The first way Lead Trust and the second Able.

In the end I signed with Able, however I first went to Lead Trust. Also recommended to me were Mini Mini, but in the end I didn’t go. They do apparently deal in quite a lot of very small, but cheap apartments and a English friend of mine said good things about the company. Lead Trust I didn’t get any recommendations about, but a Japanese friend found some apartments online via them so he booked an appointment for me. Able was recommended via a friend as having been used twice before with good results.

From my experience, don’t use Lead Trust. Their service was fine, although I didn’t like the fact that everything they showed me has two months gift money （礼金）when 1 month is common, but the apartments were OK and we got taken to three, the last of which was a newly refurbished, pretty large manshon（マンション） 3 minutes from a very convenient station. The price was good (1 month gift money), the location excellent. The final bill however was extortionate. Their agency fee was 1.05 (one point zero five) months rent, which isn’t unusual but many agencies at this time of the year have a campaign for half price fees. The apartment also came with a cleaning fee (nearly half a month’s rent), for the previous tenant or for me, I don’t know, and an extra fee (1/4 month’s rent), I can’t remember what it was for, and then the thing which made me angry; a charge for a guarantor company even thou my Japanese friend sitting next to me was going to be the the guarantor. ‘But because you’re a foreigner the guarantor company is still required, even if you have a guarantor already’ they said. That’s an extra 1/2 month’s rent, please. Bollocks. I’m not entirely sure if that was a lie, but research online suggests this just isn’t the case. You only use a company if you haven’t got a Japanese that can do it. Maybe different landlords are picker than others, but the guy in the agency said ‘almost always’ this is so, which I do think is either ignorance or a lie.

Suffice to say, I didn’t sign. In any case, I still needed to see Able.

This estate agent was far better. Same service (I see why they charge so much, you get driven to each place by an agent), but with a better selection of apartments with lower initial fees. They had a campaign which was half price fees, and no cleaning fee or guarantor money. I got a new apartment in a nice location for work, for a lot less up front money. They even pushed the gift money down a bit on my request.

You can go with other companies who specialize in dealing with foreigners. I was recommended Tokyo Rent but they didn’t have anything in the area I wanted. There are others too. I expect rents to be higher with these companies or else quality lower.

A few things I learned.

1) Searching online isn’t as useful as I thought. The information of some apartments was just wrong. Campaign special prices that rise after 3 months, or just plain wrong. I don’t think there was a single one found online that we actually went to see. If you want the most accurate information go direct to an agency and get them to find places. You have to do it anyway.

2) Check the charges first. Obvious, but I really wasn’t expecting that guarantor charge or cleaning fee.

3) Learn to write your address, occupation and company address, in kanji.

4) Generally you have to pay gift money. Places without tend to have higher rent.

There are other options. I could have rented a place with my company. It would have been furnished, although probably not cheaper for the location I wanted. No initial fees, of course, but if I move company I have to move apartment anyway. I could have got cheaper rent If I’d hunted more but I had a deadline and the place I finally found was very nice.

Now the hassle of moving my stuff, and cleaning this current apartment to within an inch of it’s life.

Two wrestlers going at it

Doesn’t sound a lot, but as you restrict to the higher ranks, the percentage goes up a bit. Although, I had gotten the impression that there was a crisis in sumo with the number of foreigners outweighing native Japanese. From looking at the stats I still see a great number of Japanese. Maybe it’s because the top rank, Yokozuna, has been dominated by foreigners for the last 10 years (see bottom of page).

But in any case, Sunday’s 1-day tournament is outside the normal schedule for determining rank, and was won by a Japanese, apparently a feat last done 7 years ago.

Will they start this time?

The final was between a Bulgarian born Ozeki (2nd rank) by the name of Kotooshu, and a native Sekiwake (3rd rank) wrestler called Goeido. Goeido had made it past several higher ranked wrestlers, including toppling the reigning champion and Yokozuna in the semi-final, before tripping up the Bulgarian to claim the top prize, a hefty 円3,200,000 (about $36,000 dollars). Not bad for a days work, although in global sporting terms quite modest I suppose.

Bulgarian finalist

As could be expected from a drought of native champions, everyone was quite pleased when Goeido won, the post championship interview focusing on how great it was a native had won after so long. Although as in the best sumo tradition, the interviewer did most of the talking.

