News items from Rocking in Hakata

Hey everybody! I am back in one piece from the Philippines, but I’ll be posting about it tomorrow. For today, I thought I’d just appraise you of my new year’s resolution for 2009. I will of course be pretending to follow my perennial resolution of “finally getting in shape,” but I thought that for morale’s sake, if not honesty’s, that I should have a backup. So while fitness is still in there, I wanted something that I could commit to doing, no excuses, that was a little bit flexible. So, my new year’s resolution is, drum roll please…

I will record every single financial transaction I make this year.

I’m inputting it into a spreadsheet for further analysis. I think that if I just accept receipts from everything I do here in Japan, and keep tabs on stuff overseas, I can do this. Without accounting for lost change and whatnot, I should be able to see where all of my money goes. And that could be a very good thing. Might help me carve out new savings possibilities by eliminating waste. It’ll be frustrating until I’ve gotten into the habit, I think, but I can do it. Now if only I could actually get fit.

What is your new year’s resolution?

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A science teacher who used to work at my base school, but who still works at a school that I visit regularly, was stoked when I did a reprisal of my Physics Lesson that I originated for Matsuyama Chuo High School’s English Day. I guess he also wanted to thank me for helping him with a research paper he’s trying to get published in an academic journal. (I translated the abstract for him last year.) So what does he do? He gives me this thing. It’s a CD that he’s drilled 4 holes in, 4 paper cubes strung together and anchored to the holes, and arranged in just the right way to make them change consistently between 2 set positions. Print a big maru (circle) on one position and a batsu (an X) on the other, and you get a neat little toy to use during quizzes in the classroom. I think I like it better than the little light-up one I bought that makes sounds!

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This was auto-posted. Deas is trying not to eat any Ebola-infested pork while learning to scuba dive in the Philippines right now. He’ll be back in January.
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You’ve seen the pictures from the Matsuyama Chuo HS Summer Camp, but now you can see the sights and hear the sounds from the 2008 Nametoko One World English Camp and the Junior High / Senior High School Camps. This year was another success. If everything works out, I’ll be at the upcoming 2009 Nametoko English Camps, too. If you’re interested in volunteering for it, you should contact me, and I’ll pass the word along to the appropriate folks. It’s a crazy 9 day long adventure. Now - on to the pictures!

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This was auto-posted. Deas is trying not to die a horrible death while learning to scuba dive in the Philippines right now. He’ll be back in January.
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I have a weird name. It comes up a lot. I like it, personally. It fits me rather well. Anyway, I recently discovered some cool information about it. A timewaster site had a bunch of information that I’d not seen before. Forgive the odd formatting. You’ll get the gist anyway.

DEAS is the 18,096th most popular name in USA (… 18094.caudell , 18095.vernetta , 18096.deas , 18097.malkin , 18098.debbi …). One in every 351,102 Americans are named DEAS and the popularity of name DEAS is 2.85 people per million.

If we compare the popularity statistics of DEAS to USA’s population statistics, we can estimate that as of December.19.2008 01:30 there are 871 people named as DEAS in the United States and the number of DEAS’s are increasing by 7 people every year.

Courtesy of PokeMyName.com

This site reminds me of similar weird things that go around the Japanese net. Sites like Nounai-Meekaa and its English counterpart BrainScannr, etc. Fun. Probably totally useless, but fun.

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This was auto-posted. Deas is trying not to be stung by jellyfish while learning to scuba dive in the Philippines right now. He’ll be back in January.
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Awwww! Warms the heart.

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This was auto-posted. Deas is trying not to be boarded by Somali pirates while learning to scuba dive in the Philippines right now. He’ll be back in January.
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I jokingly mentioned never having posted about my experience at the Matsuyama Chuo High School Summer Camp in a recent post. (I have, however, ceaselessly carry on about the physics class I taught there earlier in the summer at the English Day event. Being on TV does that to you, I guess.) Well, I decided that I should get it together and try to at least show you some quick pictures from it in the midst of the winter chill. Perhaps these pictures will help you warm up, just like a good mug full of hot cocoa - with tobasco and cinnamon, obviously. Love it.

Derry is freakin’ tall. Seriously. Ha ha. Hope you enjoyed them! Questions in the comments section will be answered when I’m home!

