My secrets of Japanese study

For some reason, today this struck me as a good thing to write a blog post about, since I know a lot of you out there are fellow Japanese students and I might not tell you about every cool thing I find out about.

The beautiful thing about all of these, except for Kanji Sonomama, is that they are free.

So, without further ado, welcome to

~*~Siena's Secrets of Studying Japanese!~*~

Learning hiragana and katakana:
Slime Forest
Well, everyone has to start somewhere. And that somewhere is probably learning how to read hiragana and katakana. I did it with a free game called Slime Forest which is in the style of an oldschool NES RPG in which you fight slimes by typing in the correct kana above their head. It's effective, and fun! Of course, you still have to practice writing them on your own. After you learn hiragana and katakana, you start in on some basic kanji, and while this helped me a little bit, it's overall not a terribly effective way to learn kanji (unless you put in a lot of extra effort to learn the Japanese readings by yourself, which I did...). But for learning to recognize hiragana and katakana quickly, this is definitely the best.

Online dictionaries:
Denshi Jisho (jisho.org)
Jisho.org is definitely the best online Japanese-English-Japanese dictionary, perhaps for the ability to look up example sentences which lets you see how a word or grammar pattern is actually used. It's based off of Jim Breen's dictionary, like every other good Japanese online dictionary. You can also look up kanji by themselves, or search kanji by radical.

Jeffrey's Japanese⇔English Dictionary Server
I still stand by this dictionary even after I discovered jisho.org (it's also based on Jim Breen), because it has a couple extra dictionaries that come in handy, like common names for people and also place names. It's got a bunch of other ones, but those are the ones I use.

Memorizing vocabulary:
Anki
Anki has become a critical part of my everyday studying of Japanese this semester because I have to learn large amounts of new vocabulary every week. Basically you make flashcards on your computer, and they automatically fill in the reading based on your kanji input. You can also customize the cards, so sometimes I add definitions in Japanese, hide the English meaning by making it white, and put both the kanji and the reading on the same side of the card. So, it's very versatile. It's undergone a lot of growth since I first started using it, and now I think it's a pretty solid piece of software. The point is supposed to be long-term memorization using spaced repetition, but I actually use it mostly for short-term... but don't tell anybody.

Viewing and understanding Japanese websites:
Rikaichan
This is a weird category, but Rikaichan completely revolutionized the way I deal with websites in Japanese. It works like popjisho, except it's better because it's a Firefox extension. And it's based on Jim Breen, of course, so it's basically like looking up every word you don't understand on jisho.org just by hovering over it. It's not perfect but it nearly is. It's a little like a crutch, though, and I always make faces when I have to deal with Japanese websites in a browser that doesn't have Rikaichan installed, which of course can't be every browser I use.

Looking up kanji when you don't know the reading/electronic dictionaries:
Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten (漢字そのまま楽引辞典)
Kanji Sonomama is software for the Nintendo DS, but it completely justifies buying a DS if you don't already have one (and if you do, it's a total no-brainer). It's about 1/6th of the price of a normal electronic dictionary and in some ways, is better (but in one fundamental way is worse, which I'll get to). Kanji Sonomama is critical for looking up kanji you don't know the reading for, which is what you'll encounter when you're trying to read anything intended for Japanese-speakers (otherwise you have to look it up by radical and who wants to do that?). So you draw it into your DS and it looks it up and tells you some English meanings. It's that wonderful. It's sensitive to number of strokes, I've discovered, rather than how beautifully you draw your kanji.

The only problem is that if you want to do English -> Japanese lookup, it's rather slow, because you have to look up the word then look up any kanji you don't know, which is likely to be a large amount depending on your level. Of course, if you're talking to someone who speaks Japanese and trying to figure out how to say something, you can just show them your DS and they'll know how to read it, haha.

You can buy this on the Internet, or if you're in Japan you can find it in the real world (I saw it used once for around 2000 yen). Or if you're a bad person, you can ****** it using your *** ****.

Special thanks to anyone who told me about any of these things... Eric, Andy, whoever it was at Kent who was responsible for Rikaichan (I forget), Ricky... the Internet.

