In my previous post I explained how Remembering the Kanji 1 helped me learn the meaning and writing of 2042 kanji. So that's great and impressive at birthday parties and all, but completely useless if you don't also know the pronunciation. So that's what Remembering the Kanji volume 2 is all about.
It took me a while to get started, because it doesn't really give a set way of studying, like volume 1 did. I had to do a lot of research online and a lot of trying out to find a method that worked for me. But I think I have it now.
For those of you doing RTK2, you'll probably say, after reading this: You're crazy. You should be learning compound words, not loose onyomi! I'll explain in a minute why I am not doing that.
First: What is onyomi and what is kunyomi?
Onyomi is the Chinese pronunciation of the kanji.
Kunyomi is the Japanese pronunciation of the kanji.
As I explained in my previous post, the kanji were brought over from China. The Japanese had their own way of saying words, but no symbols. However, the symbols had their own pronunciation. So the Japanese decided to use both. (This is all putting it very simply, of course.) Onyomi is mostly used in compound words; words that consist of two or more kanji. Kunyomi is usually used when kanji stand on their own.
In RTK2, Heisig focuses more on the onyomi, as we've already learnt single kanji, so kunyomi isn't that hard (though he does give a method for it at the end of the book, which I will explain and tell my experiences with when I start doing it). But since onyomi is used to write compound words, it's more difficult and he focuses on it more.
The method he uses is that some of the kanji can be divided into groups in which all the kanji share a certain radical (a symbol that is part of the kanji) and a certain pronunciation. An example: These four kanji (長, 張, 帳, 脹) all have a shared element (also known as primitive): 長 (sometimes these primitives are kanji themselves, sometimes they are radicals and sometimes they are neither). All four are also pronounced as 'chou' (the u indicates that the o is elongated, so it rhymes with 'show', not with 'chew'. This way, it's easy to remember that a kanji with that particular primitive is pronounced that way.
Sounds like a good method. However, there were a few drawbacks for me. First of all; there are kanji that share the same primitive, which get a different pronounciation. Also, these four kanji aren't the only ones that are pronounced 'chou'; there are 23 others as well. And there's a whole bunch of kanji that fall outside these groups altogether. Lastly, and most importantly to me: Heisig focuses on learning compounds with those kanji in it. However, if I only know the onyomi of one part of the compound, it would be rote memorisation for the other part and that is not the way his method works. So, I decided to find another way to work.
At the Reviewing the Kanji website forum, I found some people talking about the 'Movie Method'. The way I understood it, it works as follows: You take all the kanji with a certain onyomi (for example 'chou') and look at the meaning for all of them (you already know the meaning, because you learnt them in RTK1. Though some meanings there are off, most of them are pretty accurate). You then think of a movie you know very well, for example The Lord of the Rings. And then you recreate scenes with those kanji involved, say you had the kanji for roadway, ring, group, etc, it would be easy. But you also get kanji that don't immediately seem to suit with this film, like delight, or permit. It's the trick to make up a story that can also involve those kanji. Which shouldn't be too hard, after finishing RTK1.
However, I'm not too much of a movie buff and I also didn't want to come up with different movies for allll those different onyomi. Also, I didn't want to use the same movie for all or a lot of onyomi, because I was worried I'd mix up the stories. So I decided to go with making up stories, but not attaching them to a movie. Basically the Heisig method, but instead of there being primitives, there were kanji with which to make up a story. I also always make sure to include the pronunciation, or I still don't remember!
An example of a short one:
Onyomi: suu (スウ)
Kanji: 枢 (hinge), 数 (number), 崇 (adore)
Story: My friend Sue (suu) is off her hinges! She actually adores numbers and wants to become a maths teacher!
I've done all the groups of 3, 4, 5 and 6 kanji so far. The smaller the groups, the easier, but if they are smaller than 3 it gets harder. So I am doing the onyomi with 1 and 2 kanji last. The bigger the groups, the harder it gets as well, but after a lot of practice with the smaller groups, those will also be ok. I am considering attaching movies for the biggest groups, and then dividing them up into little scenes (there are a lot of groups with around 20 or 30 kanji, but some are as big as 40 or 50 and the biggest one has 68 kanji). However, I will cross that bridge when I get to it.
As for reviewing; I downloaded Anki, a programme that works with the Spaced Reviewing System I explained in my other post about RTK1. On the front of the Anki card (the bit that you see first) I put the kanji. On the back (the bit that shows up if you click 'Show card' I put the onyomi and the meaning (doesn't hurt reviewing that as well). I've noticed that not all my stories have stuck as well as others, but that's the same with RTK1 and you can always tweek them a bit.
At the moment, I have about 350 cards in Anki; so 350 kanji I know at least one onyomi of (some have 2 or 3). When I'm done with these, I will probably do the kunyomi at the same time as learning the compounds Heisig mentions in the book. I haven't really thought too far ahead. My main goal at the moment is finishing Pimsleur before I go to Japan and hopefully also finishing the onyomi part of RTK2 I am doing now (though I don't know if I'll make it). It's going pretty fast this way, as did RTK1, so once I have all this out of the way, it will make learning sentences and vocabulary that much easier. ^^
Monday, 24 May 2010
Remembering The Kanji by James Heisig - part 1
So I have already explained a bit about this topic, but I'll explain it with a bit more detail now, so you guys know exactly how I've been learning the Japanese writing system.
First a short explanation of this writing system.
