Learn about all things Japanese!

I’ve been working on this one a while.
I am always looking for ways to be a wiser person. Although I have a basic understanding of many cultures all over the world, I decided that in order to be a more complete person, I should also have a deep understanding of one foreign culture.

The culture had to be:
- Very foreign (probably not Europe or the Americas, and not using the roman alphabet)
- Successful (because no country can be very successful with a bad culture)
- Accessible and welcoming to Americans (bonus points if the country was once a colony of or occupied by Britain or the U.S.)

This gave me a short list of Asian countries which included Russia, the Philippines, India, Japan, China, South Korea, etc.

I love video games and want a career in them. On my list, only South Korea and Japan have a large consumer base for video games. I finally decided on Japan because of other things, like anime, and because it’s much more popular here, so it would be easier for me to find things to study while still in the U.S.

Having studied the Japanese language for nearly 3 years formally and 1 year on my own, I have to say I am knee deep into it. I have over 2,000 japanese songs (Jpop, Jrock, Visul K, J-jazz, J-rap, etc.) on my Ipod, Have a ton of purchased anime, and have enjoyed many hours of J-dorama. Currently watching “Beach Boys” which is alot of fun. I love a good sappy “dorama”.　わたしはどらまがすきですね！

Living in the San Francisco Bay Area and close to one of the largest of three Nihon Machi’s (Japantown. There are three in the entire USA and all in California. SF, San Jose and Los Angeles.) has allowed me to dive deep into Japanese culture without stepping on a plane to Tokyo, although I suspect that will come one of these days hopefully soon.

I have even started learning how to roll my own sushi rolls and have made Onigri a few times. Of course, I don’t limit myself to just Japanese culture, since the area I live in, also harbors probably the largest Asian population in the entire USA. There are many Chinese, Thai, Korean, Filipino, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Indonesian, Taiwanese and many other Asian immigrants here, and so all of their culture, has so deeply enriched Northern California. San Francisco also has the largest Chinatown in the USA and the first Vietnamese community in “Little Saigon” within the heart of the city. If one drives south to Los Angeles there is a large area called “Korean town” as well. Oh, and incase you were wondering, there are great places to eat here as well!!

Check out this blog I discovered today about Jpop!

http://beyondthesea.wordpress.com/2007/03/17/single-angela-aki-sakurairo/

There is a shop on Queen Street east called Magic Pony that sells a lot of things from Japanese artists. I bought some cute little toys from “Kid Robot!”

Check it out! www.magicpony.com

I will take the very basic class of learning Japanese. My ex bf’s pal is the teacher so hopefully i will get more attention! I am Chinese, but I cannot read or write…I was born in Canada, but I guess that really is no excuse. Japanese is a lot easier to learn…less characters to memorize!