While Listening to "Robots" by Dan Mangan...

I've got the stereo going and as I started writing this blog post the song "Robots" by Dan Mangan was flowing out from the speakers.  I have the volume set at a notch below the middle mark so I can still hear the occasional cry of a cicada from outside.  I think I had commented last year on Plurk in mid-September saying "That must be the last cicada I'll be listening to this year" only to have another fire up and pierce the air with its "Miiinn miiiin" cry the next week.  So I'm not going to go so far to repeat that and say "I can hear the last cicada of the year" here.

Yesterday was a somewhat busy day at work.  I had a mid-afternoon lesson cancellation so I was asked to do a demo lesson for a 3 year old boy and 4 year old girl in the morning.  The manager had written down their names on the memo she gave me advising me of the lesson...she got the girl's name wrong ("Rie" not "Risa").  The kids were a bit perplexed when I had them join me in going through the actions for the song "Ring Around the Rosie".  When I rolled onto my side when the song reached "We all fall down!" the little boy giggled and quipped "What's wrong with this teacher?".  Okay.  I should've worked more on getting the idea behind "fall down" across to them.

I strolled out to a nearby cafe for lunch.  It's located on the main floor of the Kyoritsu Building, an eight or nine story structure with commercial space occupying its lower three floors and a hotel occupying the upper floors.  The cafe is accessible via its rear door that opens into a corridor, a side door or its front door.  I chose the rear door entrance.  To get to it one has to pass through two sets of doors that lead to the shopping area corridor.  The inner doors are automated but the outside ones are hinged and have to be opened manually.  Ahead of me was a middle aged couple.  The man was a couple of steps ahead of the woman.  I hadn't noticed them until the point where I saw the outside door swing somewhat heavily on the woman's right arm and shoulder.  She was a smaller woman so the weight and force of the door pushed her off by half a step.  I glanced at the man and noted his gaze was straight ahead.  He had charged through the door without appearing to have given a single thought to his partner walking behind him on his heels.  That little scene caught me an iota off guard.  It was minor incident but it stirred me.  It reminded me of a remark by a then regional manager at our company who is close to my age but probably a few years my senior.  She once remarked that she felt justified in her choice to not seek marriage when she once heard a man introduce his wife as "the thing" (or something along those lines).  Oh.

In the evening I went out for dinner.  After eating I sat around and chatted with the cafe owner and a couple of customers.  Following that I wandered off in search of a place to get a nightcap drink.  Strolling by the cafe I had had lunch at I spied a couple of friends at a table by the window.  So I made a quick turn and headed in to join them.  Sometime later we were joined by a gentleman who, if I'm not mistaken, is the owner of a pair of local ramen shops which are quite well known.  Apparently his business has a presence in the ramen museum down in Yokohama.

One story the ramen shop owner told was worth noting:  He recounted when he had first started in the restaurant business many long years ago with a place that employed 40 staff members in the kitchen.  He started off as a dish washer and slowly worked his way up the ranks.  As a junior staff member he was subjected to a form of hazing which, if I recall correctly, came in the form of him receiving a blow from a pan or pot directed at his lower leg area and a sharp admonishment that he wasn't doing his job right.

He eventually rose to the upper ranks of this kitchen but then took up a job in another line of work which paid more.  It was a simple case of necessity.  He had gotten married and started a family so his financial responsibilities had grown.  But years later he was approached by a former senior in the restaurant.  His acquaintance had started a ramen shop and he was on the hunt for good people to work in it.  That was the start of a chain of events which saw the story teller end up as the owner/master of the establishment.

The end of the story was the ramen shop owner saying that he did away with hazings in his kitchen once he was the head of the business.  His reason for doing so was a simple "I chose to do so because it (the practice of hazing) had to stop somewhere".  Aye.  In spite of what I witnessed earlier that day, the times they are indeed a changing.

Some More or Less Random Thoughts...

...on tissue paper:

Last week I paid a visit to my local post office to post a card and package addressed to my sister back in Canada (her birthday is coming up soon).  After going through the process of filling out an EMS package form and answering questions about the contents of the package I paid for the postage and was handed my change, a receipt, and two packages of tissues.  Each package of tissues contains 10 sheets of tissue paper and carries the Japan Post Office Bank logo and name in Japanese text on its clear plastic exterior.  They're a very unassuming and simple token of appreciation.

