Japanese Recommendation Exchange: 2012 Compilation
You at the keyboard: I know you’ve found some really fun Japanese material this month. You came across a great J-drama that brought you to tears. You picked up a book that you ended up reading in a day because of the nonstop thrills it brought you. You discovered a Japanese movie that was so funny that you watched it twice in the same night.
But wait. . . You weren’t going to tell anyone about it?! We can’t have this. The readers of this site are on a constant search for new materials and recommendations to find what will motivate them to study Japanese more, and you are keeping these gems all to yourself? Shame on you.
The purpose of this series is to discuss and exchange j-dramas, movies, variety shows, books, manga, anime, music, media, video games, etc. It’s time to share what everyone is excited about and experiencing right now.
So I ask you:
1. What are you watching?
2. What are you reading?
3. What are you playing?
4. What are you listening to?
2012 ● 2013 ●2014 ● 2015
September
September has been a sad month for Japanese for me! Whereas I was reading one book a week before.. it has slowed down to one week every few week. I would really love to get more recommendations!
I’m reading:
贖罪(しょくざい)by 湊かなえ
A little girl is killed gruesomely after she is pulled away by a stranger. Her friends who were playing with her right before somehow all fail to recall the stranger’s face. The mother is furious and swears revenge on the girls if they fail to help catch the killer. This book is about how the incident affects each of the individuals separately and the ways they try to atone for their sins.
What a great idea and thanks for the recommendations. I’ll definitely check those out.
I’m currently switching back and forth between reading 驚くべき天才の胸もはりさけんばかりの奮闘記 and ハリーポッターと死の秘宝. The first one is the Japanese translation of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Also, recently watched the movie and drama for モテキ and loved them.
I just finished reading ルート225by 藤野千夜 and am now starting レベルセブンby 宮部みゆき.
I’m watching episodes of Lincoln on Youtube.
I really want to pick up 三匹のおっさん when I go back to NY. It sounds like a fun story.
Reading: oops, the same book I was reading a couple months ago.
Playing:
牧場物語ふたごの町 (Harvest Moon: Tale of Two Towns): This also isn’t actually new to me this month but I feel like mentioning it since gaming is the focus of my Japanese this month. It was the one Japanese game I played on my old DS before my Japanese 3DS arrived a couple weeks ago. I would probably get bored of watering things and collecting stuff in the forest and having the same conversations with the townspeople pretty quickly if I was playing it in English, but it is cute and I really liked the experience of having characters explain things to me in simple Japanese and trying to figure out what to do about it, and while I didn’t get into it enough to progress very far I did enjoy it and it convinced me that gaming in Japanese is worthwhile. The level of the content and amount of repetition were fairly ideal for me, and the interactiveness of a game made me feel much more engaged and altogether that compensates for the fact that some of the time is spent doing things like watering plants instead of reading Japanese.
Bravely Default Flying Fairy (Demo): This is a new game for the 3DS in the classic RPG tradition. It has a job system that I’m told is very similar to that of FFV, with the addition of a mechanic that allows one to take multiple turns in a row at the expense of previous and/or future turns. I think these things do a pretty good job of making gameplay interesting. I didn’t follow all of the text and spent some time wandering around confused, but that worked out because my characters gained some extra levels that compensated for my not understanding what all the abilities do. I did figure out more by experimenting with the game interface and rereading the quest and other text more times and never got seriously stuck. I’m definitely going to buy the full game when it comes out.
Listening to: Podcasts. I wanted more variety in my immersion iPod without having to spend time ripping and editing audio, and this is a good solution. The ones I picked are pretty arbitrary and my listening comprehension isn’t good enough that I could tell you if they’re any good. But I’m curious to hear if anyone else has recommendations for podcasts.
Founder of Jalup. iOS Software Engineer. Former attorney, translator, and interpreter. Still watching 月曜から夜ふかし weekly since 2013.
Awesome idea!
My Japanese is still extremely basic (400 RTK), so I probably won’t be able to contribute much for some time. But maybe add a fourth question, “What are you listening to?”, because I think music can be enjoyed without understanding the lyrics, so it’s accessible regardless of your skill level.
