Ben the Japanese American

Auto-redirect

2005-02-06T23:04:00.000-08:00

This is a script-based automatic redirect. You should hit my homepage in about ... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... yeah you're there already ;) Ben

Redirect!

2005-01-13T13:24:00.000-08:00

I've stopped updating this blog for now. I'm focusing on keeping a photo journal on my homepage. You can view it by going to My Pictures, and then selecting any of the choices in "Around Japan" !

Millions upon millions...

2004-10-20T15:38:00.000-07:00

Hey all, I've had a homepage OVERHAUL. There's lots more information about me, what I like / do, and my time in Japan. You can get a bunch of photos there too. I'm substituting that for the past 1 month of Blogging--that was WAY more work than any blogging! Nothing new to report here though... we're working hard to find schools. If you go to my "acadmemic writing" page and choose the "resources" link, you can have a look at some professors that I'm currently impressed by. I have about 5 more that I want to investigate, plus some ideas for how to find interesting departments. It's just too much sometimes... Don't forget to check out my homepage. Let me know what you think.

Just 2 months to go...

2004-10-03T23:38:00.005-07:00

Just two months to go before applications are due for graduate school. Just one week until our self-imposed due-date to find schools that we're interested in.

I'm also trying very hard to read and write academic papers, in order to have some tangible credential when I apply.

I made two webpages to track my information about this stuff:

So, if you'd like to know more about how I'm thinking / leaning, you can go there and see my latest thoughts.

Take care! Write me an email or call me!
Ben

Sports Festival

2004-05-23T03:22:00.000-07:00

Hitting the Pressure Free-throw	Running Anchor in the Final Relay	We Win!

Anybody interested in "Iron Chef"-fing?

2004-05-17T03:48:00.000-07:00

Anybody interested in Iron Chef? I realized that while I am here, I have the opportunity to visit many of the restauraunts that the chefs run. Most of them are based in Tokyo. Maybe you can help by suggesting your favorite Iron Chef to me.

Let me know! Or post a message to my BBS!

Planning ahead

2004-05-16T23:40:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

How's it going? Things here are fine. The weather is "turning up the heat," but I'm still biking to go everywhere.

We're both working hard in our studies. We've begun to look ahead to where we may go next year. We have three choices--one is to stay in Japan. One is to go to the US to study. And the other is to go to Europe to study. Each one has really good opportunities for us. We're trying to limit our opportunities so that we can begin to narrow our choices and start the preparation process.

As for our studies... it is fun and exciting to study with Maki. She is working hard towards her thesis plan and experiment. I'm interested in many of the things that she is studying. I'm flexible enough that I can take it in whatever direction I like. It also helps me work towards writing a paper. Also, I'm having ideas for my own Ph. D thesis, as well as first and second year projects to work on. These are all things that I didn't have answers for last year when I was applying to graduate school. Hopefully having the time and experience to think about these things will help me find better graduate opportunities for myself this coming year.

OK, I just remembered I am supposed to write an email to Andrea's sister and to send Andrea photos of travelling in Japan. AA!!! So, gotta go for now.

By the way, we're thinking of heading over to Kyoto for a conference on working memory. Check it out! Conference website

Pluggin' Away

2004-05-11T06:13:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Things are still going fine here in Tokyo. Ups and downs, downs and ups. Here's some info:

Maki is still working on her thesis and also working full-time at The Asahi Shimbun. Our schedules are still polar opposites as well. We're still working through this to try and find what works best for us.
Maki has decided she wants to study cogntive psychology and the process of interpretation. We're currently investigating schools around the world (including Asia, the United States, and Europe) to find schools that fit her interests. I will be doing the same shortly for myself. The plan is to find an area where we can both attend school.
We're moving along quickly in my Japanese language class. 3 hours a day is intense!! We have learned about 80 kanji (Chinese characters). We are also still learning about 35 new vocabulary per week. This week--adjectives!! So now I have some basic nouns, verbs, and adjectives. I know how to say I like things now! Or that I'm busy! Yay!
I'm still working at GlobalChat.co.jp. Things are going better now. I have 3 regular students. They're offering a new program where you purchase textbooks and study the textbook chapters with your student. They're offering the books at about a 75% discount. So I'll get them. Hopefully that will also be a helpful reference so that I can do some private tutoring in the future--that's where the real money is kids!
I've pretty much finished development of my teaching website. It turned out pretty well. Cool thing is that I can change the general layout of the website at any time. Not so cool thing is that it looks heinous in Netscape. More and more students are coming and telling me that they're interested in certain things that I've posted up there. So, it's nice to reap some benefits of all the hard work.
I'm reading about 5 books and 4 articles (literally) with regards to cognitive neuroscience. I am interested in bilingualism, interpretation, and translation. Right now I'm interested in translation and how it can give us insights into both language and knowledge (memory). How is knowledge stored in the brain? I'm working on it. I also have a couple of paper ideas--one is about methodology in cognitive neuroscience imaging studies. I have no idea when I'll actually have time to write that!
I've been working exclusively on "Rondo Alla Turcata" in my piano training. Now, we may (finally) begin to work on a piano duet. We have the song chosen. I'll post the name, and links to the sheet music and a midi file, another day.
I'm working on a children's story with Maki about a little bird (P-chan). Stay tuned for that one!
I joined a gym here! It's the biggest gym chain in Tokyo--Tipness! We found that if I join on a per-month basis, and I choose the morning hour span only (i.e. I can only come between 7am-10am), that it's a manageable cost. It's something that I'm really glad about. It feels great to do weights again. Thank you Maki!

