皆さん (mina-san), hope everyone is enjoying their weekend! We are aiming to get the release time back on track next week. よろしくお願いします！Yoroshiku, onegai shimasu!

Kanji close-up due out Monday.

Sakura showed you up?…
And I wish we also had something like that of a graduation in Israel. Here, we only shake the hand of the principal in a big hall, with people, like parents and such, watching and get our diplomas…. After that, everyone goes to a “graduation party”, which is basically an excuse to get drunk and get high… (hey, don’t look at me, I don’t do any of that)

Another super-interesting culture class.

“It’s a miracle!!” Hahaha. That was great, Peter!

Just one quick question about the Japanese school year. If the school year starts in April and ends in March, how long are the vacations in between? It seems like a really long school year, so I’m curious about whether or not there are any long vacations.

By the way, I received my Namie Amuro “Space of Hip Pop” Concert DVD yesterday, and it was great!! Any other Amuro fans here? I love listening to J-Pop. I think my iPod has more Japanese than American music on it! As a good tip for anyone wanting to improve their Japanese pronunciation, I strongly suggest listening to Japanese music, learning the words, and singing along! It really helps!

あぁぁぁぁ。このレッスンは色々（いろいろ）なことを思（おも）い出（だ）させました。懐（なつ）かしいなぁ。（私（わたし）はまだ大学院生（だいがくいんせい）だけど。。。）

I’m from a very small town and even the towns around it aren’t very big either, so our elementary, jr, and high schools were all on the same campus. I guess it could get kinda boring with the same surroundings every year, but I think it helped keep everyone close. Everybody always looked forward to getting their copy of the yearbook.

There was an interesting phenomenon with our school. I don’t know if it’s still this way, but it certainly was when I was in high school. All the classes in high school were really close to both the class right above them and right below them. So when I was a junior, my class was really close with both the seniors and to the sophmores. That was kinda nice, but there was also almost a wall between classes more than a year apart (though I had friend several years younger).

IIRC, when you graduate here in America, you start with the tassle on the right side of your cap. After you shake hands with the principal or dean and get your diploma, you move it to the left side. That may be backwards, but I’m pretty sure that’s right.

When I graduated and got my bachelor’s degree here at college, I borrowed an older cousin’s gown instead of buying one. But it was too long, and when I went up the stage steps to recieve my diploma, I stepped on the bottom of the gown on every step and almost fell down. So let that be a lesson to any younger people here who haven’t graduated yet. Make sure your gown fits.

We threw our caps in the air when we graduated high school, but not when I graduated college. The ceremony was held for the entire basic sciences department, and there were a LOT of us. So I guess throwing our caps all at the same time would have probably turned into quite a mess.

I don’t know the name of it, but there’s one graduation song they use in just about every anime with a graduation scene. It’s starts “Aogeba tou toshi.”

Peter-san mentioned us having a valedictorian here in America, but we also have a salutatorian who is the student with the 2nd highest grades. They usually both give a speech at the graduation ceremony. We actually had a 3 way tie for valedictorian when I graduated between me and 2 girls.

Remembering all this makes me feel old now. -____-

> Wow, did Sakura show me up!!!

Samui, ne!

Nicole, is there any music that you suggest? I’m not too into hip hop, but I would like to listen to some Japanese music. Thank you for any suggestion that you may have.

Nicole-san,

I don’t think you can hear a word of English on my iPod (aside from the JP101 crew) It’s probably around 97% Japanese music/podcasts, with a little Thai, French, maybe a couple others. I do like Namie Amuro And here’s a link for you about the general Japanese school year schedule:

http://www.japan21.org.uk/teachers/schoollinks/japanyear.html

Judif-san,

Welcome to the community!

Jason-san,

That is actually the name of the song, as well - 仰げば尊し (aogeba toutoshi). You can find the lyrics here (with a link to the midi at the top):

http://www5b.biglobe.ne.jp/~pst/douyou-syouka/03nihon/aogeba_k.htm

CP-san,

If you’re saying “that’s cold” like we would about an act in English, I think you would use 冷たい (tsumetai). 寒い (samui) is generally only used for weather.

Monica-san,

Tuloy po kayo sa JP101

Sharon-san,

Let me know what kind of music you’re looking for and I’ll try to give you a couple suggestions!

That’s me above, btw, for some reason my email doubled itself!

Hi Sharon-san,

Like yourself I’m interested in japanese music and one of my favourite artists is ‘Utada Hikaru’. I also like a japanese reggae artist called ‘PUSHIM’ and went and saw one of her concerts in Hamamatsu a couple of years ago. Heres a link to her website. Let me know what you thing of her sounds …

http://www.pushim.com/

Mata ne ..

Shannon

Rob-san,

I don’t have any on-hand, but a quick search came up with this (short-lived though it was):

http://www.voiceblog.jp/robotan/

Also, for Japanese language podcasts, check out the VoiceBlog main site - there are tons to choose from!

Nicole-san,

They must be! If my iPod had more room, I’m sure there would be quite a few more languages on it And I’m glad you found the link helpful!

Shannon-san,

I listened to a few tracks on the website (the player seemed to have some troubles). It was interesting… seemed like a lot of variety between tracks. It’s always great to hear artists outside of the spotlight

Wow! Graduation. I haven’t had one of those in so long I have forgotten what that is like. My last one was over 25 years ago. Yes I am dating myself, but have gotten to the point of not caring anymore.

ネイト

Jonas-san,

Interesting, thanks for pointing that out!

JP-san,

Was wondering where you had been! What department are you in? I assumed Monica was in the Philippines from glancing at her blog, so…

…

I thnk she’s, judging from her blog!

Monica, kamusta? Swerte mo sa company mo, pinagpaaral ka para sa JLPT. Saan ka sa Pilipinas?

Translation: How are you Monica? You’re so lucky with your company for being sponsoring your education for this december’s JLPT. Where exactly are you in the Philippines?

Kitakits, (Mata ne!)
JP

Alexander-san, thanks for the info on what’s going on in Israel! Keep the posts coming.

Rob-san, thanks for making me feel better about myself!

Nicole-san, they have about a week at the end of April/beginning of May. Next up is summer vacation beginning July 20th (please see the link) through August. Then a winter recess at the end of the year beginning of April, and I believe most of March. I am at University, and our winter break starts around the 17th of December, and I don’t go back until April. However, I have seen classes going on. Hopefully these two links will help!

http://web-jpn.org/kidsweb/calendar/july/summer-v.html
http://gojapan.about.com/cs/japaneseholidays/a/holidaycalendar.htm

Be back shortly.

salutatorian!!!! I never knew that!

Really? Wow, I thought all American high schools chose both.

I had not heard of “daphne” either. Japanese seem to know a lot more about flowers than Americans.
I guess the Japanese for “daphne” is 沈丁花　or 　じんちょうげ。
John