Today, after meeting with two Japanese professors to discuss Genji, I ran across a young man writing poetry for extra money on the street. After explaining to him the purpose of my trip and the purpose of this blog, he enscribed the following proverb (seen upclose in the lower right picture above): Work hard every day, progress every day, be thankful every day." In a lot of ways, it was exactly what this trip has meant to me. With any luck, every day will continue to represent hard work, progress and gratitude.
In the meantime, now that I'm more aware of how hiragana, katakana and kanji are used, I'm thrilled to observe the way written Japanese is used around me every day.
To see more photos from my trip, many of which have a language focus, go to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/41681491@N07/
YOUR TASK:
1) Find a web site in Japanese. (Make sure the content of the web site is something you're familiar with. For example, if you like Nike shoes, you may want to click on the Japanese version of the Nike web page at http://www.nike.jp/nikeosaka/index.html, or if you like computers try http://www.apple.com/jp/startpage/.)
2) Once you are there, see if you can spot the different "alphabets" in Japanese. You should look for characters that are simple and complex, or those written in a "cursive" rather than a block print. What feelings to do you think accompany these different scripts? Why do you think the Japanese people use them?
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