The funniest thing which i just found out though, since i gave up my topleveldomain thedoistujin.com a few months back, it has been quickly registered by some other fellow. Rats… Which now, since i’m beginning to think taking up blogging again, makes it difficult to either think of another alter ego or a new top level domain.

Basically what i want to incorporate from now on is to write some articles in japanese as i have been slacking off a LOT in regards to my japanese learning. Also i’m much more interested in photography as of late and i want to take up on talking about (and also photograph) my utmost nerd-love: Transformers.

Also stuff i want to write about is that i made the definite switch from windows to mac although i still use some applications (but really just a few) on windows through parallels. And now that i own and heavily use an iPhone as well as an iPad i decided to programm my own game. I’ve always been a gamer and the game-idea i came up with is heavily influenced by my days in the 16-bit Sega Genesis/Mega Drive area. What exactly i’m planning as of now will remain a secret until i get the groundworks of iOS programming hammered in my head and have a first underlying framework ready to show off.

Also i hope to incorporate search engine optimization and blog monetarization to be able to buy maybe transformers figures/games/what have you or other interest related stuff to talk about.

This post is really turning into an about section

The big idea or maybe greatest influence for doing this might be the motivation posts over on danny choo’s blog. After re-reading them now i think about giving it one last try. And if that doesn’t work out i guess i’m gone for good.

Well for what it’s worth, if anyone is even reading this, stay tuned for more to come

Thank you for your time

And my scores really were as close as i expected them to be. But nevertheless, passed is passed and i don’t really care about the points anymore. What this certificate means to me is that i was able, to pass the 3ykuu exam in only two years time with constant determination and also a just so-so attitude towards the test. Where others who bloated before the exam about how i was only at mid-way through the first textbook and would have no chance to do it. HA HA to you fuckers! Sorry for my rude language all of a sudden but that had to be said straight.

I guess i already told you this but before i really started to actually “learn” Japanese i was just like any other…i wouldn’t say japanophile but very interested guy who religiously watched his Anime and wondered about how someone would ever be able to understand a word without the subtitle. Many websites will tell you, especially those who think they can educate you on the field of the Japanese language, that if you’re just watching Anime….that’s not really going to cut it and that it’s very very hard to learn. I always thought that they’re just bitter because it was hard for THEM. It really depends on the individual. For instance, I’m more the language skilled kind of guy, math is my arch-enemy.

So it was easy for me to learn English in school because i had to use it or wasn’t able to avoid it in my spare time. And because of what? You guessed it, video games. Back then you simply were not able to get an all-German version of a say, AMIGA500 or MegaDrive game (which were my consoles at the time i used to play on, obviously the GameBoy too of course) and most if not 98% of it was in English. So i was forced to learn English through this activity and it was fun! Also if you link something fun like this with your studies (be it school or self study) there’s no other way but to advance in this field. Which applies to more stuff of course, but that’s just for the record.

Back to those mean Japanese is impossible websites again. Through watching Anime (and also some Jmovies from time to time) you unconsciously pick up some of the vocabulary used on and on and on in every type of anime. Especially one phrase comes to mind: よくわからないけど。。。 this is one phrase that’s present in almost EVERY anime series you’ll ever see, at least from my experience. Read “yoku wakaranai kedo….” roughly translated: “I don’t know this all to well, but alas…”. Those things you just memorize when you hear it and read the subtitle. And this helped me immensly in my japanese classes because in every lesson i would already know at least 20-40% sometimes in the very beginning even 100% of the vocabulary used. So for you Anime watchers out there eager to learn some real Japanese, don’t let someone tell you that this doesn’t help you at all in learning the language. They’re just haters.

Back to the meaning of this certificate. When i took the test last year for level 4 (4kyuu) i was only at chapter 7 of the textbook “minna no nihongo” roughly translated into “Japanese for Everyone” / “Everyone’s Japanese” and got looked down upon from people who were studying for years and were through with that textbook. But my skills at that time actually exceeded what i thought of myself that i could possibly achieve. And i got my certificate. The others…not

Come December 2008 i were still on the first textbook, on chapter 23 and had hammered 280 Kanji over the course of 3 months into my head, sometimes 8 to 10 a day. And i lacked extremely in the grammar field because the stuff in there was only taught at the end of the textbook and i had to quick learn it in the last 2 weeks through special grammar books and test from the internet (see Meguro Language Center). It was a close call but nevertheless i passed. So this proves to me that with enough determination, progress like this IS possible. Normally you’d have to wait for the second textbook course I’m taking now to end to be able to take on the 3kyuu exam.

