Outsourced book review: 7 days 60 minutes Japanese

I got a request via email from the author to review this book. I've been studying Japanese off and on since 1996. More off than on, but I don't think I'm reliable at evaluating what's good for a blank-slate beginner. I had a friend who was in a much better position, as he had just come to Japan and had given himself his own crash course in studying Japanese in the weeks before his trip. I electronically loaned him the digital copy that the authors had sent me. (Yay, future!) This is his review. All asterisks are his own.
 

About a month before I came to visit you in Harajuku, I had the "Oh, sh*t, I don't know a word of Japanese!" moment. So I loaded up on learning aids--an iPod app with tons of survival-style convos (useful), a Lonely Planet phrasebook and mini-dictionary (also decent) and a kana app for my Google tablet (should have started with that a year ago). I studied desultorily. "Do you speak English?" and "I don't understand" were the Japanese phrases I ended up using most in Tokyo, with mixed results. And Sandra, once I got there, you taught me to say "fukuro ha ii desu" at the konbini, and that was by far my most effective communication. I've been saying "no bag" in English for twenty years, so it seemed only natural to learn to say it in other languages.

Anyway, my patchwork, piecemeal approach to Japanese language acquisition caused me to get pretty uptight once I was on the ground in Tokyo. Well, actually, I got very uptight at times. And I must say, beginning my katakana studies on the plane was the wrong approach.

But if one is a last-minute, learn-how-to-say-it-on-the-plane-over type, 7 days 60 minutes Japanese is probably a great place to start. In fact, probably the best use for this book is a crash course on the New York-Tokyo flight (no pun intended). I particularly love the way the authors roll out the Onegaishimasu/Arimasuka/Dekimasuka triumvirate in Chapter One. I wish one of my language resources had laid it all on the line up front like that. Those are some key terms that, combined with a little vocab here and there, will get you by big-time in Tokyo. I also liked the lessons on variations of no, expected responses, key kanji and numbers. The vocab was pretty thorough for travel situations, though it could have been presented in a more organized fashion here and there.

So, in terms of drawbacks...Sandra, one of the things I caught myself doing constantly on my visit was tugging on your sleeve and asking, "What does that mean? What did he say? What's that kana again?" The fact that you didn't throttle me is testimony to your infinite patience (or to that generic Ambien I was slipping you). [This explains a few things! —ed.]

The main drawback of this book is that I find myself with the urge to tug your sleeve again about certain things I simply don't understand.

7 Days 60 Minutes leaves particles out of the equation. The authors serve up "Sumimasen toire doko desu ka?" as an example. Sumimasen, but is that correct? Where's the wa? The ga's and wo's are mostly missing too. Basic particles aren't too difficult to understand for English speakers invested in at least saying a couple Japanese phrases on their trip, so it wouldn't have hurt to include some mention of them. But, Sandra. Tug, tug. Maybe I'm wrong and you don't need them? [They are often dropped in convo, but this bears explaining.]

I'm also not fond of the way the authors have romanized certain words. Why didn't standard romaji suffice? Oo and ee (for ō and ei respectively) make frequent appearances in the text, but it's not eego (pronounced like in English "ego"), it's eigo (pronounced like "a-okay"), right? Sandra? Tug, tug, tug.

Yet all told, 7 Days 60 Minutes Japanese delivers what it promises in the title, and with a few adjustments, could be perfect for an in-flight vocab brush up on my next flight to Tokyo. So, thanks for sharing, Sandra. Or as they might say in your neck of the woods, Arigatō, Miss Thing! [You see why I love this guy?? Follow Charles on Twitter, especially if you're studying Japanese now. Or if you just like brilliant people.]

TEDxTokyo in 140 characters

Don't bother us, we're tweeting

I helped out with the blogging and social media at TEDxTokyo this year. Highlights of the event included getting spritzed with a taste of chemically engineered "sudden anger," riding in an elevator much bigger than several apartments I've lived in and overhearing a few jaw-droppingly self-important conversations. I'm sorry. I get a kick out of that, though. Maybe I'll tell you who said what next time I see you.