Japanese consists of three different sets of 'symbols'.
- Hiragana (ひらがな): Each hiragana symbol represents a certain syllable/sound. There's the vowels a, i, u, e, o. Then there's the consonant/vowel combinations, such as ka, ki, su, te, mo, and all other combinations. Consonants cannot stand on their own, except n. Here is a hiragana table for anyone that is interested in it. Distinguishable from katakana by their 'curvier' forms.
- Katakana (カタカナ): Each katakana symbol also represents a syllable, the same as the hiragana ones and a few extra ones. This is because katakana is mostly used to transcribe words of foreign origin. Most words are changed around so they don't really sound like their original selves, to fit into the 'no loose consonants' rule, but a few sounds not in hiragana symbols (vi, du, etc.) were added to help out a bit. Here is a katakana table. As you can see, the symbols have straighter lines and less curvy bits.
- Kanji (漢字): This is the hardest stuff and what I've spent months and months learning. And what I use the book for that this post is all about. The symbols, taken from Chinese, respresent meanings, rather than just sounds, like hiragana and katakana. A few hundred years ago, Japan had a spoken language, but no writing system. The spoken language wasn't anything like Chinese, but the writing system came over from there (putting it very simply). So they had a problem: They had sounds in Japanese and symbols in Chinese, both meaning the same things. So, seemigly to complicate things even more for us Japanese learners, they decided to give most of the symbols both a Japanese (kunyomi) and a Chinese (onyomi) pronunciation. They did make up some rules of when to use which, but there are lots of exceptions too. Also, some of them have multiple onyomi, so when to use which? An example: So far, I have learnt three different onyomi for this kanji: 納: na, nan and noo. Some are used more than others, but all can be used.
Luckily for us foreigners (and also for the Japanese themselves) the Japanese government decided a while ago to make a list of roughly 2000 kanji (there are over 50,000 in total) that it is strictly necessary to learn, in order to understand newspapers, regular books, etc. These are called Jouyou kanji and these are the ones I've been learning. Kanji that do not appear on this list, and also verb inflections, etc. are written in hiragana in books, newspapers, etc. The exceptions to this are people's names, some contain non-jouyou kanji, but that's not for this topic.
Remembering the Kanji 1
In comes this amazing book (full title: Remembering the Kanji, Vol. 1: A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters). This guy, James Heisig, went to Japan. He didn't speak or write the language. When he arrived there, he was too late to start the Japanese language course that was already going, and he had to wait a few weeks before a new one would start. So he decided to have a look at the language himself. He created his own system for learning the kanji that allows us to learn them as foreign adults, rather than Japanese children.
Say what, Koos? Well, in universities and Japanese courses all over the world, people are taught the kanji by writing them over and over again (stroke order is very important, and also knowing stroke count, as dictionaries are often sorted by number of strokes), at the same time trying to get all those onyomi and kunyomi (pronunciations) in their heads. Heisig reckons this is like trying to walk to the left with your left leg and at the same time trying to walk to the right with your right leg. It's just very difficult. A common idea among Japanese teachers at universities is that foreigners can never learn the kanji as well as Japanese people can. Heisig also reckons that's crap (and so do I, after working through this method).
In his method, he points out Chinese people learn Japanese much faster than people from other nations. This is because they already know the symbols, their meaning and their stroke order. What he wants to do with his book Remembering the Kanji 1, is get you on that level; learning the stroke order and the meaning of the kanji, while not yet trying to learn the pronunciation as well. He argues that this also goes much faster than trying to learn it all at once, so within a few months you are done and you can move on to learning the pronunciation. And he is right; I finished learning the meaning and stroke order of 2042 kanji in 6 months (while working fulltime!). That's an average of 11 a day, whereas it took me 3 days to learn just the numbers 1-10; stroke order, meaning, onyomi and kunyomi. There were also many days during those 6 months where I didn't learn any, because I was tired or busy, but on my top days I learnt between 60 and 80 in one day!
How does this method work? It's easy. Heisig starts off from the fact that we are not anything like the Japanese schoolchildren, who learn the kanji by writing them over and over again. There are several major differences: we are adults, so we have a different brain. We are capable of abstract thought and imagination better than children. Also; Japanese schoolchildren already know the pronunciation of these words, they just haven't learnt to write them in kanji yet. We, foreigners, do not know the pronunciation yet. Therefore, it would be nonsense to learn them in the way they do.
What he did was show how the kanji are made up of certain elements. To start off, he took the kanji for the numbers 1-10, because most people have learnt them already before finding this method (and if not, they're easy to learn): 一,二,三,四,五,六,七,八,九,十. He also introduced 5 other easy kanji that often come back: mouth 口, day (aka sun) 日, month (aka moon) 月, rice field 田 and eye 目. A lot of kanji can be made up by combining these 15. The trick was: you take the loose elements, take the meaning of the kanji and make a story with a strong mental image to remember it.
An example: the kanji for sun 日 and the kanji for eye 目 make up the kanji for risk 冒. In it, the sun symbol is over the eye symbol. Your story could be: When you look up into the SUN with your EYE, it is a RISK, because you might go blind. That's it; then you know it. There's nothing more to it. Next time you see the word 'risk', you'll know how to write the kanji, because of this story.
(In the book, the stroke order is also given, but it's fairly straightforward and after a while you just know what stroke order a symbol should get, I wrote each kanji twice while learning it, to get a feel for the stroke order.)
