Jdrama

(でんしゃおとこ-Train Man) is a true love story about an Otaku dating one of the women he saves from a drunken man on the train. He chronicled the incident and his subsequent dates on a Japanese Forum. This lead to a manga,movie, book and drama adaptation of the true story.

I wasn’t supposed to be watching anymore Jdramas but the urge to watch one overwhelmed me, and I decided to watch 電車男. Though I thought I would limit myself to watching an episode max a day, I ended up watching the whole drama in a span of two days.

Synopsis of the drama from Dramawiki

A true love story turned to bestselling novel, created from the Internet BBS, 2channel to blockbuster hit movie. Ito Misaki plays Aoyama Saori, working as an office lady at a MNC, gets into trouble with a drunkard on a train. She’s saved by Yamada Tsuyoshi, played by Ito Atsushi. As a form of appreciation, she sends him Hermes teacups. Having no experience with the opposite sex, Tsuyoshi decides to ask for help on the Aladdin Channel BBS on how to interact with Saori.

Ranked 15 at jdorama, 電車男 did not dissapoint. Knowing they would somehow end up together (I was hoping for a sad ending!) , it was the journey that Yamada took was made it awesome. The will and determination to change, but also the courage to reveal his true nature.  I also appreciated the dramas attempt to ease down the Otaku stereotype present in the Japanese Society.An Otaku, obsessed with games, manga,figures and anime is a complete loser. The forum communicate was unique feature of 電車男, and allowed for minor subplots for individuals, who had gained inspiration and courage after reading Yamada’s posts, to resolve their own life problems. At the end, the drama left me with a happy happy feeling. All in all, you must watch!

守りたいもの

守りたいもの(Mamoritai mono) by Aoyama Thelma

Sweet and Lovely song. Been listening to it on loop for the past hour or so.

Theme song to Team Batista no Eikou (The Glory of Team Batista), a Japanese Drama I’ve been recently watching.It is about a Team of doctors who have had great success in performing Batista a delicate surgery to the heart, however after 26 consecutive success, patients have been dieing on the operating table, one after another with no clear reason. Was it just bad luck? Or was it murder?

Curious as to who has been getting away with these murders, I lost three hours of sleep last night watching. I haven’t delved into the Jdrama realm much, but I think after watching Team Batista, I’ll probably want to watch some moar jdrama, so if anyone has any recommendations, tell me!

Calligraphy

Was watching one  episodes of 世界の果てまでイッテQ  from last year. For those who don’t know,世界の果てまでイッテQ is a variety show where various celebrities and comedians such as Miyagawa Daisuke and Tegoshi Yuya (NEWS) are given missions to go to other countries to explore and discover culture. Currently they are participating in unique cultural activies such as Indonesia’s ‘climb a high pole to win items’ challenge. But last year, it seems they were answering viewer questions.

In this particular episode,they investigated , out of Japanese(書道-shodou) and Chinese Calligraphy, which one is superior!

To find out, they invited Rie to help them with their investigation. Rie is very prosu at calligraphy, winning many competitions.

Here is one of her works.

And to make the investigation funny, they send Impulse, a Japanese comedy duo. Most comedy acts in Japan coming in duos, unlike how we have solos such as Judith Lucy and Akmal Sali in the western world.

They travelled to a city in 杭州(Hang Zhou). Writing calligraphy on the ground seems be a common past time among the older generations.

Here is Rie, showing off her　餃子 Gyouza (dumpling), for some critical analysis from the gramps around. This one commented that the balance is good, and that Rie’s, among the Chinese is very good.

Afterwards they went to a shop selling calligraphy equipment. They were selling brushes made of skink fur. Not sure what this was but using water instead of ink.

After that, they headed to the calligraphy school to start their investgation! They asked the principal(or teacher, not sure) for their best student but replied that she was not here. Shame but it gave Rie time to practice and show off her skills among all the students. Also we were given quite an insightful lesson about the differences between Japanese and Chinese Calligraphy.

One difference is that the Japanese use their whole body while writing whilst the Chinese stand.

Unlike Japanese Calligraphy, Chinese uses little movement.

This difference is quite lol. In Chinese calligraphy, you may redo a stroke if you stuffed up the start of it. This is like cheating =p

Anyway next day, Rie met her competition, Chanchan (that’s what they called her). Chanchan is one of the best students in the calligraphy school and she wants to become a calligraphy teacher.

Japanese have great cartoons for explanations. Basically, Rie and Chanchan do their calligraphy and then have 100 people observe and vote which one is better.

For the competition, they had to write the four characters above. Meaning is along the lines, care for your neigbours and you will have good relation with people and countries etc. Maybe you can work upon my intepretation.

