JLPT 1

It's been a long time since writing! I'll fast forward the past few months since my last post. I went back to the States for about a month a week after the earthquake. I returned to Japan and volunteered at the disaster site for a day. It was pretty intense and a little depressing, but a worthwhile experience. I spent much of my summer trying to get my driver's license...I passed the test on my 5th try but I finally made it through. I spent a week in Taiwan, where I traveled around to some major cities and an amazing national park called Taroko Gorge. I flew back into Kansai Airport and met up with a local friend in Kyoto where we visited different shrines for 3 days and then I saw Kyoto, Nara, Osaka and Kobe by myself. I met up with my college Japanese teacher, Mr. Yaginuma.

This summer I also sold my old Ford Explorer and bought a more economical Suzuki Alto. I got a stereo system installed about a 2 weeks ago as well as my navigation system I had in my old car. It's such a strange feeling driving this tiny car after the monster I had before.

Another development is the new apartment I moved into. My room number changed from 203 to 302 in some bizarre twist of fate designed by the 'Blue Sky Preschool' on the first floor of my building. They wanted to use my room since they have an increase in student body. My old room is now host to a bunch of little Japanese toddlers. Go figure.



I also spent a lot of time reading since the summer and managed to finish four Japanese books. The first book is called Chichi to Ran, a book I borrowed from another ALT. To sum it up, it's about breast enhancement surgery and menstruation. The book is written from the perspective of the sister of a prospective breast enhancement surgery recipient. The main character tries to basically convince her sister not to get the surgery and an interesting argument ensues about the difference between breast enhancement surgery and cosmetics. Intermittently scattered throughout the books are journal entries of the sister's daughter, Midori, who only communicates through notebook messages as opposed to speaking. Midori finds menstruation revolting but yet is curious about it in a strange way. Most of her parts are about how she's not looking forward to puberty and the other half are how she thinks her mother is stupid for wanting the surgery. The last part of the book is also a short piece about a strange happening between a man handing out flyers in the street and a woman walking by who ultimately decides to ask him out on a date only to be knocked out by him. The story ends with her laying on the pavement and blood running down from her lip. No joke.



Another book I read was the first book in the Kino no Tabi (Kino's Travels) series. The series also became an anime of the same name. The premise of the book is about a girl (who originally seems to be a boy) named Kino who rides around on a talking motorcycle. The world Kino lives in is a somewhat alternate reality to ours, where 'countries' are basically cities surrounded by walls with immigration personnel at the gates. Each chapter is about Kino and his bike's journey into these different 'countries'. The book was originally published as short stories in a magazine so the book can be read in a non-linear order and still make some sense. The different countries are based on intriguing concepts. For example, in one, people have discovered a drug to make human beings telepathic. This seems like a good idea to the people there as it was believed it would end war and crime because everyone would be empathic to each other's feelings. However, it destroys relationships because people can hear all the little bad things they think about each other. In fact it ends up that no one lives within a certain distance of each other because it is so unbearable to hear each other's thoughts. I'm really interested in reading the rest of the series, but I decided to take a break to read something that's at a little more difficult of a level. The Kino no Tabi series, I can read essentially cover to cover without consulting any dictionary and glean almost all the ideas/story from the text. This makes it a nice portable read when I'm traveling or on public transport somewhere.





Finally, I read both volumes of Shonen H or "The Boy Called H". This is a supposed true account of the life of author Kappa Senno, a Kobe native who grew up during World War II. The book is a moving story of H (the author's name originally was Hajime) and his Christian family and their struggles through the war. The subject matter is on the surface, very heavy, but the author mixes in a lot of comedy to lighten up the story. It was interesting seeing wartime Japan through the eyes of a Christian family, especially because I have never met a Japanese Christian family. I do have to say that there is some speculation as to whether the book is actually true or not so it looks as though that it is at least partially fiction. As I was reading the story I did think that the author's perspective was incredibly liberal for someone growing up in a country seized by nationalistic fervor. At any rate, it is a great read and if kanji is any obstacle for a second language reader of Japanese, there is enough furigana to dispell the notion that an intermediate Japanese speaker couldn't try and give this a read. One warning is that much of the book is written in the Kansai Dialect spoken in Kobe, so it may take a little time to adjust to that.

