Job Spotlight: Careerforum.net

One of the best places for foreign nationals to look for jobs in Japan are career forums. Career forums strip out a lot of the traditional Japanese hiring practices of attending compulsory seminars, filling out entry sheets, and attending up to eight rounds of interviews before a job offer finally arrives. They concentrate employers in one convenient location, so you can gather information and talk with recruiters at a dozen companies all in one afternoon.



The company that organizes the largest Japanese-English bilingual career forums in the world is Disco International. They run a fully bilingual website promoting all of their events at Careerforum.net (CFN).

The largest of these events is the Boston Career Forum, held annually around the end of October. Some 150 companies attend this event, all big names like Panasonic, Goldman Sachs, Mitsubishi, and NTT, and they are looking for candidates with Japanese and English language skills to employ their English skills in Japan or Japanese skills abroad.

Lists of attending companies tend to come out as early as six months before the actual event is held, and if you create an account at the CFN website, you can gather information on and send resumes to companies months before the event takes place--which I'd recommend, since companies schedule most of their interview sessions beforehand, leaving very little space for walk-in candidates.

Some readers are probably wondering if it is worth it to fly all the way out to Boston for the event. If you have prepared well beforehand and scheduled perhaps six to ten interviews online beforehand, I say yes. 

There is potential here for foreign nationals if your Japanese is up to snuff. JLPT-1 or a high BJT score is a must if you are not a native speaker. But with that qualification, and a well-written English and Japanese resume, it is possible to line up interviews for jobs in Tokyo with major companies who are looking for native English-speakers.

(I promise. Two companies flew me to Tokyo and back for 1-day interviews thanks to the Boston Career Forum.)

On the other hand, if you've never interviewed in Japanese before in your life, or if you've spent no time researching companies and practicing how you'll sell yourself to their recruiters, these events probably aren't worth the cost of a plane ticket for you. More than a few Western college students walk away from these forums with sour grapes because they thought walking unprepared into a Konami booth would land them a programming job. You need printed resumes, rehearsed interview answers, and, for any technical field, examples of your work to get anywhere.

If you're just interested in seeing what a Japanese career forum is like, CFN hosts other events around the world, including London, Tokyo, and Los Angeles. If one of these locations happens to be nearby for you, it's completely free to register for and attend CFN events.

But, for the big jobs, Boston is where it's at.

By the way, all of CFN's career forums (and, really, almost all 就職活動 events in Japan) are formal-attire affairs. Dress up with a nice suit, including a white, long-sleeve button-down shirt, jacket, and tie. For ladies, a pantsuit is acceptable, but most Japanese women wear a jacket, blouse, skirt, and heels.

The CFN website itself is a great source of further information on how to prepare for and participate in a career forum, and an awesome point of the site is that they translate everything across the site, word-for-word into both Japanese and English. Members (it's free to be one) can opt in to a newsletter about job-seeking tips and also access every back issue of that same newsletter (there's hundreds, if not thousands of them) on the CFN website.

Worksheet Sunday: 14 Time Fillers (part 1 of 2)

This is part one of a two-part entry of some short games you can use to fill extra time at the end/start of a lesson (here's part 2). Most require little or no preparation at all.

We've got stuff for all JHS grades, and a bit of elementary, so come one, come all!

1. Newspapers (5-10 minutes)
First up, a very fun and easy team game for all JHS grades.

• Find an interesting newspaper/web article or three (ones with pictures are best, ideally about some big sport event or something else kids will find interesting). The content doesn't matter; it can be as complicated as they come. Depending on the size of your class, it's usually best to have the article cover two pages so they all have something to do.
• Split the class into groups of 4-6 students.
• Give each group a copy of one article.
• Then call out and write on the board/show a flashcard of a random word from the article.
• Students race to find the word in the text and put their hand up.
• Check it, award points, repeat

2. 20 Questions (10+ minutes)
As simple as it sounds, the class gets to ask you (or a chosen student) 20 questions to work out what you are thinking of (animal, vegetable or mineral). Works best with advanced 2nd/3rd grade JHS. It's a good idea to give them some examples of the type of questions they can ask. Like, "Are you an animal?" "Are you bigger than...?" "Can you...?" etc

3. Shiritori (5+ minutes)
Great game because it requires no planning at all, and can just be stuck at the end of the lesson when needed. Works with all grades, although wait until the 1st graders have learned something unless you don't mind them using the textbook/dictionary.

