In Japanese, it is very common to short form pronunciation in speech. 　と in casual conversation can be replaced by　って　or　て.

• 使用禁止は使うなって（と）いう意味です
• あそこに　「とまれ」って（と）書いてあります

て is used when the previous word before と is an ん.

• このかんじは何て（と）読むんですか。

Compounds words are simply words formed by combing two words together. This very common in the Japanese language, especially in sign boards.

• 私+達  = 私達 (we)
• 日本+人 = 日本人 (Japanese)
• 日本+料理 = 日本料理 (Japanese cooking)
• 乗る+換える = 乗り換える (to transfer)

1) ～ 口　（ぐち）

口　(くち） by itself means mouth. When used in a compound word it means a location or  direction. Its used with a noun + 口 or verb (masu-form) + 口。

Commonly seen in train stations indicating the location of the exit:

• 東口 (east gate)　　西口 (west gate)　　南口 (south gate)　　北口 (north gate)　　中央口 (central gate)

or direction of exits

• 出口(exit)　入口(entrance)　上り口(up-going stairs)　下り口(down-going stairs)
• 窓口  means ticket window (location)
• 非常口 means emergency exit, very important!

2) ～　中　（じゅう）

中 by itself means center or the middle location, but when used as compound word, has 2 meanings in general. The first means throughout that time period when the word is a time period + 中. Commonly used examples:

• 一日中（all day long）　一晩中（all night long）　一年中（throughout the year）

Ex: 朝から一日中コンビューターをつかっていたので、目が疲れてしまった。

3) 　～　中　（ちゅう）

The second meaning shows an action which last for a certain period of time. However, only a limited number of nouns and verbs can be be used in such construction.

• 食事中(while eating) 　出張中(in business travel)　電話中(while on the phone)　試験中(during exams)

Ex: 部長は今、タイへ出張中なので、帰りましたら、すぐご連絡いたします。

Most commonly see in restaurant

• 営業中(in business)    準備中(in preparation)

Some exceptions that cannot be used:

• 心配中　びっくり中　結婚中　招待中   輸入中　輸出中　出発中

Additional infomation:

• A noun indicating a location + 中 means throughout that place.

Ex: この新聞は世界中で読まれています (this newspaper is read throughout the world)

• A time period + 中に means within that period of time

Ex: 来週中にレポートを出してください (Please submit the report by the end of next week)

• A time period + 中は means all through that time period

Ex: 土曜日の 午前中（ちゅう） は家にいます。 (I am at home on Saturday morning)

Most of my friends know that one of the first few things I do whenever I visit Tokyo is to head for Coco Ichiban Curry house. The curry is delicious and the ingredients are taste, plus you get to put as much preserved veg on your curry as you like.

So when I say Mr. Curry in Central, I thought we could get a good japanese curry experience in Singapore… finally.

So some of my friends went in and order some of the curry sets and I must say that its very dissappointing.

Tim order a beef cury set and when the beef curry came, there was only strands of fats float in the curry with very little trace of meat. We thought it was a mistake, but the waitress told us that its normal, but offer to change another dish for us.

I order a fried oyster curry. The fried kaki was okay, nothing to cry about. However, I find the curry a bit too starchy, almost empty of personality. For around $12 per set, I had expected more.

Now our sets all come with the soup of the day, but I wanted to try their onion soup and found that I had to pay an additional of $2 for the soup. When it came, I regretted paying extra $2 for a bowl of onion water.

All in all, the curry is no where near any good curry house in Japan and for the price, I expected more and got much less.

My verdict: I wouldn’t go there again.

Having been both users of plam phones (treo 650/centro) and Windows Mobile phone (Treo Pro), having a good japanese dictionary is surely an important addition for those studying Japanese and needs a quick reference to those difficult kanji.

For Palm OS, I found that PADICT is quick, easy to use and more importantly free. You can also search for kanji by writing on your screen. However, the dictionary is not as comprehensive as I would love it to be, but it is good enough for most of my needs.

