Golden Week

It's that time of year again. Golden Week is here!! Due to the majority of our distributors closing for this long holiday, the beNippon gang will be taking a short hiatus from bring Japan's treasures to your doorstep. Fear not, we'll be back in action next week!

Our Golden Week vacation will start from Thursday, April 29th and continue until Wednesday, May 5th (Japan time). From Thursday morning, May 6th, we'll be at your service once again.

Tully’s Coffee Espresso Classico Bitou Black

After trying the Tully’s Barista's Choice Black a while back, I was really excited to see the Espresso Classico 微糖 Black at a conbini in Tokyo. Unfortunately, I wasn't in the coffee buying mood, so I thought I'd just pick one up back home when I got a chance. Well, for almost a month I've been searching but came up with nothing. Last night I popped into the conbini at Fukui station, and they just happened to stock it.

At first I saw the kanji 糖 (tou) meaning "sweetened" and was a little turned off. However the kanji in front of it 微 is read "bi" and means slightly, so I was more open to buying it. 微糖 (Bitou) was not in any of the dictionaries in my A9800, or even Eijiro, but if you put two and two together, it just means "slightly sweetened" or as Rikaichan states "low in sugar." The 285mL can has just 7.8g of sugar, and 35 kcal for you Calorie counters out there. "Low calorie" is a major theme for food manufacturers right now.

If you've tasted any of the usual sweetened can coffees, you know they can be quite sweet. However, with the Bitou Black, there's just a hint on sweetness. It's actually quite pleasant, complimenting the natural sweetness of the Arabica beans, and counteracting any bitterness you'd find. There are a lot of canned coffees coming out on the market, and while I haven't tried a lot of them yet, Tully's sure sets the bar high. The Barista's Choice Black is my favorite, with this Espresso Classico a close second.

With the weather finally starting to warm up, look for Espresso Classico in the cooler, and if you're lucky enough, pour over a some ice cubes during the summer for a refreshing hit of caffeine. As a side note, here's a nice article about the differences in sweetness levels (and labels) if you'd like to practice your ninja Japanese skillz.

Bon-chan in Tsukishima

Meet Bon-chan, a huge 50 kg turtle that lives in Tsukishima, Tokyo. He's quite popular with the locals, and goes on walks with his owner. During the summer his walks last up to two hours, and he always likes to eat leftover veggies from the local Chinese restaurant.

Seeing unusual pets in Japan is quite common. I'm always surprised at the different varieties of animals at the pet shops here.

Chinka-sai at Itsukushima Shrine

So four months later, I've finally taken a peak at my Hiroshima pictures...

We were in Hiroshima over the New Year's holiday, and spend the day/evening of Dec 31st on Miyajima. It was unexpectedly cold that day, and on the way to the island by ferry it started snowing. Eventually, the weather cleared up and left us with a gorgeous sunny day... however, the bitter cold continued to haunt us.

The first thing you're greeted with on Miyajima is the Ootori, the gateway to Itsukushima Shrine. During the morning hours the tide goes out, so if you wait long enough you can walk right up to the Ootori.

People stick coins into the cracks in the paint and wood. The shrine probably collects the money every once in a while, I'd guess. If you're a diver, you might be able to find lots of change in the waters around the island :-)

Lots of deer inhabit the island. They are absolutely everywhere and are pretty friendly. For the most part, they seem to keep to themselves unlike animals at other parks that want food.

One of the strange things that we were seeing, were groups of young men walking around with big wooden towers. They'd go to each of the store and collected gifts (envelopes of money) from each of the shop owners. I wondered how much money they were given, and why.

As it turns out, December 31st is Chinka-sai on Miyajima. Chinka-sai is the fire prevention festival on the island, and families and tourists gather to run huge torches down the path to the shrine.

There were lots of street vendors, families, and tourists, but I have the feeling the turnout was quite low due to the weather. Most of the vendors had no customers lined up, especially while everyone was watching the festivities.

