japaninfoswap

A reader asked me to look into the topic of pools, and just by coincidence I had been planning to anyway. It's been done before on the X-Pat Files, but now that it's summer it seems a good time to revisit the topic. Since I wrote about pools in some length a couple of years ago, it seems that another internet-savvy person has been cataloging all the pools in the Nagoya and in the Aichi area. His coverage of the topic seems very thorough, he includes information on pool depth and length for every facility!

My favourite one of these pools and an extremely popular one amongst expats is Komaki Pool, which has a wave pool, a walking pool, a kids pool, a lap pool, and several water slides. The complex is fully enclosed in winter - in summer they open an outside area as well.

There are things to remember when using a Japanese public pool, and I list the rules from Komaki Pool here, as rules tend to be similar whichever pool you go to.

1. To use the lap pool you need to have a cap (other pool complexes insist on a cap in all pools, but here in Komaki you only need one for the lap pool). You can buy or rent caps, or use your own.

2. Babies who need to wear a diaper may not enter the pool complex - swim diapers are a definite no-no.

3. You may not bring the following things within the pool area: watches, jewelry, food or drink, swim rings above 90cm, beach balls, swim toys, clothes, bags, shampoo and soap. Some other pools have a rule about sunscreen (they don't like it to wash off in the water) but I couldn't find this rule at Komaki.

4. For ten minutes every hour there is a "rest time" when everyone is required to get out of the pool. At the end of rest time the pool attendants lead warm-up and stretching exercises (called Radio Taiso, they can be seen here) - some people go along with this and others do not. However, the strict rule is that you may not be near the water during this rest time, also, you may not sit on the rocks surrounding the pool during this time. This is because the life guards are also having a rest, and so safety cannot be guaranteed.

Wherever you decide to bathe this summer, respect the rules and have a lot of fun!

Did you know that your National Health Insurance usually covers a trip to the dentist as well? Well, it does, so when you go to the dentist please take your national health insurance card too. For young children (depending on the area where you live) you can also get another card from the ward office or city hall that makes the trip to the doctor or dentist absolutely free, so make sure when you apply for or update your gaijin card, you stop by the National Health Insurance counter to make sure you know all your rights.

Some kinds of treatments are not covered by National Health Insurance. These include:

-- Cosmetic Surgery
-- Health Check-ups
-- Immunizations
-- Normal Childbirth Delivery
-- Abortion due to economic reasons
-- Work related injuries or illnesses if covered by worker's compensation
-- Injuries or illnesses related to drunken brawls

Even if dentistry is affordable, a trip to the dentist can be difficult for emotional reasons as well. Many people hate going to the dentist at the best of times, but given the language barrier and differences in cultural norms, the prospect of going to the dentist can be downright scary. However, knowing what to expect ahead of time can be very helpful. Here are some of the differences:

-- Japanese dentists often treat several patients in the same room as each other (in other words, not in a private room). This is something to get used to, but there are some dentists that do treat patients in private rooms. One such dentist is Sophia Implant Center which has been convered in the X-Pat Files before and is on the 4th floor of the building right next to Tiger Cafe near Oasis 21 in Sakae. Other dentists don't use seperate rooms but have ample partitions so that you don't have to look at the person next to you, one such dentist is the Fairy Dentist in Kasugai, which has also been covered in the X-Pat Files before.

-- Japanese dentists and their receptionists don't often speak English, and so making an appointment can be a matter of going down there and doing it in person. Alternatively, some dentists can see you even if you don't have an appointment, but this isn't usually the case, and so have someone call ahead for you if you can't do it yourself. To find a dentist who speaks your language, type the word dentist into the X-Pat Files search function and several submissions from various people will come up.

-- Japanese dentists like to do their work in little bursts, having you coming back again and again for follow-up treatment. They are not trying to rip you off and create business for themselves (although this might be the movitating factor for some!), it's just that Japanese dentistry schools train them that way, to avoid patients from becoming overwhelmed with too much work done at one time. This is especially true when the patient is a child, so if your preference is to have everything done at once, please negotiate that with the dentist directly.

As with anything, word of mouth is the best when finding a dentist, so ask around your friends and work colleagues. Sometimes the best dentist isn't just the English speaking dentist, so shop around and see who you're comfortable with. Your teeth are worth it!

