Episode 59 - Saxophone Train
11Mar08
You’ll have to wait until the end to get to the saxophone train on this one. No cheating and no fastforwarding. If so you’ll miss plenty, including some catch up chat, thoughts on what’s been keeping me so busy, and a beer review. 
Show Notes:
- What’s been going on
- Linda’s Arrival
- Work
- Meeting up with Saya
- Meeting up with Scott and Karamoon
- New Listeners
- Responding to Blog Comments
- Projects
- Economics, finance, and work-related stuff
- Explaination of how I’d like to keep learning Kanji (help me out)
- Drink Review
- Kamakura Beer
- Daibutsu is there
- Saxophone train
Wednesday, March 12th 2008 at 12:09 am
great show christopher! i’m glad you’ve enjoyed some time away from podcasting. it hasn’t been THAT long, it’s just that i think we’re so used to hearing from you at least weekly! i say take your time, you deserve it
thanks!
Wednesday, March 12th 2008 at 12:29 am
you sounded a bit tired.
daijobu?
Wednesday, March 12th 2008 at 6:25 am
@saya: Yeah. I’m a bit sick, weird chest cold I think.
@aaron: Thanks. Hopefully I can keep it up now.
Wednesday, March 12th 2008 at 1:22 pm
Christopher, I`m really glad that you and Linda made it to the 2600 meeting. The zine is “Infiltration”. 25 issues were published. There is also a book based on the zine called “Access All Areas”. Please check out the site http://infiltration.org
See you on Sunday?
- Karamoon
Wednesday, March 12th 2008 at 2:34 pm
Going back to Armstrong, you might like “Impressions of Japan” by David Brubeck. As far as I know, this is the only Jazz CD based off the “Japanese sound” for a lack of a better term (I would love to hear another if you’ve got one); and its Brubeck, so you can’t go wrong. I recommend “fujiyama”
Wednesday, March 12th 2008 at 10:22 pm
Hello my friend, I thought I’d up the ratio of commentors to downloaders. I can empathize on the crappy dollar, though the euro has only gained about 3% in the two months I’ve been here, which isn’t as bad as the 12% or so that it fell when I was in Brazil. And fyi, I’ve found a Tuesday night jazz place here. They’re like Irish pubs, wherever you go in the world, some club is going to have a jazz night.
Thursday, March 13th 2008 at 9:56 am
Actually, those musical interludes make the show better - more composed, somehow. They could even be longer.
Thursday, March 13th 2008 at 10:44 am
If you drink a ton of coffee…another way to save on coffee at the office is buy a big jar of instant coffee at the grocery store. Then take it to work with a spoon and a mug. I assume your office is like all the ones I have seen and they have extremely hot water available for tea and instant noodles. I used to drink instant coffee at my old job (now my current employer provides free coffee) and I spent a ton on vending machines, so I went the instant route. Not the best taste, just a money saver tip.
Thursday, March 13th 2008 at 11:04 am
FYI…In Omotesando there is a big St. Patty’s Day event on Sunday, March 16.
http://www.inj.or.jp/stpatrick_e.html
Thursday, March 13th 2008 at 11:22 am
Hi Christopher,
If you have been studying Japanese, you have already probably come across these - but in the off chance you haven’t check out White Rabbit Press’s kanji flash cards.
http://www.whiterabbitpress.com
I’m not sure if they do the kind of grouping you were describing, at first glance it doesn’t appear so, but I’ve only used their kana flashcards so far.
To that end, I highly recommend them. They have the same size and texture of playing cards, so they are durable and you can keep a deck with you. Then you can pull them out when you’ve got a couple free minutes throughout the day.
I was really surprised how much more quickly I learned the kana than with the other methods I had tried. I bought the first kanji set but haven’t started learning them yet.
Also, if the flashcards above don’t do what you would like, you could try contacting the author - Max Hodges. It seems like he is usually looking for new product ideas, so maybe he’d be interested to hear your thoughts and put something together.
Thursday, March 13th 2008 at 2:13 pm
I don’t care about these other people, but you will apologise to me. Oh yes you will…
Kanji? There is a way I do it, but the problem is that everyone is different
Why everyone can’t be like me is beyond all comprehension! I use elements of Kanji to remember them easily, starting with radicals and moving on from there. I am a pretty visual person, so Kanji is easy for me. How are you finding it?
Thanks for the dedication. Whalers for life yo.
Thursday, March 13th 2008 at 3:13 pm
About Kanji learning, have you checked this program out?
http://www-alg.ist.hokudai.ac.jp/~jan/kangoroo.html
I use it all the time. It’s a japanese and kanji dictionary that let you make a list of kanjis and vocabulary you know, and let you see all the words that use a given kanji, starting with the ones you marked as known. It also allows to recursively remember kanjis by combination of building blocks.
Thursday, March 13th 2008 at 5:56 pm
@aaron: Thanks. Hopefully I won’t take too much time.
@saya: ちょう疲れていたよ！！
@karamoon: Woah nice. Even better that they have a website. Thanks for sharing that with the folks here on the comments. Yeah we will be there Sunday, I just sent off a mail to you.
@kuma: Thanks for the recommendation, I will see if I can find that. Its not on iTMS so I’ll have to dig around.
@Scott: Nice nice nice!!!! Tuesday night jazz around the world! You’ll have to let me know where that is so the next time I’m over in those woods I can check it out.