Over the past three years I have mailed a number of packages back to Canada.  I believe each time I've mailed a package I've received at least one package of tissues.  I think I've received packages of tissues when I've purchased commemorative postage stamps too.  If I'm not mistaken, that happens when I purchase two or more sheets of stamps.  So I've managed to accumulate a small stack of Japan Post tissue packages.  Some have plain labeling.  Others have text promoting the sale of year end cards, mid summer cards, or other postal items.

Packages of tissues often serve as the medium to promote businesses here in Japan.  A quick scan of my apartment turns up sources such as Japan Rail, the Yamagata prefecture Orange Ribbon Campaign, NOTTV (I think it's a TV service), Yamagata Bank, and, of course, the Japan Post Office.  I've used up the packages I got from a couple of insurance companies, Docomo (a cellular phone carrier), and a buy and sell store for second hand jewelry.  And...on top of that I have received boxes of tissues from the auto dealership where I purchased my car.  I think they gave me a box of tissues when I took my car there for its annual government mandated vehicle inspection too.

The bottom line is that I've never had to purchase tissue paper for use at home.  I used to purchase boxes of Scottie tissue paper for use in the office at an out of town company where I work offsite.  But I haven't done that recently because I've stocked up there with the boxes I got from the auto dealership.


...on cicadas:

The ubiquitous cicada is an unmistakeable sign that summer has arrived.  Once the weather warms up sufficiently they come out in great numbers to find mates and as part of that process they let out an almost brain numbing torrent of sound.  Well, more or less.  The variety which make that brain numbing sound is colloquially known as "mimmin zemi".  The other varieties, "higurashi", "tsukutsukuboshi" and "kuma zemi" are simply loud without going to that extreme.  But they are distinctly loud.  Two years ago I mistook the sound of a higurashi cicada for a bird.  The mimmin zemi don't have quite that lyrical a quality.  Their cry sounds like an amplified miniature chain saw on a repetitive wind-up and wind-down cycle.  I can only presume it was that variety which the acclaimed haiku poet Basho was referring to when he wrote "The sound of a cicada/ penetrates a rock".

I don't find the cicadas' cries to be annoying...most of the time.  The individual insects which awaken me in the early hours of the morning are the exception.  Usually they're a source of calmness, in spite of the racket they make.  In one instance they were collectively, and unintentionally, funny.

The moment of cicada humour came up when I was riding a bus back to Yonezawa from Sendai.  The bus route goes from Sendai down southward to Fukushima city by express highway and then swings back north to Yonezawa by a local highway.  On that journey I chose a seat on the left side of the bus as that side would be opposite from the sun on the longer southbound leg of the journey.  At one point in southern Miyagi prefecture the bus went speeding by a long grove of trees which were populated by large numbers of crying mimmin zemi.  As the bus passed them, their crying could be heard in perfect unison.  Perhaps it's just me but I found it funny that I could be listening to cicadas crying in unison over a stretch of 50m while passing them on a speeding bus traveling at about 80kmh.  The improbability of it all tickled my funny bone.


...on dairy products:

A few weeks ago I was working my way through a module titled "Broccoli is Good for You!" with one of my beginner classes.  The grammatical points for that module are the use of "any" and "some" plus a drill on count and non-count nouns.  Those are introduced by an illustration of a food pyramid with the "Not good for you" foods at the top and "Good for you" foods at the bottom.  The aforementioned broccoli is in the second tier from the bottom.  Above it is a tier that has dairy products in it.

I don't know how I got there but I found myself telling my students about the importance of eating dairy products and vegetables.  Especially in regards to calcium.  I pointed out a link between calcium intake and osteoporosis.  Of course the word "osteoporosis" was way beyond the comprehension level of my beginner students.  So I used my hand to represent a person's back and curled it slightly to demonstrate the effect of the disease.  My students weren't quite sure what to make of that.  Then I curved my back to represent the stooped posture of a person with the disease.  That must of worked because one female student let out a loud exclamatory "Oh no!".  Ah...that did the trick in that case.  Not sure about to what effect though....

