Blizzardboy | A Kiwi in Japan

Sometimes living in a foreign country can be heaps of fun, and sometimes it can be a pain.

This evening, I was trying to leave a comment on another blog, and it was a blogger blog. It seems the options have changed for comments, so I was offered either to use a blogger ID or an Open ID. I prefer to use my own website (ie. www.blizzardboy.net) as my ID, rather than going through some other service, but it would appear that that option has disappeared.

So I got curious – I did start a blogger blog back in 2006 so I wanted to see what happened to that. Actually it is still there at http://psy-ke.blogspot.com/. I wanted to see what would happen if I chose the blogger option. And lo and behold the blog was still there.

But when I went to log in, every thing was in Japanese! I guess no matter where you are from it will display the navigation and everything in the language of the region you are in.

Despite Japan having a foreign population of over a million people, blogger (and other google sites including analytics, adsense, adwords and youtube) as well as a large number of other sites choose to send web pages in the language of the country which your IP address indicates, rather than the language your browser indicates.

This means we get web pages in Japanese when we want them in English. Now, I can work in Japanese, but I prefer not to. From a webmasters perspective this is easy enough to change. But for the end user can be a real nuisance.

Anyway after a little googling I found the solution here and I have copied the pertinent parts for your (and my!) reference here:

From: Mishka OP

You need to make sure you have the language set in all three locations for it to stick and if you delete cookies it will revert and you’ll have to do the settings again.

Here are the instructions that you can use even if you can’t read the language being displayed.

Okay, a few things. First, you need to go into your browser settings and make sure that English is chosen as your preferred language.

Okay, if you are logged into blogger and on your blog’s main page, you can click on the little blogger icon on the left top corner and it will take you to your dashboard. When you are on your dashboard, you should see your blog names below and your profile picture and name to the right. The third bullet down from the picture is the Change Language link. Click on that and select English and save (English should be the top one, and Save is the big orange button).

After you save, it should take you right back to your dashboard. Underneath the title to your blog, there should be a little gear icon on the right side. The second link is the one for the blogs settings, click on that. Formatting is the third link over from the left underneath the settings tab (which should be where you are if you came from the dashboard). The language settings is the 6th down from the top of the page. The save button is bright orange at the bottom of the page.

It is more of a google thing than it is a blogger thing (they think they are helping you out by adjusting the language based on IP address but it is supposed to default to your browser’s language).

This is quite useful advice even if you are just traveling to Japan (or to any other country that uses a different language).

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We have been having a few travellers staying with us recently here in Japan and it has been interesting to hear what they think about this country, and moreover, what their expectations were prior to arrival in these lands.

Any country is a “diverse beast” and Japan is no exception. Surfing the web this morning I came across the following articles which cover a couple of the multitudinous faces of Japan – technology, tradition and ecology.

So lets start with cute technology. Geekyblog has a post featuring a very cute robot: Postkun – Limited Edition Japanese Robot.

They have this to say about the robot:

This funky looking robot is the creation of Tokyo based company Kyosho, he is called Postkun, which means ‘Little Postman’ in Japan.

Postkun will be available in a limited edition of just 10 robots, and only available in Japan for about $3,500.

That price seems a bit steep, so I don’t think I will be getting one unless my boss starts paying me more – a lot more!

You can read more about Postkun here: Postkun – Limited Edition Japanese Robot.

Treehugger – a website I quite enjoy reading, has an interesting piece on Paco House. A long way from Le Corbusier, Paco House is an alternative to dome housing, offering the possibility of a second house that is just gorgeous.

Doesn’t that just look idyllic? Especially from the midst of winter in Tokyo.

They add:

Let’s say you needed a really small house, perhaps a Dome Home, to put on a secluded place on a beach, somewhere far off and away. Schemata Architecture Office Ltd. is a group of designers showing a concept small second house that you could build yourself, or perhaps help to develop. I like the freedom of this. You could put it anywhere. If no-one complains, you are ok to go. Are there laws against second house freedom?

Indeed, who would complain! You can read more about the Paco House, and see some more pictures here: Small House Design “Paco” From Japan.

And finally the traditional – Men at Work: Artisans of Old Japan. No not an Australian 80’s band trying to make music using the remains of last nights dinner, but a well researched article from Slate Magazine. There are three parts up at the moment, and it looks like more are on the way.

The writer June Thomas kicks off:

Every language attracts a special kind of student. Spanish speakers are lazy and charming. Those who have mastered French are sometimes chic and always sybaritic. Hebrew attracts the committed; Turkish, the committed and complicated. Adventurers are drawn to Arabic, and Mandarin is for brainiacs who love a challenge—so much so that they often abandon the language altogether once they’ve got it down. And Japanese? Japanese speakers are serious, serious people. Of course, all languages demand tedious, diligent study, but there’s something about Japanese that calls out to those who are quiet, kind, and, often, spiritual. People who would rather kneel on a tatami mat contemplating a calligraphy scroll than, say, slump on a sofa watching Gossip Girl.