Last night I drove from Kansai Airport back home and in the 4 hours it took me to get home I somehow managed to lose my mobile phone. I only got out of the car twice - both times at roadside parking areas, so when I realized I didn't have my phone I immediately found another parking area where I could stop and search properly. I had my husband with me, so we tried using his phone to find mine - but it just rang out every time, suggesting that the phone was somewhere other than inside the car. I had used it shortly after leaving the airport, so the two rest stops were the only possibilities for the phone to have disappeared. Trying to find the phone, and what happened next, were really quite a learning experience, so I thought I'd share it here.

1. Highway roadside parking areas usually have a convenience store, and each of those convenience stores have highway maps they can hand out, which have the phone numbers of all the other highway parking areas, and phone numbers of other convenience stores. The map is in Japanese and terribly difficult to read, but the man in the convenience store was very helpful and I soon had the information I needed to call back to the two shops I'd been to.

2. One of the phone numbers was outdated on the map, but since I had the name of the roadside parking area, and because I remembered that the convenience store I'd been in was a Family Mart, I was able to get the phone number I needed from directory assistance, dial 104 from a land line or mobile phone.

3. All three convenience store workers (the ones from the two previous stops, and the one who gave me the map) went above and beyond the call of duty to help me out in a bad situation. Of course I had to wait for other paying customers as they came in, but each of these good samaritans made me feel better about the situation. Also, I found that because I was trying to keep my cool, the people who were helping me were keeping their cool too.

4. After calling both places (and after the car parks had been meticulously searched by the good samaritan shop attendants) it became apparent that the search was leading nowhere. It also became apparent that perhaps someone had my phone. It was raining last night, and so if the phone had dropped in the carpark it soon would have become wet and stopped working. There were two possibilities that sprang to mind: either someone good had picked up my phone and would turn it in to the police, or someone less good had my phone and they would keep it.

5. After I got home I immediately looked up on the internet and found the number to call to lock the phone, which I immediately did. I considered putting a full stop on the phone, but then considered that I might need to make it ring at the mobile phone shop in the morning so I left it simply locked. On the internet I also found out that because when I bought the phone I bought it under a certain plan, I would be able to get a replacement handset for a much cheaper price in the event of loss, if that loss were reported to the police station.

6. This morning I went to the police box. Police stations have a system of "police boxes" (koban) in the neighbourhood, and there are always a couple of uniformed officers on duty so people can report their problems. I didn't need my ID, but I did need to write my name and address in kanji and so it would be advisable to take your gaijin card on one of these occasions. They asked me about time-frame and place, and we worked out that my phone disappeared between 10pm and 11:30pm "within Mie Prefecture". He took this information along with a detailed description of the phone and called a central processing centre. No-one had handed in my phone, it seemed. Both officers at the Koban advised me strongly to get the phone turned off so that it couldn't be hacked into and used for committing some crime, especially since it seemed unlikely that the phones were left dropped in a wet car park with the ringer still working.

7. I was at the mobile phone shop when it opened. If I had entered a program when I got the phone, to tie the signal of my phone to my husband's, then I could have triangulated the signal and found the location of my own phone, but I hadn't done that. However, they did confirm I was part of the program that allowed me to get a new phone cheaply if my own one was not returned. They assisted me in turning the phone off (I needed my security number to confirm my identity, and I also needed to provide another security number I could quote if the phone is found and I want it turned on again). For now, I am waiting for a few days to see if my old phone is returned, but at least I've done all that I can for now.

The important thing in this situation was not to panic, but to work quickly to rule out all possibilities, and then turn the phone off. I decided to write about this here in case anything like this happens to anyone else, and here are some links that may prove useful.

Softbank Lost Phone Procedure (English)

NTT Docomo English Support (including number for reporting lost phones)

au (KDDi) phones customer service

Just getting over the shock of losing the X-Pat Files and all that great information? Well, don't worry, it's all still here and we're still going to be send out a monthly newsletter. You'll notice that the look is a little bit different - with a short summary of the news items with clickable links that lead directly to the more detailed description on the new blog.

Feel free to leave comments on the new blog, or send in more information and ideas for articles. We look forward to continuing to be a part of the Nagoya Expatriate Scene in the years to come!

It is not so often that you get to have dinner with one of Japan's leading economists. So, join us on July 16th to welcome Jesper Koll to Nagoya! Details below.
**************************************
The American Chamber of Commerce in Japan Presents:

"Japan - from Kamikaze Capitalism to Smartpower Dynamism"
JESPER KOLL, PRESIDENT AND CEO, TANTALLON RESEARCH JAPAN

DATE: Thursday, July 16, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.
VENUE: The Westin Nagoya 1F Chambord
COST: Members: 5,000 yen, guests: 6,000 yen

REGISTRATION AND CANCELLATION DEADLINE: Tuesday, July 14
HOST: Business Program Committee - Chubu

**************************************
Japan has what it takes to emerge a winner from the global crisis ­ a
powerful technology base, low financial leverage, huge savings and a
diligent labor force that can easily compete with almost any global
competitor.

