All Guitar All The Time?: Samurai Music Challenge

24 Tuesday Jul 2012

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This article should also be called, ‘Why I should learn from four year olds and retirees.’  Here are the reasons why:

  • They act like they have all the time in the world.
  • They like to have fun.
  • They don’t seem to care as they try new experiences.
  • They keep trying even if they make mistakes.
  • They try hard, play hard, laugh, and try again.

Okay, I went overboard with the generalizations.  I haven’t met every four year old and retiree, yet. 🙂  But last night I was inspired as my Japanese father-in-law pulled out the karaoke machine and busted out the new children’s songs CD’s he rush ordered for my oldest daughter.

My daughter in a karaoke trance. Talk about immersion. I picked up a few words, like どじょう, any fish of family Cobitidae. Oh, yeah.

My daughter loved it.  There were songs she knew by heart and songs that she kind of knew, but the hiragana lyrics underneath helped her out.  (Yep, she can read hiragana.)   She amazed us by the amount of songs she knew and sang.  Apparently, karaoke was a big hit because later on that night she was singing while sleeping.

My father-in-law must have been inspired, too because later on that night, he pulled out a DVD called NHK趣味悠々 楽しく弾こう! 大人のエレキギタ–Guitar playing for Adults.   This is a guitar instruction DVD focused for the senior set.   The instructor is in his early sixties and all the students don’t look a day below fifty.  Together, they break down the skills it takes to play in the style of The Ventures, an original surf rock band.   Does my father in law have a guitar?  No, but at 71, he’s ready to learn and wants to buy one.  You go dude!

Talk about life long learning. I love that there is a book dedicated to teaching seniors how to play The Ventures. But why wait until you retire to do what you want to do?

Not wanting to break the chain, I went to jamplay.com, a guitar lesson website and started looking around at lessons.  I’ve let go of playing guitar and didn’t even bring one to Japan this summer.   But who the heck cares.  I know I keep mentioning All Japanese All The Time all the time (intentional repetition), but following this site for years has really drilled the idea of allowing yourself to play and try 10,000 times instead of expecting to be perfect.   Khatzumoto explains that  most important part is showing up, not expecting greatness:

Adults have this competence fetish; they cling desperately to their dignity like a little boy to his security blanket; they want to be good at everything they do, and (they think) everyone expects them to be good at anything they do if they are to do it at all — adults are meant to be dignified and able; adults aren’t allowed to show ignorance or confusion. Well, forget that crap. Let go of your pride: you will suck at anything you are new at and little kids will be better than you. It’s okay, that’s how it’s supposed to be — those kids used to suck, too.

As I write, I can hear daughter squawking her way through Dango San Kyodai.   I hope to join in her in spirit through my samurai “All Guitar All the Time” experiment and really try to remember to act like a four year old or a retiree.  Hope you join me in whatever you currently suck at but what to make part of your life.

 

Push, Relax, Have Fun, Repeat: How I ‘Read’ Japanese News

20 Friday Jul 2012

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Here’s a quick little Samurai success formula to take on whatever you want to do or  know more about in life:

  • Push.  Find little windows where you can push yourself to learn a little more and push.   Write down a new word, concept, do push ups until you are tired.
  • Relax.  Congratulations on pushing yourself.   Take a few breaths or a nap.  A relaxed learner learns more than a self-loathing ball of nervousness.
  • Have Fun.   Find a fun angle on what you are trying to learn, do, or accomplish.  Find a comic book version of what you are trying to learn.  Zumba!  (WTH!)
  • Repeat.  Go back to the seat of the crime and take a fresh samurai stab at it all.  Be persistent like water, grasshopper.

Yesterday’s Yomiuri. A foreign newspaper can seem scary, but it can also be a game. You can look at pictures can’t you. Any goal has opportunities for pushing and having fun.

