Author Archives: NathanJones

In order to help improve my Japanese language skill and visit some friends, in November of 2002 I went to Japan for two weeks. During my trip to Japan I meet many people and had many new experiences.

One new experience was the ofuro (Japanese style bathroom). An ofuro is very different from an American style bathroom. It is a bathroom and bathroom only. There is no toliet in the room. Just a bathtub and a shower nozzle (which is on the opposite side of the bathtub).

(There is just a bathtub on one side of the room and a shower nozzle on the other side.).

There is a drain in the middle of the floor and usually a stool to sit on. To use the ofuro first you soap up and shower off outside the tub. The whole family uses the same bath water, so you have to make sure you’re clean before you get in the tub. Continue reading →

 
On one of my trips to Japan, some friends and I wanted to visit Kamakura. We were in Yokosuka which is only a short trip, by train, to Kamamkura.

I had taken the train from Yokosuka on previous trips to Japan, but at that time, I couldn’t remember how to get to the station. I knew very little Japanese – only what  I had learned from books.

I decided to ask for directions, since most people in Yokosuka speak English. I went into the first store, saw people inside, walked up to the counter and asked in English how to get to the train station that goes to Kamakura.

The woman behind the counter shook her head and said, “Eigo ga wakarimasen” (I don’t understand English). So, I thought for a second and tried to ask in Japanese. I thought it best to tell her where my friends and I were trying to go then ask for directions to the station. Continue reading →

    When I was eleven years old  I had a job on a ranch during the Summer. I had to shovel horse stalls, fill wheel barrels with rocks, drag dead brush into piles to be burned and mowed pastures all in 105 degree weather.  I only got paid two dollars an hour (unless I was filing up the wheel barrels
then I got paid per wheel barrel) and I couldn’t take breaks longer than the time it took to get a drink from the hose.

    As bad as that job sounds, while in California, I worked at Kentucky Fried Chicken as a cook and  I must say, it was worse.  It always seemed like the orders of chicken would never stop.  My manager would always promise me I would only have to make one more batch, just to come back to the kitchen three minutes later and have me cook one more.  Every night, five minutes before closing and right after I finished cleaning the kitchen, a car load of people would show up at the drive thru wanting four or five buckets of chicken.  All I ever dreamt about was making chicken and no matter how much I bathed, I couldn’t get that fried chicken smell off of me.  I hated chicken.  I couldn’t eat fried chicken until recently.  What’s worse, after a year of that, I still had not Continue reading →

 
Recently I went to Sasebo Japan.  Sasebo is a small town near Nagasaki.
Since it’s such a small town, people there are very friendly. 

While there, I went to a festival.  I was standing there watching the events when a Japanese man came up to me and began speaking.  I understood some of what he said so I spoke back to him.  He became very excited and began speaking extremely fast.  So fast, in fact, that I could only catch a word or two of what he was saying before he was talking about something completely different. 

At the end of every subject he would say "Ne?" (isn’t it) over and over again until I would respond with "hai" (yes).  One minute he was talking about the festival, then Jackie Chan, and out of nowhere he was talking about beer.   This went on for about a half an hour.  And all the while between subjects he would say "Ne? Ne? Ne? Ne?".  Continue reading →

I got out of school at 2 p.m. then I would go skateboarding from 4 p.m. until 6 p.m. Afterwards, I had to do my homework, only because my mom would make me (which was good because otherwise I would have probably failed out of school). During my summer vacation, all I did was　skateboarding. I would skate everyday from about 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. When I was in the 11th grade, I realized that if I didn’t put more time into my studies, I would never get into college, especially a good one. So, I started putting more time into school and my grades got better and better. Soon, instead of just barely passing my classes, I made A’s and B’s. In the end, I was accepted to Ringling School of Art which is a very prestigious art school. Unfortunately, I did not have enough money to attend any classes there. Continue reading →

にほんご や にほん ぶんか を まなぶこと を たのしみにしています。

午後５時１５分から、１時間半、週２回、日本語を学ぶことにしました。

ごご ５ じ １５ ふん から、１ じかん はん、しゅう ２ かい、にほんご を まなぶことにしました。 Continue reading →