this is me

だいがくいんせいのせいかつはとてもいそがしい

oh my

とてもむずかしですね。

terrible student

sorry

we're supposed to write again

but i don't know what:

おとといはごせんろくじにねました。くじはんにおきました。きのうはにじにねました。はちじにおきました。So I am tired.

Also, this year, apparently, is the 1000th birthday of 源氏物語, of the Tale of Genji. Tomorrow Prof. Shirane will talk about it. I might go because Genji is one of my favorite books. I've read it twice and it is very long. I'm not sure I'll ever read it again though and I've forgotten most of it.

Anyway.

things in japan that i like

i like japanese noise bands. the boredoms are my favorite. actually, i'm not sure they qualify as noise, but they are still awesome and i still otherwise like noise.
here is a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoVrIjFVNT0

the boredoms also did this performance in dumbo in new york with 77 drummers. rad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHwnoyZ3fRo&feature=related

i also really like this band called number girl. they are not noise, but they do a lot with distortion, which i like. i discovered them watching tv really late at night at my friend's house in tokyo in the summer of 2000. then i made her figure out who they were and how i could get my hands on them. the only thing i knew about them was that they were called, or had a song, or had an album named, 鉄風, which means something to me because i can speak chinese (sort of). 鉄風 turned out to be the name of a single and an ep. and i think i lost it but still have the mp3 on my computere and still love it. i sort of wish i'd started learning japanese then... but i didn't. number girl are no longer together, which is a little sad, but oh well. but the song that started my whole love for them is on youtubem, and apparently the title is more than i thought it was originally, it's 鉄風、鋭くなって. apparently the means, "Iron Wind, the sharp", according to google translate. i agree with the iron wind part because i know those kanji but still, that doesn't make sense. i guess that's why i have to learn にほんご。
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WqSa4VQDH0

i also like some japanese pop music. i think japanese pop music, unlike chinese, has this unmistakable sound that prevents it from sounding purely derivative, which is the sad fate of chinese pop music. i especially like this woman chara, who i guess is kind of huge in japan, but still seems kind of quirky. she was in this movie called "swallowtail butterfly" that i also like, even though it's not a great movie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL9GzM7dQi4&feature=related

but better is this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OJP42UyDlo

and finally, i saw this the other day. and it's hilarious:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7hIAVN6Evc
japanese allows one to be post-ironic in all the best ways. i don't even know if that word caught on in acadamese, but i used it all the time in college 10 years ago and i still think it has currency.

there's actually a lot more from japan that i like, but i have other things to do. and also, this basically reminds me that everything i love in japan is a testament to my past, how old i am, and with how little i've kept up with cool stuff; and that makes me depressed.

Why Japanese is in my life now:

Because it has to be. I'm a PhD. student in Chinese history and they make us study Japanese for three years. Yay! And a European language. Yay!

To be fair, I'd like to be able to speak Japanese. But I wish it could be planted in my head without having to study. Come on technology, get with it.

I can actually say a lot of useless things in Japanese because I used to teach Japanese students English in China and sometimes they would teach me funny things to say. For instance, someone once told me the most important thing to know how to say is "Boku Doraemon", which means, "I am Doraemon", which is really saying "I am this little blue robotic cat with no ears who is a famous animation character from 1950 or something who came from the future to save a little Japanese boy from marrying a fat Japanese girl". I read the first issue in Chinese, that's how I know these things. I don't really like manga or anime, but I do like the idea of missing the train home in Tokyo someday and going to one of those funny shops where you rent magazines, stay up all night, and drink soda pop. That's my motivation then to study Japanese then, that and the fact that I won't be able to have a career without it.

Also, "Seven Samurai" is one of my favorite movies. In it, Toshiro Mifune, the most animated actor in all of the world--though he is dead now and, thus, probably not as animated as he used to be--says something like "I may look like this, but I am a true samurai". He says this because he's not a true samurai but has stolen the family genealogy from a samurai family. And the way he says it is just amazing. And I can quote it in Japanese, but not quite right. So maybe I'll work on that.

Here is a link to a picture of Mifune.
http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/dynamic/imgs/070615/action/sevensamurai_l.jpg

And in the first two weeks of class, the following things have been difficult:
What words have long vowels?
How do you pronounce words with long vowels?
How do Japanese people speak so fast?

If only those would remain the hardest things.

Introduction

こにちは。

はじめまして。
わたしのなまえはRyanです。　ころんびあだいがくのだいがくいんせいです。さんじゅういさいです。あめりかじんです。わたしのけつえきがたはOがたです。さいようなら。