Squee! HQ Video!

I am so excited/happy/goofy about my day yesterday. I Found the best place on earth. Okay maybe it is not the best place on earth but it is pretty great. I went to Mitsuwa. I have ben meaning to visit and check it out for a while, but this was my first time. Inside Mitsuwa was the the best thing. HQ Video! Seriously the place is amazing! They have every drama available for rent and quite a few available for sale. They also have Japanese movies and Japanese versions of English movies. I was able to get a previously viewed うぬぼれ刑事 with bonus commercials for $24. I thought it was serendipity because I was going to write a post about my favorite actors and Nagase Tomoya / 長瀬智也 is at the top of my list. He is gorgeous and hilarious. I wanted to buy more, but I had forgotten my wallet at home and The Hubby only had $25 on him. I will be back though. Mitsuwa was especially awesome because walking through the store for an hour I recognized quite a few of the songs. As I was leaving they played イチブトゼンブ which almost made me play air guitar in public like I do when I hear it in my car. The cafe also had some cute magazines and sewing books. I liked it because it was not nearly as intimidating as being in stores in Little Tokyo. Definitely motivates me to get going faster on my Kanji. Not be able to read things really pisses me off.

Day 8

I am totally sick. I managed to get my reviews done and add the last of the kanji in Part I. I am starting Part II tomorrow, Also watched some random Arashi variety shows and surfed around some Japanese blogs which I tried to actually pick out the characters that I know and not just look at the pictures. Mostly I was just sick though.

Day 7:

I have some kanji to review and some to study. I visited a mandarin school though for my Miss S who will be starting kindergarten next fall so I did get to "read" some kanji on signs and posters and such today. I have been keeping up with my reviews and am on frame 270. I have not added in the supplement yet. I am really hopin to be finished with RTK I by my birthday, or the end of March at the latest. That means that I need to do more new frames then the 10 I have been managing to do so far.


I am also getting really excited about the idea of cooking some Japanese food. Making vegan versions of things is kind of tricky though. I really want oumrice though. Also my friend made her son a super cute bento lunch today and I was jealous that I don't have sweet bento skills like that.

Day 4:

I managed to get my Anki reps down to 0. I had to bribe myself to do it with an episode of Tokyo Dogs. I watched a lot of keyhole T.V. and learned about the shooting yesterday through Japanese news. I love Japanese commercials by the way. time for more input.

Random Thoughts

I was looking over all my Japanese blogs in google reader and clicked on someone's twitter link. I think I should get a Japanese twitter account. The tweets are just long enough to give me bite sized amounts of kanji with kana practice as well. Then I got thinking about having a Japanese name to tweet with. In school I always had a foreign name to match my foreign language study. Momo and Eiji have Japanese names. Since both of my daughters really have Japanese names I feel like could have one too. I am choosing between few different names. I know it is highly unlikely that anyone in real life will use it but I want one just the same. コスモ is just not doing it for me. I will settle for hearing おかあさん or ママ. In high school french we also did a whole project creating a French persona and life. I may do that too.

Day 3!

I did manage to get all caught up on my smart.fm reps and still have only 2 katakana left to complete. Yay! Katakana are sort of hard because there are several that look alike, some look like hiragana, and many look like kanji.

I thought I got caught up on my RTK reps, but I was fooled because I forgot to sync my app. Today is my deadline for getting caught up though so I had better get back to it so I can start unsuspending cards again tomorrow. I downloaded the supplement to RTK with the new Kanji so I am going to go back and add any that fit in among the 1st 250 that I have done already.

I also watched a bit of Tokyo Dogs and listened to a bit of a podcast.

Day 2!

Minimal Kanji reviewing while waiting for Miss S to finish preschool. Watched some Tokyo Dogs subbed, some Real Clothes Raw, and an episode of Nihonjin no shiranai Nihongo. Listened to the daughters Japanese Disney mix in the car on the way to and from preschool. I got sucked into tumblr collecting and posted about 1000 Images. That is hyperbole. I am about to do some smart.fm right now.

Doramas That I Have Watched

I am currently a Dorama addict. I am surprised that I can say that. The first one I tried to watch was painful to me. I couldn't get past the first 15 minutes. That Dorama was Gokusen. After that I was watching Keyhole TV and caught a rerun of Proposal Daisakusen in the fall of 2009. I was in love! Even with no subs I could kinda know what was going on and that was so great. I have watched it again twice through once with English subs and once raw. I have to admit that I do cheat. I watch every dorama through the first time with English subs on and then if I like it I watch it without.