For WinMo, I have tried 3 japanese dictionaries:

• EBpocket -> could not get the fonts working properly nor the dictionary to work
• Declan Japanese Dictionary –>totally useless, don’t work at all, plus it needs a larger screen then my Treo Pro has

I finally settled on PocketDictionary, together with JapaneseInput, both are incredibly free.  Together they offer the  japanese/kanji input dictionary experience on Treo Pro for me so far. Further the dictionaries are based on the famous Jim Breen’s dictionary.

I was never impressed with soba, especially 茶そば or even ざるそば. What a waste of money eating nothing but carbohydrates with soy sauce!

Well, not until I tried the ざるそば at Kuriya at Raffles City basement, the other day. I was impressed by the rich texture and taste such a simple meal could afford. I cannot really describe how it tastes like, but its something you know it if you eat it. Even my boyfriend who don’t really like stuff like ざるそ, says its nice.  At least now I know why my friend Tadashi was raving about some soba at　新宿　２ chome. Really makes me want to fly there immediately to try it.

Having tried the soba at Kuriya, I have since tried soba from a lot of other places, but have not been impressed enough yet. For one thing, its my belief that soba should be eaten cold, that how the taste and textures comes out in full. In hot soup, some may just become soggy. However, I belief a good soba shop would know how to dish out good soba in hot soup.

The other day, we were at Shin Kyushiya at Vivo city and I order something similar but its udon.  The dipping sauce is sesame based instead of dashi.  The うどん looks a bit like our hor fun or the vietnamese pho (flat rice noodles), but the texture was good, it was actually unlike typical udon, taste more like a good pho. The dipping sauce was unimpressive but the udon was good. Worth the money spent.

Eddie took this picture around Ueno station. Its a adult sex shop… 7 stories of it. I went into one of them before, er.. only the first floor…the shelves is fill up boxes of silicon pussy, whole wall of them! I never noticed the wordings on the building until Eddie too this picture. Anyway, the Japanese words at the side of the building says “大人のコンビニ” [Otona no conbini]. Translated: adult’s convenience shop.

Click picture to see bigger (no pun intended!)

For many beginners in the Japanese language probably one of the most complex structures are the verbs. The Japanese verbs plays an important part of understanding the speaker’s intentions. Hence, the verb is conjugation (AKA changed) into various forms to express intentions of “to want”, “to become”, “probably will”, “may want”, etc.

The confusion

Now, for the first-half of my self-learning, I could not figure out how godan (五段) verbs and ichidan (一段) verbs were conjugated (AKA changed) and why verbs like:

- nomu (のむ, to drink) become nonde (のんで, drink) or,
- arau (あらう, to wash) becomes araimasu (あらいます, to wash in polite form) and aratte or,
- why aruku (あるく, to walk) becomes aruite (あるいて, walk).

To me, it looks like the entire verb was changing and it was just baffling. I was forced to memorize each verb and each conjugation which became a bottleneck and was just really silly and ineffective way of learning.

To make it worst, many sources both in the Internet and even in books like to describe the difference between godan and ichidan verbs as “ichidan verbs tend to end with ‘eru’ and sometimes ‘iru’ and godan tend to end with their i-form + ‘ru’ but some have ‘eru’ ending as well”. Like hello!?? What planet am I on? Some try to explain it using things like base1, base2 or masu-form, te-form, which adds on to the confusion.

On top of that, how does one recognise kaeru (かえる), which is an ichidan verb meaning “to change”, and kaeru (かえる), which is a godan verb meaning “to return”?

Fear not! It took me a while, but I finally figured it out and its so easy once you know it.

Those angmohs again

It turns out that most of the Japanese language books are written for the non-Chinese speakers and readers (i.e the main bulk are Westerners). Indeed, many of the Internet sites and even some books teach Japanese with a heavy dosage of romanji (alphabetized Japanese). Personally, its bad way of teaching Japanese and this is also one of the main reasons why so many non-Japanese English-speakers (mainly Westerners) speak Japanese like English.

