I love aquariums. If I get invited to go to an aquarium, I hardly ever turn down the chance. One of the first things I did when I first moved to Kansai was go to the Osaka Aquarium. It is called the Kaiyukan. We went on a weekend during spring break, so it was really crowded. It was still really wonderful, though.The Kapybaras (how do you spell that? I'm too lazy to search it) were really moving around. I had never seen a real one before.
These wispy things in the picture above are beautiful, stringy jellyfish. If I'm ever fabulously wealthy someday, I want a jellyfish tank like this one all lit up in my house. I love schools of fish.
Then, we went to Yamada Denki where I bought a hair curler and found this massive advertisement. Sometimes I forget how cutesy Japan is and then something like this just smacks you in the face.
My awesome cousin Andrew moved to Japan. I got him a job and he got here last month. It was a rough first month, but things will be better from here. I feel sorry for anyone who needs to rent an apartment when they first arrive in Japan. It was hellish, but now it's over and he is settled. I introduced him to my friends and he is very popular.
One of my best friends in Japan is a hairdresser at a salon mainly for guys. This is not an ordinary barber shop. This is a beauty salon for guys in Osaka. On Japan's Coming of Age Day (成人の日/seijin no hi) back in January, I got to go to the salon to watch this awkward 20 year old get his hair done. It was an interesting cultural experience.
(I also got a free haircut after his was finished, which was the main reason I went.)
The boy gets a shampoo to start. Seijin no Hi is the day that 20 year olds in Japan become official adults. They go to a ceremony and meet their old junior high school friends they haven't seen in ages. It's a pretty important event in Japan. Most girls wear beautiful Kimono and most guys wear suits.
I know there are a few of you readers who admire big Japanese hairstyles, so this is for you. Especially Jared, the expert on Japanese Male Vanity.
So Pavement broke up when I was an elementary school kid, but they still were a very important band in my life. Now is doing a tour of the world and the only lousy date they're doing in Japan is in Tokyo on a Wednesday night. Why come all the way to Japan to play one date on a Wednesday night? I am not a big fan of reunion tours, but I'd love to see Pavement. They were a pretty formative band for me.
Pavement will play at Studio Coast in Shin-Kiba, Tokyo, April 7-8. Tickets cost 7,500 yen. If you go, take pictures and send them to me. I don't care that much, though, because I'm kind of in love with the lead singer from Kabul Dreams, Afghanistan's first rock band. I haven't even really listened to their music yet, but I like them because
I really like Tofugu a lot. I've learned about some fantastic places to learn Japanese (Lang 8 and readthekanji.com) through reading the Tofugu site. I also just like Koichi. I like his neat sense of humour. I like his videos. I like how organized and dedicated he is. He genuinely wants you to love learning Japanese.
He started a project on his site where he'll regularly interview other Japan bloggers and put their opinions up. I love reading other Japan blogs when they're good, and I like that Koichi is helping our sites by bringing traffic to them. Thanks, Koichi!
Lately, he has been working on a Japanese project called Textfugu that I think will be great. He has a pretty interesting way of teaching Kanji in a way that I think will be easy to remember. When he gets more material on there, I'm thinking about signing up for Textfugu's FOREVER PLAN.
This is probably old news for a lot of you, but I thought I'd recommend a Japanese movie called Goemon.Goemon is a movie about a good thief, kind of like if Robin Hood was a ninja in old Japan. The movie was directed by former fashion photographer and music video producer Kazuaki Kiriya, so expect a lush, colorful movie (like Sakuran) with high paced cuts and a comic-book feel (like Sin City) and gorgeous costumes (like Moulin Rouge). It is an action film, but it's a really good one.These are screenshots from Kazuaki Kiriya's Goemon. JASON AND JERED, THIS IS FOR YOU!
Someone sent me a message asking why I have such a rosy view of Japan. This is a pretty positive blog. I don't like writing complaints and I actually do like living here, but obviously I am able to criticize Japan and there are plenty of things I don't like about this beautiful country.
Here are a few things that bother me about Japan.
1. "If I knew where I was going, I wouldn't be taking this taxi, Sir." Japanese taxis are the worst. Back home, most of the taxi drivers weren't even born in the country and sometimes speak very limited English/French but they know exactly where they are going. If they don't know where they're going, they get out a map or call their head office to help them with directions. Japanese taxi drivers are all Japanese and usually born in the city they're driving in, but none of them ever know where they are going. I have had two decent taxi drivers in 2.5 years in Japan. They should either get GPS for taxi drivers or make them study and test them on the city they're driving in.
If you want to keep your cool with a Japanese taxi driver, pretend he's not a taxi driver. Pretend he's your friend who took time off work and offered to drive you somewhere out of the kindness of his heart. Then, you won't feel like crying/slapping the driver when he drives past the same intersection three times and gets angry at you for not knowing how to get to your destination. I'm not talking about Tokyo, either. I'm talking about everywhere. Even Matsue, a small city in the second least populated prefecture in Japan.
