Trying Japanese dramas with Amazon Prime

I have subscribed to Amazon Prime and taken a monthly subscription to NHK On Demand. I used to have a television, and used to really like watching the documentaries on NHK. NHK Special makes some really good programming. Even if I could only understand 50%, I could still follow the gist of the programme, and the production quality made it enjoyable. Of course, it also helped improve my Japanese.

I don't have a TV anymore, so I decided to subscribe to the NHK on demand through Amazon. It's not too expensive at maybe 2-3000 yen per month.

The other day, I thought I'd branch out and try some Japanese dramas. I have dipped my toes in the Japanese drama world previously, always to be disappointed.

I was browsing the many dramas on prime and this one caught my eye - not sure why - but I thought let's give this a go.
 

The opening scene of the 1st episode of the 1st series, has the lady who I presume is the heroine of the series, marching along a coutry path in-between rice fields wearing high-heels and a short skirt. She seems to be in a hurry. We then cut to a horse race meeting. She has bought a ticket and is seems very excitable as she waits in the stand for the race to start. The other people in the stand also seem very focused on the upcoming race and excitable - I could only conclude that this race was of great importance - despite the small crowd. 

The race starts and the lady screams and shouts like her life depends on the outcome of the race; however, on the final straight her horse throws it's rider to the ground. Cue tearing up of bet ticket and much hysteria. Oh, I forgot to mention, during this the scene cuts to a youngish businessman and older lady sat in one of the corporate boxes. There seems to be something serious going on between them. The lady perhaps is blackmailing him. 

Anyway, cut back to the race and the heroine storms from the stand after her colleague - who happened to be next to her - and arrives at the scene of the rider of the horse being stretchered to an arriving ambulance. Out of the ambulance jumps a young doctor who seems slightly out-of-place riding in the ambulance itself - as if in his country hospital this was the first time the ambulance had ever been called out and he was determined to be there for the moment. He runs to the car park and begins immediately treating the injured jockey. At this point, of course, the heroine recognizes him, he her, and they have an hysterical conversation in the car park - he has now forgotten about the jockey. Until the jockey starts coughing up blood. 

Enough! I had to stop. I don't know what to call this type of drama. It's sort of hysterical-fantasy-realism. Perhaps the idea is to recreate manga with real actors, but it is not really my cup of tea, so I will be sticking with the documentaries for now.

Getting more opportunities to speak: a trip to the barbers

I've been bemoaning of late my lack of opportunities to use Japanese in daily life. This might sound kind of strange seeing as I live in Tokyo, but I don't actually have a circle of Japanese friends that I can meet with regularly and chat away in Japanese with. I do have Japanese friends, but I tend to hang out with them one at a time, and this means we often use English, a) because I get tired of trying to speak Japanese quickly, and b) because more often than not, my friend's English is usually better than my Japanese.

I think it's important to find a group of friends to hang out with because then the conversation naturally tends to be Japanese, and it also means you don't have to be supplying 50% of the input.

Anyway, that's besides the point of today's post. My lack of opportunities for natural conversation emphasised the importance to me of the more manufactured experiences that you can make for yourself like the one that I had yesterday and I want to mention here.

Since coming to Japan I've tended to shy away from using the old style barbers you see dotted around town. I think this may have something to with the fact that when I first arrived here I remember naively walking into one of these barbers expecting at least some basic English ability from the proprietor and suddenly realising that I had to put my measly two-to-three weeks of beginner level Japanese study into immediate effect. This wasn't overly successful if I remember correctly, and may have left a bit of a mental scar.

Anyway, since then I've mainly been using the 1000yen - 10 minute - barbers you find in most train stations around Tokyo. It's quick and simple and doesn't require a lot of communication. Yesterday however I went to an old-style barber close to where I teach in Tokyo for a change, (my last 10 minute haircut was a bit of a disaster prompting me to take the plunge) and I realised I've been missing out on a great opportunity for some Japanese conversational workout these past few years.

The barber was a very friendly older lady— in her 60s I'd say. I asked for a short-back-and-sides, we negotiated over the length of the clippers, and she got down to work. After a few minutes of silence I dived in and asked her how long that particular barber shop had been open. That was all I had to do: we didn't stop talking for the next 40-odd minutes (Well, if I'm honest she did most of the talking, but I got a few questions in, and offered a few opinions on this and that—the Royal Wedding for example). The haircut cost 3000 yen and it took 50 minutes longer than at the station shop, but as far as getting a language workout it was time and money well spent—the haircut wasn't bad either.