Not Quite Fire and Brimstone

A few months ago I received a postcard in the mail which advised me that it was time for me to renew my driver's licence.  I don't recall how long my licence was valid for in Canada but over here in Japan it's three years.  The renewal period was of two months length and it bracketed my birthday in July.  Of interest was the section which mentioned where I could go to get the deed done: the choices being the Yamagata Traffic Safety Bureau up in Takadama (which is on the southern outskirts of Tendo city) or a local police station.  Needless to say I chose the latter option.  Takadama is about an hour and half drive north of Yonezawa and I wasn't quite keen on retracing my treks there, which were quite long when I went by train and bus, when I went through the procedure of exchanging my B.C. driver's licence for a Japanese one.

So I dutifully cycled to the local police station.  The counter for processing driver's licence renewals was full front and centre upon entering the building.  That was certainly convenient.  Filling out the form wasn't as simple.  A complication arose from the fact that my licence is not only registered in my full name in English, with a transcription in katakana, but I also have a Japanese version of my name (minus my English first name) inscribed on the reverse with the notation that it's my registered nickname/alias.  So I was advised to write my name in both English and Japanese on the form.  There obviously were some subtle nuances in the verbal instructions I was given because I didn't get it right until the third time. 

Having overcome that obstacle, I paid the renewal fee and was then told that I had to attend some sort of session.  I wasn't quite sure what as I didn't understand the term for it.  But the gist of the next part was quite clear to me: the sessions are held monthly in Yonezawa due to the relatively smaller numbers of first time renewals.  My options were mid-week days in mid-August or mid-September.  I made a quick phone call to the office and found I could attend the August session on account of our Obon break.  What followed was a routine eye examination and photo shoot.  (Japanese eye exams are interesting: instead of having to read letters of various sizes, one has to look at circles of various sizes and announce which direction there is a break in the circle.  A co-worker had no idea what it was he was looking at and started telling his examiner the names of fruit...yes, he thought he was looking at drawings of fruit!)

The session I attended is what I would describe as a traffic law and safety awareness lecture.  One can't fail the session as there is no examination included in it.  As one friend said "You just look at some books, watch a video and then you're done".  Simple.  In my case the presenter was a gentleman who introduced himself as Harada.  He was an older fellow of not anywhere close to imposing size or height.  Just a man whose demeanor was calm, deliberate and firm.  His delivery wasn't quite fire and brimstone level but he certainly wasn't one whose authority was to be questioned.  Early in the session he advised attendees that in the past they've had people come in who obviously were lacking sleep.  Graciously he stated these individuals had worked graveyard shifts.  The point being that if anyone was caught sleeping during this session they would be required to return at a later date to do it all over again.

What I was exposed to next was a myriad of recent updates to Japanese traffic laws.  There was plenty of mention given to increased fines, increases in penalty points and...the only one change to interpretation of traffic signals (that being where one can make a U-turn in an intersection on a priority right hand turn signal).  I found one of the statistics a touch unsettling: Yamagata isn't an excessively densely populated prefecture (it's a shade below the national average) yet on average there are about 90 traffic accidents a day(ibid).  I certainly wondered where all the accidents were happening given that I've seen only one accident during the time I've spent so far in Yonezawa

Another portion of the presentation which had me puzzled afterwards was when Mr. Harada spoke about accidents at night.  I don't remember all of the preamble but what stuck in my mind was his admonition that "Though shalt drive with high beams on at night".  This pertained to accidents which happened because the drivers didn't have enough braking distance to avoid a collision when driving at night with low beams on.  That makes sense when one remembers that it is possible to overrun the area illuminated by ones low beams even at moderate speeds.  What popped into my mind later was the question "If their statistics show a higher frequency of accidents at night on poorly lit roads then shouldn't someone think about putting up more street lights?". 

So after all that I am now in possession of blue coded Japanese driver's licence.  That's not a cause for major celebration but it's nice to have it over and done with.  Though it is amusing to pull out in response to the question "Can I see some ID?" when I'm back in Vancouver.  Last winter was I asked to do so at a TD Canada Trust branch.  The bank teller who asked was a bit stumped at first when faced with my Japanese driver's licence.  "At least I can read your name on it" was her first response....

I Didn't Find That In My Dictionary....

One of the trusty tools I used when studying Japanese on my own back home in Canada was a copy of "The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary".  I had come across it by chance at the Indigo book store on Marine Drive in North Vancouver.  After giving it a quick perusal I promptly purchased it.  I hadn't set out to find such a book but once I had it my hands I just had to have it.

