Learn Japanese @ Japancast.net

The Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT, 日本語能力試験) will be held on the 3rd of December, just under a month away. This is a standardized test for proficiency in the Japanese language set by the Japanese government that occurs on the first Sunday in December ever year.

This year I am going to take the 3rd level of the exam. I am sure that I can already pass it with flying colours (have taken a few practice tests) but the difference between the levels of the test are so large that I don’t feel confident going for the 2nd level, especially in light of the fact that the international pass rate is only 47%. The second level is definately a goal for the future though.

The test is generally comprised of three parts: 漢字 (kanji, symbolic characters) and vocabulary, listening comprehension, and reading and grammar comprehension. For the level I will take you only need ~300 漢字 and ~1500 words; an estimated 300 hours of study. In contrast, the 2nd level of the test requires approximately ~1000 漢字 (that is half of the amount that Japanese students learn through their 12 years of schooling, and also the part of this test that stops me from taking it) and ~6000 words (that is four times the amount of the previous level!); the estimated hours of study put forth by the Japanese government is 600 however I would contend that it requires more. It may just be that I am a fairly slow learner though.

The test location for Brisbane is at Griffith University, the university that I will be attending next year.

For the next few weeks I hope to study up as I’ve none since returning from Japan. This may be evidenced by a decrease in my forum lurking, or perhaps not! I wish the best of luck to anyone else taking the test this year! 頑張って！

P.S. You can find some good online study resources for the test here. Please comment about this post and if you are taking the JLPT.

The ‘age of majority’ is the age at which one is legally considered an adult and allowed to purchase alcohol, smokes, pornography, etc. In Japan this is twenty (20) however the government may soon be lowering this to eighteen (18), the same as Australia (where I live). Click on this sentence for the link.

 It is an interesting development. Japanese high school students are often perceived as immature or at least naive by foreigners because of their seemingly cute, innocent disposition. This is largely due to their personal inexposure to things disallowed until over twenty years of age. If the age of majority is lowered to eighteen then this may change. I’m not really sure what to think of this piece of news. What do you think? Please comment your thoughts.

Although I’ve not yet entered university I am already interested in investing money. One option for investing as no doubt many know about is on the stockmarket; shares. In addition to investing locally a good share portfolio can include international shares. So, why not Japanese shares? If you had purchased shares of Nintendo back around the time of the PSX you’d be laughing now. They’ve just regained the top market share of games consoles, quadrupled their share value from the SNES days and are Japan’s second-biggest company.

Call me a fanboy, but I am excited about this news. After the SNES era (that is, following the release of Sony’s PSX) Nintendo has never truly regained the top spot in the gaming market. I’ve been a faithful fan however purchasing the N64, GCN, Gameboys and alike. I simply find Nintendo’s gaming philosophy and consoles more fun and better value for money. Finally after 18 years due to the success of Nintendo’s innovative Wii console they have once again surfaced as the top dog. Congratulations, Ninty.

Original article here.

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Nintendo market cap rockets
By Mariko Sanchanta in Tokyo (25/09/07)

Nintendo became Japan’s second-biggest company by market capitalisation behind Toyota on Tuesday, underlining how the success of the Wii games console has transformed the fortunes of the Kyoto-based company.

Shares in Nintendo closed up 3.1 per cent to Y59,200 bringing its market value to Y8,390bn ($73.2bn), surpassing Canon’s market cap of Y8,120bn. But the gap between Nintendo and Toyota remains substantial. Toyota’s market capitalisation is Y24,000bn.

The Japanese games maker’s shares have more than quadrupled over the past two years as the Wii console has trounced Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 to become the best-selling next-generation games machine in the world.

The surge in Ninteno’s market cap comes as Microsoft eagerly awaits the results of the launch of Halo 3, the latest version of its blockbuster video game. The game, which is expected to boost sales of the Xbox 360 console, went on sale yesterday.

Microsoft last month cut the price of its most popular Xbox 360 model by $50, following a similar move by Sony, which had cut the price of its PS3 console in the US to boost sales.

“Compared with two to three years ago, Nintendo is a completely different animal,” said Hiroshi Kamide, analyst at KBC securities.

“It has kept beating market expectations with its results and new products like the Wii Balance Board will keep the console fresh as it heads into the holiday season.”

Many analysts feel Nintendo is still not overvalued, in spite of its high share price. The company is known to be conservative in its profit forecasts, and foreign exchange rates in the US and Europe are expected to give its bottom line a boost.

