Level 2 classes have started and I can honestly say that they want us to step up our game when it comes to learning Japanese. From now on, all the class lessons are in just Japanese, the amount of kanji we had weekly before is now daily, and we are now also gonna have a class weekly on Japanese old-style culture. Guess the real schoolwork starts here.
I've also discovered why the karaoke places are really popular here. It's not crazy expensive and you can get as much as you want to drink included in the price. The only downside us that non-alcoholic drinks are self-service.
Anyway, that's it for this post I suppose. Nothing too special going on in this past week.
I got my results from the test we had at Wednesday today, scoring a 98/100 on the Kanji writing and reading exercise (would have been a 99 if I didn't accidentally write さん, instead of きん for the kanji 金 ... Oh well...). I also got an 87/100 on the grammar part, which was alright.
In related news, my birthday was a couple of days ago, and I got a card with a present from my parents. That was a pretty nice surprise, as I didn't expect any presents.
As for other festivities, there's a local sake producing factory tour planned for tomorrow, as well as a party in a local park. Sounds like it'll be a lot of fun! One thing the japanese know, is how to make great parties, usually starting early. Just two or three weeks ago we went to a jazz club, at 7 in the evening, missed the last train, went back to the jazz club and took the first train back at 6 in the morning! ... In Norway people would probably start later, and end it at 2-3 at night, because people can't stand up straight anymore...
There's also some sort of festival going on in Asakusa this weekend, so I'll try going there as well, maybe get some more nice pictures out. Today on the other hand, I'm heading out to a local bar to meet some friends. Until next time!
Been a while since last post, and for that I apologize. The network we got at the Share House I live in is a bit flimsy at times, dropping out and dying whenever it feels like it. Probably doesn't help that whenever the network is up, my neighbor keeps blasting boring music that is just two or three beats that repeat over and over from the net, haha.
So, if you've seen my tumblr, I recently got some Shingeki no Kyojin loot with my drink at a 7-11. That series is immensely popular here, and you'll spot some stuff even at family restaurants or convenience stores. I also went to a big, eight floor store called Tokyo Hands, where I bought the Tiger Tank nanopuzzle model I'm working on in between studying and looking around.
Speaking of Kyojins, I've tried looking a bit on TV over here, but it's not that great when the only thing you manage to make sense from is baseball, haha. Did see a match between the Tokyo Kyojins and another team I can't remember where they were from, just that they were named Sparrows. Pretty good stuff. There's also a tv-show where they showed off a couple of Rube Goldberg machines though, that was pretty cool, and I saw one performance of Rakugo on the TV shortly before that. I find Rakugo fascinating, even if I don't get the jokes (yet).
I've also been lucky enough to meet a couple of people I can call friends! Been at some local bars and Izakayas with them, with more probably to come. Food and drinks here are great, both in taste and price. Lunch at a restaurant here costs about as much as a hot dog from a gas station in Norway! It's great!
Also tried taking the trip to Harajuku, as I was told that there's cosplays and stuff there. The weather wasn't too great (overcast, lots of clouds), and the entire area seemed to consist of foreigners, girls under 20 in groups shouting "kawaii" every two seconds, lots and lots of girl stores (clothes, phone accessories, outfits like school uniforms and such...), candy stores and the famous pancake/crepe stalls every 150 meters. It was nice to see it, but I think you need to have female company to fully enjoy what Harajuku has to offer.
However, it's not all sunshine and rainbows. Taking the train to school is a bit of a pain. Those train-pushers you might've heard about? A real thing during rush-hours. A German friend of mine put it in a rather eloquent way: "You will never be as close to a woman, not even during sex, as you will be to the women on the train". It is crazy how many people they want to fit into one train...
I'm afraid that is it for this post, as I got some preparation to do before tomorrow. Tomorrow we begin with the Kanji characters, as well as some more grammar. Until next time, stay safe and have fun!
