Nicholas' Journey to Japan

 こんにちは！ わたしはブルックスさんのうちにいきました！きんようびのよる､シェンギリスのコンサートにいきました。どようびに、がっこうにかえりました。それからにちようびに、わたしはえいがをみました。 ありがとうございます！

こんにちは! I recently watched the Japanese movie Grave of the Fireflies, which follows two kids named Seita and Setsuko as they struggle to survive fire bombings and famine in Japan at the end of WW2. This is without a doubt the saddest movie I've ever watched, and it truly highlights the devastation of war and its effects on civilians. While history tends to focus on the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the fire bombings of many Japanese cities like Tokyo and Kobe were just as destructive. After recently traveling to Tokyo, it is difficult to imagine how at least half of the city had been destroyed by firebombing. I highly recommend this movie, although it really is extremely sad.  

こんにちは！ I find it very interesting that Japanese borrows so many words from other languages. In many cases, it is possible to guess what a word will be in Japanese by just thinking of the pronunciation in terms of katakana. For example, bus is simply バス, instant coffee is インスタントコーヒー, and Kit-kat is キットカット. Although Kanji still seems necessary to fully understand written Japanese, knowing katakana is a major help.  When walking through Tokyo, I noticed that katakana was used significantly more often than hiragana on buildings and signs. In fact, even English seemed more common than hiragana. This makes sense as katakana is typically used for company names, especially for foreign companies.

 こんにちは! For spring break, I traveled with Andrew and our other roommate to Japan. We spent 3 days in Tokyo, 3 days in Kyoto, and did a day trip to Hakone and Mt. Fuji. Although most people seemed to understand English, I enjoyed practicing my Japanese when at restaurants or shopping. Andrew and I got some funny reactions when we went beyond the normal こんいちは and あっりがとございます. At first, Tokyo looked like any other major city. However, a few things quickly stood out to us. First, the streets were perfectly clean. It was interesting walking down busy streets that had no litter anywhere. Also, the streets and especially the public transportation were very quiet. No one would talk on the subways and buses, so we were constantly paying attention to our volume and correcting each other. Even though we were careful to follow all of the social etiquette, such as no eating or drinking while walking and no jaywalking, we still had people staring and watching us which we are not used to. We also ...

 こんにちは！ This week we learned how to talk about what we like in Japanese. Here are a couple of things I like: わたしわにんてんどのげえむとそぽおつがすきです。 Some of my favorite Nintendo games are the different Mario Kart, Pokemon, and Zelda games. I am currently playing Mario Kart World and Zelda Tears of the Kingdom. I also like sports. I grew up watching baseball, but since coming to ND I have been addicted to college football. I still occasionally watch basketball or baseball, but football is definitely now my favorite sport. I've heard that baseball is popular in Japan. I think it would be cool to go to a baseball game there! ありがとうございます。See everyone in class!

こんにちわ！Welcome back to my blog! Even though we have had just four weeks of class, I already feel like I am beginning to understand にほんご. I am proud that I can now introduce myself in Japanese, and I look forward to doing so when I visit Japan in less than a month. はじめまして。わたしわNicholasです。Nootoru damu だいがくのよねんせえです。わたしのせんこおはbiologyです。しゅっしんはVirginiaのViennaです。どおぞよろしくおねがいします。 This weekend, I watched My Neighbor Totoro by Studio Ghibli. This was one of my favorite movies growing up, so it was fun to rewatch it but with a new appreciation for the Japanese language. Even though I watched the English version of the movie, I was still able to see some hiragana throughout the movie, such as when the cat bus displayed the destination as "めい". I highly recommend My Neighbor Totoro to anyone who has not seen it yet, and I cannot wait to watch more Studio Ghibli movies! あっりがとうございます for reading my blog, and enjoy the Super Bowl!