Soba, Stick-thwacking, School Visit

I am sick, and it feels like there is an army of very tiny but very strong people inside my head marching and stomping and slamming battering rams into the back of my eyes and shooting flaming arrows down my throat (and I blame this comparison entirely on watching Lord of the Rings last night [...]

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Eat Your Meat

I was assigned this article for my anthro class. I’m not sure quuuiiite how much credit I want to give its claims, but the use of the terms “carnivorous” and “herbivorous” to label traditionally masculine Japanese men and this emerging culture of “ladylike” Japanese men, respectively, is fascinating.

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First Days of Class

Second day and I have more than 100 pages of reading and an essay due Thursday. Oh school, how I have missed you. Classes are good so far. Second-semester Japanese made my poor, inadequate soul cry, so with a strong professor recommendation, I switched into the lower-level class. Today we practiced greetings, `X wa Y [...]

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Karaoke! …and School

A couple nights ago, Julia, Nondie, Gary, Ben, Aaron, and I met up in Roppongi to celebrate Julia’s 21st birthday. (A good number of people have had or are having their birthday here, which could be a bit anticlimactic, since 21 doesn’t signify much of anything in Japan, what with coming-of-age [and the drinking age] [...]

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