Harking back to School Days

Just a short entry today. I've decided that I don't want to overwhelm myself by typing long anecdotes everyday or the idea of writing may become daunting and I may put it off. This is something I want to keep doing, and perhaps over time I will come up with more thoughtful posts, should I wait a few days per 'story'. I'll still update what I learn though!

That said, I have started revisiting my Japanese history books. I have one in particular from my Japanese Culture class I took during college a few years ago. I'd been itching to read it again as I know I've forgotten a lot about what I learned in the class. It's a great book though, entitled Japan - The Story of a Nation. It was written by Edwin O. Reischauer, a former U.S. Ambassador to Japan. I've only just started and am merely 20 pages in, however many bits of information from my class are flooding back. Most prominent of these facts are the existence of the tumuli or kofun. Large, keyhole shaped mounds which are tombs to ancient leaders.

 

Nintoku's Tomb 'Daisen-Kofun' - the largest in Japan

Things I learned today

• Apparantly, to answer my "Question" from my previous post, the 'no' in a sentence describing something's location is used when specifically stating the items relative location to the other item (in, on, under, etc.) and that applies to multiple items as well. Otokonokotachi wa beddo no shita ni imasu. "The boys are under the bed." Kappu wa nagishi ni arimasu. "The cup is in the sink." So I -think- in my example from yesterday, it would be "Ringo to tamago wa teeburu no ue ni arimasu."

• コート = coat (in katakana)
  

Questions on my mind

• None right now! :)

Parting practice phrase

Watashi no kooto doko desuka? Kooto wa isu no ue ni arimasu. わたしのコートどこですか？ コートわいすのうえにあります。Where is my coat? Your coat is on the chair.