• Say a word. 
• The next person (you can do it in rows of students of have them raise their hands in groups, etc) has to think of a word that begins with the last letter of the previous word, and so on.

4. Picture Shiritori (10+ minutes )
Same game, but they draw pictures on the board of things starting with the last letter of the last thing. They can be quite creative. Good in groups.

5. Pictionary (10+ minutes)
Students draw a picture, other students guess what it is (in English). OK for all grades as long as you vet what 1st graders draw.

6. Crossfire (~10 minutes)
Good for all grades.

• All students stand up.
• Ask a question they have studied from the textbook.
• Students raise their hand. If they get it right, they can chose a group of people to sit down. Either the students in their row (front to back/left to right/diagonally) or with some feature (not black hair!) like wearing glasses etc.

The types of questions you ask can be anything from "What is ____ in Japanese/English?" to completing a sentence from textbook dialogue.

7. Crossfire RESURRECTION (~10 minutes)
Also good for all grades.

• In this version one row of students stands up (i.e. front to back).
• Ask a question. Students raise their hands.
• If they get it right, they sit down.
• The last student standing makes the row in the opposite direction stand up (i.e. left-to-right).
• Repeat.

That's it for part one. Click here for part two, 8-14.

Any suggestions or ideas in the comments box please.

Insulating a Japanese House for the Winter

For the most part, the Japanese still haven't discovered either central heating or double-glazed windows (another example of low-tech Japan). Not only that, but old Japanese houses are actually designed to be cold. Kerosene heaters and kotatsu are the obvious ways to heat up your home, but if your house is anything like ours, you'll need to do some extra work to keep that heat in.

Read on for hints on tape, bubble-wrap and various other solutions designed to stop you resorting to buying one of those monk-outfit/blanket/muu-muu things with arms.

The horrible relentless cold has just started to peek ferociously around our shouji screens this year, after a brilliantly long and hot summer. Our house is very old and has very thin walls. It also seems to suck cold air in through all the cupboards. Time for some preventative measures.

•  Bubble-wrap



My toilet windows, minus curtain.

• Possibly the most effective solution.
  Shouji screens do act as a primitive form of insulation to the heat-sapping windows prevalent in most Japanese places, but it's much more effective to give the windows themselves another layer. The Japanese way of doing this is with bubble-wrap. There's nothing special about it (unless you buy the fancy designs); it's just bubble-wrap (in fact, buying a roll of industrial-issue stuff would be much cheaper than getting the purpose-packaged stuff in housing stores). Stick it on the whole window/door and that alone will make a huge difference to the room temperature. Instead of radiating cold like an open fridge, your frosty windows will now be tamed and ready for action. Take that Japanese tendency to make 1/4 of the walls of a house out of single-pane glass!
  
  
• Heat-applied insulation sheets
• Usually found next to the bubble-wrap in home-stores, and advertised to be the most effective insulation idea ever, is some kind of plastic sheet which can be melted to your doors (as an alternative to bubble-wrap). The picture on the tube shows a hair-dryer, though I think an iron would be more fun. See the picture below for full details of your options.

These are the various things presented at my local hardware store. From left to right we have: 

• Condensation Stopper Sheet, attach with water
• Clear Window Glass Thermal Insulation Sheet, attach with water
• Window Glass Heat Generation Sheet, attach with water
• Window Glass Condensation Stopper Sheet, attach with water
• Window Glass Clear Thermal Insulation Film, attach with heat

The star ratings indicate how efficient they are at:

• Transparency  
• Effectiveness of Heat Insulation
• Condensation Deterrence 

• Tape

• A good idea is to add another layer to the anti-hero all-powerful metal window-frames that give off cold like it's going out of fashion. Bubble-wrap won't work here, so the Japanese sell a special kind of tape (although I'm sure a regular packing tape would probably work too) with which you can cover all the metal surfaces. This does make a difference, although it's not the prettiest thing in the world.
  
  
•  More tape

• After that, you'll want to ensure you have a good seal around all of your windows. Our house is wonky thanks to generations of earthquakes, and this is especially important for us. Don't think that just because your apartment or house is new that you'll escape this one, however. Even our old (modern) apartment had places where outside was clearly visible through gaps between the doors. Again, the solution is tape. You can buy a slightly padded roll for a couple of hundred yen which will stick across/between the joins in your doors/windows.
  