Currently I'm studying for the JLPT 1 again, which I failed last summer. I will take it on December 4th, so I'm clearing my schedule as much as possible to make room for plenty of study this time. I at least hope to get my score up this time. Anyways, hope to post some more stuff soon on my study progress. I have so many other books that I want to read but not enough time to read them right now. At least now I have officially read over 1000 pages in Japanese books!

Also, I'm planning a trip to Hong Kong (and possibly somewhere in Japan) this New Year's! P.S. I have been starting to study basic Chinese classes, and I take them about 3 times a month. Too bad mandarin won't help much in Hong Kong as they speak Cantonese and amazing English there.

Anyways, it's 1:50 AM and I'm hitting the sack in my new apartment. Zai Jian!

Earthquake in Northern Japan

Hi everyone,

Everything is fine where I live in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. Though the earthquake was something like an 8.9 around the Pacific but it was only a 4 or so here. I live fairly far from the coast and am shielded by a lot of mountains as well so the tsunami had no effect on life here, either. I was at my board of education at the time and the shaking lasted for quite a while. When I got home, I found glass from cups on my drying rack which had fallen into my sink and my toaster had fallen off the a shelf. Other than that no major damage to my home or office. Aftershocks have continued for the past day and a half and from what I heard are expected to continue through the week. We also had a blackout from Friday to Saturday afternoon, but power is back now.

Aside from the events this weekend, yesterday as a pretty normal day. I went to a hot spring with my friends and got some udon at a local noodle shop and bought a hot new pair of Nikes to wear at work. A night of pizza and Japanese horror movies with friends are the best ways to tide over periodic aftershocks of the worst recoded Japanese earthquake in history.

Of course I am also following the situation at the Daiichi nuclear plant in Fukushima, approx. 148km (90 miles from my city). Last night the Japanese government announced that although the concrete structure housing the nuclear core (which I believe is also surrounded by some sort of metal structure) exploded, no radiation had been released into the environment. But checking western media this morning it looks like some radiation ultimately did vent into the environment in gaseous form and the area around the plant in a 20km radius is being evacuated. Luckily the winds are blowing out to the Pacific so there is no immediate threat to anyone further inland from that disaster. Unfortunately another nuclear core in the facility has gone critical as the cooling system has failed and meltdown has become a possibility. They are trying to cool it with seawater now I believe.

Anyways, I'll try and keep everyone posted from what I see in the Japanese media and from what's going on in my town. I'm going to spend the morning preparing for another blackout and stocking up on what food I can find at the supermarkets. I may be out of touch for a while again if the blackouts this time are more longlasting and/or NTT's telecom traffic becomes to bogged down for me to use the internet.

Please direct your concern to anyone that lives on the Pacific coast, as far as I know all my friends in that area are okay but I'm still worried for them since phone calls and mobile emails won't go through. Also, thank you for all your concern, I'm really touched that you all reached out to me. Talk to you again soon.

日本から初めての旅行 ： First Trip From Japan

新しい投稿しよう！と思った。１月１９日に１７日間のヨーロッパ旅行へ出発した！っていうか、トルク経由でモスクワに行った！イスタンブルに一泊泊まって、観光地なんか見る機会なくて残念だったけど、それでも楽しかった。モスクワで友達のレーチェルを訪ねた！時間を大分ロシア語できる彼女だけと過ごして、本当にいい案内をもらいました。ロシアでは英語がさっぱり通じないから、ツアーで行くのかロシア語知識のある者に案内をしてもらうのか、２つの安心できる旅行のしかたしかないみたい。滞在中、私は少しロシア語のアルファベットを読めるようになった。発音が難しくても、少しでも読めれば、助かるかもしれない。ぜひ行かれると思われる方、ご出発の前に、アルファベット、基本の挨拶、日常的な単語を勉強しておいて行ってください。

