Fran has decided that I should start taking the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) series. They are labelled JLPT5 through JLPT1, which JLPT1 being the most difficult one. Basically, after you manage to pass JLPT1, most companies will hire you for a Japanese-speaking position.
For a while now, I’ve been studying with the goal of getting better at conversational Japanese so that I can have fewer misunderstandings, manage to make Japanese friends, and basically get through my everyday life with minimal discomfort. I may never be able to get a job here, but I’d like to at least be able to understand those around me and express myself sufficiently.
A lot of schools seem to quantify the following skill levels when it comes to conversational Japanese:
Beginner: Can only do very basic introductions, cannot express oneself but can understand simple instructions and ask simple questions.
Low Intermediate: Can express oneself on known topics and understand discussion. Can ask more complicated questions.
Intermediate: Can learn about unknown topics through question and answer with another person.
Advanced: Can freely express oneself about unknown topics.
So far, I’d say that I’m at the Low Intermediate level. I can definitely understand a lot of what people say to me, mostly picking up on key words and set phrases that I know. However, I have a hard time contributing with my side of the conversation. A lot of the time, I want to express myself further, but find that I don’t know the right vocabulary for what I want to say and end up floundering. When someone introduces something that is as of yet out my knowledge (e.g, political discussions), I have a very hard time understanding what they are trying to ask/tell me and I don’t quite know how to express myself enough to ask the right questions.
Since I learn best by brute force, I’ve been going through vocabulary lists for the JLPT tests. So far, I am about a quarter of the way through JLPT4.
With that in mind, Fran asked me if I’d like to start taking the JLPT series of tests. I can start with JLPT5 and work my way up (hopefully, eventually) to JLPT1. While I don’t think it would really be all that useful to me on my CV, Fran think it’s a good set of goals for me to work towards while we’re here in Japan.
See, for the most part, I’m a housewife. And I don’t mean to demean housewives everywhere, but sometimes I really wish I was back at work doing work-things, making work-friends, and generally feeling important and smart.
Not that I don’t still feel like I’m smart, it’s just that I don’t care to sit around and discuss the minute details of child-rearing with another mother when I couldn’t care less what she is doing and why she’s doing it.
[I feel like that’s what a lot of my mama-tomo conversations revolve around. Oh you’re feeding her such-and-such? But why, isn’t it too EARLY? Or maybe you should have switched to such-and-such by now…? Cue the massive eyeroll and generally apathy on my part.]
But anyway, long story short (after having written quite a bit on all this), I want to start taking these tests. It will give me something to work towards with my Japanese study, and I think it will give me a very important feeling of accomplishment with each test I manage to pass.
Knowing that businesses can deny doing business with me because I don’t speak fluent Japanese is very depressing.
When we first arrived, while there were plenty of businesses that were willing to put up with my random phrases and hand gestures until I got my point across, there were many businesses that flat out told me they couldn’t help me because I don’t speak enough Japanese to communicate with them. Case in point: I wanted to get a new pair of ear pads for my spectacles, but since I had a hard time expressing this desire, more than one shop told me they couldn’t help me and kindly gestured towards the door.
[A store finally did understand what I wanted and went out of their way to help me.]
A neighbour of ours refuses to say hello to me unless I make eye contact and say hello, requiring her to respond likewise. I haven’t confirmed it, but I believe this is because of a possibly awkward interaction with a gaijin that isn’t fluent in Japanese. One time, I saw her walking the opposite direction holding a sun umbrella; once she recognised me, she actually tilted her umbrella downwards so that I couldn’t make eye contact to say hello. Whenever I am leaving my house and she is in her garden, she usually runs into her house before I can pass her house. With a toddler in tow, we’re typically quite slow leaving the house, so she has plenty of time to run away and hide.
When we first tried to use Mr’s office hoikuen on a temporary basis (so that I can attend Japanese classes), the first resistance they tried was that we aren’t fluent in Japanese so kiddo won’t understand what the caretakers are saying to her and I won’t understand the daily summary they provide when I come to pick her up. Once they found out that I already take her to the all-Japanese jidoukan on an almost daily basis without any issue, they had to relent and decide it wasn’t a problem.
