When you just look back

I don’t think I have to explain what happened from the start. It was Friday morning when one of my colleagues informed me about it. Seconds later, I started trying to contact people in Japan.

First friends I could confirm their safety were the ones who were familiar to the Internet (more precisely, SNS). I couldn’t rely on telephone communication, both mobile and land-line. Internet was the most robust means to communicate in this sort of circumstances.

Few hours later, I could communicate with my families in Okinawa, and was told all of my family members were fine. It became probably the most intensive several hours in this year.

Before coming to Austria, I was living in Ibaraki, where the things got heavily damaged by this disaster. I could see very familiar names of towns on ustream live (actually they’re the neighboring towns from the city I lived). I still cannot communicate to my former colleagues; www server is down, and it doesn’t really make much sense to call them up, if there’s nothing much I could do from here.

It was (and still is) really amazing how things are handled in Japan. After this huge (set of) mess, people seem to have situation under control. Except those places where basic even the communication is down (such as some places in Iwate prefecture), shops are open and people are already talking about going to work! While I personally think this to be a best time to go for an evacuation-holiday trip¹, I admire this attitude to live normally even in such an extreme situation.

I expect the first crisis period (including aftershocks with followed tsunamis, and nuclear plant issue) to last a week or so. After that, long work of reconstruction and psychological care need to be organized. Frankly, however, I am rather optimistic about the future of Japan with regard to this tragic events. What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.

1. in order to supply enough electronic power to the most crucial places, such as hospital and nuclear power plant, usage of electronic power in Kantou-area is limited [↩]

A while ago, I wrote a post about an iPad app. from Financial Times. The title and URL link to articles would be sent to my twitter timeline via RSS. It seems that one person inside the Financial Times actually read my tweet.

That was not the end of the story. She (at least so I could read from the Twitter timeline of this person) said that she would like to send me an iPad case. Because it seemed rather obvious that she really worked for FT by browsing through her past tweets and because I didn’t think of much trouble telling my mailing address, I gave it to her.

For few weeks, nothing actually happened. But one day, I received a large envelope in my mail box. It was sent from UK and had an iPad case with the name of “FT”. I actually already have an iPad case and I’m feeling happy with it, but I might use this new case just to show off people around me that “Hey, I’m reading Financial Times” :-P (though I’m not certain whether such an opportunity really ever comes to me..).

It’s been more than a month since I started subscribing the FT. Luckily, I seem to be still capable of keeping up with the articles provided by the FT. It became almost part of my everyday doings to read articles I downloaded in my flat in the subway to my office. I’ve also started using RSS service from FT as wel.

Last weekend, I bought a (paper-based) news paper (yes, that was in German). I don’t even remember when the last time I bought a paper-based news was; it must have been more than few years.. The first impression I got was “heavy”. The second impression was “Large”. Of course there is always the cost concerned, but I might just prefer going for online subscription, even if paper-based news paper with the same content were provided with (slightly) cheaper price.

There doesn’t seem to be a way of going back..

Last weekend, I was going for shopping with a friend of mine (and by his car). On the way back to my flat, I saw some places I never actually had seen before, although they were not too far away from where I live now.

The reason is very straight-forward; I usually use subway or tram for transportation. Other than those methods, I usually go one place to another on foot. Consequently, my mobility would be dependent on those public transportation reaches.

It’s actually not that bad to move around the city using the subway. But it would be nice (and much easier) to see somewhere else with my personal ride.

Although I have an Austrian driver’s license, I had experienced crashing my car few months after I’d got it. And I personally don’t like having things that make my life unnecessarily more complicated (I would most likely go for rental car, if I were to travel to somewhere by car. I just don’t know when this would happen :-P). I thought about a small motorcycle and instantly thought of “Monkey” produced by Honda. It’s small and would be useful to “go an extra mile”, I thought (and I could probably store it in my own flat, which is another plus on my personal taste).

I talked to one of my colleagues and show the picture of it. Instantly he suggested not to go for it. It’d be pretty dangerous to drive a motorcycle with less than 50cc, since it cannot go that fast (compared to other cars or motorcycles on the street). Yes, it seems like people are challenging the technical limits of their own cars (when they can) in Europe (or at least German speaking countries, as I’ve seen). I was suggested to go for the ones above 125cc.

With the kind of driver’s license I have now, I’m allowed to drive a car and small motorcycle, but not the motorcycles above 50cc. I could try to get an additional license, but it would take few weeks and some amount of money (1000 EUR the most?). If I would have held current license for more than 5 years, things would have been much easier, I was told.

