http://www.st-yuki.net/blog/ A blog from Japan. The author was born and lives in Japan with his Azerbaijani wife and two baby boys. Works in Tokyo for an American company. en st.yuki Copyright st.yuki http://www.st-yuki.net/blog/014.html I usually wear cufflinks when I have to sport a suit and tie. That means I wear them almost every day as all the male employees at my company are expected to appear in suits and ties at work. (In case you are interested, female employees are told to wear "proper business attire.") One day, one of my colleagues looked at my cuff and said, "I rarely see people wear cufflinks. You have an eye for fashion." I answered her, "Yes, of course I do have a very good eye for fashion," but she obviously could not spot the actual reason why I like to wear cufflinks. To tell the truth, it is not that I like cufflinks, but I like cuffs without buttons. The reason is simple. Buttons on cuffs get in the way when I iron my shirts. French cuffs (double cuffs) are not easy to iron either, but single link cuffs that have buttonholes on both sides, but no buttons, are perfect. Most shirts I buy are in that style. Thus, in the natural course of events, I tend to wear cufflinks. Accessories are often considered to be excessive, but they sometimes make your life simpler, not more complicated. As my colleague mentioned, it seems few people in Japan wear cufflinks. I meet a lot of business people every day, but it is only once or twice a week that I see anything other than buttoned barrel cuffs. I do not think there are any worldwide statistics on the usage of cufflinks, but I sometimes wonder how people fasten their shirt sleeves in other countries. I could send emails to all of my colleagues around the world and ask "Are you wearing cufflinks today?" but then everyone would think that I'd gone crazy. Are button cuffs worn by the vast majority in your country as well? Of course, cufflinks are not without weaknesses. You need to buy a pair in the first place, and that costs you money. (Another way is to wait and expect that someone will give them to you as a gift, but that costs you time.) High fashion brands are hideously expensive, but cheaper ones have all the appearances of mass-produced goods. My solution to that is to purchase pre-owned items from a website like eBay . You can always find a lot of "vintage" cufflinks being sold in bulk packages at giveaway prices. The quality is usually fine because cufflinks are not the kind of things that can be easily damaged. Old items sometimes have very interesting designs, and you don't have to be a discerning connoisseur to enjoy them. Now you want to wear a pair on your cuffs, don't you? st.yuki 2012-04-28T12:35+09:00 http://www.st-yuki.net/blog/013.html One day in February, my wife suggested that we go on a weekend trip overseas, saying that she needed to gain fresh energy to recover from the stress of mothering our two baby boys. I didn't feel like going anywhere, and groped for the appropriate response to her. I usually do not like to travel very far unless I have something unavoidable to do at the destination. But I didn't have the confidence to win over my wife as she is the kind of person who won't take no for an answer. At that moment, however, I remembered that my wife is from outside of Japan. "Hey, you are not Japanese, and Japan is a foreign country to you. If you travel in Japan, that means you're travelling overseas." She didn't seem satisfied, but I also remembered that we live a short distance from the Tokyo Disney Resort. "And, you know what, we live near a 'resort' where a lot of people from all over the world travel on vacation to have fun and relax." Then, after hours of discussion, my genius negotiation skills finally convinced her that we should stay at one of the hotels in the Disney Resort over a weekend. We also agreed that we would not go to any of the theme parks, but just enjoy the hotel facilities. I promptly started searching hotels. Now, there are three categories of hotels that are tied up with the Tokyo Disney Resort. 1) Disney Hotels (operated under the Disney brand within the Tokyo Disney Resort) - Disney Ambassador Hotel - Tokyo DisneySea Hotel MiraCosta - Tokyo Disneyland Hotel 2) Tokyo Disney Resort Official Hotels (operated within the resort, but not under the Disney brand) - Hilton Tokyo Bay - Hotel Okura Tokyo Bay - Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay Hotel - Sunroute Plaza Tokyo - Tokyo Bay Maihama Hotel Club Resort - Tokyo Bay Maihama Hotel 3) Tokyo Disney Resort Partner Hotels (relatively near Disney, but not within the resort) - Urayasu Brighton Hotel - Oriental Hotel Tokyo Bay - Palm & Fountain Terrace Hotel - Hotel Emion Tokyo Bay - Mitsui Garden Hotel Prana Tokyo Bay 4) Tokyo Disney Resort Good Neighbor Hotels (Despite the word "neighbor", these hotels are not very near the Disney Resort.) - Keio Plaza Hotel - Hotel Metropolitan Edmont - Hotel Grand Pacific Le Daiba - Hotel Nikko Tokyo - Tokyo Bay Ariake Washington Hotel - Hotel Sunroute Ariake - Daiichi Hotel Ryogoku - Tobu