Wednesday, 28 February 2007

Got the kaze

Well yesterday started out well enough, woke up, had coffee and breakfast and headed into work but as I got off at my station I was unusually thirsty. The air's pretty dry in Japan in winter so I didn't think much of it. I bought a drink and headed into the studio and finished the bottle before my first 50 minute lesson was done.

Still nothing that unusual, but then the headaches started and my bones began to ache and my skin became massively sensitive to any movement I was doing.

As my second class started the fever hit and I felt like I was going to pass out. Luckily my assistant rocks and didn't mind singing a little louder for me. By the end of this class I knew I had caught the flu (kaze, which also means "wind" in Japanese) and called the office to tell them that I only had one more class in me.

This is when I really began to appreciate the MLS staff. When I was at NOVA, calling in sick would be such a stressful experience with noone believing you and the constant threat of losing your job as well as the massive salary fine for just one day off. But with MLS, they give you the benefit of the doubt. They actually ask you how you're feeling and what they can do to help. There's no "This might come up in your evaluation" bullshit.

So a big thank you to MLS. I may be feeling like my organs are shutting down but at least I'm not stressed about being unemployed.

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Labels: japan, MLS, NOVA

Saturday, 24 February 2007

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion

Note: I actually posted this on one of my other sites but thought it was relevant enough to post here.

I gave this series a go because CLAMP designed the characters and was illustrating the DVD covers, etc but I just can't watch any more. I got up to episode 6 and just had to turn it off. It's so blatantly racist and nationalistic it's offensive.

The portrayal of the British characters is over stereotypical in some respects (such as clothes and architecture. ) yet so completely off in other areas such as their blatant disregard for civilians during times of war and militaristic nature that it becomes almost a joke.

It's as if the tv station is trying to breed racism and reinforce an image of non-Japanese people that I thought was on the way out. In the first episode for crying out loud, we have a scene of a nice, gentle Japanese elderly couple who get their brains splattered all over room simply because the British army decided to kill all civilians in the area.

This show is just offensive. If the "bad guys" were, say aliens I really wouldn't have a problem but some things should be off limits, especially in children's programming and writing a story where the "bad guys" are another nation is taking things too far.

Something else I find shocking is that it seems to encourage terrorism. Not just in the general sense though, in the sense that it's every Japanese teenager's right to stand up and fight the establishment. If that means killing people, all the better.

The leader of the terrorist cell in the show is a high school girl and the main character, Lelouch actually assassinates the overly French political leader in charge of Japan within the first few episodes.

There's enough nationalistic bull in Japan as it is without an Animé series reinforcing such deluded ideals.

I must say I'm so disappointed in CLAMP for being involved in a project like this Given their history of creating stories involving mixed racial couples (a Japanese Sakura and a Chinese Syaoran for example) and Korean myth (Legend of Chun Hyang) this comes as a complete surprise. I'm hoping that they didn't realise the story content of Code Geass before signing on.

The animation and music are top notch, but simply due to it's thematic nature I can't believe so many non-Japanese anime and manga fans are following this series and even creating fan sites and listings about it.

I for one am tuning out and writing a letter of complaint HERE.

Edit: This is a copy of the email that I just sent.

"I am writing to express my complete disgust concerning the new anime series, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion.

As an Australian, I find the series to be completely offensive and racist and something that shouldn't be on air due to the amount of influence it will have on children in Japan and other individuals.

The fact that Europeans are portrayed as villains is shocking and their portrayal inaccurate ("Yes my Lord") but the amount of racism from the main characters who are supposed to be heroes and role models for children leaves me speechless.

I also find it incredibly irresponsible, especially in a country such as Japan who has suffered at the hands of terrorists to show a series were the main characters ARE TERRORISTS who kill and assassinate people and are seen in a good light.

Until shows like this are removed from Japanese television the image of Japan being a racist one will not change in the eyes of non-Japanese both in and outside of Japan. "

I'm interested in people's opinions on this series. Feel free (as always) to comment on this post.

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Labels: Cartoons, japan, Racism

Wednesday, 21 February 2007

Oh, for fuck's sake!

