Today is the last day of class for a while. We have hiking tomorrow and Golden Week for most of the next week. So I have some time to read up on my kanji and study through my books. I was invited to karaoke for Candy's birthday. (No that's not her real name and no she is not a stripper... unfortunately.) Most of the people from China and Korea who feel their names are too difficult to pronounce use fake English names when they study abroad.
Eight of the people from my class and two other people from some other class went with us after class. I really didn't pay attention to the plans, because if I had known that we would stay at the karaoke joint for four hours I would have been busy or sick. The people I went with didn't even want to drink! Who sings karaoke without drinking? Not surprisingly, everyone their with one or two exceptions were excellent singers. I guess that's normal when singing karaoke is a typical past time for most of their lives. What was really amazing was that the people who scored at my level on the Japanese placement exam were able to sing their (_!_)'s off in Japanese.
Shou and Chin are both hard core anime fans, so every other song they sang was the intro or closing theme for some popular anime. Everyone wanted to hear me sing in English but I refused in protest of the no alcohol policy they were forcing no me. Even when I said that I would pay for a pitcher so that I could drink they said they didn't have money. I hope the later students who have part time jobs aren't so broke that they can't enjoy a few drinks now and again.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Day 32 (Osaka) : Showa Day
Today was an interesting Japanese holiday, from the Wikipedia article I just read. 昭和の日 (Showa no hi) was originally the national holiday set aside for the emperor's birthday. It was changed to Greenery Day from 1989-2006 when Greenery Day was moved to May 4th to be part of Golden Week and April 29th became Showa Day. Apparently, it's no longer a celebration of the emperor but a day of reflection on the turbulent years of the earlier times.
History lessons aside, today was a day off from school so I relaxed at home. I finished another chapter in both Toppa Mono and JFCS. Studying is going along smoothly and my reading speed has increased significantly since the last time I can even remember trying to read a legitimate amount of Japanese. It's pretty exciting considering I've only been in school for two weeks and two days. Even with that I'm not sure if the credit is due to attending school or the abundance of free time I have to study on my own after class is over. Either way, I'm happy with the way things are going.
My Japanese friend, Hirokazu, came by to meet Yuko and shoot the breeze for a while. I found out that in addition to not liking meat or alcohol, he also doesn't enjoy drinking coffee. Talk about having a hard time figuring out what to do to kill time. Usually drinking coffee or beer are fail safe plans for when you don't have any other ideas. He did bring over some doughnuts from Mr. Doughnut though, so that's pretty cool. Kind of makes me wish I was a cop.
History lessons aside, today was a day off from school so I relaxed at home. I finished another chapter in both Toppa Mono and JFCS. Studying is going along smoothly and my reading speed has increased significantly since the last time I can even remember trying to read a legitimate amount of Japanese. It's pretty exciting considering I've only been in school for two weeks and two days. Even with that I'm not sure if the credit is due to attending school or the abundance of free time I have to study on my own after class is over. Either way, I'm happy with the way things are going.
My Japanese friend, Hirokazu, came by to meet Yuko and shoot the breeze for a while. I found out that in addition to not liking meat or alcohol, he also doesn't enjoy drinking coffee. Talk about having a hard time figuring out what to do to kill time. Usually drinking coffee or beer are fail safe plans for when you don't have any other ideas. He did bring over some doughnuts from Mr. Doughnut though, so that's pretty cool. Kind of makes me wish I was a cop.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Day 31 (Osaka) : The giant TV cookie myth
Today was a pretty normal day. I think I'm finally falling into the routine of reviewing kanji, hitting one page of the pronunciation book, and moving on to the text book for whatever time we have left in the day. Today we stopped reviewing an hour early to complete some kind of exam. I'm still not entirely sure exactly what the purpose of the exam is or why we took it though. It seems like twelve days in class is too soon to be taking a placement exam but they did put a lot of emphasis on today and the exam.
All and all, I feel like I did pretty mediocre. It's not like any of the material was particularly difficult. The big problem I have is understanding the directions when I'm lucky enough to have them. There have been several sections on this exam and previous test where I get the impression that the format is somewhat well known so they don't bother explaining it to noobs like myself.
As for today's title, this is a rant I've been setting on for a minute. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people physically touch a screen or monitor instead of pointing out what they want to draw attention too. At my last office some people would press the screen and drag their fingers around on it leaving trails of colorful light that's being reduced to the basic red, green, blue, etc. This happened a while ago when I had guests over to watch a movie on my 52" LCD TV. Now why adults would have to touch a three thousand dollar TV like they were going to pull the food out of the commercial is beyond me. I could only come up with two theories. The first was that they've never seen this kind of magic box with moving pictures before and they really did believe they could touch what was on the screen. The second idea I had was that they had been told that some TV's are really giant cookies and if they eat it, their wish will come true.
If you've heard this store before then listen. I promise you, there is no such thing as a giant TV cookie that grants wishes so please stop going around touching other people's screens.
All and all, I feel like I did pretty mediocre. It's not like any of the material was particularly difficult. The big problem I have is understanding the directions when I'm lucky enough to have them. There have been several sections on this exam and previous test where I get the impression that the format is somewhat well known so they don't bother explaining it to noobs like myself.
As for today's title, this is a rant I've been setting on for a minute. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people physically touch a screen or monitor instead of pointing out what they want to draw attention too. At my last office some people would press the screen and drag their fingers around on it leaving trails of colorful light that's being reduced to the basic red, green, blue, etc. This happened a while ago when I had guests over to watch a movie on my 52" LCD TV. Now why adults would have to touch a three thousand dollar TV like they were going to pull the food out of the commercial is beyond me. I could only come up with two theories. The first was that they've never seen this kind of magic box with moving pictures before and they really did believe they could touch what was on the screen. The second idea I had was that they had been told that some TV's are really giant cookies and if they eat it, their wish will come true.
If you've heard this store before then listen. I promise you, there is no such thing as a giant TV cookie that grants wishes so please stop going around touching other people's screens.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Day 30 (Osaka) : Three strikes, I'm out!
I fell short of the perfect score again. This time it wasn't even close, 15 right out of 20 questions. I thought I had it figured out after missing out on the last test. The pattern seemed to be writing kanji for the actual words we covered, then spelling out in hirigana the complicated kanji from the examples. Nope, not exactly right. I'm also supposed to be able to write all the kanji in the examples phrases and vocabulary listing, not just the six kanji per day we're covering.
It was kind of funny though. Three of the students in my class who used kanji in their home country we're laughing at my failed attempt to re-create one of my answers from memory without actually knowing the kanji. But when they started comparing the tests I got several right that they missed. Let's just say that their "すごい～！" wasn't as enthusiastic as it could have been. (If you haven't lived in Japan, "sugoi" is Japanese for great or amazing. Unfortunately it's used for such trivial things as being able to use chopsticks that most of the time it feels like a slap in the face.) Speaking of which, I highly advise any Westerner to keep this in mind. When you inevitably come across the, "Can you use chop sticks?" question don't answer. Redirect the question by asking them if they can use a spoon or fork and then proceed to cheer and say "すごい～！" so you can beat them to the punch.
I'm taking a break from studying today since the kanji test is over and I'm already several pages ahead in the kanji book. I want to read more of Toppa Mono before I get back into my self study with JFCS.
It was kind of funny though. Three of the students in my class who used kanji in their home country we're laughing at my failed attempt to re-create one of my answers from memory without actually knowing the kanji. But when they started comparing the tests I got several right that they missed. Let's just say that their "すごい～！" wasn't as enthusiastic as it could have been. (If you haven't lived in Japan, "sugoi" is Japanese for great or amazing. Unfortunately it's used for such trivial things as being able to use chopsticks that most of the time it feels like a slap in the face.) Speaking of which, I highly advise any Westerner to keep this in mind. When you inevitably come across the, "Can you use chop sticks?" question don't answer. Redirect the question by asking them if they can use a spoon or fork and then proceed to cheer and say "すごい～！" so you can beat them to the punch.
I'm taking a break from studying today since the kanji test is over and I'm already several pages ahead in the kanji book. I want to read more of Toppa Mono before I get back into my self study with JFCS.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Day 29 (Osaka) : Kanji fu
I've been studying the 18 kanji that will be on the upcoming test all weekend. The said part is that it isn't nearly as easy as it sounds. I also have to learn and recognize all the kanji in the examples. I fell for that twice already. Last time they got me with 保証期間 （ほしょうきかん - hoshoukikan). It basically means warranty service or service plan. To put it in perspective that jumble came from the example sentence for 二 (に - ni) the kanji for two. How the heck I go from a kanji test over a two stroke kanji to missing a question involving 保証期間 is beyond me.
This kanji set follows the same pattern. Really simple kanji, very complicated examples with tons of kanji that I don't know. So I had to try to fake the difficult kanji into my DS kanji dictionary. For anyone studying Japanese who doesn't have a stroke enabled electronic dictionary, I recommend the DS version. It doesn't allow much time to write the kanji before it gives the the closest match though so sometimes you have to try it a few times to get it right. The best part is it even comes with English definitions so if I can see the kanji, I can know what it means. It just takes a little time and the more difficult the material the more things I have to look up.
