Rocking in Hakata

Yahoo! Japan Weather has got something interesting going on. I am quite intrigued. Have you ever been annoyed at the inaccuracy of the weather forecast? I know I have. I make cynical jokes about it all the time. Well, you can now press a button on your area’s forecast page to tell them what the actual conditions are. It’s sort of like voting for reporting on reality, I suppose. They call it “みんなで実況！今の天気” (Minna de Jikkyou! Ima no Tenki), which transliterates as “Everyone Real Conditions! Weather Now.” Ha ha. Let’s take a look. Here’s the splash page for the new interactivity.

Wow! So bright and fresh! So appealing! No login required! I’ve simply got to try it! Ok, that wasn’t my honest first reaction. My honest first reaction was more “whoa – what is all this about?” The promotional page shown here is basically meant to show people how easy they’ve made it to be Yahoo! Weather’s collective collaborative reality checkers. You just click the appropriate button, and the results update. You can use your PC or, as with most viral things in Japan, you can vote using your cell phone. Smart move. I don’t see why this hasn’t been done before. Considering how vastly complex weather systems are, and how much variation there is even in small areas, you’d think this would have been pitched years ago. Read more…

Deas Customary Drivel, Unsolicited Commentary, 日本語

Kanji and vocabulary are the twin banes of my existence as a student of Japanese, but I had a nice moment this morning. I was reading through the papers that accumulated in my school letter box. Usually I get things like a list of library books that the kids haven’t returned on time, schedules, bulletins, and official forms. Once in a while you get a handout that someone prepared. Today I got one about sexual harassment. I tried to read it, and probably understood about 80%-85% of it. I discovered that the problems I had were reading the large compound kanji words or phrases that described the outcome of each news item at the end of the respective blurb. For people who sexually harass others, the outcome is pretty obvious – forced retirement or guilty resignation.

Anyway, the reason I was happy is because I caught a bit of a kanji choice error. Here’s the original blurb: 「新幹線運転士が社内販売員を乗務室に入れ運転席に座らせて身体をさわる。懲戒免職。」I won’t translate it because it will give away the problem, I think. I’ll give you 2 hints – it’s not that さわる wasn’t written in kanji (触る), and the problem is with a legitimate word. (It’s not a nonsense compound.)

While you think on that, before I hand you the answer, I might as well tell you the words I choked on. In the example above, you can see 懲戒免職 (chyoukai menshyoku), which means “forced resignation” or “disciplinary dismissal.” I knew men and shyoku from the second half; men is in the word “license” (免許 menkyo), and shyoku is in the word “faculty / staff” (職員 shyokuin). Another term was 免職処分 (menshyoku shyobun), or “discharge / firing / termination.” Lastly, I learned 辞職 (jishyoku), or “resignation.” I was able to guess this one, since I knew a different term for resignation – 辞任 (jinin) thanks to iKnow. For anyone curious, that also happens to be the nin from Nintendo (任天堂). I guess the difference between these things was the volition or lack thereof and the party that was making the decision in each case. Willful resignation is different from forced resignation, and forced resignation is different from sacking someone in my book.

Ok, so the answer is that 社内 (shyanai) means “in-house” in an office or business sense. You know, like in-house printing or PR. But we’re talking about the bullet train, and a person who sells snacks on the train itself, so it should be 車内 (shyanai), which means “on a train / in a car.” I love little breakthroughs like that. Felt I should celebrate with a semi-self-congratulatory post about it. I confirmed the problem and my solution with a coworker, so I know I’m right. What kinds of victories encourage you to keep studying? And did you find the kanji problem too?

By the way, 「新幹線運転士が車内販売員を乗務室に入れ運転席に座らせて身体を触る。懲戒免職。」roughly translates as “A shinkansen driver forced a snack salesperson into the train’s crew compartment and into the driver’s chair, whereupon (he) touched (her) body. He was summarily dismissed.” I’ve obviously inferred the gender of each person involved, as it’s not specified. Here’s the same blurb in hiragana and romanized. しんかんせんうんてんしがしゃないはんばいいんをじょうむしつにいれうんてんせきにすわらせてしんたいをさわる。ちょうかいめんしょく。Shinkansen untenshi ga shyanai hanbaiin wo jyoumushitsu ni ire untenseki ni suwarasete shintai wo sawaru. Chyoukai menshyoku.

