And how will I subdivide that 800 yen per day spending budget? Well, it will mostly be for food. We can assume that I will buy about 700 yen worth of bulk groceries at the beginning of the week (flour, cabbage, etc.). One day a week will be a "high-budget day" in which spending up to 1500 yen is permissible, which will come out of the budget for the other days, which leaves about 550 yen per day. This new budget is effective as soon as I wake up.

I will do the best to ration the utilities around here, as well. I will make sure to turn off the water heater when not in use, the lights, the gas, etc. I will do a thorough check before going to bed every night. And I won't use the lights until 5:00 PM.

Stay tuned for another grand plan that will map out how I will spend my free time from now on. It's May, my second full month at Big Apple, and therefore I figure it's a good idea to start monitoring money usage and time management.

April 29, 2011: The Lolita, the Pok?on Keyboard Game, and the Chocolate Thief
Three funny things happened at work this week. First of all, yesterday, my boss pointed out someone standing at the other end of the mall where I teach. I saw a woman dressed in a big, colorful, lacy dress with a bonnet. I said "that's Lolita fashion." My boss said that yes, indeed, it was Lolita fashion. I had seen girls dress up in Lolita fashion before in Korea. However, today (we had special classes today, which is sort of an open event where parents pay 500 yen and their kids can have fun lessons), the Lolita showed up again while my boss was talking to a mother and her kids who were interested in our conversation school. I asked the Lolita "Can you speak English?" and the Lolita extended a hand for handshake. I thought "sure, why not," but was suddenly shocked — the Lolita was not a woman dressed in Lolita fashion, as I had seen in Korea, but a man in Lolita drag! Creepy! I managed a handshake, but was definitely spooked by the encounter. As soon as the Lolita walked away, I noticed the little girls with their mother were making disgusted "that person is creepy" faces. I looked in the Lolita's direction and scrunched up my face in the same fashion, and the little girls started giggling. For once, I think we were all on the same wavelength! That Lolita was creepy!

Later, my boss and I talked about the Lolita. My boss mentioned that the Loli tends to show up when she's talking to parents. I speculated that perhaps the rival English school in the mall is hiring the creepy drag queen to scare away potential parents/students, and that perhaps we should pay the Loli to make more frequent visits to the other school. ;-) I wasn't serious, of course, and my boss laughed at the jest.

Step back an hour or so — we were doing a Talking class with two adults and some kids. I asked the mother "What did you do this week?" and she replied something along the lines of "I played Nintendo DS with my children." I asked which game, and it turned out they had some sort of Pok?on touch typing game on the Nintendo DS with a WiFi keyboard. After class, they pulled out a Nintendo DSi XL with its wireless keyboard and wanted me to try it. Fortunately, although the game involved typing in Japanese, the input method was romaji (same as a western keyboard). I whipped through all the levels the girls (Aya and Saki) loaded for me. So they put me on the hardest level (with a boss) and I not only finished it with ease, but got the high score. Those girls were ecstatic! They were worshipful! They saw my typing speed and were absolutely amazed. I'm glad all these years of IMing count for something. ;-)

Finally, the other day, I was teaching, and the kids (Yumika, Komi, and Shinichiro) kept pointing to a picture of a raccoon burglar being apprehended by a mouse policeman and saying "chocolate!" I couldn't figure out what they were trying to tell me, though. Later, my boss told me that there had been a mysterious man at the mall eating all the chocolate in a chocolate display, and she had called the mall personnel to apprehend him! However, the nefarious chocolate thief had not yet been found! So that's what the kids were trying to tell me about... Never a dull moment...