Well, that's got to be enough for now! I have SOOOO much to do!!! It's hard to relax and enjoy. At least, today I spent an hour playing basketball and enjoying the sun. Then I spent another hour writing outdoors in the sun. So I'm feeling good now. I did an English lesson today, which went well. And I'm working on something for Mom's birthday. We have to finish taht up in the next few days, so that it will arrive on time.

send me love! I miss y'all!! Love, Ben

Adult Happy meals?

2004-05-11T06:02:00.000-07:00

Is this the new wave? Somebody go get this please! And tell me how the "stepometer" works, OK? GO! Now!! http://money.cnn.com/2004/05/11/news/fortune500/mcdonalds_happymeal/index.htm?cnn=yes

!!!

2004-04-23T05:15:00.000-07:00

Hi all...

It's amazing how I can be sooo busy without really venturing outside of this tiny apartment...

Here's what I'm up to these days:

Studying from 9am to 12:20pm at Yoshida. I really like this school. We have spoken Japanese only since day 1. We gain about 30-50 vocabulary per week. We started kanji in our third week (this week). I'm making progress! Yay! But of course, it's hard work (in class and out). I go to class 5 days a week...
Working 3-5 hours per day on GlobalChat.com, an online private English instruction website. Right now I spend my time giving free trial lessons ( :( ), and developing curriculum. It's hard! So far, I've only given 3 paid lessons... although I will give 2 paid lessons tomorrow. I still can't get any students to continue with me after the free lesson...
Playing basketball at Ochiai Park! I'm getting better again...
Reading cognitive neuroscience. Right now I'm reading Mechanisms of Language Acquisition ed. MacWhinney, Introduction to Connectionist modelling of Cognitive Processes by McLeod, Plunkett, and Rolls, and Human Language and Our repilian Brain by Lieberman. Progress is slow because I'm so busy, but I'm really enjoying all 3 books. I would also like to start writing some review papers of the material I've read, and a paper about the role of anticipation in language production. Maki and I have talked some about that subject. Which reminds me...
I have a girlfriend! Right... ;) Her name is .. Maki? Right, right... Things are going well, going well. We don't see each other much though--She leaves for work at 1 and comes home at 11pm. :( However, we're surviving just fine, and we're looking forward to continuing to work hard.

So that's about it for now. We haven't had too much time to do many "cool" things. We've visited Shinjuku Park and Ueno park, but that's about it. We still don't have plans for Golden Week--the 1 week vacation we have coming up on April 29. (Thinking hard)...

OK, I will go prepare for tomorrow's two lessons. I'm also going to review Maki's experiment proposal for her Master's thesis project. Hope to hear from you! Post a message to my new BBS! It's on the left.. I made it just for y'all--by popular request... For all y'all Microsoft people, I used my training in ASP, JScript, XML, and XSLT to write the darn thing. Yeah yeah... if I could find free ASP.NET hosting, I would have done it all in ASP.NET, TRUST ME!

Back on Cruise Control

2004-04-03T23:49:00.000-08:00

It's been two full weeks since I've last written. I feel like I've been here two years. Things are going well.

I had orientation at school on Friday. School starts on Monday, April 6. I am still studying my old book (Genki--thanks Russ!), and I will take a look at the textbook for school as well. I am trying to learn every day. So far, I am learning about 5 new words a day. Of course, I'm also forgetting about 3 old words a day as well, so ... doh!

My brother Matt's birthday was on April 2. I went to Takadanobaba on Friday and sent him a card. I've been jogging or biking pretty much everywhere. The subway is nice, but the cost adds up fast. It is only a 20 minute bikeride to school. Cars move slow here because of the traffic, so I can stay in the flow of traffic easily. It's nice. I just follow the paths that the motorized scooterists (?!) take.

Besides studying Japanese, I've been actively reading journal articles and books. I'm still touching on a very wide array of subjects: memory, language (bilingualism, translation, interpretation, acquisition), distributed network modelling, and attention. Things are progressing well. I will begin to write some preliminary summary papers this month.

