JLPT N2 study materials (part 1)

Ooh, I just got my JLPT N2 test voucher in the mail... the big test is coming up in just over a month. Am I ready for it? No! In fact, I'm pretty sure I'll fail. That said, I have amassed quite a collection of study resources. So, as I talked about the books I was using to study for N3 last year, here's a brief overview of the books I've been using for N2.

(Update: I've just written a post on my other blog specifically about the different N2 grammar textbooks I've used - most of them not reviewed on this page.)

テーマ別中級から学ぶ日本語

This book is not specifically designed for JLPT study, but it is a good book for bridging the gap between N3 and N2, as it begins at a lower intermediate sort of level and gradually gets more challenging, with longer and more complex reading passages.

I like this book a lot. Most Japanese textbooks I've seen have been very dry and contain lots of example sentences and questions, and every chapter contains more and more of the same. They are dull to work through by yourself and even duller to work through with a teacher.

That's why I like this book. Although not wildly exciting, it's the first book I've been able to stick with without getting sick of. Each chapter begins with a list of vocab that will be in that chapter, some discussion questions loosely related to the theme of the chapter, a reading passage with comprehension questions, a few grammar points from the reading, etc. The readings are quite interesting and lend themselves to conversation.

I currently work through this book in private lessons with my Japanese teacher. I think the book is very well suited to a private teacher, because you can check your understanding of everything as you go along, read the passages and have them confirm your answers, etc. Going through each unit makes for a structured lesson that still has a bit of variety to it.

Another good point is that the grammar comes directly from the reading passages, so you can go back and see them in context. Also, the passages gradually get longer and more complex. The early ones are a good level for someone coming out of N3, unlike some N2 textbooks that pitch their level a bit high for someone who is only just starting to study for N2. This book was a good level for me.

The book's not perfect; for example there are no review units, no explanations of grammar and no answers to the questions in the book. It's important to note that this book is not designed for self-study but for class use.

短期マスター 日本語能力試験ドリル N2

This is not exactly a study resource, in that it's not designed to teach you per se; it's just practice test questions so you can get an idea of what to expect in N2. Such a resource is really useful as a measure of progress, and particularly useful if you've never taken a JLPT test before. There's no doubt you will get an advantage from not going in blind - you'll better know how you need to manage your time, you'll know what sections to expect on a listening test, etc.

Reading Japanese with a Smile 

This small book, which has more English in it than Japanese, contains nine short stories from the Shuukan Asahi, with detailed explanations of the language in them. Each story is a bit quirky or funny. Each chapter begins with the magazine story in Japanese, and a straight translation into English on the adjacent page. After that, the story is dissected sentence-by-sentence, with further explanations of the vocab and grammar used in them.

This is a nice bit of extra reading material and good for three main reasons:

• sometimes you get sick of reading meh JLPT-style passages and want something more fun
• sometimes you get sick of reading everything purely in Japanese and want a break
• sometimes it can be really helpful to get into the nitty-gritty of what you read and thus build your understanding in general. As a Japanese student, you probably often read passages you mostly understand but you're kind of guessing 'what does this particle mean?' 'does this phrase change the meaning of the sentence?' 'what is this word referring to?' etc. This book makes those things very clear.

Personally, I find the stories in this book a bit tricky to follow (my level is roughly halfway between N3 and N2, I think) but I guess that's the point of having them broken down… while I think it's a good resource, it's not one I've spent a lot of time on.

U-CANの日本語能力試験N2これだけ！ 

I grabbed this book because it was quite small (though it has around 350 pages); it's easy to carry around in a handbag. This book focuses on the kanji/vocabulary section of the JLPT and just consists of loads and loads of questions to practise on. The book is divided into the sections you'd find on the test (eg, in the first section, you have to give the hiragana reading of an underlined kanji, or vice versa). The answers include a brief 'explanation' - for example, giving you the readings of the incorrect kanji, or showing how you'd use each of the vocabulary words in a sentence. There are also a few pages for review, that have loads of kanji/words and you have to test your memory.