But what now? Well of course my next goal is to maybe achieve the 2kyuu in December 2010 . I already ordered the JEES prep test’s/CD’s, the White Rabbit Press Kanji poster and will buy the WRP 2kyuu Kanji flashcards and the 2kyuu PlaySay MP3 Set in the near future. Right now i’m focussing more on grammar because that will be the key to pass the 2kyuu. I don’t really care about Kanji and vocabulary anymore. Although i’m thinking about switching to the Heising method of Remembering Kanji because simply writing them down again and again gets tedious over time. And that’s a lot of Kanji for 2kyuu let me tell ya…

Well, we’ll see what happens. For everybody else who also passed the test ばんざい　わたしたち！ Everybody else who failed will surely pass it this year.

So, the other day i was searching the web and found a site called kanjiposter.com (how puzzling!) that’s selling a pre-laminated version to draw on, featuring 2042 kanji in the dimension 23″ wide and 37″ tall for a very reasonable $24,95. Since my birthday is coming up and i was going to buy one anyways, i ordered two of them. Will do a more detailed review (including live pictures) once it has arrived.

Because my standards have been growing since i first started with hiragana/katakana, it’s finally time to take this one off the wall:

(hiragana / katakana poster)

The reason i bought two kanji posters is because they will be hanging in both my living room and my bedroom so i can use them when studying / doing my homework and recite them  when i go to sleep instead of juggling with my kanji cards.

If you’re going to study japanese, don’t do it half-assed.

How do you study your daily dose of kanji? Is it even daily? Tell me in the comments!

2008 is finally over and i decided one of the the first checkpoints in 2009 to be “get more use out of your mac”. This is why  i upgraded from an iBook G3 500Mhz to an iBook G4 1.2 Ghz.

A lot of thought went into this and i figured, if i was ever to switch or make actual use of my OS X capable computer, now would be the time for an upgrade. G4 iBooks with sufficient speed are sold at low prices and still capable of running the newest OS X iteration.

Prologue:

(my old G3 500Mhz model iBook)

In 2006, after weeks of trying to figure out a way to emulate mac os x on my not-so-new pc i dismissed that idea and went over to that auction house, looking for an older still os x 10.3 capable mac model. After going through a lot of specs on iMac, eMac, iBook and MacMini, i decided the G3 iBook to be my weapon of choice. Back then they sold for around 300EUR with their vanilla configuration. Lucky me shot myself an iBook G3 500Mhz/128MB (+256MB)/15GB/CD with little wear and a defunct LCD Display. Or so i thought. My reasearch has resulted that i should first try to change the inverter board of the display to restore backlight functionality.

The picture was there, just the backlight wouldn’t show, it worked normally on an external LCD Display. So i signed up some Mac forums and found most of my needed info there. Finally i collected the parts for cheap on that auction house and with the help from the ifixit guide for G3 iBook i was ready to go. But wait! If i were to actually tear this little soldier apart, then not without upgrading all parts which are only accessable by disassembling the iBook! Combo drive for DVD watching? Yes please! 80GB harddrive leftover from my last Sony VAIO notebook? You betcha!

After 4 hours of dissassembly and rebuilding, the backlight was working again and i was finally able to watch dvd movies on it (which later was the only thing i actually used it for)

When i was done playing around with 10.3 und checking what this machine was still able to do, which was not much unfortunately, it was upgraded to 10.4 via firewire connection and remote installation from a friends ibook, and later downgraded again to 10.3 for better performance. As i said before, as of late it was only used as a dvd player in my bedroom.

