
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...

QUESTIONS? COMMENTS? KNOCK YOURSELF OUT!