And Sometimes Why

Author: David

  • Kuma Ski Land

    Some of you may be surprised to learn that there’s a ski area not too far from Matsuyama. My friend Chise was kind enough to invite me to go with her and another friend of hers for the last weekend of the season, and she drove the three of us up in her minivan. I hadn’t been skiing in a long time, and we’d been trying to get a trip together for a while, so I was excited.

    I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but I knew it was the last weekend of a pretty small ski area (about the size of Ski Lee in Vegas, if that helps), so I was expecting slush, some bare patches, and some closed trails. I was not at all disappointed.

    Don’t think it wasn’t fun though (despite the continuous light rain). It was neat exploring a new ski area, even though only one run of one lift was open. Also, Kuma Ski Land has been optimized for automated skiing, and they’ve done a pretty good job reaching that goal, so my geeky interest was piqued.

    Of course I don’t have my skis here in Japan, so I used the vending machine on the outside of the main lodge to buy a ticket for a rental package including skis, boots, and poles. I’m glad I was there with a native Japanese speaker, because the process of buying a lift ticket was a little more involved than I thought.

    The lifts are controlled by automated machines that read your RF tagged plastic lift pass. You touch your lift pass to a panel that reads it, and assuming it’s valid, opens the gate for you to get in line for the lift. Because it’s all handled by computers, they can sell lift passes for specific amounts of time, which I thought was a neat idea. Also, the electronic encoding of the tickets means less gaming the system. I’ve known people to print their own season passes for ski areas, and with a system like Kuma’s, you’d need something a lot more sophisticated than a nice scanner and printer to get past their electronic gatekeeper.

    They also had a big group bingo game, which I thought was a neat promotion. Every lift ticket got you a bingo card, and prizes ranged from six-packs of beer to oven mitts (what I got), and I think they even had a Game Boy DS up there.

    There are a couple of other ski areas in the region I’d like to explore. Maybe I can convince Chise to drive us out for a reunion tour. I’ll keep you posted. =)

  • Thing of the Day

    The reading for this kanji (勝負) is “shoubu.” It normally means “victory or defeat; match; contest; game; bout; challenge.”

    I recently heard this word for the first time on a comedy TV show, and asked Yuko what kind of underwear everyone was laughing about when the male comedian said his wife never wears “shoubu” panties anymore.

    I learned that when shoubu is used as an adjective to describe panties, as in “shoubu pantsu” / “勝負パンツ”, it describes “date night panties”- you know, sexy underwear used to catch a man.

    I guess some jokes are the same no matter what language you speak. 😉

  • Japanese Home-Style Cooking Class

    Last year, I attended a class that introduced foreigners to Japanese home-style cooking. We made takikomi, miso soup, an assortment of tempura, a hijiki and soybean dish, and some instant vegetable pickles (who knew there was such a thing?).

    It was surprisingly fun, especially considering that my culinary experience has been rather tame. It was also neat to see how some of the dishes I’ve been eating are actually prepared.

    And having worked up an appetite, we were all delighted to discover how tasty our creations came out. =)

  • JLPT N4

    Here’s a picture of my test voucher enabling me to sit for level N4 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test today. Though they sound different, it’s the same difficulty as the level 3 test I failed last year, due to the system being reorganized.

    The JLPT tests applicants’ knowledge of vocabulary, kanji, and grammar through listening comprehension and reading comprehension in Japanese. The hardest section for me (and most of my friends who’ve taken the test) is the grammar section, mostly because Japanese particles are a serious PITA.

    I passed the former level 4 test (the current N5 test) two years ago, but this one is (of course) harder. N5 tests your knowledge of about 100 kanji and 800 words, while N4 tests your knowledge of about 300 kanji and 1500 words, so you can definitely see the difficulty ramp up.

    Anyway, I think I passed, but not by a huge margin. I’d been taking practice tests with my Japanese teachers and regularly passing them, but the actual test seemed noticeably harder. Having now spent Â¥12,000 (~$145) just for this level (Â¥6000 each for last year and this), I certainly hope I passed this time.

    I’d like to know soon, but because this is Japan and only the trains are efficient here, applicants don’t get the results of this scantron test for two months. Keep your fingers crossed. (^_^)

  • Dogo Navi

    At over 3000 years old, Dogo Onsen is the oldest onsen in Japan, and it’s right here in Matsuyama. When the tourism bureau was considering these newfangled RF tag-based tourist guides, they hired a bunch of temps to explain the trial devices to tourists, and a friend of mine was among them. Being something of a technology buff, I had to go check it out.

    There were actually two devices. The first was an LCD screen map on a lanyard that pointed out interesting things as you walked around the area. You could choose from two preprogrammed routes: one that took you to interesting historical locations, and one that took you to shopping locations in the area. You could also just walk around, and it would alert you when you got close to a point of interest. It was interesting, but struck me as a bit of a dumbed-down GPS navigation device.

