More Misc

Almost a week without any posts... hum...

Ah,well. Last week was pretty busy anyway. Classes all the week and a festival in the weekend (Aboshi Matsuri... I'll try to post comments about that soon...). Japan is full of festivals in autumn (fall)... most of them have their roots in rituals/partys/etc. to thank gods for a good harvest (rice harvest is done during fall). Come to think about it, if that's the case, there're some strange ways to "thank" the gods... Fighting, for example. I'll write more details when commenting the festivals.

While I prepare the matsuri posts (and the "Reminiscences" series), some other links with opinions and news.

"Weapon geeks in Japan aim for more firepower" - I' ve read about the referendum in Brasil about prohibiting the sale of guns and ammunition. And I guess the final result rejected that, right? This article is then a little late, but it shows an interesting thing about how "legal" weapons can be modified and become more powerful... And how people seek that. So, in the end, although Japan is a "country where citzens aren't allowed to have deadly guns" the reality may be a little different...

"M6.2 Hits Kanto, Tohoku" - Actually, this is old news already. This earthquake happened some days ago. This is just to put something to the people who wonders about earthquakes in Japan. And this year, it seems like most of natural disasters (typhoons and earthquakes) are striking the Kanto region... And I was told that they really don't strike often in Kansai (I'm liking this place more and more...), although things like the Great Hanshin Earthquake reminds me that this region is not completely safe. However, so far I haven't experienced such things... yet.

"Best to dig deep and study a language from its roots" "Learning a language is a cultural journey, too" - Just some interesting articles about language learning, and focusing a bit Japanese learning foreign languages. The interesting point is asking why learn a foreign language...

"Aso calls Japan 'one race' nation" - I saw this one at Claus's blog (again...). "Aso described Japan as having 'one nation, one civilization, one language, one culture and one race. It is nowhere else in other nations'"... Yeah, sure... Are we talking about the same Japan? Anyway, I'll even avoid commenting this one too much...