Present Day:

Today, my new problem child arrived, the iBook G4. Behold:

The problems with this unit, due to a suicide jump off of a kitchen table at the pre-owner are: defective keyboard (only the left half of it is working – need to use external keyboard,  the frame seems to be overall bent and has cracks in it, battery hangs loose, TFT Display is working yet the frame is cranked and doesn’t close right – see pictures below)

Repairs list:

• exchange 12″ LCD display
• exchange top and bottom frame
• exchange keyboard
• thinking about exchanging the combo drive too since it makes weird crunching noises when inserting cd/dvd

Upgrade list:

• 250GB harddrive
• new combo- / superdrive
• bluetooth add-on
• Upgrade to OS X 10.5 Leopard (upgrade dvd bought and already on its way)

I guess it would be more convenient to just buy a model that’s already in working order, but that way i wouldn’t have learned so much about the hardware construct and how those things work and what makes it so F*ing expensive to have them repaired at an apple service point. Also i really like meddling with old hardware to get the maximum use out of it.

Will keep you updated once i got all the parts and, hopefully, will have successfully repaired it.

Long time no see. Was studying like a madman for the JLPT Level 3 Test on 7th of December. And now once again i’m playing the waiting game, as everyone else who took the test. Got mixed feelings about this years JLPT. Though i found the kanji and listening part very fair, almost a bit easy, it was part three grammar and text understanding that got me contemplating. The funny thing is that this year i was through with the third part rather fast, so fast actually that i kept pondering for about 30 minutes on the last question of the last text. Although i understood the most part of it i couldn’t really figure out the progress of booking the conference rooms, for each room. And as i learned later from friends who took the test with me, the answer i choose was only half true. damn ^^

As of now my subjective opinion is that i won’t pass because my score is lacking like 10-20 points or more.

That is why i bought some Daruma figurines as good luck charms for passing the test =P

Each time i took the JLPT test, i take pictures of how my desk looks like when studying, what i do right after i get home from the test and thought i’d share them with you. You might notice the advancements to both my Desktop Setup and my Gaming Rig ^^

JLPT 4 PrepDesk (just my Kanji studies, not pictured the huge mountains of preparation sheets :p)

JLPT 4 After (kept the game closed ’til the test was over)

JLPT 3 PrepDesk (aforementioned preparation sheets..)

JLPT 3 After ( there’s nothing like pizza and “kirin” beer and a good game of gta4 after a japanese test ^^, more on the TF busts later)

It’s become quite an revolving procedure to play games after i get home. That’s mainly because i won’t allow my self to watch tv, play video games, watch anime or any other sort of fun activity orz.

Also i take the week before the test off of work and just study,study, study…

Did any of you take the Test? If so, which level and how did you fare ?

This is especially true to all kinds of western looking gaijin.

In a German book called “Darum nerven Japaner” by Christoph Neumann (which has also been released in Japanese and English), i read that even though one may speak perfectly fine japanese, and ONLY speak to them in japanese, they may always try to answer to you in english because they think you’re an english-only speaking person. That may be a kind of narrow minded pre-judgement coming from me because i never experienced it myself, but i think that Christoph Neumann is right on what he reports. There are a lot of other curiosities hidden in that book and i definately recommend it to anyone who’s interested in visiting/moving to/working in Japan.

Anyways, this was only meant to be an explanation why i wanted to post that Shin Chan episode. Thought it would be a good example on the stumbling blocks you may encounter when visiting/moving to/working in Japan. Maybe i should ask my Japanese class teacher on that topic when i get to it and see what she has to say about it.

Yeah..so, my continuative japanese class started two weeks ago. Fun times, especially with the new group of people i’m studiying with. I really have to devote myself more to studying so that maybe this year i can excel in the one thing that i enjoy the most at the moment, which is learning and the practical use of japanese to read magazines for example.

For that matter i decided in january to make use of the revolving magazine subscriptions that j-list offers. I personally choose the “Hir@gana Times” which is a great introduction to everyday written japanese magazine articles. It basically features articles about random stuff that happen in japan, like matsuri, explanations about why the japanese rooms are reffered to in tatami measurements or gaijin business start-ups for example. All the articles written in proper english and japanese(hiragana/katakana/kanji with furigana) with the 1:1 english translation underneath, so you can get an understanding of how sentences are supposed to be understood when read in japanese. ’cause as you may or may not know the grammar is a little different from english/german in regard to how sentences are built. The articles are really easy to understand even if you are a beginner to japanese.

