Aikido Report: The Black Belt
In this post I talk about how I achieved an Aikido black belt in only a few years, including some details on how I trained, what is required to get a black belt, and some thoughts about how the test went.
Category Archives: culture
Anime Movie Review: Belle
Even though I no longer watch Anime as frequently as I did ten years ago, I still try to check out new series here and there. In particular, anime movies seem to have a much higher average satisfaction level, especially those from big production houses or directors (Studio Ghibli, Makoto Shinkai, etc.) Recently I decided… Read More »
Verbification: how (almost) anything can turn into a verb in Japanese
Japanese verbs, a core part of the language, are relatively straightforward in terms of how they are structured (most end with a “u” sound, i.e. “taberu”, “kau”, “oyogu”, etc.) and how they are conjugated (unlike English verbs, 99.9% of verbs in Japanese follow a set of clear rules). Knowing how to understand and effectively use… Read More »
Translation is a Creative Act (and how to get better at it)
In this post I talk at length about translation, touching upon how I consider it to be a creative act, but also going into some suggestions on how to be a better translator.
Japanese Literature: Using Western letters as placeholders for names
Compared to English, Japanese has countless differences in how things are expressed, including major things like word order, particles, and levels of politeness. However, if you ponder things long enough, and do enough research, you can often find something similar in English, or at least a roughly equivalent way to express things, whether that is… Read More »
Nanobe Days: a novel about the power of technology (and a zombie-less zombie apocalypse)
I’m announcing the release of the first few stories of a science fiction novel I have started writing and publishing on Amazon Vella.
Japanese literature translation: 風の又三郎 (Matasaburo of the Wind) by 宮沢賢治 (Kenji Miyazawa) [Part 5]
This is my translation of the 5th part of Kenji Miyazawa’s famous story “Matasaburo of the Wind”, which happens to be the same story referred to in the song “Matasaburo” by the rock band Yorushika.
A hint to help improve comprehension and appreciation of Japanese literature
These days I’ve been spending a good portion of my time trying to find interesting and noteworthy Japanese fiction to translate and publish, a process I blogged about a few years ago here. But in this article I want to focus on a specific activity I discovered that really has helped me gain a better… Read More »
Japanese book review: わたしたちの家庭科 (A home economics textbook)
I reported a few years ago about a program where those with Japanese citizenship can get free textbooks each year from the Japanese consulate. We have been getting these for our son, and I have looked through many of them myself. Frankly, each of these textbooks has been extremely helpful in teaching me various things… Read More »
Say wha? The Japanese word “世話” (sewa) and related expressions
In this post I’d like to go over the common word 世話 (sewa) and some uses of it, including an important expression used in daily life. “Sewa”––usually written in kanji as “世話” and sometimes in hiragana as せわ––can be used for a variety of meanings. But I’d like to focus on the most common, and… Read More »