Just a short post to let people know what's on my mind~

So as you may know, my exams start this Thursday. I was just preparing some notes to revise for my test for コミュニケーション心理学 (Communication Psychology) this Friday and I realised it's actually quite interesting AND I can understand it. Never thought I'd be studying Psychology in Japanese. Preparing for my exams makes me realise I really need to knuckle down next semester. I can scrape by this time but I've been doing what I have a bad habit of doing which is cruising, only working when I have to.

They say it's never too late to start, but that still doesn't take away the fact that you should've started earlier :D As they say in Japanese 早起きは三文の得、or the English equivalent, the early bird gets the worm.

Also, I've been listening to this song Taka-P showed me a lot lately. Ee-nen by Urufuruzu
Here is the link =>  (ウルフルズ〜ええねん) It's pretty catchy, and I feel the lyrics really cheer you on, no matter what you're doing. I understand them but I don't think I could translate them without them losing their meaning/gravity etc. If you have a few minutes give it a listen. :)

(Plus the fact that ええねん (ee-nen) is Japanese dialect used only in Osaka (Kansai-ben), I can't help but love it. Kansai is full of characters, comedians and drunkards etc)

Chilling with my チューター （Tutor)

貴ピー登場！IT'S TAKA-P!!!!!

下関市立大学でチューター制度を実施しています。

その結果、全員の留学生はチューターと合わせています。僕のチューターは渡辺貴大です。あだなはいくつかあります。鍋やたこ焼きやたかPなどと呼ばれています。

去年、僕がタカちゃんにたまに料理を作ってあげましたから、今回はタカちゃんがおいしいシチューを作ってくれました。

ご覧ください〜

おしゃれ料理〜渡辺　Fashionable food by Watanabe

Shimonoseki City University has a tutor system in operation. Consequently, all the exchange students are matched up with a tutor. My tutor is Takahiro Watanabe. He has several nicknames. He's called Nabe, Takoyaki, Taka - P etcetera etcetera. Last year, I cooked for Taka-chan occasionally, so this time, he made a delicious stew for me. Check it out!






(PS Writing in Japanese and then translating it into English makes my English sound weird, I wonder if that means I'm getting worse at English or better at Japanese?
追伸：日本で書いて翻訳したら、僕の英語はおかしくなる。英語力は悪くなっているか、それとも、僕の日本語力はよくなっているかなぁ？）

料理も日本語で！？ Cooking... in Japanese!?

できるだけ日本語を使いたいから、今からのブロッグのポストは僕のへたくそな日本語で書く。英語の翻訳は後で書く。とにかく、話題に入ろう！

とりあえず、ずっと使っていた電子辞書が壊れた。日本語の学者として、電子辞書がないと非常に不便である。だから、先週新しい電子辞書を買った！先の辞書は、和英、英和だけだったけど、僕の新しい辞書の特徴は豊富だ。発音の機能もタッチ画面の機能も付いているし、今日は色々なレシピーも載っていることを気づいた！！！

今夜、スパイシーミートライスを作ってみた。しかし、困ったのは、卵の調理方法が常識だから、みんな知っているはずやろ。俺しか分からないってことやっぱり、まだ料理がへたくそ！とにかく、美味しかったから、今度、アミに作ってあげるかなぁ〜

何とか写真似ている？ Does it look anything like the picture?

Since I want to use Japanese as much as possible, from now on I'll write my blog posts in my poor Japanese. An English translation will follow afterwards. Anyway, let's get into it!

First of all, the dictionary I've been using for ages broke. As someone studying Japanese if you don't have an electronic dictionary, it's crazy inconvenient. So, last week I bought a new one. My previous dictionary only had Japanese-English and English to Japanese, but the new one has an abundance of features. It's got a pronunciation function and a touch screen included, and on top of that I realised there's even recipes in it.

Tonight, I attempted to make 'Spicy Meat Rice'. But the problem was that since preparing an egg is common knowledge, it's expected everyone knows how to do it. Clearly the fact that I'm the only one who doesn't understand shows I'm still shithouse at cooking :D Anyway, it wasn't that bad, so next time I might make some for Ami. 

Oh look! A wee bit of Japanese in the corner ==>

よし、決めたぜ！目標を向かって頑張る！具体的な目的は第一！
Alright, I've decided. I'm going to work hard towards achieving my goals.
The first step is having a concrete purpose in mind, a specific goal as it were.

As you can see in the top right, there's a little box with the title 目標 or purpose. These are a couple of things I'm working towards and aim to do my very best on. The first being 期末試験 or the dreaded 'End of semester Exams'. They'll be held in February, so I've only got another two weeks to study my ass off and then study some more. :O

My next destination is the 日本語弁論大会. That's right!!! It's another speech contest, but this isn't your everyday run of the mill uni student contest. This is the 2012 53rd International Speech Contest... IN JAPANESE!!! SHOCK HORROR! Whether I even qualify is another matter entirely, but I'll work towards writing a ripper speech, giving it my all and hopefully delivering a cracker performance on the day.

