Sunday, 28 October 2007

My Garden

Japanese people seem to be very anti-wildlife in Tokyo. Noone seems to want animals anywhere near them unless they're in a cage or on a leash. Because of this it's basically impossible to find bird feeders or those "birdseed clumps on a hook that I forget what they're called" things for sale.

In an attempt to attract some birds to my small garden I had to resort to buying a bag of birdseed and just sprinkling it on my back fence. Luckily it worked and I now have some cute little sparrows to watch!

Here's a video I took. Enjoy.

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Labels: home movies

Friday, 26 October 2007

Anti-groping phone tool a big hit in Japan

As you're probably aware, sexual harassment is a massive problem in Japan. Personally I've had my arse grabbed 3 times (by middle aged women!) and the length of my arm licked once (in one traumatic experience by one elderly man).

1,853 were arrested for groping on trains in 2005 though in reality due to Japanese men and women's paranoia of causing a scene and victim mentality the actual number of assaults could very realistically be 10 times (of not more) than that number.

While of course the perpetrators are at fault, a lot of blame should also be placed on Japanese society and it's people who almost encourage people to act this way. In almost any situation a Japanese person won't defend themselves when being harassed and even worse, noone will come to their aid.

A friend of mine unfortunately fell between the train and the platform early last year and as he held on to the platform and asked for people to help him up before the train pulled out (noone was stopping the train) not one person of the 30 or so who were standing within feet of him did a thing to pull him to safety. A woman standing right above him simply pulled out her mobile phone and muttered to herself in Japanese "Oh, what a bad situation! What should I do?"

Luckily he managed to pull himself up onto the platform.

The scary thing is this kind of thing happens a lot and it scares the Hell out of me as I know that if I'm ever attacked or in trouble in this country I'll be most likely be on my own. It really is scary!

But what's even scarier is that Japanese society isn't growing out of this but instead are becoming more removed and isolated from each other.

Because Japanese women don't like to defend themselves when they're being groped the put up with it and when they get off the train they go and complain to the station master at the next station.

Now instead of campaigns to promote self confidence and standing up for yourself and those around you, what do several train companies do? Why create women only train carriages that run certain times of the day so they can feel safe away from those nasty men (all of whom are apparently perverts). Not only does this not solve the problem but it's offensive and really just helps the gropers improve their time management.

This plan is also PR bullshit as it makes the train companies look like they're doing something but in reality they're not.

There are no video cameras on most Japanese trains.

Instead of installing security cameras they just decorate several carriages with pink flowers and kick all the men out of them for about 4 hours every afternoon.

And Japanese women actually think this is helping.

Now as if they couldn't get more retarded instead of just defending themselves Japanese women are now using a phone application that flashes text messages at the person who is groping them.

This must be a joke, right?

Basically, if your being touched by someone, instead of telling them to fuck off you load up your mobile phone application and secretly show the screen to the man (or woman!) which says "Are you groping me?" or "Shall we go to the police?".

That'll teach him a lesson! In all seriousness, if he's not drunk or mentally unstable, he may stop but if he does he will just go and grope someone else! Moving a fox to a different side of the paddock won't stop him from eating sheep. You have to get rid of the fox!

"I first downloaded this as a joke," said Spicy Soft official Michika Izumi. "But I think it could be a lifesaver if I get groped."

Riiiiiight... I can't think of any female or male friend back home in Sydney who has been groped or grabbed on a train. Why? Because most non Japanese women would raise Hell if anyone grabbed them!

If only people would defend themselves and each other.

Me and some friends of mine used to joke that we could get away with murder on the Japanese trains here. Of course we never would but last year a woman was raped on one of the famous bullet trains here in Japan. She was dragged from her seat into the toilet at the rear of the carriage where she was raped. What's just horrifying is the fact that the whole train was full of passengers and not one person tried to save her, call for help or even press the emergency button!!! Not one person! What's sad is that I'm honestly not surprised. Here's a woman's perspective on this same issue.

And now to end on a positive not, though still relevant, here's a hillarious video of another Aussie in Japan showing you how much you can get away with on the trains here. Just look at that mother defend her children and that other woman defend her dignity!

Note: This is NOT me.

Labels: japan, Japanese Social Issues

Thursday, 25 October 2007

Continuing My Japanese

Since deciding to aim for the Level 2 Japanese Fluency Test, I've kicked my Japanese studying into overdrive and am finally about to finish my Teach Yourself Beginner's Japanese book which has been a godsend. If you're thinking of starting Japanese this book is brilliant. It teaches you the basics but still challenges you at the same time and by the end of the book you can get by in most basic situations using the Japanese you have learnt.