I’m a fan of hiphop, and I have to say that some of the Japanese hiphop I’ve listened to is really good! My favorite group is probably Gagle. I believe their latest studio album is Soreizen, which is excellent. Here’s a track from it:
Even if you don’t like hiphop there’s some awesome remixes of pop songs on Soreizen too, like this one: DJ Mitsu Gagle Remix
Oh, yes! I’ve been waiting for an opportunity like this to talk about Time Travelers!
1. What are you watching?
In one of my Asian studies classes, I watched a movie called The Sisters of Gion by Mizuguchi. For any fans of Japanese black and white films, I really recommend it! It is an excellent social critique on the life of a geisha, and the camera techniques are very interesting. A question to think about: “Where and who is the camera?”
2. What are you reading?
I’ve recently fallen in love with よつばと (Yotsubato)!
The story is about a foreign little girl who lives with a man who picked her up while in another country. He’s taken the role of her father, while she has no mother-figure. They moved to Japan and live next door to the Ayase family, which includes three daughters who befriend Yotsuba. The manga is hilarious and really fun as a light-hearted story. With so much dark stuff going out in the world, it’s so nice to just sit back and be reminded of the simple, happy things in life.
You can read two stories from the manga here: http://yotuba.com/yotu_comics.html.
3. What are you playing?
Time Travelers for the 3DS! This has been my main focus this month. It absolutely distracted me from reading novels, which is actually kind of okay, because in itself it is the mix between a drama and a novel. The game is about a group of time travelers who gained the ability after an incident called “Lost Hole”. However, they don’t know they have the ability. The ability keeps them from dying, as you, the player, travel back in time to redo their mistakes. There’s also a mysterious girl named Mikoto who seems to have multiple identities, and a terrorist called Skeleton. It’s called playing cinema, and is really more of a interactive drama than a game. All the dialogue is subtitled with furigana, and includes spoken dialogue and unspoken inner monologue. It’s an expensive buy for a short game, but for me has proved itself to be a valuable resource that’s replay value lies in how packed it is with Japanese. I really enjoyed the story as well.
If you own a Japanese 3DS, you can find a demo for it in your shop. That’s how I stumbled upon it and was hooked.
4. What are you listening to?
Ayaka’s single 手をつなごう/愛を歌おう (Te wo Tsunagou/Ai wo Utaou). I picked it up for 100 yen at BookOff, and it was a great buy. It includes three unique songs and two instrumentals. The lyrics are really nice and smooth, allowing me to pick up the meaning quicker than usual.
Having just finished RTK last week I’m really going to town on my immersion and have been getting stuck into the Japanese version of ‘Persona 4 – The Golden’ on the playstation vita.
Being a jrpg it’s very text heavy but has voice acting along with pretty much all the dialogue. The main takeaway feature for me though is that if you hit select during any dialogue exchange it brings up a scrollable transcript of the conversation, even allowing you to replay the audio of any line.
This has really helped me to grab bits of vocabulary out to add to my deck.
On top of that the story is tense, the characters endearing and the blend of dungeon exploring and social interaction fun. Would definitely recommend it to anyone with a vita.
Being in the UK I had to order it through Play-Asia but it was well worth the expense and the wait.
1. What are you watching?
I’ve been enjoying a show that’s been airing on Thursdays called “しろくまカフェ.” It’s an animated adaption of a manga of the same name, about (as you might expect) a polar bear who runs a cafe. It’s set in a world where animals and humans can talk and interact, and animals are still distinctly animal-like, but they do human things like own smartphones, make puns, drive cars, and go to work at the zoo. It’s worth watching for the banter between the three main characters, Polar Bear, Penguin and Panda. I usually wind up doing a spit take when the giant turtle talks because his voice is hilarious.
2. What are you reading?
When I was at the airport, I picked up the (then) newest issues of Wired (in Japanese) and a magazine for managers called “President.” Both have been great reads so far, even though the material is a little over my head sometimes.
http://www.president.co.jp/pre/
I always look forward to a chance to get my hands on an issue of President, like at a local coffee shop, though I rarely buy them because of the price.
