All I ever do is study!

Holy cow, I still have to memorize over 300 Japanese words for my test on Sunday. Eeep, there are only five days before the test! Instead of studying, I have decided to blog about how much I have to study. It is much more satisfactory. Yesterday I made 300 little word cards to help me memorize all of the words I need to know. The terrible thing about this is that I am studying in exactly the way I tell my students NOT to study. That is, I am trying to memorize lists of words. Anyway, my main goal right now is to just SURVIVE the test. It will be very humiliating for me if I fail this test. Hmmmm, maybe I better go and study right now.

I did watch the Japanese movie "Spirited Away" this weekend (I watched it in Japanese with English subtitles). It is my new favourite movie. I love Japanese animation. I wish I could have understood all of the Japanese dialogue instead of having to read the sub-titles. Anyway, I highly recommend this movie. Please go and rent it!

Catch ya later! I gotta go and study!

Autumn Leaves

I went to look at leaves this weekend in Kyoto. I had a lot of fun, but I couldn’t believe all the people. It was so crowded. I went to Kiyumizudera to look at the leaves. On the way to the temple, the streets were packed with people. There were lots of foreigners too! The best part about walking to Kiyumizudera were the pickle shops and the sweet shops. I stopped to test lots of different kinds of pickles. They were all really delicious, but my favourite place was a sweet shop that made traditional Kyoto sweets. At this sweet shop, they gave me a free cup of tea to drink while I tried all of the sweets. It was a lot of fun. When we got to Kiyumizudera, most of the leaves were still green, so I was a little bit surprised. I guess we have had a really warm fall this year. However, some of the leaves had turned red, and they looked really nice. I also got to watch the sunset over the mountains in Kyoto. This was really nice! After looking at the leaves I went to a Katsu restaurant in Kyoto. I had a really great Saturday!

By the way, I did a practice listening test for the Japanese Proficiency Test and I only got 53%!!! Oh No! I need 60% to pass!! No more fun for me until December 5th (the day of the test). Only studying from now on!

Everyone should be really proud of me because I have been studying all weekend! Right now, I have three Japanese classes a week because I am getting ready to take the Japanese Proficiency Test on December 4, 2004 (level 4 - the easiest one!) I'm starting to get worried because the test date is coming up soon, but I still hardly know anything. One thing I have learned though is why my students seem to have so much difficulty with English. English and Japanese are just so TOTALLY different. It's amazing just how different they are. It's a miracle that my students can say anything at all. I'm really proud of my students and how much they can do in English. I wish I could speak Japanese as well as my students speak English. I guess I'm going to have to study even harder . . . wish me luck!!! I have to memorized 100 kanji in just three weeks!!!

Wasabi Mochi Are Delicious!

I can't believe it is already Friday! I have been wanting to blog all week, but suddenly it is already Friday. I hope all my students had a great time during the Kansai Gaidai Festival. It was a lot of fun. I really thought the brass band was great. I also ate some wasabi mochi that was so delicious. I had it with kinoki powder. Yum! I don't think we have wasabi mochi in Canada, so I am going to be sad when I go back home next summer. I'm going to miss Japanese food! Speaking of Japanese food, I went to an Izakaya last Saturday. It was very close to Kansai Gaidai. I think my students might know where I am talking about. I went to I'SAKU. The best part about this izakaya is that the sushi was only 100 yen!! Can you believe it? We ordered ALL the different kinds of sushi that they had in the izakaya. I love sushi so much, and it was really good. However, we didn't order the natto sushi. I was too scared. Natto is scary! Anyway, I thought I'SAKU was a really fun izakaya that is nice and close to Kansai Gaidai. It was easy for me to get home afterwards!