Most of the day I was either reviewing kanji drills with the Declan software kit or scribbling straight out of my text book the old fashioned way with a mechanical pencil. Again, for those of you who are studying Japanese I highly recommend using Declan's package. It's relatively cheap and it is very effective at improving your ability to recognize characters, meaning, reading, and even pronunciation with the sound bytes. Fair warning though, using the software will not help you remember how to write it if you don't practice with pen and paper. At least it never worked that way for me. There is something about clicking the stroke order with a mouse that doesn't translate to useful repetition for remembering the actually characters that I want to write.
There really isn't that much witty to say about Sundays. I ran through a quick field day and cleaned the whole apartment. Oh, I lost ten pounds since April first so I'm starting to look like I do more than just sit in front of a computer all day. There really isn't much other than that so I'm going to get back to my studies.
This kanji set follows the same pattern. Really simple kanji, very complicated examples with tons of kanji that I don't know. So I had to try to fake the difficult kanji into my DS kanji dictionary. For anyone studying Japanese who doesn't have a stroke enabled electronic dictionary, I recommend the DS version. It doesn't allow much time to write the kanji before it gives the the closest match though so sometimes you have to try it a few times to get it right. The best part is it even comes with English definitions so if I can see the kanji, I can know what it means. It just takes a little time and the more difficult the material the more things I have to look up.
Most of the day I was either reviewing kanji drills with the Declan software kit or scribbling straight out of my text book the old fashioned way with a mechanical pencil. Again, for those of you who are studying Japanese I highly recommend using Declan's package. It's relatively cheap and it is very effective at improving your ability to recognize characters, meaning, reading, and even pronunciation with the sound bytes. Fair warning though, using the software will not help you remember how to write it if you don't practice with pen and paper. At least it never worked that way for me. There is something about clicking the stroke order with a mouse that doesn't translate to useful repetition for remembering the actually characters that I want to write.
There really isn't that much witty to say about Sundays. I ran through a quick field day and cleaned the whole apartment. Oh, I lost ten pounds since April first so I'm starting to look like I do more than just sit in front of a computer all day. There really isn't much other than that so I'm going to get back to my studies.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Day 28 (Osaka) : 3rd grade reading level, woot!
I slept in until eight this morning before I rolled out of bed to a nice chicken ramen breakfast. It's actually quite ingenius. The ramen is shaped with a dip on the top for you to crack a raw egg. Then when you pour the boiling water in it gives you a nice soft boiled egg and tastey ramen. After that I went about making some flash cards for the up coming kanji test and reviewing some of the material we've covered. That was pretty boring so I ended up reading Momotarou for the first time. It's crazy how difficult a children's book can be. I don't think I understood even 40% of vocabulary in the book.
I spent the whole day inside just studying and watching Japanese TV so there isn't a whole lot to write about. I read through Chapter 3 of Toppa Mono. It's pretty interesting so far but it definately comes across as kind of a tall tale. Some of the tales of his school yard brawls with rival gangs read like something straight out of any main stream drama. The author does make excellent use of historical and literature references thoughout the story. At least that much is really paying off because it helps to frame the story with historical events like the different political movements going on and major earthquakes that happened in the area.
I spent the whole day inside just studying and watching Japanese TV so there isn't a whole lot to write about. I read through Chapter 3 of Toppa Mono. It's pretty interesting so far but it definately comes across as kind of a tall tale. Some of the tales of his school yard brawls with rival gangs read like something straight out of any main stream drama. The author does make excellent use of historical and literature references thoughout the story. At least that much is really paying off because it helps to frame the story with historical events like the different political movements going on and major earthquakes that happened in the area.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Day 27 (Osaka) : I go Nihon Go
Today was pretty weak as far as classes go. The morning and evening lessons on Friday are both taught by Obata-sensei. She's a sweet old lady who smiles all the time and has a lot of energy for her age. It's just that her teaching method is to make every student repeat things one at a time. So while Tsuji-sensei can burn through the daily six kanji in a little over one hour, Obata-sensei takes almost two whole hours. We only just barely cracked the text book before lunch. She did win brownie points in the afternoon by having us spend the last thirty minutes or so writing and reading a 日記 (Nikki - journal).
We spend so much time doing assignments that require us to feel in the blanks or just repeat some blah blah conversation between one of the PC characters in the book like Mr. Lee. With this assignment we actually had a chance to use all the grammar we've been reviewing, break in some of the vocabulary, and make practical sentences that apply to our own lives. She even took them up to correct our mistakes. It would be cool if it could become a regular assignment that we could just drop off with her each Friday when she teaches.
After school I just came home to kick back and relax for a while. I've been studying pretty much non-stop every hour of the day for the last two weeks so I'm going to rot my brain out with games and tv tonight. I'll pick it back up tomorrow. For anyone who has a PS3, Crash Commando has turned out to be very decent. It's probably the best downloadable content I've played so far and the multiplayer mode is pretty packed, unlike Worms and some of the other games I've picked up.
Nothing is worse than playing for a game that focuses on multiplayer action and finding out that the millions of other PS3 owners don't bother to play it. A perfect example of this is the pirate game, Age of Booty. I have literally never hooked up to an on line game. Trying to host or wait in a lobby is a waste of time because you never see more than one other person. I think that Sony should refund games that bomb like that.
We spend so much time doing assignments that require us to feel in the blanks or just repeat some blah blah conversation between one of the PC characters in the book like Mr. Lee. With this assignment we actually had a chance to use all the grammar we've been reviewing, break in some of the vocabulary, and make practical sentences that apply to our own lives. She even took them up to correct our mistakes. It would be cool if it could become a regular assignment that we could just drop off with her each Friday when she teaches.
After school I just came home to kick back and relax for a while. I've been studying pretty much non-stop every hour of the day for the last two weeks so I'm going to rot my brain out with games and tv tonight. I'll pick it back up tomorrow. For anyone who has a PS3, Crash Commando has turned out to be very decent. It's probably the best downloadable content I've played so far and the multiplayer mode is pretty packed, unlike Worms and some of the other games I've picked up.
Nothing is worse than playing for a game that focuses on multiplayer action and finding out that the millions of other PS3 owners don't bother to play it. A perfect example of this is the pirate game, Age of Booty. I have literally never hooked up to an on line game. Trying to host or wait in a lobby is a waste of time because you never see more than one other person. I think that Sony should refund games that bomb like that.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Day 26 (Osaka) : Crispy stir-fry, Boom!
Today went by pretty quick too. There isn't much to say about school, so I'll be brief. With the number of students in each class fluctuating regularly our average has stayed around 18 students. Break that down over five 50 minute segments and we each get to recite something about once or twice an hour. So for every five hours I spend in class, I get to say five or ten sentences. If that sounds like a small amount of practice, that's because it is a small amount. I'm not trying to jump to conclusions but I'm worried about how affective this method of learning will be in the long run.
I had my first chance to break in the new stove after school today. Whipped up some instant stir fry mix with fresh eggplant and some onions. I figured out that adding a little water to the pan and preparing the onions first helps soften them up so they compliment the rice better. The last omelet I made was in a rush so all the onions came out like they were just cut and dropped on top of the eggs after the cooking was already done.
School has been keeping me busy with lots of homework so I'm behind on my own studies. I read the first 16 pages or so of my book last night. (The image isn't messed up either, the cover was printed like that on purpose.)
The book has been edited and kind of rewritten, so the my first impression is that the author sounds oddly like some British wanker. I'm hoping the lingo in the book becomes more main stream as I read into it because it will be difficult to feel immersed in a first person tale of the inner workings of a yakuza family if the narrator is some British cat.
I had my first chance to break in the new stove after school today. Whipped up some instant stir fry mix with fresh eggplant and some onions. I figured out that adding a little water to the pan and preparing the onions first helps soften them up so they compliment the rice better. The last omelet I made was in a rush so all the onions came out like they were just cut and dropped on top of the eggs after the cooking was already done.
School has been keeping me busy with lots of homework so I'm behind on my own studies. I read the first 16 pages or so of my book last night. (The image isn't messed up either, the cover was printed like that on purpose.)
The book has been edited and kind of rewritten, so the my first impression is that the author sounds oddly like some British wanker. I'm hoping the lingo in the book becomes more main stream as I read into it because it will be difficult to feel immersed in a first person tale of the inner workings of a yakuza family if the narrator is some British cat.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Day 25 (Osaka) : Retard strength vs Potato chips
Today's lesson material was mostly review of the assignments we've been handed so far. We covered our daily six kanji, did about one page of the pronunciation text book, and move directly into reviewing handouts from the previous day. A heavy emphasis was on the particle work sheet since most of us did poorly despite the teacher thinking it would be too easy for our level. There's something about failing to meet expectations that really adds insult to injury. Actually, the idea that someone thought our material was easy but we sucked came up several times today from the teacher and a few students.
