Words, of course, are the most powerful drug used by mankind.
- Rudyard Kipling
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Category Archives: This & That
Learning to Speak Japanese: Frustration 101
One of the things we know is that a positive attitude toward a subject we wish to learn contributes greatly to our success in that endeavor. Successful language acquisition depends on two main factors: the motivation of the student and … Continue reading
PWAC BC Regional Volunteer Award 2016-17
From mid-April last year much of my life revolved around my mother’s hospitalization, death, memorial, selling her condo, settling her estate, selling my home and moving from Abbotsford to Victoria within a period of five months. After that I focused … Continue reading
Beginners and Beginnings
Last week I downloaded Microsoft’s Translator to my phone. Now I can photograph, keyboard or speak into the phone and get an instant English to Japanese or Japanese to English translation. Someone with whom I wish to communicate can hear … Continue reading
Posted in This & That, Travel in Japan
Tagged beginning study, beginning Tokyo life, beginnings, New Beginnings
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Tanigumi Kegonji: A Satori Experience
As part of the ongoing celebration of five years of blogging at The Way of Words, today I reprise a single story in 5 posts. These describe an intense experience in a remote Japanese temple during a single afternoon which … Continue reading
Sumimasen: So Sorry
So sorry. I’m overdue. I ought to have posted some time ago. Though you wouldn’t know it to look at me, I’ve been busy. What have I been up to, you ask. Answer: Binge-watching Netflix.
Travel’s Serendipitous Surprises
Often (sometimes multiple times a day) something unexpected and special takes me by surprise when traveling through Japan. Out of curiosity, I’d gone to Jizo Dori mainly to check out the “Harajuku for grandmothers” and “aka pantsu.”
Posted in This & That, Travel in Japan
Tagged Aka pantsu, Jizo Dori, Rikugien Gardens
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An Unforgettable Christmas
That year snow began falling during the Christmas Eve service. Afterwards, groups of men worked to shove each car through the nearly 12 inches of heavy white stuff. Fortunately a snow plow had passed along the Island Highway while we … Continue reading
Ho! Ho! Ho! & Happy Humbug!
Greater Victoria, my new home-city, goes all out during the Christmas season. The Legislature Buildings, Government House, Empress Hotel, Butchart Gardens, as well as numerous local establishments light up. Carolers wander the downtown streets and musicians perform in various plazas. … Continue reading
Not so Hot: Trying to Stay Warm under the Kotatsu
What’s not to love about Japan? Plenty. Like any other nation and culture it has flaws and problems galore. Even though I don’t have blinkers on, my purpose in writing about my journeys and adventures in Japan is not … Continue reading
Posted in This & That, Travel in Japan
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Alone and Homeless in Tokyo
I vividly recall feeling alien, and adrift—as if I were an insignificant insect who belonged nowhere crawling along the city’s sidewalks. Continue reading