Today I met with a friend whose husband I met at Japanese class. He doesn’t go to class anymore because he got a job and has to work instead of study Japanese. His wife, M, isn’t my best friend, but I see her once in a while to sorta keep in touch. I think she thought it was a little inappropriate for her husband and me to be friends, so she insisted on being in the loop, with the result that I now keep in touch with her and never get to see her husband anymore.
We haven’t seen each other in months because her trip to visit her in-laws happened directly before my trip back to see my parents. Then once I got back, it was a little while before I thought to get back in touch with friends here because we were trying to get ready to send Lolli to a new hoikuen (daycare). But finally, we got to see each other today.
My friendship with her is a bit strange because we don’t really have much to talk about past the superficial stuff. However, we’re both pretty friendly people and our conversations still seem to go smoothly, but sometimes she asks me some random questions about my life that seem misplaced and strange.
Today’s random question was: Do you fight with your husband and what do you fight about?
I feel like questions like this are asked because the person asking wants to talk about some kind of issue in their own lives and it’s a good opening line, so I asked her what kind of things she and her husband fight about. The answer felt like she was answering an interview question, where you are asked a tough question and you admit some kind of minor fault that still somehow makes you seem like a normal person they want to hire. Her answer was that she doesn’t like how long he stands in front of the open refrigerator staring at the contents, and that he doesn’t like it when she speaks too much Japanese at home because he still has trouble understanding everything. All in all, she proclaimed them minor things to argue over and in general they have pretty good communication.
It made me wonder if there was something else she wanted to talk about, but was too embarrassed at the last minute to say it.
Maybe I should invite her out drinking and see if that opens her up a little more.
Do you know how nori is made? The process was developed to help preserve seaweed for sale. Previously, seaweed was sold fresh and/or pickled and could only be sold for a certain time before it went bad. By making nori, seaweed vendors could preserve their stock.
[We learned all this by going to a nori museum in our ward in Tokyo. Everything is in Japanese, but you can get the gist of it even without any language skills. There are great displays, a video, and lots of hands-on stuff for kids. Plus, admission is free and there is a giant slide in a park across from the museum. Highly recommended.]
Nori is made by chopping up seaweed into a fine pulp and making seaweed paper on square straw trays. This means that nori came in a standard size, a large square.
Somehow, this standard has continued and nori is sold in large square sheets or in what is called 2切 or 3切 (2-cut or 3-cut). For the most part these sizes have been standardised and are always the same, no matter the brand.
Since starting to go to jidoukan in the mornings instead of the usual afternoons, I’ve started to meet a whole different group of mothers. Of course, this means I have to re-introduce myself over and over again, and when people realise that I don’t speak Japanese very well, there are the inevitable questions like:
“Wow, your Japanese is so great! How did you learn?” (Even though my Japanese is clearly terrible)
“What country did you come from?”
“Do you live near here?”
But today I got a different question:
“Half?”
What she was asking is if my kiddo was mixed ethnicity. I think her curly brownish hair confuses people. It’s even more confusing for people when I tell them that I’m American and so is my husband. I think most people want to try to nail down exactly what ethnicity we each are, but mostly I don’t want to have to explain everything and then get even more confused looks from them.
I barely want to explain things in English, let alone trying to do it in Japanese.
A walk among the cherry trees in Tokyo, starting from Kayabacho Station, passing the Takashimaya department store in Nihombashi, and then on to the Yaesu side of Tokyo Station.
The blossoms look to be in full bloom but the wet and windy weather in Tokyo this evening surely isn’t doing the petals any favors!
Tateyama Shinko refers to a kind of mountain worship practiced around the Tateyama mountain range in Toyama Prefecture, where the harsh conditions on the slopes of (Mt.) Tateyama were believed to reflect Buddhist visions of hell.
Pilgrimages to the mountain were believed to lead to the rewards of a heaven-like realm that existed beyond the harsh climb, somewhere beyond the clouds floating above the mountain’s Oyama Peak.
Oyama Shrine is a key symbol and place of worship for followers of Tateyama Shinko.
