2009
I hadn’t kept an accurate record for 2009, so I was only able to come up with a rough estimate. My training mostly consisted of classes for Aikikai Hombu Dojo Beginners Gakko, which was twice a week for about 10 months. Most weeks I also attended a Saturday morning class, although by the end of the year I was training some other week-nights as well. My best guess it that I trained about 105 days, or about 135 hours. Not bad, but at that rate it’s a long road to 10,000 hours!

Following the adage of you can’t improve what you don’t measure, I started keeping a record of my training.

2010

The graph above shows my time spent in class broken down by month. The colours indicate the type of class:

• green – (初心者) Beginners Class at Aikikai Hombu Dojo
• blue – (中級) Intermediate Gakko at Aikikai Hombu Dojo
• red – (一般) Regular Class at Aikikai Hombu Dojo
• purple – (特別) other classes

I got off to a reasonable start to the year, especially considering Hombu Dojo was closed for the first week. However around the end of February I came down with a series of colds, and this kept me off the mat for the first three weeks of March.

Thankfully I was mostly recovered by April, which saw the start of my second semester in Intermediate Gakko. I finally started attending “Ippan” (regular) classes on the 3rd floor of Aikikai Hombu Dojo Tokyo, which are a lot more challenging than beginner classes. I trained 5 days in a row for the first time.

In May I made the switch to morning classes for weekday classes (other than Intermediate Gakko), and training started to feel like part of my regular rhythm. I spent most of my time in beginners classes, trying to concentrate on basics for the Embu Taikai, but I was also able to observe my Sempai training for his 2段 (2nd dan) test and even act as uke for some of his training sessions which was a lot of fun.

I continued training 4 or 5 days a week through most of June, until my knee became unstable (overstressed from my stretching?), which has kept me out of training for the last week of June and most of July (a bit of a worry for my upcoming 1級 test).

My total training time for the first half of the year was 103 hours (82 lessons on 75 days), nearly reaching my total for the whole of 2009 in only 6 months. I hope to train even more in the second half of 2010, and will be aiming to reach 120 hours.

Most importantly I think my Aikido has improved from the extra time on the mat.

On Saturday I attended the 48th All Japan Aikido Demonstration (第48回 全日本合気道演武大会) at the Nippon Budokan, commonly call the “Embu”. It’s the biggest event of the year for Aikikai, with people coming from all over Japan (and from overseas) to attend. It’s even professionally recorded by NHK, and you can buy a 2-disc DVD set covering the teachers demonstrations (get the 2009 edition here). Eric wrote a bit more about last years event, and again this year. I thought I’d post some photos and write a little about my experience.

Doshu doing kotegaeshi

Intermediate Class Demonstration

For the second year running I’ve also been lucky enough to participate in the demonstration, as a part of the Aikido Gakkou at Hombu Dojo. This year I was part of the demonstration for Intermediate Gakkou.

Me at the 2009 All Japan Aikido Demonstration

The upcoming Embu had been the focus of our training in Intermediate Gakkou for about the last 3 weeks or so. We were told our demonstration would be 2 minutes, and held at the same time as the Beginners Gakkou and Advanced Gakkou classes. We were asked to pair up, and I was very happy to have Shishido san, my partner for the demonstration last year, as my partner again this year.

Me with Kan (my partner for the demonstration), 2010

We spent a large part of our preparation time in the Gakkou classes on the appropriate etiquette – where and how we were to line up to enter the floor, the correct bows before the waza, waiting for the taiko drum before starting, where to position ourselves on the mat, bowing correctly after the waza, and where to leave the tatami.

Our teachers also prescribed the techniques we would be performing, and our classes have been mostly restricted to those techniques for the last few weeks:

We found it pretty hard to get through that list in 2 minutes, but the practice gave us a good chance to “polish” our techniques a bit, and in our final week of practice my partner and I had been getting fairly consistent at finishing the final technique around the 2 minute mark while hopefully not looking too rushed. We were also told that someone would be video’ing the demonstration, which provided a little extra “incentive” to practice hard.

Intermediate Demonstration – The Mixup!

Despite all the instruction on etiquette, or perhaps because of it, things didn’t quite go as planned on the day. We had been explicitly told by both teachers that we were not to start our waza until the taiko (drum) to sound after we had bowed.
We dutifully filed onto the tatami and lined up in seiza as instructed, waiting to be told to bow to shomen (the front). Unfortunately the taiko sounded before we were told to bow to shomen, and not after, leaving our entire class sitting waiting while the other groups had started their demonstrations. Finally someone yelled out that we should start, and a confused bunch of Intermediate Class students scrambled to start. I’m sure it looked a little ridiculous from the stands. Due to the delay starting Kan and I didn’t quite finish, I was just about to start my final kotegaeshi when the Taiko drum went. I think we also managed to perform okay, especially given the distraction of the late start.

Aikido Gakkou 2010 Intermediate class

More Demonstrations

After our demonstration everyone hurried back upstairs so we could watch the demonstrations of the Hombu Dojo Senseis. I got a couple of photos, so I’ll make another post and including some from last year. After the Hombu teachers, a couple of us went to look at the dogi and hakama which were on sale. I’ve been training 4-5 times a week and having only 2 dogi has been a bit awkward, so I bought a summer dogi which should help a bit, not to mention be more comfortable in the upcoming heat – there’s no aircon at hombu dojo!
Quite a few of my classmates stayed until the final demonstrations by Tada Shihan (9th Dan) and the Doshu (the head of Aikikai).

Doshu giving a speech (2009)

Doshu doing ikkyo

It was a great day, although it seemed to go far too quickly. Not only were the teachers amazing, but the ukemi was superb.

Some More Photos

Nippon Budokan (on a quiet day, not the day of the embu).

Nippon Budokan Sign. Note that it’s written right-to-left!

2009 All Japan Aikido Demonstration

2009 All Japan Aikido Demonstration

2009 All Japan Aikido Demonstration

Kids practice session 2010.

A Sensei striking the massive Taiko

Fujimaki Sensei with Nishimura Sempai as uke (right)

Friends from Hombu Dojo

The basic information about the “Aikido Gakko” is covered on the Aikiaki web site, in English and Japanese. In this post I’ll talk about some of my experiences in the beginner course (初級課程).

