Test, Etc

hey all,

So the test was pretty touch and go. The first section was 35 questions within 30 minutes of vocabulary, and I quickly discovered that the words I had been studying and the set of words on the test, only overlapped a little. So I had basically been studying the wrong words, or really, not the wrong words, but more likely not enough words.

The second section was a reading comprehension section, and I feel I did pretty well on that. Mostly just checking details about the reading passages, selecting appropriate words/phrases to go in the blanks, etc.

The last section was listening, and that was also touch and go. Several parts of it made me feel that it was far too easy, but other parts I just had to guess because they never repeated any of it, and they never slowed down: they just spoke at normal speed. The actual real difficult part was when they had no answers. I mean, for the new test, they have parts of the listening section where your question sheet just has a blank page for you to take notes on: the question is asked verbally, the conversation is played, and the possible answers are listed verbally, and if you miss any of it, too bad.

I'm not sure whether I passed or not, but I'm leaning towards not at the moment.

The ramen museum was pretty interesting, and some of it was quite delicious. It is very cheap to get in, but if you want to eat any of the ramen served there, it can become quite expensive. They have about 10 different regional varieties of ramen to try, and even if you only try a small bowl of each, your wallet and stomach take a hit.

In other news, it appears that A Song of Ice and Fire will be coming to HBO next April. I just saw a 10 minute "Making Of" clip on the author's livejournal page, and it looks really amazing. The production values are through the roof, and the actors all look in top form. We'll have to wait and see whether the dialogue, action, and maturity of the books have been well translated into film. No news about the long-awaited volume five yet.

My cold is getting a little bit better, but there is still almost no time to rest. Next weekend Michi is insisting on going rock climbing again so that she doesn't forget how to multi-pitch climb. Not a bad idea, but it just means that I don't really get any days to just watch anime, play video games, go see local sites, or plain old sit around and do nothing. I'd rather have an interesting life than no life at all, but relaxing is important for my sanity.

I've been hanging out with the new housemate from the Midwest, and that has been really good. Since I've kinda gotten used to not being able to go anywhere and not having anyone besides Michi to go anywhere with, I've been missing out on seeing a lot of Japan. Since he moved in, I've gotten to see some of the local things around Yokohama that otherwise I wouldn't get to see.

Cheers,

This is Rest?

hey all,

Had a really busy weekend, what with coordinating and planning the trip home and Bri's trip to Japan, visiting the ramen museum with a new housemate, studying Japanese, and taking the JLPT.

So busy in fact, that that's it for now.

Cheers,

The Weekend, At Last

hey all,

So I've been fighting a cold for the better part of a month or two, and my voice is going, again. Thankfully it is the weekend, and I'll get to rest it. Although I get to rest my voice, I still have to take the JLPT on Sunday.

Seems to be one of those "you just have to let it run its course" things. Medicine makes it go away for a week, then it comes back worse than before.

That's all for now.

Cheers,

And...We're Back

hey all,

Sorry for the long gap there. Been really busy as usual of late. Classes are going pretty well. I'm starting to get the hang of teaching that younger class, and I've figured out how to make that afternoon class pretty fun while still covering the amount of material that I've been requested to cover.

Last weekend, I met up with Michi on Saturday, and then on Sunday I sold four games, and bought Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. Pretty good so far. I also met up with John, my Michigan buddy and we had a Thanksgiving lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe in Tokyo. I have to say they did a good job, and it was worth it for the price: only about 2600 Yen, or $30. You could get the same for much cheaper in the US, but again, we're in Japan. You can't even find turkey in the supermarket. I've actually never seen it anywhere, although John tells me they sell them at Costco.

I'm still studying Japanese for the test, but at this point it is a little late: I only have 4 days until the JLPT on Sunday. I'm probably going to head over to Tokyo a little early on Sunday to make sure I get there.

