Miraikan Science Museum, Tokyo

This cool family science museum on the artificial Daiba islands of Tokyo houses the ground-breaking ASIMO robot, who comes out twice a day to woo crowds.

ASIMO is enough of a reason to pay the 620 yen entrance fee, but there are many other cool features of the museum for all the family to enjoy. Theres the "intelligent seal" which adores being tickled and stroked, the binary version of the internet reenacted with black and white balls, the hands-on keyhole surgery, the deep-sea diving capsule, the space rocket engine and capsule, the stunning magnetic liquid exhibition, a huge library of Japanese language video documentaries and a fascinating theatre to name just a few things.

Those with a passion for such places could quite easily spend all day here.

Access
Just a short walk from the Telecom Center elevated train station on the Yurikamome line (well signposted). Just over half an hour via several trains from Shinjuku.

Map

View Miraikan (www.accessj.com) in a larger map

WS: New Teacher "Self-Intro Bingo" Grade 1 JHS

Another teacher-bingo style activity, this time to introduce yourself to first graders for the first time. I would precede it with a brief verbal intro as advised by your JTE (name, age, hobbies, ethnic background etc).



Self-intro activities for second and third graders could be the Can you bingo, Did you bingo or the Will you bingo activities I posted recently.

It's pretty self-explanatory, but here's how to make it work in class:

1. Students practice the vocab, including what should be the only new word for them: "or"
2. If you want, they can then ask each other "do you like X or X?" before thinking about you, and what you like,
3. They guess which thing you like and circle it for all the boxes,
4. You can then nominate students (or ask for volunteers) to ask you the question for each box,
5. If they have guessed correctly, they can circle the whole box, if not, then it's a big X for them,
6. Play bingo like this, where four circles in any direction = one bingo,
7. If you have some stickers or stamps, award them for the first X number of bingos.

Here's the sheet for download.

There you go. Very simple idea, and now the kids know you a little better.

As always, please don't redistribute this anywhere else.

Q&A: Daddy Long Legs

Welcome to the first installment of our Q&A series.

Today we hear from a young woman who received monthly bank transfers over 6 years from an absolute stranger she met over the Internet in exchange for sending him daily diary entries. After breaking off communication with the man, she wonders if she should feel obligated to repay the money back to him even though he hasn't asked her to.

Let's hear what the Internet has to say!

Hi, I'm posting for the first time. I'm a female university freshman.

When I was a first-year junior high school student, I was bullied a lot. I couldn't say anything to my parents about it, and instead I confided in an older man who I met through the Internet. He was in his 50s and told me he had a strained home life.

My hobby was reading, and the man I met taught me more about how to escape into the world of books. He started sending me money so I could buy new books. (I didn't have a good concept of the danger at the time and freely shared my personal info. I wish I hadn't now.)

He was so happy when I started e-mailing him daily to talk about the things going on in my life or my thoughts about the books that I read. Soon he was sending me about 10,000 yen ($100) per month. I managed my own bank account, and my parents were always busy with work, so I was able to use the money without them noticing. I used it to purchase books and later even enrolled at a juku when it was time to prepare for high school entrance exams.

I became a high school student and got a lot of new friends. When I told the man how it was hard to ask my parents to pay for me to go on field trips with my school club, he sent me the money. My club went on a lot of field trips, and between that and the tuition of a prep school I attended in the evening, I was receiving 30,000 yen ($300) per month.

The man loved to hear about my daily events as a high school student, and he told me he thought of me as his daughter. The relationship reminded me of Daddy-Long-Legs, but I didn't think about it too much.

After high school, I moved to Tokyo for college. Other girls at the school were big into fashion and it was a bad influence on me. I started asking for extra money from the man, which I used to buy clothes and accessories. At some point I think he got fed up with the way I was acting because he stopped replying to my e-mails.

When I realized this, I rethought my spending habits. I feel like I've forgotten who I really am. And now I'm just overwhelmed with self-disgust.

From now on, so I can be truly independent, I'm going to start working part-time and use scholarship money to pay for school, no matter how hard it is. I don't want to accept any money from anyone else ever again. I see that the way things are now isn't good for myself, and my warped sense of money is only going to hurt me.

So I want to ask: If my benefactor demanded I return the money I accepted from him all those years, am I obligated to return it? We have had no physical relationship, and we've only met each other one time.

Maybe this story is hard to believe, but I really need an answer. Just assuming this kind of situation, what are my responsibilities in regard to the money?
Thank you.

---

First post. 

If you really wanted to give the money back, you wouldn't have made a post like this in the first place. I think you're just being inconsistent.

Sorry if I offended you.

It's OK. I'm not offended. When I first drafted the post, I didn't think it was very coherent. I felt like I needed to explain the parts that were hard to understand. So, that last question was me trying to be more clear.

