Culture Quirk

Noverber lessons!

2011-11-30T21:57:00.000-08:00

So for this whole month, my videos on Youtube have been lessons about the basics of verbs. Today I've posted the last video of the series - here's the list if you missed them! Through this series I go over the difference in polite and plain verbs, how to categorize verbs into different classes, and how to conjugate verbs in both the polite and plain form.

This should be a good base in the basics of Japanese verbs, which will allow you to start forming sentences and learn more advanced grammar points further down the line. Enjoy!

1. Formal vs Plain Verbs

2. Switching between Plain and Masu

3. -Masu Form Conjugations

4. Te-form Song

5. Plain Form Conjugations

Bento!

2011-09-28T08:39:00.000-07:00

So I just put up a video on Youtube about Bento if you're interested in it or want to see what kind of materials I have! I have lots of different things, from bento boxes to rice molds.

Thanks for watching!

Tweet Log 20 (April - End!)

2011-08-31T14:36:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! So while I was originally trying to make very structured tweets that had some content of their own, I tend to use Twitter a little more "normally" nowadays, and mainly use it to announce updates and voice my thoughts. So I don't see much of a point in keeping track of them anymore (unless someone out there reeeeeally wants to keep this section alive... let me know!)

So here's the last batch of tweets that I've saved. For anything else, just follow me on Twitter!

*~*~*

Busy busy busy! So much to do for Monday @_@ Hopefully things will calm down a little after that..

Monologue contest is up! There are some awesome submissions! Go vote for me!! (Delphine) XD http://bit.ly/eqIX8A

Join in on the Ganbare Japan project!! Hosted by Victor (Gimmeabreakman) http://youtu.be/OipkOO4-Oic

Youtube update: Ganbare Japan Project http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPCvSU-r09E

Another quake? Seriously? I will be on Twitter all day I'm sure

Youtube update: Variety Shows (part 1) http://youtu.be/ZzVZOUHKhOo

QuirkyLife update: Study Abroad and Shoutouts http://youtu.be/BJ1LX1UP2-I

Just had one of the best immersion sessions/conversation practices I think I've EVER had. Soo tired but so worth it.

Plus I ate/made takoyaki for the first time! I'm so happy right now :3

Something I noticed: When you're a guest, don't say 'gochisousama' when you're done eating, but when you're actually leaving the ppl's home?

Anyone else having problems with Youtube? I can't even upload a video right now :(

Thank you sooo much to everyone who voted for me for @JapaneseLevelUp 's monologue contest! Couldn't have done it without you!! <3 :D

QuirkyLife: Part 3

2011-08-28T13:58:00.000-07:00

This round of vlogs has to do with the reading contest hosted by ReadMOD through Twitter: Tadoku! I offer a bunch of tips, though, on reading as well as just studying in general.

Tadoku and Yotsubato Review

Tip for Convenient Japanese Reading

Koukou Debut Review

Variety Shows Subtitles

Keeping Track of Pagecount

Using Twitter for Japanese Reading

MEGU Pet App Review

Final Thoughts on Tadoku and Japanese Reading

Fun Interactive Games on Youtube to Learn Japanese

2011-08-23T12:25:00.000-07:00

Something I've been trying out lately on my Youtube channels is creating a game that allows one to practice some basic Japanese grammar and/or vocab that I go over in my video lessons. It takes sooo much time to make! Not only is it more complicated to film than most of my other stuff, but I edit the game into several different videos and have to add a bunch of annotations to make the game work.

That being said, I really love the concept and have a lot of fun making these. As a kid I had always wanted to make my own computer games through video like this, and now I'm able to do it through Youtube! And I hope other people are enjoying them and learning from them as well. :)

If you're interested, here's the first episode of what I'm hoping will be a continuous series of this game (as of now, I've made two parts, and even have a little story that will be tying them all together).

Aaaand part 2!

Let me know what you think! And also let me know if you know of anything similar. I haven't seen any other games like these on Youtube for Japanese learning (or any language learning, for that matter), so if you know of any, I'd love to see other people's take on this concept!

QuirkyLife: Part 2

2011-08-19T10:41:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! First of all - sorry about basically skipping the month of July there. I've been really focusing on my Youtube stuff instead, not to mention I was out of the country for a little while. First thing I'd like to catch up on is some of my personal vlogs, so here's a QuirkyLife update! Enjoy~ :)

On the Roof

Birthday Stuff (and Portal 2!)

Un peu en Francais

First Days of Summer

Haircut!

Summer Classes begin...

Swim Plan

As always, thanks for watching! :)

Tweet Log 19 (March)

2011-06-30T07:30:00.000-07:00

Continuing my story through tweets... start at the beginning here.

Go back to part 18.

*~*~*

QuirkyLife update: Cardcaptor Sakura http://youtu.be/PJVbekoCdaA

Man, I'm so used to watching Cardcaptor Sakura whenever I have a small chunk of time haha, now I feel kinda lost XD

QuirkyLife update: Stupid Lighting! http://youtu.be/FL3IOM2LWMo

Blog Post: Tweet Log 16 (December) http://bit.ly/fhMKuR

QuirkyLife update: Arashi CD's and Meetup http://youtu.be/seyZzlWw8lw

Blog Post: Lang-8 http://bit.ly/gj3zYM (Just to repost the video onto my blog ^^)

Soooo much to do >< Video this week will have to be finished tonight and probably uploaded tomorrow ^^

Just noticed I have 50 Youtube subscribers! Woo~ *throws confetti* Thanks for supporting my lil channel guys :D

QuirkyLife update: Adshap8's Japanese Monologue Contest http://youtu.be/U6WL1X8RXHo

Eep, quite the delay this week, but I'm determined to still keep this a weekly thing :) Video uploading now~

Finally have a bit of a breather and am watching Durarara ^^

Youtube update: Top 5 Things to Watch for Japanese Learners http://youtu.be/O2aKCE0OEWE

My prayers and well wishes go out to all those affected by the earthquakes in Japan. Take care, everyone.

For anyone searching for people: http://bit.ly/gtRvtV

QuirkyLife update: Japan Earthquakes - quick message of support <3 http://youtu.be/ZpqMba6ptbM

The emotion is finally hitting me about everything. Can't even imagine how hard it would be for those in Japan. #prayforjapan

Would it be insensitive to post a video like normal that isn't centered around Japan's disasters? Maybe I should wait a couple of days.. :/

Youtube update: Hardships in Japan http://youtu.be/CHOXDq7Asfk I'm annotating links to other jvloggers to gather info together in this one

Youtube update: Exercise while Learning http://youtu.be/WtsHXo8wvhk

QuirkyLife update: Random Sillyness + Silent Hill 4 http://youtu.be/yqAkqYL37jc

QuirkyLife update: So many ways to help Japan! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8ltf3M1B5M

Blog Post: Hardships in Japan http://bit.ly/f2EeiW

School starts again today... wooo

Just spent a whole class period discussing the current situation in Japan. Tough to talk about, but very informative.

Blog Post: Tweet Log 17 (January) http://bit.ly/dN00N4

Youtube update: How to Help Japan http://youtu.be/HqqoH9HZlg4

Youtube update: Paper Crane (鶴の折り紙) Message of Hope http://youtu.be/znhMij4hpTE Double video update today!

I've REALLY fallen in love with Arashi's Lotus :3

Youtube update: Introduction to Arashi (嵐) http://youtu.be/d5Yu1GOXTww

Japanese Lesson: Direction words

2011-06-29T12:06:00.000-07:00

The past couple of weeks on my Youtube channel has been focused on Japanese direction words! Starting out with a fun and active way to learn the words themselves...

Then moving on to how to use these words in a sentence...

And finally, I created my first interactive Japanese game through video! This took so much time to make, although it was a lot of fun. Quiz yourself in what I hope will be a fun and effective series!

Japanese Lesson: Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu

2011-06-10T10:23:00.000-07:00

I recently uploaded my next Japanese lesson over on Youtube so go check it out! I go over the meaning of the phrase "Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu" and different situations where you can use it. Context is super important when it comes to this phrase, so I hope you can get a better idea of how to use it yourself!

Japanese Lesson: Pronunciation (and beginner's words)

2011-05-30T14:20:00.000-07:00

So I finally posted my FIRST actual Japanese lesson! I've been giving a ton of tips on how to go about learning Japanese, and now, I'm actually teaching you the language itself. This first one is very basic with a focus on how to pronounce things in Japanese. I use some beginner's words to illustrate these pronunciation rules, so by the end of it, you know how to say - and correctly pronounce - a basic introduction!

Hope to make more of these (there will be more intermediate lessons in the future as well), and I hope they were helpful. Happy learning!

Arashi: Lotus

2011-05-22T17:31:00.000-07:00

I've reviewed Arashi's album Boku no Miteiru Fuukei before, but now I plan to write my thoughts on all of their CD's as they come out. Although it's been a little while since Lotus has come out, since it is their latest CD, that's where I'll pick up!

Here's the video version of this review by the way.

There were 3 songs on this single: Lotus, ever, and Boom Boom.

Lotus

This was the main song and it was used as the theme song for Aiba’s latest drama, Bartender. It also has its own music video where they group is dressed in all white and they do a lot of dancing. The song itself is really epic and makes you want to dance really dramatically - I loved it! It’s not a happy-go-lucky song, but it’s not super dark or anything either. When I listened to this at first, I felt like I had heard similar stuff from Arashi before, but when I thought about it, I had trouble comparing it to any singles, so it's actually pretty different for them (but in a good way!) It's nice to hear something so epic from them.

This is just a side note concerning the drama Bartender - as much as I enjoy the show, I personally think that Lotus doesn’t really fit with it too well. Something about just doesn't fit with the pacing and the tone of the drama. The show itself, or at least the first couple of episodes that I’ve seen, is a little bit slow. I like it, but it’s not particularly exciting, and then when the song comes in at the end really dramatically it kind of throws me off. It might just be me, and it really doesn't matter, it's just something I thought was a little odd. ^^

ever

This is the second song of the CD. Ever had to grow on me a little bit at first, but I really like it now. It’s a slower, romance-y ballad type of song, but at the same time it’s not too sappy, and it’s still kind of bouncy and happy too. It sort of reminds of One Love or Love Rainbow. Simple, sweet, adorable – Arashi’s really good at that.

Boom Boom

This is the third and last song on the CD, and while I’m not really sure why, I was obsessed with this song. I want to describe it as kind of... sassy? Rebellious? Something about the tone of it is just really fun. I love the melody and the beat a lot. Also, one way I really decide if a song is good is if it’s fun to sing along with, and this one is definitely a lot of fun to sing. And it also has a bit of Sakurap in there, so yeah, I thought it was different and it ended up being my favorite song of this single.

Alright, so there’s what I think about Arashi’s latest single – overall I loooved it. Let me know what you thought of it! Soon as they come out with another CD I’ll make another one of these.

Arashi Radio Shows

2011-05-06T10:42:00.000-07:00

Here's the Youtube video I made about Arashi's radio shows. Enjoy!

Tweet Log 18 (February)

2011-04-30T17:50:00.000-07:00

Continuing my story through tweets... start at the beginning here.

Go back to part 17.

*~*~*

Wooo it's snowing in Texas! No one knows how to handle it down here XP

Just got Sims 3 to play in Japanese... and I realize my computer's OS is too outdated... sad face -_-

Blog Post: Heisig's Method in a Nutshell http://bit.ly/eva2n0

Youtube update: Gantz Movie Review (and event report!) http://youtu.be/SAcggwWoTAY

Man can school really get in the way of stuff O.o I should have a blog post up tonight though~

Blog Post: Movie Review for Gantz http://bit.ly/e3rjwD Youtube update: New Facebook page! http://youtu.be/Qdw0PzB6L-Q

Blog Post: Facebook Fanpage http://bit.ly/i3fSUM

Now that I'm starting the job-finding process, I have less and less time to myself ;_;

Still keeping up my blog/vlog ok, but I'm spending less time studying Japanese. I almost speak more than I watch/listen nowadays O.o

Blog post: Tweet Log 15 (November) http://bit.ly/gLPqc1

Youtube update: Using SRS to Learn Japanese http://youtu.be/zqr2aKBtjbU

Sliiightly less busy this week, hope to make a real dent in my SRS reps! (good timing with this week's updates :D)

My lunch today - a sausage and rice dish and vegetable wonton soup :) oishii~~ http://twitpic.com/42zgl2

Just started another Youtube channel as just a personal vlog and non-edited vlog. First vid: http://youtu.be/_aDZxlnj1Hc

QuirkyLife vlog: Japanese Speaking Practice http://youtu.be/5xid7HSCaJM

The weather right now is AMAZING!!

Just met a bunch of Japanese foreign exchange students at Kaiwa. I'm on a Japanese high :D

QuirkyLife update: Global Fair http://youtu.be/Jk7KIv8coF4

Blog post: Using SRS to Learn Japanese http://bit.ly/f7Ao4R

Youtube update: Lang-8 (日本語) http://youtu.be/3zMX0cNxwRo I'm speaking Japanese in this one~

Lang-8 Video! | Lang-8 http://lang-8.com/21498/journals/828386 #lang8

QuirkyLife: Part 1

2011-04-27T11:21:00.000-07:00

So for those who don't follow it, along with my main CultureQuirk channel, I also have a second channel where I do more casual vlogs. I still talk about a lot of the same things, but I go more into stuff going on into my private life. They're less structured, and unlike my main channel, which I update once a week, there are no regular updates as of now. If you're interested in getting to know me a little better, please go take a look at my QuirkyLifeBlog channel. :)

Instead of making a blog post every time I make a video for QuirkyLife, I'll just make a post every 1-2 months and compile all the videos then (kinda like what I do with my tweet log). Here they are!

Intro/自己紹介

Japanese Speaking Practice

Global Fair

Cardcaptor Sakura

Stupid Lighting!

Arashi CD's and Meetup

Adshap8's Japanese Monologue Contest

iPhone Vlog Test

Japan Earthquakes

Random Sillyness + Silent Hill 4

So many ways to help Japan!

Study Abroad and Shoutouts

Monologue Contest Entry

Staring Sheep

Getting back to normal

Goodies!

Thanks for watching! :D

Japanese Monologue Contest

2011-04-05T17:35:00.000-07:00

So I recently sent in a video to participate in adshap8's Japanese monologue contest and here's the final video with all of the contestants! Head over to Japanese Level Up to vote on the one you liked best! (*cough* vote for me! *cough*)

EDIT: I ended up winning the contest! Thank you sooo much to everyone who voted for me! :D

How to Help Japan

2011-03-24T10:21:00.000-07:00

It's been a couple of weeks now since the great Tohoku earthquake and all the hardships that followed. While I strongly believe Japan will recover from this, there is still so much that needs to be done. I've donated what I could, but I would like to continue to do as much as I can for the relief effort. I'd also like to let you know of some ways that YOU can help.

I've created a new email address where you can reach me about these efforts in helping Japan: culturequirkfundraising@gmail.com. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please send me an email about it!

1. Donate

The first big way you can help is the rather obvious option of donating money. Do your research to find the charity you’re most comfortable with, or maybe send smaller amounts to multiple charities to "cover your bases."

I personally donated to the Red Cross. You can donate at www.redcross.org, or you can text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation that will automatically be added to your phone bill.

This website also has a list of charities with ratings if you want to do some more research: http://www.charitynavigator.org/

2. Buy stuff

If you don't want to just give money away, there are a lot of ways for you to buy things with the proceeds being donated to Japan. You may see this kind of thing all over the place, but I’ll be giving you two different resources over at Livejournal. If you don’t have an account there, the site is normally used for blogging but also has some great communities.

Help_Japan

At this community, people are auctioning off a ton of different stuff - anything from food, to jewelry, to books, to clothes, to art… There is SO much stuff over there. Bid for something that interests you in the next few days, and at the end of this month, if you win, you pay for it by making a donation to Japan (I believe you can make it to the charity of your choice as long as you provide proof).

Arashi_On:

This community is usually all about the boy band Arashi, and a lot of the fundraising going on there is fan-related. The "Garage Sale" part of the fundraising is very similar to what Help_Japan is doing: people are offering things such as CDs, magazines, pamphlets. However, this time it's no an auction, so it’s basically first-come, first-serve. Also, instead of having to donate the money yourself to a charity, you simply have to send it to the Paypal of the Arashi_On community and they will take care of it for you. They had a poll to decide which organization they would send the money too, and the charity for this month is Direct Relief International, but I think the charity will change each month (and you have a voice in deciding this.)

Aside from the Garage Sale, what people are also offering are things like fanart, fanfiction, graphics, icons, little hand-made goods, etc. While a lot of these fan-made things are centered around Arashi, this is not a requirement. Many people are offering to make stuff from different fandoms, original characters, etc., and it’s all mostly on a request basis.

I myself have made a post to this community and am offering art. I'm taking requests on any kind of fanart or original characters, I'm pretty flexible. No nudity or anything though, please :) These will be pencil drawings that I will scan and send to you digitally, but nothing colored and no digital art, since that is definitely not my forte.

Aside from simple drawings, I could also do short comics or something, and this leads to another idea. If you’re using Heisig’s method to remember kanji, you might have trouble coming up with little stories for some of them and maybe some visuals would help you. Let me know which kanji is giving you trouble and I can draw out a little comic for you to illustrate that kanji and help you to remember it.

This can extend beyond kanji. If you want any kind of lesson, I could help you with your English, Japanese, and French... (let me know if there's anything else I could help you with). I can type up a lesson for you, or maybe make some kind of illustration to help you learn. I'm considering setting something up on Edufire and teach something there, probably in one-on-one tutoring form. Let me know if that would interest you as well.

Finally, if you watch my Youtube channel and would like to see me make a video on a particular language or culture topic, let me know, and you could "sponsor" that video. I could do a lesson-type video, a review of something, etc. So request the video, sponsor it through a donation, and I would give you credit for sponsoring that video.

While all of this extends way past Arashi I'll stick to doing it through the Arashi_on Livejournal community for now. This will keep things simpler, especially since I don't know whether anyone will be interested in any of this. If you don’t have a Livejournal account but are still interested in this, do let me know, and I'll see about making other arrangements through my own Paypal account.

Go check out my LJ post for more specific information on the artwork, and take a look at my DeviantArt account as well - I haven't posted anything there in forever, but if gives you a good idea of what my art looks like. Pricing will range depending on what you’d like, from about $1~$10, or whatever you're willing to give. Send me an email at culturequirkfundraising@gmail.com for requests or any questions.

3. Sell stuff

Aside from spending money through donations or buying things, you can also sell your own stuff on the above websites (or through any other fashion). So if you’re really strapped for money, why not donate your stuff or your talents? Let me know if you’re doing anything like that – I might be interested, and I could help spread the word.

4. Support

Finally, there are plenty of ways to help without giving anything up at all in the form of support. Here a few shoutouts to other Youtubers who are doing their part and letting you know of other ways to help.

One thing that’s huge is a new channel, partners4japan. Youtube granted this partner channel specifically for the relief fund, and you’ll see videos from all of your favorite j-vloggers over there and other guests. All of the money that is raised through that Youtube partnership will be sent to the relief fund, and the more subscribers, views, favorites, likes, etc. they have, the more money they will make. It doesn’t cost you anything and there’s a lot of interesting content, so go support them!

Other Youtubers have been really great as well. Nigahiga posted a video in which he donated $600, Michelle Phan made a makeup tutorial, and if it gets a million views, she’ll donate $1000, and plenty of other Youtubers have been doing similar drives. It's awesome to see the Youtube community being so great in supporting this cause, so please go support those kinds of efforts yourself. Keep your eyes open and spread the word about that kind of stuff; there are plenty of ways to help out with very little effort.

While monetary benefits are the most important way to help right now, general support to those victims in Japan is still wonderful. Messages of support can give hope and lift peoples' spirits, so stay positive and keep Japan in your well-wishes. Victor at the Gimmeabreakman channel called out for us to make paper cranes and send pictures or video responses as messages of hope, which he will eventually compile. Here is my submission - go make your own crane to spread a message of hope and encouragement.

日本、がんばれ〜！

Tweet Log 17 (January)

2011-03-21T08:03:00.000-07:00

Continuing my story through tweets... start at the beginning here.

Go back to part 16.
Go forward to part 18.

*~*~*

明けましておめでとうございます！

Here's a cool, super detailed little model of Osaka-jo http://twitpic.com/3m51c8

Blog Post: CultureQuirk - Looking Back and to the Future! http://bit.ly/fKGlGy

A nice view of Osaka from the top of Osaka-jo. http://twitpic.com/3n9w3g

白いクリスマス | Lang-8 http://lang-8.com/21498/journals/753166 #lang8

Another great view from the top of Osaka-jo~ http://twitpic.com/3nk53h

Blog Post: Tweet Log 13 (September) http://bit.ly/h9XY3y

Made pasta carbonara according to @runnyrunny999 's recipe! http://youtu.be/wal-s4FHSJ4 美味しかった!

Randomly started to watch Cardcaptor Sakura! So nostalgic...

懐かしいアニメ | Lang-8 http://lang-8.com/21498/journals/755961 #lang8

This was my lunch today! I love sushi... http://twitpic.com/3nx6g8

I feel like studying kanji has spoiled me XD I'm so used to making little stories, and I'm not sure how to do that when studying vocab...

Remembering the *kanji* of each vocab is okay, it's just remembering the pronunciation that I'm struggling with...

I'm randomly watching bits of Nodame Cantabile. Forgot how much I love it <3 so impressed with how the actors did all the music stuff O.o

Made a small update to the blog - now you can easily move forwards and backwards through the tweet logs. http://bit.ly/h9XY3y

Blog Post: Motivation Ideas - Song Puzzle http://bit.ly/hBpo5K Learn Japanese *while* motivating yourself to learn Japanese XD

Back in town and started school... Need to get back in the groove, another rough semester ahead!

In other news, I should have my first Youtube vids up starting tomorrow! :D

Just got like eight different Arashi CD's! Soooo happy!! Thank you so much @maru887 for getting them to me :D

First YOUTUBE vid~! Introduction vlog :D http://youtu.be/gGaJ9VwUhOw

Just got back from watching Gantz! Loved it but did NOT love the dubs, can't wait to see it in Japanese!!

Being able to see the live interview with Nino and Kenichi though made me sooo happy~

GANTZ | Lang-8 http://lang-8.com/21498/journals/774722 #lang8

Youtube update: Introduction in Japanese! 自己紹介 (日本語) http://youtu.be/wnheqC8HLow

Youtubeの自己紹介！ | Lang-8 http://lang-8.com/21498/journals/775623 #lang8

Youtube update: Introduction (French/Francais) http://youtu.be/pp79ci6exZ0 My last intro vid, this time in my native tongue :)

Blog Post: Youtube! http://bit.ly/dU9JZU

Golden crane on the wall. This was taken from the balcony at the top of Osaka-jo~ http://twitpic.com/3svx34

Youtube update: Basics of Reading Japanese http://youtu.be/vFJlYYQVGcA

Wrapping up the Osako-jo pics with a nice picture of the entire castle. http://twitpic.com/3tdnp1

Blog Post: Basics of Reading Japanese http://bit.ly/fXRSed

So I go to practice some vocab on smart.fm... And hear they're closing down... That reeeally sucks :(

Just finished rewatching Zettai Kareshi... I just can't help but tear up at the ending ><

Just filmed my next video - I had to draw some stuff for this one XD wheeee~ Still need to edit, hope to upload it by Monday :)

Will be posting up a new video tomorrow! I would like it to keep it a weekly thing, hopefully wont get too busy to do that *crosses fingers*

Blog Post: Tweet Log 14 (October) http://bit.ly/efhhxb

Youtube update: Heisig's Method for Learning Japanese http://youtu.be/zIvDVpDpaU4 Includes illustrated examples!

