Test

The Japanese Language Proficiency Test is this weekend, and I've spent the last week or so studying more specifically for it. I took a practice test for it last weekend and got a good feel for what I need to focus on. The two biggest obstacles are kanji (the more complicated characters borrowed from China associated with meaning) and the rarely-used grammar. There are all kinds of grammar forms that no one uses in daily conversation that are on there, so similar to kanji, it really just takes memorization. I've made a huge stack of kanji flashcards (just like old times) and just plan on going through them a bunch of times throughout this week. People say the only sure things in life are death and taxes, but I've always liked to include "more kanji" on that list too. There's always more kanji. It's said you need to know 2,000 kanji to be considered fluent and/or read a newspaper, and I think I'm getting close to that number, but I still have trouble with the newspaper. In time, in time, just like Sly says.
Good News: I've managed to carry my camera around with me more than I was, and have some more pictures on their way. But for now, I have to finish morning preparations for school.

Camera, etc.

Hey kids, so I just realized something. A reason I haven't been posting as much is because I haven't been carrying my digital camera around with me as much, and therefore have fewer pictures to post. I mostly use my film camera, and haven't gotten those pictures developed yet. I also think it'd be fun to post some of my random pictures from my phone. They include my friends goofing off in restaurants, cute postcards, delicious food, and a beautiful lake. So step one will be to start carrying around my digital camera in my pocket like I did the first 2 months here. Step two will be to develop that roll of film, and step three to get the pictures from my phone onto my computer and then up here eventually. Sounds fun, wish me luck! I have a few people visiting this week, and also have the proficiency test next weekend (which will require lots of studying), and my friend Good Sam's birthday party on the 4th (the night before the test), so there will probably be more things going on than one really knows. Oh, and Good Sam is British, but he still gets a kick out of sharing his birthday with our country. I think he was saying he wants to have hot dogs on Saturday...

Bento

"Bento" means pretty much "box lunch", but I feel like that doesn't adequately express what it is. A bento usually includes a main item, which could be really anything from katsu to sushi to fried chicken. Then they usually come with rice and a few other side items such as pickled vegetables, potato salad, kimchee, etc., but for your information, I've even seen spaghetti as one of the sides, with a hamburger patty as the main item. They are filling, and usually delicious. The reason I said "box lunch" doesn't adequately express the meaning is that I get the impression that I a lot of thought is usually put into a bento, more thought than what we generally think of when we hear "box lunch". The combinations of food are important, and I think they often include the Japanese idea that a good meal has many different colors in it. There's a certain number of colors that I can't remember, but I think it's somewhere between 10 and 31. I think the idea is that the meal is well-balanced, though these bentos aren't always well-balanced. Bentos can be bought at convenience stores, cafeterias, and bento shops, but people often make them at home and take them to school or work. That's probably where the idea of having a variety and well-balance of things came from, since I think that 30 colors idea mainly has to do with eating at home. I can't quite say I've made anything close to what I've described above, but I've brought rice and vegetables to school on many occasions. When I finally make my own, I'll be sure to take a picture and let all of you know. For now, he's a picture of the bento place next to my apartment.

Here's another one, closer to my school. This picture also includes my friend Vinit, who I took Japanese with at UCSC and is a video game expert and all-around rad guy, and he is holding a large chicken katsu that this bento place also sells. This place is our cheap destination usually, since they have a regular size bento that fills you up for only 292 yen, or about $3 I suppose. There's nothing special about the food, but seeing as it only costs $3 and fills you up, the fact that it tastes average actually makes it a really good deal.

Between these two places, the place next to my building tastes a lot better than this place near my school. As expected, it also costs twice as much or more ($6-$10), but they are really good. That's why a direct translation of "bento" to "box lunch" would cause a problem when simply saying "I spent $9 on my box lunch".

Adventure Day Pt. II

My body was a little slower and worn out today thanks to a successful Adventure Day yesterday. I was also mentally worn out from a lack of sleep, which was also due to the successful Adventure Day. My body was so tired that my mind really couldn't relax and fall asleep, which was a first of its kind. We (me, Bad Sam, and Felix) actually went back in search of the same lake as last week, and found it! It was about 14-15 miles away, up and down hills, around windy curves, through small dirt paths, all surrounded by millions of the greenest trees I've seen. We were exhausted at many points on the way up, it took us about two hours under the sun to get there, so when we finally walked over a sandy hill and saw the big, sparkling lake, we had that magical moment that doesn't occur in reality enough. There was one guy leaving as we parked our bikes, and after that we had the lake all to ourselves. We walked around to the opposite side and set up camp on some 20 ft. rocks right on the water. We only had tea, chips, and chocolates this time, but the tea was really all that mattered to us at that point. And not having to bike uphill anymore, that was also important to us. We eventually waded into the water to cool off a little, and Sam was ofcourse the only one willing to go for a full swim out into deeper water. That sounded like it'd be really refreshing, but I also didn't feel like biking home all wet, so I stayed in knee-high water. A little later we decided to head back, which was mostly downhill. The thrill of the long ride down, along with our sense of accomplishment, provided us with plenty of energy to finish the adventure and make our way back into the heart of the city. Before we got back to Felix's apartment to get all of our stuff, we were already planning our next adventure. But we're not sure where exactly, maybe the same lake again! It's definitely high up on the list.
So my body and mind were worn out today, but it's okay because it was the day that I have the two teachers that I don't like very much. I have my two favorite teachers tomorrow, so I'll be nice and recharged by then for class, and the weekend.