  
• Block up those vents
• I don't know if it's universal anymore, but in the dark-ages when our house was built it came complete with vents to the outside world (presumably to help circulate air in the summer). Being holes to outside, these are cold. The hundred-yen store is your friend for this one - the bigger stores, like Daiso etc, often have a DIY section. There you can either find pieces of wood or plastic which you can use in place of the vent (with some modification). Just take the grill out of the wall, stuff some newspaper in there and then screw the new article in place (some sealant or rubber is an optional bonus). It helps.

  
  
  

  Before

  
  

  

  After

  
  
• Draft excluders

• They look stupid, but these things are designed to stop the draft from around the bottom of your windows and doors. It seems like there should be a better way than this - I'd go with the tape first, and this as a last resort.
  
  
• Condensation absorbers

• Quite a good idea to stop your tatami/door frame from getting damp and rotten. Place them at the bottom of the glass to catch the drips. Removable.
  
  

Still less revolutionary options of making your Japanese house warmer involve curtains (if you can brace yourself against Japan's exorbitant prices), and finding some kind of hippy wall-hanging to dangle in-front of your cupboards. Also: yakiniku/nabe in the living room anyone?

JapanProbe has a video of a batty old woman who has fearlessly covered the inside of her house in rags and old futons to keep out the cold. Well, she's in Hokkaido, so desperate times call for such measures... I guess.

Well, that's all we've got. If you have any bright ideas or success stories, please let us know in the comments.

11 Useful Vocabulary in Your Job Search (Part 2 of 2)

Knowing just a few particular terms can double your readiness to tackle a professional job search in Japan.

Continuing from our last post about job-search vocabulary, here are six more words that you ought to know as you embark to find work outside of ESL:

履歴書（りれきしょ）

The Japanese equivalent for "resume." Japanese resumes have a standard format, including your contact information, full educational history, a photo, and sometimes things Westerners find surprising, like a list of relatives, their birth dates, and their current occupations. Traditionally, a 履歴書 is supposed to be handwritten.

自己PR（じこPR）

This is your "self promotion," or a 60-second blurb about what you want to do in the workplace and why your background makes you qualified for this job. You'll write it on your resumes, and you should know it by heart so you can say it (naturally) as your self-introduction at the beginning of interviews. This should be re-written and tailored for every job you apply to.

志望動機（しぼうどうき）

Closely tied to the above, your "motivation for working" should establish that you understand what this job/company is all about and you're excited by the idea of working there. There is a lot of crossover between the 自己PR and 志望動機 of job-seekers, but in principle, your "self promotion" should be telling about your skills and how they match the job, and your "motivation for working" should show that you know about the company and that your goals are in line with its. This should also be re-written and tailored for every job you apply to.

適性試験（てきせいしけん）

"Aptitude tests" are common among Japanese recruiters to weed out some of the hundreds or thousands of applications they may receive each year. The idea is that if you didn't bother studying for an aptitude test about kanji and math encountered in the business world, they're not going to bother considering you for a job. As a foreign applicant, you may be exempted from some of these; companies considering you for employment usually have a special project in mind for you, which they'll find out if you're capable of through resumes and interviews. However, you may still be asked to take a truncated version of an aptitude test or a personality test. Bookstores in Japan carry shelves of books about what kind of vocab you should know for these tests, what kind of story problems are commonly encountered on the math sections, and what kind of trip-up questions companies throw into the personality test to make sure you're not lying. (It's not always as simple as "T/F: I have never told a lie before.")

面接（めんせつ）

The Japanese word for "interview." If you made it past the resume screening and aptitude testing, you'll go in for one of these. They can take any of several forms, including group interviews (three or four applicants against a panel of interviewers), one-on-one, or you alone against a handful or a roomful of your future superiors. Japanese interviews tend to come in multiples, with each interview being numbered in succession: 1次面接, 2次面接, etc. Each level of interview will be with someone higher up in the organization, the final often being with the president. Two to four interviews for a job were my most common numbers, but I've heard stories of companies having up to 8次面接 for Japanese applicants.

内定（ないてい）

Roughly equivalent to "job offer," this is the payoff for all your hard work. After the final interview, a letter is issued to you stating that the company is extending 内定 to you. You'll need to reply with a letter of thanks, and accept the 内定 by completing some final procedures, such as taking a health exam (健康診断) and signing commitment (誓約書) and guarantor (身元保証書) forms. It is not uncommon for a Japanese company to conclude their hiring process and notify successful applicants six months or even a year before the starting date of the job. Which means: start your job search early, way before you intend to move into a new job.

We hope this series of articles has been useful for job seekers. If you have any other job hunting terms you'd like to add or ask about, please leave a comment below.