Against this, a massive fiscal deficit, very adverse demographics and
fragmented policy making threaten to ensnare Japan in domestic stagnation.
Which force will win? Where are the industries and companies that will take
the lead? What strategies will the new political leadership promote? Will
the Yen ever stop rising? How can your company benefit from the emerging
global economic order and Japan's force in it?

Over the past decade, Jesper Koll has been consistently ranked as one of the
top Japan strategists. He has written two books in Japanese, "Towards a New
Japanese Golden Age" and "The End of Heisei Deflation." He has been a member
of several government advisory panels, including the MoF council on global
capital flows and PM Koizumi's ad-hoc group of private sector experts.

Jesper is the President and CEO of our new Tokyo office, Tantallon Research
Japan KK.

Jesper has been researching and investing in Japan since becoming a resident
in 1986. For the past eight years he was the Chief Economist of Merrill
Lynch Japan. Prior to that, he had worked for the Tiger Fund. He was also
the head of research for JP Morgan in Tokyo (1994-1998) and the chief
economist of SG Warburg (1989-1994). His analysis and insights have earned
him a spot on several Japanese government advisory committees. He is also
one of the few non-Japanese members of the Keizai Doyukai, the Japan
Association of Corporate Executives.

He has a masters degree from SAIS The Johns Hopkins University and was a
research fellow at both Tokyo University and Kyoto University. He is a
graduate of the Lester B.Pearsn College of the Pacific.

TO REGISTER:
Contact Noriko Kato
052-229-1525 or nkato@accj.or.jp
Or fax to: ACCJ Chubu Office: 052-222-8272

"Japan - from Kamikaze Capitalism to Smartpower Dynamism" on July 16th.

See you there!

Did you know that the 5 yen coin is the luckiest of all? It's because of the way the name of the coin sounds in Japanese "Go-en" - the same pronunciation as the word for destiny.

An American friend of my niece gave her an Australian dollar coin before she visited me in Japan and it's supposed to be lucky to pass the coin on to people in her travels. I wonder if the "destiny coin" works the same way - giving it to someone as a good will gesture will bestow good luck upon the giver. I have braided 5 yen coins into hand-made birthday cards, made necklaces for my kids, and keep one in the kitchen to bring good luck to our home (or our meals?). It goes without saying that whenever I go to a shrine it's a 5 yen coin I toss, whether with my husband or alone. And when I get a 5 yen in my change, I consider it a lucky day.

CERA MALL is a Tokoname Pottery Wholesale Industry Park. It is a comprehensive pottery-ceramics shopping zone, which is the largest in scale and variety on Chita Peninsula for ceramics. Within the premises are a few small cafes, a nice park for kids and lots of freee parking where people can leisurely shop in a cozy environment.

99 Kamisunahara, Kanayama-Aza
Tokoname City, Aichi
0569-43-7125


The ceramics on sale range from top-of-the-range handcrafted masterpieces, through to 3 for 100 yen type pricing for slightly defected or older items. The items available also range from cups, sauces and plates right through to umbrella stands, large pots for outside gardening and even decorations for Christmas and the New Year (obviously depending on the season).

I am not a great shopper at any time of the year, but this is one of the places I really enjoy wandering around. I especially enjoy the bargains available on alot of rice bowls, plates (small and large) and it is a common place to go to pick up an omiyage to take back to New Zealand for my family. I have also introduced newly wed couples to Cera Mall on many occasions, as it really is a great place to fit out your kitchen if you don't have one yet..... cheaply, but nicely!

If you have a little time on your hands, this is a perfect place to visit before or after the beach in Utsumi, or some of the fish markets in the south of Chita Peninsula. Look out for the Tokoname Pottery Path also, if you are a real ceramics fan!

If you are stuck for directions, please see the below!

This is an overall map showing the location on Chita Penninsula.


This is a more detailed map.


This is the Google Map!

Happy shopping!

Some people take great pains to step outside of their comfort zone. You can bungee jump from brdiges, you can hire a life coach to challenge your everyday modus operandus, you can take to the stage and sing a song on national television.

But of course living in Japan there are many opportunities per day to get that small fix of adrenalin that comes when something unexpected happens.

