Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Nihongo ~ Japanese Class

Bre and I have been attending a Japanese class for the past month and a half.  It is a volunteer taught class, so the cost is very low.  We have succeeded in learning the basics of Katakana and Hiragana, two of the four commonly used Japanese Alphabets.  Of the other alphabets Romanji is basically roman characters in English words which we already knew, and the other is Kanji.  Kanji are Chinese characters.  We have learned only a handful of Kanji so far.  The Kanji are the most difficult to master.


Above is a photo of our dining room table covered in textbooks, reference books, notebooks, and practice books.  On a side note, I have decided to try writing about the photo directly above the text used to describe it.  This should reduce confusion about what I am referring to.  If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog please let me know.  I appreciate your comments.


In some ways Japanese is quite easy to learn.  There are fewer sounds in Japanese than English and virtually all the Japanese Phonemes are also English Phonemes.   In other ways Japanese can be quite challenging to learn.  The photo above is of a worksheet describing how to count.  There are several words for each number and the word that you use for the number depends on what you are counting.  For example, if you are counting 4 Yen (en), then 4 is pronounced as yon as in yon en.  If you are counting 4 months (ga-tsu), then the 4 is pronounced shi (like the word "she"), as in shi ga-tsu = four months.  With me so far?

Now we get to the next level of complexity.  The word for the item you are counting changes in some cases depending on the number your are counting.  For example 400 is pronounced four hundred in English.  It makes sense that it is basically the same in Japanese.  Four is yon in when counting in hundred and hundred is pronounced hya-ku, meaning 400 is yon hya-ku.  However, if you are counting 300, the word for hundred becomes bya-ku.  So this means 300 is san (three) bya-ku (hundred).

And at the most confusing level of complexity sometimes both the word for the number and the word for the item you are counting change.  An example of this is 600.  6 is normally roku, but if you are counting in hundreds it becomes ro (with a doubling the sound of the following consonant.)  The 100 that was hya-ku becomes pya-ku when counting 600.  Therefore 600 is pronounced rop-pya-ku.

If you can read Hiragana just look at the photo above to see how this system works.


Here is one of our textbooks and the reference book that explains in English what the Japanese textbook is describing.


Our Sensei gave us each one of these practice books to improve our Hiragana.


Does this remind you of elementary school?  I felt like I was back practicing my letters.


Our Tuttle Pocket Japanese Dictionary has been invaluable.  It helps with translation when we can't find the meaning of the word anywhere else.


That's all for now,

Kyle (and Bre)

Sunday, February 26, 2012

International Miyasama Jumping Competition

Bre, Anton and I went to the Okurayama Ski Jump Stadium today for the International Miyasama Jumping Competition.  Before we even got in the stadium we had a bit of good luck.  Another spectator gave us three tickets to get in to see the jumping competition.

The ski jump competition was pretty amazing.  These guys really fly off the jump.  They sound like a rush of wind when they go past.  When they land their skis hit the ground with a loud slap sound.  We started out at the bottom of the stadium and slowly worked our way up the side of the jump to get closer to the action.


The above photo is almost head on from the very bottom of the viewing area.  Note all the snow in the air between the camera and the jumper.  It was pretty snowy.


This guy was sitting down almost on his skis at the run-out of the jump.  The run-out area slopes back uphill slightly to help the skiers lose the speed from their jump.  I saw a few jumpers who got stranded in the middle of the run-out area.  I think this guy was sitting down to go faster through the run-out area.


They have very cool suits to help them catch more air.


This photo gives some sense of how steep the landing area is.  According to Wikipedia the landing area is 37 degrees, pretty steep!  By comparison the double black diamond run I went down at Mt. Teine was 35 degrees at it's steepest point and I never tried going straight down it.



This guy almost crashed on landing.  Bre claims she heard him shout, but all I could hear was the click of the shutter from the professional photographer standing next to me.


This is the same guy on the same landing where he almost crashed.  I think at this point he had given up on style points.  Behind him you can see the distance marks (in meters).


This guy had amazing form (to my inexperienced eye).  He was really leaning forward.


Here you can see the same skier as above in his landing.  Note that he lands on the back end of his ski and the ski bows as it slaps down on the ground.  The red line in front of him is the K-point at 120 meters, so his jump was around 110-115 meters.  They use bamboo leaves in the snow to mark distance on the course.



This was the very last jump of the competition.  He was from Germany and he did well enough to win third place.

It was a fun morning of watching crazy people jumping.

That is all for now,

-Kyle and Bre

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Bre's skiing adventure


The photo above is from Kokusai on Sunday, 2/19.  We had a rare break of sunshine.  The photo was taken under one of the two gondola lines.  Bre has been learning to ski in Japan.  I put together this movie from our ski trips.  It is hard to believe she has come so far, so fast.  Way to go Bre!






