Author Archives: Simon Socolow

Welcome back! The last stretch of the conference is here and the days and nights are blending together into one long continuous blur. Our round table has chosen to focus on the intersections between the music industry, Japan-US relations, and … Continue reading →

Hi again! We are in New Orleans now – a real cultural mixing pot. We’re staying at another HI (Hostelling International) hostel, this one is in a less touristy location than the Santa Monica one. Yesterday we experienced the National … Continue reading →

Hello! My name is Simon Socolow and I am a rising junior (going to do WEPO next year). I’m a delegate to the 76th Japan America Student Conference (JASC). Info on it here: https://iscdc.org/jasc/. I just left Tokyo from my … Continue reading →

Hello one last time! It feels like PII has flown by. I didn’t realize how fast 8 weeks could feel like, but time just keeps moving forward. I made lots of friends that I hope to meet up with back … Continue reading →

Hello! Today on Wednesday we had our speech contest, and it was really awesome to listen to my friends speeches, of which many interesting topics were discussed in. My speech was about the reason why japanese watch television, and you … Continue reading →

Hello again, I am very tired as I write this, but lots of adventuring has been done.  On Sunday I rowed again with Ooe-san and Kubo-san and it was very awesome.  I learned more about skulling with blades off the … Continue reading →

Hello again!  It has been kind of rainy the last few days.  Sometimes it rains really hard which is cool and there is lots of lightning (雷)(かみなり)(kaminari).  This week we had a Rakugo master, Mr. Sankyo, perform for us and … Continue reading →

Hello everyone!  I am now halfway through the 8 week program, which is kind of hard to believe.  My Japanese has definitely gotten a level above where I was before.  I’ve been using Anki for space repetition and it is … Continue reading →

Hello!  This week we didn’t have a midterm or final exam on Friday so it was more chill.  I did calligraphy which was fun, although I was bad at the difficult kanji.  My best ones were very simple kanji like … Continue reading →

Hello everyone! On Sunday we participated in Odori Nagashi, a big once a year festival in Kanazawa that I think was originally intended to give their samurai strength and make their rice fields grow well.  Kuo-san and I watched the … Continue reading →

Hello!  I’m Simon Socolow, a rising sophomore, and I am studying Japanese in Kanazawa, Japan in a program called Princeton in Ishikawa.  My first week is almost up, and I will take you through it. My flights went without trouble, … Continue reading →