1998.08.24 MON

Well, I WAS going to Nagoya tomorrow. Slight change in plans - Tomohiro was a bit busy this week, so we're going there Thursday instead of Tuesday as planned. Oh well, now I have time to write about my weekend instead of pack - yippee!

... anyways. Last week James and I went looking for electronic dictionaries. Turns out that the big hardback kanji dictionaries like the ones I'd need (being a dumb American who wouldn't be able to use a dictionary where the definitions were given with other kanji I don't know) are about 8,000 yen ($55 US, now) or more, so it would probably be more convenient to get an electronic one, so we did. The one we eventually settled on actually cost about $220 or so, but since we didn't have the money with us the first day, and we happened to find it on the next trip for 70% off ($68 or so), we each got one. I love Den-Den Town. (It was James' first trip to Electronics Heaven *.*)

Turns out to be pretty darn convenient, too - if we see one of those really complicated Chinese characters, all we have to do is draw it on the screen and it will automatically figure out what we wrote. So long as we write it correctly, that is - which is a darn good incentive for us to learn the proper stroke order for the kanji, another thing we need to learn. Not only that, if from there it gives us all the pronunciations of the kanji, and if we spend a bit more time looking we can usually get the translation into English as well. On top of that it comes with an address book and a calculator and all kinds of stuff.

In any case, that's probably the most spending I'll be doing for the rest of my time here, but it's one of those things I definitely won't be able to get in America, at least, not cheap. Once again, I'm lucky to know English, because it's that very English knowledge that got me 3,000 yen to pay back for that dictionary, as an assistant for an English school for children over in Nara Prefecture this weekend. The school, named Bing Bing Boom Club or something. usually teaches elementary-school children for about two hours every week, but this week was a special event. In other words, instead of teaching English, the kids got to play games and stuff, like 'Pin The Tail On The Foreigner' and 'Act Like You Don't See The Guy With The Big Red Hair.'

Oh, wait, no, that was the train ride home. Uhm... oh, right. We played games like Bingo and sang songs and stuff like London Bridge. It was so weird singing songs I haven't even heard for ten years or more, but at least James came too. (I was just in tears laughing so hard during the B-I-N-G-O song because I couldn't even remember the words for such a simple song...)

All in all, it was pretty fun, though. I didn't really do much else this week except send off stuff and get my pictures developed, some of which I've scanned in and put on the web.

nijubashi.jpg - The Double Bridge of the Emperor's Palace.

eki-shinjuku.jpg - looking back on the South Gate of JR Shinjuku Station, the busiest train station in Japan.

ekimae-shinjuku.jpg - Reverse angle of eki-shinjuku, looking out on the buildings of Shinjuku Ward.

ekimae-akihabara.jpg - Right outside Akihabara Station, the electronics central of Japan.

ginza.jpg - The Ginza district. Ever see the end of Macross 7 episodes?

bijutsukan.jpg - in front of the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum.

kaminarimon.jpg - The "Thunder Gate" of Asakusa temple, one of the most famous places to see in Tokyo.

tower.jpg - The one of the most famous places to see in Tokyo that most people in America actually KNOW about.

liberty.jpg - The Statue of Liberty, another of the most famous places to see in Tokyo. Okay, not really, but it's the replica I wrote about.

fujibldg.jpg - The Fuji Television building in Ariake. Same general area as the Statue of Liberty and the Rainbow Bridge.

rainbowbridge.jpg - A good shot of a lot of nothing, with the Rainbow Bridge in the background. I need my head checked for taking such a lousy picture.

Other than that, um... well, that's it for this week. I'll write again later when I get back from Nagoya! Until then!