Learning Japanese

I've spent the last year or so trying to learn German. I've not got far but feel like I've created a base to work on. I'm continuing to try to read German news stories to keep my knowledge as fresh as possible.

However... I've also flirted with learning Japanese over the years (I even took an extra class at school for it but it was cancelled after about three lessons...). Germany is within easy reach. I can get there quite comfortably and have been twice. Japan... that's a bigger mission. So I'm combining a distant hope of going to Japan with my new lifestyle and weight loss. And thus I'm back to learning Japanese again.

It's such a tough written language to master but the grammar is relatively easy. So far... so good.

Things That Are Good

1) Ajoo from South Korea. Yoinked from Gay Boy Thailand.

2) Currywurst. There is a wonderful German sausage stall in Lewisham town centre and Jim introduced me to this tasty German treat. YUM! Really am liking Germany more and more every day. Maybe this is because I've been reading the Spiegel's International Edition for news recently. I find reading the papers from the continent really interesting as it gives you a different perspective on all the stories of the day.

3) Understanding the irony of a protest in support of Palestine using the Rainbow flag, as seen in Lewisham. I'm all for Palestinian rights but let's remember being a gay Palestinian is a fate none would envy. I understand the Rainbow flag is also the Peace flag but still...

4) Death Note: The Last Name was really very good.

This blogger works for nothing but the joy of writing but always appreciates things bought from his wishlist

Movie Weekend!

I've watched a few movies this weekend, in an effort to save money and also to allow Jim some relaxation as he currently has a poorly hand (jokes on a postcard). Some old, some new.

I saw Milk. Given we already have the Oscar Award winning "The Times of Harvey Milk", this movie had to do one of two things for me to like it;

1) give us more insight into some of the personalities involved than given by the aforementioned documentary
2) give us a reflection of our own times through the prism of these past events.

It did neither. The Times of Harvey Milk gave me far more of a feeling for who Harvey Milk and Dan White were as people than this movie did. And rather than being a reflection upon LGBT rights today it seemed to be little more than a nostalgic, rose tinted looked at the heady pre-AIDS LGBT movement of the 70s. And, as a comment on this article suggests, all at the expense of everyone else involved and gives Harvey Milk all the credit (not that he didn't deserve a lot of credit for what he did, but let's not make him out to be a superhero, when he was just a good guy).

Really, what was the point of this movie? It wasn't entertaining, and it was no more educational than a 25 year old documentary. I must have missed the point.

I also saw Death Note which was entertaining and, based on my limited experience of Japanese movies (read Godzilla films and The Ring cash ins), was different to the usual. Liked it, a lot, and not just because Tatsuya Fujiwara is a hottie.



Classic movies watched include the awesome "Crimson Tide" and "King Kong Vs. Godzilla", not so awesome but a lot better than most 60s sci fi movies.

Oh and I want this house. How frigging call would that place be?

This blogger works for nothing but the joy of writing but always appreciates things bought from his wishlist