tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76849477441375736592024-03-08T13:58:41.871+00:00Biscuits and tea with WilliamWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058545605608198274noreply@blogger.comBlogger58125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684947744137573659.post-61721505321307050272021-08-13T03:45:00.003+01:002021-08-13T04:05:17.502+01:00The problem with AI<p>In general, advanced AIs can be expected to want to take over the universe so that they can work towards their goals with the least risk of interruption (read: probably kill all humans), so what to do....</p><p>Give it a stop button! But it will want to prevent you from pressing that button, because that'll stop it from meeting its goals. It'll work hard to find a way to get to the button or to persuade you never to press it (read: probably kill you). You don't want this.</p><p>Program the AI to like having its stop button be pressed! But it will just act in an undesirable way (read: go berserk and probably kill lots of people) so that you press it.</p><p>So what to do? I wondered about programming the AI to simply like humans being in control of the universe (if you could figure out how to define "humans" unambiguously without messing up - a separate impossibly difficult problem). But then it might decide that, since AI is probably the biggest threat to human agency, AI development must be stopped.</p><p>Picture the scenario.... the AI programmers nervously turn on the robot and it seems to behave very nicely. Then a week later hitmen, paid by the robot who has hacked into all the banks, murder every AI developer on the planet and then the robot sticks its hard drive in a microwave and deletes itself.</p><p>Well it's a difficult problem as you can see.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3TYT1QfdfsM" width="320" youtube-src-id="3TYT1QfdfsM"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p>Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058545605608198274noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684947744137573659.post-23040023004178866452018-11-11T12:07:00.000+00:002018-11-11T12:07:57.302+00:00Autumn "haike" to Tanzan Shrine<span style="font-weight: normal;">Last month I joined the <a href="https://hailhaiku.wordpress.com/">Hailstone Haiku group</a> once again for their annual autumn "haike", in which we hike and write haiku. I'm no haiku expert</span>—<span style="font-weight: normal;">in fact I generally have no interest in poetry. But I find haiku writing to be like photography; you want to capture a meaningful image in a beautiful way, and there's fun to be had in playing around with that concept.</span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br />
</span> What follows is my account, and some haiku written by the poets (an edited version of this appears at the official blog of the group, linked above).<br />
<br />
<h4>
Tanzan Shrine</h4>
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It's a cool, early autumn morning and four pilgrims are searching for a path through Mount Goharetsu. Their destination is Tanzan Shrine and its annual "Kakitsu" festival, which is due to start in a few short hours.<br />
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<i><br />
</i><br />
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Cloud shrouds the peaks</div>
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Above the plains of Asuka --</div>
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A lone kite circling</div>
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<i>Richard</i></div>
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another step up</div>
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rising earth, interrupted - </div>
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span of silver thread</div>
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<i>William</i></div>
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<i><br />
</i></div>
The persimmon farmer talks<br />
of a typhoon-damaged slope:<br />
Mt. Katsuragi<br />
wreathed in mist<br />
<i>Tito</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
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Their route has taken them through the streets of Asuka from the <em>minshuku</em> where they had spent the previous night<em>;</em> into the foothills past locals growing their crops; and up among tall, straight trunks of cypress and cedar trees growing on the mountainside.</div>
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Field of golden rice </div>
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ready for harvesting---</div>
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Ancient village, unchanged</div>
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<i>Kyoko</i></div>
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<br /></div>
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The entomologist -</div>
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showing us his bagged live specimens</div>
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in a dreary wood</div>
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<i>Tito</i><br />
<br />
the trees close in and<br />
catch our voices - their reply<br />
a soft mockery<br />
<i>William</i><br />
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They reach the shrine, a burst of Japanese architecture, as the festival's ritual is already underway. Removing their shoes, they shuffle quietly into one wide room—open at the back to a sunlit canopy—and join the spectators. Many elaborate displays of fruit and harvest are brought from within the shrine, passing from priest to priest, to the shrill accompaniment of traditional pipes. A glimpse is seen of the statue to the enshrined deity, Fujiwara no Kamatari, which the festival honours.</div>
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For another year</div>
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priest pulls the curtain down</div>
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on the clan divinity -<br />
his long, plaintive wail<br />
<i>Tito</i></div>
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<i><br />
</i></div>
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The shinto priest:<br />
A single green pepper<br />
Atop his chestnut offering<br />
<em>Richard</em></div>
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The festival complete, our pilgrims head back into the sun, retrieving lunch boxes from their backpacks.<br />
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tier upon tier,<br />
the surrounding trees are touched<br />
by its scarlet paint<br />
<em>William</em></div>
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Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058545605608198274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684947744137573659.post-48619174743759400952018-02-19T12:01:00.003+00:002018-02-19T13:38:54.458+00:00Should we teach facts or skills?<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: large;">"The scientist is not the one who provides the right answers; it is the one who asks the right questions."</span></i></blockquote>
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- <a href="https://todayinsci.com/L/LeviStrauss_Claude/LeviStraussClaude-Quotations.htm">Claude Lévi-Strauss</a> </div>
<br />
So I was looking over the answers to a science test from a school I don't teach at today. I came across this answer to the question, "Explain what survival of the fittest means":<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"It is not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change."</blockquote>
I thought it was a bit of a weird way to describe it, since - as I understand it - survival of the fittest literally just means the individuals (<i>not </i>species) who are most fit for an environment are most likely to survive in it (an obvious truism and an important part of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection).<br />
<br />
I puzzled over it a little more. I don't think it's a description of survival of the fittest, but is it even true? A species which is "most responsive to change" is more likely to survive? Are different species more or less responsive to change? Maybe, but I wasn't sure about that, and it certainly didn't sound like one of the fundamental elements of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, which I think I have a solid conception of, and which is what was being taught in this unit.<br />
<br />
So out of curiosity I looked it up. Turns out <a href="https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/05/04/adapt/">it's probably a simple misquote of Darwin</a> made up by a business professor trying to teach people about how we should behave.<br />
<br />
My instinct was correct; the quote does not belong in a middle school science class.<br />
<br />
On a deeper level, this is a symptom of an issue I've been running up against recently. When I teach, should I teach facts or skills? Should my students spend every lesson copying from slides or from a textbook, and every night memorising those notes, and be assessed based on how precisely they can quote the information from memory? Is it important that, when learning about evolution, students (especially students who find English challenging at the best of times, which is very relevant to my current job) can define the following list of terms (and only these) in isolation: "adaptation, extinction, immigration, emigration, fossil record, vestigial organ, speciation, overproduction, variation..."?<br />
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<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The problem with rote memorisation like this, what I've heard called "guess the teacher's password", is that it's vulnerable to the kinds of errors like the Darwin misquote above. Textbooks (or any other sources of information) are not infallible and students need to learn how to acquire knowledge given a fuzzy world where there are few black and whites. Far better to teach concepts rather than quotes, to encourage synthesised explanations rather than word for word textbook answers, and even to learn how to think like a scientist rather than just a list of things that scientists have discovered.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
After all, it is not the strongest students who survive, nor the ones with the best memory, but the ones most responsive to change.</div>
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Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058545605608198274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684947744137573659.post-79742211628187268112018-02-02T11:15:00.004+00:002018-02-02T11:28:37.485+00:00The Great Filter - why we are alone in the universe<span style="font-family: inherit;">What would it mean for our future if we finally found life beyond our planet? If you were hoping that the destiny of our species was to expand beyond Earth, it would actually be very bad news.<br /><br />There's this concept called The Great Filter. It's an explanation for why we don't see any signs of life out there.<br /><br />Life has had billions of years and billions of planets on which to come into being, evolve, and develop into a successful interstellar civilisation. But it hasn't happened. There must be some step along that journey - from chemical soup to reaching the stars - that is essentially impossible to pass, except by the most unlikely of chances.<br /><br />Are we before or after this Great Filter?<br /><br />If we've passed it, then we already GOT lucky and our road ahead is unforged and untested. We might well be able to make it off this rock.<br /><br />But if it's ahead of us - if there's some cataclysmic event that every budding civilisation is bound to trigger - then you'd expect to eventually find signs of life confined to individual planets and moons. Little microbes or creatures on their way to the Filter like us, or the remains of those who reached it and were defeated. It still explains why we haven't found anything yet - we haven't investigated anywhere closely enough for that yet. We may well find such signs on one of several promising sites within our own solar system. The most we can say is that colonising the planet as we have isn't so easy that it happened twice in our own solar system.<br /><br />So, what if we do find life on Mars (or Europa, or Enceladus, or Titan...)?<br /><br />Then that would be evidence that The Great Filter is <i>not</i> behind us. Which means it's more likely to be ahead... which would mean we're doomed, because we really shouldn't expect to get through it (it isn't The Okay Filter, after all).<br /><br />So, despite how much we all want to find life out there, and how depressing it would be to be alone in the universe, we're really better off being the first ones to get this far.<br /><br />Unless you can imagine a scenario in which a civilisation like ours continues to advance significantly without becoming obvious to see through a telescope.<br /></span><div>
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">This post was inspired by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjtOGPJ0URM">a video that In A Nutshell released today</a>.</span></i></div>
Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058545605608198274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684947744137573659.post-56542770256979204302016-03-26T10:17:00.003+00:002018-02-19T12:02:08.498+00:00WTF is going on with British primary school assessment?<div style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
I feel for my UK teacher friends... WTF is going on with British primary school assessment?</div>
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I always hated teaching English because languages, by their very nature, simply defy clear-cut, 'logical' rules and yet everywhere we're expected to teach rules. Teaching resources online always make bold, absolute statements about grammar points and I often had a niggling sense of doubt about them.</div>
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It turns out that linguists actually dispute the entire category of subordinating conju<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;">nction! I always found that hard to explain (or understand), apart from that it seems you can move subordinate clauses to the front of a sentence. But the oft-used definition of 'a subordinate clause is less important than the main clause' doesn't, to me, make sense, for example, of the coordinating conjunction 'so', which is basically the inverse of 'because'. As in, "I ate quickly because I was hungry." versus "I was hungry so I ate quickly." In either case, the reason for mentioning my hunger is in giving an explanation for the statement "I ate quickly".</span></div>
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Also 'but' - "I like comic book movies but I still haven't seen Batman v Superman." In that sentence, isn't the first clause subordinate to the second? Because you could replace 'but' in the middle with 'although' at the start, which is a subordinating conjunction?</div>
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I thought my own understanding of grammar, from my education and training leading up to me having to teach it, was just insufficient, but it seems like people who ought to know this stuff are equally disgruntled.</div>
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Example question from Y6 grammar test, taken from Michael Rosen's <a href="http://michaelrosenblog.blogspot.jp/2016/03/holiday-spag-test-rehearsal.html">recent blog post</a>:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<b>Tick the sentence where the highlighted word is used as a subordinating conjunction.<br />Tick one.<br />He was at school BEFORE you.<br />She did her homework UNTIL dinnertime.<br />Do not undo your seatbelt, UNTIL the car has stopped.<br />WHEN the sun is out, we will go outside.</b></div>
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Just what in the hell? Can anyone answer this? It seems from Michael Rosen's <a href="http://michaelrosenblog.blogspot.jp/2016/03/people-with-linguistics-degrees-cant.html">update post</a> that a lot of people who you'd think ought to be able to answer a Year 6 grammar question cannot.</div>
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Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058545605608198274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684947744137573659.post-25451043114175798182016-01-31T17:29:00.000+00:002016-02-28T16:29:33.497+00:00My new favourite Japanese wordI love the Japanese word <i>komorebi</i>. It has no English equivalent; try typing it into <a href="http://translate.google.com/">Google Translate</a>.<br />
<br />
I was looking for an image to represent komorebi when I remembered this video I recorded at a folk music festival in Sheffield a couple of years ago. I was lying on my back listening to the music in the shade on a hot Summer's day, enjoying the komorebi so much I had to record it.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="225" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0hdvLHKkzqQ" width="400"></iframe><br /></div>
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Komorebi means 'sunlight filtered through foliage'. What an absolutely glorious thing to have a word for. The Japanese, as if I didn't already know it, obviously have a keen sense of beauty.<br />
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What's even better about the word is how it's written. There are 3 kanji in it (the れ is just the hiragana for 're'): 木漏れ日. I tried to figure out what those kanji meant to see how such a cool concept was translated into a word.<br />