For real, though, the most important part for me was working with the team I was part of. The people I worked with directly are a model for how small, dedicated groups of people can accomplish hairy tasks. I learned a lot from working with them, and I know (okay, I hope) I'll be better at future projects for seeing how they did what they do.

Live tweeting an event, as silly as it sounds (and I will always think it sounds silly) is harder than it looks. To do a good job, that is. I think we did a pretty good job. It felt like being back at the wire service, shooting quotes from the UN Security Council stakeout to the bureau. Except this time, the sound bites were about the endurance of Japanese lacquer-ware and the language of jazz instead of the latest North Korean hijinks. Because of the division of labor, I only saw about a quarter of the speeches live. I'm looking forward to watching the rest of the TEDxTokyo 2013 videos in English. Check them out! I'd be curious to know what you think.
These animated volunteer profiles, for better or for worse, were my innovation.

Some things we brought home from Kyushu

 

New towels, for going in a natural onsen we skipped due to all the naked old men already in it

Coffee beans (strong) from Stax, the first place near us on Yakushima to open in the morning and serve coffee but not for hours after we woke up

Organic Kagoshima ginger ale

Tankan juice, one of the many local citrus fruits

Jar of Takachiho butter, mmmm

Nanja kora daifuku (8, cold-packed), one of my favorite occasional treats in Miyazaki, mochi stuffed with red bean paste, a chestnut, a strawberry, and a cube of cream cheese

Yakusugi ring, to carry around a little of the power of the ancient forest
Yakusugi chopsticks (3 pairs), for gifts
Hard brown sugar lumps, tankan flavor: delicious, and it's not like you're just eating a piece of sugar; it has minerals in it so it's fine

Fluffy salt, hand made from coral-rich sea water

Saigo Takamori postcards, because I have a few friends who are crazy about this guy
Cinnamon balls for the road, more like root beer barrels (do you know them?) than American cinnamon candy
Used socks, from the friends I was staying with because I am a packing genius
New socks from Masamiya, one of the zillion gigantic deep discount shops that's opened since I left Miyazaki

Sneakers (Don Quijote), very cheap, because I also didn't bring any shoes fit for forest walking

Green tea, for gifts

Did you think there would be something cute at the end like "the newfound knowledge that my old pal from Miyazaki drives a Hummer now"? Nah. (But he does.)

Epidemic prevention mats: How not to prevent a bird flu outbreak

It was pretty great to get back to Miyazaki airport, with the fresh fruit soft-serve ice cream stand right at the arrivals area and the palm trees swaying in the fresh air outside. These mats at the airport doors I don't recall seeing before, though. Could these damp mats really be effective — would killing a few germs on the soles of your shoes be enough to prevent an epidemic?
Miyazaki's farming industry has been hit hard by both avian flu and hoof-and-mouth disease, with cow and pig culls in 2010 and mass slaughtering of its famous chickens in 2011, so it's not surprising the prefecture would do whatever it could to prevent the spread of either disease. But it's hard to imagine these wet, threadbare carpets would help much.
(I'd love to hear about it if someone knows otherwise.)

How not to pack for a trip

Slightly less useful for packing than you'd think

What I managed to do in the half day of preparation time I had before my flight to Miyazaki:
Make the bed (off to a good start!)
Take everything out of the closet and lay it out carefully on the bed (a sensible and necessary precondition to packing for a casual weeklong trip)
Cull a few old clothes for disposal, decide to think about optimal arrangement for everything else
Go to Irukaya for a glass of rich iced coffee shaken with lemon and cream
Have a second intense demitasse of coffee
Run back home
Snap a photo of a gigantic plate with a white ceramic gun fused to it that was left out for trash
Send detailed instructions to a friend for retrieving said plate/gun 
Stuff everything back into closet
Turn off the gas (this is a thing— earthquakes)
Chuck a lot of things, mostly for summer, into a suitcase

What I did not manage to do:
Put container of week-old vegetable soup into the freezer or trash
Ditto already overripe avocado
Ditto half carton of milk (free pass — Japanese milk doesn't spoil)
Research travel destination
Ask friends in Miyazaki if it would be okay to stay with them
Eat
Check weather forecast
Pack any socks