Romanji is very useful at the initial stage of learning Japanese, especially the alphabets (i.e. Hiragana/Katakana). It provides a good means of approximating the pronounciation of Japanese alphabets, but it has its limits. For example, most people will pronounce つ (tsu) as soo or tsoo and ん (n) just like an English n. However, they sound more like tsue (with a very short ue) and ng. What I am saying is that romanji should be used to learn the prounciation of the Kanas (i.e. あいうえお), but once it comes to words and sentence structures, they and the teachers should stay clear of any romanji, except the initial few weeks of introducing words. Nevertheless, Romanji is very useful for dictionary search on the Web, when your keyboard is only configured with English.

Secondly because its assumed that the general beginner has little or no knowledge of Kanji (漢字), some Internet sites and even beginner books excludes Kanji from it. I cannot blame them, for even the Japanese find it difficult to learn Kanji.

However, this is not an effective nor useful way of learning. Sure you can read and write the Kanas, but can you read the Kanji menus in a restaurant?

Sidebar: My Japanese colleague asked me how we learned Chinese and I said “character by character”. And he exclaimed that it must be very difficult! He asked this because the Japanese learn Kanji via the Kanas and he couldn’t think of how we could learn to Chinese characters without some sort of alphabet-based learning system.

So its this combination of using Romanji and trying to avoid Kanji that leads to this convoluted way of learning the verbs and why its so baffling for the beginners (esp. Chinese-English speakers).

The light

The mystery of verbal conjugation is easily understood once you start using Kanji. In my previous examples above:

- 飲む [のむ] (to drink) becomes 飲んで (drink)
- 洗う [あらう] (to wash) becomes 洗います (to wash in polite form) and 洗って (wash)
- 歩く [あるく] (to walk) becomes 歩いて (walk).

and we can now recognise between 変える, kaeru (to change) and 帰る, kaeru (to return)

As we can see, the root words 飲, 洗 and 歩 don’t change. What’s changed in the conjugation is its tail. Hence, it makes so much more sense to see the words as Kanji and to conjugate them. All you need to know is the ending for each verb to know, although sometimes you do need to know if a verb is ichidan or godan and the above shows.

I found a great internet site “Collin’s note on Japanese” that present this concept the way it should be, although I cringe at the liberal use of Romanji.

Below I have made of copy of his table, but taken away all the romanji noise:

This provides a strong visual means of verbal conjugation, which psychologist would probably agree, is a more effective way to learn. We just need to know which column in the あいうえお Kana table a conjugate uses and what is the verb’s root. For example, the negative conjugate in plain form uses あ-base + ない. So :

- 話す becomes 話さ + ない
- 泳ぐ becomes 泳が + ない
- 洗う becomes 洗わ + ない

Hence, conjugation of verbs becomes a simple case of knowing your Kana tables, which you must in the first place. Below is the example provided from the website, I have again stripped the Romanji.

Some other quick references:
- Collin’s Japanese Language and Culture Page
- Wikibooks: Kana Tables and Japanese Lessons
- Wiki books: Japanese Grammar
- Free Japanese Lessons
- Jim Breen’s WWWJDIC Japanese-English Dictionary Server

After about one month in Tokyo, I have finally decided to take the plunge (so to speak). Knowing that every activity in Japan from talking to people to showering have their specify ways about it, I decided that I should find out what its like in the pools here, plus I REALLY need to, you know, excercise.

So off I went to Sendagaya station to the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium. The indoor swimming pool there is the only public one with a 50 metres pool, according to Tadashi. Entrance fees is 600 yen per person and I think its for a 2 hours workout. They also have a multi-visit card, which offers I think 1 free entry or something like that (need to find out next time).

Once you go through the entrance, you go through the usual procedure of taking off your shoes at the platform. There are plastic bags there, take one to bag your shoes. Walk to the lockers and put in 100 yen. The 100 yen is returnable, so you can open and close the locker as often as you need.

Locker room stories

The japanese are quite unabashed about their bodies or being naked, unlike the hangups that Singpaoreans have, most of which comes from so-called Victorian values (AKA Asian values as known by our garmen). Whatever hangups the japanese have about being naked probably comes from the American christian and other Jesuits Priest when they landed in Japan. Anyway, people just walk about naked everywhere in the locker room. Its quite like the scene in waterboys… basically the slim, boyish guys, but more toned. The showers is the open type with showers in a line and everyone bathes naked. This will surely give Miak nose bleeds!

