I started a new dictionary project for intermediate Japanese learners.
The sentence ending is a very important part of Japanese language, but there was no reference for it, so I made one.
http://gobi.jp
It's still in an experimental phase, but I hope you like the concept!
My favorite web service was "ShareMo", which was produced by Enigmo Inc. in Japan.
This is a site where you can borrow anything (frying pan, video games, T-shirts, etc) from other users who want to donate them.
This is like a "virtual library", or "eBay without money involved".
I loved this concept and also loved the book written by the Co-CEOs.
On the blog of a Co-CEO, I found out that they organized "English study" club aiming for expansion.
So I contacted him offering a free 1-hour speech about "Studying English Effectively" to the members. They accepted it right away.
(My English is not perfect but pretty good for a Japanese who didn't grow up in an foreign country)
The study club is a small group (around 10) so it's more like a "small lecture" rather than a "speech".
But talking to 10 creative and passionate people means much more than talking to 100 people who doesn't have enthusiasm.
The CEO brought me and some members to a restaurant and treated me good food and drink!
We talked about a lot of things, about their business, life, and so on. That was the experience you cannot get from reading books or being in a class.
Hopefully we can do somthing fun together in the future.
Enigmo Inc.
(They discontinued ShareMo service, but many similar services were born after that and the "share" movement is getting bigger and bigger)
I consider myself as a "sensitive guy" (phisically).
- I sleep with 6 shirts, 3 pairs of pants and socks in winter.
- I love cakes with whipped cream.
- I get sick on a bus easily.
Yesterday I took a 20 hours ferry, and didn't get sick at all!
I was so proud of myself, thinking "Yeah! Call me Vin Diesel in East Asia!"
Then I rode a bus from the ferry terminal, and I got sick after 10mins.
Then I was thinking "I am an exact opposit of Vin Diesel. What am I?"
"I don't know.. a puppy? .. or a snail?"
I concluded that it should be some kind of larva.
Yes, I am a larva in East Asia.
(I'm talking about phisical stregth. Mentally, I can kick Vin Diesel's ass)
Everybody knows what Judo is.
But I invented something different.
It's called "Youdo".
Rule:
If you make your opponent say "Thank you", you win!
So it's not an actual sport, it's a way of life.
In Japanese "優" (pronounced as "you") means "kindness"..
In Chinese "友 (you)" means "friendship".
Life is not about "I". It's about "you"!
Please help us to spread this "martial art for ladies and gentlemen" in tge world!
I'm not gonna claim any rights on this activity, so it's totally OK for anyone to produce Yudo T-shirts and make fortunes, set up specific rules to hold a tournament.
Please report the results of your best matches as a comment.
You can fight against total strangers. And also, you feel great being a loser too!
Thank you! (oh, you just won!)
I'm staying at a hostel in Melbourne, just hanging out with travelers from all over the world.
Today, I bought cheep pasta sauce and it was tasteless, so I added coffee whitener.
It turned out to be a great combo and tasted like high-class tomato-cream pasta!!
If you see the ingredients of coffee whitener, you'll see no wonder it tastes like tomato cream. It IS powder of cream.
People call me crazy, but I'm the one who is seeing the essence of the things!
Here is my CV.
Listed in a chronological order, more or less.
Traffic survey (just counting people or cars)
Cleaning fluorescent lamps and toilets of stations.
Cleaning in a hostel
Staff in a golf course
Traffic guide in a parking area
Cleaning in a exposition center
Information guide in an exhibition
Sorting out mails in a post office
Bed making in a hotel
Binding brochure for a Japanese boy band CD
Setting up for a dinner show of B level celebrity in Japan
Handing out brochures in front of schools
Observer for an English test.
Souvenir shop clerk
Spanish tutor (my Spanish sucks now.)
A waiter in a club
English tutor
Customer Support Center (for Internet service)
Translation for video games
Writing for computer magazine
Interpreter in Messe Frankfurt
Interpreter for video game trade show.
Translation for a book
QA tester for a mobile phone maker
Translating business documents for a radio controlled car company
Translation for tutorial movies for a software
Translation for a mobile messaging software specifications
Localize Coordinator for a video game company
Reviewer for manuals of a security software
Quality Assurance tester for a IT company.
I also sold my own autographs a couple of times.
I wanted to know what happens if a crazy unknown guy put his autograph on the list in "Celebrity" category of an auction website.
I sold them for 5 dollars. I've beaten Jacky Chan autograph.
Maybe I can be the first professional autographer in the world...