That's one of the reasons I'm spending most of my free time studying and reviewing the material in advance. Some kind of exam is coming up next Tuesday but I haven't really followed on exactly what it is, so I'm not sure. It may be a placement exam to move people around but two weeks seems a little early for that. I'll have to ask someone tomorrow if I have the chance.
As for the title, there was this freakish big Japanese guy on the train when I was waiting at the station. He walked in and crashed down right in the reserved seating section. (In Japan trains have reserved seats for elderly, pregnant women, and women with young children... or and people with injuries.) The next thing I notice about the guy, other than his oafish big body is the look on his face. He seemed to be stuck somewhere between an angry scowl and a confused "how did I get here" look. The guy only sits down long enough to stuff his hand into his bag, pull out some chips, and then bails. Walks right off the train and leaves the bag there.
Now here is where my panic starts to kick in. Most people don't eat on the train, it's kind of rude. But more importantly, people don't leave things on the train unless it's sarin gas. I was already slipping into fight or flight mode with the big guy flopping around the train with that mixed look on his face. When he left his strange looking bag just chilling on the train it sent me racing down memory lane of my Asian studies class. Fortunately the guy came back five minutes later to reclaim his bag and his seat. Pretty uneventful ride after that.
I managed to make it through the forward and preface of my book last night, but I got caught up watching K1. It looks like I'm going to get caught up watching Best House tonight since it's always interesting. I'll just have to study and read in between the commercials.
That's one of the reasons I'm spending most of my free time studying and reviewing the material in advance. Some kind of exam is coming up next Tuesday but I haven't really followed on exactly what it is, so I'm not sure. It may be a placement exam to move people around but two weeks seems a little early for that. I'll have to ask someone tomorrow if I have the chance.
As for the title, there was this freakish big Japanese guy on the train when I was waiting at the station. He walked in and crashed down right in the reserved seating section. (In Japan trains have reserved seats for elderly, pregnant women, and women with young children... or and people with injuries.) The next thing I notice about the guy, other than his oafish big body is the look on his face. He seemed to be stuck somewhere between an angry scowl and a confused "how did I get here" look. The guy only sits down long enough to stuff his hand into his bag, pull out some chips, and then bails. Walks right off the train and leaves the bag there.
Now here is where my panic starts to kick in. Most people don't eat on the train, it's kind of rude. But more importantly, people don't leave things on the train unless it's sarin gas. I was already slipping into fight or flight mode with the big guy flopping around the train with that mixed look on his face. When he left his strange looking bag just chilling on the train it sent me racing down memory lane of my Asian studies class. Fortunately the guy came back five minutes later to reclaim his bag and his seat. Pretty uneventful ride after that.
I managed to make it through the forward and preface of my book last night, but I got caught up watching K1. It looks like I'm going to get caught up watching Best House tonight since it's always interesting. I'll just have to study and read in between the commercials.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Day 24 (Osaka) : Today's over?
That was hella fast, I'm not even sure what happened after I woke up this morning. I remember it was nice in the morning, I studied at school, and it started raining during the walk home. It's all a fuzzy mix though so it feels like nothing important really happened. I'm doing most of my legitimate studies at home on my own time. Studying at school is great for having the pressure of tests and grades to keep me on the straight an narrow. I got a 28/30 (roughly 93 percent, I think...) on the kanji test that was given last Friday. I'm still disappointed that I ended up missing two that I have learned and forgotten at least a bajillion times.
I finished chapter four in Japanese for College Students today. If the pace seems fast it's because I'm reading all the material that I have already learned and moving on to the next exercise. When I stumble over something I write through the whole unit and move on. This early in the text I'm not really covering any advanced topics, just some basic grammar rules and particle use exercises. For example, one fo the exercises was covering the ~ない form of verb conjugation. That would be the English equivalent of a negative present/future tense verb. (Japanese doesn't really distinguish between present and future.)
I'm satisfied with the content of the book so far but I wonder if I can find a copy of JFCS Vol. 2 to roll into when I'm finished. If not I'll have to drip back into Genki since I have two volumes of it, workbooks, and an answer key. Right now Japanese for College Students is a better match because it uses an introduction method, where kanji is only explained in one chapter. After that you have to know it or look back. The Genki textbook that I have is much more lenient and provides subscript to help reading throughout all of volume one, though I haven't made it very far through the second textbook. Ah, I'm going to get into reading Toppa Mono today. I made the goal of reading all the books I collected during the two years here and it's never going to happen if I don't make time for it.
I finished chapter four in Japanese for College Students today. If the pace seems fast it's because I'm reading all the material that I have already learned and moving on to the next exercise. When I stumble over something I write through the whole unit and move on. This early in the text I'm not really covering any advanced topics, just some basic grammar rules and particle use exercises. For example, one fo the exercises was covering the ~ない form of verb conjugation. That would be the English equivalent of a negative present/future tense verb. (Japanese doesn't really distinguish between present and future.)
I'm satisfied with the content of the book so far but I wonder if I can find a copy of JFCS Vol. 2 to roll into when I'm finished. If not I'll have to drip back into Genki since I have two volumes of it, workbooks, and an answer key. Right now Japanese for College Students is a better match because it uses an introduction method, where kanji is only explained in one chapter. After that you have to know it or look back. The Genki textbook that I have is much more lenient and provides subscript to help reading throughout all of volume one, though I haven't made it very far through the second textbook. Ah, I'm going to get into reading Toppa Mono today. I made the goal of reading all the books I collected during the two years here and it's never going to happen if I don't make time for it.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Day 23 (Osaka) : It's too hot
It's cloudy and the weather report is calling for rain tomorrow. So why exactly does it feel like a raging inferno in my apartment. At this rate AC is going to become mandatory life support in a few weeks. I've already had to resort to turning on my exhaust tray to keep my laptop from melting.
Weather points aside, school is moving along rapidly. I wonder if it's because I scored in one of the upper classes or if every class room moves at the same pace. It's only been six days and it's already difficult to count the number of grammar points we've covered. I made time after school today to get into my own studies and I finished another chapter of Japanese for College students. It's about at the same place that we were on day one or two in class.
I would work through the school text to get a better understanding but there are two problems. The book has no English at all, so I have to have a pretty solid grasp of upper level Japanese to understand the explanations of simple Japanese grammar rules. (Kind of mixed up, huh?) The second problem is that the class bounces around so much that we aren't really following any chapter layout. We'll work on page 284 during one of the hour periods and the next we'll be on 74 and then 242. I spend a lot of time studying my own notes so I can have some kind of grasp on the method that we were taught in.
No reason to drag this out, I'm going to get back to my studies.
Weather points aside, school is moving along rapidly. I wonder if it's because I scored in one of the upper classes or if every class room moves at the same pace. It's only been six days and it's already difficult to count the number of grammar points we've covered. I made time after school today to get into my own studies and I finished another chapter of Japanese for College students. It's about at the same place that we were on day one or two in class.
I would work through the school text to get a better understanding but there are two problems. The book has no English at all, so I have to have a pretty solid grasp of upper level Japanese to understand the explanations of simple Japanese grammar rules. (Kind of mixed up, huh?) The second problem is that the class bounces around so much that we aren't really following any chapter layout. We'll work on page 284 during one of the hour periods and the next we'll be on 74 and then 242. I spend a lot of time studying my own notes so I can have some kind of grasp on the method that we were taught in.
No reason to drag this out, I'm going to get back to my studies.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Day 22 (Osaka) : Field day
"Sweepers, Sweepers, man your brooms. Give the ship a clean sweep down both fore and aft! Sweep down all lower decks, ladder wells and passageways! Dump all garbage in dumpsters provided for on the pier. Sweepers."
Yep, that's one of those things I'll probably remember for the rest of my life thanks to hearing it on a daily basis. I don't really keep up the practice of cleaning for an hour everyday even if there isn't anything to clean, but I have made the habit of doing a field day of the whole apartment on Sundays. It gives me a chance to run the vacuum and fold the clothes that I washed. In my old apartment I had the habit of just hanging them up until I wore them again so I kind of skipped the whole folding process. Not very tidy, huh?
I made it through the 2nd chapter of Japanese for College students, but I still haven't touched on the material we're covering in class. I figure seeing the grammar points with some clear English explanations would be helpful. Right now I'm just winging it off the assumption that I can understand what the teachers are saying in Japanese. I'll have to run the trash downstairs before I go to bed or I'll forget int he morning. Monday is kind of a catch all day where I can throw out pretty much everything except bottles and I rarely bring those home in the first place. Technically it's burnables and recyclable plastics on Monday, but I think cardboard is kosher too so I'm going to scout that out when I run the first two bags down.
Update: Just got back, lots of cardboard down there so I'm going to go dump the box from my bean bag and the couch I got since they're both ginormous and taking up half my bed room.
Yep, that's one of those things I'll probably remember for the rest of my life thanks to hearing it on a daily basis. I don't really keep up the practice of cleaning for an hour everyday even if there isn't anything to clean, but I have made the habit of doing a field day of the whole apartment on Sundays. It gives me a chance to run the vacuum and fold the clothes that I washed. In my old apartment I had the habit of just hanging them up until I wore them again so I kind of skipped the whole folding process. Not very tidy, huh?
