March 2007 Archives
The title to this entry only makes sense when you realize that my parents will be arriving in Japan on Saturday. They're two week visit will probably drive me bonkers. I can only hope that they somehow figure out how to use chop sticks, or it's going to be nothing but trouble for two weeks. Luckily for them the good weather we've had lately has caused the sakura (cherry blossoms) to pop out early. Already there are tress in Fukuyama full of little white flowers. How lucky they are.
Tuesday night was yet another fun Japanese work party. Usually these events are overly expensive and lacking in the food area. Hell, we even had one party where we had nothing but 12 course of tofu to eat. Tofu + all you can drink = a bad night. I was quite surprised when the place we went to turned out to be fantastic. Sashimi and wasabi as far as the eyes could see. Our giant sashimi boat even a half alive little lobster thing (poor guy, he was stuffed with daikon) that provided me with a slight bit of amusement.
Wednesday was a random day off from school. I went down to Hiroshima to do some shopping and some hanging out. I dragged Crystal and Natalie around town as I shopped my heart out. Lots of tea, books, and an iPod case later (my old leather one sucked so badly...) the girls and I were just plum tuckered out. Which meant that we spent the rest of the day eating snacks and drinking tea. While enjoying some food and drink at the @ Cafe a group of Japanese people and their small dogs came in. I dubbed them the 犬パーテー, to which they all seemed overly amused at. Except for one guy, with a big hat on, who actually shielded his dog's eyes from me. As if his dog would actually be harmed from looking at me. I just made faces at him and his dog for a bit in humorous defiance. The dogs were cute though. Especially the little puppy (shown below in the bag).
I finally have all the major details of my Golden Week Philippines trip worked out. Which I've been agonizing over for the past couple of weeks. I've decided on spending a week in Bohol where I'll be taking a SCUBA diving class, viewing the Chocolate Hills, trying to snap a picture of a tarsier, enjoying the May 1st fiesta, and maybe even chance a sighting of a whale shark. (Ok, I really really really want to see a whale shark. Nothing would make me more happy than to snap a picture of one while I'm in the Philippines.) Originally I was going to travel and dive with another JET and fellow GAC grad, but he backed out (asssssssssssss). While initially I was a bit annoyed (pissed off) with this, I'm now quite glad it happened. If I'm traveling alone, I can do whatever I want to do, and dive wherever I want to dive. Even if my family thinks traveling to the Philippines is a bit too dangerous for me. (To quote my father "You're an easy mark.")
Lastly I just booked tickets to this years Fuji Rock Festival. Its like Woodstock, except with swarms of Japanese people being very polite and friendly. Just one of the many reasons why I will be super poor this summer, and probably into the fall.
A random oddity of life in Fukuyama. On Thursday evening I was ridding by the main train station and happened across a weird gathering of people handing out free produce. Spinach to be exact. There were a large number of older people handing out the spinach packs to passerby's, and even several very attractive ladies in uniform (I can only imagine that they were Miss Spinach Japan) being interviewed and photographed by local news crews. They were even nice enough to give me some. Free veggies are always welcome. Even those gotten at the train station.
As I'll be away traveling for the next week I doubt I'll be posting anything. Expect quite a few fun pictures when I get back.
Saturday was Bill's birthday, and we all celebrated it by going bowling. Lots of bowling. Followed by drinks and karaoke. As words fail to capture the love and good vibes of the event, I've opted to show it through the use of pictures. Enjoy the love that is Bill's birthday party.
Sunday I had some special guests at my apartment. Eisuke and Uichi came over for a bit, and brought along a Nintendo Wii. Last week Mike, Julia, and I had bought Uichi Wii Sports and he wanted to share the love. While I suck at both real life bowling and Wii bowling, I didn't do so bad golfing.
The second picture is of myself and Eisuke after a thrilling round of Wii Boxing, in which I knocked his lights out. (Who knew video games could be so strenuous?) In case you're not familiar with Wii Boxing I've included a short video of Eisuke and I going at it.
He's one crazy 日本人 dude.