Hardships in Japan

2011-03-18T09:41:00.000-07:00

The past week has been difficult. It's been hard simply hearing and watching what's been going on in Japan, trying to reach friends and constantly reading tweets and watching the news. I've been lucky - I've heard back from virtually everyone that I know in Japan, and they and there families are safe. I can't even imagine how scary and devastating it must be for those who are living there and are affected by the hardships.

I've taken some time to worry, to mourn, to pray. And while I won't stop thinking about Japan, it's also time to take action. Like I've mentioned in the video, I've donated money and can only continue to help with the relief fund and reestablish a level of normalcy.

One thing I want to keep doing is continue to create content. If you check my Youtube channels, I've been updating those, and I plan to really catch up with my blog over the next several days. I feel it is our responsibility to press on with our daily lives, and if I can keep helping to entertain and even educate people, then I feel I'm doing my job.

In addition to that, I do plan on putting forth more efforts towards the relief fund. If you follow my QuirkyLife channel you'll have a preview of that, but my main channel update for the coming week will be all about that :) So stay tuned!

Lang-8

2011-03-06T12:00:00.000-08:00

Here's a video I made in Japanese (with English subs) about the awesome language-learning resource, Lang-8. Enjoy!

By the way, a huuuge thank you to Lang-8 for putting this vid on their Facebook fanpage!!

Tweet Log 16 (December)

2011-03-05T09:59:00.000-08:00

Continuing my story through tweets... start at the beginning here.

Go back to part 15.

*~*~*

I now realize how good my jpn friends are at enunciating - I met a girl from Osaka yesterday who spoke to me naturally and I was lost o.o

Blog Post: Motivation ideas - Jigsaw puzzles! http://bit.ly/h0aWFe

A few more days until finals are over, then I do plan to get back in the groove of things :3

Wow, how long has it been since I tweeted? Final exams went fine, but I'm going to Belgium today! Busy busy!

Blog Post: Tweet Log 12 (August) http://bit.ly/i0ZKuk

At the airport! Happy to have a bit of internet ^^ Here's hoping I'll be able to blog from Belgium~ If nothing else, I'll be back on the 1^st

Made it to Belgium! Exhausted and not enjoying the weather, but at least the snow's pretty :)

Ahhh the snow is such a hassle! But I can't wait to put up these pictures of our White Christmas :D

I'm stuffed! Can't wait to put up pictures of Christmas dinner as well... part 2 tomorrow! Happy Holidays~ :D

Yeesh! While I planned to do lots of kanji SRS whlie in Belgium, the little time I have I've been spending on jigsaw puzzles... >.>

BUT at least I can listen to Japanese music while I do puzzles right? Better than nothing :P

A suit of armor in Osaka-jo! Pardon the glare of the flash XD http://twitpic.com/3kjclz

Blog Post: Winter Wonderland~ http://bit.ly/eaMB8S Come see pics of snow and food! Sending this from Belgium :D

Made it back home from Belgium! Just in time for the New Years~ Except it feels like 1AM for me and I have to stay up another 6 hours ;_;

Using SRS to Learn Japanese

2011-02-27T15:11:00.000-08:00

I've mentioned applications like Anki before, but I actually made a video explaining what an SRS is and how you can apply it to your Japanese study (and anything else you're studying!) Check it out~

Tweet Log 15 (November)

2011-02-17T09:53:00.000-08:00

Continuing my story through tweets... start at the beginning here.

Go back to part 14.

*~*~*

Working on an essay for Tanizaki Junichiro's 'Some Prefer Nettles.' Interesting stuff actually :3

Man, I've only been managing 3 blog posts per month this semester. So much schoolwork.. I am trying to stay consistent with that though!

Just spent almost three hours helping translate for this poor older Japanese woman who barely speaks a word of english. Good practice~!

Just started watching Freeter, Ie wo Kau! Also recently started Juui Dolittle. So much to watch XD

Blog Post: Smart.fm Japanese Core 2000 http://bit.ly/bzJdD3 And a discussion of my Japanese study habits!

As I mentioned in my blog, I'm getting back into smart.fm and the change is refreshing. Need to go to bed but I can't stop doing flashcards!

School's getting crazy busy! I'm filming a video for Japanese class tomorrow, though, so that will hopefully be fun ^^;

I'll be seeing Akanishi Jin tomorrow! So excited XD

Just look at that headgear! In Osaka-jo~ http://twitpic.com/37t3bt

I've been doing my epic chores and just leveled-up. I'm a Level 6 Maiden of Juggled Priorities now! #EpicWinApp

Back home for the Thanksgiving break! Been sooo absent when it comes to online stuff lately, plan to change that very soon :)

Blog Post: Tweet Log 11 (July) http://bit.ly/fo1Gbu

More headgear in Osaka-jo. I like the one with the antlers :p http://twitpic.com/3a16bj

So while we don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Belgium, that doesn't stop my remote family from celebrating it in the US :) Happy Thanksgiving!

サンクスギビングとフットボール | Lang-8 http://lang-8.com/21498/journals/707070 #lang8

I do believe this last week of classes will be my toughest of the semester. Almost done with a blog post, so I plan to post it tomorrow :)

Blog Post: Drama Review for Tokyo Dogs! http://bit.ly/dPBQDF

Facebook Fanpage

2011-02-15T15:12:00.000-08:00

Quick update! I've just started up a Facebook fanpage for this blog, so if you're interested on having access to updates through Facebook please check it out! Just click the "Like" button at the top of the page and you're set :)

While I plan to just use it to post updates to blog entries and videos for now, I do plan to have more Facebook-exclusive content in the future. I already posted a welcome video, for example, and will probably post pictures, links, etc.

Here's the corresponding Youtube video to this blog post.

Like I mentioned in the video, I really want to thank you guys for the support! Even though this is just a small blog and I'm so new to Youtube and whatnot, I'm so happy with the feedback I have been getting - I really appreciate it!!

Movie review: Gantz

2011-02-13T21:28:00.000-08:00

Yaaaay Nino on the big screen! Hehe, yeeeah, not gonna lie, that was the main reason I wanted to see this. For a Japanese film to come out in theaters was exciting enough though. I think a lot of fans of the original Gantz manga and anime would be interested in this, but as someone who has never read the manga nor watched the anime, I still think this is a movie worth checking out. Just a warning, I haven’t seen it in Japanese (yet!) since it was dubbed in English at the theater.

The plot of this was pretty dark and actually begins with the death of two friends, Kurono Kei (Ninomiya Kazunari) and Kato Masaru (Matsuyama Ken'ichi) as they are hit by a train. They come to in what looks like a room of some office building, along with several other people who claim to have been killed, and everyone is confused and distraught. A giant, mysterious black sphere in the room seems to be the key to the strange happenings, and through it they are equipped with special suits and weapons, and then teleported out of the room as they are sent on missions to destroy various targets. Throughout the movie the characters learn more and more as to what’s going on and form close relations as they are stuck in these crazy circumstances together, with small glimpses of their old lives but no apparent way out of their situation. The film ends at a cliffhanger, as there will be a sequel to follow.

I was surprised by how much I liked this movie. I’m not usually into action for the sake of action, and I didn’t think this film would be much more than that. But the whole movie was very character-driven, and the story was much deeper than I had expected. I’m not sure how well the movie followed the original story (so if it doesn’t that might bother people), but seeing the movie on its own, I enjoyed it for what it was. I also really enjoyed the acting – both Matsuyama and Nino impressed me, and I thought everyone else did a decent job too, so I didn’t really have any complaints there. The aspect that really pushed this to the next level were the visuals – this movie was so high budget compared to what I’m used to seeing from Japan. Not to say that Japanese movies usually have terrible effects per say, but the special effects in Gantz were especially good, which just made the whole experience a lot more fun. So while initially I did just see this for Nino, the movie offered a lot more, which made me happy and excited for the sequel.

There were still aspects I didn’t like, however, although the biggest thing didn’t really have anything to do with the movie itself: the English dubs. They were terrible. I generally always prefer to watch something in its original form anyway, with subtitles if I need them, but these dubs were especially bad and unfortunately made a big difference. So that fact made it hard to fairly judge this movie. For example, while I do think the acting was good from what I could tell and due to my familiarity with the actors, I think their performance was virtually ruined by their English voices. It really was that bad. Something else that I didn’t like about some parts of the movie was the pacing, and it was also hard to tell whether it was due to the dubs or just a flaw of the movie. Some scenes were just a little too drawn out, or perhaps needed some extra music or something, and they came off as rather slow and unnatural. Aside from that, a personal pet peeve from the movie was the fact that the characters never used their weapons when they were supposed to (and for little apparent reason…). That reeeally frustrated me as it just got to the point that it wasn’t believable. You have a gun that makes things explode and a giant, slow-moving target… just freaking shoot it! But that was just a detail. The last complaint I have may just be a personal thing – while I understand it is an action movie, I think the violence went a little bit overboard at times. I’m just thinking of a particular scene at the beginning (if you’ve seen the movie, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about) where I was really getting sick of the blood and guts. Most of the movie was fine, though, but just take that as a warning to maybe skip that scene if you really hate gore.

Ultimately, this was a difficult movie to review, since I only had access to see it in English dubs, not to mention I know little to nothing about the original story and thus do not know if the movie did it justice. But I was intrigued and entertained enough to want to buy this movie as soon as it comes out so that I can watch it in Japanese – so I do think that says something. I also can’t wait for the sequel to come out; I heard that this time they might just subtitle it for the US theatrical realease! So there you have it - great actors, interesting story, awesome visuals and fun action; if that stuff appeals to you, I’d urge you to give it a shot and watch the Gantz movie (in Japanese!)

By the way, here's a video version of this review:

Heisig's Method in a Nutshell

2011-02-05T17:27:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week I posted a video explaining how Heisig works:

This was a lot of fun to make! I haven't been drawing anything in a while, so I enjoyed making those sketches. I'm perhaps considering making more of these, teaching a kanji in a short video with my own stories and pictures. It's pretty time-consuming though, so we'll see. Anyone interested in seeing more of this kind of content? Let me know in a comment here or on Youtube :)

Tweet Log 14 (October)

2011-01-31T10:48:00.000-08:00

Continuing my story through tweets... start at the beginning here.

Go back to part 13.

*~*~*

Blog Post: Epic Journey of Summer 2010! Part 5 (Germany) http://bit.ly/droAOD

Anyone see the movies "Shabake" with Tegoshi Yuuya? I've been watching the second one, "UsoUso." Soooo weird XD

I've been doing my epic chores and just leveled-up. I'm a Level 3 Wench of Undesirable Tasks now! #EpicWinApp

Okay. Probably a stupid question. Anyone know how to find a news article or something IN Japanese?

I click on a Japanese headline in the Japan Time Online website, and the article's in english... O.o;

HOLY CRAP, while I didn't bring magazines, I do have my Hana Yori Dango Final booklet with a ton of text! There is hope for this assignment!

A random statue we saw in Osaka. I think it was of a scientist or something.. http://twitpic.com/2v785w

Hmmm... anyone know how to end a news broadcast in Japanese? Like 'that's all the time we have, thank you for watching..."

I can't find a full news broadcast in Japanese anywhere! XD

Hmm.. I had a little more trouble than usual speaking Japanese today. Kept reverting to English.. hope it's just because I'm so tired @_@

The NHK building in Osaka. I was actually super excited when I saw this and had to go inside haha http://twitpic.com/2w1v8u

Blog Post: Review of the Arashi album, Boku no Miteiru Fuukei! http://bit.ly/9kTY73

Starting a series of pics from Osaka castle. Here's a shot of the moat. It was soooo hot outside! http://twitpic.com/2wwhg0

Have a little extra time... Tonight is the Great Mouse Detective in Japanese XD

ちょっと時間があります！ | Lang-8 http://lang-8.com/21498/journals/659527 #lang8

I've been doing my epic chores and just leveled-up. I'm a Level 4 Wench of Gainful Employment now! #EpicWinApp

A shot of Osaka-jo from the outside looking in o.- http://twitpic.com/2ylcco

Blog Post: Tweet Log 10 (June) http://bit.ly/abjuPX

A cool little structure next to Osaka-jo. It says... something about education?? Can't read that third kanji XD http://twitpic.com/2z2phj

Crossing the bridge.... about to enter Osaka-jo! http://twitpic.com/2zodhr

Went to karaoke last night for the first time in a while! カラオケ最高〜！

The outer walls of Osaka-jo. Is there usually supposed to be water?... In any case, all of the green was pretty ^^ http://twitpic.com/30jo1r

Blog Post: Cooking Adventures - Katsu! http://bit.ly/9Rlla3

There it is! Osaka castle! So pretty~ ^^ http://twitpic.com/30x3ri

A golden tiger that's in the museum inside of Osaka-jo. http://twitpic.com/317hy6

I've been doing my epic chores and just leveled-up. I'm a Level 5 Maiden of Well Made Plans now! #EpicWinApp

Pretty gold flower design! Inside of Osaka-jo~ http://twitpic.com/31nn8q

Taking some much-needed relaxing time. Every once in a while, I have to tell homework, "you can wait." :P

Basics of Reading Japanese

2011-01-25T19:58:00.000-08:00

So here's my first little Japanese-centered lesson! This is just a very basic look at how the writing system works in Japan. While many of you are probably aware of most of this stuff, I wanted to go over the basics before moving on to some more intermediate materials and actual study methods.

By the way, here's a video version of this lesson :)

Many people I know who are just starting to learn Japanese aren't too worried about reading or writing - I was like that too, at first. I loved listening to the language and what excited me was the idea of understanding and speaking it, while reading and writing did not appeal to me very much. There are several reasons for this...

1. Too hard.
If I didn't know any Japanese and I looked at a block of text, it would be overwhelming. All those foreign symbols are pretty scary - how can anyone read this stuff?? There's way too much to learn, the way it all works together is way too confusing, and even if it is technically possible to learn it, the sheer amount of work you need to put into it would just not be worth the effort.

2. Boring.
Not only would learning all those symbols be incredibly difficult, the idea of memorizing character after character with no end in sight does not sound very exciting. Sure, they might be pretty to look at, but learning them by writing them over and over again? Boooring...

3. Unnecessary.
Who says I need to read or write in Japanese anyway? My goal is just learning how to understand what people are saying and know how to answer back. That's sounds like a lot more fun anyway. Why should I go through the trouble of learning a whole new syllabary? I don't need to be literate in order to learn how to speak right?

Wrong. Sometimes you may not realize just how important reading or writing can be when learning a language. Not only is being literate very useful in its own right, it's also incredibly useful in learning how to speak as well. And I'm here to convince you that it's not only necessary, there are ways to make is easy and fun too!

First, let's go over the basic elements of the Japanese writing system. There are actually three (four?) different alphabets.

1. Hiragana （ひらがな）
These are the basic building blocks of sound in Japanese. They can be used to write general Japanese words or parts of words. There are 46 of them in a set, encompassing sounds like a, i, u , e, o, ka, ki, ku, ke, ko, sa, shi, su, se, so... etc. What's nice in Japanese is that there are only 5 different vowels and thus a limited number of different sounds you can make, so pronunciation is pretty straightforward. Hiragana are generally pretty round and curvy.

I would start learning the hiragana first. There aren't too many of them and I find them easier to learn, probably because they all look so different from each other. This way you'll start to get used to how the phonetic alphabet works. I learned them in small groups, write each of them out individually a few times, and cemented that knowledge through flaschcards or memory games.

2. Katakana （カタカナ）
Katakana are also simple phonetic sounds, just like hiragana, and it's the same set of 46. The difference in usage is that katakana is used for foreign words (things like "coohii" and "hambaagaa" are derived from the English words "coffee" and "hamburger"and would thus be written in katakana). There are a few other exceptions where you can use these, such as for sound effects, certain names, or sometimes for emphasis. While they sound the same as hiragana, they are generally more angular and boxy.

Learning katakana is the next step, since I find them slightly more difficult to learn, mainly due to the fact that several of them look very similar (such as ソ and ン... I swear there's a difference there...) I learned them just like I did hiragana, in small groups and with flashcards, and they're really not bad either.

Together, Hiragana and Katakana are referred to as simply "Kana" and make up the phonetic characters of Japanese. Now, once you've learned them, take a moment to pat yourself on the back and go look at a text of Japanese. You'll start recognizing some symbols! Sure, you might not know what anything means, but instead of looking like a bunch of gibberish, you'll start to see sounds instead. Let yourself feel super excited, it's such a huge step, and use that excitement to get that confidence you need to know you can learn this. The next part's a little tougher, but it's just as doable as the kana.

3. Kanji　(漢字）
This is the big, scary element of the writing system. Most kanji look much more complicated than any of the kana, and there are literally thousands of them. They're actually based off of Chinese characters, which were brought over to Japan long ago. Instead of signifying a sound, each kanji has a certain meaning. For example, the rather simple symbol "人" can be pronounced in several different ways (such as "hito" or "jin") but the meaning stays the same: person (or people). So not only are there tons of kanji that can be combined to make words, there are usually a couple of different pronunciations for each kanji, depending on the context. This is generally what overwhelms people (although I'm here to say don't be discouraged!)

Kanji can take months, even years to learn. But I think that learning them bit by bit is totally acceptable - you'll start recognizing more and more as you learn new words. Plus, you don't have to learn every single kanji to be literate. So it really is more doable than it sounds. More concrete lessons to come!

4. Romaji?
I just wanted to briefly mention what is sometimes considered to be a fourth alphabet: romaji. This is just spelling Japanese words out with roman letters. Instead of 日本 (Japan), you would write "nihon." Sure, using romaji is useful at the very beginning when you don't know how to pronounce anything yet, but the faster you stop using romaji the better. It's just not used in Japan, and if you use it for too long, it gets difficult to transfer into kana and kanji. Trust, me, once you get used to how things traditionally work, seeing things written in romaji will start to feel very painful to look at...(that's a good sign!)

So there you have it! A look at all the different syllabaries in the Japanese writing system. It can seem scary as first, but once you start pulling in the part you'll realize it's really not that bad. There are plenty of ways to make reading and writing easy and fun to learn, not to mention lots of methods to keep yourself motivated along the way. I'm hoping to help with that a little bit in my blogs! Hope this helps~

Youtube!

2011-01-22T10:47:00.000-08:00

So this week has been my Youtube debut!

I've been enjoying the process and hope I can continue to maintain the channel successfully. Filming myself is nerve-wracking and awkward, but I think I can get used to it :P The main thing I'm worried about is just taking the time to edit the vids together, coming up with enough ideas to keep it going, etc. I knew this would be the case, but the reality is that making videos is very time consuming, so we'll see if I can keep this up!

Anyway, here are my three intro vids I made in English, Japanese, and French...

Introduction

Introduction (Japanese) 自己紹介 (日本語)

Introduction (French/Francais)

So this way you get a little preview of my plans, and hear what I sound like in different languages. I've just launched this thing a couple of days ago, so it's still a little empty over there - please drop by and leave a comment, I'd really appreciate it! :D

Motivation Ideas: Song Puzzle

2011-01-14T11:39:00.000-08:00

So going along with similar ideas from my last post about motivation, I came up with a new activity to help with motivation. This time, the method itself deals directly in helping learn Japanese. With the previous method, I created a jigsaw puzzle from a drawing. This time, instead of a picture, I did it with a Japanese song.

It’s pretty simple: find the lyrics to a song you like (in Japanese, of course, hopefully with as much kanji as possible). Print them out with a decently sized font and then cut out the lyrics so that each piece is an individual word. Set up tasks for yourself and whenever you complete a task, award yourself a word at random. Then try to piece together the song! This way, you’ll be exposed to kanji you may not know well, pay closer attention to grammar and vocab, understand when to use which particles, etc. And you’ll also have an easier time learning the song by heart if you’re continuously exposed to it.

I used a song that I was already familiar with: Tsubasa wo Kudasai. It’s a pretty and fairly short children’s song that has rather simple lyrics. While I already knew how to sing it, I had never paid much attention to the mechanics of the sentences, the kanji, or even the meaning of some parts. I separated the song into different sections, first verse, second verse, chorus, etc., and then pieced the song together one section at a time before moving on to the next section. With this simple song and separation method, I didn’t have way too many pieces to have to put together at once, so it was much more fun and doable.

The task that I used this method for were my SRS kanji reviews. While I finished going through Heisig’s Remember the Kanji by the beginning of my school semester, it was hard keeping up with it during the semester, especially since I had only briefly seen many of those kanji at the end and didn’t know them very concretely. By the end my winter vacation started I had over 800 kanji in backlog… So I decided to create a little motivation for myself with this puzzle song. The song I picked had just over 80 words in it so it worked out very well – for every 10 kanji I would get through in my backlog, I would give myself a word. By the time I finished going through my entire SRS, I would have completed the song.

After trying this method out, as an experiment, there are things that worked, and other things that I would change. For one, I didn’t give myself word pieces as I went, that was just too much trouble to constantly have to pay attention every time I finished ten more kanji. Generally, I would wait until the end of the day, count up the kanji I went through that day, and give myself the according number of words. Also, all the bits of paper were kind of a hassle. Originally I had paper clipped each section of the song together, and would take off the paper clip one section at a time so I could draw a word from each verse in order. I kept all of these papers in a small ziploc bag, which was nice to travel with, but it was nevertheless a ton of little pieces that were hard to put together and easy to lose. So what I ended up doing was gluing them down to some thin cardboard after I finished a section so I could keep track of them more easily.

As to whether this method is effective… It was for me! It motivated me to get through my kanji, and I know the kanji in the song better than I used to. But, I was already very familiar with the song beforehand, and I think it would have been virtually impossible to piece it together otherwise. I liked the jigsaw puzzle better, I must say, with a picture instead of a song. The visual aspect is more exciting, albeit less educational. Overall, I plan to do this again and think it’s worth trying out, but it miiight be more trouble than it’s worth?

Anyway, just throwing another idea out there! Good luck with your studies~ :D

Tweet Log 13 (September)

2011-01-06T13:47:00.000-08:00

Continuing my story through tweets... start at the beginning here.

Go back to part 12.

Go forward to part 14.

*~*~*

Blog Post: Tweet Log 9 (April/May) http://bit.ly/cUdsq6

Weeeird cat... thing... We saw this on a sign in a mall. Anyone know what it's for? O.o http://twitpic.com/2kc5ag

A bunch of masks that was for sale in Asakusa XD http://twitpic.com/2kvbim

So I downloaded TweetDeck recently and have been having trouble posting anything in Japanese with it. Anyone know how to fix this?

