Entries this day: awesome_kanji_book short_soml tomorrow

awesome kanji book

10:31pm JST Sunday 06 March 2005

Man, this cool kanji book is cooler than cool; it's awesome! In a day of non-constant work, I have locked into my brain 65 kanji (so far). Now, I must must must admit that some of them were already in there. But this new technique of connecting them to meanings in English makes a damn lot of sense.

Previously I had been learning the sounds of words via hiragana, and then once I had the sound locked in my mind, learn the kanji as an arbitrary picture for that hiragana, sometimes simply by adding bits of previously known kanji together.

This book starts with simple kanji (or elements of kanji) and gives them meaning in English. Then stacking the parts together to make more complex kanji becomes easier.

However, in the Introduction, the author says "The more you try to combine the study of the written kanji through the method outlined in these pages with traditional study of the kanji, the less good this book will do you. I know of no exceptions."

I am not really studying written kanji in a "traditional" way that I know of; so I'll take the risk and imagine this book will help me.

The book is ISBN 4-88996-075-9 _Remembering the Kanji_ by James W. Heisig.

short soml

11:12pm JST Sunday 06 March 2005

I just wrote this to Ryan in China:

I will begin my bicycling adventures soon. It's warming up in Japan. Very slowly, but warming. I recently got some maps and stuff for a great price from a bicycling guy who was getting rid of all his junk so he could leave the country.

I've got to do the same soon. I plan to quit my apartment after April (during April I'll only have a weekend job and do practice bicycle trips during the week); I sent a box to janette recently. My brother was at her house when she opened it, which was quite convenient because I had included some stuff for him.

I have a few contacts collected for places I can stay in various places. Awesome. I hope to balance (! time to relax in a safe place (@ overstaying my welcome (3 getting on with my trip ($ getting stuck in one area (% parenthesis (^ access to internet / electricity for journaling (& breaking free of digital chains)))))))

I am also not sure what's next for me. Though I imagine riding my bicycle around Japan counts as a cool project, it is temporary.

tomorrow

11:16pm JST Sunday 06 March 2005

According to excite.co.jp it's scheduled to be sunny and between 6 and 11 degrees C during the day tomorrow. TJ Bike and I are definitely going to go out. I need to remember to go to Gaba-work in the afternoon, though.