I've also been trying to arrange my trip to the US, plan for my friend's trip to Japan, gear shop for climbing, and I've been obsessed with a particular type of Japanese snack. It is basically deep fried burdock root, but I've been unable to find a recipe for it, and I've been unable to actually find the snack in a store so that I can look it up on the internet.

That's all for now,
Cheers,

Big Wall

hey all,

So the low down is this: you're climbing up a rock wall and you run out of rope, but there is still plenty of rock wall up above you. Instead of going back down like a semi-rational person (to be a rock climber you probably have to be a bit off your rocker), you let your climbing partner climb up to your position. And then you keep climbing until you run out of rope again and notice that there is still more rock above you, etc etc. This is big wall climbing or multi-pitch climbing, and Michi and I took our first lesson in it last weekend.

I guess there are several things to know about multi-pitch climbing. First is the general process as I outlined it above. Second is the details of it: who climbs first, and how does that climber make him/herself safe once he/she reaches an anchor point (what knots, what gear, and what techniques etc), and what kind of communication is necessary for multi-pitch climbing to work and be safe. Once you get to the end of the rock, you need to know how you and your partner can get down quickly and safely.

I wish this picture didn't make me look like a dufus, but you can see I'm wearing my helmet, and the backpack Michi just got me. I'm belaying for Michi, who is climbing up to my position.

So that is the gist of what we were taught. It consists of a process of checks, a knowledge of a few knots, a few terms to facilitate safety and good communication, and a lot of double checking and triple checking for safety hazards, for which knowledge of what a dangerous situation looks like is necessary.

Another slightly uncool picture. But you can see how high up we are.

Nice pic of Michi.

The video should give you some idea the scale involved. The guy dressed in yellow at the top of the wall is our teacher, and that is where we finished the climb. Mt. Joyama is about 340m tall, and the wall that we climbed is easily 120m, or almost 400ft.

Although the classes were done in Japanese, most of the climbing terms are English, so that was pretty easy. And I guess my Japanese has gotten good enough for me to understand safety and some climbing instructions. I really appreciate our teacher, a climber who has over 30 years of climbing experience all over the world, and has actually published articles in climbing magazines, such as Rock and Snow. (No joke: I've seen the articles.)

Cheers,

Lots

hey all,

Made it back from the multi-pitch climbing lesson safe and sound. As usual, a detailed account will have to wait a little bit. Suffice to say, it was pretty fun, and I think I learned a lot about how to climb multi-pitch routes safely, and got some good advice on climbing in general. Also a good refresher on climbing terminology. Climbing with foreigners whose vocabulary and listening ability is limited, you necessarily develop certain ways of saying things, but it is good to return to the real terms, which our instructor used.

I've got some insane pictures and some video that should give you an idea of the scale we're talking about, but even when I look at the rock face from 1km away, it is hard to believe that I've just climbed all the way up that face.

In other news, I have exactly 14 days until I take the JLPT, the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, and I'm a little nervous. There are still many kanji and words that I don't know that could be on the test, and I haven't figured out how to practice for the listening part. I know where the test location is, roughly, and I think I'm going to try to find my way there once before the test to make sure, but I think I'll just have to spend 30-40 minutes each day practicing and reviewing. As it is, there are some days, and yes sometimes a week or two will go by, when I don't read my Song of Ice and Fire in Japanese, or when I don't go to smart.fm to review.

Anyway, once again it has gotten late and I need to brush my teeth and tuck myself in.

Cheers,

610 Part 2

hey all,

The schedule is starting to pick up a bit at work. More lessons in the afternoon, and then I'm trying to teach myself origami so I can teach my students without needing their mom's help. The boss is pushing for introducing more words more quickly for my afternoon students, which means more and more reviewing, more and more practicing new words, etc.

Since they don't study at home much, they will probably forget many of the words they learn anyway, but if we introduce more words, we expose them to more and increase the chances that they can retain more words, whether they can remember exact meanings or not. At least that is the theory, but to me it seems like my fun class has become more than a little unfun.

Cheers for now,