About Luna

(By the way, one of my students drew the above photo as a farewell gift since the end of the school year came on March 2008. So this is her version of what I look like anime style, I guess! ^_^)

the basics

nickname(s) Luna, Iris, CA, Pa-chan

hometown St. Paul, Minnesota, United States

hobbies reading, playing the piano and koto into the wee hours of the morning, kyudo (Japanese archery), shodo (calligraphy), sumi-e (watercolor painting)

interests foreign languages, linguistics, castles, stars, marine life, traveling, Japanese language and culture, Scotland, anime, manga, drawing/sketching, fairy tales, traditional folklore, libraries, quaint coffee shops, exploring, Osaka-ben, being a geek

favorites My Little Pony, fruit smoothies, chocolate malts, macaroni and cheese, purple, the moon, gardens, turtle mochas, okonomiyaki, owls, pandas, penguins, ducks, dogs, sunrises

what I do

Currently I teach English at various schools in Osaka City, Japan through the JET Program. But during my time here, I also hope to travel in other areas around Asia - and hopefully in other continents, too!

I'm really interested in photography, but I'm still a complete beginner in the field. I love taking pictures of all sorts of things - most especially of architecture, nature, making interesting perspectives, and my favorite subject: the sky.

Constructive criticism is helpful, but provided it's polite and just as I said before. Helpful. Like I said, I still don't know a lot about photography, getting things right, how features work, and all that, but I really want to learn. Also note that this photoblog, as in, long blog posts will occasionally be made about random stuff or happenings. (This blog is also for my family and friends to keep up with my adventures in Japan and around the world, after all! The photos happen to be awesome perks both for them to see what's up, and for me to practice my mad photography soon-to-be-skills!)

why "just a little chotto"? what does it mean?

My old blog that I made last summer was called the same name, and so was my LiveJournal before it when I was using it as a Japanese blog to, well, practice my Japanese. But both fell through, the first one because I ended up graduating, and the second one due to another issue. I wanted to use the same name again.

The word "chotto" in Japanese has many meanings, from things like: just a moment, a little bit, hold on a sec, excuse me, a word to soften sentences (i.e. "Can I look?" vs. "Can I just look?") and, also, to provide an answer in a manner that doesn't express too much disgust or distaste or avoiding any sort of criticism.

A multitude of meanings in one word, really. One day in my Third-Year Japanese class in uni, a friend and I were talking about something, and I ended up saying in response, "That's just a little.. chotto." He started bursting out laughing along with my friend on my right, and the phrase sort of just stuck.

what are all these weird terms and abbreviations you use?
ALT - Assistant Language Teacher. My job.
CO - Contracting Organization. My employer.
JET - Japanese Exchange Teaching (JET) Programme. How I managed to get this spiffy job in the first place. ALTs are also referred to as "JETs."
JTE - Japanese Teacher of English. ALTs team teach with JTEs.

what about all this japanese stuff?
In Japanese there's this spiffy thing called "honorifics" (often denoted through suffixes) used to address people or pay respects to someone's status, age, rank, etc. For more information, please check out the Wikipedia entry on honorifics.

The ones I most commonly use are:
-san: Most common. Kind of like "Mr." or "Mrs./Ms./Miss" in English.
-sensei: I use it most often for teachers. But it can also be used for doctors.
-kun: Term of endearment, often for boys.
-chan: Term of endearment, often for kids and females.
-sama: Very formal address, like say, for a god. Also used by employees to address customers and crazy fans towards their idols.

do you really like the color purple?

Why, yes. Yes, I do.

Photography Equipment

My dream digital SLR camera - a Canon Digital Rebel XT.
My current digital prosumer camera - a Canon PowerShot S5 IS.
My compact digital camera - a Canon Digital Elph SD630 6.0 megapixel camera.

My laptops - an HP Pavilion Entertainment PC and a Fujitsu Lifebook P7000D (for on the go photography storage and editing).