Hotel Levant Tokyo - Hotel East 21 Tokyo - Keisei Hotel Miramare - Hotel Springs Makuhari - Hotel New Otani Makuhari If you really love to romp with Disney characters all day and night, the first category, the Disney Hotels, may be a good option. But they are usually too expensive and not suitable for those who just want to relax without being bothered by the blatting mice and their friends. Also, the 3rd and 4th categories were out of question. (Why would we go farther from the resort than we usually are?) So, I chose the Sheraton from category #2. Why didn't I go for one of the other ones like Hilton or Okura? Because the Sheraton was the only hotel that could offer us a spacious room plan for the nearest weekend. Did we enjoy the stay? Yes, it was fine overall. My wife was free from baby rearing and household duties to quite an extent even though both of our kids were with us. We relished plenty of fresh and delicious buffet selections for all the breakfasts, lunches and dinners. The indoor playground at the hotel was like a paradise for our elder kid. However, there were a few negatives as well: 1) As it was a hasty reservation, we could not compare and choose from many hotels and plans. As a result, we spent more money than we might have if we had looked for better options in plenty of time. Actually, the total "travel" expenses were as high as a short trip to a nearby overseas country. We were upgraded to a Club Level room upon check in, and I guess it was a small mercy from the hotel to a stupid squanderer. 2) I was always going back and forth between the hotel and home during the weekend. On Friday, the day of our check in, I went to the hotel directly from work. I had to return home to change from a suit to a more casual outfit and get some extra clothes for my wife and kids. On Saturday, we remembered that an item from an online store was to be delivered in the evening. It was a new digital camera that my wife had ordered, and she wanted to use it during our "vacation." I went back home again, got the camera, and brought it back to the hotel. It was far from "getting away from it all." It was not a bad deal, however, if I think of it as a small investment in the local tourism industry. The tax contribution of the Disney and surrounding tourist areas to my city's finances is quite noticeable. The more people spend money in the Disney Resort, the better service we get from the city. Are you looking for good places to visit in Japan? Come here, enjoy and give me a better life! st.yuki 2012-04-21T23:50+09:00 http://www.st-yuki.net/blog/012.html On March 11th, most public transport stopped running even in Tokyo, and many people could not go home after work. Some people walked many kilometers in the darkness to get home. Did I have a hard time too? Not really. I was in my office at work, and kept working until late. As always, I sent some emails to my colleagues and clients before leaving the office. Then I was lucky enough to catch one of a few subways that resumed service. A couple of days after the quake, the city where I live, Urayasu, was reported by the media as the "disaster area nearest Tokyo." As around 70% of the city is on land reclaimed from the sea, many roads, roadside trees, bridges and buildings were severely damaged by liquefaction of soil caused by the intense shaking of the quake. Tokyo Disney Resort, which is my wonderful neighbor, was one of the many areas affected. What about my apartment? Well, it is on the inland edge of the old coastline, and there was no damage except that some of the water in my aquarium was spilled. The roads and sidewalks in front of my place are as flat and smooth as a skating rink. The water supply in most areas in Urayasu city was disrupted after the quake. That was the case even in those areas which are not on a landfill. The block where I live was a fortunate exception. I missed the notification from the city authorities that the water supply was stopped in the entire city while I was taking a shower. Also, a few days later, I realized that the gas supply was suspended in many areas of the city. At my apartment, of course, the gas supply has never stopped since the quake. To cope with electricity shortage caused by the mega earthquake, Tokyo Electric Power Company started to carry out area-by-area power rationing with rolling blackouts in the Kanto region surrounding Tokyo. Urayasu city, however, was at first exempted from the blackouts in consideration of the above disruption to gas and water supplies. As a result, my family and I have had the perfect services of basic utilities. I have no trouble at work either. My good luck did not end there. Since the earthquake, many shelves have been half-empty in convenience stores and supermarkets as people stock up. Even now, some people are still frantically buying excess food and supplies. When I went to a supermarket last Sunday, I could not help laughing at the sight. While rice was sold out completely, there were so many bags of flour left unsold. Nothing seems to hold me back from living my