This book is good for drilling yourself. It's easy to use because you don't have to flick to the back of the book to check your answers - the questions are on the left-hand page, the answers on the adjoining right-hand page. Another neat thing about this book is that it gives the answers in red - and provides a red plastic sheet. This means you can cover the answers and reveal them as you like; furigana is also provided in red so you can try to read words without help first, then check the furigana if you can't get them.

Good to dip into for a bit of quick drilling and practice; not good for extended periods of study or (despite the cheery name of the book) as your only resource for learning new vocab/kanji.

Anki (kyouiku kanji deck)

This is not a book, but a free piece of software that a lot of people use for language learning. Basically, it's a flashcard program that shows you flashcards at intervals, depending on how well you know the information on the cards. I really recommend it. You can make your own deck or download other people's flashcard sets to study with.

Kanji has always been a weak area of mine, so I decided to download a kyouiku kanji deck (all 1000-odd characters learned by primary school children in Japan) and go through every one of them until I could read and write all of them. It took me over six months, but I did it. I think it helped having this kyouiku kanji deck. That is, it was a clearly defined deck, with a finite number of cards and a definite goal. The way Anki works gives an incentive to study every day (if you leave it a couple of days, the number of cards you have to review increases).

I tried to really learn kanji using radicals; ie by learning the meaning of some common radicals and mentally tying them together to learn the kanji, rather than just trying to remember how to write all the different strokes. Inspired by Tofugu's article 'The 5 Biggest Mistakes People Make When Learning Kanji', I used sites like Jisho's radical look-up and Tofugu's kanji radicals cheat sheet.

Update: I have finally updated and added JLPT N2 study materials (part 2).

Akage no An (Anne of Green Gables)

While I was in Japan I got to see my first Japanese musical, Anne of Green Gables (in Japanese, 'Akage no An' - literally, 'red-haired Anne'). This was being put on by the Shiki Theatre Company - see their website here.

Back when I was living in Japan, this musical was being advertised but hadn't come out yet, so I never got to see it. This time, it was playing again, so I took the chance. I went on a weekday; the theatre was only half full, and although I got a cheap B section seat at the very back, the theatre (the small Jiyuu theatre) was small enough that I could see it very well.

I saw on the Shiki website that I could buy tickets via PIA tickets, which you can buy through some 7-Elevens. (A lot of convenience stores have machines to buy tickets for concerts, games or shows.) A nice staff member at 7-Eleven helped me buy a ticket. It's a Shiki production so was showing at one of the Shiki theatres near Hamamatsucho station in Tokyo.

The musical itself was good, I thought. I'm a big Anne of Green Gables fan and I know the story inside out, so I could easily follow it although it was all in Japanese. The actors were good and so was the singing. When I first heard of this musical I thought it might be unintentionally funny - not only a musical version of Anne, but in Japanese - but I enjoyed it.

One part that amused me was that act 1 ended with a big musical number, 'Ice cream', in which everyone at the church picnic sang the words 'ice cream' over and over again, while everyone held cones in the air. This was immediately followed by an interval, and everyone streamed into the foyer, where they were selling ice creams. You could see everyone thinking 'hmm... for some reason I feel like an ice cream'.

One thing I like about going to shows/movies with Japanese people is that generally, things start right on time, and the people around you are quiet and don't talk to each other during the show/movie. One thing I don't like is that the people around you generally don't respond much to anything. Part of the enjoyment of going to a movie or show is sharing the experience with the people around you. If something funny happens, I like it when everyone laughs. If a big song ends, I think everyone should clap, not just the audience in the first few rows.

Apparently, there is an English version of the Anne of Green Gables musical, which has run mostly in Canada, particularly on Prince Edward Island; you can see a song list on the musical's Wikipedia entry. This is the same musical I saw, with the same songs, though obviously all in Japanese.

Meguro Parasitological Museum

The Meguro Parasitological Museum is about a 10-minute walk from Meguro station, in Tokyo. This small museum, as the name suggests, is a museum about parasites, with lots of samples in jars, posters on walls and explanations of different parasites, their life cycles, and different ways of being affected by them.