Starting Out at Hombu Dojo – Prior to the Gakko
I started training at Aikikai Hombu Dojo in August 2008. At Hombu Dojo the normal classes (not the “Gakko”, which I’ll talk about shortly) are separated into two different levels – the “shoshinsha” (初心者 – beginner) class on the 2nd floor, and the “ippan” (一般 – regular) class on the 3rd floor. Naturally I was attending the beginners class, mainly on Saturday mornings.

Despite the name, I found the “beginners” class quite difficult. It’s common to cover 5 or more techniques in a one hour lesson, and the techniques come from a fairly large list, so I found it hard to get a handle on the similarities and differences between the techniques. The beginners class generally covers techniques up to and including the 3rd kyuu (the lowest level is 5th kyuu), but I’ve seen gokyo (fifth pin) taught, which doesn’t show up on the grading schedule until 1st kyuu. After 6 weeks of training I was only just starting to find my feet (pun intended).

It was around this time I saw the signs up at the dojo for the “Aikido Gakko”, the mysterious lessons that happen on the 4th floor of the the dojo. Despite some reservations, and thanks to the advice of a friend, I applied for the October 2008 beginners course and was lucky enough to get a spot.

Beginners Gakko vs Beginners Class?
So, how is “Beginners Gakko” different from the regular “Beginners Class”? The “Beginners Gakko” assumes you are completely new to Aikido. As such it offers a great way to start learning Aikido from the very foundations.

In our first lesson we were taught hanmi (半身 – correct stance), ashi sabaki (足裁き – how to move your feet), and basic ukemi (受身 – how to receive the technique and fall safely), as well as the beginnings of the first pin technique, ikkyo (一教）. It sounds obvious that these would be taught, but these topics aren’t usually covered explicitly in the normal beginners classes, so it really helped.

After that the techniques were introduced at a nice gentle pace, with plenty of reinforcement and a progression that made them much easier for me to absorb than I had found in the normal classes. For instance ikkyo, the first pin, was introduced as the katatedori (片手取 – single hand is held) version, and only doing the omote (表 – front side) version, where you move in front of your partner. The technique was broken down into a series of movements and practiced. This was repeated in the second lesson, after which the ura (裏 – back side) variation, moving behind your partner, was introduced. At a later stage the shoumen uchi (正面打 – front strike) variation of ikkyo was introduced, adding the element of timing.

Through a combination of the logical progression of the techniques, the extra reinforcement, the fact that the techniques were broken down into steps, the lack of “technique overload”, and just plain more time on the mat, I felt was able to remember the techniques much quicker. By the end of the semester we were covering all the techniques required for the 4th kyuu test (skipping the 5th kyuu test), plus quite a few more, and while it was challenging I never felt like it was overwhelming.

Take That!
Another huge benefit of the beginners gakko is the emphasis on ukemi (受身) – “receiving” the technique – basically getting thrown. It’s very important to learn to fall properly to avoid injury. In particular, Kanazawa Shihan spent a lot of time teaching us ushiro ukemi (後ろ受身 – falling backwards), for which I was especially grateful. There is also the important matter of how to “attack” correctly, and both Seki Shihan and Kanazawa Shihan place particular emphasis on this.

It’s common to see students in the regular beginners class who don’t have the experience to take ukemi very well. Good ukemi is something to work on continually, and beginners gakko gets you off to a good start.

Sensei
I can’t talk about the “Aikido Gakko” without making a special mention of the teachers. The beginners classes of 2008 and 2009 were taken by Seki Shihan (関師範), 7th dan, and Kanazawa Shihan (金沢師範), 6th dan. These teachers are living legends in the Aikido world, and it’s an amazing opportunity and an honour to learn from them. They take the role very seriously, clearly explaining the techniques and offering their advice on how to improve.

One of the main benefits of the gakko is the increased opportunity to act as uke (受け　－the person receiving the technique) for the teachers, compared to the regular classes. It was not uncommon for the teachers to “make rounds” through the class, giving each person the opportunity to act as uke. Additionally, if you are lucky enough you may get called up to act as uke while the teacher demonstrated the techniques for the class (this is generally reserved for those taking the course a second time). Even though they were definitely dialing down their energy level for us beginners it was still quite an experience to feel the power when being thrown by the teachers, and I still remember the “punch” of Seki Shihan’s ikkyou (一教 – first technique) and Kanazawa Shihan’s iriminage (入身投 – entering throw).

Say What…?
The biggest issue for me in deciding whether to sign up for the Gakko, and I assume for most “gaijin” (外人 – foreigner, literally “outside person”), was language. I was lucky that I’d been studying Japanese for a few years before signing up, and had some basic ability, but I’d never really had to rely on it for anything practical and my speaking ability was almost non-existent. I had serious doubts about signing up for the Gakko, but since I’d managed to fumble my way through the training I took the plunge.

I remember entering the first class to find about 20 students, but only one other gaijin, an Italian woman who was sitting there chatting away in Japanese. Needless to say I was starting to feel very nervous. After a brief introduction from the Doshu (道主 – the head of the Aikikai) we spread out in a circle and were asked to introduce ourselves! By this time I was starting to regret signing up. I did my best in my broken Japanese, hoping what came out was at least partially intelligible. After that it was a lot easier.

At the end of the first lesson we also received a text book, which is included in the fees, and an English edition is available if you choose.

After that the language wasn’t such a big issue for me. At first I could only understand about 30% of what the teachers were saying, and they actually explain quite a lot (much more than the regular beginner classes), but it was usually fairly obvious what they meant from the context. My prior experience in Australia and the beginners classes helped a little to fill the gaps in my language understanding. There were certainly times when I didn’t understand, but nothing that interfered with me improving my Aikido, or my enjoyment of the class. It didn’t take too long to learn some new vocabulary (some of which is specific to Aikido), which helped my understanding a lot. By the end of the semester, 5 months later, between my exposure at the dojo and quite a bit of study, I could understand about 65% of what was being said, and understand what was going on almost all of the time, at least during the practice. Talking to other students was another matter entirely!

For foreigners with absolutely no Japanese, the Aikido Gakko will be difficult. But because the techniques are introduced slowly I think it will be easier to understand than the normal classes. You can mostly get by with watching the teacher carefully, and guessing from the context. You’ll also learn the most important words quite quickly, as they’ll be repeated very often. If all else fails there will usually be at least one person who speaks some passable English who can get the point across.

