Still on the bus..
Archive for August, 2007
健気 【けなげ】 (adj-na,n) brave; gallant; courage; manly; heroic; praiseworthy; industrious; pure; lovable;
それでは
彼は健気な男だね！
彼はいつも健気な事ができる。
Being in Japan, I drink a lot of tea. Instead of prevailent soda, machines have tea and soda.. all kinds of teas, from oolong and chinese jasmine black teas to the famous japanese green teas. Tea is also seasonal. Right now houji cha is popular. You can read about it at wikiwikiwiki-pedia..
焙じ茶 （ほうじちゃ） - The origin comes from Kyoto during the Meiji era. Apparently a tea shop had a lot of extra tea leaves, due to an overabundance. But the tea was low quality and not so popular. So instead of throwing the tea away, he tried roasting it. To his suprise, it was delicious and became quite popular among the lower class.
Breaking down the elements..
焙る （ あぶる/ほうじ aburu) - to roast/burn < second reading is the chinese >
茶 （ ちゃ/ cha ) - tea
So together, it is roasted tea. This is why kanji is awesome.
Do to the fact that the tea is from the end of the season, it coincides with middle to end of summer here. So now houjicha is quite popular and enjoyable on a daily basis from your favorite conbini or machine
しゅび いっかん せい
14時43分：From momo
貫く（つらぬく） to penetrate, 貫（かん）
首（しゅ・くび） neck
尾（お・び） tail
それでは
首尾一貫性に欠ける
しっぽいっかんせいにかける － lacking coherence, being inconsistent.. manic
彼女は尻尾一貫性に欠けた。
The girl is always inconsistent. (more so, a meaning of manic behavior)
一貫性がない。
No consistence…
On the web based reading front, here is a site with a plethora of links relating to Japan and there war time escapades. Some of the more interesting reads so far include:
Colonel Tsuji : Genius and cannibal
Kamikaze Training Journal
Japanese fighting with the Viet Cong against Americans
Free with no filtering.
そう。 呆れる(get tired of sb doing sth..多分..)
飽きれる（content but need no more)
厭きれる(grow hate)
Wow.. immigration to the US is really f’D in A big time. Japan’s equivocal of the H1b is pretty easy to get as long as you have a company to sponsor you. America, not so much.. The job in New York is starting to spin, salary negotiations and moving expenditures.. The thought of coming home is getting exciting, even if it is a few months out. - On a side note, check out google hacks, the program. Pretty sweet interface for using google for a lot of l3370 functions.
My mom’s health isn’t in the best of shape, so I will be coming back in a month or so to spend some time with her. Preparing for this trip, I already find myself dreading the thickness of the Missouri’s humidity and waist lines.
Over lunch, I was expressing my concerns/disgust with 桃子chan in regards to having to go with my family to eat and other general issues I have with St. Louis. A recurring conversation we have.. especially regarding why Americans are so god damn overweight. Most japanese people just cannot understand it, even if they have lived in America. How can Americans, of whom the Japanese think are very logical and forward thinking, be so illogical and retarded when it comes to their physical well being. Is it hedonism? Laziness? Or just plain stubbornness?
While I don’t have an good answer, my theory relies upon the experiences I had growing up, both in Texas and Missouri. For one, both my parents grew up in the post-depression 40s. Their parents survived the depression and both WWs, and habits from these eras are currently very visible both now and when I grew up, in my house. ( Stockpiling of canned goods, frugality of household products etc.)
I use this as a justification for the way they fed me growing up. Every night we had a healthy cooked dinner and I as forced to clear my plate, even though most of the portions with the same size as my parents. When I would complain, I would get the, “When I was your age, we would be lucky if we had enough food for the whole family…” speech. In addition, if we went out to eat, I had to be sure to eat enough as my parents were getting their money’s worth. (A habit which I have finally broken..) Mornings usually involved a side trip to McyDs for a the sausage McMuffin and peel top OJ before I was dropped off at middle school. ( I lived 5 minutes from my primary school and a 20 minute walk from my middle school.. not close enough for the bus.) This in addition to lack of exercise made me obese.. probably 180 lbs in middle school and peaking 215 in high school. Hitting a height of 6ft in high school and still running a 8.20 mile, I never particularly thought of myself as out of shape. In texas, dinners were huge beyond description, even with 8 to 12 people eating. Huge portions of biscuits and sausage, steak, pork chops, briscuit..
But now, I am 6ft, around 160 lbs and the healthiest I have ever been. Perhaps this is why people don’t think I am American. Anyways, I look back and think what a fata$$ I was. I don’t blame my parents, they just didn’t want their children to be hungry or experience things they did growing up. Nothing really wrong with that…
Anyways back to the original topic. For me it is logical to think: Yes- Americans are eating too much and not exercising enough. I am pretty sure a lot of other americans can recognize they are fat/obese/big boned etc etc. So logically one should exercise, change their diet and be more health conscious. Right? Americans are smart and logical right? Perhaps we just need a kick in the ass, someone to point and laugh (the world already is) or to call us fat and obese. I have no good answer except that Americans are glutinous and enjoy the freedoms that cheap food and good salaries include.
1 in 4 Americans did not read a book last year. This explains a lot.. I really have trouble grasping how this happens. Habitually carrying at least two books with me everywhere I go, I just cannot fathom it. I understand the people that say, “Well I read lot of online material,” and I sympathize. I spent more then most doing the same, but there is still a lot of time not spent in front of the computer, in addition to 365 days in a year. HOW DO YOU NOT READ ONE BOOK? I mean, between my girlfriend, work, riding my bike, dancing, aikido, suburi and my own personal time I am still reading at least two books. [ Currently Don Quixote and Inferno, in addition to studying for the next japanese proficiency test ]
Here is an idea. Instead of going to McDonalds and getting a Triple Big Mac and 2 gallon Coke, go to the grocery store and buy some produce and then stop at the library on your way home. Once you go home, make yourself dinner and take 30 minutes to read. You can watch your tivo’d and bit torrent shows at a later time.