If I would be asked whether I’d be that interested in going somewhere with motorcycle after going through above processes, my answer would likely to be negative. I even thought about going for a collapsible bicycle and do my own city adventure (with the help of subway).

It’s been almost 2 years since I said good-bye to my ex-car. But I don’t seem to miss it at all. I sometimes wonder how fan it would be to ride a motorcycle (but again, not having to go through many paper-works). Moving to Vienna, in that sense, wasn’t a bad idea for me at all.

My answer is very simple : a person who holds a Japanese passport or eligible to do so. Is there anything else to add / subtract?

Sometimes it turns out to be a discussion that some people think there is more than just “a passport” in the nationality.

A culture? I’d then like to ask this person what the culture actually is. Someone may say it’s a set of customs that is shared by a certain group of people. So does it mean a person who loves a computer keyboard is categorized in a different group from a person who loves orange juice? If that’s not fair enough, how about the thought of “Wa” (和), of which a direct translation would be something like “harmony”? How would you define if (s)he has a spirit of Wa in the first place?

A tradition? So someone whose tradition is to cerebrate the New Year in February would is different country from the one who does so in January? Or a people who celebrate Christmas are holding different nationality from those who celebrate the New Year?

A Language? So a person who was born in United States (meaning that this person is an American) and has spent 19 years learning Japanese (and can speak the language very well) is to be automatically considered a Japanese?

In all those above cases, those notions (which are not mine) of nationality actually do change as time passes, even for the very same person. Culture can dramatically change in a decade (e.g., how people dress up themselves). Most of the Japanese people (or people in Japanese territory at that time) did not have a Christmas until recently (about 100 years ago). You may be speaking in a different language(s) in 10 years (at least I never actually thought about learning or speaking German until 10 years ago)!

Another thing about those points above is that they’re rather subjective; you may well claim that you love keyboard (whether it’s a computer keyboard or music keyboard is secondary). But the nationality is not something you can obtain by just speaking it loud (at least not in these days).

So let me come back to the first line of this article : My answer is very simple : a person who holds a Japanese passport or eligible to do so. Is there anything else to add / subtract?

After getting an iPad, I’ve been trying out various news browsing applications. The iPhone is great in a sense that it could connect to the Internet almost at any places (where the mobile phone data signal can reach). But iPad can show you much more information at glance.

I’ve tried one application available in Japanese, and few applications in English. The best one, I thought, was the one from Financial Times. It can download the contents while you’re online and read it offline (yes, you could do the same with the one from BBC, but the data seems to be easily flushed on this one). Because my iPad does not have 3G access, offline-reading capability was one of the most important features I needed.

The sad thing was, of course, that there is a solid limit to read the articles under Financial Times (several articles in 30 days, if I remember this correctly). I’ve reached this limit in first few hours of using this application.

Today, after using other news applications, I looked at the subscription price list of Financial Times again. It was about 250 EUR per year, which didn’t actually sound that bad, if you’re to think about the price you’d pay for a normal newspaper (at least in Japan). After few minutes, I completed the transaction for subscription.

So what did I pay my money for actually? It’s probably not the news contents themselves; you could find more or less the similar content somewhere on the web or other news applications (such as the one from BBC or Tagesschau videocast).

It’s the convenience to access to the information I’m paying my money for. Eventually, you could replace the word “convenience” with “time”. It takes extra effort, if you’d like to read the similar content by using another application or method (e.g., accessing the online information using non-iPad device or being required to stay in IP-reachable area via WiFi to access to online content using iPad). I actually do not think I paid for the content under Financial Times; it’s rather that I paid for the quality and convenience of that iPad application.

An opposite of this FT.app is the TED+SUB application, with which you’re able to watch the TED talks with subtitles. While I think it’s good to see TED talks with subtitles (as a translator), I failed to find the point of this application (perhaps this is because I’m not using 3G-iPad). What would be so great about being able to see the subtitled talks only in WiFi zone, while you can carry other (non-subtitled) TED talks via Podcast subscription?

On the other side of this topic, it’s always good to ask yourself what you’re actually selling (and to whom) as a service provider¹. It is the value that people pay their money for. The value can take various forms : convenience, special function of product/service, making him-/herself feel great, etc.

I’m curious how happy I’d feel about my decision to subscribe at the end of this year.