以上です。

so the saying says, an elephant never forgets

Yesterday was another fun day where I shirked my duties and went on an adventure to Namba with Ai and Yoshiko and their friends Mai and Asami. After the train ride into Osaka, we went to this お好み焼き okonomiyaki place that had tanuki out front. They sat us on the third floor (I don't think I will ever get over this very Japanese way of running businesses out of multiple floors, with a relatively low count of square feet [meters], but it is really cool. Limited real estate means you build UP!) and the waitress cooked our okonomiyaki for us on the table.

If you don't know what okonomiyaki is... well, people often compare it to pancakes or pizza, but I find that it is like neither of these except that it is round. The base is a batter made out of flour, eggs, cabbage, etc. and then there's other stuff in it (whatever you want, pretty much), commonly meat and green onions (I love green onions). Mine had beef in it. We had a good giggle over some of the items on the menu which actually proved to be pretty popular amongst our group, namely モチーズ (mochiizu) and ポチーズ (pochiizu) which I had to have explained to me. モチーズ is mochi and cheese, and ポチーズ is potato and cheese. So they put either mochi or potato on the bottom of the okonomiyaki. It was interesting. I guess it was good though, lol.

Then we took プリクラ because that's what you do when you're an adolescent girl in Japan and you're out with your friends. And it's awesome.

Godiva explanation to come.


For the record, I didn't write that... lol.


I think this one is really cute.


This is my cellphone wallpaper right now.

So after that, we went to Godiva, where we drank expensive chocolate drinks called chocolixir. I tried to explain what an elixir is and ended up being like, "You know, in Final Fantasy? When you get healed?" The names of the drinks were also hilarious, like Dark Chocolate Decadence, and I had to explain why the use of the word "decadence" is hysterical... I settled on, "so fancy that it's a waste" (もったいない).

We sat around talking about studying abroad, and they asked me if I'm homesick. I thought about it for a second and said no, since I've been away from home for so long now. I do miss Oberlin, though, quite a bit. Last semester, I was really ready to leave, but now of course, I miss it a lot. I had to leave LA and my family to appreciate them, and now I have to leave Oberlin and America to appreciate those. At least I have a president I'm proud of now.

This deserves a mention just because it's the subject line: I am really obsessed with the new Neko Case single, People Got A Lotta Nerve. You can download it somewhere for free legally, maybe I'll link it later. It's good though, listen to it.

殺害せよ！

So I promised myself I would buy this if I found it for as cheap as it's listed on Amazon.co.jp (￥1295... I got it for ￥1200. In America it'll run you around $25).



"I am a terrorist from Hell!
I don't have parents!
Because I killed them!"

He has 2 different heads and 5 (!) sets of hands, plus a removable cape (which is split into 3 parts so you can create extra drama) and guitar. I wasn't entirely sure at the time of purchase if I was doing the right thing, but when I got it out of the box today all of my doubts were erased by AWESOMENESS. Basically when I saw the review on ANN I knew I had to have it. It's my first figurine purchase (?). I'm such an otaku.

SPEED. METAL. HANDS.

２月１７日

I have taken pictures that showcase about 1/3 of my daily commute (from my host family's house to the train station) but I don't feel like doing that entry today so you'll have to wait. They're up on Facebook though if you're curious.

This past weekend had some deceptively nice weather, but now it has taken a turn for the cold. Today it even snowed just a tiny bit, for some fleeting minutes and it didn't stay on the ground, of course. I was a little upset by this.

But more importantly, on Sunday I went to Kyoto to play with Jess! After a somewhat confusing time trying to meet up in the underground passageway, we ate yakisoba and takoyaki at Mr.Young Men in Shijo and did a lot of talking in English. We poked around Shijo, and I made some purchases (which I should probably photograph when I get them all set up...) and later in the evening went to "the parfait place" which had these incredible displays in the window:





I think Jess told me you have a time limit of an hour and a half and can have as many as 10 people working on it. Someday I wish to participate in the consumption of one of these. The ones we ate were more modestly sized, but still delicious.

On the train ride home, I was filled with love for Jess and our mutual friends from Oberlin. I came to the conclusion that adventures are meaningless if you can't share them with the people you love the most. I really missed her a lot last semester.

