I’ve been studying Japanese hardcore for about one year now, and softcore for another year before that. For all that effort, I’ve now received my JLPT 3 certificate (which I passed easily), can quite comfortably converse with friends, and am beginning to be able to read manga and some novels without much dictionary assistance. I’d say I’m solidly at an intermediate level, but I still have a long ways to go before I can proclaim myself fluent. Movies and TV, for example, are tough and I can only usually get a gist of what’s going on in the plot. However, during this time, I’ve found some things that have worked well for me in terms of studying Japanese and I thought I’d share those now.

First, I’ll start at the beginning. Having a knowledge of a language’s writing system is usually the starting point, and to that end I found that James Heisig’s books, Remembering The Kanji and Remembering the Kana, have worked wonderfully for me. I can’t even imagine tackling kana or kanji using any other method. The methods prescribed in these books work so effectively one could presumably be up and running with a full (albeit basic) knowledge of the Japanese writing system in half a year or less. I’ve encountered some criticism from friends about Heisig’s methods, especially for kanji. They wondered how you were supposed to learn the readings for the kanij, since Heisig focuses entirely on meaning and writing. What good is meaning and writing if you can’t read the characters? A whole lot, if you ask me. For one, whenever I encounter new words when reading, I can usually deduce a simple meaning based on the meanings given by Heisig, and since I already know how to write, I can focus on the reading. Plus, you have to understand, you are just starting out on the journey the Japanese literacy. You have to learn how to write and understand the underlying meaning of the kanji at some point. Why not do this part separately? I can safely say that I would have given up on reading Japanese a long time about without Remembering the Kanji, which I was seriously ready to do until I found this series of books. Do Heisig’s method, take the couple months, believe me, in the end it’ll be worth it.

Okay, now you know how to read and write at a basic level, now what? Well, it was at this point that I’ve found a few things that have worked for me in terms of building vocabulary and comprehension. Since I was an exchange student, the daily interactions I had with friends was invaluable for speaking and listening practice. However, you may not be in such an easy position to get out and interact with Japanese people. Thankfully, if you are reading this, you have all the tools you need. There are a number of great websites out there that promote language exchange. The most interesting one I’ve found is Lang-8, where users post blogs in the language they are trying to learn and native speakers can offer corrections. There are also websites out there where people can connect to speak, such as at xLingo. I think that constant interaction with natives of the language is incredibly important, not just for the obvious benefits to your language skills. It is also your number one motivator to continue to learn. You can only sit in your room by yourself studying so long without wondering if it’s all worth it. If you can make even one friend who speaks the language you want to learn, I guarantee you will work that much harder to speak with them than if you didn’t have such a friend.

So Joe, then, you may ask, how about some concrete techniques and tools to use when studying? Well, I am personally a major fan of the method prescribed at AllJapaneseAllTheTime.com, with a few caveats. The basis of the AJATT method is “sentence mining,” wherein you scour native texts (in the form of movies, video games, comics, and the like) and enter full sentences containing words or grammar that you do not understand into an SRS, or Spaced Repetition System, which is basically a fancy flashcard program. By doing so, you simultaneously immerse yourself in the language you are studying, learning in a way not unlike a child would their first language, and actively study unknown material. The SRS is great because unlike regular flashcards, an SRS will gauge your performance over time and display cards for you exactly at the moment you would have forgotten, so that you get to the point where you have whole years before seeing the same card again. It is at this point that the words/grammar in question are invariably burned into your memory for all eternity. Using sentence mining, I have drastically increased my reading and comprehension to the point where I can more or less breeze through manga and read a short news article in 10 minutes or so. My favorite SRS is Anki, particularly for its Japanese-specific functionality. Whenever you put in a sentence, like one full of kanji, the program automatically generates the readings and puts it on the “answer” side of the card.

Another major tenant of ATATT is 24/7 immersion in audio, hence “All Japanese All The Time.” At first I was skeptical of whether I could do such a thing, especially if I wouldn’t be able to understand the majority of what I heard. But now that I’ve been listening to more Japanese than English on a daily basis, I can say that immersing yourself in audio does wonders for just about every aspect of language learning. Being able to follow the ebb and flow of conversion, the vocal tics, pauses and intonations is essential for fluency. I’ve gotten to the point where I’ve even asked at work if I can run a small stereo in the back while I do my job, so that I am now listening to Japanese for 12+ hours a day.