Case in point–the Yomiuri News.   Yomiuri Shinbun is kind of like the Japanese Wall Street journal.  It’s the most interesting newspaper lying around my father-in-law’s house.   I already know a lot of kanji and a lot of Japanese vocabulary, but if I try to read every page my eyes start to swim in desperation and confusion.

But all is not lost.  My vocabulary has increased since doing AJATT but what has also changed is my attitude.  I’ve begun to take on Japanese newspapers.

Bad stuff happening in Syria and the ongoing mess at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Yomiuri is the best paper in the house and I’ve decide to at least open it every day.   Push.  I scan the headlines and pictures for things that interest me.   Have fun.  I find a story that interests me and find one word or more that I don’t understand and look it up with my iPhone app, Midori. At the touch of a screen I instantly add it to my flashcards.  This word will be with me for a while.   Push.  I start to feel like it’s turning into homework and I Relax.   I like reading the small ads at the bottom of Yomiuri hawking all sorts of diet, sports, business, and self-help books.  I enjoy the language of promises and I also like the bite-sized、digestible bites they come in.  Have fun.  The newspaper comes again the next day and I Repeat.  PRHR! (Like a cat with spelling issues.)

The ads are like little candies. Small and chewy!

I’m hoping to PRHR through more of I want to learn:  financial and investment literacy, Spanish, and playing guitar.    Today Yomiuri, tomorrow the world.

Cut Through Indecision: Let Go and Let Samurai

17 Tuesday Jul 2012

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“Chase two rabbits and lose them both” (nito otte itto mo ezu). This Japanese proverb is a graphic picture of the mind which is divided in its purpose, and therefore loses that which it would gain . . .

In the martial arts, the hesitant abiding mind is considered to be the most vulnerable to attack. The main thing is to get moving. You cannot balance on a bicycle unless you are in motion. Once you are moving you can adjust your course. . ..  William Reed. Aikido expert and business consultant

 

So many rabbits too little time. I spent the day at Makai Farms in Fujinomiya. Language immersion and family time. Killing two rabbits with one stone? Ouch!

Indecision can be a time and motivation killer.  I know.  I struggle with it every day.  Sometimes I lose precious time playing around with Japanese because I agonize about which would be the right method.   Should I finish a japanesepod101.com or iknow.co.jp lesson or should I do something fun in Japanese.   If I decide to ‘have fun’ in Japanese, I agonize about what would be fun.

The key would be to keep moving, as Samurai Renaissance William Reed explains.   As I’ve explained before, I am currently doing Silverspoon, a a subcription program where I get daily recommendations of what to do and study in Japanese.  Khatzumoto, the webmeister behind AJATT, deftly calls it structure without stricture.  I like having a structure not just to have a structure but also because it gives me something to rebel against.   You want me to watch anime all day today?  Eff it…I think doing a japanesepod101.com lesson might be more fun today.

A friend recently asked me what I would do to create a program to get more people writing.  One of the main suggestions I offered is to simply get a timer and write.   I am not Shakespeare but I am writing.   When I get stuck writing about a specific project, I get out my timer and go to the ‘blurts’ section of my documents and complain, scream, whine.   Many times I come up with ideas for chapters or blog posts.  Sometimes the blurts are just kitty litter、but at least I am moving.   ‘ Once you are moving you can adjust your course.’

We spent some time at the sheep races. Which sheep to pick? Indecision. As Khatzumoto says. ‘Just pick. Click. Move on with your life.’ 🙂

In his article, Action is Easy.  Decision is Hard Khatzumoto puts it more bluntly:

So stop being such a queen and just pick whatever. Decide. Either way, it’s easy in that all action in your cushy, sedentary life is easy. It’s easy to do; it’s easy not to do, and — now that you’ve given up the duh-rama — it’s easy to pick as well.

Go on, timebox it. 90 seconds. Pick. Click. Move on with life.

Take out your Samurai katana and cut through indecision and do something in the direction of your dreams.   And, if you see me on the road vacillating, give me a swift kick in the samurai.

