...of Kangaroos & Kappas

K&K is 1 year old!

2012-02-22T17:45:00.001-08:00

Waiting
I'm so bored, let's start a blog!
Oh, the waiting! >:(
Finally in Japan :D :D
Summer's humidity suffered
Summer Sonic enjoyed
Superior Fireworks
New animals and/or body parts eaten. Pork chin is awesome, snail is not so.
School entered
Kids are ridiculous
Gotta love 'em
The spoils of Autumn admired and/or eaten
Festivals ahoy!
Onsen entered!
Green Zone
Kappa spotted
She's finally home
本日はカルビの日
Oh! So this is what Winter is supposed to be like?
Snowed on for the first time
Winter is a magical snowy wonderland
Novelty ends
GIVE ME SUN POWER!!!
==================================
215 days in
1064 students taught
But only 50-odd names remembered :( :( :(
Sakura yet to be seen
Graduation ceremony and staff transfers to come
Enjoying the ride so far

Matsuri 祭り

2012-02-21T01:55:00.001-08:00

Matsuri is the Japanese word for festival. There are many many different matsuris that take place all over Japan. It is kind of hard to imagine any town not having at least one to call their own! Some of the common themes/purports of matsuris are the coming of new seasons, the honouring of ancestors and their spirits and making an appeal to the gods for bountiful harvests and safe journeys. When you are planning a trip to Japan, it would be remiss of you to not try and plan around the timing of a Japanese matsuri.

Being a first world country, the smart phone-toting, traffic jam-participating, Calvin Klein handbag-wearing modern Japanese people, at least superficially, lead a lifestyle that resembles those of persons from other first world countries. Thankfully, the matsuri presents a great chance to see Japanese people let all that go away for a day and step back in time to acknowledge their rich culture and traditions. The typical matsuri features dancing, singing, chanting, the playing of traditional instruments, feats of strength as the locals carry or tow portable shrines (mikoshi 神輿 and/or dashi 山車), the donning of traditional garb (especially 'happi' ハッピ), and of course, lots of food. Some matsuris have bonfires, some have lanterns. Some are completely on the land, some take place on or in the water. Variety indeed abounds.

In my time over here, I've been to a few. My very first one was the Ohara Hadaka matsuri 大原裸祭り, a festival that takes place each Autumn in Ohara, Chiba (east of Tokyo). The main draw card for this one is the shio-fumi 汐踏み ritual (translates to "treading on the sea water"). Numerous teams of loincloth-appareled men and boys carry large mikoshi from the apex of a sand dune and down into the sea! These heavy mikoshi are supported by two large beams of solid wood so it is no wonder that each team has approx 20 people carrying them.

At their most daring, the mikoshi bearers go out to about upper chest height at which point they chant and turn and head back to shallower ground. On return to land (and sometimes just before) the teams begin to rotate the mikoshi and later, in a great feat of strength, propel them up into the air with the 'heave-ho' equivalent, "Yo-ii-sho!" shouting proudly from their lips. I don't know if you can insure these expensive mikoshi or not, but for the Ohara mikoshi, the premiums would surely make you cry.

The whole ritual is performed to grant the particpants with luck and prosperity as well as to appeal to the gods of the shrines to bless them with good harvests of fish. Apparently the more spirited and rowdy the performance is, the more satisfied the gods will be! On completion of the main event the men, boys, and now, women and girls, return the mikoshi back to their home shrines. Often stopping along the way for a drink stop and spirited song. I can't wait to go to this one again.

Another cool festival I went to was the Podunk Autumn matsuri 秋祭り. The festival's purpose is to appeal to the gods for good crops, particularly those of rice as the festival's timing is very close to that of the big rice harvest. In fact you can see the kanji character for rice, kome 米, on some of the ハッピ of the participants. At this festival, the shrines are contained within the dashi 山車 or 'mountain vehicles.' These elaborate wooden carriages are shaped much like a mountain with a couple of distinct tiers. Starting at the top, there is an area for a number of people to stand and sit. Up there are banners for the region from where the team hails, lanterns, decorations, and commonly, a huge doll in the shape of a priest. At times, the dashi are like mobile bunraku 文楽 (Japanese puppet theatre) shows at the top. The dolls themselves are controlled by the top tier inhabitants and they are sometimes made to throw confetti and I think rice too.

Going down, you will see the base of the mountain. This structure contains many intricately carved images if creatures (real and mythical) and plants. A bigger banner is usually attached (check out the photo). Housed within the central structure are many of the local children who periodically peek out pillbox style, claiming many victims through their drive-by of cuteness. Also housed at base level is a large taiko drum which is played throughout the day and particularly during the nighttime street parade. To the sides hang the traditional kane 鐘, metal cymbal/bell things that are played by girls and younger boys. The whole structure is set on 4 wheels and 2 wooden struts.

Podunk's claim to fame/originality is the practice of rotating the 山車. Just as there were many different teams in the Ohara Hadaka matsuri, the Podunk Autumn matsuri contains many teams from many regions within Podunk itself, and also from greater Aichi and neighbouring prefectures as I understood.

The dashi are towed around town and stop every now and then for, what I'll call, the rotation ritual. The men brace themselves for the hard work to follow, the kids peak their heads out in anticipation and the top tier inhabitants get ready to cheer and manipulate the puppet. The best place to see the rotation ritual is in the plaza outside the main train station. They are all spread out and it is easy to see the simultaneous spinning of a number of the 山車. The puppets are waving around, tossing confetti and the crowd is tripping over each other taking photos.

Upon the eventual march toward the Podunk Shrine, my "Japanese uncle" makes sure I and 3 of my foreigner friends get to take part, much to the curious delight of the locals. We are adopted into team Babacho, the region adjacent to the Podunk Shrine and which is made famous (locally) due to its old sacred tree. In a test of strength, we are asked to lift the front end of the heavy Babacho 山車, just the 4 of us. How do we fare? HINT: this is usually done by 6-8 men.... we FAIL. Though, we gather our chi and are very successful on the second try, hurrah! However, no time to celebrate as this is relatively easy compared to the rotation.

Soon after the warm-up act, we are tasked to rotate the 山車. It is an exercise in muscular endurance and ignorance of sustained, shoulder-crushing pain, especially if you've not much between your clavicle and ハッピ! We start out pretty well, our strengths vary a little as do our heights and positioning under the struts, so loads particularly with proximity to the vehicle and height of the participant. I am the tallest, so I got my fair share of the 'joy.' I forget exactly how many turns are required, I'm recollecting anywhere from 8-12. When we started to go around, we were all surprised at the force we were working against, though we fight through the inertia and get it spinning.

The kids are cheering (maybe), the crowd is being sated and the local photographers are snapping away. We almost, almost complete the required rotations, but it goes down just short of the mark. We are encouraged and try once again and are better positioned and schooled. We get about 2/3 of the way through and are taught an interesting coping stratagem, "Look up and your pain will go away." So periodically we look up. How long before we realise that this is a hilarious placebo? I'm thinking that it clocked in at about 2 minutes, haha. Finally we get it around and then it is party o'clock. The onlookers applaud and our faces are beaming. Then we are offered a draught of deliciously blessed o-sake. They line us up one by one and I am literally lucky last, because being last, I got offered a double helping :D I was happy to oblige (read: indulge) and that garners more applause. What a fun time!

By night time the 山車 are mobilized once more with lanterns alight. In addition to the 山車 are some other lower set vehicles that also contain the taiko and kane. The drums and cymbals of traditional Japan beat and ring loudly across the town as the festival comes to an eventual close.

A really good time and I look forward to attending this year's installment later on in October.

The JET Program / Programme Interview

2012-02-05T21:05:00.000-08:00

Hi guys! I hope you are well in your part of the world! Today I am writing to the current applicants for the the ALT position with the JET Program. Your interview is looming and I hope you are not driving yourself too crazy fretting over what to do. To help you out, I will share my experience of the interview as an interviewee at the Brisbane Consulate for the 2011-2012 placement. As my interview was quite enjoyable, I am hoping that my experience closely resembles the one that you will have :)

I truly believe that the interview is nothing to be nervous about! I know that may seem impossible because by this point you have already vested a decent chunk of time waiting for the opportunity and have probably been raising your hopes high for the position. (In Brisbane) the atmosphere was actually relaxed, our interviews felt like a nice chat. They definitely didn't try to make us feel in the hot seat, allowing an opportunity to really show off our personality. I had a smiley academic, a friendly Japanese lady, and a former JET, a roster that I would pretty much expect at your interview (with smiley-ness being at your interviewees' discretion, of course).

So what do you need to prove to them? What are your important qualities? Well, your personality, flexibility and adaptability (PF&A) are important, as is your drive to EXCHANGE culture and language. Sell the fact that you want to not only introduce your country (and others*) to the Japanese, but to learn a lot from them and BRING that knowledge and those experiences back home. If you haven't already, commit to memory that the E in JET actually stands for exchange, not education (so many people make this mistake, lol.) This is your theme for the interview. So how have you been involved in cultural activities in your community? What knowledges can you bring? How can you introduce your country's customs and culture to your future Japanese community? Are you going to dive in and demand a booth at your future school's culture festival? Are you going to do a traditional dance of your country's indigenous people during your introductory lesson? Have fun coming up with your own ideas.

*you get a good opportunity to teach about other countries through the Eigo Noto textbook if you work at elementary school.

Aside from proving your ability to be a cultural ambassador, you will be proving your PF&A through reciting past experiences and explaining how you handle hypothetical situations. You will inevitably get asked a question about how you would deal with feeling down in a foreign country. Basically I said it was important to keep in contact with friends back home, fellow foreigner friends and any Japanese friends or mentors you feel comfortable with communicating your problems with. I didn't, but you can probably mention that your future prefectural CIR will be invaluable help to you when trying to solve problems. Additionally I threw in other coping strategies such as doing exercise as it is a great way of bucking me up. I would go for a run to clear my mind and they liked that answer a lot. Whatever works for you! Cleaning your room? Eating a big cookie before the run?

It is likely that they will ask you of any situations where a cultural misunderstanding took place and how you dealt with it. A pretty testing question, especially so for those of you who will be going overseas for the first time. Do your best to think of an interesting experience you have had or else you are going to have to think of a plausible fib (hopefully it won't come to that though, haha). My answer was lame, but they thought it was funny so it kinda worked out for me. I mentioned slurping in a soba shop in Kyoto as being a big shock for me and I, heh heh, 'dealt' with it by asking my learned travel buddy about the etiquette of eating in Japan....:) Dressed it up a touch, but they seemed to dig it. "Oh I couldn't believe it! Was I in a particularly bad part of Kyoto? Why were there so many rude customers audibly slurping their hearts out at this particular establishment?" etc.

Also try to anticipate your future working culture and role. Basically consider that (1) you shouldn't feel that discipline is your job because as an assistant language teacher it really should be up to the home room teacher* (2) you will try your best to keep the channels of communication open and make yourself available in the limited meeting time you are afforded, and (3) you will gladly enjoy becoming a member of the school (and local) community and from time-to-time get out of your way to join in school (and local) events and club activities.

*You should certainly never go over the HRT's head and discipline a problem student unless it really adds up to being a necessity. Also consider that there may be different standards for behaviour in your country versus those in Japan.

