Japan 2010 – Day 3

Woke up around 11am. P made breakfast and it was delicious.

After breakfast, P and S sent me off at the train station near their home. I made my way back to the hotel to unload the clothes I bought the day before and set off to Harajuku park.

It was a Sunday and there’s a lot of people here at this huge park. Very different from the parks in Singapore.

You can hear people practicing their music in less crowded areas. Kids playing football. Teens making dance videos. A large group of old people playing ukuleles.

I headed down to Roppongi next, to check out an exhibition at the Mori Art Museum. I’m not into arty stuff. I just enjoy looking at things.

Last event of the day was to check out a matsuri at Asakusa. It’s crowded. Lots of stalls along the way. I bought lots of food here and brought them back to my hotel room for dinner. It was too much so I kept the remaining food for breakfast for the next day.

2012

Ha, I can’t remember clearly what new year resolutions I made last year. But I think it’s something along the lines of working harder for more money, and take up a part-time degree course.

I did work harder than I was in 2010. But I never got around to getting that degree because I was given a chance to work overseas for a year and I was keen on taking up that offer.

Then I got approached with a job offer, with same pay but much better working environment, more challenging work.

Maybe in a year or 2 after things are stable with this new job, I will look into studying part-time again.

With freelance work and a new job taking up most of my time, I doubt I have enough spare time to pursue other things.

So this year, I shall focus on my Japanese language skills.

I took the N2 JLPT test on 2011 Dec. The results won’t be out till a few months later. If I pass, I might try for N1 this year.

The problem I’m concerned is even if I can get an N1 certification, it only means that I can understand Japanese well.

I know very well I can’t make up sentences in conversations well enough yet.

Also in my Japan trip in 2010, when I met up with my Japanese friends there, I had a hard time understanding what they are trying to say when they speak among themselves.

Native speakers speak very fast and are very different from what you hear on Japanese dramas and animes. From what I’ve heard, people who appear on TV and voice actors have undergone training in their speaking.

Hopefully the current SGD – JPY exchange rate recovers back to what it was 4 years ago. Currently it’s 1 SGD – 59 JPY.

Seeing photos of my friend’s trip there makes me want to go back there again.

Hmmm… It’s there where the real JLPT is.