Wow, what a week! Since I put up the show last week there has been a ton of action, and I thought I'd try and capsulate it all here before I record today's show.
Saturday: After work I headed down to the anus of the Yamanote Line, the great, and famed area know simply as "Gotanda"! The most wonderful place in Tokyo, which is in an unfortunate location on the Yamanote map. Saturday was a re-union of epic sorts. The whole sha-bang was organized by a former student, you might remember her as "Miss Voice Gotanda" and one of my absolute favorite students! She always had questions, and always had input, and always had good conversation for any fortunate teacher to walk into the voice room in the early evening.
We all met up at an Izakaya in Gotanda's famous "red light district" known as "Yurakugai". A rough estimation would place about 40 people in the room, probabaly 9 or 10 teachers and about 30 students. It was amazing, it really cemented Gotanda NOVA's place in history as "The Greatest NOVA school in all of Japan" and made me miss the place a bit. It was really great to see everyone in one place again, and Miss Voice Gotanda made a stirring speech to kick off the festivities, very moving! After the Izakaya we headed off for some karaoke to rock the night away. I ended up leaving at about 5 in the morning, and sang my ass off. After a rough calculation (because I have a few lapses in memory) I probably put down about: 3 bottles of beer, 10 glasses of beer, 4 glasses of Umeshu (plum wine) and a glass of Shochu, or something close to that... I woke up Sunday morning with little voice, and only a little hangover. Here's to GOTANDA!
Sunday: SNOW! It snowed again (and has snowed a bit since) but this winter's biggest snowfall was on sunday. It was great! I love the snow! That's about it.
Monday: F'n Super Bowl man! Yeah baby! kick off was about 8:30 am local time, and I had a few people over to watch the big game: mornin, Melvis, D.C. gaijin, A.O.S. and Deuce! Sweet little turnout for a great game. I had a feeling that it would be a lot closer than the point spread suggested, but as you might have heard in the last episode, I did pick the Pats to win the game... well, they didn't! It was a hell of a game, probably the best game I've seen since the Rams X Titans game a few years back. I'd probably say this game was better. The Rams X Titans game was great because it came down to the very last place of the game, but I hate the Rams, and they won... This game was great because, although I don't really care for either team, it was exciting, and full of surprises. One surprise was the outcome, 17-14 win for the Giants, but also the 7-3 (Pats lead) to start the 4th quarter. Really good game, I think I'll probably watch the 2nd half of that game several times before the 2008 season kicks off.
Tuesday: Work :(
Wednesday: Work :( But! before work I headed downstairs and checked my mail as I always do, and in my box (ha ha) I found a little piece of mail that held the results of my JLPT test... I grabbed it and continued walking to the station. On the way I opened it up, and much to my surprise I didn't see my results! At first I thought it was because I failed, then I saw a section that said "request for certificate" which I thought meant that I had to send that in to get the results (I know that doesn't make sense, but I was in a bit of nervous shock). Finally I found a secret compartment on the back side of the piece of mail, and opening it with shaking hands I found that I had passed!
Lets see... there are 3 sections to the test, first is Vocab, 2nd is listening, and 3rd is reading/grammar. First section I'd say I rocked in around a 65% or so, it was alright, on the upper end I'd go as high as 70% I guess. Second section was always my strongest, on the low end I'd go 80% and on the high end 90%. Man, I've got a penchant for listening. I've always been pretty good at it, and wasn't worried about this section whatsoever. The last part was... well... lets say... god awful. Yeah, that's right, going in I needed (according to my rough calculations) about a 50% to pass, and I think I just completely blew the captain on that one. Wow. I really had no idea what the questions were, and what the answers might be. According to percentages, just guessing you'd think I would have got at least 25%, you know 1 in 4 chance right? Well, there's also a possibility that I got 0%, and that's the one I'm thinking that I was closer to. Wow.
This was my immediate reaction to the test. I was pretty close in guessing my score, the first section I overestimated just a touch, I actually came out with a 53%, then a sweet (just about perfectly guessed) 85% in listening, and the last section a shocking 53%! I woulda guessed 30%. I am soooooo very happy that I passed! 61% is passing folks, 1% higher than the required 60% is still passing! Be warned, my buddy, Mr. D.C. Gaijin failed by 1 point! Not 1%, one freaking point! I feel really bad for him, but I also remember that the last time I took the JLPT (6 years ago) I failed level 3, but it was a great learning experience, as it gave me a taste of the style of test and crap like that, and tada! 6 years later, I aced (ha!) level 2! 6 years seems to be a long time, and plenty of time to study, but I probably studied for about a year during that span, so, very happy am I! Hopefully I can spin this test result into a job using Japanese in some capacity, that's the goal baby!
I took this picture in a Book Off (new and used bookstore) in Kawasaki over the weekend.