Those are probably the main things to dwell on. Additionally you should spend a little time thinking of a couple of reasons for why you chose your preferences (e.g. the experiences you may be able to get, the foods you want to try etc.) That's about all I can think of. Make sure you dress the part (yes to suits and ties for the guys), show off your personality and be ready to address the above questions/issues I have outlined and you should rock it. No need to be nervous, just be comfortable with being yourself. Unless you are a particularly unsavoury character, you have no reason to apply any pressure on yourself :)

Once it is all over, please don't go crazy waiting for the results to come out. Don't pay too much attention to (or even better, be blissfully ignorant of) any 'interviews results' and 'placement' threads on any JET-related forums. In my experience of last year, the mass of unhealthy speculation and misinformation generated on these threads (notice I said 'threads', not 'forums as a whole') verged on being, oh stuff it, WAS ACTUALLY a bold neon-lit shining example of how silly people can be behind a keyboard.

With all that said though, enjoy the limited time you have left in your part of the world. Until next time!

..of Kangaroos and Kickin' Tunes 2: Japanese band names

2012-01-05T18:00:00.000-08:00

It must be close to being universal. Almost any country you look toward, you can find bands that have decided to choose hilariously weird monikers for their outfit. I don't care what reasons a band may have for doing so, I am just glad they are doing it! So, as a late Christmas present to you all, please enjoy my list of weird and wonderful names from the Japanese music scene.

*Note that this is not an exercise in pointing out Engrish, I have faith that the bands knew what they were doing when they chose their names.

Ok, the list. Starting with weird:

Asshole Unite
Stone Leek - as in, applaud at our gigs or we will punish you with our
Soy Sauce Faith
The Rabies
Oh!Everywhere Thier Exploding (OK this is Engrish, surely they meant "Oh! They're Exploding Everywhere")
Super Beaver
Radwimps (sorry guys, I love your music, but what the hell is up with that name??)
Shit Happening
Anemone is Here
MacDonald Duck Eclair
Garlic Boys - the front row was noticeably absent at their gig.

Kinniku Shojo Tai (Muscle Girl Band)

Mr. Children - Ridiculously successful band with kinda disturbing name

Sex Machineguns - They like the Sex Pistols??

Fascination with bombs much??
Bomb Factory
Fire Bomber
Golden Bomber
Zoobombs - Just rolls off the tongue nicely doesn't it? Saw them in Brisbane a few years ago, epic drummer.

There are some pretty awesome ones though:

Baricang - This just sounds so powerful. Don't go messing with Baricang! Oh no! He's been Baricang-ed!
The 5,6,7,8s - 50's and 60's style retro rock trio. Hear them on Kill Bill.
Hangry & Angry - One is angry, the other is angry AND hungry.
Metalucifer - That's pretty rock right there.
School Food Punishment - Amen, I feel your pain daily (haha, truthfully, it's not usually bad enough to be considered, 'punishment')

Well, that wraps up another oKaKT! Hope you had fun! I will endeavour to make another fun list in the future. See you later \.../

Neglecterinos

2011-12-29T03:34:00.001-08:00

Sorry, sorry, hige sorry!! Blogs have been thin on the ground due to the season and a minor bout of illness. I've been in Tokyo the last few days and was unlucky to miss the snow that fell in my Japanese hometown of Podunk. It's kinda rare to see snow in my part of Aichi so it's a shame I couldn't be there to see it. The only kinda snow I've seen so far was some remnant crystals up on 高尾山Takao San, just out of Tokyo. Still, looking forward to seeing my first proper snow fall though :) Anyway, as I have the chance now, I'd just like to wish you all a happy new year! May it be productive and see you closer to accomplishing your goals. All the very best.Kappas and Kangaroos.

Nahhh, get outta here!

2011-12-05T20:30:00.001-08:00

Na. Or rather な. I just had a mini revelation about something that is probably common knowledge amongst those with basic Japanese. If you take away the squiggly bottom right hand side from hiragana*, な (na), you get katakana** ナ (na). I mean, duhh!! I have noticed other relationships betwen hiragana and their katakana counterparts, but am surprised I didn't catch this one earlier on. Ha!

*hiragana is the normal Japanese phonetic script
**katakana is the phonetic script used for borrow words (and sometimes for other purposes such as for animal names)

===============================================
BONUS
I'll keep this blog content light, so I will end by mentioning that upon further (2 minute) research, I learnt that the hiragana are indeed, derived from chinese characters. Interesting!! There is a nifty chart showing a 3 step evolution from chinese characters to hiragana found in the hiragana entry over at Wikipedia.

What is a Kappa?

2011-11-17T08:30:00.000-08:00

Ye Olde Kappa depiction

Kon nichi wa my fellow Japan junkies. I was thinking that it is high time that I talk about one of this site's mascots, the Kappa. The Kappa is a prominent character in Japanese folklore, being counted as a member of the "lesser" water deities (perhaps lesser in terms of their standing in the deity hierarchy, but certainly not in terms of prominence in both scholarly literature and Japanese pop culture). The theories of the origins, physical features and malevolence/benevolence of Kappa vary quite a bit, so let me describe the common and most interesting image and traits of the green water imp.

The beak-ed Kappa kinda looks like a cross between a human and a turtle, sporting big claws, a shell, a scaly hide and an optional modesty-protecting loincloth. They have a rather smart green complexion of which there is debate to whether or not it is granted to them from eating their beloved food, cucumbers. Illustrations depict Kappa with anywhere from little to a lot of body hair, but despite this variance, the head is always seen crowned with a circumference of hair which surrounds a central water reservoir referred to as a 'sara' which is the same word used for plate/dish in Japanese. Contained within the Kappa's sara is it's liquid life force, appearing as water and presumably so, though, scholars love to point out that nobody is 100% certain that the composition of the liquid is water. Pfft... why hedge your bets mates? It's a freaking water imp, of course it's going to be water, geez :p

Probably one of the most interesting parts of Kappa folklore is that of the strategy of stopping or defeating a Kappa. You see, the Kappa are known to be both benevolent and malevolent, and one of their many nefarious penchants, is that of springing from the water and seizing upon anything from a person (particularly a child) through to a horse in order to drag it to a watery grave where it will have a feast of it's victim's organs, Bleech!. What? A little imp dragging a horse (!) into the water... oh yeah, BTW the Kappa apparently has exceptional strength; what a boss! Must be all that basashi*. So should you encounter a pesky Kappa, legend says that, although it kinda wants to bite your head, it can be stopped in it's tracks by giving it a polite bow. You see, though a Kappa doesn't bat an eyelid at killing the innocent, it nevertheless feels honour-bound to at least reciprocally bow at it's future meal before declaring itadakimasu†. And right there is it's undoing, as bowing causes it to spill it's precious aqueous life force onto the ground, severely weakening it, and by some accounts, cause it to make an early exit to the, ermm, pearly cucumber fields in the sky.

Riverside Kappa warning signs, to this day, can still be seen posted about in order to ward children away by using cartoony images of scary water imps patiently awaiting a fatal misstep by little Kenichi-kun^ or Mariko-chan^. In fact, many people think that the Kappa were created purely as a tool to scare children from getting themselves into a potential drowning situation, a theory that I am a fan of.

But, let's hold up for a second, poor ol' Kappa are getting quite a bad rap here.They are known to be good too. The thing is, once a Kappa is made to make a promise to reform, it will with the utmost loyalty, hold true to it's promise. There are a few situations where a Kappa will promise to come good. One such situation is when bargaining for their release from their captor. Another is when they wish the safe return of a severed limb...errr what?

Well, despite their livestock-towing strength, their limbs are prone to 'being liberated'. For example, it was/(is?) not particularly weird to see a horse running home to their owner with one or more Kappa arms lodged in their thigh. Upon the sight of this, farmer-san could, in the interests of their community, keep the arm for a future bargaining session as this presents a good opportunity to turn one or more of the local Kappas away from a life of crime. The Kappa will frantically seek out it's divorced arm/s in order to reattach them within the few-day long window of time it's body has the ability to do so. All of a sudden, I'm thinking that the villain, Cell, from Dragon Ball Z had some partial inspiration from Kappa folklore.

Capturing Kappas is an attractive venture because you can make them do work for you as payment for their release (and retribution for eating the local swimming squad). They are skilled healers, famed for their bone setting magics and ability to produce salves. They are also put to work in the fields and one has been known to help construct a drainage system on flood-prone farming land in old Edo, a deed offered as payment to a human that saved it's life years prior. This area is in the vicinity of Kappabashi in modern Tokyo.

The word Kappa abounds in the Japanese lexicon. For example, 'Gappa' (from 'Kappa') is found in the term Gappadoki/ガッパドキ which is an old term for drowning that is still used in some regions of Japan. 'O-Kappa' is a Kappa-like hairstyle, 'Kappa' refers to both the old straw-made and modern plastic poncho style raincoats and Kappa Maki is a type of sushi roll containing Kappa's favourite, cucumbers!

パー子ちゃん and カーくん

Speaking of Kappa Maki, one of the most popular and iconic restaurants in Japan is Kappa Zushi/カッパ寿司. This chain of restaurants can be found in most Japanese cities, and of course, the flagship model of the restaurant is the cucumber sushi roll. The mascots for the restaurant, カーくん and パー子ちゃん are a couple of cute-ified water imps, assumedly enslaved into servitude by an enterprising sushi chef.

カッパ巻き Kappa Maki

Kappa Tea, made from real Kappas!!!

Cutesy Kappa are now rife, seen in various pieces of merchandise, in mange, anime and video games. And of course, they are seen on this very website :D I have been personally assured that my Kanji-slinging sidekick is a vegetarian. Oh, the cucumber recipes he could tell you!!

Well, there you are, the Kappa. If you are so inclined, there are many more legends about the Kappa to be found, such as the one of their fondness for sumo or their eternal hunt for the shirikodama (roughly translates to 'butt ball'..WTF). Yearrr, didn't want to write about that last one so much...

So to finish up, please enjoy some happy snaps of me and my friends when we found a Kappa out in 茶臼山 Chausuyama area, Aichi.

See you next time.
_______________________________
* basashi: horse sashimi / raw horse meat
† itadakimasu: phrase said before having a meal, literally meaning (I will humbly) receive
^ -kun and -chan are suffixes that are often and affectionately attached to children's names

Japanese Mini Lesson 5: Essential English teacher vocabulary. しんちょう vs "チンちょう". Brought to you by naughty 5年生 boys.

2011-11-14T00:22:00.001-08:00

Foreign males teaching English in Japan at elementary and/or junior high school level, will inevitably get poked, prodded and asked a number of undoubtedly rude questions at one point or the other. One of the more clever traps devised by my little rapscallions is the "チンちょう、何センチ?" / "chinchou, nan senchi?" question.

Now, before I explain the下ネタ-ic (rude joke) device here, I will make you appreciate their strategy here. So, the most common question I get (in fact, a question I only just recently stopped getting on a clockwork daily basis) is 身長、何センチ? / shinchou, nan senchi? This means "How tall are you," with the first kanji of shinchou meaning body/self (身) and the second meaning long/length (長), and then following into nan senchi, which will roughly mean "what + centimetre(s)?"

Now it gets classy ladies and gents. With the simple change in pronunciation from 'shinchou' to 'chinchou' you get something completely different. チンチン / chinchin is a common slang term for penis. So when 身長、何センチ？ becomes チン長何センチ？ well, damn it, you've read this far, you know the result.

So when I first encountered this question, I was almost fooled into replying with the well-rehearsed hyaku kyuu juu (190), though, something was obviously awry. I must commend the head mischief maker as he summoned all he could to keep a perfectly straight face whilst asking me, but to his dismay a ripple of stifled and not-so stifled chortles were erupting around him. I wasn't exactly sure what was going on, but I knew that there was no way I was going to answer this. Then as the question was offered again by one of his partners in crime, it dawned on me. God damn it. I then told 'em that the jig was up! Haha, we had a laugh and I only got it asked 20 more times afterwards....orz.

