ミヤザキのえいが

ミヤザキのえいがは　面白い (interesting)　えいがです。よく　祖父母 のうちで　ミヤザキのえいがを　みました。As a kid, whenever I visited my grandparents, they would always love to show me Hayao Miyazaki's films. I'm glad they entertained me in this way. I'll forever be grateful for them exposing me to Japanese culture here in the U.S. as much as they could. わたしのすきなえいがは　となりのトトロです。

じゃまた、

宮崎

d

いわどさんのトーク

げつようびのごごごじに　マッケナハルで　いわどさんのトークに　いきました。Overall, I enjoyed Mr. Iwado's lecture very much.  Though some of the political nuances he explained were a little bit over my head, he gave a lot of insight on U.S.-Japan relations, as well as Japan in general.  Mr. Iwado talked a lot about the TPP, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, especially referencing its impacts and importance not only to the U.S., but also to the whole world. Another interesting aspect of Japan that he talked about was Japan's influence on the United States.  By referencing things such as statistics on the number of Japanese businesses in U.S. states, he opened our eyes to the importance of our country's relationship with Japan.  Originally, I thought that the lecture was strictly going to be about Japan's politics and political issues surrounding the country, but Mr. Iwado incorporated a lot of other interesting details about Japan, such as its culture and geography.  In this way, I learned very much not only about Japan's political standing, but also other defining factors of the country.  Mr. Iwado also threw in some humor, which is always a plus, especially in a lecture.  

じゃまた、

ミヤザキ

Dialogue

A: こんにちわ、みやざきさん。

わたし：こんにちわ。おげんきですか。

A:あい、げんきです。あなたは　ブレークチュー　どこに　いきましたか。

わたし：こくりつこうえんのたけがしまに　いきました。

A:そうですか。こくりつこうえんのたけがしまに　なにが　ありますか。

わたし：おうくのすいせいが　ありますよ。こおえんは　うつくしいです。

A:そうですか。あなたのすきなぶぶんは　なにでしたか。

わたし：けしきは　さいこうでした。

A:おうくのかんこうきやくが　ありましたか。

わたし：はい、ありました。

A:そうですか。わたしは　いつか　そこに　ほうもんしたいです。

わたし：それは　いい　あいでいあです。

A:いってきます。

わたし： じゃまた。

ミヤザキ　

まちのうち

わたしのまちのうちは　デモインです。アイオワに　デモインが　あります。デモインは　りっぱです。でも、ゆめいじゃ　ありません。あいおわは　ちいさいです。でも、デモインは　ちいさく　ありません。わたしわ　ひじょおに　おおくの　デモインが　すき。

宮崎

カタカナ

After browsing the internet and googling Japanese images, events, and the city of Tokyo, I found these images.  In each of these, I was able to find at least one phrase written in カタカナ, each of which I found the translation for. 

This first picture was actually hard to find any katakana in, because it is flipped around.  Though it is hard to see what each character is, I found the column on the left to read, カラオケ, which is translated to karaoke.  This seems to be a big attraction in Japan.


This next image shows a sign that clearly reads チカラめし, which is a mix of カタカナ and ひらがな. I found this phrase to mean "Chikara Rice," although I was unable to find out what this type of rice is specifically. Sounds pretty good though.

This image was the most intriguing. As you can see, it reads "Pretz" in English.  The カタカナ right next to the slice of pizza reads: ピザ. A kanji was also present and I was unable to translate it, however, I think that the カタカナ was enough to follow what the package was saying. Obviously, this translates to 'pizza,' which is also shown on the box as an image.



The last photo was a picture that I found by looking for McDonald's in Japan on Google. In this picture, many カタカナ phrases can be found, including アイコンチキン, which translates to something like 'Icon chicken' and ハンバーグ, which translates to 'hamburger.'

Overall, カタカナ has been fun to learn because of all of the pronunciations and stringing together of Japanese sounds to make english-sounding words.

じゃまた、

ミヤザキ