The second magazine subscription calls for a tidbit more knowledge of the japanese language, especially so in the kanji region – Newtype Magazine. Newtype really is something else. You get tons and tons of information about new upcomign anime releases, interviews with the creators and lots of gimmicky stuff delivered with it like calenders, exclusive posters, keychains, dvds and so on. Since i don’t have the time to look up the internet for all the new information that is there on that subject, i decided to at least be a little more up to date through setting up that magazine subscription. As i said, this is something else. Newtype is completely written in japanese (there’s also an american version Newtype USA, but it’s just not the real deal…) with no furigana or english translations whatsoever. Ok, some series names are written in english but that’s about it.

Even if you don’t really know enough japanese to read it fluently, i would recommend it anayway for the huge load of information, great picture quality and goods that come delivered with it like the aforementioned DVDs (anime releases 2008 preview on dvd for example).

That’s one personal milestone i wan’t to achieve this year. To be able to at least halfway translate those articles from Newtype magazine. And last but not least i recommend for any japanese learner out there, read, read, read. And read loud what you read in japanese. The more you practice it, the easier it will get over time. That’s what i discovered in this saturday’s class. In my first japanese class i was barely able to read one word without stopping and thinking which hiragana/katakana symbol it was, and now i can read sentences almost without hesitation (if furigana is provided of course ;P).

How often and/or long do you practice japanese a week?

Woooooohoooooo! ^^ Finally, after about 2 months of waiting/pondering, i received my certificate on this wednesday. For passing this test you needed a score of 240 / 400 and i got 289 / 400. Some may say, that was close but i think i have a good stand with 49 points above the passing score.

Finally, at last something that i worked hard for pays off. Three months (starting on august actually but really sat down to do it in september) spending 3 hours almost everydayself studying kanji and grammar and taking lessons on saturdays were totally worth it. As i saw the reinforced envelope i was 80% sure i passed but nothing can replace the feeling to pull out the certificate and going over your test scores Which is funny because at my local test center (where i also take my minna no nihongo lessons) they told us that we would just receive either a congratulations note and the certificate or a note that’d say Hahaha you lose Mr. Bond!

Thanks go out to my teachers at my local test center, unicom, white rabbit press, bonjinsha and thejapanesepage.com.

Although most participants may say that the 4th level is the easiest, i’m still pleased with my results. Moving on to the 3rd level test this year. Ganbarimasu!

Came across this whilst rummaging through the play-asia PS2 catalogue. Made a bargain on ebay and received it about two weeks ago. So i had no real intention like “OMGMUSTHAVEWTFBBQ”. And maybe that’s what keeps me from getting angrier by the day about this game.Well, i guess i shouldn’t be getting angrier since i was just misguided by thinking this could be a cool action adventure…but that’s what happens if you don’t read descriptions like the one on the play-asia site. It’s actually a text adventure for Playstation2 withfoll voice support of the original voice actors from the anime. Realta Nua is the sequel to the long available ataraxxia.

Why do my hopes always get crushed when i buy a game that’s anime-, or in this case eroge-visual-novel themed. I was hoping for some action by running around in a beautiful 3D environment, becoming a proper Master and joining the Holy Grail Wars by thursting Saber or any other Servants into battle. But, no… i get another graphic novel. Serves me right.

But don’t get me wrong. The game has beautiful visuals and the voice acting is another bonus for fans of the previous game. Just not my cup of tea i guess. Since i haven’t had the time to powerlevel my japanese yet and am still waiting for my results of last years Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 4, i’m not too content with what’s going on in the game.

I said another graphic novel. Yes that’s right, i bought the special edition as you ca see from the pictures, which came with a gashapon of Saber and a PlayStation Portable Fate/stay Night game which i think happens to be another graphic/text. I dind’t get really far into it since i lost interest after about 15 minutes of clicking me through in the hope that something action-y happens…I guess a more detailed review will follow later this year after i gained more japanese vocabulary/kanji.

And here i resent to you the Saber gashapon figure that came with my copy of the game: