How I Study Japanese | Living in Rural Japan: Enjoy the Beautiful Cherry Blossoms in Iwakuni

How I Study Japanese | Living in Rural Japan: Enjoy the Beautiful Cherry Blossoms in Iwakuni

[Music] hi good morning everyone Thanks for tuning in again here to Coco Japan so I’m on my way to work and uh let me go ahead and grab some stuff out of my little K truck first but uh what I wanted to do is uh as I’m driving to work because as you may know I live in the country side I want to show you uh a beautiful uh cherry blossoms there in full bloom and tonight my wife and I were also going to go down to the kintai hill uh there in the wuni and look at the cherry blossoms too while I’m at it I’m going to go ahead and talk about a topic about how to study Japanese right now cherry blossoms and then uh it’s kind of foggy this morning and there’s this beautiful view as I’m driving in if you have tuned in before you know what I’m talking about however I think right now it’s going to be particularly nice because um the fog and it rained and uh the clouds are a little bit below us it’s just gorgeous view and then again the cherry blossoms are in full bloom so I’m going to go ahead and uh connect you to the dash and uh bring you along and talk about a couple topics about how I study Japanese uh disclaimer I am definitely not proficient uh I am almost 53 years old getting there and uh you know that’s this it’s not that easy to remember anymore but um that is no excuse so the point is if you’re going to move to Japan or any other foreign country for that matter uh take the effort to learn the language don’t be that obnoxious uh Westerner uh that demands that people speak English because quite frankly folks here in Japan uh Japanese uh for the most part do not speak English uh so you if you’re going to move to Japan you definitely need to make the effort all right folks let me go ahead and connect it and uh uh make that drive and enjoy the view yeah if you have any comments uh how you uh have became proficient or how you can study please uh comment below and share with everyone because uh everyone else learns from each other so all right let’s go ahead and get on going okay all right folks uh I hope you enjoyed this uh short drive we’re not going to make it all the way down to the mountain if you have seen uh my drive to work before video uh this is going to be a quite shorter and again I just want to talk about uh how you can uh study Japanese or any other foreign language for that matter uh what I like to do first though is you know uh be nice be nice to those that uh are trying to learn a a different language you know many of us we like to make fun of folks that have an accent or mispronounce something or uh stuff is not grammatically correct and you know if you’re that person please don’t do that you know it is very very difficult to uh to learn a language as an adult especially so uh with that being said bottom line learning any language and Japanese specifically it is not easy so if you are being sold to learn Japanese in 24 hours or a month or 2 months uh yeah you’re probably being sold a uh something that is not uh necessarily true all right so as you can see right here that that all that is the fog that’s coming up that’s what I kind of suspected that was going to be a nice drive and the the cherry blossoms are in full bloom so hopefully we can uh uh see them as well if not uh again this evening and this will be a different video we’re going to go down to the kentai kill and uh just uh look at the cherry blossoms and have dinner for my my journey of learning Japanese has been a long one and I’m still not proficient you know it has been on and off throughout the years uh but since I came to Japan uh about 6 and 1/2 years ago um what I’ve tried to do is to find different sources different sources to to learn and uh that’s kind of the point of this is that there’s no one way there’s no one course no one app or anything like that in my opinion uh I mean some people are gifted uh to learn languages uh quickly and uh so yeah if you’re one of those uh God bless you um I wish I could be you but I think the vast majority of us we have to to do different things uh so my journey uh here in Japan is actually it started off with a Kumon if you have not heard about Kumon it’s basically like a cram school for Japanese kids to learned uh more grammar math and so on uh after school uh but they also offer a Japanese course or study I guess for adults or even for children for that matter and the way Kuman works is that you have to uh perfect the lesson before you move on to the next one so I did Kuman for a year and literally I was sitting next to uh uh 5-year-old 6y olds uh 10 to 12 and so on then these itty bitty little uh chairs in the desk and practicing the little worksheets they give you uh it was twice a week and it’s at your own self-paced and basically you come into class uh they give you an assignment you do the assignment you present it to the teacher uh he or she will correct it you go back and fix it and then they give you homework and then you repeat the process over and over and over and over uh it is a great course if you are trying to uh improve your writing skills in my opinion there was not a good course for conversation uh there was very little conversation as a matter of fact my my the teacher uh or really the person that presented my stuff to did not speak ah much English so you know that’s just something you have to keep in mind if you’re going to do Kumon I did Kumon for about a year and then I I reached a point where I was just I just could not perfect the kanji you know kanji the Chinese characters is uh it’s the stroke order and remembering it all and again I I just was not focused enough to be able to sit down and learn kanji uh some people are very strong at that I am just not uh check out these cherry blossoms right here we’re going to come up to a spot where oh here here they come look at this uh hopefully you can see that look at that down there isn’t that gorgeous look at that let me try slow down here and check out these little Japanese traditional Japanese houses here along the way too uh this is what I absolutely love about living in the Countryside and uh yes I I do uh live about 40ish minutes to my work and if if you are interested in uh finding work under sofa status in Japan uh check out the video that I posted about that okay so then next I um I pursued something different and at the local welfare center in Iwakuni they have volunteer teachers that in the evenings once a week they’ll they’ll they’ll volunteer their time and sit with you and kind of give you Japanese lessons and I’ve been doing that now for uh steady for about 2 years I think but throughout the years I’ll do it and then then Co happened and all that stuff so um I had to kind of pause a little and so on but uh I really like that one because um uh on my little study group right now it’s only two of us and sometimes is just me and my teacher she’s a volunteer teacher uh retired former teacher and she just absolutely loves it and and quite frankly you know there have been many times that I just want to go home and and and and rest but because I know she’s always going to show up I I just keep on going too and the cost for that it is 2 Yen uh a month so that is uh like a150 uh let me go back to Kumon Kumon was costing me about about $80 90 a month and that was like 5 years ago I don’t know what it is right now so if you are already living in Japan uh reach out to the city hall or something and they may have information about those kind of uh courses another one is what I normally do right now when I’m driving is YouTube I watch several YouTube channels specifically I like uh what’s her name amiko real Japanese uh she gives really good classes and the other one is uh Japanese Amo with Misa uh I’ll provide the links below to their uh channels uh I don’t even know them other than through YouTube uh being a subscriber but uh what I really like about them is that they break down the lessons really well especially Japanese