Samurai Dance

16 Monday Jul 2012

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“Every day I count wasted in which there has been no dancing.”–Friedrich ‘Shake What Your Momma  Gave You’  Nietzsche

I’m staying with my wife and my daughters in a a little town called Yui.  It’s famous for it’s Sakura ebi shrimp and the fact that it is shown on NHK television when the waves from a approaching typhoon crash across the interprectural highway.   It is a good trip.  In the mornings I’ve been able to get away and hike among the farms.  I’m living the slug life, yo.  

Have you ever watched a Studio Ghibli movie and watched a cartoon slug wander down a plant. They are slimier in real life.

I can tell it’s a good trip because when my daughters play with their cousins, they vehemently tell me to go away.

We are also here to enjoy the matsuri or festivals.   This weekend, at night this sleepy little town is transformed into a festival of lights.  My shaky little iPhone pics won’t do justice to it.

My daughter, Sakura, especially enjoys 盆通り, or bondori.   This is basically a festival dance.   Anyone can come dance around the yagura, a large beautifully lit central platform where the musicians and drummers play.   

Yagura

The central platform around which bondori dancers dance. There’s something primal in a maypole kind of way about this kind of festival dance.

There are different dances but it usually involves stylized hand and arm movements and very little moving of the hips.   What I love about this festival is how many different types of people come.   It’s cool to watch tough guys twirl their hands delicately in the air.   (Not that there is anything wrong with that.)   It’s kind of amazing that people have been coming to dance together for hundreds of years.

Last night I saw an old couple dancing.   The woman was pushing his wheelchair in the general directions that the other dancers were moving.  The man’s had moved like eagles above his wheelchair. 

That’s how I want to live–grasping every minute that I can to dance in some way.    It’s why I woke up this morning and walked to the hills and farms above the local zen temple.   It’s why I swim through lameness totry to keep on writing.  Join me.  Keep dancing. 

Yui

Above the zen temple–from the hills where you can really see far.

 

 

The Importance of Browsing: Samurai Browser

14 Saturday Jul 2012

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Now that I am in Japan for the summer, I find myself browsing a lot.   In the mornings, I go to write at a manga cafe where I can have some semi-privacy.   When I goof off, I browse through the free movies available through their Cinema Channel.

Fuzzy screenshot of manga kissa cinema channel.

Sometimes I even get up and look through real comic books and magazines.   I also go to the Numazu library to write and think.   To take a break, I will just walk around and browse.  I can read the section titles more easily now but sometimes I just wander down the aisle pull out a book and see what I find.

Sometimes, I find myself getting annoyed.   I feel like I am wasting time just looking through books.  I should just be doing something productive!!  But lately I have had a change of heart about browsing.  I think browsing does a few key things:

  • Browsing allows you to stumble upon new ideas.  (Hey someone should come up with an internet program where you stumbleupon new websites!) 🙂
  • Browsing helps you point you back to yourself.   As you relaxedly allow yourself to pick up and put down books that bore you or interest you, you are getting information about what is important to you.  Relax and listen to what you discover about yourself as you browse.
  • Browsing is a form of review.   As you look at information and making decisions on whether to pursue it, many learning actions are happening.  You are tossing aside knowledge you have already learned, you are putting  ‘bookmarks’ on information you want later, etc.
  • Browsing is a great way to support libraries and bookstores.  (A bookstore is a physical place where you can buy physical books.  Yes, they still exist.  :))

Of course, don’t make browsing a chore.   If it’s not fun it is not browsing.  In this day and age anything that sounds like loafing seems like a waste.   But the earth needs you to be you.   Samurai browsing is samurai becoming.  Trip the library fantastic!

