Cookbooks

I received two books on Japanese cooking for Christmas last week. They are very nice cookbooks with lots of colourful illustrations and easy to read instructions. Only thing is... I don't cook. My refrigeration is probably the most underused appliance in the apartment. On days of drought, you'd open the fridge to see only a can of coke and a bottle of ketchup inside. Perhaps I'll amuse myself by trying out a couple of recipes, but I doubt I'll be opening a sushi bar anytime soon. Here are some interesting facts that I got from browsing a few pages.

1) Sushi was originally invented as a method of preservation. The fish is first salt-cured and then marinated in cooked rice and salt. This is a way of preserving fsh; the rice and salt was later discarded. I guess that's why the food purists eat only the salmon sashimi slices and conceal the rice during Sakae Sushi lunch buffets...

2) Each region in Japan produce their own versions of bento (packed lunch) using local produce or speciality foods, which are sold on the platforms of train stations. These are called ekiben (station bento). One famous ekiben is the Kama-meshi (nine local ingredients on top of tea rice in a pot) at Yokokawa station in Tokyo. Now imagine Ba-Chor noodles in Bedok MRT station or the Geylang beef Hor-Fun in Aljunied MRT station.

3) There are reputedly about 6,000 brands of sake (Japanese rice wine) produced by about 2,000 makers in Japan, ranging from mass-produced nationwide brands to smaller regional, exclusive names. Since each brand has a few different types, there are in total a bewildering 55,000 different kinds of sake sold in Japan. Staggering, considering that what Singapore has to offer is Tiger beer, plus our Yeo's packet drinks.

Podcasts

I've been subscribing to a couple of podcasts relating to the Japanese language and culture.

A popular site among iTunes subscribers is [Josh in Japan]. This navy paramedic was posted to some base in Japan and he shares experiences during his assignment there. Josh is back in Florida now so he's been rather quiet of late. Do read his past postings on Japan though.

One video podcast available comes from the Kyoto Centre for Japanese Linguistic Studies (quite a mouthful). While they are clever to hop onto the podcasting wave, the site has only 10 lessons catering to beginners. The acting is quite dull and stiff, plus the content doesn't go beyond the most basic phrases. Go to it only if you don't know your 1-2-3's and your "arigato gozaimasu's"...

I believe the ultimate for me is [Japanesepod101.com]. This podcast offers cultural insights and language lessons for learners of every level, from the absolute newbie to the seasoned student. It's basically got something for everyone. The podcasts are free but you'd have to pay a premium for the lesson notes or extras. Nevertheless, I learn something new from each podcast. I've been listening to it regulary over my iPod during rides on the MRT. It's my favourite podcast now. "Two thumbs up!" -Shingaporujin.


Check out these podcasts on iTunes or just google them over the Net.

Crosses & Circles

After a couple of months in language school, there's still something i can't get used to.

It's the marking system. A wrong answer gets a cross (X). Fair enough, everyone knows that. A right answer however, receives a circle (O), not a nice simple tick but a circle that engulfs the whole page. It looks like you messed up your entire homework.

You can imagine my horror when the sensei (teacher) comes over and scrawls an enormously big circle across my japanese homework. I was like, "hah? wrong meh?". Don't they know that the typical singaporean religiously guard their homework from any intruding marks? The page has to be sparking clean from any form of red ink... Why can't they follow the typical Singaporean marking convention of a nice sweet little tick??? (Not those that hide in beds. You know what i mean).

Hiragana & Katakana

Here's a bit of the basics... For the uninitiated, the Japanese language is essentially broken into a few components:

i) Hiragana (the main language)
ii) Katakana (characters for English sounding words)
iii) Kanji (similar to our Chinese characters)
iv) Romanji (no-brainer way of reading Japanese using English characters. I use that mostly...)

There are 5 vowels in the Japanese language, much like in English (e.g. a,e,i,o,u) and 9 consonants (e.g. k,s,t,n,h,m,y,r,w). You do a mix and match and viola! You get Japanese!

Of course, this is just an ultra-simplified explanation of the language, but this will do for now. There are approximately 45 characters each for Hiragana and Katagana, so once you've gotten a good grasp of those, you should be able to read reasonably well. Here's a simple Hiragana chart:

Ikoma Language School

That's where i study Nihongo (Japanese). It's located conveniently in Shaw House, and offers a pretty nice view of Orchard Rd. While the language classes by Japanese Cultural Society (JCS) may be cheaper and more comprehensive, i picked Ikoma because of their conducive class sizes (approx. 10 ppl), suitable schedules (every Saturday. JCS: twice weekly on weekdays!), plus i missed the JCS enrollment date... heh. The lessons are going at a fairly comfortable rate and they're still quite enjoyable (at least for now). However, it's gonna take half a lifetime before i ever become fluent in Nihongo, so i reckon i'd still be groping my way around Japan when i'm there.

Introductions

Something about myself... I'm planning to leave for Japan for a work stint next April so i'm starting a blog to post interesting views and insights when i'm there. It may be a good seven months before i actually leave, but i thought it'd be good to talk about my experiences with the language first. Do keep checking this page every once in a while ya?

Here's a nice shot (if i should say so myself :P ) taken on my previous trip to Japan. This is in Azumino, Nagano which is a couple of hours west of Tokyo. FYI Nagano is the venue of the 1998 Winter Olympics. The scenery over there is just simply breathtaking...

Blog Milestone

Yes, i admit it has taken forever for me to finally get onto the blog bandwagon. It was a struggle overcoming the monsters of procrastination. Well, i'm here now at last... if anyone is around for this milestone of a posting...