3. What are you playing?
It’s not much for studying, but I’ve been playing the simultaneously awful and fascinating Tokyo Jungle. The game is pretty repetitive, and the multiplayer is broken, but there are some elements to the design that really sink their hooks into you. All the people have vanished from Tokyo, and nature has taken over, so you run around Shibuya as a dog, pig, elephant, hyena, chicken, whatever, trying to scrounge up food, avoid predators and survive. It’s great in that way for the stock phrases you see over and over again, and for learning names of animals and animal-related things. As you get better at surviving you can pick up archives detailing little aspects of humanity’s exodus/extinction, which take the form of clips of newspaper articles, wanted ads, diary entries and so forth. I suppose these are where the real study material is, but I haven’t examined them intensely yet.
I’ve been chipping away at Final Fantasy Type-0 for the PSP, but it’s slow-going. The tiny text on the screen often auto-scrolls, so I wind up missing large chunks of the story, and not only is there no furigana to be found, there’s a lot more kanji than usual, especially for a Final Fantasy game. I also hate to advance the story without running around the (rather large) magic school talking to all the NPCs between missions, breaking my own advice, and that slows me down a lot. The game is entertaining, just dense.
Watching:
I’ve watched two great movies this past month.
告白(こくはく)
“This is my confession.”
A teacher has lost her young daughter. The police believe it was an accident but she knows better. She knows that the ones who killed her child are in her very classroom and she has planned her revenge. It’s a great movie full of suspense. I’m hoping to read the novel it’s based on soon.
Trailer here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMq7qzHVkSg
Outrage
A great yakuza movie about families trying to take each other out to get to the top. The movie just keeps escalating and escalating. Crazy stuff and fun to hear 野郎 at the end of nearly every sentence. Heh.
Trailer here (trailer is in English but movie is indeed in Japanese):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq-oU7AqT1I
Reading:
I read Banana Yoshimoto’s アルゼンチンババア which was short, cute and fun. Her writing really is simple and easy to follow. Also she uses very little kanji so once you’ve looked up a few like 曼荼羅(まんだら)or if you can’t remember the reading for 墓石(ぼせき), you’re set after that. There is also a movie version of it that came out in 2009 so I’m hoping to watch that now. Also, right now I started reading 乙一’s ZOO which is suspense short stories. But really I’ve been doing a lot of kanji studying and not really reading.
Listening:
This would be too long so I’m going to save this for next post probably.
This is a great idea, so many interesting things.
Hmm, I guess ill start with
Watching-
Summer Wars! I watched this at least 5 times, its such a great movie. I had seen it subbed a while back, but decided to watch it without subs and it was just as enjoyable, if not more.
Reading-
ポケットモンスター SPECIAL
Otherwise known as Pokemon Special
This, too I have enjoyed in english, but never was able to get the printed manga. I only have the first volume at the moment, but will be able to order more as soon as I get my paycheck in.
Playing-
ゆめにっき
Yume Nikki
http://www.vector.co.jp/soft/win95/game/se332192.html
This game can actually be downloaded for free, and has very nice artwork. It is somewhat creepy, and there is very little text, so it probably wont help too much, but everything counts right?
Also playing- Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 for the xbox 360-
I lied, this game is in english. However, to my delight I found in the options menu that you could change between the english and japanese voice acting. Naturally, I choose Japanese, and had a lot of fun.
Listening-
I have to be honest here, I have been listening to anime opening themes and JapenesePod 101 exclusively, along with a single episode of anime audio featuring only the dialog. I just have not had the time this month to go searching for good music.
I am watching d.greyman and hitman reborn.
I am playing 二ノ国 for the ps3 its a lot of fun its about a boy named Oliver trying to save his mother from an evil witch.
I am reading the guide book. The game can be a little hard to play after a few hours. Other than that I have not been reading anything can anyone suggest something for a low level like myself.
October
For reading, I just started 1Q84 and have been flipping through some old copies of the magazine BRUTUS I have sitting around.
I just signed up for Netflix to help me fix the fact that Death Note is somehow the only anime series I’ve watched from beginning to end. Anyone have recommendations? I’m also going through Netflix and watching movies in Japanese that have been released in the US. Really enjoyed Jiro Dreams of Sushi.
On YouTube I’ve been enjoying videos from ARIKEITA113 (fastest Japanese of all time), jetdaisuke, PDSKabushikiGaisha, and megwin.
Playing:
Bravely Default (3DS): I talked about the demo in September. For the real game, the thing I have to add is that it has lots of dialog, much of it with voice acting.