The JLPT Registration Materials

April 28, 2011: JLPT Registration and Classroom Anecdotes Today was the last day to register for the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test), so naturally, at 9:16 last night, I got on the Kintetsu train and hightailed it over to the bookstore to buy the JLPT registration form so I could register for the JLPT N4 (~1,500 words, ~300 kanji certification exam). This is the next step up from the JLPT Level 4 that I passed in '08. This test costs a whopping 500 yen JUST TO ACQUIRE THE REGISTRATION FORM. That doesn't include the 5,500 yen a person spends on the actual testing fee, or the 240 yen to send it by tokutei kiroku yuubin (delivery-certified mail). Nor does it cover the 220 yen fee to transfer the 5,500 yen at the post office, or the transportation fees a person will spend when rushing around to get the registration form, or on the actual test day to get to the test site. All in all, we're talking about a US$100 proposition, taking this darn test, which actually isn't as bad as some of the ECE tests I took back in Taipei and Seoul, which could cost up to several hundred dollars a pop. However, the JLPT was far more mentally exhausting to register for — the application form comes with a 52-page booklet outlining the testing and application procedures. The application procedures take up a sizable chunk of those 52 pages. Eventually I gave up on reading the whole thing and just read the part that seemed to pertain the most to getting the damn form in the mail (about 11 pages or so). Here's the rough process, as I understand it: Find a bookstore that sells the application form. It is not possible to register in any convenient fashion (online or otherwise); a prospective examinee must go to a special JEES-approved bookstore and buy the application form. Trouble is, the list of bookstores is in Japanese. This presents a problem for people who are learning Japanese. Therefore, I had my Japanese-fluent Korean friend look it up for me. Actually go to that bookstore and shell out 500 yen for the registration packet. In my case, it was Hakuyo Bookstore near Kintetsu Yokkaichi Station; I paid 170 yen each way for the train and 630 yen to get me there by taxi before it closed. Go home and puzzle over the booklet, which is extraordinarily detailed, specific, and complicated about the application process, which is apparently an art form that must be mastered gradually over time, much like tea ceremony, ikebana, kanji calligraphy, or judo. Fill out the application form. Affix a photograph that is 3 cm by 4 cm, not more than six months old, with a face that is "not too big" and "not too small" without sunglasses or a hat, etc. One must write his or her name and birth date on the back of the photograph prior to affixing it. Fill out information such as which level to take, personal information, and other information that appears like it might be used in the aggregate for a study or something, such as reason for taking the test, nationality, native language, and number of hours of Japanese study (because gee, I've counted). Fill out the money transfer form (all in Japanese). Go to a post office and send the 5,500 yen via the form enclosed. This requires writing out one's Japanese address two additional times. Write the address on the official JLPT envelope, put the form in as well as Slip A (torn off by the clerk from the money transfer). Make sure that the 12-digit number above the photograph matches the number on the receipt. Verify that the cashier has given two slips of paper: the "furikae haraikomi uketsuke shomeisho" and the "furikae haraikomi seikyusho ken juryoshou" before sealing the envelope. Pay the 220 yen fee, cross fingers, and hope that the registration form is acceptable for the needs of the JEES. Save Slip B from the money transfer, and paste it to page 25 of the JLPT registration booklet. Wait in the mail for a voucher including information on which testing center and things like that. Hope that all this works out without a hitch, and that skipping over large portions of the JLPT registration booklet didn't result in a serious error that will prevent being able to take the test. Well, I finally got all that done. Unless there is an unforeseen obstacle, I will take the JLPT N4 (equivalent to the old JLPT Level 3) on 7/3. This week at Big Apple International School of English was entertaining. Information follows. I learned a great deal about Golden Week from free talking with my students. Golden Week is a chain of national holidays that fall on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this year (the holidays are in early May). Most people get the whole week off, hence why it is called Golden "Week." However, for me, it'll just be Golden Three Days because I only get the national holidays off, not the Monday or the Friday. This would bother me, except that it's still an upgrade from Taiwan where I would lose money on national holidays because I was paid hourly. The holidays are: Children's Day: This was formerly known as Boy's Day, and there was also a Girls' Day (in March, I believe), but Boy's Day became "Children's Day" (Kodomo no Hi). Girls' Day remained, so basically girls get two special days, and boys just get one. On Kodomo no Hi, there is the "Koi Nobori" which means "Ascending the Koi" in which decorations/windsocks that look like koi (decorative carp fish) are flown. When I asked one student what he did last Children's Day, he replied "homework." Gee, your teachers must love you. Constitution Memorial Day (Kenpou Kinen-Bi): this day commemorates the Japanese constitution (the 1947 constitution). The Japanese word for "constitution" is "kenpou." Green Day: this day is the birthday of the Showa Emperor (Hirohito). Hirohito was famous for being the emperor during World War II. Hirohito died in 1988 or 1989, and Japan is currently in the era of the Heisei Emperor, but Japan still celebrates Green Day nonetheless.