Life is an SRS: Create your Learning Environment

13 Friday Jul 2012

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One of the more fun lessons I’ve gotten from ajatt and other sources is that you become what you surround yourself with.   If you want to learn Japanese, surround yourself with Japanese people, music, and experiences.   Maybe it works for other things as well.  If you want to be rich, surround yourself with rich people, or at least with books and audio that explore ethical and fun ways to create wealth.  Life itself is an SRS.

Signs signs every there’s signs. Walking around is just one big kanji and vocabulary review.

An SRS is short for spaced repetition system.  A spaced repetition system usually involves creating flashcards.   Using various online and offline computer programs these cards come up in an algorithm based on how successful you’ve been at remembering the various facts.   The harder to remember facts come up sooner, while the easier facts come up at increasingly longer intervals.  An SRS is an excellent way to consciously push your learning further.

I guess I could sit at my computer and look at flashcards all day, but maybe walking around the park and realizing that the sign I thought was some kind of haiku years ago actually says, “Let’s clean up.  Dog poop is the responsibility of the owner.”

When I first came to Japan, I thought these signs were haiku. This sign means it is your responsiblity to clean up your dog’s poop.

There are a thousand opportunities to learn.  The conscious pushing of study opens up more possibilities but the random discovery of real-life experience “cooks in the flavah.”

Use this symbiosis between conscious effort and environment.   Yes, you can push but also think what’s around you.  Khatzumoto often says something like, “You learn the language that’s on your walls.”  You don’t want to be hermetically sealed off but you want to think about your environment.  It’s the reason that the Dali Lama didn’t attend Chico State, the party college of California.

Some random, unsolicited hints for a better Samurai Repetition System:

  • Stop watching television or be more selective about the content and amount of time you watch
  • Hang out with the kind of people you would like to become – come on you funky line dancing hipsters – come to Samurai Juan
  • Read the books you want to become
  • Create little opportunities for adventure—eat somewhere different, talk to someone new—you might not know where you want to go unless you occasionally stray off the beaten path .
  • Pray and meditate.  I’m going out on a limb here.  Your thoughts are part of your environment.  If you are not a prayer person at least imagine good things for people.

Let me know how it goes and thank you for making samuraimindonline.com part of your learning environment.

 

Take Advantage of Sleepless Moments: Tales of the Jetlag Samurai

10 Tuesday Jul 2012

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Jetlag can be a drag, but there are its advantages.   This morning I woke up at 4:30 a.m and walked out to the rising sun.   After purchasing a canned espresso drink

Fueling my jetlag with canned coffees.

from the local vending machine (they are everywhere!), I headed out for a morning walk.  I saw Mount Fuji in the distance, with its little trails of snow.  My little iPhone picture can’ t do justice to Fuji-san, but seeing this ancient volcano is one of the perks of waking up way early.

This visit to Japan is slightly different.  I can understand a little bit more, I can read a whole lot more, but I still know just enough Japanese to get me in trouble.

However, I am also better “armed” with a smartphone.  This morning not only was I able take these “stunning” landscape pictures but I also took pictures of signs along the park for future reference.  I’d always meant to write down these signs and translate them later but when you are walking you don’t want to break the flow of the walk.   A quick snapshot and then I’m gone.  Jetlag samurai on the prowl.

Later, by the beach, (not as romantic as it sounds), I was able to use my Midori app and look up a few words and insta/presto turn them into flashcards. Jetlag lifehack.

It’s better to get a full night’s sleep and I know I can’t keep this up for ever.  But it brings up a point Furuichi-san makes in his books.   Take advantage of sleepless moments to study something and explore.  Usually after 20 minutes, I can go back to sleep.   However when my body is telling me that it 5:30 in the afternoon, I take the opportunity to use this “awakened” moment to be out in nature and among the vending machines.  🙂  Every moment is precious for the jetlag samurai.  zzzzzz.

This time on my visit to Japan, this samurai is “armed” with an iPhone, ready to capture sights, sounds, and random kanji on the fly.

