Long Time Expat In Japan
A very good friend of mine recently reviewed Death's End by Cixin Liu and translated by Ken Liu. In the review he writes: Some of the drawbacks may be cultural. It's clear that readers' expectations differ widely across the world. In English fiction, for example, there's the famous shibboleth "show, don't tell." This got me … Continue reading Chinese Literature, Armchair Commentary
Film: Grüße aus Fukushima (Greetings from Fukushima, aka Fukushima, Mon Amour) Director: Dorris Dorrie Starring: Kaori Momoi, Rosalie Tomass Note: Some Spoilers I mentioned in an earlier post that last year I worked on a German Film set in Japan. It was released in a film festival in Germany back in February to pretty good … Continue reading German Film Review
My daughters love this new viral video. When I first watched it, I steeled myself. I was used to Japanese comedy. While I was certain I couldn't influence my kids too much, I was hoping that I could show them that Japanese comedy was at best low brow. Confronted by this insurmountable task, I chose … Continue reading Pen Pineaplle Apple Pen
The word "semiconductor" changed my life, but it has nothing to do with computer chips, the Internet, or cat videos. It's just me. This blog is a little long and very navel gazey. Forewarned. I got a real kick outta learning languages back in the day. I'm feeling like I lost that a bit, which … Continue reading On How the Word “Semiconductor” Changed My Life – and not in the way you think
China has the badass-iest computer in the world. Had the spot in 2010, lost it for a couple of years, and got it back in 2013. Now, in 2016 they took the number one spot again with the TaihuLight. That makes people nervous. I'm not sure why. Technology is a wonderful thing. We use technology … Continue reading ChauJi DianNao (Chinese for Supercomputer)
I dropped my iPhone the other day. It just fell from about waist height, and it has a case and screen protector. But the fates saw to it that it hit a protruding rock and shattered the screen. It worked, barely, but there was a lot of broken glass. Just moments ago, I took it … Continue reading Un-Plugged
Leveled up in kana and kanji, both. Still giving the pen a break. Below is the kana that the powers that be liked. Lots of pre-hiragana, semi-kanji letters. Now 4-kyu, which means I ranked up 6 times. I need about 7 more to reach a dan. Here is my kanji that leveled up. It's … Continue reading More leveling up
Went away last weekend to Nagano with the fam. I asked them where they'd like to go if they had a weekend and this is what they picked. They picked it because of a TV show, Taiga Drama. It is a period drama, usually with lots of swords, horses, armor, and the like. This one … Continue reading Nagano
Fuji. Never climbed the mountain, only looked at it from afar. Feels wrong, having spent 20 years or so in the country. But I do get nearby for work. So I took a detour on the way back home last time. Took a couple of pics from a lake in Yamanashi. It wasn't the perfect … Continue reading Mount Fuji
I love my sensei. She's a peach, really. She also doesn't pull punches. Been plugging away. Ranked up in kana a bunch of times, kanji a little less. But my pen writing just hasn't budged. Last month sensei likened my pen writing to that of stroke victims she knows. I think it is time to take … Continue reading Break Time
B.S. Donovan 