Well my japanese listening exam didnt go too bad today, the first question was just "A asks B questions, translate the answers that B gave" EASY. Question 2 was a diary like thing, a week of this guys events was read out, like "on monday i had a business meeting in ginza i got there by subway blah..." but all the days were mixed up so was a good question really. 3 was quite hard. Was one of those write as much as you can in about 5 seconds ones. Some of the parts were like "say everything you can about Kens siblings" which he said about 20 things in 10 seconds, very hard to keep up i must say. The last question was more of the same, a girl giving a report of how she went to a school to teach japanese. But overall i think i did OK.
Had a fun senses practical today as well, blind tasting chocolate and pickled onions, stabbing each other with paperclips, audiograms and optical illusions, best practical yet.
GIG FRIDAY! woo, gonna be good! anyone in manchester at the time come on down, Phoenix bar at 9pm.
also from now Iwakami-sensei suggested i should do a japanese diary to increase mah mad skills lol, so dont mind my scribblings at the end of each entry, if you can read japanese, enjoy!
今日、試験の後でマンチェスたに買い物をしに行った。Aldiにミルクはとても安いね。さあ。。。たくさん宿題があるから、僕は今晩勉強する。がんばりますよ！
Wednesday, 25 March 2009
Tuesday, 24 March 2009
From Assays to Essays
Oh, this has been a busy week, Radioligand binding assay experiment on monday, so boring, i HATE serial dilutions with a vengeance. Tomorrow ive got my Japanese listening exam, shouldnt be too hard, as long as i practice tonight.
Todays cultural insight is based on todays lecture on Japanese Religion.
The word in japanese for religion is 宗教 (shukyou) the first character meaning a doctrine, the second, teachings, so altogether making a doctrine or set of teachings followed by a lot of people. 80% of Japanese people when asked would say they were Shinto or Buddhist, yet only about 20% would say they were religious. WHY? Its mainly because people follow the traditions of these religions and their implications like the 初詣 (the first visit to a shrine of the year) due to situational reasons, a common phrase is 「苦しい時の神だのみ」 which means "turn to the gods in time of trouble (lit. painful times)"
Also Shrines are Shinto and temples are buddhist, just for differentiation.
Todays cultural insight is based on todays lecture on Japanese Religion.
The word in japanese for religion is 宗教 (shukyou) the first character meaning a doctrine, the second, teachings, so altogether making a doctrine or set of teachings followed by a lot of people. 80% of Japanese people when asked would say they were Shinto or Buddhist, yet only about 20% would say they were religious. WHY? Its mainly because people follow the traditions of these religions and their implications like the 初詣 (the first visit to a shrine of the year) due to situational reasons, a common phrase is 「苦しい時の神だのみ」 which means "turn to the gods in time of trouble (lit. painful times)"
Also Shrines are Shinto and temples are buddhist, just for differentiation.
Friday, 20 March 2009
告白
WOW. I just watched the penultimate episode of toradora that came out today, and what a great episode (dont worry i wont give spoilers). It just goes to show that this really was an outstanding series, the animation is always top notch, and the voices truly fit the personalities of the characters. As with most anime series, being the penultimate episode, its the "big revelation" and what an unexpected one it was! I cant wait to the finale for quite frankly, the best series this season, it airs next week! 楽しみね. On the subject, im looking forward to the new Dragonball HD remake and Full metal alchemist seasons in april. Bleach is gettin interesting again too, its in the middle of yet another filler, but this one is actually relevant to the story and was in the manga,set in the past when all the Vaizards were captains, get to see a fight between urahara and aizen next week me thinks.
Elsewhere, ive started trying to do my lab report, and my god what a slog it will be, i dont find the principles hard, its just all the statistics tests and how they relate to the experiment. Basically its just the effect of Salbutamol (a bronchodilator taken by asthma sufferers) on the airways. A long day awaits me i think.
Elsewhere, ive started trying to do my lab report, and my god what a slog it will be, i dont find the principles hard, its just all the statistics tests and how they relate to the experiment. Basically its just the effect of Salbutamol (a bronchodilator taken by asthma sufferers) on the airways. A long day awaits me i think.
Wednesday, 18 March 2009
Reviews and more general catch up
Well, today started off with pretty horrible weather, but it brightened up! We may well have spring now, have to see how the rest of the week goes i suppose.
On to reviews
SADIE - MASTER OF ROMANCE (Album)
Now ive always had high expectations of these guys and they certainly have delivered on this occasion. Although some of the songs are a bit forgetable, they do grow on you, ive listened to this album a lot recently, i think i just prefer the heaviness in contrast to some of the other recent visual kei dissapointments (12012 im looking at you, thats right hang your heads in shame) but its nice to see that they havent gona all mushy on us. Highlishgts for me are probably: Scarlet, Shingan and kagerou. The intro was quite interesting, i like the idea, the quiet sort of disturbed brooding song but i think maybe could have been implemented a bit better, some DeG influence in there somewhere. Ice romancer, crimson tear and grieving the dead soul are the same as the singles, pretty cool. One thing in my opinion that this album lacks are my payment of vomiter (from crimson tear single) growls WHERE ARE THEY, they were absolutely great especially the "the reason fades away" in the chorus.
