One odd thing about being in Japan is finding the balance between still being able to spell basic English words and learning Japanese. While this may sound a bit odd at first to anyone not here, imagine not watching TV, listening to the radio, reading newspapers, seeing advertisements, or taking in a number of any kind of media in your native language. Add to that, only being to speak with friends in English once a week if your lucky. The end result is that I can feel my written English ability slipping away faster than (insert awesome metaphor here cuz I can't do it).
When students ask questions about how to spell certain words in English, I find myself constantly second guessing how to spell simple words like "Couch" or "Twelfth." Without the help of spellchecker I have no idea. I can only hope for their sake that they look up the proper spelling later. I have heard some accounts of Americans speaking much slower English than ever before as a result of coming to Japan, but luckily I think my East Coast upbringing won't let that happen.
I'm frantically studying Japanese, mainly kanji at the moment, every chance I get in between going out and work. So far it seems to be going quite well, although I'm not really expecting to attain fluency. If you ever have any time to kill, studying kanji is one of the best ways to do it. As a result, I usually keep a notebook with me at all times in case I end up waiting for something / stranded. If you're interested, all you really need is a pen, notebook, and this website. Just be sure to change the Romaji to Hiragana as you go.
In other news, I just got done watching the Rambo movie from last year and it was pretty cool. Also, I've been listening to a ton of Imaginary Baseball League lately. If you've never heard of them, they have lots of free mp3s on their site since they broke up. I've been a fan for quite sometime, and it makes for great quiet music while waiting for the first train of the day at 5am.
In my music news, I'm still working on new songs. Sometimes it feels like work which isn't any good. Hopefully it'll just come naturally if given enough time. I'd really like to put a new record out by this November.
Before I go, I'll leave you with another picture from the Enoshima cookout.
I'm going to Shinjuku this weekend. If I don't write before then...Mata ne!
Music: Myspace.com/TheNationalPool
Email: thenationalpool@gmail.com
Pictures: Flicker/TheNationalPool
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