1. Although I’m currently a full-time employee, I consider myself to be a service provider as well, in a sense I’m selling the products to the company I’m working for by using my skill set. [↩]

As new year has started, I saw many people around me making their own resolutions for the year. Likewise, I made my own as well, only that I would prefer calling it a set of plans; in order to achieve a goal, you need a path to get to there, hence the term “plan” seems more appropriate than resolution.

One of them was to control my weight a bit more. Ever since I came to Europe (i.e., since when I started studying in Germany), I kept gaining weight. Although I’m still within the normal range on the BMI sheet, I gained more than 5 kilos from the time when I finished my undergraduate. My plan is to reduce current weight to the same level as in 5 years ago. So it’s less than 500 grams for each month. Sounds easy? A plan must be feasible in the first place.

In order to do so, following operations must be conducted :

　(A) Weight recording. Check your weight every morning right after you get up from the bed (so that the condition wouldn’t be much different from day to another). It would, of course, make me realize the relationships between cause and consequence.
　(B) Muscle training and exercise. Not only it contributes to losing weight, but it also makes me feel less tired in daily life, such as while I’m working (I should have realized this long time ago). It’d also makes me sleep well, which is an important topic to keep my living habit in stable shape.

Luckily, I’m going to bouldering a couple of times a week, where they’ve got a set of exercise machines as well. I also realized that the building I’m now living has exercise bikes too.

So far in my life, I haven’t tried the exercise bike. I’ve seen it many times in various places and media, but I always thought it’d be too boring. I have, however, realized that I could use my iPad to do something while riding on bike. I tried it few times with my iPad set in front of me (with my reading application launched). It was never actually boring and I didn’t feel I was wasting my time at all!

Having seen the amount of the calories I consume everyday, I think my weight would be reduced as I planned (OK, perhaps I should use milder expression, such as “as I hoped”). I’m already a bit excited what I would be able to write at the end of the year.

It’s been more than one year since I involved in TED Open Translation Project. When I look back, it seems I may have contributed more on creating services (and scripts) that make translations and its reviews easier (well, so I at least hope), rather than by my translations themselves. At least I’m happy with what I’ve done on this project, which is the most important thing of all, I think.

My translation style is : (i) download both the TED talk movie and subtitle files from dotSUB web site, (ii) edit the subtitle file on my local machine, and (iii) save the file as needed and review the subtitle on the movie. Reviewing the subtitle while playing the movie is easily done by using a software called VLC; you simply have to have the same filename for movie and subtitle, say TED.flv and TED.srt.

I go to work every weekday on subway, and I sometimes thought about translating the TED talks on my iPad. I tried a bit, and it turned out to be fairly easy to do. So here is what you need to do :

Pre-requirements :

　- iPad (in theory, you can use iPhone as well, although I doubt it’d be practical)
　- DropBox account
　- Mac OS X with VLC installed
　- Internet connection

Do the following (for the sake of explanation, file names are TED.flv and TED.srt) :

　(1) Download the application called PlainText – DropBox (free) from iTunes Store
　(2) On PlainText App. on your iPad (or iPhone), connect to your DropBox account
　(3) On PlainText App., specify the folder in your DropBox account where PlainText refers to (it’s set to “PlainText” by default)
　(4) Do the following on Mac OS X
　　(4-1) Copy TED.flv and TED.srt files to the folder
　　(4-2) Launch the Terminal.app, move to that folder (directory) and type the following command :

mv TED.srt TED.txt
ln -s TED.txt TED.srt

　　The above commands mean : rename TED.srt to TED.txt and make it possible to access to that file with the file name TED.srt¹.

Now you can edit the text file on PlainText application on your iPad, and the file would be synchronized on your DropBox (when it’s been connected to Internet) so that you’d be able to access to the latest file from your Mac OS X. In order for the file to be synchronized, both iPad and Mac OS X must be connected to Internet, although they do not need to be connected at the same time.

By doing above, you could, for example, do the following seamlessly :

　(1) Synchronize the subtitle file to your iPad before you leave the house.
　(2) On the train (while being offline) translate the subtitle on your iPad (or iPhone).
　(3) When you’re back in your house (where you have Internet connection), synchronize the subtitle file on your iPad to DropBox, which is automatically updated on your Mac OS X
　(4) Translate the subtitle text at home with your favorite text editor (such as Emacs). You can review your translation on movie as well.