Arashi's Love Rainbow pv is out! It's not as silly as the title makes it out to be XD But I like the song, and the video's pleasant ^^

Japanese breakfast at Denny's (where they were playing freaking classical music!?) I need to learn to like natto.. http://twitpic.com/2lecvk

Yakiniku! This is from the first time I had a yakiniku dinner with friends and it was so fun and sooo delicious! http://twitpic.com/2lqoyl

I'm not even sure *what* this is... But we had such pretty foods in Japan XD http://twitpic.com/2mai3y

This semester is craaayzaaay... So hard to find any time/energy to do many kanji reps, but I still try to watch fun Japanese material @_@

Harajuku! It was soooo crowded! http://twitpic.com/2mlsba

Mustered the courage to talk to some random Japanese guy! (Granted it was an 'international setting' thing-still!) Helps boost my confidence

More of Harajuku. We didn't see anyone *wearing* really crazy outfits, but we still saw some crazy outfits! http://twitpic.com/2mwr4b

Watching Rookies! MAN does the teacher guy love to yell! haha XD

Last pic I have of Harajuku for now. I believe we actually went inside this store. Everything was just so crowded! http://twitpic.com/2nlze0

Reading my textbook for my Imperial Japan class might cut into my Japanese language reading time, but I'm least I'm still learning a lot :D

A shot of the pond (lake?) at Ueno Zoo. Despite the weather not being great, it was still so pretty~ http://twitpic.com/2nysse

Had over an hour-long conversation that was predominantly in Japanese today. A little braindead, but had a good time with nice people ^^

Mmm, soba. Got this at one of those places where you get a ticket from a vending machine and that's how you order. http://twitpic.com/2ojjsu

I've been doing my epic chores and just leveled-up. I'm a Level 2 Seeker of Employment now! www.EpicWinApp.com

Used my new tamago-yaki pan and onigiri molds today to make my first cutesy bento! I'll have to post a picture later ^o^

My poor blog is being neglected ;_; I don't have the pics for my last summer trip post yet, so I'll put something else in the meantime~

Blog Post: Drama Review of Last Friends http://bit.ly/cLUEJg

After starting it about a year ago, I finally finished Orthros no Inu. Sooo dramatic haha, but I did really like it by the end ^^

This man we met in Japan had hand made this structure that he put on his ceiling. It was really cool~ http://twitpic.com/2qi162

A beach at Shizuoka. This is where we went to the best onsen evaaarrr~ ^^ http://twitpic.com/2s323v

忙しい | Lang-8 http://lang-8.com/21498/journals/635911 #lang8

Just got out of lockdown - I was in the building adjacent to where the shooting happened at UT Austin. What a morning...

So I'd totally forgotten about this - FINALLY getting around to posting the first cutesy bento I'd every made ^^ http://twitpic.com/2sy6gd

CultureQuirk: Looking Back and to the Future

2011-01-01T15:01:00.000-08:00

Another year gone by. Hope everyone had a great year, and that this coming year goes well too! I’ve been through so much in my own life and while I’ve made a lot of progress with Japanese, I hope to progress even more this year. But in this post I would just like to take a moment and look at how I’m doing in the blogging world. I started this blog at the beginning of 2010, and I can’t believe it’s already been a year!

Twitter

I wasn’t exactly sure how to manage Twitter when I first started out, and I’m still not sure how to do so now. Initially, I had a much more structured approach to my tweets, but now I mainly just make random posts that are relevant to language, culture, my blog, etc. I do have over 150 followers, which makes me happy, but I’m not necessarily focused on getting a ton more followers or anything at this point. I would still like to use Twitpic more to post photos from Japan in the hopes that it serves as interesting content, I enjoy having conversation with other Twitter users, and I’ll definitely still tweet updates on my blog and whatnot, but the rest should remain pretty random. :D

Blog

I’m fairly comfortable with how my blog is going at the moment. I would love to post more, much more, but realistically I’m not sure that can happen. I would rather update a few times a month regularly than have huge gaps between periods of frequent updates. Back when I started this blog, I posted ten entries within the first month, a couple of months later the number dropped down to two, and the frequency eventually leveled out about three times a month. In the coming year I would like to bump that up to at least four times a month, about once week, and hopefully keep that steady.

Content-wise, I think I’d like to keep most of what I do so far. Drama Reviews, Cooking Adventures, Travel posts, Lang-8 posts - I think those are keepers. I realize that the Twitter logs I keep are mostly filler posts, but at the same time there is content there and I do know some people who are interested in reading them since they don’t have a Twitter account or rarely check it. Still, not sure if it’s quite worth it to post them, but unless it becomes really bothersome, I think I might still keep them. Once I catch up to the present, I’ll probably only post at the end of each month the Tweets I made for that month.

Something I would like to put a bit more focus on is posts on learning Japanese – more tips specifically related to Japanese language, as well as on motivation in general, since self-motivation is something I’m very interested in and is clearly useful when studying a language. Maybe some culture posts as well explaining certain traditions, exploring different cuisines, etc could also pop up.

As for future, new topics… I have a couple of ideas that I’m still forming. Like I said, I’d like to make more posts about Japanese learning, but I’d also like to maybe go even more specific than that. Maybe find a way to write progress reports on my own learning, detailing what works and what doesn’t for me. Also, I think I would like to try out making mini Japanese lessons as well. More about that down below, but I’ll see how it goes ^^

I also mentioned self-motivation, and while this may seem like something too general for this blog, I want to try to write about it in a way that specifically applies to learning Japanese. I have a couple of ideas, but again, I’ll see how it goes!

Other future topics I have in mind may not be easy to implement right now. I wish I had more Japanese video games – I would love to write reviews on them. Same with manga – I haven’t read too many different series in Japanese just yet, but I would also like to review those when I can. I may write about what I do have experience with so far if I need more material to post, but these topics may just be addressed at a later time.

Any opinions on content especially would be appreciated – and if you can think of new topics you’d like to hear from me, please let me know!

Facebook

I plan to create a Facebook page very soon for CultureQuirk. Don’t necessarily have huge plans for specific Facebook-related things just yet, but it would be another way to connect for updates and whatnot (hopefully special content in the future though!) I know plenty of people who check Facebook a lot more often than they check Twitter, blogs, or even their emails. Expect the fanpage to come in the next month or so.

Youtube

This is my biggest endeavor for the new year, and I’m not sure how it will go… I would like to join the jvlogging community over at Youtube and start making videos! I’m usually pretty camera shy, so this should be pretty interesting… at the same time, I do have some experience with making videos, and I have some ideas, so hopefully it will turn out alright. Mostly I think the videos will simply accompany the blog posts I’ve already made and will continue to make, but this is where I would also like to try some of my new ideas. For example, I’m thinking of making a video or two with some Japanese lessons (and then replicate the lesson in my blog). Hopefully the extra content will be helpful! I’d also like to take all of my footage from the trip I made to Japan and edit it into travel videos to talk about my experience, although that’s going to be sooo much work~

I definitely realize how time-consuming making videos is, so Youtube is a channel where I don’t want to promise too much! I have no idea how often I would be able to update, so this is more of an experiment. But I’d still really like to try it and hope I can make some interesting vids!

I actually already have the Youtube account made (I’ve just been using it to comment on other Jvloggers vids and whatnot) so if you’re interested in subscribing for future updates, here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/user/CultureQuirk. Hopefully I’ll also be starting that up in the next month or so.

Website

This isn’t too big of a change, but I actually have my own domain name! From now on I’ll be promoting my blog as “culturequirk.org” (instead of "culturequirk.blogspot.com"). For now, it simply links back to this blog, but it’s a lot easier to remember and promote that way.

And there you have it! Please let me know what you think about how I’ve been doing things and my plans for the future – I would love to provide interesting and useful content for you guys! I’ll always try to improve this thing and have some high hopes this year – it is the year of the rabbit, after all!

I’m happy with how the past year’s been for this little blog. I don’t have a ton of subscribers or anything, but that doesn’t bother me – this has still been a really fun experience for me. I appreciate each and every visit and comment I get from you guys, the discussions I’ve been having on Twitter, Youtube, Lang-8, etc., and all the support I’ve been getting both online and off. I hope you’ll continue to follow me into 2011! Happy New Year everyone! あけましておめでとうございます！^o^/

Winter Wonderland~

2010-12-29T14:20:00.000-08:00

Posting an update from Belgium! It's soooo cold here, and since I haven't visited Belgium in the winter for years, it's a bit of a shocker. Here's the scene I woke up to that first morning...

Snooowww! I was just thinking "雪だ！ひさしぶり〜" So pretty~ These are all shots of my grandparents backyard. We really were able to enjoy a white Christmas this year :)

You can really see the sheer amount of snow - apparently they haven't had this much snow during Christmas in Belgium for yeeeaaars. There are several good inches there. Pretty to look at, but driving was super inconvenient. There was mostly ice at first, so you couldn't do much with it either. But once it fell back down again, it became a bit more malleable.

My sister loves playing in the snow (I'm a wimp and hate the cold) so she made a snowman! かわいいでしょう〜？This really made me smile.

As for the holidays themselves, they went really great. Like I said, driving around was rough, but the actual get-togethers went awesome and being able to see family was the best. And the food!
Christmas eve was a home-cooked meal. My aunt and grandmother did a lot of the cooking, with some of the stuff being bought. That's one of the great things about a lot of grocery stores over here - they make some really high-quality ready-made meals.

This is a tray of amuse-bouches. My favorite thing is something that I can't find a photo of, unfortunately - smoked salmon and a avocado and cream cheese mousse wrapped in rolls made of crepes. Definitely would like to try making them myself sometime.

And for the aperitif, champagne with edible hibiscus flowers in them for decoration. I had orange juice, so you couldn't really see the flowers, but they add a nice sweetness to the drink. I actually ate my flower. Odd texture, but it was yummy~

This entrée is foie gras with a salad. I could eat this as a meal, it was so perfect. And my aunt made it sooo pretty!

Main course: Christmas turkey! With "farce," stuffed pears, and croquettes (my favorite *_*). This is when you start getting super full but it's just too tasty to stop. It was a rare occasion after all!

And finally comes dessert: Buche de Noel. It's a cake in the shape of a yule log, and this one was raspberry flavored with vanilla cream, and decorated with chocolate and macaroons.

And then, Christmas day we went to visit the other side of the family, and it was round two! This time we went to a fancy restaurant instead. We got completely distracted and didn't take pictures of all the courses, but here are a couple of examples.

This was an interesting salad with pieces of - I think - melon, cucumber, fois gras, etc... I think this was probably my favorite course. And that toasted bread was amazing. We had two or so other courses before dessert.

I love having multiple little things to eat, especially for dessert. A chocolate cake, ice cream, and a "fondant"/crispy crepe type of thing. Maybe a bit too much chocolate for my tastes and but undeniably delicious.

So you could say that we had a successful Christmas. Good food, good people, good times. And that wasn't it for us.

My mom's birthday is on December 26th, so it's always kind of hard to celebrate it. This year we dedicated the Buche de Noel to her and sang and everything on Christmas eve, but on the 26th my dad went and bought these adorable pastries to celebrate as well. The chocolate ones have meringue, and the snowmen have both raspberry and vanilla mousse, with an outer shell of white chocolate.

And now to go starve myself... heh, just kidding, but these were definitely special meals for special occasions! Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays!

Tweet Log 12 (August)

2010-12-21T06:49:00.000-08:00

Continuing my story through tweets... start at the beginning here.

Go back to part 11.
Go forward to part 13.

*~*~*

Had ZERO internet for the past few days, didn't expect that! So much to blog about, such bad connections XD

Blog Post: Epic Journey of Summer 2010! Part 2 (Belgium) http://bit.ly/a2kOwi

In the end, I had to post it without some of the pictures, but I'll fix that when I get back home. At least I'm getting some material out :)

Arashi's new album is out!! I just listened through the entire thing right now ^^;; Sooo happy about it~~~

Also, I'll be heading back to the US tomorrow. I'll have to put the blog posts up when I get back due to the problems with the pictures...

Back in the US! So much to doo~ Need to catch up with blog posts! I'll try to get those out asap :)

First things first, fixed the pics from the last Belgian trip update! http://bit.ly/9M57Zo

Urk. I just updated Anki and my kanji deck just... disappeared. o.o ?!?!?!?

Ok.. I lost the progress I'd made, but I think my deck's ok now.... phew! XD

I've been kind of under the weather, so it's been hard to get anything done... Bear with me >.<

So I've calculated I need to do ~30 new cards a day if I want to finish my goal of getting through Heisig's 1st book before school starts...

We'll see if I can do it, but either way, I'm almost there! :D

Blog Post: Epic Journey of Summer 2010! Part 3 (Holland) http://bit.ly/9gUF9B Lots of pictures in this one ^o^

アムステルダム | Lang-8 http://lang-8.com/21498/journals/584068 #lang8

Never made so much food before! off to another avatar party~ XD http://twitpic.com/2dru8n

Blog Post: Tweet Log 8 (March/April) http://bit.ly/cwZn1z

Uploaded a sorta filler-blog since I've been so busy and unable to post new travel stuff! Hope to change that within the next couple days :D

I've been doing pretty well at keeping up my pace of 30 new kanji a day... we'll see if I can keep it up till the finish line though o.o

Just finished lesson 48 in Heisig's. Only six more! :D

I tend to try to sing (or at least lipsync vigorously lol) to Japanese songs I love when I run on the treadmill. Bit more of a workout XD

Sorry for the hiatus, folks! I've been moving into a new apartment and school starts in a couple of days, so I've been busy - bear with me!

Blog Post: Epic Journey of Summer 2010! Part 4 (Holland) http://bit.ly/95PxXi

Phew, new blog post, and also plans of starting my daily twitpics again. Slowly getting back into the swing of things!

Reached kanji 2000! Gah, so clooose, hope to get done within the next few days XD

Just finished lesson 56! One more lesson! Maybe I could even finish today! :D

I officially finished Heisig's first book!!!! やった〜〜〜〜〜〜!!!! Partaaaaay ^o^

So I might have reached my kanji goal about... four days late, but honestly I don't mind. I just feel great about finishing the book!

Now I need to actually properly learn everything and keep reviewing. But I won't have any new kanji cards for a while :)

Back to an attempt at daily Japan pics! Here's a pretty doll we saw in a train station. http://twitpic.com/2k3xuh

Urk... been too busy to do anything fun with an Arashi birthday as an excuse... but had some cheese cake today... Happy Birthday Jun! XD

Motivation ideas: Jigsaw puzzles

2010-12-08T11:18:00.000-08:00

I’m dealing with finals for school right now and am trying a new way to keep myself motivated. Maybe this would work for you too!

I try to find different ways to turn tasks into a game to keep things fun and help with motivation. This includes checklists and bar graphs, like I mentioned in another post. An awesome app for the iPhone is EpicWin (check them out!) But I’ve also added a further element to the fun.

A jigsaw puzzle. What I did was print out a picture (this time around, it was one of Teppei Koike – I mean he does have one of the best motivational videos ever…). I flipped the picture over, drew dividing lines on the back, and cut the picture into pieces. The number of pieces equals the number of tasks I need to finish (for this case, the number of readings I need to do for a final exam). I put these aside, and every time I finish a task, I award myself one of the pieces of the puzzle at random. The puzzle itself isn’t that difficult, but this way, instead of just writing check marks or filling in a progress bar, I’m actually piecing together a picture, which is much more gratifying.

I’m surprised by just how much this has been helping me. It might be the fact that I personally love jigsaw puzzles, so this may not work for everyone. I definitely plan to use this kind of thing next semester for my new courses, and this can also be used for things like Japanese study (or just about anything!).

I love coming up with fun activities like this to track progress on various tasks, and over the break I’d like to develop some kind of new fun system for next semester’s classes. I really like the jigsaw puzzle thing, but I also love things like treasure hunts and whatnot, and I’m trying to think of ways to incorporate that. I feel like I’m turning into a kid again, but hey, fun gets things done!

I realize that the methods used to accomplish tasks probably shouldn’t take more time/effort than the tasks themselves… I’m trying not to go overboard, but just come up with new ideas every once in a while and implement them in the most efficient way possible. If you guys have any fun ways to keep yourself motivated, let me know!

Drama Review: Tokyo Dogs

2010-11-30T11:55:00.000-08:00

I watched this one on a whim almost right after it started airing in Japan, and I was immediately hooked. (Hate it when I do that, then I have to actually wait for the next episode :p) This drama primarily revolves around a great combination of both action and comedy, and just a small bit of romance. This isn’t a cutesy, sappy romantic show, but it’s not a serious and epic one either. It’s a fun, laid-back, yet exciting show that I can only describe as entertaining.

The plot is fairly unique and intriguing. It begins in New York, following Kudo Maruo, a small-time police officer on a dangerous mission of capturing a criminal mastermind, Jinno. The leader of the Japanese division is the haughty Takakura Sou, who takes himself and the mission extremely seriously since Jinno is his arch nemesis and had killed his father. The mission in New York fails, with the only clue being a young girl with amnesia named Matsunaga Yuki that mysteriously appears on the site. The police division is sent back to Japan after the failure, to Sou’s frustration. The mission to find Jinno thus continues in Japan, and a chaotic situation arises: Maruo and Sou are assigned as partners to watch over Yuki. The clash of personalities is the main comedic aspect of this show. Maruo is loud and rambunctious, has a very short temper, and is generally fairly unprofessional; Sou is cool and collected, always remaining professional even in the most ridiculous situations, although he can also be very abrasive and harsh.

I generally really enjoy Oguri Shun and Mizushima Hiro, the two main actors in this drama, and while their characters this time around may have been over-the-top, I still loved watching them. I just thought the interaction between them was so damn funny. Once they start arguing, they somehow quickly yet progressively go from fighting about something like a mistake Maruo made with a gun, to whether fish tastes good with bread. It’s ridiculous and – I think – hilarious. All the scenes where Sou’s mother calls in the middle of a tense situation also made me laugh. Thus the writing was very good, but the execution was great as well. The fighting/action scenes were decent, and the acting styles, while maybe a bit too much, worked well with the overall feel of the show. The overarching plot intrigued me – while originally I was just watching it for the comedic aspect, I ended up getting really sucked into the story. The side plots weren’t annoyingly unnecessary but actually worked well together and always helped in character development and advancement of the main plot. I also like that the romance parts, while present, don’t take over the show. Yuki is a very important character, but the focus still remains on the progression of Sou and Maruo. In the end, though, I don’t really come back to this show for the story, but for the comedy and action; the decent plot is just a plus.

That being said, this show isn’t perfect, and it’s not for everyone. While I found Sou and Maruo’s arguments to be hilarious, others might find them annoying. Despite all of the action in this show, it’s not one that you can really take very seriously. Also, many of the characters are sooo over-the-top, especially Maruo. I don’t know if they’re over-acting, or if the script just really calls for them to do that, but it can be too much at times (and I generally have a pretty high tolerance for that kind of thing…). The pacing of the show is also not the best. At the beginning, everything happens so quickly. Not only are story elements flying by, but the conversations between many of the characters tend to be quick and choppy, so you have to keep up if you want to understand everything. The story can get a little convoluted and confusing at times, although I didn’t really find that to be too much of an issue. Because the show relied so much on humor and action scenes rather than a particularly amazing story, I also found it to be a little bit forgettable. It’s been a little while since I’ve seen it, and I honestly don’t remember all the details of the ending. The ending itself was alright, but nothing really spectacular. (And by the way, as a side note, Hiro's look, with the goatee and everything, was not my favorite XD)

Ultimately, everything about this show depends on your tastes. Most people I’ve talked to find this drama really entertaining, though, and I personally really enjoyed it. I would encourage you to at least try watching the first episode, as you can really get a good feel for it (it’s not one of those shows that you have to be patient and stick through until the end – you’ll know right away whether you like it or not). This is basically a comical, yet action-packed, really fun show that I definitely think is worth a try!

Tweet Log 11 (July)

2010-11-24T14:13:00.000-08:00

Continuing my story through tweets... start at the beginning here.

Go back to part 10.
Go forward to part 12.

*~*~*

Came back home to this! My mom got me a ton of authentic Japanese manga that her friend was giving away!!! ^0^ http://twitpic.com/21nii2

A natural hotspring! Not very big, but still very warm and was a fun site :D http://twitpic.com/227c2m

Things have been slow since I'm pretty busy - nearing the end of my summer school session and moving out of my apartment this weekend!

I do plan to get a blog out in the next few days though ;D

An artsy glass house in the middle of the mountains. Not many tourists get to see this kind of stuff O.o http://twitpic.com/23h123

Blog Post: Cooking Adventures - Okonomiyaki http://bit.ly/9RK45L

Added a "Tweets" section to my blog - not sure whether to show tweets like that or just put up a "follow me!" button.. http://bit.ly/b65j6u

Another shot of the glass house in the mountains. So mysterious... http://twitpic.com/253e57

I'll be leaving for Belgium on Monday! Busy busy, but I plan to get in a couple of blog entries before then! One of them in a few minutes...

Blog Post: Lang-8 Part 2 http://bit.ly/9KrNpB

So determined to get through RTK by the end of the summer! *SRSing away*

A structure inside some train station that I found kinda interesting XD http://twitpic.com/25zcx2

I've been watching so many Disney movies in Japanese on Youtube lately! :D http://bit.ly/cn590s

At the airport! Heading out to Belgium. Not sure how much I'll be able to tweet but hopefully I will have Internet. Shuppaaaatsu!

Made it to Belgium safely and I sorta have internet! I'll have to see whether I'm able to update the blog...

French keyboards are pretty different from Americans one - I have to get used to them again!

Blog Post: Epic Journey of Summer 2010! Part 1 (Belgium) http://bit.ly/bbZqci

Today, July 21st, is the Belgian Independence Day! Woo~

Finished the entire series of よつばと！I'll definitely be going through it again in the future, such a fun and cute series ^^

ベルギー | Lang-8 http://lang-8.com/21498/journals/563700 #lang8

Finding it a lot harder than I thought it would be to do any kind of work over here :/ Having fun with the family, but little time to myself

Also, have a depressing amount of homework to do. Meeting my kanji goal might not happen. I'll do my best though >.<

Working on a new blog, but having an issue with the pictures (curse you bad internet!) This may take a while.. I might post it w/o pics..

Smart.fm: Japanese Core 2000

2010-11-07T12:36:00.000-08:00

So I know I've briefly discussed Smart.fm before in my Japanese Learning Methods post a while back. I still think it's an awesome tool, but in the past few months I had been focusing on other methods of learning. Now I'm coming back and wanted to have more of a discussion of my current Japanese learning methods.

So here's some background on my personal learning situation. A year ago, I was taking a Japanese class in college (my fifth semester) and was still in the earlier stages of the first volume of Remember the Kanji (which I talk about in my discussion of kanji). At that point, while I still felt like I had so much to learn, I also felt pretty "well-rounded." My listening and speaking skills, as well as my reading and writing skills, were all at around the same level, with maybe my listening skills being just above the rest of my other skills since I was already watching a lot of doramas and variety shows.

Then, last semester, I took a semester off from my Japanese course, since my other classes didn't really permit it. It didn't really bother me, and thankfully my skills didn't really drop or anything. I had managed to keep up with my Japanese decently enough, but my focus definitely changed during that semester. I wasn't practicing speaking too much and was focusing on kanji. I started reading Japanese manga, so I was getting much better at reading, but I never took any time to learn new grammar points or vocab, only naturally picking up a couple of things every once in a while. It was all about Remember the Kanji at that point. Well, by the end of the summer, I had finally finished the book! And then the fall semester had started, and I'm taking a Japanese class again.

Finishing RTK has definitely made a difference in the learning process. I'm not an expert on the kanji yet by any means - I'm still reviewing them everyday, and the backlog's pretty hefty. But whenever I see a new word, I'll have an idea as to what it means, or at least feel like I've seen it before, which does wonders for remembering it. So I'd just like to take this moment to reiterate how ingenious Heisig's concepts are and urge you to check it out if you haven't yet!

Anyway, while I am still doing my kanji reps now, my focus for the past couple of months has shifted once more. I'm learning new grammar and vocab through my class now, but the biggest difference has to be in my speaking practice. I realized during my semester off that, even if I don't always feel like I learn enough from my class alone, it still forces me to listen and speak Japanese for a solid fifty minutes, three times a week. I am thankful for that class for giving me that small opportunity to practice speaking. Something else that's made a difference is the fact that I've joined an organization that matches you up with a language partner, and now I'm meeting up with two Japanese friends once a week and can practice speaking with them.

I've already felt a difference from the past couple of months. It's not that I've necessarily learned all that much that allows me to speak more, but I'm really starting to just feel comfortable and less afraid to make mistakes when I speak. I'm often told that my Japanese sounds "natural," even if it's not perfect. I really feel like I'm overcoming a hurdle with my speaking skills here, and that feels great - I'm so much less shy, which really does wonders.

So now I feel like I have a good base - a couple of thousand kanji to help with my writing, the necessary confidence and naturalness to help with my speaking, not to mention a basic understanding of grammar to help me with both. And now I'm really wanting to take the next step, which is: vocab.