The main shrine is located near the summit of Tateyama’s main Oyama Peak, at an altitude of around 3,000 m. Needles to say, the branch of Oyama Shrine - Maedate-shadan - has easier access, near the banks of the Joganji River almost within touching distance of Toyama City’s urban sprawl. Where these photos were taken in November 2021.
The Shinkyo Bridge on Mt. Haguro, Yamagata Prefecture, traverses the Haraigawa - “river of purification” - in which pilgrims and Yamabushi monks would perform purification rituals
Near where Haguro’s famous stone path meets the Haraigawa, water from the Suga-no-taki falls pours into the river. At the base of the falls is a diminutive shrine sharing the name of the river.
Here are enshrined the spirits of four gods whose speciality it is to swallow, blow, exorcize and release into the waters evil spirits.
Having to go back a few years and to the steep hillsides of Nagasaki to find some pics of these cool cats for #猫の日 - cat day, here in Japan.
These pictures were taken while exploring the streets above and around the Hollander Slope, an area of Nagasaki City which became one of Japan’s leading expat scenes when Western traders and diplomats set up shop in the area in the 19th century.
Who knows what we can expect from the upcoming sakura season in Japan this year but we’re hoping that the situation will at least allow for a stroll under some blossoms. We’ll just have to wait and see.
In the meantime we’re going back two years to a trip to Wakayama Prefecture and the city of Tanabe on the beautiful Kii Peninsula.
These pictures of cherry blossom were taken around the ootorri gate of Oyunohara, the original site of the Kumano Hongu Taisha. The current site of the Kumano Hongu Taisha - the grand shrine to which Kumano Kodo pilgrimages gravitate - is a little further north of Oyunohara.
Took the window of fine weather yesterday, between last week’s snow and the snow that is reported to be on its way tonight or tomorrow, to get out on the mamachari and get some fresh air.
These photos were taken along the the Kyu-Edo River which flows in the border zone between Tokyo and Chiba. There are some nice cycling and walking paths running alongside the river from where you can see yukatabune dining boats bobbing on the water awaiting their evening trade.
Follow the flow of the calm river waters toward Tokyo Bay, takes you past the Disney theme parks before ending your ride at the huge Kasai Rinkai Koen park.
On this occasion though, we took the riverside path in the opposite direction from where we could see Tokyo Skytree on our left as we heading into the yawning suburbs of Tokyo and Chiba.
One winter a few years back we were lucky enough to be able to pay a visit to Zenkoji Temple in the city of Nagano.
The temple complex veritably sprawls and is the kind of place you could spend an entire day at, and then some.
While it’s understandable that people will be drawn the temple’s Niomon gate and Honden, “main hall,” - maybe in search of the key to paradise - we can’t resist a good pagoda, and Zenkoji has a belter!
These pics are of the pagoda housing the Zenkoji History Museum, in relative terms, a fairly new addition to the Zenkoji precincts.
Any Japanese garden fans out there? This one is a beauty. This is Oyakuen in the city of Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture. One of the kanji characters from the name Oyakuen (御薬園) means “medicine,“ referring to the medicinal herbs grown here.
Samurai of the Aizu clan started growing medicinal herbs in this garden in the 17th century in an effort to help the local people combat sickness and disease.
Oyakuen features a pond shaped like the kanji character for “heart.” On a small island in the center of the pond is a tea house which still reveals the scars of the Boshin War, when imperial troops defeated the Aizu samurai during the Meiji Restoration.
The garden has been designated a Site of Scenic Beauty.
Kajika Bridge in hot spring town Ikaho Onsen, Gunma Prefecture, is something of an autumn-leaves hot spot.
In winter there’s a fair chance of having the bridge to yourselves. The pleasant, if a little slippery, walk to the bridge in the snow is a fine way to prepare for a well-earned soak in the local onsen.
Japan sure does present us with some amazing winter scenes.
This is the Buddhist temple Sazae-do which sits on the lower slopes of Mt. Iimoriyama in Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture.
The three-story, double-helix design of Sazae-do is one that cannot be seen anywhere else in the world. It allows visitors to ascend and descend the structure without meeting those moving in the opposite direction.
Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima: Journey to Japan’s samurai stronghold:
