Shadowing

Shadowing is a way to increase your listening comprehension, better your pronunciation, and give you more natural pitch and rhythm in your foreign language. All you need is:

1. A text in a foreign language.
2. The same text in your native language (for our purposes, English).
3. Audio of the text (in the foreign language, of course). 

You can find a more in-depth discussion of Alexander Arguelles' specific technique of shadowing here or here. The following is just a basic run-down.

For beginning students, try listening to the audio without looking at the text. Your goal is to repeat the audio as closely as possible. This means you will be speaking while the audio is going, maybe a second or two behind. Try to honestly rely on your listening ability. Don't worry if you don't know the exact meaning of the words you say, because you will be learning them shortly. Next, you can listen to the audio and read silently along with text 1. Then listen and read silently along with text 2. Finally, you can return to shadowing, following along with the text. Even though you are reading, your goal isn't to read the text; rather, you want to hear the audio and repeat it, following along as a supplement.

If you are sufficiently advanced, you may not feel the need for the texts. I don't consider myself sufficiently advanced, but I try to shadow as I watch dramas, which, naturally, I don't usually have the text for, unless there are subtitles 字幕 attached. Shadowing dramas is definitely not the easiest task, since half the time people are talking over each other. You may want to try watching the drama first, since shadowing it can sometimes take a bit of the enjoyment out of it. This means you'll have to find a drama you don't mind watching twice. If you are at loss as to where to find dramas, try one of the links on the side bar. Because you don't have a text to refer to in order to perfectly parse or understand every word or grammar point, you may find shadowing a drama to primarily improve your listening comprehension, pronunciation, and rhythm, less so than up your grammar/vocabulary (although context is one of the most effective teachers of grammar/vocab, I think).

You can use the dialogues and corresponding audio tracks from your textbook to practice shadowing. This is probably the best course of action as a beginner, since dialogues from textbooks are usually more clearly enunciated and a bit slower than normal speech.These are the kind of text/audio sources that Alexander Arguelles seems to be using.

Another option: audiobooks! You can find a large repository of them here and here. Most of them also contain transcripts. While this may not allow you to have a completely natural cadence (reading cadence is often quite different from a natural speaking cadence), you will definitely see improvement in your pronunciation and listening ability. Listening to audiobooks will also prepare you for the kind of constructions you may come across while reading.

Try looking at  Alexander Arguelles' website. The previous link will send you to a section for self-study aids, but if you're interested in languages, I think it's a good site to peruse for a bit of time! 

Aid for Japan

I'm sure everyone is following the situation in Japan... When I first heard it, I was glancing through headlines, and even though it was a strong quake I thought back on my experience at the Disaster Prevention center and figured if any country could be prepared for a quake that strong, it was Japan. When I woke up in the morning I was stunned. As the days passed I emailed friends and heard back from most of them; my host family is still quiet, but they live in Nagoya, so I'm fairly certain they are OK - I'm just hoping that they do not have any relatives or loved ones who are missing or hurt. It's a terrible, devastating disaster, but I'm so happy to see the support that Japan is receiving from people all over the world. It's amazing that I can be thousands of miles away and still make an immediate impact on the effort with a donation! You can help too, by making donations through places like:

American Red Cross
NY Japan Society - your state may have a donation drive open as well, so check if you'd like to get involved through a local institution!
Second Harvest -  if you are currently in Japan, consider donating very much needed supplies/food.

As I said, you can get in touch with your state's Japanese embassy for information to see if they are doing any local drives, fundraisers, etc. NY's Japanese embassy has posted information about the Japanese Red Cross Society, which will put your donation directly toward "the affected population of the earthquake and tsunami". Please see the site for all the details.

A lot of people worry that their money may not go to where it should. These worries are valid - there are 最低なpeople in even these times - so if you are one of those people who want to make sure you aren't hoodwinked out of donating to the victims of the disaster in Japan, check out this site. The American Red Cross (link above) is definitely one that can be trusted.

Keep informed with NHK's live broadcast.