That's all for now,

-Kyle (and Bre)

Friday, February 17, 2012

Underage drinking in Japan and some blood type fun


I took this photo the other day.  I liked it when I took it because the snow was blowing across the ground forming drifts around the signs.  

I have been attending the language corner at the International Student Center(ISC) of Hokudai.  When I went yesterday there not many attenders so we all talked together in one discussion group.  I asked why so many of my Japanese friends post their blood type on their Facebook profiles.  They explained that your blood type is seen as a type of horoscope that can predict your personality and possibly your future.  We took turns trying to guess each others blood type.  You can see more about this on the Wikipedia article.  One of my Japanese friends (who is type AB) states that AB type people have traits of both type A and B combined.  I have to admit that I had thought the posting of your blood type on Facebook was sharing too much of your medical info.  I can understand now why sharing your blood type is so common here, but I still don't plan to post my blood type on Facebook.


I also asked the language corner group about underage drinking and general trouble making in Japan.  One of my friends in the discussion group said that he decided to not go to a university near his hometown because it was famous for its drug culture.  Anther friend said that she drinks even though she is under the legal drinking age (in Japan this is 20.)  Apparently after you graduate high school it is common for everyone to start drinking even though they are under the legal drinking age.  Many stores do not even card the underage students when they go to get alcohol.  One of the students told us that her father told her she should start training herself to be able to drink more alcohol so that when she graduates college and gets a job she is prepared to go drinking with her co-workers.  

I asked them about other crimes like vandalism and theft that were common at my university.  They stated adamantly that they would not steal.  I got the impression that theft would be a crime of great shame.  On the other hand drinking alcohol is almost necessary to fit in with the group.  It is used as a social lubricant.  I found all of this very fascinating.

That's all for now,

Kyle (and Bre)



Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Photographing with Intent Part 2

So I tried my exercise of photographing with intent.  I was trying to capture the best image in one photograph and have the image tell a story.  It was very difficult to not take many photos as the sun went down.  I waited and watched, and ended up taking five photos!  There was only one that really seemed interesting when I looked at them again.  In the bottom left corner of the photo there is a young woman who was also standing out on the field watching the sun set.  It was very calm and peaceful out there.  The sunlight was warm.  She seemed to be taking her time watching the sun go down.  It is hard to distinguish the woman from the signpost.  If I were to grade myself I would give an E for effort on this exercise. 


Let me know what you think.  I enjoy hearing your comments.

That's all for now,

-Kyle (and Bre)

Monday, February 13, 2012

Photographing with Intent

I have been thinking for a while about how many photos I take and how I really just want to take the great photos and not the bad ones.  I have been checking out other photography blogs and I came across the idea of limiting myself to just one photo per day/outing.  What if I only allowed myself to take one photo?  What is the best photo I can take?  What will be the most interesting?  How do I know if I am looking at it now or if I will find something better in 5 minutes?  I decided to give myself a challenge the other day when we went back to Susukino to see the ice sculptures.  My challenge was to only take one photo and to make it the most meaningful photo I could take.  Below is my result.


I like the photo, the composition, the light, the texture of the ice.  It is good enough, but not great.  I spent some time thinking about why this is not a great photo to me.  I had this idea in my mind of my goal being a simple image.  One that contains no extraneous information.  When I tried to take this simple image of the flower design in the ice I couldn't do it.  It wasn't interesting enough.

I did some more reading online about photography with intent and came across this article by Kurt Budlinger.  He suggests that the key to a great image is telling a story.  To tell a story with an image you have to know what story you are telling.  I really connected to this idea and I am giving myself a new goal.  The next time I go out photographing I want to take the photo that describes something important about the world.  The exercise of only taking one photo does help me to focus and think.  So I will challenge myself to only take one photo, and to have the photo tell a story.  I will share the photo I take on the next blog posting.  Wish me good luck!

That's all for now,

Kyle (and Bre)

Sunday, February 12, 2012

JR tower and the Ice Sculptures at Susukino

We went up the Sapporo JR Tower to the observation platform on the 38th floor.  It is very tall, 173 meters.  That is 568 feet for you non-metric readers.  The tower gives a great view of the surrounding area.  The first photo below is from November, note that there is no snow!


This is a view to the north from the observation level of the JR tower.


This is the north side of the Sapporo JR Tower complex.  There is a taxi stand on the left and an area for buses on the right.


This is a view to the Northwest over the university and towards our apartment.  Remember the big field that is prominent in many of the blog posts?  That is the field, a part of the Agricultural College.


The next series of photos were taken by Anton.  This one is a wide angle photo.  You can see one of the tallest condo towers in Sapporo on the left side of the photo.  It is almost as tall as our viewpoint 173 meters up.


This view to the south shows the TV tower at Odori Park.  It is the one with the giant digital clock in the center of the photograph.


