Forgetfullness

I realized that I have been slacking in the blog department since classes started so here goes.

Two days ago I had planned to go to Ceatec with Vaso. However he sent me an e-mail in the morning saying that he was sick. It was probably something he ate, as he wanted to meet up and do something around 1 pm. Anyhow, I spent my morning being lazy around the house. While I have not picked up any video games yet, I did pick up my Japanese textbook and started studying; something I have not done in a long time. I ended up mostly reviewing my Kanji as that is the gateway for me to learn other words. For lunch I ran up to the local convinience store and picked up some onigiri and a plate of yakisoba. By the time I arrived home, Vaso was already wanting to do something. Naturally, I agreed.

We met up at Shinjuku at the usual spot, the bridge in front of Bic-Camera. From there we went on a journey through Shinjuku looking for the lone bank that was still open. We had already been to this bank once before, but neither one of us really paid attention to where it was. We walked past various landmarks including a row of vending machines and a few banks with only atm's in them. Finally we had a revelation, and realized that the bank we were looking for was right across the street. Well that was a fun adventure.

So now we were left with nothing to do. I suggested that we hit up the local Kinokuniya to pick up the books we needed for school. I needed the Tale of Genji and Vaso needed something called Japan and Korea. We needed to go to the other side of the Shinjuku train station. The plan was to walk straight through from the west exit to the east exit. We came out of the exit, walked around a corner, and there was the Bic-Camera again. Somehow we managed to walk in a circle. Back to the train station! This time we came out a lot closer to our destination, so I decided that it was best just to walk around the station until we hit Kinokuniya.

I ended up buying the Royall version of The Tale of Genji. It is the most recent and hopefully will be easier to read than the other versions. Vaso found his book as well. After that we headed home. I read the introduction of my book later that night. It looks like it will be an interesting story.

Yesterday I had lots of classes. Japanese class was awesome as we had a different teacher. This one is much more engaging compared to the other. I am really glad that we will have her every Thursday. The next class was really fun. It is my Translation Theory class. We started off by breaking into groups and trying to translate a short story from Japanese into English. Our group consisted of me, Vaso, Mariko, and another girl at our level. Mariko is a native Japanese speaker and helped translate all of the kanji. We found out that it is hard to agree on a translation when we are all working together. Everyone has their own idea of what they think would be the best way to describe any particular sentence. After this little project, our teacher started going over some of the basic theories of translation such as word-for-word and sense-for-sense. I really think I will enjoy that class. Finally, I attended the second lecture of Genji. We talked about the family tree of the old emperor Nobihiko. It did not interest me too much, but it is important to know where the tale of Genji came from and why. I just cannot wait to start reading it!