However, I haven’t been using the AJATT the whole time I’ve learned Japanese and the fact that AJATT forbids studying grammar by itself bugs me. It would be so slow and painful to read anything without at least a little bit of grammar under your belt. Most of the grammar study I’ve done has been through the Minna No Nihongo textbook series while I was studying in Japan. Of course, buying a book to study grammar on your own is a bit pointless when you have the internet. Just do a search, I’m sure you will come up with some great resources to use. I’ve heard great things about this site in particular.

I’ll wrap up with a rough schedule of my daily life recently, to give you an idea of my study habits:

• 11:00am – Wake up, put on headphones running a Japanese podcast and go downstairs.
• 11:15am – Eat breakfast while continuing to listen.
• 11:45am – Go upstairs again, grab my iPod stereo.
• 12:00pm – Shower while my stereo blasts some J-Rock or some more podcasts.
• 12:30pm – Settle in front of the computer to get down to some concentrated study. Turn on KeyHoleTV to watch Japanese TV while I work.
• 12:45pm – Hit up Reviewing the Kanji, do any kanji reviews I need to do.
• 1:15~1:30pm – Fire up Anki and review expired cards.
• 2:30pm – After finished my Anki reviews, I just do whatever catches my fancy to harvest new sentences from. This could be a manga, movie, video game, website, anything. Often I’ll switch between multiple things to keep it fresh and fun.
• 5:00pm – Input the last sentences into Anki, do the final reviews.
• 6:00pm – Go to work while playing more Japanese stuff on my car stereo.
• 6:30pm – Get started at work, fire up the iPod stereo and listen listen listen.
• 1:30am~3:00am – Finish at work, go home playing Japanese on my car stereo again.
• 3:30am – Sleep while running KeyHoleTV quietly in the background.

Obviously, this might be excessive for some. But I have every intention of becoming fluent in Japanese before I graduate next year and go back to Japan to work, probably as an English teacher at first. If you have any questions or criticisms about my study techniques, please leave a comment. If you have some super-awesome study technique I’ve yet to read about, definitely leave a comment! Until next time! 頑張ろう！

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I figured I’d use this post to give out some final advice to everyone who is thinking of studying abroad, gleaned from my year here. Of course it all boils down to want you want from your time in a foreign country, but this is what I found worked for me:

• Don’t be shy. This is absolutely the most important thing. You are in a different place, hundreds if not thousands of miles from everyone you’ve ever known. You have to be willing and open to meet new people. Not just from the country you are staying in, but people from all over the world who are studying abroad along with you. I don’t think you have anything to worry about anyway. The people I’ve met here are some of the most interesting and fun people I’ve ever met, even if we both have to use a language we are not proficient in.