About a week or so ago SimCity DS was released over here in Japan. As someone who has had a relationship with SimCity since the 4th grade, I went out and bought a copy. I also made a video review of it, posted at the bottom of this article in case you have issues with reading. Like in the video I'll be covering the basics on the gameplay and options within the game. Just a bit of warning though, when I compare the DS version to other SimCity games I'm referring to SimCity 2000. Its the most similar to the DS version. Also note that I can't read all the Japanese in this game, not by far. I've had to get a lot of help with the translations during game-play. What is written below is an overview with a few of my own thoughts thrown in.
SimCity DS was released on February 22nd to Japanese audiences. The game, for the most part, is classic SimCity at its best. The game-play will be familiar to anyone who has spent time on any of the computer versions. While game-play, as always, can be quite simple but as you move along and make more complex cities the game can become quite difficult.
The game is broken up into three playable parts. Build a City, Save The City, and Tutorial. There is also the Post Office and Museum feature available for you to mess around with if you feel the urge to.
The Post Office feature allows you to connect to another DS and transfer Monuments that you've unlocked (see the sections on Museum and Save the City for more info on Monuments). As no one I know actually has another copy of SimCity I was unable to try out this feature. I assume it works. In case you're wondering, this does not work over the internet. You must be standing next to someone with a copy of the game.
The Museum feature showcases all the regular and special buildings that have been unlocked within the game. Here you can look at the various bits of information about buildings, such as the number of people they employ or how much they cost each month in upkeep. There is also the option to view Monuments and also unlock them by using a password. Again, as I have not unlocked nor gotten any from a friend, I am unable to show you them. (They are famous historic monuments from all over the world, and many are Japan specific. Like being able to build a Japanese castle.)
The Tutorial section is just what it sounds like. Here you will find simple run throughs of all the various functions and features within the game. Its broken down into 15 sections, which you can pick from at any time. Its a good place to learn how to play the game or get a refresher course.
The System section allows you to change the system settings of the game. This can also be accessed when playing the game at any time. Avoid hitting the bottom button, as it erases all data on the game card.
If playing the actual game bores you at any point, and it probably will after a while, you can play any of the various Save The City challenges. Much like in SimCity games of the past this game includes several scenarios for you to take a crack at. These include such exciting things as rebuilding a city after a UFO attack, or such dull things as fixing power or pollution issues. Completing these eight scenarios will unlock Monuments for you to use and transfer to other people.
Now to the gameplay itself and how it works on the DS. This is accessed through Build a City. Enter a name for your city and a name for the mayor of the city. Next you'll have to chose a location for the city. There are 20 land zones to pick from, and each has a different starting cash value. Money ranges from $10,000 to $100,000 depending on the zone you pick.
Now you can play the game! The top part of your DS screen will always show the city landscape, be it trees of buildings. On the bottom of that screen you'll notice a new ticker that gives you info on how your city is doing. This screen never changes. The bottom screen is where the fun happens. When not building things your screen with show the city map. On the top left there is the date, city name, money, population, and below that is your Advisor. Next to him or her is your demands for Residential, Commercial, and Industrial as well as your approval rating. On the right top is the Save button, and below that is your Mail. On the bottom right are the Zoom In and Play/ Pause buttons. To move around the view of the top screen you can point and click around the bottom map. To zoom in there is a little back circle (which may be tough to see in the picture) attached to the view square you move around. Click it and you move to building mode.
When you move into building mode, your bottom screen will change to a grid view, while your top screen will show the standard view of your city. On the top you'll see a list of icons which represent the various types of things you can build. Clicking on one will show you the things you can build, or things that will be unlocked as time moves along. You'll also note how on the bottom right you're now given more options. The X is an undo button, in case you screw up placement of something. The thing that looks like a cross hair allows you to move your view by using the tough screen, in case you don't wish to use the directional pad. The question mark lets you get into on a single square. The mag glass lets you zoom in. The arrow takes you back to your city overview map. The Y removes all icons and images from your screen, leaving only the grid mode.
