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“Most of us who now call ourselves agnostics can recollect the feelings with which, in the period of our fresh emancipation from a faith far more irrational than Buddhism, we looked back upon the gloomy theology of our fathers…
Japan has nothing whatever to gain by conversion to Christianity, either morally or otherwise, but very much to lose.” (Lafcadio Hearn, 1894, Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, pp. xii, xvi)
Once again I have some issues of The Nihongo Journal available for the first reasonable offer. One issue is from November of 1993. The other is from January of 1996 and includes a cassette tape and case that goes along with it. The cassette has six different dialogues, training sessions, and JLPT oral practice quizzes on it ranging from 3 to 16 minutes each.
I’ve been playing around with the site readthekanji.com for a few days now. This site is a nice tool to improve your skills in reading Japanese (not just kanji) and in preparing for any level of the JLPT.
The registration process is painless and free. It doesn’t even require an email address. You do want to register as doing so allows you to track your progress. You will be shown the characters you are having the most difficulty with so that you can focus in and master them.
If you are just learning hiragana and/or katakana you can start at that basic of a level too. Otherwise you can choose to start at JLPT 4, JLPT 3, JLPT 2, or JLPT 1. Even if you start at a higher level (like JLPT1 or JLPT2) you will still be tested on more basic kanji. I recommend you read this page before beginning.
Happy studying!
Once again I have finished reading a number of Mangajin that I’d like to send to you (as my shelves are overflowing). The six issues pictured are 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, and 47. All are in great shape except 31 which has minor water damage and a crease in the cover. It is still completely readable though, and there are no torn or missing pages. There is no writing in any of them.
Make me an offer if you’d like them.
I’m not sure how this movie made it into my Netflix queue. Perhaps I saw it in a list of “recommended Japanese movies” or maybe Netflix recommended it when I gave positive feedback on other Japanese movie titles. In any event, I had no idea what the movie would be like when I put it in my DVD player.
At first it seemed like a cutesie, chick flick with this perfect man and perfect son looking for the perfect female to enter their household to replace their long lost, and much beloved, okaasan who had died many years before when the teenager was just a small boy. I even called my wife in to watch as it seemed to be something more fitting to her tastes than mine. (She didn’t make it to the end.)
About halfway though the movie, or so, things suddenly took an abrupt turn to a darker and far more sinister undertone. My ten-year old daughter walked in the room just in time to see a sack lurch on the back of the screen. There may have been a strange sound emitted as well. I’m not sure. All I know is my daughter sprinted out of the room, and it was clear that this wasn’t just a chick flick.
Without giving too much away, I can say that you will have to be a fan of twisted movies to really enjoy the latter half of Audition. Takashi Miike borrows a page or two from David Lynch’s Lost Highway, one of my favorite movies. Movies like Audition and Lost Highway weigh on my mind for several days after viewing.
If you have seen Audition and want to understand it more, check out this. This movie isn’t really a horror movie, at least not in the classical or even modern sense of the word. It is different. It isn’t just for entertainment either. There are lots of uses for this movie. Here are a few that come to mind:
1) Use it on a bachelor when they decide to marry if you want to quickly convince them never to marry.
2) Use it on a child abuser to get them to mend their ways. Forget prison. This is way more effective.
3) Use it on someone who is into S&M for “fun.” They will no longer be into S&M for any reason. Period.
4) Use it on a person who sleeps too much. After this movie they will never want to sleep again.
Enjoy!
Kiddy Land (キデイランド) in Harajuku (原宿) features six stories worth of toys you’ll be hard pressed to find anywhere else in the world. My kids were in heaven and could have easily spent the rest of their lives in the place. Luckily they closed at 9 and kicked us out.
To get there, as you head out of Harajuku station (原宿駅) go straight down the main street, Omotesando (表参道), and it will be on your right.