Introduction...again.

はじめまして。ブライアンです。わたしはコロンビアだいがくのにねんせいです。アメリカじんです。ロスアンジェルスからきました。わたしのせんこうわコンプタサイェンスです。じゅきゅさいです。どうぞよろしく。

ロスアンジェルス　＝　Los Angeles (lo su a n je lu su)
コンプタサイェンス　＝　computer science (ko n pu ta sa ye n su)
アメリカ　＝　America (a me ri ka)

What is a good blog?

I suppose a good blog is one that provides interesting, useful information pertaining to a certain topic. Blogs that meet these criteria actually provide a service instead of simply being a personal endeavor that one chooses to make public without good reason. It's probably for this reason that widely read blogs deal with one or only a few related topics, such as politics, news, or even computers.

On that note...I'll try to make this blog more than a requirement for a course, but something that might be of interest and use to others.

More soon,
じゃまった

Japan in American culture/media

One of the very few big network shows I've watched diligently in recent memory is NBC's show "Heroes", actually largely due to the fact that one of the main characters is a time-traveling, badass, にほんのかいしゃいん. Apparently I'm not the only one who sees the appeal, since both the show and the particular character I'm talking about, 中村(なかむら) ひろ, are very popular. Truth be told, listening to the Japanese that's spoken in the show made me even more excited to learn the language.

So why bring this up?

There's a link on the Heroes website that leads to The Yamagato Fellowship, an apparently fictional center for the study of historical heroes (The founder is 中村かいと, Hiro's father in the show). The site is worth a look for any fans of the show, especially the message from the founder (entirely in Japanese), and the 5 documentaries (pretty sure these are fictional too) about the legendary hero Takezo Kensei, whose story is referred to several times in the first season and who appears to be a main character in the second season.

Check it out:
http://yamagatofellowship.org/index.shtml

Japan's fascination with American culture is well known, but it's awesome to see that the reverse is true as well.

More later,
じゃまった

Chigai masu!

Columbia daigaku no ichinensei ja arimasen

Ninensei desu.

(The error before was made intentionally so I could later practice my Japanese negation skills...obviously)

It all starts here, I guess

Hajime mashite.
Bryan desu.
Columbia daigaku no ichinensei desu.
Los Angeles kara kimashita

Dozo yoroshiku


The first of many...
We'll see where we all end up.