Barbers are a bit like taxi drivers I think, wherever you go in the world, they like to chat. So I think I'll be avoiding the 10-minute "fast-cut" barbers from now on, and take advantage of these barbers who despite costing a bit more have time for a good old-fashioned chinwag.

Trying to remove ambiguity from the meaning of words

Following up on yesterday's post.

I've just noticed another example of this dislocation between word and meaning. I'm watching politicians on TV and they keep using the  word 地域（ちいき／Chiiki）: area, or region.

I can't disassociate this word with the English word 'cheeky'. They sound very similar—so similar that everytime I hear 地域 I immediately think about the word cheeky, and secretly snigger to myself about the similarity. Of course I remember that 地域 means region (using the cheeky similarity was a good mnemonic to remember the word in the first place), but it doesn't produce the same initial reaction in me that it would to a native speaker of Japanese, and therefore inhibits my understanding of the language. (Japanese speaker thinks 'region'; I think 'sounds like cheeky, snicker.'

Trying to focus on the real meaning of the word when I hear it would help to overcome this, but I think the best way to make the connection permenant is to have real, meaningful experience using the word.

For example, recently there have been a lot of problems in Japan due to the earthquake and tsunami, and I have learnt a lot of new words. There is no ambiguity for me in these words—放射線 means radiation, there's no doubt in my mind. It's a word that creates the same reaction in me as the English version: concern. This is because I've had real, meaningful experience with this word and the consequences it can cause.

I think this is a good example of the difficulty in learning new words. New words start off as a noise with no meaning; you can then learn the meaning and make the association, but does it really become meaningful to you until you actually have a reason to use, or think about the word, that actually affects you directly?

The language of earthquakes and disaster

"けっこう揺れてるね。Kekko yureterune"

This is a sentence I've heard quite a lot over the past few weeks. Roughly translated as "It's shaking quite a bit isn't it."

It's now over a month since the day when the Great Tohoku Earthquake hit Japan, but the effects of that day will continue for some time. One of the more noticable effects here in Tokyo are the continuing aftershocks.

Coming from the UK I had never experienced an earthquake before arriving in Japan five years ago. The UK seems to be ideally positioned, somewhere in the middle of a large, relitively stable, tectonic plate. Every 5 years or so you would hear a story about some minor eathquake hitting a small town somewhere, but these were pretty rare and freakish. Certainly, nobody I knew had ever expereinced one in the UK.

Over the past month I've often thought what a disaster on this scale would be like in the UK. How would the British people, government and emergency services deal with something like this? The only reasonable answer I can come up with would be to say that they certainly wouldn't deal with it as well as the Japanese.

One interesting point for me, being interested in languages, is all the new words and phrases I've come across in the past month. Listening to Japanese people talk about earthquakes has got me thinking how in the UK, not only do we not have the technology or knowhow to deal with something like this, we also don't have the vocabulary.

Here are a selection of words that I've become familiar with over the past month.

"地震 Jishin": Earthquake. In English we have 'earthquake': earthquakes are pretty common around the world, so it's not surprising that English has it's own word for this. But next we have: "震災 Shinsai" This translates as earthquake disaster, not a terribly common term in English. I guess in the UK, a disaster is a disaster, we don't have special words for different types of disaster, because we just don't have enough of them. In Japan this disaster is called "東日本大震災 Higashi Nihon Dai Shinsai" The Great Earthquake Disaster of East Japan.

The classic word that has crossed over from Japanese to English of course is "津波 tsunami". Sushi is from Japan, so is tsunami!

The Japanese method for measuring earthquakes is different from the rest of the world. In Europe we use the Richter Scale, measuring earthquake magnitude from 0 to 10. In Japan, they have a scale from 1 to 7 which, more relevantly for people living here, marks the violence of the shaking experienced in different areas during an earthquake. So in Tokyo on March 11th we experienced "震度５Shindo Go" Shaking intensity of 5. (pretty scary I might add). In the past few days however, people in the Tohoku region have been experiencing aftershocks ("余震 Yoshin") of "震度６Shindo Roku"! There is also "弱 Jyaku": weak, and "強 Kyou": strong, that are sometimes added to these measurements. I think these are upper and lower measurements for each level, so a "震度６弱 Shindo roku jyaku" is stronger than a "震度５強 Shindo go kyou".

