Red Cliff

Yesterday I watched the movie "Red Cliff", an interesting movie that looks like it comes straight out of a video game (Dynasty Warriors from the Playstation). I don't know anything about Chinese history, so it was even more interesting to see it... (I do want to know more about Chinese history, though).

In the movie there are 3 actors that I really enjoy watching at; Takeshi Kaneshiro, Nakamura Shido, and Tony Leung Chiu-Wai. The first actor Takeshi Kaneshiro is of both Japanese and Taiwanese (Hoklo) ancestry. Kaneshiro can speak with varying degrees of fluency in English, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Japanese, and is probably most know of his part in the movies; Returner, House of Flying Daggers, and The Warlords.

Nakamura Shido is from orign a Kabuki actor, but started acting in movies when he was 30 years old. A couple of movies that he acted in are: Ping pong, Neighbour No. 13 (my favorite), Fearless, Letters from Iwo Jima, and Death note.

I don't think Tony Leung needs in introduction, does he? Anyway, if you don't know who he is please have a look on his page on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Leung_Chiu-Wai

So if you have the time, I would recommend watching this movie especially if you like to watch sword fighting bloody movie.

Trailer:

Kanji DS game

As you could have read in a couple of posts ago... I failed to pass the JLPT 2 test last December, so I am going to take it again upcoming July.

I really have to work on my Kanji, and after searching for a kanji game for months... I have finally have found the perfect learning game (IMO); Zaidan Houjin Nippon Kanji Nouryoku Kentei Kyoukai Koushiki Soft.



You will start from level 10, which is basic kanji (so basic, that I had forgotten a lot of them) and you can do tests from 10, 20 or 40 minutes. I think that if I will practice this game everyday for about 20 minutes, I should be able to increase my kanji knowledge a lot before July. (here is a full review of the game)

My Japanese teacher (sensei) also made a schedule for me, what to work on and how.

今から本当に頑張ろう！！！

p.s. what reminds me... It would be nice to do the JTEST as well in may... for a level check. Boukje? are you in? can you bring me a pamphlet from school for me? :D

Wireless Internet (ahum part 1)

Reo is starting to put everything in his mouth, and is pulling every cord that he sees... including the one from my precious MAC.
So we had decided to buy a wireless router the other day. We bought one yesterday, a Planex MZK-WO4N...

I followed the instructions, I change some stuff that I needed to change, I searched for advice on the internet, but after trying to connected it for 4 hours last night, and 3 hours today... I failed to let it work.

Meaning, we need to call the "give me your money, I will do it for you in 30 minutes... sometimes 2 hours if they have nothing to do" guy. The sales woman told us, it's going to be around 20.000 yen... grrr

So yeah, this is what I did in my weekend! How about you guys

A new Job

As some of you might already know, I started a new job from the beginning of February. I am again teaching English, but this time I have my own class, with the exception of different kids in the afternoon class, and I have to work from Tuesday to Saturday. So I have 2 days off, instead of having only 1 week off with my previous work.

The work is pretty fun, and the kids are adorable! I still have a lot of things to learn, on how to be more strict and teach them things in a more interesting way than just playing the same game over and over again. My co-workers are pretty cool, and from March-April another Dutch person (Boukje) will be working for the same company.

I took this class over, from a very nice guy from NZ and beside this class I also took over 1 of his private classes (1 doctor and 2 nurses). So yeah, I am very busy... as always lol.

Reo
Reo is doing great, he is first tooth came out about a week ago, and he is starting to walk along the sofa and table. I think it will take maybe 1 or 2 months before he is able to stand and walk by himself. Let's wait and see :D . He already had his first child desease about a month ago (the sixt disease also known as the 3 day fever), meaning he had fever for 3 days (highest was 40.4 degrees) so that was pretty scary.

Japanese
I got the result of my Japanese language Proficiency Test:



I only had 166 points out of 400... I needed over 240 points to pass the test...


Aaah, well I am going to take the test again in June, and I should be able to pass that time. Only 20% to go :D

'Drunken' Japanese Politician Quits His Post

I thought, let's posts something about Japanese politicians:






A Japanese minister who appeared to be drunk at a G7 news conference has quit.


Shoichi Nakagawa denied being drunk at the G7 news conference
Finance minister Shoichi Nakagawa stunned fellow politicians when he appeared on camera slurring his words, swaying and apparently falling asleep.
He denied being drunk and said a glass of wine on top of a dose of cold medicine was to blame for his bizarre behaviour.
But the minister said he was stepping down for health reasons.
He has been replaced by Kaoru Yosano.
"I have caused trouble to the people," Mr Nakagawa said.