You're right. If I'm worried about whether I'm obligated to return the money, that must mean I don't want to return it. I'm just making excuses now, but the total sum of money I received from this man is enormous. If I'm obligated to pay it back then there must be some kind of deadline to do that by, and if that's the case I have to think about stuff like revealing this to my parents or quitting school to work full time so I can pay it off.

---

The money was a gift and you don't have any legal obligation to return it. Besides, it's not like a guy with that kind of personality is going to demand you return it in the first place.

But, the way you feel means something. Are you a mooch?

There was a part of me that thought it was natural for him to be sending me money. I think that's why I was able to use it to buy clothes and stuff. I should have been thinking about what it meant that he was giving me his hard-earned money.

I want to become the kind of person that he can feel glad he invested in. I don't think I have any value to be thought of like that now.

That's why this is so painful for me!

---

Well, Internet, you certainly never fail to impress! I hope everything worked out OK for this girl, especially after everyone blatantly ignored the fact that she spent her entire teenage life supported by a man 40 years her senior and this arrangement was completely concealed from her parents and teachers. And she intends to keep the secret barring impending financial disaster.

I want to express nothing but support for the trending of her strong moral compass; I just wonder why it was so easy for everyone to get past the initial premise of her situation. It never dawns on the parents that she never asks them for money but goes on every school trip and brings home an armload of books every month. The secret benefactor, who was romantic in Judy's case (in the book Daddy Long Legs) because she didn't have any parents, is played down by all the respondents as if relationships between adolescent girls and middle-aged men are as a rule totally natural, innocuous affairs. (That's foreshadowing for a future Q&A post, by the way!)

If you have any comments or screams of outrage, please share below!

Seismic Fault Line Map of Japan

This latest link is an incredibly detailed (because it comes from the Japan Seismic Hazard Information Station) map of the true "Danger Zones" in Japan.

On Tuesday we published a map which indicated the strength of vibration of different parts of Japan based on the surface type. However, it was misinterpreted by some as an indication of where quakes were most likely to occur.

In response, this is exactly that.

This map allows you to view, in terrifying detail, the varieties or seismic faults in any region of Japan. You can also see details of all local landslides, large or small. The amount of detail available probably requires a doctorate to interpret properly, but you can get a pretty good idea of the lay of the land with the various options.

With everything switched on, it looks more like a psychologically damaged child has attacked a map of Japan with their felt-tip collection that anything scientific. Anyway, hope it's useful. Here's the link:

J-SHIS Japan Seismic Hazard information Station.

Japanese Fruit Picking Seasons

Japan is famous for all kinds of delicious fruits. Different areas boast some great local varieties. For example, some cities of Nagano prefecture have world-famous apples (Iida city, especially, where local school-children groom the trees which line a beautiful street in town).

Picking seasons for 18 popular fruits below:


So proud are such places that there will be many signs for picking times, where you can pay a flat fee for a set amount of time in which to manically pick as much fruit as possible.

Here are the peak dates for all the fruits I could find information on. They're approximate, and will vary somewhat up and down the country. Happy picking.


Spring/Summer
Cherries (cherii): June
Peaches (momo): June-August
Melon (meron): June-September
Nectarine (nekutarin): July-August
Plums (ume): July-August
Watermelon (suica): July-August
Prunes (sumomo): August-September
Grapes (budou): August-September
Apples (ringo): September-December
Pears (nashi): September-October

Figs (Ichijiku): September-October

Autumn/Winter
Persimmons (kaki): October-November
Satsuma (Mikan): October-December
Yuzu: November-February
Sudachi: November-February
Kumquat (kinkan): November-February
Strawberries (ichigo): January-May
Kiwi (kiui): January-March

More

• There seems to be a "fruit line" in virtually every prefecture - a region or road along which you can see and pick a huge variety of fruits. There one in Ibaraki (which may never be popular again thanks to the nuclear incident), and various websites like rurubu, Sunnypages and pickyourown which will list some farms for you.
• Also, a place in Kazu will let you volunteer to work on the farm. All you need to do is bear the music on their homepage!

Earthquake "Danger Zones" Map of Japan

The map embedded below shows the areas of Japan most prone to certain degrees of shaking.

A translation and detailed prefectural links lie beneath.

View Earthquake Danger Zones fullscreen

This link breaks down the above image into detailed views of each prefecture (all in Japanese).

the above is not a map of where most earthquakes happen, rather a description of the structure of the land and how that will modify the intensity for people in those areas. The text below the image briefly talks about soil types and how that affects the seismic intensity. The key shows how much more severe an earthquake would be in each of the coloured areas.

