Monthly Archives: April 2010

My Trip to Malaysia

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This past winter vacation was spent in the tropical climate of Malaysia, enjoying the food and sights that the country had to offer.  It was a very nice break from one of the coldest winters in Japan in recent years.  The following includes some brief highlights and impressions from the trip, along with a few pictures.

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A Wild Beginning

The trip started off with a real bang!  When my girlfriend and I arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) we grabbed our bags and looked for signs for the terminal carrying AirAsia flights, the airline for our flight to Langkawi, an island in the northwestern part of the country.  Our flight was not listed anywhere though, so we asked around and found out that the LCC (low-cost carrier) terminal that we needed was not only separated from the central terminal (we assumed this much), but that it would take a 30-minute car ride to get there.  It was about 8:15 pm, and we needed to catch a 9:15 flight.  We ran out of the airport to catch the next bus, only to find that the next bus to the terminal wasn’t for a half hour, so we had to take a cab.  To stop cab drivers from making up ridiculous rates to charge, KLIA has a system set up where you purchase a ticket from the airport taxi desk for where you need to go beforehand which you then give to the cab driver.  A very good system, but it does require a little more time, time we didn’t have…

First, we had to go back into the airport and find the taxi desk.  There was a line, of course, and when we finally get our ticket it was nearing 8:25.  We had less than an hour left.  We needed to hustle.  We ran to the taxi area only to find that this well-organized system included a well-organized (and well-developed) queue.  We ran to the front and told one of the workers that we had a flight to catch Continue reading →

Language Study: The Quest for Japanese Fluency

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I am studying for the highest level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT), level N1 (formerly 1-kyu).  The JLPT is a four-hour exam on a Sunday afternoon (three hours of actual testing) consisting of three sections: kanji (Chinese characters) and vocabulary, reading and grammar, and listening.  While any language test that leaves out a speaking section may not be considered an accurate assessment of one’s fluency, this test is the most widely used and recognized test of one’s Japanese ability.  I am determined to pass the test this coming July 4th and here’s why:

I first took the exam back in December 2009 and failed it pretty badly.  I was ill-prepared and lacked the study time I needed.  I have vowed not to let this happen again, because in the words of P.Diddy, “Can’t nobody hold me down.”  How am I doing this?  I am taking Continue reading →

'Katsudon', i.e. 'The Best Japanese Food'

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katsudon

A delicious bowl of katsudon

What is this ‘katsudon‘ thing that I speak of?  For those of you unfamiliar, katsudon is a fried pork cutlet, covered with egg and put on top of a bowl of rice.  It’s hot, crisp, and juicy- what else could you want?  It is by far one of the best (and lesser known) foods you could eat in Japan (assuming you are of the carnivore variety).  The following is a brief tale of my path in discovering this unique delight.

I must say, the first time I had katsudon I was rather unimpressed.  It was after I first arrived in Japan in August of 2007, in a bento (Japanese lunchbox) purchased from the local grocery store.  It had been made for the lunch crowd as something to pick up on the go.  That was about eight hours before I bought it and reheated it in the microwave.  I wouldn’t say that it was bad, but it wasn’t something that I was trying to buy again tomorrow either.  Needless to say, given the circumstances in which I first had it (cooked almost half a day earlier, sitting out all day, reheated), it left the katsudon without much of a fighting chance to impress anyone’s tastebuds.  Not many foods would under those conditions.

A few weeks later, I had the ‘real’ katsudon- the one which made me love this food.  It was Continue reading →