Oh yeah, and I took some pictures of the area surrounding Kansai Gaidai from the 4th story. You can see a little bit of the campus, and the beautiful clouds in the sky on this cold, cold day.

休みの日！

So today was a holiday (National Foundation Day--I just looked it up) which means I went shopping with my host sister, Aika, in the trendy areas of Umeda and Namba. We had a lot of fun and bought a lot of cool things! We also took プリクラ of course. Now I'm going to show them all off! I also put a picture of my cell phone in a post a couple ones back.



It's winter sale time... やばい。


This was from this 300 yen store that sold jewelry that looks really fancy. I was entranced by the little crocheted balls.


Okay sorry this is MySpace-y, but showcased in this picture are the above necklace, this adorable heart-shaped tartan hair clip, and my wool dress I bought at Kyoto Station for 980 yen.

I also bought a pair of fancy tights that are a light blue/turquoise and do that fancy lace thing that I don't really know how to describe, but look super cool layered on top of solid tights. They were only 117 yen so I had to buy them.

プリクラ！ I swear I will never get tired of this.

Yeah we badass. The other ones are all really cute too, but I can't put them on the Internet until I have access to a scanner, which will probably be back at home.

Also, funny story: this afternoon, before Aika and I left, we were hanging around the kitchen and I hear her humming Aqua Timez' Velonica, which is the current Bleach opening. I slyly go, "Aqua Timez?" which resulted in a hilarious conversation between the two of us and Kazuma, who likes to make gentle fun of me for being a nerd since I know a lot of obscure references. (Pretty much everyone I meet is always going なぜ知ってる！ "Why do you know that!") I do a pretty good impression of the Aqua Timez lead singer, too.

Only two more days of classes and then it's the weekend! :D

行こう、この世の果てまで

Today was extremely fulfilling. This week of school had me a little on edge, but a couple reminders and being able to sleep in allowed me to calm down. First, I just have to pass these classes as my grades don't transfer back (just the credit), so if I get an A or a B, it doesn't matter. (Although, I do have to get above a 3.0, and I do have my pride, after all.) But really, there is no reason for me to kill myself preparing for these classes when I know that I am capable enough to do what I need to get myself through and not completely stress out. That being said...

Tomorrow I have to give a speech in speaking class of around 3 minutes. I think I have to do this every week. Mine's about Drag Ball, which I'm not sure is an entirely appropriate topic, but I don't care, I'm from Oberlin. The topic is culture from your own country, lol. But so, I wrote it, I practiced it, and then I went out and played. And I'm going to practice it more tonight, but I'm not going to flip out about it, because I'm smart and goddammit, I'm worth it (that's an old SNL reference by the way, which maybe only my father will get...)

SO, today I went to karaoke with one of my speaking partners Ryoko. She's a big No Doubt fan, so naturally we sang a lot of songs from Tragic Kingdom, because that album is still good. I did my normal fare of the pillows, anime songs, and whatever English ones I could think of (notably, Snow by RHCP, and Reel Big Fish's cover of Take On Me, which was the only RBF song they had... hahaha). Their pillows selection was excellent (I did The Third Eye, この世の果てまで, and Tokyo Bambi). Either I've practiced more, or the speed of my reading comprehension really has improved since I last went with Andy and Kevin a few weeks ago in Sawtelle.

Afterwards, we took some requisite purikura. I was disappointed to discover that I can't get them on my phone because it doesn't have the Internet. But Ryoko sent me the one she had sent to her phone, here it is:

Then I headed on home, and was surprised to find that I was invited to go to the local sentou (public bath) with my host sister Aika and her friend who's staying the night. I had earlier declined their invitation since I was going out, but failed to understand that they were going later. So we went.

We rode these typical Japanese housewife bikes, which at first I had a tough time maneuvering because they're very different from my mountain bike-style bike that I ride around Oberlin on. But once I got the hang of it, it was much easier than my bike, and if it weren't for the crazy drivers on these streets that can barely squeeze a car down them, I would want to ride one of those bikes all the time (watch out, Andy!).

