Category: plans and preparations

My studies having progressed as far as they could until now, I went to the library today and did a practice JLPT test in preparation for Sunday. I’m glad it was not the real test – I would have failed miserably…

The part with the Kanji turned out quite well, surprisingly. The daily practice I’ve been doing for months now obviously paid off. The reading part was less successful, but it was clearly a question of time. My reading comprehension is not yet automated, I still have to do a lot of translating, which takes extra time that you don’t have.

The biggest problem still: vocabulary. I know a sufficient amount of words – but obviously the wrong ones… A very mean part of the test is the one where a sentence is given, but part of it – four words to be precise – is scrambled, and you have to put the words in the right order; and the question asks only for the word on a certain spot. This is very difficult to begin with, as word order can depend on the speaker’s emphasis (just like in English), so you really have to know the grammar inside out. If you know the vocabulary, you may be able to educatedly guess your way around that, but if you don’t…

I did not do a listening comprehension this afternoon as the one spot where you could do that was taken. Oh well, tomorrow again…

Yesterday I have received the test voucher for the JLPT test on December 1st. It is a very small, postcard sized piece of paper (actually it’s A5, but folded in half) with the bare essentials necessary for the test.

The first page contains my address, the test date and time and the number of the JLPT application centre.

The second page has directions to the test site. I was hoping that I only had to go to Kyoto University around the corner, but my test is in another university to the South of Kyoto. At least I can take the subway line that is relatively close by the house. It is interesting that it says here “DON’T telephone the test site for directions.” I can only assume that the university there doesn’t know about the test – or, at least not the random person who would pick up the phone on a Sunday morning…

The third page is all about me: name, photo, registration number, date of birth, more details as to the test site; and what test I’m taking and when the test hours are. This is the page I actually need to take – together with a picture ID.

The last page contains a list of general instructions. It covers “Items to bring to the test” (test voucher, writing instruments – pencils and plastic erasers taken out of their cases – wristwatch), “cautions – yellow cards” (for things like: starting before permission is given, a ringing phone, speaking and eating during the test, engaging in what looks like cheating, copying the questions, disturbing the other examinees), and “cautions – red cards” (immediate disqualification for things like: ringing phone during the listening examination, cheating, taking the test for another person, taking the questions outside of the room, leaving the examination before having permission.) Some of the instructions seem harsh (alarm watches to check the time are not allowed), others common sense (speaking during the test), it should be no problem for me though.

What’s interesting about the test voucher is that it is mostly in Japanese and English; the Japanese is written properly, i.e., containing all the Kanji at the right places, but it comes with Furigana. The instructions on the last page are only written in English and, as you have to tear off the third page for the test, the “tear here” is written in Korean, Chinese, English, and Japanese Hiragana. Funny, isn’t it?

Anyway, it’s two more weeks – time to get nervous?

Celebrations! I managed to finish the second volume of my book Genki – Elementary Japanese in the weekend, and I feel extremely smart now 😉 It’s four more weeks until the JLPT test on December 1st and I still have a lot to do: reinforcing the grammar I’ll need for the test – thank goodness no honorific or humble language – studying many more Kanji, and learning yet much more vocabulary. I am not really sure how to prepare for the listening comprehension part of the test – other than speaking to people I mean – but I’ll find a way I’m sure.

Besides that, things are going rather slow. There was International Day at the Kyoto International Community House yesterday and I went there for lunch and bought some sweets. The mother of one of my housemates will come for a visit tomorrow and she got all wound up and cleaned the kitchen – which, in turn, spurred me into action and I cleaned my room. I always have the impression I hardly buy anything besides food, but I end up with so much stuff – paper in particular – that I then have to go through and sort and toss… Anyway, the house is ready for inspection now – mum can come!

