Once upon a time in the late 90s when I had been living in northern Japan for several months and getting absolutely nowhere with my Japanese language studies, I came upon a book whose title struck a chord: Japanese for Lazy People. It was a small book, so easy to carry around, … [Read more...] about Japanese for Lazy People
Colors of Spring
Spring has come to Hanayama. One of the joys of having a new home, is finding out what kind of flowers you have in your garden when spring arrives. It turns out we have daffodils... camelias... forsythia... and meadowsweet (?) which is called … [Read more...] about Colors of Spring
Joshua Breakstone at Basin Street
Just a few pictures from Joshua Breakstone's regular "Last Saturday" show at Basin Street,Kobe, which we attended the other night. Joshua plays here on the last Saturday of each month along with his regular group and one special guest. This month the special guest was Philip … [Read more...] about Joshua Breakstone at Basin Street
Our First Visit to Authors Live, Kobe
Now we live in Kobe, in a lovely big house up in the mountains, with fabulous sunsets every evening and the autumnal chorus of bell crickets as accompaniment. But we don't know anybody. So last weekend, to throw a few business cards around and maybe encounter a few friendly … [Read more...] about Our First Visit to Authors Live, Kobe
Eugene Nida on Multiple Translations
Of late, I've been working my way through the key theorists in Lawrence Venuti's The Translation Studies Reader . There's a lot of good thought-provoking stuff in there. When I got to Eugene Nida, I happened to look him up online to find out a bit more about his background and … [Read more...] about Eugene Nida on Multiple Translations