When I came to Japan I left that volume in storage back home.  I don't specifically recall why I put it in storage but that's what happened.  Upon my arrival in Yonezawa I didn't go out of my way to find another copy.  It was probably a more than a month before I made my way to the local Book-Off store and checked out their selection of foreign language books.  As luck would have it, a copy of "The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary - Asian Edition" was available for purchase.  Once again, I hadn't gone out of my way to find it but I certainly didn't let the opportunity to obtain the book (again) slip through my fingers.

The dictionary names Jack Halpern as its editor in chief.  I presume he is a naturalized Japanese citizen as his name is printed in kanji (with furigana) and with the English alphabet on the book's publication information page.  In the foreword a brief biography of Mr. Halpern can be found along with mention of his SKIP system.  SKIP stands for "System of Kanji Indexing by Patterns".  The main feature of the system is that it allows one to look up kanji relatively quickly based on their assignment to one of four geometric patterns (left-right, top-bottom, enclosure and solid).  When I first started using the dictionary, I learned to look up kanji using that system.  It was slow going but I could find what I needed.

Today when using the dictionary I go straight to the back of it and open up the section which has lists of kanji organized by their primary kanji radical.  I won't go into an in-depth explanation of what a kanji radical is simply because I can't think of one!  Nonetheless, I've slowly gotten the hang of identifying radicals so using the radical lists has become an easier chore.

Recently though I've had a few instances where I've been stumped when trying to look up a kanji character.  I find that a touch amusing as there are 2230 kanji listed in the dictionary and yet somehow I seem to have come across characters which don't seem to be in that large set.  Perhaps I was looking in the wrong places but that's a different matter.

The first culprit is this character:

蛾

I encountered this on a notice slipped into the letter slot of my apartment door.  I could pick out bits and pieces of the text that talked about windows, passageways and...something.  My search of the kanji dictionary failed to come up with a match.  Either I had the stroke count wrong or the print was too small for me to recognize and locate the elusive character.  So I fell back on the old method of trying to figure out how to read something based on context and the circumstances of the time.  

One thing we've had plenty of this year are moths.  More than I can recall seeing in previous years.  Supposedly the exterior walls of Yonezawa station were coated with masses of them, though I didn't see them on account of my exiting the station from the opposite side of where the moths were amassing.  But there were plenty of them fluttering about in the corridors of my apartment building.  So I grabbed my iPhone, switched to Japanese text entry and entered "ga", the Japanese word for "moth".  Sure enough the mystery kanji character appeared.  So now I know to read "moth" in kanji.

The next culprit is the first character of this pair:

蒲鉾

These were brought to my attention by a friend who works in the food floor department of an Isetan department store in Tokyo last week.  The last time we met, one of the topics of our conversation was about translating the names of Japanese food items into English and the supposed failings of a food consultant the company had employed.  I don't remember the details of which food item we were talking about but the person in question had claimed there was no equivalent English name for it (details of conversation have been lost as we were drinking in an Irish pub in Ueno at the time).  I just blinked and spouted off its English name not even a second after she had let it slip off her tongue.  Her immediate response was along the lines of "See!  I told you this person wasn't very good".

Any ways, she had fired a message to me on my phone asking "Quick...what is 蒲鉾 in English?".  Luckily I had my kanji dictionary right next to me so I said "Hold on, I'll check for you"...followed by "How do you read 蒲鉾?".  I hadn't found the first kanji character within a minute and I didn't want to keep her waiting.  The reply was "kamaboko".  Ah...one of those "'I see', said the blind man when he bumped into the wall" moments.  The answer, "boiled fish paste cake", was dutifully and quickly sent in a reply.  (Oh yes, the food doesn't look as bad as it sounds.  Here's a link to a photo of some: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kamaboko.jpg.)

A few days later I told a couple of friends about this discovery and one person pointed out that the character read as "kama" can also be found in the name "Kamata".  Kamata is a district I've walked through once and whose train station I've been in a number of times.  It's been about five years since I last visited the place so the kanji obviously was lost from my memory.  In short hindsight, I do find it odd that one of three people having a conversation in Yamagata prefecture would come up with the name of a relatively obscure place in southern Tokyo. 

Thus ends today's kanji lesson...