    The second device strapped to your wrist and felt much like an oversized wristwatch. To check the devices out, you had to fill out a paper with your home address and email address. The wristwatch device used RF tags to email you information on the shops whose RF “targets” you touched with your wrist. It felt kind of kludgy and inefficient, if you ask me.

    Overall, a valiant first effort by whatever company put the program together, but not quite ready for prime time. The tourism bureau seems to agree, because the program was killed after a few weeks. I’m sure the technology will be ironed out in a few years. In the meantime, it was neat to have participated in the pilot program.

  • Bike Ride

    A while back, I went on a bike ride exploring my area of town. I chose a major road I knew pretty well, and just… went. These rides of mine sometimes turn into really interesting exploratory ventures, and this time I had the foresight to bring my camera. Lucky for me, I happened onto a used car dealership specializing in sports cars, where I just wandered around blissfully until an employee came out and started talking to me about the cars, showing me his favorites, and it got even better. Here is a slide show of some of the pictures I took.

    (Because FaceBook won’t import the slide show, to see the pictures, you’ll have to visit my actual blog here:
    http://www.davidhed.com/blog/2010/12/03/bike-ride-2/)

  • Thing of the Day

    I’m going to post something every day in the month of December until we leave for the states.

    Tune in tomorrow to see what wonders I dredge up from the depths of my “not yet posted” folder uncover in this mystical and wondrously wonderful land!

     

    This is a piece of music in Japanese. I went to a rehearsal with a local choral group a while back called the Seagulls (not a name I would’ve chosen for a singing group, but I digress), and this was a copy the director gave me to sing with them.

    This was the first piece of music I’d ever seen written entirely in Japanese. Interestingly, as hiragana easily breaks down by syllables, the music was at least as easy to sightread as it would have been if written in English (if not more so, because Japanese vowels are unchangingly pure).

  • Vegas, here we come!

    News flash: Yuko and I will be in Las Vegas for New Year’s. We’re both leaving on December 26th, but because I managed to get more time off than her, she’s coming back January 4th, and I’m coming back January 15th.

    This will be Yuko’s second time in Las Vegas (and first time with a native), so we started putting together a list of things we have to do and see in her few short days in town. Here’s what we have so far. Feel free to comment or make suggestions!

    • Shooting (she’s never even seen a real gun)
    • Meet my friends (and see where they live, if possible)
    • Clubbing (Japanese clubs are very different affairs)
    • Autocross/track day (wanted to, but I don’t think we’ll have the opportunity)
    • Cirque du Soliel (If you can hook us up with tickets to any show, even though I’ve seen Mystere three times, let me know)
    • Strip club (She’s semi-interested… anybody want to go with?)
    • Desperado roller coaster (we rode a motion simulator in Kobe, so we’ll ride the real thing when we drive in from LA)
    • Stratosphere (low on the list because she’s been there, but hasn’t ridden the rides)
    • Hofbrauhaus (a totally unique experience outside of Austria)
    • Paymon’s (Mediterranean food is totally unavailable in this part of Japan)
    • Taco Bell (sounds silly, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve told her about my random cravings)
    • Kung Fu Plaza Thai Restaurant (best Thai food I’ve found in Vegas, endorsed by my only Thai friend, Pauline)
    • Christmas lights drive in a nice neighborhood (again, totally not a Japanese thing)
    • UNLV (quick campus tour)
    • Western High School, LVA (quick perimeter tours will suffice)
    • Congregation Shaarei Tefilla (where I had my Bar Mitzvah)
    • Shopping at Fashion Show (unless there’s a better location for high end brand browsing now)
    • Fremont Street (if they’re still running the zip line, because that just looks cool)
    • Metro Pizza (Japanese pizza is both expensive and crappy)
    • Salsa dancing (to compare what’s available in each area)
    • Sushi (medium low on the list, just for novelty’s sake)

    I know it looks like a lot, but much of it is just driving around town. Even still, I’m sure there’s plenty I’m forgetting. What else should we try to cram in? =)

  • 100 English Dreams

    Normally I would post something like this on Facebook instead of my blog, but this is too cool to let it fall off the bottom of a page.

    A JET in rural Okayama learned she’d be the last ALT in her town, and put together this project to showcase some of her students and their dreams of using English in the future, in order to support the continuation of the JET program. She uses personal photographs of the students next to their own words answering the question “How will you use English in the future?”

    The effect, and the photographs, are really fantastic. Check it out here:
    http://www.storiography.com/english-dreams/

  • Sudoku

    SudokuI just learned tonight what sudoku actually means in Japanese. It’s a compound formed from two Japanese kanji.

    数字　＝　すうじ　＝　suuji = figure; number; numeral

    独　＝　どく　＝　doku = alone, single (when used in context) (This kanji also means Germany, for some reason.)

    Huh. Who knew?