So may this lesson come in handy to Japan's current and future English-teaching fellows. Also, let it be an insight into classroom culture in Japan!

This has been Daniel reporting from the frontlines.

Sometimes, the simplest of teaching materials work the best....

2011-11-13T18:09:00.001-08:00

Teaching a chant from Eigo Noto 1 text book. It involves singing about colours and clothes (cap and pants). I make the chant a kinaesthetic exercise and 2 lucky volunteers will get to become "Cap Girl" and "Pants Man" by the simple act of proudly taping my A4 print-outs of MC Hammer or Cap Girl to their chests. The volunteers must (in time with the lyrics) point at their assigned item of clothing and the colours (on flashcards that are stuck to the blackboard). Choosing a Pants Man is always an exercise in hilarity. There is so much laughter, it really gets them motivated. I also get them to do a cool pose for Cap Girl and Pants Man. The chant is one of the better ones in the Eigo Noto universe, so that also motivates them to sing along. Pants man must always be a volunteer as it can be a little embarassing for some (pants or "pantsu" is underwear in Japanese), so let the rowdier mischief makers go ahead and become English-chanting MC Hammers. Also explaining the difference between Pants and Pantsu is a good idea.

Also, in Japan Clip-it is a dolphin. The more you know ~~☆

Searching for Japan Blogs?

2011-11-01T06:51:00.000-07:00

Came across a great website that provides links to many great Japan blogs. So if you're a fishing for some good reading, check out the constantly updated list over at The Japan Blog List.
The Japan Blog List

The next one is good if you are searching specifically for JET bloggers
http://jet-programme.com/jet_blogs.htm

Japanese Mini Lesson 4: You can really sink your teeth into this Japanese lesson

2011-11-01T00:45:00.000-07:00

It doesn't matter where you live, you'd be silly not to get out there and sample a variety of restaurants in your surrounding area. Going around and trying different cuisines at various restaurants makes the mandatory process of fueling your body that much more exciting after all. MASSIVELY OBVIOUS SEGUE ALERTZWORZ!!!

Soooo, should you count yourself as a bit of a restaurant-touring gourmand, perhaps this Japanese noun and it's following expression will come in handy:

食べ歩き(noun) 　
たべあるき
tabearuki

食べ歩きをする (verb)
たべあるきをする
tabearuki wo suru

So we literally have eat-walk/ eat-walk do. This expression means to go out and try food at various eating establishments. So if you're a bit of a foodie and you want to attest to that fact in Japanese, well then, you are now loaded with the know how.

例文 / れいぶん / Reibun （Example Sentence）:
僕は食べ歩きをすることが多いので、「ザ・グールマン」ってよんでいいですよ～
I often go out and sample various restaurants, so you may feel free to call me "The Gourmand" if you would like to.
Literally: Regarding me, walk-eat (going out to sample restaurants) do matter numerously exist therefore, "The Gourmand" call me agreeable (emphatically).
Literal translations like these are useful for you guys coming to grips with the order of verbs and objects etc. in Japanese sentences. They are often hilarious too, so that's a bonus.

But some of you beginners of Japanese might be thinking that something is up here. "Where's the る in 食べる/eat?" and "I thought walk was 歩く!" you may be asking and pondering respectively. Well, what we see here is an example of a (and I'm going to avoid technical terms for this one) "double verb sandwich." However this double verb sandwich has actually been altered to make it a noun. So there are two things funky going on with 食べ歩き. Before it gets too confusing, let's break it on down.

Funky 1. Double verb sandwiches (DVS)s are commonly formed in Japanese. When fusing two verbs together to make a DVS, you must think of the first verb in it's ーます form and proceed to rip off the ます, leaving the ます verb stem. So in the case of 飛び込む (to literally jump, leap, dive or plunge into something physical or conversely to figuratively leap, plunge into something intangible) we have taken 飛ぶ (to fly, leap etc.) put it into the polite/ます form, 飛びます, proceeded to cut off the ます (in working with my analogy, let's just imagine we're trimming off the bread crusts for our DVS) and we are left with the ます stem form, 飛び, rather than the dictionary form 飛ぶ. Place this together with 込む and you have your DVS.

Funky 2. Altering a verb to make it a noun: When you slice off the crusts of a polite/ます form verb to make a ます stem, you can "noun-ify" a verb. I am fairly confident in saying that you can't just use the ますstem as a noun for any old verb you choose because some sliced verbs may rarely or never be used in speech or writing and not be in circulation at all. With that said though, consider the very relevant 歩き. In this form, we have the noun, 'walk' as used in sentences such as "to go on a walk" or "this walk will go through the forest and take 5 minutes."

So, there you have it. 食べ歩き! Gourmands and Japanese scholars take note! Next time you are in Japan, make sure you indulge in 食べ歩き. It is indeed a very excellent part of the world to do it, thanks to the considerable regional variety.

Have fun learning Japanese! If you want to share some DVSs, drop me a comment! Cheers.
===============================================
Bonus Material

Why make DVSs in the first place?
Well, I would say to add a dimension or flavour to a verb in order to create these cool all-in-one double verbs. The Japanese have been able to modify the first verb in DVSs with the second in order to (for example)

-modify the extremity to which a verb is done (particularly in the case of DVSs ending in ー込む- which can be used to say "do/done thoroughly")
-form a verb or noun that at once describes a process that comprises two (truly or roughly) simultaneous actions (today's 食べ歩き being a great example)
- otherwise add nuance or flavour to the leading verb
- plus (likely many) other purposes.

Here's a fun note on DVSs
You will often see double verb sandwiches with a に filling (has the analogy gotten old yet?? :p). For example, to go out (and have a good time/play/visit etc.) 遊びに行く is the phrase of choice. Here we have the ますstem of 遊ぶ (play, enjoy oneself etc.), the delicious に particle, with a slice of 行く (to go, proceed), so literally "to go and play." Here's another: 見に来る (見る's ますstem, に, 来る) so literally to see and come, meaning "to come and see."

Thanks for staying around! Love ya!
=================================================

Paying the national broadcaster, the NHK man.

2011-10-29T03:59:00.000-07:00

Dear mister NHK man,

I explain to you in the politest, genial manner, using my best Japanese, that I will NOT right here and right now give you my flipping personal details and bank account number until I show your "YOU-MUST-SIGN-NOW" forms to my supervisor and colleagues who can advise me on the safety of giving said information. I am new and I wish to take my time to fill out and send this information to an address that you refuse to give me after asking 5 times. Oh what's that? After going around in circles for 25 flipping minutes, you DO have an address and an alternate form that I can send out after all? I don't have to surrender my personal information here and now as you were pushing so very hard for?? Thanks a lot for wasting my breath and confirming to me that, had you not been so stubborn and ignorant, we could have concluded our interchange in exactly a tenth of the time.

/rant over

Moral of the story: sometimes you'll find yourself in a sucky situation in Japan (Disclaimer: yeah, like anywhere else in the world). You will come across bullying tactics if you live here, but I reckon it best that you trust your instincts. You should not feel obliged to give your bank details out at your door to an unannounced man. After all, how can you expect a newbie to the country to judge the authenticity of IDs and documents?
_______________________________________________________________
SIDE NOTES - Was he for real do you think?

- I pressed him for a "send to" address five times and he understood what I wanted but kept saying that I had better register now, and continued to remind me that it was the law to pay. Furthermore, and though he didn't exactly say as much, his manner strongly suggested that something bad was going to happen if we didn't settle this now.

- He asked when I moved in and I told him "in August." He said, if I register my details now, that I would not have to pay for August and September. Hurry up and give me your details now, otherwise you'll be out 2700 yen.

Now, I will admit that I am pretty sure he was a true representative, though, the manner of the representative and the method of registering right there and then is crazy I must tell you Mr. NHK policy writer person. If it is your strategy to make the collectors be stubborn and bully residents of Japan into providing information (most particularly bank account or credit card info) in a snap, then you can shelve and file it alphabetically my good man.
________________________________________________________________
Comments appreciated.

Creatures of Japan 1: Kero Kero ケロケロ! Frog! (possibly the Kajika Frog / カジカガエル)

2011-10-07T03:20:00.000-07:00


This is Pajero, he goes kero kero....


....he likes to climb the walls, 'cause he's a plucky fellow....


....and as he gazes to the horizon, he accomplishes his mellow.

This is possibly a male Kajika Frog (Buergeria buergeri), 河鹿蛙（カジカガエル）. The kanji for Kajika mean river/stream (河) + beast or hunting (鹿)-->river hunting frog, river beast frog? Second kanji also means deer, but I don't think it applies here. If you know better, give me a shout.

..of Kangaroos and Kickin' Tunes 1-II - Dazzle Vision LIVE

2011-09-24T07:15:00.000-07:00

I was thrilled to recently catch a Dazzle Vision gig at the Nagoyan live house, TIGHT ROPE. The night went for about 5 hours with a lengthy line-up of bands. The supporting line-up featured an eclectic mix of bands who played punk, metal, and one, some sort of angry hip hop-screamo hybrid. Much to my amusement I experienced two firsts.

The first one was that there were children in the drinking establishment!! So, this is allowed? Yep. In Australia, kids at a licensed venue is a big no no. It was a surprise to me indeed, but later I realised that it is no big deal in Japan. Whether it be in a live house, an izakaya, or at Hanami, alcohol and children can hang out together, as long as they're just hanging out. I have since seen kids in izakayas both as customers and as staff of family-run businesses. Anyway, yeah, these kids at the live house belonged to the owners it seemed. One of the kids who I'm guessing was 4 years old, had the cutest little Slipknot shirt on. Little man, metal horns to you \.../ Amazingly, the little dude slept through the angry hip-hop performance and practically half of the Dazzle Vision performance.

The second first (?) for me was the Japanese mosh pit!!! Haha, it is a rough and tumble love-in, really. They are pretty high energy and some of the participants like to run around a little and really get a human whirlpool thing going. One of the most metal things I have ever seen was this 4ft-something woman get accidentally clotheslined, decked like the proverbial mofo (not actually a proverb), and promptly get back up, reciprocally bow twice to apology-san and resume her headbanging.

In between sets I spied a girl that I thought could of been Maiko from DV, but wasn't sure. I took a chance and went over and said hi and sure enough, it was her!! I got to have a chat with her which was awesome, such a lucky guy! I also got a photo with her too!! Winning! She was really cool. She was really excited about the band's latest album and also the reception to it. She said later on (if I understood the Japanese correctly), that they had been experiencing full capacity at their gigs in some quite respectable Tokyo clubs/live houses. Great news for them indeed, they deserve to make it big.

Their show was superb. The music was great, effects were used really well and thankfully, Maiko's voice really delivers live. All of the members really get into it too with the guitarists jumping around, standing on speakers and all that, and Maiko ritually jumping around, headbanging and also claiming some speaker-top territory of her own. I especially like the photo of her saluting the crowd. Witnessing her operatic-screamo style live is so much fun. It never ceases to amaze me how she can switch from the throat abrasion of screamo to the meliflous tones of her singing voice. The set was a good length, featuring mostly the new stuff. A great show and I can't wait to see them again!!