11 Useful Vocabulary in Your Job Search (Part 1 of 2)

If you're determined to find a job outside of the English teaching industry, it helps to familiarize yourself with the Japanese job-seeking world: A whole subculture exists for university juniors and seniors in which they identify the companies they want to pursue, attend seminars for those companies, climb a pyramid of four or more progressively more demanding interviews, and finally get hold of an offer for a job that won't start for another year.

Accompanying this subculture is its own special vocabulary. Here are the first five of eleven words you ought to know when venturing into the Japanese job market, and what they mean:

就職活動 （しゅうしょくかつどう）
Often abbreviated as 就活, this is the word epitomizing the subculture described above. Literally "activities for finding employment," when you are on the cusp of graduating from university (or for some, high school), 就活 is your full-time job. All you do, night and day, is schedule seminars, handwrite resumes, practice interviewing, and study for company entrance exams. It's a portal Japanese are accustomed to, akin to the 受験生 feeling of junior high school students progressing on to high school, or high school students progressing on to university.

大手企業（おおてきぎょう）

A "large enterprise," these are the massive brand names in Japan, like Sony or Toyota, and for most Japanese, the dream job that everyone wants to get a hold of. For the most part, 大手企業 still uphold traditional Japanese practices of lifetime employment, and a job-seeker who gets accepted at one of these companies will be set for life: Banks, creditors, realtors, car dealers, and future in-laws will welcome you with outstretched arms if the second line on your business card bears an 大手企業 name. (All this does come in exchange for long working hours and unwavering devotion to the company).

募集・応募（ぼしゅう・おうぼ）

Meaning "hiring" and "applying" respectively, 募集 is the term Japanese firms use to indicate they're offering jobs and 応募 is the term job-seekers use to say they'd like to apply for jobs. A polite phrase to add to your resume and interviews, after stating the reason for your application, is 「是非応募させていただきたいと思います」.

自己分析（じこぶんせき）

Means "self analysis." Before you start applying for jobs, have a good handle on who you are and what your aims are in your job search and beyond. In a competitive job market, with many, many more college graduates than available positions at large companies, recruiters place a lot of emphasis on finding all-star applicants who have done plenty of "self analysis" and provide substance in their resume and interviews, rather than parroting the same "I'm a hard worker, and my weakness is that I'm a perfectionist" fluff everyone else already says.

御社・貴社（おんしゃ・きしゃ）

When addressing a company in a message or interview, use these words: Not 「あなたの会社」, nor 「Name of Company」, but one of these. (Either is fine, but I hear 御社 more often in interviews and 貴社 more often in written correspondence.) It makes you sound professional, and a foreign face equipped with these words will garner surprised smiles and nods of approval from interviewers.

Stay tuned for the six remaining words in our next post. :)

Worksheet Sunday: Pen Pals for Students

In line with this week's articles on making new friends with pen pal services, we'd also like to introduce a pen pal service that can be adapted for use in the classroom:

Pen Friend Clubs of Japan is a program run by the Japanese Postal Service to match up Japanese junior high and senior high school students with overseas pen pals.

If you are a teacher in Japan, the applications page is in Japanese, but you can print out applications for individual students to fill out or applications for a whole class or club of students.

If you are a teacher overseas and want to find Japanese pen pals for your students, use an application from the English page.

In either case, send the completed application to:

Pen Friend Clubs of Japan

Postage Stamps and Postcards Office
Mail Business Division
Japan Post Service Co., Ltd.
Tokyo 100-8798 JAPAN

The Japan Post Office will send a reply to the address listed as soon as they find a match for your student(s). The service is completely free.

Why Don't My Pen-Pals Write Back?: How to Keep a Pen-pal Relationship Alive

(Admit it. This is what you are really after.)

It's easy to get onto a "friend finder" website, write up a form letter about how you're a lonely foreign person looking for friends in Japan, and send it off to the first 20 people that show up in your search results.

But, out of the 20 people you send to, maybe only a handful respond. And although things seemed to be going great with that handful, a week later none of them are replying to your messages anymore. So, what's wrong? Why aren't the pen-pals you made writing back anymore?

In my experience, about 1 in 10 people I've contacted had similar enough communication styles to be long-term pen pals. And in the same way, many people have contacted me who I just didn't "click" with and so I found it difficult to reply to their messages.

So, the first rule is:
1) Just Keep Trying
If the people you contacted didn't reply or stopped replying, search again for other people to contact, or wait a week and then post a new ad on whatever site you're using.