• Make an effort to get out. This one is particularly important if you came abroad to study language. Don’t assume that just because you are in the country of your target language that you will automatically learn it. It’s just as easy to sit in your room browsing around English sites as it is back home and I know of a couple people here who do just that. Find someway, anyway you can to interact on a daily basis with the native people of the country in which you are living. If you want to have a genuine study abroad experience, as opposed to just an extended vacation, this is very important. The most meaningful experiences you will have while studying abroad will be with people who are not from the same country you are from.
• Join a club. Continuing the train of thought from the last point, I’ve found that the absolutely easiest way to meet people from the country you are studying in is to join a club at the school. For me, this was the 探検部, or Exploration club. I chose this club for a couple reasons. First, I was a Boy Scout back in the day and I’m not entirely unfamiliar with camping and trekking around in nature. Second, I knew I wanted a club that would travel. Thanks to being in the Exploration club, I’ve seen much of the countryside of northern Japan (which is breathtaking by the way). Just make sure you pick a club that suits your interests. If you come to a Japanese college, you will have no shortage of clubs to pick from. They have one for just about everything. But make sure you jump on the chance! Most clubs will be open to accepting new people at the beginning of the semester. Also, don’t worry if you just arrived and don’t have the best language skills. I joined my club barely being able to say hello or introduce myself. Now they don’t stop complementing my Japanese and comparing me to how I was when I first joined.
• Learn to cook a bit. If you want to save yourself a load of money (and who doesn’t in this economy), it’s not a bad idea to buy some cooking equipment and learn to make some basic dishes. In my case, I bought a rice cooker and used it with almost every meal. In Japan, rice is cheap and fills you up. Just find something quick and easy to pour on top of it. Your mileage will vary depending on the country you are in.
• Travel. Even though you are studying abroad and it seems like travel in its own right, you will quickly fall into a groove in the town you are in. In order to properly appreciate the country you are in, I feel that traveling at least once or twice during your stay is important. If money is an issue, there are plenty of ways to travel on the cheap if you do a bit of research. For example, Japan has an excellent system of business hotels that usually don’t cost any more than $60-$80 a night, which includes breakfast every morning. If this is still too much, there are also many hostels around which cost no more than $30 a night, if you are will to sleep with strangers in the same room. Same goes for transportation. The 夜行バス (yakou basu, “overnight bus”) is well known by students here as a cheap way to get down to Tokyo, only $100 for a round trip ticket.
• Alcohol. It will be consumed, especially in Japan. Drinking is a major past-time of students and businessmen alike and getting drunk carries little of the negative stigma it does back in the States. For proof of this, you need only go out to a bar. Every establishment I know of has something called 飲み放題, or “nomihoudai,” where you pay about $15-$20 and get all you can drink for two or more hours. If you are coming to Japan and abstain from drinking, you will unfortunately have a much harder time meeting people.
• Be open minded. A final piece of advice and a fairly obvious one I think. But, if you feel you are incapable of adapting to, quite literally, an alien place, then don’t study abroad. Seriously, don’t. I’ve seen people here who only complain about Japan or the other foreign students and hang out with only people who speak English. They seem quite miserable for it. It’d be better just to not come in the first place. To be sure, studying abroad is not for everyone, even if you have a burning desire to visit a particular country or study a particular language. It takes more than that. You just have to a flexible person.

I hope that this post was able to be of some help. If anyone has any further questions regarding studying abroad, particularly in Japan, just leave me a comment or an email. The next time I write a post will probably be on Eastern Standard Time, so until then!

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Upper Elementary Japanese IA and IIA

This class was the continuation of last semester’s Japanese class, Elementary Japanese. The class used the second half the of the textbook series, Minna No Nihongo. The class served to finish off the last of the grammar points that, supposedly, bring one up to an intermediate level of Japanese ability. The structure of the class was very much like that of last semester – separate grammar and kanji classes. However, there was one exception this time around: there was a reading class for one period a week. In this class, we would have a short essay typed up by the professor handed out to us, which we would have the course of a week to read. Then, in class the following week, we would have a quiz and a class discussion on the contents of said essay. Generally, these were pretty easy and took into consideration what we had studied in the grammar class. If we had done a new chapter’s worth of material, the essay was sure to include that new grammar.

On the whole, I found this class fairly easy. Being in Japan and studying using my own regimen (which will be the subject of a future post) ensured that I wasn’t encountering anything totally alien in class. The thing that undoubtedly gave people the most trouble was the kanji class. This time around, instead of just studying individual kanji, this class took it to the next level by introducing about 10-15 new kanji, and then as a class we would come up with at least a couple of compound words using the new kanji and those we had previously studied. This brought the total number of kanji/words expected of us to remember to 50+ a week. I found Anki to be a tremendous help to this end. I will go into the details of this program in a later post, but just know for now that it is a flashcard program that uses the computer to intelligently help you study. It was written by a guy studying Japanese, so there is a lot of Japanese-specific functionality in the program. I would enter each week’s set of words into Anki the night that I got them and by the following Friday (when we had the weekly test) I could pass with flying colors, often getting over 100% because the professor allowed us to write additional kanji for extra credit. The great thing too, about Anki, is that over the course of the semester, I was constantly seeing those kanji I had studied from lessons past, so that nothing would fall out of my memory. The final test in kanji included all kanji we had learned that semester, so when the final test came around I got nearly a 100% on it.

Modern Japanese Literature

Drawing on texts from the Meiji period onward, Modern Japanese Literature was conducted in a manner quite similar to literature courses I’ve taken in semesters past . The books we read included those by Dazai, Shimazaki and  Kenzaburo, all famous Japanese authors of the past 100 years or so. The main theme of the class was authors who wrote about life from the fringes of Japanese society, literally – all of these authors were born and raised in the countryside of Japan and their perspectives on what life is like in a rapidly changing Japan formed the basis of our study.