In conclusion, i think this album is a nice hard, contrast to alternative VK albums that are around, Sadie should be cherished.
8/10
BORN - Abnormal Head Machine (Album)
Ive followed this band for a while now, theyve only released a handful of singles and live only distributions, and now finally a full album, much to my delight, its a very good album; in some ways very typical and not very stand outey (hah) but very nice none the less. You styart with your typical G.D.S inspired intro, then we move onto some nice tracks most of which have a similar sound, sort of heavy and menacing, easing off for choruses, in which for some strange reason the vocalist chooses to use electronic effects on his voice sometimes, but hey it doesnt sound horrible. some of the songs: vermins cry, with hate etc have been released before but have been rerecorded with added electronic voice effects if you listen closely. But i will praise his singing capability, i very very much like it, (more than Sadie's Mao perhaps?) although some generic songs are present, a promising band none the less.
Highlights: Ruisai no hana, Tragedy and Dust pain
7/10
damn ive still not done anywork again today... oh well back to ocarina of time it is then :D
Also to all you anime fans out there what do you think about ToraDora? I love it :P Opinions greatly appreciated.
One last thing, at our university me and some other japanese students (as in those studying japanese and actual japanese students) have got to arrange a movie night and choose a good japanese movie to represent japan for the "Japan night" that the faculty wants to organise, Any suggestions?
On to reviews
SADIE - MASTER OF ROMANCE (Album)
Now ive always had high expectations of these guys and they certainly have delivered on this occasion. Although some of the songs are a bit forgetable, they do grow on you, ive listened to this album a lot recently, i think i just prefer the heaviness in contrast to some of the other recent visual kei dissapointments (12012 im looking at you, thats right hang your heads in shame) but its nice to see that they havent gona all mushy on us. Highlishgts for me are probably: Scarlet, Shingan and kagerou. The intro was quite interesting, i like the idea, the quiet sort of disturbed brooding song but i think maybe could have been implemented a bit better, some DeG influence in there somewhere. Ice romancer, crimson tear and grieving the dead soul are the same as the singles, pretty cool. One thing in my opinion that this album lacks are my payment of vomiter (from crimson tear single) growls WHERE ARE THEY, they were absolutely great especially the "the reason fades away" in the chorus.
In conclusion, i think this album is a nice hard, contrast to alternative VK albums that are around, Sadie should be cherished.
8/10
BORN - Abnormal Head Machine (Album)
Ive followed this band for a while now, theyve only released a handful of singles and live only distributions, and now finally a full album, much to my delight, its a very good album; in some ways very typical and not very stand outey (hah) but very nice none the less. You styart with your typical G.D.S inspired intro, then we move onto some nice tracks most of which have a similar sound, sort of heavy and menacing, easing off for choruses, in which for some strange reason the vocalist chooses to use electronic effects on his voice sometimes, but hey it doesnt sound horrible. some of the songs: vermins cry, with hate etc have been released before but have been rerecorded with added electronic voice effects if you listen closely. But i will praise his singing capability, i very very much like it, (more than Sadie's Mao perhaps?) although some generic songs are present, a promising band none the less.
Highlights: Ruisai no hana, Tragedy and Dust pain
7/10
damn ive still not done anywork again today... oh well back to ocarina of time it is then :D
Also to all you anime fans out there what do you think about ToraDora? I love it :P Opinions greatly appreciated.
One last thing, at our university me and some other japanese students (as in those studying japanese and actual japanese students) have got to arrange a movie night and choose a good japanese movie to represent japan for the "Japan night" that the faculty wants to organise, Any suggestions?
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
よし！
Woo, Tokyo in the summer, get to see all the guys, all july, gonna be awesome, gonna be bankrupt goin gigs n music n clothes n everything. VK gigs galore please, and hopefully me and Akira can make that crazy show that we can put on youtube hehe.
Tomorrow, you have reviews to look forward to, the new Sadie album, 新興宗教楽団NoGoD album, and the Mucc one too, aaand maybe some anime reviews too, probably kannagi and toradora.
thats all for today, time for more work and dinner now.
Tomorrow, you have reviews to look forward to, the new Sadie album, 新興宗教楽団NoGoD album, and the Mucc one too, aaand maybe some anime reviews too, probably kannagi and toradora.
thats all for today, time for more work and dinner now.
The return of spring and various other things
Well, its been a while, so ive decided to start this ol'bloggywog back up again.
A lot has happened, and its now a busy time of the year, much like the rest of it...
