Organic Peanut Butter in Japan

I love peanut butter. And I'm sad that it is not as widely appreciated here in Japan. I mean, yeah, I'd probably think "PB&J sandwiches" or "peanut butter on celery" sounded gross if I had the same archetype for "peanut butter" that most Japanese people do: sickly sweet, peanut-themed sugar spread sold next to bread whiter than an anemic ghost. In the presence of abominations like that, it's no wonder there's no adult demand for nut butters in this country.

Official JEES Sample Questions for Revised JLPT (2012)

Since the revised JLPT began, JEES has continued to provide sample problems for the exam on its official website each year. The problems are presented in official style, very similar to what examinees will actually see on the tests themselves. MP3 files are included for actual listening practice. These materials are all freely available from the official JLPT website, and some description of problem types and problem design are available there as well for you to learn about the test designers' intentions.

A Forum Full of JLPT Prep Materials

Another Vietnamese source: The forum Tieng Nhat Club appears to contain a wide variety of materials for JLPT study. Both old materials (1~4級対策) and new materials (N1-5対策) are mixed together. The forum requires a registered account to browse threads.

Official JEES Sample Questions for Revised JLPT (2009)

Before the first year of the revised JLPT exam, people were scrambling to find materials to study with. In anticipation, JEES arranged for the release of practice problems similar to what might appear on the new N1-5 style exams.

These problems were made freely available as PDFs and have been mirrored in dozens of locations online--you may have encountered them before, but if not, they are worth a look in your studies. They include examples of all the different test sections for all levels of the test, and they even include audio files and sheets to mark your answers on akin to the real exam answer sheets. (The answers to the problems are provided as well, in separate PDF files.) You can still find all of these files at the official JLPT website.

If that link no longer works, however, you can find the same PDF and audio files mirrored at Tanos.co.uk.

JLPT Practice Problems: Meguro Language Center

The Meguro Language Center is a Japanese language school in downtown Tokyo. In addition to JLPT prep classes in their center, they offer a variety of practice problems and self-assessment tools for JLPT hopefuls. I downloaded and skimmed through all of their freely available materials when I was prepping, and I'm happy to see that they've redesigned and re-released a lot of their materials to reflect the N1-5 test revision.

You can check out the materials on the Meguro Language Center website.

A JLPT N1 Practice Test (2010)

In previous articles, we've covered some sources of past JLPT exams for download or sale. Unfortunately, many of the downloadable ones are outdated and do not reflect the redesigned N1-5 style test, and I'd again urge test-takers to take a look at the official past problems available for sale at bookstores or through Amazon.

However, example exams are slowly beginning to spread around the Internet. Today we'll look at another one aimed at you N1 hopefuls, a practice exam put out by a Japanese language school in Seoul. (Unfortunately the listening script is not included.)

JLPT Practice Exams for N1 and N2 (2009, 2010, 2011)

A host of original practice exams are available from Yu Da University in Taiwan. They include all of the relevant sections, including listening with an MP4 file to listen and a listening script for study. Answers also included in separate files.

A Collection of JLPT N2 Example Problems (2010)

The Vietnamese message board Tinh Huong appears to have a copy of a modern example questions for JLPT N2 prep. A PDF and RAR file (containing sound files) are linked on the page in question; the PDF at least has been checked and is legit. The forums appear to load a popup on your first click to an outside site but after that the links function normally.

JLPT Past Papers: Official

We're coming up on JLPT season again. A few readers have mailed/messaged in about locating past problems, practice exams, or other sources of study. In the past couple years, there was a big scramble because the test design changed and there were no published examples of past or sample exams that test-takers could use for study. That's now no longer the case--there are official publications of past exams.

