Sunday, February 28, 2010
Ooh!
Okay, I've got until September 2011 to finish reading the first two volumes of Murakami Haruki's 1Q84 before the English translation comes out! And maybe a little more time after that until the English translation for the not-yet-released third volume comes out.
Actually, after reading that long Muri and then the short Kinosaki Ni Te, written in 1917 Japanese, going through Murakami's book has been pretty easy. Especially since I've taken the approach of just looking up words when I need to, instead of making a vocabulary notebook along the way. So, I finished the second chapter, which I was on before I stopped, reading about 16 pages in two days, so I think I should be able to do this much sooner than September 2011.
Also, I've been getting more and more inspiration to write my own books. I have two in mind, now. Neat.
*Teasi - Sando (album)*
P.S. Harry Gamboa Jr. just released a book called "Rider" that sounds really, really interesting and I want to read it, but I kept my self-discipline and didn't order it over to Japan because it's going to be expensive to ship back to the U.S. and I don't want to interrupt my Murakami reading anymore anyways.
:)
Actually, after reading that long Muri and then the short Kinosaki Ni Te, written in 1917 Japanese, going through Murakami's book has been pretty easy. Especially since I've taken the approach of just looking up words when I need to, instead of making a vocabulary notebook along the way. So, I finished the second chapter, which I was on before I stopped, reading about 16 pages in two days, so I think I should be able to do this much sooner than September 2011.
Also, I've been getting more and more inspiration to write my own books. I have two in mind, now. Neat.
*Teasi - Sando (album)*
P.S. Harry Gamboa Jr. just released a book called "Rider" that sounds really, really interesting and I want to read it, but I kept my self-discipline and didn't order it over to Japan because it's going to be expensive to ship back to the U.S. and I don't want to interrupt my Murakami reading anymore anyways.
:)
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Short Story
Oh my gosh, Shiga Naoya's Kinosaki Ni Te was really awesome, even though I didn't really understand the ending.
oh Beer
People keep asking me if I drink at home and then are surprised to hear that I don't drink at least one beer to relax before going to bed, so I thought I'd give it a try, but I just keep getting headaches in the morning.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Quotes
Quotes from old men who look after me
"Mexicans are really smart. Do you know why? Because they're relatively pure-blooded. Koreans are smart, right? Chinese are smart, right? Blacks are smart, Japanese are smart. It's because they're blood isn't mixed. When you start mixing blood, things get weird."
"The quality of Japanese people has gone down since the end of the war. There aren't very many good people in Japan anymore. There were a lot before the war, but now, there are very few good Japanese people."
"Japanese people are becoming stupider and stupider. They barely even read books anymore, and just read manga all the time now, even full-grown adults."
"Japanese are different than they used to be before the war. Just last week, a 2nd year middle school boy was almost killed by three 3rd year boys. They just started beating him up, and luckily someone came by and saved him. Everybody watches variety shows that just make fun of people, anyone who's heavyset, or small, or old. Kids watch these shows and come to school and just make fun of each other and put each other down. In Osaka, you hear about young people beating up and killing homeless people all the time. The Japanese have become a people who pick on those who are weaker than them."
"You know how young Japanese people all dye their hair brown now? It's because they wish they could be like Westerners."
"Mexican women are really beautiful. You know why? It's because they're all mixed-blood. People with mixed-blood are really good-looking."
"As a Japanese, it really makes you feel good to hear that someone decided to study Japanese not because they saw some anime and thought the girls in it were cute or something, but because they thought the language itself was beautiful."
"The thing about Japanese is that if one person starts doing something, everybody else will start doing it too, until the whole country is doing it. It's part of the way we are. There have been good cases of it, Japan took in a lot of good ideas from other countries that way, but there are also bad cases. Young women only started dying their hair brown and trying to look more Western about ten years ago. Before then, no one was doing that. But all it takes is for it to become popular with one small group of people and everyone else who sees them will think they should do it, too. That's why so many people in Japan dye their hair."
"Whenever I hear him speak English, it sounds so cool to me."
"That's because that's how Japanese have been raised to think since the war. That's MacArthur's doing."
"The girls here are close to what women used to be like in Japan."
"It might be bad for me to tell you after you've come all this way and studied Japanese so much, but you should study Chinese. The future is in China. Japan's just going to continue going downhill from here. Economically, that is. Culturally, it'll keep cultivating itself - that's what happens in harsh economic times."
"I'm looking forward to seeing where you go from here."
"Mexicans are really smart. Do you know why? Because they're relatively pure-blooded. Koreans are smart, right? Chinese are smart, right? Blacks are smart, Japanese are smart. It's because they're blood isn't mixed. When you start mixing blood, things get weird."
"The quality of Japanese people has gone down since the end of the war. There aren't very many good people in Japan anymore. There were a lot before the war, but now, there are very few good Japanese people."
"Japanese people are becoming stupider and stupider. They barely even read books anymore, and just read manga all the time now, even full-grown adults."
"Japanese are different than they used to be before the war. Just last week, a 2nd year middle school boy was almost killed by three 3rd year boys. They just started beating him up, and luckily someone came by and saved him. Everybody watches variety shows that just make fun of people, anyone who's heavyset, or small, or old. Kids watch these shows and come to school and just make fun of each other and put each other down. In Osaka, you hear about young people beating up and killing homeless people all the time. The Japanese have become a people who pick on those who are weaker than them."
"You know how young Japanese people all dye their hair brown now? It's because they wish they could be like Westerners."
"Mexican women are really beautiful. You know why? It's because they're all mixed-blood. People with mixed-blood are really good-looking."
"As a Japanese, it really makes you feel good to hear that someone decided to study Japanese not because they saw some anime and thought the girls in it were cute or something, but because they thought the language itself was beautiful."
"The thing about Japanese is that if one person starts doing something, everybody else will start doing it too, until the whole country is doing it. It's part of the way we are. There have been good cases of it, Japan took in a lot of good ideas from other countries that way, but there are also bad cases. Young women only started dying their hair brown and trying to look more Western about ten years ago. Before then, no one was doing that. But all it takes is for it to become popular with one small group of people and everyone else who sees them will think they should do it, too. That's why so many people in Japan dye their hair."
"Whenever I hear him speak English, it sounds so cool to me."
"That's because that's how Japanese have been raised to think since the war. That's MacArthur's doing."
"The girls here are close to what women used to be like in Japan."
"It might be bad for me to tell you after you've come all this way and studied Japanese so much, but you should study Chinese. The future is in China. Japan's just going to continue going downhill from here. Economically, that is. Culturally, it'll keep cultivating itself - that's what happens in harsh economic times."
"I'm looking forward to seeing where you go from here."
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