Nintendo is back at the top of the console market, a position it last held 17 years ago with the Nintendo and Super Nintendo consoles. Observers attribute Nintendo’s success to Satoru Iwata, the company’s president, who joined the games maker in 2002.

Mr Iwata is credited with forcing Nintendo to revamp its strategy by not trying to compete directly with Sony or Microsoft.

Instead, the games maker has created a market in gaming by trying to woo adults as well as children.

Nintendo’s reclaimed supremacy was underlined in July when it leapfrogged Sony, the consumer electronics group, in terms of market capitalisation for the first time.

Sony disappointed gamers last week when it said the launch of Home, its virtual reality world, would be delayed until the spring.

The Wii costs $249 compared with $300-$400 for the Xbox 360 and $599 for the PS3. Anlaysts say prices of all three consoles are expected to drop by the crucial holiday shopping season.

Steve Levenstein has an interesting blog about Japan’s overcrowding, from the cradle to the grave. I especially like the ten second video of the last thirty-five years of construction work in Tokyo and the video of the wave pool in Tokyo. I was in a wave pool in northern Saitama (just above Tokyo) this summer and can testify to the kinds of numbers shown in that video. They are crazy.

Once again, check it out here (just click this sentence).

みんな、久々！！いよいよポストを書く時間があるということになってきたんだ！

 Everyone, it has been a while! For those who don’t know me, my name is Will and until three weeks ago I was living in Japan as an exchange student and blogging about my experiences on JapanCast.net. Usually I blogged once or twice a week but suddenly I didn’t make a post for about a month, until this post right now! Life just got too busy for me to keep up with the internet.

 During my last week in Japan I was snowed down with the preperations for the return home, the many farewell parties and other adventures like ワネフェス (Wonder Festival – the world’s largest anime figurine convention) and meeting up with Kirone (another blogger for JPCast.net). Upon returning to Australia I immediately had to spend time getting back to work, seeing my very patient girlfriend, catching up with mates, playing my Nintendo Wii and reading Death Note (oh, that was an incredible manga).

 I still haven’t secured a job, I am still catching up with mates and I still have a lot of Nintendo Wii to play, but I will be making a conscious effort to blog some more about my experiences while in Japan.

PS. Thanks to Paulrus and the rest for continuing stellar blogs about Japan!

So I have more or less officially finished my time as an exchange student at Nanryo High School, Japan. It is currently 夏休み (natsu yasumi, summer holidays) and for some reason I get a free month to do whatever I want pretty much before returning back to Australia. Despite already finishing school though I have spent more time there this week than I did when I was actually enrolled. This is because of my dedication to 部活 (bukatsu, club)

It is hard to imagine most Aussie students doing homework they are assigned during the summer holidays. In Japan, it is hard to imagine them not doing it. And if you are involved in a school club then you may find, like myself, that the so-called summer ‘holidays’ are not actually holidays at all. Many students spend their time at clubs during the day and then doing homework at night. Talk about a work ethos. The Tennis Club in particular has been just incredibly full-on this week. My daily schedule has me waking up at 6:30am, leaving home at 7:15am to arrive at school at 8:20am with just enough time to be ready to start club at 8:30am. All morning we have strength, speed, agility, footwork, muscle and other such training exercises. Around 12pm we stop for a two hour lunch break and then have Tennis training as such (i.e. form, technique, etc.) until about 5:30pm. I then take a half hour to pack up all my stuff and commute back home, arriving around 7:30pm. And you can add on a further hour/half hour to my times if you are an 一年生後輩 (ichi nen sei kohai, first year student mentoree) as you are the ones who have to meticulously prepare, clean and take care of the somewhat delicate clay courts everyday.

This picture is of my 仲間 (nakama). I can’t really translate this directly into English, but it carries the meaning of ‘fellow man, friend, company, etc.’ Think of the ‘mateship’ in the context of the ANZAC and you’re close. This is one of my favourite photos I have gotten whilst in Japan.

I have done the most physical exercise in my life in this one week. Our coach really works us hard. Sometimes it just seems exceedingly cruel. For example on Tuesday we did a whole lot of leg muscle exercises (stop-start sprints, body-weights, etc.) and the next day as we were in pain from the previous day we were told to start up with a light 12km run (12 laps around the school perimeter). How incredibly weak is my Aussie school was with the ostensibly cross country 3km jog/walk. It is laughable. Of course after the run was more sprint type stuff and then laps with a kickboard in a pool for a half hour.