April 24, 2011: Happy Easter, and I Had an Awesome Game of SNES Civilization, and a Summary of Week 16 Happy Easter! Today, I obviously don't have to work because it's Sunday. I used the day to play Civilization, an old favorite, but on a new platform: the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The port was very interesting. The first time I played through it (conquering the world early this morning), I was not really used to the interface, so I had a relatively poor game (even though I won). However, today, with the interface basically mastered, I had a phenomenal game. By 1975, the Greeks, under my leadership, had reached Alpha Centauri, cured cancer, 2/3 of Greek citizens were happy and 1/3 were content, and all this had been accomplished from a single city, with only 29 of the world map squares discovered! Holy cow!	It's 1500 AD and the neighboring Japanese civilization is threatening your capital and its massive railroad/irrigation network with a legion unit. What do you do? Simple, deploy enough tanks to stretch all the way from the north coast to the south coast. Problem solved.
1867: The Apollo Program and the First Man in Space Note how I have reduced my tank quota on the front, because my citizens were rioting (prior to building the Women's Suffrage Wonder). Note that I can also finally see the Japanese civilization's city to the southeast — because it showed up on pictures from space when I launched my first spaceship.	The Greeks' Spaceship, the S.S. Alexander It is ready to launch, with an 87% probability of success, and it is only the mid-20th century. Why part of the spaceship (a structural portion) is not attached to the rest is a mystery to me.
CHWCity, the Greek Civilization's ONLY City, 1974 Note the 2/3 happy citizens, the Cure for Cancer Wonder, the Apollo Program, the Hoover Dam, and numerous other Wonders.	In 1975, the Greeks, with a mere population of 1,900,000 people, put 10,000 people on Alpha Centauri! The end!

Other notables:

• The Greeks developed Gunpowder before the birth of Christ and had musketeers defending their city state by 1 AD.
• The Greeks had television and computers by the mid-1800s.
• Strangely enough, larger civilizations (like the Japanese and the Russians), although making lots of threats, never attacked (though it would have been interesting to see chariots and legions going up against nuclear weapons, fighter jets, and tanks.

Unfortunately, the rest of my week was not nearly so productive. All I did was work and play games, basically (although at least I stayed healthy, hygienic, and only went about 2,000 yen over budget [a little less]). Stay tuned for a big, grand plan for May onward.

Poster for Familink, an Amateur Movie with Shiori, My Student, as an Actress Me and Ong-nyeo, the Owner of the Korean Restaurant Near Kintetsu Yokkaichi Station