Here are two words that really nobody wants to have to be distinguishing between "横揺れ Yokoyure" swaying from side to side, and "縦揺れ tateyure" vertical shaking, pitching. Both used to describe the type of movement experienced during an earthquake.

After such a devastating earthquake and tsunami the destuction left behind is unimaginable. In Japanese they have "被災地 Hisaichi" I think disaster zone is a good translation of this. "被災 Hisai" just means suffer from disaster, and "地 Chi" is a suffix for place or area. You also have "被災者 Hisaisha" The people affected by the disaster, many of whom have become "避難者 Hinansha" Evacuees, and are now living in "避難所 Hinansho" Evacuee shelters.

Listening to the way Japanese people talk about earthquakes gives a good indication of how much of an integral part of life it is here. This familiarity gives them a great advantage when dealing with this kind of emergency. I think this is reflected in their measured reaction to the events of the past month. In the UK, if something like this were to happen, we would have to find a whole new set of vocabulary to deal with it, and I think this would add to the difficulties.

Checking out the cherry blossoms trees in Tokyo

Today I went for a walk in Tokyo and took some photos of the Cherry Blossom trees in full bloom. Take a look at the photos below.

目黒 Meguro

根津 Nezu

根津 Nezu

東京大学 Tokyo University

目黒川 Meguro River

目黒川 Meguro River

Tweet log: 9 March, 2011 - 16 March 2011

A collection of my tweets from the 9th March to 16th March 2011 (starting from the bottom 9th March's fore-shock—main earthquake and tsunami happened on the 11th). One viewpoint from Tokyo, Japan.

easterngrean ニール

At the moment it feels like a decision between the news and the official line. Which is more trustworthy? We need a middle road.
16 Mar

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easterngrean ニール
@
@tokyotimes It's ridiculous. I don't know why that newspaper is still allowed to operate.
16 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

Never been so happy to see one of those annoying Japanese game shows on TV.. could cut down on the earthquake alarm like bleeping noises tho
16 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

Sitting at work. Jolly well looking forward to the weekend to be honest.
16 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

Quake last night was a real window rattler. Put the wind up me a bit. Following developments on the internet this morning. Off to work soon.
16 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

Finally worked out how to use list/search function. Now just have to find out what it's called
16 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

test tweet #test
16 Mar

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Crof Crawford Kilian
by easterngrean

A useful perspective on the Japanese earthquake http://bit.ly/hYw2Ih #jpquake
16 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

I have to say, I was undecided about twitter until this week. I absolutely love it now!!
15 Mar

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shioyama The blogger fka 塩
by easterngrean

Doesn't get more poignant than that: Sympathy From Bamiyan to the People of Japan: http://bit.ly/ibj0nv
15 Mar

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gakuranman Michael Gakuran
by easterngrean

全力を挙げる means to use all of one's energy / to the best of one's efforts. Edano uses it over and over again in his speeches.
15 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

edano is saying radiation drops. Why are all these tweets coming through so alarmist!!
15 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

edano brings some good news
15 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

I think my Dunkirk spirit just kicked in!
15 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

brilliant! jiayou means ganbatte! message from Sichuan earthquake survivors to people of Japan http://bit.ly/eIE5V9
15 Mar

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gadyepstein Gady Epstein
by easterngrean

RT @wolfgroupasia: China reaches out to Japan: A Tudou video to Japan from Sichuan's earthquake survivors: http://bit.ly/dZmWph
15 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

Just spent 2 hours uploading the wrong info onto our servers... Lucky I don't work for the electric company.
15 Mar

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gakuranman Michael Gakuran
by easterngrean

State minister Renho asking people of Japan not to buy up or horde supplies that could be used for the victims in the north (Kyodo)
15 Mar

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TOKYODANDY TOKYO DANDY (DAN)
by easterngrean

Thinking of the 50 workers on site at the Fukushima Power Plant risking their lives to bring the situation under control. THANK YOU
15 Mar

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tokyotimes Lee Chapman
by easterngrean

Can anyone help? RT @john_sir @tokyotimes any info on road conditions for going to Tokyo from #Fukushima/#Ibaraki direction?
15 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

Stroke of luck. Got the last salad on the shelf in the conbini.
15 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