These are small torches that a lot of kids were carrying around. You really have to be careful at this festival, kids and fire don't mix.

These larger torches are carried around to light the smaller ones. One mother was carrying one around, and almost caught herself on fire. They must be pros, doing this every year. Funny, I don't remember seeing any firefighters around.

The cool part was seeing these huge torches being run down the pathway. They were the same ones we saw earlier in the day, when the men were collecting money. Each torch is carried by a large team of men.

At the end of the path, they'd stand the torch up, then pull it down, run back, and do the same thing at the beginning of the path again. After the events started to calm down, we packed up and headed back to the city for some okonomiyaki, it was just too cold to stick around.

Find out more about Miyajima at the Miyajima Tourist Association website.

Playing with KeyHoleTV

I heard about KeyHoleTV somewhere on the internets a long time ago, but somehow forgot about it. Recently, people have been tweeting about it so, I finally remembered to check it out.

KeyHoleTV/Video software allows anyone to broadcast his or her own content. But, the cool thing is that you can watch live Japanese TV and radio right on your 'puter.

Just head over to the KeyHoleTV website to download the software. The software is available for all major operating systems. Since I'm using OS X at home, I downloaded that one.

Just clicked on the MacOSX directory, and then the 10.6 directory, and selected the DMG. Oh, shig... when you click on the dmg file (at least for me) it tried to open it up in my browser displaying 文字化け (moji-bake). I clicked the back button and right clicked the link to save the file to my download folder. Pop the dmg open, and drag the icon to your applications folder to install.

After you open the app, you get a list of stations... they're all in Japanese so hopefully you can deal. I chose to watch Fuji TV, and they were showing a re-run of Voice from last year. The screen is small, not much bigger than watching 1Seg on my Nintendo DS lite, but with KeyHoleTV I don't have to worry about the crappy reception in my house.

I wish I knew about KeyHoleTV back in the US. At least I'll be able to forgo getting a new TV for a while longer.

New CK303 Series from Audio Technica

According to Yajiuma Plus on Saturday, the number one electronic item foreigners purchase in Japan is headphones. I can see the appeal of purchasing headphones. The Japanese brands are great, at various price points and colors there's something for everyone, plus if you're buying gifts most models are very light weight and pack easily without having to worry about breakage.

We've added Audio Technica's newest line of ear-canal headphones, the CK303 series. They come in two types: S and M. The S model has a cable length of only 60 cm, so if you're using a remote control adapter, you can plug it into the adapter without having an abnormally long cable. At 120 cm cable length, the M model plugs right into your phone or DAP to give you ample room to move about.

While the S-series comes in black, white, and red, the M-series comes in 9 color variations! If you'd like to get away from the ordinary black, white, or silver... try the brown. At ¥2400, they'd make a great gift for your audiophile mom.

beNippon carries a full range of pro-audio headphones in a variety of styles.

The trouble with kanji.

Aside from passing the JLPT N1 one of these days, probably my biggest goal is to be able to write in Japanese by hand. I used to spend a lot of time writing letters to my Japanese friends or trying to keep a diary, but since e-mail, blogging, and social networking are so common I don't usually find the occation to break out the pen and paper and write in Japanese.

Even though I've spent a lot of time trying to develop and study my Anki decks, I've been noticing that even though I can write the words when looking at the "flashcard," I don't have the "connection" to put that word/kanji into use when I hear a phrase and attempt to write it. I know the word, I know how to read the kanji when I see it, but my mind will blank when I try to write it. Oftentimes, I can partially visualize the kanji, as you can see if you look at question #1 at the top. The first word is juken, or examination. While I was able to remember the first kanji ju (受：うける、じゅ), I could only partially get ken (験). This happens quite a bit (e.g. 危ない), especially with the more difficult kanji.