I really look forward to prospecting for more interesting bands in the live houses of Japan. Until next time guys, rock on :D

Word of the day 差し込む. Brought to you by naughty 1年生

2011-09-22T05:39:00.000-07:00

Oh brother! Those bloody junior high boys. I had a funny interchange with a little group of 1年生 boys in between classes. It went something like this (translated because I love you):

Boys: Uuwah, Danieru sensei. Haroo.
Me: Hello there. What are you up to?
Leader boy: Nothing. Oh! Come, come.
Me: Where? (suspiciously)
Leader boy: To the joseiben! (Girls' toilet)+(Probably thinking, heh heh, doubt he knows that word)
Me: No chance! Bad! Danger!
Leader boy: Haha (damn he knew it), come on! It'll be grand.
Me: No chance, mischief maker (I am fond of using the word 悪戯者・いたずらもの which can mean prankster, mischief maker--> be careful, it can also mean loose woman--> mental note to use this only to males, haha)
Me: So what's your next class?
Boys: Science!
Leader boy: Sashikomi, sashikomi!
Me: Huh? What's this sashikomi mean?
Leader boy: Mwuhaha, SASHIKOMI, SASHIKOMI!! Haha.
Me: (takes out electronic dictionary) Sashikomi, eh? Surely this is a dirty joke (下ネタ).
Boys: HahahahHAhHAhaha. He knows 下ネタ!
Me: Insertion. さすが (just as expected)
Boys: **ROFLing at my disappointed (but slightly amused) face**

So 差込 or 差し込む meaning to insert, "thrust in" etc. So to all my fellow ALTs on the frontlines, if you hear sashikomi, get ready to ask, 下ネタですか (shimoneta desu ka?). Little buggers will get a kick out of it, and so should you, seeing their reactions.

Haha, until next time!
Daniel.

Word of the day じんじん(と)

2011-09-15T23:16:00.000-07:00

Hey! So whenever I hear a word that is new to me at school or otherwise, I'm going to start noting it down here so that I (and you diligent learners of Japanese) can come back and reference them.

So without further ado:

じんじん　A "と adverb" (an adverb that must be followed with と＋verb)
Meaning: tingling sensation, painful tingle, throb etc. ALSO ringing of the ears

So today, one of the students came into the school office complaining of an injured arm. The school nurse asked her something like:
どういうふうに痛むか?　--> Literally: In what style does it hurt? --> Most naturally: What sort of pain are you feeling?
The response by the student was じんじんとする！痛いよ～

So there we go. In my formative (and shamefully, in my not so formative) clubbing years, I could certainly have used this expression to express the state of my poor ears following the many drum n bass, techno etc. parties I have been to. So, invest in ear plugs otherwise 耳がまさに、じんじんと痛むよ～

Cheers and study hard!

Nice moments in Japan

2011-09-14T07:38:00.000-07:00

When you come to visit or live in Japan, you will enjoy many nice moments. Sure, there may be some bad moments too like any other country on the globe, but you can put big money on you having mostly nice, put-a-big-smile-on-your-face kinda moments. Let me share one I had tonight.

It stems from a simple enough gesture, but nevertheless, reminded me of my gratefulness to be here. So, I was out with my fellow Podunk JETs tonight at a yakitori izakaya/restaurant. We enjoyed our meal and were just about to leave when one of my mate's students recognised him. The student came over and we were having fun talking with him and his grandmother and brother who were on their way out when the chance meeting occurred. And here it is. The 'mama' (name for the chief hostess of an izakaya) spots the exchange taking place, and soon enough had organised 3 cups of on-the-house tea for our new friends.

Now I said it was a simple gesture, but mama had really impressed me by organising this. It is like they really approved and wanted to facilitate the interaction of us with the nice little Japanese family. So with the tea served, we indulged a bit longer in our conversation with our new friends.

Nice form mama. Nice form Japan.

Land, Sea and Sky: Torres Strait Islander art exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art Brisbane

2011-08-27T04:08:00.000-07:00

Stumbled across these photos from a couple of months ago. Enjoy the limited amount of knowledge I can pass on about some of the pieces!

For those that don't know, the Torres Strait Islanders are the indigenous peoples of the Torres Strait Isles which are situated between the North of Australia (closest to the cape of Queensland) and Papua New Guinea. The Torres Strait Islanders also lived in the cape region of Queensland, making them another indigenous people of Australia (they are genetically distinct from the Aboriginal people).

Ceremonial headdresses called Dhoeri or Dari, the most iconic and unifying symbol of TSI culture. The design varies between tribes and between purposes. Headdresses were worn by warriors going into battle, warriors celebrating in victory ceremonies, islander dances etc.

Costumes representing the mischievous spirit, Alag. These costumes are donned during the Coming of the Light ceremony, which celebrates the arrival of Christian missionaries and the spreading of Christianity in the Darney Island region in the Torres Strait (circa 1871).
Performers dress in traditional pandanus masks and dried banana leaf capes to represent the Alag.

Depicting a Headhunter (Kuyku Garpathamai Mabaig) communicating with the spirits of his victims. Check out the bamboo beheading knife!

Feather shields worn in dances. The feathers represent the foam of the sea that radiates out from the central ocean scene.

Thanks for reading! If you are interested, please check out these websites for some more information.

http://qag.qld.gov.au/exhibitions/current/land,_sea_and_sky_contemporary_art_of_the_torres_strait_islands
&
http://www.creativecowboyfilms.com/

Cheers.

Aichi and Queensland. State Symbols and Prefectural Symbols.　愛知県とクイーンズランド州のシンボル。

2011-08-18T19:26:00.000-07:00

Just in case you are interested!
興味がある方へ

Translation for Aichi's Symbols

1. Prefectural Fish: Kuruma Prawn

2. Prefectural Bird: Scops Owl

3. Prefectural Flower: Rabbit Ear Iris

G'day Japan! Part 2- ただいま (Here I am!)

2011-08-15T06:17:00.000-07:00

With the balloons popped, the music attenuated and the goodbyes done with (excepting one), I found myself at the dawn of the day that I would be going to Japan. A good friend offered a lift to the airport and this was almost my undoing, haha. My friend had an unfortunate locking of the keys in the house incident leading up to check-in time!! A quick scramble however had me making alternate arrangements and all was peachy again.

I met up with a lot of my fellow JETs at the Brisbane domestic (we had to go to Sydney first-blehh let's travel away from our final destination first-woot!) and I got to meet boyfriends, mums, dads, friends et al. which was kinda heartwarming. I enjoyed seeing the spark of pride in the eyes of the dads and the mums of the other JETs. At check-in time I said my final goodbye :(

Before long we were descending into the metropolis of Tokyo. On descent a flood of memories 2 years past came back to me. I remember my first descent into this wonderful city. It was night and the vastness of the lights was mesmerising. The seemingly endless scale of construction was a little scary. How could they power all these cells of humanity and industry? Seeing the vast residential sprawl on my first train ride from Narita to Tokyo reinforced the scale of life in the metropolis that holds roughly the same population as that of my home country of Australia.

Anyway, I digressed didn't I? This time around, I was greeted with a hot and humid Narita morning. After we got our luggage, a good Brisbane JET friend of mine, 'Mie L', and I finally met 'Aichi P', a friend that we made through the forums. He gave us each a 扇子/sensu (Japanese folding fan), which was an awesome welcoming gift that we put to use pretty darn promptly. Mie L and I boarded the bus bound for swanky Keio Plaza. The reality of being in Japan really started to hit on this bus ride. The alien boxy cars, the architectured roadside 緑/midori, the abundant baseball fields, the unfamiliar plantlife, and of course, the signage in asian characters, all together made it sink in.

We got to the hotel and almost everywhere we went there was a smiling Tokyo Orientation Assistant pointing us in the right direction. It felt very heartening to be greeted in such a way by the cornucopia of friendly assistants. After we got settled in, a group of us went out for errands, shopping and lunch. I got a small suitcase to replace my massive carry-on eco bag which had thoroughly 'exploded' by that point in the journey. Lunch at さら福や, Shinjuku was a little bit spectacular. I had a set meal (定食) of Okhosｔk Mackerel (ほっけ), tofu, rice, salad, miso soup, some delicious seaweed thing and a fruit jelly. It was an awesome first meal in Japan. Later that night, we were feeling pretty tired and ended up having a few quiet ones in the hotel. I discovered Asahi Blue label, a brilliant drink.


ほっけ定食 Mackerel Set Meal

The next day was the start of the business end of the orientation. The opening presentations were very good and the mood, despite being official, was counterbalanced with the humour and occasional anecdotes of the presenters. The same day, I met all my fellow newbie Aichi Prefecture JETs which was great; a mixture of cool people from America, America, & America. Day 3 was full of workshops. The ones that I attended were pretty well done, especially the team teaching and teaching to children with disabilities workshops. That night we got to visit the Australian Embassy in Tokyo. That was a really good time. I actually bit the bullet and talked to the big wigs during meal time. They were really friendly, it was just like talking to anyone I have ever met back home as they certainly retained their laid-back, approachable Australian-ness.

The Aichi massive

Brisbane JETs on Embassy visit night.

On the final day we packed up, said goodbyes to our fellow Brisbane JET buddies and flew or shinkansen-ed to our respective posts. I finally met my supervisor and another one of my fellow JETs from 'Podunk' (NOTE: in the interest of protecting everyone's privacy I have chosen to not use my region's proper name). The day was spent setting up house, registering for the alien card, bank account etc., and going out to eat with my fellow Podunk JETs.

And so started my Japanese life. So, what of my posting? Well, my area abounds in rice paddies (they are called 'tanbo' / 田んぼ) which to me hold a special charm of their own. I've found myself often riding home at night (if you do the JET program you will surely spend your initial few days/weeks going out to eat and drink) and as I approach my home, the wind often blows through the tanbo making the rice plants dance, and seemingly, whisper to each other. It's really nice. The novelty of the birds and plants that are alien to my Australian eyes, remains strong still. I often see what I am convinced is the same big ol' Japanese crane having a late night fish in the channel near my house. Damn thing scared the jiminy crickets out of me the first time I saw it, but now I get disappointed whenever it isn't there to say 今晩は/goodnight to, haha.


Turning the key for the first time in my new apartment

My god, the food is ridiculously good. There is no understating the sheer variety of Japanese cuisine. Just like learning Japanese (or any other language for that matter) is a lifelong practice, the same could almost be said for the discovery of all the regional Japanese cuisines and their variants. I guess I will do a brief food blog later-ish, just showing all the different dishes I have encountered so far. One theme that I really enjoy about Japanese (and pan-asian cuisine really) is the interactivity of meal time. By this I mean the options of the diner/s to cook, flavour, mould, fashion etc. their meal by themselves. From shabu-shabu (しゃぶしゃぶ) through to D.I.Y. takoyaki (たこ焼き), Japanese dining is indeed a fun affair.

So now's a good time to stop this installment. There is definitely a need for a G'day Japan Part 3. Next time I will get more into the specifics of school life and the fun outings I have been indulging in.

Well until then, thanks so much for reading. Much love to friends and family back home and my continued thanks to anyone else that stumbles upon and reads my entries.

Thanks again :)

G'day Japan! Part 1-Bye Bye for now Australia.

2011-08-06T05:37:00.000-07:00

Damn! The month of July just flew right past. Needless to say, I have been a busy boy, taking care of (in a roughly correct order): finishing up at work, administrating my move from A->J, taking part in official functions, saying goodbyes, saying hellos, attending official functions II, going out to not so official functions, heading out to my new home, meets-greets-and-eats, SHOPPING, school etc.

Glad to say, though, that my writing やる気 is back!