Making the Grade
Towards the end of the semester the teachers began mentioning the “shinsa” （審査 – judging） – the grading test for kyuu levels. There’s a minimum requirement to attend 60% of the classes in order to be able to graduate and take the test, which means you have to attend about 26 classes. They gave us plenty of warning of the date, and were kind enough to actually give us a run-down of the techniques we would be expected to do (for both 4kyuu and 3kyuu). First time students can take the 4th kyuu test, while those taking the course for the second time (or those who already have 4th kyuu grade before entering) can take the test for 3rd kyuu. Soon after that the teachers began splitting the class during training, so that those taking the 3kyuu test could learn and practice the higher level techniques, while us first-timers focused on the basics required for 4kyuu. We even spent a some time practicing where to sit and how to bow correctly during the test.

We were able to choose our partners for the test, and I was delighted that one of my first friends from Hombu Dojo, Hirata san, asked me to be his partner. I was fortunate, Hirata-san’s technique and ukemi are excellent. We often spent extra time after class practicing the techniques for the test, and the number of people staying around after class for that extra bit of practice noticeably increased.

I think everyone was fairly nervous for the test. The test was taken in groups of 3 or 4 at a time, meaning we weren’t exactly under the spotlight, but it was hard to ignore the thought of the teacher’s gaze. Despite a few students forgetting the odd foot movement or hand placement, resulting in some prompting and gruff words from the teacher, it was announced that everyone had passed. Everyone was visibly pleased.

Sadly this also signaled that the semester was almost over. All that remained was one more training session, and then the “shuryoushiki” (終了式 – final ceremony) where we received our “graduation” and kyuu certificates. The Doshu once again made an appearance for the final ceremony, at which he presented certificates to the class and kyuu representatives before giving us a short speech congratulating us and encouraging us to continue on with Aikido.

The final ceremony was followed by a group dinner, accompanied by the teachers. This was a great opportunity to “meet” the teachers outside the confines of the 4th floor dojo, and get to hear some of their insights about Aikido. I felt like an eager child, hanging on their every word. Unfortunately my Japanese level was not really good enough to understand a lot of what was said, but I did understand a little and it was a fun night.

Making Friends
One of the other benefits I hoped to get from going to Aikido Gakko was to meet people and make friends. It took a while for this to happen. There wasn’t a lot of talking during practice, and most people disappeared as quickly as possible after the practice was finished. This coupled with my almost non-existent speaking ability, and my difficulty dealing with large groups of people I don’t know, meant it was quite a while before I started to really interact with anyone. But gradually I made a few connections with the other students (asking your partner’s name is a good start!), and as we practiced together I slowly got to know a few people. Going through the grading tests together at the end of semester also helped to strengthen those friendships, as you feel like you’ve helped each other achieve something.

We have occasional “nomikai” (飲み会 – drinking party) where we catch up, and even see some of the students who, for various reasons, have not been able to continue on with the Aikido gakko. The end result is that I’ve made quite a few friends. This alone has made the experience of Aikido Gakko well worth it for me.

Once More For Effect
In April 2009 I signed up for a second semester of beginners gakko. This gave me a good chance to review and solidify all the techniques in my head, and the opportunity to try to learn how to do them “properly” – or at least a little better than before. This time I was also one of the “sempai”, a (slightly) more experienced student who could help the first-timers, if only a little bit, as well as the chance to take a bit more ukemi from the teachers.

The pace of the summer semester started a little faster than the winter course, making it a bit harder for the newbies. This was because of the soon-approaching “embu” – the 47th All Japan Aikido demonstration. As a student of the Aikido Gakko summer course you are expected to perform a 2 minute demonstration with your fellow students in May. The teachers instructed us to pair up as first-time and second-time pairs. My partner was Shishido san, the most energetic student in the class. It was fun to train at a bit of a faster pace, at least until I was worn out! We were given a short list of techniques, and some time spent practicing them. I couldn’t actually remember that much about the demonstration after doing it, it was a bit like a dream. But it was a great experience. I also got to stay around afterward and chat to one of my fellow classmates, Kuwano san, and watch some of the amazing Aikido, including the final demonstration by the Doshu.

The new students entering the course also meant a new group of friends, and this group were also a bit more socially outgoing than the previous semester. My Japanese was slowly improving, which meant that I could start to take part in social activities a bit more – there’s nothing better for your Japanese listening ability than spending 3 hours in an izakaya (居酒屋 – a japanese pub) after training, listening to a bunch of people talk about Aikido!

Overall the second time through the course was just as rewarding for me as the first.

Shortcomings?
So are there any shortcomings with doing the Aikido Gakko? Not really.

The set schedule can be difficult. Classes begin at 6:30pm, which meant leaving work early for me. Having a class on Monday night also means it’s hard to take a long weekend. You don’t have to make every lesson, but the “shusseki” (出席 – attendance) is called at the end of every class and if you don’t attend enough classes you won’t “graduate” or be able to take the test with the rest of the class (apparently your lessons will still count towards training requirements for the regular tests). But that’s all part of the commitment you make in signing up. Apart from a few people who dropped soon after the start of the course I think most people managed to make the required number of classes fairly easily.

I said that the beginners course gives a good introduction to ukemi (falling), but mae ukemi (前受身 – forward roll) is not really taught in beginners gakko, simply because none of the techniques require it (it is taught from the start of intermediate gakko). For those desperate for a “taste” outside gakko, Kobayashi Shihan covers mae ukemi and shikko (knee walking) in the beginners class on Saturday mornings, although I’d recommend asking for help from a sempai (senior student) before attending that class to get the basic idea. Rolling isn’t easy to learn, and I’ve seen a few newbies show up and be the only person who can’t roll in front of the whole class, which can be a bit embarrassing.

It’s not a shortcoming of the beginners course, per se, but you get the most benefit if you also attend some classes outside the gakko. This lets you experience the Aikido of different teachers (there’s more variation in style than I expected), but more importantly, it gives you more time on the mat, and the experience of feeling how the “yudansha” (有段者 – blackbelts) act as uke and do the techniques. By the end of a year of gakko it begins to be apparent which students have only attended gakko and which have been attending extra classes.