<br />
Kanji are the complicated symbols that come from Chinese and have meanings but their pronunciation varies from word to word. There are thousands of them and, like English spellings, some people know more than others.<br />
<br />
Firstly, I immediately recognised the final kanji, 日; it represents the sun and is often pronounced 'bi'. So this word probably has something to do with the sun.<br />
<br />
The first two kanji are 木, tree, and 漏, leakage, which I had to look up. Weirdly, put together (木漏) Google Translate gives the result 'kimo', or 'liver'! I guess the liver filters things, like the leaves filter sunlight?? Why the kanji for tree/wood appears in the word for liver I have no idea.<br />
<br />
Add the れ to 木漏, however, and the translation switches to 'komore', or simply 'tree leakage'. I assume that's either Google failing to think of anything more appropriate than slapping the two meanings together, or the Japanese genuinely have a general word for stuff leaking from trees. Which is kinda weird.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4XpttLbC86A/Vq5DPXxkZgI/AAAAAAAA2MI/aO_DrKaWes8/s1600/IMG_3977.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4XpttLbC86A/Vq5DPXxkZgI/AAAAAAAA2MI/aO_DrKaWes8/s400/IMG_3977.JPG" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Komorebi in New Zealand (photo by me, from April 2014)</span></div>
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An honorable mention goes to 森林浴 ('shinrinyoku'), which translates directly to 'forest bathing', and according to <a href="http://theodysseyonline.com/le-moyne/11-beautiful-untranslatable-japanese-words/221351">the page which inspired this post</a> means "to go deep into the woods where everything is silent and peaceful for a relaxation". I love me some shinrinyoku.Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058545605608198274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684947744137573659.post-21440212008770000292015-12-22T16:14:00.002+00:002015-12-22T16:14:23.641+00:00My first week living in JapanIt's half past 10pm on Tuesday the 22nd of December, and this time last week I was out cold on my newly-made futon bed, on my own in a cold and unfamiliar apartment, exhausted from my long journey to Japan.<br />
<br />
Here's a summary of my first week living in Japan.<br />
<br />
<b>Tuesday - Arrival</b><br />
<br />
I wrote <a href="https://kidblog.org/class/russellinjapan/posts/7a72qs5g5g2a86zkdiw8trlu4">a blog post as 'Mr Russell'</a> for my journey to Japan, which you might already have read. It was a long journey from early Monday morning when I left my brother's in Hertford, to arriving in Japan on Tuesday afternoon local time. I had no internet that entire time, and when I landed in Tokyo's Narita Airport (pretty far from Tokyo's city centre) I had time to make a payphone call to OES (Ota English School) telling them I'd landed before I had to get on a coach for a 3-hour trip to Ota.<br />
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I arrived at Ota Station on Tuesday evening, with my backpack and two big luggage bags, and because I was half an hour early and had no means to contact anyone, I dragged my bags to a nearby mini-mart type shop and looked for some food. Turns out I was actually 2 minutes from OES's central office, though I obviously had no idea at the time. Eventually one of the native English speaking staff (can't actually remember who it was, thinking back now) arrived to walk me to the office.<br />
<br />
After a few introductions and a chance to sit and chill, I was whisked off to Oizumi and my apartment. It was cold and dark by then, and the apartment seemed a bit dingy and dirty, but I was exhausted so after a very friendly Japanese OES member helped me make my new futon bed, I flaked out until Wednesday morning.<br />
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<b>Wednesday - Exploring Oizumi and Ota</b><br />
<br />
I woke early Wednesday morning and made myself more familiar with my apartment. There was a lot I wasn't sure about still - the Japanese garbage separation protocols, my washing machine, the hob, what supplies I had and what I needed to find - but it was nicer in daylight and I spent a while unpacking and made myself a cup of tea and had a hobnob, which naturally made everything a bit better.<br />
<br />
I'd had my local 'corner shop' pointed out to me as we approached the night before, so I headed over there to scope it out, and picked up a few things I recognised like milk, eggs, bread, and croissants.<br />
<br />
Then after Skyping my mum and sister, I planned a journey to Aeon Mall on Ota on the trains. Handily, once you've planned a journey with the Google Maps app on your phone, you can leave the route loaded and it'll track you on GPS even if you don't have internet once you've left your home. I spent a lot of time on the Japanese public transport system <a href="http://william-likes-biscuits.blogspot.jp/search/label/japan%202015">in April</a>, so it wasn't that hard to get to the mall. I had a double cheeseburger at Japanese McDonald's (マクドナルド - 'Makudonarudo'), and had a poke around at the cinema (Star Wars would be coming out soon...!).<br />
<br />
Knowing 'katakana' (one of the two Japanese scripts, the one used for emphasis or for foreign loan-words) is dead helpful in Japan and lets you figure out most of the stuff you see. Lots of stuff is labelled in approximate-English, using their writing system.<br />
<br />
<b>Thursday and Friday - Driving Lesson and Observations</b><br />
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After my day off on Wednesday, I had driving lessons and some lesson observations to do on Thursday and Friday.<br />
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I woke up early again on Thursday so after some Weetabix and a cup of tea to remind me I'm English, I headed out for a wander around Oizumi. I'd seen a few things of interest and Google Maps showed some more, so I plotted a route around Oizumi's industrial centre. There were supermarkets, big second-hand shops selling consoles and computer parts, restaurants, dingy parks (Winter's not really the season to show them off I guess), and lots of residential areas. It was pretty cold and I headed back with my arms full of a cheap computer case and second-hand monitor so I could try putting my computer together when I got time.<br />
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When I got back Joey was already waiting to take me out driving, so I dumped my stuff and we went out. Driving in Japan is really straightforward. They drive on the left like we do, and the cars are all automatic. The main thing to learn is how to use the crossings they have instead of roundabouts, but it's dead simple. I've been assigned a car by OES which is really handy as you can imagine! It's only 600cc and kinda looks and drives like a golf cart, but I'm not complaining!<br />
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So far I'd been eating snacky-type food from the 7-11s and McDonald's, so I went to a ramen cafe (ranem is a favourite food in Japan) and ordered this meal:</div>
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It was very tasty and I ate it all. I haven't been back yet but there are loads of ramen cafes around to try. I still haven't figured out what all the things are at the supermarket so I don't have enough supplies to make myself interesting meals at home, but I did make a cheaty stir-fry with real chicken and a ready-made pack of mixed veg and sauce, and a cute microwaveable rice portion (which works really well actually).<br />
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<b>Saturday - Star Wars and Izakaya</b><br />
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Now I missed Star Wars in the UK which came out on Thursday, and I missed the first showing in Japan (which was Friday at 6:30pm across the country) because I was working, but the second showing was scheduled for 10am on Saturday, so I shot over to Aeon Mall in the morning hoping there'd be tickets left. I wasn't very optimistic, and I didn't know if I'd be able to figure out which times were English-language screenings (Japan shows both dubbed and subbed for lots of films). First hiccup: I arrived at the mall at twenty to 10 but it was closed. The mall didn't open until 10 and that's when Star Wars was supposed to be shown!<br />
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At 10 the doors opened and I hurried in to the cinema. There weren't many people around, a small group of Japanese shoppers waiting at the entrance, and when I got to the cinema it was easy to get to the cashier and ask, in my rudimentary Japanese, about tickets. Luck was on my side - the 10am showing had tickets to spare and was in English. With little fanfare, I was in and sat in my seat!<br />
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Even sitting by myself it was great fun seeing another new Star Wars film. My family's kind of nuts over Star Wars. We watched the prequel trilogy together, we've made <a href="http://bypuk.com/movies/tesby/">silly</a> <a href="http://bypuk.com/movies/tenclo/">fanfilms</a>, we all went <a href="http://bypuk.com/2008/08/finding-the-force-tunisia-selection/">to Tunisia</a> to see the filming locations. Missing out on this one with my family was sad, but seeing it and knowing they had just seen it themselves made me feel a bit more connected to them.<br />
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On Saturday night a bunch of OES employees were going out to a local 'izakaya' restaurant/bar as an end-of-year celebration thing. I tagged along and it was good fun. We sat at a table that was sunk into the floor, so you sat on the floor but your legs still had room under the table. We ate a small selection of finger food and drank and chatted.<br />
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<b>Sunday - Computer Building</b><br />
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Even though Ota's a reasonably small town, and Oizumi's even smaller, there seem to be a lot of stores for things like computer parts, old and new. I brought my computer to Japan in pieces, and didn't bring a case or a monitor. I figured the motherboard wouldn't survive the journey, but that's the oldest part of my computer anyway so I was theoretically happy to replace that, but I didn't know if I'd be able to figure out how to get one, or how much it would cost.<br />
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At first it had seemed like my computer pieces didn't survive; I hooked them all up and the computer kept turning itself off after a minute. It was as if it was overheating but everything seemed to be connected properly so I thought something must have been fried in transit. I went to 'PC Depot' and picked up a few bits and pieces, and set about tinkering. The only thing that had gone wrong was that the fan had come loose from the processor, which I didn't realise would overheat so quickly. Connecting that up properly solved the problem, and with my new monitor I was set up again!<br />
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My 'tatami room' is now my fully-fledged computer/study room where I sit and relax at home. I'm feeling pretty settled and happy :)<br />
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<b>Monday and Tuesday - Teaching</b><br />
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That just leaves the last two days. I've been observing some more lessons, including kindergarten which is an experience! Teaching in this context is quite a lot different from the teaching I did in the UK. Having 30 kids all day every day and being the Big Boss, versus having all sorts of different clients in short sessions and having less of an authoritarian role, is a big change.<br />
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Today I taught a few lessons, covering for one of the other OES teachers who's gone back to the UK for Christmas. I think once I get into the swing of it it's going to be pretty straightforward and a good fun way to spend a year. There should be lots of opportunity for me to explore Japan - its language, culture and food. But I still miss everyone in the UK!<br />
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It's now 1am on Wednesday morning and I'm teaching from 3pm to 9pm tomorrow (then I might sneak in another viewing of Star Wars...). I'm working on Christmas morning, but then I shall be Skyping my family and seeing what sort of Christmas dinner I can put together!Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058545605608198274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684947744137573659.post-89674533209770091982015-08-29T19:14:00.001+01:002015-08-29T19:23:59.840+01:00Missile GameI made a game! Well, I've made a few, but this one's pretty neat I thought. I used Scratch, which is a child-friendly platform used in schools around the world to teach programming. This is a simple ballistics game, with two turrets taking turns to shoot each other on destructible terrain.<br />
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To start a Scratch program press the green flag.<br />
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You can see the code by going <a href="https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/74590930/">here</a> and clicking 'See inside'. You can even change the code and see what difference it makes live, without creating an account!Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058545605608198274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684947744137573659.post-66708943456651367662015-08-04T01:26:00.000+01:002015-08-14T20:04:10.936+01:00Cambridge Folk Festival 2015Just got back from 4 days at Cambridge Folk Festival and it was great fun! I tried to take plenty of photos when I wasn't dancing or fiddling or being silly or entertaining nephews/cousins-once-removeds. It was really fun; I found a new group I really enjoyed - <a href="http://faramusic.co.uk/">'Fara'</a> (of Orkney) - and to accompany the slideshow here's the first track and one of my favourites their album, which I bought straight away after seeing them on Thursday afternoon. And what a stunningly beautiful video it has, too.<br />
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Enjoy!<br />
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<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="500" height="500" id="ssidx"><param name="movie" value="https://cdn.smugmug.com/ria/ShizamSlides-2015060701.swf" /><param name="flashVars" value="AlbumID=51064978&AlbumKey=96thw8&transparent=true&bgColor=&borderThickness=&borderColor=&useInside=&endPoint=&mainHost=cdn.smugmug.com&VersionNos=2015060701&width=500&height=500&clickToImage=true&captions=true&showThumbs=true&autoStart=true&showButtons=true&pageStyle=white&randomStart=false&randomize=false&crossFadeSpeed=350" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><param name="allowNetworking" value="all" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><embed src="https://cdn.smugmug.com/ria/ShizamSlides-2015060701.swf" flashVars="AlbumID=51064978&AlbumKey=96thw8&transparent=true&bgColor=&borderThickness=&borderColor=&useInside=&endPoint=&mainHost=cdn.smugmug.com&VersionNos=2015060701&width=500&height=500&clickToImage=true&captions=true&showThumbs=true&autoStart=true&showButtons=true&pageStyle=white&randomStart=false&randomize=false&crossFadeSpeed=350" width="500" height="500" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowScriptAccess="always" allowNetworking="all" ></embed></object> <a href="https://pluvialis.smugmug.com/Cambridge-Folk-Festival-2015">Full gallery</a>Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058545605608198274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684947744137573659.post-37667534217607228552015-04-08T04:08:00.002+01:002015-04-12T11:44:35.185+01:00Japan 2015 - last day, in Osaka<center><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="500" height="500" id="ssidx"><param name="movie" value="http://cdn.smugmug.com/ria/ShizamSlides-2013072402.swf" /><param name="flashVars" value="AlbumID=48563466&AlbumKey=mTGG3D&transparent=true&bgColor=&borderThickness=&borderColor=&useInside=&endPoint=&mainHost=cdn.smugmug.com&VersionNos=2013072402&showLogo=false&width=500&height=500&clickToImage=true&captions=true&showThumbs=true&autoStart=true&showSpeed=true&pageStyle=white&showButtons=true&randomStart=false&randomize=false&splash=&splashDelay=0&crossFadeSpeed=350" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><param name="allowNetworking" value="all" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><embed src="http://cdn.smugmug.com/ria/ShizamSlides-2013072402.swf" flashVars="AlbumID=48563466&AlbumKey=mTGG3D&transparent=true&bgColor=&borderThickness=&borderColor=&useInside=&endPoint=&mainHost=cdn.smugmug.com&VersionNos=2013072402&showLogo=false&width=500&height=500&clickToImage=true&captions=true&showThumbs=true&autoStart=true&showSpeed=true&pageStyle=white&showButtons=true&randomStart=false&randomize=false&splash=&splashDelay=0&crossFadeSpeed=350" width="500" height="500" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowScriptAccess="always" allowNetworking="all" ></embed></object></center>
Today was my last day in Japan! Boo! I woke up early in my prison cell, because I had to be out by 9 or else pay for another night, and headed out into a really cold morning in the middle of Osaka! It was early and everywhere was still mostly closed, and this was the first day I was in the same place as a previous day with no particular plans.
