Wow, have I been lazy about updating this…

March 16, 2009

Alright. Yes, I know. It’s been a long time since I wrote a real post. So, I guess I should get too it… Where to start…

Work:
Well, this week is the last week of the school year. Last Friday was the graduation for the 3rd years at the junior high. This Thursday will be the graduations for the 6th years at the elementary schools in town. I don’t have any elementary classes, and I may not have any junior high classes. I still go to the junior high all day on Wednesday and half a day on Thursday. The new school year will start on April 6th, with the Entrance Ceremony on the 8th.

Japanese:
I am still going to my Japanese class in Kyoto on Tuesday nights, and to Speak Salon in Uji on Thursday nights.

My proudest achievement is I have started to read manga in Japanese. The first one I fully read, and have gotten into is called 弱虫ペダル (よわむしぺだる, yowamushi pedaru, “Pedaling Weakling”). I opened the first book up and noticed it was a story about a high school otaku. He was a country boy who never really had many friends at his last school. The kids there didn’t really understand manga and anime. So he went to a larger high school with hopes of making friend in the anime club. However, the club was being disbanded because of lack of participants. Through a series of circumstances he ends up being introduced into the world of cycling. Since reading that one, I have read a few others. here is the small list.

1. 弱虫ペダル vol. 1-5 (Yowamushi Pedaru, “Pedaling Weakling”) cycling
2. ダイヤのエース vol. 1 (Daiya no Eesu, “Ace of the Diamond”) baseball
3. エリアの騎士 vol. 1 (Eria no Kishi, “Knight in the Area”) soccer
4. オーバドライブ vol. 1 (Ooba Doraibu, “Over Drive) cycling

As you may have noticed, they are all sport manga and they are all in high school. I think it’s easier since they use everyday speech. I love manga like Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece, but they sometimes use very complicated/uncommon kanji so it is harder for me to read. Also, manga meant for older audiences don’t have the furigana for all the kanji in them (furigana is the reading of the kanji written in either hiragana or katakana).

Video Games:
I’ve been playing the game 龍が如く (りゅうがごとく, ryuu ga gotoku, “Like a Dragon”) which is smiply called Yakuza in the outside of Japan releases. I like the game, but do think that the battle system could be a bit more polished. But, it is the first game of the series, so they may have made it better in the later games. The newest game is the third of the series, and was released for the Playstation 3 recently. The first game’s town is based on Kabukichou (Shinjuku’s red-light district). The second game takes place in Osaka (which I am near), and the last game takes place in Okinawa. (Did I mention that I’m playing the game in Japanese?)

I am also in the middle of Odin Sphere (PS2) and Final Fantasy XII: Reverent Wings (Nintendo DS).

Odin Sphere is interesting because you play through the game at least 5 times with different characters. No, you aren’t playing the same story with each character, but their own story and point of view through a series of interconnecting events. It can be a bit tedious because of the battle system, but is still interesting.

Final Fantasy XII: Revenrent Wings is a blend of tactical role-playing games and real-time strategy games. You have characters (the main characters) designated as leaders. The game makes use of the the classic elemental strengths/weaknesses and also of  melee/ranged/flying strengths/weaknesses. You can still command your leaders to do something (like tactical RPG’s), but since it is not turn-based, must still be wary of the entire field (like RTS’s).

Etc.:
I am reading, but haven’t gotten far at all, Twilight. I haven’t given it much of a chance. I think I am just going through a video gaming phase at the moment.

My father is coming to Japan for a visit in April. It will be just over a week long. We are planning to see Kyoto (京都), Uji (宇治), and Nara (奈良) (and my town). We will also make a small trip to a small fishing area called Tomo no Ura (鞆の浦) and stay on Sensuijima (仙酔島). We also plan on hitting up Hiroshima (広島). Seems it will be a packed fun filled week. Hopefully my dad will enjoy it as well.

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