Long time no “see.” Yes, I’m still alive. I’ve been very busy lately with school just starting. We’ve been inundated with meetings, so much so that we haven’t been able to the basic tasks for getting ready for our classes. Hopefully things will slow down a little soon. Maybe I’ll even be able to write a real blog entry…

Kuuki o yomu means to read the atmosphere. In other words, you are able to assess the mood of a situation. Performers and public speakers need to be able to do this to assess the mood of their audience so they can change what they are doing if things aren’t going well. If you walk into a new or unfamiliar situation, it is good to be able to assess the situation in order to know how you should act or what you should do. You could do this by studying the faces or body language of the people there or seeing how the people are interacting with each other or how they react to you, or just noticing whatever little clues you can in order to get a feel for the situation. You might do this just in talking with someone. If you are really empathizing with that person, you can feel if the person is interested by what you are saying or if they disagree or are even upset by what you are saying.

Recently in Japan the term, “KY” has become popular. “KY” stands for “Kuuki o yomenai,” which means, “unable to read the atmosphere.” This refers to someone being clueless to the situation around him and acting inappropriately. If someone behaves inappropriately in a certain situation, you might explain his behavior by saying something like, “Kare wa KY no hito dakara ne.” “He is a person who can’t read the atmosphere.” In other words, he can’t read the situation in order to know how he should act. He is clueless as to what’s going on around him.

The happiest thing I could think of that happened recently was that my friend’s daughter recently celebrated her first birthday. Happy Birthday, Haruna!

My wife, Yumi, and I recently celebrated our one-year wedding anniversary. Yumi’s father and friend came from Japan for the celebration. While they were here, I was tour guide, chauffier, and interpreter for two weeks. It was a non-stop whirlwind. It all seems like a blur, and I am still recovering from it.

Hey Masaya,

I just heard that you got in to medical school. Congratulations!!! I know you have been working really hard to get in, so you must be very happy. I hope you can come to Hawaii soon so we can celebrate.

Andrew

When I went back home for Thanksgiving, I went to a surprise party for some family friends who were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. It was fun and I was able to see family and friends that I hadn’t seen in a while. I guess, seeing as how I just got married, this should be an inspiration to me.

The first time I went to Japan, I was an exchange student in college living with a host family. During my second month there, my host brother got married and I had the opportunity to attend his wedding. My host family thought it would be a good idea if I gave a speech at the reception. I didn´t think this was such a good idea. I am shy and hate talking in front of people, and my Japanese wasn´t very good. Hoping they would forget about this and it would all go away, I put it off till the last minute.

Unfortunately, my host family didn´t forget and so, in the car on the way to the wedding, I hastily write out a speech in English and my host sister translated it into Japanese for me. Before I knew it, it was the reception and many guests were giving these long-winded, flowery speeches about the bride and/or groom. Then I was announced. I got up in the spotlight in front of several hundred guests and stumbled through my barely rehearsed speech. It was a short speech compared to the others–barely five minutes–but it was one of the longest five minutes of my life!
 

One of my favorite T.V. shows is Mythbusters. They test urban myths to see if they are true, and often blow up things in the process. I’ve even shown it to my students to illustrate the scientific method. So, for Halloween, one of my co-workers and I dressed up as the Mythbusters. The students seemed to get a kick out of it. I didn’t think they were that famous, but quite a few people recognized us in Waikiki that night.

If you want to know more about the show, click here.
日本語はこちらへ。

What a day! Hope everyone survived ok. The earthquake felt pretty big this morning, but no major damage. The biggest thing was not having power (or water) all day and not being able to go anywhere because all the traffic lights were out as well. Funny thing was, after the earthquake hit, the power went out soon after and I couldn’t get any info about it. I called my parents on the Big Island to make sure they were ok, but they didn’t know any details about the quake because the power was out there as well. The first real news I had was when my wife called from Japan about an hour later and said she had seen it on the news and asked if I was ok. She was the one who first told me how big it was, where the epicenter was, and that there was no threat of tsunami.