Being that this course was intended for foreign students, the class was taught bilingually and the original Japanese texts and English translations were available. But since it was a literature course, the discussions in class were the most important aspect of the course, so if one wasn’t fluent in either Japanese or English this class would be extremely difficult, if not downright impossible. The main way I was graded was by a final five page paper, where we had to compare two of the books we had read and see how the authors were similar or different. I’m an English major and enjoy reading literature and discussing it, so if you don’t think you could handle reading a book every week or two, then this class certainly wouldn’t be for you.

“Cool Japan” and Consumer Culture

The focus of this class, as one might be able to guess, was about modern Japanese popular culture. We watched anime, television, listened to a lecture by manga artists who came in to our class and wrapped up the semester by giving a presentation about how Japanese culture affects or is present in our respective countries. I discussed the effects of the Japanese video game industry on that of the U.S. and I posted the transcript of the Japanese translation in a previous post. I found this class to be quite fun, but be warned we didn’t just spend the whole time reading manga or watching anime. Professor Suwa gave us commentary on everything we looked at and explained how it tied back to ancient Japanese culture.

Topics in Japanese Society

This class, taught by professor Sawada as was the literature course, was about the specifics of what you experience as a Japanese person throughout life. We started with birth and then went on to the various aspects involved with childhood, education, adulthood, marriage, old age and then death. I learned a lot

from this class and it helped me to much better understand some of the everyday things I see here in Japan. We also discussed various issues facing Japan, like education reform, freeters and NEETs and the rapidly aging population. As part of my evaluation, I worked with other classmates in a group to produce a presentation about the recent stress-free education reforms and bullying. At the end of the semester, we took a class trip out to a local Buddhist temple to learn from the head monk about how funerals are performed. If I was to recommend any of the class I took besides Japanese, I would recommend this one because I think anyone would enjoy it and it really is important to understand what it means to be Japanese if you are going to be here.

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It’s been a long time coming but it’s finally here! Enjoy watching me ramble on about where I’ve been living this past year, the International House. Excuse the mess, please! :)

Note: The sound is pretty bad in the beginning because of the wind. Don’t worry, it gets better. ;)

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The first few days of the break were spent with my club. First, I had a meeting as usual on the Thursday before the break started. It was a bit boring as I sometimes find due to the huge amount of ceremony that is done. The meetings are conducted the same way every time, with Ise (the club leader) saying a short opening, then reviewing past and future trips. This easily takes the most amount of time, as every trip has a detailed plan written out. Not only are the plans for future trips read in their loquacious entirety from front-to-back, but trips that have been done and whose plans were already read are read again, just in case any updates were made to how things were conducted. People always have plenty of questions about the minutiae of what happened. It is at this point that I feel like falling asleep, since Thursdays are one of my busiest days, with classes all day right up until the meeting.

However, this night was better because afterwards we decided to head out to Konnamura and do some nomihodai/food action. In true Japanese club fashion, the drinks were consumed with vigor, which I certainly regretted since I had class the next morning. But, this is the way things go when you are a student at a Japanese university and I relish every chance I get to have conversations with other Japanese. I can tell you, going into my final weeks and months here, that even if you are in Japan, finding opportunities to speak to Japanese people and to break into the social scene is quite difficult. This can be for a variety of reasons, whether it be shyness or Japanese level ability, but the fact is almost everyone I know, even the very skilled Chinese and Korean students, often can be heard complaining about this same thing. There’s only a couple people I know who spend more time with Japanese people than foreigners. Basically, when you’re coming here, be aware that it can be a challenge to meet Japanese people, but it is by no means impossible. I can name four or five Japanese people now that I consider more than acquaintances, and one or two who are actually becoming good friends. Then of course I have everyone in my club I can talk to when I’m with them, hence why I went to Thursday’s drinking party.