I honestly just feel so limited when it comes to vocabulary. I can hold a basic conversation now, which makes me happy, but I want to take it to that next level, and now I have the tools to do so. I don't think it will be as dramatic change of focus as my last two stages (in fact, I feel like I'm still in the midst of the stage where I'm improving my speaking skills). But it's something I want to slowly edge into and add to the rest of my Japanese learning.

So the point of this long-winded post? (If you've stuck around this long, I do appreciate it!) I'm getting back into smart.fm and am resuming my progress on Japanese Core 2000. Now, it's true that my original plans a long time ago would be to follow the AJATT way of doing sentence practice once I'm done with kanji. I'm not abandoning that, and I do plan to write my own sentences later on. But I'm still reviewing my kanji cards on Anki, and I think that creating another deck right now from scratch may not be the best choice. I had already been studying Japanese by the time I stumbled onto AJATT, so I haven't really been able to follow the "standard" order of things. I don't feel like I necessarily *need* sentences right now, since I have a decent understanding of basic grammar, and what I'm really craving right now is more vocabulary.

I've actually already started the core 2000 a long time ago, and I realize that there are a lot of words I already know, but I'm not too worried about it. The fact that all of the flashcards are already made for me helps so much. Besides, each word comes with their own example sentence, and I know that the goal is to aim for 10,000 sentences, but 2000 is okay for a first step, right? Also, I think having something outside of Anki will be nice. It's a change of setting (I find smart.fm to be much prettier than Anki is heh), and because I haven't bought the iphone app for Anki (yet?) but I have the free smart.fm one, I can focus on my kanji reps when I'm at the computer, and do my vocab reps when I'm out and about.

I'll see how things work out! Has anyone else done the core 2000 set? What methods do *you* use to learn Japanese in general? I'd love to hear from you guys :)

Cooking Adventures: Katsu

2010-10-24T14:50:00.000-07:00

So I haven’t made any katsu in a while, but I have some old pictures that I can still use to illustrate this. I had made some pork katsu at that point, but you can use chicken, fish – anything you want! You can serve it on rice and you’ll have katsu-don. I've had it with a side of peas or spinach – unconventional, perhaps, but it works! I’ll just be discussing the katsu itself in this post.

The basic method of making katsu is not particularly complicated, and it’s actually very similar to making croquettes. First, you’ll want to take your meat and pound it out until it’s pretty flat. I’m sure there are fancy tools out there, but I just put my pork in a ziploc bag and pounded it out by hand. I find it easier to cook if it’s flattened out.

This is where you’ll see the resemblance to croquettes. Have some flour and panko (or bread crumbs) ready, then beat an egg or two (egg whites by themselves are what you would usually use, but honestly, using a whole egg works just fine). First, cover the meat in flour, then dip it into the egg, and then finally place the whole thing into a plate of panko.

Turn it over a couple of times and sprinkle panko on it until it’s completely covered. Now it’s time to fry this thing!

Put some oil in a pan and start heating it up. I’d probably keep it at about medium when you’re actually frying the katsu. Be sure to have an apron and maybe some long sleeves during this process – little specks of oil tend to jump out, so be careful. I’ve always had tiny burns that sting a little, but otherwise have had very little trouble with this process. Put the meat in and let it fry.

I’m not sure of the amount of time you’re supposed to keep it on one side before flipping it over. Generally, I use my chopsticks to lift it up and check. Don’t worry too much about flipping too early, you can always flip it back over. As you can see, I hadn’t fried it enough the first time around, but it’s nothing to worry about.

Keep flipping back and forth until both sides become a nice golden-brown. You can cut it to make sure it’s cooked all the way through, but that’s what’s nice about making sure the meat isn’t too thick – as soon as the panko is golden-brown, the meat will be cooked enough.

And there you have it! Serve it with some katsu sauce and any sides that you like. I’ve never made my own katsu sauce, but you can usually find it at regular grocery stores. I’m sure you could always use ketchup or something, if you prefer…

I love katsu, and it’s definitely a nice treat to make for yourself every so often. Enjoy!

Tweet Log 10 (June)

2010-10-17T20:38:00.001-07:00

Continuing my story through tweets... start at the beginning here.

Go back to part 9.
Go forward to part 11.

*~*~*

Trying out a new app. Cupcake party! Avatar characters Aang and Momo and the kanji for love XD http://twitpic.com/1t2w5w

I need to try revamping a few things in my online activities. I'll try getting back into posting pictures from my Japan trip for one! ^^

We had the pleasure of visiting some beautiful hotsprings in Shizuoka. It was wonderful~ http://twitpic.com/1tf1xu

Blog post: Tweet Log 6 (January/February) http://bit.ly/dbi0cg

River in Tokyo. I had no idea where we were but it was pretty :D http://twitpic.com/1ua6oo

Added a live traffic feed to track where in the world people are visiting my blog from :D http://culturequirk.blogspot.com/

Tokyo Tower! http://twitpic.com/1v6swm

Made some spinach with my katsu today but over-seasoned it. I need to learn to season things better ><

夏の授業 http://lang-8.com/21498/journals/517169/夏の授業

Blog post: My take on learning Kanji http://bit.ly/dk2VR7

勉強と食べ物 | Lang-8 http://lang-8.com/21498/journals/520768 #lang8

Otanjoubi omedetou Neener! It's Ninomiya Kazunari's birthday! :D http://twitpic.com/1xpa5e

Beautiful grave... with a creepy baby doll? Oh the interesting things we saw in Japan... http://twitpic.com/1ymk55

Watched episode 8 of Kaibutsu kun. It's actually getting *serious*... Getting intense and interesting!

Also watched episode 9 of Sunao ni Narenakute... Getting worried about how this drama will end overall :/ So good yet so depressing...

I can't remember where this was, but I thought it was a beautiful building :D http://twitpic.com/1yudol

The beach! This is from when we went to Shizuoka. We didn't go in the water though >.> http://twitpic.com/1z3rhy

Just finished second season of Bloody Monday! :D

More of the Shizuoka coast! It was a little rainy, but that actually felt nice in the heat. http://twitpic.com/1zfi11

Blog Post: Tweet Log 7 (February/March) http://bit.ly/ac3vzA

Just finished watching Kaibutsu kun! That show surpassed my expectations, I ended up really loving it~! ^o^

Just got to kanji number 1500! It's slow going, but it's going~ ^^

Watching random clips of My Girl. So friggin cuuuute ^^ http://bit.ly/9yCvKN

Just went on a ~30min run while listening to happy, bouncy 嵐 songs. Most fun I've ever had running and I feel awesome! #immersion

Arashi: Boku no Miteiru Fuukei

2010-10-10T15:11:00.000-07:00

So I wanted to try something new and make a little review on a Japanese music album that came out fairly recently. This is, of course, the latest Arashi album, Boku no Miteiru Fuukei ! So if you’re not into happy, poppy boy bands, then I’m not sure you’d be into this post. XD I’d like to review some other Japanese groups later on, so hopefully at some point I’ll touch on something that would interest everyone. Arashi is still my favorite, though, so they’re probably the group that’ll pop up the most.

I was SO excited when the new album came out in August! I was actually in Belgium at the time, so it was hard to get access to the music, but once I got it, I couldn’t stop listening to it (which was nice for the plane trip home). I know it’s been a little while since it came out, but now that I’ve had time to listen to it, I feel like I know all the songs pretty well.

So while I started listening through the album, I didn’t *dislike* anything, really. Even if a song didn’t really stick, I could see myself getting to like all of them a lot. The ones that jumped out at me and that I really liked right away were Movin’ On, Circus, Gift, Shizuka Yoru ni, Mukae ni Iku yo, “Arigatou”, Kagerou, and Summer Splash. While those were my initial reactions, though, my opinion on them has altered a little over time. Here are some of my thoughts on each of the songs.

Disc 1

Movin’ On – Great way to start out the album. It’s catchy, lively, yet still kind of chill. There’s just a very recognizable “Arashi” feel to this song – it sounds just like something they would sing. I enjoyed the familiarity, though, and although I have a hard time pointing out particular points about it that are great, it was initially one of my favorite songs from the album, and I couldn’t stop listening to it.

Mada Ue Wo – This song is probably the most interesting one on the album for me. It’s just so different for Arashi! I actually had a hard time getting into it at first, but I just had to get used to the change and now I really, really love it. The chorus is fun, especially with the mini “battle cries” as I like to call them, and the Sakurap ended up being one of my favorite Sakuraps ever. I’m really glad that, while Arashi does have its own sound, they can really do something different every once in a while and have it work so well.

Refrain – I feel like this is a bit of a transition song within the album. It’s not bad, and when I listen to it, I’m enjoying it, yet somehow I find it a little forgettable. (It was the last song that I had trouble remembering the tune when I saw the title.) That being said, it’s still a nice, chill song, and it’s actually a lot of fun to sing along to, so I’d recommend learning the lyrics. XD

Troublemaker – I loved the music video for this. The stop motion was just so neat, and I really like the song too. It’s fun, upbeat, and really catchy. I’ve still yet to watch the drama it was for, but the song itself makes me want to watch it. It just makes you want to get up and dance, and it made a really nice addition to the album.

T.A.B.O.O. – Sho’s solo. Eheh. I can just hear the hip-thrusting he’ll be doing in concert. This song is kind of aggressive, yet aims to be sexy and fun. Sho’s solos always confuse me – they just don’t really seem to fit with the image I have of Sho himself. Still, I like the song…

Circus – This one I LOVE. In fact, it’s probably my favorite on the disc, and I knew it as soon as I heard it for the first time. Something about it reminds me of Tokei Jikake no Umbrella, which is one of my favorite Arashi songs ever. Dark and mysterious, yet somehow still quirky and fun. I could listen to it over and over, and love singing along to it. Fun stuff!

Gift – I’m not usually a huge fan when it comes to ballads, but for some reason I really enjoy this song. It’s sappy, light-hearted, yet still kind of powerful, and I really liked the orchestral parts of it. And the lyrics are just so effing cute~

Everything – I was surprised to see this song on here, I feel like this song is so old now! But it definitely didn’t bother me that it was there, as at this point it has an almost nostalgic feel. It’s pleasant and pretty; not particularly fantastic, but a nice song all the same.

Come Back to Me – Jun’s solo. At first I was just laughing at it, but honestly, I couldn’t help but really like this song. It’s really entertaining and just so damn catchy. At first I thought the use of autotune was questionable, but now I think Jun can actually pull it off. I don’t usually make a point of listening to Jun’s solos, but this one is definitely an exception!

My Girl – I really loved the drama that this was the theme for (which you can read about in my review of it), and this song consequently makes me feel so content. It’s a really cute song, happy but not too noisy about it. I might call it mildly forgettable – I’m not sure how much I would have really loved this song if it wasn’t for the drama. But still, it’s a nice change of pace, and fits in well with the rest of the album.

Magical Song – Aiba’s solo. At first I thought this song might be just too much, too silly, even though that’s usually to be expected with Aiba. But now I just think it’s incredibly catchy and really love it – it’s probably my favorite of Aiba’s solos. You know that really stereotypical twangy “asian-y” sound (totally don’t mean to be offensive here of course! I’m well aware that most Asian music doesn’t sound like that XD). That’s what this song sounds like. It’s just so fun and makes you want to dance around, and Aiba’s high-pitched “yeah!” makes me crack up every time. I can tell he would have a lot of time performing this in concert.

Let Me Down – This song didn’t pop out to me, but it really grew on me over time. It’s actually really fun to sing along to once you know some of the lyrics and I think it’s great to listen to when you’re walking somewhere. Something about it just makes you want to strut with confidence haha. (Maybe that’s just me!) The lyrics really confuse me, though… I can’t tell if they’re trying to say they want to break up or not break up. In any case, good song.

Disc 2

Monster – I remember when I heard this for the very first time, I wasn’t sure I liked this song. After a few listens I was getting used to it, and then the music video came out, as well as Kaibutsu-kun, the drama this was the theme song for, and I totally fell in love with both. It’s very different and dark, but still a lot of fun. It’s not quite as dark and dramatic as Truth, but still has a similar feel to it. I was happy to see it on the album.

Don’t Stop – This is another one of those songs that I just really like, despite there being nothing really special about it. It’s also one of those songs that once you know the lyrics, it’s really fun to sing along to – the chorus especially feels pretty powerful. The instrument choices were also interesting, and it’s actually a good one for going on a run. It just fits in well as another fun new song.

Shizuka na Yoru ni – Ohno’s solo. I find it really beautiful, but I have to say, it sounds exactly like the rest of his solos. I do wish he would try something a little different every once in a while; I feel like the continuing trend makes this song a little forgettable. That said, this was still a great song, Ohno sounds awesome as usual, and it was honestly one of my favorite songs of the album at first. I would love to see him perform this in concert~

Mukae ni Iku Yo – You can tell from very beginning with the harmonica bit that this is one of those cheesy, kinda depressing, yet somehow still a little uplifting type of songs. I really drew me in at first, and now it’s sort of blended back into the background. The chorus is pretty and fun to sing along to, and overall the song is pretty nice. It’s one of those songs that I don’t particularly feel the need to listen to, but I really enjoy it once I’m listening to it.

1992*4##111 – Nino’s solo. I have such a soft spot for Nino’s romantic little songs, and I love the fact that he writes them himself. The title is really bizarre, but there is a logic behind it – apparently if you type in those numbers and symbols into a Japanese AU phone, it spells out “ありがとう” (thank you). Isn’t that the just the cutest, nerdiest thing ever? (Just like Nino XD) I honestly think that the light-hearted, happy tunes don’t really match up with the Nino’s predominantly snarky image, but unlike Sho with his attempts at seductive songs, I feel Nino really, really pulls off the sweet and adorable songs. I will say that I usually prefer him to use piano or acoustic guitar, whereas this song has a lot of trumpets, and a… choir? Anyway, it’s not my favorite of his, but I still love it.

Sora Takaku – Finally this song ended up somewhere! I loved the movie this was the theme song of, by the way, so if you’re an Arashi fan you should definitely check that out! It’s pretty catchy and upbeat. Since this had never come out on a single or anything, I’m glad it was finally put on this album.

Kagerou – I ended up really loving this song. It’s powerful, with a good beat and great pace, it’s catchy, and fun to sing along to. I loved the piano and overall choices with the instrumental parts, and I felt like this song just fits really well with Arashi. It wasn’t happy-go-lucky, but definitely not dark or depressing either. Awesome song.

Summer Splash! – This song is so perfect for summer, which is when this album came out. I just imagined them all singing this at a beach party in their swimsuits. The verses are all very fast-paced (similar to Attack It! but nowhere near as crazy), so it was fun to listen to all of the members’ “raps.” The chorus itself was catchy too, and the “Ohhhh yeah!” parts are really fun. The whole thing just puts me in a great mood. Perfect way to end the album.

Sooo as you’ve probably noticed, I’m not exactly a harsh critic… But really, I did enjoy this album more than a lot of their albums. I just wanted to put out my opinion on everything, hope someone found this interesting! I look forward to talking more about music in the future. (^^)

Epic Journey of Summer 2010! Part 5 (Germany)

2010-09-30T21:40:00.000-07:00

Sorry it took so long for me to post this! I just got the pictures so I'm ready to write. This will be the last part of my summer adventures, so thanks for sticking around!
After visiting Holland, we worked our way into Germany for a quick stop at a city that's very close to Belgium: Cologne (or Koln). This was the first time I'd been in Germany, and my first impression through this city was pretty good!

Cologne is Germany's fourth largest city and is known for (apparently) some crazy parties and celebrations, which we didn't get to experience, as well as this cathedral:

It was so big I couldn't even get a proper shot! As dirty and dark as it is, I still thought it was really awesome and beautiful. We first took a visit inside the church itself...

Some shots of the windows. I love stained-glass windows, they're so pretty to look at~

We decided then that we wanted to try to climb to the top of the cathedral, but first we took a quick walk around the surrounding area. One of the things that I think makes a city really beautiful is if it has a body of water. So going down to the river was really nice.

There were some pretty grass areas where you could have a picnic or hang around, and we saw this neat little rock structures that I found pretty.

There were all these pools of water with stepping stones, tiny streams and waterfalls. So quaint!

On our way back, we could see the cathedral poking out over the other buildings. Starting to get nervous about the walk up the tower...

Here's a shot of what I'm pretty sure was the train station! I enjoyed a lot of the architecture in Cologne.

We got back to the cathedral and it was finally time to climb that tower. Man was it rough. It wasn't the first time that I'd gone up hundred of stone steps in a tight, cramped twist of a space. But that doesn't make it any easier.

We made it to a large circular room that signaled to us that the worst part was over. The stone windows and whatnot were interesting (sorry that it was so hard to take pictures in there!) but that wasn't our final destination. We still had a metal set of staircase to go before reaching the top, but that was nothing at this point.

Looking up at the very point of the roof!

As rough as it was, the view did not disappoint. From so high up we could see so much of the city.

Definitely worth the climb!

Funny story on the way down, by the way. You don't feel the effort as much going down the stairs, so my pace was a little faster. Suddenly I notice that the tourists in front of me were speaking a very familiar language... They were Japanese tourists! This was the first time I'd ever seen Japanese people in Europe! They were these two guys, a little older than me, walking back down the stairs as well.

I wanted to talk to them and practice a little, but had no idea what to say and was too shy. I couldn't help but stay pretty close behind them, though, both excited to be able to hear the language and trying to come up with an excuse to talk to them. At one point, they stopped in the staircase fairly suddenly, and I accidentally sort of bumped into one of them. I reflexively excused myself in Japanese, and they both whipped around, looking at me and behind me in shock. They looked so intense that I was too embarrassed to say anything else haha (d'oh!) They probably thought they were hearing things because they just kept going...

I never got the courage to say anything else to them. But I was disappointed in myself for not just throwing myself out there and I learned my lesson - next time I noticed a Japanese person was near me, and forced myself to be courageous and trying talking to them. It went great, and I'm actually friends with them now!

Anyway, that's my small taste of Germany with the city of Cologne. And that ends my epic journey of summer 2010! I've actually been back in the states for over a month now, and so I quickly learned how hard it was to blog while abroad. But I'm glad I was able to take some pictures and share some of my experience for you guys.

Looking forward to new adventures! :D

Drama Review: Last Friends

2010-09-17T19:58:00.000-07:00

Whoooaaa. This drama is inteeense. I hadn’t heard much about this previously, but from the little impression I had gotten, I didn’t think it was something I’d be interested in. A friend of mine was actually the one who really wanted to check it out, so I watched it with her. I ended up really loving this drama, even though it’s completely different from any other drama I’ve watched. There are pretty tough themes at hand: abuse, homosexual/transsexual identity, rape. While it is a very serious drama and it does have its crazy moments, however, generally I wouldn’t say it’s completely dark and depressing throughout. There were a lot of laughs, a lot of gasps, and it was an overall enjoyable watch.

Michiru (Nagasawa Masami) is a girl who has a rough home life with her mother and decides to move in with her beloved boyfriend, Sousuke (Nishikido Ryo). Around the same time, she runs into an old high school friend of hers, Ruka (Ueno Juri), a tomboyish girl who is living with her cheerful friend Eri (Mizukawa Asami) in a house together. Michiru’s move in with her boyfriend does not go as smoothly as she would have hoped, as he proves to be both mentally and physically abusive. Meanwhile, Takeru (Eita) enters into the picture, a kind and gentle – and seemingly homosexual – guy who has a dark past of his own. Through twists of circumstances, Takeru, Michiru, and Emi’s friend Ogurin (Yamazaki Shigenori), all end up living together with Ruka and Eri. But the drama isn’t over yet – Sousuke has not given up on Michiru, Ruka realizes that she is in love with Michiru, and overlapping love triangles arise in this emotionally intense story.

I was impressed by many of the actors, namely Ryo and Juri. They had tough characters to play, and they weren’t too dramatic with their personas while still being effective – in fact, I believe they were the only two who got acting awards for this drama, and I definitely agree, as their performances were great. The characters all had nice chemistry, which is very important as this drama is primarily about friendship (hence the name). The plot was very interesting and the storytelling was great and kept you hooked. The serious themes were a nice change of pace from other dramas I watch, and I liked the fact that there were also many happy moments in the series to balance it out.

Sometimes I couldn’t stomach the drama very well as it occasionally went overboard and became unnecessarily melodramatic. Michiru annoyed me a lot; not only was her character generally weak and irritating (the way she would let her boyfriend treat her at the beginning got ridiculous and wasn’t believable to me), but I didn’t find Masami’s portrayal of that particular character very good either. I have nothing against her, and I do like her in other stuff, so I think it’s mostly the character of this particular role that was the problem. There were many exiting, tense scenes that were very effective, but sometimes it got so dramatic that I had trouble taking it seriously. Not all parts of the plot were played out to the end or explained fully, which always irks me, and while there were some aspects of the ending that I really liked, there were other aspects I wasn’t really satisfied with. While the negative aspects are a factor to consider, however, they didn’t really get too much in the way of my enjoyment of the series.

Ultimately, I feel this is a very particular drama that wouldn’t appeal to everyone but was very well made. The characters and plot were very good, the acting was solid, as were the visuals. I usually like happier or funnier dramas and thus I’d want the serious ones to be exceptional for me to enjoy them, and while Last Friends wasn’t perfect, I still feel it met the mark, and do recommend it if you enjoy its genre.

Tweet Log 9 (April/May)

2010-09-01T09:27:00.000-07:00

Continuing my story through tweets... start at the beginning here.

Go back to part 8.
Go forward to part 10.

*~*~*

I also successfully made croquettes (korokke) last night! Two new recipes in one day~ :D

Blog Post: Another way to view Japanese material http://bit.ly/bXqTpc

Finally watched the Kurosagi movie and thus finished the series!! It took, what, 2-3 years? O.o

Just finished watching Mr. Brain! I'm surprised by how much I liked it XD

Just started watching Sunao ni Narenakute (the drama that's about Twitter..?!) So far, I'm really intrigued! (And yay for Jae Joong <3)

School has definitely been piling up and exams are approaching, so it's been harder for me to be active online. Can't wait for summer!

I finally actually watched the last episode of Arashi no Shukudai kun. So sad ;_;

Watched the first episode of Kaibutsu kun and was pleasantly surprised! I thought it was really funny~

May Tweets

Just made pan-fried lemon chicken and Japanese-style stewed eggplants. I can't wait to write about all my cooking adventures! XD

You may have noticed already, but I'll probably be pretty inactive for a little while now - it's crunch time in college world!

Blog Post: Cooking Adventures - Croquettes (korokke)! http://bit.ly/aAed04

Haha, of course the day I say I'm too busy to do anything is the day I put up a new blog. I should go on hiatus more often!

Just finished (re)watching Minami kun no Koibito. Cute show~

College is on break and it gives me a little time to breathe! SRSing it up :D

I went down from a backlog of over 600 to less than 300 in just a couple of days. やった〜！ ^o^

Getting back into learning new kanji. I really want to finish Heisig's first book this summer! Let's see if I can do this! :D

Also working on a new blog post. Expect it later today!

Blog Post: Drama Review of Yukan club! http://bit.ly/bgxxgb

Just finished Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge... what a weird show... XD

My sister's graduating today! Yaaaay! Busy busy~~

Backlog's GONE! Right now I'm at a pace of ten new kanji a day, hope to push that to twenty soon~

Epic Journey of Summer 2010! Part 4 (Holland)

2010-08-27T08:50:00.000-07:00

So this blog's about the second part of my trip in Holland! After Amsterdam, we spent a day taking a tour of the countryside that include all the local specialties. Everything was so beautiful and quaint - I really enjoyed it!