So, hey! Let's start from my last few weeks in the country! June and July were composed of many JET functions and workshops. I was entirely impressed with the group of fellow Brisbane JETs, they were all cool people and after a few workshops together we were pretty good friends. Mostly composed of genki dudes and dudettes, we found a small group of us regularly going out on Fridays (after the workshops) to restaurants and on one occassion a club (Jade Buddah, woot!) The Brisbane Consulate of Japan, thanks to an amazing coordinator, ran a series of excellent, informative workshops on teaching, living, surviving etc. in Japan. Our schedule of things to do rounded out with a visit to the swanky residence of The Consul General in Hamilton. We were pretty lucky to get the privelege.

I am cool. A 7 year said so, so there!

July also saw me finishing up at work. I was sad to say goodbye to the kids at my tutoring job. Especially sad to say goodbye to a few of my little J-culture gang. I was teaching some of them to say おす/osu with a martial arts stance thing going on. It was our little thing that we had, you know? A cheesy, fun little thing. One of the girls was very impressive, making up this part martial arts, part party rock anthem shuffle thing. She called it "everyday I'm osu-ling" replete with shuffling and karate chops, my god(!) it was hilarious. You had to be there. Also loved watching one of the cutest little dudes attempting a flying kick. He managed to jump, maybe, 15 lionhearted centimetres off the ground and kick a stubby legg-ed, 30-degree-from-the-vertical 'flying' kick. Wicked cute!

JapanesePod101.com study group last day.

I was pretty bummed to have to finish one of my little initiatives, the JapanesePod101.com study group. It was a humble little group of dynamic fellow Japanese and English learners. I will especially miss the conversations that we had about our respective languages. Sometimes it was over the top (hilariously so), but I think that both my treasured Japanese participants and fellow Australians, Koreans, Malaysians, Frenchmen etc. got a lot out of the sessions. It is great to know that there exists a genuine interest in language and culture in my community. Thanks a lot guys!

Next thing was my visit to my parents' place in the dormant volcano region of Childers, home of sugar cane, an obscene 'modern art' eyesore, country town gossip, backpackers and, of course, red dirt (don't forget the red dirt!) I spent a leisurely few just taking in the country scenery of the family farm and saying hello to my pups. I finally got a chance to show the folks the JET introduction video which was a great time. It suddenly became real once we got to see the everyday lives of a variety of participants in a variety of contexts. It really was put together very well and we all enjoyed watching that.

Another great experience of Childers was my final (for a long while) drinking session with gracious host, 'B', the parents and a few others at a neighbouring cane farm property. It has become tradition to go and have drinks, share dirty jokes and have some genuine belly laughs up at "B's Beer and Bullshit Bar" (alliteration fans rejoice!) whenever I get up to Childers. That was a hoot as always.

On return from Childers, I hurriedly tied up loose ends and had a fun little going away party on the evening before departure day. It was a shame that a fair contingent of buddies were overseas at the time of the party, but I had an absolute blast with the rest of the great mates I have made in Brisbane over the last handful of years. We enjoyed dinner, drinks, listening to awesome tunes, doing the コマネチ and doing some 書道 calligraphy. It was a nice send off, so thanks for coming guys!

KOMANECH!!

All the shodo calligraphy we did at the party.

Well that is the end of Part 1. Thanks very much for reading. Please tell your friends about this blog, +1, leave a comment etc. Look forward to Part 2 very soon :D Cheers!

..of Kangaroos and Kickin' Tunes 1 - Dazzle Vision ダズルヴィジョン (J-Rock)

2011-06-30T22:38:00.000-07:00

Welcome to "...of Kangaroos and Kicking Tunes." For this series I will be exploring various genres of music from all over the globe, but in fitting with the theme of this website, I will obviously be narrowing my focus on the Australian and Japanese music scene mostly. Being an Aussie, I of course have grown up listening to many excellent home-grown bands and artists and I am very excited to share them all with my readers.

On the other 手, I have NOT been especially savvy with the Japanese music scene for most of my music appreciating years, however, I have been putting in a fair amount of 'listening research' and 'performing research' (read: karaoke) over the past two or so years. For Japanese music, my tastes so far lie mostly within the alternative and indie scene which happens to work to this blog's advantage because in a sea of otaku freak-outs over your AKB48s and Morning Musumes, it may be somewhat refreshing to read articles about the artists that exist on the fringe of Japan's underground scene.

So without further ado, let me introduce this edition's band!!

Name: Dazzle Vision

Country: Japan

Style: Rock

Famous-ness/Prominence: Not particularly well known (yet)

Through all my Japanese band prospecting work, Dazzle Vision stand out as one of my most treasured unearthings. The band was formed in 2003 and is composed of your standard vocalist, bassist, guitarist, and drummer setup. Well, I say standard in reference to the setup, but when it comes to the vocalist, Maiko, she is anything but standard. One of Maiko's and the band's major draw cards is her excellent Operatic-Death Metal voice switching ability. I guess you could call her the Japanese woman version of Serj Tankian (of System of a Down fame), lol. Rather than a gimmick, the use of both her singing voices is done in a way to complement the momentum and emotion of the music driving it. The song VISION (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy3tJAQ2Rrw) would be a shining example of this style.

The band has released a steady stream of EPs and albums from 2003, with their earlier efforts being slightly marred by their initial green-ness. What has been enjoyable to witness, is how their sound has evolved over time, with the last 3 or so years seeing a marked sophistication in their production methods and artistic direction. It is obvious to me that they have always held the goal of producing both rocking-out-hard type songs as well as those epic, lovely songs that pull a little at the heart-strings. Their albums have indeed been getting stronger and stronger, but for me, the breakthrough has been with their latest album 'Kirari.' Again we see the band playing to their strengths as well as mixing in a bit of jazzy rock with 'Miss Cinderella 2' which is enjoyable as a bit of a stand-alone offering.

In playing with their strengths, the songs "Juunigatsu" (December) and "One for all, All for one" are particularly memorable 'rocking-out-hard' songs and "Tsuki to Taiyou" (Moon and Sun) and "Sakura" are two 'epic-lovely' finishers to a great album. With the exception of "Miss Cinderella 2," the songs slot in together very nicely and definitely produce a consistent and very big sounding album. Can't wait to see what they can do next!!

If you are interested in hearing their music, check out the website, JapanFiles (http://www.japanfiles.com/dazzlevision)

If you like what you hear, consider supporting this band by buying a few of their songs.

So that'll do it for now! Thanks for reading! If you've got any recommendations, I would love to hear about them in the comments section below!

Rock on!

1000 hits!!!

2011-06-22T04:53:00.000-07:00

Thanks very much to everybody for visiting my humble little space. I am thrilled to have already received 1000 hits :D Will be trying my best to continue to bring you some fun entries. For now I will leave you with some news in lieu of a more fleshed out entry that will be coming soonish.

So the news is that I will be working in a small city in Aichi Prefecture 愛知県!! I have been in contact with my supervisor, predecessor and some of the local JETs, and at this stage, it looks like it will be a good place to go.

more to come later...

Daniel

オーストラリアを建てている：NSW州のスノーウィーマウンテンズスキーム。　Constructing Australia: NSW's Snowy Mountains Scheme

2011-06-14T19:10:00.000-07:00

第二次世界大戦に続いて、戦後の建設と発展には大量のエネルギーが必要とされました。1949年に、ニューサウスウェールズ州のマレーとマランビージー地域に灌漑の水源を備えるため、また安価な水力発電のエネルギーを発電するために、山間部の水を利用するスノーウィーマウンテンズスキームと言う計画が作られました。この多目的な、マルチ貯水池システムは、3200平方キロメートルにわたり、10万人以上の労働者を動員し、25年間もかけて建てられました。計画開始の時点では、熟練した国内労働者が不足していたので、熟練した外国人労働者を募集するキャンペーンが始められました。この計画と連邦政府の移民計画が、互いに、多くの外国人の家族の移民を促進しました。総労働人口の３分の2は外国人労働者で占められました。移民の大半は、ヨーロッパの中央と東からやってきました。これらの家族の多くは、戦争で荒廃した国を脱出していたので、新しい生活を探していました。興味深いことに、計画の設計者がノルウェー人、コミッショナーがニュージーランド人、技術長がアングロ・インディアンでした。地方の団体が、様々なクラブや協会を形成し、文化や英語の授業を無料で提供することによって、移民がオーストラリアの生活習慣に融合することを手伝いました。ブッシュ詩人のバンジョーパターソンの詩と「スノーウィーリッバーからの男」と言う映画も、スノーウィーマウンテンズスキームの熱心な勤労者から刺激を得て生まれました。彼らはその地域のために素晴らしい仕事を行い、そしてまた、オーストラリアの歴史の重要な一部です。

Following World War II, post-war construction and development required a high amount of energy. In 1949, the Snowy Mountains Scheme was established in NSW to utilise the waters of the high country regions to irrigate the Murray and Murrumbigee areas and to cheaply generate large amounts of hydro-electric energy. The multipurpose, multi-reservoir system covers 3200km² and was built by over 100,000 personnel over a 25 year period. At the time of the scheme's inception, there was a national shortage of skilled personnel, so a campaign to recruit skilled foreigners began. Together with the Commonwealth Government's Immigration scheme, the project facilitated the immigration of many foreign families. 2/3 of the final workforce was composed of foreign workers. The majority of the immigrants came from Central and Eastern Europe. Many of these families were escaping their war-torn countries and were looking for a new start in life. Interestingly, the designer for the scheme was a Norweigan, the first Commissioner was a New Zealander and the Chief Engineer was an Anglo-Indian. The migrants were assisted by local organisations in their assimilation into the Australian way of life by forming various clubs and societies and by providing free cultural and English language education. The hard workers of the Snowy Mountains Scheme inspired poems by bush poet, Banjo Patterson and later, a film called The Man from Snowy River. They did a great job for the local region and are an important part of Australian history.

References

"Building the Snowy Scheme - A multi-cultural experience," Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Authority. Retrieved from http://www.multiculturalaustralia.edu.au/doc/snowysch_3.pdf

McHugh, S The Snowy: The People Behind the Power, Melbourne, Heinemann, 1989.

Japanese Mini Lesson 3 - Bicycle!

2011-06-05T03:55:00.000-07:00

For some reason, the Japanese have (at least) 3 different ways to say bicycle, all interesting in their own way. The first way to say bicycle is 自転車・じてんしゃ・jiten-sha. The first part of the word, as I read it, comprises 自転 which means rotation on an axis. The last part, 車, represents vehicle. So it may mean "rotation-on-an-axis vehicle." The other way I could read it is by considering the 3 elements separately; 自(self), 転 (turning around), 車 (vehicle) giving "self-turn/ing-vehicle." Personally I prefer the second explanation as it sounds so logical.

The other two names for bicycle made me laugh when I first heard them, showcasing the humour found in the nomenclature of some Japanese words/expressions. The first is the name for the very common bike that has the¯\_-_/¯ のような handlebars (and often sports a smart-looking basket on the front). It is named "ママチャリ" which is composed of "mama" and "bike." A common misconception amongst learners of Japanese is that チャリ is derived from the borrow/外来 word チャリオット・chariot. チャリ actually comes from ちゃりんこ (a word that is interesting enough in itself and worthy of a different installation of "mini Japanese lesson"). This misconception has however opened up a hilarious vision/mnemonic that a few of us have been using. It gives us "Mama's Chariot," you know, the bike that mothers go out and do their errands (用事・you-ji) on. Haha.