normal life. I baked good bread that night. As time goes by, people's interest shifted from the earthquake itself to the nuclear reactor in Fukushima. Even from the greater Tokyo area, some people started to flee to the western regions of Japan. Interestingly enough, most of the evacuees from Tokyo I know are people who have always been unreasonable and demanding. All the ones whose wisdom and abilities I have always admired have stayed in or around Tokyo. The M 9.0 earthquake blew a lot of interpersonal stress away from me. I believe there are tens of millions of people who are perfectly safe and fine just as I am in the eastern Japan. It is our responsibility to stay calm and suppress any panic. Don't pass on chain emails. Use your wisdom to quiet groundless rumors. Help everyone to access correct and unbiased information. We are the lucky ones, and Japan will never be destroyed as long as we are here. st.yuki 2011-03-20T12:00+09:00 http://www.st-yuki.net/blog/011.html I know my English is far from perfect, but many people ask me how I learned English. Maybe I fare modestly well for an ESL speaker whose native language is from an entirely different language family. I understand most of what native English speakers say. I can enjoy books written in English without much trouble. I've been using English in business for several years and have not faced any major difficulty so far. In this entry, I'd like to share with you what I have been doing to learn English. Suppose you're reading something in a foreign language. They often say that the goal you should strive for is to understand the foreign language directly without having to translate it to your native language. That sounds quite reasonable because that's what most bilingual or multilingual people do. However, I think that's still insufficient. When I read something in English for study purposes, I always try to put myself into the writer's position. As I read word by word and sentence by sentence, I constantly keep asking myself if I can produce the same quality of writing by myself. Don't be satisfied with just grasping the meanings of written text. You can learn a lot more even from just one paragraph. Try to imagine how many different ways the same thing can be expressed. You can come up with a lot of questions, such as, "Why did the author choose this word out of many synonyms?", "What made him/her use a figurative expression here?", "Why are so many rhetorical questions used in this paragraph?" and so forth. Actually, all those questions have the same root: Why did the author feel right about his/her writing? The most valuable learning is not about memorizing words and phrases. Many people who study languages seem to try to learn and memorize how native speakers would say things. Unfortunately, I don't have such a good memory. What I do instead is to imagine what native speakers would "think" and "feel" when they describe something. What you say is a reflection of what you think and feel. You'd rather buy an espresso machine than order 100 cups of espresso every morning. Likewise, it is more fruitful to examine just one aspect of the mindset of the native speakers than to try to learn 100 words and phrases. It's not that I underestimate the power of vocabulary. I just want something more enjoyable than rote learning. It is ideal if one day you can say, "Wow, I didn't realize I increased my vocabulary so much." The same thing can be said when you refer to a grammar book. Grammar rules in textbooks do not exist a priori , but rather, they are a result of researchers' attempts to organize the structures of discourse in the real world. The important thing is not to memorize each rule, but to think why the linguists organized the information the way they did. When a word or phrase has many different usages, think about what is the core and common concept of them. You don't have to reach a definitive answer. Just give it a try until you feel satisfied. Then, modify your understanding every time you come across an unexpected usage. Lastly, let me try to illustrate my attitude toward improving my listening and speaking skills. It's not fun for me to go headlong into listening a lot without thinking. I know many people enjoy watching movies and TV programs in foreign languages, but that's not something I want to do for daily practice because it seems to me that there are a lot more boring movies and programs than interesting ones. My preference is to download and listen to educational podcasts whose contents themselves are designed to be helpful for improving your English. What I mean here is not materials for ESL students. You can find a number of podcasts for native English speakers to improve their language skills even more. Such podcasts as " Grammar Girl ", " A Way with Words " and " Grammar Grater " are interesting and helpful to ESL speakers like me as well. Thus, I only listen to what interests me, but still, there are times when I get tired of just listening. When that happens, I try "shadowing", which is listening to and simultaneously