20050404

1:33　　 Today, (well, technically last night) Aki came over and helped me set up a BBS, so you guys can ask me questions or leave comments about anything. It’s a huge step since the BLOG will become interactive. Thanx, Aki chan! Aki had dinner with us and I just drove her home. This afternoon I got my textbook through the mail, unexpectedly early. Good, I’ll finally be able to start my semester... OK, I’m going to bed... Nighty night!

19:44　 Went to school today for a couple of hours to prep some signs for the entrance ceremony. I also updated the top page and wrote a Japanese profile for everybody on the people’s page. Then I took Man to the AER building for shopping. While waiting for her, I had a cappuccino at Starbucks and started reading about “nihonjinron” for my class. It’s basically a sociocultural theory defining the uniqueness and homogeneity of the Japanese as a people, which is quite interesting. The problem is that it seems to ignore the actual differences between the Japanese themselves, making it a biased vision of reality. I think this class will be quite interesting. Talking about the uniqueness of Japanese culture, an article came up yesterday on the English Wikipedia, claiming that the Chinese had actually invented sushi around 200 B.C. Aki was quite shocked at the news, but fortunately someone with sense wrote to the author, explaining that, although the Chinese characters for sushi indeed made there way into the Japanese language, they actually mean two different dishes in their respective languages. I think Aki will be pleased since the article, called “History of Sushi”, has been corrected accordingly. Tomorrow is the last day of the spring vacation, which is good since I’ve already recovered from that long and insane streak of farewell parties. In a few weeks, of course, the welcome party season will start, not to mention the “hanami” parties. I will probably organize a big one like last year (see picture below), invite everybody and hopefully be able to get away with just ONE party. Wishful thinking...

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