Along the left side of your screen you'll also see a while lot of options. These are Build, Finances, Data, Graphs, System, and Mail. Build lets you build in grid mode. Finances lets you adjust taxes as well as the money various city services get. Data gives you various maps of your city that show anything from crime to pollution levels. Graphs also give you data on your city, but over different lengths of time. System lets you access the same system options as the main screen. Mail lets you see letters the game gives you, none of which I have even attempted to read. At any time you can hit the arrow in the bottom right screen to get back to the main city overview. From the main screen you can quickly access these by clicking on certain things. Clicking on the population info takes you to Graphs, clicking on your money reserves takes you to Finances.
So how does one build things. Well first you pick something to build or destroy. Then you move your pointer around and place it. It really doesn't get any easier than that. The touch interface makes for great gameplay. If you want to build a road, just clock and drag to make a line. To bulldoze things just click and drag over the area where you want to destroy things. If for some reason you can't build in a certain spot, the tiles will go red (as in the third picture below). The top screen will then show what you have built. Honestly, the building part of this game could not be easier. The touch screen and SimCity are a match made in heaven.
Your Advisor. You can pick from 4 different ones when you first load up the game, and occasionally if you're really sucking it up, a new Advisor will offer his or her help. From time to time they'll prompt you to click on them and you can talk to someone in the community. These range from a school girl to an Japanese otaku (super nerd), who complain about things in the city that you should fix. This will happen quite often, and afterwards if you agree to help you can sign your name. Through this function you will also be notified when you get special buildings or when new types of buildings can be bought.
Sometimes you'll be interrupted to play a minigame or a disaster. Such as saving people from a UFO or making fireworks explode. You'll get money for completing these tasks, if you happen to be lucky enough to get one. You'll also probably have to deal with your fair share of fires early on, as the game likes to start them in remote areas of town on random trees. You can blow them out by blowing on your microphone, or just waiting 10 seconds. Fires don't spread. What you should be afraid of is earth quakes, which suck, and destroy most important buildings in your city. Life in a fake Japanese city can sometimes suck. (Sorry, no disaster pictures, as they are few and far between, and honestly are nothing special to look at.)
My thoughts on the game: While I love the game to no end, and think its a very nice edition of SimCity and a splendid DS game with near unlimited game-play, there are a couple of major issues that stop it from being near perfect. The first major issue is the Save function within the game. There is first, no auto-save. If your DS runs out of power or your shut it off, your progress is forever lost. Seeing as how this game takes a lot of time to play, you will probably be very very angry (I know this for a fact) if you run out of power. Though this problem actually takes second place to the fact that you can only have one city saved in your DS at a time. Start a new city and your old city gets deleted. This seems like a major oversight in the game, and something that EA should be smacked in the face for. Its just down right stupid. The only real game-play issue I have is the lack of transportation options in the game. You're limited to Road, Bus Stop, Train Track, and Train Station. Where is the Subway? The Parkway? The Highway? They can have 10 types of power plants, but only four types of transportation. The minor issues I have with the game are the lack of terrain and water management. There is only one elevation (so much for this being a simulation of Japanese cities) and water can be bulldozed over for $7. The music gets kind of... annoying after a while. The advisor is well, overly helpful, and annoying. You start in the year 1900 and it takes FOREVER get new technology and buildings. Heck, you have to wait until 1920 to get a bus stop. But these minor issues aside, if it wasn't for the major issue with the Save features this game would be about perfect.
Currently your best option for getting ahold of it would be to import it from Play-Asia.com. But once again, be warned, you'll be facing a lot of Japanese in game (if for some reason you hadn't figured that out by now.) According to one article I read the game will be released in English sometime in June.
In case you have reading issues, you can watch the video and hear me say more or less the same things I have written here. Plus see the game in action.
Thanks for reading and or watching. Feel free to post a question on the video or on this blog entry. I'll try and get back to you if I have the time.
I may have been the last ALT in Japan to read this scathing op ed article calling for the end of the JET Programme, but my feelings on the subject demand that I respond to it.
In the article "Speak Up/ Time to end the use of ALTs" Professor James W. Porcaro calls the JET Programme "useless with regard to adding to the English-language abilities of the students in his classes" if not "detrimental" to learning of English in Japan. He goes on to argue that the JET Programme is large waste of money, costing "about 50 billion yen to Japan's taxpayer." He criticizes ALTS for their lack of "experience as teachers of anything, let alone English as a foreign language (EFL)" and says that Japan would be better off spending all this time and effort training their teaching staff. This one paragraph sums up his entire article in a nutshell.