Quick check of the microsee-whatever levels, and I'm off out for lunch!
15 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

Is "microsievert" trending yet?
15 Mar

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tokyotimes Lee Chapman
by easterngrean

Basically the situation is bad. But the danger is only for those in the vicinity. And sensationalist reports don't help. At all.
15 Mar

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jdierkes Julian Dierkes
by easterngrean

Nuke safety commission briefing seemed to report sound of explosion in 2nd reactor at Fukushima No 1 about two hours ago.
15 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

Another explosion?
15 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

Got a phone call from the BBC asking if I wanted to take part in an interview. Must be in a disaster zone.
15 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

My Japanese is improving though! 予断を許さない　＝　can't make any guesses
15 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

Possibly quake was closer to Tokyo. rather than being larger than other aftershocks.
15 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

Large aftershock woke me up. BBC incorrectly cites USGS for size and location. USGS is slow to update. Quake was short but sharp.
15 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

Things I wish I had: 1. A plane ticket. 2. A Geiger counter. 3. A PHd in plate tectonics. 4. A beer. Oh... I have number 4. just 1 2 & 3.
14 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

Fairly big aftershock is greeted with stony silence here in the office. Usually there would be a few comments.. but nothing.
14 Mar

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easterngrean ニール
@
@Ayumizw There are not many people here. The office is kind of quiet. All the lights are off etc.
14 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

Sitting at work. Lights are off, only about half the staff have come in today. Feels very surreal. Feel like going home to be honest.
14 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

tsunami alert "appears to have been false alarm"- BBC
14 Mar

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tokyotimes Lee Chapman
by easterngrean

RT @BiggerInJapan NEWS: Iwate pref Ofunato 5 m wave retreating, possibility of big tsunami. Move to higher grounds immediately.
14 Mar

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andyjr1975 Andrew Roper
by easterngrean

Terrifying “@scottlava: Whoa. RT @timheidecker: “@leeunkrich: This is absolutely unbelievable. ow.ly/4dvh0 #Japan #tsunami””
14 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

This page tells a story. - Earthquakes Past 7 days http://1.usa.gov/e1AmFH
14 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

More terrifying videos of the tsunami on TV.
13 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

Sorry, I shouldn't be so flippant, but it all kind of all feels hard to take in at the moment, especially with the language barrier.
13 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

I wish my Japanese was good enough to know what the spokesman from the burning nuclear power plant up the road was saying.
13 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

Sono Inglese di Gerrards Cross: Japan earthquake March 2011: my experience http://bit.ly/g8Zt2e
13 Mar

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tokyotimes Lee Chapman
by easterngrean

RT @tokyorich This by @JamesinJapan is one of the best pieces I read on life in Kanto yesterday. http://bit.ly/eF8CmC
13 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

Shocking tsunami home videos on TV—Looks like some people were either ignorant to the danger or just transfixed by what they were seeing.
13 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

Japan Earthquake - Ground shifts, water seeps during quake in Chiba, Japan youtube.com/watch?v=-LPGzz… via @youtube
13 Mar

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easterngrean ニール
@
@andyjr1975 nice
13 Mar

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easterngrean ニール
@
@andyjr1975 Great! Is that league one then? Sorry, I'm a bit behind. Argyle were staring extinction in the face last time I looked.
13 Mar

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easterngrean ニール
@
@andyjr1975 ha! Well, you know what they say. When it rains, it pours. how about the terriers?
13 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

Wow, it's 1AM. Where has today gone? Just been glued to the TV and internet watching the coverage for the past 18 hours.
13 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

Only the newscasters in Fukushima seem to be wearing hardhats now. Not sure how much good that'll do in the event of a leak, though.
13 Mar

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drockphoto Derek Montgomery
by easterngrean

It's probably not a good thing when #chernobyl is trending.
12 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

These aftershocks are really something. It's almost every few minutes or so. This shaking feeling is going to be difficult to forget.
12 Mar

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tokyotimes Lee Chapman
by easterngrean

RT @hiromichii @tokyotimes Please tweet this for English speakers who don't understand Japanese living in Japan.http://is.gd/ZzgOu6
12 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

Tokyo was shaking a lot, but everybody seems OK where I am. No injuries or damage as far as I can see.
11 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

that was pretty scary for a while there!!
11 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

http://amzn.com/k/G5X6TH9B9IXJ #Kindle
10 Mar

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zonjineko zonjineko
by easterngrean