There's always going to be a timing issue. People get busy at work or school, or they start a new project, take up a new hobby, study for a test, get a new girlfriend--there's a million reasons why someone can suddenly get busy and just doesn't have time to keep up with messages from pen-pals. A week passes without answering a message, then two weeks, then a month, then finally they get too embarrassed to reply and just delete the message.

Whatever. It happens, right?

But, on the other side of things, there's also always going to be dozens of other people who aren't busy and want to swap messages with you. So, if you stop hearing from one pen-pal, try making another.

2) Tailor the Message
When you write to a new pen-pal, though, don't use a form letter that you've been sending out to a dozen other people. Read their ad and tailor your message to that person. Pick something you liked in their ad, and tell them you like it too. People are more likely to respond to a message that was written specifically to them.

3) Keep Things Light
It can be a huge turn-off to get a first or second message from someone that says, "Hey, I wanna see your picture!" or "Hey, what's your Skype?" Some people just want to be pen-pals. And even people who are interested in swapping pictures or chatting on Skype usually want to know more about the person they've just met before handing out that kind of personal information. Take some time to lead into questions about their Skype name or Facebook profile. In my opinion, a week or two of messaging isn't too long. And keep the request light by phrasing it as a question or asking how they feel about it. "Would you be interested in talking on Skype sometime?" or "Can I ask your e-mail address?" It's polite, and they're more likely to respond.

In the same vein, your new pen-pal doesn't really want to hear about how you've been in the hospital because of a suicide attempt or how you just got diagnosed with AIDS. Think about it: If you get a message like this, you're gonna squirm for some legitimate response better than, "Man. That sucks." And as soon as replying starts to feel like a hassle, you're not gonna find the time in your day to do it. So, keep big "revelations" out of the picture until your friendship is solid enough to handle that kind of talk.

4) Ask Questions
In every message you write to a pen-pal (that you want a response from), be sure to add a question in the message. Ask about something they wrote last time, or ask their opinion about something you wrote. The reader needs to know that you're writing *to* them and that you care what they have to say, or else they're going to lose interest and stop responding. A question in the message body adds a sense that they need to follow-up to what you've said. As more messages pass between the two of you, and you learn more about your pen-pal, this kind of genuine writing becomes more natural and easy to compose. It's during those first few messages with a new pen-pal that it's really hard to come up with good questions. Everyone has already been asked "What kind of music do you like?" or "What are your hobbies?" a billion times. Ask something more specific, like about their favorite song by a specific artist they mentioned, or mention something interesting you've done and ask if they've ever tried it before.

5) A Word About Looking for "Friends"
Some people get on pen-pal sites to find a boyfriend/girlfriend (or something more transient). And it's not by any means limited to gender--plenty of Japanese girls who want to bag a foreign boyfriend hang out at these sites, too. If that's what you're after, there's probably someone else on the site who's looking for someone like you.

But, bear in mind that not everyone on the site is there to hook up, and you're dealing with real people on the other end of your screen.

Even if you're hoping for romance, most relationships are usually preceeded by some kind of friendship or acquaintance. If you always start out by spilling the beans about how you're looking for a Japanese girlfriend (and are therefore only contacting that person with the hope it'll lead into a relationship), you're going to come across a lot of potential pen-pals who mysteriously "forget" to write back.

Finally, if you've been exchanging messages with someone for a while, and now you're hoping it'll someday lead to something else, be up front about it. Then, respect and abide by the answer you get, even if it is negative.

Want a Japanese Penpal? Here's How to Find and Make One.

Pen-pals can be an awesome way to practice Japanese or learn about Japan. If you're moving into a new city, you can connect with people there beforehand.

And, it seems like there's no shortage of English teachers in Japan who never get to talk to Japanese people outside of work. Pen-pals can be a nice self-confidence boost if you get to Japan and realize that you've 1) left all your old friends behind, and 2) are having trouble making new friends here--especially Japanese ones.

A lot of sites advertise pen-pal matching services for a fee. (And they usually do it right alongside dating services.) But, you don't need to pay money to find quality networks of people who want to practice their English, listen while you practice Japanese, or make a genuine friend.

Japan Guide
My top recommendation for pen-pal networking is Japan Guide. The forums of the site are well-concealed, and maybe that is what's saved the completely free-to-use site from being infested with jerks and scams.

