Duncan Townsend > Recent Status Updates

This textbook includes many definitions of kanji characters and their many uses, alternate spellings and how to write them. One kanji that I found unique was "Shin"(Eri 323), meaning new. One of the listed uses of Shin was in "Shinkansen" meaning Bullet Train.(This is from the 29th)

A phrase that bemused me was: "What happened? (You look shattered.)" (坂野永理 271). This seems similar to: "You look dishevelled".

Nisioisin describes other characters' opinions of the main character in a straightforward way: "It feels so pointless to be indebted to you--- that's how she put it."(Nisioisin 253).

When describing the old cram school they were visiting, they said: "The concrete fragments, empty cans, signs, shards of glass, and who knows what else were still a mess, a royal mess." (Nisioisin 110).

Something that surprised me was the word: "Shinkansen; 'Bullet Train'" (Eri 230). This implies that the Japanese language has it's own word for bullet train, instead of borrowing it from another language.

This chapter has a lot more to do with history than I had imagined, and it's interesting, but "ridiculous" (Nisioisin185).