They don't call it the land of the windmills for nothing! We saw so many of them, and apparently they serve all different kinds of purposes, such as grinding grain or pumping water. We also saw a lot of more modern ones that convert wind into electricity. They're all over the place!

Our first stop was at a small village that had a small but wonderful tourist attraction: a cheese factory.

It wasn't a very big cabin at all, which just added to its charm, and you actually get to see cheese being made!

The cheese is being melted and churned in that big tub. Lining the shelves are dozens of giant wheels of cheese. It was a pretty impressive process.

And, of course, my favorite part... was samples! I really love cheese in general, but this was something else. Everything was so deliciously rich and creamy, and there were so many different flavors to try out. I think one of my favorites was this smoked cheese, which in the picture is the sausage-shaped one. I was in heaven~

We also got to take a little walk around the village, which was very cute and traditional. There were lots of goats and cows and everything was so green! (This is actually where it started raining a little bit, but honestly, the fact that the weather wasn't too fabulous that day didn't really take too much away from the experience. Everything was still so beautiful!)

Our next stop was a slightly larger town that was right on the cost - I guess a fishing town of sorts? We walked through the streets in order to reach the water. This was a nice little walk in and of itself.

We got to the port and were able to look at the boats for a little bit.

Then we got some lunch from the small stalls along the side of the water. Food straight from the sea! I got some sort of combo that had fish, mussels, shrimp, and so on. I'm not a big fan of shellfish, but I really wanted to try a variety of what they offered! Most of it was fried, so it was kinda greasy, but still very tasty~

After that we were allowed to walk around and shop or whatever until our next little journey. We looked around for some souvenirs and clothes (there was even a place where you could dress up in traditional Holland garb and take pictures!), but we were more interested in visiting the town itself.

There were canals crisscrossing all over the place, and the houses were all sort of squished together - these small streets were so quiet and pleasant and pretty.

Kitty! We saw this guy a couple of times, and while he did meow incessantly, he wasn't as angry as he looks here XD

Walking past the houses, we were basically in their front yard, everything was so close together, and got to see lots of cute makeshift gardens. The architecture is very typically European and was nice to look at too.

Nice little church! Also, I couldn't get a clear picture of them, but there were a lot of ducks swimming around in the canals too. I love seeing ducklings trailing after their mother X3

It was then time to leave, and we went from this town to a small island by boat.

Here's the shot through the window of the boat. Bye-bye, port town!

When we got to the new island, we came to a town that had ridiculously narrow streets. The whole group was practically walking in a single file line, and we could literally just look straight through people's windows if we wanted to. It was so tight and crowded (plus the line was constantly moving) so that I couldn't really even get a picture of anything. It was really cool to see all the houses up close though!

And then, on the other end of the village, we came to our last stop: a shoe-making factory. You know those typical wooden shoes from Holland? Well we got to see how they were made.

Like a cheese making factory, this was also in a very small building, but we had a lot to see. There were shoes everywhere - both completed and still in-process.

Here's the worker showing us how it's done. See those rows and rows of shoes above him? While I'm sure the shoes were made by hand a long time ago, now they're made with these really interesting (and loud!) machines.

The shoes were cut, sculpted on the outside, then the inside, and smoothed out. There were wood chips flying everywhere and it was really fascinating to watch a shoe being made, start to finish, in a matter of five-ten minutes.

And that was the end of our trip! We took the tour bus all the way back to the city and went back to the hotel tired yet content. I really felt like I saw a lot of Holland, both the key city of Amsterdam, as well as its rural areas, and truly fell in love with the country. Definitely wouldn't mind going back (and having some more cheese!)

The last blog post will be about a quick stop that we had in Germany. My tales of my summer journey will soon come to a close. Hope you're finding them interesting!~

Tweet Log 8 (March/April)

2010-08-14T08:27:00.000-07:00

Continuing my story through tweets... start at the beginning here.

Go back to part 7.
Go forward to part 9.

*~*~*

Blog Post: Lang-8, Looking Back and to the Future! http://bit.ly/8YU4VB

Went to karaoke last night. I suddenly realized I can read Japanese lyrics on the screen with little to no problem - makes me happy :)

Question: If I bought a PS or PS2 game in Japanese, would it still work on my American PS3? Or is it just PS3 games that are compatible? ^-^

もうすぐだよ！ | Lang-8 http://lang-8.com/21498/journals/401250 #lang8

Backlog's down to 150! And Spring Break's coming, so I'll have more time to spend on Japanese! :D

Just got back home for spring break, and waiting on my bed was my shipment of manga from Japan - the whole series of 「よつばと」! やった!!!

Yosh! So this spring break I plan to try a bunch of recipes out! I need to learn to cook~ :D Recipe 1: Tamagoyaki!

http://twitpic.com/18cobf - Tamagoyaki was a success! おいしかった！I think I might actually blog about my cooking adventures~~ XD

Blog Post: Cooking Adventures - Tamagoyaki! http://bit.ly/dyeQoU Alright, trying this new food section out :D

Almost done with the second volume of よつばと and it feels amazing to be able to zip through it like that with no problem following. So fun! :D

Finally reached the double digits in my kanji backlog!! So close to the goal and will finally be able to learn new ones in earnest ^o^

Made Yakisoba for the first time last night, and it was pretty tasty if I do say so myself~ XD

I WILL get this backlog down within the next few days >:D Also, finished RTK lesson 32~♪

Finished lesson 33~ I think I'll still keep my kanji to 10 cards a day for a little bit though... School makes things to difficult ><

Spring Break is coming to a close... *sob* But it's been a fairly efficient week, especially when it comes to Japanese and cooking! :D

Blog Post: Drama Review: My Girl http://bit.ly/9yCvKN Such a cute drama ^o^

春休みの料理 | Lang-8 http://lang-8.com/21498/journals/421330 #lang8

I'm so sad Arashi no Shukudai kun is over... Although I'm excited for the new Arashi show that's coming up :)

Finished Lesson 35 of RTK :D Might be hard to keep up with it in the next couple of weeks due to midterms, though... がんばります！ ><

I only have one episode left of Bloody Monday (season 1)! Such an intense and exciting show O.o

There! Finished Bloody Monday. Overall I thought it was great, can't wait to write a review... looking forward to watching the second season

April Tweets

Reached Kanj 1300 :) And working on an essay and studying for two midterms next week... Always a balancing act...

Blog Post: Tweet Log 5 http://bit.ly/br9Njh

http://twitpic.com/1ce8y7 - Statue of Confucius (I think?) at the temple in Akihabara

http://twitpic.com/1cmj5c - The beautiful green mountains of Shizuoka~

Definitely a little absent this past weekend and coming week... Probably one of my toughest weeks when it comes to school (until finals) ><

What a crazy week! I'm behind on a lot of stuff, but now I can start getting back into the flow of things :) Expect a new blog pretty soon~

Backlogs grow so damn quickly XD But this is probably the fastest I've been at getting it back down! *chips away* ♪ https://twitter.com/CultureQuirk/status/12111049255

Sea World | Lang-8 http://lang-8.com/21498/journals/443434/Sea-World #lang8

Made an improvised attempt at Okonomiyaki! And, surprisingly, it tasted great! ^o^

Epic Journey of Summer 2010! Part 3 (Holland)

2010-08-10T16:30:00.000-07:00

Even though I go to Europe every year to visit family, I rarely actually visit Europe as a tourist and haven’t really seen that much of it (for the record, I’ve been to France, Italy, and Belgium many times, but have rarely been anywhere else). So this year we decided to do something different and travel within Europe for a change.

And so we made our trip to Amsterdam. I’d been to the Netherlands (or Holland) before, but mostly it was just passing through, and I never got to get a good feel for it. Now, however, I can safely say I’ve seen quite a bit of Holland and really enjoyed it! ^o^

What’s nice about Europe is that everything’s relatively close together; the drive to Amsterdam was only a couple of hours from my grandparent’s place in Belgium. We didn’t stay in the city itself – and speaking of which, I would not recommend driving in the city if you go there. We stayed near the airport and took a train from the airport to the city center. I thought this was a great system, and Amsterdam is small enough that you can visit most of it by foot.

The train station itself in Amsterdam was really cool so I took a quick shot.

When we got there, I was shocked by how beautiful the city was!

I’m not really much of a city person in general, but this one was really great. Very typically European small streets that are just pleasant to walk through and look around, lots of cool buildings and famous structures...

Seriously, there were just SO many beautiful things to see. One of the things that really makes the city so pretty is the water. One must remember that originally Amsterdam was famous for its giant port.

There are so many boats all over the place!

And we can see these waters all throughout the city in the form of about a hundred kilometers worth of canals. They criss-cross through the entire city so that you're almost always walking next to a body of water, and there are many opportunities to take a boat ride through these water ways.

And alongside these canals is something else that is a very typical part of Amsterdam...

Bikes. There are bikes ALL over the place. Like I mentioned earlier, you probably don't want to do much driving within the city. Most of the vehicles we saw were buses, trucks, and whatnot. Other than that, people either take the trams, or use their bikes to travel. There are even entire parking lots just for bikes!

Apparently this lot holds over a million bicycles. Good luck finding yours if you park there. And something that made me chuckle...

Traffic lights just for bikes. Just goes to show how important they are in this city XD

Something that's really peculiar and interesting in Amsterdam - although maybe not kid-friendly - is the red light district. I didn't get many pictures of the area because I felt a little awkward taking any, even though it's surprisingly a relatively normal part of the city.

So this district is a pretty sizable part of the city that's found basically in the center of it. There isn't any kind of barrier or dramatic change of scenery, you're just walking through the streets and then start thinking 'hmmm... interesting signposts..." Of course, we only went through during the day, and I'm sure it's a much more different atmosphere at night.

Nevertheless, you can still very much tell that you're in the red light district when you get there. Even though it was daytime, we saw a lot of scantily-clad girls posing in windows like moving mannequins. I was personally kind of disturbed by this simply because I wasn't expecting it, but it was also kind of interesting. I didn't feel threatened or anything, and no one was outside or loud or in your face about it. It was just kind of... there, and completely normal. Honestly, if you're old enough and not easily offended, I would sort of recommend checking this area out - it really is a curious part of town.

Other than that we also saw lots of vegetation! Quaint gardens...

With... stone iguanas? XD

We even had the pleasure of coming across a flower market and going through a long street of flower stands.

And finally, one of the things I found great about Amsterdam is how liberal and open they are - we saw so many different shops and restaurants and whatnot that featured cultures from all over the world. We visited the mini "China-town" (and even though there's plenty of Asian stuff scattered all over the city, this street was definitely focused on Asia). There was even a little Chinese temple.

It might have been a little touristy (I wouldn't know, I've yet to have gone to China), but it was still a nice, quiet moment to enjoy something a little different.

So there you have it, a very quick look at the beautiful city of Amsterdam. We were so lucky when it came to the weather and had an awesome time - if you are ever in the neighborhood, I definitely think it's a place worth visiting!

In the next post I'll be talking about the more rural parts of Holland where I also had an amazing time! That'll be coming soon~

Epic Journey of Summer 2010! Part 2 (Belgium)

2010-08-02T00:34:00.000-07:00

Blogging abroad is definitely tricky - especially with limited internet access. I'm pretty busy over here, but I'll trying to update when I can~! (Note: There are several pictures missing, as my internet connection became unable to handle them, I guess. I'll be updating this post when I get back home!)

So after a very short time at my grandparent's house, I went with the family to the Belgian coast, where my grandparents own an apartment. I've become very familiar with the area as we tend to go every year. We spent about the week there and had a very pleasant time.

The Belgian coast doesn't necessarily have the prettiest beaches in the world, and most of the time the water is too cold to swim in (though that doesn't stop some people...). There are still some pretty things to see and fun things to do, though! Here are some shots of the beaches near where we were.

It's always nice to take walks by the sea. It's usually fairly windy, but we got pretty lucky when it comes to the weather this time. It was warm and calm, and the ocean was so pretty.

What's really interesting are the occasional markets that come around. We went to a night market and I had a lot of fun checking out all the stands. You can get so many things for cheap (I got a cute dress for five euros!), and there are a lot of local specialties abound. Here are the couple of shots that I managed to get:

Shopping as the sun sets...

Candy stand!

Nuts and dried fruits stand!

Food stand! Now here's something super-typical: french fries in a cone. You see a lot of people walking around with fries in a paper cone with mayonnaise on top. I decided this was too fattening for me... Eating so much Asian food has made me soft! XD

Food is indeed one of the great things about going to the coast. I love Belgian food so much. I discussed some typical dishes that I ate while I was here last year in a blog post. Home cooking is absolutely wonderful, but what's exciting about the coast is that we were able to eat out a few times.

Fondues parmesans! Aka cheese croquettes. I only eat these a couple of times a year, but they taste soooo amazing *o*

Mussels! If you don't know what these are, they sort of look like small clams. I personally can only handle small amounts since I'm not a big fan of shellfish, but this is definitely a local specialty that's worth checking out.

And finally... waffles!! They don't call them Belgian waffles for nothing. I've never managed to find waffles that can live up to these in the US unfortunately... So if you go to Belgium, pleeease try some authentic waffles~

So that's some of the highlights! Coming up is a post on Amsterdam, so look forward to that!

Epic Journey of Summer 2010! Part 1 (Belgium)

2010-07-20T13:04:00.000-07:00

Hey, everyone! While my main focus is Japan, this blog is about many cultures in general, and as I tend to travel, I thought why not document it! I will be in Europe for the next three weeks or so and would like to share this with you. It'll provide more content for when I have little time to make regular blog posts, and hopefully it'll be interesting posts in and of themselves. Just so you know, despite the title, I'm not sure if this particular trip will be really "epic" and I'll mostly be just visiting family, but I still hope to visit some new places and see some cool things.

Now, I'm not sure how good I'll be at blogging while travelling. It's a little ambitious, as I know that things can get very busy (especially when I do interesting stuff that I really want to blog about). So this will be a bit of an experiment. I plan to update you guys on my journey a couple of times a week - let's see if I can do it!

Aaaaand we're off!
So our journey begins at an airport in Houston, Texas: Bush Intercontinental. Surprisingly, it wasn't busy at all, and we got on and through the flight with no problems. Ironically, even though I travel quite a bit, I'm definitely not a fan of flying. But there was very little turbulence, and I was thankful for a smooth ride.

We flew directly to Paris, France, which was a nine-hour flight. We're not spending any time there this year - in fact, even though I go to the Paris airport almost every year, I've only ever actually visited the city once. So I mostly just know it for its airport. However, this was the first time I'd seen this particular terminal. Here are a couple shots of that:

Again, the airport was fairly calm and easy to get through this time. We needed to rent a car, and then it was a three-hour drive to my grandparent's house in Belgium.

It's been a pretty smooth process, but I am so exhausted! I'm also terrible with jet lag, so I need to get used to that. But I'm happy to be here! ^^

Lang-8: Part 2

2010-07-14T07:31:00.000-07:00

This is the section of my blog where I post my corrected Lang-8 entries. You can start with part one here. If you’re new and don’t know what Lang-8 is, I talk about it in my Japanese learning methods post. Check it out! :D

When I first posted my lang-8 entries, I said I’d post them in batches of ten entries or so. Well, not only do I not post frequently enough on Lang-8 to stick with that, I don’t want to make posts that are way too dense either, so I thought I’d do more like five entries per post. Makes it easier for me, and maybe easier to read for you too! ^^

***

もうすぐだよ！

あぁ。。。疲れた。。。大学は大変だけど、もうすぐ春休みです。

この春休みにたくさんやる事があるんです。たとえば、毎日日本料理を作ってみたいです。料理をあまりしないから、もうちょっとやってみたいです。上手になりたいです。

それに、日本語も勉強するつもりです。今の私にとって大事なことは漢字を練習することです。それに、聞き取り練習も必要ですから、たくさんドラマや日本番組を見るつもりです。楽しみです〜

春休みが待ち遠しい！

***

春休みの料理

春休みが終わった。。。残念です。。。
でもたくさんの事をしました。たとえば、料理！私はあまり料理ができないから、ちょっとやってみました。楽しかったのでいっぱい習いました。

一つは玉子焼きです。ブログでその経験を話しました〜 http://culturequirk.blogspot.com/2010/03/cooking-adventures-tamagoyaki.html　ちょっと難しかったけど、おいしかったです。

ほかの料理はチャーハンとかやきそばとかを作りました。作り方はかんたんでたくさん野菜を入れるから、いい食べ物だと思います。もっと料理をしたいです！

***

Sea World

先週は最低でした。。。もう終わってよかったです！^-^

でも、週末は最高でした！家族が来て、一緒にシーワールドに行きました。鯱もイルカもアザラシもかわいかったです。私イルカを触った！幸せだった〜 ^o^　でも一番かわいかったのはラッコだったかな。私はラッコが大好きです。シーワールドへまた行きたいです。楽しかったです！

その後で、家族とおいしい中国料理を食べました。家族が来てくれてとても感謝しています！

***

夏の授業

今夏休みですけど、授業を受けています。忙しい〜

でももっと日本語で書きたいです。毎日漢字を勉強しているんですが、それだけです。それはいけません。もっと、もっと日本語を練習したいです。

がんばるぞ〜！

***

勉強と食べ物

今マーケティングを勉強しています。水曜日に試験があります。難しくないですけど、勉強する事がたくさんあります。がんばります！

今日「プラカーズ」というレストランに行くつもりです。体に悪い食べ物ですけど、すごくおいしいです。^^;

Cooking Adventures: Okonomiyaki

2010-07-08T11:46:00.000-07:00

So I tried out a fairly flexible recipe – and I say flexible, because I didn’t have half of the ingredients and it still came out edible. I looove okonomiyaki and just had to try it out! This isn’t the most flavorful rendition in the world, but I still enjoyed it, and it was incredibly easy to make. Okonomiyaki is generally pretty forgiving. Here’s the recipe I originally referred to, although like I said, I didn’t have a ton of the ingredients and improvised most of it.

If you don’t know what okonomiyaki is, it’s pretty difficult to explain, but hopefully this post will give you a better idea. It’s kind of like a pancake, kind of like a pizza, kind of like an omelette… but not. I’ve seen a ton of different variations, and you can do almost anything you want with it, but this is what I did the first time I made okonomiyaki.

First cut up the veggies. One of the most basic components of all okonomiyaki (as far as I know) is cabbage. Shred it up into tiny pieces, along with any other vegetables you like – in this case, I added some carrot in there. Altogether, I had just under a cup of cabbage and a single carrot.

Next, make the batter. It’s basically just flour, water, and egg. To make a small okonomiyaki I just put in a single egg, along with about 20 grams of flour and 2 tablespoons of water. I’m used to putting milk in any type of batter, but that’s not the case here. Have your veggies at the ready and…

Mix it all together! This is where I really felt the difference of the lack of milk – the whole thing felt so dry! But this is fine, and it should be pretty chunky; you won’t want it to drip all over the place when you go to cook it. I just used a fork to mix it all up, but if you have a spatula, it’ll come in handy in a second…

Now to cook this up! But a tad of oil in your pan, just so that the batter doesn’t stick, and dump your mixture onto the pan. Use a spatula to get it all out of the bowl and make the pancake as even as possible. Now we need to steam it.

Look at how unprepared I was! I didn't have a cover for the pan I was using, so I just used a different one that was for a much bigger pan. Just goes to show how much time I put into preparing for this... and how easy it is to pull off. Just improvise with what you have in the kitchen. :P

Let the batter sit for a while and cook. Use a spatula to lift the edge every once in a while and see if it's solid yet. Once the bottom is solid enough that it won't fall apart, go ahead and flip it over with your spatula. Use a knife, fork, another spatula, or something to help you turn it over if you need to.

Let it cook for a while longer on the other side. Don't press down on it or anything, though, since you want it to stay pretty airy and fluffy inside. The edges on mine were totally uneven, and didn't cook as well as the rest of it. This wasn't really a problem in the end for me, but if anyone has any tips on cooking okonomiyaki better please let me know! ^^ The recipe I followed said to only flip it over once, but I think that might have mostly been due to the other ingredients making the process more complicated, and I actually just kept flipping it over until it looked a little more golden and solid.

While still in the pan, I put on the sauce. I didn't have any okonomiyaki sauce, nor the proper ingredients to make one, but that didn't end up being a problem. Apparently it tastes just fine with soy sauce, but I actually put katsu sauce on it and thought it tasted great. I also ripped up some nori (seaweed) into little pieces and put some on there too. I tasted it with and without the nori and liked it both ways - I ended up just covering it in nori completely. If anything, it makes it look a little more interesting.

Here's the final product! A very simple, rough version of okonomiyaki. Now, I don't think my version really makes this dish justice - if you ever have the opportunity to have some authentic okonomiyaki, I strongly urge you to try it. But if you just want to try something different, tasty, and easy to make with ingredients you already have lying around, then keep this recipe in mind!

Tweet Log 7 (February/March)

2010-06-24T10:03:00.000-07:00

Continuing my story through tweets... start at the beginning here.

Go back to part 6.
Go forward to part 8.

*~*~*

Finally reached lesson 32 of Heisig's book! Little milestones like that feel good :)

http://twitpic.com/129w54 - Pokemon ride! So cute! Just outside of Ueno Zoo.

Just watched an episode of Kurosagi. I really need to finish that series...

Blog post: Drama Review of Nodame Cantabile! http://bit.ly/cF1RnE

Lots of celebrations coming up... Chinese New Year, Valentine's Day, Mardi Gras, Carnival... :D

Blog Post: Tweet Log 3 http://bit.ly/cXj37C :D

http://twitpic.com/138al9 - The Starbucks next to Shibuya crossing (which is effing epic by the way)!

Blog love anyone? :) http://culturequirk.blogspot.com/

http://twitpic.com/13nx32 - A shot of Shinjuku (if I'm not mistaken >.>)

http://twitpic.com/13tpi0 - Tokyo at night. Oh, how I miss that city~

Blog post: Exercising while Studying Japanese! http://bit.ly/9LhhfL

Learn Japanese while you're exercising! http://bit.ly/9LhhfL

http://twitpic.com/14mj3u - A sign in Shinjuku that looks happy to me XD

I'm having a hard time with school this week- hate it when it gets in the way of Japanese, but it only strengthens my desire to get back in.

Case in point: my kanji backlog went from about 200 to 400 over the weekend. Here's hoping I can keep it under control between exams! XP

I realize more and more... I'd really like to do vlogs. But do I have the time and the courage? Time will tell :)

Rare occurrence! It's snowing! I live in Texas, so it's always bizarre and exciting when this happens.

Finding a moment to kanji it up! And treasuring it ^-^

Blog Post: Tweet Log 4 (December/January) http://bit.ly/d4b9H4

If anyone has received an inappropriate message from me, I deeply apologize as I've somehow been hacked and have no idea how to stop it.

Ok, so getting hacked is kinda scary, but I hope it's sorted out now... Thanks for the support, everyone!

As a general warning for everyone, I think I figured out how I got hacked. I got a DM from someone with a message that said...

"haha, is this you?" with a link. When I clicked on the link, it was a Twitter page (or at least looked like one) and I had to log in....

I was never able to get to the page, so I just gave up, confused, but that must be how the spammer got my password (I later saw that...

the original person who sent it to me had been spammed herself). So protect your password! Hopefully everything's back to normal now :)

I'd like to get back into writing Japanese entries on Lang-8. Such a great tool! http://lang-8.com/

Finally reached the 100s in my kanji backlog! Waaah... もうちょっと...

Just watched Saigo no Yakusoku and was extremely surprised by how legitimately great it was! Yaaaay Arashi~

March Tweets

Bringing back lang-8 into my life! Gotta do my best with this thing! :D

おひさしぶり〜 | Lang-8 http://lang-8.com/21498/journals/391208 #lang8

My take on learning Kanji

2010-06-11T14:47:00.000-07:00

If you’ve kept up with this blog (or if you follow me on Twitter), you probably know that I use Heisig’s method of learning kanji depicted in his book, Remembering the Kanji.