I've almost had it up to here with people on the trains here. Seriously. I just don't understand how people don't even seem to think that pushing someone deliberately is rude, invasive or provocation. It just does my brain in every time someone, whether it's a teenager, a business man or an old lady, deliberately pushes me forward, out of their way or over a bit and I push them back or tell them in Japanese not to push ("Osonai de!" use it the next chance you get!) they get this complete look of shock and misunderstanding over why I pushed them and some even act as if I'm the one that has offended them!

This morning I was waiting for the train and I was the only person on this part of the platform waiting in line. When the train stopped, noone got off. The train was completely empty. In short, there was no rush to get on the train. Anyway, this was a local and I was waiting for the express so I didn't move. Suddenly someone behind me started to push me firmly with the weight of their entire body. Fed up, I thrust my elbow backwards and pushed them away.

The guy, about my age have me this offended angry look and just stared at me as he walked around me and just sat on the train continuing to stare at me in disbelief and frustration.

Seriously. There were three waiting lanes drawn on the platform, I was in one. He could have easily walked around me to get one the train, or hey, actually started a new line next to me (don't get me started on people's inability to manage lines properly). More importantly if he wanted me to hurry up and get on the train I wasn't waiting for he could have maybe tapped me on the shoulder and muttered a "Summimasen" ("Excuse me"). Instead he pushes me forward rather hard, a very dangerous thing to do as a train is pulling into a station and we're a metre from the tracks I might add, I push him back and he acts like the victim.

This kind of shit happens on a daily basis not just to me but almost everyone in Tokyo. It's seriously retarded. In any other country this kind of shameless pushing would get your head smacked in.

I almost did his head hid but was stopped from the fact that three of the fingers on my punching hand were still bleeding from falling down the station's steps on Saturday (that's another story).

My fingers are feeling a lot better tonight. Those people on the trains better not push me tomorrow.

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Labels: japan, Japanese Social Issues

Sunday, 18 February 2007

Valentine's Day, White Day, Orange Day, Black Day...

Well Japan celebrated Valentine's Day last week so Japanese women everywhere were seen racing around buying their men. I still find it just so... Japanese how the culture adopted the western celebration and naturally assumed that the woman should give the man a present and the man should simple receive it.

The holiday has been further warped though by the peer pressure in Japan causing women to give Valentine's Day chocolates to all of their co-workers, friends in addition to their boyfriends or/and husband.

A truly disturbing abuse of the holiday is for socially retarded grown women to use the gift giving as a way to tell a man that she's interested in him. Fair enough, I'm sure some children do this at school in Australia, America, etc with the cliché "Be My Valentine" cards but these are children and not mature adults who most would expect to have developed at least a little social ability by the age of 18.

Seriously, think about this. In this day and age, adults only give chocolate/ flowers/ cards to people they're already in a relationship with. Confessing your love for someone for the first time over a gift exchange would be met with laughter and a possible assumption of stalker tendencies and immaturity. If you like someone, be an adult and tell them.

Luckily for those socially awkward Japanese men who find telling their special someone how much they appreciate them, a holiday called White Day is celebrated one month later on the 14th of March where they can give women an "obligation chocolate" to say thank you for the Valentine's Day gift they received a month prior.

Now, very recently Sunkist, wanting to boost orange sales, started their own holiday based on the crazy idea that a man and a woman can exchange gifts and express affection on the same day called Orange Day! It's celebrated a month after White Day on the 14th of April and has been growing in popularity with each year and also has the double name of "Partner Day" where you get to respect your partner. Pretty outrageous, huh? Reminds of a holiday we have in Australia called Valentine's Day.

I do actually like the idea of Orange Day in Japan though as it gives those in same sex relationships a chance to participate in a romantic themed holiday after being excluded from Valentine's Day and White Day for so long.

Funnily enough a holiday called Black Day (or Singles Day) which started in Korea and spread throughout China has also popped up in Japan in the few years I've been here. This day is for people who are single and/or didn't get any presents for Valentine's Day to get together and party.

Is it just me or is it strange that one fourth of the months in Japan feature a romance themed holiday?

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Labels: japan, Japanese Social Issues, Orange Day, Valentines Day, White Day

Saturday, 17 February 2007

Tagged... for SPAM!

