Friday, January 11, 2008

明けましておめでとうございます。


Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu! (Happy New Year!)

すみません。 Sumimasen. (Please excuse me.) I am sorry for the length of time between posts. For part of that time, I have been struggling to wrap my middle-aged brain around the intricacies of the Japanese language. It's been fun, trying to master a totally alien syntax and grammar, not to mention two syllabaries (Hiragana and Katakana) and a set of 1500+ ideographs (Kanji). (OK, OK, I've only gotten as far as memorizing and writing Hirgana, like any Japanese first term, first grader. But I can recognize 20 Kanji!) Over the course of the next few weeks, I hope to share some new information about family happenings. In the meantime, please enjoy this holiday shot of Sara and Kara Snavely with a certain well-known seasonal figure.

Here's a really great song, "Meoto Zanzai" by one of my favorite artists, Sayuri Ishikawa. You don't have to know Japanese to appreciate this!

In the meantime,
がんばって ね。(Gambatta ne.) "Do your best, OK?" and さよなら (Sayonara.)