旅行で見たものは何が特に目立ったかというと、最初的にやっぱりクレムリンの兵器庫、レニンの遺体が思い浮かぶ。モスクワに旅行すると、必ず、この２カ所を訪ねてください。その他にいい経験のなかで、レーチャルのホストファミリのお婆さんのネリーとネリーのご家族とある夜を過ごしたことと、クリスマスの日にレーチャルの友達たちと一緒にロシアの伝統的なパンケーキのようなブリーニを作っていたことだった。私にとっては、海外旅行の時、現地の家族か現地に住んでる人と時間を過ごすのが最高。また行くとしたら、夏の方が快適じゃないかと思う。でも時々の厳しい天気にかかわらず、ずいぶんいい休みを過ごせて本当にありがたい！

雪がたくさん積もった山形に戻って来ちゃった。雪が好きな俺は、奇麗な山形の景色をエンジョイしてるけど、よくある灰色の空に最近いらいらしてる。今日の夕方、ちょっと晴れた時気分が上がったけど、そのあと、また元に戻って、「あ、終わりか」って気づいちゃった。

でも、御陰様で、最近仕事は以外に忙しくなって、そういったところに努力を入れたら、精神的になんとかなる気がする。毎週、柔道、体育館での運動、そして水金の６時まで開かれる弁論大会練習のせいで、以前の余った時間がなくなってる。こういう活動を本当に楽しんでるから、少しも気にしない。同時に時間外がも積もってるから、そろそろ代休として１日ほどお休みできるようになりそう。春になったら、お金を１万円ぐらい賭けて代休を使って日本の運転免許試験を受験する。頑張ります！


I decided it's about time for a new post. On December 19th I left for a 17 day trip to Europe! Rather, I went to Russia via Turkey! I spent a night in Istanbul and although I unfortunately didn't have much time to see any sights, it was still fun! In Moscow, I visited my friend, Rachel. I spent almost all of my time with her and really got a great tour of the city. English isn't of any use in Moscow, so the way I see it there are two ways to have a worry-free trip there: Have a Russian-speaking friend show you around, or go on a tour. While I was there, I did learn to read a bit of the Russian alphabet. Though the pronunciation is difficult if you can read even a little bit, it will certainly come in handy. I definitely recommend those going to study the alphabet, basic greetings and every day words before their departure.

Out of all the things I saw, I believe that the two highlights were the Kremlin Armory and Lenin's body. If you visit Moscow, definitely visit these two places. Other than that, I also enjoyed spending a night with Rachel's host grandmother Nellie and Nellie's family as well as making blini (a traditional Russian pancake) on Christmas day with Rachel and her friends. For me, the most enjoyable part of traveling abroad is being able to spend time with local families or local residents of the said country. If I were to go again, I think the summer might be a bit more pleasant for a trip. But despite the occasionally very cold weather, I had a wonderful vacation and am very grateful!

So I've returned to Yamagata which has been dumped on by so much snow! Though I like snow and am enjoying the beautiful landscapes, I am a bit annoyed with the often gray skies. Earlier in the afternoon when the weather cleared up a bit, my spirits rose but afterwards it went right back to being grey and I realized "Oh, that's it."

But thankfully, my work has been unusually busy and I have been putting my energy into this opportunity which has made me feel I'll make it through the gloom psychologically somehow. Every week, because I have Judo, exercise at the gym, and Wednesday-Friday speech contest practice held until 6 o'clock, I have lost a lot of my previous free time. But I am enjoying these activities so I am not bothered by the recent developments in the least. At the same time I am collecting "jikangai" or overtime hours and soon I'll have enough to take a whole day off. In the spring I'll use this and risk 10,000 yen of my own money to take the Japanese driver's license exam. Fingers crossed!