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Issue 15 - Thursday, 2nd November 2000

Well, time goes by, and you realise how little you know. The closer it gets to the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, the harder it is to fool myself that I do know some kanji. However, as time goes by, you also do learn stuff. Occasionally I surprise myself and find that I have understood some new bit of grammar, or surprise myself by realising that I actually didn't understand some bit of grammar and have been misusing it for the last 18 months. But nothing quite like the Korean friend who taught me the Japanese for "pervert" when I asked him how to say "change". Luckily someone let me know after 6 weeks.

Today's little revelation was that I finally understood the Japanese fascination with new things. Newness is next to Godliness in Japan, and I always thought it a little odd. Even the present craze for recycling can be explained as a mere boom that will probably fade away when people get bored of it (or realise that second-hand things have been used before). People don't really live in second-hand houses. Houses may seem kind of large things to consider disposable - but traditional Japanese houses are mostly wood and paper, which looks nice and rattles well in earthquakes, but seem to be going out of fashion here.

Everyone buys "juutaku" or mass-produced boxes made with a wooden frame and compressed concrete wall panels. Nice and tidy, clean but far less full of character than the older version. Perhaps as people realise that the newer versions are a little more durable than the older ones, they will get used to the idea of buying second hand houses.

The other thing that the newer houses have less of is wildlife. All summer I have been fighting running battles with ants in the kitchen and hall of my house (I live near Toyohashi, in a very old house - full of character - due to be demolished in October next year to make way for a motorway). I thought I had defeated the ants, having poured enough poison under the floor to kill a horse. Not environmentally friendly, and not friendly to the ants either, I know. But, this morning, I woke and stared at the tatami next to my futon. I sneezed, and the tatami became tatami coloured. Surprised, it took a while to realise that the damn ants were back in force, and were erupting from the crack between two tatami mats just fifty centimetres from my bed. They were swarming, and the air was thick with ants trying to get out. Not difficult, since there are so many cracks (you can tell in winter in a house with lots of sliding doors and no heating) but they seemed to be having trouble. At 6 am, I was not feeling up to taking on a few million of them, particularly as they had air reinforcement, so I moved to the next room after making a half-hearted effort to splash a half-kilo of poison over the floor. Hopefully by the time I get back, they will have moved out. If not, I'm looking for a homestay. In a NEW house. Soulless is fine, as long as it means without wildlife in the bedroom.

CONTENTS

1. Course Information
2. Student profile: Daniel Ebeling, Germany - AIJP (student visa)
3. Things Japanese: Matsutake - Mushrooms (translation from Japanese)

Earn 3,000 Yen per article:

Write articles in English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, German or Spanish for the newsletter and earn 3,000 Yen per article accepted. Open to students at Yamasa. Submit your article as a text email to newsletter@yamasa.org. Those used in the newsletter will be acknowledged and must be about something informative, amusing if possible, and connected to the area around Okazaki in some way or Japan in general.

Euan McKay.

Admissions Coordinator
The Yamasa Institute Aichi Center for Japanese Studies
Okazaki Aichi Japan 444-0832

1. COURSE INFORMATION

ACCOMMODATION:

Villas 1, 3 and 4, residences U and K all full until end November. Space in Villa 2 and Student Village only. There are usually some last-minute changes, so check with admissions@yamasa.org for information.

LONG-TERM COURSES:

Student Visa: 10 places already allocated out of about 50 places available from April 2001. The application deadline is December 20th for the next student visa (for study from April 2001). Apply for your kit here:

SHORT-TERM COURSES:

All SILAC programs have space. All programs have vacancies, but accommodation is limited. Apply soon to avoid disappointment! Contact admissions@yamasa.org as soon as possible for information. Taking bookings now for Internship and Discovery programs for 2001.

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