I'd like to take a moment to express my love for Japanese baths. They just do it right. They're super hot, and just feel awesome. There's a lot of etiquette that goes along with it, and in all the signs they have posted about what not to do, it's always a foreigner doin' it wrong. But I like the idea of a public bath on a social front. I think maybe, (maybe this is just gross stereotyping) that Americans are too self-conscious to jump at the idea of getting naked in front of their peers, and complete strangers of all ages. But you know, maybe that's not true. Anyway, I like sentou. Afterwards, Aika bought me some delicious cold milk coffee in a cute glass bottle and it tasted wonderful after that hot bath.

Then we came home and ate the fabulous dinner my host parents cooked (I'm going to do a post on food really soon) and we all talked about language. My host dad speaks very good English and so does Aika, although now she's studying Spanish. Her Spanish pronunciation is near perfect, as the sounds are almost exactly the same as Japanese, which I find fascinating. So we tried to encourage her friend to practice her English (she's enrolled in the same university of economics as my host bro Kazuma, unlike Aika who goes to Kansai Gaidai, thus is very good at English) and we spoke in Japanese, English and a little bit of Spanish. My father would be so proud.

The words of so many of my sempai echoed through my head today: studying abroad is not about studying, it's about experiencing as much of the culture as you can. And I think today I achieved that.

ひきこもり

I was flipping through my lesson packets for my reading and writing class, and the title of the 2nd lesson is ひきこもり： Acute Social Withdrawal.

The first one is on blood types. Yay!

授業など

So I'm nearing the end of my first week of classes, and let's just say that things have been a little hectic so far. My Japanese classes are difficult, but I feel like if I work hard (but hopefully not too hard), I can succeed (or at least not be the worst in the class). I guess I'll back up a little bit...

During the placement test, we were told that if we felt like we scored above a 50% on the last grammar section, we should ask to set up an interview time. Before the test I felt confident enough, but afterwards didn't think there was any way I could qualify (I barely even answered half of the questions). But nonetheless, I received a notice in my mailbox to come see the people in charge for an interview. During the interview, conducted entirely in Japanese except when I didn't understand a word, which was often, I was asked if I liked speaking more than reading/writing. I answered that I liked them both the same, but I guess it's true that I'm better at speaking. So, my speaking class is one level higher than my reading/writing.

I really like my speaking class, and I think I've figured out how to succeed. The real trick is that I have to be able to explain vocabulary definitions and general concepts in Japanese, not using their English equivalent. Obviously, that's very hard, and I definitely feel like I'm a little behind in that respect. But I think if I prepare for class every day, I'll be able to keep up, and I'll definitely get better.

My reading/writing class, however, is not as exciting. It only meets 3 times a week as opposed to speaking's 5, so maybe I just haven't had enough time to bond with the class yet. But so far, it feels like I'm back in 4th grade learning how to introduce a topic, use transitions, and write in an organized fashion. Doing this kind of thing in Japanese sort of terrifies me.

My other two classes are lectures conducted in English, and honestly by the time I get to them in the afternoon, I am beyond relieved to be in my native language again. They are Sexuality and Culture in Japan: Desire, Power, and Social Order and Peace, Development, and Democratization: The Asia Challenge. PDD, as I call it, is intense. Being at Oberlin has made me more aware of what I need to do to keep myself informed about the world, and I think that so far I've done a pretty poor job of that. So, this class will probably kick my butt. But hey, I need those social science credits...

Sexuality looks to be fun, yesterday we watched a scene from Woody Allen's Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid To Ask (which, in typical fashion, emphasized men's fear of sexual incompetence). I'm hoping to learn some deep, meaningful things about Japan's sexuality. Ha.

----

Today I'm going to meet Jess in 伏見稲荷 Fushimi Inari for a festival. What festival, I have no idea (my host mom seemed to know the song that goes with it; my host dad had no idea what it could be). I am now wielding the all-important 携帯 (keitai, cell phone), so that makes these kind of rendezvous feasable. So, that means, if you'd like you can send me mail at siena00@softbank.ne.jp and it will go right to my cell phone, like a text message. This is one of the many reasons why Japan is awesome. My cell phone isn't the most exciting Japanese cell phone ever (far from it), but I guess 外人 can't be choosers.

