Learn Japanese Today

Alright, so San Francisco is pretty much fantastic. That’s why it’s taken me so long to post. It’s the kind of place that lends itself to long bike rides, beautiful views, overwhelmingly large lunches and afternoon naps. Definitely my kind of place.

I really haven’t had a free second until now to post, but this morning I seem to be awake well before my friend Andrew who I’m staying with (maybe because my internal clock is 2 hours ahead), and I’m going to take advantage.

Anyways, on to today’s tip.

Play Japanese video games.

This doesn’t mean beat Pokemon in English for the 4^th time, nor does it mean play those language-learning games that are thinly-veiled flashcard programs.

What I mean is that you should play the same kind of games you normally do, except in Japanese.

You like Pokemon? Of course you do. Everyone likes Pokemon. So rather than beat it in English again, go download a Game Boy Advance emulator and some Pokemon ROMs . Seriously though, this site will let you search for ROMs by country. It’s really great for finding ones in Japanese. If you’ve never used an Emulator before, click here .

Or if Pokemon’s not your style, take advantage of all the other emulation resources on the web. Excluding the current generation of game systems, you can find almost any game for any system for free on the internet if you look long enough. And most of them in Japanese.

And if you don’t want to deal with the whole download process, you can buy games straight from Japan for all your favorite consoles from Play-Asia.com . Keep in mind, most systems other than the Nintendo DS and the PC have region codes, so you’ll need a Japanese Xbox to play Halo in Japanese. But you should definitely look around the site, you’ll find something you like.

But why am I recommending this? What does it matter what language you play a video game in?

First of all, this is another thing in the long line of daily activities I like to modify to include Japanese training, like watching Japanese TV and reading a Japanese book before bed. If you change what are essentially wasted hours playing video games into Japanese study as well, you don’t need to feel as guilty about playing because you’ll know you’re learning as well.

The big thing though, is that playing video games in Japanese, specifically ones with stories that have text on the screen (no Halo), will REALLY help your Japanese. When you have to figure out a puzzle in addition to figuring out the instructions it adds an extra level of challenge, and this can really motivate you to try and figure out what people are saying based on the words you know. This is AMAZING for your survival Japanese, where you just have to go off what you think the person means and hope your right. I mean, if you can survive Final Fantasy 7, you can probably survive a trip to the konbini.

And it’s fun. The addition of language can make simple games like Pokemon more challenging and exciting. Some sections of games are dull, but when there’s Japanese to figure out, you’ll have more vested interest. It makes for a great gaming experience.

And if you’re not a gamer, don’t worry. This post is for you too. Maybe you never got into games because you thought they were a waste of time, and you were probably right. But playing games in Japanese is really helpful, so find something that looks simple and just give it a try. I’ll recommend some games down the road to help you out.

Alright, that’s it for this week. I’m about to go to a diner that apparently serves pancakes the size of frisbees. Yum.

Alright loyal readers, I have some big news for you. Your boy Todd is taking a trip to America’s next best thing to the land of the rising sun, San Francisco. I’m taking a much needed break from freelance writing and reporting and I’m going to actually have some real summer.

You know, tossing a frisbee on the beach, catching some waves, and of course, seeing all the best Japanese stuff the Golden Gate city has to offer. Now I’m not stupid, I know the influence in San Francisco is predominately Chinese and Seattle is a much better place to visit for Japanese culture, but San Fran just has to be better than Chicago, and I aim to prove it.

You should all feel proud of yourselves. I’m taking a vacation, but I’m taking you with me. And there will be pictures.

But.

I need your help. The last time I was in San Francisco I was 7 years old, and I barely remember it. Does anyone know any cool Japan-related stuff I should check out there? I’d love to do a field report.

Let me know.

Are you ready for this week’s word? You think you are, but you’re not.

雰囲気

Reading: ふんいき (funiki)

Definition: Atmosphere (of a situation), mood. This is generally used as a broadened use of kanji, meaning feeling, to apply to a setting or situation. For example, you might say an awkward date had a henna funiki (weird atmosphere) or a restaurant had ii funiki (good atmosphere).

I’m calling special attention to this word today because, of the Japanese people I’ve talked to, the general agreement is that funiki is the most often mispronounced word by foreigners. I know one of our favorite things about Japanese is that even the most complicated words are blissfully easy to pronounce once you know the sounds, except for this one.

Most gaijin read this word and say it how they say any other word fun-i-ki. That’s where the problems start. This isn’t one of those stereotypical easy to pronounce words. It’s a toughy. To try to phoeneticize it, the actual way it’s said goes something like fu-in ki. I don’t know how to describe it better. When Japanese people say it, it sounds like the n comes both before and after the i, but not in the way that would sound in English. Ask a Japanese friend to say it for you, I can’t describe it well enough.