Another example. Sun 日 and moon 月 together form the kanji for bright 明. Yeah. Do I really need to make a story for that? XD
After you've learnt a lot of kanji combining those first 15 (and some of them seem really difficult before you start this, like Dr: 博, that's the 47th one you learn) you start learning more new elements and learning kanji with those elements. Each element gets its own meaning that you can use to make your story.
The pieces kanji are built up out of are called radicals. Each radical is an element in Heisig's book, but not each element is a radical. For example, the kanji for bright (seen above) is an element in a kanji that comes back later: alliance 盟, but it is not a radical.
In the beginning, I thought I was doing something wrong, that's how easy it was. I was so proud of myself for doing 10 the first day, I never thought it could be done!
After this, of course, the trick is reviewing and keeping it fresh. If I never again wrote the kanji for risk, I would forget it quite soon. But if I keep reviewing, it stays in my head. For this, I use a Spaced Reviewing System (SRS) on the best site ever: Reviewing the Kanji. SRS makes you review after the amount of days after which you have almost forgotten the kanji again (almost, but not completely). This way, you do not review too much, and have enough time to add more new kanji, but you also don't review too little.
First, you review after 1 day. If you get it right, the kanji comes back 3 days later. Then, 7 days, 14 days, 30 days, 60 days, 120 days and finally 240 days. If you fail a kanji, it goes back to square 1 and you start from the front again.
I soon realised that 10 cards a day was very little; that I could do loads more per day. On the forum of Reviewing the Kanji, there are people who say they do 100 a day and I believe them. However, I was working fulltime and usually tired in the evenings, so I didn't always learn new kanji. I finished on January 31st of 2010, though, and now I can proudly say I know the meaning and stroke order of 2042 kanji. :D
And what's even better; if I were to encounter a kanji I've never seen before, I can recognise the elements, make up a story and remember it as easily as the other 2042! So if I wanted to learn all 50,000 kanji (not saying I do, but hypothetically) I could use this method to learn all of them. It's not just for those 2042 I've learnt already, it can be used for any kanji I come across (Chinese characters too, for that matter).
I'm also using Heisig's method to learn the pronunciation (onyomi and kunyomi) but more about that in part 2, as that is my explanation of Remembering the Kanji 2. ^^
First a short explanation of this writing system.
Japanese consists of three different sets of 'symbols'.
- Hiragana (ひらがな): Each hiragana symbol represents a certain syllable/sound. There's the vowels a, i, u, e, o. Then there's the consonant/vowel combinations, such as ka, ki, su, te, mo, and all other combinations. Consonants cannot stand on their own, except n. Here is a hiragana table for anyone that is interested in it. Distinguishable from katakana by their 'curvier' forms.
- Katakana (カタカナ): Each katakana symbol also represents a syllable, the same as the hiragana ones and a few extra ones. This is because katakana is mostly used to transcribe words of foreign origin. Most words are changed around so they don't really sound like their original selves, to fit into the 'no loose consonants' rule, but a few sounds not in hiragana symbols (vi, du, etc.) were added to help out a bit. Here is a katakana table. As you can see, the symbols have straighter lines and less curvy bits.
- Kanji (漢字): This is the hardest stuff and what I've spent months and months learning. And what I use the book for that this post is all about. The symbols, taken from Chinese, respresent meanings, rather than just sounds, like hiragana and katakana. A few hundred years ago, Japan had a spoken language, but no writing system. The spoken language wasn't anything like Chinese, but the writing system came over from there (putting it very simply). So they had a problem: They had sounds in Japanese and symbols in Chinese, both meaning the same things. So, seemigly to complicate things even more for us Japanese learners, they decided to give most of the symbols both a Japanese (kunyomi) and a Chinese (onyomi) pronunciation. They did make up some rules of when to use which, but there are lots of exceptions too. Also, some of them have multiple onyomi, so when to use which? An example: So far, I have learnt three different onyomi for this kanji: 納: na, nan and noo. Some are used more than others, but all can be used.
Luckily for us foreigners (and also for the Japanese themselves) the Japanese government decided a while ago to make a list of roughly 2000 kanji (there are over 50,000 in total) that it is strictly necessary to learn, in order to understand newspapers, regular books, etc. These are called Jouyou kanji and these are the ones I've been learning. Kanji that do not appear on this list, and also verb inflections, etc. are written in hiragana in books, newspapers, etc. The exceptions to this are people's names, some contain non-jouyou kanji, but that's not for this topic.
Remembering the Kanji 1
In comes this amazing book (full title: Remembering the Kanji, Vol. 1: A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters). This guy, James Heisig, went to Japan. He didn't speak or write the language. When he arrived there, he was too late to start the Japanese language course that was already going, and he had to wait a few weeks before a new one would start. So he decided to have a look at the language himself. He created his own system for learning the kanji that allows us to learn them as foreign adults, rather than Japanese children.
Say what, Koos? Well, in universities and Japanese courses all over the world, people are taught the kanji by writing them over and over again (stroke order is very important, and also knowing stroke count, as dictionaries are often sorted by number of strokes), at the same time trying to get all those onyomi and kunyomi (pronunciations) in their heads. Heisig reckons this is like trying to walk to the left with your left leg and at the same time trying to walk to the right with your right leg. It's just very difficult. A common idea among Japanese teachers at universities is that foreigners can never learn the kanji as well as Japanese people can. Heisig also reckons that's crap (and so do I, after working through this method).
