I finally got round to buying a bike. And what a bike…As I’m in Japan its a Mama Chari, and what a mama she is. She creaks a bit, I think the bottom bracket bearing have seen better days, the light if you can call it that, flickers when it wants to, but it does have a switch on the handle bar to turn it on or off. It does have 4 gears which is quite handy, its not exactly the Himalayan foothills, but its still nice to have them, especially going through the underpass.
However over the last few days the nut securing the pedal arm has come loose, so I need to see if I can borrow a socket to tighten that up, I think the dude next door has one, he seems to be quite into cycles.
The name of the previous owner is still on the bike, and on the front mud guard you can see the guys phone number too. I might give him a call, see if he wants to meet up with the old girl, take her for a spin for old times sake. Or I might not.
This isnt one of our teachers but in a weird way I wish it was. Check out his moves. This is the real reason I am here, to become a Master like him. But I dont own a large collection of Neo Geo Games, or any games really.
In my class there are 10 of us, 2 French, 2 Americans, 2 Brits, 2 Taiwanese, a Belgian and a Brazilian. Well, he could be a landing strip, I just dont know…I’m not going to attempt to find out.
We are definately a Beginner class, but there is a wide range of “beginner-ness” in the class. I guess there are gaps in our abilities that would have have been evident in the class above. We shall soon see.
Last year on a previous incarnation of this blog I posted some pdf flash cards for the JLPT Level 3 and 4 Vocab. Its been a while since then, and in a effort to save paper and hassle, I started using a piece of software called Mnemosyne.
Its completely free to used and according to the website it is compatible with Windows, Mac OS and Linux.
I created some files to use with Mnemosyne, but then decided to learn the Kanji in the order school kids do. There are some files for that on the Mnemosysne website in the Japanese section
anyway.. some links to some files.. (right click, save as .mem, not text)
These are flash card files i have created, and as a non-native speaker of Japanese, (actually a non-speaker of japanese) I make no assurance about their accuracy, if you do find anything wrong please let me know. Also I do requests, time permitting….
The Typhoon came and went. Its not like I wanted the Typhoon to flatten everything in its path, but I was hoping it would arrive at a more convenient time, instead I woke up at about 3am to the sound of rattling windows and bikes falling over. My sleep pattern was almost normal, well normal for me anyway, and Melor has set me back, at least it didnt send me back to the Land of Oz. I couldve killed the wicked witch of the east and hung out with the Munchkins.
I have just been outside to look for any signs of the winds strength, but theres really not that much. An umbrella skipping down the road, but that nothing unusual, a row of bikes that look like dominos, again nothing really unusual there either. Seems that we were lucky here and got away with very little damage. There were quite a few tree branches in a park, but then there are quite a few trees in that park. I doubt any one was out walking their dog at 3am.
woohoo !! Its not Godzilla but it will have to do, Typhoon Melor is expected to hit tomorrow morning at 6am (9pm UK). A Category 2 Typhoon aswell, Im not sure what that means, I think its means its might be a little breezy out. According to the note through the door the wind could get up to 180kph (111mph). It also says if you have a bicycle to tie it a pillar with rope. 100mph+ winds is nothing, anyone who has been anywhere within 4 feet of Coley has experienced worse.
Its a good job I didnt bring the kite, or I could’ve ended up like this guy:
Mama Chari 
First Day: How to get your groove on… 
JLPT – Level 3 and Level 4 vocab 
We’re not off to see the wizard 
you only get an oooh with typhoon