ホストファミリー の てがみ

私のしゅみ (^-^) !

                       私のしゅみ  (^-^) !

I have a few pastimes I enjoy......

でも わたしの一番すきなしゅみはえをかく!

I picked it up as a hobby late in middle school and really came to like it over the years. Its one of those hobbies that's relaxing but challenging at the same time since you're always trying to get better. This is a really short post, sorry! (とても いそがしい です （-。-）) I'll say more about it later but I thought I'd post a sketch or to here to see really quick.

                                  

All of them are quick sketches and none of these are finished by the way, i'm still working on all of them. 

  くろいすみとチャコールが大すきです。

(I started this one last night, probably should've been studying -.-')

                                    It's Blaire Arch :) I drew this when I got accepted (still not done though)






アマチュアですでも , when professionals use charcoal and ink...とてもきれです!


Also here's some music.  It's one I usually listen to when drawing by Utada Hikaru. Sanctuary
(The Japanese Version is called Passion)

ひかりのこども : おんがく

Just like I said with おおかみ, I think the music in Child of Light made up a huge portion of the game's artistry as a whole, so I thought i'd post it's main theme and a couple of game excerpts here.!


The gorgeous theme of the main character Aurora.

Its pretty much a good representation of the tone of the entire game. Very slow and entrancing, like a long, old story.

And here's one other song (all of them are good) this is just another traveling theme.

(More) Traditional Art in Games: ひかりのこども

So I mentioned my love of traditional art in games before, namely in the Japanese PS2/PS3 RPG game   おおかみ (which thanks to some advice from さとう先生, I have since learned is not spelled おかみ, despite the English in-game translation! But i'm learning haha!).

Anyways, another game that has a similarly beautiful watercolor art style is the recent award winning game Child of Light aka  ひかりのこども. (Also for PS3)

これゲーム はにほんごのゲーム じゃありませんでも.... The producers have said that the art is heavily inspired  by a multitude of watercolor styles including Japanese watercolor styles and stylistic inspirations.  

See  that beautiful cherry tree? :D
Not only was the art beautiful but it was entirely hand drawn and scanned in by a team of artists instead of being computer generated which is amazing when you see how detailed everything is

aaand what's even MORE amazing is that the dialogue was entirely written in rhyming poetry! Now that might sound cheesy and tiring after a while but it was actually really well done, and it made the entire game feel like an old storybook come to life.
This is the game trailer and you can hear some of the rhyming in it..

So all in all....

Just like おおかみ I would definitely recommend this game to anyone who loves action RPGS, beautiful storytelling and amazing art! 

にほんごのじゅぎよう:New Goal Statement

Now that Japanese 101 has been going on for some time now, I think I have a much better sense of what I need to do to improve and keep up with my lessons in a manner that's satisfactory to me.  I think its easiest to compile a short little list of the major changes I'm going to try to make.

-まいばんにほんごのきょうかしょをよみます。:

This might seem obvious but it's a major change I need to make. Most days of the week I tend to simply do my homework, study for a quiz (if there is one) and call myself done for the night. I think I would feel a lot more comfortable in class, especially in terms of speaking and general grammar structure if I spent time with the book every night regardless of whether or not I have homework.


先生の Office Hours に いきます :

I definitely haven't been making good use of the office hours available to me. Mainly because my tight class scheduling makes it difficult. But I think that if I took the time to go, a lot of the points in class that move a bit quickly for me and adversely affect my speaking would get ironed out rather easily. 

Those are the two major changes... but in general I also want to...
-Practice Dict-a-conversation exercises more
-Speak more in my free time and make a greater effort to attend language tables,  
-Ask more clarifying questions in class
-Take more organized, thorough class notes
I think that if I can at least meet some of these goals, my fluidity of speaking will improve massively and i'll be much more comfortable forming and responding to questions in class.

One of my Favourites! 天元突破グレンラガン

I feel like no Japanese blog could be complete without mentioning one's favorite animes! I have quite a few favorites recently but one of the older ones that I found a couple months back and loved was the anime グレンラガン It starts off pretty typical but by the the end it became one of most innovative, surprising animes I've ever seen.
Not to mention it has a fantastic opening theme!

  
(So I mentioned before that I really enjoy some of the art styles that have stemmed from Japan recently.) Well that love of art kind of stems into what I enjoy about this show as well.

This is my video self introduction for my JPN 101 class assignment.
I'm naturally extremely camera shy

but I gave it my best try so I guess its fine!