Finally there’s the cost. The beginners course is 52500円, which is very good value considering it’s about 40 x 90-minute lessons over 5 months, and the amazing teachers you are learning from. Extra classes at Hombu Dojo are not covered by the course fee. If you want to attend some extra classes you can pay per-lesson, at about 1600円 per day. If you think you’ll take extra classes more than 6 times in a month, it’s cheaper to pay for the month up-front the first time you practice (about 10500円). But this means you can end up paying roughly 20000円 per month, which isn’t exactly pocket change. You can definitely get more “training time for your yen” by just paying the monthly fee and going to the beginners class every day, but then you don’t get the same experience as the gakko. In the end I attended some extra classes outside gakko, varying from month to month whether I payed per-lesson or up front.

Final Words
In short, if you are considering signing up for the “Beginners Gakko” at Aikikai Hombu Dojo, and you can afford it and commit to the class times, I say go for it. The experience was amazing and one I will never forget.

合気道 – Aikido
I’m happy to say started training again in Aikido at 合気会本部道場 (Aikikai Hombu Dojo) in Shinjuku in late 2008. I had stopped training in Melbourne after only 3 months, which I will always regret. I started training once a week, but now train 3 or 4 times when possible. My classes are completely in Japanese, which is another plus.

• February – Completed my first semester of Beginners Course in Aikido Gakkou and passed my first grading, to become ４級 (4th Kyuu).
• April – Attended the annual Aiki-Jinja Festival in Iwama, where O’Sensei lived for most of his later life.
• May – participated in the 47th All Japan Aikido Demonstration at Nippon Budokan with my classmates from Beginners Course. I’m sure no-one watched us, but it sure was fun!
• August – Completed my second semester of Beginners Course in Aikido Gakkou, and passed my grading for ３級 (3th Kyuu).
• October – Began my first semester of Intermediate Course in Aikido Gakkou.
• Trained in the regular (i.e. non-beginners) class for my first time on Christmas Day – the last day of training for the year.
• Saw in the New Year with 越年稽古 (New Years Eve Practice) at the dojo.

日本語 – Japanese
I’ve been learning for a number of years, but I’m still intermediate level. I felt like I improved quite a bit in 2009.

• Read my first manga series completely in Japanese – デスノート　(Death Note).
• July – Passed 日本語能力試験２級 (JLPT Level 2).
• Began watching Japanese tv shows with Japanese subtitles. Depending on the show I understand anywhere from 50-90%.
• Sometimes at aikido training I forget the teacher is speaking in Japanese.
• Finally started to feel like I can speak a little. It’s still frustrating a lot of the time, speaking is definitely harder than listening and reading.

色々 – misc

• Unfortunately not much traveling around Japan, but there’s plenty to see and do in and around Tokyo.
• Finally bought a digital SLR – a Nikon D90
• Hired a dog for a day.
• Ran 10km for the Run for the Cure.

Holiday in Bali
Spent just over a week relaxing in Bali. The weather was amazing, 32 degrees and sunny every day. Thanks to Bron for finding such fantastic places to stay!

Became an uncle
Congratulations to Penny and Ken, who had their first baby, my nephew Keiran, on 2nd November.

My nephew Keiran Fretwell

Kids

A woman photographing cow 30

A family looking at a wall-sized map of the cows

And here are some of my previously posted photos showing people interacting with the cows.

Posing with the minimoos

Posing with cow 62

Chillin’ with the minimoos

Overall I’d say the cow-parade was quite a success!

Cows for sale

Cows for sale – closeup

One of the most interesting was “CowGirl”:

CowGirl on a motorbike!

I’d like to see a real-life version of that!

Today I finally found the remaining cows. The final 3 “mini-moos” were spread through the upper floors in the Oazu building, so were almost impossible to find without the map.
The final cow was on the other side of the JR Tokyo station, which I’m pretty sure isn’t technically in Marunouchi.

Minimoo 73

Minimoo 72

Minimoo 71

Cow 64

Today’s cows: 64
Today’s mini-moos: 71, 72, 73
Total cows to date: 65 of 65 cows, 8 of 8 mini-moos, 10 of 10 cows of europe.
Remaining Cows: none.

I found 2 of the remaining “minimoos” with the help of the map. They were on the third floor of the Marunouchi building, in quite a nice spot overlooking the autumn sunshine outside.

Chillin’ with the minimoos

Minimoo 67

Minimoo 66

Today’s cows: none
Today’s mini-moos: 66, 67
Total cows to date: 64 of 65 cows, 5 of 8 mini-moos, 10 of 10 cows of europe.
Remaining Cows: 64, 71, 72, 73.

After about 15 minutes looking for cow 12 I broke down and checked the map, which showed it was in the Kokusai building. Even then it took me another 10 minutes to find it, since it was in the basement (there are about a dozen restaurants down there).

Cow 10

Close-up of cow 10

Close-up of cow 10

Close-up of cow 10

Cow 12

Close-up of cow 12

Today’s cows: 10, 12
Today’s mini-moos: none
Total cows to date: 64 of 65 cows, 3 of 8 mini-moos, 10 of 10 cows of europe.
Remaining Cows: 64, 66, 67, 71, 72, 73.

I went looking for number 37 today, since cows 32-36 were all in or around the Marunouchi building. After spending about 15 minutes looking around I asked at the reception, and sure enough, it was on the 5th floor.

Cow 37 was quite unusual, it had been split in half and then put in what looked like two semi-transparent shipping crates!

Cow 37

Cow 37 frontal view

So while we were there we tried out Kua Aina, a Hawaiian burger chain. Nice burger, a bit pricey.

Kua Aina on the 5th floor of the Marunouchi building

Today’s cows: 37
Today’s mini-moos: none
Total cows to date: 62 of 65 cows, 3 of 8 mini-moos, 10 of 10 cows of europe.
Remaining Cows: 10, 12, 64, 66, 67, 71, 72, 73.

Mini-moos!

Posing with the mini-moos!

Mini-moo number 68

Mini-moo number 69

Mini-moo number 70

I asked at the reception (in Japanese, so it doesn’t count as cheating!), and there were two more (regular sized) cows, on the fifth and seventh floors.

Cow number 43

Close-up of cow number 43

Cow number 42

Close-up of cow number 42

Today’s mini-moos: 68, 69, 70
Today’s cows: 43, 42
Total cows to date: 61 of 65 cows, 3 of 8 mini-moos, 10 of 10 cows of europe.

The most common method of teaching Kanji relies on rote-memorization – the same method used by the majority of Japanese children. If you’re going to be immersed in a Japanese environment for 15 years or more, then I guess you’re going to remember them eventually, no matter how poor the method.