Q&A: Introduction

I admit it. I have a guilty pleasure: I like reading the Japanese version of Yahoo! Answers, or Yahoo! Chiebukuro. Judging from the content quality of its English counterpart, I'm afraid this admission speaks volumes about the level I operate on when using Japanese. It's probably akin to an ESL learner proudly indicating reruns of the Jerry Springer show as her favorite leisure activity.

At least Chiebukuro members write in full-formed, polite sentences and tend to thank other users for their responses. I'd say that's two full steps up on the social competency staircase from "How can do u drift with an automated car?" But, again, content-wise, it's not like the Japanese site has any lack of step-by-step drifting lessons.

So, yes, I need to tell the world about my love of Chiebukuro about as much as I need to punch myself in the stomach. But that's OK, because I'll get over both the humiliation and the aching gut thanks to a healing combination of schadenfreude and an endless stream of absurdities people ask about from behind the protective curtain of Internet anonymity. (Which curtain is, as the recent university entrance exam cheating scandal and subsequent arrest showed us, a gauze one at best.)

Starting this month, I'll be rolling out on AccessJ a new series of Q&A posts which examine useful (or terrible) questions posed on Yahoo! Chiebukuro, Oshiete Goo, and similar sites, as well as the answers provided for those questions. Some of the questions may actually help you learn how to do something yourself in Japan. Others will be chosen for entertainment value only.

If you have any such Question & Answer type pages that you're dying to see translated into English, please contact the AccessJ Team! Comment here, or check us out on Facebook or Twitter.

In the meantime, stay tuned for the next post in and official start of our new Q&A series!

WS: Do You Have...? 1st Grade JHS

This is another sheet in the vein of my "Would You Like" 3rd grade handout. It involves cutting and sticking and is great for elementary or 1st graders at JHS.

Here it is.

It's pretty straight-forward.

• Write on any words you don't think they'll know,
• One sheet each,
• Students decide what are the most important things to take on holiday, and walk around class (or in pairs if you prefer) playing janken, with the winner asking "Do you have (what I want)?"
• The respondent replies with "Yes I do. Here you are." or "No, I don't. Byebye."
• If they have it, they cut it out and hand it over.
• The recipient sticks in on their bag.

Will last up to 25 minutes-ish depending on how long you want it to, and how easily amused your kids are.

You can use our writing sheets to get them to practice more.

Remote Engine Starter on Manual Car

Back in about 2003 and a few years following, a string of accidents leading to death or injury caused by cars with remote control engine starters incited panic in Japan. The starters, which allow you to turn on your car and allow the engine to warm up from a distance, had been improperly installed on manual transmission cars: Nothing prevented these cars from being started remotely while in gear, causing them to lurch forward suddenly then continue rolling along unmanned.


Although legislation banning the devices on manual cars never appeared, manufacturers started labeling their products "for AT (automatic transmission) only" in Japan and mechanic shops started shying away from installing the items on manual cars--even cars in which a starter could be safely installed--for fear of future legal entanglement.

If you want a remote engine starter on a manual car in Japan today, you're basically limited to DIY options or a few very selective car shops. (Being friends with a mechanic might also offer some options.)

One such shop that specializes in such installations (and, coincidentally, engine starter installations on cars with immobilizers as well) is AQUA in Matsumoto, Nagano. They offer a wide variety of starters suitable for most cars but specifically advertise to patrons whose cars were turned away for installation at other shops.
(It's the kind of shop that also specializes in gull-wing doors and undercarriage lighting.)

Their prices aren't cheap, but the competition is few and far apart, and many of their patrons are used to sinking a lot of money into car modifications. For sporty cars, expect prices to start at 50,000 yen and up for the unit and installation, and for cars equipped with immobilizers, usually 60,000 yen and up.

In manual cars, the ideal solution is to run a wire from the starter unit that checks electronically whether the car is in gear before attempting a start. In manual cars where this wiring is not possible, another safety mechanism is necessary. This could be a sensor on the emergency brake, a requirement for the car to be in neutral with doors closed and locked to be shut off (then disengagement of the remote start system if the car is entered without a remote start after that point), or even mirrors that send a reflection to a sensor when the gear shift is in the proper place. There are a lot of ingenious ways to "check" that a manual car is safe to remote start, and some of them are better than others.

Remote starting a manual car also requires bypassing the "clutch start system," a safety measure on place in all manual cars in Japan (and elsewhere) since 1999 that requires the clutch to be disengaged (pedal pushed in) in order for the engine to start. Bypassing this vehicle safety system is a warranty issue and another reason dealers and many car shops won't perform this installation.