I figured that today would be a good day to write about two of the things I wish more people knew about, because of how great these things are, in my eyes. The first to be mentioned is Dr. Koto's Clinic. I haven't read the manga version of it, but the live action TV show is amazing, and highly recommended. Do be warned though, as it may give you a severe case of the feels.
Dr. Koto is a series about a small village somewhere in the southern part of Japan, which the new doctor Kensuke Goto has just arrived to. A lot of the people don't trust him, because he's an outsider and a doctor. They've previously had good-for-nothing doctors who would either get drunk or give them wrong medicine and other malpractices. Nevertheless, he works diligently to help the villagers and improve the reputation doctors have on the island. It's a great story, with amazing characters, and I really wish more people knew of this series.
Even if you're normally not a fan of live-action TV shows, do give this one a try. I did, with no prior experience to Japanese TV-shows, and I'm extremely happy I gave it a chance. It also has a pretty amazing ending song.
The other series I want to talk about is Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. Some may recognize it as the current banner on my blog. It's an anime series made by SHAFT that parodies everything and anything you could possibly come up with. A few of the running gags include attempted suicide which always fails followed by the line "What if I had died?!", stalking, blissful ignorance, preciseness, despair and tropes that are popular.
It's something of a skit-comedy, meaning there isn't a particular strong story to follow. It's a series made to entertain with jokes. Because of this it may not be everyone's cup of tea, but give it a fair chance and you too might end up a fan of this amazing series.
Please give these two series a shot if you got the time. My next blog post might be a while, as my trip to Japan is coming up. Once I get settled in, you can expect content on this blog right from Tokyo! Until next time, stay safe!
So I felt it was time for another post, this time a bit more of an update than a review or something like that. First things first: It's closing in on Christmas pretty quick! I've been busy trying to figure out what to give as presents, because I'm really bad at that. I guess I lack the creativity, as I've been asked myself what I want for Christmas only to disappoint with an answer like "I dunno". Anyway, Christmas is supposed to be a holiday to spend with your family, enjoy the best of the Christmas movies (I heartily recommend Die Hard, if you remain unconvinced here's 5 reasons Die Hard is the best Christmas movie ever ) and eat great food. I might however not have that chance this year, due to work.
On the other hand, I've received some great news! I've gotten accepted into the language school for my one-year Japan trip, and now I only gotta wait for my Student Visa, along with other paperwork to be done. I am seriously excited to go to Japan. I'll probably end up taking a lot of pictures, maybe making a few videos as well, who knows. I'll toss them up on this blog and attempt to make some sort of regular schedule for them by then. Not promising anything on a regular schedule as of yet. Another thing I wanted to mention real quick, is the weather. Normally at this point in December, we'd have loads of snow in Norway, and freezing temperatures of around -5 to -10 degrees Celsius at least. So far we've had two snowfalls, both being washed away by rain the days after with the warm weather. Today it's 5 degrees Celsius. I went out with a T-shirt and an open college-jacket today and still felt warm.
This looks so beautiful!
When it comes to anime I've finished watching Katanagatari, and considered doing a review of it. I scrapped that idea though, because it ended up just being me praising it to the stars and not having any negative things to say about it... It looks gorgeous, the story is great, funny and took some unexpected turns. Gave it a 10/10 on MAL, just because of how much it amazed me and kept me glued to the screen. I strongly recommend this series, as it gets my seal of approval.
Another series I've recently gotten into is Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai, or The World God Only Knows in English. This series came recommended to me by a friend, who thought the main character, Keima Katsuragi, reminded him of me because of his looks and his character. I'll admit, I'm a bit similar, and hold some of the same views, but nowhere near to the same extent as Keima! Anyway, even if the jokes sometimes hit a bit close to home, I'm thoroughly enjoying this series and will most likely watch the sequels when I get the time.
As a finishing note, I'd like to wish you, the reader, a merry Christmas and happy holiday!
Hello again! I'll just cut right to the chase here. Ace Combat Infinity didn't have a release date on September 25th after all. Rumors abound, some say it got delayed, others that it was the date for the Japanese beta-test. Massively disappointed, and I'm sorry for just adding fuel to that fire... Anyway, at Tokyo Game Show just a few days ago, they put out a new trailer, this one with some length and story elements in it.