To use it, follow the links to the "Classifieds" or "Members' Area" at the bottom-right corner of the main page. The most active classifieds forum is the board for finding friends or pen pals, and they have a range of nationalities on the site. You can search by languages spoken, age, or region.

Most of the people I've encountered on the site are real, interesting people, and the "Questions" forum also happens to be one of the friendliest resources for questions about Japan that I know. No Gaijinpot style flamewars here. (So, if you decide to visit them, please promise to be nice. :) )

Lang-8
Another fantastic site, though in a little different vein, is Lang-8. Lang-8 is a blogging site aimed at people who want to write their blog in a non-native language. You open up a Facebook-style page there and write blog entries on the page. Native speakers of the language you wrote in can browse recent entries and comment on them or correct your mistakes using a very intuitive editing system.

As an English speaker, you will be in high demand to check other peoples' blog entries. And the Japanese community there is very active. Once you've established yourself on the site with a few entries of your own and contributions to others, people are more than happy to help out with homework questions, etc.

Like Facebook, you can mark other users as friends, which makes sure their blog entries will always appear in your feed. I made some solid friends here after we checked each other's blog entries over several months. And in that way, I think Lang-8 is the perfect platform to make some pen-pals who will last.

(By the way, when you write on Lang-8, keep in mind that the more concise your entry is, the more likely you'll get comprehensive, useful input. Break a large post up over a few days rather than posting a giant wall-of-text that lurkers are going to shy away from because they don't have time to read the whole thing at once.)

Keeping it Going...
Of course, even if you send out a bunch of messages on one of these sites, maybe you'll find that not many people reply, or people that initially seemed excited to contact you suddenly dropped off the face of the Earth. There's some skill involved in keeping a pen-pal relationship going; in our next post, I'll offer some of my opinions about how to do it.

Japanese Electonics: Plugs, Voltage and Wattage Guide

When bringing electrical goods back and forth across international borders, it is important to keep different countries' electricity standards in mind.

Not only can the socket shape be different, but different countries use different voltages and wattage, which means some appliances could fail to work in one country's outlets and cause a fire when plugged into another's.

Regarding shape of sockets, Japanese plug sockets accept plugs from the following countries (and vise versa):

American Samoa, Anguilla, Antigua, Aruba, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Cayman Islands, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guam, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Japan, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Maldives, Mexico, Micronesia, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Niger, Okinawa, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, St. Vincent, Saudi Arabia, Tahiti, Taiwan, Thailand, United States, Venezuela, Vietnam, Virgin Islands (U.S.& British), Yemen.

Beat the three-pronged system
with a 100 yen adapter!
...just be sure it's safe.

Apparently some places in Japan use the non-UK three-pronged socket. But, if you travel elsewhere in Japan and can't find that kind of socket, but you desperately need to plug in your three-pronged, say, camera charger, it is possible to remove the third prong or cleverly use a thin adapter to just plug in the top two prongs. I've done this to my laptop and it was (and is) fine. The exceptions to this work-around are appliances that require a ground--that's what the third prong is--for safety. This is generally limited to stuff like microwaves, refrigerators, and dishwashers, or in other words, stuff that most people do not ship around internationally.

However, you must make sure that you use the correct transformer for vastly different voltage/wattages. Also note that if you use an item at a higher than rated voltage, you can no longer claim the product's liability for any fault or incident.

Usually, for electronics from/to the US, there shouldn't be a problem not using a transformer, but be especailly careful with things involving heat: Hairdryers, straighteners, and stuff like that. Running a Japanese one of these back in the States will result in a lot more heat being generated; this will either blow a fuse or be a fire risk. Consult the manual or item itself for a rundown of the acceptable voltage and wattage.

American products used in Japan will be slightly (but reportedly not significantly) cooler. (From Steve: I use a travel-sized hairdryer that I bought in the States. The fan is a little less peppy than in its original country, but I have used in Japan without any problems for more than 3 years.)

For the UK, remember that bringing heat-related items to Japan is almost pointless - they do crazy unpredictable things. They are not really more expensive to buy here, and you'll just have to bite the bullet on this one.

Usually, laptop chargers, phone chargers, camera chargers, etc., are designed to work at many different wattages. Check the rear of your product or manual for the range. The same often applies to TVs, etc.

