NHK News Web Easy

As promised, here's the link to the easy version of NHK's news. Additionally, here is a post on reddit with ideas how to modify the difficulty to your liking.

Happy reading.

春休みの目標

I've begun the laborous task of reading my first novel written in Japanese. I hope to read about 15 pages of キッチン for spring break. The process of looking up kanji has been tedious, but it's necessary if I want to accomplish my goal.

I've only read two pages so far, but already I am enjoying the writing. The narrator opens the story with an expression of love for her favorite place, the kitchen. She sleeps by the huge refrigerator. But her family has diminished until all that is left is her and the kitchen and her life seems likes science fiction.

The first two pages are filled with loneliness, summed up with the line 「宇宙の闇だ。」I get the same feeling reading this story in Japanese as I have had in the past reading translations of her other stories. I love reading Yoshimoto Banana. The simplicity of her words is often striking and moving. I think I understand human emotions more when reading her stories.

Lastly, here's something that really stood out visually to me, which I wish to share.

「葬式がすんでから三日はぼうっとしていた。
涙があんまり出ない飽和した悲しみにともなう、柔らかな眠けをそっとひきずっていって、しんと光る台所にふとんを敷いた。ライナスのように毛布にくるまって眠る。」

キッチン

「私がこの世でいちばん好きな場所は台所だと思う―祖母の死、突然の奇妙な同居、不自然であり、自然な日常を、まっすぐな感覚で受けとめ人が死ぬことそして生きることを、世界が不思議な調和にみちていることを、淋しさと優しさの交錯の中であなたに語りかけ、国境も時もこえて読みつがれるロング・ベストセラー、待望の定本決定版。
“吉本ばなな”のすべてはここから始まった。」

The book that I've decided to read is Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto. Yoshimoto is a wonderful author. Her writing style is simple, emotional, and rudimentary. I've already enjoyed some of her short stories in English (my favorite being Dreaming of Kimchee), and Japanese (ミイラ), so I hope to attempt to read her short novel Kitchen.

My current plan is to read about 10 pages a week, taking note of new vocabulary along the way.

日本庭園

今日はクラスに来なかったら、ここでレポートを書きます。

　日本庭園

　　　　デニス・ブラウン

日本庭園とは、日本の伝統的な庭である。日本で庭の始まりは本州だと言われています。まずは、中国庭園は日本庭園を左右されてしました。それに左右しているとは、道教が大切である。網団如来と風水と言った特有の左右したことです。けれど、禅宗は日本庭園左右するとは雅機とは限らない。しかし、江戸時代において、日本庭園はだんだん変わられていた。すると、庭の芸術性がかなり進化していた。

さて、庭がふかけつな要素を持っています。一番はシンボルすることである。例えば、石は本当に鳥ということなのである。その他にも、池をもとにした川と海どと言えるだろう。二番は、宿舎をした庭園である。これは小さな場所の景色で、まねをしていた庭である。借景は三番の要素である。日本庭園は自然な景色があって、庭のうしろに山ときを見えられるのである。日本庭園に散歩してみたら、不思議な感じが出来るだろう。さらに、勝景に反映するだけで、理解を深めるだろう。

俳句

君は傘

さしていたかな

雨が降り

Were you holding an umbrella in the rain?

花、太陽、雨

One thing that can be frustrating for the learner of Japanese is the seemingly sparse amount of materials available for studying. For someone without the time to browse the Internet for hours, finding authentic Japanese might be as elusive as mastering sonkeigo.

In the past few months, I've come across a number of materials that I wish I'd had found years ago. In order to grow as language learners, we must be exposed to the language in all of its occurences over and over again. So, for you, I've organized below some Japanese resources--not all of which I've tried just yet--to help round out your journey through the language.

Reading
NHK Newsweb EASY (with furigana and recordings--updated daily)
(guide to using NHK Newsweb)
Read Real Japanese Essays
Read Real Japanese Fiction

Grammar
Japanese Sentence Patterns
Tae Kim's Japanese Grammar Guide
Tae Kim's Grammar Guide on Amazon.com
A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar
The Japanese Page
nihongo day by day
Barron's Grammar

Dictionary
nciku (draw the kanji with your mouse!)
Denshi Jisho
rikaichan (add-on for Mozilla Firefox)
Common Collocations 

Vocabulary
Anki (flashcard maker)
iknow
Four-character Idioms (yojijukugo)
idioms
kanji
Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters

Listening
Japan Radio Stations
NHK Radio
bitesizejapanese
Podcasts in iTunes (I've been listening to 「文化系トークラジオLife」and 「ゲンダイモンダイ」)

Speaking
Accented words
Michel Thomas Method

keigo
bunka.co.jp

JLPT
N1
N2
N3
N4
N5

Buying Books
kinokuniya
Japanese Graded Readers

Getting a Job in Japan
Gaijin Pot
Dave's ESL Cafe
jobsinjapan
Japan English Teacher
Japan~United States Friendship Commission
Living in Japan
AccessJ

Cursing in Japanese
Cursing
Making Out in Japanese

General
AJATT
Japane VISA Guide
100 Resources for Learning Japanese
Japanzine
Learnjapanese on redditt

ものづくりニッポン

For Japan, the Meiji Period was the age of the machine.

The video shows a doll at a festival. Its ability to move is thanks to the intricate mechanics of the doll.

Then, we are introduced to Shobe-san, who has been producing dolls and restoring dolls from the Edo period. One doll that we are shown shoots arrows and hits the bull's-eye every time. This is one of Tanaka Hisashige's, who is the founder of Toshiba. He was known as Karakuri Giemon.

Another of his dolls paints four different kanji symbols. The dolls are made in the image of people, the video says.

At the age of 14, Hisashige was already inventing things. We are shown a candlestick that folds up to carry in your pocket. He invented the first steam engine in Japan.

In 1875, Hisashige moved to a new factory in Ginza, which became his first company.

We're shown a few household items of the 1930s from Toshiba: a vaccuum, a refrigerator, a lamp. And then we're shown a machine in a factory that doesn't rely on oil or energy--the 'Dream Carry.'