From the start, I asked my Japanese teachers to give me listening tests where I write out the sentences, but since starting to study for the JLPT, we've taken a different approach. We're using the tests and CD from Kanzen Master 2-kyuu Kanji and I go in cold, not knowing what is going to be tested. I listen to the sentences, write them out, and the kanji I don't get become my homework.

I think especially right now, it's really helping me sort out the knowledge I have in my head. The kanji I can write out immediately don't need to be studied anymore, because they're already ingrained into my mind, and the ones I miss are reinforced in my mind because I got them wrong to being with (I hate that!!). These will be the ones I plop into the Anki deck. Going forward, I'll need to study before hand, because I might not have any knowledge of the kanji being tested. We'll see.

My kanji list this week?

• 受験（じゅけん）
• 区別（くべつ）
• 苦手（にがて）
• 危ない（あぶない）
• 首都（しゅと）
• 部長（ぶちょ）
• 代理（だいり）
• 親友（しんゆう）
• 便り（たより）
• 借りる（かりる）
• 都心（としん）
• 返す（かえす）

Are you satisfied just being able to write on the keyboard? Is there anyone else out there like me, who wants to be able to write by hand?? How do you study to write in Japanese?

The green haired girl.

It's good to have some variety in your reading, which is why reading manga is nice. The tankobon are quite short usually around 180 pages or so, and after finishing one it gives you a chance to jump onto something else.


When I first got to Kanazawa and came to beNippon I became addicted to Yotsubato!, and read up to volume 6. I found it a nice change from the daily grind of life (being able to see the world through the eyes of a child?), and I liked being able to sit down and have a laugh at the end of the day. Anyway, for some reason I stopped reading it.


After that, some Bamboo Blade books caught my eyes sitting in the used bin at the train station. For ¥100 a pop, I couldn't pass them up. The shop didn't have all the issues, so I've been having to buy them individually. After finishing volume 5 the other day, and since I don't have volume 6 yet, I'm thinking of taking a break and going back to Yotsubato!.

In all, there are currently three more volumes of Yotsubato! and seven more of Bamboo Blade for me to read. Those should keep me busy for a while, in between studying for the JLPT. After that, hmm... maybe Bakuman? Sheesh, I can't believe Bakuman is up to volume 7 already!!

Yozakura at Kenrokuen

Those of us that live in Kanazawa are blessed with one of the three most notable gardens in Japan, Kenrokuen. Several times a year, the garden is lit up at night and open to the public for free (usually ¥300). Because it's hanami season, Kenrokuen is currently open until 9:30 at night for your viewing pleasure until the end of the week (2010/4/11 SUN). Even though it was quite cold and rained on and off, I took the opportunity to view yozakura (夜桜), or "cherry blossoms at night" in the garden. (I need to get myself a tripod one of these days.)

This first photo is facing Kanazawa Castle's gate. To get to the castle, just walk across the bridge and through the big doors. Several cherry blossom trees line the walkway, much more comforting than samurai.

Turn around, and the street vendors line the hill up to the garden. There aren't a whole lot of them, but enough to make it festive. As you can see, the cold, rainy weather made for a smaller turnout than usual, while last year was jam packed. I feel sorry for the vendors, not only do they have to bear the cold, but they can't make any money without a big crowd.

This photo was taken between the observation deck and Gankyou-bashi area. I still don't know what the best way to capture the beauty of the sakura trees is, but I liked the way this one turned out. I think shooting the whole tree to get its overall shape is better than shooting a close-up of the blossoms, especially at night.

Standing on Hanami Bridge, I was able to capture this shot. The intense halogen lighting really brought out the green, and I love the contrasting orange-ish tint of the cherry blossoms that the tungstun lights brought out.

As we were leaving, one of the local TV stations was interviewing this group of ladies. I've always wanted to be on TV again, I guess I'd better get out more :-)

These pictures were taken with my Canon 30D and Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 lens, handheld at ISO1600, with no image stablization :-(

JLPT N2, here I come.