I made it through the 2nd chapter of Japanese for College students, but I still haven't touched on the material we're covering in class. I figure seeing the grammar points with some clear English explanations would be helpful. Right now I'm just winging it off the assumption that I can understand what the teachers are saying in Japanese. I'll have to run the trash downstairs before I go to bed or I'll forget int he morning. Monday is kind of a catch all day where I can throw out pretty much everything except bottles and I rarely bring those home in the first place. Technically it's burnables and recyclable plastics on Monday, but I think cardboard is kosher too so I'm going to scout that out when I run the first two bags down.
Update: Just got back, lots of cardboard down there so I'm going to go dump the box from my bean bag and the couch I got since they're both ginormous and taking up half my bed room.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Day 21 (Osaka) : Drinky boo night
Tonight was a day off from studies so I could catch up on the important things in life, like laundry and drinking. I think making Saturdays my official laundry day will be a good idea since it seems like no one in the building uses the machines before 2:00pm. The problem is that the dryers still suck and even with a reduced load of only shirts and sock it doesn't dry them in an hour. Most of my clothes are still hanging in the space between my living room and my bed. That's exactly where I left them this morning around noon when I finished. I can only hope that they are dry enough to be folded so that I can get some sleep.
I met up with Hirokazu today for a few drinks. He's skinnier than he looks in his picture. He had mentioned going in for surgery next month for a collapsed chest, but after meeting him it kind of makes sense. He doesn't enjoy beef but he does eat chicken, pork, and fish so I'm not sure where is malnutrition is coming from. It was kind of an awkward first time hanging out because Hirokazu can't drink and while he was enjoying his coke and lemonade I was going through the $1.50 beer like it was water in the middle of a desert.
The restaurant we went to was kind of a mix between a okonomiyaki restaurant and an izakaya. For those of you who have never been to Japan, okonomiyaki is cabbage plus mixed ingredients like pork, ginger, and cheese with a kind of pancake like mix that is prepared at your table where you have a hot plate. Izakaya's are like bars that have a food menu full of appetizer plates. So you can pay like $4 for a plate of fries or $3 for some steak cubes to snack on while you're drinking. It's all very ingenious and convenient when you decide to go out drinking and there isn't a McDonald's around to fill the void.
Anyway, it's late and I'm uber tired. Tomorrow is field day and studying so I have to wake up early.
I met up with Hirokazu today for a few drinks. He's skinnier than he looks in his picture. He had mentioned going in for surgery next month for a collapsed chest, but after meeting him it kind of makes sense. He doesn't enjoy beef but he does eat chicken, pork, and fish so I'm not sure where is malnutrition is coming from. It was kind of an awkward first time hanging out because Hirokazu can't drink and while he was enjoying his coke and lemonade I was going through the $1.50 beer like it was water in the middle of a desert.
The restaurant we went to was kind of a mix between a okonomiyaki restaurant and an izakaya. For those of you who have never been to Japan, okonomiyaki is cabbage plus mixed ingredients like pork, ginger, and cheese with a kind of pancake like mix that is prepared at your table where you have a hot plate. Izakaya's are like bars that have a food menu full of appetizer plates. So you can pay like $4 for a plate of fries or $3 for some steak cubes to snack on while you're drinking. It's all very ingenious and convenient when you decide to go out drinking and there isn't a McDonald's around to fill the void.
Anyway, it's late and I'm uber tired. Tomorrow is field day and studying so I have to wake up early.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Day 20 (Osaka) : Where's my ROFL Copter?
Alright, before I talk about anything you should watch this video:
College Humor Video
This is probably the funniest thing since sliced bread and I've been watching it two or three times a day since I saw it.
That out of the way, it's my first Friday and like I said yesterday we had our first kanji test too. Too bad I don't really get five dollars if I make the bet with myself. I was kind of surprised because the kanji test was more difficult than I was expecting. We weren't just tested on the kanji we covered but the compounds in the example. So if I thought learning 木 and 女 were too easy, that's because I didn't bother to learn 木村 and 彼女. Not crazy difficult or advanced but sneaky as all hell get out. I think I missed two out of twenty six so I'm not terribly disappointed but I won't miss a question because I didn't study the examples in the future.
I don't think I have any homework this weekend so it will be my first chance to catch up on all the notes I've been taking and do some independent study. It will help a lot to review books that have proper English explanations. My class mate, DaHye, and two of her friends came over to my apartment for dinner. We watched Jackass 2 because I couldn't get any movies in Korean or with subtitles and with that move you really don't have to understand what's being said. I think the burgers turned out nicely but it was hard to get the fries done right without an over or an electric range like I had at my old apartment.
I'm kind of worn out from my studies so I'm going to sleep in tomorrow and enjoy the first day off.
College Humor Video
This is probably the funniest thing since sliced bread and I've been watching it two or three times a day since I saw it.
That out of the way, it's my first Friday and like I said yesterday we had our first kanji test too. Too bad I don't really get five dollars if I make the bet with myself. I was kind of surprised because the kanji test was more difficult than I was expecting. We weren't just tested on the kanji we covered but the compounds in the example. So if I thought learning 木 and 女 were too easy, that's because I didn't bother to learn 木村 and 彼女. Not crazy difficult or advanced but sneaky as all hell get out. I think I missed two out of twenty six so I'm not terribly disappointed but I won't miss a question because I didn't study the examples in the future.
I don't think I have any homework this weekend so it will be my first chance to catch up on all the notes I've been taking and do some independent study. It will help a lot to review books that have proper English explanations. My class mate, DaHye, and two of her friends came over to my apartment for dinner. We watched Jackass 2 because I couldn't get any movies in Korean or with subtitles and with that move you really don't have to understand what's being said. I think the burgers turned out nicely but it was hard to get the fries done right without an over or an electric range like I had at my old apartment.
I'm kind of worn out from my studies so I'm going to sleep in tomorrow and enjoy the first day off.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Day 19 (Osaka) : Man vs Drain Pipe
First thought of the day: I think I'm developing an allergic reaction to food before noon or maybe tuna rolls for breakfast is just a bad idea.
Talk about not learning from other people's mistakes. I was just enjoying a little private time on my own toilet when I happened to notice mail sitting in the bin on my door. This might sound normal to some people, but I have a kiosk with an auto-lock entry system downstairs. Mail is never brought directly to my door. So after two weeks of living here, I JUST realized that I even had one of those door-mailbox thingies. It's strange since I've only been here two weeks but I guess it's a catch up bill to round of last month.
School was decent today. Tsuji-sensei taught in the morning and a new teacher, Masuno-sensei, taught after lunch. There were a lot of group drills and we covered ~て and ~したり grammar. I was confused at first because I thought each teacher was responsible for their own topic like kanji or grammar. Apparently, they cover all the topics in different a different order from each other. This seems like a really great idea to me because I don't have to worry if one teacher is difficult to follow, because three other teachers will cover the same topic that week. It sounds more redundant than it really is because we move through the topics so quickly it's not like we get a lot of practice or review time if we only cover it once.
The land lord sent a guy by today to fix the leak in my sink and shower, which is awesome. It almost feels like a real shower now. I realized after the guy left that I forgot to get him to locate the rancid smell in my bathroom. (Before you start snickering, baths and toilets are generally/always separated so when I say bathroom I mean the sink and laundry room.) I feel bad asking the guy to come out here so often to fix little problems so I decided to figure out the mystery myself. I had to move some stuff around, but I eventually found the drain for the washing machine which was full of black stinky liquid.
First thought in my head is, "Oh great, the drain is clogged." Not having any appropriate tools at hand I grabbed the toothbrush that I use to clean and wax my shoes to further investigate. Low and behold, the drain is about two inches deep with no apparent holes. It took about twenty minutes of fiddling around with the toothbrush before I realized it was supposed to be full of water. (Fresh water would keep the foul water at the bottom but no one had used it for a long time so...) Once I started running fresh water through the black water cleared out and it started to look good as new. It still smells like sewage though but I'm hoping that will clear out by tomorrow.
Tomorrow is my first Friday and I'm really looking forward to it. I've got a lot of side marked Japanese that I need to go back and review and I've been so busy with homework this week that I haven't had any choice but to put it on the back burner and wait. So here's to hoping that the weekend doesn't have a ton of homework. I'm also putting five bucks on there being a kanji test tomorrow.
Talk about not learning from other people's mistakes. I was just enjoying a little private time on my own toilet when I happened to notice mail sitting in the bin on my door. This might sound normal to some people, but I have a kiosk with an auto-lock entry system downstairs. Mail is never brought directly to my door. So after two weeks of living here, I JUST realized that I even had one of those door-mailbox thingies. It's strange since I've only been here two weeks but I guess it's a catch up bill to round of last month.