Think Genki: As a Samurai Giveth, A Samurai Receive(th?)

09 Monday Jul 2012

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My “office space” when I’m in Japan. Well-lit, computer and internet access, and as many Calpis, coffee, and assorted drinks as human could tolerate.

Preparing for Take-off

The house-sitter is secured.  Passport is in order and samurai is ready to go to Japan.  My bags are not yet packed but somehow I’ve found a few minutes to read my trashy self-help book, 毎朝１分で人生は変わる：One Minute, One Action in the Morning will Change Your Whole Life.  Challenge #7 tells the reader that whatever energy you give to others is the energy that comes back to you.   [If your Japanese is better than mine, please correct me in the comments, and excuse my punctuation because I am on a Japanese keyboard in manga cafe.]

 The Challenge

「元気」はあげればあげるほど自分に返ってくる。 The more good energy you send out the more good energy comes back to you.　Miyake-san goes on to add:

人に好かれたかったら、まずは自分がひと好きになる。そうすれば、いつしか人に好かれるようになる。元気になりたかったら、まず自分から目の前の人を元気にできるような行動を起こす。すると、いつの間にが自分が元気になっている。

Samurai translation:  If you want people to like you, you need to start by liking people.  Once you start doing this, people will start liking you.   If you want to be `genki` [energetic, excited, happy], you should be happy and excited abou the people in front of you. 　After a while, you will also become `genki.`

So Far, Not So Bad

Going to the airport was a perfect opportunity to test this new habit.   Usually, I am cranky as hell as soon as I have to take off my shoes and go through security.  It was still annoying, but I made a decision to send out positive vibes.  (Yes, I know, so 60s!)  I had a cornucopia of moments to turn beyond annoyed at people to sending out good thoughts.   🙂

If sending positive vibes doesn't work!

If sending positive vibes doesn’t work then this will have to do.

Does it work?  I don`t know, but I realized how much time I spend spinning out negative thoughts and doubts.   What a waste of energy!  If anything, making a point of sending out good thoughts stops the cycle.

Stop the Cycle of Negative Thoughts

The day I left for Japan, I had the pleasure of being at a friends wedding.  He was marrying another man and it was great to celebrate the beginning of that journey with him, his partner, and friends and family.  At the end my friend explained that there were people who could not make it to the wedding for various reasons and he asked us to send healing and positive thoughts in their direction.  My friend happens to be a Buddhist, but you don`t have to subscribe to any creed to practice this.   Golden Rule anyone?

I don’t know if I will remember to continue this habit, but it can’t hurt.  Let the summer of positive vibes begin, man!!!

 

One Minute, One Action, Every Morning Change Your Life: Samurai Book Thruview

04 Wednesday Jul 2012

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Nonsense leads to making sense. Let me know if you can identify this temple statute.

Summer is finally here and I am following the read ’em or leave ’em strategy for finishing books.  If I am no longer interested in a book (especially those in Japanese), I am leaving them in the dust even if I paid bookoo dollars for them.   I am inspired by AJATT’s column on “Reading and Respectability”:

If you have to limit your reading to what is considered respectable, you might as well physically remove your brain and personally hand it to whoever’s making those respectability rules1. Because that’s kind of what you’re doing already. And while you’re at it, have the Rulemaker come over to your house and pick out your clothes and thoughts, too.

Read Japanese. Read whatever the heck you want. The dumber the better. The brainier the better. The normaler the better. The only limits on reading should be time and interest. Not common sense, and definitely not respectability.

On that note, I am continuing to read 毎朝１分で人生は変わる：　One Minute, One Action in the Morning Will Change Your Life.  It is pure self-help crack.   The vocabulary is not too hard, the advice is not revolutionary, but at one or two pages at a reading, “One Minute” is fun.

Morning arrival at Miyajima Island. Every morning is an opportunity to step through a gate.

Each chapter offers a quick daily change that has the power to change your life.  One quick little move that can move a whole body or life.  Think Aikido.