Here is my list of doramas to date. Some are still in progress listed most recently to oldest:

• At Home Dad: アットホーム・ダッド / Attohômu daddo
• Tokyo DOGS: 東京DOGS / 最悪で最高のパートナー / The Worst and Best Partners / Saiaku de Saiko no Partner
• My Boss My Hero: マイ★ボス マイ★ヒーロー / 我的大佬我的英雄
• Shiroi Haru: 白い春 / White Spring
• Dare Yori mo Mama wo Aisu: 誰よりもママを愛す / I Love Mama More Than Anyone
• Tumbling: タンブリング / 新体操が、オレ達をオトコにした / Shintaiso ga, oretachi o otoko ni shita
• FACE MAKER
• Juui Dolittle: 獣医ドリトル / 獸醫杜立德
• Reinoryokusha Odagiri Kyoko no Uso: 霊能力者　小田霧響子の嘘 / 靈能力者 小田霧響子的謊言
• Ogon no Buta: 黄金の豚 / 私たちが払った税金を追え！/ Watashitachi ga Haratta Zeikin wo Oue!
• Hana Kimi (Complete): Also known as Hanazakarino Kimitachie / 花ざかりの君たちへ / For You in Full Blossom / Ikemen paradaisu
• Q10: Also known as キュート / Kyuto
• Binbo Danshi: 貧乏男子 / ボンビーメン / Bomb bee men
• Gokusen: as ごくせん
• Freeter, Ie o Kau.: Also known as フリーター、家を買う / 家族、やりなおし / Kazoku, yarinaoshi
• Tiger & Dragon: Also known as タイガー＆ドラゴン / Tiger & Dragon
• Moyashimon: Also known as もやしもん / Tales of Agriculture
• Ninkyo Helper: 任侠ヘルパー / Care Worker Gang / The Chivalrous Helper
• Unubore Deka: うぬぼれ刑事 / Conceited Detective / I sentence you to marry me. / Detective Lovesick / 自恋刑警
• HAMMER SESSION!: Also known as ハンマーセッション！ / 叩き直されたい、生徒（ヤツ）はどいつだ! / Tataki Naosaretai, Seito (Yatsu) wa doitsuda! / 震撼鮮師!
• Gakeppuchi no Eri:  崖っぷちのエリー / Kono Yo de Ichiban Daiji na 'Kane' no Hanashi / この世でいちばん大事な“カネ”の話
• Natsu no Koi wa Nijiiro ni Kagayaku: 夏の恋は虹色に輝く / Summer Romance shines in rainbow color / Summer Love Shines in Rainbow Color
• Nihonjin no Shiranai Nihongo: 日本人の知らない日本語 / 日本人不知道的日語I
• Give My First Love to You: Also known as 僕の初恋をキミに捧ぐ / Boku no Hatsukoi wo Kimi ni Sasagu / 属于你的我的初恋
• Tsuki no Koibito: Moon Lovers / 月の恋人 / 月之恋人
• Gold
• Happy Flight
• Around 40: 注文の多いオンナたち / Chumon no Oi Onna-tachi / Demanding Women
• Hotaru no Hikari 2: Hotaru's Light / It Is the Only Little Light in My Life / Light of the Firefly / ホタルノヒカリ 2 / 螢之光 2Naka nai to Kimeta Hi: 泣かないと決めた日
• Sunao ni Narenakute: 素直になれなくて / Hard to say I love you
• Hana Yori Dango Final: Fainaru / Boys Over Flowers: Final / 花より男子～ファイナル～ / 花より男子ファイナル
• Hana Yori Dango Season 2: Boys Before Flowers 2 / Boys Over Flowers 2 / 花より男子 2
• Hana Yori Dango: 花より男子 / Boys Before Flowers / Boys Over Flowers
• Love Shuffle: ラブシャッフル
• My Girl (TV Asahi): マイガール
• Ohitorisama: おひとりさま / Party of One
• Real Clothes: リアル・クローズ
• Oh! My Girl: オー！マイ・ガール！！
• Atashinchi no Danshi: アタシんちの男子 / My Boys / More Than Family But Less Than Lovers / 家族以上、恋人未満 / Kazoku Ijo, Koibito Mimanl?
• Attention Please: アテンションプリーズ
• Buzzer Beat: ブザー・ビート / 崖っぷちのヒーロー / Gakeppuchi no Hero
• Nodame Cantabile: のだめカンタービレ
• 1 Litre of Tears: １リットルの涙 / Ichi Rittoru no Namida / One Litre of Tears / A Diary with TearsAbsolute Boyfriend: 
• Zettai Kareshi / 絶対彼氏 / Kanzen Muketsu no Koibito Robot / The Completely Perfect Boyfriend Robot
• Hotaru no Hikari: ホタルノヒカリ / Glow of Fireflies / It's Only Little Light In My Life
• Proposal Daisakusen: Operation Love / プロポーズ大作戦

None of these have been terrible. I left those off this list. I just think they are so much fun though they do have the drawback of making me crave onigiri and sushi because I feel like I become Japanese when I am watching them. I should calculate how many hours of listening this makes. Anyway I will probably over time write up reviews of these.

OK, Kanji Time! Day 1 Take 2.

I have been continuing on with my lameness for too long. The newest member of our family is now 5 months old. I am running out of excuses. Also the eldest is going to be starting kindy next year hopefully in the Japanese program. She would then be in class with Japanese kids with Japanese mom's for me to hang around with. However having Japanese friends will be more likely if I can speak at least some Japanese. My goal is to get caught up on my RTK reviews and get back to adding new Kanji and catch up on my smart.fm reviews. Gotta do it. I also need to do a write up of all the Doramas I have watched. I am curious how many hours I have logged of listening and watching doing that. I have watched a ton and my tastes have really changed. I also want to post about the podcasts and blogs that I follow even though I don't understand them beyond random Kanji, katakana and single word phrases. Oh I also started a Tumblr inspired by Kanji & Tea.