"Given the staggering annual cost of all the ALTs in Japan, a cost/benefits analysis would certainly conclude that their employment involves a wasteful expenditure of massive funds for, at best, very limited and unproven gains. The use of ALTs in English classes should be terminated and the money used for long-term, intensive training of JTEs in workshops, seminars, and courses throughout the year, including the long-term presence of master teachers, both Japanese and native speakers, as mentors in the schools. At the same time, it is imperative that the Education, Science and Technology Ministry mandate the practice of CLT and terminate yakudoku instruction. Other measures, such as reduction of class sizes and an increase in the number of trained teachers, should be funded in place of the current expenditure on ALTs."
I think Professor Porcaro needs to take a look at the introduction page of the JET Programme webpage and understand the goals set forth by the JET Programme.
"The Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme aims to promote grass roots internationalisation at the local level by inviting young overseas graduates to assist in international exchange and foreign language education in local governments, boards of education and elemantary, junior and senior high schools throughout Japan. It seeks to foster ties between Japanese citizens (mainly youth) and JET participants at the person-to-person level."
The JET Programme isn't just about English education, its about cultural education, something that Japan lacks in great quantities. How can the second largest economy in the world expect to stay that way when it still suffers from mass xenophobia and a complete lack of interest and understanding in the world outside of Japan. How is it that children in Osaka, the second largest city in Japan, feel compelled to point at me and call me "foreigner"? Or my female foreign friends find themselves IDed by Police, mistaking them for Russian call girls? If this is happening in the largest cities in Japan we can only assume how things are in the rest of the country.
Half of what the JET Programme does is force young Japanese students into a situation where they get to see a foreigner up close and person. Learn that blond hair grows naturally, and blue eyes are not some high tech illusion. They can actually speak to us and ask us those burning cultural questions like "how many guns do you own?" and "can you use guns in schools?". They can see that chop sticks are not that difficult to use and some of us really do like sushi. Cultural exchange with a foreigner is a priceless activity to an average student who will never have a chance to travel outside of Japan, and helps spark interests in the rest of the world. These are things that no text book can ever achieve.
But I'm sad to say that Professor Porcaro is right in some areas. Yes, some JETs are "useless with regard to adding to the English-language abilities of the students in his classes". I even completely agree that "the vast majority of them are recent college graduates with little or no experience as teachers". But these in themselves are not the fault of the JET Programme, and in fact are just symptoms of the overall state of English teaching in Japan as a whole.
Blame can not be placed on the JET Programme, or even the individual JET in most cases, when an ALT sits around endlessly for weeks on end doing nothing. The ALT and the JET Programme has nothing to do with class scheduling. As I write this I think of my friends teaching in High Schools where for the past month students have been spending all their time studying for standardized written tests, something which makes the ALT rather useless. Blame can not be placed on the Programme or the ALT when the JTE openly refuses to use the ALT in class, or has no urge to find ways to integrate the ALT into the lesson. Bad situations like these are far more common then you would think.
Professor Porcaro points out the reason for these bad situations when he writes:
"As most of their counterpart Japanese teachers of English (JTEs) at middle and high schools receive almost no formal teacher training and inadequate in-service training and rely almost exclusively on yakudoku (grammar-translation) as the only known instructional methodology, the classroom work of paired teams of JTEs and ALTs is often much like the blind leading the blind insofar as implementing effective communicative English-language instruction."
Which brings us to probably the best reason to have ALTs in the classroom: the JTE. First off let me say that almost every Japanese English Teacher I have met and worked with have been wonderful teachers and people. But for every good teacher I have met there is an extreamly bad teacher I have met. Ask any ALT and they'll probably give you a similar story about JTEs whose English isn't even good enough to go over a lesson plan with or who spends the entire class period speaking in nothing but Japanese to the students. In these situations having someone how actually speaks English can only improve the situation. If nothing else it forces the JTE actively speak English with someone on a daily basis and puts someone in the classroom who can read from the textbook.