School was decent today. Tsuji-sensei taught in the morning and a new teacher, Masuno-sensei, taught after lunch. There were a lot of group drills and we covered ~て and ~したり grammar. I was confused at first because I thought each teacher was responsible for their own topic like kanji or grammar. Apparently, they cover all the topics in different a different order from each other. This seems like a really great idea to me because I don't have to worry if one teacher is difficult to follow, because three other teachers will cover the same topic that week. It sounds more redundant than it really is because we move through the topics so quickly it's not like we get a lot of practice or review time if we only cover it once.
The land lord sent a guy by today to fix the leak in my sink and shower, which is awesome. It almost feels like a real shower now. I realized after the guy left that I forgot to get him to locate the rancid smell in my bathroom. (Before you start snickering, baths and toilets are generally/always separated so when I say bathroom I mean the sink and laundry room.) I feel bad asking the guy to come out here so often to fix little problems so I decided to figure out the mystery myself. I had to move some stuff around, but I eventually found the drain for the washing machine which was full of black stinky liquid.
First thought in my head is, "Oh great, the drain is clogged." Not having any appropriate tools at hand I grabbed the toothbrush that I use to clean and wax my shoes to further investigate. Low and behold, the drain is about two inches deep with no apparent holes. It took about twenty minutes of fiddling around with the toothbrush before I realized it was supposed to be full of water. (Fresh water would keep the foul water at the bottom but no one had used it for a long time so...) Once I started running fresh water through the black water cleared out and it started to look good as new. It still smells like sewage though but I'm hoping that will clear out by tomorrow.
Tomorrow is my first Friday and I'm really looking forward to it. I've got a lot of side marked Japanese that I need to go back and review and I've been so busy with homework this week that I haven't had any choice but to put it on the back burner and wait. So here's to hoping that the weekend doesn't have a ton of homework. I'm also putting five bucks on there being a kanji test tomorrow.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Day 18 (Osaka) : White Man's Burden
I'm starting to see the difference between Westerners and the students from neighboring Asian countries. The whole class started off at baby level kanji, meaning we started at 1 kanji and work through the book to more advanced kanji. That gave me a reason to be overly optimistic thinking we were all starting off on the same page. Now that homework is becoming more frequent it's becoming increasingly obvious how large the distance is between my level and theirs. We might be learning basic kanji but the homework and text book both have upper level kanji.
We had our first group exercise after lunch when we did the typical, introduce your buddy exercise. I was in a group of three with a girl from Korea and another girl from Hong Kong... maybe. They were writing notes for the introduction with full blown kanji for everything, even the station names which some of my Japanese friends have a hard time reading.
It's only day three after all and I'm kind of digging the work load. I spend about three to four hours studying at home after class so I think I have been able to learn a lot in just a few days. Learning new things is the easy part. Reinforcing it until it becomes habit is the difficult part. I figure if I do it all day, everyday it will eventually make more and more sense. The important thing is that I'm in high spirits and everything is going well, can't ask for more than that.
On a side note, I've activated mail blogging so I can send posts with pictures from my cell phone at anytime. I'm not sure when I'll try it out but if it works well I might do it from time to time. Don't expect it to become a regular deal though. Typing more than a few sentences using only your thumb is a huge pain in the (_!_)
We had our first group exercise after lunch when we did the typical, introduce your buddy exercise. I was in a group of three with a girl from Korea and another girl from Hong Kong... maybe. They were writing notes for the introduction with full blown kanji for everything, even the station names which some of my Japanese friends have a hard time reading.
It's only day three after all and I'm kind of digging the work load. I spend about three to four hours studying at home after class so I think I have been able to learn a lot in just a few days. Learning new things is the easy part. Reinforcing it until it becomes habit is the difficult part. I figure if I do it all day, everyday it will eventually make more and more sense. The important thing is that I'm in high spirits and everything is going well, can't ask for more than that.
On a side note, I've activated mail blogging so I can send posts with pictures from my cell phone at anytime. I'm not sure when I'll try it out but if it works well I might do it from time to time. Don't expect it to become a regular deal though. Typing more than a few sentences using only your thumb is a huge pain in the (_!_)
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Day 17 (Osaka) : The manliest tofu!
Today was the second day of class. I'm starting to understand the teacher and topic rotation but not really. This morning we reviewed kanji and pronunciation. After lunch we covered some grammar topics. Both of the teachers today were older and not as fun as 辻先生 (Tsuji-sensei). 小幡先生(Obata-sensei) from the kanji and pronunciation lesson nearly killed me. I'm had to check for a pulse between exercises to make sure I was still in the land of the living.
Her teaching method for the kanji was incredibly redundant. The class had to read the kanji pronunciation five or six times, the various words it is used in five or six times, and the two example sentences five or six times. After that, each of the seventeen students in my class had to read the examples one at a time. The whole process made six kanji take the better part of two hours. I messed up on the examples when it finally got to me because I got so caught up in listening to people say them over and over again that I couldn't focus on reading at all. That's the level my Japanese is at, I can't listen and read Japanese at the same time. Oddly enough it's easy to write and speak at the same time though so I usually take notes while we're doing the speaking drills.
After classes I came back home to a nice Chinese dinner that I made. It's kind of an instant hybrid. You fry up some meet and veggies, throw in tofu, and the instant sauce then voila you have stuff to pour over your rice. It's pretty tastey so I don't mind eating it to break up the curry and spaghetti rotation.
For those of you still wondering about the title, this is what it's about.
That label has a big 男 (Otoko = man) kanji on it. All of the tofu at the grocery store is 92円 (roughly $1 give or take with the exchange rate) except for this manly tough which is 182円, almost double. I walked past it a couple of times before and I couldn't figure out why it was so expensive. Then when it came time to make some instant Chinese style food I had to buy it. Why? Becuase it seemed like a challenge to my manliness. If they have tofu for men, how can I not buy it? In the end it tasted like tofu but it did come in man sized portions so I have a full serving left over for tomorrow's dinner. Sweet!
Her teaching method for the kanji was incredibly redundant. The class had to read the kanji pronunciation five or six times, the various words it is used in five or six times, and the two example sentences five or six times. After that, each of the seventeen students in my class had to read the examples one at a time. The whole process made six kanji take the better part of two hours. I messed up on the examples when it finally got to me because I got so caught up in listening to people say them over and over again that I couldn't focus on reading at all. That's the level my Japanese is at, I can't listen and read Japanese at the same time. Oddly enough it's easy to write and speak at the same time though so I usually take notes while we're doing the speaking drills.
After classes I came back home to a nice Chinese dinner that I made. It's kind of an instant hybrid. You fry up some meet and veggies, throw in tofu, and the instant sauce then voila you have stuff to pour over your rice. It's pretty tastey so I don't mind eating it to break up the curry and spaghetti rotation.
For those of you still wondering about the title, this is what it's about.
That label has a big 男 (Otoko = man) kanji on it. All of the tofu at the grocery store is 92円 (roughly $1 give or take with the exchange rate) except for this manly tough which is 182円, almost double. I walked past it a couple of times before and I couldn't figure out why it was so expensive. Then when it came time to make some instant Chinese style food I had to buy it. Why? Becuase it seemed like a challenge to my manliness. If they have tofu for men, how can I not buy it? In the end it tasted like tofu but it did come in man sized portions so I have a full serving left over for tomorrow's dinner. Sweet!
Monday, April 13, 2009
Day 16 (Osaka) : のむヨーグルト
Today was the first day of school and it was pretty extreme. I don't mean like ranch flavored corn nuts extreme, oh no. It was much more like the woman crushing beer cans with her boobies extreme. Just look at the host's face if you don't get how extreme that is after watching it.
Maybe I was taking for granted that there would be some kind of grace period to ease into the studies, but that's not the way it works. I'm actually classed up with people who have been here a hot minute. Some of my classmates are already four terms or more deep. Right now I'm no where near the top and pretty close to the bottom of the class. I have a lot of memorization to do and I'm not really sure how, but I have to get a few hundred kanji rocked out in a very short amount of time. It's not bad at all though. I feel pretty confident that I could understand about 90% of what was going on in class.
On the way home I ran through the grocery store to get eats for tomorrow and decided to grab some milk to polish off the last of my protein powder. In a strange twist of events I ended up with a quart of yogurt. If you're asking yourself how something like that could happen, that makes two of us. I even went back and did a check on the item in question.
Milk carton, check. Pleasant scenary of fields and mountains, check. Cows, check. のむヨーグルト? (Roughly, drink yogurt...) It's completely camouflaged! You wouldn't buy an orange carton, with oranges on it and expect to get Mountain Dew. How can you get a milk carton with cows on it and end up with coconut flavored yogurt? On the bright side it mixes perfectly with my Syntrax Nectar, minus about three inches of fluffy pink crap on the top. The yogurt has almost the same nutritional value as milk so it isn't a total loss. I'm just wondering if they really have milk, because I only saw two cartons in the whole row.