I've been studying some more Japanese recently, after a break on two weeks (mostly due to work). I've gotten around to learning て-form (Te-form), and I've started to work on Katakana. I thought Hiragana was bad when it came to characters looking a lot similar, but Katakana is much worse, haha. Seriously, just look at Ke ケand Ku ク. Damn. Well, it's not like you can learn any language in a day anyway, right? Got to put in some work for that reward.
On the anime front, I actually completed WataMote today, which marked my 150th completed anime according to My Anime List. That's a pretty big milestone, but at the same time I've seen a lot of people with tons more completed anime on their lists. I found WataMote to be really, REALLY funny, but I was slightly disappointed in the ending. Definitely worth a watch if you want something short to just laugh to. Ended up giving it an 8/10 (That's the equivalent of "Very Good" as I use the same scores as My Anime List). It's a series I could re-watch at a later time with someone who hasn't, purely for the laughs.
What?! No perfect 10?!
I'm not even halfway done with Azumanga Daioh, so there's still quite a wait time for that mini-review I'm afraid. Sorry! Anyway, that's it for this post. Stay tuned for more, and stay safe!
First off, don't expect daily posts. I'm just trying to give this snowball a bit of speed to get rolling. I thought I'd try to give some more detail as to what is going on around me as of recently. Here goes!
When it comes to life in general, I've finally finished most of the paperwork for my application to a school in Japan, and I'll most likely send it in before the week is over. If all goes well, I'm off to Japan for an entire year! I've also started on studying Japanese, and I've mastered Hiragana thanks to Namasensei on youtube. For those interested, I put part one right under this paragraph. Sure, he uses a lot of foul language, and is mostly drunk on camera, but he actually knows what he is talking about and uses simple and easy to remember learning techniques. In other words, he's a perfect teacher for a simpleton like myself!
Other than that, I've had to take a break from gaming on my PC. Turns out my memory is having issues, so there's a lot of Blue Screens abound when gaming. Going to return the memory, and hopefully get new ones today/this week, which should then allow me to put up more stuff on my Youtube channel (which currently holds the grand sum of two videos from War Thunder...)!
I guess that's another thing to elaborate on. I'm a fan of warbirds, from the symbolic World War 2 planes like the P-51 Mustang and the Spitfire, to the more modern F-15C and the A-10C Warthog. Speaking of the Warthog, I might get some video footage of that on Youtube eventually, as I've been playing Digital Combat Simulator (DCS) A-10C Warthog a lot. Don't worry, I've been flying in DCS for half a year now, along with some friends, so we know what we're doing (at least most of the time...).
Takes some time to get to know these buttons...
Other than that, there's a birthday party I'm gonna attend this weekend, and I discovered a new teaser-trailer for Ace Combat Infinity (which is at the bottom of this post), so I got that to look forward to. Until next time, stay safe!
So I felt it was time for another post, this time a bit more of an update than a review or something like that. First things first: It's closing in on Christmas pretty quick! I've been busy trying to figure out what to give as presents, because I'm really bad at that. I guess I lack the creativity, as I've been asked myself what I want for Christmas only to disappoint with an answer like "I dunno". Anyway, Christmas is supposed to be a holiday to spend with your family, enjoy the best of the Christmas movies (I heartily recommend Die Hard, if you remain unconvinced here's 5 reasons Die Hard is the best Christmas movie ever ) and eat great food. I might however not have that chance this year, due to work.
Another series I've recently gotten into is Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai, or The World God Only Knows in English. This series came recommended to me by a friend, who thought the main character, Keima Katsuragi, reminded him of me because of his looks and his character. I'll admit, I'm a bit similar, and hold some of the same views, but nowhere near to the same extent as Keima! Anyway, even if the jokes sometimes hit a bit close to home, I'm thoroughly enjoying this series and will most likely watch the sequels when I get the time.
