Japan Educational Exchanges and Services (JEES) and The Japan Foundation, who are jointly responsible for the administration of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) , have announced that the current testing system is to revised by June 2010.

At present there are four tests to choose from, with level 1 being the most difficult. There have been many complaints from examinees that the gap - in terms of difficulty - between levels 3 and 2 is too large: to pass level 3 examinees need to know about 300 kanji, compared to 1000 for level 2.

The current plan is to revise the JLPT into 5 levels. Level 4 will become N5, level 3 becomes N4, while a new level - between the current levels 3 and 4 - is to be named N3. N2 will remain the essentially the same as the current level 2, while N1 will be a slightly more advanced version of the current level 1.

In addition, tests for levels 1 and 2 will be held biannually - in June and December - from 2009.

The revision, and especially the option of taking the exam twice a year, should come as a great relief to many students of Japanese. Many people come unstuck at level 2, and the fact that you can only take it once a year makes failure a very bitter pill to swallow.

I, for one, have been thinking about directing my attention away from the JLPT and towards the Business Japanese Proficiency Test (BJT) instead. My teacher thought it might be more useful for me seeing as everything that happens in my office, if not directly related to my area of expertise, requires me to use business Japanese. However, now that the JLPT is changing I may try both next year, just for the sheer hell of it.

By the way, if you’re interested in learning Japanese and don’t know where to start I’ve made a list of books to help you on your way. In fact, you can find it on the right-hand menu bar next to this article.

PS: The official website of the JLPT, where you can find out the latest news regarding the new levels, can be found here.

On Thursday morning we had to take part in an earthquake drill. With Japan being one of the most, if not the most, earthquake-prone country in the world, drills like this are routine. I had expected there to be a grand system set in place in order to swiftly whisk people out of their office and onto the (relative) safety of the street - yellow inflatable slides that pop out from under the windows, for example. The reality was, unfortunately, far plainer: at 12.00 the loudspeaker announced that there had been an earthquake. Five minutes later we were informed that the lifts were out of order and that everyone was to congregate in the basement car park. With all the speed and alertness of sloths everyone left what they were doing and proceeded downstairs.

In the basement a large blue sheet had been strung between the walls; a cardboard sign with the kanji “fire” was stuck in its centre. In front of the sheet stood twenty small fire extinguishers and ten triangular buckets of water; in front of them stood two middle-aged, beige-overalled men with megaphones. They were… The Instructors.

The instruction was far from rigorous. One of the men asked for volunteers to spray the “fire”. People were hastily pushed out from among the crowd by their friends or superiors. Some of the older salarymen, relishing the opportunity to muck about like ten-year-olds, had already scrambled for the fire extinguishers.

The instructors gave one blow of their whistles: the volunteers sprang to life!

The older salarymen took to it with gusto, waddling towards the sheet, shouting “Kaji desu!”, deftly removing the safety clip then, bracing themselves for the expected recoil, aimed the nozzle at the (imaginary) inferno before them and squeezed the trigger. The result? One wet sheet, and several very smug-looking salarymen. Annual earthquake drills appear to be one of the high points of their otherwise routine working life.

Next up for demonstration: the buckets. They were strange, triangular-shaped things with one circular hole in the corner. Was this to help direct the water? Was it stronger? Was somebody having a laugh? Nobody seemed to know, but I’m sure thousands - if not millions - of test buckets had been created, debated, blown up and prodded with weasels in order to reach this final design

At any rate, more volunteers came forward and the buckets were duly put through their paces. Despite the strangeness of their shape they performed admirably, dispensing their moist goodness in a consistent manner, which was the best you can expect from any bucket, really.

With the demonstrations over, one of the instructors concluded by muttering something incomprehensible through his megaphone. Knowing my luck, it was probably the most important part of the training, something along the lines of: “If there’s an earthquake don’t forget to leave through Door X because all the other doors will be closed and you will die a horrible painful death and nobody will come and help you at all, so there.” Nobody else seemed to be listening, but of course they’d heard it a thousand times before and probably knew it by heart.

While the whole experience is difficult to sum up in words, this scene from Big Train sums it up very well indeed:

In the past couple of months I’ve had to do some foreign travel for work. On paper this sounds like a good deal: free flights, free accommodation and a daily allowance. Of course, the major problem with business travel is the fact that you have to actually do some work once you’ve reached your destination.

In March I went to Singapore to make a presentation and conduct “research” (I can say no more than that, because, err… the less I say about it the more mysterious it sounds). Unfortunately I didn’t finish work until 7pm most days, so there was little chance to take in the sights. I did manage to have a pint or seven the first night I arrived, which in hindsight was a very bad idea: I spent much of the next morning sneaking out of a meeting to spew-up in the bogs. Thankfully no one noticed, or if they did they did a very good job of pretending that nothing was awry.

