It was a crazily busy weekend! On Saturday we drove around to pay visits to relatives who couldn’t come to the US with us, as well as drop off gifts. We got some Christmas shopping done early, but there’s still a lot to do. On Sunday I took the JLPT in Kanazawa… had to wake up at 6 am to get there on time. It was hard, but fun, and overall I think I did pretty well. I’m not completely confident, but I think that I passed… I’ll get the results in February. As I expected, the kanji and reading sections were very difficult for me, while the listening and grammar sections were a piece of cake — being that I rarely read and write Japanese, but I speak it every day. Hopefully that huge difference will balance out into a passing score. I think it will… And judging from the reactions of the other test-takers, I wasn’t the only one having difficulty with the kanji section.

We were late coming home from the exam because the traffic to get out of Kanazawa University was terrible. We sped home and ended up only about 40 minutes late to set up the art show. Our helpers were gracious but we felt pretty bad about it. Anyway, the cafe space looks great with 16 chickens around the walls, and everyone was pretty excited to have such a unique show, especially painted by a foreigner living in Fukui.

This morning I was interviewed and photographed by the Fukui Shimbun, the largest newspaper around here. The interview wasn’t hard, but the one question everyone asks — “Why chickens?” — is a little too difficult for me to explain properly in Japanese, so we had to phone that question to my wife, who was able to explain it with words I couldn’t possibly have produced. The show had just opened, but a passerby came in and was very excited to meet me. The cafe owner actually thought he was someone I knew, but it was just some guy off the street.

I intended to take photos of the exhibit, but with so many things swirling around in my head I completely forgot. So I’ll do it next time I go down there. And if I can find the newspaper article with my interview in it I’ll scan and post that too.

Right now I’m working on an illustration for the newspaper. They have a New Year’s children’s story section (wait — did I already write about this?) with a number of different stories, each with an illustration. All local writers and artists, I believe. So I’m doing a story about, well, counting sheep, among other things. It’s a cute story, and it’s my first real “children’s book illustration” so I’m finding it to be a fun challenge. I’ll post that soon. (I’d better! It’s due on the 10th!)

On that note, I’d better get back to work.