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December 27, 2009

Writing in Japanese is easy.

Some people might think that writing in Japanese is very difficult. It is not true after a Japanese word processor was invented. We use kanji, hiragana, and katakana instead of the 26 letters of the English alphabet. Now, if you have an ordinary computer with a Japanese OS, you just write as you speak using the alphabet and push the space bar when you think you have finished a part of a sentence to change the letters into the ordinary Japanese notation. You use a tool called "かな漢字変換システム," which means the kana-to-kanji transformation system. MS IME is pre-installed to a Japanese OS, but you can buy ATOK by Just Systems, which I use. You don't need to memorize how to write difficult kanji, such as 鬱 in "憂鬱(depression)." If the system responds with wrong words, you just select the appropriate kanji from a list. It is easy to write in Japanese, if you can speak correctly.

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December 19, 2009

Only the very young or the very foolish

"Most people get a fair amount of fun out of their lives, but on balance life is suffering, and only the very young or the very foolish imagine otherwise."(George Orwell)
I don't think I am young, but I might as well hope I am very foolish.

It was snowing heavily when I was driving back home after work this evening. What a delight for a very foolish person.

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