@Drew: I’ll see what I can do. I am always putting aside music for future shows. I think I have a list here somewhere…
@steve: Definitely, and thanks for the tip. The flavia machine at work actually dispenses hot water only for free so I may take that route. There is 178 yen coffee there too (at another shop) but its not nearly as good.
@Mark: Those cards look great. I think I’ll even get the Kana ones for Linda. I’ve got this idea in my head with how I want to “see” Kanji. A bit like San described but more interactive. I’ll have to think it through a little more. Thanks for the link!!
@San: Its all love. I’ve gotta get back on the horse with studying Japanese. I actually feel like I’m loosing so much of it. I’m getting lazy. : - (
@Alex: But but but …. its Windows. 出来ないよ！
Thursday, March 13th 2008 at 11:06 pm
Ah, gomen. Well, it’s Linux too. :p Too bad the guy didn’t compile an OSX version. 申し訳ない！
Friday, March 14th 2008 at 1:02 am
I’ve finally caught up with all of your episodes! It’s nice being able to listen to an episode and feel relevant. Listening to “Finding Japan” definitely gets me psyched for my trip in two weeks–just in time for the cherry blossoms!
Friday, March 14th 2008 at 7:39 am
Still waiting….
Thursday, March 20th 2008 at 7:14 am
Kanji project ?
like every body learning japanese I have to digest some kanji and I don’t find any perfect way to learn them.
In book (I a few on the subject), the best I found is the kanji learners dictionary, very clean, easy lots of example per reading …
I learn kanji (following minna no nihongo) in words and after some time start to know some on/kun an be able to pickup more easily new word.
I find kanji card where you just learn the naked kanji, it’s on, kun, it’s drawing … to dry for me, I need some meat around it to learn it better.
If you plan to make a software/website, I am interested, I thought on that too, but never find the perfect way to do it so it’s still a plan in in procrastinaton book.
(WhiteRabbitPress cards are pretty good because they have lots of examples on it with jlpt level tag).
There was a discussion on WhiteRabbitPress forum about what every is looking in a new tool to learn Kanji.
Wednesday, March 26th 2008 at 3:34 am
Chris,
It has been nearly a year since I’ve commented on your podcast. I’m busy with school but I still listen when I’ve got a chance. As far as what you said about learning kanji…I’ve been using the DS Software 大人の感じ練習 to both review and learn kanji.
I briefly mentioned it on my blog/podcast last year (see above). I think its is hard to learn kanji with this DS Software unless you have the characters reinforced with a some thing else, either a book, paper flashcards or some thing that gives you the English meaning with the character.
As this tool is made for Japanese people, it does not give you the English and so a lot of words it uses to help you lean the kanji are words I haven’t learned yet but are words I should learn. I often keep my Japanese dictionary with as I’m doing the characters. I tend to memorize the kanji better if I get the English meanings for the words while I’m practicing it.
I like the study system the software uses because you have a “Daily Review” of characters which you can test your self on after you have reviewed them. It won’t let you pass a test for the next group of kanji until you score at least an 80%. It keeps track of every kanji you missed on the tests and stores it in your “heta” kanji list. One you have re-reviewed the kanji in the “heta” list it is taken off. However, if you miss it again on a test, it will get put back into the heta list. I’ve found it great a tool which I can take with me where ever I go and just spend 15-30 minutes a day with it.
I have different profiles setup, one with my age as 0, one with my true age and one with my age as a middle school student. If you set your age as zero it forces you to review and be tested on every single kanji before you can continue to the next test. This is forcing me to re-learn and master a lot of characters. If you set your age higher, you can skip a lot of the tests for Elementary age students and just start on the more advanced tests.
The software allows you to review at any level you want at any time.
Good luck,
Carl
Thursday, March 27th 2008 at 3:31 am
Hello,
I started listening a little while ago and have now gone through all your podcasts. Like a lot of people have already noted, it’s cool to sort of relive my Japan experiences by listening to you go through your own. It’s been an enjoyable time. One thing, have you mentioned how you are making your portable/sound tours? I was wondering about your hardware-you’ve already mentioned what programs you use. Did I miss this.
Thanks,
Pat
Saturday, April 5th 2008 at 6:00 pm
@Carl - Hey thanks for the detail on that DS game. I will try to find it and see if that helps my studies as well.
@Pat - I use an Edirol R-9. Fantastic little piece of hardware that I highly recommend. Look it up!
Monday, April 7th 2008 at 3:59 pm
Oh, you can comment, but not feel the need to put out a podcast???? You had better do something for Korea!
Friday, April 11th 2008 at 5:10 am
hey christopher … i returned from my japanese adventure three weeks ago and i really miss your podcasts. that being said … thank you so very very much for all of the ones you have done so far. much of what you said helped and there were even a few familiar sights thanks to your little videos from the very beginning of the podcast. i cannot thank you enough for all the words you have given to the world … the information, the valued opinions and your love of japan. long live the spicy moss cheese burger!!! i hope your silence is just you being happy
Monday, April 14th 2008 at 8:00 pm
Where are you??? How about a new podcast? Your fans miss you.
Monday, April 14th 2008 at 11:27 pm
@emmettjcat: Thanks. I’m glad that I was able to help you. I promise I will get another out as soon as I can. My silence has been happy and restful so far, considering.
@Whitely et. al. Yes I know. I apologize terribly. Between being sick for about 2 months, taxes, equipment issues, and a host of other things its been hard to get the stars to align. I appreciate the kind words though. I have recorded two segments that just need to be edited and have more sound tours for all of you.