On my Christmas wishlist

I've seen some pretty cute (read: nerdy) novelty chopsticks in the past, but these ones...man, I would really use these. H/t to Daily Bento.

Foolishgadgets.com

Yes, those are Harry Potter wand chopsticks.

Just another picture of the day 12/15/10: Mmm, Placenta

Arigatou Gojaimasu

H/t to Japan Probe.

Saw this music video the other day, made by a couple of Korean guys singing "Arigatou Gozaimasu" with a Korean accent (that apparently turns "z" into "j"). Pretty catchy.

J-Word Play #14: With Prize!

It's been a while, but for December a special riddle with a special prize!

This is another original (kind of - got the inspiration from a friend's riddle, which I didn't think was very good). Here's how this'll work. I'm disabling comments, so send your answer(s) to ecyrus@gmail.com. You can send multiple answers, but I'll use my discretion in how many to accept - spamming me will get you nowhere.

The prize, unfortunately, is only good for people living in Japan, and it's worth 2000 yen. If you live outside of Japan you're still free to participate, but no prize for you (for this one, anyway). Sorry!

There's only one prize, so everyone who gets the correct answer will be entered into a lottery, from which a winner will be randomly chosen. I'll announce the answer and a winner on December 24th, Christmas Eve, so please submit your answers by then.

Finally, this one has two possible answers that I am aware of. You only need to give one. I will consider other answers that make sense. Here's the riddle it is:

ぎんこういんの好きな食べ物は何でしょう？

Let's enjoy Japanese: Kind of

Here's an interesting grammar pattern that I've recently come across. So far as I can tell, it only works for い adjectives, and not all of them at that.

Take the adjective, drop the い and add め. And what does the resulting word mean? It means "Kind of~."
As in it's more than a little of something, but not that much. Someone I asked used the example of a skirt. If you said a skirt was 長い, maybe it would be down to a girl's calves. If you said it wasn't 長い, maybe it would be above her kneecaps. If you said it was 長め, maybe right below her kneecaps. Kind of long, but not that long.

日本語で、○めってはやや○って意味だ。

For example:

長い　－　長め　－ Kind of long

厚い　－　厚め　－ Kind of thick

細い　－　細め　－ Kind of thin

辛い　－　辛め　－ Kind of spicy

Unfortunately, there are certain words that this pattern isn't used for. For example, 寒め (cold) and 暑め (hot) aren't commonly used. According to three teachers I consulted with, there aren't any set rules (at least not anymore), and certain words that don't use this pattern have begun to change in recent years. The example they cited was 難しめ, which isn't traditionally correct, but seems to have come into periodic used in recent years with younger people. 分かりにくめね。

This is the kind of grammar that I would recommend using cautiously if you want to be understood. If this one is new to you, I recommend listening for it now that you're equipped to understand what it means, and if you're so inclined to use it, do so with the words you're seen or heard used by those who are fluent or native.

If anyone has anything to add or knows some rule for this pattern, please leave a comment.

The Plight of North Korea

This isn't Japan-related, but North Korea is, uh...near Japan (a hop, skip, and a ballistic missile away, at any rate)? So I'm gonna stretch on this. I found this op-ed on the LA Times site to be very poignant: Save the North Koreans!

I can only speak for myself, but although I have felt some sympathy for the N. Korean people, mostly when I think of that country what comes to mind is an unstable regime with a crazy leader and a huge army. I'm not saying it would be a good idea for the U.S. to attack N. Korea and try to topple its government Iraq-style, but it did strike me that I have been rather thoughtless in discounting the suffering going on there. There are so many human rights violations going on there (and in China, too, for the record) that so many people are willing to dismiss or turn a blind eye to. This kind of thing is largely ignored, while Twitter, Facebook, and the blogosphere fill to the metaphorical brim with news and opinion about Wikileaks and Julian Assange. Oh, what a world.

The aftermath

So a few thoughts on the JLPT Level 2:

I went into this thing not expecting to pass, and not really killing myself over it. I haven't seriously studied in over two weeks. My main goal was basically to see how much I could understand and answer so that I can prepare well for the one in the summer. That said, I was still a little nervous. Test is a test.

