mimi o sumaseba
The other day I came across the website of Yumiko Kayukawa, an artist who does manga-like paintings. I think Koneko Chan is my favorite one. What I like about her work is that she always puts the title somewhere in the background of each painting, so not only can I admire her artistic ability when I look at her work, but I can practice reading Japanese too ^_^
Speaking of Japanese, because fall break is next week, today they decided to show a video in class instead of making us do any real work. It was an anime called 「耳をすませば」 (the English title is "Whisper of the Heart"). I wasn't at all interested in the angst-ridden teenage love triangle (an obligatory plot element of any shoujo anime, apparently), but the subplot with the stray cat on the subway was pretty cute. And I liked the bit about looking at the names on a circulation card and wondering about the other people who signed out your library books before you did, because I used to do the same thing back before my library switched to barcodes. The summer after I graduated from high school I was in the library looking at a volume of Zen poetry, and found that a girl in my math class had checked it out before. I was really surprised, because I never would have imagined that she was interested in Zen too. Never got a chance to ask her about it, though, because we were all going away to college that fall.
(And if you're wondering why I've been writing so much about my Japanese class lately, it's because it's TAKEN OVER MY ENTIRE LIFE)
Speaking of Japanese, because fall break is next week, today they decided to show a video in class instead of making us do any real work. It was an anime called 「耳をすませば」 (the English title is "Whisper of the Heart"). I wasn't at all interested in the angst-ridden teenage love triangle (an obligatory plot element of any shoujo anime, apparently), but the subplot with the stray cat on the subway was pretty cute. And I liked the bit about looking at the names on a circulation card and wondering about the other people who signed out your library books before you did, because I used to do the same thing back before my library switched to barcodes. The summer after I graduated from high school I was in the library looking at a volume of Zen poetry, and found that a girl in my math class had checked it out before. I was really surprised, because I never would have imagined that she was interested in Zen too. Never got a chance to ask her about it, though, because we were all going away to college that fall.
(And if you're wondering why I've been writing so much about my Japanese class lately, it's because it's TAKEN OVER MY ENTIRE LIFE)