The last name I have for you is ケッタマシーン・ketta-mashiin・"kicked-machine". I have been told that this is an expression used in Nagoya. It has purportedly been used since around about the late 60s and the term may not often be used anymore (Japanese source: http://oshiete.goo.ne.jp/qa/90451.html ). I would love to know in which spirit this name was actualised. I fervently hope it was a drunken coining at the meeting of a particularly genius brains trust.

Next time you tell your Japanese friend that you are "going by bike", which term will you use?

Until next time, happy studies.　じゃね～

Japanese Mini Lesson 2: ♥♥♥ Love at first sight / 一目惚れ♥♥♥

2011-06-01T06:11:00.000-07:00

一目惚れ / ひとめぼれ / Hitomebore

一目惚れ means to be taken with someone at first sight and is very similar to love at first sight, though some academics argue that it is a slightly less powerful expression. In any case, it would be great to describe someone that was taken aback, had their breath momentarily stolen, deftly walked into a door (etc.) upon the first sight of someone that made their heart skip a beat. Please enjoy the example sentence below.

例文 / れいぶん / Reibun （Example Sentence）:
激しく雨が降っていたのでケンが傘をさしかけたところ、マイは一目惚れしてしまった。
It was pelting down with rain, and when Ken held out his umbrella to aid Mai, she experienced love at first sight.

Literally--> Violently raining (past) due to, Ken umbrella held out moment, Mai love at first sight did thoroughly.
Literal translations like these are useful for you guys coming to grips with the order of verbs and objects etc. in Japanese sentences.

Hope that was fun! Let's hope someone holds out an umbrella for you during 梅雨!
日本語に頑張ってください！

オーストラリアの芸術家と著名な文化の大使：ヨス・ヤィンディ Australia's artists and cultural ambassadors: Yothu Yindi

2011-05-24T05:25:00.000-07:00

ヨス・ヤィンディは、1986年に結成されたオーストラリアのバンドです。バンドは先住民とバランダという非先住民の両方からなるメンバーで構成されています。先住民のメンバーは、ノーザンテリトリーの北東アーネムランドに住んでいるヨルヌー族です。バンドのヨス・ヤィンディという名前の意味は、「子供と母親」で、これはヨルヌーの人々が共有する親族関係を表しています。先住民の音楽やダンスと欧米のロック音楽が混ざったようなスタイルがそれまでなかったので、彼らは非常に斬新なグループであると考えられていました。

バンド・リーダーのマンダウイ・ユヌピングは、彼のバンドには2つのビジョンを持っています。一つ目は先住民とバランダの人々が互いに積極的に関係を促進すること、二つ目はヨルヌーの音楽やダンス、文化を世界へ伝えることです。ヨス・ヤィンディがすぐに、世界的な成功を博し, 彼らの2番目のアルバム、「部族の声」は、マルチプラチナのセールスを達成しました。彼らの一番ヒットシングル、「トリーティ」は、ボブホーク首相（当時）がオーストラリアの先住民とバランダ人々の間の条約に締結の約束の実行するのための嘆願として書かれました。これまでに、バンドは6枚のスタジオアルバムを発売し、世界ツアーを何度も行いました。バンドメンバーはヨス・ヤィンディ財団の活動的なメンバーであり、その目的はヨルヌーの文化を維持して、ヨルヌーの人々のため経済的な機会を奨励することです。彼らはオーストラリアの重要な文化の大使として活動を続けています。

Yothu Yindi is an Australian band that formed in 1986. The band consists of both aboriginal and 'balanda' (non-aboriginal) members. The aboriginal members come from the Yolngu tribe, whose people live in North-Eastern Arnhem land in the Northern Territory. The name of the band, Yothu Yindi means 'child and mother' and this represents the kinship that the yolngu clans have with each other. When the band first started touring, they were considered to be a very novel group because such a mixture of aboriginal music and dance with western style rock music had not been seen before.

The band's leader, Mandawuy Yunupingu, has two visions for his band. The first is to promote positive relations between the aborigines and the balanda peoples and the second is to present Yolngu music, dance and culture to the world. They quickly achieved worldwide success, and their second album, 'Tribal Voice' achieved multi-platinum sales. The hit single, 'Treaty' was written as a plea to (the then) Prime Minister Bob Hawke to fulfil a promise to sign a treaty between aboriginal and non-aboriginal Australians. Rarely has such a politically motivated song achieved so much success.

To date, the band has released 6 studio albums and toured the world many times. They are active members of the Yothu Yindi foundation, which has the purpose of maintaining the Yolngu culture and to encourage economic opportunities for the Yolngu people. They continue to be important cultural ambassadors for Australia.

A (brief) Australian lifestyle case study: living in the rural community of Childers あるオーストラリアの生活様式についての（小さな）ケーススタディー：チルダースの農村に住んでいます (In English and 日本語で)

2011-05-18T16:24:00.000-07:00

チルダースの人口は、他の多くの農村のように、とても少ないです。地元の住民がメインの町に行ったとき、知っている誰かに偶然会えば、それぞれの農場や事業、うわさなどについての会話を交わすのは間違いないです。チルダスでの受けられるサービスは限られているので、専門医師などからのサービスを受けるためには、バンダバーグやハービーベイなど近隣の都市に行く必要があります。このような移動は、オーストラリアの小さな田舎町に住む一般的な必要条件です。チルダースには、2つの小学校と唯一の高校、イシス高があります。チルダスの60キロメートルの半径内には既存の小さなコミュニティがいつくかあり、それらと一緒に、イシスと言う地区を構成しています。ちらばっているそれぞれの地域はかなり小さいので、小学校を卒業したら、５つの地域の学生はイシス高に入学しなければなりません。チルダス地域ではさまざまな果物や野菜が栽培されていて、このために、多くのバックパッカーが作物の収穫の仕事をするためにそこに滞在します。チルダースはまさにオーストラリアのサラダボルの一例です。自然に囲まれ、また、海に近い場所などという理由が、子供達がチルダースで生長するいい地域として認証されています。そこに住む学生にとって、学校が休みの間に、作物の収穫の仕事をするのお金を稼ぐためだけではなく世界中からのバックパッカーと会うためのとても良い方法となっています。田舎の生活には多くの利点があると思います。皆はどう思いますか？

Childers, like many other rural communities, has a very small population. When the locals go down to the main township, you can be sure that they will run into somebody they know and strike up a conversation about their respective farms or businesses and also swap the latest gossip they have heard around town. Services in Childers are limited, so it is often a requirement to travel to the city of Bundaberg or Hervey Bay in order to seek out services such as specialist doctors. The need to travel like this is a common requirement for small rural towns in Australia.

In Childers, there are 2 primary schools and only one highschool, Isis High. There are a number of small communities existing within a 60km radius of Childers, with them together making up the Isis District. Because these neighbouring communities are so small, students from 5 of them have to attend Isis High when they graduate primary school.

A variety of fruits and vegetables are grown in the Childers area and because of this, there are many backpackers that go there for picking work. Childers is indeed a prime example of the Australian 'Salad Bowl' (or 'Melting Pot'). The natural surroundings and close proximity to the coast make Childers a great place to grow up in. Taking a holiday job during school holidays is a great way for local students to not only make money, but meet backpackers from all around the world. The country life has many advantages. What do you think?

Kanji by Kappa Edition 2: 梅雨

2011-05-13T13:09:00.000-07:00

Mnemonics. You gotta love 'em; especially when using them to remember Kanji and the compound words that they make up. As was the case for 恥かしい, sometimes you get Kanji that have radicals, that when put together, can make a story to help you remember their meaning. This time however, we have a Kanji Compound word (a word that is composed of 2 or more Kanji) and rather than use the radicals of the kanji to remember the word, we will use the meanings of the individual Kanji. Also, we will use both the etymological origin of the word as well as a cheesy pun to remember the word even better.

So the word today is 梅雨 (tsu-yu), the rainy season in Japan. It is composed of the Kanji for plum, 梅, and the kanji for rain, 雨. In China (remember this is where Kanji come from), the rainy season commences in June which coincides with the ripening of the plums. The rains will tend to follow for ~3-4 weeks, though there are records of the season going for much longer. In fact, there exists an old proverb which goes, "When the rain falls on the ripe plums, there follows 40 rainy days". So when we think of the order of the Kanji as the rain that follows the plum, we get a nice mnemonic for the rainy season.

Our second mnemonic relies on the pun of plum and plumb. Plumb has many definitions, but the one we need here is the adverbial meaning of "to a very high degree", "extremely" and "exactly." For example, "The king was plumb crazy," meaning he was completely bonkers. Fans of cricket (all 2 of you, woo!) will also appreciate that "plumb L.B.W." means, to be square and perfectly hit on the pads, directly in front of the stumps, leaving no doubt as to the batsmen being out. So when we think of plum/plumb rain, we can be assured that the rain is by definition, going to mean business/be the real deal. Therefore, the onslaught of 'plumb' rain will occur during the rainy season.

Ok, that wraps up another Kanji with me, Kappa! You'd better watch out for me and my brethren during 梅雨 as the bowing trick won't work as well on us because the rain will replenish the water that you so deviously make us lose. Better wear your running shoes, heh heh heh.

It's official I am a shortlisted JET candidate!

2011-04-24T03:00:00.000-07:00

The wait has been a toughy to endure, but I am awash with happiness and relief after learning that I will be placed somewhere in Japan as an ALT with the English teacher and cultural ambassador program, JET. I want to thank all my friends that took such genuine interest in the whole process and I would also like to shout out to all the lovely people from the JET forums who have reached out and formed a friendly supportive community online. I look very much forward to meeting all of you guys at Tokyo orientation and perhaps some of you in whatever prefecture I end up in.

So it is a massive relief that I can now call myself a JET and be able to have the opportunity to write about the experiences that I will have first hand. There is a ridiculous amount of information about it online, so reiterating it here is a little redundant. What I will do however is post something about my interview experience and perhaps even upload my statement of purpose essay for the reference of tomorrow's hopefuls. Until then またね！

Making Yaki Udon Dan's Version! ダニエルの焼きうどんを作ってみました！(In English and 日本語で)

2011-04-23T19:31:00.000-07:00

A pleasure to be bringing another cooking blog to the boil. I have had yakisoba (焼きそば) a few times already and have helped making it at a few international BBQs in Brissy, but, it was only until recently that I tried yakiudon (焼きうどん). I love soba and udon, but for my money, I would always go for udon because of it's thickness and texture and all round pleasure to eat. The first yakiudon I ever tried was soo delicious, that I had to go home and try cookng it for myself. Dan's version replaces the traditional seasonings with black pepper, oyster sauce and sesame oil.