I received an invite to a social networking site from someone I hadn't heard of before claiming to be my friend. I figured I know hundreds of people online due to my websites so thought I'd at least check the site out. The site is www.tagged.com and it looked rather nice. The design is cleaner and easier to understand than other sites in the genre (can I use "genre" to talk about websites?) and seemed very secure. They even have a whole page about internet safety!

So I signed up. This is where I became a bit suspicious. After signing up, instead of being taken to my profile page I was forwarded to a page to enter my hotmail email address AND password with no way to exit the page or option to not invite every single person in my address book. The fact that there was no way out of this step seemed a bit strange so I simply typed in "tagged.com" in the address bar to get back to the site's main page.

Doing this took me to my profile page with my "friend" already in my friend's list. I then decided to look around the site some more and it occurred to me how incredibly good looking and posed all the "members" are on the main page are. It's like someone had bought a collection of royalty free photos, about 20 of them and put them on random display. Click refresh a few times and you'll see all the random "members" you'll ever see.

After checking my email (my real one) I was surprised to see that tagged.com had signed me up for Post Markers Direct or something! They were asking me for confirmation to recieve all these "amazing offers", blah, blah, blah. Of course I deleted the email, came back to tagged.com and cancelled my account. Luckily, cancelling your account is easy to do and they give you a feedback box to explain why you're doing so.

I let them know why in about 100 words.

This whole site just smells like a scam. I'm sure there are some real people on there (who are probably getting a lot more spam now that they've joined) but for the most part it seems set up to trick users into making tagged.com money.

Avoid like the plague.

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Labels: internet

Friday, 16 February 2007

Woman with a thousand arms.

After seeing this on The Thinking Blog, I just had to post this. Simply beautiful.

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Labels: video

Thursday, 15 February 2007

Starbucks Mug: Sakura 2007

I noticed last year that there was a special sakura (cherry blossom) Starbucks mug design for sale but waited too damn long to buy it and have regretted it ever since. So today when I saw the 2007 sakura design (I guess it's a new yearly thing for the sakura obsessed Japanese collector) I immediately grabbed one. Luckily pay day was this week!

As with the Japanese Kit Kat flavours, I've decided, starting with this mug, to blog about my growing collection of Japanese Starbucks mugs! The mugs in Japan have such interesting designs (a definite step up from the craptacular Australian ones that look like a high school art class screen print job) and almost always a unique Japanese artistic influence.

This mug is interesting in that while city themed mugs (such as the Yokohama, Kyoto and Tokyo mugs) are all the standard Starbucks mugs size and shape, this one has a rounder handle and opens up more at the top.

The design is a vibrant collage of white and pink sakura flowers over a blurred bluish-green background. Very impressionistic.

An extra touch that I like is the group of small pink sakura petals on the inside of the mug. Kawaii!

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Labels: Starbucks Mugs Collection

Tuesday, 13 February 2007

Making Money with Google AdSense

You've probably heard of the Google AdSense program where web site owners place a piece of code on their websites that displays advertising that earns the web site owner money every time a user clicks on the ad.
Well, I've been using Google AdSense for a few months now and I can tell you that it absolutely works!

In my first month after placing Google AdSense on all of my websites I earned around US$40. Not much you might think, but keep in mind that:

a) The only thing my websites did to earn this money was be online. Nothing more.

b) The cost of hosting all of my sites is only US$9 so I'm already making a US$31 profit per month.

and c) My websites don't exactly get 1000 visitors a day. My most popular site with the Google AdSense program, Moonkitty.NET only averages about 80 unique visitors a day. You don't need to have a huge site to make a profit (of course if you did have an insane amount of site visitors you'd be smiling).

Four months later, my earnings have been rising gradually and I'm almost at the US$100 monthly earnings mark. One of my New Years Resolutions was to start earning around US$300 a month with Google AdSense and I serious think that's more than doable.

If you're interested in Google Adsense, you can sign up with the link button to the right.

Something else worth mentioning is that they can pay you via bank transfer, so if you're overseas like I am you can get your earnings paid directly into your home (or local) bank account. Very convenient and very safe. Can't recommend Google AdSense enough.

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Labels: Google Adsense, make money

Monday, 12 February 2007

What's my PIN again?