So anyway, I liked Singapore. The food was very good, although I have been told to try the chilli crab next time I visit. I hope it’s boiled crab served with some kind of chilli sauce, and not a crustacean with a bad head cold. My hotel was opposite the world-famous Raffles hotel, and natually I had to go in for a Singapore Sling. Tradition dictates that you throw your peanut shells on the floor of the bar, which made the place look like a cow shed. To make matters worse, a fleet of ageing American cruise-ship tourists waddled in while I was there, and the very size of them only served to reinforce the cow shediness.

There was a brief lull in activity until a couple of weeks ago, when I went to Australia for more “research”. The schedule was a bit mental: two days in Melbourne, two days in Canberra, one day back in Melbourne and then one day in Sydney. I had forgotten that it was autumn in Australia, and it was a bit strange walking around in May and seeing the leaves falling off the trees, and it being -2 degrees in the mornings.

The wonderful thing about Australia was being able to understand what people were saying all of the time, being able to pick up a newspaper and know what’s going on, and simply being able to deal with everything in my own language. It was very easy to fall into conversation with complete strangers, which happens very rarely in Japan, well at least to me at any rate. I must exude an aura of unapproachability. I think it has something to do with my childhood - having to put on an “eff off!” face to dissuade the scallies from trying to nick my pocket money when I was hanging about Middlesbrough on Saturdays.

At any rate, Australia was good. I even managed to finish work early which gave time for a bit more of a wander around. This extra time was good in Melbourne, and would have been in Sydney if I didn’t have to wait at the airport for 2 hours for my suitcase to turn up, but sadly it was lost on Canberra.

With two days in Canberra, and my hotel being close to the centre, I decided to go for a wander to the parliament building. From my hotel room window it looked like a 20 minute walk at the most. However, after thirty minutes of walking in its general direction I had lost all sight of it, and hadn’t passed a single living soul. I decided to give up and head back after 40 minutes for fear that I might get beaten up by a gang of renegade kangaroos (there was a kangaroo cull on while I was there. Some of them had been going to the off-licence, buying 24-packs of Stella and beating up goths who where waiting for the bus home from sixth-form).

So, that’s all the travel news so far. I think I’ll be heading back to Australia at the end of the year, and Singapore again next year. In the meantime, here are some photos for your perusal:

This is from a bar in Singapore. It pissed it down for the entire duration of my stay.

This is the view from the Singapore office (which, incidentally, is much better than the one I work in in Tokyo. Damn them!).

This is the view from my hotel room at night. Raffles is in the bottom-left corner.

Here’s my hotel room. No idea why they gave me a twin room. Still, good for dumping the old suitcase!

“Death for drug traffickers under Singapore law” - ooh err missus!

This is Melbourne. Lots of trams in the city centre. I was convinced that I would get ploughed by one at some point. Didn’t happen. No one seemed to pay for tickets, so I didn’t either - when in Rome…

Down by the river side in Melbourne. Found lots of good bars and restaurants down here. All the staff were either British, Irish or American. Mind you, in London all the bar staff are either Aussies or Kiwis.

Melbourne’s skyline, as seen from the office (which once again was much better than my office in Tokyo. It’s a conspiracy!).

This is somewhere in Victoria. Taken from the plane back to Melbourne from Canberra.

This is the view from my hotel room in Canberra. The spiky thing in the distance is the parliament building. Doesn’t look too far away, does it?

Close up of the parliament building. Apparently most of it is underground in case of war. Looks like a big hill with a kebab skewer on top if you ask me.

I somehow managed to land an executive suite at no extra cost in Canberra. It was about the same size as our flat in Tokyo - class!

The bed was enormous as well.

This is what I discovered when I went walking towards the parliament building in Canberra: absolutely nowt. The footpaths even disappeared after a while…

… I did find a solitary signpost. Shame it was to nowhere in particular

If I were Rocky Balboa, this week would be my Apollo Creed.

8:00 a.m. – Leave home
8:10 a.m. – Take train to Tokyo
9:00 a.m. – Take shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto
11:30 a.m. – Arrive at Kyoto
11:35 a.m. – Take subway to conference centre
12:05 p.m. – Arrive at conference centre
12:30 p.m. – Conference begins
4:30 p.m. – Conference ends
4:40 p.m. – Take subway to Kyoto
5:00 p.m. – Arrive at Kyoto
5:20 p.m. – Take shinkansen from Kyoto to Tokyo
8:00 p.m. – Arrive at Tokyo
8:10 p.m. – Take train to home station
8:50 p.m. – Arrive at home station
9:00 p.m. – Home

Time spent travelling: 8 hours, 25 minutes
Time spent enduring pointless speeches: 4 hours
Time spent admiring Kyoto: 10 minutes

Time wasted: 13 hours