Miku Flick 02 (iOS): This is a rhythm game where instead of tapping arbitrary buttons, you enter the highlighted syllables on a Japanese flick keyboard. This is actually available in the US iTunes store; the English localization was an addition rather than a replacement of the Japanese. I can’t say this has improved my Japanese but I can say that it has improved my Japanese typing speed on my iPhone.
Reading:
苺ましまろ (manga): Slice of life about four 5th/6th grade girls and the older sister of one. Sometimes cute and/or funny but sometimes it feels like it’s trying too hard. But since it’s episodic and a significant amount of the plot is reflected in the action, it’s good for not getting too lost when not understanding all the text.
1. Meet Joe Black and other dramas with decent scores-Japanese dub with J-subs
2.魔法騎士レイアース2 and perhaps the newest CLAMP magazine. I am a CLAMP fiend. After that I will probably start back up with Bleach volume 21-40
3.クロノトリガー、聖剣伝説2、ガイア幻想紀、and other SuperFamicom faves on my Dandy FC twin that I got for nothing…being a retro gamer has price advantages!
4. Harry Potter 1 and 2 on Audio book, my favorite movies ripped to my ipod, the FNN news every morning, plus my ever growing Karaoke list including サカナクション、ユイ、坂本真綾、アン・サリー I really love Ann Sally in the Autumn for some reason!
October will be remembered as my モテキ month. I went and still am going for the total overkill: movie, the drama dvd box and the manga 1 through 4.
1. 闇金ウシジマくん Came out a couple of years ago, but only got around to watching it this month. I’m not really one for dramas, as I prefer chat shows, but this and カーネーション are the only ones I’ve really watched on with any consistency.
Also watching MEGWIN TV on YouTube. Absolute nutcase who has made and uploaded a video every day for 7 years. The quality varies, but you can find some hilarious stuff.
2. Just read my first novels! Albeit for primary 5th-6th graders, but reading them has given me a push to try some more challenging material next month. At the moment, I’m reading 天井うらのふしぎな友だち. Might not be for everyone, but it’s certainly weird enough for me. A talking albatross and the ghost of a jellyfish riding dinosaurs with an old lady and a middle-aged man.
3. Not playing anything at the moment…
4. Really enjoying Asian Kung-fu Generation and くるり. Trying to find more Japanese music I like.
1. What are you watching?
I watched two movies this month on total opposite ends of the spectrum. Both are worth watching, if not for a cool song and puppies, then for Japanese practice.
Fish Story
A weird/cool/absurd/wtf movie about how one unknown punk song will save the world from a devastating meteor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC5E4-LRrTk
Quill: The Life of a Guide Dog
On the other side of the spectrum, a cute/heart-warming/touching movie about Quill, a cute lab puppy who becomes a guide dog for the blind, and his encounter with a blind man who at first doesn’t want to be aided.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC0Cqy2qeYo
2. What are you reading?
ZOO by 乙一
What are you watching?
Kurosagi :)
Its about a swindler. So far on ep 2. It has my fav actors from nobuta wo produce.
Tokyo Airport
is also a good drama thats currently ongoing:)
Little Busters good anime
Im also watching スマートCM
on my iDevice. Its a top 10 app in the JP itunes. The CM is fun to watch. If you enter this code 02712727 can get bonus:)Gizmodo JP
2. What are you reading?
聖書
4. What are you listening to?
TBSラジオ
What are you playing?
I play FlickMaster help my typing speed on my iPhone:)
Watching:
青空の卵(あおぞらのたまご)A drama based on the book of the same name. It is about a hikikomori (“stay at home person”) who is also a detective and solves mysteries with his friend(who is always trying to get him to venture out further).
Reading:
うさぎパン Not sure what this book is about yet… I picked it up randomly at the bookstore because I thought the name was cute. So far it has been about a high school girl who really likes bread. She also meets a boy who likes bread. Oh and sometimes her adoptive mother will “talk” through her private tutor. Yeah that makes sense…
November
~What are you playing?
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ea.games.simsfreeplay_na&hl=ja
I love The Sims Freeplay, and great thing is it’s in Japanese! Otherwise, I wouldn’t have played it, because I know The Sims takes up a lot of my time (which is why I had to sell my Sims 3 expansions and base game, because it was just too much time spent in English).