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This was auto-posted. Deas is trying not to tangle his equipment while learning to scuba dive in the Philippines right now. He’ll be back in January.
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Deasさんのこのエントリー、面白いなぁと思って、昨日、夕飯の時に我が家の子供たちにも話してみました。

子供たちが出した結論は…∴サンタさんは一人ではない。でした。
サンタ村のようなところに大勢のサンタさんが住んでいて、クリスマスの夜はみんなで一斉に配りに歩くんだそうです。（ちなみに「サンタ」と呼び捨てにすると、「サンタさんに失礼だろう！」と怒られました。(^^;)「ママがそんな失礼なことを言っていると怒ってこの家には来てくれないかもしれない」と心配もしているようでした。）

“1秒間に900軒以上配らなければいけない”のところで、私が、「もしかしたら、サンタさんは魔法みたいなものをつかって、一度に900軒分のプレゼントを煙突から入れることができるのかもしれない」と言ったら、上の息子(9歳）は「うーん…そうかもしれないけど、ぼくの考えでは、サンタさんはちゃんと一人ずつ、”一年間いい子だったね”って寝てる顔を見て、置いて行ってくれると思う」とまじめに悩みながら言ってました。(^^)

みんなでわいわいと、それぞれの自論を披露し合って、楽しい夕飯になりました。楽しい話題をありがとうございました。(^^)/

-English translation-

I thought your entry was interesting, so last night during dinner at our house, I brought it up in conversation with my children.

The children’s conclusion seemed to be that…Santa Claus is not one person.
They posited that many Santas live in a place like a Santa-village, and each Christmas night they all walk around to distribute presents at the same time. (By the way, when I just called him “Santa” [presumably without the "Claus" or "-san" suffix], they became angry, saying “isn’t that rude to Santa?” (^^;) It was as though they were worried that “If Mama says such rude things Santa will be angry and he might not visit our house!”)

When I explained that “in 1 second’s time, Santa must distribute presents to more than 900 houses” I said, “Maybe Santa is using some sort of magic to put 900 presents at one time into various chimneys.” My oldest son, who is 9 years old, said, “Yeah, that might be true, but I think that Santa visits each child one by one, looks upon their sleeping faces that convey that they have ‘been a good child for a whole year,’ carefully lays down the present, and goes.” He seemed serious and distressed as he said it. (^^)

It became a fun dinner, with everyone being lively and making their own arguments about it. Thanks very much for the fun topic. (^^)/

marukoさんのコメントDec 20th 2008 07:57

This warmed my heart. I submitted my translation of the Santa Claus: From An Engineer’s Perspective piece to Lang-8 for revision - see the entry on Lang-8 here. Not only did I get super-fast corrections, like usual, but I also go this comment. Made me smile.

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This was auto-posted. Deas is trying not to get too comfortable with spandex while learning to scuba dive in the Philippines right now. He’ll be back in January.
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Hey, check this out. It’s the profile of Ken Hoang, Survivor: Gabon contestant.

Yes, it really says: “Nobody would look at him and believe he climbed Mt. Fuji at the age of 20.” *snort*

…..BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

For those who are lost…while it’s pretty dadgum steep at times, Mt. Fuji is nowhere near Everest or K2 in difficulty or prestige. At all. TV personalities do it. Children do it. My friends do it hilariously. Really really old people do it. Ken, I’m sorry, but…seriously? WHY would nobody believe that he did it when he was 20?

*Disclaimer: I haven’t watched Survivor since the first or second season, so I don’t know this guy or this season’s drama. Can’t comment on it. This was brought to my attention by an avid fan of the show who will probably claim credit in the comments.

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This was auto-posted. Deas is trying not to be eaten by sharks while learning how to scuba dive in the Philippines right now. He’ll be back in January.
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If you live in Japan, then Christmas to you means hearing Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas is You and Wham’s Last Christmas (pop-up video!) about seven million times apiece in the month of December. But this year is different. EXILE has released a cover of Wham’s seasonal tune, in Japanese. What to do with that? How about learn all the words and sing it at karaoke? I mean, you’re going to hear it seven million times anyway - why not make it educational? Below you’ll find a karaoke-style video (also still currently available on YouTube thanks to user ghislain03091981), the full text of the Japanese lyrics AND a reasonable translation, as well as links to the iKnow video list that I created. And I tried to make it good - there are 30 vocabulary words, they all have lyrics from the song associated with them, and I even recorded myself speaking the lyrics so that you can do dictation practice if you want to. Go try it out and rate it. Then let us know how you performed at the karaoke box in the comments. Of course, all other comments are welcome, too. Oh - and yes, this post was also submitted to the special Christmas 2008 edition of the Japan Blog Matsuri, hosted by the community driven JapanSoc Blog! While you’re over there, check out the main page of JapanSoc, the Digg-style social network for the English-speaking Japan-related web.