Almost...

For better or worse I've gone ahead and signed a letter of agreement to work another year in Japan.  I hadn't given any serious thought to returning to Canada so signing the dotted line was pretty well a foregone conclusion.  I won't say that the sentiment that it feels like I just got here is what led me to that result.  It's more a case of feeling that I'm settled in and I'm not in a hurry to move again.
This year's act of signing another contract has been accompanied by other "housecleaning" activities; getting a new passport and applying for a work visa extension.  The former was a bit of a SNAFU situation thanks to me being caught off guard by Easter Monday.  The latter has gone a bit more smoothly.  I say "a bit more" because of a snag I hit when I submitted my application and documents. 

After I had signed my letter of intent to remain with the company I had reminded them that I would have to get my work visa extended.  So our office manager was tasked with assisting me gather the required documentation.  She was able to obtain a number of them without my assistance.  In one case she found out that I would have to visit city hall in person to get the pertinent document.  On Sunday night I did a final check and everything seemed to be in order.  Then I noticed one item at the bottom of the checklist (incidentally it was all in Japanese) which had been handed to me; a revenue stamp.  After a quick check on the Internet I was relieved to find out I could purchase one at a post office.  So I was able to let out a sigh of relief and get some rest.

The "fun" started after I got into the immigration bureau office in Sendai.  When I submitted my documents for screening I was told that the application form I had been provided was out of date.  Okay.  The clerk made a quick inquiry and then found a form which I could fill out in lieu of redoing my application form.  So that wasn't a big deal.  I was given a number, asked to take a seat and wait to be called.  It didn't take an inordinate amount of time for me to be called up to submit my application and its attendant documentation.  After doing that I returned to my seat to wait until I was called again.

When called back to the counter I was advised that I needed another document.  Great.  I wasn't angry.  Just a bit confused and surprised.  I was given a letter of explanation (all in Japanese of course) and a self-addressed envelope to use for sending in the required document.  After giving my head a few incredulous shakes I trotted off toward downtown Sendai to get a bite to eat and do some shopping.  That exercise was relatively successful.  My mini katsudon and soba set was quite good and I was able to purchase a loaf of freshly baked German style sourdough rye bread.  The cashier chuckled when I asked him to cut me a slice off the loaf before he packaged it up for me.  I, for one, was not going to miss out on a chance to nibble on some fresh baked rye bread.  Especially in Japan. 

The gist of the documentation omission boils down to some peculiarity of taxation in Japan which I haven't completely figured out.  On their website the Japanese Department of Immigration mentions that one has to submit documents pertaining to income and payment of taxes.  But they don't say which or what documents.  Along with the salary schedule document from my employer I submitted a document from city hall that stated I had paid income tax.  But I believe I was also required to submit a document which amounts to being proof of being assessed income tax.  Of course my poor little Canadian brain wonders why one document can't serve both those functions.  My initial search of the city hall website didn't turn up any mention of such a document.  So it looks like I'm going to be having another lesson in the joys of dealing with bureaucracy, Japanese style. 

Going Back to My Previous Post...

...The image is of a creation which I came up with by chance when plugging away in Simcity 4 (which I had talked about at length in another previous post).  The little mountain I created reminded me of the Totoro creatures in the old movie "My Neighbour Totoro".  So naturally, I named the little town I created at its feet, "Totoro-mori".

A slightly less comfortable movie reference came up this past winter.  I don't remember exactly when but there was some snow on the ground so I suspect it was late February.  The situation was one where I was heading out to get dinner at a nearby restaurant.  As I left the school where I work I noticed a significant amount of bird droppings on the ground.  I didn't bother looking up.  I just looked down and made sure I didn't step on any droppings.  After I crossed the street I saw more bird droppings.  As I stepped around them I heard crows cawing overhead.  That's when I looked up and saw them...crows.  A large black mob of them.  There were literally hundreds of crows gathered on the telephone and power lines overhead.  For about three blocks every inch of wire was occupied by crows.  "Whoa", I said to myself, "This is like a scene out of 'The Birds'".  There was genuine sense of fear in me as I worked my way down the street trying to avoid being shat upon by some black, feathered bomber.  Thinking back I can surmise that such a scene must of been the origin of the term "a murder of crows". 

Just a Quick Test

I will write about this screen shot in my next blog post...