2. A Kotatsu is only wonderful if you don't know any better.
There is no Central Heating in Japan. I keep trying to remember how good it is for the environment, but going through the winter with no heat is really tough. People always talk about how great the Kotatsu (a heated table with a blanket on top) and the heated carpets are. They are wonderful, actually, but only if you've never been spoiled by the luxury of central heating. I can't even shave my legs in the shower (because I'm freezing and I have goosebumps on my legs and you can't shave over goosebumps) I have to run a whole bath just to shave my legs, and then I have to empty the whole bathtub afterwards because there's little leg hairs in it. Why is emptying the bathtub after the bath a problem for anyone? I'll tell you...
3. Everyone in the house is supposed to share the bathwater. Japanese people take a shower before the enter the bath. The bathtub is a place for soaking. Usually, a family (or roommates, in my case) is supposed to share the old bathwater with each other. It's clean because you showered before entering it! I can't enjoy sitting in anyone's old water, though. I understand that there's nothing actually wrong with this cultural habit, but I think it's gross.
4. Horrible Cat Breath.
This isn't everyone in Japan. Obviously. It's only every old man who sits next to me in a train. Flossing isn't common in Japan. Japanese people eat fish almost every day of their lives. Most young people brush their teeth and take care of themselves, but older people (especially overworked businessmen) often just let themselves go. The obvious outcome is cat breath.
I can't really think of any more right now, but I'm sure they'll come.
-Key money.
-Hanko.
-Clueless nampa (they ask girls to go eat somewhere and they're so sure they're going to get rejected that they haven't thought of a place to actually take a girl if she says yes.)
-That gesture annoying girls make when they're trying to be cute-angry with their cheeks puffed out. Most Japanese girls don't do this and none of my friends do this, but a lot of girls do. It looks really stupid.
Can you think of anything?
It's a lot easier and more natural for me to think of the good things.
The Japanese Language Proficiency Test is the official Japanese test for non-native Japanese speakers. You can take it in 40 different countries, including Japan. I still haven't taken my JLPT test because I always seem to miss the application dates by days. I really want to take it, though. Have any of you taken it?
This week, I took a mock test from last year's JLPT Level 3 and I passed it with high scores in all categories! I was really surprised about how easy it was. My teacher told me that I should aim to take a test at a challenging level. She said that people don't look at the percent on the JLPT test as much as they look at the level, so I should aim for a 50% minimum on the highest possible letter test because it will look better if I pass it. She says that if I fail, I can always try again and that failing will give me more motivation to study for the same test again.
The JLPT test used to have 4 levels but last year it was changed to 5 levels. Does anyone know more about the new test? If the old Level 3 was easy, should I aim for the new Level 3 or should I try to go to level 2? I heard that level 2 is really difficult.
1.What level do you think I should aim for?
2. When is the next JLPT test in the Kansai area?
3. When is the application date for the next JLPT test and how do I apply?
4. Advice, suggestions, study books I should buy?
*Please don't correct "JLPT Test" in the comments. I know that T stands for test. I want to write it like that for people who don't know much about Japan and have never heard of the JLPT.
Update:
-My cousin Andrew came to Japan!
-Lately, I've been under so much stress. Mainly because of how much I want Andrew to love Japan and adjust quickly, but finding an apartment was a month-long absolute nightmare for both of us. I'm so glad it's over and he has a lovely apartment in a gorgeous part of town with a nice landlord. Finally.
-When it rains every day, I feel so down. March doesn't usually get much rain, but it has been raining almost every day this month.
-My Japanese immersion went well, but now I'm on a backlash and watching as many non-Japanese movies as possible. I saw a bunch of Indian movies, watched Taxi Driver again and watched 3 different documentaries about Jonestown. I've been pretty obsessed with reading about cults since I was a teenager, but Jonestown has always been the most fascinating one to me. If you have any books about People's Temple / Jim Jones / Jonestown, Guyana / Religious cults / ETC please mail them to me. From cheap, sensational paperbacks to heavy encyclopedia types full of statistics: ALL OK, all fascinating.
If you don't know much about Jonestown, here's an introduction.
Japan’s whaling and dolphin hunt was all over the news even before The Cove won those awards and South Park did that episode. While I think that people should be made aware of the cruelty involved in these killings, the hypocrisy that comes with the criticism of Japan’s dolphin slaughter bothers me so much.It is really irritating when people get all teary-eyed / up in arms over the plight of certain animals because they’re “cute” and “smart” animals. Unless you are vegan, I don’t think you can say anything on this issue. Animals are all able to feel pain and suffer.
