Blog Has Moved!

MovableType stopped working a while back (couldn't login) and I felt like a change and a fresh start so I have started a new blog at http://www.japanmike.net/countingsheep/ You can also just go to www.japanmike.net and it should autoforward to the right place. For now I'm leaving this blog up but I will probably delete it at some time in the future. Like I said, I couldn't use MovableType Properly so this entry is kind of hacked into the index page, hope it displays OK. See you at CountingSheep!

iTunes and Flying Pickets

I'm somewhat distracted right now as I'm listening to music on my PC via iTunes. It's a nice system and I enjoy being able to look for a song or two that I like and buy just those. I bought more music since I started using iTunes than I have in a very long time. Maybe the music industry should take notice of this. Songs that before I had only heard on the radio or TV or had copied from friends on tape or downloaded via P2P. Its nice to see someone making it easier and cheaper for me to legally obtain something I am perfectly willing to pay money for. CDs take space, albums are a gamble, singles a waste. For years I haven't listened to much music at all. Maybe iTunes will change that.

Well I'm going back to listening to the Flying Pickets.

My Father's Watch

Today I got my Father's watch adjusted so it would fit my wrist. It's one of those with a fixed metal strap that is adjusted by adding and removing links. Yesterday I tried it on many times just to see if it really needed adjusting or if it was OK. The watch was quite loose and would easily slide halfway up my forearm.

I remember trying the watch on as a child, I don't know how old I was and in fact I probably tried it on a number of times. But I remember it as one time, putting on this huge metal watch and doing up the clasp. It was so loose that the weight of the watch itself pulled the whole thing around so that it hung underneath my wrist instead of sitting on top. I remember wishing I had a watch like that.

So today, along with buying Japanese textbooks I got some links removed from the watch-strap and with a few small adjustments it fit. I wore it out of the shop and felt kind of surprised to see it on my wrist when I checked the time. Now it feels normal to have it there but I remember my Dad whenever I look at it.

After the Night Shift

Had a short week this week. Night shift finished on Sunday morning so I had Monday and Tuesday off to compensate for the loss of the weekend. I'd originally planned to go see my friend Philip up in Toyooka (about 2 hours north of me by infrequent train from Nishiwaki station) but a quick check of the "on-call" calendar showed me I had to stay put as I was on-call this week (kind of like Doctors being on-call really only I get called in if a server breaks which generally involves less blood).

I would like to say that having been given the gift of time I did lots of things and really made use of my belated weekend. I would like to say it but... well, what actually happened is I slept most of the daytime due to a jet-lag like response to my two days of night-shift. Oh well, don't know how the regular night-shift guys do it, I only have it once every two months or so.

The rest of the week swiftly followed, with work as usual until Friday. On Thursday night I joined an over-the-internet-teleconference-type-thing as a way to "meet" some other Falun Gong practitioners in Japan and study Zhuan Falun together as well as share experiences. When I lived in Nishinomiya I would have gone to Osaka or Kobe to meet up with the local practitioners there to practise the exercises and study the teachings of Falun Gong. Its a great atmosphere as everyone is there to improve themselves and help eachother. Unfortunately, living in the more remote Nishiwaki and with a job that requires I stay near the company some weeks, its difficult to get a chance to get together like this, so the over-the-internet method is definitely welcome.

On Saturday I watched the Chinese film "Hero" directed by Zhang Yimou and staring Jet Li and Zhang Ziyi. The film is set during the warring kingdoms period in China. The film focusses on a group of assassins, all great Kung Fu masters who seek to kill the King of Qin, who aims to unite all of China and expand his empire. I won't reveal more of the story here as I think it is best to just watch the film. There is more than just super-cool fight sequences and wirework but also romance and (what I found particularly appealing) some elements of cultivation (oh and Chinese culture but thats kind of a given really). I'm no film connoiseur but even I noticed the use of colour in the film. It works very well in supporting the character of a scene as well as helping the flow of the story.

As I watched Hero on DVD, I also had a bonus DVD with a "making of" documentary and various interviews. "Great!" I thought, starting it up and then going to adjust the settings so I got English subtitles (as I had with the main film). Nothing. Nope, the bonus DVD doesn't have any subtitle options - though it displays Japanese subtitles which can't be adjusted or turned off. This actually turned out OK though as my Japanese has got to the level now where I could read enough of the subtitles to get the jist of what was being said, despite missing out on a lot of the specifics. I'd certainly recommend it if you want to practise speed-reading in Japanese - some of those subtitles were fast!

That brings me to today, which sleep again took a sizeable chunk out of. Pretty mundane stuff really, checking emails and the like. Washing of clothes foiled by all of the dorm washing machines being full (first time thats happened) and doing a practice exam paper for level two of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT). I have a long way to go on that one. Then this evening I met Yuka for dinner at Mos Burger (the Japanese equivalent of MacDonalds - very tasty) and we practised Japanese minimally and chatted in English the rest of the time.