My Japanese teacher in Australia took another approach – just don’t teach Kanji at all! Suffice it to say that didn’t help much. I would find myself starting to recognize some simple common Kanji, but when I tried to write them I would only have a rough idea of the shape. And there are many Kanji that are very similar, often differing by only one stroke, so it’s very easy to mistake one Kanji for another.

The 2000 (or so) Kanji needed to be generally literate just seemed like an insurmountable obstacle.

Then I found Remembering the Kanji Volume 1 (RTK).

RTK was written by Dr James W. Heisig, based on techniques he used to learn Kanji himself. It gives you a systematic approach to learning how to remember, and write, 2042 Kanji (the JOYO kanji + a few extra useful kanji).

RTK1 uses a few techniques to make learning Kanji easier:

1. component analysis to break up the kanji into smaller pieces (divide and conquer).
2. learning the kanji in the order they are easiest to learn, rather than their frequency of use.
3. imaginative memory – linking the components together in a scene you picture in your head. This is the real key to the method.
4. flashcards to help you remember what you’ve learned. I’ll be writing more about this soon!

RTK isn’t without controversy – see here, here and here for some other views. The biggest issue for me is that you don’t learn how to say the Kanji – but that was not the aim of volume 1, it is covered in RTK volume 2.

Using the RTK method takes time and effort, just like anything else, and it may not be the right method for you, but I can honestly say it works for me when nothing else I’ve tried has.

The first part of the book is available for download on the publishers site, so you can give it a go and find out for yourself.

頑張ってね！ (Stick with it!)

Cow number 62

Close-up of cow number 62

Girls’ day out

A stranger assists

Cow number 57

Close-up of cow number 57

Cow number 58

Cow number 59

Cow number 60

Close-up of cow number 60

Cow number 61

Today’s cows: 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62
Total cows to date: 59 of 73 (plus 10 cows of europe).

Czech Cow

Swedish Cow

Austrian Cow

Belgian Cow

EU Cow

Hungarian Cow

Italian Cow

Portuguese Cow

Dutch Cow

British Cow

Total cows to date: 53 of 73 (plus 10 cows of europe).

Cow number 36

Close-up of Cow number 36

Cow number 44

Cow number 40

Cow number 45

Cow number 46

Cow number 53

Cow number 52

Cow number 51

Cow number 54

Cow number 56

Cow number 55

Today’s cows: 36, 44, 40, 45, 46, 53, 52, 51, 54, 56, 55.
Total cows to date: 53 of 73.

Cow number 29

Close-up of cow number 29

Today’s cows: 29.
Total cows to date: 42 of 73.

Cow number 24

Close-up of cow number 24

Cow number 4

Close-up of cow number 4

Cow number 5

Cow number 13

Cow number 28

Today’s cows: 24, 4, 5, 13, 28.
Total cows to date: 41 of 73.

Cow number 32

Cow number 35

Cow number 34

Cow number 39

Cow number 38

Cow number 41

Cow number 50

Cow number 49

Cow number 47

Cow number 48

Cow number 63

That brings me to a total of 36, nearly half-way, but quite a few missing from the sequence this time, so I’ll have to cover that area again.

Today’s cows: 32, 35, 34, 39, 38, 41, 50, 49, 47, 48, 63.
Total cows to date: 36 of 73.

Cow number 31

Cow number 65

Cow number 27

Cow number 16

Cow number 8

Cow number 7

Cow number 1

Cow number 2

Cow number 3

Cow number 6

Cow number 9

Cow number 11

Cow number 15

Cow number 14

Cow number 21

Cow number 20

Cow number 19

Cow number 23

Cow number 25

Cow number 33

Cow number 22

Cow number 26

The cows seem to be placed in a sequence, so it looks like I’ve missed a few in the area I’ve already covered.

Today’s cows: 31, 65, 27, 16, 8, 7, 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 11, 15, 14, 21, 20, 19, 23, 25, 33, 22, 26.
Total cows to date: 25 of 73.

I saw another one close by, so I decided to have a closer look…

A few years ago I saw something similar in Tulsa (that time is was life-sized penguins), so I figured they were part of some sort of charity event. Sure enough, at the base of the statue was a metal plate with a number and information about the statue.

The statues are part of the 2008 Tokyo Cow Parade (the site is in Japanese but there is an English description here).

I found one other rather unusual cow statue during my lunch break:

In total there are a total of 73 statues scattered around Marunouchi, so I decided it would be interesting to try to find them all!

Cows found today: 30, 18, 17.
Total cows found to date: 3 of 73.

Note: there is a map (english) showing the locations of all the cows. I’m not using the map, just seeing how many I can find. It’s more fun that way, really!

Update: The rest of the blog entries for the cow-hunt will be tagged with tokyo-cow-parade, and all the photos can be seen in my picasa gallery.

Photos were taken December 2007.

Here are some pictures taken in December 2007, when the leaves were changing colours. The rest of the photos are in this album (or click the photos).

I’m seriously considering getting a Time Capsule, since I need a wireless router anyway, and automatic wireless backups would be awesome.

The problem was caused by a couple of hundred locked files on the USB drive, which OS X happily sent to the trash but would not let me delete. Normally you can just restore a file from the Trash to a normal file, and then alter the properties (File -> Get Info in the Finder). But since the files were on a USB drive I couldn’t see them in the Trash.
So the files were effectively stuck, and I couldn’t empty the Trash without hitting “continue” a couple of hundred times (and the locked files would still be there, so that would happen every time).

After a quick google, and a look at man chflags, I found a solution. Open terminal, and run the following commands (replacing DRIVE with the volume name of your USB drive)

NOTE: run the following command at your own risk!


find /Volumes/DRIVE/.Trashes -type f -exec chflags nouchg {} \; -print


After than, “Empty Trash” worked as normal.

The rest of the photos are in this album (or click the photo).

In Yotsuya, only 4 minutes from the nearest subway station, 30 minutes from my work, and about 25 minutes walk from Shinjuku.

The rent sure isn’t cheap, but it’s quite big and gets plenty of sun, and I didn’t have to pay key money. The landlord also provided a refridgerator and a washing machine, and curtains – yes, you usually need to buy your own! And it includes free broadband internet as a nice little bonus.

Updated:
A photo of the lounge after finally getting a table and rug.

