Will Follow You For Chicken On a Stick!

Around 7-ish I was feeling peckish, so I headed out to Roppongi Hills again for dinner.

I went to a restaurant called Momotarou for oyakodon and various bits of yakitori. The chicken breast was ninja’d with wasabi. At first I thought they sprayed lighter fluid all over it… no, that was wasabi. Wooo! Good stuff, though.

The oyakodon was really good. Just next time, please don’t serve me with a spoon… I know how to use chopsticks already. We even have them in the US. Honest.

A quick stop at Cold Stone… OMG expensive. 510 yen for a scoop and a half of ice cream. That’s $7! For ice cream! I could get a paint bucket full of ice cream for that much in the US.

I stopped again at Aoyama Book Center, which is a neat little book store, to get my brother in law another present, a cool book that should be useful for some random movie he’ll have to work on in the future. (Or not. You never know.)

Then home, on an jam-packed train.

I still feel kinda crappy, but I don’t think I’m getting worse. (I hope, anyway.)

Last Trip to Anjo

 Japan, Japanese Language, Photos, Travel  Comments Off on Last Trip to Anjo
Dec 142011
 

Today was the last big test day, with the big listening and grammar test that covered, well, everything.

As usual, listening was hard, because it was all JLPT-style listening. Grammar wasn’t so bad, because the teachers have been working hard to get us ready for this. We’ve done all kinds of review drills and games to try to get the grammar firmly seated in our heads.

The day didn’t get off to a good start. I got up at 5:30 to finish up my resume and 職務経歴書 (shokumu keirekisho) and send it all to M-sensei, but I forgot to attach the file.

So at lunch, I had to race home and send it, then race back.

Our Conversation Made the Earth Move

We met with local people after lunch to practice our conversational skills. It was a lot of fun. The wild part was when about halfway through, when there was an earthquake that felt like someone had just lifted up the building about 6 inches or so and dropped it with a loud “BAM!” and then it was silent while everyone checked to make sure nobody was hurt.

After everyone confirmed that they were okay, there was a little nervous laughter, and we all went back to talking.

I guess you just get used to this sort of stuff after a while.

All of the local folks were impressed with our conversational skills, and we got to practice our modesty. (Oh, no, I’m not that good at all!)

After that, it was time for JBPP, and time to say goodbye to M-sensei. She taught us a ton of useful stuff. Thanks, M-sensei!

Then I remembered I still had to go to Anjo to buy some 書道 supplies for one of my friends back home. First I stopped by the office supply store to get some packing materials.

I wasn’t thinking, and I bought too much! See, that’s what happens when my brain is hard-wired to just toss everything in my car like giant shopping cart.

So at JR Okazaki, I lucked out and discovered something I had always overlooked: the coin lockers at JR Okazaki! They exist! All five of them!

To get to the coin lockers, go to the BellMart outside the wicket, and look to your left. They’re right there. One stack of them.

I dropped my bags off there, and headed out to Anjo. As I waited for the Aichi Loop Line to come, I took a few snapshots with my IXY. (I love this little camera!)

The info board (which is a monitor) with real time updates on where each train is:
Aichi Loop Line info board

The light was good, so I took a few shots of the platform:
Aichi Loop Line Platform at JR Okazaki
Aichi Loop Line Platform at JR Okazaki
Aichi Loop Line Platform at JR Okazaki

As a freight train went past, I tried to get a shot of it:
Aikan sign, Freight train.

This is probably a better shot:
Aikan sign, Freight train.

The 愛環出 sign is marking the Aikan (short for Aichi Loop Line in Japanese) track.

My train showed up, and I took the Aichi Loop Line to Naka-Okazaki, (Okazaki Koen-Mae for the Meitetsu) then switched over to the Meitetsu line that heads towards Anjo. I got off at Shin-Anjo, and hiked over to the calligraphy store, ready to buy a few things before I left, and to say goodbye.

I got to the store… and it was dark.

Uh-oh.

I checked the hours, and they should be open, but the lights were out. So I mustered up a little courage, knocked, opened the door and asked in Japanese if they were still open.

I got lucky, because the lady there remembered me and turned the lights on for me. Woot. See? That’s that whole “knowing the language and interacting with people” skill paying dividends!

I bought more paper and brushes, and got the 30% discount for knowing the people who run the store. They also gave me an extra brush as a freebie. Thanks! You were all great!

I still need ink, I think. I’m not sure what I’m going to do about that. I may buy it in Tokyo instead. I don’t have time now.

We talked a little bit, then I had to go back home and frantically pack some more.

On the way back to the apartment, I stopped at the Daiso and binged on packing materials and cool things like B3-sized clear files, which will be great for carrying calligraphy paper. I found some resume forms, some sakubun paper, some rubber stamps for my sister (she’s getting her teaching certificate, and maybe she can use these). I got some plastic B3-sized paper cases, too. 100 yen stores are awesome. (But why do I not like dollar stores?)

