Flash Card Programs

Flash cards are really useful for language learning, but they're a pain to make and a pain to carry around. Xave (kihou) made a rather useful flashcard program back in the day. Unfortunately, it's Cocoa-based, so it only runs on Macs.

The Amazing Flash Card Machine shows promise, but the features are rather minimal, and the interface could be better. I should really consider coding something better when I have the time (open-source project, maybe, or part of a web start-up?). Still, that's what I'm using for now. Here are a few flash card sets I've made, so you can get an idea of what I'm learning:
Hiragana
Vocab 1
Kanji Vocab 1

If anyone could help me understand the origins / components / meaning of the following kanji, I would be grateful:
休 - きゅう　or やす (rest?)
先 - せん　or さき
週 - しゅう (week)
曜 - よう　(day?)

Update: Props to the makers of TAFCM for being prompt to respond to feedback. They've implemented at least some of the suggestions I sent them, and responded to the rest (put them on their to-do list, apparently).

More About Yesterday, Free Day, and Photos

Yesterday evening, Kyoko-san cooked noodles with tuna and rice salad from a new cookbook she bought, on "American Comfort Foods". It's an interesting book, with recipes in English and Japanese, and Japanese definitions for the English cooking-related vocab. The recipes are indeed for some of the sorts of food I've had at home, but the selection seems well tailored to Japanese tastes. (For example, for the chili recipe, they chose one with tofu.)

Another story from yesterday: On the way home, I saw some crazy dude on the train platform pretending to be (believing he was?) a conductor, speaking nonsense syllables (with very polite syntax) into his hand (the conductors make announcements with handheld mikes) and waving to the train drivers. It was very odd.

No class on Wednesdays for me, since I'm not doing field placement. Today, Kyoko-san took me to the Inba Village office to apply for my alien registration form. After, we did a bit of sightseeing around the village. Inba Village is really quite a pretty place. Our neighborhood, Gakuendai, is really hidden away, a dense cluster of a few hundred houses tucked between fields on either side. Kyoko-san noted that she likes Tokyo, but prefers to live where it's more quiet. On the way back, we stopped at a nearby garden / greenhouse. Kyoko chatted with the older man who runs the place. Apparently, Kyoko-san grows some vegetables there during the summer.

A random question: Japanese stores almost always have a tray on which to put your money. You don't hand your money to the cashier directly. Why is that?

I uploaded more photos. As always, you can see the full set here:

( A few samples... )