April 17, 2011: Summary of the 15th Week Well, it was quite a week! Earlier today, I went with Kaori, my boss, to see Shiori's movie. Shiori is a 13-year-old who I tutor one-on-one on Fridays, who is attending some sort of acting academy. Kaori and I went there and met Shiori, her mother, Yurie, and Mayumi (sisters who are friends of Shiori) and we saw the movie. It was about an hour long. I have absolutely no clue what was going on. My Japanese clearly needs improvement! All I can say is that the title of the movie was "Familink" which is a portmanteau of "Family" and "Link," that it starred several middle school/high school students, there was a talking flamingo in the movie, and most of it was set in and around people's homes (in fact, I recognized many of the locations from around Yokkaichi City). It ended with a birthday party and there was a part in the movie in which they found what appeared to be a treasure map. In other words, my comprehension of the speaking in the movie was absolutely abysmal. However, I showed up and sat through all of it, so I did my part. As for other interesting information about this week, well, we have this calendar in our classroom with English and Japanese. It's a word-a-day thing for our students. I noticed that there were two words on there that I found pretty funny: "hanautau" (to hum) and "kuchibue" (whistling). The reason these words are funny is that they have such obvious etymologies. "Hanautau" is composed of "hana" ("nose") and "utau" ("sing") — "to nose sing." What a perfect description of humming. The word for whistling ("kuchibue") is literally composed of "kuchi" ("mouth") and "bue" (a form of "fue," or "flute"). Yep, it means "mouth flute." As for other interesting anecdotes about this week, my boss and I were advertising for the school downstairs at Kayo Mall on Wednesday. This mother (middle-aged) and her 19- or 20-year-old daughter came up and inquired about our classes. Fascinatingly enough, the mother had a four-year-old daughter, and the daughter had her own approximately one-year-old baby, which I found entertaining — I can't imagine raising a small child at the same time my parents are raising one. The 19- or 20-year-old looked rather questionable (tattoos on her hands and hair dyed light brown). At any rate, since the mothers were inquiring about classes for the four-year-old, I played with/taught the four-year-old a bit as a demonstration. I actually seriously doubt she was four years old (my guess would be six or so), but that's what she said. The entertaining part was when I said "My name is Charles. What's your name?" and tried to elicit her name. She just froze. No answer. I figured "Well, perhaps she doesn't have an English name, or perhaps she doesn't know how to say 'My name is ____.'" So I wrote my name on a sheet of paper, gestured to myself, and said "I'm Charles. What's your name?" The little girl wrote a word on the piece of paper under my name. "Great!" I thought. Surely she had written her name, so I could instruct her on how to say "My name is ____." Nope, she hadn't — she had written "isu" in hiragana. "Isu" means "chair." She heard my name (Charles) and thought I was saying "chair." Oh well... This week, I guess I didn't accomplish as much as I set out to accomplish. I watched about four hours of Japanese TV/movies in eight days. It's actually pretty hard to force myself to do that. I zone out when I watch them, and I'm not even sure if watching TV is particularly helpful for my listening comprehension (I never found it was a magic bullet for Korean, either). I only covered 60 new vocabulary words this week, and my backlog was a little less than 200 words on Anki when I checked less than an hour ago. One productive thing that I did do was go to Yokkaichi City Library and get a library card. Easiest library card application process ever — not only didn't I need my alien registration card, they didn't even ask for my passport! What the hell?! They don't need ID to issue a library card? Incredible! But it gets better! I told them I had forgotten my exact address, and they said it was okay, I could go ahead and check out up to ten books and give them the address next time! Incredible! How trusting! So I checked out eight books. Although I am a trustworthy fellow and intend to return the books, it seems like a system ripe for abuse, not requiring ID or a valid address to register for a library card! I found one particularly helpful book series called Nihongo Shokyuu Bunpou Setsumei I & II which goes over Japanese grammar. I look forward to reading those books. Additionally, this week, I kept up with my Pimsleur review sessions (although I'm going to need to step it up on listening). As for other things besides education, well, I worked at Big Apple Eikaiwa School and although I didn't spend a huge amount of money this week, I unfortunately exceeded my budget by an amount that will probably come out to around 3,500 yen when I go to bed tonight. Starting next month, I'll really need to reign in my spending and come up with a good budget. Japan can be affordable if you're disciplined, but grabbing a bentou box when you don't have time or that sort of thing can really add up. I managed to eat fairly healthily this week and basically kept in good shape as far as fitness/hygiene were concerned, so I guess that was a small victory. Unfortunately, I did zero in the way of religious studies or IT studies. I need to make sure to keep these things up, too — it's important to have something besides just languages. Even if I spoke fluent Japanese tomorrow, it would not solve all my problems — plenty of 10-year-old kids can speak fluent Japanese too, after all. In fact, during the week, I suddenly came up with a nugget of wisdom: When a guy studies computer science for 5,000 or so hours, they give him a degree in computer science and he can have a high-powered career at Microsoft of Apple. When a guy studies medicine for 5,000 or so hours, they give him a medical degree and say "congratulations, you're now a doctor." When a guy studies Japanese for 5,000 or so hours, they give him JLPT Level 1 and say "congratulations — you now speak Japanese as well as a sixth grader, on paper, at least!" What this "nugget of wisdom" is trying to illustrate is that in terms of payoff for your studies, languages are very close to the bottom. I should pursue other interests, as well, because it may be many, many years before I become fluent in Japanese (if it ever happens at all). Don't get me wrong — Japanese is important to my future in this country. However, I need to avoid postponing development in other areas (particularly IT studies), because I do not know when or even if I'll ever become fluent in Japanese. I think I should rework my weekly schedules to be slightly more well-rounded than just "Japanese, Japanese, Japanese." Because if all I have in life is my Asian languages, well, there are 10-year-olds who can blow me out of the water at that... I need to develop a "real" skill that isn't common, or the kind of thing that only a "native speaker" can do properly.