What I love about The Sims Freeplay is that I really feel like I have control over all my household, not just only household. Some people complain about the real time feature, however having to wait for one sim to do something means you have time for another sim. Also, it keeps me from playing from hours at a time like I used to with The Sims computer series.
The Sims Freeplay is also free(mium) and is updated from time to time so that the content doesn’t get boring after awhile of playing. I choose not to spend money on it, as I don’t like buying what’s not physical and don’t want to risk losing what I bought in an update, however I don’t find it really necessary to buy things anyways. I’m happy with the game play as is, as most of what can be bought is just more in game cash (which can be earned) and lifepoints (which can also be earned) to speed things up.
~What are you listening to?
I’m still experimenting with different radio stations in Japan, but lately I’ve been listening to FM Hirakata. You can listen online here (http://www.simulradio.jp/asx/fm-hirakata.asx). This is their website (http://www.kiku-fm779.com/) and the streaming site they linked to (http://www.simulradio.jp/#kinki). I’ve been listening through an app on Android.
If anyone has any radio channels to recommend, I’d love to check them out! I just haven’t had the time to look into many because of school, so I’ve just been leaving FM Hirakata on as the first good channel I found rather than channel surfing for now.
What are you watching:
Akumu Chan: Are you interested in mystery, nightmares but don´t want to scare yourself to death? This drama might be for you :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN3W8QtQMEI
What are you watching/playing:
Lets play: Terranigma – 天使想像実況
Oh I loved this game and this guy makes a fantastic job talking in an interesting manner about the game.
Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL417BE3E747EA8CAD&feature=plcp
What are you playing:
Skyrim :D Ofc in Japanese….oh my god this game takes so much time…but if you want to understand the story and all the quests this might be an interesting option to enjoy an awesome game while polishing your japanese skills. The only thing that makes me mad are the nordic names….in katakana xD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qyv-Kr454TI
1) Watching
Random Anime. I’m still trying to stop using subtitles, but so far I’ve only managed to really do this on Polar Bear Cafe (I watch it on Crunchyroll). The puns are my favorite part!
2) Reading
I’ve started collecting recommendations for books on Aozora (http://www.aozora.gr.jp/), which I can then put on my kindle as PDFs. I used this tutorial to learn how: (http://www.japannewbie.com/2010/10/02/how-i-use-my-kindle/).
So far I’ve only read “注文の多い料理店”, which was way out of my league, but a fun exercise nevertheless.
Over thanksgiving I started reading Yuki Monogatari (http://thejapanesepage.com/download). This book is much closer to my level and I actually know what’s going on pretty much all the time, even if I’m guessing at half the words.
3) Playing
Dragon Quest 9. The box reads “終わることのない冒険が、はじまる。” Seeing that I started this game back in April, I feel this description is understating the case a little. There goes my dreams of being a hardcore gamer.
I really like playing this game though, because every single time I sit down with it I find my understanding has increased a little. It serves as an encouraging reminder that I am learning something, and since it uses furigana over it’s kanji, I can now recognize (potentially) useful characters like 杖 and 盾.
4) Listening
This is my favorite thing I’ve done this month: since I’m feel rather meh about most Jpop I finally gave in and got Spotify on my computer. Spotify not only has Mint Julep (which I had already discovered on iTunes), but introduced me to artist like Fujimoto Takko, Kaneko Asami, and Miyako Hasegawa (I especially love “ai yurara”). My ears are happy and I’m studying, win-win.
Was browsing around my local BookOff and stumbled upon a copy of the Japanese translation of the novelisation of Robocop! Irresistable at Y105. There were loads of other translated novel/film adaptations, too, so I’ll be going back after Murphy has taken his revenge.
As I already know the story well, it’s not too difficult to follow. Although the amount of kanji makes it way above my reading level, the prose is fairly straightforward. Less mind-blowing, more brain-exploding, if you know what I mean.
I’m not convinced it was a particularly well written book in its original form, but, as far into the book as I’ve got, it contains most of the famous quotes from the film which I’m sticking into Anki. I’m sure this has been touched on before, but finding your favourite film quotes in Japanese is a great way to boost the fun levels with Anki reps.