よろこんでもう1つの料理ブログを発表します。もうすでに焼きそばを何回か食べたことがあり、ブリスベンの友達と国際的なBBQで作ったことがあるけれども、最近まで焼きうどんを試したことはありませんでした。そばもうどんも好きですけれども、「どっちが好きか」と聞かれれば、厚さと食感と食べたときの感動から言って、うどんが一番好きな麺です。最初試した焼きうどんがすごくうまくて、すぐに家に帰って作って見ました。ダンのバージョンは、黒胡椒、オイスターソースとごま油で伝統的な調味料を置き換えています。

INGREDIENTS

2 breasts of skinless chicken
2 packets of udon
Ginger and garlic
Cabbage (quarter will suffice)
Half a red capsicum
2 carrots
1/3 of a leek sliced thinly (Dan's version)
3 eggs
Black pepper
Soy sauce
Oyster Sauce (Dan's version)
Sesame oil (just a 'hit' of)
3 tablespoons of vegetable oil

Instant udon is convenient and tastes excellent

インスタントうどんは便利で

めちゃめちゃ美味しいです。

Slice carrot and ginger into small rectangular slices
人参とショウガを長方形になるように
切ってください

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　材料 (３人分)

鶏胸肉：　~400g位

インスタントうどん：　2パック　

ショウガとニンニク：お好みの量

キャベツ：　1/4個

赤いピーマン： 1/2個

ニンジン：　2本

西洋にらねぎ： 1/3個 (薄くスライスした)

卵：　3個
水：　100ml

黒胡椒：　少々

醤油：　~6大匙

カキ油： 3-4大匙

ごま油：最後に少々入れてください

植物油：　3大匙

PROCEDURE

The procedure is dead easy, the only vaguely tricky part is in the timing of the addition of ingredients.
Preparation
1. Chop carrots and ginger into small rectangles. Garlic can be roughly or finely chopped, your choice.
2. Slice cabbage into thin sheets, about half a centimetre thick.
3. Capsicum can be roughly chopped into 3x3cm portions.
4. Leek should be sliced on the diagonal about half a centimetre thick.
5. Flash boil (5-10secs) instant udon and then run under cold water. Carefully loosen to separate.
6. Beat 3 eggs and grind black pepper into the mixture.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　作り方

作り方のだいたい簡単ですけれども材料を入れるタイミングが難しいのでご注意ください。

準備

1.人参とショウガを小さな短冊形に切ってください。ニンニクをみじん切りか粗みじんに切ります。

2.キャベツを約0.5cmの厚さに千切りしてください。

3.ピーマンを3cm角に切ってください。

4.西洋にらねぎを薄い斜めに切りにします。

5.す早く（約5-10秒）インスタントうどんを軽く茹で、次にうどんを冷ますため冷たい流水にくぐらせます。

6.卵3個をかき混ぜ、それに黒胡椒を少々入れてください。

Cooking

1. In a deep frying pan or wok, heat oil on high and add chicken, garlic, carrot and cabbage. Cook for about 3-4mins
2. Now add leek and capsicum along with a third of a cup of water, cook for 1-2 mins
3. Add udon and a good covering of soy sauce (about 6 tablespoons). The soy and water should work together to steam the udon and vegetables. Stir fry for another 2 mins.
4. Next add some more water if needed and add some oyster sauce, about 4-5 tablespoons (don't be shy!)

調理

1.フライパンまたは中華鍋で植物油を高温まで温めたあと、そこに鶏肉、ニンニク、人参とキャベツを入れて下さい。約3-4分炒めます。

2.次に、西洋にらねぎとピーマンを入れて水を３分の１のカップを注いで2分炒めます。

3.うどんと醤油（約大匙6）を追加します。醤油と水でうどんと野菜を蒸します。2分間炒めます。

4.好きなようにもっと水を注いで約大匙 4-5のオイスターソースを入れて（尻込みしないでください！！）

5. Finally add the beaten eggs and pepper and stir throught the mixture so it clings and binds to the ingredients.
6. Check the firmness of the ingredients and if the veges are the right texture it is time to serve. OPTIONAL: You may want to add a small dash of sesame oil to finish it all off.

5.最後に、かき混ぜた卵と黒胡椒を注いで全体を混ぜてとじます。

6.野菜の硬さを確認してもし硬さが良ければ、出来上がりです。オプション：終了の時にごま油を少々入れます。


Enjoy! It is good with a draught beer! エンジョイします！生ビールと一緒に食べるのがおすすめです。

Well that wraps up another cooking adventure. I will endeavour to start cooking some Australian recipes for future installments. Until then, happy cooking!

もう1つのクッキングアドベンチャーを終了しました。未来のブログのために、オージーのレシピを料理をするようにします！それまで、ハッピークッキング！^^

What is a dropbear? + Thanks for the feedback, logo has changed!

2011-04-20T08:09:00.000-07:00

The logo is finalised! Shoutouts to Maru from Lang-8 for the onsen Koala idea, Yuki from Facebook who told me to make Kappa look less evil :P, and an honourable mention to Dan also from Facebook who said I should put in the fictional Drop Bear! I didn't think it was identifiable enough, and I ran out of room, but to make up for it I will let you dear readers know exactly what the Drop Bear is.

The "Drop Bear" is a fictional Australian animal that was created in order to amuse Australians and confuse and scare tourists (all in good fun, mate!) Though the animal is mostly described as a fierce Koala-like creature, an ad campaign run by Bundaberg Rum in recent times, sees a new, fun interpretation. In the ad there is a small group of female backpackers camping out in a tent. Just across the way, there is a group of Australian guys camping with the mascot for Bundaberg Rum, a giant Polar Bear (named the Bundy Bear). Now the group of guys scheme together on how to errrm, 'gain the company' of the ladies, and they end up warning them that they should be wary of Drop Bears. The backpackers are taken aback, asking what on earth a drop bear is and the men tell them that they are like big Koalas that live in trees and drop down on tents..and bite your head. Just as the girls are thinking, "hey this is a bit fishy", the Bundy Bear drops down on their tent, making the girls flee into the safety of the boys' camp. The Bundy Bear takes a quick "you owe me one" glance at the lads before they return to their site all smug looking with the knowledge that their scheme has worked.

You can check out the original advertisement here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULEQpUY_crc

As always thanks for reading. またね～　Daniel :)

Any day now... Also, new site logo for the win!

2011-04-17T23:55:00.000-07:00

So I have been addicted to the official JET Forums of late, and it seems that the results for the JET Program have all but rolled out to most of America. This has made my wait doubly painful as I read all the short-listers waxing about their elation and how everything is pretty and shiny in their lives......grahhh, I want to be doing the same right now!!! So Australia and the UK are keeping it old school by informing applicants by ye olde snail mail (Americans are told via email), so we have to just hang in there. Canada, Jamaica and New Zealand (among others that aren't repped strongly on the forums) seem to be still waiting in the wings, so we have been consoling each other somewhat through continuing cheesy forum word games and the like.

In the spirit of keeping distracted I have finally gotten around to making the site logo into something that I like. It is pretty cute, yeah? I want to litter some iconic mini pics around it such as a little Mt. Fuji, a little Uluru etc.

So what do you think? Can you give me some suggestions of Japanese and Australian icons to pepper the site logo with. I will give you a shout out in an upcoming post if you give me an idea that I use!! Ganbatte!

Japanese Mini Lesson 1: How to use "Zuibun" / 随分の使い方

2011-04-15T22:40:00.000-07:00

随分 / ずいぶん / Zuibun

Zuibun is an adverb and na-adjective meaning very, extremely or considerably. I mostly see it used as an adverb and often paired with time expressions.

例文 / れいぶん / Reibun （Example Sentence）:
彼はカラオケボックスで、随分遅くまで歌いました。\
Kare wa karaoke bokkusu de zuibun osoku made utaimashita.
He sang at the Karaoke Box far into the night.

Literally--> Regarding him at the Karaoke Box, very late until sang. Literal translations like these are useful for you guys coming to grips with the order of verbs and objects etc. in Japanese sentences.

The 1st MOS Burger for Australia!! Reviewed!

2011-04-12T03:52:00.000-07:00

I was terribly excited to hear the news about a month prior, that MOS was opening it's maiden store in Sunnybank, Brisbane. According to MOS Burger spokesman, Paul Su, the restaurant located in Sunnybank will serve as a good test store "because of its high Asian population" and that ''it will give us the chance to start localising the menu for the Australian market.''

He then went on to say that another 4 stores are planned for the city by year's end. Delicious progress indeed for my home city. So about 2 weeks after it's opening, I and a few friends headed on to see what was all the fuss. For me, this was my first MOS experience, so I was quite excited. On arrival, we got to enjoy another bit of Japanese culture, waiting in a long line, haha. Even at 2ish weeks following it's opening, the restaurant was still bulging at the seams.

Anyway, a small wait later and in we are trying the:
->MOS Burger (Classic/Original/Vanilla)
->The 1000 Vegetable Burger (Warning: contains meat)
->Yakiniku Rice Burger

REVIEW

1. Mos Burger
Ok, delving into the flagship model first. The first thing that I noticed on biting into this one was the epic size of the tomato, something that seems to be a MOSism. The onions and sauces gave the burger a very pleasant barbeque grill taste. This in addition to the tasty meat patty made this a nice burger. For a fast food item, the meat patty was very flavoursome and has much more character than the ones on a McD's burger. Bad points were that the tomato I got was really flour-y and the bun tasted a little stale. So overall, I would give this a 7/10.

2. 1000 Vegetable Burger
This burger did not have a thousand vegetables on it so it lost points straight away with us, haha. Anyway, this time around, we got a beatifully soft and sweet bun with all components being super tasty and fresh. I assumed that the 1000 would have meant 1000 island dressing or something, but the sauce, though the right colour for it, tasted better than that. So that still remains a mystery, please comment if you know the answer. Everything was delicious so for fast food standards, this gets a solid 9/10.

3. Yakiniku Rice Burger
The manifestation of West meets East, the rice bunned-burger containing delicious marinated beef. This was pretty darn good, the meat was tasty and the rice bun was nice. It wasn't anywhere as near as crispy as the pictures seemed, so that was a little disappointing, but nevertheless, a tasty burger worth 8.5/10

Overall, I was impressed by MOS burger Sunnybank. The food was pretty good and the service was great. The line moved fast and the friendly staff gave us menus and took orders in advance to keep the line going. I was also thrilled that the manager understood my "ご馳走様でした" (thanks for the feast) as we left the store.

Here's hoping we get a Freshness Burger in the near future to add to the growing asian influence in Brisbane.

Introducing: Kanji by Kappa. Edition 1 導入している：カッパの漢字、第一。

2011-04-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the first of my planned regular articles. As the name suggests, this section is all about Kappa introducing his favourite Kanji. Follow him as he introduces his tricks on how to memorise Kanji and Kanji words. Take it away, Kappa.
_______________________
Greetings land-dwellers and welcome to my Kanji clinic.
Today's Kanji word is 恥ずかしい (Hazukashii; Ha-zoo-ka-shee). The English equivalents for this word are embarassed, ashamed and shy. In it's function of "embarrassed" I have a special mnemonic using the two ideographs in the Kanji.
First, on the left side of the Kanji, we have the radical representing 'ear' and 'hearing': 耳
Secondly, on the right side we have the radical representing 'heart': 心

OK, so if you can imagine an embarassing situation, what can you HEAR your HEART doing? It is thumping really hard isn't it. So next time you see 恥ずかしい、think of the ear hearing the heart, and you will remember this with no problem.

Peruse my example sentence:

プレゼンテーションの間に、ズボンが突然、落ちちゃったのでほんまに恥ずかしいになりました。
Purensenteeshon no aida ni, zubon ga totsuzen, ochichatta node honma ni hazukashii ni narimashita.
During the presentation, my pants suddenly dropped to the floor so I became very embarassed.

This concludes the first edition of Kanji with me, Kappa. I must get home now before Kangaroo eats all my cucumbers. Until next time, 又今度！

Classroom Curveball

2011-03-30T05:45:00.000-07:00

So there I was at my tuition school today, a pretty average day really except I had fewer students to supervise than usual. I am relishing this formative experience of teaching children and today I had a bit of an experience which almost took me out.

