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Walk or Path of Philosophy

Tetsugaku no michi (哲学の道) is the walking path that runs between Ginkakuji (pictured on the upper-right portion of this page) and Nanzenji. There are several other beautiful temples and shrines that run up the hill from this path too. Unfortunately, the SD card in my camera malfunctioned, and I lost those pictures. That gives me a good reason for going back though. 😉

Some of the trees were in full bloom, but most still needed another few days. This was on the 1st of April, 2007.

Nishida Kitaro, a philosophy professor at Kyoto University in the early part of the 20th Century, walked this path on a daily basis. Hence, the name–Walk of Philosophy. In English you also hear it referred to as the Path of Philosophy or the Philosopher’s Path.

Posted on September 7th, 2008 under Japan. Tags: japan pictures, kyoto. Comments Off on Walk or Path of Philosophy

Arashiyama Sakura 嵐山桜

Perhaps the best day we had in Japan was the day we road the train to Arashiyama. Near the station we rented bikes and then spent the day exploring north-eastern Kyoto on bicycles. I’ll show you some more pictures from this part of town and Sagano in future entries.

The above photograph is what things looked like during the first week of April. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom. Unfortunately, we had overcast skies so the picture isn’t that spectacular. The sakura tree was so large that I couldn’t get it all in the frame. Notice the posts that hold up the tree.

Posted on September 5th, 2008 under Japan. Tags: arashiyama, cherry blossoms, japan pictures, kyoto, sakura. Comments Off on Arashiyama Sakura 嵐山桜

東本願寺 on a Sunday morning

On a Sunday morning in Kyoto I woke up well before my family and went for a walk. I found myself walking around Nishi Honganji (西本願寺) and Higashi Honganji (東本願寺). I went in Higashi Honganji and sat in on 10 minutes or so of the chanting. It was very moving. I think I like weekend mornings in Japan the best. The streets are virtually empty and everything is at peace.

Posted on September 4th, 2008 under Japan. Tags: japan pictures, kyoto. Comments Off on 東本願寺 on a Sunday morning

Seibu Lions

The Seibu Lions are about to win the Pacific League in Nippon Professional Baseball for 2008. Last year, when I saw them last, they didn’t even make the playoffs. This year they seem to be headed toward their former glory years (of the late 80s when I lived in Tokorozawa and early 90s). Hopefully they will keep it up next year when I return.

My favorite player, Kiyohara Kazuhiro, is retiring this year. He recently made his retirement announcement while playing against Seibu.

Posted on September 3rd, 2008 under Japan. Tags: baseball, japan pictures, tokorozawa. Comments Off on Seibu Lions

Kanji Cafe

Continuing yesterday’s discussion of Japanese for beginners, I recently found this file: http://www.kanjicafe.com/Reading.pdf which looks pretty useful for those looking to learn katakana, hiragana, and some vocabulary along the way.

I stumbled on it rather by accident. As previously mentioned, I check in daily at Kanji-a-day to review four kanji. Recently the site has shown a neat little stroke order diagram underneath the kanji. Under the diagram is a kanjicafe.com copyright notice so I decided to check out kanjicafe.com.

The site is very confusing and difficult to follow, but if you don’t mind the learning curve there is some good stuff on it for improving any level of Japanese proficiency. I’ve been experimenting with the “Ice Mocha” the last few days and have found it useful (although not user friendly in the initial stages). Those studying for the JLPT exams will not want to miss it.

Posted on September 2nd, 2008 under Japan. Tags: japanese language, Japanese Language Study Methods, japanese links. Comments Off on Kanji Cafe

Free hiragana flashcards

My wife and kids are learning hiragana and katakana. My wife is taking her first Japanese course at the university this fall. Her textbook, Genki, quickly loses the romaji and moves into hiragana and katakana only (as it should). So she needs to get up to speed quickly on reading hiragana (and katakana too).

For a car trip Labor Day weekend I thought some hiragana flash cards would be a good idea. Many sites on the internet try to sell you flash cards. I found a link that allows you to print them out for free. The .pdf file is downloadable. Just download, open it, read the directions on the last page, and print. I recommend turning your printer setting to draft mode for a couple of reasons. The first is that you will be printing a lot and your ink will run out sooner using a higher quality setting. The second is that if you are printing on paper, instead of cardstock, you may be able to see the reverse side of the flash card in anything but draft mode.

Here is the link:

http://unckel.de/kanacards/index-en.html

Another suggestion for learning Japanese with these flashcards is to include a Japanese word on the backside to learn with each hiragana or katakana character. There is plenty of space. For instance, on the back of flashcard あ write あい (love), on the back of flashcard い write いす (chair), etc.

For a completely free, online, downloadable, printable, complete set of Japanese hiragana and katakana flashcards to help you learn the characters quickly the above link can’t be beat.

Enjoy and happy studies!

More Japanese language study materials

Posted on September 1st, 2008 under Japan. Tags: japanese language, Japanese Language Study Methods, japanese links. Comments Off on Free hiragana flashcards