I am also working on learning some music on piano. The piano is a nice instrument; I enjoy it. I wish I had a piano while I was taking music theory. Anyway, I am learning the following music: "Variations on The Kanon" by George Winston, "Rondo Alla Turcata" by Mozart, and "The Music of theNight" by Andrew Lloyd Webber. I'm very roughly through about 1/5 of each piece. It's slow progress, but I like it.

Otherwise, not much is going on. Maki and I are doing well in adjusting to each other. We have our share of small problems, but like everybody else, we work together to solve them.

I've posted new photos of the cherry blossoms here. They are very nice. Last weekend and this weekend there were quite a few cherry blossom festivals. We went to the Imperial Palace; the blossoms still weren't in full bloom. I went back on Thursday alone (Maki had been there before, and couldn't make it because of work), and the view was nicer. I hope you enjoy the photos.

Take care!

Arrived!

2004-03-17T21:20:00.000-08:00

Not only arrived, but unpacked, slept, woke up, and sent Maki off to work.

Well, yesterday was a LONG day. I

Was picked up by Sean (thanks Sean!) at 7am to get to the airport.
Took my flight at 12:40pm
Flew 12 hours in the center seat (2 people on either side), never getting up :'(
Arrived at the airport. Took 3.5 hours to
Go through immigration
- Gather my bags from baggage claim
- Go through customs
- Use the airport shipping service to send my bike box to our apartment here
- Get a train ticket
- Take the train!!
- Transfer trains
- Get off the train and
- LUG MY DAMN HEAVY STUFF BACK HERE :(

I stayed here about 2 hours (unpacked, showered, and ate). Then I got BACK on the subway (10 minute walk + 35 minute subway ride) in order to go pick up Maki from work. Then we travelled back on the subway back here. :|

[end whining]

My bike box arrived this afternoon while I was in the shower. I had to wrap myself in a towel and answer the door. Fortunately the bike box was already soaked from the rain outside. So when I grabbed it and dripped all my shower-water on it, it made no difference.

Today Maki and I "slept in." Actually I got up at 9am to buy shampoo and some other things, but :| apparently Japanese stores open at 10am? Even the bakery was closed :(

So, everything is great. Of course, I am happy to see Maki. I missed her. It's great to be able to relax to be here. Things will be different this time--we will have to get used to treating each day as another day our our lives, rather than one of only a precious few days that we'll see each other. It's a nice thought--things should be more 'natural', but it's to stay home and work on what I need to do, while she walks to the subway for work alone.

There will be adjustment periods for everything. Adjusting to being in Japan. Adjusting to being with Maki. Adjusting to studying Japanese, and making time for other studies.

Well, that's enough for now. No jet lag, apartment is clean, and I'm all unpacked. I'll be building my bike, then I'll be researching some things online. I must say, it feels nice to have concrete daily goals. Well, I have them. Wish me luck!

I'll post a new photo soon--I gotta find the camera battery charger. Take care all!

AWAKE

2004-03-16T06:01:00.000-08:00

Many, many, many thoughts. It's 5:17am, I just woke up 25 minutes ago. MANY thoughts.

NONE of which were "being hungry." Although... now that I am up and packing (5:30am now), ... :$ (silence...)

Well... I guess there's no time for much thought. I'm going to be busy packing the last details, emailing the last couple of people about technical details, and then talking with Maki. I should be prepared for her when she gets home (5:30am PST=10:30pm JST; she arrives home @ 11pm JST).

I will do my best to keep a Japanese-text blog. That is hard work, but I think it fits perfectly with my goals. I'll either post both version here, or I'll open a new Japanese version blog.

So, I will leave you for now with the thought that I woke up with, and which has stuck with me this morning.

Asakusa	Odaiba	Daibutsu (Kamakura)

This is our beginning, middle, and ... latest. I like the thought to know where you came from, where you were, and where you're going. I have added a photo to the side. I will keep it updated with two photos--"my" latest photo (things I find interesting), and "our" latest photo--the last picture of us (well, at least, the last picture of us that was "allowed" to be posted)

The night before leaving..

2004-03-15T21:40:00.000-08:00

9:40pm PST... got home. Fun dinner. Thank you all... (refusing to list names; avoiding discussion of "who came first." What a group :| )

Speaking in sentence fragments. Too tired to complete. Roll over onto floor. Just a few minutes...

SeanOC is coming to pick me up early tomorrow morning. All I need to do is pack the very minimum remaining items. Everything is taken care of. I can move to my new life whole-heartedly. I can give everything I have. I am hopeful.

Here is a picture of Maki and I. It is probably my favorite. This was taken on my first visit to Tokyo. November 2002.