I made my way to the subway and headed off to Namba station, where I'd be leaving to go to the airport later , and stored my luggage for the day. I found a little cafe serving breakfast and had some french toast and 'royal milk tea', which is apparently not Japanese for simple white British tea. Whatever it was, it was pretty disgusting, but it did contain tea so I wasn't too put out.
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Being my last day I had all my yens to spend if I wanted, so some shopping was in order at some point, but everywhere seemed to be closed and I'd also heard that the Umeda Sky Building was actually worth it. I'd been up Sky Tower in Auckland, New Zealand during last year's holiday and hadn't bothered with this one when I was in Osaka on Saturday, but I thought it would make a good activity for today. I made my way to the north part of Osaka, and on the way detoured through 'Yodobashi', a massive multi-storey electronics store I'd read about.
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As well as electronics it had a whole floor dedicated to real nerdy stuff like comics and video games and models of characters from anime, but more on that later - there's plenty of that in Osaka to be found!!
After a quick tour of Yodobashi, I headed across to the Umeda Sky Building. It was very tall! Definitely worth the price of admission, gave some amazing views of the city from above.
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After that I went to look around the shops again. I found Osaka really confusing and hard to navigate the first time, so it was good to start to get a feel for what was going on. I jumped on the subway to go south aways, to the location of several distinct shopping districts. The one I was pretty keen to have a good look around was 'DenDen Town', where geeks probably go when they die.
There are absolutely tons of shops dedicated to nerd stuff - video games, comics, trading cards, anime, models - it's unbelievable. I spent a good while wandering around in disbelief at the sheer volume of stuff available. I'd find a shop with literally 5 floors, each the size of a Waterstones, filled to bursting with row after row after row of mangas. And then round the corner there'd be another one, exactly the same! There were shops completely dedicated to trading cards, models of robot figures from the anime Gundam Wing, manga; you name it, there were ten shops selling it. All within this little district of Osaka.
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I guess it's probably kind of a boring day to hear about, I meandered around shops packing stacks of Super Nintendos, spent some yens on Magic cards (300 yen for a booster pack! That's like HALF the prices in the UK!), goggled at the variety of trading card games I'd never heard of (Magic is probably the most popular in the UK, but totally superseded in Japan by several others). One of the most apparently popular card games involved lots of pictures of cartoon girls in various states of dress or undress!
Eventually it was dinner time. I had been having cheap meals the last few days, so I wanted something a bit more pricey today, and I thought it would be interesting to have some 'posh' sushi, rather than the conveyor belt sushi I had in Nara with my host family. And it was certainly interesting! I ordered a plate of mixed nigiri (slice of fish on rice), and tried some stuff I'd never had before. The worst one was the first one I ate, shellfish or something, it was completely impervious to chewing. The best one, to my surprise, was 'unagi' - eel!
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After that it was time to head back to the airport for my late flight. I bid farewell to Osaka and Japan, collected my luggage, and shot away on the train. With just 300 yen left in my wallet! I've had a great time in such a short time; I'm really glad I came. I feel totally ready to come back another time! What else has Japan got to offer?Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058545605608198274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684947744137573659.post-16029353997616109062015-04-07T14:46:00.000+01:002015-04-12T11:54:12.345+01:00Japan 2015 - Kyoto<center><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="500" height="500" id="ssidx"><param name="movie" value="http://cdn.smugmug.com/ria/ShizamSlides-2013072402.swf" /><param name="flashVars" value="AlbumID=48563368&AlbumKey=rV22Px&transparent=true&bgColor=&borderThickness=&borderColor=&useInside=&endPoint=&mainHost=cdn.smugmug.com&VersionNos=2013072402&showLogo=false&width=500&height=500&clickToImage=true&captions=true&showThumbs=true&autoStart=true&showSpeed=true&pageStyle=white&showButtons=true&randomStart=false&randomize=false&splash=&splashDelay=0&crossFadeSpeed=350" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><param name="allowNetworking" value="all" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><embed src="http://cdn.smugmug.com/ria/ShizamSlides-2013072402.swf" flashVars="AlbumID=48563368&AlbumKey=rV22Px&transparent=true&bgColor=&borderThickness=&borderColor=&useInside=&endPoint=&mainHost=cdn.smugmug.com&VersionNos=2013072402&showLogo=false&width=500&height=500&clickToImage=true&captions=true&showThumbs=true&autoStart=true&showSpeed=true&pageStyle=white&showButtons=true&randomStart=false&randomize=false&splash=&splashDelay=0&crossFadeSpeed=350" width="500" height="500" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowScriptAccess="always" allowNetworking="all" ></embed></object></center>
This post was written a day late because, shockingly, the airport where I'm currently sitting is more comfortable and has better wifi than where I was staying last night.
After my fun evening out in Himeji, I set off early in the morning to get to Kyoto as soon as I could. It was set to be a long journey, and I was anxious to be there for as long as possible. Kyoto is famous for its beauty and abundance of historical and traditional features. A fellow traveller I met in Himeji had told me that even though he'd spent three days there he wished it could have been longer. I'd seen pictures of its famous rows of torii gates, they've featured in anime and films and I couldn't wait to find them and soak up their serene presence. One of my favourite tracks from the band AIR is called Alone in Kyoto, I urge you to look it up, and was written for the film 'Lost in Translation' as the protagonist wonders around the quiet streets.
So, with all that in mind, I was well ready for a great day, so long as I could fit it all in. I was prepared to return the day after if need be, but that would be tight.
On my way through Himeji, bright and early, it was lightly misty, the sakura trees were dropping pink petals everywhere, and I saw a couple of interesting things. A heron landed on a tree ahead of me on a path, and I managed to snap it flying away as I approached:
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And, being Monday, there were loads of school children, from 6 to 16, walking to their schools. Japanese schools have really smart uniforms and they were all walking on their own, from the train station where they'd alighted to their schools. It's so different to our schools!
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After about two and a half hours on the trains, I arrived in Kyoto. In Japan, every train station has coin lockers where you can store luggage all day for 300 yen (£1.80); this has been really useful for me. I packed everything in a big backpack I borrowed from my sister, and it's naturally pretty heavy. I brought a second, lighter, backpack purely because I thought I might check the bigger one on the way home and use the smaller one as hand luggage, allowing me to bring back souvenirs. But as it happens that also let me carry only the bare essentials with me every day on my explorations!
So, Kyoto. I was expecting everything I'd described above. A quiet, scenic, contemplative town. Sights like this waiting for those who knew the right places to go:
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Well, when I first got out of the train station I was surprised to find myself in a pretty normal-looking modern town. There were wide roads with heavy traffic, tourists everywhere - and not the chinese tourists of Nara Park, but westerners looking very western.
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There's an easter egg in that picture, by the way. A holy shrine for a different kind of person, someone more like me :P Keep reading if you can't spot it by yourself!
When I followed the directions I'd prepared in advance to find some shrines and temples, I eventually found - sat amongst all the shops and busy roads and itself filled with stalls offering snacks and souvenirs for tourists - a sort of microcosm of the variety of places I'd seen already. Everything was surrounded by tourism, you were never out of eye-sight of modern shops, or signs written in English offering takoyaki (seems that's the quintessential must-try weird Japanese food, easily knocked up and served at a stall), or renovations, and the inescapable crowds.
There's a little district - two streets really - which have been kept in a traditional style, but it was nothing I hadn't already seen at Mount Yoshino and was worse for the crowds. The shops were selling good tourist wares of a wide variety, and I did do a little shopping.
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Past those streets I reached 'Kiyomizu Temple', which was one of the many attractions. It was like Todaiji but smaller. It was like Yoshino but less remote. It was like Shosha but less atmospheric. So I walked swiftly through the crowds, skipped the line to take your shoes off and gawk at the strange statues on display in a dimly lit room, and just snapped a couple of shots before moving on.
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A short subway ride later, I made my way to Fushimi Inari, the famous row of dozens of bright orange torii gates. Now, I'd seen plenty of torii gates at this point, even some in long rows down paths, but I was still looking forward to this iconic site. Remember that picture of it above? There's a reason it's to the side. There's no way you're getting a picture down the length of the path without tourists getting in the way. This is what it's really like to be there:
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So, another illusion shattered. It's right in the middle of another tourist trap, I think you had to pay to get to it, and there's simply no way anyone ever wandered past it on an idle stroll, or retreated to it as a quiet place away from the crowds in town or any of the silly pictures I had of it in my head. It was an interesting place, but I wasn't in the right frame of mind to enjoy it like other places I'd been.
Moving on, I had a little side-mission to accomplish before heading to the next recommended site. A bit of a lengthy walk, away from the shrines and temples and into the thick of Kyoto town, walking along main roads, where no tourist should be, and I came upon my own personal holy place. I hadn't realised it until I stumbled across the fact, and I would never have guessed it with my naive picture of the place, but Kyoto is actually the town where a certain Japanese company was founded, and whose main headquarters are still located. Apart from the name on the building, there's nothing to show it - no shops or museums or anything for a pilgrim like me to enjoy, but still I was able to stand right outside the building where so many of my favourite video games have been, and continue to be, made.