Kiyomizu Temple

Here are some shots I got at Kiyomizu Temple a while back...

Adventure Day

I've been out of my apartment a lot in the last few weeks, and haven't had nearly as much time as before to keep up with this. I know a lot of you consistently read this, so I want to apologize and hope I haven't lost anyone's interest. I've been busy with school, friends, and trying to stay out of my apartment. It's fun, tiring, and productive, which might be all I can really ask for. Though I've been out a lot, I haven't taken very many pictures with my digital camera, so I don't know how many I'll be able to post.
So my friends Sam and Felix invented a weekly tradition known as 冒曜日(boh-yoh-bi), which we translate to English as "Adventure Day". It is usually on Wednesday (weather permitting), and basically involves us riding our bikes to some relatively distant location. Last week was my first one, and we went up into the mountains northwest of Kyoto in search of a lake. Felix brought pancakes, we stopped at a convenience store and picked up plenty of snacks and two huge jugs of tea, and the three of us, along with my friend Shinjo, headed up the treacherous hills into the unknown to find a lake and have a picnic. After two hours of riding up the hills and around the mountains we were dead tired, and decided to just make camp next to a river we found. We endured the bugs and our own wet feet, and enjoyed the calming atmosphere of the river, the rocks, communal eating, and not riding our uphill anymore. I decided not to bring my digital camera that day, but did have my film camera, and managed to get a few good shots of people. I think the best one was of Sam sitting on a rock, drinking out of a big jug of tea, and also holding a plate of rice and Japanese-style fried chicken (kara-age).
As I mentioned above, biking up the hills really wore us out. But naturally, those same hills provided us with a very smooth and speedy ride back down. My slow bike couldn't keep up with everyone else, but that just meant that I got to enjoy the thousands of green trees whizzing by me for a little bit longer than everyone else.
We plan to better prepare the next time we head up there in search of the lake, on another Adventure Day. We have a different destination this week: the Gekkeiken Sake Brewery/Museum, all the way down in southern Kyoto, in Fushimi (recall the VERY many red gates). I look forward to the flat ride across the city, especially since most of it will be parts of the city I've never seen.
I also have the motivation to make everyday a mini-Adventure Day for myself. Nothing too far, but just exploring a part of the city I haven't seen yet. Sam and Felix have been here for eight months already, so they've seen a lot more than me, naturally. In addition, just going off on my own and deciding where/when/how etc. is generally a lot more fun.

Peanut Talk

Peanuts have had an interesting role in my diet during the last few weeks. To start things off, I realized that they are the perfect partner for coffee, so I was munching on quite a few whenever I drank coffee. The stores usually sell what they call "Butter Peanuts", which are pretty much peanuts with a slight butter flavor, but barely noticable, and very delicious (as peanuts usually are). The stores also sell peanut butter, even American peanut butter, but as you can see the only peanut butter this store, and most stores for that matter, have always costs $4 for a tiny jar.


I still have tried the "my jam", but I am a little curious. So instead of the peanut butter, I bought something that seemed like it could be similar called "peanut cream" (pictured below) which costs just a dollar for that small container.

Unfortunately it wasn't very good. It's a very thin peanut cream, and doesn't really taste very good. It kind of reminded me of a thick caramel, but with a peanut flavor. I'm glad I tried it, but I'm pretty sure I won't be buying it again.

Long View Pt. 2

The last week and a half or so really flew by, and while I realized I wasn't updating this as well as I should have been, I also found that there really wasn't that much time to anyway. I was having a conversation with my friend Bad Sam (but he's actually a really good guy, I don't know how he and Good Sam got their adjectives), and we realized that our apartments are kind of like traps, making it harder and harder to go out and see the city the more we go home. So instead of going home after class, we used the afternoon to bike up to the bottom of the eastern mountains of Kyoto, and go on the 30 minute hike up to what is known as Daimonji (meaning "large character" (as in letter, not cartoon character)). So we did, and by the time we got up to the top were exhausted. It was very worth the trek though, since it gave us this really terrific view of Kyoto, making Kyoto Tower look like small potatoes. While these pictures show the view pretty well, there's no way they could possibly show what it was really like being up there. And for those of you that like things comically literal like I do, Daimonji probably got its name from the gigantic character that is written on the mountain, which is the character for "big". It kind of looks like the Blair Witch Project symbol: 大 .







I'll write more, I promise!

1Q84

Pronounced "ichi-kyuu-hachi-yon", which is the same way they pronounce "1984" in Japanese.
This is the brand new novel by Haruki Murakami.