When I decided to meet Mr. Robert J. Sawyer in Canada, I didn't have any plans to do anything else.
I searched the web for some interesting events, and I found out that E3 (a video game tradeshow) would be held in May.
However, I found out that you have to work for a big video game related company, in addition to the $500 entry fee.
So in order to get in, I tried to find a way to be in the business.
I contacted one of the biggest game news websites in Japan, knowing that they would send a lot of people to the E3 convention.
I sent them an e-mail saying,
"I would like to help you. I've been working as a video game translator for a while (which is true). I will be in LA during the show anyway, so you don't need to pay for my plane ticket"
Then they hired me! It would have been OK for me to just get into the event as a volunteer, but they even paid me.
I have an interest in Edutainment (Education + Entertainment), and I might start my own business in the future, so meeting many creative people from all over the world gave me great experience.
I don't read a lot of English novels, but I do have a favorite author.
His name is Robert J. Sawyer.
His novels are often categorized as science fiction, but his stories are much more in-depth than the typical macho-American-killing-ugly-aliens sci-fi.
I e-mailed him to ask him for an interview. I was working as a freelance writer at the time.
I always want to send the message to children in Japan that "You can try whatever you want."
Most parents in Japan never say "Do what you really like to do for a living."
Instead, they say "Do not make mistakes. Spend long time to think how to avoid making mistakes.", but I know it is not a good way of learning or enjoying your life.
We don't have a "Let them make mistakes and learn" teaching style.
I feel bad for kids in Japan. Most of them are like robots of their parents.
So I decided to start a series of interviews to to share their experiences of becoming successful by doing what they really enjoy doing.
Mr. Sawyer told me that he was happy to do it, so I flew to Toronto.
It was surreal experience.
He invited me to a dinner with his friends a couple of days before the scheduled interview.
When I told him I wanted to check out the Woodbine race track, he said his wife would offer me a ride to the race track.
On the day of the interview, his wife drove me to the race truck and watched and bet on the races together.
Then she drove me to their place in Mississauga for the interview.
I got really nervous because I consider he is the one with the most balanced-intelligence in the world.
My English ability was poor, and he offered me a beer before the interview, so I might have sounded like a little kid, but he answered my questions sincerely.
Although I won't share the details of the interview here because it's currently in Japanese,
I liked the fact he did NOT say "You can always make it, if you try hard". Instead, he said "You should at least try, so that you won't regret it later."
Actually, the fact that I visited his place and interviewed him is proof that you *may* be able to do what you want to do.
If you try.
When I lived in Tokyo, I didn't want to be a normal office worker, so I decided to be a private English teacher.
I started accepting applications through my website.
Soon after, a famous illustrator contacted me.
She told me she just had an event in Paris collaborating with a famous designer and a world-famous sports brand. She even had an autograph session.
Elton John was wearing the T-shirt she designed.
She was frustrated though, because she was not able to speak English at parties or at meetings.
Right after she came back to Japan, she found my articles on my Japanese website, she thought, "This guy is interesting"
We had a fun by just chatting together. She was a multi-millionaire, but never bragged about it.
She told me she didn't do well with her family. It was very tough for her to decide to be isolated from her family, move to Tokyo alone, and jump into a sexist-filled illustration business (in those days).
The only thing she bragged about was how healthy she was.
In all those years she never got the flu and never went to a hospital. She often worked 3 days straight with no sleep.
She spent more than 20 years just illustrating for clients. She had no parties, no travel, and almost no friends.
Then, she finally built up her status enough to do her own projects, and have time to relax.
She told me her terrible relationship with her family and relatives.
One story that stunned me was about her cousin.
Her cousin refused to get married with someone her parents recommended, and got married to someone she loved.
Then after a while she died from cancer leaving kids when she was around 30 years old.
Following her death, her relatives said that she had been "punished" for refusing the original marriage...
Tourists in Japan are impressed with how beautiful the country side is and how nice the people are there.
But you have to know that there are some areas where conservative went too far.
Even though she lived in the center of Tokyo, she worked all the time at home so she didn't know how to use IC ticket for the trains, she had never been to a sushi train restaurant, noodle stand, or a fast-food restaurant.
So I took her to many good, cheap restaurants. She behaved like a little kid, saying "This is like Pretty Woman" (Although she was the one with money, and she was not a hooker. neither was I, I got her point.)
She also told me she was very happy when she saw Elton John was wearing a T-shirt with her illustration on it.
I started working for a interesting translation project, so I decided not to see her regularly.
On the last meeting, she told me how hard it was to nurse her dying mother.