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So with a thrill at the thought that somewhere in that building the next Zelda game is being developed, Mewtwo is being made ready for release on Smash Bros, and who knows what other secret projects are being worked on for me to enjoy later on, I went off to find some lunch. Tonkatsu today! I've had something different every day so far. This was pretty 'basic' fare, my brother Matthew could probably have done better, but it was nice, and the price of a McDonald's. I like how every meal has all these bits to go with it, miso soup, green tea, a small side or two of some weird vegetable!
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After lunch it was getting late and I contemplated heading back to Osaka. My final planned stop in Kyoto was going to be a bit of a challenge to get to, trains and then buses, and it would be getting dark soon. But I figured, what the hell, I'm here so I'll go. And I'm really glad I did! I got there 10 minutes before it shut, and in those 10 minutes got the experience I'd been missing all day. A unique, interesting, and properly presented (as in, not surrounded by crap) historical treasure. It had real presence, and even though I only had 15 minutes to go round, it was enough to soak it up and get some good pictures. Behold Kinkakuji, the Golden Temple!
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So with Kyoto over on a high, I was happy travelling back to Osaka to find my final accommodation. I got back quite late and took a little while to find and come to terms with(!) where I'd be sleeping that night. I'd seen the pictures of the room online and they looked fine, but the building and the corridor were properly like sleeping in a prison! The doors were like cell doors, metal things that clanged firmly shut like they had to keep in violent murderers! I was happy to have my own room though, and did some internetting. It was in the middle of Osaka city, so I could pop out into the pouring rain and find a place to grab a late dinner a quick trip on the subway away. CHIKIN KA-RE (chicken curry), cheap and simple and filling.
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All in all, I think Kyoto is a great place for people wanting to get as much 'Japan' as they can in as short a time as possible; it's tourist-friendly with Japanese food and souvenirs, and offers a variety of iconic sights. But for me, it offered nothing new and was less palatable for its popularity.Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058545605608198274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684947744137573659.post-42760159212552249212015-04-05T15:18:00.003+01:002015-04-12T11:52:44.092+01:00Japan 2015 - Himeji<center><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="500" height="500" id="ssidx"><param name="movie" value="http://cdn.smugmug.com/ria/ShizamSlides-2013072402.swf" /><param name="flashVars" value="AlbumID=48556307&AlbumKey=fcQNsb&transparent=true&bgColor=&borderThickness=&borderColor=&useInside=&endPoint=&mainHost=cdn.smugmug.com&VersionNos=2013072402&showLogo=false&width=500&height=500&clickToImage=true&captions=true&showThumbs=true&autoStart=true&showSpeed=true&pageStyle=white&showButtons=true&randomStart=false&randomize=false&splash=&splashDelay=0&crossFadeSpeed=350" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><param name="allowNetworking" value="all" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><embed src="http://cdn.smugmug.com/ria/ShizamSlides-2013072402.swf" flashVars="AlbumID=48556307&AlbumKey=fcQNsb&transparent=true&bgColor=&borderThickness=&borderColor=&useInside=&endPoint=&mainHost=cdn.smugmug.com&VersionNos=2013072402&showLogo=false&width=500&height=500&clickToImage=true&captions=true&showThumbs=true&autoStart=true&showSpeed=true&pageStyle=white&showButtons=true&randomStart=false&randomize=false&splash=&splashDelay=0&crossFadeSpeed=350" width="500" height="500" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowScriptAccess="always" allowNetworking="all" ></embed></object></center>
This morning I left a very different homestay in Sakai, just south of Osaka (I chose it because it was the only place available anywhere near Osaka in my price range on the Saturday evening). It as a funny house down a narrow ramshackle street owned by a fairly young couple, who have four rooms dedicated to hosting guests like me. I was sleeping in a traditional Japanese style bedroom, with cushions to sit on and a bed you lay out yourself when you go to sleep then pack away again. The hosting couple had very little English but were really happy to hear my crappy Japanese (everyone has been actually! "Jouzu desu!" - yeah right but thanks for the compliment :P), and they were happy to pick me up from and run me back to the nearby station. I went back to the station with a German guy called Sebastian who is working in Japan for 3 months.
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From Sakai I went on quite a long journey north and west through Osaka to Himeji. This town is the location of the highly recommended Himeji Castle, which has only last month been unveiled following a several-year renovation. It was impressive-looking, though nearly identical to Osaka Castle. You could go in, but it was crazy-busy with an hour and a half queue, and I'd gotten into Himeji late in the day and had other plans, so I just walked around it and went on my way. I later found out from another tourist that it's actually the original castle, unlike Osaka Castle, and the inside is very interesting, so I regret that I didn't have the time.
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I had to get the bus from the centre of Himeji to reach the second reason I came, so that was another new experience. It's all very organised - you enter through the rear door and leave through the front, paying the fare in a little coin machine next to the driver. There's even a change machine too so you can shove a note in one slot, receive a handful of coins and drop what you need to pay in another slot.
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My destination was Mount Shosha - a temple complex of several buildings on a mountainside and the location of several important scenes from the Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe film 'The Last Samurai', which I love and happened to watch a couple of months ago before this holiday was even considered. To reach the temple (Engyoji), like Yoshino which I visited in Nara, you can either take the cable car or walk up. I braved the walk again and regretted it! The scenery was lovely, it was raining on and off all day so there was mist everywhere up the mountain, but it took an hour to climb up and I was well pooped by the time I got to the temple.
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I really enjoyed this trip; the temple was really atmospheric in the mist, and remote and historically significant and full of interesting statues and buildings. Once I'd recovered myself a little from the climb I had a really serene time exploring the site.
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To enter any of the buildings you had to take off your shoes and leave them outside. Witness, my shoes sans my feet:
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By this time it was about 3 or 4 in the afternoon and I'd had only a little rice snack thing from a convenience store and had been eating the last of my haribos to get me through the climb, so I was very happy to discover a cafe in one area! They had pictures of the available food so I picked something called the Himeji Special or something, and was intrigued by what I got. It tasted lovely, and I called the waitress over to ask her what the names of the different things were. I earned another "Jouzu!" when I wrote what she said down in Japanese characters, and apparently it was 'konnyaku' (konjac), 'daikon' (radish), 'tamago' (an egg) and 'chikuwa' and 'gobouten' (weird tube things). It was tasty and a very welcome rest and recovery from all the climbing and walking. You always get free hot green tea with meals and that was greatly appreciated.
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After my lunch I continued my exploration, and found the site of the scenes from The Last Samurai. It was super misty, but the pictures below should show how I saw the same location as in the shot of Tom Cruise approaching Ken Watanabe (the samurai leader)'s home.
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I made my eventual way back to Himeji, meeting some nice American travellers on the bus back to Himeji. Back in Himeji I had to find my accommodation, and in a sketchy alley a ways away from the town centre I was greeted by the most hippy laid back joint I'd yet to stay in. I'm in one bed in a shared dorm and a few of us (myself the only non-Japanese) went out to a local noodle bar for dinner and sake. That was awesome, because it meant I got to see a different way of life and to have a drink! I've had lots of different sorts of opportunities to practise Japanese which has been excellent, and I'm really glad I came.
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Tomorrow it's off to Kyoto early in the morning, since there's lots to do there and I have to get back to Osaka to sleep!Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058545605608198274noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684947744137573659.post-78602419167013379732015-04-04T15:42:00.000+01:002015-04-12T11:52:11.686+01:00Japan 2015 - Osaka<center><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="500" height="500" id="ssidx"><param name="movie" value="http://cdn.smugmug.com/ria/ShizamSlides-2013072402.swf" /><param name="flashVars" value="AlbumID=48554651&AlbumKey=xTnNhq&transparent=true&bgColor=&borderThickness=&borderColor=&useInside=&endPoint=&mainHost=cdn.smugmug.com&VersionNos=2013072402&showLogo=false&width=500&height=500&clickToImage=true&captions=true&showThumbs=true&autoStart=true&showSpeed=true&pageStyle=white&showButtons=true&randomStart=false&randomize=false&splash=&splashDelay=0&crossFadeSpeed=350" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><param name="allowNetworking" value="all" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><embed src="http://cdn.smugmug.com/ria/ShizamSlides-2013072402.swf" flashVars="AlbumID=48554651&AlbumKey=xTnNhq&transparent=true&bgColor=&borderThickness=&borderColor=&useInside=&endPoint=&mainHost=cdn.smugmug.com&VersionNos=2013072402&showLogo=false&width=500&height=500&clickToImage=true&captions=true&showThumbs=true&autoStart=true&showSpeed=true&pageStyle=white&showButtons=true&randomStart=false&randomize=false&splash=&splashDelay=0&crossFadeSpeed=350" width="500" height="500" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowScriptAccess="always" allowNetworking="all" ></embed></object></center>
I'm writing this a little late because I didn't have time on the evening of the day, but I added the pictures then and now there is text to go with it!
Saturday 4th of April, I woke for the last time at my host family's, had my last breakfast with them, and got ready to take all my luggage away with me to Osaka. Thanks to my host for having me, feeding me, showing me some great experiences, and helping me get on my way on the trains!
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The train to Osaka was really busy, although nothing like what I've heard about Tokyo where they literally push you into the train to fit more people in. There are various passes available for tourists to get them on the trains, subways, buses, and into tourist attractions, so my plan was to pay for this train into Osaka and then at the main station there get myself a pass that would make all my travel free for the rest of the holiday.
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Once I arrived in Osaka, in an underground train station, I was on a mission to find the location I was promised would be selling the passes. The station was massive, with shops and whole underground shopping malls to get lost in, and I couldn't figure out where the hell I was supposed to go. I killed an hour wandering around, getting lost, finding a little rice snack thing in a convenience store to tithe me over. I discovered a massive bank of 'coin lockers' where you can store luggage for a 300 yen a day, so that allowed me to lighten my load considerably.
Eventually I found the right place and brought my ticket and, a bit flustered, proceeded to the subway. Osaka supposedly has free wifi citywide, which I discovered means in certain mysterious spots in the stations, so long as you don't move once you've found them. And even then it's not guaranteed. So planning my routes was possible with the help of the internet, but time-consuming. Once I'd figured out where to go, I was off, and that's when I discovered the phenomenon of 'women only' carriages.
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I was a bit embarrassed when this carriage rolled up in front of me, having failed to notice the sign on the floor beneath my feet which should have warned me. On my second visit to Osaka, a few days later, I accidentally wandered into one of these carriages while looking for an empty seat and, I kid you not, when I grabbed a hand hold and settled in five women stood up and moved out of the carriage without a word. I was like, jeez, that's a bit racist, until I realised where I was standing. Oops!
My first stop was 'Kaiyukan', Osaka's big aquarium, complete with whale shark. It's not exactly Japan-specific, I admit, but it looked really good and there wasn't really that much to actually do in Osaka besides wander around and shop and eat. The aquarium is at the 'bay area' of Osaka, which also has Osaka's replica of Universal Studios which I've been to in Florida a couple of times. Outside of the aquarium was one of the street performers you see in London, but this guy was really weird looking.
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Pretty cool! I headed into Kaiyukan and tried my best to get some good pictures of the fishies, which was a challenge with the dim lighting, reflections, crowds, fast moving fishies, but I think I got some good ones. There were some really cool things in there and the tickets aren't that expensive, about £15. I highly recommend it. The whale shark looked a bit ill, circling around just below the surface of his tank listing to one side. The whole place probably a massive ethical nightmare, like Orlando's SeaWorld... Anyway, pics.
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After Kaiyukan it was lunchtime and I grabbed some takoyaki from a cute little cafe dedicated to making it for bay area visitors. The chunks of octopus were massive, not quite the same as the baby octopodes I used when I made it at Matthew's birthday party that time!