So, the next day I had work as usual at 5, but the next day was going to be special since my co-workers and I would be preparing for the Christmas party that would be held on Sunday afternoon. We spent the better part of three hours going over what the different parts of the party would be, the different events, skits, games, etc., in addition to logistics like food and drink. I, being the only male foreigner currently employed, would of course be Santa Claus. Not that I had any objection to this, I was quite looking forward to playing the part. They had a Santa suit that they’ve been using for several years now and it luckily fit me just fine. The big day of the party came on Sunday and I was feeling a bit nervous, but that all dissipated once the students started coming through the door and I started in on my “Ho Ho Ho”s. Honestly, the party was quite fun. During the course of events, the different classes of students would come up on stage and participate in a small activity not unlike the ones we do in class, if only to confirm to the parents that their kids were, in fact, learning something. In case you missed it, here’s my photo I uploaded to TwitPic of me being Santa.

Afterwards, I went out with my co-workers and boss for some well-earned dinner together at the nearby Italian, during which I had a long conversation with Britney. Britney is one of the Americans here, from Tennessee. Somehow we got on the topic and ended up talking about each others’ childhood in some depth. Of course, while all this was going on I got to indulge myself in some delicious Italian, which I hadn’t eaten since I arrived in Japan. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

So that was my Sunday of that week. The following day was my first true day of break, which went by without incident. I found that I half the break was spent in solitary confinement in my room, studying all day, while the other half I was out doing just the opposite: partying or something into the wee hours of the morning. I found that I enjoyed this greatly, as I like being with people just as much as I enjoy an entire day alone studying with only an email or two to the outside world. At this point, Japanese is becoming a serious hobby/passion, so I have no trouble just spending my time doing this.

Anyway, the following day was my club’s End of the Year party, which is called 忘年会 in Japanese. They have these parties in some capacity in clubs, work, or other extra-familial organizations. The characters in that word translate out to “forget the year party,” and you can bet that’s what a lot of people were working on. My club had its party at Hana Yori Dango, which is proving to be quite the popular place to go to have a gathering in Nishi-hiro (the cheap student bar district). We had a bunch of nabe (a kind of Japanese stew) along with various other side-dishes, and of course lots and lots o’ beer. For myself, at least – I found that myself, Ise the club leader and only a few others were beer people. I chatted, I ate, I drank for all of three hours, after which we headed to the traditional second party at another bar for another three hours. Again, we did another round of drinking. All in all, it was a very unique chance to get a look into something that is otherwise reserved almost exclusively for other Japanese people. I was the only white guy I saw the whole night and I was glad for it. Later in the night after the second party, me and several of my club mates walked back with my to my room, including Ise. We just happened to have the party at a bar near by the International House here. I showed the guys around my room, which is to say I opened the door and they looked in, but I had a good time pointing out the various things from America and my materials from school. They were particularly infatuated with my kanjiposter.com poster of kanji (go figure), which has all 2042 Joyo kanji and is an ever-present reminder of the daunting task ahead of me to attain Japanese literacy.

After a night like that, it can only be assumed that I needed a day or two to recover. Honestly, I wasn’t in bad shape that next day. On Christmas Eve, I headed out to the local church with my host family to enjoy a mass of mainly music. Going to church on or around Christmas is probably a tradition a lot of us westerners have, as we try to justify to ourselves Christmas being about more than just rampant consumerism and an opportunity to get drunk with relatives. The church itself was nice, being very similar in style to that of an American church. They had hand bells and singing. The song booklet they handed out had all of the lyrics in hiragana, so I was able to sing along (I just tried to treat it like karaoke). While there, we ran into Nick, my host sisters’ English teacher at their high school. I find it uncanny how often I run into him. He really is a cool guy, who gave me quite a bit of advice about teaching in Japan back at the beginning of the semester. After we left the church, my host family and I headed over the the restaurant across the street which can be humorously translated as “Surprised Ass.”

The following day rolled around and all of a sudden it was Christmas day. Usually an auspicious day, it went by without almost anything of note happening for me. I studied just as normal during the afternoon, after which I hooked up with Kevin and headed out to the local ramen place. Christmas in Japan does not really bear any special weight – it appears as an excuse to me to take part in the holiday spirit enjoyed by us in the west, but only extends as far as that. Since there are no serious social or cultural underpinnings, Christmas comes and goes and just any other day. Every restaurant and bar I saw along the street was open and I saw all kinds of people out and about as they normally would.