As for watching, I’m finishing off the last episodes of a lesser known 80’s drama セーラー服反逆同盟. Awesome theme song. Not so awesome show, but I’m watching it more for its perverse kitsch appeal than anything else.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emplUTG4A_c
Uaaahh Rachel I studied abroad in Hirakata! It’s so awesome to hear a radio station from where I used to live >w< I had no idea they had a streaming version online – thanks so much for sharing! 懐かしいな~
But yeah, wow, you guys already mentioned most of the other things I’ve been doing. I’m watching Akumu-chan and Shirokuma Cafe, and playing Skyrim too! *high five* And this Kindle Tutorial is amazing, holy crap.
My big find this month is a website, Madame Riri – http://www.madameriri.com/ . It has a bunch of interesting articles about Japan in relation to the rest of the world, usually in nice list format – such as “外国人から見た日本-欧米人にありがちな日本人に対する10の勘違い” and “外国人もきっと喜ぶ! 日本の素晴らしい年中行事・風習ランキング”. There are articles about foreigners’ take on Japan as well as Japan’s view of the rest of the world, both of which I find fascinating. And they update really frequently! Yay! It’s been really difficult for me to find websites in Japanese to browse daily, so I’m really excited about this. \(^o^)/
Playing…
For months I’ve been chipping away at the PS3 version of 二の国 but I don’t seem to have touched much of it in November. I have played quite a bit of 逆転検事2 though, and have just purchased a Japanese 3DS so I can play レイトン教授vs逆転裁判 which is currently on its way to me.
Watching…
I’ve been alternating between discs of ドラゴンボールZ and 攻殻機動隊 Stand Alone Complex, both for the first time and re-watched 魔法少女まどかマギカ when the blu-ray set came out here at the start of the month. I’m also continuing to watch 特命戦隊ゴーバスタズ and 仮面ライダーウィザード.
Reading…
At the start of the month I stocked up on manga at a Japanese bookshop in London and have been alternating volumes of ワンピース and バクマン, bit of a 少年ジャンプ theme going on there!
Playing: I managed to get a copy of the とある科学の超電磁砲 PSP game. It’s turning out to be an excellent resource for me: the language is at a level where I understand the majority of it while still finding a lot of new words, and the fully voiced nature lets me exploit the fact that my listening skills are a lot better than my reading ones.
Speaking of visual novels, though, I also discovered that several 5pb games are available for the iPhone now, complete with sizeable free openings; Steins;gate and Chaos;head await when I’m done Railgunning…
1. What are you watching?
I picked up a new anime this month called Psycho-Pass, which is still in its first season. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycho-Pass The anime has done a good job of setting up an interesting world and hinted at deep currents in both the main character and world it creates. Will have to see how good the pay off is…but I am enjoying the ride. (hard to understand thou, without subtitles)
“In the near future it is possible to instantaneously measure a person’s mental state, personality, and the probability that a person will commit crimes with a device installed on each citizen’s body called the Psycho-Pass. When this probability, measured by the “Crime Coefficient” index, is too high in some individuals those individuals are pursued and apprehended—with lethal force, if necessary. This task is performed by a special team of potential criminals called Enforcers, who are supervised by police officers known as Inspectors; the Inspectors ensure that Enforcers perform their duties within the constraints of the law. Enforcers and Inspectors employ special weapons called “Dominators” that are designed to fire only on those with a higher than normal Crime Coefficient. The story follows Unit One of the Public Safety Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division”
2. What are you reading?
I am working with a study book for n3-n2, 日本語500問。 Each page contains one kanji, vocab, and grammar question. The back of the next page is the answers and explanation. You are supposed to do 5 pages a day and at the end of every week is review. The book runs for 4 weeks. Opposed to other resources I have used you can really do 1 day in 1 day. I think this would be useful to people looking for anki sentences to mine or for JLPT studies equally. There is an beginner and advanced version as well.
http://shop.whiterabbitjapan.com/nihongo-500-mon-intermediate.html#.ULfuzOSUOgM
3. What are you playing?
Nothing, but I want to be. ;__;
4. What are you listening to?
I have recentely started using Japanese POD101 and been enjoying the intermediate series on pod cast 67 of 82.
I have been reading, watching, and listening to New Web Easy by NHK. Everyday they take one story simplify it and post it with video and audio. All vocab has furigana and difficult words have build in dictionary feature with Japanese explanation. there is also a cool features which color codes place, people, and companies names. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/
This month has been particularly difficult with me when it comes to Japanese studies.
