I have now officially signed up to take the JLPT (Japanese language proficiency test) level N3 (the intermediate level) on December 5th. I’m only doing it because I’m leaving in April, otherwise I wouldn’t – Japanese testing is basically testing your comprehension in multiple-choice questions and grammar. There is no composition or speaking, which to me are the biggest test of your grasp of that language! This happens with their English testing, Japanese and anything else. It wouldn’t surprise me if this was how they did a lot of their university testing too!
Even though I’m very busy now back at work, it doesn’t always feel like it – Japan has so many public holidays that since summer there’s at least 1 bank holiday a month. More in September as there was ‘silver week’, basically designed by the Japanese government to try and promote more spending by celebrating the autumn equinox and ‘respect for the aged’ day. This week the days fell on a Monday and Thursday. On the long weekend I went to Osaka and Kobe just for fun – most of my Japanese friends didn’t understand this concept – I took a few photos around Kobe. Speaking of photo’s – I’ve been trying out some things around here, so please look at my photoalbum streets of Nagoya. I tried to take some candid black and white shots too recently.
This Monday is another public holiday. Yay!