So one of my students is happily working on his computer program, dutily (and vocally) sounding out his words as he was progressing through the spelling activities. He had knocked down some toughies such as 'knee' and 'cough' before coming to 'I'. He commented something like, "I? Pfft, that's too easy!" I agreed, before he reasoned, "There is 2 different I's isn't there?", referring to eye and I. Then he abruptly says, "I have cancer." In the space of maybe 2 seconds I went from curiosity, through to horror and then finally to tentative understanding as I got reacquainted with his slightly irregular right eye.

"Well, I HAD cancer." Best I could offer was "Oh no, did you?" rejecting my initial instinct to say "Oh! How horrible!" "But they cut it out and I am blind in one eye." At this point my heart was sliced in two and I was terrified at what to do next. "Well, you've had to be very brave haven't you? I sure am glad that you are here with us today having fun learning spelling!"That last bit, I think I could have done better and I continue to do a "mind-groan" everytime I replay it. However, the child, whom appeared so mature and calm about telling me the story, did not resist and jumped straight back into the spelling activity.

It was all so out of the blue and trying to read the child and work out why they would tell me this after only knowing me for 2 lessons is really difficult. Children obviously don't censor themselves like adults do and they are learning social mechanics at a much higher rate, which naturally comes with experimentation of how to act and what can, should and shouldn't be said in varying situations. One thing that stuck out in the interchange was the tone of his voice and the way he was scanning me with his one working eye. I am so sure that he threw it out there to see how an adult reacts to the situation in order for him to gauge how bad it is in an adult's mind, and from this, add it to the numerous other reactions and judgements that he has come across, to steadily construct how bad the impact of this ailment really is on his life.

I still don't understand kids very well, but what I do know is that kids are built pretty damn mature these days.

Recently has been going decently

2011-03-24T08:32:00.000-07:00

So, I have been going a little stir crazy since finishing up at uni last year. I have been actively looking for work, but since silly old honest me has been throwing out the whole YOU-CAN-ONLY-HAVE-ME-UNTIL-JULY disclaimer at every job interview, employers are picking the "safer-bets". So yeah, this has kept me jobless for quite a few weeks and this can make one feel a little unloved and redundant, so it was with absolute glee that I finally suceeded in getting a tutor position with a local tuition business.

I have been working as a casual tutor for a few weeks now and it has been great to feel useful once more. On top of that, I am happy that I get to develop some teaching skills. The role ranges from simply supervising students as they work through literacy and numeracy computer programs through to one-on-one tutoring. I am a Biology major and have offered to tutor many subjects for one-on-one including Chem, Phys, Biol, Maths, and as a punt, Japanese.

The little punt paid off and I currently get to tutor one student in Japanese which thrills me no end because A) I need to hone my language teaching skills for my English teacher role this year; and B) I looove getting paid to talk and teach Japanese (I think this may be what I want to do later on down the track, and yes, despite the Science degree thing :P). Generally, the one-on-ones are better as the students are pretty darn willing to learn (which is good because the parents are paying a damn premium for the privelege).

So, yes, I am pretty happy that I am in this line of work at the moment as I continue to wait in agony for the results of the JET interview. The results usually come out mid-April, so it will be good to have this to distract me. I hope all the other JET hopefuls are coping with their epic waits.

Please look forward to some more interesting blogs very soon!!!

Dan xox

P.S. If you haven't already, be a good global citizen and donate money to the Tsunami appeal if you haven't already! Additionally, you can check out the partners for Japan channel at ---> http://www.youtube.com/user/partners4japan . Simply watching videos on this channel will magically generate revenue for the relief effort. Good on you me hearties :D

The current devastation in Japan

2011-03-15T05:10:00.000-07:00

What an incredibly sad tragedy Japan has been facing over the past few days. I would first like to send out my prayers and positive thoughts to those that are suffering as a consequence of the earthquakes and the tsunami in northern Japan. As if the strife from mother nature wasn't enough, now Japan is dealing with the consequences of the man-made problem that is the radiation coming from their various powerstations. There are somewhat conflicting reports between the domestic and international press regarding the significance and threat of the spent and impending nuclear powerplant explosions which is confusing, but sort of expected in this period of hastily gathered and interpreted information. I guess the healthiest thing to do is focus on the common denominators and to have patience as the news becomes more concrete and reliable.

In light of the massive problems Japan and her peoples are having, I would urge everyone to donate money to one or more of charaties such as The Red Cross, Hands On Tokyo, Save the Children or Global Giving (easy to pay by Paypal at https://www.paypal-donations.com/pp-charity/web.us/campaign.jsp?cid=-12). If everyone does their bit and sacrifices a bit of their wages, the cruel strain on Japan can be eased somewhat.

So for anyone in Japan that stumbles across this blog, I would just like to say 苦しい時にも、一所懸命頑張ってください。毎日、日本人の皆様のことをよくになるように願っています.

Dan.

Making Chikuzen Ni is FUN!!　筑前煮を作るのが楽しいよ！

2011-02-27T19:15:00.000-08:00

This is a fun recipe that I got from a DVD that was kindly given to me in Tokyo at a foreigner information helpdesk. I decided to challenge myself with something harder than soba for a change, going for the oishisou Chikuzen-Ni. I hope you enjoy my photographic journey into the cooking of this delicious chicken stew dish!

Ingredients:
300g chicken
1 Burdock root/ Gogo skinned and sliced ~ 3cm columns
1 Carrot
1/2 Renkon/ Lotus root chopped
Bamboo shoot pieces
~8 Shiitake mushrooms
3 large Taro roots
100g Konnyaku /Yam jelly
Snow peas or green capsicum to garnish

Seasonings:
Dashi Broth (home-made)
Cooking Sake
Soy Sauce
Sugar (can be omitted if you use Kirin (sweet) as your cooking sake)

Techniques/Manual Labour:
Use a spoon to scrape/dig out pieces of Konnyaku. Apparently this is preferable to chopping because it will absorb the flavour of the stew better if you use the scraping motion. In any case it is fun to do =)

You have to then flash boil the Konnyaku for 5 seconds to remove 'the unique odour and scum'. I would suggest 10-15 secs as it is kind of recalcitrant.

Dashi Broth Stage 1. After soaking Dashi Konbu kelp for 30mins, put it on low-med heat for 10mins then remove. The picture is not great for showing it, but it has a beautiful green colouration and it has a subtle but nice perfume to it.

Some of my friends, Mirin, Soy Sauce and Sesame Oil--->

Bring the broth to boil and take off the heat immediately. Add 20g Kezuribushi/Bonito flakes (dried, thinly flaked bonito/skipjack tuna) and soak. Skim off any white bubbly stuff.
.

After like a 5 minute soak strain the broth and Ta-Da! here it is
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Put in a generous amount of sesame oil and stir-fry all ingredients until chicken starts to brown.

Transfer to pot and add 600-800ml Dashi, 60ml Sake, 50ml Soy sauce and 35g Sugar. Simmer on low-med until sauce is reduced by a half.

This is what it looks like when it has reduced (thickened).

Towards the end put in some sliced capsicum and cook for a further 5mins. Serve up and enjoy! I suggest drinking fortune milk with this (haha!)

Indigenous Australia: A tiny snapshot in the modern history of the Aboriginal peoples [English and 日本語]

2011-02-25T17:15:00.000-08:00

Australia's indigenous people are divided into two groups, the Aborigines who live in mainland Australia and the peoples who live north of Australia on the various islands of the Torres Strait, the Torres Strait Islanders. Australia's indigenous are believed to have existed in Australia for at least 40,000 years with some researchers believing for much longer. The aborigines lived all across Australia and formed many communities, with one of the most concentrated communities existinging aroung the Murray Darling basin. The Aborigines have a strong connection with nature and a belief in the spiritual world called the Dreamtime. Through their connection with the Dreamtime spirits, Aboriginals learn stories about the creation of the natural world, and receive guidance in the construction of Aboriginal law, customs and values.

The first contact between Australia's indigenous and foreigners occurred many centuries before English colonisation (1788) through meeting with Asian mariners, traders, Dutch and Spanish explorers. At the time of English settlement, it is believed that Australia's indigenous population was at least 315,000, but this was to drop owing to the impact of the new colonists. Unfortunately, the Indigenous suffered from newly-introduced diseases and were generally treated badly by the English immigrants. Water resources and land were also stolen from the indigenous. Gradually, though, the indigenous would incorporate into white society, however, they would experience much discrimination and it was common for family members to be displaced by government agencies and local authorities. The displaced victims would come to be known as the 'Stolen Generations'. During the 1950s, campaigning for civil rights began and in 1962, indigenous Australians were finally granted the right to vote. In the following decades, indigenous Australians would slowly regain ownership of their lands and gain true equality. These days, indigenous Australians are successful in many fields including politics, arts and sport. They also work very hard as ambassadors of their culture.

オーストラリアの先住民族の人々は2つのグループに分けれています、オーストラリアの本土に住んでいるアボリジニと言う人々とオーストラリアの北にあるトレス海峡の色々な島に住んでいるTorres Strait Islanderです。オーストラリアの先住民族はオーストラリアで少なくとも4万年を生きてきたと考えられていますが、一部の研究者はもっと長いと主張しています。アボリジニは、すべてのオーストラリアの全地域に住んでいて、多くのコミュニティを形成しました。人口の密集地域の1つは、マレーダーリング流域でした。アボリジニは自然と強いつながりを持ち、ドリームタイムと言う霊界を信じています。ドリームタイムとのつながることで、アボリジニは、彼らのは、法律や習慣や自然界の創造の話を学ぶことが出来ます。

オーストラリア先住民と外国人の最初の接触はヨーロッパ人の入植の何世紀も前に起こりました。ヨーロッパ人の入植する前にアジア船員とトレーダーとオランダの探検家とスペインの探検との触がありました。ヨーロッパ人の入植の時、先住民の人口は少なくとも31.5万人であったとされています。ヨーロッパの入植は、先住民族の人々に大きな影響を与えました。残念なことに、先住民は、新しく導入された疾患に罹患しイギリスの移民かひどい扱いを受けました。先住民は水資源と土地も盗まれました。段々、先住民は白人社会に組み込まれたけれども、彼らは、差別を経験し、政府機関によってたくさんの家族を、隔離されました。1950年代、公民権のための運動が始まりました。1962年、オーストラリア先住民には、ようやく、投票権が与えられました。次の数十年では、オーストラリア先住民は、徐々に彼らの土地の所有権を取り戻すし、真の平等を獲得しました。最近、オーストラリア先住民は政治、芸術やスポーツなどを含む、多くの分野で成功を納めています。加えて、先住民は、懸命に文化大使として活動しています。

...of Kangaroos and Kappas! Welcome to my blog :)

2011-02-25T09:12:00.000-08:00

Kon nichi wa big wide world!! Welcome to what I hope to be an informative and fun blog about all things Australia, Japan and other! At present I am a candidate for the position of Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) with the Japanese-run JET program (check them out--> http://www.jetprogramme.org/). Ever since I can remember, I have had a fascination not just with Japan, but pan-asian culture, people and art. My regular job used to be a scientist but last year I decided to run away into the sphere of people and culture, indulging myself (finally) in learning Japanese formally at uni (after having self-studied for a year), and getting involved in language exchange between Aussies, Japanese, Korean and Chinese peoples in Brisbane.

About mid-year I will set my sights toward Japan! I have attended my interview for the ALT job and am now waiting until mid-April for the result. So instead of going crazy waiting for the all-important decision, I have decided to focus my energies towards (amongst other things) a new shiny blog. This is my first time so be nice ne! So that's my little intro; I look forward to making a blog packed with interesting topics and features. よろしくお願いします。