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Last Christmas 今はまだ思い出になんてできないよ
でも愛はもう ここにはいない this year
Last Christmas ふたりなら 願いはかなうと信じてた
まだ越えられない 君は今でも special

Last Christmas - I still can’t call it a mere memory
But love - you’re already not here this year
Last Christmas - if we were together, I believed my wish would be fulfilled
I still can’t get over it - you’re still special, even now

出会って気づいたよ 本当は僕も淋しがりやだと
ねぇ君は覚えてるかい？ ふたりで交わした初めてのキス
思えば僕は 君にはたぶん重すぎたよね
わかったふりの強がり 張り裂けそうな my beating heart

We met and I noticed, the truth is that I’m a lonely person too
Hey, do you remember? The first kiss that we shared
When I think about it, maybe it was too serious for you
You pretended like you knew, it was as though my beating heart would burst

Last Christmas 今はまだ思い出になんてできないよ
でも愛はもう ここにはいない this year
Last Christmas ふたりなら 願いはかなうと信じてた
まだ越えられない 君は今でも special

Last Christmas - I still can’t call it a mere memory
But love - you’re already not here this year
Last Christmas - if we were together, I believed my wish would be fulfilled
I still can’t get over it - you’re still special, even now

悲しみもせつなさも 僕たちが生きてる証
失ってみて 初めて知った 大切なもの 大切なひと
もうあの頃には戻れない 君のほほ笑みは戻らない
(Show me your smile)
Ooh ooh この胸の痛みを覚えてる

Our grief and pain are evidence of being alive
When I tried to lose it, I realized for the first time, that it was important, that you are important
I can’t go back to that time, your smile will not return
Ooh ooh - I remember the ache in this chest of mine

Last Christmas 今はまだ思い出になんてできないよ
でも愛はもう ここにはいない this year
Last Christmas ふたりなら 願いはかなうと信じてた
まだ越えられない 君は今でも special

Last Christmas - I still can’t call it a mere memory
But love - you’re already not here this year
Last Christmas - if we were together, I believed my wish would be fulfilled
I still can’t get over it - you’re still special, even now

もうあの頃には戻れない 君のほほ笑みは戻らない
Maybe, next year!
だけど今でも 君は今でも special

I can’t go back to that time, your smile will not return
Maybe, next year!
But even now - you are special even now.

Ok - now that you’ve seen the goods, go try out the iKnow video list! If you want to jump right in and you’re already an iKnow user, you can click one of the buttons below to start the iKnow study application or the iKnow dictation application immediately. DO IT!

iKnow Study:

.iknow_application_launcher { width: 61px; } .iknow_application_launcher a { display: block; background: url('http://www.iknow.co.jp/images/launch_btn/launch_btn_iknow.gif') no-repeat scroll; background-position: 0 0px; width: 61px; height: 61px; padding: 0; text-indent: -3000px; } .iknow_application_launcher a:hover { background-position: 0 -80px; } Launcher

iKnow Dictation:

.dictation_application_launcher { width: 61px; } .dictation_application_launcher a { display: block; background: url('http://www.iknow.co.jp/images/launch_btn/launch_btn_dictation.gif') no-repeat scroll; background-position: 0 0px; width: 61px; height: 61px; padding: 0; text-indent: -3000px; } .dictation_application_launcher a:hover { background-position: 0 -80px; } Launcher

This was my first attempt at making a list, and I think I botched at least one thing. There are an equal number of sentences to words, which is messed up. In total there are really only 12 sentences. I pulled the 30 words from them. But I wanted to link the sentences to the words, so I created sentences on each one. It works for studying, but the Dictation gets really repetitive really fast…which might be good if you’re attempting to memorize the song. Yeah….that’s the ticket… But seriously, if you have any list-building experience in iKnow, and you want to help me out, please let me know how I can avoid this problem in the future. Thanks!

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!

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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.

Does it work? Is it ALIVE??

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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!