I had heard of this museum, written up on several different websites as a bit of a quirky novelty. I suppose it is an unusual tourist draw, but it really is small, and has very few English explanations of anything. You can buy an English guidebook, or look at it for free (there's a sample one on the desk by the merchandise counter, along with all the Japanese books), and this does help a lot.

I was amused to read an English newspaper article on the wall which described the museum as being an unusual attraction for young couples; couples would go there on dates, to test their mettle or gross themselves out. As it happened, all the other visitors while I was there were young couples exclaiming over the displays. Unlikely as it sounds, I guess the article got it right!

Maid cafe

Ah, the maid cafe - a uniquely Japanese innovation (I hope) and a particularly famous feature of Akihabara, the geek mecca. The idea is that you pay a little extra to be waited on by cute girls dressed as maids. The cafes range from subdued - really like a normal cafe except that the girls happen to be in costume - to weird - where they girls fuss over you, act 'moe' (…look it up) and play games with the customers. I've been to a 'normal' maid cafe before, but I just had to see what the other sort might be like.

The elevator door opened to a cutesy, brightly decorated cafe with a stage (where the maids sometimes do a show at set hours), pictures on the walls showing us this cafe's girls, and, of course the girls themselves.  They greeted me with a wildly excited 'okaerinasai!' ('welcome home!') and called me 'ojousama' - I'm the lady of the house, you see, and they were welcoming me like good maids.

There were a few other customers, mostly male and all Japanese, and the different maids chatted with the different tables, or to each other. When customers ordered food or drink, the maid delivering it would have the customer play a little game with them (like, chant some cute phrase before eating) before leaving them to consume it.

The aim of the maids is to spend time with the customers, and make them feel special by joking and asking questions and being cute. They were quite good at this, but I still felt uncomfortable. It's just kind of an embarrassing atmosphere; perhaps it would be better if the cafe were absolutely full of customers and all of them well into their cups, so that there was a loud and cheery atmosphere. I ended up feeling a bit sorry for the girls, because who wants to try to josh along and play cute games with reticent guys who can hardly look you in the eye? I felt vaguely as if I were seeing a new type of geisha, in the sense that their job is to look pretty and chat with customers, no matter how little the customers have to say.

A maid cafe is a little different from a normal cafe; with their gimmicks, they get a bit of extra money out of you. When I went (Tuesday evening), these were the rules:

• There's a table charge - for 1000 yen you can stay two hours. 
•  You must order either a 'set menu', or choose a minimum of two items from the normal menu. These 'set menus', each of them over 2000 yen, included food and drink, as well as maid-related things - like a keychain, a photo opportunity, etc. 
•  You can't take photos of the maids, unless you have paid for the privilege. You can also buy merchandise with the maids' pictures on it - hence why they don't want you to take your own! As 

I've been to Akiba several times, I felt I really had to try a real maid cafe, just for the unique experience. My conclusion: it was a bit too weird for me. Not just for me, I daresay - to my amusement, several times, another foreigner or group of foreigners would come up the elevator, and the doors would open - they'd take one look into the room, pale, and immediately go back downstairs again. If you go, you should go with at least a couple of friends who have a good sense of humour, I think!

A Day In: Shirokanedai

The weather was lovely; it was too nice a day to just go shopping. Where could I go to find a nice spot of nature - preferably somewhere new and not too far away?

I betook myself to Tokyo - specifically, to Shirokanedai, near Meguro. Just by the station is Happo-en, a traditional Japanese-style garden. This garden is not very touristed, but is pretty and is a popular spot for wedding photos. Indeed it was impossible to walk five metres without getting in the way of yet another couple's photo shoot. I sat on a rock and watched the koi - not a bad way to pass the time - until all the groups gradually left. When this happened, I pretty much had the place to myself.

It's not a very big garden, but that makes it a good size to potter around; you can easily see all of it and just sit and enjoy the feel of it. The garden also features a collection of bonsai trees, with their type and age printed; the oldest are over 500 years old!

After Happo-en, despite my resolution to spend the day outdoors, I was lured in by the Shirokanedai Book-Off. For those who don't know, these are stores that specialise in books, CDs, DVDs and games; they sell a lot of second-hand stuff, and you can also sell your own cast-offs to them for a pittance (I did this when I left Japan, having accumulated a vast number of books in a short time and not liking to just throw them all away). 

