Ben the Japanese American

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

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!

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

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.