Playing: Nothing. Wait… I started a run of Chrono Trigger this month, but I barely just got sent back to the past, so I guess it doesn’t really count.
Watching: PDS’/PDR’s videos as well as occasionally watching random videos like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32e6fwZtVkk
Reading: 緋弾のアリア 「小説」and 鈴木光司のループ「My girlfriend who knows no Japanese is making me read it out loud to her」
Listening to: 相対性理論、神聖かまってちゃん、and ミドリ
Other than this, I’ve been reading random blog/SNS posts, and typing to people in Japanese.
1. What are you watching?
As for animes, I watch ソードアート・オンライン、スケットダンス and ナルト without subs on Crunchyroll, but I have to watch ワンピース and バクマン with subs because I can’t be arsed finding RAW versions of them. When it comes to dramas, I’m currently following 東京全力少女、Piece and to a lesser extent 平清盛, all with Japanese subs when available or otherwise without. I also like watching different 実況プレイ videos on ニコニコ動画.
2. What are you reading?
I’m currently almost finished reading 万能鑑定士Qの事件簿 by 松岡圭祐, but I’m thinking about starting on NHKにようこそ, before starting on the next volume. I also tend to read various articles on アルファルファモザイク.
3. What are you playing?
ファイナルファンタジー7. I have started anew on the game more times than I want to know due to various reasons (like forgetting to backup the save files before a reformat), so I thought it is about time I finish it.
4. What are you listening to?
Various songs I like, and when I just want something in the background, I tend to use a radio channel over at tunein.com, currently FM丹波.
1. What are you watching?
Sword Art Online and Feary Tail, and I watched a Special of 任侠ヘルパー. Sadly, I watched all of these with English subs, but I’ve been unable to find unsubbed streams of these. I found episodes of Death Note with Spanish subtitles though – I don’t speak or understand a word of Spanish, so it’s all good.
2. What are you reading?
愛おしい骨 (Translation of “Bone by Bone” by Carol O’Connor – includes lots of unknown words, but it’s also packed with nice n+1 sentences. So, even though it is difficult to read, I learn a lot from it. I tried to underline words, but removing the pencil lines was annoying, so instead I just wrote down 10 interesting n+1 sentences and continued reading without doing anything but look up a word here and there – or a reading of a word that occured lots of times.
3. What are you playing?
ゼルダの伝説 時のオカリナ – The language in this game is at an ideal level, I can often understand entire dialogues and there aren’t too many n+2 and n+3 sentences (I often add these too if one or two words are very obvious).
I tried to play Skyrim in Japanese too, but the language was way beyond my level, but I changed it to German instead (German is my 3rd language, and spoken German is very easy to understand; Japanese my 4th – though the priority is 2%/98% in favour of Japanese. Though my goal is to bring both up to B2 by 31st December 2013 (40-ish I guess). I’m a language nerd, I guess.
4. What are you listening to?
ムック and 六合(りくごう)mostly. MUCC have a lot of prog influences, so it’s all good. :) I listen way too much to English, Norwegian, Swedish and German music though.
This month has been a motivation boost though, as I start to do better on my Computer Systems Engineering course, I am able to increase my focus on language study.
I have made a personal challenge as well for December: During the advent, I’m going to write a 100 character journal/diary entry in Japanese every odd-numbered day (1日、3日、5日など).
I watched a lot of movies this month that were quite good.
a) 松ヶ根乱射事件 (Matsugane Potshot Affair, 2007)
Sort of a Japanese “Fargo”. Great dark humor movie but I saw it as a special showing since it’s apparently not one of those get it on DVD movies. If you can see it though, try.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOZisAORLOo
b) 運命じゃない人 (A Stranger of Mine, 2005)
The director of this movie is young and likes Quentin Tarantino. No way you can miss that influence in this movie. But it’s a great movie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuFCUHYF-SA
c) りんぐ(The Ring)
Re-watched The Ring for shits and giggles in Japanese. Interesting to re-watch it although I actually remember the American version being scarier.
