90 Days

As of today, there's 90 days left on our contract. If I don't count the weekends or holidays or the ten days in July when we will be on vacation, there's really only 53 days left.

We've been in Japan for four years now and I can't believe it is coming to an end.

I am not sure how I feel about any of it; I am simultaneously excited and terrified.

Kanji

Someone recently asked me how many Kanji I could read after living here for four years. Given that you need to know 1,945 characters (mandated by the government and taught in schools) to be able to read newspapers and most literature in Japan - I am assuredly illiterate.

Additionally Kanji have both a Japanese pronounciation called Kun and a Chinese pronounciation called On or Hon, because Kanji came from China. With a few exceptions, I only know the Japanese reading.

What I do know are usually pictographs, symbols and a few ideographs. I know very few phono-ideographs, which are what makes up about 80% of Kanji (they're the hardest to learn).

Here's the wiki entry on Kanji.


Honestly, I really can't read. So a better question would be how many Kanji can I recognize?

In no particular order (and I know I am forgetting some, I'll add them when/if I remember). If I wasn't lazy, I would put the Kanji in, too, but that involves a lot of cutting and pasting.

Oil
Camelia (Tsubaki) I learned these two together because I use camelia oil as a hair treatment.

School

Man
Woman
Noisy (made up of three little versions of the kanji for woman. Ha ha ha)
Child

Dog
Bird
Horse (that comes from learning it to avoid eating horse meat, a popular dish here)
Fish

Sun
Moon
Sky
Rain
Wind

North
South
East
West

Fire
Water
Electricity
Danger
Disaster
Thunder
Lightening
Earthquake
Rain

Wheel (included in the characters for car, bike and train)


Thing/Things
Goods (like in Dry Goods)
Laundry

Fat
Carbohydrate
Calories
Fiber
(all of these are actually a series of Kanji)

Red
Black
White
Grey
Purple
Green/Blue

Bamboo

Raw or Draft (nama, used as in Nama Biru - draft beer)
Alcohol
Rice
Vegetable(s)

Shop/Store/Vendor

Hour
Minute
Day
Month
Year

Most numbers
Yen
Discount

Winter
Spring
Summer
Fall

Entrance
Exit
Stop

Enlightenment
Samurai

Tea

Helmet

Silk
Cotton
Wool (same kanji as "Hair")
Gold
Silver

River
Spring
Mountain
Tree
Forest

Over
Under
Field
Village
City

Gate
Corner

Flower
Book (one of the few I know both Japanese and Chinese readings)
Stone/Rock
Feather/Wing

Person
Love
Spirit
Old

Heaven

Power
Inside/Deep
Dream
Light
Medicine/Drug
Big (also know Japanese and Chinese reading for this one)
Inside

Umbrella
Road/Way
Book also used as Origin - Japanese and Chinese reading)

Genji's Spot

Genji's Spot
Originally uploaded by bakagaijiin

Here's Genji's ashes, in a beautiful cobalt blue urn that I commissioned for him. His name is on the bottom.

He is surrounded by "hot anime babes in bikinis" - my husbands tacky collection. Eh, whatever.

It's been a rough week: I've called for him a few times, got confused about where the food dishes got off to and when I was shopping yesterday, almost picked up a new collar for him.

I'd like to thank everyone who emailed, messaged, called or otherwise expressed their care and concern.

The Very Last One

The Very Last One
Originally uploaded by bakagaijiin

This is the last picture taken of our little furry guy, Genji.

Our Little Furry Guy
March 2003 - June 2008

If you click on the picture, you can see Genji's flickr set, going all the way back to 2004.

Amazing Day at Towadako (Towada Lake)

Amazing
Originally uploaded by bakagaijiin

It's rainy season right now, and when I woke up today, there was no way in hell I was going into work - it was an amazing beautiful day, and I think by law we're only allowed three of them per summer in Misawa.

Chris' work ethic almost got in the way of the day trip, but once he got outside, he realized that work would wait but this kind of day would not.

It was a lovely, lovely day. You can click the photo to go to the flickr set to view more pictures.

We went into work in the evening for a little bit, so we weren't all that bad.

Four Years

Four years ago today, we came to Japan!