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Chomping my octopus balls (teehee) I stayed in the north end of Osaka to look for Osaka Castle. It was a sunny Saturday afternoon and the castle's park surroundings were packed with Japanese people of all kinds enjoying a day off. It reminded me of London. There were people having picnics under the sakura trees, a little crowd of photographers with massive telescopic lenses all taking pictures of, as far as I could tell, a tiny robin, children, old people, and a few foreign tourists as well.
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Osaka Castle is a renovation, but still impressive-looking and faithful to the original design. You could pay to go in but I couldn't find the entrance and, anyway, figured it was good enough just to see the outside. It was very majestic, and I enjoyed the ambience of the crowds all having a nice day outdoors.
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I was pretty surprised to see a performer with a trained monkey in a waistcoat doing tricks for one crowd. I don't think that would be legal here, so it was something I'd probably never get to see normally. She was just there amidst the people, with her little area set up for the monkey to do tricks. I figured out how to use the 'action' mode on Matthew's camera and managed to get some shots of the monkey doing big jumps.
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Next I wanted to explore the south of the city, with its shopping districts and promise of geek treasures. I headed back to Umeda Station (the main station in the northern half) and had a quick detour to hunt out one shop I knew was somewhere in Umeda Station which I just had to visit given the chance. The Pokemon Store! It took some finding, let me tell you. It was actually just one part of one floor of a department store dedicated to clothes and you'd never guess it was the location of this shop. It was pretty cool, but there wasn't really anything I wanted to buy. I guess I'm a bit old for pokemon toys now!
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From Umeda Station I went south to Namba, the main southern station, to explore the various shopping districts Osaka is known for. I didn't do a very good job of finding my way around and wasted a lot of time searching in vain for interesting streets, but I did eventually find a hive of nerd shops. I just did some quick browsing and took in the variety of things on offer - I'd certainly never seen anything like it in England! It seemed like every games console ever made by Sony, Sega or Nintendo was stocked by the dozen, with aisle after aisle of games and accessories. Especially the older ones! Want a SNES? Why not have 10!
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I'd also read about a street called 'Dotonbori', which lights up at night and is apparently famous for its giant crab sign at one end or something. There were actually two or three of them along the street, but I stayed in Osaka late so that I could see it in its glory. I was staying a ways away from the city in another homestay just for one night, but didn't have to be at their station until 10pm.
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My accommodation that night was in a very different kind of homestay. I chose it because it was far cheaper than any hotels and nearly everywhere was booked in Osaka that night even when I was planning everything the week before. I was lucky to find this! It wasn't a family like my first hosts, but a fairly young couple who have sort of turned their house into a homestay hotel. They have four rooms they use to host, and I'd booked one with a traditional Japanese bed for the giggles. I had a little table with cushions around it, and my bed was a thin mattress, duvey, and pillow all folded up and to the side. To sleep you have to push the table and cushions to the side and set up the bed every night! It was cosy and the host couple were nice, with very limited English, but I was enjoying trying out my worse Japanese anyway so we had fun.
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Today I left my hosts in the morning to embark on my own on the Japanese train system! My mission was to make my way to Mount Yoshino, which is a nice climb with beautiful views of the sakura which are in blossom this week and probably only this week for the whole year (good timing, eh?). On the way to Yoshino I would be passing through Kashiharajingu (Kashihara Shrine) which is my Japanese teacher's local shrine so I wanted to stop there too and look around.
The trains were super easy to use, once you'd figured out the ticket buying machines. You have to know the fare amount in advance, and then you just hit the button for that amount and the machine accepts any denomination of money and gives you the change. Your ticket just gets scanned on entry and then when you get off, no matter how many transfers you do on the way. Every station works the same, and the names are written in English as well as Japanese so it's really easy.
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My first stop was Kashiharajingu, the shrine my Japanese teacher visits from her home. Nara (the region I'm in right now) was like the original capital of Japan or something, so it has a lot of ancient history and is just completely littered with shrines and temples of all sizes. Like literally every street and path has little wooden shrines of varying grandiosity. But Kashiharajingu was a big shrine, if not on the same order as Nara Park where I went yesterday. It had grounds with various areas, and as I entered I noticed some strangely dressed people doing some sort of ceremony. I thought it might be a wedding or something, but I'm not sure. It was interesting to watch, anyway, and a stroke of luck that it was all going on just as I sauntered in at 10am.
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To be honest it would probably have been a bit of a boring stop (though it's a nice place and it was interesting to see where my Japanese teacher lives) if not for seeing that ceremony and a kendo competition being held right in the middle of the grounds! Kendo is a Japanese martial art with swords, a bit like fencing but with heavy wooden swords. There was a large crowd of kids and teenagers all dressed up in their gear, and parents hovering around cheering them on.
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After spending an hour wandering around Kashiharajingu, I headed back to the train station to take the 1-hour journey to Mount Yoshino. The journey there on the train was interesting as we passed through increasingly rural Japan. There was all sorts to see out of the window, tree-covered hills, settlements of different sizes with their many shrines, people tending to allotments, houses amongst all the hodgepodge of different building styles that looked more like miniature ancient temples with elaborate gardens, and inside the train I was amused to watch the operator bowing every time he entered or left the carriage on his way up and down.
Eventually I reached Yoshino, which had been recommended by my hosts as being a nice trip worth it for the views of the cherry blossoms. I forewent (is that a word?) the convenient cable car in favour of slogging up the initial steep walk to reach Yoshino town from the station. The views were indeed beautiful.
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There were lots of tourists around and the town, which is sort of clinging to the mountain side along various paths, was full of vendors peddling their wares. Everything seemed to be crazy expensive, so I mostly just looked, except to buy a couple of cheap wooden spinning toy things for Ryuusei and Taku. There was all sorts of food for sale, and I mostly either had no idea what it was or knew what it was and had no intention of eating it - like the stall that was selling whole fish, grilled and skewered and on display next to a tank of their happily swimming brothers.
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There were lots of little shrine areas of historic significance up there, and I took a lot of photos before it started to rain pretty heavily in the afternoon. It was very zen wandering around on my own, visiting all these quiet areas all set up to be peaceful and enlightening or whatever.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7bN_p9q5CJ4/VR6Ii1tIuGI/AAAAAAAARsM/fJo2XhzfLlI/s1600/15%2B04%2B03%2BYoshino%2B%28106%29.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7bN_p9q5CJ4/VR6Ii1tIuGI/AAAAAAAARsM/fJo2XhzfLlI/s320/15%2B04%2B03%2BYoshino%2B%28106%29.JPG" /></a></div>
I was getting pretty hungry by this point, but all the cafes and restaurants were intimidating with their foreign menus and what looked like traditional Japanese seating with short tables and cushions to sit on and a porch where you leave your shoes. Eventually I walked beyond the crowded area and found a restaurant with no customers and thought, hell, they're probably desperate enough to humour a gaijin. I approached the lady at the entrance (every store and stall has someone politely greeting and nodding to everyone who walks past) and declared "Sumimasen! Sen yen ga arimasu!" which means "Excuse me! I have 1000 yen!". I didn't want to get fleeced with some insanely priced, unnecessarily fancy dish after all. She was very happy to suggest something she thought I'd like and explained in a little English that it would have chicken and egg in it. I had to take off my shoes and sit on the tatami flooring like a proper Japanese person, and she served me tea and brought me a very lovely lunch.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hrKP_b8g4y0/VR6HXzJ_6lI/AAAAAAAARrE/LXCGIgCjcvQ/s1600/15%2B04%2B03%2B%5BMobile%5D%2BYoshino%2B%284%29.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hrKP_b8g4y0/VR6HXzJ_6lI/AAAAAAAARrE/LXCGIgCjcvQ/s320/15%2B04%2B03%2B%5BMobile%5D%2BYoshino%2B%284%29.jpg" /></a></div>
Shortly after that I made my slow and winding way back down to the bottom of the mountain and back to civilization. I walked from my final station stop to my host's house without any trouble, and with a "Tadaima!" I was back to entertaining three lively kids. I spent my last evening with them playing games and eating a nice dinner of chicken curry and broccoli salad, and helped Ryuusei beat world 2 on his Mario game which he'd been stuck on.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PyqxQif66g8/VR6IiFfIdrI/AAAAAAAARsI/udJNHgDQpGQ/s1600/15%2B04%2B03%2B%5BYayoi%2Bcamera%5D%2BMe%2Band%2BHaruhi.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PyqxQif66g8/VR6IiFfIdrI/AAAAAAAARsI/udJNHgDQpGQ/s320/15%2B04%2B03%2B%5BYayoi%2Bcamera%5D%2BMe%2Band%2BHaruhi.JPG" /></a></div><br />
Tomorrow I'm off to Osaka to spend the day in the big city, and will be all by myself trying to find my various destinations and overnight accommodations! Ganbatte!Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058545605608198274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684947744137573659.post-67158773814876262482015-04-02T13:26:00.000+01:002015-04-11T20:12:04.616+01:00Japan 2015 - Nara Park<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="500" height="500" id="ssidx"><param name="movie" value="http://cdn.smugmug.com/ria/ShizamSlides-2013072402.swf" /><param name="flashVars" value="AlbumID=48546563&AlbumKey=2tb5kG&transparent=true&bgColor=&borderThickness=&borderColor=&useInside=&endPoint=&mainHost=cdn.smugmug.com&VersionNos=2013072402&showLogo=false&width=500&height=500&clickToImage=true&captions=true&showThumbs=true&autoStart=true&showSpeed=true&pageStyle=black&showButtons=true&randomStart=false&randomize=false&splash=&splashDelay=0&crossFadeSpeed=350" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><param name="allowNetworking" value="all" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><embed src="http://cdn.smugmug.com/ria/ShizamSlides-2013072402.swf" flashVars="AlbumID=48546563&AlbumKey=2tb5kG&transparent=true&bgColor=&borderThickness=&borderColor=&useInside=&endPoint=&mainHost=cdn.smugmug.com&VersionNos=2013072402&showLogo=false&width=500&height=500&clickToImage=true&captions=true&showThumbs=true&autoStart=true&showSpeed=true&pageStyle=black&showButtons=true&randomStart=false&randomize=false&splash=&splashDelay=0&crossFadeSpeed=350" width="500" height="500" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowScriptAccess="always" allowNetworking="all" ></embed></object>