Here's a comparison of Japan vs. the major ex-pat exporting states (taken from this extensive list), also including plug types (ABC etc):

Japan	100 V	50/60 Hz*	A & B	*Eastern Japan 50 Hz (Tokyo, Kawasaki, Sapporo, Yokohoma, and Sendai); Western Japan 60 Hz (Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, Hiroshima)
USA	120V	60 Hz	A & B
UK	230 V	50 Hz	G
Australia	240 V	50 Hz	I
New Zealand	230 V	50 Hz	I
Brazil	110/220 V*	60 Hz	A & B, C	*127 V found in states of Bahia, Paraná (including Curitiba), Rio de Janeiro, SÃo Paulo and Minas Gerais (though 220 V may be found in some hotels).  Other areas are 220 V only, with the exception of Fortaleza (240 V).  Outlets (click for more) are often a combination of type A and C and can accept either type plug.
Philippines	220 V	60 Hz	A, B, C

Although Japan and the US look very similar when compared to some of the others, I'll say again to be careful with items involving heat. A Japanese product designed to work at 100V will be 44% hotter at 120V. However, I have heard that more basic items such as rice cookers and denki pots will usually be fine.

Worksheet Sunday: "I Can, Can You?" First grade JHS (12-13yo)

My kids have just started learning the "Can" structures, so I thought I'd post the things I'll be using.

These work well for the first graders, but a more simple version for elementary schoolers can also be a lot of fun (see this recent post for that). Details below. As always these sheets are free to use, but please don't redistribute.

Juniour High (1st grade - 12-13yo)

I've got two different sheets for you.
 

The first is a pretty simple sheet made with the elementary class above in mind. Click here to download, but as always beware of Google Docs' preview - it will look fine when you download and open in Word.

• It initially involves saying what certain animals can or can't do - writing sentences with the maru/batsu prompts.
• Then students answer the written (or spoken if you like) three-hint quiz on page two.
• Then students play an interview game with a three hint quiz of their own. 
• i.e. students choose an animal, make three hints about what it can and can't do, then janken with other students to see who tells their hints. 
• They write the answers to their friends' hints on their slip (cut up page three)

Lasts about 25-30 mins.

Sheet two (click here to download) is a great one designed by the ever talented Laura. It's self explanatory, but if you can't work it out:

• First, students ask each other questions from the sheet (practice them as a class first if they aren't comfortable with the vocab)
• Then, they decide if YOU can or can't do the things in the grid. Colour in the star if they think you can, leave it blank if you can't. 
• Then get the JET to ask you the questions and you give your answers. Play this as bingo.
• Finally, they write some "Teacher can ____, but can't ____" sentences

Should last about 25-30 minutes.

As usual, if you have any ideas or corrections please let us know in the box below.

Browsing the Web in Japanese (Kanji translators etc)

It can be particularly frustrating to come across a new kanji and not be able to translate it without navigating to a time-consuming and often unreliable site, like Google Translate or Yahoo Babelfish. It's especially annoying when trying to fill out some unfamiliar form.

So for you lucky people, here are some resources to help you on your way.
This blog presumes you already have Japanese language support installed on your computer (Macs do). Do so by searching for "Japanese IME (your windows version)" on Microsoft Downloads.

• First of all it's very helpful to have a desktop dictionary program. Using a paper or handheld electronic one is fine, but there are also PC software options which have superior functions, including faster search methods. I suggest you check out JEDict.
• Today's portable electronics often boast touch screens, though, and that can be especially appealing to Japanese learners: If you encounter a kanji you don't know, you can look it up by writing on the screen. iPhone owners can find an app like this on the iPhone Store. But, another relatively inexpensive option for this kind of dictionary is to pick up a Nintendo DS and the Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten software. I bought a DS just for this. A lot of people in Japan buy an electronic dictionary with pretty much the same functions for several hundred dollars.

Plugins

• Rikaichan is a great plugin for Firefox, Thunderbird and Seamonkey which will translate any Japanese word you hover over into English, German, French or Russian. It will also de-inflect verbs/adjectives and show detailed options for the kanji's meaning and readings. I'd go as far as to call this essential for Japanese learners. You will need to download a dictionary file to go with it.
• Perapera-kun is a slightly more low-tech version which also also offers Korean and Chinese translation.
• Rikaikun is the Google Chrome version of rikaichan and is just as good.
  
  
• Furigana Injector (Firefox) is another great addon that places the kana reading of a kanji directly above the characters so that you don't even need to look them up. Great for people who have limited kanji knowledge (or just hate kanji). You can also set your kanji level so that only certain characters are annotated. You will need to install HTML Ruby to make it display properly.
• Furigana Injector for Google Chrome.

