Back from Kyoto with a lot of fantastic memories and a lot of books in my suitcase! Kyoto in December was very calm, we were even almost alone in some temples! Very touristic places were full of people but not crowded with noisy groups. Less touristic places were very quiet and sometimes quasi-deserted. Temple gardens..
Japanese News: kanji of the year 北
You probably read or heard about it if you follow the news about Japan: the kanji of the year 今年の漢字 is officially 北・きた. Link to the NHK article on the subject. The 今年の漢字 is a kanji chosen at the end of each year by the Japanese kanji proficiency society 日本漢字能力検定協会 to represent the year that is..
Currently reading a magazine on Moomin and watching the series again
[caption id="attachment_11875" align="alignleft" width="190"] Moe, 2017 dec. ムーミンのこともっと知りたい！[/caption] After my déconvenue at the JLTP, I bought this magazine even though I had no idea what it was about, just because I love Moomin. Moe turns out to be a magazine about illustrated books for children and you probably know Moomin, the main character of children books..
Collecting collocations: how to take notes to improve one’s writing skills
I am concerned about how to improve my writing skills and I have tried a method that seems to work well. The idea is to thoroughly study an article in order to collect collocations and expressions that we can use for writing. Until now, I have entirely relied on Anki to learn new words. This..
Japanese News: Emperor Akihito will retire on April, 30th 2019
You may have heard that a date was finally set last week for the abdication of Emperor Akihito. I think it is time for me to try reading political articles, but I will start with a very short one. Link to the article. (😲😨😱 As I check this link again, I realise that they completely..
Currently reading: パラドックス13 by 東野圭吾
One of my good resolutions for 2018 is to read more books by Higashino Keigo. This is not a very hard resolution to keep as I love this author. I have decided to take a break from the Kaga series that I am currently reading and chose a relatively recent and long novel: 「パラドックス13」(read: パラドックス..
JLPT 2017 second test and beyond
Yesterday was finally the second JLPT test of the year. As I prepared a lot for it, I cannot but give my impressions on the test. Disappointed 😫 To be honest, I went to the test with a decent amount of self-confidence. I was particularly afraid of the grammar part so I worked a lot..
Japanese News: 「九十歳。何がめでたい」
I have found an interesting article this morning. Published on Asahi, the article's title is 年間ベストセラー発表 １位は「九十歳。何がめでたい」. Link to the article The title would not have caught my attention if I hadn't read recently an article about the "アラハン" (around hundred) phenomenon in Japan. I read about this in the magazine 일본어 저널, which is a..
Book review: 『嘘をもうひとつだけ』 by Keigo Higashino
「嘘をもうひとつだけ」is the 6th book of the Kaga series 加賀恭一郎シリーズ by Higashino Keigo. If you are not familiar with this series, it features detective 加賀恭一郎 Kaga Kyoichiro and is composed of 10 books. The first novel of the series was one of the first novels written by Higashino Keigo (「卒業」was published in 1989*) and the last one..
Things I want to do after the JLPT and planning for next year!
These last months have been almost entirely devoted to preparing for N2. I am very happy that I did it because it helped me improve my vocabulary and grammar knowledge with the result that I can read books in Japanese more comfortably now than I could this summer. I also worked a lot on improving..
Japanese News:
Today, I will study an article published on NHK News Web about the Zama 座間市 murder case in which Shiraishi Takahiro 白石隆浩 killed 9 people. In fact, I heard this report this morning, on the site NHK Radio News (report from the 24th November, 9:00 to 9:05). It appears that what the journalist said on the..
Currently reading: 噓をもうひとつだけ by 東野圭吾
Even if I am still struggling with Mishima's Temple of the Golden Pavillon 「金閣寺」 that I am reading in Japanese, I just couldn't resist the temptation to start a new book by Higashino Keigo. I was missing Higashino's universe, and I was eager to read the next novel of the Kaga series 加賀恭一郎シリーズ. Also, I wanted to..