Both with confidence said they themselves would win. But there can only be one winner.

The setup of the competition.

Rie starting to write　親. Even with the pressure, she is able to write with grace and style.

Chanchan writing 仁.

The calligraphy complete, now the voting begins. Voters did not know who’s was who’s.  Comments were varied but generally, Chanchan’s flows better and Rie’s looks stylish.

And sadly, Chinese Calligraphy won. Even defeated, Rie knew she tried her best.

Back at the studio, they bring out the scrolls. They all preferred Rie’s, without doubt. One of the guests saying that they wanted Rie’s calligraphy on a Tshirt. lol.

Now you wonder where does the Q come in from the show’s title. The Q stick the host Uchimura Teruyoshi is holding and Q symbol, the guests/celebrities do before viewing someone’s overseas adventure. Tegoshi does it so many times, it makes him look like a fool XD

So whose calligraphy did you prefer? Have you ever done calligraphy? If not would you try it out?

Rie’s! Because Chanchan screwed up her 仁!I would try it out because it will help me to write my kanji with more style, unlike my very rigid style on my folder. We have calligraphy equipment at home so hopefully I’ll give it a try in a few weeks. Not enough space to do Japanese method, so I’ll have to settle for Chinese!

Thanks Mum!

It’s that time again, when we thank and appreciate everything our mums have done for us. The devotion mums put into raising you up is enormous. After thinking about the things my mum does for me and the family, I don’t thank her enough, which I find a bit sad but will be changing that  during this year. Mums should be taking the day off to relax but my mum had to go to work in the afternoon so we had special little ‘Mother’s Day Lunch’ at Kenta, situated in North Sydney, a Japanese Restaurant we often go. Great price for its serving! Now for what you’ve been waiting for. The tasty food!

Ramen Set: Ramen with Miso Soup Base $12.90

Ramen! Yum! Complementing the ramen is…

Katsudon

I skipped breakfast but was quite full after I was halfway through it!

Lunch Set: Teriyaki Fish with Miso Soup and Rice $6.90

My sister’s meal. I find it ridiculous that she ate around three pieces of the fish and said she couldn’t eat anymore. The cause of that happened to be miso soup, as she explained later. She didn’t even peck at the salad! She complains about being short when she is isn’t eating enough. Too late for her to gain any height however.

Added just to make you feel sad

I can never be bothered to get every grain into my mouth

So what did you do with your mum today?

Gateway to FMA BLACKOUT

Tim suggested this wonderful idea to blackout everything I couldn’t read on my Newtype Liftout Gate way to Full Metal Alchemist.’ Second time reading through these two pages and was able to pick out the more readings for the kanji. But in the end, the page is quite black.

Reading eventhough I don’t understand 50+% seems utterly stupid but it reinforces the reading of kanji as well as being able to grasp the meaning of the few sentences I can (partially)understand alot quicker. Quite the opposite when you read  ハンサムな先生’s writing, which I have to read two to three times(or even more) to understand.

Here are the non-blackout copies for your reading pleasure.

For those who are studying and want to improve in their language proficiency, should head over to Khazumoto’s All Japanese All The Time . Khazumoto is quite amazing, he’s been able to learn Business Japanese through what I call ‘Immersing yourself in the language.’ How a child learns his/her first language, is by living in the environment, listening, reading and speaking in a language 24/7. We, the seemingly busy students can’t possibly do something like this, the aim is to incorporate as much of the language into your daily routine. For example, listening to Jpop, learning a kanji a day, reading books , speaking to a Japanese friend in Japanese etc. In one of Khazumoto’s videos, he discusses this method, with the annoying Cantonese Dub version of DBZ playing in the background. Taking it to the extreme? Maybe but I believe the accumulation will assist you in improving in the language. For me I listen to Japanese Music (99% of my songs are Japanese), occasionally read Japanese manga( helps with kanji reading since furigana is provided), try to read the Japanese New Type, study Japanese at school(haven’t learnt much at school though in the past 2years), go to Japanese tuition where I do a heap load of writing,speaking and some listening practice, watching Gaki No Tsukai and Sekai HattemadeItteQ (Jap TV Shows) without subs(feel left out when I don’t understand a joke and they’re all laughing), thinking in Japanese (comes out subconsciously alot of the time ),study because I have to, MSNing with 一輝(I need to do this more often) and watching anime.

To measure your proficiency, you should take a language proficiency test. These only test grammar,vocabulary,reading and listening skills, so they aren’t a great indicator, but for certain jobs, you may required to take the test and having it handy won’t hurt. I passed level 3 JLPT last year and hoping to do level 2 in the near future!

So what do you do to improve your proficiency?