What is Japan without commercials...

This is my favorite commercial so far, maybe just for Eiji Wentz (he is soooo cute). He's half Japanese, half German-American. He was in the live action Nodame Cantabile as the French student Franz, and he's also a singer, of course. This commercial is a little strange, but Eiji Wentz... three of him.

そうなんや

I posted all of my pictures to facebook, just in case you didn't see and you do facebook.

I have moved in with my host family, the 森田 (Morita) family. I feel right at home sitting on my laptop in their common room, which has 2 laptops, a desktop, and a TV (as my mother would say, everyone is on their screens). Kansai Gaidai had warned us about the possibility of our host families not having the Internet, so I was relieved when it was so easy for me to get hooked up.

But first, some catching up...

The other day, I went out with my other speaking partner Ai and her friend Yoshiko. We went to a Japanese McDonald's, and the two of them searched on their cell phones for the daily coupons and then showed them to the cashier to get a couple yen off on whatever it was they ordered. We talked about movies, and they were impressed by my Japanese. I encouraged them to try out their English since I felt bad for speaking only in Japanese. But you know, it felt like a pretty good position to be in.

The next day was the tour to Kyoto, where a million Japanese Kansai Gaidai students showed up to take a million international students around Kyoto. It was entirely up to us where to go, which was unclear to the international students. I went with some guys I met on the bus ride from the airport and our Japanese counterparts, 3 girls named Haruka, Mami, and Nana. Haruka is from Kyoto so she knew her way around. We tried to go to some shrines but they were mostly closed. We ended up at this famous dessert shop that Haruka had always wanted to try but had never been able to get into because the line was always so long. It was the mecca of green tea-flavored sweets. This picture is a little blurry but you get the idea...



Afterwards we did some プリクラ which is always a favorite of mine. But then the best part of the day came because I was reunited with Jess.



We met up in a Shakey's, which was all you can eat, and actually pretty good. I won't even bother to go into detail about our meeting (I'm sure you can see the ecstasy written on my face), because surely almost anyone who knows me knows how much I love Jess. But if you don't, Jess is my BFF from Oberlin and we met in Japanese 101 our freshman year. She's studying in Kyoto this year and I hadn't seen her since I took her to the airport in late August (she came to visit me in LA) to fly away to Japan. I spent a lonely semester without her in Oberlin. But now we are reunited. Except she's going to Tokyo for her break, haha. But we'll be reunited for Valentine's Day, I'm sure. Last year, she gave me a pear and a note that said "We make a great PEAR" so I'm not sure how she's going to top that. Maybe by making me homemade chocolates like the rest of the girls in Japan. Maybe I'll do a post about Japanese Valentine's Day when the time comes. But I digress...

And then, on Saturday, I met my host family and moved in with them in 守口市 (Moriguchi City) about a half-hour train ride from the Kansai Gaidai stop (and then plus a little, for walking to and from each station). They're a big family; parents, 3 kids around my age, and a grandmother (おばあちゃん）. My host dad Hiro "studied" abroad in San Diego when he was in college (I say "studied" because he told me that he went to Mexico every weekend and got drunk) and it clearly impacted his life very much. He said they've hosted 30+ students for 15 or so years, since their oldest (Kazuma, who's 21 and works as a sushi chef at a popular local restaurant in addition to attending a university of economics [I can feel my grasp of English grammar slipping]) was very little. So, his English is very good and he's very eager to talk to me in English all the time. I try and pipe in with my Japanese, and while they tell me I'm very good, listening to their daily conversation and the television reminds me that I've still got a ways to go.

Today was very cold, and that was a little sad. I was video chatting with Andy today (!) and said that it wasn't quite long underwear weather, but then when I went outside I realized I was wrong. It's not cold enough to snow, and it won't snow, but it's close.

Tomorrow I start class, and we'll see if I can live up to where I placed and all this general praise. I placed into speaking level 6 and reading/writing level 5, both out of 7. I've been hesitant to brag about it too much since I might be completely out of my league. I have 2 or 3 weeks to prove myself. We'll see what happens. 頑張ります。