About the Author
Hello, this blog is about my life as a father, Buddhist and Japanophile / Koreaphile. Any useful information I can pass along will hopefully make the Internets a better place. Thanks for reading!
Monthly Archives: October 2010
Harvest Time!
As October draws to a close, it’s harvest time. It’s fitting that the first poem of the Hyakunin Isshu poem anthology talks about this: 秋の田の Aki no ta no かりほの庵の kariho no io no 苫をあらみ toma wo arami わが衣手は waga … Continue reading
Update and change in blog schedule
Hi all, Just wanted to let folks know that I am trying an experiment with the blog’s lineup that will take effect starting next week. For a long time on the blog, probably since its inception or close to it, … Continue reading
Posted in General
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Shogi Master vs. Machine
The game of shogi or Japanese Chess is something I haven’t discussed in a long, long, long, LONG time in this blog.1 For a time before I moved to Ireland, I played Shogi regularly with co-workers and a few Japanese … Continue reading
Posted in Dune, Japan, Shogi, Technology
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Japanese Manners: knowing your place
Japan has quite a reputation for politeness and even when dating my wife, I had to learn to adapt to a more hierarchical way of thinking, even toward her friends. Fortunately this concept is actually not too hard to adapt … Continue reading
Posted in Confucius, Japan, Korea, Travel
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Why Buddhist meditation?
An article on Brad Warner’s blog caught my attention recently about how people perceive meditation. Buddhist meditation seems to divide people into the category of those who romanticize it unnecessarily, and those who demonize it. This article is a brief … Continue reading
Posted in Buddhism, Religion, Theravada, Zen
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Transitive and Intransitive: mastering Japanese verbs
One of those aspects of Japanese language, I really, really wish I had learned at a younger age was the notion of transitive and intransitive verbs. The notion of transitive and intransitive verbs exists in English, but in Japanese they … Continue reading
Posted in Japanese, JLPT, Language
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Memories of Hanoi, part two: the Perfume Pagoda
Following my recent post about Hanoi, I wanted to show some pictures from my little adventure at the time to the famous Perfume Pagoda, or Chùa Hương in Vietnamese.1 As mentioned previously, I took these in 2001, with a cheap … Continue reading
Posted in Buddhism, Taoism, Travel, Vietnam
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Memories of Hanoi, part one
This is not a typical post for the blog, but recently, after obtaining a printer/scanner at home,1 I stumbled upon some old photos I took when I was a student studying abroad in Vietnam back in 2001. I scanned them … Continue reading
Posted in Confucius, Travel, Vietnam
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Bad Habits
Recently, while looking for a different quotation I found this one from the Dhammapada: 371. Meditate, O monk! Do not be heedless. Let not your mind whirl on sensual pleasures. Heedless, do not swallow a red-hot iron ball, lest you … Continue reading
Posted in Buddhism, Dune, Religion
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Romance in Ancient Japan
I’ve always been something of a hopeless romantic-type, even as far back as the toddler-age (so says my mother). Like that one Michael Jackson song goes: I’m a lover, not a fighter. So I admit, I have enjoyed reading the … Continue reading
Posted in Buddhism, Japan, Japanese, Poetry
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