Osu-Kannon

Osu-Kannon is the large shrine where we did Setsubun; it gave rise to many little shops and restaurants which catered to its visitors, and eventually a little 大須商店街 (shoutenmachi, shopping district) arose around it. It is pretty awesome. You want some kind-of-Mexican food (no chips and salsa, but they do have curly fries with cinnamon and sugar)? Go to Osu Kannon. You want to buy a new watch? Go to Osu Kannon. You want some of those delicious little pancake fish filled with sweet bean paste (鯛焼き)? Get down to Osu Kannon. You want some cute clothes? Some weird clothes? Some incense? Some pancakes? Go to Osu Kannon.

Do you need a watch? Do you need a uterus? Osu Kannon - problem solved.

The designer of these pants actually lives in Nagoya and works in the (owns the?) store.

Off you go, you crazy kids. Take your own pictures.

Nagashima Spaland

We went to an amusement park with the Nanzan Judo Club. It's part of a larger resort, but we were only there for the roller coasters, man.

It's 4100 for the ticket if you want to ride all the rides (のりもの放題） as much as you want. There's a cheaper ticket that let's you in, but you have to pay for rides separately.

As far as amusement parks it's pretty similar to all the others you see around the world. What's different is the haunted house they have open all year round (as far as I know). The monsters are different from what you'd see in the US (to an extent - The Ring has made creepy little girls with long hair a recognizable horror), and that much is definitely interesting. Otherwise, it's the same as any other amusement park you may have visited - PURE FUN.

Okinawa: GUEST HOUSE BASE OKINAWA, Shuri Castle, International Street

During our trip to Okinawa, we stayed at Guesthouse Base Okinawa.  Having no car, we didn't wander far from the Base, which is located in Naha.

At only 1000 yen a day, I'm not complaining. The dormitories are 4 beds to a room. There's internet and tons of books/manga for your reading pleasure. There's a common room and a computer that's free to use. Bikes are free to rent. The bathroom was pretty grody and my friend had one of the workers slip drunkenly into her dorm room one night (Just her luck, being bottom bunk. I think he tried to hold her hand and she sleepily let him before their shared confusion wore off enough that he left the room. Really people, doors have keys and locks for a reason) but aside from that, it was cool.

What is it near? Shuri Castle Park, Naminoue shrine, a big shopping street called Kokusai Doori, a park, the Tsushima-maru Memorial Museum (which we unfortunately did not visit) and the ocean. The ocean is interrupted by a big bridge and other construction, so don't expect crystal clear waters as far as the eye can see, but it is nice to have a beach, even if there isn't quite a seaside view.   

The first (and best) place that we ate can be seen below: Cafe Okinawa. There's artwork and pottery inside to look at and a guestbook to sign, and the food (I had red soba) was delicious. Honestly some of the best soba I've had.

The shrine is very close by and the nearby park is shaded with trees. It was a beautiful walk. 

There are tons of restaurants in the area, especially as you walk toward Kokusai-doori. We ate at a steakhouse there (one of those expensive ones, where they cook everything in front of you. My meal was over 2500 yen!) which was a fun experience, though nowhere near as good as the soba. It was fun to watch, though, and you get to interact with the chef.

Kokusai-doori has clubs, if you're into that kind of thing (I didn't head in so I can't vouch for anything), and it's also full of weird stuff to buy. I totally should have bought this Shiisa Mask Shirt. They have a good mix of things, not just the kitschy and commercial, so you can do a lot for your requisite omiyage shopping.
 

I don't know why but there are penises all over the place.

So many posing opportunities

You can see some performers like this one.

If you want to see a beach better than the one that's just next door to Base Okinawa, you'll have to take a bus to one. From what I could gather, some of the nearer beaches are owned by hotels and only for the use of its guests. We took a bus ride with a very, very nice driver who told us which beach was best and stopped on the way down to the shore so we could take a picture at what he thought was the premium picture-taking spot.

Last but not least, Shuri Castle. You can enter for free, but a tour of the inside of the building itself will cost you a bit (comparable to other castles in Japan). You don't have to pay to go inside to see something though, because the traditional Ryukyu dances are held out in the courtyard for all to enjoy.

The costumes and make-up for the dances were really beautiful. If I remember correctly, they gave a brief explanation of each dance in Japanese prior to the performance. 

 Although I wish we could have explored more of Okinawa, I enjoyed myself in the Naha area.