The day after we again had to run laps of the school but this time there was a difference. We were told in a pep talk that unless you can visualize something and make your body do that then you can never become good at Tennis (i.e. look at Federa’s forehand strokes in a magazine and conform your own strokes to that mental image). Our challenge was the set ourselves a time for running 3kms and then to finish 5 seconds either side of that time limit. We would be told our time after the first lap, but not after the second. The catch is that for every 5 seconds outside your decided time frame you have to run a further kilometre. I set myself a very generous time of 13min (about 1.5 times my normal comfortable running speed). If you divide that by three you get 4:20 for each lap. After running the first lap purposefully slow I was shocked to find out that my time was 4;50, 30s too slow! In one of the best sporting moments in my life I intuitively adjusted my running speed to recover the lost 30s and finish with a time of 12:56, inside my time frame! I was and still am ecstatic about this result. I was the only one in the club to actually finish within their desired time frame. The guy who was worst managed to accrue an amazing 50 laps against himself (of which he of course did not all finish).

An example of our afternoon training can be found in this video with some of my 1337 comments accompanying (just RIGHT CLICK AND OPEN IN NEW WINDOW). As a team we had 10min to hit four tennis balls off four cones sitting at the corners of the service line (watch the vid to see what I mean). We had to do this using a pretty difficult topspin serve though. And, what’s more, if we didn’t get them all we had to run 3 laps of the school (=3km). For the first three minutes I was just trying to get the ball over the net as I had never consciously tried to hit a topspin serve before. During this time one ball was hit off a cone. After another 3 minutes two more of the balls tumbled. For the last 4 minutes though it seemed like no one could come close to hitting the last one. Everyone was feeling pretty desperate as we didn’t want to have to run yet again. Meanwhile I had been inching my way closer with every serve until in the last 10s I nailed it and saved us from running. Man, my ego just grew to a thousand times when the little 1st grade (i.e. 16yo) Japanese girls were thanking me heaps and talking to each other about how cool I and my shot were. Even better, when I walked off the court for our 3min rest they ran off and then came up to me all cute and humble-like and offered me a cool, sports drink in gratitude. CUTEST THING EVER.

You would think with all of this awesome training I would be getting either heaps fit, toned and good at tennis. Out of those three perhaps I have only become more fit though. We had a 試合 (shiai, tournement) against two other high schools. I lost my first doubles game abysmally. The consolation was in later learning that my opponent was one of the strongest teams there. My second doubles game was one with a bit of the fight and the third was very close although I lost. My singles match was way too easy. I won the set only dropping one game. Also, in this match one game in particular was spectacular – I won it with three aces and a service winner. All in all though I would say that although I love the game of Tennis I am still very average at it, like most other sports.
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PS. Fellow exchange student Bek is also experiencing something quite like me in regards to crazy club activities and a growing passion for them despite how hard the are. She is in the Basketball Club. Read about her experiences here (right click and open in new window).

PS. Sorry if the HTML formatting in this post is a bit wierd. In the ‘create a post’ editor it looks fine so I don’t know what the deal is. There is meant to be a video attached as well but I’m not quite sure if it is showing up. If not you can always see the post in its original context with correct formatting and video here.

Last night at the 浦和祭り (urawa matsuri, summer festival of Urawa city) I by chance spotted one of my favourite Japanese comedian/entertainers, Bobby, and got some sweet paparazzi shots of him.
Bobby is a famous 外人タレント (gaijin tarento, Foreign Talent) who randomly appears on different variety TV programs. Like many other gaijin tarento he makes people laugh mainly but messing up Japanese language and culture. For example he always speaks really informal and sometimes downright rude Japanese no matter what the situation. He refers both to little girls and people clearly his senior as おめえ！ (omee, you) (which is his pronounciation of お前 (omae, you)) and あいつ (aitsu, that guy) – ridiculous Japanese. Often he messes up the names of things, like super famous popstar 浜崎あゆみ (Hamasaki Ayumi) for アマグリ カユミさん (Amaguri Kayumi, Itchy Sweet Chestnut) despite apparently being a big fan of hers. I love watching him because of the wierd stuff he says and does. His facial expressions are unbelievable. Watch an interview of Bobby and Japanese pop mega-star Ayumi Hamasaki here:
WATCH AN INTERVIEW OF BOBBY AND AYUMI HAMASAKI HERE (right-click and open in new window).
And below are my two sweet paparazzi shots of Bobby. He lives in the Urawa (now known as Saitama City) in Saitama Prefecture. Because he obviously stands out among Japanese people he is easily and I think often spotted, so most people know that he lives around here.