In his method, he points out Chinese people learn Japanese much faster than people from other nations. This is because they already know the symbols, their meaning and their stroke order. What he wants to do with his book Remembering the Kanji 1, is get you on that level; learning the stroke order and the meaning of the kanji, while not yet trying to learn the pronunciation as well. He argues that this also goes much faster than trying to learn it all at once, so within a few months you are done and you can move on to learning the pronunciation. And he is right; I finished learning the meaning and stroke order of 2042 kanji in 6 months (while working fulltime!). That's an average of 11 a day, whereas it took me 3 days to learn just the numbers 1-10; stroke order, meaning, onyomi and kunyomi. There were also many days during those 6 months where I didn't learn any, because I was tired or busy, but on my top days I learnt between 60 and 80 in one day!
How does this method work? It's easy. Heisig starts off from the fact that we are not anything like the Japanese schoolchildren, who learn the kanji by writing them over and over again. There are several major differences: we are adults, so we have a different brain. We are capable of abstract thought and imagination better than children. Also; Japanese schoolchildren already know the pronunciation of these words, they just haven't learnt to write them in kanji yet. We, foreigners, do not know the pronunciation yet. Therefore, it would be nonsense to learn them in the way they do.
What he did was show how the kanji are made up of certain elements. To start off, he took the kanji for the numbers 1-10, because most people have learnt them already before finding this method (and if not, they're easy to learn): 一,二,三,四,五,六,七,八,九,十. He also introduced 5 other easy kanji that often come back: mouth 口, day (aka sun) 日, month (aka moon) 月, rice field 田 and eye 目. A lot of kanji can be made up by combining these 15. The trick was: you take the loose elements, take the meaning of the kanji and make a story with a strong mental image to remember it.
An example: the kanji for sun 日 and the kanji for eye 目 make up the kanji for risk 冒. In it, the sun symbol is over the eye symbol. Your story could be: When you look up into the SUN with your EYE, it is a RISK, because you might go blind. That's it; then you know it. There's nothing more to it. Next time you see the word 'risk', you'll know how to write the kanji, because of this story.
(In the book, the stroke order is also given, but it's fairly straightforward and after a while you just know what stroke order a symbol should get, I wrote each kanji twice while learning it, to get a feel for the stroke order.)
Another example. Sun 日 and moon 月 together form the kanji for bright 明. Yeah. Do I really need to make a story for that? XD
After you've learnt a lot of kanji combining those first 15 (and some of them seem really difficult before you start this, like Dr: 博, that's the 47th one you learn) you start learning more new elements and learning kanji with those elements. Each element gets its own meaning that you can use to make your story.
The pieces kanji are built up out of are called radicals. Each radical is an element in Heisig's book, but not each element is a radical. For example, the kanji for bright (seen above) is an element in a kanji that comes back later: alliance 盟, but it is not a radical.
In the beginning, I thought I was doing something wrong, that's how easy it was. I was so proud of myself for doing 10 the first day, I never thought it could be done!
After this, of course, the trick is reviewing and keeping it fresh. If I never again wrote the kanji for risk, I would forget it quite soon. But if I keep reviewing, it stays in my head. For this, I use a Spaced Reviewing System (SRS) on the best site ever: Reviewing the Kanji. SRS makes you review after the amount of days after which you have almost forgotten the kanji again (almost, but not completely). This way, you do not review too much, and have enough time to add more new kanji, but you also don't review too little.
First, you review after 1 day. If you get it right, the kanji comes back 3 days later. Then, 7 days, 14 days, 30 days, 60 days, 120 days and finally 240 days. If you fail a kanji, it goes back to square 1 and you start from the front again.
I soon realised that 10 cards a day was very little; that I could do loads more per day. On the forum of Reviewing the Kanji, there are people who say they do 100 a day and I believe them. However, I was working fulltime and usually tired in the evenings, so I didn't always learn new kanji. I finished on January 31st of 2010, though, and now I can proudly say I know the meaning and stroke order of 2042 kanji. :D
And what's even better; if I were to encounter a kanji I've never seen before, I can recognise the elements, make up a story and remember it as easily as the other 2042! So if I wanted to learn all 50,000 kanji (not saying I do, but hypothetically) I could use this method to learn all of them. It's not just for those 2042 I've learnt already, it can be used for any kanji I come across (Chinese characters too, for that matter).
I'm also using Heisig's method to learn the pronunciation (onyomi and kunyomi) but more about that in part 2, as that is my explanation of Remembering the Kanji 2. ^^
Sunday, 23 May 2010
Progress as of May 23rd
Pimsleur: Japanese 2, Unit 5. Getting a bit easier...
RTK2: 343 cards in Anki.
RTK2: 343 cards in Anki.
Progress as of May 22nd
Pimsleur: Up to Unit 4 of Japanese 2 done. This is harder than Japanese 1, though. I hardly understand anything of the conversations at the start of each unit, as they are speaking so fast. XD
RTK2: 322 in Anki. Did 35 today, now I'm tiiired.
RTK2: 322 in Anki. Did 35 today, now I'm tiiired.
Sunday, 16 May 2010
Progress as of May 16th
Pimsleur Japanese 1 is done (30 units), now on to Japanese 2! ^^
After finishing Remembering The Kanji 1, this is my first new major milestone.
RTK2: 273 cards in Anki
After finishing Remembering The Kanji 1, this is my first new major milestone.
RTK2: 273 cards in Anki
Saturday, 15 May 2010
Pimsleur
Some people have been asking me: What is Pimsleur?
