Author Archives: admin

Posters in Rural Japan

Posted on July 21, 2004 by admin

Here are a couple of posters I thought were interesting that I took pictures of while I was in Imazu-cho in Shiga Prefecture visiting my wife’s family. This first one shows the fairly low-ranked sumo wrestler 高見盛 (Takamisakari) endorsing a … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Leave a comment

Back from Japan: Observations and Ruminations

Posted on July 20, 2004 by admin

Ryoko, myself, and our baby just returned from a month in Japan, visiting her family and such. There were some days when I didn’t have much to do and just sat around, but overall I had a really good time, … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Leave a comment

名前を決めた

Posted on June 18, 2004 by admin

娘は5月3日で産まれて、名前は「カリサ」と決めた。アメリカの出産証明書でもちろんローマ字だから、Karisaで書いてしかなくて漢字ではまだ決めていなかった。しかし、カリサちゃんが二重国籍を持てるように2ヶ月までに戸籍に入れなければならない。その届けをするためにカリサに使う漢字を決めなければならない。 僕の場合は漢字の意味をわかるけど、苗字に合わせてからの雰囲気がいいとかはまったくセンスがない。それは涼子の役割だ。今日そのことを話して「伽里紗」がいいと思ったけど、「鳥居」の涼子の氏名に合わせたらあまり気に入らないって。最近、日本政府がの何百の新しい漢字を名前に使うのは許したみたいけど、「癌」とか「呪」とか使わない限り僕は別に何の漢字でも平気だ。

Posted in General | Leave a comment

Stainless Steel Rat

Posted on June 18, 2004 by admin

I had some spare time to do some leisure reading the other day, so I read the first three books dealing with the adventures of the Stainless Steel Rat, a series of sci-fi adventure stories by Harry Harrison. There is … Continue reading →

Posted in Entertainment | 2 Comments

Travel Advisory…

Posted on May 20, 2004 by admin

Since my wife and I will be going back to Japan in June, mostly for the purpose of Ryoko’s family seeing their new granddaughter/neice, It means that we need a passport for our baby girl, Karisa. I first looked up … Continue reading →

Posted in General | 1 Comment

Update

Posted on May 14, 2004 by admin

Well, I’ve been too busy and then too lazy to write anything here for the past week or so. My wife Ryoko gave birth to a baby girl, Karisa, at 9:40 pm on Monday the 5th. Pretty much everything went … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Leave a comment

Where’s the Baby?

Posted on April 28, 2004 by admin

Well, Monday was Ryoko’s due date. It came, it went, and…. nothing. Now it’s Wednesday Friday, and she has yet to have anything but the occasional Braxton-Hicks contractions (evidently they’re lighter contractions that are just the body ‘warming up’ for … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal | Leave a comment

名前を決めること

Posted on April 24, 2004 by admin

僕と涼子はあとまもなく長女を産むから、今までよく悩んでいたのは名前のことだ。二人は同じ国籍や母国語ではないから簡単に決めるのはないでしょう。綺麗だと思う日本の女性の名前はたくさんあるからべつに日本語の名前はかまわないし、それより産まれてから日本の司令官で日本国籍を手続きするつもりから少なくとも仮名で書ける名前は必要だ。しかし長くアメリカに住むことになるから、勿論アメリカで通じ安い名前も大切だと思う。 その条件に合わせる名前は多くないから、2人でよく考えた。「まり」、「まりや」、「なおみ」などは僕が考えたけど、そべては涼子に却下された。いろいろ考え続けたが、あまり2人も好ける名前は出来なかった。2ヵ月前までこの厳しい条件の複雑さにちょっとあきたから、「玉雯」（ユーエン）という中国語の名前にちょっと気に入れたけど、ほかの名前も考えている。 そして名前を決めても、漢字も考えなければならない。勿論平仮名か片仮名にできるけど、僕の考えで名前に漢字を付けるのは大切な深みがある。 いちよう僕と涼子も気に入れる名前を考えたけど、「産んだら変わるかも」と言うことでまだ発表してない。それでも好きな名前に意見を合わせてるのに、漢字はまだ決めてない。涼子によると、日本で名前を決めることに画数なども意味があるから（涼子は「わたしはべつにかまわないけど、両親に大切からそれも考えたほうがいい」って）いろいろ複雑だ。 まあ、産んだらどうしても決めなければならないから、そのときにみなにちゃんと発表する。 Update: My brother whined about not being able to read the Japanese on this post (someone actually read my blog! He even posted a comment!) so I thought I would summarize it for him. I … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal | 1 Comment

Liquid Armor – It’s not the Terminator, it’s rheology

Posted on April 23, 2004 by admin

I’m stealing a slashdot link here, but I thought this story was so cool I just had to post it. Besides, even if I posted a comment on slashdot, it would only be drowned and unnoticed among the flood of … Continue reading →

Posted in Science | Leave a comment

What does it take to be a good sensei?

Posted on April 23, 2004 by admin

My older brother and I have studied a few martial arts over the years, and recently we were discussing why some martial arts flourish and others do not. One style that we both studied while we were in Oklahoma was … Continue reading →

Posted in Martial Arts | 19 Comments