Ehheh... this one is it bit late, having happened the Saturday before the Kamakura trip. Nevertheless, here it is.

I went two other exchange students, one from Hungary and one from Germany, the Aussie's host mum, who has turned out to be a very kind person always willing to take us to interesting places, and a person who I recall being the host mum of either the Hungarian or German.

Inside the university we were assaulted by friendly university students, no doubt attracting even more attention that usual with three foreigners in Japanese school uniform. In typical Japanese festival style, there was a wealth of stalls selling your typical Japanese festival foods, from octopus balls to okonomiyaki to a crushed iced slushy type thing.

We wandered on, following the sound of drums, and ended up at a Taiko show. 

Unfortunately, and quite predictably, the sound really doesn't convey the booming awesomeness of the thing. I've heard Taiko from a CD before, and wasn't interested for too long, but it really is superb live.

Next we found a crazy dance being performed by some university students, and some old very professory looking foreigner.

Finally, we walked into the famous silhouette of Tokyo university, where we found a bunch of Japanese rascals playing music which might have been good were it not for the side motive of trying to make anyone who dared go within a hundred metres deaf.

Today I met up with the Aussie friend I mentioned in the previous article for a very eventful Sunday. We met up Shibuya and headed to Akihabara. The better informed of you may already know what happened. Essentially, a man drove into a crowd with a rented truck and then went on a knifing rampage. Read about it here. When my friend and I arrived at the place we found a large area taped off, full of the emergency service's vehicles and personell, with several helicopters circling the area. 

We saw a curious scene around this policeman. A somewhat old, bald man with kanji written on his face and eyebrows thickened with what seemed like felt tip first shoved at my friend and then entered the taped off area. The officer in the picture dragged him back and threw him beside a wall, where he continued to lie clutching his cell phone. 

Nevertheless we continued our sightseeing in the electric town, somewhat hindered by the size of the crimescene, apart from which, Akihabara seemed to be fairly normal. I did notice a larger amount of cosplayers than usual though. Lunch was had at Mos Burger, a Japanese style burger restaurant which serves Japanese size yet exceedingly good burgers.

After sufficient wandering and wondering, we headed to Harajuku, for I think that no Sunday in Tokyo is complete without a tour of the day's eccentrics.

The eccentric population was particularly high today. Perhaps it is better to visit later in the afternoon.

 
I usually try to ask for permission to take a picture as well as whether or not I can post it on the internet, which makes taking pictures sometimes difficult due to the amount of tourists.

Voter apathy is common in Japan, and because (if I correctly recall) Japanese campaign law forbids the use of the internet at a campaigning tool, candidates blast their messages from on top of vans like these. Generally you only see a few, usually older people, listening to them.

On our way back home we stopped at Shibuya, where we found a large crowd gathered outside a magazine store. We thought there might be a famous person, but moved on for a visit to my favourite arcade and the Shibuya Apple Store. When we returned however, we tried to see what all the fuss was about; some famous model apparently. Just as I had manouvered myself to one side of the crowd, the model pushed through the crowd with her bodyguards, running right past me. I had my camera on hand, but it was all over far too soon.

For those of you wondering about the title, I've decided to link this to a bunch of posts I did a long time ago about the different languages I've studied and their, all too often, grizzly fate. Therefore, if you want to read about my experiences studying Japanese before I came here, read this post.

For those of you studying Japanese or planning to study, what that post doesn't mention is the book I used: Japanese For Busy People I. I didn't exaclty "choose" the book, it was simply required for the course. However, despite the sometimes annoyingly obvious orientation towards business people, I found it a very good book to study by. Having now studied with Book II of the series, I can say there is a lot less vocabulary directed specifically towards business people, although that may also be due to my Book II being a newer edition than my Book I.

Book I I studied completely in Finland, and it laid a good base for getting to grips with the language. Book I introduced no kanji whatsoever, only hiragana and katakana. What I really liked about it in comparison to other methods I have seen is that the language is immediately useful, rather than the "A cat exists." kind of sentences all to common with beginning Japanese. It also does a good job of familiarising you with the somewhat unusual word order for sentences. Book II then I feel, really opens up the language, going into a variety of useful grammar and acquainting you very well with the -te -ta and other plain forms as well as the ways in which they can be used. It also includes practice for 160 kanji.