Waaaah! I've forgotten my PIN! When I got a new card after my old one got stolen in Shanghai I got a new PIN with it and can't remember it!!! Just applied for a new VISA. Damn it!

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Labels: japan

Saturday, 10 February 2007

Push It!

Took this video last week. Was so happy to catch blatant pushing of another person on camera. You see if you don't look them in the eye, you're not being rude... in Japan anyway.

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Labels: home movies, japan, Japanese Social Issues

So my power was turned off...

So I rushed home the other night after work to clean my apartment for Fin and Beau who were coming over for a cuppa at 8pmish. I unlocked my door and flicked the kitchen light switch to turn the light on.... but nothing happened. I flicked it again and still nothing. I figured, hey, it's probably just the light bulb so I tried all the other lights in my apartment but none of them worked!!!

As I headed back outside (my place was pitch black) I noticed some mail in the letterbox, one of which was from the electrical company but it didn't look that important, just a receipt. They send you receipts all the time in Japan just to let you know how much you're using gas, water and power. You can't really do anything with them, they're just for your record. As my power was out though, I decided to have a look at it. There was about 40cm of kanji and at the top in English was "Termination of Power Notice". Browsing through the Chinese characters (which I can't read) I saw the price "1436 Yen". They'd cut off my power for 1400 Yen?!?!

I called the number and asked for an English speaker. The guy on the end spent 10 minutes humming and aring (in English) about how his English isn't that good and that he'll try to find someone who can speak English better. After waiting some more, he came back and just decided to do it himself (his English was fucking fine!) and this is where the frustration starts.

I told him my name and telephone number and he looked up my details (I was actually surprised they had a computer instead of good ol' filing cabinets) and told me I didn't pay November's electricity bill. I told him I had paid December and January's and asked him why November's simply hadn't been added onto those. He told me it isn't done like that.

Fine, whatever. The thing was though, they hadn't sent me a bill to pay November's bill since, well, NOVEMBER. I asked him why not and he told me "Please pay the bill". I said "I don't have a bill" he said "Please pay the bill". I told him (blood pressure rising) "I have a receipt but NO BILL!". He tells me that "You should pay the bill.".

I remained calm and yelled at him "I... HAVE.... NO... BILL!!!". He told me to... you guessed it! "Pay the bill".

So I asked him "How? Where?". He told me to go to a convenience store and pay it (as you do in Japan) but I only had a receipt and NO BILL. I asked him if I could pay with the receipt and he said no, but "Please pay the bill."

This is where I lost it and just yelled at him and then due to Vodafone (sorry, Softbank)'s brilliant reception, my mobile cut off so I had to ring again, get put onto a different guy and do this whole 20 minute conversation all over again.

Eventually the new guys said that a man will come around to my place and I can pay him. I was really impressed with this. In a country where ATMs have a closing time I was fully expecting them to tell me to wait until after the weekend. Kudos TEPCO!

So I hung up the phone and raced inside to find some candles I had leftover from Christmas and lit them up to light the place as my friends were arriving any minute. Luckily the electrical man arrived within minutes and I paid him the money and he turned the power on. I asked him why my power had been cut off when the company didn't send me a bill to pay it with! I would have paid it had the given me a bill to pay.

"Please pay the bill."

Grrr... eventually I got out of him that if I didn't have a bill I had to ring them number on the receipt and ask for one to be sent out. Funny thing was, Fin arrived at that moment and realised he had been getting a lot of receipts and didn't know what to do with them either.

A great system you've got here electrical company!

I told the man how unhappy I was with this "service" and asked if they could change it as there are obvious faults in the system they use.

He left and I already had the feeling that despite all of my feedback they wouldn't change anything. This is Japan where the logic is that "We do it because it's like this" instead of creating a system based on practical studies and feedback.

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Labels: apartment, japan

Wednesday, 7 February 2007

Kit Kat Spotlight: Choco Banana

On to our third Kit Kat Spotlight, the surprising, Choco Banana!

Japanese Kit Kat: Choco Banana

I remember when I first saw this several weeks ago and thought this was one of the most random Kit Kat flavours Japan could conceive but then I was reminded of last year's Summer festivals where a very popular food sold from stalls is chocolate covered bananas (on sticks!). Nothing says Japanese culture like chocolate covered tropical fruit, right?