Only In Japan: Nude toothbrushes - love the details ^_^ http://ow.ly/4aIY7
9 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

一条小消息 | Lang-8 http://lang-8.com/56453/journals/840314 #lang8
9 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

I'm going to have to update my profile to read: gives slightly scared, on the spot reports to minor earthquakes in the Tokyo region.
9 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

thought I was going to have to leave my desk... slightly disappointed now.
9 Mar

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easterngrean ニール

long, long earthquake in Tokyo, about 2 mins.
9 Mar

Reposting: Japan Earthquake: my experience

It was just another Friday afternoon at work. I was sitting at my desk, thinking about going to lunch (I'd started late, so hadn't gone yet even though it was approaching 3pm.) I was beginning to get hungry.

That was when the shaking started. I looked up at my two colleagues sitting at their desks, neither of them had moved. I began to wonder if I was imagining it (I've done this before). But the same thing (me looking up first) had happened three days previously when a large earthquake —that we now know that was a fore-shock to Friday's earthquake—caused our office to sway for about two minutes. But that's where the similarities between Wednesday's quake and Friday's end.

After a few seconds the shaking didn't abate, and in fact started to become more pronounced. My colleagues had looked up. 'Oh, another earthquake', we were all thinking at this point. But, the shaking kept getting stronger. A few more seconds and we were beginning to look around the office at others to see what they were doing. They were doing the same as us: looking around the office at others to see what they were doing. It was then that it began to dawn on me that this was different.

Then it got really serious. Everything was shaking violently. 'This was it!' I'd never gone under the table before for an earthquake (even though I'd often thought about it), but now I knew it was the best thing to do. 'Perhaps "The Big One" everyone in Tokyo fears had finally come.' Either way, I was under my desk, and I felt no shame in that. I looked around and saw that everyone else was doing the same. Desks were shaking, chairs were moving around the floor, drawers were opening and closing, I was just holding on. I checked with my two colleagues "Hey, guys, you OK?" "Yes." came the justifiably short reply. The shaking continued.

I remember looking out the window from my position under my desk. The buildings on the other side of the street were moving violently from side to side. The thing that caught my attention were the antennae on the roofs. With the sheer force of the quake they were being whipped back and forth like toys in the hand of a naughty child.

Eventually, the shaking began to calm down. People began to come out from under their desks and tentatively move about. We moved to the windows to check the situation outside. There was no damage visible, and people were beginning to exit the building.

The next question was, 'what to do next?' The building was still standing, but there were sure to be more quakes after one that size. Looking outside, (we are on the 4th floor) there were people gathering at the front of the building, but they were standing on a temporary surface, part of extensive construction work going on. One of my colleagues said that it was probably the worst place to stand. We stayed where we were.

I stayed in the building for a good 20-30 mins after the quake, until a second tremor struck. This one was not as big, but it was easily the second biggest quake I had experienced in my four and a half years in Japan, and of course, my life. Again, we were under the desks, again the shaking seemed to go on for an age.

Once this second one subsided those of us remaining in the building decided to move outside. It's difficult to know what is best in these situations. Moving outside might seem like the obvious choice, but because of the construction work going on out front, and the fact that the building had successfully withstood two tremors, staying inside also seemed logical.

Of course, at this point, none of us had any idea of the terrible events unfolding in Miyagi, Iwate, and Fukushima.

After a time standing outside we were told that we could go home. I left work, and began to head into Shibuya with a colleague. We saw crowds in-front of shop windows watching TV. We joined them and saw the shocking images. 'Are we safe here?' we were thinking. 'Will a tsunami hit Tokyo?' I'm sure I saw an image of abnormally high water levels rising under the deck of Rainbow Bridge, it looked like something from a disaster movie. (note: I have not seen this image again, was it a different bridge?)

We moved on. The scale of what was happening was difficult to gauge. Starbucks was closed, one McDonalds was closed, but another was open. I saw a building with windows shattered, and the pavement in front of the building cordoned off; a few doors down, I saw a lady shopping for shoes! What to do? How should we react to this?

We eventually found a bar with some TVs and followed the coverage: trying to take in what had gone on, and wondering how to get home. After spending an inordinate amount of time walking around, getting some food in restaurants, and looking for taxis, I eventually made it home at 8am the next morning, via bus. The aftershocks continued through the night and the next day. The earth was like the deck of a ship. Safe for now, but unstable. A feeling that will likely continue for a few weeks yet.