She said "I would kill myself with no hesitation if I knew I was going through that agony."
I asked her, "You haven't had a physical examination in all these years?"
She said, "Why should I. I've never been sick!"
Even after I started my new job I worked for her as an English e-mail transponder.
When she got an e-mail interview from some fashion magazine in the U.S., she told me "I'm not good at interviewing, I can't give smart answers. So, please answer it for me. I trust you."
When she read the interview draft, she said "This is perfect. You know me so well!"
She also asked me to help her apply for an organization in New York and to their contest.
At about the same time, she said "My back hurts a little bit."
Then, she sent me a very brief e-mail: "I'll be in the hospital for a while. I'll let you know when I get out."
Since then, her cousin (one of the few relatives she trusted) contacted me a couple of times asking me how the status of the application to the organization was.
I told her they accepted and I will work on the contest application too.
A couple of weeks later, I got a phone call from the cousin.
She said, "She passed away.
"She just passed away this morning. Sorry for not telling you about her condition at all."
I guess she didn't want me to see her in such a sad state, so she was using her cousin as a messenger.
The cousin said "Would you still send her illustration to the organization for the contest? She was trying so hard just before she passed away."
I sent the application and her illustrations to the organization. I had to cry while doing it. I remembered she told me she would kill herself if she knew she's dying. But she didn't. She tried so hard.
One thing that made me feel worse was the story about the cousin who died from cancer.
I didn't want to think there would be someone in her family thinking she was being "punished" because she had left her family...
A couple of weeks later, her father contacted me.
He was saying, "one model for the illustration sued the design company for using the portrait without her consent"
A lawyer contacted me too, so I had to cancel the application.
He also told me that there was a court battle going on among her relatives on her property.
She told me many times "I wish I had met you when I was young. I was surrounded by stupid people."
She also told me "You will be successful for sure (not only money-wise but in many ways), so don't worry about it."
Every time I was about to lose confidence, I remember that comment and her smile.
She also said " 99.9% of people on this planet are bad people." (That's the only thing I strongly disagree on)
I hope the percentage decreased when she met me.
In Phuket, I wanted to check out a shooting range, so I asked a worker in a hotel about it.
She told me that it was far so she would give me a ride.
She also called me on my room phone, asking how I was doing, so I was very impressed with her kindness.
When we got to the shooting range by her car, some guy got off his bike and started running towards us.
I recognized him. The guy was also a worker at the hotel.
He looked very angry and was yelling something at her, then came to me saying "She is my wife!"
She was crying. He was crying too. So we got back into her car and headed back to the hotel.
In the ensuing super-awkward atmosphere in the car, she said,
"We've known each other since we were kids, and got married, but I don't love him..."
I glanced at the rearview mirror. The guy was following us (to make sure we went back to the hotel).
I moved in to another hotel.
The receptionist was very nice. (No, she didn't ask me out this time)
We chatted about many staff, and when she told me she makes $130 in a month, I responded without thinking, "You can earn that in a day in Japan!"
She said "Oh really?" but looked kind of sad. Of course I realized I shouldn't have said that.
When I am in a developing country, I often get guilty feelings like that.
When I see retired American guys putting their arms around the local hookers, I think like, "What a loser..."
But is there really much difference between me and him? I don't buy hookers, but I spend a considerable amount of money (to them) on eating, drinking, and partying.
(Maybe I shouldn't even call those girls hookers... They probably have to do it because of a family problem or something.)
I think about this stuff when I travel in poor countries, and feel low, then party to feel better... I'm not qualified as a saint for sure.
At the second trip to Bangkok, I saw a little girl (maybe 5) walking in a street holding a basket for change.
Then there was a zombie-like guy with a keloid-covered face behind her. He was putting his hands on her shoulder and walking together.
I put money in the girl's basket. She bowed, said something, and started walking again.
I don't know if it was make-up to fake the burn injury (so they could make money as a freak show), but it didn't really matter to me.
The fact that they had to do that, being pitied or laughed at by drunken foreigners, made me feel sad...
My brother loved horse racing. Now, he loves racing horses.
He quit a steady office job in Tokyo to move to Hokkaido with his wife to take care of colts.
He may not be making much money, but it's a cool way to live.
Not many Japanese people can live like that. I respect him.
A couple of years after I quit university in Japan, I went to a two-year college in Seattle.
I wanted to experience lots of things and broaden my view.
I didn't care about a degree, so I took classes whatever interested me.
I took English, French, Spanish, Nutrition, Elementary Golf, Elementary Piano, Ceramic Art, and so on.