If you don’t know about this book, I strongly recommend for you to check it out, as I think it’s an ingenious method. In a nutshell, you break the kanji down into basic primitives that each have their own individual meanings and are oftentimes fairly pictographic, and then you combine these parts into more and more complicated kanji, creating vivid stories that brings all the elements together. Here’s an example of combining the kanji for sun (日) and moon (月):

This system really works for so many people, myself included. It’s definitely a book worth checking out.

An additional growingly popular tool that you can use to facilitate learning these thousands of kanji is a spaced repetition system (SRS). Again, if you aren’t familiar with this, I strongly recommend for you to check it out. An SRS is essentially a flashcard system that measures how well you know each individual card, and it shows you that card right when you need to see it. Instead of going over a card twenty times in a day, and then you completely forget it a week later, you would see the card a day later, then three days later, then a week later, then up to months and years later. There’s scientific research behind this that analyzes how your brain remembers things and how the SRS system takes advantage of your natural learning abilities. Thus you can make your kanji studies – or almost any studies, really – much more efficient. The system that I personally use is Anki.

So. Those are all awesome tools that have really been working for me. But there’s a huge point I’d like to make here. If you follow something like AJATT’s method, you probably have the idea of learning all the kanji first, and then moving on to sentences in your SRS. I think that’s totally fine, and once I get through all my kanji flashcards, that’s what I plan to do as well. However… I don’t think you should necessarily limit yourself to just learning kanji for that bit of time. I have heard about many situations where people were almost afraid to learn anything else about Japanese other than kanji because they think they won’t get the same benefit until they learn the kanji. I don’t think that’s necessarily the best tactic.

Now, if you can bang out all the kanji very quickly and are able to focus on nothing but that without any problems, more power to you. But most of us need a little break sometimes. I really enjoy doing my kanji reps, but after a while I do get sick of it and need to stop – while I try to do them often, my kanji sessions don’t last for hours, and in fact they sometimes just last a few minutes. But while I’m not always studying kanji, I don’t necessarily need to stop the Japanese learning – I just switch to something else.

Simple immersion (watching Japanese videos, listening to Japanese music, etc) is a common, easy learning method that most people have no qualms with. You don’t even need to be paying strict attention, just have it playing in the background and get used to the sound of it. But at the same time – it’s okay to pay attention. It’s okay to learn new vocabulary, new grammar points, etc. Sure, you might still be in the “kanji stage”, but that doesn’t mean you can’t learn other things too. Try to pick up as much as you can! Also, when you read manga or webpages, don’t only look at the kanji you’ve learned and completely ignore the rest. It’s okay to look at unfamiliar kanji, especially if they pop up often. If you’ve already seen it before, when you actually get to that kanji in your SRS, it will be that much easier learning it – you’ve already been exposed to it.

One last specific example. There are some points where I couldn’t do my kanji reps if I wanted to. I carry my computer around with me a lot, but it’s not with me 24/7, and I also much prefer sitting down with paper and writing utensils to properly practice physically writing out the kanji. Kanji reps can just be really inconvenient at times. However, unlike my computer, I almost always have my phone on me. This allows me to access other study methods – namely, the Smart.fm app for the iPhone. I follow several lists of vocab on Smart.fm, and can easily access and practice them at almost any time (some moments I’ve used it: waiting in line for a movie, waiting for class to start – or sometimes even during class… eheh…). Most of these are simple vocab that I already know pretty well, but I make sure that the kanji setting is on. I’ve been using this app for a couple of months now, and I love using it because I get to see a lot of the kanji I’ve already learned in action. It’s like “oohhhh, that’s how you use that kanji!” Sure, I didn’t plan on learning this yet – I haven’t started studying sentences. But this way I feel like I’m getting a head start on the next step, and whenever that kanji pops up in my SRS deck again, I have an even easier time remembering it.

The point is, while my main focus is studying kanji, I’m studying a lot of stuff on the side, which reinforces my kanji studies and helps it go faster. And I’m getting a head start on learning how to read, write, listen, and speak as well.

So don’t be scared of learning anything and everything that excites you! Don’t keep your studies too structured! That way you’ll have a lot more fun and learn a lot faster. That’s my 2 cents at least (^-^)

(By the way, just a quick disclaimer, I’m trying out the new “Amazon Associates” feature for blogger, which is how I added that Remembering the Kanji book link. I do earn a small commission if any of you decide to buy the book through Amazon. Not trying to pressure anyone, of course, I’m just letting you guys know! ^-^)

Tweet Log 6 (January/February)

2010-06-04T14:12:00.000-07:00

Continuing my story through tweets... start at the beginning here.

Go back to part 5.
Go forward to part 7.

*~*~*

Manga Nostalgia: Angel Sanctuary. Beautiful art, but one of the most bizarre/disturbing series I've ever read. Still... it was interesting..

http://twitpic.com/1025e0 - A beautiful structure we saw in Ueno Zoo.

Blog Post: Some of my tips on managing life! May it help you with school and your Japanese studies :) http://bit.ly/cOcWbW http://twitter.com/CultureQuirk/status/8300624338

Manga Nostalgia: Hikaru no Go. An interesting story revolving around the traditional Japanese boardgame Go, with some great art to boot.

Added another tip thanks to @Carisell to my Life Management Post http://bit.ly/cOcWbW :)

Looking for an inexpensive way to get hardcopies of manga! どうしよう〜 Any suggestions? http://twitter.com/CultureQuirk/status/8344406710

http://twitpic.com/105uwx - This monkey at Ueno Zoo was chilling in this position forever, it was hilarious! http://twitter.com/CultureQuirk/status/8350964806

Finally watched the first episode of Bloody Monday. It's intense! I'm totally hooked.

Manga Nostalgia: Wish. A short and cute story from Clamp. Not my favorite manga series by them, but still a nice read. http://twitter.com/CultureQuirk/status/8428448438

http://twitpic.com/10k0wi - Llamaaa! At Ueno zoo~

February Tweets

Manga Nostalgia: Fairy Cube. Again, Kaori Yuki and her bizarre plots. This one was shorter and less disturbing, though, and was very pretty~ http://twitter.com/CultureQuirk/status/8513905496

Blog Post: Tweet Log #2 :D http://bit.ly/aOl7Y1

http://twitpic.com/10t4vd - The beautiful pond area at Ueno zoo (or is it technically part of Ueno park?)

Watching Kurosawa's "No Regrets for Our Youth" in class. Interesting.

Manga Nostalgia: Skip Beat. I got sucked into this series immediately! It was so original and funny - everything about it entertained me.

Researching study abroad options in Japan. Exciting stuff~ :D

http://twitpic.com/1179qi - More at Ueno zoo. So adorable! I think it's a loris?..

Manga Nostalgia: Chrono Crusade. Hadn’t read much of it, and while the plot did have promise, lost track of it.. maybe I'll pick it up again

http://twitpic.com/11c8cy - Yay recycling! Bottles... cans... pets?!

Just got to kanji 1179 in Heisig's Remember the Kanji. @_@; Still have quite a backlog so the going's slow, but it's going! :D

Blog post: Variety shows! Learn Japanese by watching these hilarious, fun shows~ http://bit.ly/9A5vLb

Just reached 100 followers on Twitter! I'm so happy, thank you everyone!! :D

http://twitpic.com/11i8km - Kuma-san chillin' out at Ueno zoo~

Writing to do lists in Japanese... anyone know how to say "To Do"? XD Write now the label's "すること"...

Manga Nostalgia: La Corda D’Oro. I’ve really fallen in love with this series – love the classical music theme, the art, and the characters.

http://twitpic.com/11raey - Polar bear!! Still at Ueno Zoo ^-^

http://twitpic.com/11xp95 - Poop falls over you?

Kanji backlog down to the 200s @_@ but I'm almost done with the 31st lesson of the book :D

Learn Japanese by watching these hilarious, fun variety shows~ http://bit.ly/9A5vLb

Commented on Empty Compliments and the Language Learner / Foreign Language Mastery http://tinyurl.com/ykwt75b

Drama Review: Yukan Club

2010-05-26T12:50:00.000-07:00

Sooo although I hadn’t heard much about this show, what I had heard wasn’t very good.. ^^; I have to admit, I was sort of drawn to check this out by Akanishi... (While I’m not obsessed, I am a bit of a fan XP) I still planned to watch this one casually, as it seemed like one of those shows where you could watch an episode every once in a while. I have to admit, though, that I did become more and more engrossed in the show and by the time I finished it I realized I was actually quite hooked and really enjoying it. If you’re looking for something to watch “casually” (or if you’re obsessed with Jin) this might actually be a pretty good choice.

Ok, plot… well there isn’t really much of one. This show is mostly centered around its characters, a group of six very different high school students that form the “Yukan Club.” Miroku (Akanishi Jin) is sort of your typical “cool” guy; he’s fairly passive about things, a good fighter and he loves his motorcycle. Noriko (Kashii Yu) comes from a rich and proper family and is very formal and traditional, although she can be really severe when it comes to men. Seishiro (Yokoyama Yu) is extremely intelligent, good at martial arts, and is overall quite poised; he is the planner of the group. Karen (Suzuki Emi) is the sexy, girly one who’s looking to marry into a rich family and is a bit on the prissy side. Bido (Taguchi Junnosuke) is the foreign-looking playboy who is feminine and skilled at flirting but tends to be easily frightened and wimpy. Finally is Yuri (Minami), a very tomboyish girl from a rich family who is athletic, obnoxious, and loves to eat. Somehow this motley cast forms a tight team with too much time to spare, and they go on various adventures and solve mysteries to pass that time.

I was pretty unimpressed when I first started watching this. Every episode has its own little plot, and I didn’t find the first episode’s story particularly innovative or entertaining. Parts that were supposed to be funny, such as the scenes with the Headmaster and Principal, I found irritating. I felt like almost everyone was overacting, especially the flashier characters like Bido and Yuri (although I think this was mostly due to character direction). Moreover, I found a few of the characters visually unappealing – Noriko’s haircut is terrible, and while Taguchi isn’t a bad-looking guy, I don’t think the blond hair was helping his case. Overall it just felt like the creators were trying too hard. I wasn’t really surprised by all the negative aspects, though, and I continued just watching and episode every once in a while like I had originally planned. That’s what was kind of nice about this show – you don’t really need to keep up with a continuous plot as every episode is a different little adventure you can enjoy on its own. All you had to do was remember who the characters are, which they kindly remind you of at the show’s opening (although the characters are so out there that it’s really not that difficult to remember them…) I watched other dramas more seriously and this was just a side one that I watched for the heck of it, and it worked just fine.

I have to admit though, about halfway through I started watching this a little more frequently, and ended up watching the last few episodes all in a row. I’m not really sure what got me hooked… I do think the stories get much, much better farther into the show, and I began to find things funny. Mostly, though, I was just starting to really care about the characters as a whole. While Yuri was over-the-top, eventually it became something to smile at and she became one of my favorite characters. Miroku, who was usually so “cool,” had a really soft side and moments where he got very emotional in a comedic manner, which brought some humor into his character that I appreciated. I think the winning factor, though, was the fact that, while it makes no sense that such different people could have such a close friendship, they somehow make it work. You start to see how the friendship holds and it actually becomes believable. After watching some behind-the -scenes and seeing how the actors interacted, I started to see where this chemistry comes from. The final episode has surprisingly serious moments, and the overall friendship theme was pretty endearing. I’m pretty easily entertained and I do have to recognize that I don’t think this is the highest-quality show, but I still ended up liking it a lot.

So there you have it. If you’re a Jin fan, you’ll probably like him in this. If you like very silly situations and crazy characters, you’ll probably enjoy the show. If you’re looking for a really good drama and are hesitating about this, I definitely think there are much better shows out there, but if you like friendship stories and are looking for something to watch at a casual pace, then you might want to take a look.

Cooking Adventures: Croquettes (Korokke)

2010-05-03T09:35:00.001-07:00

Croquettes are a pretty big part of my culture (as I mention in my post about Belgian foods), and it’s also one of my favorite foods ever. I loooove the way they’re made in Belgium (I always need to have fondue parmesan every time I go), but I also love the way they taste in Japan. The Japanese word for it is “korokke,” and although it’s considered a “cheaper” food there and might generally not be as refined as it is in Belgian restaurants, I love all kinds of croquettes. While I’d seen my mother make them before, I’d never made them myself, so I was a little worried about the process.

I just made these with plain potatoes in them, as that might very well be my favorite kind of croquette. The first step to making these is to make good mashed potatoes. I just peeled some potatoes, started heating them up for a bit in water so that they become just soft enough to cut them into chunks, then I boiled them in salted water (I forgot to salt them at first, and added the salt halfway through and it was still okay, but you can always add a bit of extra salt after boiling them if you need to). A good way to check if they’re soft enough is to poke it with a chopstick – if it goes through, it’s ready to go. Drain it, and start mashing~

I wish I had a potato masher, that would have made things a lot easier, but I got through it just fine with a fork. Normally, if I were making simple mashed potatoes, I would have added milk, but for croquettes, make sure to not put in any milk! Add some butter, and maybe an egg yolk if you like (make sure to save the egg white for later if you do this!) Season it to your liking with black pepper and nutmeg. Make sure the potatoes are tasty on their own accord before moving on to shaping the croquettes. If you have time, it’s nice to be able to chill the potatoes in the refrigerator for a couple of hours so that they’re easier to handle.

Now to set up the assembly line!~

As you can see, I got out some bowls and a plate with different things inside. The first big bowl has the mashed potatoes, the second one has some all-purpose flour, the next one a beaten egg (or just beaten egg whites if you decided to put the yolk into the potatoes), and then the last one has panko (or you can just use bread crumbs).

Make small patties out of the potatoes (I actually made little balls, but you can make any size or shape you want, really); then roll them in the flower, dip them in egg, and cover them in panko before setting them aside. I discovered, due to how messy your hands get, that it’s easier to roll all of your patties in the flour first and leave them there until you’re ready for the next step. Then you can dunk them into the egg one by one and put them in the panko. I would suggest not trying to roll them around after they’re wet from the egg, as it’s harder to keep the patties together. Just let the croquettes sit in the plate and gradually cover them with the panko and reinforce the shape of the patties.

By the way, at this point, if you want to make croquettes in bulk and save some for later, you can freeze them in this state. I haven't tried this myself, but I'm pretty sure you can just deep fry the frozen patties later without any problems.

Anyway, you’ll end up with this! Ready to fry~

The next part was the part I worried about. If you have a deep fryer, then you can simply use that (when I go back to my parent’s house, that’s what I would use). If you don’t, though, you can try making your own home-made deep fryer like I did. I used a very tiny pot and filled it a couple of inches up with oil. I heated up the oil to high, but had to turn down the heat down to medium afterwards – so if you want to just put it to medium from the start, it may take a little longer, but it might be easier to start with. You can put a piece of panko or a drop of water in the oil, and if it fizzles, it’s probably hot enough and you’re ready to start frying.

Due to my tiny pot, I put the croquettes in individually. You might not have to do this, but it was easier for me. Careful not to splash hot oil onto yourself – try using chopsticks to gently lower them into the oil. When I put my first one in, it got really dark, really fast...

The panko ended up slightly burnt – although otherwise it tasted fine – but after that was I turned the heat down a bit, to just above medium or so, and cooked them for longer. I was still surprised by how quickly these cooked! If you freeze them beforehand, I'm sure they'll take longer to cook, but in general just cook them until they're golden brown. Play around with the heat to figure out what works best for you – but be careful, hot oil can definitely be dangerous!

Put the croquettes on some paper towels, dab the oil off and let them cool for a little bit. You should be able to break them open with chopsticks without too much trouble, but I usually use silverware to eat them.
They'll be pretty crunchy on the outside, but not tough, and nice and soft and fluffy on the inside.

And there you have it, a super tasty side dish! I had my croquettes with a piece of salmon and hollandaise sauce (which I'll go over in a different post).

Soooo good! Hope you guys enjoy! ^o^

Another way to view Japanese material

2010-04-14T10:58:00.000-07:00

So here’s just a tiny dilemma I had that ended with a simple yet satisfying solution.

For the longest time, the only way I could watch anything Japanese was through the computer. I would download countless videos to my laptop, watch them whenever I found the time, and store them on external hardrives. The problem is, while I do like to focus my full attention on shows, especially if I’m watching them for the first time, I also like to do menial tasks or doing some homework while watching TV. Oftentimes, I need my computer for these tasks. This would lead to me turning on the TV (and watch stuff in English) while I checked my email or organized my homework or something. The fact that my laptop is pretty small also made it harder to do things like clean my room while still enjoying a Japanese show, which would also lead to my turning on American TV. This is a habit I do try to get rid of.

My savior in this particular predicament? To my surprise, it ended up being the PS3. I hadn’t realized this until recently, but most of the video files that you store on a hardrive can be read on the PS3 – just plug it into the USB drive! Now, not only can I watch my shows on a bigger TV screen (which is a huuuge plus, I have to say), it also frees up my computer so I can multitask. Also, because of the larger size, it’s easier to watch a drama with your friends without crowding around a small computer screen. I do like the PS3 interface a lot, so everything is just made much more seamless and pleasant and I can free up the space on my computer.

This is just a simple idea if you happen to have a PS3 or similar system as well – who would have thought you could watch Japanese TV with it?

Tweet Log 5 (January)

2010-04-01T06:58:00.000-07:00

Continuing my story through tweets... start at the beginning here.

Go back to part 4.
Go forward to part 6.

*~*~*

My review of the drama Hana Yori Dango - http://culturequirk.blogspot.com/2010/01/drama-review-hana-yori-dango.html

http://twitpic.com/xp4lm - Ah, the streets of Tokyo~

Manga Nostalgia: .hack//sign Legend of the Twilight. Never played the games, but liked the anime ok; the manga was cute but nothing special.

Blog post: Summer Belgian Food Log. Ever curious about types of Belgian food? http://bit.ly/5suzHe

http://twitpic.com/xspn4 - The Sega building in Akihabara

Manga Nostalgia: Absolute Boyfriend. I loved the drama, and really enjoyed the manga too, although the end of it sort of fell flat for me.

Today I'll be celebrating Aiba Masaki's (belated) birthday with some friends! Haha it's a really dorky excuse to have fun XD

Blog Post: Intro to the group and members of Arashi! (嵐）http://culturequirk.blogspot.com/2010/01/arashi.html

http://twitpic.com/y8qmx - Gotta catch 'em all! In Akihabara.

http://twitpic.com/yctnf - Life-size statue of Evangelion character Rei in Akihabara.

Manga Nostalgia: Kingdom Hearts. Loved the games, but the manga... not so much. The story was way too rushed and I didn't care for the art.

Arashi! Arashi! For dream~ http://bit.ly/8sTm31

http://twitpic.com/yiqfr - Sony Aquarium - a really cool spot we checked out in Ginza.

Blog Post: Thoughts on some of the food I had in Japan! :D http://bit.ly/8WQPm5

Moved back to the apartment and school starts today! Busy busy~

Here's hoping I'll still be able to maintain my blog and Twitter account and whatnot! I'm optimistic about it thus far :)

It gets difficult to balance school with studying Japanese. Trying to create some of my own tips to follow~

Blog Post: Tweet log just in case you missed any or are interested in reading through them in mini-blog form http://bit.ly/880Q2q

Come join me! I'm taking: Learn to Read Japanese Manga with Rainbowhill and Natsuk... on eduFire http://tinyurl.com/ybb8e6b

http://twitpic.com/z2jzm - The awesome red gates of Asakusa.

Manga Nostalgia: Imadoki. A very short and sweet school story. It was so simple and cute; I enjoyed it quite a bit.

http://twitpic.com/z9h2m - Another shot of Asakusa~

http://twitpic.com/zea02 - This is where we offered our coins at the Asakusa temple~

Manga Nostalgia: Onegai Sensei – A short manga series about a student who discovers his teacher is an alien. Very odd, but amusing too.

Blog Post: Drama Review of Ryuusei no Kizuna! http://bit.ly/4pcWTc

http://twitpic.com/zkxqz - A shot of the bathroom from our hotel room in Tokyo - it was so tiny! XD

Have you heard about the drama Ryuusei no Kizuna? Read my review~ http://bit.ly/4pcWTc http://twitter.com/CultureQuirk/status/8169009916

Manga Nostalgia: Alice 19th – One of my favorite fantasy manga. The art is great, and I thought it was one of Yuu Watase’s best stories.

Sakurai Sho's birthday today! ^o^ Happy Birthday Sho~

http://twitpic.com/zumzw - The infamous fancy toilets! Although the features on this one from our hotel room didn't work XP

Drama Review: My Girl

2010-03-23T11:17:00.000-07:00

This drama is one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen. I was really excited when I heard about this at first because it’s Aiba’s first lead in a drama! I’d never really thought he’d be a great actor beforehand, but I really think he did a bang up job. The little girl who co-stars with him is absolutely adorable too, so if you like sweet family stories with cute children, this drama’s really great. While it wasn’t usually terribly exciting, the warm-hearted aspects of the show made it a pleasure for me to watch.

Masamune Kazama (Aiba Masaki) is a young man whose dream is to become a photographer, although he isn’t really progressing in his job as he often lets people walk all over him. He dearly misses his high school sweetheart, Tsukamoto Youko (Yuka), from six years ago, who he had a great relationship with until she suddenly told him she was moving to America and wouldn’t see him again. Masamune has always been waiting for her, until he suddenly finds out that Youko had passed away. Through a twist of fate, he meets a sweet little girl named Koharu (Ishii Momoka), who he quickly and unexpectedly finds out is his daughter! With Youko gone, Koharu is left to Masamune, who has no idea how to be a father. The show follows the story of Masamune and Koharu, who develop a close bond despite the many obstacles they face.

From the very beginning I knew I would like this drama, as I tend to enjoy the cutesy family stories. Masamune has believable flaws and continuously grows throughout the show, and despite his clumsy ways he always has good intentions and is a loveable character. Koharu is one of the cutest girls I’ve ever seen and she’s so sweet, polite, and mature for her young age. The relationship between father and daughter is so heart warming and entertaining to watch; Masamune is completely clueless about things like cooking or sewing, and his tough work life gets in the way of a lot of things, but Koharu adores him nevertheless. I really felt like Aiba and Momoka had a great bond off-camera, and the chemistry translates really well in the show. The emotional moments are effective too – both father and daughter are still dealing with the loss of Youko and the rough social transition that comes with a family, among other things. I shed a couple of tears throughout this show because, like I said, I’m a sucker for these kinds of stories, but the majority of the time the drama is light hearted and leaves you smiling.

Having said that, I don’t feel there was that much more to the show other than its cuteness. The plot isn’t too deep or complicated, and some of the acting did bother me a little. Don’t get me wrong, I adored Momoka, but sometimes her character was a little too polite and mature, to the point of it being unrealistic. I was really impressed with Aiba, but I could also sort of sense that he is still a fledgling actor. The music was nice, but not spectacular, and there were several supporting characters I didn’t care for (except for Tomoya Sensei <3). Also, the ending was a little unsatisfying for me – and I mostly mean literally the last ten seconds or so of the show. I also just sort of wished something a little bit more perilous and exciting had happened at some point, but this simply isn’t that kind of drama. Just don’t expect too much and enjoy it for what it is, and the show can still be a very pleasurable experience.

Ultimately, this drama is full of fluff, and I really loved it for that very reason. If you’re looking for something serious or full of action, then stay away from this one, as it might be too happy-go-lucky for you. If you don’t mind loveable characters, a cute plot, and many warm-hearted moments, though, then definitely consider this drama!

