This weekend I braved the pouring rain that was coming on and off all day to go take the N1 at Kyoto University.  For those of you who don't know Japan has basically 5 seasons, the 4 normal seasons (spring, summer, fall, winter), but it also has one extr

I have completely flown through the So-Matome N1 Grammar book. My goal this test is to at least get a passing score in the grammar section of the exam. That might not be possible because I don't enough vocabulary to actually choose the right grammar that

So, I'm really starting to get into Harry Potter.  As I said before there is a lot of imagery even in the first couple scenes.  I've also been spotting a lot of N1 grammar points that I learned, too.  That was one thing that I was a little surprised ab

So, as I said last week. I finished off ほぼ日 and now I'm moving on to some Harry Potter. Specifically, I'm working my way through Harry Potter : The Sorcerer's Stone, in other words the first Harry Potter book. I listened to the English audio book so

I finally, finally, finished ほぼ日!  Overall, it was a pretty good book.  I think if you were interested in the web and especially about how the internet is used in Japan, it is a pretty good read.  Overall, Itoi talks about how he built up the ほ

It's been a busy time for me of late.  Busy time at work, busy time at home.  The school year in Japan starts in April and so I have new students to meet and classes to get used to.  I'm obviously adjusting to my new life at home as well.  I'm finding

All right, I think it is safe to admit it now. I'm starting to get a little nervous about taking the N1 exam. I know I said I was okay with failing it, but still I want to be able to at least have a decent showing on test day, something to be proud of tha

I've recently been using a little different strategy for my vocabulary practice.  I think for the N1 level, since there are literally thousands of words to learn, I've been hedging my bets between reviewing words from the books I've read and using the st

I'm currently on the look out for a good new jDrama to watch. I just finished off Nagareboshi, which I talked about last week, but I want to watch something new now that has a lot of everyday Japanese in it. This can sometimes be more difficult than it

I'm starting to really put some pressure on myself to study these days.  The July test is coming soon and although I have no real aspirations of passing it, I still want to at least score slightly above zero on the test.  I still have a lot to go throug