First full day in Japan is over and it's been very fun! I woke up this morning and met my host's three boys, aged 2, 6 and 10. Their English is amazingly good - it turns out that Ryuusei reads Animorph books on his kindle! I used to love those. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-E1zye6nJ7Hc/VR0ukPqtQsI/AAAAAAAARmw/4scp_U9yrqs/s1600/15%2B04%2B02%2BDay%2B1%2C%2BNara%2BPark%2B%282%29.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-E1zye6nJ7Hc/VR0ukPqtQsI/AAAAAAAARmw/4scp_U9yrqs/s320/15%2B04%2B02%2BDay%2B1%2C%2BNara%2BPark%2B%282%29.JPG" /></a></div>After a nice breakfast we set off for Nara Park, a large park famous for its deer and many temples and shrines dotted about the place. We spent all day there, walking around and visiting different temples. It was full of tourists, mostly Chinese, and the cherry blossoms (sakura) were all in full bloom. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IbSZ8iq7KQE/VR0vr-ivRhI/AAAAAAAARnQ/OlIIzmNJ8Cw/s1600/15%2B04%2B02%2BDay%2B1%2C%2BNara%2BPark%2B%287%29.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IbSZ8iq7KQE/VR0vr-ivRhI/AAAAAAAARnQ/OlIIzmNJ8Cw/s320/15%2B04%2B02%2BDay%2B1%2C%2BNara%2BPark%2B%287%29.JPG" /></a></div>My host family took me into a little restaurant/bar for lunch, and thankfully knew what they were doing because I would have had to resort to smiling, nodding, and hoping that a konnichiwa and an arigatou would get me something edible. We had shrimp tempura and udon noodles (which we saw the man making from scratch behind the counter) and it was oishii. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GZBGNx2505E/VR0u5hWwMEI/AAAAAAAARm4/K6ThYFCrIr4/s1600/15%2B04%2B02%2BDay%2B1%2C%2BNara%2BPark%2B%2852%29.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GZBGNx2505E/VR0u5hWwMEI/AAAAAAAARm4/K6ThYFCrIr4/s320/15%2B04%2B02%2BDay%2B1%2C%2BNara%2BPark%2B%2852%29.JPG" /></a></div>One of the highlights was Todaiji Temple. It was an absolutely enormous traditional Japanese temple, and inside it housed a crazy-big Buddha statue. I'd heard about that from my research before coming and I highly recommend going to see it. I don't know what it was made of, but it looked like the green of patinated copper or bronze. One of the giant wooden pillars inside the building had a little tunnel cut through the bottom of it which you could crawl through, which was supposed to be the size of one of the statue's nostrils. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fcv-Y_bMv9Q/VR0vSX475-I/AAAAAAAARnA/d0ipsizJogE/s1600/IMG_20150402_140259425.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fcv-Y_bMv9Q/VR0vSX475-I/AAAAAAAARnA/d0ipsizJogE/s400/IMG_20150402_140259425.jpg" /></a></div>There were also some angry-looking samurai statues, defeating various little demon creatures. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GGSn6aaXwrw/VR0vgqfebZI/AAAAAAAARnI/_GL1ySYKmig/s1600/15%2B04%2B02%2BDay%2B1%2C%2BNara%2BPark%2B%28139%29.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GGSn6aaXwrw/VR0vgqfebZI/AAAAAAAARnI/_GL1ySYKmig/s320/15%2B04%2B02%2BDay%2B1%2C%2BNara%2BPark%2B%28139%29.JPG" /></a></div>The deer were just meandering around everywhere, hoping to be fed like pigeons. You could buy 'deer biscuits' and the boys had fun feeding them, although there was also some screaming and fleeing involved too. They make for nice pictures, but really once you've stroked a couple and spent the rest of the day walking around them everywhere you go they lose their magical appeal :P <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JK6R0If2N8A/VR0wBbnkj-I/AAAAAAAARnY/D9pedHeZ2Vo/s1600/15%2B04%2B02%2BDay%2B1%2C%2BNara%2BPark%2B%2861%29.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JK6R0If2N8A/VR0wBbnkj-I/AAAAAAAARnY/D9pedHeZ2Vo/s320/15%2B04%2B02%2BDay%2B1%2C%2BNara%2BPark%2B%2861%29.JPG" /></a></div>Finally we had some ice cream and headed home, only to go straight back out again to a local sushi place! We sat at our little booth and picked things off a conveyor, like Yo Sushi!, but there was also a little screen where you could choose anything from the full menu and it would be whipped along on a high-speed conveyor right to your table. Neat! And everything was 100 yen, which is just 60p. We all ate till we were stuffed, getting through 30-odd plates, and it came to just £24. You poked your empty plates down a little slide and every five plates you had a chance of winning a little plastic ball with a toy in it. The kids were well into that :P <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fUgGcYfGLRU/VR0zRCd0MFI/AAAAAAAARng/6HpKcEgr3qw/s1600/IMG_20150402_172330.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fUgGcYfGLRU/VR0zRCd0MFI/AAAAAAAARng/6HpKcEgr3qw/s320/IMG_20150402_172330.jpg" /></a></div><br />
It was a very tiring day with lots of walking and entertaining children, and even though it's only 20 past 9 everyone has gone to bed and I'm well ready for it too. Oyasumi!Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058545605608198274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684947744137573659.post-13270693376022195052015-04-01T15:52:00.001+01:002015-04-06T14:42:45.609+01:00Japan 2015 - Journey to OsakaWell apparently April is holiday time for William - this year I've embarked on a trip to Japan! I'm writing this in bed on my first night, having had a bit of a crazy journey. That is the subject of this blog post.<br />
<br />
So the plan was that I'd train to Heathrow, catch a plane to Osaka via Doha in Qatar, and then jump on the next bus from the airport to Sakurai station, where my homestay family would pick me up. I'd planned everything out, looked up all the details - I thought I'd maybe manage to catch the 6 o'clock bus, half an hour after landing - and I felt pretty confident.<br />
<br />
The first annoyance was that my train tickets only got me so far King's Cross, from where I'd have to take the underground. But I let Google tell me the way and had to pay £21(!) for a ticket on the Heathrow Express. I could have avoided it by going back on the underground, if I'd have 50 more minutes to spare (from Paddington to Heathrow!?), which I didn't.<br />
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Everything would still have gone fine if not for two further unforeseen hiccups.<br />
<br />
Firstly, I was delayed at Doha for an hour and a quarter. I'm not sure why; the plane was just delayed. So I spent an unsettling hour in the middle of the night in an airport in Qatar with this thing:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MfnaLaRAnb0/VRwBYQPEfAI/AAAAAAAARjo/-C9-mxH0pXo/s1600/IMG_20150401_010530.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MfnaLaRAnb0/VRwBYQPEfAI/AAAAAAAARjo/-C9-mxH0pXo/s320/IMG_20150401_010530.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Thankfully I was super prepared and could keep my phone charged with a battery pack thingy I'd bought for the trip. The wifi was extremely spotty, but I managed to get an email through to my homestay host to let her know I was delayed. I thought I might still make it in time for the 7 o'clock bus, if the flight went a bit quicker than scheduled, but would most likely be on the 8 o'clock one.<br />
<br />
But enter stumbling block number two.<br />
<br />
We landed at Kansai International airport at half 6. Pretty good, I thought. I can maybe catch the 7pm train!<br />
<br />
Haha, no.<br />
<br />
Apparently when entering Japan you have to go through immigration. Where they take your fingerprints and photo. Which takes 2 hours to queue for.<br />
<br />
So a grey-haired Japanese man with INFORMATION written on his armband shouting FOREN PASSENJAH (foreign passenger) hustled everyone into the most gigantic queue I've ever seen. And it moved at a <i>snail's</i> pace. For 2 hours I shuffled along, back and forth, back and forth, with hundreds of other foren passenjahs, watching the minutes tick by. There was no wifi, so I couldn't email my host an update. I just had to watch as the time of the last bus to Sakurai, 9pm, ticked slowly closer.<br />
<br />
When I finally reached the front of the queue it was ten to 9. I was through in a jiffy, and I ran out to the front of the airport where I thought the buses should be. I saw it, still there, a little line of people piling on. I dashed over to the automatic ticket machine, a nice man helped me get my ticket (arigatou gozaimasu!) and I was on the bus. Phew!<br />
<br />
Now I had an hour and a half to sit on the bus, knowing that my host had no idea where I was. I just had to hope that either a) she'd just turn up when the last bus arrived in case I was on it, or b) I could find some free wi-fi at Sakurai Station.<br />
<br />
Thankfully my host's husband was waiting for me, and seemed cheerful enough with his limited English (TYE-ARD? Yes, I'm tired.) Once I finally got to my homestay house it was quarter to eleven and we were all ready for bed. I'll have to work out how to explain properly and apologise in the morning!Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058545605608198274noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684947744137573659.post-48345513577437803722014-05-26T11:59:00.001+01:002015-04-01T15:53:03.909+01:00Our Middle-Earth AdventureIt's a month since Mum and I were in New Zealand, and I've finally put together an album of our highlights, see below.<br />
<br />
We arrived in Auckland, once the capital of the country and situated in the very north of the North Island, and after a couple of nights there embarked on a journey southwards in our rental car.<br />
<br />
We would book a hotel, hostel or camping hut thing the night before using the wifi wherever we were staying that night, and rarely stayed in one place for longer than one night. Every day was filled with Lord of the Rings/Hobbit location hunting, sightseeing, and driving. Mum was very brave and drove us over mountains, on dirt roads, along canyons, through forests, and across a lot of narrow scary bridges. She wasn't quite brave enough to let me drive much though :P<br />
<br />
I bought a SIM card with 3GB of data at Auckland airport and, boy, was that useful. We had absolutely no trouble finding our way around, and with the help of my guidebook and various websites combined with Google Maps I navigated us from site to site. I wasn't shy about using the data and I ran out bare hours before we left, 3 weeks after arriving.<br />
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Thanks to Matthew for lending me his sweet camera, I hope you enjoy the photos!<br />
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<iframe class="imgur-album" width="100%" height="550" frameborder="0" src="http://imgur.com/a/9Mw8o/embed"></iframe><br />
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Bonus video: I recorded little selfies every day so I could make this silly compilation!<br />
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<iframe width="480" height="360" src="//www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/X33UkC8gPd4?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058545605608198274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684947744137573659.post-21543566678396960442014-03-20T22:29:00.000+00:002015-04-01T15:53:03.904+01:00Visiting Middle-EarthI'm busily planning a New Zealand holiday, with one particular aim being to visit a friend who's been there for over a year now doing her PhD, but while I'm there I thought it would be a shame not to see some Lord of the Rings/Hobbit filming locations!<br />
<br />
So I've just finished plotting as many points as I could find to help me plan the itinerary. We're tentatively planning to fly to Auckland, hire a car and drive ourselves down to Dunedin where my friend is living, stopping at locations as we go. However, I'm waiting to hear about my application to the JET programme and can't book flights yet because the timing will coincide with possibly having to do some sort of complicated and possibly time-consuming medical examinations for the JET people - the frustrating thing being that they won't give any useful information about the requirements in advance, only that you should 'be available in April'.<br />
<br />
Anyway, here's the map I've generated for LotR locations in New Zealand (click the icon in the top right corner to embiggen):<br />
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<iframe src="https://mapsengine.google.com/map/embed?mid=zNSPhH8MmzVo.kYwqQ6A82NBE" width="520" height="480"></iframe>Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058545605608198274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684947744137573659.post-53110877396894694792014-01-27T21:22:00.000+00:002014-01-27T21:22:16.201+00:002013 in filmJust like <a href="http://william-likes-biscuits.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/2012-in-film.html">last year</a> I've got a list of every film I watched this year. They can get up to three golden stars (<span style="color: gold;">★</span>) if I enjoyed them. On the other hand, if I disliked them, they might earn black stars (★) instead...<br />
<br />
Bold titles indicate films with some significance (which means either I was highly anticipating it, it's a well-known classic, it was just especially moving, or had some other significance to me personally).<br />
<br />
If it wasn't the first time I'd seen the film, that is also indicated after the title.<br />
<br />
★ <i>Looper</i><br />
2012 action sci-fi time travel film starring Bruce Willis.<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★★ </span> <i><b>Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows</b></i><br />
2011 sequel to the 2009 film, starring Robert Downey Jr.<br />
<span style="color: gold;"> </span> <i>Dredd</i><br />
2012 Judge Dredd film.<br />
<span style="color: gold;"> </span> <i>Glorious 39</i><br />
2009 WWII drama.<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★ </span> <i>The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey</i> (III)<br />
2012 first instalment of Peter Jackson's trilogy.<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★ </span> <i>Lincoln</i><br />
2012 Steven Spielberg historical drama.<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★★ </span> <i>Inglourious Basterds</i> (II)<br />
2009 Quentin Tarantino WWII drama.<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★★ </span> <i><b>Django Unchained</b></i><br />
2012 Quentin Tarantino western.<br />
★★<span style="color: gold;"> </span> <i>Meet Joe Black</i><br />
1998 fantasy/romance thing with Anthony Hopkins and Brad Pitt.<br />
<span style="color: gold;"> </span> <i>I Wish</i><br />
2011 Japanese sort-of coming-of-age film.<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★★ </span> <i>Monsters</i> (II)<br />
