So I'm sitting here, wondering if the power is going to go out again (it's thunderstorming right now), pondering what looks to be a somewhat boring summer vacation. Almost all of my friends are vacationing/studying far away from here. To the far ends of Japan, actually. (Doug's going to Okinawa, whilst Ellen and Jamie are going to Hokkaido.) At least I'll be taking the opportunity to brush up my own Japanese skills.

Every December, the government administers a Japanese Language Proficiency test for foreigners in Japan. I'm preparing for the Level 3 exam (with 4 being easiest, and 1 being impossible). I'm very worried. It's recommended that people taking level 3 should know at least 1500 words, and 300 kanji. Also, they should have finished at least 300 hours of Japanese study.

I'm...working on it.

I start that class next week. I've already bought my train pass...something else I've never needed before. It was a little adventure to get the lady at the train station to understand what I wanted. "No, I don't want the 11 tickets for the price of 10; I want the unlimited pass!"

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So I've created a new splash page. What do you think? As usual, you can reach me at ratendido (at) mac (dot) com.