I guess it shouldn't have surprised me, but about 95% of the people in my room were Asian, probably Chinese or Korean. For some reason I was expecting more white/black/hispanic people.

I think I need to work almost exclusively on reading. While there were a decent amount of vocabulary and kanji that I didn't understand, I felt like I had most of the grammar under control. That said, I think the reading section was the toughest part, and kanji/vocab comprehension are just an extension of being able to read.

Surprisingly, I found the listening section to be a lot easier than the reading part. Although I wouldn't say I owned it, I felt a lot more confident in most of my answers. Though I don't like how they try to trick or misdirect you - some of the questions will give you like 2 minutes of dialogue and place the answer either at the very beginning or add it quickly to the end. It was frustrating that there were one or two problems where I understood 95% of what was said, but then missed a quickly spoken sentence or phrase and found myself unable to answer the question.

Well, the results will be delivered in February. Not sure why it takes so long - the test is scantron. Oh well. I think I'll be happy with a score in the 40s or 50s. Plenty of room for improvement for the next test, but also plenty of room to breathe. We'll see.

It's kind of funny

Although maybe not funny "ha-ha." Maybe my mind is just in a different place right now, still somewhere in America. But I was just in the local ramen shop and heard this, and was somewhat struck by it. This is an actual (perhaps mundane) interaction:

[Someone spills something on the table]
Father: Ah, sorry!
Assistant Cook: Oh, I'm sorry!
Father: No, no, it was my fault.
Assistant Cook: Sorry, sorry.
Waitress: Sorry!
Mother: Sorry about that.

December Japan Blog Matsuri!

It's December, and this month the pleasure of hosting our Japan Blog Matsuri falls to yours truly. First off, a special thanks to Ashley of Surviving in Japan, the gracious host of November's Matsuri. If you haven't checked that out yet, please feel free - many mouth-watering entries to behold.

So I just got back to Japan last night, as of this posting. I spent two weeks in America with my girlfriend, hanging out at home in Maryland, visiting the alma mater in Pennsylvania, and checking out my old backyard, the center of the universe, New York City. You know, I kind of didn't want to come back this time. It got me thinking about a lot of things, like how I felt the first time I came to Japan, and about that fact that this will be my first Christmas spent abroad without my family (they visited the previous two). A lot of stories came to mind. And that's the inspiration for this month's Matsuri Theme: Japan Firsts. The rules and guidelines for this month are the same as always, but let me break it down for any newcomers who may be interested, or those of you who just forgot (you gotta work on that memory!):

The Theme


Once again, this month's theme is Japan Firsts.
So for December, please share your memories and experiences about Japan-related first times. For example, your first time eating mochi, your first time visiting Japan, or maybe something a little more exciting, like your first time being arrested for international espionage (in or working for Japan, of course). I think this is a fairly broad topic, and I encourage anyone who's interested to make a submission. You don't even have to have ever been to Japan! You can write about the first time you met that creepy Japanese guy who lives across the hall from you. Damn you and your stinky natto, 1B!

No links back to your first J-blog post, please. That's really lame and I can't believe you even considered it. Shame on you!

The Rules


The official guidelines for the Japan Blog Matusri can be found here. In addition, please include at least one picture in your entry. The deadline for submission for this month is December 28th, so mark your calendars!

Submission

Anyone can submit an entry! All you need is a blog of some sort. There are three ways to submit your entry:

1) Post a link in the comments section of this post.
2) The handy Blog Carnival Submission widget.
3) Email me here.

At the end of the month, all the entries will be aggregated and showcased right here! Well, not right here, but on this blog. Anyhow, that's all there is to it! I'm looking forward to reading your submissions. Get to it, and have fun!

I Return!

Well, I just got back to Japan. Unfortunately, it seems my JLPT test voucher didn't arrive while I was away...the testing center doesn't accept emails and is closed on weekends. So guess I wasted my money on that registration.

I'll be back soon with an intro to this month's Blog Matsuri, and more!

Thanks for bearing with me.

Update: Found the voucher in the trash! Was mixed in with some junk mail.