6 Varieties of Japanese Green Tea

Last week, we covered four popular kinds of tea in Japan. We ended the article with a note on green tea (緑茶, ryokucha) and its ubiquity in Japan, so much that the general term "tea" is understood in this country to mean "green tea" unless otherwise specified. Here are some of the many varieties of green tea in Japan:

4 Kinds of Tea in Japan

Though not all of these tea varieties originated in Japan, they are all quite popular drinks across the country:

How Japanese People Take Their Tea

Black tea is a popular "Western" drink in Japan, and it is widely available at restaurants, cafes, and in bottled form at supermarkets and in vending machines. Specialty shops offer a wide variety of black teas to the enthusiast, but in casual restaurants and cafes, the popularly available black tea is Earl Grey.

Black tea is usually served in one of four forms in Japan:

Japanese Speech Content in Kitakyushu City

Kitakyushu City is holding a Japanese speech contest in June this year. Applications are still open until April 14, 2013. (Your written speech and application must arrive at the specified address by that date to qualify.)

Any non-native speaker of Japanese who is at least 15 years old and who hasn't previously won the annual competition is eligible to participate. The speeches can be on any topic and up to six minutes in length.

Full details are available at the Kitakyushu City official homepage.

5 Places to Scuba Dive in Japan

Being a scuba instructor, I take an interest in stuff like this. If you dive, or want to learn, Japan has some pretty cool options for you, more often than not with English-language assistance. And it's not just limited to the white-sand paradise of Okinawa. You can don your drysuit and head to Hokkaido, or just a 5-7mm and hit the Eastern coast of Honshu. In fact there are around 2,000 individual dives sites around Japan.

So, here are the five choicest choices:

VPN Service for Youtube and Netflix in Japan

The other day, Dan shared a nice article about using VPN services to get around streaming restrictions in Japan by faking a US IP address.

The options he mentioned in that article all seem solid and are worth checking out. But many of the paid services listed had the drawback of limiting users' monthly bandwidth. And to be honest, one thing that kept me from looking into it seriously was the technical barrier--even if I signed up for a service, I was worried that it would take excessive time to configure and be a headache to maintain.

But my impressions about the learning curve of VPN services changed dramatically upon talking to a friend who uses HideMyAss VPN to access US content providers from Japan and who was gracious enough to let me test drive the service.

Japanese TV Variety Shows: Shinkonsan Irasshai!

Among the dregs of Japanese television, I have a guilty pleasure. Aside from NHK morning news and those relaxing nature shows (of which I'll write shortly), Japanese TV seems pervaded by questionably acted soap operas and, I think, essentially one cookie-cutter variety show whose shiny chrome finish wears off after you've seen its formula repeated over and over for a few months.

Enter the guilty pleasure. I know that this show I'm about to introduce is just the same thing over and over again. I know it fits the variety show pattern almost to a "T" (--it's only missing the wipe.) And yet I cannot get enough of it. Aside from dry wit I import from home (in quantity to match the local schedule's dearth), it may be the only thing playing on my screen to which I audibly laugh. And laugh I do, with consistency, occasionally to the point of tears.

The show isn't new to old Japan hands. In fact, it's about to enter its 43rd year, the same guy hosting the show since its debut in 1971.

Delicious Instant Miso Soup

Every once in a while I like to introduce some Japanese product that I've fallen in love with. Miso soup is something I enjoy adding to a meal... but not enough to pull out a pot and make it from scratch every day. And although there are many, many brands that put out single-serving packets of miso soup, it took me a really long time to find one that I thought tasted really good.

Recipe: Healthy Japanese Nimono

I've been trying out some new recipes over the summer and hit on a particularly simple one that's both healthy and cheap to make--helping it fit right in with Dan's current selection of AccessJ posts on saving money in Japan. Better yet, a post like this is an easy place to review some Japanese kitchen words. So, get your pot in one hand and memo pad in the other; we're about to cook up some good old Japanese nimono (煮物)!

All About Japanese Dashi

Dashi (だし汁, dashi-jiru) is a cornerstone of Japanese cooking. It's like "starting with a roux" in a Southern-US cookbook. Dashi appears as an ingredient in dozens of Japanese menu items, from miso soup to broth for udon noodles.

Statistics on Japan - Everything from Savings to Facebook Users

Whether you want to know where all the poorest people congregate, or where the most whiskey in Japan is being consumed, I have the site for you!