Something I have said before, and will say again, is that the main problem with English teaching in Japan is its a system that is taught to Japanese people, by Japanese people, using text books written by Japanese people. In the end, where is the English? Not from their environment. There may be English everywhere in Japan, but none of it actually means anything. Not from the JTEs. Even the best of my JTEs has English issues, something that can be expected from anyone who has learned English as a second language. Not from the text books, most of which are uninspiring and out of date as to how English is naturally used. Which the leaves us with the ALT. The only source of naturally flowing English available to the majority of students.
Which really is the point isn't it. Natural communication. When should students be introduced to it. Elementary School? Junior High School? High School? College? If a country is going to make learning English mandatory for every student, as Japan has done, how soon is too soon? There is one part of my city that has been putting ALTs into the Elementary Schools for several years now and you don't a long term study to show that when these kids enter Junior High School their English level is leaps and bounds better than students in other parts of the city. What does that tell you about English in Schools? So maybe the real question is: How soon is too late? Can Japan really say that it wants to seriously teach English at a High School level, yet not provide a native speaker to speak to the students? To do so is to dilute the language and the learning. Now if somehow Japan was able to combine the the various ideas put forth in the article, smaller classrooms and improved teacher training, along with an ALT in every classroom Japan would have the most powerful English teaching school system in the world. If only.
The point is that no matter how many JTEs you send to seminars or send back to school none of them will be able to speak English as well as the average ALT. None of them will instinctively know if a sentence sounds right. None of them will be able to look at a classroom full of students and interest them just by being themselves. I don't think the problem with the JET Programme is the ALTs, its that there isn't an ALT in every classroom every day. Someone to talk with the JTE before and after class, someone to play basketball with the kids after school, someone for the kids to run into at the local mall.
I think Professor Porcaro needs to realize that an ALT's job doesn't stop when he leaves the school's grounds, its focus just changes slightly. Its one job that only stops when you leave the country.
Saturday was Junior High School Graduation across the city of Fukuyama. Which means that every Junior High School student spend Saturday morning in a very cold and tear filled auditorium. No really, it was quite cold, hovering around 30 F and a large number of students were in tears. Seeing as how I wasn't invited to any graduations this year I had planned to spend my Saturday sleeping in. Until Friday. When I felt the urge to be a good teacher and make an effort to be a part of my student's school experience (I kid you not. Civic pride.). So I called up a teacher of mine, told her I wanted to go to graduation, to which she seemed quite shocked and rather confused about. She then asked me if she had to get permission from my boss, and then got permission from her boss, and then once again expressed her confusion as to why I wanted to go. Then she had to double check what I would wear to the occasion. All this work for me to sit in a cold auditorium and listen to people say things which I couldn't comprehend. Junior High School Graduation went down like a military marching band. Highly Synchronized, and slightly dull to those watching it. I believe thats because the students had spent all week rehearsing it, and had the whole 'sitting down and standing up' thing perfected to an art. Luckily there were only 30 some kids graduating because the "honored guests", important people in the city as well as the ever so important PTA, along with a number of the parents looked like they were halfway to slumber-land. Luckily the extreme cold and my suit kept me highly alert so I could watch the every single third year girl burst into tears, and then have those tears freeze to their faces. Poor little guys. After the ceremony the entire school lined the parking-lot, where they handed gifts to all the third years as the walked out the school gate. Which was highly cute. Then came a large amount of photo taking, to which my face now graces several hundred of these pictures. And to think I wouldn't want to come to such an event....
I was actually worried about my alertness level Saturday morning. The night before I had gone to a rather fun filled birthday party for my Japanese buddy Uichi. I clearly need to have my birthday party hosted by some small bar or restaurant because they seem to put on the best events. There seemed to be an ongoing theme that evening, where the staff kept trying to get him drunk though a series of group games, all which resulted in him drinking. Poor guy. Though he did seem rather ecstatic when Michael, Julia, and I presented him with a copy of Wii Sports. Its the gift that keeps on giving. No, actually thats the apron someone else gave him. Hot stuff.