echoing a recording of English speech. Have you ever tried shadowing in a foreign language? Shadowing is a good way to drive your sleepiness away. It helps you improve your fluency too, as a side effect. I think I covered almost everything. Of course, the best way to learn a language is different for everyone, as we are all different. Also, I have a feeling that what works well for learning one language may not necessarily work for another. Even so, I thought it might be interesting for those of you who study foreign languages to read an article like this. I hope you enjoyed it. st.yuki 2011-01-15T23:00+09:00 http://www.st-yuki.net/blog/010.html The Japanese-Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) now seems to be the de facto standard to measure the proficiency of students of Japanese as a foreign language. But as a native Japanese speaker who is frequently exposed to Japanese written and spoken by people from foreign countries, I do not place much trust in this test. Too often, the results of JLPT do not seem to reflect the actual Japanese skills of the examinees. This is particularly noticeable in students at the level of JLPT level 2 or 3 (New JLPT N2-4). My wife is a JLPT level 2 holder. She hasn't passed the level 1 (N1) yet, and I don't know whether she wants to try taking it or not. Nevertheless, she sometimes works as a part-time translator and interpreter from/to Japanese and her native language, Russian. I once asked her how she can get those jobs without a certificate of a higher level of Japanese. She answered, "I just say 'I passed the level 2 over five years ago.' Then everyone assumes that my Japanese skills must be far beyond the level 1." Honestly, even among people who are able to pass the level 1, the actual skill level can vary considerably. I have a non-native friend who has lived in Japan for a long time. She passed the level 1 with a good score many years ago, but when I proof read her Japanese writing, more often than not, I have to ask her to explain what she wants to say in English. Also, her spoken Japanese sounds quite foreign even though it's difficult to find any technical mistakes in it. On the other hand, another friend of mine, who is from Korea, has achieved amazing fluency in Japanese. I first met him at my graduate school, only four years after he came to Japan as a foreign student, but I thought he was a native speaker of Japanese until I noticed one day that some kanji characters he wrote looked a bit distorted. I was very much surprised when I learned that he had never studied Japanese before his coming to Japan. But anyway, the system of the JLPT classified both of those friends of mine as "level 1." After all, JLPT evaluates primarily listening and reading comprehension skills. Speaking and writing are tested only indirectly. Fortunately, Japanese people who study English have more options. There are at least three major English-proficiency tests that you can take in Japan: the Eiken Test in Practical English Proficiency (STEP Eiken) , Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) . The latter two are given around the world. STEP Eiken includes a speaking test and handwritten composition component in addition to reading and listening. TOEFL, which is designed to test the language proficiency of non-natives who intend to study in the American university system, also consists of reading, listening, speaking and writing. However, the current standard test in the business environment in Japan is TOEIC, which usually has no speaking and writing sections. (There is a separate test called TOEIC SW, but that is not very popular yet.) I have taken TOEIC only twice. The first time was when I was a university student, and my score was 830 out of 990. Not excellent, but not bad either. The second time was about three years ago, and at that point, I lost my trust in TOEIC. I got 970 and beat the scores of most people I know who can communicate in English far better than I can. My feeling may have been a little bit similar to the famous old complaint: "I would never want to belong to any club that would have someone like me for a member." Statistically, it must be true that those who show better performance in tests have greater proficiency in reality. I have no doubt about that. But it is extremely difficult to evaluate the language skills of each individual. st.yuki 2011-01-07T21:50+09:00 http://www.st-yuki.net/blog/009.html This post will show you how to make simple and delicious apple jelly. First of all, you definitely need some apples. The apple has a long history as a cultivated fruit in the world, and it was in the 10th century that the plant first appeared in Japanese literature. The species of apple in Japan at that time was Malus asiatica , which is now commonly called "Chinese Apple" in English. Malus pumila or Malus domestica , the species that covers most varieties of apples eaten today, was introduced to Japan in the mid-19th century. As it is recorded that the first-timers ate it by spreading it on mochi (a kind of rice cake), they must have tasted it in the form of jam or jelly. There is a tremendous sense of history in this recipe, don't you think? 