After we enjoyed some ramen, Kevin and I hooked up with Alex and Luis and headed over the Hana Yori Dango (notice a trend?) for some Christmas day merrymaking. We drank beers for a few hours, chatted with pair of women at the table next to us and generally lamented the fact that this day was just so ordinary. However, things turned for the better for me after we left the bar and headed for our respective homes. I was able to speak with my family back home in Maine over Skype complete with video on their Christmas morning. How utterly cool technology is sometimes! They set up the computer in the living room by the tree, so I could see everything and talk to everyone just like I was there in the flesh. I was able to talk with my grandparents, aunts, uncles, mom, dad, brothers and all the rest. :) Seeing the living room like that in real time made me realize that I would be there sooner than I thought, and I am most certainly looking forward to coming home.

The following day went by without much incident again, I spent it mainly studying. I did get an email from Alex, however, asking me if I wanted to go out to the ice rink up in Aomori with him and a friend of his named Sasha. Sasha is actually a Japanese student who will be going to my school starting in the spring of 2010 I believe. She came by the International Center one day a few weeks ago and asked me a bunch of questions about Maine, which I answered with some of the most butchered Japanese to come out of my mouth, as I recall. Anyway, Sasha shuttled the three of us up there to the rink in the middle of a snow storm, but we managed to make it there in one piece. The ice rink had two skating areas: an inner ice hockey rink, which was surrounded by another circle of ice like so many rings around Saturn. It was on this so-called “high speed” ice track that we spent most of our time. I hadn’t skated in a long time , and as such I was quite rough in the beginning. It started to come back to me bit by bit, though, and by the end of the day I was able to skate, turn, and hockey stop without much trouble. Alex clearly had been skating a few times before, as he was able to flip around and skate backwards at high speed, whereas Sasha was quite the beginner. I asked her about skating and she told me that she went about once a year. Overall, this was a fun activity, which I especially enjoyed because it nicely broke the cycle of study-drink-study. That wasn’t to last, though, as we organized for some drinking that night Alex, Sasha, JJ, Kevin and myself. It was quite the wild night, to say the least. Let’s just say I was feeling a little rough for the next couple days after this.

I was able to alleviate this a bit the day after next when I randomly ran into some of the foreign students at the supermarket while doing my evening shopping. I was told my O (a Thai student, and yes her name is pronounced as simply “O.”) that they were going to her host family’s house. They invited me along, and while at first I was a bit apprehensive, I decided to come along nonetheless. I didn’t know what I had in store for myself that night, but it turned out to be one of such a wholesome and truly “foreign exchange” nature that I was totally taken aback. I was introduced to a house of such beautiful, northern Japanese style, owned by a single obaachan (Japanese for a kindly older woman) who has taught calligraphy the world over and whose works adorned the walls. The house was lively, full to the brim with other foreign students, and as I came to find out the woman who owned this house loved to get us together and have dinner. I also was reintroduced to a Chinese friend from last semester that I hadn’t seen in a long time, Kome. I sat in in the warm room made of wood and tatami with the snow falling outside, drinking in the company of people who couldn’t speak English while making gyoza together. There was something so peculiar about that night, something about the atmosphere that just left me drunk with contentment and joy to be with my fellow man. I’d feel lucky if I’m ever able to recreate the experience of that night again in my life. We ate and drank until almost 11 that evening, after which we said our goodbyes and headed back out into the cold, clear night.

There are still two more things left to mention, the first being the New Year. So, how did I spend my New Year? Well, it was first of all quite impossible to get together with any of my Japanese friends. It would akin to trying to barge in on a family on Christmas morning – New Years is first and foremost a family holiday, so practically everyone had headed “home for the holidays,” as they say. Hirosaki was a veritable ghost town in the evening when I finally headed out to see what everyone was up to. It ended up being that quite a few of the other American guys were busy with their own things, including going out to clubs, being with their parents who’d come to visit, be with girlfriends, etc.. I found company with the reliable crew that I had shared an evening with already – Kevin and Luis, who were as well a bit frustrated by the fact that no one was around to get together with. However, we managed to make our own fun that night. We drank a bit in Luis’s room, played his new electric guitar, then headed out to seemingly the only place open nearby: Konnamura, the bar where I had spent many a fun evening. We ordered up a few plates of food, including their ridiculously large fried chicken platter and chatted for a long while. We went around 11, so as soon as it was getting close to midnight, Luis set his cell phone alarm to beep when we got down to the final minute. When it came, we all stood, drinks in hand (in my case it was a green tea, I wasn’t drinking) and did the traditional countdown. We weren’t alone as it turned out. There were two other large parties of people eating and drinking, and as the clock struck midnight we all erupted in cheers. One of the groups actually brought along party favors and covered the floor in confetti. After a while, we decided it would be a good idea to head out and do the traditional Japanese thing on New Years: going to the temple and pray for a happy new year.