I always fancied myself too frivolous for Japan. Going there would be like visiting a library—a quiet, orderly place where nothing much happens. A world unto itself with lovely things to look at but nothing much to do. I love libraries; I just didn’t want to spend my vacation in one. All that politeness stressed me out. There seemed to be a million rules—take your shoes off here, wear these slippers in the bathroom and nowhere else—and I didn’t understand any of them.

You can read the rest of the article here: Men at Work: Artisans of Old Japan. That should keep you going till lunchtime.

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Hangman Cheat is quite a clever website which can pretty accurately guess the word you are thinking of. Simply tell it how many letters the word has and start playing.

I tried the word “japan” first and it found it very quickly. When I tried “blizzardboy” it didn’t have so much luck – probably because blizzardboy isn’t a dictionary word.

If you like games such as babble I think you will enjoy this.

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I found this interesting Weapons Generator at http://genzu.net/buki/. The generator is only in Japanese, but is pretty easy to use even if one can’t read Japanese. Scroll down the page to the box with the enter button beside it. Enter your name in the box and hit enter. It will render your name into the weapon that represents you. I entered “Simon” and this is what it produced:

Quite a nice piece of rendering. The final weapon that came out was some sort of dual-pronged sword.

The site also gives your name and weapon a rank out of a 100. Mine got 62 – according to the page, 25 is normal. Guess Simon is a strong name!

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Found these awesome T-Shirt designs while surfing this morning. I don’t know anything about the person making them, but they do have a mighty fine sense of humour!

Split Personality

Thomas the Tank Engine meets the Transformers! Obviously inspired by Ringo Starr.

Endangered Species

Inverting the old adage – You Are What You Eat.

Extreme Beginnings

Look to see extreme Penny Farthing events at the London Olympics.

You can find more of these designs at http://www.glennz.com. The designer Glenn Jones, is a graphic designer and illustrator from Auckland, New Zealand. Wicked!

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Congratulations to Rent My Flat in Feodosia!

This is a website I help look after for a Turkish friends’ flat in the Crimean resort town of Feodosia. This year they were featured in the Lonely Planet, something they are very proud about.

The Lonely Planet had this to say about the website:

Rentmyflatinfeodosia.com (www.rentmyflatinfeodosia.com) – This private apartment for rent …. also has an informative English website with detailed museum, restaurant and bar listings.

Nice to hear that they think the site we put together is useful and informative.

I put up a page about the Lonely Planet Ukraine Travel Guide.

I was planning to visit Feodosia this month, but got offered a new job that was too interesting to turn down – hopefully we can visit this exciting place next year!

All the best to the Rent My Flat in Feodosia team.

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As upstairsforthinking pointed out, Google’s Street View has hit Japan and now you can navigate around some parts of the Isles of the Rising Sun from the comfort of your own home. It is going to take a lot more work before they cover the whole country, and I imagine if this gets more popular there will be some privacy complaints (privacy law is quite strong in Japan), but this is a very useful tool indeed.

Here is the view of the entrance to our apartment building.

View Larger Map

Now, can you find Tokyo Tower from here?

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Shouts to the team at Kiwiology for adding this blog to their directory of New Zealand blogs. Ka pai!

Kiwiology is…

Kiwiology is a directory of kiwi blogs – the stuff that makes up the New Zealand blogosphere.

Blog topics include, but are not limited to:

New Zealand blogs, Kiwis blogging overseas, blogs about New Zealand politics, the environment and sustainability in New Zealand (or by people based in New Zealand), New Zealand’s economy, Kiwi businesses and business topics, New Zealand issues and current events and kiwis’ personal blogs.

Recent blogs (as of this posting) added to kiwiology include:

• Bwagy | Marketing Blog

• Blizzardboy A Kiwi in Japan

• Our Sport

• Oswald Bastable’s Ranting

• PhotoForum NZ

• nothing better to do

• OutdoorKnit

• Frank Observations

• Dead Sharks

• NZ Tramping

Also, if you have a New Zealand related blog, or would like to suggest one, you can add it here.

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Above is a print by the Edo period printmaker Hiroshige depicting a hawk. It is in the style of Kage’e or shadow print, something I hadn’t seen before I stumbled on the post Kage-e: Shadow pictures over at the Pink Tentacle blog. You can see more shadow prints at that page.

I love the way it is so delicately clever.

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