Some nice color photo work from Eiji Ohda’s recently launched site. Also some stuff that was frankly hit or miss for me, but all the photos are luminous, and presented in nice large sizes. I particularly liked the two series entitled “Flatland” and “Flatland 1990,” respectively (both make a nice contrast between color and black and white photography). His newer work (?) “Say a Little Prayer” I was less impressed with, probably due to the inclusion of models (I’m assuming) in the shoot. That said, his unique sense of composition comes through, and is nicely highlighted by the use of the square medium format. I was especially taken with his penchant for featuring the “main” subject matter in the lower half or bottom of the image, and how that interacted with the plainer (for lack of a better word) upper area, be it sky, buildings, ocean, etc..
Putting the pedal to the DSL metal
Later today sometime we will be getting our current 1.5Mbps ADSL internet service upgraded to 12Mbps. It’s supposed to be a flip of the switch kind of thing (I’ve already changed the modem), but I’m not holding my breath. When we first got DSL last April, NTT‘s software (which was really Efficient Networks’ EnterNet software in an NTT wrapper) refused to work with my computer, and knowing there was no way I was going to be able to talk with our provider’s tech support, let alone have Naoko talk to them, I spent 5 frustrating hours fooling with the thing until I finally was able to find the freeware RASPPPOE software, which has since been performing like a champ all these months. So, if I’m not around for a while, you’ll know why.
Along with a few other things, count DSL in Japan as one of those consumer items which is not only affordable, but downright cheap. In fact, if you have a 56K dial-up connection in Japan, you pay more. Currently, we pay ¥3,250 ($27) per month, which breaks down as ¥2,340 to NTT, ¥490 to our ISP (this will soon be going up to ¥850 once a special campaign ends), and ¥420 for renting the modem (also to NTT). And how much will we pay for the new upgraded service, which in theory would be giving us download speeds 8 times as fast as we get now? A mere ¥90 more per month. (Of course, as anyone familiar with DSL knows, we won’t be getting anywhere near the 12Mbps speed we’re paying for, but it will be an improvement over what we’re getting now and for only ¥90 more, one would have to be a fool not to do it.)
A recent article in BusinessWeek, Eating Asia’s Broadband Dust, looks at how fast the broadband market is taking off in Asia, compared to the US, where growth in high-speed Net access is lagging. Currently, around 300,000 new customers a month are signing up for DSL service in Japan, with total subscribership now past 5 million, and possibly reaching 12 million by 2004. Compare that to the U.S., where DSL has been a mature product for a lot longer, which only has around 6 million DSL subscribers at this point (with double the population of Japan, mind you).
Price certainly has a lot to do with the proliferation of broadband access here in Japan. An interesting article by tech pundit Robert X. Cringely from last May, How Softbank is Betting Everything on Bringing Broadband to Japan, explores the role that Softbank has played in Japan’s DSL explosion, and its cheap broadband rates (some of the cheapest in the developed world). Softbank itself recently announced it had surpassed the 1 million subscriber mark for it’s Yahoo!BB DSL service, even as it continues to sell off its shares of Yahoo!.
The slow, slow climb towards Japanese proficiency
I haven’t commented much on the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (or Nihongo nouryouku shiken) I took last December, which is ironic, considering that my preparation for it caused me to temporarily put this site on hiatus last Fall. And truth be told, although it was only a scant two months ago that I was one of over 100,000 Japanese learners worldwide that took the test across its 4 levels, it already seems like a distant memory.
But the distant memory popped its head up today, when I received (finally!) via the post notification from the AIEJ (Association of International Education, Japan) about how I did. In short, I PASSED! (Sorry for screaming). Now, mind you, I only took the Level 3 test, which depending on how you look at it is either third level down from the top, or second level up for the bottom (there are only 4 levels in all). So no great shakes. But it’s a start, and considering that in actuality the test was quite a bit above the Japanese proficiency level I was at when I applied to take it 3 months prior, I’m proud of how I did.
I also passed by a respectable margin, which makes me happy. For Level 3, one need only get 60% or higher to pass, and I felt that just squeaking by with a low-60’s percentage would be a bit disappointing, so I was pleased to score 81% overall. As I expected, the Listening section was my poorest section, although even there I managed to pass. (Not surprisingly, I did best in the Kanji and Vocabulary section — 90%).
As with most tests of this type, how well one can speak Japanese in real-life situations is not tested, so I’m not kidding myself that I’m in any way, shape, or form proficient in this all-important regard. But I do feel that putting in the work I needed to in order to get to this level has given me a great foundation from which to build myself up conversationally, and for this reason I would recommend the test to any Japanese learner, even at Levels 3 and 4.
Where to from here? Well, Level 2 looms large and intimidatingly on the horizon, though I’m beginning to accept the fact that it’s highly unlikely I’ll be ready for this year’s test in 10 short months time (it’s quite a jump from 3 to 2 — for example, one needs to know roughly 1,000 kanji characters for Level 2, as opposed to only 300 or so for Level 3). 10 years time is probably a more reasonable expectation. Either way, I will get there however, someday.
ADDENDUM: Here are some useful links for anyone interested in taking the test in the future:
Association of International Education, Japan JLPT page
Japan Foundation site for the JLPT
The JapanesePage.com’s “About the JLPT” page
Ed Jacob’s Japanese Language Proficiency Test First and Second Grade Study Guide
Joe’s JLPT Page
Meguro Language Center’s JLPT free downloadables page