Deas Customary Drivel, 日本語

Welcome to the February 2009 Japan Blog Matsuri! This month’s theme was Foreign Food, and we’ve got quite the blog smorgasbord from which to sup. We had a record-breaking total of 26 direct entries for this matsuri. If you add in the recommendations, it comes to a whopping total of 34 entries in all. Because some participants are inside Japan looking out at foreign food, whereas others are elsewhere looking at Japanese food as foreign, I’ve split the entries accordingly. Please make sure you don’t miss any of the entries! I’ve selected my own personal top 3 at the bottom of the post. When you’re done looking through the entire spread, head back here and vote for your own favorites in the poll. Read more…

Deas Announcements, Customary Drivel, JBMatsuri, Photos

I’ve upgraded to WordPress 2.7.1 after lots of fighting with my installation. I discovered a caveat with my host on the compatibility pages. 1&1 hosted sites need to drop a tweak into their .htaccess files. (And mine seems to need refreshing after every stupid plugin activation!) But hey – it works after a little manual maintenance. So that’s good.

I’ve also changed the theme. I hope it’s attractive to you. I hope to get a premium theme and deck it out in the future, but for now, I am quite satisfied with this freebie (I even left the footer links intact). Please give me feedback on the site if you’ve got any. This post is also testing to see if my feed is still linked properly, if Twitter Tools integration is still functioning properly, etc.

I may have to swap databases out so that I can use mySQL 5, as I’ve got a sneaky suspicion it’s part of the whole internal error 500 chain that happens when the above mentioned .htaccess file problem rears its ugly head. In the meantime, you may notice a few more tweaks as I get this site feeling a little more “homey.” Just lemme know if you see anything broken. I’ll jump on it. Thanks.

Deas Customary Drivel

Did you know that you can have kerosene delivered straight to your house in Japan? It’s one of the first things I learned to do pretty well on the phone here. (I hate the phone. Using the phone in a second language is always absurdly stressful.) But since I drive a scooter and can’t take my tank to the gas station, I figured it out really quickly. Here’s the deal. Get the phone number of your local kerosene stand, call them up and order some kerosene, wait for the delivery, make small talk with the delivery guy and pay him, fill your heater and enjoy warmth once more.

I got the number for my local kerosene place by stopping at a gas station on my island. I asked them if they sold kerosene, and they said they did. I asked if they delivered, and they said they did. They asked where I lived, and they said wait – you should call the other kerosene shop – they service your side of the island. They provided me with a business card. (I just saved the number into my cell phone.)

This is how the conversation usually goes. Consider it an example. It’s pretty straightforward. Depending on the person who answers, you may or may not get a 「もしもし」(moshi moshi).

Salesdude: こんにちは、村上石油でございます。
Konnichiwa, Murakami-Sekiyu degozaimasu.
“Hello, this is Murakami Petroleum.”

Me: こんにちは。こちらは（アパートの名前と部屋番号）のデイズです。灯油を注文したいんですが。
Konnichiwa, kochira wa (apaato no namae to heya bangou) no Deizu desu. Touyu wo chumon shitai n desu ga.
“Hello, this is Deas from (apartment name and room number). I’d like to order some kerosene.”

Salesdude: はい、わかりました。配達ですね。
Hai, wakarimashita. Haitatsu desu ne.
“Yes, I see. Delivery, right?”

Me: そうですね。
Sou desu ne.
“Yup.”

Salesdude: ポリ容器はどうされます？
Pori youki wa dou saremasu?
“What shall we do about a polyethylene container?”**

Me: あっ,ありますよ。２０リトルの。一つだけです。
Ah, arimasu yo. Ni jyuu ritoru no. Hitotsu dake desu.
“Oh, I’ve got one. It’s a 20 liter container. Just one.”

Salesdude: わかりました。えっと、何時にしましょうか？
Wakarimashita. Etto, nanji ni shimashyou ka?
“Alright. Um, what time shall we make it?”

Me: まぁ、僕は今からずっといますので、今日なら何時でも構いません。
Maa, boku wa ima kara zutto imasu no de, kyou nara nanji demo kamaimasen.
“Well, I’ll be here from now on, so as long as it’s today I don’t really mind when you come.”