I packed until 2 a.m., and listened to FM Okazaki while I packed. Then I passed out.

Two days to go, then I have to leave.

The Aptitude Test Redux

 Japan, Japanese Language  Comments Off on The Aptitude Test Redux
Dec 072011
 

Today we had the 実力 じつりょく jitsuryoku or aptitude test. It was the same test I took when I first got here. It’s a good chance to see how far I’ve really come since I got here. As always, though, it’s long, and makes my brain hurt.

In JBPP, we took more phone messages.

After that, I met up with S-buchou to talk about calligraphy over tea. It was a lot of fun. He showed me some of his work, and gave me a piece he did of a peacock. I really appreciated that. It’s a lovely piece.

He also gave me the address of the brush shop in Toyohashi I need to go to, and told me to tell the owner that he sent me. Cool.

He also gave me some great advice about calligraphy in general. He thinks I shouldn’t worry so much over getting the forms right, since he thinks I have those down pretty much, and I should try to be more bold and adventurous in my calligraphy.

I can do that!

Calligraphy Lesson

 Japan, Japanese Language  Comments Off on Calligraphy Lesson
Dec 052011
 

Today’s JBPP lesson was about taking phone messages. That was good practice, because I can’t always catch everything that’s said to me in Japanese, remember it all in Japanese, and write it all down in Japanese. It takes practice!

After school, I had my calligraphy lesson with S-buchou, who works at Yamasa, and is a fine calligrapher. He creates some beautiful work. There was a small group of about four of us. Z-san from my JBPP class was also there.

Today’s lesson was on the character for dragon, because next year is the year of the dragon, and it’s useful if you want to write 年賀状 ねんがじょう nengajou, or New Year’s postcards. Some people buy them, some do them by hand. Handmade are the best, but they take a lot of time to make.

Just about everyone in the class is better than I am. I’m out of practice, but I also know that even though I’ve been studying for five years or so, I still have a long ways to go.

I can write the characters just fine, but I don’t know how to add the right level of “oomph!” to it to make it as impactful as I’d like it to be.

S-buchou is really into デザイン書道 dezain shodou, or maybe the best way to put it is shodou that has non-traditional artistic elements to it. So instead of just writing the character for dragon, make the character for dragon with the characteristics of a dragon. It makes for really cool artistic expressions of what the artist’s image of a character is.

He’s a really neat person to talk to. I’m so glad my Japanese has gotten to the point where we can chat!

He showed us this one long brush that was impossible to handle. As you use up ink, it goes from being a fluid, flowing brush to suddenly seizing up into some twisted shape. It’s like trying to write with a small animal’s tail, while the small animal is still using it. I want one! (Brush, not animal.)

I love the results I got with that brush. I have a feeling, though, that it will take me 20 years or so to get the hang of it.

S-buchou agreed to meet with me on Wednesday so we can talk about where I can get one. He knows a guy in Toyohashi who made his brush, and can sell me one, too.

Toyohashi is a great place to go for calligraphy brushes (fude in Japanese). It’s a region where they’ve been making them for quite a while now, and the quality is famous in Japan. I’m excited! I’ll probably go to Toyohashi on Saturday.

Okazaki-jo and Anjo

 Japan, Japanese Language, Photography, Photos, Travel  Comments Off on Okazaki-jo and Anjo
Nov 202011
 

I decided to go to Okazaki Castle today, to continue my Tokugawa-themed weekend. The weather started out really nice today, so I just wore a T-shirt and my black windbreaker, because it was a little windy.

There are two options to get to the Castle from where I live. Option one: walk/bike there. It’s about 3 miles away, so it’ll take about 30 minutes or so. I would also have to walk/bike back. Option two: take the train. Sounds much faster, but it isn’t. Upside is that at least by taking the train, I don’t use up too much energy to do so. (Other than the energy it takes to get to JR Okazaki.)

On the way to the station, I took a few photos:

The bike shop that moved out a few weeks ago has already been turned into a flat lot. That was fast.

Asahi Bicycles' Old Store is GONE

I pass by this rice field every day on the way to school. It’s a little strange having a rice field in the middle of a sprawling suburban city like Okazaki, but it’s also kind of cool.

Rice Field on the Way to Yamasa

I like the dog’s expression in this sign:

Don't Let Your Dog Poo in the Rice Field!

To get to the castle, I needed to take the Aichi Line, and one thing to keep in mind is that the Aichi Line isn’t run by JR. It’s a different company, so I needed a different ticket, which I could buy outside of the wicket.

Like a doofus, I used my SUICA card, and caused all sorts of problems when I got to the station near Okazaki Castle. I’m sure they see that all the time, though. A few hundred yen and a ticket later, everything was solved.