You probably know who these to are by now.  The photo below is of Kyle and Bre standing by the window on the 38th floor of Sapporo Station.


This photo(below) is from the inside of the men's restroom on the 38th floor.  It is against the wall giving you a great panoramic view of the city.  This also means giving the city a great view of you!



Here is a link to a short video of me in the men's room (not using it, sheesh!)  I think you will enjoy it.

After the tower we walked on down to Susukino to check out the ice sculptures.  There were many interesting sculptures, but this was the wildest one.  All the seafood in the blocks of ice were real animals actually frozen into the ice.


That's all for now.

-Kyle (and Bre)

Friday, February 10, 2012

Okonomiyaki

On Sunday we tried out Okonomiyaki at a restaurant in the Sapporo Station complex.  It was very fun.  Okonomiyaki is do-it-yourself restaurant where you cook at your table.  It is very common in the Kansai region of Japan.  At the restaurant where we went the staff did the cooking for us, perhaps they did not trust us to cook the food correctly.  The table is mostly grill with a space on each side for our dishes.   We ordered one dish that was a shrimp omelet with cabbage, fish flakes, and topped with okonomiyaki sauce.  We also ordered a noodle dish (which I don't remember as well.)

Our friend Anton suggested we go to the Okonamiyaki restaurant.  Our friends Brigid and Michael from Seattle came with us.  I got a photo of Brigid and Michael at the restaurant.


This is a view of the end of the grill.  It is a gas grill and the dark slot on the grill (in the bottom right corner of the photo) is where the burned food and leftovers were pushed.  The grill is quite large, I couldn't get a clear photo of the whole thing.  It is about 1/2 a meter wide and 1 meter long.  There were several spices on the left.  One was a kelp powder.  I was surprised when I tried the kelp powder out how strong the flavor was.


In this photo our server has just broken the egg yolk and is blending the ingredients together.


Here she(our server) is starting to spread the Okonomiyaki out onto the grill.


Here it is after being spread out on the grill.  You can see the shrimp on the top of the pile.


Here is our noodle dish as we grab our portions from the grill to put on our plate.  Chopstick skills are a must!



Here the Okonomiyaki is nearly done and the server put the fish flakes on top.  They seemed to dance in the heat from the grill.


This is the final step before we can eat.  The okonomiyaki sauce is spread over the top.  Mmmmm, mmm good!


Thanks to Anton for suggesting a new food adventure.

That's all for now,

Kyle (and Bre)

Thursday, February 9, 2012

小樽雪あかりの路, Otaru Yuki Akari no Michi

We went to Otaru on Tuesday for The Yuki Akari no Michi festival, which translates roughly as the the Snow Light Path Festival.  Otaru is a port city located near Sapporo.

Taking the train with our friend Michael who uses a wheelchair was quite the experience.  When we got to the train station one of the JR officials helped us to the correct track for our train and got a ramp to get Michael up into the train.  He gave us instructions on how to get to Otaru, by getting off at Teine and transferring to a second train.  When we arrived in Teine we found a JR employee waiting for us at our train car with a ramp to transfer Michael.  They would call ahead to each station that we used and send help for his wheelchair.  When we arrived in Otaru I didn't see a JR employee so I transferred Michael out of the train.  As soon as Michael was out the JR employee came up with the ramp and apologized for not getting there in time to help us.  He then took Michael down the escalator at the Otaru Station.  I have never before seen an escalator with the wheelchair feature that this one had.  I tried to find a video of it online without success.  This escalator had a special wheelchair feature where three of the escalator panels flattened out to make a space large enough for a wheelchair.  There were special metal flaps that came up to hold the wheels in place.  Once Michael was situated the escalator slowly transferred him down to the lower level.  The whole thing was very smooth, and with our limited Japanese, very mysterious.  Once we saw how it worked we were very impressed.

We met up with our friends Anton and Mami to see the lights and walk along the canal.  I took a few photos of the candle lights during our walk.  There were many blocks with different snow sculptures and candles.  They were very creative and pretty.  I was told that this is a good place to go for a romantic night with someone special.

There were many Otaru residents out monitoring the candles to keep them lit.  When I was taking photos one of them came along and helped push Micheal's wheelchair.






The leaf candle photo credit goes to Bre.



Here is a photo of Michael and Brigid by the canal.  The lights in the canal are all floating candles.  They were very lovely.




After all this walking around in the cold we were hungry so we tried a sushi restaurant near the canal.  Otaru is famous for its sushi and its fame is well deserved.  It was the best sushi I have ever had.  The sushi looked great and had amazing texture.  It was oishikatta!  We sat at the bar and watched the sushi chefs prepare our food.  They have a saying at this sushi restaurant(according to our friends who translated for us) there is no sushi from yesterday.

That's all for now,

-Kyle (and Bre)