Norwegian Wood

Lately I've been reading Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami, which was a recommendation from one of my teachers. Haruki Murakami is probably one of the most famous authors in Japan right now. In 2009, he just came out with 1Q84, which is now on it's 3rd volume and on my list of books to read. Also, I'm late, but I just found out that there will be a movie Norwegian Wood based on the novel coming out in December, which I'm excited to see. I'm not a big fan of movies based on books, however, there have been a few times where I like both the movie and the book. So I will definitely be checking out the movie, even if I haven't finished the book yet!

おとなになっているかな．．．

最近な、失敗だらけから俺の人生はどうになっているかわからへん。

失敗しないと、成長できない、という考え方があるのに、たまに失敗は取り戻せない。それで大人になっているかなって。自分の人生の中でたまに悪い判断で馬鹿なことをするし、それで人生はくるしくなるかもしれへん。でも、たぶん一番重要なのは自分の失敗から学ぶことです。自分に起こることは理由があるんだと思っています。
最初は忘れようしても、忘れられない。ただ時間が経つにつれて、忘れて始める。だけど、いつもレッスンとして心の中に残っておいて、それから人生の困難に遭遇すると簡単に解決することができる。

たしかに他人の失敗から学べるけど、自分の強さ、自分の才能とかを見つけるために、たまに自分の失敗しかない経験しなきゃと思う。それなかったら人生は簡単すぎるし、意味がない。

俺はどんなおとなになっても、がんばる。

最期まで諦めない。

Back to School!

So I've been back to school for about a week now. It's good to be back to see the new people and just get back into the groove of school. Now I'm in E class, which is the upper level intermediate course. It is very challenging, but it's fun! On Friday we will have a BBQ or picnic to welcome the new students. Can't wait!

I can't remember if I've posted a picture of my school, but here it is.

Back from Tokyo Pt.2 Day 2

On my 2nd day in Tokyo one of friends was able to show me around Tokyo. So I went to all of the famous places like Shibuya, Ikebukuro, Shinjuku, Harajuku and the like. Since this was my first real time in Tokyo, it felt like the movies, especially seeing and being able to walk through the famous pedestrian crossing in Shibuya....lol Unfortunately it was a rainy, but we made our way around doing a bit of window shopping and stuff like that.

Tokyo in general, is really too crowded for me, but it's where everything in terms of company headquarters and stuff like that. Ideally I would like to stay in Kansai, but I'll go where the opportunities are as well!

Also, I was fortunate enough to get to take a class at Waseda University on Telecommunication and Broadcasting Art or something like that. lol It was long. That's all I will say about that. It was good to see what the campus and stuff was like though.
Well, here are a few pics!
These are pics of Shibuya.
This is near Harajuku.This is Meiji Jingu (Meiji Shrine).

Back From Tokyo! Pt.1 説明会！

I just got back from Tokyo a few days ago. It was definitely a great experience! I only spent two days, one day at the seminar, and one just checking out a bit of Tokyo.

As far as the seminar or setsumeikai, it was very interesting. The company deals with business intelligence and stuff like that which is directly up my street since it is some of what I studied in university. In university, the same company came to give presentations so I was fully aware of, even if I couldn't understand every word, what was going on.

The flow of the program was first there was an explanation about the company and what they do, which was about 2 hours or so.Then, we were able to ask questions to recent hires. I was a bit nervous to speak at first, but I got over that real quick and shot a few questions. Afterward we took a 10 min. break and then took a series of tests including math and just basic reading comprehension in Japanese and a small portion in English.
By the way, math and in Japanese! I haven't seen math since I took Calculus II in my freshman semester, which now is a long time from now...lol I would say I definitely took longer than everyone else, since I don't read and comprehend that fast yet...lol

What I will say helped me is READING on my own. I have a few business and programming books in Japanese that I will dabble in when I'm in the mood. Just being able to recognize that I heard some of the same words from those books during the presentation, was a big motivation. So keep reading, even if you don't understand it all yet. One day it'll all come together. Take it from AJATT. Alot of times people look at me like, "Why are you reading that?" or "Can you understand everything?". However, it's more about just reading what you want to read or doing what you want to do in general. Even in your native language you don't understand every word that you come across, but you still have some level of understanding of the message. So keep reading, keep learning!

Overall, it was just a great experience! If I did well on the aptitude test, I'll be back in Tokyo soon! :) Regardless of the result, I'll be back in Tokyo soon :)