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Mount Fuji Sunrise and Tori Gate, Japan

Mount Fuji Sunrise and Tori Gate, Japan 2005-08-25

I'll finish my Fuji series with this image. I hope you've enjoyed these. I'll bring this back to Tokyo now.

I've been using most of my spare time recently trying to learn Kanji. For anyone out there trying to use Heisig's system, try this site: Reviewing the Kanji. A friend recommended this to me, and it's an amazing resource. Not only can you drill flashcards online, but the site automatically saves data and adjusts the drills accordingly. That is, cards that you repeatedly get right are sorted separately and drilled less often. Cards that you miss keep coming up frequently until you get them right. Take a look and see for yourself. And good luck. I'm realizing that Heisig's method, though effective, still requires hard work.

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  • WOW! This is absolutely STUNNING! Hm, is this REAL?!?
    Heidi @ 2005-08-25 10:55:50
  • This has to be one of the coolest pictures I've seen. The position of the sun behind the structure is perfect, and the clouds everywhere make it look otherworldly. Very inspiring. :)
    Bri @ 2005-08-25 15:21:08
  • Just wow. This picture is incredible.
    Heather Meadows @ 2005-08-25 17:42:24
  • It's real. I used curves to increase the contrast and make the tori gate a silhouette. Besides that there is minimal processing.
    Andy @ 2005-08-25 18:21:24
  • Thanks for the kanji site link. After not having used Japanese for a year while I was in Sweden, as well as looking for a "new path" in life here in Japan, I decided it would be goo to review my Japanese. It's alarming how little I remember. About six years ago I kicked-butt on kanji, could read the main 2000 or so (could never really write them, but who cares?) and had "mastered" the "remembering the kanji books. Then I started to work with computers, and instead of speaking and reading Japanese, I was reading and writing and thinking in Perl. Anyway, this site will be helpful, but I also wanted to recomend my most recent method of study. I just bought a chogako kanji dictionary (for japanese school kids) which of course tells all the meanings and readings of the kanji (in Japanese), but the good thing that I am finding most helpful is that it also tells the origin on the kanji. Similar to the stories in "remember the kanji", but these are the actual origin. Sometimes it's not as helpful, but it makes up for it by being fascinating. It's good to learn about some Japense history and forgotten culture as well. Anyway, there are a slew of them in your local bookstore, and i have no idea if mine is any better than any others, so I wont recommend any special one, just thought I would share.
    kevin @ 2005-08-28 00:54:05
  • Thanks, that's good advice. I'll look for one. Recently I noticed that Book Off has elementary/junior high school type books are very cheap prices (starting at 100 yen). I may look there to start.
    Andy @ 2005-08-28 03:03:47
  • Awesome shot !!!!
    Shane @ 2005-08-28 13:06:51
  • I got your website from the Occidental alumni magazine, and check it out pretty much every day now. My son, like you, is married to a Japanese woman and they live in Nagoya. Because of them I have been trying to learn Japanese. Kanji I think is a kind of glue that holds together the meanings & sources of the vocabulary--as a bit of Latin does for English. Your recommendation of the Heisig book was very helpful. His method is definitely workable, though some of his mnemonic stories are pretty goofy. (But I can come up with my own.) Kevin's suggestion of the chogako kanji dictionary may be the corrective to Heisig's occasional silliness. And the website that you suggest in your posting today--Reviewing the Kanji-- is a great help; I am already signed up. Thanks very much
    Vicki Sheridan @ 2005-08-29 10:53:32
  • About the goofy stories in Heisig, he argues that the best stories are goofy ones. Several times he cautions against taking the elements and making a logical statement with them. The reason is because the more strange and "out of place" a story is, the more vivid an image it creates in your imagination. Someone once told me that Heisig didn't work for him because he couldn't remember the stories (and some were just too goofy, etc). Really, you aren't supposed to remember the stories -- only be left with a visual impression with a vaguely felt or remembered story. A friend was just here at today who confirmed this. He said that he once read a book about remembering, and that author also recommended using very strange, surprising, or shocking images to aid memory retention. I recommend reading Heisig's introduction carefully and giving his way a chance. I'm not an expert, but he repeatedly says that people who veer off his principles ultimately will struggle with the method.
    Andy @ 2005-08-30 01:04:03
  • wow... that's a really, really pretty and inspiring shot!
    Shaye @ 2005-10-08 20:59:42


Visit my new photo blog at www.photosensibility.com for photos of Japan and Cambodia


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