Maybe I was taking for granted that there would be some kind of grace period to ease into the studies, but that's not the way it works. I'm actually classed up with people who have been here a hot minute. Some of my classmates are already four terms or more deep. Right now I'm no where near the top and pretty close to the bottom of the class. I have a lot of memorization to do and I'm not really sure how, but I have to get a few hundred kanji rocked out in a very short amount of time. It's not bad at all though. I feel pretty confident that I could understand about 90% of what was going on in class.
On the way home I ran through the grocery store to get eats for tomorrow and decided to grab some milk to polish off the last of my protein powder. In a strange twist of events I ended up with a quart of yogurt. If you're asking yourself how something like that could happen, that makes two of us. I even went back and did a check on the item in question.
Milk carton, check. Pleasant scenary of fields and mountains, check. Cows, check. のむヨーグルト? (Roughly, drink yogurt...) It's completely camouflaged! You wouldn't buy an orange carton, with oranges on it and expect to get Mountain Dew. How can you get a milk carton with cows on it and end up with coconut flavored yogurt? On the bright side it mixes perfectly with my Syntrax Nectar, minus about three inches of fluffy pink crap on the top. The yogurt has almost the same nutritional value as milk so it isn't a total loss. I'm just wondering if they really have milk, because I only saw two cartons in the whole row.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Day 15 (Osaka) : The Battle of Red Cliff Part I
Not a whole lot to say about any given Sunday. The highlight was probably taking the trash out tonight. Oh, or watching Red Cliff Part I in Japanese on basic cable. The resolution is better than the screener I watched before and it's almost easier to understand in Japanese than it was with the lightning fast subtitles. I'll have to score the boxset someday when Part II is finished. I guess I will have to wait until I have a job again before I can start a legitimate collection.
On an unrelated note I started working through Japanese for College Students, a textbook that was put out by ICU. I remember really liking it before so I plan to get through the whole book before the next placement exam. At the very least I would like to double my score from 27 to 54, so I won't feel like a loser.
On an unrelated note I started working through Japanese for College Students, a textbook that was put out by ICU. I remember really liking it before so I plan to get through the whole book before the next placement exam. At the very least I would like to double my score from 27 to 54, so I won't feel like a loser.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Day 14 (Osaka) : A delivery threesome...
Today was busy for a Saturday. The AC guys came to install the new units just before 11:00am and they were here until around 2:00pm. I didn't realize they would be replacing the cooling tanks outside too. Everything is gleaming and sparkly new except for a four inch strip of bare wall that's above the new units. The older models were huge so the the new wall paper ends where they used to be. It's a minor detail really. I mean, if you're not standing on your toes trying to look at it then you really won't notice.
While those guys were working the Nitori delivery guy came with my bean bag and carpet so the area in front of my TV is nice and comfy now. Then just after five the Yamada Denki guy came to drop off the refrigerator. It was cool because he spoke a little English and asked me about a few things. The refrigerator looks smaller in my apartment than it did when it was in the store lined up with a dozen other refrigerators. I have enough room for my drinks to chill, that's enough for me. Drinking luke warm water was getting pretty old.
On a movie note, I watched The Bucket List last night. I've been hearing really great reviews of the movie but most of Nicholsan's movies get great reviews even if they aren't so great. This one was an exception and I highly recommend watching it if you haven't seen it.
While those guys were working the Nitori delivery guy came with my bean bag and carpet so the area in front of my TV is nice and comfy now. Then just after five the Yamada Denki guy came to drop off the refrigerator. It was cool because he spoke a little English and asked me about a few things. The refrigerator looks smaller in my apartment than it did when it was in the store lined up with a dozen other refrigerators. I have enough room for my drinks to chill, that's enough for me. Drinking luke warm water was getting pretty old.
On a movie note, I watched The Bucket List last night. I've been hearing really great reviews of the movie but most of Nicholsan's movies get great reviews even if they aren't so great. This one was an exception and I highly recommend watching it if you haven't seen it.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Day 13 (Osaka) : Class announcements
Today we could get the results from our placement exams and find out which class room we would be in. Surprisingly this school has a really dynamic placement system where you can actually move backwards if you do poorly on the four placement tests that are held through out the year. On that note I managed to score a sweet 27/200 on the placement exam... and no that is not a typo. Apparently the questions on the last seven pages that fall in the advanced level were more heavily weighted. Seriously, I'm not making it up. Classes are decided based on the score and assigned by year (1-4) and grade (A-G). I managed to land 1F which is the second highest first year class.
That being said, I'm pretty sure it's bogus. I'm pretty sure 80% of the people taking the test scored in the exact same range as me give or take a few points. Since there are only about 20 seats in these micro classrooms there are bound to be overflow students at the same point on the learning curve. So as far as I can figure the only significant placement factor is the year. I'm not thrilled to fall in the first year category, but honestly it sounds about right. It's been two years since I studied Japanese at a college level so I've forgotten most of the advanced Japanese that I knew. The next placement exam is in June so I'm going to see if I can't move up to second year on my own. I'm sure the class isn't going to cover the material in only eight weeks but it's mostly review for me so it's possible if I can start a few good habits.
Motivational speeches aside, the class is going to be interesting for at least two months. There were four students from Hong Kong, a handful from Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, China, and yep only one American. (Hint: it's me.) The teacher today was 奥村さん (Okumura-san). She talked machine-gun fast the entire hour and a half or so we were there. I'm not kidding. I was starting to suspect she had some kind of external air feed because it didn't seem like she was stopping to breath. Mrs. Okumura even decided to give her own test for some reason. It was entirely unfair because all the guys had to go get x-rays done and she took the tests up before we could finish. Not that time would have helped me out, I can't understand a lot of the directions yet since the entire test is in Japanese. A lot of the questions were in really strange formats so I wasn't sure how to answer or what exactly the questions were in the middle.
The weather has been crazy lately too. Last week I needed a heavy winter coat even if I was sitting inside. The last few days I've been wearing shorts and trying not to break a sweat just typing. I even had to unpack my fan to keep cool. I hope the AC repair guys get the cool and hot air fixed when they put in the new units. I won't make it through a Kansai summer without working AC.
That being said, I'm pretty sure it's bogus. I'm pretty sure 80% of the people taking the test scored in the exact same range as me give or take a few points. Since there are only about 20 seats in these micro classrooms there are bound to be overflow students at the same point on the learning curve. So as far as I can figure the only significant placement factor is the year. I'm not thrilled to fall in the first year category, but honestly it sounds about right. It's been two years since I studied Japanese at a college level so I've forgotten most of the advanced Japanese that I knew. The next placement exam is in June so I'm going to see if I can't move up to second year on my own. I'm sure the class isn't going to cover the material in only eight weeks but it's mostly review for me so it's possible if I can start a few good habits.
Motivational speeches aside, the class is going to be interesting for at least two months. There were four students from Hong Kong, a handful from Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, China, and yep only one American. (Hint: it's me.) The teacher today was 奥村さん (Okumura-san). She talked machine-gun fast the entire hour and a half or so we were there. I'm not kidding. I was starting to suspect she had some kind of external air feed because it didn't seem like she was stopping to breath. Mrs. Okumura even decided to give her own test for some reason. It was entirely unfair because all the guys had to go get x-rays done and she took the tests up before we could finish. Not that time would have helped me out, I can't understand a lot of the directions yet since the entire test is in Japanese. A lot of the questions were in really strange formats so I wasn't sure how to answer or what exactly the questions were in the middle.
The weather has been crazy lately too. Last week I needed a heavy winter coat even if I was sitting inside. The last few days I've been wearing shorts and trying not to break a sweat just typing. I even had to unpack my fan to keep cool. I hope the AC repair guys get the cool and hot air fixed when they put in the new units. I won't make it through a Kansai summer without working AC.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Day 12 (Osaka) : Righetti and curry???
Today is the weekly holiday for my local grocery store. I found out late last night that I only had enough rice left for about half a serving. So to make due with the vitals today I mixed a half cup of rice with a half cup of broken up angel hair spaghetti. Don't ask me why, I guess I just thought that carbs are carbs so it doesn't really matter. The end result shouldn't be surprising to anyone who has forgotten that they were boiling spaghetti and left it on the stove for thirty minutes. The rice cooker made the combination into a soft white mess but the taste wasn't all that bad after I poured the instant curry over it.
Other than that I just relaxed at home and caught up on my Japanese studies. I started working on finishing off the first season of Scrubs too. Tomorrow is class announcements from 9:30am and we get to meet our home room teachers. I have the suspicion that they will put me in the class with three of the other English speaking foreigners that I saw. It's kind of like a messed up Christmas waiting to see what my class will be like. Then there is the regular examinations too, so my class might change frequently if I push myself really hard. Ah well, that's neither here nor there. I'll just have to wait and see.