The Shirokanedai Book-Off has quite a nice little cafe in it, where I sat for a while, and, to my great astonishment, the downstairs had a HUGE selection of books in English. I've rarely seen so many cheap foreign books; I'm not sure quite how this Book-Off in a quiet, obscure little Tokyo neighbourhood should have come by so many!

The upshot was I spent about an hour and a half in there and came away with 11 books…

I decided to walk down Meguro-dori with the eventual goal of reaching the Meguro Parasitological Museum. I should say that this small museum, quirky as it sounded, was the only sightseeing spot on my 'places to go' list that I never visited when I lived in Japan. That I never made it there proves it was never a priority, but being in the vicinity, I thought it a good chance.

Shirokanedai is a pretty quiet neighbourhood, despite the main road I was walking along. There were a couple of cute little cafes and other small shops that I think give Tokyo character. I bypassed a couple of museums and came to a national park, the National Park for Nature Study.

Well, it was a nice day, after all, and although I had never heard of this place, that's what carefree days are for, right? In I went. Great idea!

People are always saying of this or that park or garden, 'it makes you forget you're in the middle of a city'. This park really made me forget I was in the middle of Tokyo. I felt like I'd stepped right into the fresh green lushness of the Japanese countryside. You couldn't see any buildings or hear any traffic noises; just trees.

I wouldn't call it picturesque, exactly; it certainly wasn't manicured; as far as nature goes, it was quite a contrast to Happo-en. Yet it was a refreshing place to be immersed in. It would take at least half an hour to walk around the whole track. 

When you go into the park, you take a ribbon to wear, and return it to the box when you leave. I have since learned this is because they have a limit of 300 people that they allow in the park at any one time, presumably to avoid spoiling the peace of it. And to be sure, it wasn't busy, being mostly populated by old ladies in hats and old men with big cameras. This seems to be a popular place to take nature photos; some shots of flowers and insects are on display near the entrance.

I wouldn't recommend this national park as a major tourist draw, but if you have seen a lot of places around Tokyo and are looking for something new, or if you live in Tokyo, it really is a breath of fresh air.

You know, every time I go to Tokyo, I'm struck anew by how big it is, how much there is too it, how much there is to see. I passed three different museums on my stroll, none of which I'd heard of before, as well as finding that very well-stocked Book-Off, a new garden and a national park.

The most famous of the museums I passed was the Teien Art Museum, right by the park. It was closed for refurbishing though.

I kept walking for some minutes more and eventually passed Meguro station. I passed the river, lined with cherry trees - at this time of year, all green, but when they are in full bloom, it's one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen.

My final stop for the day was the Meguro Parasitological Museum, which I'll mention in another post.

Tokyo Sky Tree

One of the big events of this year was the opening of Tokyo Sky Tree, now the tallest building in Japan (and apparently the second-tallest building in the world, at the time of writing this). This tower opened in May and has attracted hordes of tourists ever since. it can be seen from many places around Tokyo, and is quite near Asakusa - you can walk there from Asakusa (takes about 20 minutes) or take a train from Asakusa. From Azumabashi (near Asakusa station) you can get a good view of it:

At the base of the Tree is a quite good shopping mall and an aquarium. When I got there, it was an average Monday, and the Tree had been open for over 4 months, so I didn't expect it to be crowded. Walking into the mall, I had one of my 'yikes, there are a lot of people' moments. (These moments are pretty frequent in Japan. Depending on my mood at the time, my reaction ranges from a mild 'gee, there are a lot of people' to 'oh God what fresh hell is this').

I did like wandering around the mall though. One store that amused me (and a lot of other people judging by the number of people trying to wedge their way through) was a food sample store on the fourth floor. You know those plastic samples of food you see in restaurant windows, to get an idea of what dishes you can order? You can buy your own. Expensive but diverting to look through.

I didn't end up going up the Tree, since there was a pretty lengthy queue, but I had a nice view of it from the base. I could have bought one of about a thousand different souvenirs of it, but to be honest, although it's impressive to see, it's really not that beautiful a building to have on a postcard or box of cookies.