ANYWAY, it seems as though spring has come once again after months of gloom, we finally had a good days sunshine and reasonable warmth today, nice change lets hope it stays that way.
In academic news, ive got a LOT of coursework to do now before the end of term, now only a week and a half away. A lab report, an essay on Japanese politics and general revision.
Now an announcement to those of you in the manchester area on FRIDAY 27th MARCH, at the PHOENIX BAR on Oxford road at 9PM, there is the annual MUJS cosplay party, DO COME! its gonna be a great night, mainly because my band is playing haha, yes were well underway with preparations, weve got a half hour set playin various anime and japanese covers, as well as a Metallica cover for no apparent reason! But hey itll be great, we have band practice normally on a monday night but lately weve stepped up to two nights a week, so as soon as this gig is done we can begin the song writing process again.
But to those of you reading,let me just point out one thing, i may use japanese words every now and then in here, but let me assure you i am not your typical wannabee who only knows "kawaii" i am learning the language as part of my degree, and i proudly admit i watch anime but i am not the typical fanboy who just rates everything as 10 out of 10 just because it japan related, just wanted to point that out before we begin, because some blogs/people i have seen about are that type of well frankly, fag.
now that were all caught up i can now begin todays news and items.
Today has been quite a good day, nice weather relatively laid back day. Had japanese this morning, preparing for my listening exam next week, should be ok.
This afternoon was much more interesting; in my Japanese society lecture today we continued looking at the traditional 家(Ie) household ideals, based on lineage and how it has developed now into more 家庭 (katei) or nuclear families. Perhaps the most intriguing thing was after that when we were introduced to the view of the japanese psyche, and the interdependance and connected mindsets that they have, for example the character for person 人（ひと） or hito is written as 2 lines, and looking at it in a different way, you could say that this character is made of two lines each leaning on the other, without one the other would fall, signifying that humans are supported by others, and the kanji for human being or "ningen" 人間 means "between people". The view of 命(inochi) also was brought into the fray, meaning life itself as an existance, not your everyday life (生活), not just human life (人生), but all animals and plants share the inochi, "inochi is the only thing all that all creatures have in common". Very interesting indeed. And there is todays cultural insight into japan, my new item which i will post everyday!
Yay, if you managed to read this whole post then pat yourself on the back, and i award you a *fix* virtual cookie.
(^.^)/
A lot has happened, and its now a busy time of the year, much like the rest of it...
ANYWAY, it seems as though spring has come once again after months of gloom, we finally had a good days sunshine and reasonable warmth today, nice change lets hope it stays that way.
In academic news, ive got a LOT of coursework to do now before the end of term, now only a week and a half away. A lab report, an essay on Japanese politics and general revision.
Now an announcement to those of you in the manchester area on FRIDAY 27th MARCH, at the PHOENIX BAR on Oxford road at 9PM, there is the annual MUJS cosplay party, DO COME! its gonna be a great night, mainly because my band is playing haha, yes were well underway with preparations, weve got a half hour set playin various anime and japanese covers, as well as a Metallica cover for no apparent reason! But hey itll be great, we have band practice normally on a monday night but lately weve stepped up to two nights a week, so as soon as this gig is done we can begin the song writing process again.
But to those of you reading,let me just point out one thing, i may use japanese words every now and then in here, but let me assure you i am not your typical wannabee who only knows "kawaii" i am learning the language as part of my degree, and i proudly admit i watch anime but i am not the typical fanboy who just rates everything as 10 out of 10 just because it japan related, just wanted to point that out before we begin, because some blogs/people i have seen about are that type of well frankly, fag.
now that were all caught up i can now begin todays news and items.
Today has been quite a good day, nice weather relatively laid back day. Had japanese this morning, preparing for my listening exam next week, should be ok.
This afternoon was much more interesting; in my Japanese society lecture today we continued looking at the traditional 家(Ie) household ideals, based on lineage and how it has developed now into more 家庭 (katei) or nuclear families. Perhaps the most intriguing thing was after that when we were introduced to the view of the japanese psyche, and the interdependance and connected mindsets that they have, for example the character for person 人（ひと） or hito is written as 2 lines, and looking at it in a different way, you could say that this character is made of two lines each leaning on the other, without one the other would fall, signifying that humans are supported by others, and the kanji for human being or "ningen" 人間 means "between people". The view of 命(inochi) also was brought into the fray, meaning life itself as an existance, not your everyday life (生活), not just human life (人生), but all animals and plants share the inochi, "inochi is the only thing all that all creatures have in common". Very interesting indeed. And there is todays cultural insight into japan, my new item which i will post everyday!
Yay, if you managed to read this whole post then pat yourself on the back, and i award you a *fix* virtual cookie.
(^.^)/
Im back
now after a lengthy break, of almost 4 months im back in business! with more reviews, pictures and general madness than ever! watch this space, my first proper post will be after i finish the washing up...
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