The sumo itself was much as I remember. A long preamble in which the opponents glare at each other and pretend to get ready to start, although you know full well they won’t at the sweeper guys haven’t even gotten out the way yet. Once they’ve done this 2 or 3 times, they start the match, which is usually over in 10 seconds. Although, you couldn’t feel bored as the matches continued one after another pretty much without rest, the ceremony of the whole event always allowing your eyes to be kept busy with something interesting, be it the guy who sings at the end of each

Keeping the ring tidy

bout, the sweepers keeping the ring clean and correct, the wrestlers themselves and their elaborate preparation, or magnificent dress of the referees.

Traditional crooner

We were there for about 2 hours, in not too shabby seats on the second floor. Although maybe next time I’ll fork out for the first floor cushion seats, so I can throw them at the ring when something happens I like (or not), as many people did for the final two bouts.

My language partner gave me a set of Japanese Graded Readers for Christmas. This is the sort of book I have been looking for over the last 2 or 3 years. It has furigana for all kanji, pictures that help set the context, and a cd to follow along if you want to listen. This is sort of the Japanese version of the `I see Sam` or Dick and Jane books, but seem to be intended for second language learners.

My set came from Kinokuniya bookstore, but I looked up a few links in case this catches anyone`s interest.

Japanese Graded Readers website has some samples of the pages and audio.
The books on amazon: This is not my favorite place to buy, but probably the easiest access if you want to get your hands on them.

I looked at the website of the bookstore and you can only find them there using the Japanese title: レベル別　日本語多読　ライブラリー

1) Get to Shinjuku and go here (street view and website)

2) If you are planning a day trip, go early. I went for 7 and, from the handy timetable found here, you can choose which bus you are going to take there and back.

3) By a ticket. You can book online if you like, but out of season and Japanese national holidays I doubt you’ll find the bus full. Buy the ticket from the ticket office, (1700yen one way, you can’t buy a return you’ll be told, you buy it once there) and get on the bus.

4) Once at Kawaguchiko, follow the signs and go for a walk. The path around the lake lasts about 15km, and stops about half way so you have to follow the road the rest. The reason it stops is the view of Fuji goes behind a smaller mountain, but you are half way round the lake already so you might as well keep going. If you feel lazy there are buses that go around the lakes area. You could go to one of the other lakes if you have time, although the views are no more special, although with maybe less hotels, unless you are willing to travel to Yamanaka lake to the south.

5) Get a bite to eat somewhere after the long walk. There is nothing much around the station but a short walk away are some chain places.

6) Go home. Last buses are at 8ish although that is after an hour wait from the previous one. Also, it gets dark and cold come 5pm so probably best to leave by then anyway. The bus back wasn’t busy, although everyone did pile on once it stopped at at Mt Fuji funland

If you want other ideas on viewing Mt. Fuji, I was mulling over this page for a while. With limited time and the potential of getting lost, I chose the easy option, although climbing a mountain near Lake Yamanaka and watching the sunset did pass my mind, if I thought it wouldn’t die trying to get back in the dark.

More information on travel, including trains (more expensive as far as I can tell) can be found here.

1) The Great Tokai Earthquake of the 21st Century

While not so bad for Tokyo (and probably Chiba, where I am, will escape severe damage), the Tokai earthquake predicted to hit Shizuoka prefecture anytime soon is a big worry for Japan.

The figure to the left is one of the major fault lines passing close to the mainland of Japan; the Nankai trough. It’s a subduction zone with the Philippine plate pushing itself under the Eurasian plate. The section marked A below is the one pertaining to the Tokai earthquake. It hasn’t ruptured for over 150 years (the last being in 1854), and is well overdue a predicted minimum M8 earthquake, centered somewhere in the Shizuoka prefecture.

If this one goes, which some scientists gave a 35-45% chance this decade, then it will cause massive destruction far worse than the Kobe earthquake of 1995. While Kobe was a different type of earthquake, and less powerful at only M7.4, it is useful as a comparison, noting that a 1 point increase in magnitude is a ~32x increase in power.

http://www.e-quakes.pref.shizuoka.jp/english/guide_01.html
http://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake_tokai/
http://geology.about.com/od/eq_prediction/a/aa_tokaiquake.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nankai_megathrust_earthquakes