Other than that I just relaxed at home and caught up on my Japanese studies. I started working on finishing off the first season of Scrubs too. Tomorrow is class announcements from 9:30am and we get to meet our home room teachers. I have the suspicion that they will put me in the class with three of the other English speaking foreigners that I saw. It's kind of like a messed up Christmas waiting to see what my class will be like. Then there is the regular examinations too, so my class might change frequently if I push myself really hard. Ah well, that's neither here nor there. I'll just have to wait and see.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Day 11 (Osaka) : National Nothing Day
Another day of sitting around and doing nothing. It's not like the weather was bad or I had a decent reason to enjoy staying in my apartment. Nope. Instead I was stuck waiting for the Nitori delivery guys to bring my couch and shelf. They were supposed to come sometime between one and two but it turned out to be more like one and whenever they had a chance. I can't really blame them. I've seen more moving truchs and boxes around in the last week than I have in the last six years in Japan. Maybe that's why all those people said April was a busy month for them. It seems like half the people who live here are students that are either coming or going on a regular basis.
Well, I got a new couch and a shelf-on-wheels for my microwave and accessories. It's surpisingly convenient even though I thought the display had normal peg legs. Vista blows hard. My laptop made the "badunk" some software/device/etc was detected sound but didn't give me a message. It makes that sound about once everytime it is turned on and not during boot up but some akward ten or fifteen minute range into operation. I'd look at the event log to see what's going on but that's way too much work. I think I'll just put my speakers on mute. Not much to write on National Nothing Day so this entry will be short.
Well, I got a new couch and a shelf-on-wheels for my microwave and accessories. It's surpisingly convenient even though I thought the display had normal peg legs. Vista blows hard. My laptop made the "badunk" some software/device/etc was detected sound but didn't give me a message. It makes that sound about once everytime it is turned on and not during boot up but some akward ten or fifteen minute range into operation. I'd look at the event log to see what's going on but that's way too much work. I think I'll just put my speakers on mute. Not much to write on National Nothing Day so this entry will be short.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Day 10 (Osaka) : Orientation
Today was orientation day at the main building or what I like to call "Opening Ceremonies Part Deux" since it was practically a repeat. When I first arrived at the office the security guard greeted me in English and asked me which country I came from and when I told him I was from America he said, "America, great country!" He then proceeded to give me a pig thumbs up, which I thought was pretty cool. Unfortunately I realized after I got there that my passport was still in my coat pocket at home. The weather was too nice to wear a coat and in hindsight it seems like the passport wasn't too critical.
At the orientation some new staff members took turns reading almost the entire student hand book in Japanese, Korean, and finally English. They re-iterated the warnings about religious cons and people trying to pick up part time workers for shady jobs out in town. It seemed really forced but they insisted that giving the manuals wasn't enough without reading it because some students might still get in trouble and say they didn't know. This was another sit and run style meeting so I didn't have a good chance to meet anyone before or after the talking was finished.
It's not like I'm disappointed or anything. I never really had any expectations of really meeting other students before classes start. The first real chance to talk to people will probably be during the class announcements on Friday when we will be assigned our home rooms. I get the idea that they will put all of the English speakers in the same class but that would be a really drag on my studies. I'm not interested in speaking English with my classmates when I'm trying to learn Japanese. Either way there's nothing to do but relax and wait at this point. I'm still short a frig, carpet, and anything comfortable to set on if you don't count my yoga mat.
Looking at it positively, things will get much better over the next week or two so it will be much more interesting and comfortable each day that goes by.
At the orientation some new staff members took turns reading almost the entire student hand book in Japanese, Korean, and finally English. They re-iterated the warnings about religious cons and people trying to pick up part time workers for shady jobs out in town. It seemed really forced but they insisted that giving the manuals wasn't enough without reading it because some students might still get in trouble and say they didn't know. This was another sit and run style meeting so I didn't have a good chance to meet anyone before or after the talking was finished.
It's not like I'm disappointed or anything. I never really had any expectations of really meeting other students before classes start. The first real chance to talk to people will probably be during the class announcements on Friday when we will be assigned our home rooms. I get the idea that they will put all of the English speakers in the same class but that would be a really drag on my studies. I'm not interested in speaking English with my classmates when I'm trying to learn Japanese. Either way there's nothing to do but relax and wait at this point. I'm still short a frig, carpet, and anything comfortable to set on if you don't count my yoga mat.
Looking at it positively, things will get much better over the next week or two so it will be much more interesting and comfortable each day that goes by.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Day 9 (Osaka) : Enrollment Ceremonies
Well, the 43rd enrollment ceremonies for my school were held today at the Miyako Hotel near Tennoji station. The principal was long winded to the point that it felt like one of those cliche moments in every Japanese drama where the principal gives a speech. Out of the seven or so staff members who gave speeches, three of them were English speaking foreigners. At this point I'm not going to hazard a guess who is American, Australian, or European and I can understand why Japanese people don't bother to seperate us when foreigner is such a safe catch all.
I didn't realize until today that this language school taught other languages. Apparently they have English and Spanish departments in addition to the Japanese courses that are provided. The whole shin dig was over in a little over an hour. They mentioned something about electives for people who received the fliers on the way in but that wasn't me, so I left when the talking was done.
On the bright side, an NTT guy came by to think me for keeping my service from my old apartment and said something about a 20% discount which is awesome. On the other hand an NHK guy came by and I think he was doing one of those donation runs because he kept asking me if I had a TV. If my co-worker was right, those guys come around asking for money if you watch NHK programming and they're kind of persistant. If it turns out like that I'll just have to use the, "Oh, I'm a foreigner so I can't understand your strange language."
Tomorrow is another brief day at the school for orientation. I think the hand out mentions something about there being medical exams but I'm not sure. Either way, I'll figure it out tomorrow.
I didn't realize until today that this language school taught other languages. Apparently they have English and Spanish departments in addition to the Japanese courses that are provided. The whole shin dig was over in a little over an hour. They mentioned something about electives for people who received the fliers on the way in but that wasn't me, so I left when the talking was done.
On the bright side, an NTT guy came by to think me for keeping my service from my old apartment and said something about a 20% discount which is awesome. On the other hand an NHK guy came by and I think he was doing one of those donation runs because he kept asking me if I had a TV. If my co-worker was right, those guys come around asking for money if you watch NHK programming and they're kind of persistant. If it turns out like that I'll just have to use the, "Oh, I'm a foreigner so I can't understand your strange language."
Tomorrow is another brief day at the school for orientation. I think the hand out mentions something about there being medical exams but I'm not sure. Either way, I'll figure it out tomorrow.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Day 8 (Osaka) : The 7th day = rest
Yet another filler blog. I had my first trial run with the coin laundry that I decided to use instead of buying my own washing machines. The washer was pretty great but an hour after running the dryer I still had cold and wet clothes. Sad thing is that I can't know if it's broken or just a typical Japanese dryer. That's one thing that really boggles my mind. How is it that one of the most advanced countries in the world developed a trend for drying clothes in the sun like fire was the last great invention. Maybe they're super energy efficient and eco-friendly, which would make a lot of sense when you think about how much energy it takes to cook clothes for an hour.
The internet guy came by to fix my router set up. It's strange, somehow my same service provider has different requirements in Osaka than they did in Yokosuka. Now I need there router in addition to their modem. Adding the Fletz router in the mix means that I had to configure my router as a bridge and change my security settings. It's not all bad though. The change allows auto-connection so I don't have to manually connect to the OCN dial up everytime I turn my PC on. It irked me watching the guy work though. Maybe it's just an IT thing, but I can't stand people who type a normal and some how decide that the enter key won't work if they don't perform some Shoalin death strike on it. I seriously thought he was going to put a whole threw my laptop and the desk.
With that obstacle over, I'm even closer to having a normal functional home. I've seen a few of the other tenants in and around the apartment but I haven't really greeted anyone. I'm not sure if I'm the unfriendly one or they are, but I guess it would be awkward either way until I start studying. Tomorrow is the enrollment ceremony and welcoming speeches at the Miyako hotel. I'm not entirely sure where that is, but I figure if I walk around it will turn up somewhere. Anyway, long days equal short posts so I'm going to wrap this up. I've got clothes to fold and things to do before turning in for the night.
The internet guy came by to fix my router set up. It's strange, somehow my same service provider has different requirements in Osaka than they did in Yokosuka. Now I need there router in addition to their modem. Adding the Fletz router in the mix means that I had to configure my router as a bridge and change my security settings. It's not all bad though. The change allows auto-connection so I don't have to manually connect to the OCN dial up everytime I turn my PC on. It irked me watching the guy work though. Maybe it's just an IT thing, but I can't stand people who type a normal and some how decide that the enter key won't work if they don't perform some Shoalin death strike on it. I seriously thought he was going to put a whole threw my laptop and the desk.
With that obstacle over, I'm even closer to having a normal functional home. I've seen a few of the other tenants in and around the apartment but I haven't really greeted anyone. I'm not sure if I'm the unfriendly one or they are, but I guess it would be awkward either way until I start studying. Tomorrow is the enrollment ceremony and welcoming speeches at the Miyako hotel. I'm not entirely sure where that is, but I figure if I walk around it will turn up somewhere. Anyway, long days equal short posts so I'm going to wrap this up. I've got clothes to fold and things to do before turning in for the night.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Day 7 (Osaka) : Samui Saturday
I keep saying that it isn't a big deal if I have to wait for the AC repair guy to come because the weather will get warm, but it has been cold as all hell get out lately. Today I finished the last of the cleaning from moving in so everything has a proper place now. It's difficult doing the grocery shopping when I know I don't have a refrigerator to chill anything. I can only eat so much rice, spaghetti, and stew. I found a nice fresh foods market across the way from the grocery store I have been going to lately. It has fresh veggies for about 60% of what the store is charging and they come with that fresh from the ground soil taste. Is that last part even a good thing?