Here are the steps I have encountered so far.   (Please take my translations with a dash of soy sauce.):

  1. Ask yourself the morning questions to rev up your motivation.  『モーニングクゥエスチョンで　やる気の１日を作り出す」　These questions come from Anthony Robbins CD  Personal Power 2 and are designed to jump start your day and revolve around your brain:  What am I happy about?  (Feel it!)  What am I excited about in my life now?  (Feel it!)  What am I proud in my life now?  (Feel it!)  What am I grateful about in my life now?  (Feel it!)  What am I enjoying most in my life now?  (Feel it!)  What am I committed to in my life now?  (Feel it!)  Who do I love?  Who loves me?  (Feel it!)  To whom and how can I contribute today?  (Enjoy it!)  ….I think I just used up my yearly exclamation point quota! 🙂
  2. If you read your goals out loud each morning and evening, you will be one step closer to your ideal life.  朝晩の「音読」で毎日一歩ずつ理想の自分に近づく。Miyake explains that the power of suggestion is especially powerful in the mornings and evenings. 
  3. One small adventure every day will translate into a bigger life experience. 「毎日の小さなの初体験」が「人生の大きな経験」になる。　Just one little change every day will teach your mind to take in new experiences and open your life.  Miyake suggests that even just taking a new street on your way to work can be a small adventure.  This reminds me of Julia Cameron, author and creativity guru, who suggests having one small “artist date” on a regular basis for bigger creative breakthroughs.

I can’t really say if these suggestions work or not.  I’ve started to take different routes to work, but I haven’t consistently tried the other steps.   But my life is already changing on one level.  I’m a little closer to Japanese because I’ve found a book that is fun.   Yes, the book seems like self help dross, but it’s fun.   But even if I read about alchemy in Japanese, the alchemy of fun would translate into more learning.  It’s a non-vicious cycle.  Take one minute, one action.  Have fun and change your life.

Clear Clutter, Clear Mind: Samurai Cleaning is Samurai Learning

26 Tuesday Jun 2012

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Clear Clutter Clear Mind.

Cleaning and clearing clutter helps me see to the distance. Part of the attraction of temples and gardens in Japan is they are clutter free zones for the mind, and spirit.

I recently watched an episode on NHK (the Japanese PBS) about a celebrity who spends a weekend at a Zen monastery.   Before she gets to the “business” of meditating, she has to clean the bathrooms, cleaning the beautiful wooden floors with a cloth.   I guess it’s part of the Zen attitude that every activity is a chance to wake up.  It also saves tons of money on cleaning bills. 🙂  Clear clutter, clear mind.  Samurai cleaning is samurai learning.  (I love it when I can talk like Yoda.)

The school year is coming to a close, and during non-administrative duties I’ve been cleaning and organizing my classroom.  I have over twenty years of material in addition to materials left over from previous generations that have used my room.  I’ve been able to methodically work on every corner, throwing out materials I don’t need any more and organizing the materials I still want to hang on.

That is the essence of a samurai review—toss out the material you no longer want and organize, touch, reshuffle the material you want.   The added plus is that it doesn’t just involve your mind; it involves your body in action.

Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way, suggests clearing clutter as one way to breakthrough creative blocks:

Few things are as distracting– and destructive– as clutter in your home environment. It is hard to have clarity when you are living amid rubble. Clearing up your space gives you room for new thoughts. Clutter can be tackled in small amounts. Try fifteen-minute cleanups. You will be amazed at the difference in your psyche. Where before you felt frustrated, you will now find yourself feeling optimism.

From Miyajima Island temple. Clear mind, happy mind?

Cameron gets the Samurai Mind award for not only suggesting a technique but also using time limits as a tool!  Clear clutter, clear mind.  (Clearing Yoda throat)  Clear clutter, clear mind.  Samurai cleaning, samurai learning is.

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