musings Category Archives
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How to pass the JLPT 1 - Part I

The results for the Japanese Proficiency Exam (JLPT) Level 1 (the highest level) for last December were announced earlier this month, and I was delighted to see that I passed. I passed both the JLPT 1 and the JLPT 2 (which I sat back in 2008) each on my first try. I'm not particularly great at Japanese (I famously confused the words for "poop" and "bean jam" on...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the general, musings, ramblings, recentnews
Tagged as: capybara, how-to, japanese, japanese proficiency exam, jlpt, nihongo, studying, tips
03.03.10

Quiet streets

My mind ended up turning to thoughts about my blog, life and future these days (not necessarily in that order, mind you). It's been almost 7 years since I moved to Japan and I thought that by now I'd know what I want to do with my life. Sadly, this does not appear to be the case. I think the core issue is that I'm a fickle panda: this is a blessing in that I have...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the general, japan - the good, memories, miscellaneous, musings, photography
Tagged as: black and white, harajuku, musings, photography, tokyo, uraharajuku, urban
01.23.10

2009 Year in Pictures

2009 was a pretty great year (well for me personally. For the world and the economy, err, not so much) and it was hard to choose just a few pictures as my "favourites" from the thousands that I snapped over the past 12 months. On top of that, there's the question of how to sort them? While all the pictures could be classified dozens of different wa...
Category Info: featured entry, general, memories, miscellaneous, musings, photography, ramblings, recentnews
Tagged as: black and white, blue skies, friends, photography, pictures, sky worship, sunrise, sunset, sunshine, urban
01.06.10

Halloween Panda 2008

Sorry about the insipid Myspace-bathroom-mirror-shot quality of the affair above. Sigh. What can I say? I miss Halloween back in the states. The smell of pumpkin pie, apple cider and autumn leaves... carving jack-o-lanterns and dressing up in crazy costumes and parading through State Street (whilst trying to avoid the ...
Category Info: general, miscellaneous, musings, pandas, photography, ramblings, recentnews
Tagged as: halloween, lightroom, michaelpanda, myspace, narcissism, photography, self-portrait
11.01.08

My life at present

This is my life everyday. Sigh. I work 8 to 10 hours, then I come home, try to cook some dinner, and then sit down to face this: Trying to study for two major standardised tests while working full time......
Category Info: featured entry, general, musings, ramblings, recentnews
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
04.28.08

Top of the Morning

It seems like such a shame to spend 30 minutes dressing up nice and getting ready for work in the morning just to head out the door and have it all ruined by the combination of wind, rain and heat......
Category Info: featured entry, miscellaneous, musings, pandas, photography, ramblings, recentnews
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
03.24.08

Unnecessary Automation

Sorry, there are not many interesting pictures in this entry, namely because people tend to freak out when you start taking snapping photographs in public bathrooms (you'll see what I mean if you read this entry) But don't fear!......
Category Info: featured entry, general, miscellaneous, musings, ramblings, technology
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
02.10.08

To all the Rooms Ive loved before

So the other day I was flipping through one of my old boxes of letters and and pictures from years past (which reminds me that there are still some of you who owe me letters from the Great Michaelpanda Spring......
Category Info: featured entry, general, memories, miscellaneous, musings, ramblings, recentnews
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
10.13.07

Birthday Scarf Panda

There's still a part three to the Great Tohoku Road Trip 2007 (parts I and II can be found here and here, respectively). But it's taking me a while to get to it since I've been kinda down recently, and......
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the general, miscellaneous, musings, recentnews
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
09.16.07

Are you getting fatter...?

So last Friday I found myself stuck in a meeting all day from 8 to 5. Now this would be bad enough, but combine it with the fact that it is the rainy season - and hence hot, sticky and......
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the bad, musings, recentnews
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
07.15.07

Public Drunkenness at 50mm f1.8

Whatever I thought it would be like, I'm pretty sure I didn't think it would turn out like it did - my mind going over the laundry list of things I had to do to get ready for work tomorrow, my heart heavy with the thought of having to walk to work in a wool suit in the hot sweaty mugginess of the Japanese rainy season, my eyes just moments prior flicking over train schedules to find the fastest route home after getting off at Tokyo so as to avoid time consuming transfers and giving myself a c...
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the good, memories, musings, photography, recentnews
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
07.02.07

Dining Table, what what!

Table cloths, placemats and varnish - these things are artificial filters that barricade the connection between us and the immediacy of the moment. Naught but the trappings of pretension, they defy the purpose of buying furniture in the first place - to use it and to let it serve its purpose. I don't want to stop to think to put down a coaster, or spend hours trying to lay down the perfect streak-free coat of varnish and stain - I just want to kick off my shoes, set down a plain wh...
Category Info: featured entry, general, miscellaneous, musings, photography, recentnews
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
04.24.07

Killing Time...

sitting, back primly poised, hair impeccably parted to one side, cream colored leather Coach handbag tucked to one side, keitai strap dangling loosely out one of the side pockets, makeup perfectly done, as always, beautiful lips pursed ever so slightly as manicured nails flicked pages of a book from one to the next, eyes moving ever so slightly through expertly applied mascara lashes, each iris twitch scanning top to bottom, right to left, page to page, ponytail bobbing slightly as each echoi...
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the sad, memories, musings, ramblings
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
03.09.06

Don't Speak

But what about the next one? And the one after that? And after that? I can't catch them all, and the knowledge weighs heavily on my mind. When we're young we can afford the luxury of constant self analysis and the comforting confines of reality, but the older we get, the more we have to accept the fact that an increasing amount of our world paradigm will be predicated not on fact, but on fictions we have unwittingly invented throughout our lives. I feel that disconnect from reality is en...
Category Info: featured entry, musings, recentnews
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
01.31.06

Himeji-jo and Acclimatization

What starts as a simple comparison of differences between cultures quickly spins out of control into a series of increasingly disconnected judgments, finally culminating in a bizarre tangent about the supposed submissive role of women in Japanese society! In the process a fully painted - yet completely falsified - picture of moral drama unfolds, complete with villains (Japanese teachers, "repressive Japanese system"), heroes ("I'm not going to sit down and do nothing"), treacherous deeds ("b...
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the general, musings, photography
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
12.06.05

Reality Intrudes

I came home the other day to a suprise package at my doorstep - a big brown box from america, emblazoned with amelie mello's name in the upper left hand corner. Yes indeed, the international panda exchange was on. I......
Category Info: musings
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
10.11.04

Mortality

[I know this is a really long post without a lot of pictures. If you do take take the time to read it, thanks!] I'm staring across the table at this man. the first thing that strikes me is his......
Category Info: musings
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
04.14.04

Breaking up.

being busy is a curious thing. in some ways, there is a satisfying comfort to be constantly engrossed by various artificial tasks - arbitrarily determined scales by which you can measure your progress through life one goal or action item......
Category Info: musings
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
03.23.04

They cant all be good days...

Four hot Japanese women. A killer, swanky, upscale martini lounge. Great music. Fantastic drinks. What could go wrong...? The day started out fantastically - hung out with some other cute girls I knew from school, did the whole "let's......
Category Info: musings
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
06.02.03

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