By the way, its not common to see anyone with those mini-brief trunks like in waterboys. I think that only happens in a swim team. Most common choice here is long tights.

(Updated 25/02: Looks like this is only because its winter and waters are colder, from what I’ve heard the skimpy swim trunks are fashionable during summers. However, I am already seeing more swimmings wearing these in the pools, despite the weather).

The quick dry type towels are popular here. I don’t see much people with huge towels, like what I’ve brought. Swim cap is a must, for your information. Lastly, you can’t soap off in the showers as soap is not allowed.

Now to go the main pool, you have to wad through an almost waist deep wading area, talk about cleaning up! Now, me for all the preparedness was still expecting a Choa Chu Kang swimming pool scene and, boy, was I wrong! I was taken aback and like, stressed.. really.

I decided, instead, to sit down at one big corner, pretending that I needed to warm-up and observe (not cruise okay, I wasn’t within the official cruising times yet!). I guess because this is only 50 metres pool in town, everyone who comes to swim is pretty serious about it. Everyone takes the time to warm up and stretch before swimming. Also there are warm dipping pools and rooms, in case it gets too cold for you. The cement floor of the indoor pool is pleasantly warm, lying down, one can easily fall asleep.

Lap Swimming

(Updated 25/02: found out that they adopted this from American-style lap swimming, so its not a Japanese invention or fetish!)

Now, back to the pool. All the lanes are marked with the lane markers, just like in competition and guess what, everyone swims within their own lanes in a clock-wise direction. That’s right, you swim inline clockwise! This really began to stess me… so where do they get in and out of the pool? Which lanes are you allowed to use? Argghh stress!

After awhile, I noticed that each lane are marked with coloured flags. The 4 extreme outer lanes are for weak/slow swimmers. The next 2 are for moderate swimmers and the center 2 are for fast swimmers. Whoah… this really solves the problem of irritating slow swimmer hogging the middle lanes. Wish we could do that in Singapore too!

So, I’ve got more or less a hint of how things works, but I had to make sure, so that I don’t get weird stares, you know. I went up to the lifeguard counter (both guys and gals). By the way, their life guards are like young maybe below 30s and there’s lots of them (again Miak dream cums through). I suspect that they’re probably in some swim team and doing this as part of their duties. They are constantly running around talk to swimmers to see if they need help or maybe advising to go to the 25 metres pool instead.

Back to the lifeguard… “Eigo ga hanasemasu ka?”.. The cute boyish life guard replied (not so confidently): “Eigo… ga… hanasemasu”. To make long story short, I manage to know with a combination of hand signals and his kindergarten English, that you start swimming from one end, but you should complete the entire 2×50 metres, you cannot stop at the other end (simply causes it’s a deep end also!).

So off.. I go… “chotto matte!”, the female life guard called out, then pointed at my watch. No watch in pool? I think the Japanese would prefer everyone to swim naked if they can, if not for it being a mixed pool! How to do my timings half-blind? Sigh… I just have to swim and forget about timings for this 6 months.

Stressful swims

Swimming in these lap methods can be quite stressful. Its easy at first because you are still fresh and not tired. But you must constantly be aware when your mind drift off and you start to slow down, you may be slowing others down behind you. What more, I chose the lane for moderate speed swimmers. Its not really that bad, because you can look for long enough empty distances between swimmers to start your swim. But if you turn at 50 metres and suddenly realise that there is another swimmer right behind you and have caught up with you, you try to swim faster to give youself distance.

So there’s this guy who swims quite faster, so for the life of me, I don’t know why he don’t wait for a bigger gap in front of him before swimming. I almost knocked into him as I turn at the 50 metres mark and stressed out on the other 50 metres trying to put some distance between us. I had to stop when I reach the 100 m mark to let him swim pass me. In the first place, he should be swimming in the fast lanes!!

Oh yeah, the fitness (ie lean toned waterboys) level of the swimmers spreads outwards from the center to outer lanes of the pool. With the less lean toned (or less fit lah) one at the outer edge.