Yesterday I seemed to be a person magnet.

I was getting ready for the massage of the century by taking a bath in the public bath house near my place. Washing my body outside the bath (as one does) I used the soap provided to soap up my towel and wash myself all over. When it came to my back, I thought I was doing OK, but then a 90 year old woman grabbed my towel and started scrubbing my back for me. She scrubbed and scrubbed, just as if she were scrubbing a dirty tile floor - giving me a bit of a shock, and more than a bit of a head-start on the massage I was about to pay good money for! I wondered if I should offer to scrub her back too but she politely declined - it seems she had just seen a back that needed a good scrub and set to it. I LOVE Japan when stuff like this happens.

Later on the train I had two people initiate lively conversation with me deliberately and forcefully (one on the way into town and one on the way back out). One was a 20 year old mother of 4 (she started when she was 16 and has had a baby every year since), who looked like she had enough energy to mother another 4 kids and still be genki enough to hit the town. She told me things that I would never expect to hear from anyone, let alone a "shy" Japanese. I had her whole life story, in the ten minutes it took to get two stations along, and then she thanked me for the conversation and got off.

On the way back OUT of town, a man sat himself next to me and my two nieces who I'd just picked up from the shinkansen, amongst all of their luggage and without a hint of doubt. He spoke in broken English, and we got quite a bit of his 77 year long life story by the time we got home, and worried even that we would be able to get off the train in time with all the final thank-yous going on as we alighted.

One of these experiences owed itself to my willingness to learn a language, one to my willingness to be naked with strangers, and all of them to my desire to live in this foreign country and open myself to these kind of experiences. What a cool country!

If you love reading, but you also love having enough money left over for food and other essentials, then BookMooch is a great idea! English language books can get expensive in Japan, and sometimes it's hard to get out-of-print titles. If in your home country you were often found scouring the shelves of second-hand book shops, then BookMooch might just be the second-hand book shop for you. Not only that - what other book shop would you get the books you want... for free?

OK, OK, it's not exactly free. But BookMooch is free to sign up, and it's also free to get the books that you want. The catch is, that in order to earn those free books you must first be willing to send some of your own unwanted books to somebody else who wants them. That's right, BookMooch is also a great way to get rid of books that you no longer need, and give them to new homes that want them.

By sending your books to someone who requests them, you are earning points for yourself you can then spend asking people to send their unwanted books to you. There's a huge database of books, and it's even linked to Amazon so that you can see what books are available on BookMooch and which ones you'd have to order online!

This is how it works. When you send a book to someone else in Japan, you get one point. If you send a book to someone in another country, you get 3 points. To get a book from someone in Japan, you use 1 point. To get a book from overseas you use just 2 points (less than the 3 you earned by sending a book overseas). The really great news for people who live in Japan is that sending books, even overseas is quite cheap. I usually have a budget in my mind of about 500 yen for sending one book, and usually I can stick to that budget if I send the book SAL (Surface Air Lift, and it only takes about 10 days to get there). For that 500 yen I spent, I can get 3 books sent to me from within Japan, or I can get one book sent to me from anywhere, with change left over for my next "purchase".

I can not overstate how much I love BookMooch. I have found textbooks on there that otherwise would have cost me 5000 yen new. I have stocked my kids book shelves with level-appropriate material and let them do their own "shopping" for their latest favourite author. I have got rid of the books that are now too easy for them (and remember, even kids books which are lighter and cheaper to send earn you 3 points if you send them overseas). And since there are old titles up there too, I've found more older books that I want than I ever would have spending a month going through second-hand book shops in Australia.

You absolutely must check it out!

Right at Tsurumai station, this public facility is a fun and cheap way for a family to kill an hour. At just 200 yen for adults and 100 yen for kids (only those who actually take part in the game pay) it costs less than the drinks and snacks you'd buy at the convenience store to go with your outing.

Right as you come out there are two indoor rest areas, one with 100 yen ice-creams and the other with vending machines. And walk straight ahead to find a temporary beer garden right in the middle of the Tsurumai Park walkway. Now that's convenient!

All adjacent to Tsurumai library (with some English books), there's some air-conditioned relief when it gets too hot.

An entry today from a resident of Toyota who has found two great places to get European style bread.

I have been introduced to a shop that is called Dasenka. In the place in Toyota-shi (closer towards Sanage) they have a restaurant next to the bakery (buffet - children friendly).
Open from Wednesday to Sunday, 10.00 - 19.00.
Pain de campagne is only on Saturday/Sunday.
Baguette is pretty close to a real French baguette.
They also have different types of rye bread.
Does the trick when feeling like some more European bread.

