As a flute player of seven years, I have always been interested in learning shakuhachi, which is a type of Japanese-traditional flute. I also love anime, and have been a big fan for several years. I had room in my schedule this year, so I thought it would be cool to try my shot at intro Japanese this year. I’ve really enjoyed class so far! I think I really struggle with character recognition at the moment- we’ve only learned hiragana so far, but I took Chinese for four years in high school and am quite used to seeing those characters instead. It’s somewhat been a struggle to convert my brain to read hiragana. I find pronunciation in Japanese to be a lot easier than Chinese pronunciation though, so that’s been nice. I can sort of read the hiragana lyrics on the shakuhachi music that I’ve been given, which is an unexpected bonus, also. I’m excited to see what comes of this year! <--- shakuhachi! ...