やった！I figured out how to input Japanese chatacters on this computer! It was suprisingly difficult...I don't own a "genuine" copy of microsoft office, apparently, so my personal laptop can't download the recommended Japanese writing program. But I did figure out how to do this on a PC in Butler, so I guess this will be where I head when I'm in need of some bloggin.






So, back when I was younger, I used to love the anime called Ghost in the Shell.





It was pretty cool. It actually really creeped me out...but it was more or less a sci-fi drama about robots and all that crazy stuff. I think it was originally an anime movie, but I got started watching it when it was a series on Cartoon Network's Adult swim.





The best part of the anime, in my opinion, was the music. Seriously, it had the best music of any anime/cartoon/television show/movie/anything I've ever seen. The opening theme song was incredible...it was done by an artist by the name of おりが。あのかたはおどろくべきです！(that was me trying to say "she's amazing!" I wonder how close I got...lol) 。But yes, おりが is certainly one of my favorite artists of all time now. She's Russian, but sings her songs for a mostly Japanese audience in three languages: Russian, Japanese, and Latin. I think that's pretty awesome, personally. I wish I knew how to upload a song to the blog! Unfortunately, all of the music I own of hers has been pilfered from illegal sources...there is absolutely no legal way to find her music in the USA. It's really sad too! She has multiple albums and they do really well, from my understanding, in Russia and Japan. But alas, we in the USA are deprived.
If you want to listen to any of her music (and you should! especially if you're into more hardcore stuff), you can check out this youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIVgSuuUTwQ. The link also shows some shots from Ghost in the Shell, and some links to her other music (Rise is really amazing too).



She looks really fluffy here, huh? Some of her stuff is very fluffy...alot of it though is pretty intense. I prefer the intense stuff; she has a great voice for it!

First Entry!

こんにちわ！わたしはさむです。あめりかじんです；おひおからきました。Columbiaのだいがくのいちねんせいです。じゅはっさいです。どうぞよろしく！

I've been obsessed with Japanese culture for as long as I can remember, and I've always wanted to take a course in Japanese language. It's my dream to be able to play video games and watch anime in their original Japanese forms; to me, that seems like the coolest thing in the world. In truth, it's for these reasons above anything else that I chose to study Japanese. I'd love, some day, to work for Squaresoft in Japan as a video game writer/developer...but that's a pretty far fetched dream.
I'm both excited and nervous to move forward with this language. On one end, I truly feel like Japanese is over my head. Having never spoken a word of Japanese before I entered Columbia (I didn't even know what "Kon Nichiwa" meant), I feel behind many of the students who seem to have studied Japanese in the past. It's intimidating to be with people who already know Hiragana, who've lived in Japan, or who've taken Elementary B. Luckily, these people are many of the nicest (and most helpful!) people I've ever met. All this being said, I'm having fun with the language, and I'm determined to catch up fully to my other classmates. I'm also really enjoying memorizing Hiragana...as difficult as it is to recognize a new alphabet, it's a pretty great feeling to begin to understand.
What I'm finding difficult, more than anything else, is the extent of vocabulary memorization required for the class. Some of the words are easy to remember because they are used so often - Watashi, for instance. Others just seem random - Kohii or Densi for instance. I'm planning on taking a good amount of time this weekend to review old vocab and old lessons!
Thanks for reading my blog, and comment me!