1. As I’ve been writing Mac OS X, you cannot do this sort of command, simply because the Windows file system does not have the same notion (called inode, by the way). The reason you have to do the (4) commands is that PlainText application only recognize the text files with .txt file extension. You could skip the step (4) by using another text editor application such as Textforce, which you should be able to do the same work with Windows system (because I’m a Mac user, I haven’t tested it myself. I’d be happy if you could test it yourself and inform me what happens) [↩]

Recently, I kept receiving friends’ requests from person who do not seem to be know to me at all. Some are from places where I have never been and using language which I don’t even understand which. As I asked few of them why they sent me a friend request in the first place, their answer wasn’t compelling enough (e.g., “I just saw you and clicked the request button”). I made a message template for myself for the next time I’d be writing to person who would have sent a request to me without not many thoughts behind.

To a person who has sent a friend request to me.

First of all, I’d like to say thank you for having interested in one individual who might as well just be looked over on the Internet ocean. I love getting to know new people on this planet, and I understand the Internet, together with its communication technologies, has made it much easier. In fact, it has become so easy that I literally from time to time can lost track of people I got to know so easily.

Given the amount of the information I expose on Facebook, however, I regret I cannot let my connection grow with the same pace as with my Twitter accounts. One should be aware of the downside of one technology (in this case, you could most probably replace this word by service) as much as its benefits. My perception toward Facebook is, of course, different from that of Twitter or other blog services. There are, of course, limits in communicating with one another by only 140 letters per message. Because of this connection specification, your transmission capabilities are as limited as your reception capabilities, making it more difficult for you to expose yourself in depth and consequently lowering the first-time communication wall when two persons meet each other for the first time.

The communication on Facebook, to my understanding, is rather more private. You probably wouldn’t post more than 100 of your pictures with your friends on Twitter, which instantly means publishing to the whole World. On Facebook, this is regularly (and often very casually) done; you can be tagged on your friends’ pictures outside your conscious awareness.

In October 2010, Facebook has launched a new mechanism of account authentication; it’d ask you to recognize your friends’ faces (or people whom you’ve accepted as friends) by showing you a set of pictures and names. Should you fail to answer those questions correctly, you’d be blocked from your account. Fortunately and personally, I still haven’t found myself in being blocked by this mechanism.

I took it as a message from Facebook service provider that the use of Facebook should rather be kept on private bases, if not in-depth. Personally, I stand for their message; given the amount of the information you could receive and expose, due to the nature of Facebook, your network should be kept either or both of following cases :

(A) With persons you already know in person.
(B) With persons whom you have not met in real World, but seems still interesting enough for you to get to know.

Because you do not seem to be categorized in (A), I regret I decline your request.

As I’ve written on my first paragraph, I find the Internet a great tool to get to know new people. However, each tool is designed (or bound) to have both strength and weakness. If you think you’re categorized in (B), here are my contact addresses outside of Facebook, which are probably easier services to have a first-hand look on me :

Twitter : http://twitter.com/kirameister
Blog : http://kirameister.net/

I do not see any harm for you to first have a look at those pages and decide to contact me. It shall not only give you enough time to think and decide whether I am really a sort of person you’re interested, but allows me to get to know you from outset, hence making me (and probably you as well) feel comfortable to send or receive friend’s request on Facebook service, if it happens.

If you do not have Twitter account (meaning not having an easy way of approaching to me) but still are interested in what I’ve written on the Internet, I’d like to ask you to write me what you’ve thought about it and from where. If you’ve already heard about me from someone, I’d like to ask you to write me so likewise. The bottom line is that I would not like to have Facebook as my first-contact tool with someone completely new to me.

Last, but not least. I hope you would not feel offended to have received this message and I hope that my message is clear enough for you to understand. You’ve received this message probably because you seemed to be a person I have not yet met in person and whom I could not make any connection at least from my side. You could, of course, claim of its existence, and I’d be more than happy to get to know you, once I’d be convinced there indeed is something we could share and benefit ourselves.

Sincerely
Akira K.

Being supported by DAAD, I went to a German university and finished my study in 2008. My major in undergraduate was Information Engineering and Computational Linguistics in Master course. It’s already been more than 2 years since than. After my study I started working for a Japanese company, and started working in Vienna from December 2009.

I was studying in the U.S. in my high school time. It was between 2000 and 2001, when the word ISDN (which is not ADSL) was rather common in Japan (or at least in Okinawa, where I used to live). While I was staying in Texas, the Internet connection was dial-up (meaning that they used analog signals for data transmission). I’d never forget how moving it was to see the Japanese letters on the display. At that time, there was hardly anyone around me who understands Japanese, and the only written materials were the books I brought from Japan.