Saturday evening a group of us got together to eat massive amounts of tacos at my place. Which was all just a big excuse for myself to make super large quantities of tacos for myself to eat. Es muy bueno. That and to lose at Trivial Pursuit. Though not too badly. My team came close enough to winning that we didn't feel too bad, even if we lost to Michael. Next time.
Please stop writing to be asking when the NIntendo DS Broswer, the one I bought and reviewed and has over 250,000 views on youtube, will be released in your neck of the woods. Its been released in Japan for some time now, and in Europe for a bit, and if for some reason you want its rather crippled version of the internet and you didn't import it already it should be appearing in North America in June. Rejoice.
I picked up the Nintendo DS version of SimCity today, on a whim, while buying a birthday gift for a friend. My love of SimCity goes back to the 4th grade when I spent countless hours playing SimCity 2000 on my parents old Macintosh iivx. Oh the fun. I'm really looking forward to playing, what is essentially SimCity 3000 heavily tweaked for the DS, and also to me not being able to understand most of the written text. I think the main reason I got it is for the ability to build a Japanese castle..... damn clever marketing if you ask me. If only all DS games could be this educational and this fun! (In case you feel the urge, here is where to import it.)
On Saturday I had the chance to go to a Hiroshima Carp game here in Fukuyama with my friend Nakashima. No, nothing too exciting, just a preseason game. I ate an "American Dog" and somehow weathered the slightly cold temperature. The Japanese people around me seemed much colder then I was. Anyhow, the Carp managed to pull off a last minute home run to win the game and prevent it from going into an extra inning. Which was a surprise to everyone, as the Carp are not known for their ability to win games. Maybe its the good luck of 福山！
That evening I went out to Kanabe and saw Perfume with some friends. A movie which left me with very mixed feelings. While I really liked lots of the film.... I also kind of didn't like it. Its a tough film to bring to life, seeing as how the entire story is based around scents, and a movie is based around pictures. Luckily the director Tom Tykwer was able to pull it off, making the visuals almost jump out at you and smell them. (Many of these visuals were quite horrible in nature mind you.) If nothing else it was a good chance to get out of the house and out to a movie.
Thanks China. Thanks for causing a major economic downturn across Asia. Thanks a lot. No really. You're making my yen worth more by the day. Keep up the good work, and maybe I'll send some more money home.
Online new source Slate.com has an interesting poem featured this week. Its titled "The Gaijin in the Teachers' Room in December" and manages to capture the sad state of life as a teacher in Japan. A wonderful poem that anyone teaching over here can relate to in many different ways.
On the opposite side of things.... you really have to wonder how any work gets done here in Japan, when everyone is spending all their time making pictures like these. Thanks Nate. (Not really work safe, unless you're in Japan.)
My couch came today. Exactly at 6, as promised. In fact they were 2 minutes early. If nothing else, when someone in Japan says they'll deliver something at a certain time, they really mean it. The interesting aspect if my couch isn't how comfortable it is, or how it fits in my room. Its the amount of work that went into getting it through my kitchen. For those who don't know, my kitchen is about two feet wide, and one foot of that is taken up by shelves and a tabley thing. So when I got home, and saw the movers already bringing the couch up the stairs, I quickly tired to move everything out of the way. Which then reviled how much dirt had built up behind things (gross). Anyways, the guys who moved it were really nice and helped me rearrange my kitchen. Anyways, here are some fun filled couch pictures and how my tatami room looks. (Meaning I feel the need to show off my 20,000¥ investment. Also, I now have a fun filled place to play my Dreamcast! Chu Chu Rocket!)
I ran into some neighborhood kids today, who asked me about the kittens. You know, the ones that died. This is how it went:
Kid: How are the kittens?
Me:.....
Me: Ummm.... They went to Hiroshima City.
Kid: Ok, bye bye.
Me: *tear*
On a much much much lighter note I uploaded all my Cambodia pictures. Don't worry, I only did 100 out of the 700 I took. Seriously, go and comment on them. Or at least just look at them. Giant stone head just don't look at themselves now. (Special thanks to Dale for having the coolest comment thus far.)