(Please think of this post as being written a week prior to now.) 

It is hard to believe but tomorrow is my last official day at Nanryo High School. I wrote one speech last week and another two tonight that I’ll be speaking in front of different sets of people tomorrow. I think they are good reading practice for anyone learning Japanese. This is because although they all use the same general level of formality, that being desu/masu form, they are slightly nuanced within that that category. The first speech is to be spoken at a school assembly and is quite normative. The second speech is spoken to all the teachers of the school and is more formal (I use words which are katai, which means stiff or formal). The third speech however is formal-ish but I have thrown a lot more casual vocab in there as I am speaking to my mates. Enjoy! If you have any questions or want further explanation on katai words or something then please comment =).

Speech at School Assembly

Hey みなさ～ん★！Are you all 元気かい？Looking forward to 夏やすみ tomorrow? Ah, it looks like I 英語使ってしまいましたね。でも、 I think it is 大丈夫 because everyone’s 英語のレベルは高いはずですから。それはともかく、僕の南稜高校にいる間にみなさんは僕に日本語を教えてくれたので、英語を使う意味がなかったんです。そうですね。色々な日本語を習いました。例えば、「どんだけ～！」。ちょうウケるでしょう？やはり、みなさまのおかげでわたくしウィリアムは尊敬語の正しい使い方も学ぶことが出来ました。みなさまのこしどうのおかげです。どうもありがとうございます。

日本語だけではなく、日本の文化も勉強しました。日本人には色々な人達がいます。だから色々な生活をしてみました。モリョウみたいにある日曜日に原宿のよよぎ公園と渋谷の方に遊びに行きました。そして、サラリーマンがよく行くカプセルホテルに泊まりました。その上、おたくのようにアキバもメード喫茶で写真も撮りました。すべては面白い経験でした。だけど、きっと一番楽しいのは南稜高校生として学校に通っていることです。

この学校でたくさんのいい思い出を作りました。みなさんと一緒に授業を受けて色々なことを学びました。例えば、トランプの作戦です。人生にはそれはとても大切なことだと思うので、よく練習して下さい。毎日二六組のかっこいい男の子達とトランプをやるのは最高の思い出です。それから、授業の中では体育が一番好きでした。最近、体育の授業ではバレーボールをやってました。僕、二つのチームに入っていて、一つが一位になりましたけど、もう一つ僕がさんかしたチームは最下位になってしまいました。だから、僕はうまくなったか、うまくならなかったのか全く分かりません。
だけどやっぱり、授業より、日本の見所より、和食よりも、日本の一番いいことは日本人だと思います。テニス部のみなさん、二年六組のみなさん、まいちゃん達と時間を過ごしたことは日本にいる間の一番大切な思い出です。部活を頑張ること、勉強を頑張ること、アルバイトを頑張ることは大切なんだけど、それらより、人間関係が大事だと思います。先生方、生徒のみなさん、この五ヶ月間をかんしゃしています。ありがとうございました。

Speech to School Teachers

先生方、僕のなんりょう高校で過ごした時間はすばらしかったです。生徒のみなさんと授業を受けて、色々なことを学びました。時々授業のないようを理解出来ましたが、分からない時もありました。その分からない時に先生方が親切に教えてくれました。かんしゃしています。僕はオーストラリアの大使として、オーストラリアのいい所をみなさんに教えることが出来ていたならとてもうれしいです。この四ヶ月間どうもありがとうございます。

Speech to Classmates

二年六組のみんな、俺の南稜にいる間は短かったけど、みんなと仲良くなって友達になれたと思います。俺はよく授業とか時間割とかがよく分からなかったけど、大元、みちはた、おおさき、ちほ、内田、誰かに聞いたら、すぐに分かっていました。それと俺の日本語の質問を答えてくれてありがとうございます。この間は楽しくて、たくさんのいい思い出を作りました。俺と喋ったり、トランプをやったり、友達になったりしてくれてありがとうごさいます。お世話になります。みんなは最高だぜー！

In Japan at the moment there are a whole lot of お祭り (omatsuri, festivals) happening. The city that I am living at the momet, 上尾市 (Ageo-shi) held its festival on Saturday and Sunday of last week.
CHECK OUT A VIDEO HERE (RIGHT-CLICK AND OPEN IN NEW WINDOW).