The models of remote starter AQUA uses (as of this article) are the Yupiteru DCL81ES on Mazdas and Subarus, and the Vortex 3200-J or Viper 5501 on all other makes. Regarding the Yupiteru, a brand I'd never heard of, other models have been reviewed positively online, but I was unable to find reviews of this specific model. AQUA claims the Yupiteru setup is an elegant one, with no visible antennae and a wire running from the unit to make the necessary safety check electronically. Their website does not specify what safety mechanism is used with the Vortex or Viper.

By the way, apparently starters are rated for certain temperatures; if you live in an area where winters often get below -10°C, you might find your unit doesn't respond on the coldest days. If this is an issue for you, be sure to check before installation.

And, while we're already breaking manufacturer recommendations left and right with this topic, remember this one, too: Yupiteru advertises on their own page that their starters are for automatic cars only. So, your warranty on the unit itself is going to be void out of the box.

So, that's a snapshot of the major issues regarding starters on manual cars in Japan, and one option for having such a thing installed. If you have any comments or experience with this, we welcome your contributions below!

Japanese Hangover Preventatives/Cures

As anecdotal as it seems, there are some hangover preventative drinks which you can buy in Japan which do actually work to limit your hangover the day after drinking too much. I recommend (though I can't stand the taste of it) ウコンの力 (ukon no chikara):

This is a combination of turmeric and many of the vitamins you lose during a drinking session.

200yen. One before drinking, one at the end, happy next day (within reason).

There are loads of other drinks you may want to try, each advertised as miracle injections of your body's vital elements, usually containing maca, turmeric or some other witch's torture root.

Of course, hangovers are mainly caused by the level of poison in your blood... but there are some common-sense things you can do to limit the pain caused by a lack of something rather than an excess.

1. First of all, the headache is usually caused by a dehydrated and shrunken brain wrenching on the membranes which attach it to your skull. Solution: drink loads of water during and after drinking, duh. Sounds obvious, but it's still something I can't be bothered to do when it's necessary.
   
2. Next, you lose a lot of vitamins and minerals in dealing with alcohol, so make sure you (as gross as it sounds) eat some salt before bed (wash it down with the water). Alternatively a healthy dose of an electrolyte drink (like Aquarius or Pocari Sweat) will do the trick, just as long as you have the confidence to control your bladder during the night.
   
3. If you're in a smoke-filled bar you'll be losing vitamin-C at a stupendous rate. This will make you feel like a bag of nails in the morning. Buy some supplements and take several when you get home. Persimmons are also good for replacing those lost vitals. Convenience stores even sell a special vitamin C tablet for smokers. I'm not sure how it differs from regular vitamin C, however.
   
4. Eat something. A good dose of ramen will either help absorb the bad stuff, or eject it out of you the fastest way known to man.

Not averse to taking things to another level, the Japanese doc may recommend an injection of B1 and C. If you feel like your hangover is bad enough to go to the doctor about, then maybe that's the option for you. Good luck getting there.

Right as rain.

Anyway, happy drinking. And anyway, if you don't wake up on the street with sick on your head, using your wallet as a pillow, that's a successful night out.

Author Spotlight: Kazuo Ishiguro

A beautiful writer, albeit more British than Japanese, is Kazuo Ishiguro.

His masterful character-studies are completely involving. Whether the story is seen through the eyes of a butler (Remains of the Day), or a human Guinea pig (Never Let Me Go), the proceedings are flawlessly executed.

Ishiguro isn't called a modern master for nothing. These books read like Dickensian classics set in recent times, and deserve every award they've won.

The outlook and style is very mature and often heavy-going, but the vividness of the characters is second to none, and totally inescapable.

Over the years Ishiguro has written disappointingly few books, but I urge you to read them all asap. There are also a couple of movie adaptations. Results have been mixed, but Anthony Hopkins' performance in Remains of the Day (also one of the best books) is still a classic.

I'd also recommend An Artist of the Floating World; something of a retrospective on Japan during WWII.

If you're thinking of buying any of Ishiguro's books, then please help us out by doing so through Amazon (all earnings go to Tohoku victim support):

Contemporary Writers page about Ishiguro.

WS: Early 1st Grade JHS Activities

Here are two ideas to get you started in making activities for your new 1st grade students in Junior High.

You may find you don't even get asked for any games in your first year teaching, but if you do it can be hard at first to come up with anything original, especially when it's not completely clear at what level you should pitch your activities.

These two sheets are examples of the kind of thing teachers want from you.


The first is a sheet where students answer multiple choice questions to pick the right spelling of a word. As 1st graders usually don't have good reading and writing skills, this is potentially difficult. My version is very simple, but if you think they can handle it (or have started learning to read and write in elementary) then make it harder.

Here's the sheet for download.

The next is a fun and simple game testing the order of letters in the alphabet. Students have to uncover the hidden message by working out the letters before the ones on the sheet.

And here's this sheet.