Another even better place for bread is Guruman. They have many branches of the same shop - mostly they are in different parts of Gifu prefecture, but there is one near Marunouchi Station and one in Fujigaoka.
They have a bread with a real hard crust, and pumpernickel....
There is an online shop as well if you don't live near any of the branches.

Still haven't had your fill of bread? Here are some more excellent shops if you still have that itch to scratch!

Heart Bread Antique in Higashiura-cho on the Chita Peninsula
(Heart Bread Antique also has shops in Leaf Walk Inazawa and one more in Aeon Hamamatsu. It also has an online shop.)

Maison Kayser in Nagoya Central Garden between Imaike and Ikeshita stations.

Fortissimo H in Ikeshita, also preparing for an online shop.

Anyone who has spent more than a week in Japan has probably been surprised at the lack of regard that cyclists here often show both for their own safety and for the safety of others. It is not uncommon to see housewives cycling with one child on a seat in front and one behind, or salarymen riding one-handed in order to hold an umbrella(even on windy days!), or even high school students steering with one hand while sending text messages on their mobile phones with the other. Unsurprisingly this type of irresponsible behaviour has led to a dramatic increase in the number of accidents involving bicycles, with the result that the National Police Agency has, on paper at least, begun to clamp down on dangerous cyclists. New laws governing cyclists have been passed that will come into full effect from the 16th of June, 2008. According to the new laws:

- footpaths may only be used for walking, except in the case of small children or where the road and traffic do not allow safe passage of a bicycle. In certain cases, there will be a bicycle lane provided on the footpath, in which case bicycles have right of way only in that section of the footpath (penalties of up to 50,000 yen)

- children under the age of 13 must wear a helmet, even if they are only a passenger on the bike.

- bikes must be ridden on the left hand side of the road (penalty of up to 50,000 yen)

- bicycles on the footpath must always give way to pedestrians, in particular to elderly people (penalty of 20,000 yen)

- you may never ride a bike under the influence of alcohol (penalty of up to 100,000 yen)

- “doubling” a person over the age of six is prohibited (penalty of up to 20,000 yen)

- riding in tandem with another bicycle is prohibited (penalty of up to 20,000 yen)

- riding at night without a light is prohibited (penalty of up to 20,000 yen)

- you must adhere to all traffic signals and stop signs (penalty of up to 50,000 yen)

- you may not use a cell phone while riding a bike

- you may not use an umbrella while riding a bike

An illustrated pamphlet describing the changes is available online, but only in Japanese. It will be interesting to see if the new laws have the desired effect of making Japan's streets safer for pedestrians, as well as for motorists who are unfairly blamed for collisions with reckless cyclists. I for one am not holding my breath.

Japan is among the world's most seismically active countries, which means that earthquakes are a relatively common occurence. Small tremors are usually felt in some part of the country everyday, and there have been several big quakes in the last few years, most recently in Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture in July 2007. While there's no point in being too worried about an earthquake that may or may not hit while you are living in Japan, there's even less point in not being prepared for the eventuality. Although a major earthquake has not occurred in the Tokyo area since 1923, one is expected to strike in the near future, with the probability estimated at 50% during the next ten years, rising to 90% over the next thirty years.

With these facts in mind it is important to consider what you will do in the event of a large earthquake.

- Where is the safest place at home?
- Where are the emergency supplies at home?
- Do you have fire extinguishers in your home and where are they?
- Where is the nearest evacuation shelter and evacuation route?
- What are the responsibilities of each householder when evacuating?
- Decide how to contact family members, and about where to meet for both a daytime and nighttime earthquake scenario.
- Put personal effects and first aid kit in a place where they are easily accessable
- Learn how to use the NTT disaster emergency dial 171.
- Look into disaster information options from your mobile phone provider such as this one from Softbank, this one from au, or this one from docomo. Remember that in the event of a disaster different phones will work in different areas depending on which transmitters have been damaged.

Also, prepare the following items for emergency evacuation:

- By your bed: shoes (in case of broken glass), flashlight, whistle, glasses, medication
- Emergency survival bag (put in an easily accessable place known to all family members) : valuables such as cash including change, passports, foreign registration cards, credit cards, bank passbook, drivers licence.
- Radio, emergency food rations, bottled water, mobile phone.
- Clothes to be used in an emergency, including gloves and small towels.
- First aid kit including medicine, bandaids, tissue paper, small scissors, tape etc.
- The emergency bag must be as light as possible for ease of carrying.