The reasons for matsuri in Japan are wide and varied. The generally seem to be either Buddhist or Shinto in nature and are held virtually all over Japan at different times of the year with the majority occurring now and around お盆 (obon, Buddhist Festival for the Deceased). The two most common elements are the 神輿 (mikoshi, portable shrine) and the various stalls and games that line the streets.

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You can see the Mikoshi being paraded around the streets in the above video. Allegedly enclosed within then is the deity of the area. They are usually covered with gold furnishings and often have Phoenix on top. Underneath the shrine are two long wooden blocks which people carry around on their shoulders to the rhythm of whistles, drums, shouting and so on.
Stalls at a Matsuri will usually sell Japanese food like Yakisoba, Takoyaki, Okonomiyaki, various religious trinkets, charms and sweets like fairy floss and candy apples. It isn’t that different from stalls at carnivals in the West I think. Some Matsuri have games. A popular one involves trying to snatch a small goldfish using a paper scoop which disintegrates easily.

One of my favourite things about Matsuri is that a lot of people come decked out in the more traditional Japanese clothes. A lot of Japanese life revolves around seasons and clothes are no different; as it is summer at the moment many people (particularly girls around my age and then young kids) were wearing 浴衣 (Yukata, summer kimono) and 甚平 (Jinbei).
After the Matsuri Shigeki, Jyota and ate dinner at a nearby restaurant.

Moving on to more general news, The Ageo Matsuri was nearly cancelled because a big typhoon that had been passing up through Japan had just reached our area. In the morning it was raining with big winds but by the afternoon the weather was calm enough for the Matsuri to go ahead. I live towards the northern end of Japan so the typhoon was already well into its dissipation phase when we experienced it, but the Okinawa Islands and Kyushu (Southern Japan) suffered some pretty extreme damage with loss of home in some cases.

Also it just so happens that the very next day after this big typhoon Japan is hit by a level 6.8 earthquake, the biggest in the past three or four years. Luckily Saitama wasn’ badly damaged, but the same can’t be said for Niigata (further North) in where some people have died and about a thousand are injured. The pictures that the news is showing is just phenomenal: destroyed houses, the ground split in two, resulting landslides, etc. Japan does indeed seem to be the land of natural disasters.

I’m usually not one for advertising, but recently I have absolutely enthralled by some cell phone commercials here in Japan. Soft Bank (a.k.a. Vodafone elsewhere in the world) has a package called ホワイト家族２４ (howaito kazoku nijyuuyon, White Family 24) where if a whole family signs up they basically get free calls to each other. The CMs (Japanese abbreviation for ‘commercial’) for it are absolutely hilarous, somewhat based around a very interesting Japanese family. Check out my favourite one below.

Check out my favourite Soft Bank CM by RIGHT CLICKING ON THIS SENTENCE AND SELECTING ‘OPEN IN NEW WINDOW).

Here is my loose translation of the above CM:

Aya: “Thanks very much! New customer please.”
Brother: “Aya.”
Aya: “Brother!”
Brother: “Aya, I’ve got a question.”
Aya: “What is it all of a sudden?”
Brother: “I’ve just got one thing I want to ask you.”
Aya: “So then what is it!?”
Brother: “What is ‘White Family 24′?”
Aya: “If a whole family signs up under this plan they can call each other for free 24/7. Isn’t it amazing?”
Brother: “Wow, that is amazing! …then, why is it so? Do you know?”
Aya: “I don’t know these things. I also don’t know why our Dad is a dog!?”
Dad: “There is a reason for all things.”
Aya: “Reason? What reason, Dad?”
Dad: “You’re too young to understand!!!” or more literally “It is still too early for you!”

Complete randomness, it is awesome. Why on earth has famous idol Ueto Aya got a black guy for a brother and a dog for a Dad? In search of an answer I went to the Soft Bank site for the CMs (click here, open in new window). The family member profile basically says this:
Aya: “Soft Bank OL (Office Lady).”
Dad: “For some particular reason currently unknown one day he turned into a dog.”
Mother: “Always works hard for her family.”
Brother: “No matter how many times he hears something he always seems to be not listening. For some reason one day he randomly turned into a black guy.”

This CM is a prime example of strange Japanese advertising. Until next time, please comment!

P.S. If you are so motivated you can see some of the other Soft Bank CMs on the above website.