Slowly but surely it is getting cooler in Kyoto. We still have daily highs in the mid-twenty degrees, and I have seen that our lowest night temperatures are still higher than the day’s highs in Austria. Still, this will not last for much longer, and I am sure I have mentioned before that this very beautiful and old Japanese house does not have central heating…

Unfortunately, in complete ignorance of Japanese hiring procedures I have not brought anything warm to wear. I had expected to have received both a job and my belongings by now – including lots of money and all my winter sweaters. Neither has materialized yet, so I need to change my plans, at least regarding warm clothes; hence: I went shopping today.

The object of today’s desire after a rather cool morning: socks. Preferably long and thick and warm. I found a lovely little shop on Teramachi selling underwear and socks, and behold the result of my shopping spree: three pairs of wonderful socks in various lengths and materials.

The shop had plenty of socks, not only is it the time for it, but Asians are generally fond of nice footwear, mainly because you have to take off your shoes in so many places, private and public, and it’s always a good idea to show decent socks. I had the choice between socks with faces of cats and anime characters, socks with frilly lace and made of fleece, normal socks, toe socks, short and long…

However, what I found so very interesting about them all was… the frilly ones with the cat faces and sewn-on ears, the toe socks with each toe differently coloured, the ones barely grazing the ankle – those were all Made in Japan. The other, more boringly patterned, but obviously much warmer socks reaching to a decent height and made from wool and even cashmere were Made in China.

Conclusion: Japan stands for cute design, China for getting things done.

Lately, I have been busy preparing all sorts of stuff. For example, I went to the immigration office in Kyoto to get my visa extended. One hour later and 4000 yen poorer, I had an extra stamp in my passport, allowing me to stay yet another 90 days. The stamp, however, bears the extra note “Final Extension”, so I have marked that date on my calender so as not to forget it. Overstaying a visa is not a light issue, I have read that if the authorities have to force you out, you are not allowed to land in Japan for the following 5 years, and if you go on your own, it’s still one year. Not that I’m having plans like this, of course…

Having extended my visa means that I have some more time to find a job. I have taken one step in the right direction and registered for the next JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test – the same test that I failed last time 😉 ) which will take place in December. If you want to take the test in Japan, you can register online and pay per creditcard, all very straightforward. I just hope they didn’t expect my address to be written in Kanji…

Anyway, this means I’ll have a lot to do – studying of course, mainly Kanji and vocabulary. Grammar is limited and I’m quite confident I will manage this, but I always found learning words so incredibly boring…

I already mentioned my addiction to chocolate at least twice, and I have – with a certain amount of shock – realized that at the moment I am eating a whole bar of chocolate (the size of a small “Milka”, that is about 100 g) per day. Not good. I mean it surely makes me feel good, especially as the weather forecast predicts “rain that periodically stops” for the whole next week, but I have the feeling that it may be a bit too much. I can almost see the weight I have lost with so much difficulty slowly creeping upwards on my thighs and hips again…

Hence, I’ll try a little experiment:
No chocolate throughout September.

Ouch, that sounds really terrible

I will allow myself – occasionally – things like hot chocolate, mostly because I don’t make it at home and there’s no decent cafe nearby so I’ll have to go downtown for this. I finished my whole not-so-secret stash of chocolate yesterday, with the exception of a “chocolate twist”, a sweet bun with maybe 2% of chocolate filling. I decided that’s allowed also as the amount of chocolate is so tiny, it’s probably less than a teaspoon full overall.

To battle the craving I have bought fruit instead. Unfortunately the Japanese view on fruit is one that demands absolute perfection, so it is really expensive. Most of it is even important, which inflates the prices even more. I may have to go to a real market instead of buying it in the supermarket if I want to have cheap fruit. However, my supermarket has a small shelf where fruit and vegetables that don’t look that perfect anymore are put and sold at a cheaper price. The choice is smaller of course, but there’s nothing wrong with slightly spotty bananas; in fact I think they taste better anyway. I’ll have to check out that shelf more often.