We ended up walking to the 5-storied pagoda, which was the subject of one my first videos when I got here. The place was nothing like it looked like in that video, however. It was fully lit-up and reminded me at once of the Hanami festival. The vendors were open, the booming gong that could be heard for a long distance and the outright liveliness of hundreds of people descending on a small Hirosaki temple. They had the shrine all done up nice with a large cloth and writing on covering the opening to the main temple itself. It was here that everyone was tossing their money, ringing the bell, clapping twice and praying. Of course, I just had to take part in it myself and Kevin happily joined, along with a couple other friends I didn’t intend on running into. It turned out that a bunch of my Korean pals had headed to the temple to take part in the festivities. We all got in line to pray. When we got up there, I saw that they had a large box covering the stairs that normally led up to the interior of the temple, but was currently being used as a place to toss money into. Kevin, Park and I tossed our money in, and while I manned the small gong in the middle, the other two shook the bells hanging from rope from the ceiling. All together we clapped twice and prayed for a second, each of us probably praying the same thing: “let this be a good year.” I have every confidence that it will, since I will hopefully be finishing up the majority of studies at college and will be graduating sometime next year. After that, well, we’ll see what happens, but I know that one way or another I will be back here in Japan.

On the way out of the temple, Kevin and I ran into a pair of Japanese women and a young boy. This motley crew ended up being the evening’s entertainment. Kevin and I were standing just behind them in front of a stall selling the fortune papers that you tie to the string. The shorter one of the pair of women took a look back, and said in an unusually loud voice “are they gaiijin?” This came out as heavily slurred Japanese. At once, I realized this person wasn’t being rude, they were just being drunk. It is very unlike Japanese people to out and out say, “Oh look! White people!” I find that if they do take notice of you, they either say nothing, or start a discussion about America and/or English. This even happens to some of the Eurpeans here who don’t speak English as a native language. As far as I can tell, Japanese perceptions about the west are filtered through America. Anyway, it ended up being that these two were sisters and the child was the non-drunk one’s. We got on well with the conversation, but after the drunk one started hitting on Kevin (it didn’t help that her sister was egging her on) and then proceeded to try and wipe her nose on his jacket, we decided to try and cut things short.

I had one final thing that I did during the break – I went out to a “live,” which is a kind of concert put on by bands in special “live houses” designed specifically for this purpose. But before that, I went out for some sushi with my host family, which was a totally unexpected and thoroughly enjoyed treat.

It was out at this place called “Kappa Zushi,” a kind of conveyor-belt sushi place that was out on the outskirts of Hirosaki, and as such I hadn’t been there before. I always appreciate sushi, considering how good it is here in Japan and how expensive it is, even if it is Japan. This place was extra neat, since it has a goddamn train deliver your sushi to your table after you order it with a freaking touchscreen. I swear, the west needs to play catch up in a couple departments:

After the sushi, I bid farewell to my host family and went over the the Mag-Net which I had not been to in some time. When I got there, Kevin and Alex were already there as they told me they would be. I was afraid that I wouldn’t arrive in time to see my friend Yasu’s band play. However, they weren’t going to be on for a while. When they did finally get on, they were great as usual. I even jumped down into the pit and moshed to their final song, “Fight with Myself” (all of their lyrics are in English, actually). I really think their music is great for a couple of guys from a small northern Japanese town and if you want to take a listen, I’ve uploaded their debut EP here. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind the exposure if this was to get big. Their music, as you may have heard in previous videos, is a punk/ska type sound, so if you are into that I think you’ll enjoy the album. The closest thing to a radio single is tracks 2 and 5, but I like them all.

After the great live, Kevin and the other allowed me to stay for the after party, or “uchiage” as they call it. The word literally means “the house gives,” and give they did. Mag-Net served up a veritable feast and a cooler full of beer. I chatted the night away with various guys who just an hour before lit up the stage. Basically, I was partying with the entire Hirosaki/Aomori indie rock scene. As is typical of Japanese parties, we weren’t done by a long shot and headed out to party number two at a bar in Kaji-machi around 3 in the morning. At this point, it was just me with the band guys (Kevin and Alex had gone home). We chilled, talked, and continued with the beer and food consumption. I also got some pictures, the one that I like the most being this one:

That’s Yasu on the bottom right, bassist and singer for DEAD STOCK.