Then spotted in Shijuku a few weeks later:

Here’s the view from my temporary accommodation in Roppongi. That’s Tokyo tower in the background.

もし、東京に来たら、連絡してください！

Taken at the same location as my rickshaws photo, and also available in my redbubble portfolio.

This photo was taken at Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion in Penang on my (not-so-recent) trip to Singapore/Malaysia/Thailand in November last year. The blue color was created using the crushed petals of a local flower, in an attempt to match the original 19th century color. The mansion was recently restored, and is now a functioning guest house and is open for tours. It was also used as a setting for the movie ‘Indochine’.

PS: I know the photo is small. I will eventually get a photo gallery set up with a larger version (and some more photos!).

Update:A full-size version of this photo is now available for purchase!

Here’s a couple of pictures I took that night.

Update:Full-size versions of these photos are now available for purchase!

アンドリュー
Before I went to Japan, I had always used “アンドリュー” for my name in Japanese. This is “andoryuu”, the closes pronounciation of “Andrew” in Japanese, written in katakana. This is a common practice, and something you will typically learn if you do a beginners course in Japanese.

Choosing a Kanji equivalent
When I got to Japan, my host mother explained that it might be possible to chose a Kanji equivalent, even for a western name. This is done by finding kanji that have readings that match the sounds of your name. For my name, that meant finding kanji for the sounds あん(an), ど(do), and りゅう(ryuu).

This is quite a difficult process. Each kanji has a core meaning, and one or more readings (typically one or two syllables). You will generally have a choice of kanji for each of the sounds in your name, although sounds common in western names may not have any kanji. There can even be more than one Kanji with the same meaning and sound. Some readings of a kanji may not be suitable for use in names, so it’s definitely best to get the help of a Japanese person for this! Take a look at Hanzi Smatter for some examples of people getting tattoos of Japanese/Chinese characters when they obviously have no idea what they mean!

In the end, if you’re lucky, you end up with a kanji name that has a “meaning” (really more of a connotation) that appeals to you.

家族が教えてくれた名前は
(The name my family taught me)

うれしい！素敵名前と思う。お母さん、ゆかちゃん、ありがとうございます！
(I’m happy! I think it’s a great name. Thankyou to Mum and Yuka!).

安努竜。
Andrew.

PS: A friend tells me that 安努竜 doesn’t make sense in Chinese (the last two kanji don’t mean anything). It’s better than it meaning something completely different!
Perhaps the other Kanji for dragon (龍) has the same meaning in Chinese?

PPS: As m1k3y noted, if you don’t have Japanese fonts installed all you see is a bunch of ???s. Here’s a picture of the name:

How do you like my chair?

She was quite content to ignore me as I stopped, took the photo, and went on my way laughing

A few quick notes:

• the packaging is excellent, the box is incredibly thin
• it looks a lot like my old ibook from the outside, just a bit thinner and wider
• the screen is great, a big improvement over the ibook
• the keyboard seems good

Obligatory unpacking photos follow…

I had to wait 4 weeks for the white 2.0GHz MacBook stock to arrive. I was considering paying the extra $200 for the black because I was sick of waiting. They look nice, like the old pismo powerbook, but also a lot like a normal pc laptop, and it just doesn’t seem like it’s worth the extra just for the color (although something less prone to scratching might be nice).

Now I have to install the 120G drive in it and get everything transferred across!

Last year we all entered the 4km run (except Dad, who was away). This year I entered the 8km run, mainly because I thought there would be less people in that event, but also because Dad was running 8km, and I couldn’t let him run twice as far as me!

It turned out that 17,000 people entered the event in one form or another, and even in the 8km run was very crowded. The first few hundred metres were barely a more than walking pace, and most of the first kilometer was a slow jog. Definitely not an event to really test your times unless you can grab a spot right at the front of the start-line. But it was probably a good thing in the end, since my “training” (yeah, right!) didn’t go so great because of a cold 2 weeks before the event. I ended up keeping a steady pace up till the 6km mark, at which point I was still feeling really good, and pushed the last 2km quite hard. So my time wasn’t great, but I was happy with how it turned out, especially considering it was the first time I’ve run 8km.

Overall it was a good event, we all managed to finish okay and had a bit of fun

Happy Birthday Bron, I hope you had as much fun as I did.

Cory talked about culture, copyright, and DRM. Specifically, he talked about some of the crazy things the entertainment industry are doing, and how this indicates their business models aren’t in very good shape.

Some signs your business model is crap:

• suing your customers (RIAA)
• locking in your customers (Apple)
• removing features customers have paid for (TIVO)
• highjacking your customers computers by installing root-kits (Sony)
• competing to see who can have the most restrictive DRM (Blu-ray and HD DVD)

Cory’s an excellent speaker, and he’s obviously passionate about the topic. His published books are also available under the Creative Commons license, and he has worked for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, among other things. If you get a chance to see him speak, I’d thoroughly recommend it.

But the best bit about the night? M1K3¥ and Cory had met at conjure, so I got to tag along and have a drink and a chat with Cory and his girlfriend after the lecture!

We arrived to find about 6 inches of snow, and two police officers waiting for a search party who were bringing down a walker who’d spent an unplanned (and rather cold) night out in the snow!

Despite not being prepared for the snow (we had raincoats, but not really suitable footwear), we decided to give the walk to Mt. St. Gwinear a go. It turned out to be a fairly easy walk even in the snow, in the dry it would probably only take about an hour.

The view from the top was pretty good, we had a bit of lunch, and then made a snowman, which Bron dubbed ‘Claire’.

We didn’t have any gloves, so Claire was pretty small…

And, of course, the odd snowball got thrown…

Luckily the weather stayed fine, in fact it warmed up quite a bit and the snow began to melt making it hard to keep our feet dry.
It turned out to be a really nice walk, even with the wet feet on the way back.

Total : 309/400 (77%)
When I signed up to take the exam I really thought I had no chance of even passing (60%), I just applied to provide a little more incentive to study. And even after my trip to Japan I only scored about 70% on a practise exam a few days before the actual exam (that last minute cramming paid off!).
So I’m very happy with the results

The break-down for the different parts of the exam:

Kanji and vocabulary : 65/100
I definitely expected this to be the hardest for me, learning new words is very hard (I seem to forget them as soon as I’ve heard them!) and Kanji is an absolute killer to learn (I keep putting it off). I’m quite happy this was actually over the pass-mark on it’s own!