To make up for not having anything interesting to write about, I'm putting up some pictures of the clean part of my apartment. This puts the LDK in my 1LDK. The first half is the Living Room and the other half is the dining / kitchen area. There isn't a lot of room for any fancy photography and since I never spent the money on a new lens I can't get a better framed shot but you can get an idea of what my living space will look like for two years. Oh, minus the couch, rug, and bean bag that will be delivered later next week. The two circles you can see in the TV shot are the closest thing to a couch that I have to work with right now. They're pretty much just foam seat cushions without the seat.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Day 6 (Osaka) : Semai Project
I finished off the last of the furniture runs for my apartment. I should have everything I need to live out the next two years in a pretty lush life style for a full time student. Shopping at Nitori was tricky becuase I couldn't buy everything at once. I had to pay for things by the floor I picked them up on. They have nice prices though so it was cool to go out there. The store was only a few minutes walk from Imamiya station and if you can't find what you want at Nitori you can walk a few blocks further to Kohnan, another housing outlet.
I'm still short on shelf space, but that should all be fixed up in a week or two when the delivery guys drop off my stuff. I was really limited on the kind of couch I could pick up though because I only have 185 cm floor space between the TV and the sliding doors to my tatami room. On the bright side, I don't have to hear any of my guests say "広い～～～!" when they come in my room again. I can't say I'm surprised though. Moving from a 170,000yen apartment to this 76,000 apartment would guaruntee a smaller living space.
Nothing much exciting or interesting to point out today. It's still incredibly cold and the AC repair guys won't be here until next weekend. I figure spring will get here before they get the problem worked out. On the bright side, they decided the two old units are not worth repairing so I will get two brand new ones. Too bad I can't say the same for my dual burner stove. It has the "minor" problem of leaking gas out of the front burner. So everytime I finish using it I have to turn off the gas supply below the sink or risk re-enacting one of the scenes from an action flick.
I'm still short on shelf space, but that should all be fixed up in a week or two when the delivery guys drop off my stuff. I was really limited on the kind of couch I could pick up though because I only have 185 cm floor space between the TV and the sliding doors to my tatami room. On the bright side, I don't have to hear any of my guests say "広い～～～!" when they come in my room again. I can't say I'm surprised though. Moving from a 170,000yen apartment to this 76,000 apartment would guaruntee a smaller living space.
Nothing much exciting or interesting to point out today. It's still incredibly cold and the AC repair guys won't be here until next weekend. I figure spring will get here before they get the problem worked out. On the bright side, they decided the two old units are not worth repairing so I will get two brand new ones. Too bad I can't say the same for my dual burner stove. It has the "minor" problem of leaking gas out of the front burner. So everytime I finish using it I have to turn off the gas supply below the sink or risk re-enacting one of the scenes from an action flick.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Day 5 (Osaka) : Formation Alpha
Today was a pretty standard day. Started off with a brisk placement exam at Kansai Gaigo Senmon Gakkou (関西外語専門学校). I have to admit that I didn't do very well. If I had to guess, I would say that I scored somewhere between average and brocolli. The test was kind of setting us up for failure though. It started off around JLPT level 4 and around page 14 it suddenly skipped to JLPT level 2 or 1. So I bombed pretty hard on the 21 page exam and I have to say the five minute interview afterwards wasn't so hot either. Pretty much what I expected since I haven't had a chance to seriously study Japanese since I left Charlottesville in the middle of 2007.
After the exam I went out to Namba to find Yamada Denki. That turned out to be a real task because the chain has a different name in Osaka, LABI1. You can still see Yamada Denki in small print on the point card but it's no where to be seen on signs or even on the building. On the bright side I was able to score a nice frig, vacuum, and coffee maker. So I can finally give my apartment a proper cleaning. Actually, my sinus problems have already cleared up so I'm not that worried about being a Human HEPA filter anymore but it will still be nice to run the vacuum.
Tomorrow I'm going out to Shin-Imamiya to find Nitori, a retail furniture joint. I'm hoping that I can pick up a plush rug for my living room and a decent couch.
Well, Blogger dropped out on me. For some reason the autosave feature lost everything except the first two sentences so this was all re-hashed and I feel like I forgot a lot. Ah well, it's late and I'm going to get ready for bed.
After the exam I went out to Namba to find Yamada Denki. That turned out to be a real task because the chain has a different name in Osaka, LABI1. You can still see Yamada Denki in small print on the point card but it's no where to be seen on signs or even on the building. On the bright side I was able to score a nice frig, vacuum, and coffee maker. So I can finally give my apartment a proper cleaning. Actually, my sinus problems have already cleared up so I'm not that worried about being a Human HEPA filter anymore but it will still be nice to run the vacuum.
Tomorrow I'm going out to Shin-Imamiya to find Nitori, a retail furniture joint. I'm hoping that I can pick up a plush rug for my living room and a decent couch.
Well, Blogger dropped out on me. For some reason the autosave feature lost everything except the first two sentences so this was all re-hashed and I feel like I forgot a lot. Ah well, it's late and I'm going to get ready for bed.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Day 4 (Osaka) : I am a human HEPA filter...
Moving to my new 1LDK apartment has been one helluva an ordeal. It's amazing how the apartment can be freshly remodeled, yet somehow still covered in dusty and a strange moldy smell. Since I'm still short some of the major appliances for living (refrigerator, vacuum, washer, etc...) I have had a rough time getting the place cleaned up. I may have had my first experience with allergies too, which wouldn't surprise me considering the cleaning and unpacking that's been going on since I moved in. The funny thing is that after burning through a few hundred tissues I started to think, "Hey, maybe the air will get cleaner if I keep breathing in all this dust..." That could be considered super optimistic or just desperate.
I've wanted to start a healthy blog on my experience moving to Osaka and taking up the student life again, but the internet is still iffy so I'm a few days behind. I should have kept a running list of all the problems that I ran into a long the way. One of the lessons that I learned is that any forms in Japan, and I mean any forms, will require a photo ID of some kind. Applying for my japanese program, my alien registration card, my JLPT exams each year, etc. Take it as a tip, if you're going to apply for papers in Japan that relate to school or your stay in Japan then you should have one of those sheets of ID pictures on hand at all times. You'll find the photo booths almost anywhere. I've taken my photos at Daei outside of Yokosuka base, Yokohama station, outside of the city hall in Komagawanakano, and there are lots of other places.
Tip #2 - If you plan to have a long term stay in Japan, make sure the Immigration office gives you a multiple re-entry stamp. They don't usually mention it and I had to ask after getting my two year student visa. When I got it they asked for 6,000yen stamp (Shunyuinshi) which I thought they would put in my passport, but they just took it as payment. You can buy the stamps at most any convenience store.
Tip #3 - If you are leaving the military or had SOFA status for any reason, make sure the stamp is voided at PSD and that someone, anyone, gives you a piece of paper explaining it. The first time I went to Yokohama they weren't happy with a void stamp alone. They insisted on seeing "retirement papers" or "discharge orders", which was funny since I just left a civilian contracting position and didn't have any of that crap. I ended up bringing them my debriefing papers where I agreed to return all the government belongings and that seemed to be good enough.
I've wanted to start a healthy blog on my experience moving to Osaka and taking up the student life again, but the internet is still iffy so I'm a few days behind. I should have kept a running list of all the problems that I ran into a long the way. One of the lessons that I learned is that any forms in Japan, and I mean any forms, will require a photo ID of some kind. Applying for my japanese program, my alien registration card, my JLPT exams each year, etc. Take it as a tip, if you're going to apply for papers in Japan that relate to school or your stay in Japan then you should have one of those sheets of ID pictures on hand at all times. You'll find the photo booths almost anywhere. I've taken my photos at Daei outside of Yokosuka base, Yokohama station, outside of the city hall in Komagawanakano, and there are lots of other places.
Tip #2 - If you plan to have a long term stay in Japan, make sure the Immigration office gives you a multiple re-entry stamp. They don't usually mention it and I had to ask after getting my two year student visa. When I got it they asked for 6,000yen stamp (Shunyuinshi) which I thought they would put in my passport, but they just took it as payment. You can buy the stamps at most any convenience store.
Tip #3 - If you are leaving the military or had SOFA status for any reason, make sure the stamp is voided at PSD and that someone, anyone, gives you a piece of paper explaining it. The first time I went to Yokohama they weren't happy with a void stamp alone. They insisted on seeing "retirement papers" or "discharge orders", which was funny since I just left a civilian contracting position and didn't have any of that crap. I ended up bringing them my debriefing papers where I agreed to return all the government belongings and that seemed to be good enough.
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