Short takes

Life revolves around work at the moment, and as I try to avoid work-related posts here (I blog to get a break from work, not to further it) posting is light. There's nevertheless a few interesting tidbits worth posting about.

Center, work time; right, spending time with Ritsuko-time; left, language study time. Not visible at this resolution, blog time.

Actually, it's a "Banpeiyu", a kind of pomelo, and the worlds larges citrus fruit. It lasted us for days.

Shisaku points to some welcome news: the LDP far-right is preoccupying itself with campaigning for a return to Meiji-era grammar and spelling for the Japanese language, citing reasons such as the Japanese spirit being embodied in its characters - and I do believe they mean a quite literal spirit here - and the post-war orthography reforms having destroyed it (and thus, I presume, being part to blame for the lack of children, independent women and a viable political opposition).

The good news? Every hour of effort they spend on this doomed project is an hour they're not spending on something that could actually affect anybody. And it should be but a short step to convince these people that computers, internet and word processing is similarly soul-destroying for the language, so they'll end up writing their policy proposals in longhand, sending drafts to each other by courier. With any luck, it could keep them from doing any legislative mischief for years.