花見 ("flower-viewing," pronounced "hanami")

Yoko and I went to a popular area of Tokyo for cherry-blossoming viewing on Saturday. There are some pretty pictures and spectacular photographic work in the associated folder to the right.

Classes started today. I am taking six Japanese language classes: 2 "all-purpose" classes and one each for speaking, writing, reading, and pronunciation. I should be in prety good shape when I return to the U.S. Additionally, I have nailed down about 1300 kanji characters (2000 is considered "smarty pants" by the Japanese Ministry of Education), including the anywhere from two to six readings than any one character may have. My Japanese friends are thoroughly impressed with my progress, but then again the Japanese are impressed when we (Westerners) can intoduce ourselves properly in Japanese (In fact, I once was complemented on my Big Mac ordering skills at McDonalds).

Lastly, I have added captions to the 花見 (Hanami) and previous folder file, so that you know what is going on.

Some Random Pictures

I have posted some random pictures in archive to the right. They include photos of my new place (with the gaijin-unfriendly low door frames), my new neighborhood, the area around the Waseda campus, and Yoko's trip to Seoul, South Korea.

What else is new? Class starts again on Monday of next week. The cherry blossoms are starting to come out and flower-viewing season (a HUGE deal here) is coming. Oh, North Korea flew two missiles recently: one that landed to the west in the Japan Sea and the other that flew over our head to its destination somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. Kim Jong-Il promises that he was not trying to hit Japan, but the United States. Whew, that's a relieve; thought I was in trouble. In any case, it has been in the news here 24-7.