In another place in the house known to all householders, stockpile the following items:

- Emergency food and bottled water for three full days
- Portable cooking stove and fuel (careful to check use-by dates and safe storage)
- rope
- disposable chopsticks
- blankets
- strong masking tape
- paper tableware and thick foil cooking plates (available from camping stores)
- People who camp - keep your camping goods updated and in good order, in an easily accessable place. Taking up camping as a hobby is one of the best earthquake preparations you can do!

Again, think about your responses as a household in the time of disaster:

- Learn about the location of evacuation shelters in your area.
- Learn about the provision of water in the case of an emergency.
- Read up on advice from the fire department.
- Find good guides to earthquake preparation on the internet - even if they are not for your area much of the information contained is useful. Use the guides like a checklist, be prepared.
- Read up on earthquake warning systems.

While there are no guarantees that being prepared will ensure your safety in the event of a major earthquake, it could potentially make a huge difference should the worst happen. Tokyu Hands, a wonderful store that sells everything you never knew you needed, is a good starting point.

Day Care (Hoikuen)
The day care system in Japan is very thorough, and there are many rules and regulations in place to ensure the highest quality of care for children whose mothers work or otherwise are unable to look after their children during the day.

To qualify for a place in the public day care system, the primary caregiver must be employed, be actively seeking employment (in this case you will need to submit extra paperwork to the City Hall or Ward Office as your job search continues), or be otherwise unable to look after your child (for example, in the case of physical or mental illness).

Daycare is charged according to the family income, and so requires a certain amount of paperwork to enrol. Also, you may be placed on a waiting list or encouraged to attend a hoikuen further away from home if there are too many applicants in any given area. This is most likely to happen in the case of younger children (the daycare system is in place for babies as young as 3 months) as child to teacher ratios are kept very low and there are less available spaces.

For more information on the hoikuen system near you, visit your local ward office or City Hall. Take your Japanese speaking friend with you, as there is a certain amount of red tape involved.

Kindergarten (Youchien)

The youchien or kindergarten system in Japan is for three years. These years are called “Nensho” (littlies), “Nenchuu” (middlies) and “Nencho” (biggies).

There are many different youchien and it can be difficult to choose. There are Montessori, Catholic and Buddhist... and each youchien will have its benefits and drawbacks in terms of teaching style, facilities and curriculum. The very best way to find a youchien you’re comfortable with is to ask around your friends, or if you haven’t met anyone yet, look on forums such as the one on the Japan with Kids website.

Finally, there are also options for you if you’re keen to give your child a start with an English education. Several little youchien around the place offer English immersion programs, and bigger International schools also offer pre-school programs. Here is a comprehensive list of international pre-schools in the Tokyo area.

If you’re looking to enrol at a regular Japanese university in an undergraduate program, you’ll want to look into special training for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) which is administered in four levels. To get into most universities, you’ll need to have passed the JLPT Level 1 (ikkyuu) in the previous five years before you apply for entry.

Studying for the JLPT will give you a good grounding in Japanese skills no matter whether you use it to gain entry to university or not. Levels 4 and 3 are relatively simple to pass if you’ve had some training in Japanese, but it is necessary to apply yourself to pass Level 2, and to a much greater extent Level 1. Here are the levels and what they mean:

For Level 1, you’ll have mastered grammar to a high level, know around 2,000 Kanji and 10,000 words, and has an integrated command of the language sufficient for life in Japanese society.
For Level 2, you have mastered grammar to a relatively high level, know around 1,000 Kanji and 6,000 words, and have the ability to converse, read, and write about matters of a general nature.
For Level 3, you have mastered grammar to a limited level, know around 300 Kanji and 1,500 words, and have the ability to take part in everyday conversation and to read and write simple sentences.
For Level 4, you must have mastered the basic elements of grammar, know around 100 Kanji and 800 words, and have the ability to engage in simple conversation and to read and write short, simple sentences.

The JLPT is multiple choice in format. Sections include writing/vocabulary, listening, and reading/grammar. The questions are quite similar in style from year to year, and the very best way to study is to practice on tests from previous years. Some language schools offer courses specifically geared to help you pass a certain level of the JLPT, and it can also be worth your time to hire a private tutor to take you through the material, piece by piece.

The test is usually administered in December of each year, and information for the current year is released on the website in March. You really need to start planning and preparing for the test around about now if you are going to sit for a level that is higher than where you currently are. Fail to prepare, and you truly are preparing to fail!