Osaka Otsu and everything in between

I decided that I'm not going to write much on Japan until I finish my London blog.

But, miracle of miracles and oddity of oddities, here I am again. I am staying in Otsu, next to Lake Biwa, tonight in a business hotel, which despite its strong odor of cigarette smoke seems rather nicer to me than the Quality Inn I stayed at last night in Seattle. I flew into Kansai International Airport (the airport code of which is KIX, heehee) after an 11 hour flight that was mainly occupied by me flipping through what grammar books I brought and sorta kinda dozing. The airport is on a man-made island in the bay. It's impressive.

It took me five hours to get from there to here, but thankfully they were rather unhurried hours. I got lost a couple times but mainly just walked around the train stations a bit more than the average customer.

I remember coming into Tokyo and seeing flooded rice fields everywhere. I really didn't see any this time -- I don't know if the area between the airport and here isn't rural enough, or if it's not time to flood the fields yet, or what. I did see several fields of enormous cabbages.

The train smelled like Japan. Perhaps later I will try to figure out the components of said smell.

It's good to be back. I don't think I'm starting work for a couple days; in any case I shall be sleeping in for hours and hours tomorrow.

grammatical notes on the worst lang-8 post yet, PART ONE

I think I can legitimately say that, since one commenter asked if I was using a Japanese or Chinese dictionary. :/ This is another one of those posts that I put off writing for several days because I was embarrassed and overwhelmed by all the fail! Also just because I am lazy and unfocused, BUT NEVER MIND THAT. (And, honestly, I'm still only doing this so I can put off finishing my stupid TU Delft purpose statement. Argh.)

First, some context, and also so I can include a photo, taken by moi:

This Lang-8 post (also my longest yet, incidentally?) was about an exhibit I went to see with my dad at the Durham Western Heritage Museum in Omaha. It featured school pictures of various 20th-(and 21st-)century presidents as well as loads of papers, letters, small items, and photos from the life of Abraham Lincoln. This particular museum used to an awesome Art Deco train station, so I always enjoy visiting for that aspect if not for whatever exhibit. SO. Now that we have that covered.

Grammar/vocabulary notes! I'm not putting any new words I learned on my own this time, because a large percentage of the ones I looked up on my own? were truly, spectacularly WRONG. So never mind that.

1. Kidousha: Not the most commonly used word ever! I looked this up in reference to specifically diesel trains, the type that are usually found in the U.S., as opposed to "densha," 汽車（きしゃ）kisha or 列車 ressha are more understandable.

life as a space cadet

Shades of last term: Wandering the Internet, the sky dark through the hints of glass on the fourth floor in the main buildings, the windows and skylights reflecting the light of monitors and fluorescent fixtures back down on the startling number of students who are far from their beds at 1:00 AM on a Monday morning.

But they are doing their own work, and I am merely printing a poster for the Shakespeare Ensemble (which I am not technically involved in anymore, but given that 50% of Fenway still is, I decided to be friendly.) There is something weirdly liberating about being out at 1 AM when you don't have to be, as opposed to being out at 1 AM because you have work left to do. Last term I pretty much felt. . . trapped, every time I walked into studio. Staying up into the small hours of the night working is made that much more desolate when you are a mile from home.