Prologue

This next series of posts is a little specific and I fear it might not be of interest to most of my general readers. But still, I know that some of you read this blog because you are either living in Japan, or interested in it in some way. It is my hope that the following might be of use to you. For the rest of you, fear not, we'll return to our regularly scheduled posting shortly :)

Introduction

The results for the Japanese Proficiency Exam (JLPT) Level 1 (the highest level) for last December were announced earlier this month, and I was delighted to see that I passed. I passed both the JLPT 1 and the JLPT 2 (which I sat back in 2008) each on my first try. I'm not particularly great at Japanese (I famously confused the words for "poop" and "bean jam" once, causing great consternation to the old woman staffing the bakery counter), but still passing both on your first try doesn't seem to be a super common feat, especially for test-takers whose native language is English. When I was studying for the test, I remember googling for study strategies which others might have used. There are a few good resources out there, but I thought I would write up my take on it as well, for what it's worth.

Notes

If you are thinking of sitting the JLPT 1 (now to be called the N1), there are a few things you should know first.

1. Starting from June 2010, the structure of the JLPT has changed. What used to be called the JLPT 1 (JLPT 1級) has now become the "N1". Since the first administration of this test will be from this year, nobody really knows what it's going to be like. It is probably safe to assume that it will be very similar to the JLPT 1, but keep in mind that I sat the JLPT 1, so a few of my strategies might be slightly different. There is scant information about the N1 on the internet (obviously, since no one has taken it yet) but you can find some sample problems on the official site and some threads on it over on the JLPT study forum.
2. While nobody will mistake me for a native speaker of Japanese, I have lived in Japan for several years at this point, work in an all-Japanese environment, and have no problems with daily life/conversation. If this description doesn't apply to you - or if you live overseas and have no daily exposure to Japanese, you will likely have to study even harder than I did if you wish to pass the JLPT 1.
3. If you're thinking of sitting the JLPT 1, I highly recommend you sit the JLPT 2 first (or at the very least, make sure you can easily pass a JLPT 2 mock test). The JLPT 1 builds upon what you need to know for the JLPT 2 and if you don't know the material for the latter (especially the grammar and kanji), it is unlikely you will be able to pass the former. (Unless you're awesome. In which case, you probably can safely ignore this guide.) From a purely practical perspective as well, the materials you will study for the JLPT 2 are probably some of the most useful Japanese you will ever learn (particularly the grammar). I hardly encounter any of the JLPT 1 grammar in my everyday life, but not a day goes by that I'm not using at least a few of the things I learned for the JLPT 2.
4. Passing the JLPT 1 requires a lot of effort. If you're not willing to put in the time to bust your butt and study, you probably shouldn't bother signing up for the test and wasting all the money on application fees and study materials. Japanese is a hard language and the JLPT 1 is a really hard test. For me, it took 2 months of straight studying to learn everything I needed to know to pass the test. This means that every weekend and every other weeknight after work I headed to the library or coffee shop with books in hand, while others were out having a good time. Being able to speak Japanese relatively well is not an automatic guarantee of being able to pass the JLPT 1 if you don't also spend the time to study in an organized and effect manner, so it's best to make your peace with that ahead of time.
5. Passing the test also requires money. The test application fee is about $50 USD, but on top of that you will need to add the cost of study materials, mock/practice tests, and an electronic dictionary (at least if you do it the way I did). This comes up to not an insignificant chunk of change, though overall, it still came out cheaper than some other popular tests I have taken in the past (the LSAT, for example). In my estimation, I probably spent about $350 on this test: $200 for the electronic dictionary, about $70 on textbooks and practice tests, $50 on the test application fee, $15 on a Lego set I bought to reward myself after sitting it, and the remainder in coffee and the annualized cost to my sanity :). Is it possible to pass the test using only free study materials and a paper dictionary? Perhaps, but you'd have to be a certain kind of persistent masochist to try to do that. I'd recommend saving your pennies and spending them on what you need to study effectively. It's money well spent, and if you're sitting the JLPT 1, I can only assume that you intend to use Japanese in the future, in which case the electronic dictionary will be one of the best investments you've ever made (that is, assuming you don't have one already).

Keep reading after the jump.

I've been working on a rather big blog poast (that is likely going to be of interest to maybe two of my readers if that, but oh well), but I thought I ought to post something in the interim seeing as how it's been three weeks since my last update.

It was beautiful weather last weekend (rare, given how freezing it's been this winter) and to take advantage of the opportunity mother nature had seen fit to bless us with, a friend and I grabbed our cameras and headed over to the Tamachi neighborhood of Tokyo to snap a few shops of some skater boys doing their thing at the local skateboard park.

The park was smaller than we expected (I was thinking there was going to be like a half-pipe or something) and at first we were a little disappointed. But we decided to talk to them and ask them if we could take a few pictures anyway, and they kindly obliged us, showing off some cool jumps, flips and grinds.

I had brought my external flash, anticipating the need to illuminate them in mid-jump, but I didn't have my settings right (I'm still pretty crap at flash-photography) so a lot of my photos didn't turn out as I wanted.

Towards the end I noticed that things weren't looking as they should, so I just turned off the flash and took things the old fashioned way that nature intended - nothing but sunlight for illumination and a fast shutter. Most of the skating was done by that point, so I'm afraid there's not so much to post. However, they did kindly invite us back so I might pop over one of these coming weekends (sans flash) and see if I can get a few more shots done right.

One more shot after the jump.