Listening : 78/100
About the level I expected after taking the exam, my listening improved a huge amount from the 5 weeks I spent in Japan in Sep/Oct last year, so I thought this would be the easiest part. I think I could have actually done better at this, but I missed a couple of the questions because I tuned out a bit during the exam! With only one chance to hear each question you’ve really got to keep focused for this part of the exam.

Grammar : 166/200 (84%)
I’m pleasently surprised by this result. We do a lot of grammar in my Japanese class, so I thought I should do okay, but since we won’t finish all the Level 3 grammar until at least the end of this year I expected to have a bit more trouble!

Maybe my JLPT Level 3 Exam Preparation wasn’t as bad as I thought after all!

I was actually expecting to be a bit put-out by the Commonwealth Games, with extra traffic, crowded and late trains, and crowds in the city. But the peak-hour trains seemed normal (I left home at the same time as normal and wasn’t late), and the extra trains & trams seemed to copy pretty well in the evenings, so it didn’t bother me at all (admittedly I don’t drive much, so if the traffic really was bad I wouldn’t really know).

In fact the extra trains on the weekend meant it was a good opportunity to travel out of the city (and avoid any crowds). On the first Sunday of the games I ended up taking a daytrip out to Sherbrooke Forrest (pdf) (1 hour out of Melbourne, at the end of the Belgrave Line) for a very pleasant bushwalk.

At the end of the day we headed back into the city, which was certainly busy but was actually a great atmosphere. There were plenty of free events around Federation Square and Alexandra Gardens for Festival 2006, which seemed very popular – some people were queuing for 2 hours to get into the circus, and we got turned away from the events at the Myer Music Bowl because it was full.

The fish on the yarra (and the hourly lightshow) seemed particularly popular.

As well as watching the closing ceremony on the TV, I was able to grab a few shots of the fireworks over the city skyline from my balcony.

I’m glad I got to experience Melbourne during the games, I hope those of you living in Melbourne didn’t miss out.

Note: okay, so I basically rewrote this page (it’s my blog, I’ll rewrite if I want!) and added some more pics. One of these days I will get around to adding a proper photo gallery to my site.

Aikido, which can be translated as “Way of Harmony with Ki”, was developed during the middle of the 20th Century by O Sensei Morihei Ueshiba (植芝盛平) – by all reports an incredible man.

Aikido is a martial art, and while it could be used to injure other people, the focus is on neutralising (potentially multiple) attackers, and as such it is very effective for self-defence. In fact, O Sensei was a deeply spiritual man, and an important facet of aikido is the corresponding responsibility given the potential for injury that comes with the knowledge of aikido techniques.

I’m studying aikido at aikidojo in West Melbourne. Aikidojo practices the Iwama Style of aikido, which is based on maintaining the aikido as taught by O Sensei to Sensei Morihiro Saito in Iwama, the spiritual home of Aikido (the home of both the Iwama dojo and the Aiki shrine).

Aikidojo is not a large dojo, but there is an incredible level of experience among the members. I went to dinner after one class and by my rough estimate the cumulative experience of the six senior members at the table was around 65 years! I’m very lucky that I get the chance to learn in that environment!

Even after a short time, it’s definitely clear to me that aikido is not something you ever “master”. Rather it’s something that will always involve learning on many levels.

I think that’s one of the things that I find most compelling about it.

I’m a member of the “build” team, which started “work” about 4 weeks ago. That would be “work” because we’ve basically had very little we can actually do, due to the fact that the design isn’t finished (and doesn’t look like it will be for quite a while).

Perhaps the fact that the detailed design document for our project requires the sign-off of 38 people could have been an indication of the way things were heading…

Be sure to register today!

It looks like it has a number of things of interest to students of the Japanese language:

Beginners Lessons
12 lessons for complete beginners (currently only the first 4 are done).
Looks like you need to spend a bit of time getting confortable with hiragana and katakana first, which is intimidating but I think is definitely a good idea.

Dictionaries
General Japanese-English and English-Japanese dictionaries, as well as dictionaries for kanji, names, particles, and even onomatopoeia.
These are (of course) based off the work of Jim Breen, who provides the excellent wwwjdic that I currently use.

Jouyou kanji lists
The 1945 standard kanji that Japanese are supposed to learn by the time they finish high school. The lists are broken into levels 1-6, plus general use, and the site allows you to customise the amount of information shown about each kanji (currently only level 1 allows customisation).

But the highlight of the site (at least for me)…

Grammar Book
An amazing Introduction to Japanese Syntax, Grammar and Language that’s 285 pages long, and must have taken a huge amount of effort to produce.
Based on the author’s study of Japanese at University, it looks like a very useful reference, especially for intermediate or advanced students. I’ll be using this to try to check and re-enforce my understanding of some of the tricky areas of the language (most of it really!). If only I knew enough English grammar to understand all the terms he uses!

You can download a pdf copy from the “books” section of the site, or read it online.

Well worth a look…

As always, がんばってね！

updated May 2007: as Pomax (the author of the site) notes, the onomatopoeia dictionary is his own work. I’ve also updated the online link to the grammar book.

The first step is to apply for the test (which is run only once a year in early December).
Applications must be made roughly between July and September, and are available from the host organisation in your country (see the link above for a list of host organisations). In Australia it’s Japan Seminar House.

The test is offered in 4 Levels, with Level 1 being the hardest and Level 4 being the easiest. You need choose the level when you apply for the test. The test guide (available with the application form) explains the expectations for each level, so it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out.

The next step is plenty of study! But where to start?
Luckily, the requirements for the test are well-defined. In fact, you can even download lists of the required vocabulary and Kanji for free!
One excellent site for the JLPT resources (as well as general Japanese language resources) is the Meguro Language Center free downloads.

You can also get study guides specifically for the JLPT.

I highly recommend sitting a practice exam as the exam approaches.
The format of the exam is the same each year, and knowing what to expect makes the experience a whole lot less nerve-wracking.
For example, the Level 3 test is multiple choice, and consists of three parts, with the following weightings.

1. Kanji and vocabulary (25%)
2. Listening (25%)
3. Grammar (50%)

A practice exam can also help you identify areas that you may have missed in your study, particularly for the grammar section.

Previous exams, including the audio and the correct answers, should be available from a book store specialising in languages or Japanese.