So far I did well. All day only a small craving during the study session (I had a kiwi and two bananas) and that was around lunch time too, so it’s okay. Right now however … I want my good night chocolate … so … badly …

It was a slow day again. It was raining all Sunday, and today was still overcast. The temperature dropped by about 10 degrees over the weekend – I even felt cold during the night and had to get an extra blanket – but the humidity is relatively high.

So, nothing much happened today. I studied Japanese (a little step every day…), did some research on how to become self-employed in this country (lots of different opinions and advice on that one), sent out a CV for another job with my name on it (at least this one doesn’t require “perfect” Japanese like the other position – which is still being advertised, btw…), did some shopping (I’m out of chocolate again), and wrote to yet more people I know about helping me in my job search.

Things will start moving again soon, I’m sure.

I have been here now for almost two months. I have made new friends and had new experiences, and I still love the country and the people. I guess I’m really here to stay.

By now, however, my feeling of endless holidays has subsided a little, and I believe I need to get moving and start getting serious about this. First of all: I need new routines, which means I need to work on my Japanese. Seriously. Already last month I started to study Kanji every day, and I so far I am satisfied with the results. However, I’ll need to do more than to start reading, so my plan for now is to study new things (Kanji and grammar) in the morning and do revisions in the evenings, both for at least one hour, more is even better. I still want to go out and explore the city – especially as this month is the famous Gion matsuri (you’ll hear about that one, promised) – but I’m planning to do that in the afternoon if possible. This is a good time to go out, because if the weather is nice, my room is too hot to do anything in there, even sleeping. So, this seems like a good plan.

Also, I’ll need to start looking for a job more seriously. The first question that poses itself however, is: Which type of job? Something full-time, related to what I’ve been doing so far or teaching English? There are pro’s and con’s to both. A “normal” job in a company, possibly a Japanese one, is probably hard to find because it may require more knowledge of Japanese than I have at the moment. Also, many jobs in my field are located in Tokyo, and I’d rather not go there, the city is crazy. No matter where, it will be difficult or even impossible get a part time job, and a full time job here means full time and then some, so I am a bit worried that I may not have the time or energy to keep up studying the language properly. Of course, living and working in a Japanese environment should quickly increase at least my listening comprehension, and it’s also interesting to get some hands-on experience of Japanese work life.
Teaching English is the easy option in the sense that such a job may be comparatively easy to find, also in Kyoto. Depending on the school – remember that I consider only adult education – I may be able to only work as many hours as I need to get by, so I can have another part-time job studying Japanese so to speak, in order to find a more decent job later on. The big con is that I will mostly speak English during work and will be associating with other foreigners who may only be here for a limited amount of time. That’s not really a good way to build a network in a new country, I think.

So, yes, with respect to work I have not yet decided, although I tend towards a “decent” job right now, mostly because I’m not really a patient teacher, as my old students will testify. Anyway, time to get moving in some direction. It’s always possible to change course later.

Today is June 5th, that means I have been here in Kyoto for a whole month already – it certainly didn’t feel that long! So far I have enjoyed myself tremendously. In the last month I have

• visited two shrines, two food markets, one temple, one flea market, one matsuri
• walked along most of the river several times
• ate numerous take out menus, o-nigiri and three avocados with soy sauce
• participated in one rather dangerous nomi-hodai event (all you can drink) with sake and beer
• met around ten new people – both gaijin and Japanese
• taken around 1000 pictures, most of them at the Aoi matsuri
• had two sunburns and got soaking wet with the rain once

Now it’s time to finish vacation and get a bit more serious about this thing though. To be honest, I would like to drift a bit longer and see where this is taking me, but unfortunately – control freak me – I am a bit worried not to get out of this mode anymore. Also, what if the authorities don’t let me into Japan after so many short-term tourist visas – that would be my biggest nightmare!

So, I have started a new online Japanese course and sent out my CV a couple of times. I have also bitten the bullet and actually asked some friends for help (I’m so proud!) with the job hunting.

Wish me luck!