ammo with Misa she does a really good job of providing subtitles and colorcoded subtitles so you know obviously the arrangement in Japanese and English is not uh is not the same you know the order in which Japanese is written and English is written is not the same but if it’s color coded you can see oh okay this green word is this one over here and then you can quickly follow along and she goes slower and she repeats numerous times so what I do uh when I’m watching her channel is as I am here in my car driving good 30 40 minutes to work I repeat and I repeat it’s like singing in the shower right I I Am Me Myself and I and the car and all three of us have a great conversation and um what I try to do is really like speak loud uh because I think that builds your confidence when you’re actually going to say it in person right so say it out loud say it like you mean it uh because no one else is is listening to you but but again those other two people myself and I so um just do that over and over and over and you may not be able to say say the whole sentence but if you just grasp on to say one word especially if you have difficulty saying like a certain word right so for example for me one of the hard ones was the you know the which means to be able to eat just exercising that tongue muscle to say it over and over and over then later it will come out uh naturally right so again if I hear a word that I have a hard time saying right okay let’s start with uh which means you know thank you very much in a very long way right uh well if you hear it you understand oh okay that means thank you very much but can you say it you know so challenge you say it just say it over and over and over and over and before you know it it’s just going to come out naturally so that is another way and I I can spend good 30 minutes uh rehearsing and and and practicing Japanese uh while I’m driving right here to the left uh exiting this tunnel there’s this beautiful spot and I’m going to slow down a little bit it’s kind of hard to see but uh every morning it’s a different view uh you can see the ocean from here and sometimes the clouds are we’re above the clouds and you can see the ocean let’s see what it looks like today no it’s kind of hard to see uh but sometimes looks really beautiful the clouds like a blanket but today we missed it another way is different apps uh I have several apps downloaded to my phone uh one of them is Du lingo uh you can do a free version or you can pay for it and uh that way you’re not interrupted with the you know the ads and all that stuff uh I have also started playing with but I haven’t really done much with Wan Connie but I have heard great things about it if you have your favorite apps uh please comment below and again you know share with us because this is how all of us learn um by other people reading the comments and speaking of reading comments um I make a effort to replying to every single comment so uh please uh do so and uh share with us your your experience another way is self um this I mean it just buy a good book uh there are different books out there uh just find one that’s suitable for you um I think it was the everyday Japanese and so on there’s different books and uh just you know practice reading um different books and uh one other thing that I do and I kind of if you don’t use it you lose it is that that muscle memory of writing uh especially hiana Katakana like said I’m kind of giving up on trying to learn how to write kanji which is the Chinese characters but um at a minimum you should practice um remembering kanji and then there’s different books out there like remember the Kani and so on uh is basically um just making the effort of learn learning uh how to recognize a kanji because after a while it it does come together but to become proficient at kanji I mean quite frankly it would take a lot of effort I guess the main thing about this what I just talking about all these different ways is the method of what is called spaced repetition so basically uh like the word says right space and then repetition um many many times these apps they provide the space repetition automatically flash cards if you’re a flash cards type of person uh whatever works uh but basically it’s not rocket science especially if you’re a little bit older or you just have difficulty remembering that uh what I have learned is you know what um don’t stress over and so this spot right here this is the highlight of the day every day they they’ve been doing construction on this spot here for for years I guess there was a m slide and uh yes if you if you time that that um that red light uh wrong which there’s really no way to time it is you get full five minutes of sitting there and then hey I get to practice more Japanese but anyways um just by trying the different methods just give it the time and the repetition and if you just cannot remember that one word it just will not stick don’t worry about it just practice several times and say it again you know a week later two weeks later and uh before you know it all of a sudden it will stick that’s what happens with me if I just cannot remember that one word I move on move on to the next topic and um uh then you know give it some time and repetition and then eventually will stick in the future I am planning on taking some uh college courses uh with uh probably University of Maryland or something um because I have uh you know my GI Bill remaining that I kind of have to use up I don’t have a whole lot left but I do have some months remaining so I am going to use my GI Bill for some uh Japanese classes and also I want to take some photography and like video editing so uh continuously improving uh my YouTuber skills here I’m sorry I’m not the best but yeah I try and try to respect your time and make it um enjoyable so with that if you enjoy um uh watching someone living in the countryside or traveling around Japan in the camper van uh whatnot uh please uh hit like And subscribe and uh follow us along all right so let me just go ahead and end with one last thing is just listen uh background noise uh if you want to listen to music listen to different uh YouTube channels listen to NHK very informative uh TV programs um just listen listen that first you may not understand one word like if I listen to Chinese right now I don’t even know how to say thank you in Chinese so um but I could pick up quite a bit of Japanese but your ear your mind your brain needs um needs to hear it and before you know it you start picking out the words and then before you know it he like whoo I I recognize that one word and you get all excited and then you start recognizing two or three then before you know it you can you can understand the whole sentence uh and that’s when it starts getting really exciting uh but and but then you also need to incorporate speaking with that just because you can understand it doesn’t mean that you can speak it so you that’s what I’m talking about you know practice in your car whatever uh practice when you go to the store practice with your friends uh don’t be shy uh let me go ahead and end with that you know don’t be shy be confident you are going to make mistakes and you know what most likely you’re going to make mistakes for the rest of your your life uh especially if you’re learning as an adult so don’t worry about it uh Japanese people are very respectful they’re not going to make fun of you as a matter of fact if you say again don’t worry out to go they’re going to say oh oh Jo and there which means oh you’re very proficient and then I come back say yeah yeah yeah yeah uh no no no no not yet um or E Malad um so again folks uh hopefully you get something out of this quick little video and enjoy the scenery as we’re driving down the mountain to make it into Iwakuni and uh stay tuned next for the uh the cherry blossom I just going to walk around the kintai and then also another video will be of our local little um Park really gorgeous all right folks have a great day bye [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] down [Music] [Music] [Music]