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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.

function embedSWF() { var so = new SWFObject('http://www.iknow.co.jp/widgets/iknow_public_badge.swf', 'iknow_badge', '150', '40', '7', '#FFF'); so.addParam("allowScriptAccess", "always"); so.addVariable('lang', 'en'); so.addVariable('username', 'Deas'); so.addVariable('color_bg', 'blue'); so.write("embed_iknow_badge"); } embedSWF();

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.

Here are 8 more chain stories from my students. They range from awkward and sad to awkward and unintentionally funny, with lots of awkward in between. I love these kids, though. They do try. Ha ha. I’ve dropped a black bar on top of any real names used. Read through these, and let me know what you think.

Alright, which one was your favorite, and why?

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This post could also be called “Michael Scott’s Cultural Misunderstandings.” Yes, I’ve got 2 more clips from the US version of the The Office that relate to Japan. Wrong, but funny. And the suicide bit does play on a common misconception, anyway. The concierge-cum-geisha, though? I dunno about that. Ha ha. Oh, Michael Scott, how you sadden and delight me simultaneously with your incredible awkwardness. These clips were taken from Episode 7 of Season 5, “Business Trip.”More please!

To conclude, here is the wisdom gained about things Japanese from these clips:

“In Japan, you must always commit suicide to avoid embarrassment.”

“A concierge is the Winnipeg equivalent of a geisha. This is a woman who has been trained in the fine art of fanciness and pleasure. And when you meet one, it is intoxicating. Just what the doctor ordered.”

If you missed the last clip, where some Japanese is spoken (poorly) on The Office, go check it out!

Round 3 is screeching to an awkward halt today in front of your eyes! I thought I might continue this posting series that I started waaay back in early 2007. It’s only 2 posts long thus far, and rather than rewrite, I’ll copy some intro text from the previous installments - I had far less traffic back then, so people may have missed them. Then I’ll move into the stories. I’ve culled 17 primo stories this time, so I’ll post half now and half later this week. Enjoy!

The following stories were written by students at one of my schools during a chain writing activity. I won’t put their names or year in this post. I purposefully left all of the original mistakes in the text - so these are copied verbatim, incorrect capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and grammar included. I have been correcting these for about 2 days, and thought I’d share some of the ones that struck me as particularly interesting. This is not to make fun of their English (though I excuse native speakers who giggle at the funny stuff), but to show what kind of weird stuff comes out when you tell them to write with a time limit and nearly zero direction. It also shows you the level of English that I tend to deal with in high schools. Each story was written by a group of 4 in 5 minute shifts without any outside ideas. I hope you enjoy it.
- Student Stories, 20 February 2007

Ready for round 2? Come and get some love. (Or a suspicious box of bananas, depending on which story you read first.)
- Student Stories Part Deux, 23 February 2007

Alright, on to the good stuff. This time I’ve got images up with the students’ actual handwriting. Because they wrote in pencil, sometimes it can be hard to read. I checked them though, and I feel like most of them are legible. Also - please view them on a screen with an appropriate resolution, or the pop-up will automatically resize them to fit. If you need to read them on a smaller screen, I recommend clicking with your mouse wheel on the links to open the images in tabs.

Which story was your favorite? Let me know in the comments. Ha ha. Fun stuff. Also, if you found these really difficult to read, I’ll put up a plain text copy of the stories. Just let me know!

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This is a clip from a recent Mythbusters episode in which Adam and Jamie are attempting to polish poop. Frustrated with their methodology, Adam goes to a guy named Jason Arnold to learn how to make doro-dango. (And that’s pronounced “dahn-goh,” not “dang-o,” by the way. Wince-worthy, really.) Doro means mud, and dango is a type of small spherical, traditional Japanese sweet. You’d be fine translating it as “mud balls” or “mud dumplings.”

Anyhoo, I first learned of doro-dango via Japan Probe, where a post linked through to Professor Fumiyo Kayo’s English language instruction page at the Kyoto University of Education. It sure seems that they’ve become quite the trend elsewhere since catching the public’s eye a few years ago, thanks to Professor Kayo’s revival efforts. If you’re curious, you can find instructions for how to make doro-dango all over the web. (There’s even a dorodango.com! It’s the personal site of Bruce Gardner.)

Anyway, I found this application fascinating - using the doro-dango method to find out whether or not poop will take a luster. Kind of gross, sure, but kind of a cool cultural, artsy solution, too. What do you think?