d) ヘヴンズ ストーリー (Heaven’s Story)
This one is on Netflix. It’s a four hour and 40 minute long movie that moves fairly slowly but I was able to get into it with some of the lovely imagery. About how different people react to murders in their family. It’s a good movie to put in the background as you study. Look up when they talk and listen and then study during the silent parts. Although it is worth watching it all the way too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhldYo4EvRs
Right now I’ve realized I’ve been watching too much Netflix as a backburner and that I really should put some Japanese on. So I decided to finally watch some anime. I’m watching Fushigi Yugi, an anime I first watched in high school when it first came out (yes… when it FIRST came out >_>) which is a huge throwback. Just as good as the first time I saw it. And 10 years later it’s fun to actually understand since when I first saw it I wasn’t learning Japanese yet. Also have placed a bookmark in front of the subtitles so that I finally stop reading the damn things since I can actually understand everything even without them. I’ve just been lazy.
So that’s my November.
[Watching]
(JDrama) ヤンキー君とメガネちゃん
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-antKkJ1sYc
This series is awesome, probably the best drama I ever watched after H2 (which was great too). Second time I’m watching it, raw (first time was with Japanese subtitles). If you like love comedies and delinquent stories in a school setting, YanMega is just perfect…
(JDrama) 花より男子2(リターンズ)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i09XRBM9BU0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMzfvAdYF6Q
Poor girl Tsukushi enrolls in high class rich kids high school, confronts the one guy who holds power over the whole school, who ends up having feelings for her in his very own tsundere way. Very cute love comedy (and even cuter 井上真央, if you ask me).
(JDrama) モテキ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV0zyJQU_uc
http://www.tv-tokyo.co.jp/moteki/
Crazy series about a pitiful virgin guy who suddenly gets attention from all his girl acquaintances… and messes up his chances in hilarious and unimaginable ways.
[Reading]
(ラノベ) おまえをオタクにしてやるから、俺をリア充にしてくれ!
http://www.fujimishobo.co.jp/sp/201107fantasia/
おまえをオタクにしてやるから、俺をリア充にしてくれ![Amazon]
Love this one. It’s a very standard series (I mean what happens inside is nothing much original, the otaku main protagonist having otaku experiences with cute “reajuu” girl who doesn’t know anything about it : buying eroge, Comiket, etc.), but the protagonist’s thinking is quite funny and nuanced enough to be interesting. And, well, I love high school settings anyway.
[Watching]
Garo, first season
[Listening]
http://www.simulradio.jp
[Reading]
こころ by 夏目 漱石 and 究極の鍛錬 by ジョフ・コルヴァン
[Playing]
Ahem, still Skyrim…. but with Japanese audio and text!
[Reading]
Japanese word frequency list based on Goo Blogs — selectively taking the most common words, finding interesting sentences, adding to anki.
http://www.manythings.org/japanese/words/goo/1.html
I am still only reading my reviews in anki, however I have began watching Pokemon RAWS. It’s been long enough that its interesting to watch it from the beggining, but I still remember the storyline enough to somewhat understand it which lets me focus on listening to the Japanese.
I have been playing minecraft, but changed the language to Japanese so I could get immersion experience there, although sometimes i do have to switch it back to figure out what enchants I have. I also switched my phones language to Japanese, and am slowly relearning how to get around in it. It’s rather fun.
I have also been playing around with free online games in Japanese, sometimes having to use a J-E dictionary to figure out how to start them.
What I am watching is currently けいおん!, ゴールデンボーイ 流離いのお勉強野郎, and Ghibli movies
What I am currently reading is the 涼宮ハルヒ series and some Manga, bought 4 more novels a few days ago, and can’t forget 2ch!
What I am currently playing is イース1・2完全版
What I am currently listening to is my anime and Aqua timez, M-Flo, 宇多田ヒカル、 and other artists.
Reading : 本日は泥棒日和 by 赤川次郎
Playing : 花札
Listening:梶芽衣子(かじめいこ) Enka singer. Awesome. You might have heard a few of her songs if you watched the Kill Bill movies.
Watching: Apart from my regular variety/quiz shows(ガキの使い、リンカーン、Qさま,等々), I watched SPEC~天~, 麒麟の翼, テルマエ・ロマエ, and a bunch of other movies I’ve been meaning to watch. Also re-watched Trick for the billionth time.
I’ve been watching 私が恋愛できない理由。It’s a drama about a few women and their troubles dating/finding the right one. Quirky and interesting, with a lot of quotable lines!