More than 20 years ago I lived in Tokorozawa, Japan. Tokorozawa was the place I stayed in Japan the longest at about 8 months. It was also the first place in Japan where I felt really comfortable with my Japanese language abilities having been in Japan for more than a year at that point. Those factors, and others, bring back nothing but fond memories for me regarding Tokorozawa.

So when I visited Japan for the first time in decades last year I made a point of seeing my old stomping grounds. My apartment was in 山口 (I think it was called) just behind the above train station. At the time there wasn’t much there except a few small apartments, tea fields, and bamboo. All that has changed now. I did see a bit of tea and bamboo in 2007, but most of the area has been turned into rather upscale, single-family homes.

Until I enlarged the above picture to fill my screen just a moment ago, I didn’t realize that the guy on the train platform appears to be waving at my camera.

Posted on January 8th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: japan pictures, tokorozawa. Comments: 1

We didn’t stay at the Fujiya Hotel when we visited Hakone, but we did go by it on our way to Lake Ashi. I took the above photograph through a bus window. Next time I’d like to stay there and check out the grounds. Many of the buildings have been there for well over 100 years.

Posted on January 6th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: hakone, japan pictures. Comments: 1

I have a couple more issues of Nihongo Journal available. One has a complete practice test for JLPT 1 in it. The other has a complete practice test for JLPT 3 included. Sorry but the issue with a JLPT 2 practice test has been sold.

I also have about 5 issues from 1996 (not pictured) available with cassette tapes.

Prices are $14 an issue + a flat $3 shipping charge no matter how many issues you want. Audio cassettes (when available) are an extra $5 each. If your address is outside of the U.S. shipping will be higher.

Email me if interested.

Posted on January 5th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: nihongo journal. Comments Off on Nihongo Journal 日本語ジャーナル

After the many quotes I’ve offered from Lafcadio Hearn’s classic I thought I’d wrap things up with a brief review of his two volume work, Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan.

If you have never been to Japan, this book will probably be of little interest to you. The intended audience was foreigners who had never been to Japan (indeed very few had when it was written in the 19th Century). I don’t see how they could have grasped much of the contents though.

The parts I enjoyed the most were for places that I have visited or for places which brought back memories of other places I have lived in Japan. Oddly enough, most of the places Hearn describes are not places foreign tourists visit. Kyoto and Tokyo, for instance, are barely mentioned. Much of the book deals with areas east of Himeji (where I have never been, yet)–especially Matsue and areas near it. So, for that reason, it wasn’t as interesting as it could have been had he dwelt mostly on regions more familiar to me.

The parts I enjoyed the most were his impressions. For instance, the chapter entitled something like, “My First Day In Japan” is fun for those who haven’t been to Japan to read as well as for those who can reminisce. What wasn’t as interesting, for me, was his relating of Japanese tales, especially ghost stories, superstitions, etc. Some were entertaining, but most weren’t to me. Apparently he wrote numerous books on that subject after this book. I have no interest in reading them.

It takes an imagination to fully appreciate Hearn. I enjoyed imagining him in pre-car, pre-train Japan riding in a rickshaw and rowing around the country. He laments Japan’s rapid changes at the time. I wonder what he would think if he could see it now?

Posted on January 4th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: book review, lafcadio hearn, reviews. Comments Off on Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan

“That trees, at least Japanese trees, have souls cannot seem an unnatural fancy to one who has seen the blossoming of the umenoki and the sakuranoki. This is a popular belief in Izumo and elsewhere. It is not in accord with Buddhist philosophy, and yet in a certain sense it strikes one as being much closer to cosmic truth than the old Western orthodox notion of trees as ‘things created for the use of man.'” (Lafcadio Hearn, 1894, Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, p. 358)

Posted on January 3rd, 2009 under Japan. Tags: arashiyama, cherry blossoms, japan pictures, kyoto, lafcadio hearn, sakura. Comments Off on 桜の木