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Last Week in Japanese News 10/02/2022-10/08/2022 [1]

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Date: 2022-10-09

Hello, this is RWPOINTWOMAN, and this is Last Week in Japanese News. Every week, I translate Japanese news articles from the Easy Japanese news reader app.

My vocabulary is relatively small, but it is growing. It's mostly concentrated in JLPT N5-N4 range, moreso N5 than N4, but it increasingly includes words from N3-N1. To put that in perspective, N5 is beginner and N1 is most advanced. As in, "native."

My grasp of grammar tops out at mid-N3 for the most part, but I have been exposed to N2 and N1 grammar and even absorbed some of it. This mostly seems to have been through Easy Japanese articles given how much time I spend there relative to the other sources I use. It doesn't hurt that the Easy section, which I use almost completely to the exclusion of the Difficult one, has grammar bank link unlike the latter.

My grasp of kanji is poorer than it might seem to a native speaker listening to me read because of all the times I encountered kanji while reading articles at Easy Japanese, which has furigana. I used to do limited kanji homework in which I studied the Kanji Bank at JapanesePod101 dot com, but I got tired of doing poorly and felt I was spending too many hours a day. I also realized that I hadn't been updating it like I had been my Word Bank and flashcards.

The vocabulary flashcards were spaced repetition, but the kanji bank was not. Also, you couldn't add kanji directly from lesson pages unlike vocabulary. Each lesson page came with its own Kanji Quiz and its own kanji worksheets. I always managed to memorize the kanji in the quiz before I left the lesson but it wouldn't last unless it had short a definition, short on-readings, and short kun-readings. That is pretty rare.

The worksheets did not give you stroke order, which is unfortunate, since that matters. I had to get that from elsewhere on the Internet.

I only did one kanji work book and it was for N5.

Since then, I downloaded two kanji study apps, stopped using the first and pretty much stopped using the second. Neither of them come with printable worksheets.

My listening practice these days mostly comes from the occasional viewing of Asahi News Network on YouTube. My speaking practice currently consists of recording myself reading Japanese while adding cards to my Anki deck; the woman I was conversing with is too busy to do it these days. My reading practice consists mostly of Easy Japanese articles with occasional foray into the raw manga I own. I only own one manga and its only four volumes.

This is also my immersion.

My instruction these days comes from Nihongoal, a YouTube channel that follows the Minna no Nihongo textbook.

This is not a problem as the articles at Easy Japanese have definitions for the words from Mazii dictionary usually.

Anyway, on with the show!

October 2, 2022:

Girl missing 1 week. Search area near mouth of river widened. (Asahi)

It has been 1 week since a girl in her 1st year of elementary school went missing in Matsudo City, Chiba Prefecture as of September 30. The Chiba Prefectural Police are continuing their search and have widened it to the mouth of the river, over 20 km from where her shoes were found. Saya Minami (7), a 1st-year student at Matsudo City Elementary School, left her home at around 11:30 AM on September 23 and her current location is unknown. Up to now, what has been found, aside from Saya's kick scooter, which was found at a public park, are things like her shoes, socks, and hat, which were found near places like the floodplain of the Edogawa River. The Chiba Prefecture Police also started searching both the floodplain where garments like her shoes were found over 20 km away from the area near the mouth of the river with a group of 120 people while seeking information. Reportedly, up to 300 such cases were reported to the police over a 5-day period ending on September 28.

October 3, 2022:

"In case of incoming missile tests": Tokyo Metropolitan Area prepares shelters. (NHK)

North Korea is increasingly launching missiles. It also fired a missile on September 29. This has happened 21 times since the start of this year, which is unprecedented. Japan believes it is necessary for people living in Japan to seek shelter in the event of incoming missile launched as a test. The administrative divisions of Japan say they have decided to quickly convert sturdy structures such as concrete buildings and underground shopping centers into shelters that would give each person a space 0.825 m wide. The Tokyo Metropolitan Area and other cities, towns, etc. have mutually agreed to use over 3,700 public facilities such as schools and libraries for this. Because of this, the Tokyo Metropolitan Area is convinced that 14,000,000 of its inhabitants could flee quickly. There are also areas with large populations and few facilities. Later, the Tokyo Metropolitan Area plans to continue thinking about turning things like office buildings and underground facilities into shelters.

October 4, 2022:

ANA unveils new environmentally-friendly plane in green instead of familiar blue. (Asahi)

All Nippon Airways (ANA) has unveiled a plane with the blue decorative motif changed to green intended to transition to a sustainable society to the public. Aside from its green color, the plane has a riblet film with the unevenness of shark skin pasted onto its exterior in order to reduce friction. ANA says that coating 80% of the plane's surface with this film would reduce its CO2 emissions by about 300,000 t/yr. Additionally, the lees left over from making apple juice were used for the headrest covers in the interior. A total of 2 such planes have been made so far and the plan is for 1 of them to be used for the Haneda-San Francisco route starting on October 5 and to use the other for domestic flights starting next month.

October 5, 2022:

"Mt. Fuji Speedway" hotel opened for viewing of race and Mt. Fuji. (Asahi)

A high class hotel has been completed at the "Mt. Fuji Speedway", which is also known as sacred ground in motorsports, in Oyama Town, Shizuoka Prefecture. It has 120 guest rooms, and the ones on the side of the circuit can be used to view the impressive race while the ones on the side of Mt. Fuji can be used to view its grand form. In addition to being fully equipped with amenities like a spa, an indoor pool, and a gym, it also has a restaurant that uses the abundant local ingredients. Furthermore, professional drivers can also enjoy activities such practicing with the racing simulator. Also, introducing circular helicopter flights is being considered. The lodging fees start at ¥53,999 and go up to ¥217,675. The plan is to open on October 7.

October 6, 2022:

Chief Cabinet Secretary indicates need to capitalize on cheap yen to meet ¥2 trillion export value target faster. (Asahi)

Chief Cabinet Secretary Matsuno indicated to the government agencies concerned that in order to hit the target of ¥2 trillion annual export value for things like agriculture, forestry, and fisheries products and food, they would be tasked with capitalizing on the cheap yen and strengthening earning power. Chief Cabinet Secretary Matsuno: "For the task of enabling ourselves to speed up task of meeting our goal of bringing the value of our exports to ¥2 trillion by 2025, it is necessary to maximize earning power in this current situation in which the ability to export goods is increased by the cheap yen." Last year, the value of exports of agriculture, forestry, and fisheries products and food surpassed ¥1 trillion for the first time and the value of exports in the first half of this year was the highest ever. The Japanese government touted a plan to boost export value to ¥2 trillion by 2025 and ¥5 trillion by 2030, but wants to meet the ¥2 trillion goal sooner.

October 7, 2022:

Attempt made at coming up with ways to prevent influenza and COVID-19 from overloading hospitals. (NHK)

The Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare worries that from this point on, there will be an increase in people who are simultaneously infected with SARS-COV-2 and influenza. Because of this, it is contemplating ways of preventing people infected with SARS-COV-2 from crowding hatsunetsu gairai.* It instructed the elderly and others who are at high risk to go to the hatsunetsu gairai. However, if anyone else gets a high fever, then the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare says that they should take an antibody test before going to the hospital. If uninfected with that virus, they are to meet with a doctor not in person but over the phone, online, etc. Additionally, they want a combo shot for COVID-19 and influenza.

That's all for now.

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