1. Let's use Fuji apples this time (Figure A). Fuji is the world's most abundunt variety of apples, but that's not the reason I selected it. It's just that my grandmother sent me much more Fuji apples than my family could ever eat. If your grandmother is not a kind of person who would send you apples, I suggest you buy some McIntosh or Kogyoku apples, which are smaller and more sour than Fuji. Fuji is actually a little too sweet to be cooked into jelly though it is very nice for eating raw. 2. Core and slice apples using an apple cutter (Figure B), but do not peel them. As we do not add any additional thickening agent in this recipe, we need the pectin contained in the apples to make it like jelly. Pectin is a complex carbohydrate, which is a major component of the cell wall of plants. The peel, pith and seeds have lots of pectin. Therefore, the cores should not be thrown away either. Stuff them into empty tea bags (Figure C) and put them into a pan together with the sliced unpeeled apples (Figure D). By the way, I don't know why, but apple cutters suffer a little indignity in Japan. If you search carefully, imported ones are available and there are ones made in Japan, too. But to all appearance, they are not penetrated well into the Japanese market. When my wife found the one in the photo and bought it at an IKEA store, she went like, "This is what I've been looking for over the years since I came to this country! I thought I'd never find it in Japan..." (Come to think of IKEA, there are always so many non-Japanese people in IKEA stores. My wife is definitely one of them. Almost all the kitchen tools in the photos above are from IKEA.) But I digress. Let's go back to the recipe. 3. Pour the same weight of water as of apples and boil (Figure E). A Fuji apple weighs approximately a little over 300 g (10.5 oz), and I used three apples this time. So the amount of water should be around 1L (2.2 pints). The boiling time should usually be over 3 hours, but you can shorten it to 30 or 45 minutes if you use a pressure pan. Boil until the apples become like well-stewed onions (Figure F). 4. Strain the liquid through a sieve (Figure G). You can use a cheese cloth for straining, but a fine sieve is usually good enough. However, do not press or squeeze the apples unless you want to make murky jelly. Leave it untouched until all the liquid is strained. You will get some clear light brown liquid (Figure H). 5. Add sugar. The weight of the sugar should be less than half of that of the apples. In this case, do not add more than 500 g (1.1 lb). I used brown "sanonto" sugar (三温糖) (Figure I). By doing so, the jelly will have a nice burgundy color. But please keep in mind that sanonto is not actually the same as the "brown sugar." The brown color of sanonto is due to caramelization. On the other hand, what is normally called "brown sugar" in English contains molasses in it and that contributes to the brown color. The brown sugar is more like "kurozato (黒砂糖)" in Japan. Also, for your information, "normal white sugar" in Japan is quite different from that in most other countries. In many countries in the world, normal white sugar is granulated sugar. But that is not the case in Japan. While granulated sugar is practically pure sucrose, the "normal white sugar" most commonly used in Japan contains significant amount of glucose and fructose (inverted sugar syrup). This "normal white sugar" is called "johakuto (上白糖)." Johakuto is a little sweeter than granulated sugar, but has less calories. If you are from outside of Japan and want to get some normal white sugar at a supermarket in Japan, don't grab "砂糖." Pick up the one labeled clearly as "グラニュー糖" and that's the normal white sugar for you. 6. Squeeze juice out of half a lemon (Figure J). The acidity of the lemon juice promotes setting of the pectin. Then boil the liquid down until it has reduced by half (Figure K). You may feel it is not thick enough yet, but it will eventually set as it cools down. 7. Pour the liquid into heat-resistant containers. I used tumblers without any heat resistance in the photo (Figure L), but please do not follow it. It's dangerous. If you mind air bubbles, remove them using a toothpick while the liquid is hot and fluent. 8. Cool them down in the refrigerator, and you'll have apple jelly! (Figure M) st.yuki 2011-01-03T22:20+09:00 http://www.st-yuki.net/blog/008.html Today's post is about a topic that recently provoked some controversy in some Japanese internet communities. In an arithmetic class for second graders of an elementary school, the pupils were given a problem like this: "There are 3 apples on each plate. If there are 5 plates, how many apples are there altogether?" One pupil wrote his or her answer on the examination paper as below. Formula: 5x3 = 15 Answer: 15 apples The answer is correct, of course, but the pupil did not get any points because the teacher decided that the formula was inadequate. Usually, in Japan, teachers tell their pupils to interpret multiplication as "groups" when they teach it to the children for the first time. For example, children are told to think 3x5 as "five groups of three." 