Children having their teeth checked at school.

by Dan Moeller

I set up an appointment with one of the local dentists on my small island. I am a sucker for adventure, but this journey was just another biannual checkup. I slipped on a pair of maroon indoor slippers and shuffled in. After offering up my national health insurance card, I asked for a little help on the “new customer” form. The receptionist was more than glad to help. I sat down on one of the waiting room benches and perused the reading material: a half-sized bookcase that was almost entirely manga.

After a little while, I was called into the main room, which was shared by two dentist chairs the rusty yellow color of antique furniture you might find at a low-budget beach house.  Behind the seats were the reception area and a back area with the x-ray room and what I assumed to be the dentist’s office. A radio was blasting one of the two tunable stations on the island. You might have guessed easy listening in a medical office, but it was loud J-pop coursing through the air. To my right, there was a tray of picks and tools so various and neat that it would have delighted one of the lunatics from “Hostel.” I guess America generally thinks that tools should be stored out of view unless needed.

The dentist (along with every other Japanese professional I’ve met with overseas experience) seemed delighted to dig into his rusty English arsenal to hash together strange and entertaining conversation. He talked about removing the “stains” from my teeth and that I would be “easy” during the whole process. Nice. It was the same strangely homey feeling I often get from interactions with helpful Japanese people speaking Japanese (which I may or may not understand). He explained that this visit would only be the top row of teeth and the next visit my bottom row. I’m guessing the previous ALTs had sharpened his explanation skills on the subject.

He showed me into the x-ray room and, even though he didn’t offer one of the lead vests that make me feel comfortable about my organs’ welfare, the x-ray only took 30 seconds. There was none of that “here-bite-on-this-uncomfortable-plastic-slide-sheet-while-I-leave-the-room-and-flip-a-switch” or “oh-didn’t-I-mention-there-will-be-six-or-seven-of-these-depending-on-if-you-stayed-still-through-the-pain.” He showed me the panoramic slide of my teeth and made sure to point out the “stains.” I was rather embarrassed I hadn’t brushed after lunch that day.

How clean are YOUR teeth?

As the assistant clipped on my dental bib, the dentist averted my attention to my top row in the x-ray. As it turns out, I am of a select few that has no back molars on the top row. Why am I just hearing this now? I have regularly been to the dentist since I was a kid and the dentist here in Japan is the first to have caught this? Moving on.

Now, I am not one of the scared-stiff breed that fear the dentist, but I do loathe the nagging about flossing, and hearing that if I’m not careful my gums will recede and my teeth will fall out. If your home country dentist forgot to mention the sin of negligence, then the grisly posters that line the walls serve as faithful reminders. As a kid, I was convinced for years I had one of the poster-diseases because my gums would bleed when I brushed them too hard.

The bib I wore served as a guard for any water that might have spattered on my shirt. In a strange contrast, American dentists smear the bib with your own blood and plaque as a sign of either (A) how much they accomplished, or (B) how incompetent you are at cleaning your own teeth. As the dentist shined the rays of God into my unprotected eyes I was once again reminded of how inevitably awkward interactions become when there’s a vacuum tube, a pick, and the dentist’s fingers in your mouth.

Overall, the Japanese dentist didn’t hurt nearly as much. (Is that a good thing?) Visits to my American dentist usually include him finding a little crevice in a tooth with that sharp hook instrument, digging it in, and pulling too hard for too long. Then he meanders off to some other innocent tooth as if it had all been a chance encounter. Also, the Japanese tooth polish was nothing comparable to the unpleasant, gritty mint polish they slather on your teeth in America, which inevitably coats your mouth and some of your throat. I’m realizing that having my teeth cleaned is like getting a tattoo.

A “dental explorer,” found in every dentist’s arsenal.

It’s time to rinse and spit. In the U.S. I’m used to rinsing with a small plastic cup of water dispensed from a small faucet. You can imagine my surprise when I was provided with basically a mini public drinking fountain. I could see various colors of dirt coating the drain and around the faucet nozzle. In general, I would say the medical community in Japan is a bit minimalistic in terms of health precautions. Just off the top of my head, I remember spotting bloody tubes carelessly dangling from an unmarked trashcan in my local doctor’s office.

After my top row was finished, I sat up and chatted a bit more with the dentist. Maybe as a foreigner I was granted a few liberties, but I’m guessing he was rather busy. I asked why this cleaning has to be broken into two visits. I found a lot of research saying Japanese doctors don’t make a lot of money. In America, besides payment for each procedure, dentists make money from referrals, overcharging insurance companies, and, well, generally most things concerning the monopolies of our corrupt medical industry (including but not limited to brand name drugs). This is not to mention their general salary which depends on whether they are private or public.

The Japanese don’t make a killing like they do in the States. The industry is highly regulated. Surcharges don’t fluctuate or rise. The costs are low, especially when we’re talking about the longer and more painful procedures. This is rumored to be one of the reasons why visits are broken up into various sessions. More visits means more co-pays, and more co-pays means more money.

My dentist assured me this was not the case. This is what I understood from his broken English and my broken Japanese: there is a dental insurance guideline in Japan stating that a patient’s routine visit must be broken into two separate visits. Doctors sometimes disregard this rule but they are punished if they are caught. This could mean a slap on the wrist, a fine, or worse. Why does this rule exist? He had no idea and neither do I.

