This mini-post serves 2 purposes. It acts as a proof-of-concept for me, letting me know I can make mobile posts, and it informs you of my students’ success.
Five high school students from my prefecture made it through the most recent round of eliminations and earned honorable mentions for the 47th National English Composition Contest. Of those five, two were my kids. Rock on, Hakata!
We visited Macau by ferry in a wild one day outing. It’s interesting. You go through customs both ways, but it is relatively quick. Most people are just headed over for gambling and entertainment type stuff. The ferry ride isn’t terribly long either – I’d compare it to a short flight in length and amount of turbulence.
We got to Macau and were instantly bombarded by a bunch of people offering various tour packages. We finally settled and hired a dude named Andy. We’re pretty sure he was juggling 3 other groups or so, because there was stuff left in the van that we didn’t leave, and his timing imprecision was measured in quarter-hours. He must be making a killing! Can’t blame him for that, I guess.
Anyway, he drove our little group to eat lunch at a Portuguese restaurant. (Pretty sure he gets a commission from that too.) The food was good, but the live music was great. I had a nice rack of lamb confusingly paired with french fries. I also requested The Girl from Ipanema, since I love that song, especially the Portuguese version. After that we began touring. We saw most of the big sights. The highlight was probably Macau Tower for me. While there, we watched 2 people make the highest bungee jump in the world, supposedly. Whew.
After the sightseeing we had our guide drop us at the giant golden female bodhisattva statue, where we snapped some quick shots. Then we headed into the casinos. Only one of us played, I think. I wish I’d ponied up! (Kicks self.) After the casinos, we made our way to the Fisherman’s Wharf area and had dinner. The dinner was lackluster, but I didn’t complain because I got a $3 Stella Artois out of the deal. Ha ha. We walked back to the ferry port from there, and headed back to Hong Kong. Great day.
Before heading to Hong Kong, the trip-goers spent a bit of time emailing back and forth about what sort of things we wanted to see and do. Amusement parks topped the list. Since a few of us had recently been to the Disney parks in Tokyo, we decided to try a more authentically “local” experience in Ocean Park. When it came time to go to the park, however, everyone decided to go. It was great!
Ocean Park is interesting. It’s built in really mountainous terrain, so you can’t see all parts of the park at any given time. You can use cable cars to get to the upper area, and a really incredible system of escalators to descend further down from that upper area to yet another area. (And then do that in reverse to get back to where you started.) The place was decked out for Halloween, which was a nice atmospheric touch. Our first stop was the panda enclosures, after we discovered that we had totally been deceived about the possibility of riding in hot air balloons. Sad. (The lack of balloons, not the pandas.)
We lucked out and got to the upper peak area just as a strong wind forecast caused the park to stop the cable car service. That meant really short lines for us for awhile. We took full advantage and did all of the crazy rides first. We also ate, and had our first bit of cultural friction as we realized, while buying a pre-lunch snack, that handing change back to a customer in Hong Kong can be a really haphazard ordeal. We took in some of the aquarium sites, ate lunch, hit the aviaries and a few more rides, then made our way back to the entrance. All in all, it was a great day. 
I’m getting loads of spam lately (between 175-350 on average each day). To combat this, I’m instituting a small change that will really only affect you if you are a lurker or a first time commenter. I must approve at least one comment from each of you before your future comments will automatically show up. If this doesn’t work, I may require all comments to be moderated – at least during my vacation. I can’t abide the thought of my blog advertising various medications or weird rule 34 derivatives. 
Sorry!
Well, it’s about time I got to posting about my mid-October trip to Hong Kong, huh? (Granted, I’ve still failed to post about summer camp. But at this point, I might as well do that as a run up to the next one, you know?) I’m splitting the post into 3 parts. Hong Kong, Ocean Park, and Macau. Hopefully I’ll have all three of them up before my next trip starts – this weekend. Ha ha.
These pictures come from the time our crew spent in Hong Kong itself. You can see shots taken from The Peak, the Avenue of Stars on the harbor, a couple of restaurants, and more. I wish I’d taken more pictures! On the other hand, I guess I was too busy experiencing the trip. That’s probably a good thing. I have nice memories that don’t too often include a viewfinder this time around. Ha ha. Let me know what you think or feel free to ask questions in the comments! Oh – and I’ve gotta say that the food was delicious. Yes, I sold out and got a western style meal once or twice. But I also had an amazing Hong Kong hot pot dinner thanks to Ray’s friend Katie, some dim sum, and even some deep fried sea eel – which was great! (And lots of bubble tea.)
So this year’s JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test / 日本語能力試験 / nihongo nouryoku shiken) suddenly came up over the horizon, rushed forth, mauled me like an angry bear being chased by bees, and tore off down the road into the sunset. Naturally, I feel a bit like licking my wounds. But instead, I’ve decided to do something a little proactive. I made the regular rounds on the English speaking Japanese blog networks and I keep seeing people hawking for this site called iKnow.
Let’s be honest. The first thing I think of when I read the title “iKnow” is Monica, from Friends, shouting her catchphrase “I know!” with her classic intonation. The second thing I think? Apple product accessory. The naming cliché has crept just about everywhere, it seems. The third thing I thought was that I might as well give it a shot. I’m glad I did. It turned out to be pretty cool (so far).
It has also been humbling. I realized just how poor my vocabulary is when I arrogantly clicked into a course more advanced than I should have. I dropped it (like it was hot) and backed down into a more appropriate intermediate course. “Course” is really just a way to say “deck” for those of you familiar with Anki and spaced repetition learning systems. And now I’m plodding along. What’s great is that it put the feeling of accomplishment back into Japanese for me. Something I’d lost a long time ago, and with it some of my motivation to continue. I like the site. Two thumbs up. My only gripe is that I have difficulty fitting the application window on a single desktop on my Eee PC 1000 HA. Why did they put the start button at the very bottom!? Ha ha. It’s doable, but requires a little too much monkeying around for my taste.
In a related issue, I recently flipped out after discovering that Lang-8 had been blocked at school. If I tried to access it, a large orange banner reading 「このページはアクセス制限されています。」 or “Access to this page is restricted.” The reason listed? 「Category: 個人広告／出会い系 」 or “Personals / Dating.” I was puzzled by that, and decided to push my luck – not something I frequently do. I contacted the systems administrators and asked them who runs the blocking software. A teacher friend of mine called for me and explained that the site is blocked for an incorrect reason. We asked them to review the reason. I figured if they still wanted to block it that there wasn’t much else I could do – but I could at least bring to their attention that it’s not a dating / personals site. It’s a study site for writing practice in your second language. Social in its nature, sure, but pretty dadgum academic. After a series of phone calls, we found the guy in charge, and he took it off the blocked setting no problem. How awesome is that? So if you have trouble accessing STUDY sites (and yes, I really mean that legitimately), don’t be afraid to ask – the worst they can say is “Sorry, no.” And hey – they might not. 