Last, but definitely not least, is the 日本語能力試験. Probably the most important of all, the Japanese language proficiency test or JLPT, is held twice a year in order to certify what level of Japanese ability foreigners hold. This isn't for grades, credit or prizes, this is for certification. In order to test myself. To test my mind. AND TEST YOUR MIGHT! Whoops, got a bit Mortal Kombat there for a second.

Anyway, I'm a habitual procrastinator who constantly says, I can do this tomorrow or I'll work really hard on this without having a set goal in mind. So by actual having something concrete, something specific, something tangible with a deadline, (HOPEFULLY), I'll be forced into action.

真剣勝負はこれからだ。The real challenge begins now.

Random things regarding living alone/in Japan/Shimonoseki

So for the past few months I've been living by myself doing the exchange student thing and there are just some things I've noticed about what happens when I'm left to my own devices and just other things that make me laugh. The first obvious one being I try to avoid doing work as much as possible which becomes increasingly harder if you have to do all your own cooking, cleaning and washing.

Cooked my own lunch today... surprise!
小松菜人参炒め (Komatsuna carrot stir-fry)

Before I had my 'spring' cleaning I had about a months worth of dirty washing piled up against the window... I thought... can't see the floor maybe I should whip out the vacuum.

One good thing that's come out of living by myself is a general improvement in my cooking ability. I'm by no means a chef, but I can now make food that doesn't have instructions like 'just add water' on it. On the other hand I like to muck around so last time I was cooking eggs I thought it would be a good idea to attempt to juggle them and one ended up in my shower. Needless to say I cleaned it... eventually.



Also, one of the things I'm still not used to is how damn cold it is.
It's sunny outside and yet my breath is steaming inside. Usually it's after I eat hot food though, but it still steams for about 10 minutes after that so it is pretty damn cold. But that's why I wear at least 3 layers of clothing before leaving the house and a mininum of two inside the house >.< Although what really made me laugh the other night was when I went to the toilet and my urine was steaming. I know it's a bit gross but I couldn't stop laughing so I wrote a note to blog about it on my whiteboard 'steam pee blog'. No lights on and I could see hot steam coming off my pee. It's the little things in the life.

Lastly I'd like to talk about vending machines, which is the non-sequitur for 'life in Japan'. I'll open with a picture of one of the most ghetto vending machines I could find which is was at probably the seediest hotel we stayed at. John thinks he got scabies.

Undoubtedly my Dad's favourite vending machine, the pay $5 and get Japanese wine (SAKE) and nuts machine

When John came to visit me in December we went around various places, the usual Osaka, Kyoto, Tokyo circuit. But some of the more obscure vending machines always made me chuckle. Yes, machines that sell cigarettes, warm corn soup and dragon ball Z cola [usually sold out] are common place, as are booze machines. However, they do have measures in place to stop under-age drinking/smoking. Nonetheless I don't think I'll ever get over the idea of alcohol in vending machines, no matter how many times I see it. Sadly, John and I didn't go anywhere dodgy enough to see things like used panty vending machines etc, but to be honest I'm kinda glad. I think they've gotten rid of those anyway [THANK GOD!] Here are a few pics.

John with the 2L beer dispenser

Outside a hot spring where you can buy giant cokes, giant grape fantas and beer/pre-mixed drinks without identification

  

In Japan, you have to earn your Pringles(TM) by playing a skill tester

Anyway, that's all from me, I'm already running late to Karate practice so I better get a move on, when I have time I'll put up some more pictures from John's visit, New Years, etc. Stay tuned... Dad :D

So I've slacked off with the blog again...

Anyway, I'm going to have another poll asking how often you'd like me to blog, who knows? Blogging might be yet another new year's resolution I can make and not keep.

Also, I've got final exams coming up so that's a bit of a panic situation, better get back into that thing I've heard so much about... what was it again, being studly? No that's not it... it sounds like muddy but with stud in it.... yup, I need to get my mud stud on... or as most people like to say, study. Okay, that's enough rambling though, basically, I haven't blogged in ages but I'm planning on doing a variety of posts on what I got up to over the winter holidays. (Which I spent in Osaka with Ami [my girlfriend], and in Osaka, Kyoto, Tokyo with John [my bro])

On a final note, they pay me shit all at the fish markets but I'm okay with it because they give me food all the time. Hence tonight's dinner is curry. Also they gave me dumplings/pork buns :D

You're damn right I'm too lazy to rotate this picture

Also, recently I'd been worried about money too much but I realised that was pointless and detrimental to my frame of mind so I'm back to buying whatever I want and just generally wasting money :) So, I'm gonna be poor but happy and I'm totally okay with  that. Would you take 1 million dollars for what you have? Could you put a price on your family, your friends etc, your arms, your legs, your eyes etc?

Peace out peeps!