Well, it's official. My JLPT N2 application is signed, sealed, and delivered. Now my wallet is about ¥6000 lighter thanks to the application fee, bank transfer fee, and postage. Kinda makes me want to start my own certification scheme.

Kanzen Master!

It's been quite a long time since I've taken any test, so I pretty much have forgotten how to study. However, the past year I've spent in my weekly Japanese classes have helped, only there's so much to remember still. Let's just hope I can stick it out until the July exam.

Most recently, I've begun working with the Kanzen Master 2 Kyu Series. I don't know if it's just this time of the year or the new exam, but buying the books was a lot more of a hassle than I expected. They're all on back order at the majority of the bookstores here in Kanazawa. After an intense wait (I needed them for class), the books finally arrived. I purchased the 2 kyu (N2) grammar (日本語能力試験文法問題対策) and also the 2 kyu (N2) reading comprehension (日本語能力試験読解問題対策) books. My Japanese teacher is working with me on kanji with the 2 kyu (N2) kanji book, but didn't want me to purchase it. She decided that it would be best to test me in class impromptu (so I don't know what's coming), which is pretty fun I must say.

The grammar book is great. It's very straight forward, just listing the grammatical forms and phrases broken up into sections, each followed by several short tests. Since I'm familiar with a lot of the grammar already, I've been starting with the tests and then just reviewing the structures I answered wrong. Additionally, I also take a look at ones that weren't easy to answer. If you're studying by yourself, there is a small caveat. Some of the grammar explanations are quite vague, so I end up asking about the differences in class. If you're studying alone, you'll probably need a good supplement.

Fig1: Grammar layout.

Fig2: Test example.

I haven't worked too much with the Reading Comprehension text yet, but it seems to be fine so far. I think that the reading portion of the test will definitely be difficult for me for a couple reasons. For one, I'm not a fast reader, and secondly, what I read doesn't usually imprint in my mind unless I'm interested in the topic. On a timed exam, the word FAIL comes to mind. This book starts you off slow, with some shorter texts and simple answers, then gradually increases the length of the texts. Tackling the book a little at a time will give me more exposure to reading and answering questions, and will be good practice for the exam. I'm currently just reading for comprehension, next I'll start timing myself.

 Fig3: Short text and simple quiz.

 Fig4: Long text with multiple questions.

The Kanzen Master Series comes highly recommended by my instructors. I'm confident that my combination of self-study with the Kanzen Master texts and class time with my teachers, I'll be able to pass the exam. Studying sure is different when it's not for a grade;-)

How are you all tackling your Japanese studies?

Interviews with Foreigners

As of recent, part of my Saturday morning routine is waking up early enough to catch Yajiuma Plus (やじうまプラス) on the TV Asahi Network. They've got a fun segment where they interview foreigners in Japanese around Tokyo. Here's a couple clips I was able to find on the internets:

Part 1:

And Part 2:

Unfortunately, I wish YouTube had this morning's where the interviewer talked to God's gift to the Japanese, which was quite hilarious.

DIY: Origami chopstick rest.

When you go to a Japanese restaurant you usually get a pair of chopsticks covered with paper. What do you do with the wrapper, do you just throw it away? Today, I'll show you how to make a handy dandy chopstick rest, or hashi-oki in J-speak. (above: I folded this one at dinner last night)

First fold the paper in half (if you have a long piece, maybe in thirds):

Then you just fold the sides in to create a triangular shape, like so:

Do this on both sides:

Next you'll fold a crease down the center again. We're going to be making a "valley" so your chopsticks don't fall off when someone bumps the table:

This is the hard part. You have to play around with the paper, creasing it towards the center to create the slope. Eventually you should have something that looks like this (notice the v-shaped slope):

Finally, just spread out the base, and you'll impress your friends and the restaurant staff with this cool little hashi-oki:

Yoda lightsaber chopsticks are not included, but can be ordered from beNippon.