Anyway, I bought one out of curiosity and was pleasantly surprised! It actually tasted like chocolate covered banana! Seriously! I was amazed that they managed to get the taste so spot on!

If you like banana and chocolate flavoured treats, give this one a go. At least you can say you've "been there and done that".

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Labels: Kit Kat Spotlight

I've Been Interviewed!

Kumiko over at BlogInterview was kind enough to interview me about my blog, it's past, it's future and everything in between!

Click here to read the interview.

Thanks Kumiko!

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Labels: blog, I'm Famous

Saturday, 3 February 2007

If only she spoke English...

This is a commercial for NOVA, the HUGE English chain school I used to work for. Pretty funny. Says more about Japanese people than their English ability though. Come on lady! What could he be trying to say?

For those that are new to Japanese she's asking him if he's okay and then apologises as she cries.

Labels: japan, NOVA

"We are as Australian as them,"

Just read this great article over at the BBC website about a group of Australians who have become volunteer lifesavers in Sydney.

After the f%$king ridiculous and retarded race riots in Cronulla last year I became partially ashamed of Australia. I always knew there was racism there but had no idea it was this bad or that Sydney had that many tools.

It's great to see that the riots have had a positive effect and that the Muslim community have been inspired to prove that they're as Australian as we all are.

Going off on a bit of a tangent now, I've always loved how, for the most part, in Australia we call everyone "Australian". Not "Chinese Australian" or "Korean Australian". Everyone who has citizenship is inclusively called "Australian" as it should be.

I've never really got why in America everyone sees the need to specify their cultural background such as "Irish American", etc. I truly think a lot of the racism in American could be turned around if everyone was called simply "American". By calling someone "African American" it's saying they're not a real American. Noone is 100% American or 100% Australian. Everyone comes from somewhere. Hell, I've got Irish heritage but you don't see me introducing myself as "Irish Australian". I was born in Australia therefore I should be treated as an Australian.

Unless someone has dual nationality I see no reason to over complicate things. I've been told by some Americans from African heritage that they like to be called "African American" as it lets them show pride for their ancestors but I really think by doing so they're preventing others from seeing them on the same level as "regular Americans" or "real Americans".

No obviously there is racism in Australia, I'm not denying that but we do seem to be more inclusive of people from other cultures being "one of us".

When I walk around China Town in Sydney I never think "Look at all these Chinese Australian people". I'm thinking "Look at all these Australians". It's a subtle difference and an important one.

What do you think?

Labels: Australia, News, North America, Racism

Friday, 2 February 2007

Generation Gap

I was remembering on my train trip to work this morning how funny it was last year in the Christmas parties when the the mothers and kids were taking photos of myself and each other. The company I work for gave each classroom cheap disposable cameras to take photos for our own records as well. Funny thing was, whenever I or someone else used the camera to take a photo, all the kids would gather around and demand to see how the photo turned out on the back of the camera. Some of them were so surprised to hear that not all cameras had digital viewing screens and in fact that cameras like that are a fairly new invention.

It was just such a generational gap kind of moment (and I'm only 26!) when kids assume that there will be such a thing on a camera.

Another similar thing that happened several times was when I would blow my nose in class (politely of course) and the kids would go ballistic saying that I was blowing my nose into a towel! Almost all of them had never seen anyone use a handkerchief before. They had all been brought up on tissues.

Kids nowadays.

Labels: japan, Japanese Social Issues, Teaching English in Japan

Thursday, 1 February 2007

Final Harry Potter Book Release Date

July's going to be one hell of a month this year! Not only is the 5th Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (my personal fave book) coming out then, but so is the 7th and final book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on the 21st!

I can't wait for this final book.

I remember laughing at Heather, my sister when she first raved about how great the books are but after reading the first book and then the second and third within three days I was hooked and was with everyone else for the launches of the 5th and 6th books.

It's going to be interesting as to what will happen to all the Harry Potter fans when the series concludes with the final book. I guess there will be the final two movies to look forward to (with the same actors hopefully) and there will always be other series to get into.

Labels: books, Harry Potter, movies