I just wanted (still want) to be a fun person who has a wide view of thing. Hopefully those experice helped me a lot.
I remember I ate escargot (snail) in a restaurant in Montreal.
I'm Japanese, so naturally I've eaten lots of weird food, like beef tongue or raw octopus, but snail is in a different league.
They put lots of butter and salt on it, so it tasted OK. I couldn't taste anything but the sauce.
I guess even an eraser would taste OK after you dip it in a lot of wine, butter, and salt.
I remember I went to see the movie "Sixth Sense" with a gir I met at a hostel.
I cried like a baby, but she kept saying, "It doesn't make sense!"
When you watch a movie with a title like "Sixth Sense", you shouldn't expect a logical storyline...
When I traveled in Barcelona I stayed in a cheap hostel for a month.
I didn't speak English or Spanish but people call me Whopper Man (I went to Burger King every day) and hanging out with me all the time!
When I was walking the main street with friends at 2am or so, one local guy came up to me saying "Are you Japanese?"
He offered his left hand for hand shaking, and said "I know Judo!"
He kept holding my hand, and tried to show me some judo technique.
Then he walked off smiling and said "good bye" and waving, so I waved back.
After a couple of minutes, I realized my watch was gone.
That Judo bastard took my watch!
I should've noticed when we shook hand with left hands...
If I ever come across him, I will get his left hand and saying "I know flamenco" or something, and take my watch back.
I decided to quit the boring university, but I was too chicken to tell my parents about it, so I just left a letter and flew to Thailand.
In the letter, I wrote:
"I'll be a writer, and I don't need any degrees, so I quit. By the way, I'm going to Thailand for a while. See you!"
In Japan, it is very rare to quit a university without a financial problem.
This is because you can graduate if you just keep attending the classes in most cases. (You have to study hard to get into a university, though.)
My ultra-conservative parents were shocked.
When I called them from Bangkok, my mom was crying her eyes out.
I still feel sorry for them, but I had so much fun there.
I don't know why, but generally Thai people like Japanese people.
At one time in a restaurant, a little girl (4 or 5 years old) looked at me for a while, walked to me, held my hand and started dancing. That would never happen in other countries.
I played football with kids, read lots of books in a food court, and listened to illegally-copied music. I had a great time.
Going to LA is my first foreign trip.
My parents were very conservative, so I had to lie about going to LA (even though I was 19 yo).
I told them I was going to travel in the suburbs of Tokyo for a week. (I even phoned them from Santa Monica beach, saying "I'm in somewhere close to Tokyo."
I made quite a few friends right after I got to a hostel, but my English was terrible.
In the elevator of the hostel, some guy said to me "How are you?"
and I answered
"I'm nineteen."
"No, no, no, I said How-Are-You?"
A tall middle-aged man asking a young innocent looking Asian boy his age might've led to a terrible misunderstanding.
When I got back home, my father looked at my tanned skin and joked "Did you go to Hawaii or something?" I just gave him a fake laugh, thinking "close one..."
At one softball game in the first semester, I wanted to look good in front of girls. (After the all-boys school.)
I ened up dislocating my knee cap.
This happened when I swung a bat. Not by a collision at home plate, nor diving catch in the outfield...
I was hospitalized, but I enjoyed the time there, because I developed a crush on a super-beautiful nurse...
I was very shy but somehow I ended up making her call me. I remember when I talked with her on the phone, I was so nervous that I started trembling.
I didn't know that you can react that way to something you were looking for. (Of course I couldn't talk much and ended up with no relationship.)
My school life until junior high was fun. I was the vice president of the school committee, and the captain of the wind instrument band.
I played the trumpet, but I'm not a fan of it. I don't like the fact that you can't sing when you are playing it. (Yes, I'm a Karaoke boy).
I was picked to enter a federated high school of a so-so famous university.
But going to an all boys school was the worst decision of my life. It was so boring that 
I don't remember much about my high school life. Except one thing.
I was groped by a boy on a train!
How ironic, being touched by another high school boy when you are feeling low on commuting to an all-boys high school...
I was born in Tokyo.
I still remember that my kindergarten was very fun. We played by acting as Power Rangers.
We had a rule that the person who gets to the top of the slide can choose which Ranger to become.
We jumped out the class room and dashed to the slide. I wasn't athletic, so I always ended up being Yellow ranger or Pink ranger...
( I don't remember what we did *after* becoming a ranger. We obviously didn't have real enemies, so I guess we attacked ants and stuff...)
writer/translator in Japan
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