I guess that will wrap this one up, and quite a “one” it is. This baby clocks in at over 3800 words, as long as some of my earlier posts. So, if you’ll please excuse me any grammar/spelling mistakes. I’ve run it through a spell check, but besides that I guarantee nothing. Later!

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アメリカのゲーム市場への日本の影響力
ジョー•ケスター

1980年代初期のアメリカのゲーム
1.三箇所の主なゲーム会社―Atari, Mattel, Coleco、 アメリカの会社
1.初期の各社のゲームのコンソールはAtari 2600, Mattel Intellivision, ColecoVisionであった。
2.アーケードゲームを一般家庭に導入した始めてのシステム
3.新しい産業の誕生
1.2600は２千５百万台を販売、ゲーム産業の価値は50億ドール以上になった。（物価上昇を顧慮すれば現在の120億に達する。）
アメリカのゲーム産業の荒廃化
1.低いクオリティのゲーム
1.2600が発売したPac-manはアーケードのバージャンとは違って低いクオリティを見せる。
2.E.T.カートリッジゲームは供給過剰され、100万以上のコピーが売れ残りになる。
2.幾多のゲーム会社の氾濫
1.文字とおり、幾多のゲーム会社が市場に新しく登場
3.1984年のパソコンブーム
1.当時のApple IiやCommodoreのようなパソコンは他のゲームコンソールに対して価格教祖力を持つ。
2.多機能
3.ゲームコンソールに会っての消費者の興味の低下
4.1985年度になって、家庭用のゲーム市場はパソコンに代替される。
Nintendo Famicom
1.Nintendo
1.日本、京都の子規模の花札会社から発展
2.前会長であった「博山内」が電子ゲームの潜在力を予見する。
3.Magnavox Odyessey
2.アメリカゲーム市場への進入
1.独自のゲームコンソールを開発、Nintendo Famicom
2.1985年から1986年までテースト市場であったNew york、Los Angeles、Chicago、San Franciscoで大成功する。
3.1986年一般に発売開始、Super Mario Brothersも同時に売り始める。
3.「Seal of Quality」
1.ゲームの販売量が供給量を追い越す。
2.博山内会長は品質の高いゲームの大事さを認識
3.「Seal of Quality」はFamicom用のゲームに配れる。
4.Mario
1.プラットホームゲームのジャンルを初投入
2.キャラクタの創作に重点を置き始める。
1.見事に考案されたキャラクタの動作やゲームプレーにあっての実時間的な要素
2.ストーリ上のPeachの救助という目的性をプレーヤに与える。
5.Final Fantasy
1.RPGジャンルを初投入
2.ストーリに重点を置く。
1.意味深い長いストーリを含む初めてのゲーム
2.小説や映画の登場人物のようにゲームキャラクタが創作される。「cut-scene」(映画のようにキャラクタの個性やストーリの理解のためにゲームに割り当てられたプレーヤの操作がいらないゲームプレー時間)
アメリカへの影響力
1.ゲーム市場がまた流行し始める。
2.歴史上一番多く売られたゲーム、Super Mario Brothers４千万コピー以上
3.アメリカのゲーム開発者たちは「cut-scene」やキャラクタ開発、ゲームのコントロールなどを採用
4.２００１年のMicrosoftのXboxが発売される前まではアメリカゲーム産業は日本が主導
5.現在ゲーム市場は数十億ドールの規模の産業になっている。
最新ゲーム
1.日本ゲームの影響力の下落？
1.最近のゲームアワードで受賞した日本の開発者が皆無
2.最近の数年間のアメリカ市場での日本ゲームの不振が日本ゲーム産業の指導部に危機感を与える。
3.日本人が「洋ゲーム」に関心を持ち始める。
1.日本国内市場で軌道に乗り始める。
2.シューティングゲーム等
3.日本のゲーム開発者たちは西洋スタイルを受け入れ始める。
1.Metal Gear Solid 4, Final Fantasy 12

翻訳者：イム•デキ

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Here’s to another great year!

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