2010 sci-fi monster movie, low budget and well-executed.<br />
<span style="color: gold;"> </span> <i>True Grit</i><br />
2010 western, adapted from a book.<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★ </span> <i><b>Grave of the Fireflies</b></i><br />
1988 Studio Ghibli anime about WWII.<br />
<span style="color: gold;"> </span> <i>Side Effects</i><br />
2013 psychological thriller with some good actors.<br />
★<span style="color: gold;"> </span> <i>Stoker</i><br />
2013 horror type thing.<br />
★★<span style="color: gold;"> </span> <i>Paprika</i><br />
2006 scifi anime.<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★ </span> <i>Safety Not Guaranteed</i><br />
2012 surreal comedy/drama.<br />
<span style="color: gold;"> </span> <i>Argo</i><br />
2012 Oscar-winning drama based on real events.<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★ </span> <i>The Spirit of '45</i><br />
2013 Ken Loach pro-socialist documentary/propoganda.<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★★ </span> <i>Jurassic Park</i> (many)<br />
1993 dinosaur scifi/thriller!<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★ </span> <i>Men in Black 3</i> (II)<br />
2012 addition to the scifi/comedy franchise.<br />
<span style="color: gold;"> </span> <i>Brave</i> (II)<br />
2012 Pixar fantasy movie.<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★ </span> <i>Wreck-it-Ralph</i><br />
2012 Disney film.<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★★ </span> <i>Planet of the Apes</i> (II)<br />
1968 famous scifi movie.<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★★★</span> <i>Jurassic Park</i> (many)<br />
Watched it in 3D at the IMAX in Universal Studios, Florida!<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★★★</span> <i>Rise of the Planet of the Apes</i> (II)<br />
2011 reboot of the franchise.<br />
<span style="color: gold;"> </span> <i>The Odd Life of Timothy Green</i><br />
2013 fantasy/feel-good about a boy with leaves.<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★★ </span> <i><b>The Borrower Arrietty</b></i><br />
2010 Studio Ghibli anime based on the classic book.<br />
<span style="color: gold;"> </span> <i>The Cat Returns</i><br />
2002 Studio Ghibli fantasy anime.<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★★ </span> <i>The Hangover</i> (II)<br />
2009 comedy.<br />
<span style="color: gold;"> </span> <i>The Hangover Part II</i><br />
2011 sequel to the aforementioned.<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★ </span> <i>No Country for Old Men</i><br />
2007 western thriller.<br />
★★<span style="color: gold;"> </span> <i>Oblivion</i><br />
2013 big-budget scifi (one of several such flops this year...)<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★ </span> <i><b>Iron Man 3</b></i><br />
2013 addition to the franchise.<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★ </span> <i>Mud</i><br />
2012 coming-of-age film.<br />
<span style="color: gold;"> </span> <i><b>Man of Steel</b></i><br />
2013 reboot of the franchise.<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★ </span> <i>Jin-Roh</i><br />
1999 alternate-history anime set after WWII.<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★ </span> <i>Eve no Jikan</i><br />
2010 scifi anime, about robots and AI.<br />
★★<span style="color: gold;"> </span> <i>Now You See Me</i><br />
2013 heist film.<br />
<span style="color: gold;"> </span> <i>5 Centimetres Per Second</i><br />
2007 anime.<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★ </span> <i>Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind</i> (II)<br />
1984 anime that just preceeded Studio Ghibli.<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★ </span> <i>One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest</i><br />
1975 adaptation of a novel, with Jack Nicholson.<br />
★<span style="color: gold;"> </span> <i>Perfume</i><br />
2006 adaptation of the novel, which I plan to read.<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★ </span> <i>Evolution</i> (II)<br />
2001 scifi/comedy.<br />
<span style="color: gold;"> </span> <i>Despicable Me 2</i><br />
2013 sequel to the 2010 animation, which I did not see.<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★★ </span> <i>Casino Royale</i> (V)<br />
2006 Bond 'reboot', I guess.<br />
<span style="color: gold;"> </span> <i>Flags of Our Fathers</i><br />
2006 film set in the WWII, twinned with Letters from <i>Iwo Jima</i>.<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★ </span> <i>Letters from Iwo Jima</i><br />
2006 film set in the WWII, twinned with Letters from <i>Flags of Our Fathers</i>.<br />
★ <span style="color: gold;"></span> <i>Silver Linings Playbook</i><br />
2012 apparently funny quirky romance with Jennifer Lawrence.<br />
<span style="color: gold;"> </span> <i>Blue Jasmine</i><br />
2013 weird drama with Cate Blanchett.<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★★ </span> <i>Alien</i> (III)<br />
1979 classic scifi horror.<br />
★ <span style="color: gold;"></span> <i><b>Pacific Rim</b></i><br />
2013 CGI scifi action flick (giant mechas vs kaiju).<br />
<span style="color: gold;"> </span> <i>The Raid: Redemption</i><br />
2011 Indonesian martial arts film.<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★ </span> <i><b>Ender's Game</b></i><br />
2013 adaptation of the scifi classic.<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★ </span> <i>The Thomas Crown Affair</i><br />
1999 heist film with Pierce Brosnan.<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★ </span> <i>The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey</i> (IV)<br />
2012 Peter Jackson Hobbit film, first in the trilogy.<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★ </span> <i><b>The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug</b></i><br />
2013 instalment of the trilogy.<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★★ </span> <i>Kill Bill: Volume 1</i> (IV)<br />
2003 Quentin Tarantino action/martial arts film.<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★★ </span> <i>Kill Bill: Volume 2</i> (IV)<br />
2004 sequel/second part to the above.<br />
<span style="color: gold;">★★ </span> <i>Die Hard</i> (III?)<br />
1988 action classic with Bruce Willis.<br />
<br />
There were misses (<i>Man of Steel</i>, <i>Pacific Rim</i>) as well as hits (<i>Iron Man 3</i>, <i>Ender's Game</i>, <i>The Desolation of Smaug</i>), a mix of classics and new films, and not a few Japanese animations.<br />
<br />
And 60 films is 4 more than last year! I'm already on 5 this year, but may have a change of lifestyle come August... How will it affect things? Tune in to find out!Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058545605608198274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684947744137573659.post-6195246738648271052013-08-25T18:55:00.002+01:002013-08-26T00:11:57.748+01:00What I've read over the 2012/13 academic yearSo at the beginning of 2012 <a href="http://william-likes-biscuits.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/2012-in-film.html">I started noting every film I watched</a>, but I have been doing the same with books since 2008. I began while I was at university in York and organised it by academic year, and so I have continued.<br />
<br />
Last year (2011/12) I had a good look at my to-read list and realised I had about 10 years of stuff already lined up at the rate I was reading. I made a big effort to maximise how much I read and pulled in nearly 14000 pages over the year. I did not do so well this year, I guess it being my last year teacher training probably explains it, although I also got stuck on <i>On the Origin of Species</i> for like a month and a half.<br />
<br />
A reminder of the awards:<br />
 <font color="gold">★  </font> Good!<br />
 <font color="gold">★★ </font> <i>Very</i> good<br />
 <font color="gold">★★★</font> Amazing!<br />
 ★   Bad...<br />
 ★★  <i>Very</i> bad<br />
 ★★★ Awful!<br />
And, again, these are strictly a descriptor of my personal feeling towards the book.<br />
<br />
If it wasn't the first time I'd read the book, that is indicated by its title.<br />
<br />
<font color="gold">★★ </font> <i>A Game of Thrones</i><br />
    <i>A Song of Ice and Fire</i> #1, gritty fantasy and popular TV series.<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i>What Do You Care What Other People Think?</i><br />
    Several biographical stories by Richard Feynman.<br />
★   <i>Brutal Harry</i><br />
    A somewhat dark Harry Potter fanfic. <a href="http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7093738/1/Brutal_Harry">Link</a>.<br />
★   <i>The Magician's Apprentice</i> (attempted)<br />
    Prequel novel to The Black Magician Trilogy, which I love.<br />
   <font color="gold"></font> <i>A Study in Magic</i><br />
    A Harry Potter/Sherlock Holmes crossover fanfic. <a href="http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6947125/1/A_Study_in_Magic">Link</a>.<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i>Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde</i><br />
    The 1886 classic.<br />
<font color="gold">★★ </font> <i>On the Origin of Species</i><br />
    Darwin's treaty on evolution by natural selection.<br />
★  <font color="gold"></font> <i>The Illuminatus! Trilogy</i> (attempted)<br />
    A quirky trilogy with the subject of conspiracy theories.<br />
★  <font color="gold"></font> <i>The Dark Lord's Equal</i><br />
    Harry Potter fanfic, a mature Harry goes back in time. <a href="http://whatshouldiread.wikia.com/wiki/The_Dark_Lord%27s_Equal">Link</a>.<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i>The Ego Trick</i><br />
    A for-the-masses philosophy book about 'identity'.<br />
<font color="gold">★★ </font> <i>Harry Potter and the Natural 20</i> (first 25 chapters)<br />
    Harry Potter/Dungeons and Dragons crossover fanfic. <a href="http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8096183/1/Harry-Potter-and-the-Natural-20">Link</a>.<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i>The Colour of Magic</i> (II)<br />
    The first of Terry Pratchett's <i>Discworld</i> novels.<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i>Big Bang</i><br />
    Popsci book about the Big Bang theory.<br />
<font color="gold">★★ </font> <i>The Silmarillion</i><br />
    Tolkien's prequel epic to <i>The Lord of the Rings</i>.<br />
   <font color="gold"></font> <i>Hyperion</i><br />
    An oft-recommended scifi novel.<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i>Misspent Youth</i><br />
    A sort of very early prequel to <i>The Commonwealth Saga</i>.<br />
<font color="gold">★★★</font> <i>Pride & Prejudice</i> (III)<br />
    200 years since its publication, Jane Austen's best known novel.<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i>How to Lie with Statistics</i><br />
    A short '50s book about the ways statistics can mislead.<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i>River Out of Eden</i><br />
    One of Dawkins' books on evolution, the next one I hadn't read.<br />
   <font color="gold"></font> <i>Permutation City</i><br />
    Hard scifi. May cause headaches and existential nihilism.<br />
   <font color="gold"></font> <i>Kil'n People</i><br />
    A fun scifi book on an interesting theme.<br />
<font color="gold">★★ </font> <i>Interview with the Vampire</i> (II or III)<br />
    The book that began Anne Rice's <i>Vampire Chronicles</i>.<br />
<font color="gold">★★ </font> <i>The Vampire Lestat</i> (II)<br />
    First part of the sequel duology to <i>Interview</i>.<br />
<font color="gold">★★ </font> <i>The Queen of the Damned</i> (II)<br />
    The conclusion to the sequel duology to <i>Interview</i>.<br />
<font color="gold">★★ </font> <i>Harry Potter and the Natural 20</i><br />
    As mentioned above, HP/DnD crossover, this time completed.<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i>Harry Potter and the Confirmed Critical</i> (first 6 chapters)<br />
    Ongoing sequel to <i>HPN20</i>. <a href="http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8096183/35/Harry-Potter-and-the-Natural-20">Link</a>.<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i>Ender's Game</i><br />
    Another oft-recommended scifi novel, and soon to be a film.<br />
<font color="gold">★★ </font> <i>Speaker for the Dead</i><br />
    Sequel to <i>Ender's Game</i> (and the reason he expanded it).<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i>The Lifecycle of Software Objects</i><br />
    Scifi novella taking AI from a different angle. <a href="http://subterraneanpress.com/magazine/fall_2010/fiction_the_lifecycle_of_software_objects_by_ted_chiang">Link</a>.<br />
   <font color="gold"></font> <i>Science Fiction Hall of Fame</i> (first 17 stories)<br />
    A <i>highly</i> recommended compilation of pre-1964 scifi short stories.<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i>Hikaru no Go</i> (first 6 volumes)<br />
    A coming-of-age manga centered on a boy who learns to play Go.<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i>Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality</i> (chapters 86-89)<br />
    Harry Potter fanfic, where Harry is <i>smart</i>. <a href="http://www.fanfiction.net/u/2269863/Less_Wrong">Link</a>.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6GY3IOwKedo/UhpEnY5SDII/AAAAAAAAMAY/NXFlMPkUGqU/s1600/13+02+01+Pride+and+Prejudice.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><figcaption>Book of the year, I guess!</figcaption><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6GY3IOwKedo/UhpEnY5SDII/AAAAAAAAMAY/NXFlMPkUGqU/s320/13+02+01+Pride+and+Prejudice.jpg" /></a></div><br />