2) The Great Kanto Earthquake of the 21st Century

Not afraid of just one devastating once in a lifetime earthquake, well Japan has two lined up. Emanating from a related but separate faultline, the Great Kanto earthquake, affecting Tokyo rather more directly, is also overdue. In 1923 it killed over 100,000 people. Nowadays, while the deaths will probably be a lot less, the economic damage to Japan, and potentially the entire world, could be dire. There is an anime series on the subject of death in Tokyo by earthquake too. Check it out!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1923_Great_Kant%C5%8D_earthquake
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=10704

3) Mt Fuji Eruption

Earthquakes? Meer shaking of the ground. What you really want for death and destruction is an active volcano. While not a very active volcano, the last eruptions being over 300 years ago, the constant threat is always there that eventually Fuji-san will get angry again and belch lava and ash all over Tokyo, prevailing winds coating everything to the east of the volcano. In fact, it has been reported that Fuji is overdue, and that its last eruption, in 1707, was two months after the great Tokai earthquake of that year. Although, it has to be said that the rip in 1854 didn’t set off Fuji, it’s a sobering thought that both might happen at the same time. What does that mean for Tokyo? According to the ash map, between 1-4cm of the grey stuff if the 1707 eruption is anything to go by.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historic_eruptions_of_Mount_Fuji
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/07/060717-mount-fuji.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C5%8Dei_eruption_of_Mount_Fuji
http://www.japanprobe.com/2006/07/18/will-mr-fuji-erupt-soon/

4) Tidal Wave

Not content with its own natural disasters, the east coast of Japan could be affected by someone else’s problem. A magnitude 9 earthquake is coming to the west coast of America. The cascadia earthquake may generate a tsunami that will hit Japan and in certain places could cause, going from the past reconstructions, a 2-5m wave. Although this is a minor point compared with the devastation that will affect the US west coast’s major cities.

http://www.livescience.com/environment/050103_cascadia_tsunami.html
http://geology.about.com/od/quake_preparedness/a/aa_cascadiaEQ.htm
http://environment.nationalgeographic.co.uk/environment/natural-disasters/earthquake-technology.html

5) Bicycle death

Probably the most fearsome of the lot; crazy obaasan on bicycles. These lean, mean death machines combine two-wheeled destruction from behind with a near super-sonic battle cry. They are to be feared with a terror far greater than the combined power of the Kanto and Toukai earthquakes and Fuji blowing all in the same month (which could happen in theory).

子供の頃に　母に　ぼくは　ありがとうの手紙を　かかされた。
Kodomo no koro ni haha ni bokuha arigatou no tegami wo kakasareta.
When I was a kid, my mom made me write thank-you letters.

ビール先生に　１０マィルを　走らされた。
Biiru Sensei ni 10 mairu wo hashirasareta.
Bill Sensei made me run ten milse.

The structure:
に indicates the person making the other person do the action.
は indicates who was or is being made to do the action
を marks any objects involved (thank-you letters)

う – verbs are conjegated as follows:
書く　－　書かされる
走る　－　走られる
買う　－　買わされる

る – verbs: drop る add させられる
食べる　－　食べさせられる

irregular vers:
する　－　させられる
来る　－　こさせられる

Noun/Verb/Adjective (Plain Form/Polite Past Form) +っけ
何だっけ。 What is it again…
新宿だったっけ。 Was it Shinjuku?  I can’t remember.
病気でしたっけ。 He was sick, right?  I forgot.
買ったっけ・買いましたっけ。 Did he buy it?  I forgot.
行くんだっけ。 He’s going, right?  I forgot.
行ったんだっけ。 He went, didn’t he?  I forgot.
行くんだったっけ・行くんでしたっけ。 He was going, wasn’t he?
冷たかったっけ。 It was cold, right?

注意：イ Adjectives don’t ever use the Past Polite form (～かったです) with っけ since it can’t attach to です.  Also, it’s not recommended to use the Present Tense for Verbs or イ Adjectives.  It’s generally unnatural (even in English) to forget something that didn’t happen yet.

This form is only used to express something you did know, but forgot.  If you remember た・だ + っけ, you’ll be ok.

Grammar Note: Plain Form
Verb: 行く ・ 行かない ・ 行った ・　行かなかった
イ Adjective: さむい　・　さむくない　・　さむかった　・　さむくなかった
ナ Adjective: 元気だ　・　元気じゃない　・　元気たった　・　元気じゃなかった
Noun: 雨だ　・　雨じゃない　・　雨だった　・　雨じゃなかった

The Japanese love to do this. My Japanese teacher drove 600km around Tokyo on a motorbike to go see the leaves. I on the other hand popped along to Matsudo City (松戸市）and the 本土時 (Hondoji) Temple.