One reason the series receive my seal of approval is because I have been able to compare it to the teaching method issued to exchange students by YFU, my exchange program. This system, the "Kumon" involves the student ploughing through piles and piles of repetitive work sheets, which are then sent to a teacher by post for checking, and who then sends you a new set of worksheets. I gave the system a good try, but the repetitiveness is exceedingly de-motivating, and the system lacked a coherent way of teaching grammar, instead providing some tantalising tidbits in the corner of the page regarding some new little thing you were just presented. It's also quite annoying having the occasional exercise in tracing hiragana when you're at my level. The series also had a habit of having exactly the same text for about 20 worksheets in a row on which the exercises were based. Most of my fellow exchange students didn't bring any study material, but the fact that they have gone to buy new textbooks from Japanese bookstores is a testament to the failure of Kumon. So, now you know one way you shouldn't study.

As you probably expect, my Japanese has improved ridiculously during the time I've been here, something I would put down to about three reasons. First is that I've stuck to the same studying method for most of the time, which has allowed me to make steady progress into more complex grammar rather than floundering in the basics. I think this is actually a very important point, because if you change your method of study it is likely that the other method teaches things in a slightly different order. This means you will either not be able to full understand everything you study with your new method, or you will find that it teaches you things you already know.

The second reason is that I am not expected to participate properly during lessons at school, because obviously I have no hope of studying chemistry in Japanese. This means that I can have as many as four or five hours a day to simply study Japanese. Personally I am always happy to study on my own, because it allows me to take time doing things I find difficult and not linger on things I find easy. It also means I can study in a way which I know works for me, rather than in a way the teacher insists will work for me. The grim truth is also that you cannot really hope to "absorb" grammar from conversation and listening to people around you, not very quickly anyway. Rather I have noticed that studying grammar for a few hours and then putting it into use as soon as possible is by far the quicker way. I for example barely noticed the difference between the words 'shaberu' and 'shaberareru' before I read from my book that the other means "speak" an the other "can speak".

At school I also have so called "private lessons" with idle teachers. These are exceedingly useful when used as conversational practice, especially as the teacher can point out any mistakes I make and, should they speak English, I can ask them on vocabulary. And despite living here my chances for a solid hour of conversation are not particularly high. Occasionally though, especially at the beginning, the teacher might insist on grammar, in which case I would waste my time writing something simple like interrogative sentences, something I would have thought they knew I was able to do on account of having asked them questions in Japanese.

The third reason for my drastic improvement is the most obvious: I live in Japan, go to a Japanese school and stay at a family which speaks only Japanese. When I came to Japan I could not wait to practice the little Japanese I already knew, and while my initial efforts often floundered miserably, I was not at all shy about trying my best. But once again you cannot really hope to magically absorb speaking skills either, you simply have to pluck up the courage and use what you know to talk to people. I know this is much more difficult to some than it is the others, but I cannot imagine another better way. Although I said grammar is difficult to learn merely through listening to others, speaking with people, especially ones who are patient and interested is a great way to pick up vocabulary and learn to understand and to speak more colloquial language. Not to mention that being able to substitute the textbook's speaking exercises with real world conversation and being able to put newly learnt grammar straight to use also makes advancing through the textbook that much faster.

It might seem from what I have said that the only way to learn Japanese is to come here, which may be true should you wish fluency. However, I can also say that I was thankful for every single hour of studying I did in Finland, and that I would not have wished to begin my studies in Japan. In the same way I can tell everyone studying Japanese that the more effort you put into it the easier it will when or if you ever have the chance to visit Japan and practice your language. I also cannot imagine any better motivation for Japanese studying than the rewarding feeling of being able to put that studying to use.

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In other news, I am leaving tomorrow for a four day trip to Kamakura to check out some temples, so look forward to a nice big update and plenty of pictures. If you have questions about my post on Japanese feel free to ask, and don't hesitate to tell me if there is something I should have written more about. 