As for films: although I feel like I haven't watched many for ages (I've been busy with anime and, recently, <i>Breaking Bad</i>) I'm on 47 so far in 2013 which is more than I'd have guessed!Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058545605608198274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684947744137573659.post-34722211428675309202013-06-05T14:20:00.000+01:002013-06-05T14:20:02.941+01:00A Space Oddity performed by Chris Hadfield... in spaceThis man has been an absolute legend on the spacestation, producing fascinating videos, answering questions, and demonstrating all sorts of random things in space.<br />
<br />
He recently returned to Earth, and this was his final production on the ISS.<br />
<br />
<iframe width="480" height="270" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/KaOC9danxNo"
frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<br />
Properly awesome.Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058545605608198274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684947744137573659.post-64523643541848051702013-01-02T01:32:00.001+00:002013-01-02T01:36:04.719+00:002012 in filmThis year I tried noting down every film I watched with a rating. I got 56 altogether, but I might have missed some towards the beginning of the year! They are presented below in chronological order.<br />
<br />
Possible awards:<br />
 <font color="gold">★  </font> Good!<br />
 <font color="gold">★★ </font> <i>Very</i> good<br />
 <font color="gold">★★★</font> Amazing!<br />
 ★   Bad...<br />
 ★★  <i>Very</i> bad<br />
 ★★★ Awful!<br />
These measure my subjective experience of the film, not my objective critique! If I enjoyed a movie, it got some gold stars, without deep analysis of whether it deserved it. And vice versa.<br />
<br />
Also I've bolded some titles, to highlight significant films (one I was highly anticipating, is a well-known classic, was just really good, or has some sort of significance to me personally).<br />
<br />
If it wasn't the first time I'd seen the film, that is also indicated.<br />
<br />
<font color="gold">★★ </font> <i><b>Predators</b></i><br />
    2010 sequel to the 1987 classic<br />
<font color="gold">★★ </font> <i><b>The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo</b></i><br />
    2011 American adaptation of the book<br />
<font color="gold">★★ </font> <i>Agora</i> (II)<br />
    2009 historical drama starring Rachel Weisz<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i>Requiem for a Dream</i><br />
    2000 trippy film about drugs with a score by Clint Mansell<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i>Chronicle</i><br />
    2012 sci-fi film<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i>Dogma</i><br />
    1999 satirical film starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck<br />
<font color="gold">★★★</font> <i>The Adjustment Bureau</i> (II)<br />
    2011 sci-fi film, starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt<br />
<font color="gold">★★★</font> <i>The Shawkshank Redemption</i> (II)<br />
    1994 drama film<br />
<font color="gold">★★★</font> <i>Megamind</i><br />
    2010 Dreamworks animation<br />
<font color="gold">★★ </font> <i><b>Scent of a Woman</b></i><br />
    1992 Al Pacino film<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i>The Cabin in the Woods</i><br />
    2012 horror/satire film<br />
<font color="gold">★★★</font> <i>The Fellowship of the Ring</i> (many)<br />
    2001 Peter Jackson adaptation of the book<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i><b>Prometheus</b></i><br />
    2012 prequel to the classic <i>Alien</i> franchise<br />
    <i>Dark City</i><br />
    Bizarre 1998 sci-fi 'film noir' homage or something<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i><b>Cowboys and Aliens</b></i><br />
    2011 western adventure<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i><b>Men in Black 3</b></i><br />
    2012 addition to the franchise<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i>The Amazing Spider-Man</i><br />
    2012 reboot<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i><b>Brave</b></i><br />
    2012 Pixar film<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i>The Lost Boys</i><br />
    1987 teen horror film<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i>Iron Man</i> (II?)<br />
    2008 superhero film<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i>American Psycho</i> (II)<br />
    2000 psychological thriller<br />
<font color="gold">★★ </font> <i>Batman Begins</i> (III?)<br />
    2005 first part of Christopher Nolan's trilogy<br />
<font color="gold">★★ </font> <i>The Dark Knight</i> (II?)<br />
    2008 second part of Christopher Nolan's trilogy<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i><b>The Dark Knight Rises</b></i><br />
    2012 final part of Christopher Nolan's trilogy<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i>360</i><br />
    2011 drama starring Hopkins, Weisz and Law<br />
★★  <i><b>Blade Runner</b></i><br />
    1982 sci-fi classic<br />
<font color="gold">★★ </font> <i><b>The Avengers</b></i><br />
    2012 superhero film<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i>The Secret of Kells</i><br />
    2009 animation<br />
<font color="gold">★★ </font> <i><b>My Neighbour Totoro</b></i><br />
    1988 Hayao Miyazaki film<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i>Stand By Me</i><br />
    1986 coming-of-age film, starring Wil Wheaton<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i>The Grey</i><br />
    2012 Liam Neeson survival drama<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i>Bridge to Terabithia</i> (II)<br />
    2007 children's fantasy-ish drama<br />
<font color="gold">★★ </font> <i>Sherlock Holmes</i> (II)<br />
    2009 film starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law<br />
<font color="gold">★★ </font> <i><b>The Thing</b></i><br />
    1982 horror film<br />
★   <i>The Thing</i><br />
    2011 prequel to the 1982 film<br />
<font color="gold">★★ </font> <i><b>Road to Perdition</b></i><br />
    2002 gangster film starring Tom Hanks<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i><b>Brokeback Mountain</b></i><br />
    2005 romantic drama<br />
<font color="gold">★★ </font> <i>Casino Royale</i> (IV?)<br />
    2006 Bond film, the first of the Daniel Craig reboot<br />
<font color="gold">★★ </font> <i>Quantum of Solace</i> (II)<br />
    2008 Bond film, the second of the Daniel Craig reboot<br />
<font color="gold">★★ </font> <i><b>The Fly</b></i> (II)<br />
    1986 sci-fi horror film, starring Jeff Goldblum<br />
    <i><b>Skyfall</b></i><br />
    2012 Bond film<br />
<font color="gold">★★ </font> <i><b>Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind</b></i><br />
    1984 Hayao Miyazaki film<br />
<font color="gold">★★ </font> <i><b>Laputa: Castle in the Sky</b></i><br />
    1986 Hayao Miyazaki film<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i><b>Porco Rosso</b></i><br />
    1992 Hayao Miyazaki film<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i><b>Kiki's Delivery Service</b></i><br />
    1989 Hayao Miyazaki film<br />
<font color="gold">★★ </font> <i><b>Princess Mononoke</b></i> (II)<br />
    1997 Hayao Miyazaki film<br />
    <i><b>Spirited Away</b></i> (II)<br />
    2001 Hayao Miyazaki film<br />
<font color="gold">★★★</font> <i>Road to Perdition</i> (II)<br />
    2002 gangster film starring Tom Hanks<br />
<font color="gold">★★ </font> <i><b>Howl's Moving Castle</b></i> (II)<br />
    2004 Hayao Miyazaki film<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i><b>Ponyo</b></i><br />
    2008 Hayao Miyazaki film<br />
<font color="gold">★★ </font> <i>The Two Towers</i> (II or III)<br />
    2002 Peter Jackson adaptation of the book<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i><b>Hook</b></i> (many)<br />
    1991 children's film<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i><b>The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey</b></i><br />
    2012, first part of Peter Jackson's adaptation of the book<br />
<font color="gold">★★ </font> <i>The Return of the King</i> (II)<br />
    2003 Peter Jackson adaptation of the book<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i>Life of Pi</i><br />
    2012 adaptation of the 2001 adventure book<br />
<font color="gold">★  </font> <i>27 Dresses</i><br />
    2008 romcom<br />
<br />
Bring on 2013!Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058545605608198274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684947744137573659.post-80178296779788625312012-12-28T17:26:00.003+00:002012-12-28T17:26:58.292+00:00Science is a processScience is a process, not the accumulated knowledge we have thus far.<br />
<br />
It's like building a map - the map might change over time and mistakes might even be made that later get retracted and altered, and there might be disagreements about some regions of the map, but that doesn't alter the fact that the territory exists and that, in fact, we have managed to map out much of it and that there is a process by which it makes sense to continue to do so (the scientific method). We are building a map of reality, our universe, Nature, what is true and what is not. There's no a priori reason to believe this territory actually exists, but it definitely seems to, and we've had great success with our map-making so far (see literally all technology).<br />
<br />
Saying science is about making up theories at random (something I heard honestly asserted by a fellow trainee teacher this year), or pointing out how scientists now believe different things (have a different map) than scientists in the past as if that invalidates the whole thing, is a misunderstanding of this fact. Science is the answer to the question 'how do we build a conceptual map of reality'? Or, in simpler terms, how do we find out about the world.Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058545605608198274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684947744137573659.post-56848589866653928552012-08-28T00:49:00.000+01:002012-08-28T00:53:00.301+01:00Tribute to Neil ArmstrongIn 2009 my crazyawesome family threw a party to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing (complete with replica lunar landing module/obstacle course). Since Neil Armstrong has died this week, at the age of 82, my brother Darren has edited some of the footage from the party as a tribute to Neil Armstrong.<br />
<br />
The Olympics <i>were</i> good, I admit it, but we've been to the <i>goddamn moon</i>, people.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/BzyjgQRrxjc?fs=1" width="480"></iframe><br />
<br />
And, because I can, an excerpt from <a href="http://hpmor.com/">a certain Harry Potter fanfiction</a> which proves beyond all reasonable doubt that Science is more magical than Magic:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>And Harry raced back up the stairs and shoved the staircase back into the trunk with his heel, and, panting, turned the pages of the book until he found the picture he wanted to show to Draco.<br />
<br />
The one with the white, dry, cratered land, and the suited people, and the blue-white globe hanging over it all.<br />
<br />
That picture.<br />
<br />
<i>The</i> picture, if only one picture in all the world were to survive.<br />
<br />
"<i>That</i>," Harry said, his voice trembling because he couldn't quite keep the pride out, "is what the Earth looks like from the Moon."<br />
<br />
Draco slowly leaned over. There was a strange expression on his young face. "If that's a <i>real</i> picture, why isn't it moving?"<br />
<br />
<i>Moving?</i> Oh. "Muggles can do moving pictures but they need a bigger box to show it, they can't fit them onto single book pages yet."<br />
<br />
Draco's finger moved to one of the suits. "What are those?" His voice starting to waver.<br />
<br />
"Those are human beings. They are wearing suits that cover their whole bodies to give them air, because there is no air on the Moon."<br />
<br />
"That's impossible," Draco whispered. There was terror in his eyes, and utter confusion. "No Muggle could ever do that. <i>How...</i>"<br />
<br />
Harry took back the book, flipped the pages until he found what he saw. "This is a rocket going up. The fire pushes it higher and higher, until it gets to the Moon." Flipped pages again. "This is a rocket on the ground. That tiny speck next to it is a person." Draco gasped. "Going to the Moon cost the equivalent of... probably around a thousand million Galleons." Draco choked. "And it took the efforts of... probably more people than live in all of magical Britain."</blockquote><br />
<a href="http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/1/Harry_Potter_and_the_Methods_of_Rationality">Read it</a>, go on, just the first few chapters...Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058545605608198274noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684947744137573659.post-82420831976074886662012-08-16T12:13:00.001+01:002014-02-22T20:48:21.041+00:00"Welcome to science"A beautiful tribute to science.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://zenpencils.com/comic/52-phil-plait-welcome-to-science/">Source</a><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://zenpencils.com/comics/2012-06-05-philplait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" width="450" src="http://zenpencils.com/comics/2012-06-05-philplait.jpg" /></a></div>Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058545605608198274noreply@blogger.com0