Pimsleur is a method for learning simple Japanese conversation skills. There are three parts, Japanese 1, 2 and 3. Each part consists of 30 units, containing sound files of a little under 30 minutes each, supporting notes and extra reading material on the Japanese culture.
The sound files are most important. When you listen to them, you are told words and sentences you have to repeat and then come up with on your own. Later, you also have to combine different sentences you have learnt, and you have to try to guess how to make new words, using the grammar you've learnt before.
Here is a link to the first unit of Pimsleur Japanese 1, for those of you who don't get it and want to hear what it sounds like. :P
I have to say, this works so much better for me than just reading sentences and trying to memorise them. For some of you that might be the way to learn, for me; this is it. ^^
Pimsleur is a method for learning simple Japanese conversation skills. There are three parts, Japanese 1, 2 and 3. Each part consists of 30 units, containing sound files of a little under 30 minutes each, supporting notes and extra reading material on the Japanese culture.
The sound files are most important. When you listen to them, you are told words and sentences you have to repeat and then come up with on your own. Later, you also have to combine different sentences you have learnt, and you have to try to guess how to make new words, using the grammar you've learnt before.
Here is a link to the first unit of Pimsleur Japanese 1, for those of you who don't get it and want to hear what it sounds like. :P
I have to say, this works so much better for me than just reading sentences and trying to memorise them. For some of you that might be the way to learn, for me; this is it. ^^
Friday, 14 May 2010
Acupuncture
Wooh so it's been a few days since I've updated, but my two friends Megan and Patrick were visiting me. I had a great couple of days, I wish they could have stayed longer.
But that's not what this post is about, since it has nothing to do with Japanese or Japan (though Patrick seemed to be having fun practising my Pimsleur with me (more about Pimsleur in a later post) and I think he was doing pretty well, considering it was his first time and I was on Unit 29. XD
No, this post is about the acupuncturist I went to today. It is Asian, after all! And I'd like to share it with people.
As some of you may know, I have IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome). It's really annoying and lately it had been bothering me a lot more again. A few years ago I had hypnotherapy, which worked very well, but was unfortunately not covered by my insurance ('We will not pay for this, because you can't prove it's worked' 'I can't even prove I have IBS in the first place!' Idiots. >< ).
Anyway, lately I'd been getting more stressed over completely normal things as well. Also, it's not normal to get stomach aches almost every day, it just isn't. So I decided to give acupuncture a try. ^^
I'll give a description of how it went.
First she asked me all these questions about my complaints, finding out what exactly was bothering me. She said there was most likely a blockage in my Qi (the energy flow in your body). In your body, there are 5 elements: water, fire, earth, wood and metal. Wood is the one that responds to tension, stress, change, etc. Wood is also the element that is supposed to control Earth, which is located in your lower abdomen (bowels, part of your stomach). She said that because my Wood was disturbed, Earth was getting disturbed as well and that's why my stomach hurts.
I then asked her if she could do anything about it, and she said: Oh yes, I can definitely do something about that. So that was a relief!
Then I had to lie down on this bed, with my shoes and socks off and my pants legs moved up, as well as my top. At first she felt my pulse, on both wrists, and said she thought it was quite fast. I told her it was usually fast, and I'd noticed that too.
Then she put four needles in my stomach, near my bellybutton. She said I was so brave for having my bellybutton pierced and she would be too scared to get a piercing. I said: 'No, you only stick needles into other people.' XD
She put some needles in my knees as well (I think two in each), in my calves (also two in each, I think; one of them hurt realllly bad so she took it out again), a few in my feet, one in each hand and one in each ear. I think she also put some in the top of my head, but I'm not sure since I didn't feel anything there.
Then I had to lie there for 20 minutes. I normally find that very boring; I don't have the peace of mind to just lie there and do nothing, but I felt more relaxed now. We chatted a bit about Japan and Thailand and then she felt my wrist again after a while. She said it was much slower now. Then she took the needles out again.
She also advised me to take Chinese herbs in combination with the acupuncture. Many acupuncturists also work with Chinese herbs, but she doesn't. But she gave me the address of a guy in Nijmegen who works with them. So I'll phone him next week.
On the way home, I felt all right, but at home I got more and more tired. XD So I'm going to bed early tonight.
I still have little spots on my body where the nails were, and one spot is slightly swollen, but it's already going down and there is no pain anywhere.
She said I should start noticing an effect right away, so let's hope so!
I'm going back again next week, so I'll let you guys know how it goes then. ^^
But that's not what this post is about, since it has nothing to do with Japanese or Japan (though Patrick seemed to be having fun practising my Pimsleur with me (more about Pimsleur in a later post) and I think he was doing pretty well, considering it was his first time and I was on Unit 29. XD
No, this post is about the acupuncturist I went to today. It is Asian, after all! And I'd like to share it with people.
As some of you may know, I have IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome). It's really annoying and lately it had been bothering me a lot more again. A few years ago I had hypnotherapy, which worked very well, but was unfortunately not covered by my insurance ('We will not pay for this, because you can't prove it's worked' 'I can't even prove I have IBS in the first place!' Idiots. >< ).
Anyway, lately I'd been getting more stressed over completely normal things as well. Also, it's not normal to get stomach aches almost every day, it just isn't. So I decided to give acupuncture a try. ^^
I'll give a description of how it went.