Another option available for study is to attend a specialised JLPT preparation course.
So far I haven’t done this, but I imagine it would help a lot more for Level 1 or Level 2.

Finally after all the hard work, you get to sit the exam!
Oh, and you get to wait for the results – they don’t come out till some time in February!

がんばってね！

• Homestay was great, the 田中 (Tanaka) family were fantastic, it was really nice to get to know them.
• Speaking is a lot harder than understanding. During the homestay I understood a lot of what my host mother was saying (she used simple language for me), but I found it really hard to say anything back.
• School was good (insanely hard to begin with). Hopefully I retained at least a little bit.
• I can actually have a basic conversation in Japanese (where are you from, etc. etc.)!
• Restaurants and shopping are difficult. After 2 years of study, I could ask basic questions, but barely understand anything that people said in reply. After 5 weeks, I went from understanding nothing to the point where I could hear they were using the super-polite verb forms, but I still couldn’t catch the actual verbs or point of the sentence. I still managed to get by okay though.

I can’t wait to go back!

After a few days sightseeing, I’ll be spending 2 weeks home-staying with the Tanaka family (田中さんたち）, and attending the Ishikawa Foundation for International Exchange (IFIE). I hope to write a little more about my experiences.

After that, I’m spending about 2 weeks travelling in Japan.
I guess this is the first real test of my “classroom” Japanese!

それでは、またね！

Michael has been beavering away working on ajaxpatterns.org for a while now, and it’s nice to see all the work paying off for him. The book is still in progress, but you can follow along (and even contribute) on the ajaxpatterns.org wiki. I look forward to reading the finished book!

Serenity can be viewed as a standalone movie, but is based on the TV series Firefly, by Joss Whedon (of Buffy & Angel fame). Unfortunately Firefly was cancelled mid-season (after being partially aired out of order!), but the whole season is available on DVD.

To keep this vaguely on-topic, one of the interesting aspects in Firefly/Serenity is the mixture of English & Chinese (Mandarin I believe). This is largely illustrated by the use of Chinese to replace swearing, but it is indicated that in the Firefly universe (set in the year 2517) English/Chinese bilinguality is the norm.

No spoilers here, but I will say I enjoyed the movie a lot (more than most movies I’ve seen this year).
Serenity is out in Australia on September 30. Go see it!

I won’t give a full walkthrough, as I’ve only spent about 30 seconds looking at the code. But the gmail counter is a bit simpler than the apple version, probably due to the fact that google completely control the rate of growth. This allows them to rely only on static data served with the page (they’ve scheduled/estimated the amount of storage that will be available at some times in the future), and then they simply use linear interpolation based on the current time.

For example, my page was served with the static data defining the [time, capacity] pairs:

    var CP = [
         [ 1117609200000, 2250 ],
         [ 1120201200000, 2350 ],
         [ 1122879600000, 2450 ]
    ];

For the curious, these entries correspond to the start of June, July and August respectively. I expect as it approaches August, they will start serving pages with an entry for September.

The update code simply finds the relevant entry in the CP array, and then interpolates based on the current time.

    function updateQuota() {
      if (!quota) {
        return;
      }

      var now = (new Date()).getTime();
      var i;
      for (i = 0; i < CP.length; i++) {
        if (now < CP[i][0]) {
          break;
        }
      }
      if (i == 0) {
        setTimeout(updateQuota, 1000);
      } else if (i == CP.length) {
        quota.innerHTML = 'Over ' + CP[i - 1][1];
      } else {
        var ts = CP[i - 1][0];
        var bs = CP[i - 1][1];
        quota.innerHTML = format(((now-ts) / (CP[i][0]-ts) * (CP[i][1]-bs)) + bs);
        setTimeout(updateQuota, 1000);
      }
    }

This is a good illustration how precomputation can avoid trips to the server.
Although, since it doesn’t use a roundtrip, I guess it doesn’t count as AJAX at all…

81 feeds, and 136 articles I’ve kept unread because I haven’t had a chance to read yet! I’ve noticed that I now spend about an hour a day just reading the new entries, and despite a concerted effort to try to clear the backlog, I’m getting further behind.

Will the growth of RSS lead to yet another form of information overload?

rikai.com is a great alternative that uses javascript to augment a site, displaying the readings and meanings of Kanji (including compounds, and some katakana words) when you mouse over the page. Just enter the URL into the box near the top of the page, and hit Go.

For example, given the following text:

the augmented version of this page will look like

Notes

• You can also enter Japanese text directly into the box for a translation.
• If you enter a URL, make sure it is the only thing in the box, otherwise it will be interpreted as text (see above point).
  This includes empty lines (i.e. don’t put in the link and press <Enter>)
• The augmented page has some advertising at the top
• It doesn’t seem to work when the URL contains japanese.
  For example, my blog entry こんにちは！ doesn’t work.

2年前から日本語をべんきょうしています。
私の日本語はまだ下手ですががんばています！
[For the last 2 years I've been studying Japanese.
My Japanese is still poor, but I'm sticking with it!]

Learning Japanese is great fun, but it’s definitely a challenge.

Superficially, everything is “backwards”. For example, the phrase “there is a cat on the desk” is translated as ”つくえ の 上 に 猫 が います”, which is literally “desk’s on cat there is”. It’s difficult to construct a sentence in this way, but after only a little practice understanding such a sentence isn’t hard. It’s quite amazing how the human brain can adapt to these patterns. Ironically, one of the things I enjoy about learning Japanese is that I also get to learn more about English grammar (perhaps it says something about the quality of the NZ & Australian education systems?). However, I think the biggest thing I’ve learnt is that I have absolutely no idea how I construct sentences in English!

Of course, I’m still at quite a basic level in my study of Japanese. I passed JLPT level 4 (the easiest level) last November, JLPT level 3 is probably a couple of years away. No doubt it’ll get a lot harder!

Then there’s the biggest hurdle to “learning” Japanese – the writing system. Kanji is enough to scare any sane person into giving up Japanese. For a bit of a a discussion of the background (and power?) of Kanji, Jonathon’s article is interesting.
Perhaps more on learning Kanji later.

PS: If my Japanese above is incorrect, please let me know!

PPS: I’ve got to say, one of the nice things about having a mac is the ease of entering Japanese. Like everything else on the mac, it “just works”, while at the same time being incredibly powerful

This is my first web site, so nothing here at the moment.