Apologies for the recent lack of updates; partly due to the fact that I've simply been very busy at school and partly because I haven't had anything interesting to write about. It dawned on me one day that I should write about what it is like to be an exchange student 'That'll give me loads to write about!' I though, but I can't actually think of anything worth saying that isn't made up emotional dribble or practical advice like... err... remember to by some adapters at the airport for example.

Now however, I have two weeks with loads of free time. This is because it is now the week before test week at my school, and all clubs are taking a break, including the Kendo club. Next week, test week, is also club free, with every day ending at 11:40 so those poor Japanese students can go study all day and all night. Last Sunday then I wen't to Harajuku once more, the previous Sunday having been a YFU orientation day.

Unfortunately I forgot my camera's memory card at home, so I only had the camera's internal memory. This would have been suffice had I realised how to decrease the whopping resolution of the pictures, but try as I might I could not figure it out, which meant I could only take so many pictures. Only upon returning home did I realise I could have taken pictures with my perfectly adequate mobile phone camera. At home I also figured out how to change the resolution after about three seconds of fidgeting. God damn I hate being an idiot sometimes...

Unfortunately I don't real have pictures of the eccentrics today, as they were all gathered in the shady corner being oggled by an annoying number of tourists with huge cameras. Whenever any of them would pose some fat american (Don't you just love how nobody cares about prejudice against American tourists?) would shove in so their friend could take a picture. So instead I headed off to Yoyogi park for the first time, and bumbed into some of these fellows.

Another of Harajuku's Sunday spectacles is the congregation of so called "rockabillys", who dress up in leather, do their hair and put on a show. I had heard of these guys before and I wasn't expecting it to be very good, but I actually found them to be brilliant entertainament.

I swear it didn't even sway in the wind. 

And what better car for these eccentric scallywags than a pink cadillac? 

From there a followed a path on the left of the park which was crowded with lots of bands, most of them quite good. (Unlike the not-quite-so-skiled rapper I saw outside Shibuya station; felt a bit sorry for him when he said thank you into the microphone even though nobody even gave him a glance... then I found it amusing.) The interesting thing was that there would occasionally be two bands right next to each other, playing at the same time, which it seems results in a discreet yet furious battle with some volume knobs. I know my right ear was bleeding after passing them.
A nice band composed entirely of drums and barrels.

 
Also found these hippies painting the canvas for their new peace tent. 

 
Yoyogi park seems like a great place to go for a picnic, hard to believe a place like this exists in the middle of Tokyo. 

And finally I bumped into these girls on the bridge on my way back. Needless to say I made the most of their offer. As did a tall nerdy fellow who sort of stood in front of them with a petrified look on his face until one of the girls hugged him nervously while he stood there with his arms straight.

On Sunday I met up with some friends to go to Harajuku for the first time. Unlike Akihabara which is almost thirty minutes away by train, Harajuku is right next to Shibuya - which means I can go there every Sunday to take more photos, hooray!

For the non-japanophiles who read my blog, Harajuku is one of the better known places in Tokyo, the Harajuku bridge and the eccentricly dressed teenagers that frequent it being particularly well known through their occasional appearance in foreign media (and Gwen Stefani's music video.) It is also right next to Yoyogi park, the Meijijingu shrine and the fashionable Omotesando shopping street.

The second major street is the alley-like Takeshitadôri, which is more popular among young people, with plenty of clothing shops catering to youth fashions and subcultures such as Gothloli and the like. For some reason it also has loads of stalls selling crepes, rolled up into cones and filled with ice cream, chocolate, fruits, berries, cheesecake, cheese (note the difference) or even prosciutto ham if you fancy a savory option. 

Check out which country's design brand is on Harajuku Fashion Joyboard 11, heh heh.

Everything is happening in Japan! Have you bumped into a skateboarding dog recently? The dog would put his/her front paws on the board, push it for some speed and then hop on. Unfortunately this is the only picture I have with "Harajuku Girls" in it, but I will be sure to put up more soon (next Sunday.)

As in the future I will probably be taking many photos around Tokyo, I've decided to organise my photo gallery regionally, with all new photos going to their respective categories. From now on I will also tag all the articles that go with the photos with "Harajuku Photos" and so on so that you can easily find commentary for the photos as well. I've also put up some pictures of my visit to Akihabara, will write on that later ^^