First she asked me all these questions about my complaints, finding out what exactly was bothering me. She said there was most likely a blockage in my Qi (the energy flow in your body). In your body, there are 5 elements: water, fire, earth, wood and metal. Wood is the one that responds to tension, stress, change, etc. Wood is also the element that is supposed to control Earth, which is located in your lower abdomen (bowels, part of your stomach). She said that because my Wood was disturbed, Earth was getting disturbed as well and that's why my stomach hurts.
I then asked her if she could do anything about it, and she said: Oh yes, I can definitely do something about that. So that was a relief!
Then I had to lie down on this bed, with my shoes and socks off and my pants legs moved up, as well as my top. At first she felt my pulse, on both wrists, and said she thought it was quite fast. I told her it was usually fast, and I'd noticed that too.
Then she put four needles in my stomach, near my bellybutton. She said I was so brave for having my bellybutton pierced and she would be too scared to get a piercing. I said: 'No, you only stick needles into other people.' XD
She put some needles in my knees as well (I think two in each), in my calves (also two in each, I think; one of them hurt realllly bad so she took it out again), a few in my feet, one in each hand and one in each ear. I think she also put some in the top of my head, but I'm not sure since I didn't feel anything there.
Then I had to lie there for 20 minutes. I normally find that very boring; I don't have the peace of mind to just lie there and do nothing, but I felt more relaxed now. We chatted a bit about Japan and Thailand and then she felt my wrist again after a while. She said it was much slower now. Then she took the needles out again.
She also advised me to take Chinese herbs in combination with the acupuncture. Many acupuncturists also work with Chinese herbs, but she doesn't. But she gave me the address of a guy in Nijmegen who works with them. So I'll phone him next week.
On the way home, I felt all right, but at home I got more and more tired. XD So I'm going to bed early tonight.
I still have little spots on my body where the nails were, and one spot is slightly swollen, but it's already going down and there is no pain anywhere.
She said I should start noticing an effect right away, so let's hope so!
I'm going back again next week, so I'll let you guys know how it goes then. ^^
Tuesday, 11 May 2010
Monday, 10 May 2010
Hostels!
So despite not being able to get into all the hostels and hotels I wanted (stupid hostels making me think you can only book up to three months in advance) I did find some very nice-looking hostels for our stay in Japan. I've mentioned them in a previous post, but here I've listed them again, including links to their websites, so you can check out what they're like!
Saturday, July 31st and Sunday, August 1st - Tokyo
Sakura Hotel Jimbocho, located in Central Tokyo, will give us a chance to explore that area. Also we'll visit Harajuku on Sunday, when the gothic lolitas are out there.
Here, we will have a double room.
Monday, August 2nd - Thursday, August 5th - Tokyo
Sakura Hotel Ikebukuro, located north of Central Tokyo. The Ikebukuro station is the second busiest station in the world, and it gives us easy access to anywhere else in Tokyo. Here we will have a twin room (bunk beds) with private bath.
Friday, August 6th - Sunday, August 8th - Osaka/Koyasan
We'll be staying in Osaka for three nights, visiting Koyasan on one of the days. We will be staying at Osaka J-Hoppers, a chain of backpacker's hostels in Japan. Here we will have a twin room (bunk beds).
Monday, August 9th and Tuesday, August 10th - Nara
On August 9th, we are traveling on to Nara, one of Japan's old capitals, famous for its old temples and beautiful surroundings. We will stay at the Nakata B&B. It's one with a shared bathroom, but since it has only 4 rooms taking 2 or 3 people per room, I don't think that will be an issue.
Wednesday, August 11th - Kobe
Well-known for its beef and the recent devastating earthquake, Kobe is a nice city as well. Here we will stay for one night at the Kitagami Hotel. Here we will have a twin room with private bath.
Thursday, August 12th - Saturday, August 14th - Himeji, Hiroshima and Miyajima
On this day, we will travel to Himeji Castle, an amazing castle left over from Shogun times. At the end of the day, we will travel on to Hiroshima, well-known of course for the A-bomb of 1945. There, we will stay at Hiroshima Hostel, which refers to itself as a Hana Hostel (Flower Hostel). I'm curious! Here we will have a twin room, sharing the bathroom. From here, we will also travel to Miyajima Island, on which there is this beautiful toorii gate that is at the top of this blog.
Sunday, August 15th - Monday, August 16th - Kyoto
We will then take the long trip back to Kyoto, which is near Osaka. We won't go there earlier, because from August 13th-16th there is a festival in Japan called Obon. And on the final day of Obon, August 16th, they light huge bonfires in the shape of kanji (Chinese characters used in Japanese) on the hills surrounding Kyoto. This promises to be quite a sight! Here we will stay in Kyoto J-Hoppers, another branch of the same hostel as in Osaka, so bound to be good! We will have a twin room here.
Tuesday, August 17th and Thursday, August 19th - Tokyo
After Obon, we will travel back to Tokyo (like probably about a million other people...) and we will spend the nights at Sakura Hostel Asakusa. Located in the oldest part of Tokyo, I had intended to book the nights at the beginning of the trip here as well, but they informed me they were full then. They did, however, have these two nights for us, so I took them. Here we will have a twin room. It's close to Ueno park. But what I actually want to do on our last day in Tokyo, is visit the Ghibli Museum. Anyone who has ever seen a Studio Ghibli film (Spirited Away, My Neighbour Totoro, Howl's Moving Castle, too many more to mention) knows they are amazing and when you look at the museum's website it seems wonderful!
