Haruto Uzumaki
渦巻ハルト
- 24 Apr 2022
- 382
- 470
Hey guys, just thought I might share a life update because it's been so long since I've used the site. I wanted to make posts earlier but I kept thinking that there wasn't much to post about that related to Japan specifically as much as it relates to my own journey in general, and I also was caught up with a lot of other stuff to do but I've finally decided to at least write something.
So to start, I planned to be in Japan during this time, but thanks to a small little 誤解 while in Taiwan, I ended up returning to the US. Long story short, the taxi driver in Taiwan didn't speak English and misunderstood me when I wanted to be taken to Taoyuan International Airport, and instead I was taken to Taipei Songshan Airport, which essentially caused me to eventually miss my flight. My parents opted to bring me to the US to visit them early, so I just obliged though I didn't really want to, since I wanted to spend 9 months within a year's time to make the whole trip fully worth it (still worth it though).
I'm intending to make the most of my time here to spring back to Japan with even more resources than last time
As for an update on my Japanese learning and skills, while I have been kinda slacking for the past few months especially while I was in Japan, I've noticed a general increase in proficiency, though it could've been much better if I didn't slack so much. Mainly what's happened is, I focused on grammar so much in the start of my Japanese learning journey to the point that it's extremely embedded in me, but I didn't focus so much on vocabulary so I don't know as many critical words as I should. I exposed myself to a lot of text conversations in Japanese and I did still learn a lot of vocabulary that way, but I still need to absorb vocabulary from more general sources like email and YouTube videos so I can fill in some missing spots. I can estimate that I know about 5,000 words, which is okay, but probably 3,000 of those are geared towards casual expressions, slang, and rare phrases typically used in songs/poems, plus random high level words that pretty much nobody including myself can or will use. 8,000 is the bare minimum goal if I want to be generally comfortable, so I'm aiming to ramp up vocabulary in various ways. I'm starting to pick up the pace again and started listening to podcasts again to increase my exposure, since I really didn't listen to enough Japanese except songs the past few months. Also, I took this free Japanese test, here are the results:
Could've gotten a better score but a lot of it was timed and I had to click random answers when I ran out of time
But close to "passing" so I think maybe by the end of next year I might be able to call myself fluent in Japanese 
Also, I've been thinking for a while about starting a photography business. Traveling to Japan got me into photography and I ended up upgrading my camera for much better video capabilities as well, to be ready for when it's time to record street performers in Japan again. Though I can't officially start a business in Japan in this current state, I still wanted to give it a name so I could create accounts under it and identify as it when doing photography for people. Do you guys think （合同会社）光明フォト sounds good?
That's all for now. I had a lot of other things I wanted to post about but it's also kinda difficult to do it all in a way that doesn't feel disjointed and random.
So to start, I planned to be in Japan during this time, but thanks to a small little 誤解 while in Taiwan, I ended up returning to the US. Long story short, the taxi driver in Taiwan didn't speak English and misunderstood me when I wanted to be taken to Taoyuan International Airport, and instead I was taken to Taipei Songshan Airport, which essentially caused me to eventually miss my flight. My parents opted to bring me to the US to visit them early, so I just obliged though I didn't really want to, since I wanted to spend 9 months within a year's time to make the whole trip fully worth it (still worth it though).
I'm intending to make the most of my time here to spring back to Japan with even more resources than last time
As for an update on my Japanese learning and skills, while I have been kinda slacking for the past few months especially while I was in Japan, I've noticed a general increase in proficiency, though it could've been much better if I didn't slack so much. Mainly what's happened is, I focused on grammar so much in the start of my Japanese learning journey to the point that it's extremely embedded in me, but I didn't focus so much on vocabulary so I don't know as many critical words as I should. I exposed myself to a lot of text conversations in Japanese and I did still learn a lot of vocabulary that way, but I still need to absorb vocabulary from more general sources like email and YouTube videos so I can fill in some missing spots. I can estimate that I know about 5,000 words, which is okay, but probably 3,000 of those are geared towards casual expressions, slang, and rare phrases typically used in songs/poems, plus random high level words that pretty much nobody including myself can or will use. 8,000 is the bare minimum goal if I want to be generally comfortable, so I'm aiming to ramp up vocabulary in various ways. I'm starting to pick up the pace again and started listening to podcasts again to increase my exposure, since I really didn't listen to enough Japanese except songs the past few months. Also, I took this free Japanese test, here are the results:Could've gotten a better score but a lot of it was timed and I had to click random answers when I ran out of time
But close to "passing" so I think maybe by the end of next year I might be able to call myself fluent in Japanese Also, I've been thinking for a while about starting a photography business. Traveling to Japan got me into photography and I ended up upgrading my camera for much better video capabilities as well, to be ready for when it's time to record street performers in Japan again. Though I can't officially start a business in Japan in this current state, I still wanted to give it a name so I could create accounts under it and identify as it when doing photography for people. Do you guys think （合同会社）光明フォト sounds good?
That's all for now. I had a lot of other things I wanted to post about but it's also kinda difficult to do it all in a way that doesn't feel disjointed and random.