Kamakura is like a mini version of Kyoto. Its main attraction are the temples, the beaches and an aquarium. However, the temples are probably not as glam or famous as those in Kyoto. Also from some tourist pictures, it looks like you can have a good view of Mount Fuji along the beach (I wonder if that was photoshopped!).

Going there
The good thing about Kamakura is that it takes around 1 hour of train ride from Tokyo station, so its a good get away from Tokyo and the city. Tim and Kok Kit was in Tokyo the other day, so we took one day to see Kamakura. From the Tokyo station, you take the Yokosuka Line of East JR line. Its the same train that brings you to Narita Airport, only now we are travelling the other way instead. The ticket is 890 yen. I would recommended a bit more comfort and pay additional 930 yen for the green car. This gives you reserved seating and it a more comfortable ride. If not then its standard local train comfort for you, if you know what I mean.

Here is a good site about Kamakura -> http://kamakuratoday.com/e/

The Yokosuka line takes to via Yokohama to Kamakura. However, you must check the destination of the train before you board. If you board the train that stops at Ofuna (大船) then you have to take another train to continue you way to Kamakura. There is a map at the platform, be sure to check out the route before boarding. You travel along the Enoden line, a tram-train, when you reach Kamakura to your destinations.

Alternatively, you can take the Odakyu line from Shinjuku station to Fujisawa station. The disadvantage of this is that its longer than from Tokyo station and Fujisawa stop it at the other end of Kamakura. Whereas if you stop at Kamakura stop, you can already start exploring and the Daibutsu temple is only about 2-3 stops away. The trouble is that the Enoden trams are slooow and the wait can be long. So its going to take a while to get from Fujisawa station to where you want to go. Btw, if you are travelling by Odakyu line, than you can pay more to upgrade to the “romance car”, it definitely more comfortable than your local train, but I found that the “romance car” to Hakone is definitely nicer!

Its probably best that you get some rail pass for this. A check on the internet shows that there are 2 different pass, one from JR and the other from Odakyu. Choose which you think best suits you, but which ever you choose, you should save some money.

check this out -> http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2358_003.html

Oh, one thing you should remember, like most parts of towns (other than the big cities) most attractions close their doors at 5 pm! Even the aquarium close at 5 pm! Those lucky buggers! So you should make your trip early in the morning.

The Quick Tour

As usual, we went about noon time and only managed 2 attractions. Also because we took a lot of time whilst walking through one of their main shopping streets towards our first attractions. One of the reasons I like about Kamakura is that numerous arts and craft you can buy there. Some you don’t see in Tokyo. I couldn’t help myself and bought a pair of ceramic boy monk craft (actually Tim paid for them!). There were more stuff that I wanted, but had to contend with window shopping, as I didn’t want to jam up my luggage coming back to Singapore.

There is also a wide range of food stuff for sales and what’s more some of the shops allows you to sample before you buy. This gives me a good chance to try out the different preserved vegetables on sale. Above on the left, this shop sells preserved vegetables and fish. You can have a full meal sampling on it, except that you probably need to drink after that. Above on the right is a shop selling different types of nuts, as I am not really a nut fan, I like Tim and Kok Kit stake it out instead. They also had like sweet version so katsu (カツ) but instead of meat they are filled with yam, beans or sweet potatoes and the likes. Didn’t manage to try it out though.

The strangest food I have seen so far is buddha image snacks! This is as serious as they get about Buddhism here, I guess. Its weird to me, I mean who would eat their religious leader or “god” like ganesh as a snack? Japanese seems to like it.

Anyway as I have said, we only managed 2 attractions. Above left is Hachimangu, a stone’s throw away from Kamakura station. Just following the crowd and you will walk through the shopping areas and that’s where we got stuck. Above right is the Daibutsu (big buddha), its 3 stations from Kamakura at Hase station. Again, follow the crowd, you can’t miss it. By the time we are done at the Daibutsu temple, its nearly 5 pm, sun was setting

Before the Sakura festival, we have the plum flowers festival. Some of the plum trees are already blooming with their red or white flowers and the temples should be crowded with photographers snapping away the best flower shots. Click photo to view more


When I was at Yushima Tenjin last week, this was the lowest tree with full bloom. That’s why everyone was crowded around this poor tree to snap photos.. including me!