If you’re shocked at the cruelty of Japan’s dolphin hunt in Taiji but don’t think twice about the chicken battery cages in your own country or the rabbits that were shaved, chemically burned, killed and disposed of so you could use your Pantene Shampoo, Olay bodywash, Crest toothpaste, AXE deodorant or Febreze spray (thousands of examples, but the biggest and most obvious company that is active in testing products on animals even though cruelty-free alternatives are widely available is Proctor & Gamble P&G), there is something extremely hypocritical happening.
This picture is of unwanted male chicks that are tossed alive into a grinder in factory farms.
If you are: A. Vegan B. Don’t buy products that have been tested on animals C. Don’t wear clothing/accessories made from dead animals
You have a right to be critical of Taiji Japan’s animal cruelty only if you fit that description. If not, there isn’t much you can say without exposing yourself as a hypocrite. Of course, it's sad and cruel, but not any sadder or more cruel than things that are going on in your own home country.
I have no respect for people who cry when they think about dogs being eaten in China or dolphins being killed in Japan while they regularly eat chicken or Pringles chips. I have no respect for people who are full of moral outrage about Japan’s problems when they have no problem buying from Proctor & Gamble or buying meat from places that participate in factory farming.
Then there's this guy, in his own league. He travels around Japan singing his song, "Mountain Song" and wearing rainbow chaps and a cowboy hat.
The best part is that the song is a kid's song against bullying. The other best part is the part when he says, "Egao time ga ippai aru kara" But probably the part around 2:32 where he starts to rap about how our hearts are mountains just for you.
Last week, I went to Okunoshima (大久野島), a small island near Hiroshima that I have wanted to go to for a long time. Most Japanese people who know about this island call it Rabbit Island (ウサギ島) because there are hundreds of rabbits living on the island.
During World War Two, Okunoshima was chosen as the island that would be used to manufacture and test poisonous nerve gas. Because of the island’s remote location (it takes two hours by local train or bus from Hiroshima) and small size (You can ride around the entire island by bicycle in around three hours) it was an ideal location for making and testing the poisonous gas. They used to test the gas on rabbits. After the war ended, the workers on the island all left the island and before they left, they let all the rabbits out of their cages. That means that now, sixty years later, the island is absolutely covered in rabbits.This spring vacation, I wanted to go somewhere relaxing and fun in Japan but also somewhere with an interesting history and hardly any crowds. When my friend suggested we go to Okunoshima, I thought it was a great idea.
Most Japanese people don’t know about Okunoshima because it was not drawn on Japan’s map during WW2. Even now, it is so small and annoying to get to that hardly anyone ever goes. Almost nothing about how to get there is written in English, so that means that it is not a popular tourist attraction for foreign people. I imagine that Okunoshima gets busy in the springtime, but last week, my friends and I only saw 3 other small groups of people. We were almost alone on the island.
The island doesn’t have many people, but it has a ton of rabbits. If you buy some celery, lotus root or lettuce, hundreds of rabbits will come running at you. They don’t bite and they are tame, so you can pick them up and pet them as much as you like. They were like little dogs. I had never seen an affectionate rabbit before.On Okunoshima, there is a hotel, a hot springs resort, many tennis courts right next to the ocean, pools, bicycle rental and fields for playing sports. There are also hiking trails and fantastic old abandoned factories you can find. This abandoned building used to be a lightbulb factory. We also found old bomb shelters. Nobody else was there. It was great.There was a great museum about the history of the island as a poisonous gas manufacturing area. Many of the signs were in English, but some of the most interesting ones were not translated, so pay attention to the Japanese signs / get your friend to read them for you.
There are displays of the old gas masks and uniforms that workers used to wear. There are photos of the plants and descriptions about the various types of gases and what they can do. Japanese museum displays are much more graphic than they are back home, so be careful if you don’t want to see pictures of dead Kurdish children, horrific disfigurements, recent pictures of children affected by nerve gas during the wars in Iran/Iraq.
There is an entire display devoted to peace in the future and letters written by children about how much they wish that people would stop making biochemical weapons. Here is a picture of me walking around in an abandoned factory on the island.Okunoshima has a great message of peace, a chilling history, adorable rabbits, incredible abandoned buildings to take pictures of, and a lot of nature with no crowds. For those reason, I’d recommend going there.
I love aquariums. If I get invited to go to an aquarium, I hardly ever turn down the chance. One of the first things I did when I first moved to Kansai was go to the Osaka Aquarium. It is called the Kaiyukan.
We went on a weekend during spring break, so it was really crowded. It was still really wonderful, though.
The Kapybaras (how do you spell that? I'm too lazy to search it) were really moving around. I had never seen a real one before. 
These wispy things in the picture above are beautiful, stringy jellyfish. If I'm ever fabulously wealthy someday, I want a jellyfish tank like this one all lit up in my house.
I love schools of fish.
Then, we went to Yamada Denki where I bought a hair curler and found this massive advertisement. Sometimes I forget how cutesy Japan is and then something like this just smacks you in the face.