Pages

• Nice alternatives to using a site like Google Translate are popjisyo.org and rikai.com. Both allow you to paste a web address and then view the page, still in Japanese, but with a translation when a troublesome word is hovered over. Good for advancing learners.
• Reading tutor is also a valuable study resource. On this page you can paste a large block of text (like a webpage). The site will then generate a list of the vocab used alongside a clickable version of your text. This is a very handy way of reading with quick lookup.

And that's it. That should get you on your way. If you know of any other good applications or plugins then please tell us about them below.

The Top 5 Most Annoying Pages in the New Crown Textbooks

It was pretty hard to pick the very worst, but here are the 5 most inexplicably stupid pages from the current JHS textbook series in my school. Sorry about the quality; no-one's explained how to use the scanner :(

First up is page 62 for the second graders.

What is annoying here isn't the dastardly boring example of "My pencil is longer than your pencil". It isn't just that, anyway. The whole chapter unites to foster a suicidal dread in adults and children alike. The dialogue is obstinately dull; the only respite being when Paul finally loses all dignity and shouts "What?" at poor Kumi instead of the "Pardon?" we have seen as appropriate until now.

The pair have been set an assignment at school, and jack-in-the-box glory-hunter Kumi suggests that she and Paul study the phenomenon of "heat islands" together. They get off to a bad start when total retard Paul can't figure out why cities are hotter than the countryside, but when in part two the Internet is introduced, we see our American hero nearly swoon in delight. Parts three and four build to the dizzying crescendo of throwing a load of soil and plants on your roof to make it cooler, all the while teaching such marvels as "My bag is as big as your bag" and "Soccer is the most popular of the three" to an enthralled class.

Moving swiftly on, on page 33 of the same book Ken decides that he wants to take up playing an outdated instrument belonging to the Japanese version of Native Americans (the Ainu).

At the same time the New Crown artist decides that it's fine to submit a shoddily drawn picture of Ken and Ratna with water damage for publication.

I don't know which I'm more angry about.

Okay I think it's Ken. The picture connotes such an awful teeth-twanging sounding performance, coupled with Ratna's tone-deaf dry-handed dilated-pupil clap-along that I feel like I can't stop my stomach and intestines from making a fast exit through my backside in a sympathetic bid to end my life.

What the hell is this? The last thing that the poor 3rd graders learn in the year is an edited version of some awful American story called Courage. It features quips like, "Courage is a blade of grass breaking through the icy snow," but also takes a moment to relate to the youngsters with, "Courage is the bottom of the ninth, tie score, two outs, bases loaded, and your turn to bat." Whatever the bloody hell that means.

The single most stupid, however, has to be, "Courage is being the new kid on the block and saying, flat out, 'Hi, my name is Wayne. What's yours?'" Not just because the vocab is much too difficult, but if some kid was called Wayne he'd know better than to tell anyone, lest he find out that their name was Punch In The Face Hurr Hurr You Spazzy Bell-End.

Ultimately the story covers some important ground, but it is hardly worthy of the 3rd grade English finale, and it'd be better served with awe-inspiring tidbits kids can really relate to, like, "Courage is throwing your textbook under a train after making origami cranes out of pages 82 to 85."

Then we're treated to a curious retelling of Alice in Wonderland featuring Humpty Dumpty (end of New Crown 1). I love Humpty Dumpty, and imagine my delight at learning more about his back-story - it turns out his name means his shape! Thanks Japan!


This entire version of Alice is a little odd. She goes to Wonderland as usual, meets Humpty Dumpty and then sings a song about his death which terrifies him. Then it ends with poor egg man wobbling on the verge of tears and Alice warbling with the porcelain-blank darling-face of a stage school brat.

Last but not least is Paul's dad grooming Kumi.

God knows why she was there in the first place - maybe to watch the cat listening to African music and doing a little dance (someones contract was coming to an end, I think), but the way Mr Green tries to gently ease her into her new life as his mistress is more than a little disturbing. Pictures sit atop the mantle to remind the reader of the lives heartless gaijin Mr Green is set to destroy for his selfish sexual desires.

But our Japanese heroine isn't sure about the whole thing. The African music was just the start, and after initially accepting Mr Green's offer of tea she begins to worry. Not just about the contents of the cake which she declines, but the tea itself flashes through her mind in a deftly illustrated thought bubble.

As she stares in vacuous, numb horror at Mr Green's Gary Glitter CDs Paul rushes to the door in a cold sweat. Another one saved, Master Green, and just in the nick of time.