3x5 = 3+3+3+3+3 In the case of 5x3, there are three groups of five. 5x3 = 5+5+5 (number in each group) x (number of groups) = (total number), this is multiplication. Yeah! Let's take a look at the problem once again. "There are 3 apples on each plate. If there are 5 plates, how many apples are there altogether?" Here, the apples consist of groups of three each while each plate exists individually. Therefore, the formula must be 3x5 = 15, and cannot be 5x3. Most adults know the commutative rule of multiplication: AxB = BxA, but in this case, the pupils have not been taught this rule. Children at this educational stage are not supposed to know this yet, and some teachers feel uncomfortable when their pupils use something they have not taught them yet. Mathematically, however, there is nothing wrong if teachers teach that the formula should be written in the order of "(number of groups) x (number in each group) = (total number)." There is no rule. I imagine many people from English speaking countries interpret multiplication in that way (eg, 3x5 = 5+5+5) considering that you often read "3x5 = 15" as "three TIMES five equals fifteen" verbally. All things considered, the pupil above did not get any points on the examination not because of any mathematical mistakes, but only because s/he did not follow what the teacher said. People who are against this teacher think that it was outrageous the academic truth was prevailed by what was comfortable for the teacher. Even if the pupils have not been taught the commutative rule at school, some of them may have learned it by themselves. How can a teacher deny this intellectual curiosity of the children? Apparently, most mathematics researchers and scholars insist that the teacher should have considered the pupil's answer as entirely correct. However, other people think that there are some practical reasons that teachers sometimes have to do such things. Some children in the first several grades of elementary school tend to ignore the context of math problems and just put all the numbers they see together using random mathematical symbols. For example, it is no surprise if some of those children answer that the total number of apples is 8 because they see 3 and 5 in the problem. If teachers tell their pupils that the order of the numbers in the formula does not matter and allow them to write either "5x3" or "3x5," it becomes very difficult to tell whether the children really understand the concept of interpreting multiplication as "groups of" or they just randomly connect 5 and 3 using the multiplication sign. Imagine many years later from now, when my son comes to me and says, "Dad, I learned multiplication at school today!" Will there be anything I can do for him to make his understanding clearer? I'm going to give him this quiz: "There are 3 plates on each apple. If there are 5 apples, how many plates are there altogether?" I'll start practicing placing plates on top of an apple now. st.yuki 2010-12-05T18:30+09:00 http://www.st-yuki.net/blog/007.html Yes, I moved to Miami Beach. However, it is not the real Miami Beach in Florida, but a fake one in Japan. Let me explain. My family and I recently moved to Urayasu City in the prefecture of Chiba, which is very well known for being home to the Tokyo Disney Resort . The area where we live now is only 15 minutes walk from the resort. The train station I use for commuting is the one nearest the Disney. Every evening, when I get off the train exhausted after work, I bump into a crowd of people who wear black ears on their heads. The name of the station is "Maihama," which was named after Miami Beach. "Mai" is for Miami (maiami in katakana) and "hama" means "beach" in Japanese. The area of Miahama was created on land reclaimed according to the plan of building the Disney theme parks. Oriental Land Company (OLC) , which owns and operates Tokyo Disney Resort as a licensee of the Walt Disney Company , suggested the name of the area because Walt Disney World was in Florida, and the easiest association with Florida was Miami Beach. For the name of the station, however, OLC originally wanted to use "Tokyo Disneyland Station" instead of "Maihama." The Japan Railway Company approved it, but the Walt Disney Company did not. They were afraid that the name Disney would get a bad reputation if something negative but irrelevant to Disney occurred in or around the station. If you want to have the name Maihama in your address, you have to live in an upscale residential area. I think this is partly because of the power of the Disney brand. However, you still can live near Maihama station and have good access to Disney at a quite reasonable cost if you do not mind what your street address looks like. That was what I did because I did not want to pay that much for my living place. I actually did not especially want to live near