The Matsudairas’ Place

I got to Okazaki Castle Park, and made my way to the castle.

Here’s a map so we don’t get lost:

The Map to Okazaki Park

First, the park. This bridge leads to a shrine I didn’t go to, but it’s very photogenic:

Sacred Bridge and Fountain

Sacred Bridge-- yet another Perspective

The park was very pretty, and I bet it would be even more so in Spring.

The castle itself is five stories high, and hiding behind a couple of pine trees.

Okazaki Castle-- Main Building (Horizontal)

There were two tickets available. For 200 yen, you can just go up the castle, or for 500 yen, you can go up the castle and to the Ieyasu and Mikawa Bushido Museum next door. I paid 500 yen, because it sounded like a good deal to me.

As I climbed up the donjon, I took a look at the various exhibits about Okazaki’s various feudal lords, and some of the stuff they found on the site. Nothing particularly earth-shattering, but interesting if you live in Okazaki, and can read/speak Japanese.

One fact of note: it’s not the original castle. Most of the castles you see in Japan aren’t original. Many were torn down after the Meiji Restoration, or were destroyed in World War II. Most were rebuilt in the 1950s to spur on tourism, and/or preserve history, depending on your point of view. How accurate they are is a good question.

I made it to the 5th floor observation deck, and the wind was just howling. It must have been around 30-40 MPH, and it was cold. I was starting to regret my wardrobe choice. I really need more warm clothes. It’s getting chilly here!

There was a chain link fence up all around the balcony, so I couldn’t use my Canon EOS to take pictures.

This is what happens with a regular SLR:

Okazaki from the Castle Roof. Fence in the way.

Instead, I snuck the lens of my IXY through the gaps in the grid to get some decent shots of the Okazaki skyline. About as decent as you’ll get for a 13,000 yen camera, anyway.

I knitted some of the shots into a panorama or two. The first one is a wee bit wobbly if you zoom in on it at Flickr.

Okazaki Panorama

Okazaki Panorama #3

I headed down and took some photos of the park and the exterior of the castle and the museum, and went inside.

A statute of Motoyasu Matsudaira (who I’m pretty sure became Tokugawa Ieyasu):

Statue of Motoyasu Matsudaira

A really cool clock made out of flowers:

Flower Clock

Another interesting clock closer to the museum:

Mechanical Clock Tower

Finally, the Ieyasu and Mikawa Bushido Museum:

The Ieyasu and Mikawa Bushido Museum

The museum is all about the Tokugawas and the battle of Sekigahara. Pretty interesting stuff, if you know your Japanese history. (I’m a little shaky.) They had the famous spear Tonbogiri as well. Well, the spearhead, anyway. One of Ieyasu’s generals wielded that one.

They had a neat exhibit where you could try lifting some mock weapons to see how heavy the real things were, and they had some armor you could try on to see how “comfortable” it was. Not bad for 300 yen.

If you have kids, that might be pretty fun if you’re in or near Okazaki for the day. Not fun enough to bring them across Japan to see it, unless they’re really big history buffs, but fun if you’re close by.

Yeah, I Like Shodo, So Sumi!

After that, I headed off to Anjo to pick up some calligraphy brushes for a friend of mine back in the US. I found a promising-looking shop by doing lots of searching online in Google Maps. The tricky bit is knowing what search terms to use. That took a bit of work, actually.

Leaving the park and heading back to the station to go to Anjo:

Iga RIver and Tatsuki Bridge

I took the Meitetsu line to Shin-Anjo and walked about half a kilometer to the shop. The lady there helped me a lot. She showed me some of their brushes, and let me try one out with water and one of those sheets that you can write with water on. You write with water on it, and it gets dark, then as it dries, it goes back to being all the same color again. It’s good for practicing calligraphy, or just for trying out brushes, but keep in mind that water does not flow like real ink does.

I found a good brush for my friend for around 3,000 yen (which is a good price for a practice brush), and then started searching for good practice-grade paper. I learned a lot about paper that day from the shop owner.

I have so much to learn about calligraphy, that I could probably spend the rest of my life on that alone and not even get close to mastering it. But I did find some good practice paper. I got 1,000 sheets for myself, and I’ll come back before I leave to pick up 1,000 more for my friend.

We chatted a bit in Japanese. I keep saying it, but it’s true: knowing some Japanese is the key to having everything go smoothly here.

Why? Because she gave me some freebies and a discount, too!

I think seeing a foreigner who could speak Japanese and write with a brush come to her shop to buy calligraphy supplies made her day. It was a great experience for me, too.

By the time I finished up with my purchases, it was already dark, and time to head home. As I opened the shop door to leave, the first thing that I noticed was that it was freezing outside.

Note to self: next time, check the weather forecast before you go out!

Also, buy some warmer gear!

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