And then on August 19th, we are flying back to Amsterdam. Eddie will stay at a hotel at Schiphol for one night before flying home, so he has asked me to join him there. So on August 20th I will be arriving home, hopefully satisfied!
Saturday, July 31st and Sunday, August 1st - Tokyo
Sakura Hotel Jimbocho, located in Central Tokyo, will give us a chance to explore that area. Also we'll visit Harajuku on Sunday, when the gothic lolitas are out there.
Here, we will have a double room.
Monday, August 2nd - Thursday, August 5th - Tokyo
Sakura Hotel Ikebukuro, located north of Central Tokyo. The Ikebukuro station is the second busiest station in the world, and it gives us easy access to anywhere else in Tokyo. Here we will have a twin room (bunk beds) with private bath.
Friday, August 6th - Sunday, August 8th - Osaka/Koyasan
We'll be staying in Osaka for three nights, visiting Koyasan on one of the days. We will be staying at Osaka J-Hoppers, a chain of backpacker's hostels in Japan. Here we will have a twin room (bunk beds).
Monday, August 9th and Tuesday, August 10th - Nara
On August 9th, we are traveling on to Nara, one of Japan's old capitals, famous for its old temples and beautiful surroundings. We will stay at the Nakata B&B. It's one with a shared bathroom, but since it has only 4 rooms taking 2 or 3 people per room, I don't think that will be an issue.
Wednesday, August 11th - Kobe
Well-known for its beef and the recent devastating earthquake, Kobe is a nice city as well. Here we will stay for one night at the Kitagami Hotel. Here we will have a twin room with private bath.
Thursday, August 12th - Saturday, August 14th - Himeji, Hiroshima and Miyajima
On this day, we will travel to Himeji Castle, an amazing castle left over from Shogun times. At the end of the day, we will travel on to Hiroshima, well-known of course for the A-bomb of 1945. There, we will stay at Hiroshima Hostel, which refers to itself as a Hana Hostel (Flower Hostel). I'm curious! Here we will have a twin room, sharing the bathroom. From here, we will also travel to Miyajima Island, on which there is this beautiful toorii gate that is at the top of this blog.
Sunday, August 15th - Monday, August 16th - Kyoto
We will then take the long trip back to Kyoto, which is near Osaka. We won't go there earlier, because from August 13th-16th there is a festival in Japan called Obon. And on the final day of Obon, August 16th, they light huge bonfires in the shape of kanji (Chinese characters used in Japanese) on the hills surrounding Kyoto. This promises to be quite a sight! Here we will stay in Kyoto J-Hoppers, another branch of the same hostel as in Osaka, so bound to be good! We will have a twin room here.
Tuesday, August 17th and Thursday, August 19th - Tokyo
After Obon, we will travel back to Tokyo (like probably about a million other people...) and we will spend the nights at Sakura Hostel Asakusa. Located in the oldest part of Tokyo, I had intended to book the nights at the beginning of the trip here as well, but they informed me they were full then. They did, however, have these two nights for us, so I took them. Here we will have a twin room. It's close to Ueno park. But what I actually want to do on our last day in Tokyo, is visit the Ghibli Museum. Anyone who has ever seen a Studio Ghibli film (Spirited Away, My Neighbour Totoro, Howl's Moving Castle, too many more to mention) knows they are amazing and when you look at the museum's website it seems wonderful!
And then on August 19th, we are flying back to Amsterdam. Eddie will stay at a hotel at Schiphol for one night before flying home, so he has asked me to join him there. So on August 20th I will be arriving home, hopefully satisfied!
Sunday, 9 May 2010
Progress on the trip
So on July 30th, 2010, Eddie and I will embark on a (little under) three week trip to Japan! :D
I don't know how it started out; we were on the phone and Eddie mentioned he wanted to go to Japan with me, and I mentioned how I'd loooove to go there, and suddenly we were making real plans and eventually booking flights and hostels.
Like I said, we will leave from Schiphol Amsterdam on July 30th at around 5:30 pm, and we will arrive at Tokyo Narita at around 10:30 am on July 31st.
We will stay in Tokyo for the first few days, staying at the Sakura Jinbocho hostel on the 31st and the 1st and then moving on to the Sakura Ikebukuro hostel, where we will be staying until the 6th.
On August 6th, we will travel to Osaka, staying at Osaka J-Hoppers for three nights. While we're there, we will also visit Koyasan, a beautiful mountain nearby with Buddhist temples and a Buddhist cemetery at the top.
On August 9th, we will travel on to Nara, known for its beautiful old temples. We were going to stay at a ryokan there, but all those cute little ryokan were booked full, so we'll be staying at the Nakata B&B.
On August 11st, we're traveling to Kobe, where we will stay at the Kitagami Hotel for one night, before traveling on to Himeji Castle and Hiroshima the next day.
In Hiroshima, we will of course visit the A-bomb memorials, but also the beautiful toorii gate on Miyajima which is a picture on this blog.
On August 15th, we will be traveling to Kyoto, to watch the celebrations during the Obon festival. And on August 17th, we will travel back to Tokyo (making a trip to the Ghibli museum from there), from which we will depart for home on August 19th, hopefully feeling tired but satisfied!
I don't know how it started out; we were on the phone and Eddie mentioned he wanted to go to Japan with me, and I mentioned how I'd loooove to go there, and suddenly we were making real plans and eventually booking flights and hostels.
