Miles' Japanese Blog!

 こんにちはみんなさん、今日私は一番グリルドチーズの作り方をせつめいします。材料はパンとアメリカのチーズとメキシコのチーズとバターです。まず、パンにバターをつけてから、一分間フライパンでパンをやきます。次に、やいたパンにアメリカのチーズとメキシコのチーズを挟んでください。それから、すべてをフライパンに入れてから、十五っ分やきます。最後に、食べます！美味しくて、かんたんなグリルドチーズのできあがります。

 こんにちは！　ウッドストックのバーモント州は私が好きな所です。中学の時、家族と初めてそこに行きました。ふゆだから、とても寒くて、たくさん雪が降りました。でも、白い山はきれいな景色でした。毎日、いもうととホテルのにわで遊んでから、暑いココアを飲みました。次行く時、秋でした。素晴らし林檎ののうじょうによりました。二三の食べた、甘かったです！森は赤とオレンジと黄色 です。私のゆめはもう一度ウッドストックに帰ることです。

わたしの夏休みはとても忙しかったです。夏休みの間、レンタカーの店でインターンをしました。テキサスの暑い天気の中で、毎日10時間か11時間働きました。 週末は友達と遊びました。映画をたくさん見て、ゲームもたくさんしました。とても楽しかったです。 夏休みの終わりに、家族とカリフォルニアへ行きました。祖父母の家に行きました。ビーチと山でゆっくりしました。景色がとてもきれいでした。

 I'm happy to say my second semester taking Japanese at Notre Dame was even more enjoyable than my first, even though there was a slight increase in the difficulty of grammar topics and kanji covered. This was due to the practicality of the stuff we were learning; now that the basics of hiragana, katakana, and simple tenses were out of the way, we could start ordering food and making plans to meet up. Since I'll be in Japan for my first time less than a month now for my semester abroad, the material seemed more relevant than ever, and I was eager to absorb as much as I could this semester before I went. I thought the pace of the material was good, not too fast as to give us enough time for each topic to set in through repetition. I struggled a bit more to keep up with the homework compared to Elementary I, but this was completely on me and my lack of time management. I'm excited to learn plenty of Japanese over the next 5-6 months, both in my next class and the real world!

  サンクスギビングはどうでしたか。どこで、だれと、何をしましたか。 サンクスギビング の やつみ、私 は Dallas に いきました。おじのへやでばんごはんをたべまし た。私のかそくといとことおばとおじがいました。それから、ともだちとコンサートにいきました。だから、やすみはとてもたのしかったです！

What do you think kyudo is? If you already know something about it, please write it down.  I would have no knowledge of what kyudo is, but I heard ふせ-sensee refer to it as "The Art of the Bow," which kind of spoils the main topic of this activity. I'd assume there's the obvious metric of accuracy involved, as well as some more subjective, cultural measures of skill such as form. What do you think you need to do to become good at kyudo?  I know archery generally requires strong arm and back muscles, especially when using heavier bows that need a shocking amount of force to pull back. Muscle memory, formed over lots of consistent practice, requires dedication and a mind that's focused on improving slowly but surely, which are traits helpful for mastering most physical skills. What questions would you like to ask our guest kyudo teacher at the event? - What was the most impressive shot you've seen someone make? - What's, in your opinion, the biggest factor th...

 For this blog post, I wanted to write about my time watching the first few episodes of Vinland Saga, a historical anime that is set in Medieval Europe during the time of the Vikings. I've read the manga before, and enjoyed the strong character writing and detailed art, so I figured the show was worth watching after putting it off for a while. Our main protagonist, Thorfinn, is still a young boy during these first few episodes though, as the story follows his whole life and his relationship/view of the world.  There were plenty of historical/old-timey words that were used that I couldn't see coming up too often in the classroom or in casual conversation, such as "slave, siege, viking," some of which were katakana loan words that didn't sound too far off from their english counterparts. Basic sentence structure stood out to me in places ("blank" は "blank" です）, and some other verbs/nouns we've covered, like 人 and 大きい. I can't wait to have...