Salesdude: じゃあ、多分（？）分ぐらいかかりますが、大丈夫でしょうか？
Jyaa, tabun (?)-(f)pun gurai kakarimasu ga, daijyoubu deshyou ka?
“It will probably take around (?) minutes or so, is that alright?”

Me: はい、いいんですよ。
Hai, ii n desu.
“Sure, it’s no problem.”

Salesdude: 畏まりました。では、失礼致します。
Kashikomarimashita. Dewa, shitsurei itashimasu.
“I understand. Well then, I’m hanging up.”

Me: はい、失礼します。
Hai, shitsurei shimasu.
“Ok, me too.”

** – this is a statement that could also be read as “do you need us to bring you a container?”

If you want to, you can call in advance and set up a time for delivery at a later date. That’s cool too. Some places sell the polyethylene tanks, too – so try to be clear about what you’re ordering and what they’re bringing. Humility is a boon here, so don’t feel bad about sacrificing your pride for the sake of clarity. Then you hang around and wait for the guy to show up. Just make sure your entry is clean and that you’re fully clothed and nothing could possibly go wrong. (And no, I’m not warning you from personal experience, but rather from an abundance of caution. Ha ha.)

You’ll hear your doorbell ring. It’s the kerosene man! Just hand him your empty tank, and he’ll truck it back down the stairs to his truck to pump it full. He’ll come back with a cash box and your full tank, and write you a little receipt. During fall and spring, when I’m feeling nice, I meet the guy in the parking lot so he doesn’t have to climb a ton of stairs twice, once carrying a full tank of kerosene. But it’s not necessary. This is primo Japanese practice time. Talk to your delivery dude about whatever’s on your mind. Easy topics include how cold it is, how expensive or inexpensive kerosene has gotten, the virtues or drawbacks of heating with kerosene, comparisons with your home country’s heating methods and weather, etc. You’ve got a conversation opportunity wide open. If you’re like me, you might end up talking about something completely out of the blue. I like weird conversations.

Alright, now that you’ve got your kerosene, transfer some from the tank to your heater’s mini-tank. Please use a pump to do this – no MacGuyver tricks. I prefer the battery-powered auto-pumps that you can get at just about any home improvement center. They even have a bubble stop system like the gas station so that it cuts off when full. Nice. Just make sure you kill the switch before trying to wipe and stow the pump for later use. Please keep your kerosene in a safe place. I store it in one of two places; the laundry balcony outside (not in direct sunlight) or on the concrete floor closest to my apartment door inside my entryway. Remember to wipe up any spillage. Cleanliness is next to not-burning-your-place-down-edness. Fire safety first. Only you can prevent stupid, avoidable, incendiary loss of property or life. (Really – be careful. Don’t screw around with dangerous stuff. You’re an adult, for crying out loud.)

Deas Customary Drivel, Media, Unsolicited Commentary, Video, 日本語

This is a weird, random, slightly impulsive post. You see, back when I was in college, I found out that you could make a 3-dimensional image with any camera at all. You simply take 2 images of the same spot spaced apart at about the distance between your eyes. (The easy way is to just take a picture using the viewfinder on one eye, then take the same picture using the other eye, moving the camera, not your head.) If you place the image for your right eye on the left, and the image for your left on the right, and cross your eyes, you get a 3D picture. It’s true. I surfed the web and even found plans for a box you could create to help people who can’t cross their eyes view the images. The other option is to make so-called “wiggle-images” that quickly flash back and forth between the frames, letting your brain do the make-up work stitching them together. Well, I’ve decided to do a series of 3D shots around my area.

Click on any of these thumbnails to bring up a larger overlay of the image, as usual. Think of them like those old magic eye things. If you cross your eyes, instead of 2 frames demarcated by the white line down the middle, try to create 3 frames. The one in the center will be in 3D. It helps if you’re looking squarely at the picture. Once your eyes lock onto it, you can move them around without losing the 3D effect. Can you think of any sights around the Seto Inland Sea or rural Japan in general that you’d like to see in 3 dimensions? If so, leave a comment!

Deas Customary Drivel, Media, Photos