April Cherry Blossoms (taken on Saturday) More April Cherry Blossoms An Island in the Stream Running Near the Kintetsu Yokkaichi-Bound Railroad Tracks Tracks of Some Kind of Animal in the Mud Near Kintetsu Yokkaichi Station Some Kind of Aquatic Plant with Delicate, Feathery Leaves I failed to find a zarigani (type of crayfish endemic to Japan), but I did succeed in finding some rather large freshwater snails (this one is about an inch long). Oh, and there were leeches, too! Although I found the library on Saturday, it was already closed. I did, however, find the bookstore, which was still open.

April 10, 2011: Summary of Weeks 13 and 14 Before I launch into my weekly summary, allow me to talk about the last 24 hours. I got up and decided to try to find Yokkaichi's Korean restaurant. I figured that I would follow the railroad tracks to Kintetsu Yokkaichi Station, near where the place is located. However, I got lost. That resulted in me having a few "side quests." I viewed the cherry blossoms incidentally with getting lost (cherry blossom viewing is known as "hanami" here) and also happened upon a stream where I did some wildlife observation. After that, I found myself in downtown Yokkaichi, and asked two young ladies (who turned out to be nurses-in-training) how to get to the Kintetsu Station, and they walked me all the way there. I had a great Korean meal at the restaurant and met the owner, Ms. Heo Ong-nyeo, a very confident 57-year-old Zainichi Korean who was born and raised in Japan but whose parents were from Jeolla Province. She suggested we do a language exchange, and that sounds great to me. I probably would have asked if she hadn't asked first. So now we have each other's contact info. It'll be nice to study some Japanese with an actual human being and not just books and PDF files. After eating there, I tried to locate the Yokkaichi public library, and although I found it, it was closed. Finally, I hit the bookstore and found that they have a wide variety of JLPT prep books, but the catch is that they're all in Japanese, which is kind of a problem, because I'm learning Japanese. Oh well. I will check out the library's selection; maybe they'll have something. I've decided to get back to writing weekly summaries. They are a good way to keep track of what I have accomplished, they keep me motivated to achieve, and they allow me to realize that even if I haven't met my goals, I still did pretty well. Over the past two weeks, I have accomplished a great deal in terms of study. In Week 13, I completely eliminated my vocabulary backlog (over 1,200 words). The backlog had grown when I was too busy to use Anki while moving to/training in Yokkaichi. However, I am now caught up. In Week 14, I consistently added 15 new words everyday (in fact, I went ahead and added today's words early just to bump myself over 1,600 words in the deck of flash cards. Yep, that's right, ladies and gentlemen, I may have no clue how to use half of them, but in theory, I now know 1,600 words of Japanese. I also finished the entire Pimsleur Japanese series in Week 13 and then proceeded to review the old lessons up to Lesson 8. I also previewed two Japanese textbooks. I also watched a total of at least seven hours of Japanese TV over the course of two weeks (not quite my goal, but better than nothing). In other words, I have been working hard on my Japanese. I stayed healthy and hygienic overall during the two weeks. I learned how to operate my washing machine and things like that. Work was all right. No major complaints from the boss (yet, at least). I overspent last week by about 500 yen (no big deal). This week, I overspent by a much larger margin. I was trying to keep my spending down to 1,000 yen per day, but I exceeded that on Thursday (I overspent by about 750 yen) and on Friday (500 yen over) and on the last day, I overspent by about 2,500 yen (yikes). However, overall, this overspending was not too bad considering I have just moved into a new town. In terms of religion/religious studies, I did nothing, unfortunately. I'll need to work on that. Finally, in terms of fun, I did two notable things. I finished Year's Best SF 5, a sci-fi compilation by David G. Hartwell. Second, I finished Makaitoushi Sa·Ga (WonderSwan Color). In terms of other fun things, I found the Korean restaurant and had a delicious meal there, and did the stuff mentioned in the first paragraph. I hope the coming weeks can be equally, if not more productive.

