Thoughts

It has been a while since I've actually written anything, falling back on the adage that a picture is worth a thousand words. Still, while the pictures do show where we have visited and what we have seen, there is much more to our stay here.

This is true of any community, but as you spend time in it, you grow to become a part of it. I finally got back to swimming after about a month of absence. The coaches at the pool were excited that I made it back, and within three days I was back up to three thousand metres in an hour and a half. I don’t know if that’s good or not, but it is difficult for me, especially with the goals that I have set for myself. I spent a fair amount of time attempting to communicating in Japanese that isn’t improving at the rate my English is degenerating. Still, people were glad to see me, and that is always a plus.

I got together with R from 水口 for studying. I brought my Kanji study along but didn’t get to it as I was finishing up some reading on software verification and validation, and then on the use of statistics in information theory. We ended up talking a lot more than studying, about a wide variety of topics. I always enjoy getting together with him, his points of view are, well, good to hear.

Japanese lessons on Friday were amusing, as my 先生 hadn’t been there for two weeks and neither had I, nor the other student. School, and opressive jobs taking their tolls I suppose. Regardless, we had fun laughing at how much we had forgotten in missing just two weeks. I have just enough ability to get some jokes, which is nice, but also just enough to know when people are talking about me, but not what exactly they’re saying, and that’s annoying. On our way home from 九州 We took the のぞみ新幹線 to 京都. I got up to use the restroom, and it wasn’t particularly clean when I got in, so I spent some time, with available tools, to clean it. After I left, an elderly lady entered. She asked me how to close the door, you push a button that says close in Kanji and English, and I showed her. Apparently things weren’t the way she liked it though, and upon returning to her seat, which was right behind mine, began to complain about the 外人 that used the rest room before she did, with her son laughing. *SIGH* I don’t really know what to say about stuff like that.

Classes are going well for me, and the first phase of my research project is coming to a close in the next couple of weeks. They’ve decided to use the computers for other things so I have to hurry up and conclude my measurements before they do so. I suppose it’s a good motivator. I’m really pleased with the initial results of it, and I’ve been working on a way to increase the channel capacity, but that’ll have to wait until next term. That’s about it for now. No great philisophical thoughts or comments on Japanese culture, just a general update on my life.