Cooking Adventures: Tamagoyaki

2010-03-13T15:21:00.000-08:00

I looove trying out various kinds of foods from all over the world, but I'm not very good at cooking (more like, not very experienced? ^^;). I have trouble finding the time and willpower to cook, but I really do enjoy it! I thought I might as well try out a new section of my blog where I have cooking adventures! Hope you enjoy!

As I just started my spring break from school, I have some extra time and resources at home to try out various recipes. Today I tried something simple - Tamagoyaki. By the way, I referred to this recipe from JustHungry.com :) So for this entry, I won't go into the recipe itself, so please go check out that awesome website! But here's my attempt at it~

Mixing all the ingredients is easy enough. This was my first time mixing things like mirin, soy sauce, and sugar into egg but it tastes soo good that way~

I kept almost forgetting to oil the pan before each layer of egg, so don't forget to if you try this yourself! Pour in the mixture, wait until it's a little cooked...

...then the rolling starts! For next time, I took note of the fact that I needed a different pan. Originally, I had just planned to use a spatula the first time making this instead of attempting to cook it with chopsticks. However, the pan I used was pretty small, and the rim was fairly high, so I had trouble picking up the edge of the layer with a spatula, or even a fork. So I was sort of forced into using chopsticks for the most part, which thankfully ended up okay.

Making sure the egg got underneath the roll was a little bit of a challenge as well. Also, in retrospect I realize that I actually let the egg cook a little too long, I think. I didn't want it to end up runny inside, but in the end the layers didn't stick to each other very well.

Another reason I need to use a different pan - it made my tamagoyaki such a weird shape! Like... triangular... which I don't think would have happened if I'd used a flatter pan. Of course, this was more or less taken care of by the next step (hey, for all I know it's supposed to be triangular...?).

Roll it up! Actually, this was a little harder than I anticipated, oddly enough - I had to unroll it and reposition it a couple of times to make it nice and tight. Let it cool for a bit...

はい、召し上がり〜〜

You can see the gaps where the egg didn't stick too well, but it still tasted just fine! おいしかったよ！

This is such a great, simple recipe! It looks and tastes so good and is perfect for bentos! I was satisfied with my attempt and will definitely be making this again. ^^

Lang-8: Looking Back and to the Future!

2010-03-04T14:09:00.000-08:00

So, first of all, if you don’t know about lang-8, go check it out: lang-8.com. I talked about it in my Japanese Learning Methods post. It’s a brilliant website for any language learner. You write little diary entries in the language you are learning and native speakers of that language will help correct your entries and comment on them (and you can help others with English or whatever language you’re fluent in). It’s a great way to learn in an interactive setting, so I strongly suggest for you to try it if you want to improve your Japanese.

I was active on lang-8 for only a brief time before losing track of it, and I’ve just started to try getting back into the habit of writing diary entries. So I thought, why not add this as another feature to my blog here? Every once in awhile, once I get, let’s say, ten or so lang-8 entries together, I’ll post the corrected entries here as a blog in Japanese (and, rarely, Spanish). That way I can track my progress while providing more content.

So… Here are the first few corrected entries that I wrote a long time ago:

はじめまして！

Hello, everyone! I'm rather nervous doing this as I'm afraid to embarrass myself, but I might as well give it a shot - I won't learn unless I put myself out there! Mainly I am here to improve my Japanese. Although I've been studying for a few years now, I've only started taking college classes last year, so my grasp of the language isn't very strong yet.

じゃ、がんばります！よろしくおねがいします。

***

今日

今日はすごくいい天気です。外でジョギングをしたいのですが、たくさん宿題があります。文化人類学の作文を書くつもりです。そしてちょっと日本語を勉強するつもりです。今、私の母がラザニアを作っています。あれはよい香りがします。おいしそう〜！すみません、みなさん！私は日本語が苦手ですよ。これからがんばります。。。

***
ディルアングレイのライブ

今日、私は友達にあう予定です。車で私たちは新しい Dir en Grey のCD を聞くつもりです。

火曜日にディルのライブへ行きました。すごく楽しかったです！！私はライブへはあまり行けませんので、とてもうれしかったです。ライブの後で、CDを買いました。そこにはたくさんの人がいました！そして、としやさんとしんやさんに会って、ちょっと話しました。夢みたいでした。

日本語を書くのは難しいですね。ごめんなさいみなさん！XP

As I've been trying to write these journal entries, I realize more and more how insufficient my Japanese is! I know I'm a beginner, but it just makes me want to learn more and more! I ask for your patience. ^^

Honestly words (especially my clumsy Japanese vocabulary) cannot express how amazing that Dir en Grey concert was, and getting autographs from Toshiya and Shinya afterwards was even more incredible...

Thank you for reading!

***

今週

昨日、車でヒュストンからオースティンに行きました。テキサス大学の学生なので、オースティンに住んでいます。

たくさん宿題があるので、ちょっと心配しています。今週も来週も時間がありませんですが、テストの後に時間があるから大丈夫です

***
できた。。。

先週は大変でした。期末試験がとても難しかったです。でも、昨日、さいごの試験がありました。そして、今日家に帰りました。私はホッとした。家族に会いましたから、とてもうれしいです。
クリスマスが来ます！いいですね！私の妹はクリスマスツリーを飾りました。とてもきれいですよ。
じゃ、またね〜

***
冬休み

今、冬休みだから、私は家族の家にいます。クリスマスはとてもよかったです。本と服とビデオ•ゲームをもらいました。とてもうれしかったです。来週、大学に戻ります。残念です。。。

今、もっと日本語を勉強したいです。家で、勉強をするのはちょっと難しいです。れんしゅうのために、たくさんドラマを見て、日本語のサイトを読みますが、また日本語のクラスへ行きたいです。

みなさん、冬休みはどうでしたか。

***
日本の旅行：どこがいいでしょう。。。

明日、オースティンへ行きます。火曜日にクラスが始まります。やった。。。

でも、うれしいです！昨日、友達の家へ行って、日本の旅行について話し合いました。夏休みに日本へ行くつもりです！とても興奮しています。これは私の初めての日本旅行です。

日本でどこへ行ったらいいでしょうか。２週間ぐらい行きます。東京と京都と大阪へ行くつもりです。もしかすると神戸へ行くかもしれません。みなさんは、日本ではどこへいったらいいと思いますか。

ありがとうございます！

***
クラス。。。

いま、私は大学にいます。クラスの前にちょっとエントリーを書きます。そして、アパートに帰った時にもっと書きます。

今年の日本語のクラスはむずかしそうです。ちょっとこわいけど、がんばります。ほかのクラスもちょっとむずかしくてたくさんあります。毎日勉強するつもりです。

***
Miyavi!

いま興奮しています！　昨日Miyaviのライブのチケットを買いました！VIPのチケットです。信じられないです！四月にヒューストンへ行って、Miyaviのライブを見ます。

サインを求める時に、何を言ったらいいですか。。。日本語で話したいですが、ちょっと恥ずかしいですね。。。

***
Un poco en espanol

Hola~

Hace dos años que yo he practicado mi espanol. Se me olvida mucho! Estoy aprendiendo Japonés y entonces se me olvida todo el español. Quiero practicar de nuevo...

Ahora estoy en la clase de química (que es muy aburrida). No he comido mucho esta mañana y tengo un poco de hambre. En dos horas comeré con una amiga.

Ahh, escribir en español es muy dificil... Lo siento... Debo practicar más... Ah! Yo tengo la serie "Harry Potter" en espanol. Ya leí el primer libro y ahora estoy leyendo el segundo libro. Es más fácil leer:P Todavia no puedo escribir.

Tal vez sea difícil estudiar dos idiomas al mismo tiempo pero no quiero perder mi español. Ayudame por favor! XD

***

And, finally, here’s my new post I’m starting anew with:

おひさしぶり〜

今まで日本語を勉強してきましたけど、長い間lang-8をやってなかったです。これからはもっと日記を書きたいと思います。

私は今大学三年生です。大学は大変で忙しいけど、私は元気です！今は日本語の授業を取っていないんですけど、日本語の勉強を続けます。毎日漢字を勉強したり、いろいろな日本の番組を見たりします。大学の勉強も難しくてあまり時間がないんですが、がんばりたいと思います。これからもよろしくお願いします。^-^

Hope you enjoy these tidbits! And feel free to friend me on lang-8 :)

Tweet Log 4 (December/January)

2010-02-23T18:38:00.000-08:00

Continuing my story through tweets... start at the beginning here.

Go back to part 3.
Go forward to part 5.

*~*~*

I wish I had a way to play more video games *in* Japanese. They're sorta hard to come by....

Manga Nostalgia: DNAngel. I was a huge fan of this back in the day... Pretty manga with a crazy fantasy plot and plenty of action.

I actually have one of the Pokemon games on my computer in Japanese, and it's all in hiragana so it's pretty easy stuff!

Happy New Year to those living in Japan!

Doing lots of grocery shopping for New Year's dinner!

I'll always remember 2009 as the year I finally went to Japan.... :)

Happy New Year to those living in Europe - calling my family in Belgium right now! :D

I plan to start up my little blog with the new year! Hope it will interest people, please check it out~ :D

January Tweets

Happy New Year from Houston, Texas!! Hope everyone has an awesome night!

So I've officially set up my blog! Check it out :D http://culturequirk.blogspot.com/

Along with the blog, check out my new Google profile http://www.google.com/profiles/culturequirk

Manga Nostalgia: Death Note. This remains one of my favorite manga series of all time. Both the art and the plotline is really brilliant.

Blog post: My thoughts on some really awesome jblogs I read! Check it out~ http://culturequirk.blogspot.com/2010/01/blogs.html

With all the online resources available, I wouldn't recommend buying supplies to learn Japanese, but I do own a couple of things myself...

Several years ago I got a CD-rom called "Talk Now!" I just learned little things like numbers and whatnot with it, but I did like it.

Another tool I got was a Berlitz audio track and workbook (Japanese in 30 Days). It wasn't terrible, but I wouldn't really recommend it.

I really want to get into making bento, but I'm not a very experienced cook or anything and am not sure where to start... hmmm...

If you haven't already, check out this list of awesome blogs I follow :) http://bit.ly/6FRsPU

At a book store looking at manga :) It's been forever, it's all in English though...

Blog post: A list of awesome learning methods if you're studying Japanese! So many great websites to check out~ http://bit.ly/8zHZ8Q

Manga Nostalgia: Fruits Basket. Very cute (sometimes too cute), but I really enjoyed the plot/art, and I actually really liked the anime.

Finally cooked tofu for the first time! And it's delicious :)

My list of awesome resources to learn Japanese, or just about anything else! http://bit.ly/8zHZ8Q

Manga Nostalgia: Ceres. Very dark, violent, and depressing, but still very much shoujo. I like Yuu Watase's art, and I liked this series :)

http://twitpic.com/xdhvh - Adorable bento that @CarisEll made for us yesterday! And it was delicious~!

Blog Post: Hana Yori Dango drama review! http://culturequirk.blogspot.com/2010/01/drama-review-hana-yori-dango.html

Manga Nostalgia: Ultra Maniac. The cutest little high school story with a touch of fantasy. I loved this series, both plot and art!

http://twitpic.com/xj88r - My attempt at a tofu recipe from the Just Bento website. May not look like much, but it tasted great!

I'm liking this whole twitpic thing... I think I'll be putting up daily pictures from my trip to Japan. Might interest some people :D

Manga Nostalgia: Wolf's Rain. I liked the anime better than the two-book manga series, but I loved the art and the whole 'wolf' thing :D

Exercising while Studying Japanese

2010-02-18T12:48:00.000-08:00

One of the things I do is try to figure out how to insert some Japanese everywhere that I can. There are so many hidden opportunities. When you’re doing any kind of housekeeping – doing the dishes, cleaning your room, organizing some papers – you can have your favorite Japanese show playing in the background. You don’t have to pay attention 100%, just have it entering your ears. Or if you don’t have access to a TV/computer, listen to Japanese music or radio shows. The time you spend going to the bathroom or showering is also a short but valuable opportunity for more listening. I actually don’t have any waterproof listening devices for the shower, so if anyone has an inexpensive suggestion, please let me know!

Exercising is a great time to insert some Japanese immersion. Not only is it good for you, you can maybe learn something at the same time! First, there’s the obvious method of just listening to Japanese music while working out or walking. Simple and effective. Another idea that’s more difficult to carry out is to use a treadmill or something so that you can work out while watching Japanese TV. Finally, I was recently referred to a podcast that helps you run (it tells you when to start and stop running, and becomes a harder workout week by week). Unfortunately, this podcast is in English, but if someone found something like this in Japanese, I think it could be a great study tool.

The very specific way that I do it every time I go home (and have access to a treadmill) is the following. I’d use the podcast I referred to earlier (Robert Ullrey’s Couch to 5k Running Program). On top of my treadmill is a convenient spot where I can place my laptop. And although I’m listening to the podcast in English, I’m watching a Japanese variety show, which has those handy Japanese subtitles to practice reading. The show I always watch is VS Arashi as it’s very action-oriented and just seems more appropriate for exercising!

So there you have it. One of my personal methods that you could maybe pull ideas from! :)

Tweet Log 3 (December)

2010-02-14T08:40:00.000-08:00

Continuing my story through tweets... start at the beginning here.

Go back to part 2.
Go forward to part 4.

*~*~*

Today, just trying out a tiiiny bit of Mexican culture with food. Got some fresh tortillas and ready to make some fajitas. Deliciosa!

Finishing up a batch of homemade chocolate truffles. These are always such a hit during the holidays. Belgian chocolate is so amazing :)

Manga Nostalgia: Inu Yasha. The series ended up way too long and I never finished, but the premise really was great. Good times...

I love seeing all the gifts under the tree. Gets me in the Christmas-y mood! Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season :)

For many countries in Europe St. Nicolas day is celebrated on the 6th. We haven't celebrated it in a long time, but it's nostalgic.

Manga Nostalgia: Card Captor Sakura. I love Clamp! And this one is just a classic! I don't care if it's for a younger audience - soo cute ^^

I love seeing all the Christmas lights outside my window. While I wouldn't spend thousands of dollars on it I think it's a lovely tradition~

We have a box of fruits de mer! They're sea creature-shaped chocolates that are a very classic treat from the Belgian coast.

I've been in the mood for making onigiri lately. Should I put salmon or tuna in them? Methinks I'm buying both! :D

Manga Nostalgia: Fushigi Yuugi. Very cheesy shoujo series, but it sort of became a classic. Not my favorite, but still enjoyed it!

I finished watching My Girl! I may have shed a tear... It was such a cute series overall!

I've got such a huge backlog of kanji to review! Slowly whittling away at it...

Lately I've been trying to work on some entries ahead of time for when I start up my blog~

Manga Nostalgia: Rurouni Kenshin. Loved it, and now that I know more about Japanese history it's really interesting to read through it again.

If there are any topics that might interest you for me to write about in my upcoming blog, I'm always happy to get input! ^^

Hmm is a restaurant/movie theater an American thing? I can't remember going to these in any other countries...

Just finished watching G no Arashi! ちょっと長かったけど超面白かったなぁ〜 I'm pretty sad it's over XD

Family from Canada coming in today! I only went there when I was a baby, so I'd love to go back and travel there one day.

Manga Nostalgia: Chobits. The content and story may have been a bit risqué, but I still enjoyed it, and I really loved the art.

It's already the 25th for those living in Japan! Merry Christmas to you guys~! :D

Lots of preparations for dinner tonight! We usually celebrate Christmas on the 24th, but lately we've started opening presents on the 25th.

Christmas Dinner menu: lots of amuse-bouches, smoked salmon, croquettes au fromage, and buche de Noel. Sooo excited.

We're opening presents in the morning this time, which is a little more American. It's rather exciting :)

メリークリスマス！Joyeux Noel! Feliz Navidad! Merry Christmas! Hope you had a great one!

The holidays have been so busy... I just hope to get through my backlog of kanji cards before heading back to school!

The holidays have been so busy... I just hope to get through my backlog of kanji cards before heading back to school!

Getting caught up on my variety shows! First up, Tensai! Shimura Doubutsuen. It's all about animals and is so fun and adorable~

Another show I watch - VS Arashi. It's a fun, sporty type of gameshow. Virtually all the variety shows I watch are Arashi shows...

Another show I watch - Himitsu no Arashi chan. Tons of little corners full of competition and discussion featuring Arashi and special guests.

The last show I keep up with is Arashi no Shukudai kun. They talk a lot, so it's good for Japanese practice, and it's really entertaining~

Drama Review: Nodame Cantabile

2010-02-10T16:02:00.000-08:00

I had heard many good things about this one, so I watched it based on good reviews instead of wanting to see a certain actor (meaning I was completely unfamiliar with almost all of the actors in this show). The thing I would stress the most about this drama is its uniqueness. It’s centered around classical music, the characters were ridiculously different yet still retained interesting chemistry, and the show was somehow both quirky and majestic. I didn’t necessarily like every single aspect of this drama, but in the end I greatly enjoyed this show thanks to the features that make it so different.

The plot may not seem too out of the ordinary at first glance. Chiaki Shinichi is a brilliant pianist whose dream is to become an orchestra conductor. When he was a child he lived and studied in Prague, but after being traumatized by a plane’s emergency landing, his fear of flying kept him stuck in Japan, where he does not feel he could have much of a future in music. At the music school he attends, everyone around him is mediocre, and while the other students revere him, he remains cold and arrogant. He then encounters Noda Megumi (aka “Nodame”), a girl with a very eccentric personality, who ~by a twist of fate~ happens to be his next door neighbor. Nodame is childish, poor, unorganized – everything Chiaki isn’t – and Chiaki is loathe to be anywhere near the girl. When it comes to piano however, although Nodame’s playing is sloppy and lacks control, it has brilliant individuality that Chiaki cannot help but to be in awe of. Hiding behind the scenes for a bit is the brilliant yet unusual famous conductor Streseman, who comes to the music school and puts together an orchestra filled with music students that one would deem inadequate, but who all have that same promising individuality that Nodame has. Chiaki is eventually pushed into becoming this orchestra’s conductor, and thus unfolds many trials and tribulations. The drama follows Chiaki’s evolution as a conductor and as a person through his interactions with all those so different from him, and especially through his friendship with Nodame.

I have to admit, this drama confused me at first. The first episode I found really promising, then in the second one I started to get super annoyed with quite a few of the characters. I initially thought Nodame was unconventionally cute, but then the way she spoke started irritating me, the boisterous drummer Masumi was too over-the-top and stopped amusing me veeery quickly, and Streseman was just… *shudder*. I didn’t really care either way for Chiaki and my favorite character was definitely the rocker violinist Ryuutaro. I stuck with it, though, and before I knew it I was addicted and even at times deeply touched by this drama. I think one of the best aspects for me was the music. I’m by no means an expert on classical music, but I still greatly enjoy it. The pieces in this show were all beautiful and fitting, and although this might not work for everyone, I loved it. I began to like the characters more, too; I found the friendships that developed between them more and more endearing. Heck, by the end of it I didn’t even completely hate Streseman anymore (though I never liked him… he was just too creepy…) I’ll be keeping an eye out for many of those actors in future dramas~!

The plot itself, however, I’m still not sure how I feel about. There was nothing that really bothered me while I watched it, and it was only when I had finished watching did I notice things that bothered me. About midway through the show comes the integration of a new set of characters, and while I didn’t dislike those characters by any means, I rather wish the drama had only followed the growth and development of the “original group” of characters. As always, I’m being careful not to spoil anything so this might sound confusing, but those of you who have seen this might know what I’m talking about. Also… I’m not usually a huge fan of dramatic mushy romance fluff, but I do wish there had been a little more… XD;; But honestly, these are just some of the facets that happened to be negative for me personally and didn’t by any means ruin the show.

Ultimately, I definitely recommend that you at least start watching this drama and see if you like it. I think many might actually enjoy the super quirky, anime-like storytelling that had initially irritated me. The music is amazing and its incorporation into the story was really great and unique. The characters were well played, and, as in many shows, you learn to love them. After finishing this series, I actually wouldn’t mind seeing it again - that’s how much I enjoyed this drama! I would love to see other unique shows such as this and I urge you to check it out~!

Variety Shows!

2010-02-05T07:15:00.000-08:00

So today I’m posting a list of the Japanese variety shows I watch, and I definitely recommend watching stuff like this if you’re looking for Japanese material. Immersion is one of the biggest tools when learning another language, so definitely check these out! I’ve also been reviewing jdramas in separate entries, and I might make shorter episode reviews on the ones I’m currently watching… But anyway, this will be focused on just variety shows! Disclaimer, though, all but one of these are specifically Arashi shows XD

Tensai! Shimura Doubutsuen
First, here’s a show you can really enjoy without being familiar with Arashi at all – in fact only one of the members (Aiba) is even in it. This is a show for animal lovers! Every episode consists of several different corners, such as funny animal videos, or continuing stories of certain celebrities and their touching experiences with a particular animal companion, or one of the regular members of the show (Shimura, Aiba, Becky) going on silly animal adventures. Most of the time the show is very lighthearted, cute, and silly, although every once in a while there is a very touching, sometimes even tear-jerking story. You don’t really need to understand any Japanese to enjoy this show, so you can watch it just for fun and absorb Japanese at the same time!

CxDxG no Arashi
So this actually refers to three different shows, and I’ve only seen D no Arashi and G no Arashi. This show does revolve around the members of Arashi as they go out on crazy random adventures, meet quirky people, or do useless but funny experiments. What’s great about these shows is the variety of topics that are covered, so the show doesn’t really get repetitive or boring. The D stands for Documentary (so documentaries on various, usually very random topics) and the G stands for Ganbare (so the boys “support” certain groups of people). It’s hard to explain the mechanics of these shows, but I think they are hilarious, interesting, and sometimes even a little educational. This could be a good way to “get to know” Arashi. I think one of the most entertaining things to watch is these boys interacting haha.

Mago Mago Arashi
This show is simply adorable. The general premise is that a couple of Arashi members at a time go visit an old couple and “become their grandkids” for a day (hence “mago mago”). They help with chores, cooking, and just hang out with the jiichan and baachan, who usually don’t have grandkids of their own or rarely see them. It’s an incredibly sweet concept and I’ve literally teared up at several episodes. Later on, they do a couple of other corners, such as taking care of kids and cooking dinner from them while the parents are gone, or running around Tokyo in a sort of treasure hunt with nothing but an ancient map from the Edo period. The kids section is adorable as well, and while this show can get repetitive as most episodes have the same premise, it rarely gets boring. Check it out~

VS Arashi
This one is still airing now, so it’s kind of fun to keep track of something that is so current. This is Arashi’s athletic game show; there’s always a guest team that go up against Arashi in a few different silly games, which include rock climbing, coin stacking, pipe catching, bowling, etc. This show went through a complete revamp this past fall, so all the games were updated and whatnot, but I haven’t really kept up with it yet. This show does get repetitive, as it’s always the same games, the same concept… However, the repetitiveness can actually help when it comes to learning Japanese. (Ex. before almost every game the announcer says “dewa, mairimasu.” I heard it so often that I learned that phrase without even thinking about it)

Arashi no Shukudaikun
This show is also currently airing and features different guests in almost every episode – actors, singers, comedians. They do a lot of talking with the guest, and usually there are a couple of entertaining activities. In most of the episodes, the guests have a favorite food or a food they would like to try out, and so lots of crazy dishes are brought out and generally there are a lot of funny reactions to it. They also play silly games and whatnot that usually have something to do with the guests’ hobbies or interests. The structure is repetitive – it’s always the same set, they often ask guests similar questions and do the food thing, but I personally like the repetitiveness as it becomes familiar and, in my opinion, doesn’t really get boring.