I've already purchased the follow-up book in the series, Teach Yourself Japanese book which has been sitting in my bookcase unused for over a year now and I'll finally be ripping that open the week after next as I finish Beginner's! I can't wait to get started on this one as it covers speculation and making longer, more natural sentences.

I also have the Teach Yourself Beginner's Japanese Script book and used that to teach myself the Katakana and Hiragana (only about thirty letters or so in each alphabet) but since deciding to take the Level 2 test which requires knowledge 2000 kanji I've been looking for a faster and more comprehensive approach and luckily came across this post in a blog that I just subscribed to last week!

The author is starting to study the kanji herself and has recommended James W. Heisig's Remembering the Kanji I which looked so amazing that I ordered my copy last night! The whole book will teach me the meanings and stroke order of about 2000 kanji... and that's it. It doesn't teach the sounds (Onyomi & Kunyomi) at all! Ah, but that's the charm! You see once those 2000 kanji actually mean something to me in English (after I've learnt their meanings) then I use the second book, James W. Heisig's Remembering the Kanji II to teach me the Chinese and Japanese readings and how to really use them.

This process is apparently controversial but said by a lot of people to be incredibly fast and completely possible to do within a year (or maybe less!). I'm very excited about this and can't wait to get started!

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Labels: japan, Japanese

Sunday, 14 October 2007

How to Rip a Music mp3 from a YouTube Video

Recently I've found some great songs on YouTube that I haven't been able to find anywhere to buy on cd or even buy online like on the iTunes store so I did a search on how to convert the audio from a YouTube video into a music mp3 file.

I found Vixy!

Check it out! It's completely free and you don't need to download anything! You just enter the URL web address of the YouTube video you want to convert (like this one), select "MP3 (Audio Only)" and click "Start". Within minutes it'll give you the mp3 file to save to your computer!

How good is that!

Hope you find this useful! I know I did!

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Labels: internet, Music

The Japanese Language Proficiency Test

Well that's a shock. One of my aims for the rest of this year was to take the annual Japanese Language Proficiency Test which is held every December. I knew the application deadline for the test was a few months before the actual text so I did a Google search to see if I could find out when it was. Imagine my frustration when I found out on the official site that this year the deadline was on the 11th of September! I've missed it! So now if I want to do it again I have to wait until December 2008!!!

Bugger.

On the plus side, this gives me more time to study and perhaps challenge a higher level. This year I was going to take the Level 3 test as I knew there was no way I was up to the Level 2 but now with an extra year and a half to study I might as well start studying for the Level 2. Why not, hey?

If you don't know what the test is, Wikipedia has all the basic info. It's pretty much a test to measure non-native speakers' Japanese language level.

The lowest Level is 4 (pretty basic) and the highest is 1 (higher than a native speaker).

It pretty much covers vocab, grammar, listening, and kanji. In contrast to pass Level 4 you need to know about 100 kanji but to pass Level 1 you need a whopping 2000 or so memorised.

Missing out this year is kind of a load off. Just one less thing to think about in December with my Birthday, Christmas, trip to Australia, Heather's wedding, Chris's wedding and other things I'm kind of looking on the bright side right now.

Those reading this right now that are taking the test this year, good luck!

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Labels: japan, Japanese

Monday, 8 October 2007

More Perth Hotels

I'd mentioned previously that I was thinking of visiting some other Australian cities while back home in January. I know I'll definitely be going to Orange for my sister's wedding, Sydney to catch up with heaps of friends and then to Melbourne for another friend's wedding. Perth had been on my mind but recent financial realities have revealed themselves to me forcing me to abandon my plans to go to Cambodia to help Koky build his school/orphanage but even removing that trip from my agenda I'm still worried that I'll be very limited with what I can do in Australia.

This has forced me to really think about discount hotels something which I really haven't done before.

Hotel Club (which I have writen about before a few months back) has a pretty good selection of Perth Accomodation though the lowest they seem to list is the City Waters Perth which starts from AU$90 a night. Not bad for a three star hotel and there are three reviews of the place written by guests who have stayed there and all of them are pretty positive:

"Not new, but very clean and a short walk right into the city centre. Definitely recommend it."

I really have no idea how I would find hotels and agencies without the internet around these days. It's something that everyone seems to take for granted. Could you imagine having to go in to a travel agency in person every time you wanted to make a reservation or booking?

Thank God for the internet, eh?

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