So I’ve been noticing for the past couple of days that I’ve been getting a couple hits here and there from a site called cloudedsky.net . I originally chalked it up as being just some sort of link compilation ad webpage (you know, the kind that puts a whole bunch of links on a page and then gets traffic from people following backlinks), but today I finally discovered that it was the blog of one of my former senpai from Japanese class.

Geez Cory, thanks for leaving me a comment or anything.

Anyways, he’s currently getting ready to embark on a (year-long?) study abroad trip to Japan, which he will chronicle diligently on his blog . His blog will probably lean more towards adventures and antecdotes rather than the ramblings mine is prone to, and I always love to hear about how fellow student react to being in Japan. He’s spent a summer in Japan before, so you won’t hear the stereotypical touristy stuff from him (OMG there are like, sooooo many people in TOKYO!!! :{}), but you will get a good idea of the challenges and percs of being a student in Japan.

From Cory’s blog, I discover the blog of ANOTHER one of my classmates who will also be going to study abroad in Japan next year. You guys need to keep me posted, seriously. His situation is much the same as Cory’s, except for one crucial addition. A moustache. You can read his blog here.

Send these guys some love, it’s hard out there for a Japan blogger.

You know the feeling when you KNOW you have to go to sleep, either because you need to get up early the next day or you just stayed up to late.

You get in your pajamas, you wash up, you brush your teeth and you get in bed. There’s just one problem.

Your eyes are still open.

They’re wide open.

You’re body may be tired, but your mind is still going on about that attractive new co-worker that just learned your name or that term paper that your have to write sometime in the next 36 hours. Your mind keeps going and your eyes can’t close.

This is a feeling insomniacs and workaholics are quite familiar with, always thinking about something else so you can’t get any sleep. That’s why they turn to NyQuil or sleeping pills, which give them the luxury of falling asleep the second their head hits the pillow.

Waking up is another story. They wake up groggy and drowsy, and they can’t drive or do anything until they get some caffeine in their system. Then, when it’s time to go to bed, they need to take another sleeping pill to fall asleep. This makes them constantly dependent on caffeine and sleeeping pills to get through the day, which can have all sorts of stressful consequences, especially when one of the drugs isn’t in stock. Not ideal.

There was a period towards the end of last year when I had a pretty bad cold, so I started taking NyQuil every night so I could get to sleep. Once I got better, I found myself still taking NyQuil for another week. It was great being able to fall asleep so easily, but then I was totally worthless in the morning. I had trouble focusing in class (assuming I didn’t sleep through it) and I couldn’t really get anything productive done until at least 3 PM. That’s what made me decide that I needed a chemical-free way of falling asleep at night.

I’ve always been a big supporter of reading before bed. It’s a good, relaxing time to read, and more importantly, it settles down your mind and tires out your eye muscles so you can go to sleep. Of course, some books are much better for bedtime reading than others. For example, The Cantos of Ezra Pound knock me out after a stanza and a half, but the one time I was dumb enough to try reading just a chapter of the 7th Harry Potter book, I was up until 3AM.

This is where the whole point of this post comes in: Keep something written in Japanese on your bedside table.

It can be a book, magazine, newspaper, anything really. You should also probably have a kanji/regular dictionary on hand as well so you can make it through. All you have to do is just read as much as you can before you fall asleep. And believe me, you will fall asleep.

You know that feeling you get sometimes when you’re studying, when you feel like the scale of knowledge you must know to be fluent is just too massive and you just want to take a break and close your eyes? Yeah, that’s the feeling I’m talking about. And it can work for you.

This gets some of your daily studying out of the way, and helps you get to bed faster. That’s two birds with one ishi. Tell your friends.

Okay so maybe you’ve been reading the blog and you want me to review something, either something you like, hate, or are unsure about.

Well now you can tell me all about it with the all new Request a Review Form!

It’s really simple. All I ask is that when you submit something you leave me your name, e-mail, and URL if you have one. I’m not going to publish the e-mail, I just want it so I can send you a mail if I have any questions.

Then you should also give me the name of what you want me to review and the type of thing it is (podcast, radio station, book). Also leave a couple reasons why you’re recommending it as well as a URL where I can read more about it.

If you recommend something good that I end up reviewing, I’ll mention you in the review along with a link to your site. I’m glad to send you the traffic, so recommend some good stuff!

From now on, whenever you feel the need, just click on the tab at the top and request away!

I guess some stereotypes are true.

So today, I was working on a story for the paper about the amount of food the Chicago Bears consumed during training camp. For example, they ate enough liquid eggs to fill 4 standard-sized bathtubs.  You know, that kind of thing.

Anyways, I was looking at per capita seafood consumption to make some sort of statistical joke about the Bears eating more seafood than Ethiopia, and I found out that Japan eats more seafood per year than the US, despite being much smaller. Go JAPAN!

I had the statistical data in front of me all day, I think per capita consumption was 49.8 pounds per year according to an NOAA study. But now I can’t find it. And I’m tired because I worked for 14 hours. Go JAPAN!