Like I said, we will leave from Schiphol Amsterdam on July 30th at around 5:30 pm, and we will arrive at Tokyo Narita at around 10:30 am on July 31st.
We will stay in Tokyo for the first few days, staying at the Sakura Jinbocho hostel on the 31st and the 1st and then moving on to the Sakura Ikebukuro hostel, where we will be staying until the 6th.
On August 6th, we will travel to Osaka, staying at Osaka J-Hoppers for three nights. While we're there, we will also visit Koyasan, a beautiful mountain nearby with Buddhist temples and a Buddhist cemetery at the top.
On August 9th, we will travel on to Nara, known for its beautiful old temples. We were going to stay at a ryokan there, but all those cute little ryokan were booked full, so we'll be staying at the Nakata B&B.
On August 11st, we're traveling to Kobe, where we will stay at the Kitagami Hotel for one night, before traveling on to Himeji Castle and Hiroshima the next day.
In Hiroshima, we will of course visit the A-bomb memorials, but also the beautiful toorii gate on Miyajima which is a picture on this blog.
On August 15th, we will be traveling to Kyoto, to watch the celebrations during the Obon festival. And on August 17th, we will travel back to Tokyo (making a trip to the Ghibli museum from there), from which we will depart for home on August 19th, hopefully feeling tired but satisfied!
Progress so far
Because I decided to start posting this blog over a year into beginnig to study Japanese and making plans for a trip to Japan, I have already made quite a bit of progress that I will share with you now. Please keep in mind that I work a fulltime job, so progress is slow but steady. :)
I'm using a few excellent books and online resources that I can recommend to anyone.
I started by getting a book called 'Japanese in Mangaland', from which I learnt hiragana and katakana in a few days each. Then I didn't do much for about 9 months, because the next chapter was about kanji and it just seemed too much to take on while working as well.
However, in August of 2009 I discovered the most wonderful book ever: 'Remembering the Kanji' by Heisig. Learning kanji was a breeze with this book (I remember being impressed I could do 10 per day when I first started it, and by the end I was doing between 30 and 80 a day), and then when I discovered the website 'Reviewing the Kanji' I was set. I learnt the meaning and stroke order of 2042 kanji in about 6 months. When I finished on January 31st, 2010, I was over the moon!
By then, I had forgotten a lot of my kana, so I used Heisig's 'Remembering the Kana' to brush up on it.
Recently, I started 'Remembering the Kanji 2', which focuses on learning onyomi and kunyomi. I'll explain my method for that in another post, as RTK1 is quite fixed in its method, but RTK2allows forces you to come up with your own method of studying. It took me a few weeks to figure out how, but I've found a method. Most people doing RTK2 will call me crazy for doing it the way I do, but hey, it works for me.
So most of my time was spent in Kanjiland; I haven't studied much 'real' Japanese so far, except for using another wonderful method: Pimsleur. Pimsleur is one of those 'repeat after me' CD methods that seems to work wonders for me. I tried the whole 'reading and copying and saying' thing, but it took me way too long and I found my retention was much too low. However, with Pimsleur's aural method I retain things much better! Pimsleur consists of three parts, with 30 lessons consisting of 30 minutes of listening. It also has supporting notes. At the moment I am on part 1 - lesson 27, but I plan on doing one lesson a day so I am finished before going to Japan. Sometimes I do a lesson twice, if it features a lot of things I mess up.
All about my trip to Japan in another post!
I'm using a few excellent books and online resources that I can recommend to anyone.
I started by getting a book called 'Japanese in Mangaland', from which I learnt hiragana and katakana in a few days each. Then I didn't do much for about 9 months, because the next chapter was about kanji and it just seemed too much to take on while working as well.
However, in August of 2009 I discovered the most wonderful book ever: 'Remembering the Kanji' by Heisig. Learning kanji was a breeze with this book (I remember being impressed I could do 10 per day when I first started it, and by the end I was doing between 30 and 80 a day), and then when I discovered the website 'Reviewing the Kanji' I was set. I learnt the meaning and stroke order of 2042 kanji in about 6 months. When I finished on January 31st, 2010, I was over the moon!
By then, I had forgotten a lot of my kana, so I used Heisig's 'Remembering the Kana' to brush up on it.
Recently, I started 'Remembering the Kanji 2', which focuses on learning onyomi and kunyomi. I'll explain my method for that in another post, as RTK1 is quite fixed in its method, but RTK2
So most of my time was spent in Kanjiland; I haven't studied much 'real' Japanese so far, except for using another wonderful method: Pimsleur. Pimsleur is one of those 'repeat after me' CD methods that seems to work wonders for me. I tried the whole 'reading and copying and saying' thing, but it took me way too long and I found my retention was much too low. However, with Pimsleur's aural method I retain things much better! Pimsleur consists of three parts, with 30 lessons consisting of 30 minutes of listening. It also has supporting notes. At the moment I am on part 1 - lesson 27, but I plan on doing one lesson a day so I am finished before going to Japan. Sometimes I do a lesson twice, if it features a lot of things I mess up.
All about my trip to Japan in another post!
Welcome to my blog!
Welcome to my blog!
On here, I will document my learning of Japanese (very slow) and the preparations for my upcoming trip to Japan (approaching very fast).
Please enjoy and leave a comment if you like!
On here, I will document my learning of Japanese (very slow) and the preparations for my upcoming trip to Japan (approaching very fast).
Please enjoy and leave a comment if you like!
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