What I experienced will stay with me for the rest of my life, but I know that we were lucky. Those people caught in the towns on the eastern coast of the Tohoku region were perhaps like us for half-an-hour or so: Unsure of what to do next. Perhaps they decided to stay put for fear of going outside. If they had no access to TV or radio, they very likely never received the tsunami warning.

In hindsight, it's very easy to choose the best course of action, but when you are caught in the middle of something like this, it is very difficult to know what the best thing to do is. I am just thankful that everybody I know in Tokyo and Japan is safe, and my thoughts are with those people less fortunate.

Music

I still remain to be convinced of the benefits of using music to learn a foreign language. I've been playing a couple of Chinese language tunes that I like on my ipod for a couple of weeks now, but the lyrics are not really sinking in.

I guess I need to study them harder or something, but making out the lyrics on songs was never my strong point anyway. I tend to be more interested in the tune when I'm listening to a song, and very often don't pick up on the lyrics.

Two of my favourite bands are Massive Attack and Radiohead. And I've listened to their albums for years without really knowing the lyrics that well. I think their songs really speak to you through the music itself.

Anyhow, from the point of view of picking up vocabulary, and increasing your ability to speak the language, I don't think music is that useful. One thing I will say for it though is it does give you a topic of conversation to use with native speakers.

Living in Japan, I've come to like a couple of Japanese artists. One of my favourites is Angela Aki. I think she's got a great voice. I don't think she's the kind of artist most people expect a thirty-something British guy like me to come out and say they like, so it's always surprising to people when I bring up her name. It makes for good conversation anyway.

If your interested, this is probably my favourite of her songs 孤独のカケラ — translates as fragment of solitude.

JLPT test voucher

I've finally received the test voucher for the Japanese Proficiency Test (JLPT).

I say finally, because I actually applied for the test around August/September time, and what with the amount of paperwork and the stamp address envelopes and registered mail things I had to sign seal and approve to get the thing sent off, I was expecting a pretty quick reply—-at least a 'thanks for applying, we'll be in touch' card or something.

When I didn't get this, I began to wonder if my application had actually been lost in the post, along with my 5000 yen, and I must admit, I actually had a bit of a chuckle to myself about the irony of it all. (I'm not sure why, but secretly I actually love it when the Japanese bureaucracy machine grinds to a halt. I guess it's the part of me that's filled out one too many forms just to justify my right to stay here.)

But anyway, the fact of the matter was I wasn't actually that bothered about my application getting lost. To be honest, since applying I've hardly spent any time studying Japanese. (I have a class every week that I still attend.) And my initial intention in applying was only as a sort of dry run, before taking the thing for real next year.

However, now I have a test centre, and a date and time to focus my mind, so I guess I better do something about it. I have two and a half weeks!!

A walk in Tokyo (東京散歩)

Using my new Tokyo walks magazine I went for a walk on Sunday. First I had to decipher some of the Kanji!

Headed to Northern Tokyo. They have trams up here.

This is the grave of a famous Japanese writer, Natsume Soseki. 夏目漱石

Back in the day, they wrote the name backwards. That's natsu (夏 summer）on the right, me (目 eye) on the left. Summer Eye, good name for a writer.

護国寺(Gokoku Ji) A 17th Century Buddhist Temple, one of the only ones not to be destroyed during the war.

I liked the roof.

This grave was better than Soseki's.

A Japanese garden.

Met this little lady in the Gardens. Apparently she is the goddesses of handicrafts like tea ceremony and cooking...

...and PC (パソコン)—that's computers; not being careful with your gender-specific terminology. I guess if you're a goddess these things aren't hard to pick up.

This is a marriage hotspot too. Here are two for the price of one.

Navigating my way around using the magazine was good fun, and got myself immersed in the language. There was a little museum at the end of the course with some Buddhist artifacts that had been collected over the years. All the signage in there was only in Japanese too. I actually found myself being able to read some of the signs in their entirety, which was a good feeling. This is a stone statue of the seated Buddha from the Tang Dynasty in China (8th Century). It's well old!

Random video

Love this video. Just had to steal it and put it on my blog...

Dear Japan from Matthew Brown on Vimeo.