This is a notable place for viewing the lovely red and yellows of the autumn change in colour, before the weather really does get frigid. We’ve had a few cold snaps recently here in Japan but considering it’s a week before December, the fact the temperature has been getting to 18′ during the day still surprises me in a country with 4 seasons, if at least contrasted with England which has been cold and miserable for weeks now.

Anyway, I saw lots of Japanese pointing their SLR cameras on full zoom at a single leaf, and lots of trees with countless ephemeral leaves lest a week away from drifting to the ground. They don’t seem to cause the trains to be late either, which is nice.

Here are some pictures.

http://www.hondoji.com/

Vている – Action in progress/Past event that is connected with the present
彼は太っている。 He is fat.

Vていく – Indicates a change that takes place from now on
彼は太っていく。 He will continue to get fat.

Vてくる – Indicates a change that has been taking place to now
彼は太ってきた。 He has gotten fat./He is getting fat.

The rules I mentioned in the other post also apply.  If you can express the verb with a duration, then you are talking about an action in progress, and cannot use the ていく・てくる forms to express a change.  Instead they take on the standard go and come definitions.  For example:

一時間買い物しました。  I shopped for an hour.  (Grammatically correct using a duration)
買い物してきました。 I went shopping and came back.  (Not expressing a change)

一時間分かりました。 I understood for an hour. (Grammatically incorrect using a duration)
分かってきました。 I came to understand.  (Expressing the change from not understanding to understanding)

My notes from Levithon’s post:

As for the ている form, I whipped out my Genki Vol 1 to make sure I get this correct. There are three main types:

1. Describe a continuous states.
2. Describe activities that last for some time.
3. Describe the result of a change.

For example, when you get married you go from being single to being married. One tip the book said to determine if it is talking about a continuing action or a state is if you can describe the phrase using 一時間.

〇私はきのう一時間本を読みました。
×私は一時間死にました。(”I died for an hour”, which is as ungrammatical in both English as it is in Japanese.)

So 死ぬ (Along with 起きる、行く、帰る、来る、分かる、出かける、乗る、座る、消す、忘れる、借りる、降りる、持ってくる、連れてくる、結婚する、太る、やせる and 着る) are type 3 verbs.

This is another very common spoken grammar point.  Please feel free to ask questions and I’ll try to answer or give feedback if you feel up to practicing this grammar point.

This is one of the major difficulties with learning a language outside of the country it is spoken. It’s great if you have Japanese friends who you talk to regularly, or if you are in some structured learning environment such as classes, however, what do you do if you’re going it alone?  How do you keep learning and consolidating what you have learned?

One technique I often use is to try to express whatever I’m thinking in Japanese - ONLY in isolated places! It’s weird enough to look like you’re talking to yourself, let alone in another language.. I think this is important, as when you are studying by yourself, you don’t often have oppportunities to practice speaking. Although your reading and writing skills are often good, making the switch to speaking off the cuff can induce hesitation and stumbling. Therefore, it’s important to keep the dialogue running – even in your head.

Counting things, asking for things, decribing what you’re doing are all important – but the best one is getting angry when someone does something rude or stupid, and letting out a stream of Japanese invective – less worry about them being offended or picking a fight.

For example:

“Yuube osoi, Boku no tonari wa dai ongako shita. Taihen mukatsukatta! Baka yaroo! Nan dai ya nen!?!” *

I find putting sentences together like this enjoyable as both a vent for frustrations and an good exercise.

Another one of my favourites is to order food in Japanese, however in Sydney with such a large proportion of Korean run Japanese restaurants this can throw you off  if they don’t speak Japanese, and just look at your mangled phrases blankly. My first ever attempt at this after a decade of no Japanese speaking since high school went down terribly.

I said: ”gyuuniku o tabetai” as opposed to the more natural:  ”gyuudon onegai shimasu”   - literally: “I like to eat cow meat” , as opposed to: “please bring me the beef and rice”

What other ways do other subscribers have for keeping their Japanese wheels well oiled?

Also, does anyone have examples of Japanese similes and metaphors, like “Japanese wheels well oiled”  or how to create them without looking like you’re talking gibberish??

*(Disclaimer: These phrases have been cobbled together from some past podcasts, and some from basic Japanese lessons. Please let me know if there is a more natural way to say them, or I have made grammatical errors – I don’t claim ANY mastery skills, only opinion.)