A new YouTube channel for piano music
I finally decided to share some of my spontaneous piano pieces in the form of a new YouTube channel: “J.D.’s Piano of the Moment”.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Commentary (解説): One of the Joys of Japanese Literature
Reading Japanese literature in its original language has a few perks. First, you have access to a huge number of works that have not been translated yet, many of which may never be translated. Also, reading untranslated text allows you to pick up nuances which would difficult––if not impossible––to translate, although skiled translators can use… Read More »
Japanese Novel Review: 天使の卵 (Angel’s Egg) by 村山由佳 (Yuka Murayama)
After getting a recommendation for the Japanese fiction novel 天使の卵 (“Angel’s Egg” or “Angel Egg”) by 村山由佳 (Yuka Murayama), I decided to give it a shot. The book turned out to be a very rewarding read, so in this post I’ll review it. This book is about the experiences of the 19-year old male narrator,… Read More »
Hey man, where’s my drone? (a tale of a runaway UAV) [w/ Japanese vocabulary list]
I finally decided to shell out some serious money for a prosumer drone. Little did I know that our time together would only be a few days… (includes a Japanese vocabulary list of drone-related words)
Ramen restaurant review: FuddoYama Ramen (Beaverton)
One of great things about Portland, Oregon and the surrounding area is access to a nice amount of Japanese culture, and of course this includes delicious Japanese food. Ramen is one of my personal favorites. While you can find some mediocre places, there are two really great ramen restaurants I highly recommend: this and this.… Read More »
Removing furigana markup from Japanese text
Sometimes when working with Japanese documents you may need to remove furigana (sometimes called ‘ruby’) from a block of text. For example, you may be taking furigana-marked source text from Aozora Bunko, but don’t want to include the furigana in some other media. I had this exact problem when working on an E-book of translated… Read More »
Japan trip 2019 report (Part 4)
(This is part of a series about my recent trip to Japan. See this page for other articles in it.) Furitakiya Onsen Hotel We stayed for several days in the Furutakiya Onsen Hotel (古滝屋) that resides in Iwaki city (岩城) in Fukushima prefecture (福島県). This is a historically significant place that has been around since… Read More »
Japan trip 2019 report (Part 3)
(This is part of a series about my recent trip to Japan. See this page for other articles in it.) Hato Bus Tour I’d say that less than half of our trip this time involved touristy stuff (like visiting Tokyo Tower), but we did go on a day tour (日帰りツアー) run by the Hato bus… Read More »
Japan trip 2019 report (Part 2)
(This is part of a series about my recent trip to Japan. See this page for other articles in it.) Sakura, Sakura We planned our trip this time to coincide with the blooming of the sakura (cherry blossom, 桜) trees around Tokyo. This is really a wonderful time because the amazing natural beauty of the… Read More »
Japan trip 2019 report (Part 1)
(This is part 1 in a series about my recent trip to Japan) For self-taught learners of Japanese, there is no better teacher than actually living in Japan itself; even from just traveling there you can learn so much. Of course, even if you aren’t learning Japanese, there are so many things about Japan that… Read More »