It has been almost 10 years since than. It is still rather difficult (though not impossible) to obtain books written in Japanese in Austria. But you can now read articles written in Japanese online and even write your opinion in your own language from outside of Japan. Of course you’d need an Internet access with a computer or mobile phone, but they’re not special (or fancy) gadgets anymore.

While being able to read / write in Japanese outside of the country, you can also access to the contents written in foreign language such as English. Although people might take it for granted nowadays, the foreign language media before the Internet time were either books (including magazines) or satellite broadcasting (luckily, I could listen to the radio broadcast from U.S. bases). Now, the information can be accessed very easily (and mostly for free) on the Internet.

It is not as important as before where you are on the planet to access to information content. As opposed to the information, the physical objects (or goods) need to consider the start and goal point with its optimal path and distance, and there is already a big market on moving physical goods. When exchanging information, you’d now have to think, if the person at the other end would understand the language in which the information is written, or the other’s local-time when making a call. The World has indeed become flat, but the earth is still global.

So what has really been going on? I think it can be summarized that “access has become much easier”. It’s become easier than ever before to travel across the continent, people are wearing cloths made in China, investors are looking for a better investment destination in (literally) world-wide scale. In the previous time, they’re much more difficult (or at least not cost-effective enough) due to technical and political walls. Now, technological breakthrough has led us pass through those communication walls (from information to physical level).

And what has not been changed? I think the person (in general) in the middle of the whole change has changed the least. It usually takes time for person to change his or her way of thinking and even sometimes requires a generational change.

So how the World would be like in the future? Because the communication has become (technically) easier, it can be done peer-to-peer. Consequently, each individual (instead of organization or mass) would be more important. You’ll be able to meet (though not always in person) people whom you would never get to know in the past. Because it has become so easier to evaluate someone, what you’re doing (and what sort of opinion you have) would be very important.

On the other hand, it’d be harder to comprehend someone only from one aspect. Easy communication means the very same person can have various different activities (for example, doing a full-time work, translating and programming as volunteer, and posting articles to newspaper from time to time, all done by same person). The sentence “What do you for living?” can be used in different context from your occupation.

Better days are waiting for us.

2010 / 11 by “Echo”
This article has been translated into English. Original article is written in Japanese.

In the previous articles, I’ve described a trend in Japan to discriminate a person “either inside or outside”. In this article, I’d explain why I feel a sense of crisis from this trend.

When I read articles about contemporary Japan (either written in English or Japanese), I seldom see positive words on the paper. Ossified labor market, age composition of population in society.. I could easily think of several different reasons. One of those reasons can be introspective mindset and eyesight of Japanese (and Okinawan) people.

As Renaissance started in Spain and Italy, the change in the history normally starts at the places with contacts to others. While being exposed to something beyond the existing framework (or mindset), an innovation is more likely to occur. Japan has been enjoying the fruit of producing high-quality industrial products for a long time. Now China is likely to become (if it still haven’t become) next World factory. Japanese companies are keen on hiring people outside of the country. In this sort of circumstances, I think, a desired environment is that a talented (or very skilled) person could play his or her role in the society, rather than an environment where more than 90 % of the people have certain skill-set and consider themselves as “middle class”. One idea can literally change the whole World. What is needed is not the loads of factories, but (a set of) humans who can think in very flexible manner.

Okinawa has been influenced by China, Japan, and United States and already has an environment that can be summarized as “Chanpuru (ちゃんぷるー)“, of which the meaning is mixture. The reality is, however, that only few people are looking beyond the border. While I was still in Japan, I told people that I’d be working for a company outside of Japan, many said “I’d never be able to do that”. I assume the same reply would have been given in Okinawa. One (probably the biggest) reason could be attributed to that way of thinking : “foreign country is outside”.

I fear, however, if one should should separate “inside and outside” that easily. The more you re-draw the border line, the further you feel the foreign countries are (although it has gotten closer than ever before).

Learning a foreign language(s), going on a trip, studying abroad, etc.. There are many things one can do to make oneself psychologically feel close to foreign countries. The first step of all, I think, is simply to be interested in unknown topics or things outside of one’s own World. The need of learning a new language or culture shall naturally follow. This attitude can make him-/herself and consequently the society as a whole more matured and wealthier.

2010 / 05 / 31 by (Ryukyu Shimpo, 琉球新報)
This article has been translated into English. Original article is written in Japanese.