Sankyu

The Japanese profiency tests take place in December. At the start of this year, Tom and I set ourselves a target of passing san kyu - the 3rd level of Japanese proficiency.
My japanese study comes and goes. Well, it came in January, went in February and hasn't really returned since. However it's time to get down to some serious work if I'm gonna achieve sankyu. It's been a long time since I took any sort of test, so I'm completely out of practice.

Here's some useful links for Japanese study:

Dictionary
Grammar
Kanji

But enough messing around - it's time to do some work!

Taikotastic

I’ve started to learn Taiko – the art of the Japanese drum. It is very difficult.

I think that the 2 most important qualities needed to be good at taiko are rhythm and flexibility. I possess neither of these, but I don’t intend to let that stop me. Last night was my 2nd class and so far I love it. It’s like nothing that I’ve ever done before, and I’m going to need to work hard to become vaguely competent. Hopefully the enjoyment will keep me motivated and I won’t get too frustrated with my incompetence.

Here’s a link to our teachers professional group: TOKARA

And so....it begins

I'm gonna start a blog to keep anyone who's interested up to date(ish) with what I'm doing in my life.

Last week, there were 3 days of bank holidays on Wednesday, Thursday & Friday. So naturally, it was time to get out of town and drive off into the Japanese countryside.

A large proportion of Iida’s English teachers arranged a camping road trip to Noto Hanto. Noto Hanto is a peninsular on the north coast of central Japan. It sticks out into the Sea of Japan and is one of the county’s least densely populated areas.

Early on Wednesday morning, we (Kayo, Ben and me) set off in Kayo's Pajero mini. Our destination was not too far away in terms of distance - maybe 200 miles - but with Iida being in the middle of the mountains - we didn't arrive until 5pm. The evening was spent setting up camp, followed by beach barbeque. During the rest of the holiday we onsened, ate lots of sashimi, massive crabs, and generally had a delightfully relaxing time.

Noto Hanto is a very beautiful area. The sea is crystal clear, the mountains green, and the rice fields diligently cared for. However, the main thing that makes it a little different from other areas of Japan I've visited is the peace and quiet. There’s much less concrete and far fewer garish pachinko parlours than anywhere else I've been in Japan so far. We also saw some wonderful sunsets from the western side of the peninsular. I would highly recommend a trip if you get the chance.



And so....that's my first blog post.