Himitsu no Arashi chan
This last one is another show that is still airing. There have been so many different corners on this show over time that it’s hard to pinpoint a specialty of the show. I’ll just list a few examples of the games. VIP Room: A special guest is invited to chat about topics that are important to her (mostly when it comes to men or dating), and at the end she decides which Arashi member she took notice of and be interested in dating (all of this is just in theory, of course). Mannequin Five: The members (and sometimes male guests) wear an outfit based on a theme, and have to stand still and act like mannequins while female guests are brought in and judge them based on what they’re wearing. Mote Arashi, Dame Arashi: Based on a series of questions of “what would you do in this dating situation”, the boys are judged by a panel of women comedians, and the most “dame” (no good) member gets dunked into a vat of ice water. This is just a tiny sample, but generally, this show consists of several different games that are just fun and crazy.

So there are some ideas of shows for you to check out and immerse yourself in! Have fun with it!

And discover Sho's amazing artistic abilities...

What variety shows do you watch that are fun and interesting?

Tweet Log 2 (December)

2010-02-01T10:29:00.000-08:00

Continuing my story through tweets...

Go back to part one.
Go forward to part three.

*~*~*

I'm also a huge fan of Miyavi. Love his style, he's brilliant on guitar, and I had sooo much fun when I saw him live in concert.

Another awesome jrock band is Bump of Chicken. I hear they're huuuge in Japan, and I love what I've heard of them.

My favorite band for the past five years or so has been the jpop group Arashi. Not just their music either, although I enjoy that too. ^^

Something really dumb and dorky I do is celebrate Arashi members' birthdays. Really it's just an excuse to bake and have fun :P

Arashi no Shukudai kun, Himitsu no Arashi chan, VS Arashi, Mago Mago Arashi, CxDxG no Arashi - I've been learning Japanese from these shows.

The Arashi boys are all surprisingly good actors, that's how I got into them. A new drama starring all five of them is coming out soon yay!

Arashi's music makes me happy... They're so catchy and the lyrics are so cute :) Listening to them always puts me in a better mood~

I love kanji, I think it's so beautiful... I just wish it wasn't so tough to learn.

I'm using Heisig's Remembering the Kanji book to learn kanji, and I definitely recommend it!

A good way to learn kanji (or almost anything actually) is an SRS system. I'm using Anki, but there are a lot of good ones out there!

I'm determined to learn 3000 kanji by, say, next summer. I'll definitely try to make a dent in that this winter break!

I follow a lot of great channels on YouTube... Throughout today I'd like to give shoutouts to some of them :D

One of the first vlogs I've ever followed was @tofugu's - if you haven't checked it out yet, go to http://www.youtube.com/user/tofugu

If you're interested in the JET program or living in Japan, check out @JapanJET's channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/myargonauts

Another awesome vlog I follow is @hikosaemon's at http://www.youtube.com/user/Hikosaemon Check it out!

If you're learning Japanese, find some fun, quick lessons at @gimmeabreakman's channel http://www.youtube.com/user/Gimmeaflakeman

Going off from yesterday, another great vlog I follow on YouTube is @hirokochannel's at http://www.youtube.com/user/HIROKOCHANNEL

Another awesome channel to check out is @gakuranman's vlog at http://www.youtube.com/user/thegakuranman

Here's a vlogger who's not only adorable but is a great musician: go see @katmcdowell's channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/katmcd0well

Here's a really awesome vlog I follow from a guy living in rural Japan - @christownsend's channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/Japantics

If you know any great jvloggers or if you have a vlog yourself, I'm always willing to check stuff out, so let me know!

I'm getting acupuncture done today! It's always a great experience for me, I highly recommend it.

I'm back home in Houston and am finally done with school so I can focus on my Japanese studies and relaxing! :)

It's always funny for me to come back to my room at my parent's house. I still have an Inu Yasha scroll on my wall. So old!

I wish I had more Japanese decorations in my old room, makes me miss my place in Austin. Instead I have a bunch of cute animals~

Don't really read manga anymore, but I have a huge collection from high school days. I enjoy reading over them when I come home! to be cont~

One of the reasons I love coming home is the food. I love my mom's cooking! And it's the only way I get Belgian food :P

I want to learn how to cook lots of new recipes this winter break! Belgian recipes of course, but I'd like to try my hand at Asian foods too

Manga Nostalgia: Marmalade Boy. First manga I EVER read! Cute art, cute story, good memories :)

Today I had "cassoulet" - a French dish with a tomato sauce, onions, beans and a few different kinds of sausage. It was so good!

Life Management Tips

2010-01-27T15:55:00.000-08:00

So I’m back in school, entering the second semester of my junior year of college, and I’ve started experimenting with different “life management” habits, for lack of a better term. Not only am I trying to manage my time better with everything I need and want to do, but I’m trying to find ways to keep myself motivated and not burn out. I’m not taking an actual Japanese class this semester, and while I’m not really worried about this, I’m no longer required to spend time with the language like I used to be. So now I need to make my own time for it, apart from school, and this can be quite a challenge, although it definitely does not have to be unpleasant. I thought I might list some of these personal tips in case anyone was interested.

Mind you, this is all very experimental, and I’m just trying to work them out myself, so they may not work for you (heck, they may even not end up working for me!). This is just to maybe give you some ideas to pick and choose from. Hope it can help you and your Japanese studies! :)

Start off strong
Every semester, I always tell myself to stay on top of my schoolwork, to start working out more, to spend time studying Japanese everyday, etc etc. Honestly, these habits rarely make it all the way through the semester, but I do feel that setting a few goals and making a clear effort at the beginning makes a difference. Better than starting off “weak”, right?

Have fun with Japanese
Hopefully your classes are interesting, but in all cases they’re bound to take up much of your time. This is why you have to make your Japanese time precious. Even if you can’t find the time or effort to actively study anything, make sure to have fun with it no matter what. Love the Japanese shows you’re watching, the music you’re listening to, the manga you’re reading – love it. Then whenever you have a break from your schoolwork you’ll want to spend it having fun in Japanese. If you’re doing a menial task, maybe try adding some Japanese to that. You can still listen to Japanese or maybe even watch it while doing things like cleaning your room, doing the dishes, showering, etc. Even as I write this blog post, I have a Japanese show playing in the background. Just make sure you enjoy it!

Change your environment
Last semester, I finally switched from being in a dorm to an apartment, and as I had a living room area in which to study, I tended to stay at home a lot. I rarely left the apartment for the sole reason of going to study somewhere. And, honestly, while relaxing at home is nice, I started feeling closed up and rather sluggish after a while. Now I try to go to different study areas, and especially go outside if the weather is nice. You’d be surprised how much fresh air helps your brain. Try going to a nearby park, a coffee shop, a library, etc. to study every once in a while. Walking there is even better – again, taking a moment to get some fresh air and light exercise will do wonders. I’ve found that simply changing my environment has helped me to keep up my focus and motivation. I do still spend time studying at home, just not as much as before. I now find it extremely relaxing to sit at a table outside, listening to Japanese radio while practicing kanji.

Write things down (use checklists)
When it comes to my schoolwork, I love making checklists. I often hear that goals are much more likely to come true if you write them down, so why not try that out? I also try to keep a constant list of tasks on a whiteboard and in planners. This is mainly homework assignments and whatnot, along with things that I have to do but don’t necessarily want to (such as phone calls, meetings, errands, etc.) I find that writing checklists of things that may be unpleasant help in making those things a little easier – it just feels so good to cross those tasks off! I also try to split things up into the smallest possible task. For example, if I have to read Chapters 6-8 of something, I would separately write out 6, 7, 8, and cross them out individually. The more you cross out, the more you get that satisfied feeling, the more motivated you feel.

I don't personally do this so much with Japanese studying, actually, as I’m honestly not sure how I would structure that. Aside from maybe SRS items, I don’t really have anything I try to “complete” per say, I’m just always trying to “do things” in Japanese every moment that I can. This is just a personal thing (always subject to change), and if you want to make checklists for your Japanese studies, I don’t really see why you shouldn’t.

[An awesome suggestion by my good friend @CarisEll:
My dad has an even spiffier system, wherein he'll mark an item with something different depending upon whether it's been started or totally finished. I tried it (with empty, half-full, and filled-in circles), and it does help to know what you're also in the middle of doing.]

Be efficient and feel efficient
We all have so much that we need to get done on a daily basis; as a college student, I can definitely say that for myself at least. Homework, studying, internship research, study abroad applications… it can get a little overwhelming. It’d be nice if every time you sat down to work, you’d accomplish something no matter how small. Being efficient is great, but I think it’s even better to really feel efficient – if you feel like you’re accomplishing something it can keep the motivation way up. This is where the checklists can come in. Keep checking things off, crossing things out, and even if you haven’t gotten very much done in actuality, you can keep going with high spirits. I realize this might not work for everyone, but I feel really great when I “buckle down” and take care of a ton of little things – and the little things really do add up. I hope this part makes sense… I really feel like people underestimate the power of keeping yourself motivated.

Here’s hoping someone can make use of my floating thoughts! I’ve only been in school for a little over a week at this point, but so far so good. I might make a similar post later on down the line… Good luck with your Japanese studies along with all the work you need to do! がんばれ！

Drama Review: Ryuusei no Kizuna

2010-01-23T16:17:00.000-08:00

This one sort of took me by surprise! I was pretty excited when I first heard of it since I love Nino, but couldn’t find subs for a while and didn’t end up watching it until much later. I have to say, while it’s a bit of a sad drama I liked it a lot! Nino is indeed an amazing actor. :) I also gained newfound respect for Nishikido Ryo (this is the first time I’ve seen him in a drama) and Erika Toda. I thought the three of them had pretty good chemistry on camera. I’ll make sure not to reveal any plot details or anything that could ruin the ending, but I would like to give my general opinion of the show including its ending… so do be careful just in case (^^;)

The plot is about three kids by the name of Ariake, two older brothers, Koichi and Taisuke, and their younger sister Shizuna, whose parents get murdered (a cheerful story, this one…). They vow to one day find the murderer and kill him, and fourteen years later their thoughts are still on solving this case. They spend their time as con artists, swindling money out of their targets in a series of fairly comical episodes, although the plot takes a more serious turn as the focus becomes the long sought-after murderer. There are several surprising plot twists towards the end, and while I won’t spoil anything, I will say I found the climax pretty intense.

I was thrown off by the story a bit at first, as while the premise was revealed to be as morbid as I expected, many of what I guess you would call “filler” episodes were actually pretty lighthearted. While accepting the fact that the main characters were comically swindling people took some getting used to, I found the episodes easy to watch and I felt pretty hooked. I was always amused by Koichi’s intricate scripts that he wrote and how engrossed he got in them (Nino’s acting makes me happeh XD). Taisuke’s fiery personality was entertaining (Ryo is quiiiite charming), and his and Shizuka’s aliases were pretty funny too. Also, I have to say, after watching this drama I finally ended up finding Erika Toda really pretty O.o;. Then again, the first time I’d seen her in anything was the Death Note movie, and while I don’t hate Misa’s character as much as some, she’s still pretty annoying, so that was my initial vision of Erika. But I didn’t think Shizuka’s character was really annoying… she was realistically girly, but not too girly, strong, but with understandably weak moments. So yeah, I really liked the characters. The three of them worked really well together and had downright heartwarming, adooorable moments, as well as serious, intense times of discordance. I just felt like they pulled the sibling thing off really well, despitetheplottwistsIwon’treveal. Their kid versions were sooo cute too!

Anyway, there were some really fun scenes, but then, of course, some very serious ones as well. I won’t say very much as I don’t want to ruin any of the plot twists, but do be aware that this is not a super-happy drama. The last episode was pretty hard to watch (although I was virtually glued to the screen), and I actually felt a little bitter about how certain things turned out. However, I have to mention that I really appreciated the way the drama put aside quite a bit of time at the end to wrap the story up nicely. I feel like a lot of times plotlines tend to either end pretty abruptly or have long, drawn-out conclusions where you wonder if the episode will ever end (*cough*HanaKimi*cough*). Some people might find this ending to be kind of drawn out too, but I found it pretty refreshing myself. There were just several loose ends that were tied up that really needed to be tied up, and it gave me some time to breathe after the dramatic climax haha. The only thing that didn’t really rest with me was the (semi-spoiler alert)… I guess, “final outcome” when it comes to the parents’ murderer. Again, won’t mention details, but if you’ve seen it you might know what I mean…

Ultimately, I thought this was a great drama: nice visuals, quality acting, engrossing plotline with both lighthearted and depressing moments; overall a bittersweet story that was well worth the watch!

…yay Nino!!

Tweet Log (December)

2010-01-19T20:30:00.000-08:00

I'm sure most people don't read all of my Tweets as I post them to Twitter, and as Twitter is essentially micro-blogging, I thought posting them as blog entries might interest some people - in case you missed anything and are curious ;) So expect chunks of about thirty tweets or so every once in a while as some extra content!

Go forward to part 2.

*~*~*

Welcome to CultureQuirk, everyone! While my focus is Japanese language and culture, I’ll be sharing tidbits about many other countries too~

I’m from Belgium. It’s a tiny European country between France and the Netherlands. Famous for beer and waffles!

Did you know there are two main languages in Belgium? French and Flemish (like Dutch). I speak French, but I love both sides of my country!~

I took five years of Spanish in high school. I don’t get much practice and have been losing it, so feel free to send me messages in Spanish!

I’ve been to Mexico before, and the place I’ve been to several times is Cozumel. Very touristy but so fun and beautiful.

I’ve been studying Japanese for over three years now. I can help anyone with the basics and I’d love help to further my learning. Yoroshiku~

私はまだ苦手ですけど、日本語の勉強が大好きです。がんばります！よろしくおねがいします〜

I have traveled to Japan before and had an amazing time. Can't wait to study there in the future.

I love how clean Japan is. Not a piece of trash on the ground. And every time I saw a trash can, there would be recycling bins too.

From my experience, the Japanese people are so friendly and helpful. I really had a great time on my trip there.

I love Japanese food. I mostly ate cheaper things when I was there – udon, curry rice, soba. So good!

Ever heard of korokke? It's the Japanese version of the French fried dish croquettes. One of my favorite foods, I love all kinds!

Japanese snacks are very different from most American snacks...

Most people know about things like Pocky, but what about mochi, taiyaki, onigiri? If you have the opportunity, try new things!

If you go to Japan, something to check out is the conveyor belt sushi places. Not always the best sushi ever, but it's just fun to check out.

I used to watch more anime than I do now - while I still enjoy anime, I much prefer watching jdramas and reality shows.

For learning Japanese, I feel like variety shows is one of the best sources because it's real, almost completely unscripted Japanese speech.

After reality shows, I feel jdramas are great because it's still fairly natural speech despite the script.

Anime is at the bottom for me when it comes to learning Japanese due to speech being dramatic and a little inaccurate, but it's still fun!

If you want to watch Japanese TV live try KeyholeTV http://xorsyst.com/japan/watch-japanese-tv-online/

Jdramas I'm currently watching: My Girl, Tokyo Dogs, Orthros no Inu, Kurosagi, and Ikebukuro West Gate Park. LOVING the first two.

A few of my favorite dramas ever: Maou, Hana Kimi, The Quiz Show Golden, Gokusen, Brother Beat, and the classic Hana Yori Dango :)

I'd like to start making drama reviews, and I'm always looking for new ones to watch. Suggestions are always appreciated! ;)

I'd like to watch other kind of dramas later (Korean, Taiwanese, etc) but right now I'm really focusing on learning Japanese and jdramas.

I just wish I had more time to watch dramas! Entertaining shows with good looking actors while improving my Japanese? Yes, please~

Plans for the upcoming winter break: Kanji SRS. Drama/variety show watching. Learn some new recipes. And hopefully launch my blog :)

Even though I'm minoring in Japanese, I would much rather learn it on my own than take classes.. Glad I'm done with them for the semester :)

I listen to so much Japanese music - lots of jrock and even more jpop. I usually like happy stuff, but I can enjoy sad or angry stuff too :P

I do enjoy visual kei - I've seen Dir en Grey live and they're amazing! In fact, most Japanese concerts I've seen live have been visual kei.

I was never really into Malice Mizer, but I do love Gackt. He's not just a pretty (plastic...) face; I really love his voice and music.

Japanese Food Log Summer 2009

2010-01-17T17:52:00.000-08:00

So I decided to make another food post, this time from my trip to Japan! Here’s some of what I ate and my thoughts on them…

Soba
These are buckwheat noodles, usually served cold, and it typically comes with a special sauce. It’s a very typical meal; I had it a couple of times in Japan and occasionally make it myself at home. It’s not my favorite food in the world, but I do enjoy it.

Curry rice
Very simple, very common – curry! The basic component of this, of course, is the rice and curry sauce, and there will oftentimes be certain meats or vegetables mixed in the sauce. Again, this is a meal I had a few times while in Japan, but you can easily find it here too. There are so many different kinds of curry, and I really enjoy Japanese curry.

Udon
More noodles, and these are usually served in a hot broth. Udon noodles are usually fairly thick and slippery, and I’ve seen a wide variety of vegetables and meats in the broth. I’ve even had udon served cold, which wasn’t my favorite way of eating it but was still very good.

Korokke
I. Love. Korokke. Maybe because it sort of goes back to my own roots – the original dish is a French dish, “croquettes,” which I mention in my Belgian food post. Like croquettes, a filling is enclosed in a crunchy fried batter. I’ve only had one kind while I was in Japan, so I’m not sure if there are other kinds of it, but the one I ate had a potato puree inside it and was so simple, cheap, and delicious.

Gyudon
There are many kinds of “donburi” foods, which is basically some kind of meat, fish, or vegetable served over rice. Gyudon in particular contains beef – the one I ate had thin strips of beef and onions over rice. It was sooo cheap and surprisingly filling, and while I wouldn’t have it everyday, for something so quick and easy I really liked it.

Bento
I know this is such a super vague term, as bentos can have anything in them, but I honestly don’t know/remember what was in it. “Bento” simply means “lunch box,” and they’re very commonly sold in Japan (in convenient stores and whatnot), but what I remember about this one was the charm of the situation. We were in Osaka, wondering where we could get something cheap to eat, and happened to run into this woman who was setting up a tiny stand of bentos in the street. We each got one for only a couple hundred yen, and simply stuffed with a bunch of different yummy components. We actually ended up seeing many more of these small stands; I wish they existed here~!

Okonomiyaki
I’ve heard this dish referred to as the Japanese version of a pancake, pizza, omelet… It’s really hard to describe okonomiyaki if you’ve never heard of it, but it was one of my favorite foods over there. Although the batter and toppings vary a lot depending on where you go, from my experience it’s usually eggs, cabbage, and some kind of meat or vegetable or something mixed to form a batter, and then cooked similarly to a pancake. There are a couple of different sauces you can pour over it. It’s very different from what most non-Japanese people are used to, so if you’ve never had it before, try it out!

Arashi!

2010-01-15T12:10:00.000-08:00

Warning… I get sorta fangirly with this one :P

While I will probably write more about J-pop and Japanese music and general, I really want to write about one of my greatest interests – the music group Arashi (嵐)! Most of you reading this have probably at least heard about them; they’re super popular in Japan right now. I’ve been a fan of theirs for about five years now. So for any one who’s interested, I’d like to give my introduction to the fandom (^^)

Arashi is an all-male five-member music group that is a part of Johnny’s and Associates. The five of them are young (though they’re in their mid to late twenties now… time flies so fast…), handsome, and have a very fun, happy image. Much of their music is cute and light-hearted, or meant to be uplifting and inspiring, while every once in a while they’ll have something a little darker, which can be interesting too. While I do really, really love listening to their music, I’ll say it right now: I’m not really a fan of them based on the music itself. They have decent voices, but not the best in the world, they can dance, but they’re not incredible at it (except for one of them…which I’ll get to later), and they don’t usually write all their own stuff, so they’re very “commercialized.”

(Still, look at how fun their music is!)

No, Arashi’s charm extends way beyond the music business. First of all, they’re all actors as well, and damn good ones at that, in my opinion. One of the boys, Ninomiya Kazunari, has actually starred in the Clint Eastwood movie, Letters from Iwo Jima, if you’ve heard of that. They’ve all acted on stage before as well, in both plays and in musicals. They have their own variety shows, which I will discuss in a later blog, that are generally really entertaining. Most of them have their own radio shows, one of them is a newscaster, one of them is a visual artist – the list goes on. The most charming thing, though, beyond their talents and activities, are the boys themselves. They all have such unique personalities, and they have amazing group chemistry that feels so real and is so refreshing. I really think that is where the fandom lies.

So… *drumroll* Here are the members!

Ohno Satoshi
The leader of Arashi, and famous for being very “unleaderlike.” He’s not very assertive or talkative, and he tends to zone out or just be really odd. The other members poke fun at him for this, but honestly it’s all in good fun as they all love their “Riida”. He’ll make really random comments, and I just think he’s so cute and funny. Ohno is truly an artist in many ways – he’s definitely both the best singer and dancer in Arashi (seriously… he’s an amazing dancer), he draws/paints/sculpts/etc, and he is a brilliant actor both on stage and in front of the camera (Maou, anybody?). I think his quirkiness is really great, and I actually like the fact that he doesn’t necessarily have that charisma that most stars exude.

Sakurai Sho
Sho is a wonderful combination of serious and silly. He’s a great speaker and is actually an accomplished newscaster for News Zero; he’s the only one of the members who graduated, or even went to, college (and Keio University at that); he’s poised, mature, and is often thought of as the actual lead figure of Arashi. On the other hand, he always messes up on all the silly games and experiments they do and is thus always poked fun at; he loves to play with kids and is great at taking care of them; and he makes fun of himself all the time. He’s the rapper of the group and writes his own lyrics, and the rap parts of songs are often called “Sakurap.” The other members sometimes call him “Okaasan” (Mother), which says a lot about him, as he just seems so caring. And I personally think he might be the best looking member of Arashi… (^^;)

Aiba Masaki
Aiba is just a ball of sunshine. He is always soooo happy and excited about everything. He is super silly and dorky and receives many a smack in the back of the head from other members. While he’s made fun of for sometimes messing up dance steps and whatnot during performances, Aiba is actually one of the most athletic of the members. He has a really unique voice that took me some getting used to, but I actually really like it. He often acts like a kid and seems like he’d be a lot of fun to hang out with, but at the same time he isn’t immature or anything and can be really professional.

Ninomiya Kazunari
Nino is the first member I knew about from a drama who “introduced” me to Arashi. He looks like a puppy, writes really fun and cute songs, and he just seems like he would be such a sweetheart. When you see him interacting with the other members or whatnot, however, he can actually be pretty sassy, which I was really surprised by. He gets so sarcastic and cheeky with the other guys, although it’s always in good fun; he’s actually really hilarious. Nino’s the gymnast of the group, and despite his small frame he definitely has a big personality. He is a brilliant actor and even made it to Hollywood with Letters from Iwo Jima.

Matsumoto Jun
Probably the most popular member of Arashi is Matsujun. He starred in one of the most famous dramas ever, Hana Yori Dango, among other things. He’s definitely the one with the “cool” image in Arashi, although he definitely has his silly moments as well. He’s the youngest member of the group, but doesn’t really look or act like it. He’s very professional, and can also be a little intimidating. Unlike a lot of people, he’s not necessarily my favorite member, simply because I don’t think he shows enough of his personality, but when he does sort of let loose and be dorky I really like it. He cares so much about Arashi, and I really enjoy him both as an actor and a group member.

I have so much love for these guys. Sure, they’re talented, sure, they’re handsome, but mostly, their personalities and group dynamic is where there charm lies – watching them is just so much fun. I always say, I’m not necessarily an obsessive fangirl with posters of them all over my room and their faces plastered on my folders, Arashi still has the huge role of making my life a bit brighter.

Later on, I’ll discuss how they’re teaching me Japanese :P Stay tuned…