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Journal lingqi's Journal: Feburary 10th, 2004 9

Journal by lingqi

Feburary 10th, 2004 (6:15pm)

Interesting to say, my life is quite normal these days. There are only tiny, tiny perturbations from the usual routine.

- I got a whole set of the Akira Manga. The anime film itself being a cult classic, when confronted with volume 1-4 at a used book store for 100 yen each (400 for one, which was in better condition), I could not pass the deal. While actually reading through the whole thing would cost some serious time, leafing through can lead me to only one conclusion that the movie and the manga is totally different. For starters Akira was alive at the beginning of the manga...

- Similarly, I bought a whole set of Anderson's fairy tales in Book Off (the aforementioned used book store) - a set of five hard covered books for 200 yen each, though it is marked at some 2000 yen per book. 1000 yen is a steal, maybe except that it would take me years to read even one of the 147 or so stories.

- I was chatting with somebody from the company, and she said that since this year valentine's day falls on a saturday, she is not planning on giving out giri-choco. I thought that was very amusing - It's like saying "hi honey, you won't get anything for your birthday because I am on business trip on that day." Sure, so getting things for one's significant other might be a bit different than "giri (obligation)," at least supposed to, right...

- 100 yen shops rule in every way except when you just bought the same thing somewhere else for magnitudes more. I got tea storage vase thingys there for 100 yen each and cried when I saw that they had CD cases for the same. I can't believe I paid 1,500 yen for mine just a few weeks ago! From here on, every thing that needs to be bought will be searched for thoroughly at the 100 yen shops first.

- In Curry shops, you can specify how much rice you want in increments of 100g. the max I think was like 1,500g (that's 1.5kg of RICE) for 1,200 yen. The plate for those are huge - and are actually size of most serving trays the waiters carry around in restaurants. Anyway, while I cannot believe anybody actually eat them things, apparently there _are_ people that buys the extra-insane sized curry rice, and finish it as a challenge. All I have got to say is, no wonder Japan produces the guiness world record holder of various self-damaging acts of feigned gluttony. The champs gets their meals free, I think...

Tomorrow is a holiday because... nobody knows why. Everybody I asked was basically like "erm... I am not sure." or "Ahh... Sorry I forgot." I think (THINK) it's the independence day of Japan. Not very celebrated, eh?

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Feburary 10th, 2004 More

Feburary 10th, 2004

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  • I went to a curry shop in Nagano this winter. I found the incremental rice thing interesting. You can order exactly as much as you want which prevents waste and is a good thing generally. You can also order the curry by number, describing how spicy it is, on a scale of 1-10. You can even order a 0 (not spicy). I ordered a 3, and I had to convince the waitress I really wanted a 3. I guess they don't get many foreigners out there. My wife's cousin was also amazed that I ordered a 3, saying none of her
    • yeah i guess japanese food was never known for its spiciness; I am willing to bet that even the 5-10 (they label "dangerous") would hardly be a sting for the more veteran spicy-food consumers in the US.

      Then again, just a theory that I am not going to test out on myself.
  • Was it Anderson's Fairy Tales in English or Japanese? I should really pop into one of them myself for a look around. Even in Japanese, I wouldn't read it, but I need to find some large-ish hardback books for reading practise with plenty of room to scribble notes as I go along.

    Oh, and I found out last night I failed my JPT Level 2 - 56%. (T_T) Kanji and listening were both 75% or so as expected, but the reading and grammar bit was an awful 38% or so. On the bright side, spurred on by sitting the test, I've
    • Ouch; or oshiii na~, depending on which one you prefer.

      The fairy tales were in japanese, which decreases the likihood of me reading it by a few hundred percent.

      I find children's literature to be a good source of reading practice, and they are always so cheap in used book stores it would seem. (compared to, erm, photo-collections of idols) that said, I am having a ton of difficulty with 3rd-grade level books. hah!
      • kiddie books are actually pretty bad for learning purposes. First, there is little kanji (although I saw somewhere this week that some education group somewhere thinks all school books should be all kanji with appropriate furigana to get the kiddies immersed in kanji from the outset); second, they use very simple grammar on the whole; third, kana-only requires the skill of knowing where words start and end; finally, the vocabulary is also very childish. However, IIRC Anderson's tales in English were usually
    • I'm a little curious about the JPT...

      What is the passing score? (maybe the obvious 70%?). Also, what's the difference between the Kanji section and the reading test? Do you only have know what the Kanji means in isolation on the Kanji portion?

      Somewhere in the back of my mind I've got the goal of eventually passing the level 1 test. Of course, I 'd be curious to find out if people EVER pass level 1 while living somewhere other than Japan.

      When I was an exchange student in Japan, someone told me that the le
      • 60% for levels 2-4; 70% for level 1;

        I have known ppl who passed level 1 without having lived in japan. Erm, she's chinese, so maybe that helped, ya know, just a little ;)

        No idea about the isolated sectional grades though; I don't know if doing well in one can make up for the other sections.
      • Sorry it's a bit slow, but here's a reply anyway:

        Pass mark is 60%, add up the scores from each part to get the percentage. The test consists of three multiple choice parts, namely:

        Kanji and Vocabulary - 100 points: Match the reading to the kanji and vice versa in sample sentences. Find the word (kanji or not) given a description. Fill in the missing word in a sentence - mostly nouns, adjectives and idioms. Relatively easy.

        Listening - 100 points: First they ask a question, then a short sample dialog, and

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