España

Here I am, in Spain. Another Christmas and New Years spent with family and friends here in Europe! So far the trip has been nothing but relaxing: sleeping well, eating well, drinking well. Just enjoying the chance to feel at home again, understanding my world around me, seeing familiar faces and sights. It's quite nice and it's certainly a welcomed change from ultra busy Tokyo and rural small town Tokorozawa. I have lots of pics to show of my recent adventures in Japan and life in Spain, so as soon as I am motivated I will get on that. Until then, I'll be enjoying home.

Happy Holidays to you and yours.

Octopus and Sake- A Winning Combination

Immediately after the vicious JLPT (see the post below), some friends and I hopped on a train to the Chichibu Festival. The city of Chichibu is in my prefecture, Saitama, often known as the New Jersery of Tokyo. Saitama can be a little (okay a lot) drab and its main draw is the convenience to Tokyo. But, in Saitama's defence there are a few great hidden treasures- Chichibu being one of them. With a national park, great mountains and hiking trails, it is possibly the only really cool natural spot in metropolitan Saitama. Chichibu is thankfully not too far from me and has the 3rd largest night festival in Japan with a fireworks competition that puts American fireworks to shame. The night was frigid but with some hot amazake (sweet rice sake) I was nice and toasty. It was just what the doctor ordered- a relaxing, fun evening after weeks of diligent study for the test.



One of the best parts of the Japanese Matsuri? The matsuri food of course! With yummy oden (hot soup), yaki tori(grilled chicken skewers), and yakisoba(pan-fried noodles) among other favorites it's always hard to decide what to eat. Above is a pic of hundreds of pink, frozen mini octopi (is that the correct plural?!) waiting to be made into delicious tako yaki, a batter cooked with octopus in the center. Might sound gross but it's delish, I promise.


Jess, George and Ian enjoying the hot sake. They look like they are having fun because they were! George and Jess got to the festival at 4 and you can take a guess at what time it is from the pitch black sky. Some good solid drinking at any Japanese matsuri is a must! (I swear, I only had 1 cup!)



Here's a pic of Mark and I chilling around the cardboard streetfire we found. Some young Japanese guys were sitting around after pulling the mikoshi (the portable shrines used earlier in the festival for a kind of parade) burning up cardboard and selling sweet amazake. So, we parked it on the side of the street and chatting with these guys for a good half hour while we enjoyed the heat from the fire.



In the end, the guy sitting on my right gave me a little gift, the headwrap you can see me proudly displaying with our newfound friends. They were cool dudes. And I got a rad omiyage!

Loved the Chichibu Matsuri. Glad I went- it was the best thing I could have done after a long Sunday morning taking a test. If I'm still in Japan next year, you can believe I will be back for more wintertime festival fun, Japanese style.

Bye Bye JLPT... Hellllooooo Freedom!

As you can see by the title of this post, I'm quite happy that obscene test is over. However, judging from how I felt on Sunday, I don't think I'll be receiving a pass certificate in February. Now, you may be thinking I am just being modest. However, the Japanese people have not rubbed off on me in such a way. I'm not being modest- I seriously think I crashed a burned. This test, though, to my credit, is pretty darn tough. The reading and vocabulary were the really difficult parts for me and although it has all been crammed into my head, I'm not at the level where I can recall everything in a split-second. All that to say, I probably failed the test but there are certainly benefits to having studied so much. I am still trying to convince myself of this truth though, so I have composed a list in case my memory fails me and I need to refer to this post.

Reasons Why Even Though I Failed the JLPT I Am Not a Loser
1. Plenty of other people don't even bother taking the test. At least I tried!
2. Even if I can't read passages about REM sleeping patterns in Japanese, I can order a gin and tonic. This is crucial.
3. I have lots of friends I only speak Japanese with. Therefore, I must have some social abilities in the language.
4. Unlike other people taking the test, the results have no effect on my current employment status. I can keep my job. This is a good thing.
5. The people that passed aren't better or cooler than me. They just have a piece of paper. I can make my own "My Japanese Still Rocks" certificate if need be.

Pass or fail, I LOVE studying Japanese. I love the challenge of learning something new and then actually using it in a meaningful way. I enjoy reading kanji. I like memorizing a new grammar pattern and testing it. I laugh when I make mistakes. The more I speak the language, the more I can listen and learn about Japan from Japanese people. That's way more important than some test.

Next up on the blogger menu: See how I rid myself of PTT (Post Test Trauma) at the Chichibu Night Festival.

Now, off to more studying! ;)