Thursday 26 October 2006

お好み焼 and 日本の本

So I promised that I would post a couple of pictures about the really cool cart of books I got to work with last week in my job at Japanese collections.












Then, last night, I made okonomiyaki. But, for the sauce, I chose an alternative method. Yes, plain old Kraft barbecue sauce did the trick quite nicely!!!

Thursday 19 October 2006

Recent jobs

I got a really cool task today in my job at Japanese Collections. They (I don't know who "they" were, and Hitoshi, my boss, didn't tell me) were going through the storage rooms at the Science Library, and they found an entire cart's worth of old journals and books that belong in the Japanese collection. So my job is to search the catalog to find out if these items are supposed to be on our shelf, or if we have similar items (like the serials--do we have that serial or not...). But some of the books are really cool. There's a bunch of art books which I haven't gotten to look at as Hitoshi wanted me to sort out the serials first, but the couple I took a peek at are over 100 years old! They have publication dates from the Taisho and Meiji eras! Which my friends who understand Japanese will know are quite a throwback.

If I have a chance I will publish a few snapshots. More as this develops. Maybe if Hitoshi decides we can't put a few of the cooler ones in the library I'll get them... ha ha.

Friday 6 October 2006

Injuries

I couldn't resist... here's my latest war wound from Kendo. Well, actually, it's been an ongoing war wound. I got hit there at my first practice in August, and it's been a given that I'll get hit on the right hip again...
It was just a regular purple bruise--tonight I got hit 4 times so it became reddened.
We do wear protective wear, but this is what happens when you aim too low when hitting do...


My pleasure reading for this week is Comrades and Strangers by Michael Harrold. Harrold was the first British citizen to be invited to live in North Korea. Most of my friends know I have this fascination with North Korea, and about learning about the most isolated country in the world, so when I was walking down the stacks one day while paging this caught my eye.
I'm also reading My Life by Bill Clinton. It's actually quite interesting. While Clinton may have done some unsavory things, it's interesting to read his thoughts.