April 7, 2011: Makaitoushi Sa·Ga Complete, Japanese for Dummies Chapter 10 Complete
I finished the WonderSwan Color Makaitoushi Sa·Ga game (in Japanese, released in the US as Final Fantasy Legend). I thought it was a very good remake given the handheld console technology of 2002, when the remake was released (the original game was 1989). Definitely a much brighter color palette than if it had come out on the Game Boy Advance (I was never a fan of how washed-out and difficult-to-see the GBA's screen was). I had completed the fourth world (the cityscape destroyed by Su-zaku, the phoenix), but this time, I not only defeated Ashura, but also the Creator (simply called "Kami," or "God" in the Japanese version).

I also read all of Chapter 10 in Japanese for Dummies, to evaluate whether it is a good book for learning Japanese. And the answer is "not really." It is all in romaji (romanization) and it wastes space with these stupid pronunciation guides (e.g. "doa no kagi o kakeru [doh-ah noh kah-gee oh kah-keh-roo]") that quite frankly just make me feel condescended to. However, at least I learned a few words and one piece of grammar: joushi (the Sino-Japanese word for "boss," kyuuryou ("salary"), and zangyou ("overtime"), as well as ~mitai desu ("~ is like ~"). Oh, and seishain means "regular employee." Okay, I guess I learned some vocabulary, but the book does not provide grammar, which is really what I need at this point.

The Three Useful Japanese Books Left Behind at My Apartment

April 6, 2011: Deciding Which Free Textbook to Use to Study for the JLPT N4 on 7/3 I need to prepare for the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) that I will take on July 3, and textbooks for the JLPT cost money. Currently, I am planning to take the N4 in July, which tests/certifies ~1,500 words and ~300 kanji. Although theoretically I could take the N3 (a lower number, but actually a harder and more prestigious test), I feel that that would be too much of a risk and a time commitment at this point in time, which is why I have decided to take the N4 instead. I have already learned all the vocabulary words for N4, complete with their kanji. I know them fairly well, and as long as I keep running Anki (a PC-based spaced repetition quiz program), I should remember them just fine with minimal effort even in July. Although I have not explicitly studied the kanji as a separate subject, I have learned all the kanji for the words on the list (far more than ~300, that's for sure) and therefore also have no worries about the kanji. However, I am still very weak on grammatical forms. I estimate that my knowledge of Japanese grammar is only around JLPT N5 (lower level than N4). Therefore, I have decided to pick out a textbook (one of the three left behind by some previous teacher who lived at this apartment). The books are Japanese for Dummies, by Eriko Sato, PhD, Minna no Nihongo I, by the 3A Corporation, or Situational Functional Japanese: Volume 2: Notes: Second Edition by the Tsukuba Language Group. My plan is to finish at least one of these textbooks both to refresh the grammar that I learned on the old JLPT Level 4 (equivalent to N5 on the modern test) and add some new grammar, words, etc. Then, in a month or two, when I have started to get full paychecks (not just training pay), start purchasing some quality JLPT study guides and work from them. In order to evaluate which textbook I will use, I think I will go to the halfway point in the book, start at the beginning of that chapter, and read the whole chapter from start to finish for each book, and rank each book. Then I will make my decision on which to read/study cover-to-cover. Yes, that seems like the best idea. Perhaps in May, when my working visa is finished and my visa/financial situation is more stable, I can buy a regular JLPT study guide and polish off my Japanese knowledge with that. I guess the way this is going to work out time-wise is this: Wednesday night: Japanese for Dummies: Chapter 10 (probably too easy, but I will give it a shot) Thursday night: Minna no Nihongo I: Lesson 12 Friday night: Situational Functional Japanese: Volume 2: Notes: Second Edition: Lesson 13 Saturday: start working cover-to-cover on my chosen textbook. I have already learned the 1,409 words on the JLPT N4/N5 using Anki (with kanji); I finished this process on February 28 of this year, but continue to do reviews. However, I need to upgrade both my listening and grammar, and I hope these textbooks will help with the latter.