Disney either, but it ended up like that while I was trying to fulfill tons of requests from my wife. "I want a modestly roomy place located in a city very convenient to Tokyo, but not too urbanized. There should be no tall buildings around but lots of nice trees. Our baby should be able to have fun just walking round the neighborhood..." I'm sure our baby has fun being able to watch the fireworks at Disney from our balcony every evening. Also, I bought my wife an annual passport to Disneyland for her birthday. She can take him there any time now... I hope he won't get too used to the dreamland and become insensitive to ordinary delights. I also hope I can keep enduring seeing people playing during weekdays while I go to work every morning. st.yuki 2010-11-29T20:30+09:00 http://www.st-yuki.net/blog/006.html As I like to play chess, I sometimes read books written by famous chess players. One such book that I’ve read recently is "How Life Imitates Chess" by Garry Kasparov, who is a Russian former World Chess Champion. Since many people think that he is the greatest chess player in history, you may have heard of his name even if you’re not interested in chess. He is also well-known for his games against chess computers. The book is about the power of tactical and strategic thinking that he has developed through chess, and he writes about how those ways of thinking can be adapted to real life. I found it very witty that he didn’t title the book "How Chess Imitates Life" but "How Life Imitates Chess." I think this title strongly implies his love for chess and his attitude toward life.(Although Kasparov is not a native English speaker, he wrote this book originally in English with the help of an American ghostwriter.) When I visited Amazon.com to buy this book, I ordered an English paperback edition without any hesitation as I knew that very few chess books are translated into Japanese due to the lack of popularity of chess in Japan. But that was not the case this time. It was after I finished reading it that I saw a Japanese translation for sale at a bookstore. I was glad, however, that I found the English edition prior to the Japanese one because the Japanese title on the cover was really terrible. It was translated as "決定力を鍛える (Improving Your Decision Making Skills)." What a boring title! It is true that Kasparov talks about the importance of decision making quite a few times in the book, the title in Japanese spoils all the atmosphere of the original one. One of the possible ways to keep the original title untouched as much as possible might be to make use of katakana transliteration. This is actually very often done in translating titles of books, movies, songs, etc. into Japanese. However, it can also end up in making a ridiculous Japanese title. I saw a movie called "Saving Private Ryan" about ten years ago, and its Japanese title was "プライベート・ライアン." This is a correct transliteration of "Private Ryan" and we do have the katakana word "プライベート." The problem is that this katakana word is only for private meaning personal and individual, and never ever used for the rank of a soldier. Translators (or publishers?), please put more care into title translation and think it out seriously. A good title is important as it can become the identity of the work. st.yuki 2010-09-04T21:30+09:00 http://www.st-yuki.net/blog/005.html I have some background in science. I majored in biochemistry as an undergraduate, and studied neuroscience in graduate school. I performed a lot of scientific experiments those days. Below is a typical scientific way of conducting experiments. 1. Make a hypothesis. 2. Plan experiments. 3. Perform them. 4. Gain results, whether they are positive or negative. 5. Accept or reject the hypothesis, and go to the next steps. (Return to 1 and repeat). Do you think it's too inorganic and heartless? I sometimes think, however, that this is exactly what we do in our real lives. Let's see below. 1. Expect something. 2. Think what to do. 3. Take actions. 4. Succeed or fail. 5. Become happy or sad, and go to the next steps. (Return to 1 and repeat.) Of course it's just a figure of speech, but if you would like, you can say that life is a series of experiments. One of the benefits of seeing my life in that way is that I can think that any result is just a result. In a world of science, any results reported by scientists must be further inspected through a lot of additional examinations by taking a long time before they are approved as true and accurate. One result in one experiment is true only under a certain condition. So when something is going wrong in my life, I try to think in this way: "It is not yet the truth of universe that I am stupid. On the contrary, this is a good chance to reconsider the current conditions and methods I have taken." This is just a kind of a thought experiment, though. It's not that I'm always able to follow this way of thinking. Unexpected things will always happen, whether you're living your life or performing a scientific experiment. st.yuki 2010-08-14T21:00+09:00