I make every effort to learn Japanese while living in Japan. Let me tell you how while we enjoy a the cherry blossoms.

Join me on my adventure as a foreigner living in Rural Japan! In the summer of 2022, I purchased a traditional Japanese house in the countryside, transforming an akiya (vacant house) into my dream home. Collaborating with a local Japanese Carpenter specializing in Shikkui and natural materials like Japanese cedar, we’ve created a space promoting healthy living. As I plan to retire in Japan, I’ll share insights into our Toyota Hiace camper van, exploring hidden treasures across the country. Thank you for being part of this journey with me!

#japan #japancountryside #japanesevacanthouse #akiya #traditionaljapanesehouse #ruraljapan #studyjapanese

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****Recommend using “Chrome” as a browser for Japanese to English translation.****

Akiya Bank for my area near Iwakuni City and Hiroshima City: Miwa Town in Yamaguchi
https://iwakuni-iju.jp/akiyajoho

Miwa Town Information:
https://iwakuni-iju.jp/miwa.html

Dave Olson’s website:
Dave provides many links and information Akiya and Komika purchase.

https://daveostory.com/writing-fiction-essays/wandering/akiya-abandoned-cheap-free-houses-in-japan-annotations-and-resources/?fbclid=IwAR1-36zPn3DRbypvpz_q6IGb9OcUe1Da26RddmnGHy4a8BJ2ymvdhLVRU6Q

At Akiya Sumai you can search for vacant houses around Japan.
https://akiya.sumai.biz

At Ie Ichiba there is a Bulletin board to search vacant houses / Akiya Houses and old buildings in Japan
https://www.ieichiba.com

Other Useful Links:

Can A Foreigner Buy Property In Japan?

https://www.athome.co.jp/
https://www.kurasapo.net/
https://www.koryoya.com/
https://www.homes.co.jp/akiyabank/
http://www.inakanet.jp/index.html
https://www.akiya-athome.jp