New moderator - AdminBen

I have seen no other Miyazaki films, except Spirited Away. I thought it was brilliant and will probably force my children to watch it and become depressed if they don't recognize its sheer brilliance as I have.I am aware of the other works, its just that I haven't gotten around to see them yet.The Castle in the Sky movie sounds just as promising. Beats the hell out of Disney who at this point treats children as sources of revenue with infantile levels of "purity".As a side note, snce you mentioned Kanji, I have recently been thinking of studying one of the ideogramatic written languages. I am uncertain if I should study Kanji and hope it will help me understand (to some degree) Chinese and S Korean, or if I should just start with Chinese and hope it helps me with the others.Do you have a suggestion of which would be easier or more effective? Or do you think there are such differences that moving between them isn't really a practical reality. I figured it might be cool to learn a written language (which I am better at than speaking/listening) which would allow me to communicate to a large number of people, regardless of knowing direct spoken languages.

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holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)

Well let me ask you this, are you able to look at a chinese item of some kind... menu, signpost, magazine, etc etc... and generally know what is being said?

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holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)

Does your gf also know Japanese? Should I assume she IS japanese?Thanks for the info.

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holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)

Thanks for the info.I was actually aware of the problems related to learning spoken Chinese. I tried to learn that years ago and certainly got my ass handed to me. I hadn't run into a ma ma ma ma exercise, but understand that would be a great example of how difficult it is.In fact I almost always have a problem with spoken language, even in languages which do not carry the entire meaning of a word based on its style of pronunciation. For some reason people sound garbled and when I think I have said something right they tell me I'm garbled.That's why I was intrigued with the possibility of just picking up a written version of a language, that is not keyed to the spoken version. I can always pretend I'm a deaf mute and use writing to get along. Of course I have no experience trying to memorize 1000's of individual characters, or trying to arrange them in a grammatical structure. Is there a grammatical structure with written Chinese, or is it as haphazard as the spoken form? From what I've read Chinese (or Chinese derived script) is still used in South Korea. It is only North Korea which has done away with it completely. That seems almost ironic given N Korea's political ties with China.

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holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)

I am always confused when I try to get an image of living in Japan. I see pictures of very beautiful landscapes and achitecture (as your pics had a lot of) and then other pictures of dismal urban slabs.Given that I keep hearing what a small place Japan is, and how packed it is, I am not sure how there is room for both (and your pictures, even the urban ones, have a decided lack of population).I had Japanese friends as well as a friend who went to live in Japan, and I just can't seem to get a clear picture of what life is like, even when they give me pictures.What is your aesthetic view of life in Japan (besides people not helping each other)?Uhmmm, and I hope this won't offend you, but your gf is quite beautiful. Is there and interesting story in how you two met, or what you are doing in Japan or why you went there in the first place? These are all private matters so feel free not to discuss. Personally I keep my own private life private here, so I'll understand.

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holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)

Is there any beauty, or consistent beauty, within the urban areas. Pretty consistently, and this includes your own pictures, the cities appear to be grey, drab almost prefab buildings with little appeal to the eye, especially when looked at together.I guess the feeling I get is something grim, as compared to serene countrysides. Except maybe night photos which usually have lots of pretty neon. But that doesn't work well during the day.The urban areas often appear smoggy or rainy. Is there more rain than sunshine, or is that just a coincidence in the pictures I've seen? I have heard that it is tough to actually be accepted by Japanese society, and eventually one feels like they are expecting you to leave at some point, and if you don't then they sort of start nudging you to do so. Have you encountered this at all?Since you have been to Europe, how would you compare life between Europe and Japan? If all you've been to is Italy, that might skew perceptions as Italy seemed somewhat different from Northern Europe.

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holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)

I certainly haven't been everywhere, but as far as all the places I have been the two most beautiful cities I have ever seen are Chicago and Amsterdam.That is not merely the surrounding nature (of which there are many many beautiful locations around the world including the Alps as one enters Italy... oh man), but the mixture of urban planning and architecture to create an aesthetic feel.Amsterdam has been stumbling as the new buildings are almost all glass and steel boxes which are the most ugly contraptions I have seen. The older quarters though including the central area (where I live) still have the original feel of brick and glass antiquity.I think Chicago has spoiled me for city living almost anywhere else. Especially its use of skyline and the designed lakeshore.

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holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)

Amsterdam, and most European cities, are on a ring or circular plan. Chicago is definitely grid and cross-section.From what I understand they sort of plan or integrate into architectural plans, how it will impact the skyline of the city. In any case whatever they did worked.The shoreline is completely manmade and forms a series of parks and beaches which edge the lake, rather than shutting the city off from its natural environment.Unfortunately I just met some people from Chicago who have told me that during the year I've been gone, there has been massive tearing down and rebuilding. They are replacing historic buildings and areas with simple concrete drab n slab design... just like every other city. It may be that I return to find the Chicago I once knew no longer exists. I guess I should have taken more pictures.Before I left some of this new work was being done and it was not looking good, but it was sparce. There were also works that I really liked, like the renovation of lighting systems and subway areas, as well as the parks. They even created a "Museum Campus" by reducing the highway and parking lots around the museums to form a real rolling green campus environment. I've heard Russian subways are nice too. I have yet to ever see such a thing. That would be nice.

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holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)