I’ve heard some horror stories about Japanese dentists and I’m sure some of you have heard your share as well. Some stories are about the Japanese tendency to avoid heavier sedatives even for surgeries. Scary. Also, I’m pretty sure Japan bans the use of fluoride in toothpaste as it may be detrimental to your health. This may or may not be the reason half of the adults living in my neighborhood have either a gold tooth, a strange wire construction around their teeth, or missing teeth altogether. (Maybe it’s just genetics.)

As for my check-up and cleaning, I would say it was a rather pleasant experience. The first visit was 2,630 yen, including the x-ray. The second visit was 1,060 yen. These prices reflect the 30 percent I pay, whereas the health insurance covers the other 70 percent. As I slid the money through the window to the receptionist I decided I was looking forward to next year’s visit. (Isn’t it supposed to be every 6 months?) The receptionist said “Odaijini” and bowed on my way out. I’m guessing this “take care of yourself” or “take care of your teeth” could roughly be translated to, “Don’t forget to brush!”

All photos used with permission from Wikimedia Commons.

By Greg Beck

Last week I went into an isolation tank for an hour. This week, I went again.

What is an isolation tank?

Isolation tanks were invented by John Lilly, an American scientist who experimented heavily in the 1960s with altered states of mind. What he came up with in his quest to isolate the mind from the body, is a light-proof, sound-proof tank with about eight inches of water made super-buoyant by magnesium salt. Both the water and the air inside the tank are kept at around 93 degrees Fahrenheit (the same temperature as your skin) and you float in this empty, weightless, silent darkness, alone with only your mind and the thought “How long is an hour, really?”

I first heard about isolation tanks over a year ago from stand-up comedian and UFC commentator Joe Rogan on his blog. Apparently he is such a fan of them that not only did he get one for his home, but when he moved to a new house, he bought a newer, updated version and gave his old one away in a contest so that others could enjoy it. Since that time, I have continued to read his blogs and watch his podcasts, and every time the subject came up I got more and more interested. He described it as being similar to doing hallucinogens, but without any drugs, side-effects, or hang-overs; a silent time for self-reflection and insight. Recently, he mentioned being able to search online for places all over the world where you could pay to use an isolation tank. As soon as I heard that I hit up Google and, sure enough, found one in Tokyo.

This was only four days before I was going to go to Tokyo to meet the new ALTs coming for Group A’s Tokyo Orientation, and after dreaming of trying it out price was no object. I just hoped I could get an appointment. Kazuo Miyabe, the owner the isolation tank, operates a very stylish website with more info and the option of making online reservations: http://www.eccoproject.com/ (Japanese language only). When I made a reservation he got back to me immediately and told me that my first choice for an appointment time was fine. Awesome.

So, three days later I was walking through Shirokane-Takanawa, near Meguro in Tokyo, looking for the tiny back street to his first floor apartment, which he has converted into his “office.” From the outside, it looks like your average, aging Japanese apartment. Inside, though, as you walk through the kitchen and into the waiting room, you soon start to notice that this is no one’s living space.

A mini-shrine on a shelf near the ceiling in the waiting room.

Kazuo is a very relaxed guy who gives off the vibe of a spiritual guru. He spoke to me in Japanese the entire time, but mentioned that in his nine years of doing this he has also had many foreigners visit and has no problem communicating in English. As it was my first time, he gave me a verbal tutorial about what to expect, possible anxiety I might experience, and how to get over it and get back in the tank. The most interesting part of his talk was how some peoples’ bodies will try to play tricks on them. The feeling of letting go you get from being inside the tank, while ultimately relaxing and amazing, can also be unnerving to some, he said. Their minds try to blame their anxiety on the tank, convince them it is broken, and that they should get out. The reason for this, apparently, comes from being conditioned from the time we are small, that everything in life is external, from our problems to our means of finding happiness. So, when we are put in an environment that isolates us from the external, our mind feels exposed and unable to project its problems elsewhere.

This all sounded very serious and heavy, and even someone like me, who thrives on new experiences and taking myself out of my comfort zone, started to wonder if I would experience any of these problems. I did not. In fact, walking back to the Metro line from Kazuo’s place, I wondered if I hadn’t wasted my first hour being caught up in the novelty of such a uniquely new state of being. I will get back to what happened chronologically in a moment, but I want to say first that I had so much fun my first time, from the moment I stepped in to showering off afterward, that the level of elation was euphoric. I felt so free and uninhibited. Looking at my picture of the tank, I’m sure some of you would think of claustrophobia, but it is exactly the opposite. Once you close the door to the tank, you instantly lose any and all perception of direction and boundaries.

So, tutorial over, Kazuo took me into the room with the isolation tank for the first time. He had many Shinto bells and paraphernalia, towels laid out ready on the tank, a toilet, and a shower. He showed me how the air and water temperature inside the tank were monitored and maintained, and explained that speakers inside the tank would play music when my hour was up. He showed me the inside of the tank, how to open and close it, and then, most surprisingly, he started to discuss Shinto. Paraphrasing (and translating), he said “I want you to think of the inside of this tank like a shrine. Shinto shrines are a place to reflect on yourself and are purified with what? Salt and water. This is no different. It is a place for meditation and to remove yourself from ego.” He asked that before I got in the tank I used the toilet and showered off any sweat, smells, gel, and anything else that might distract me from the experience. He also asked that I draw an “X” across the four corners of the entrance into the tank to “seal” it. Finally, before any of that, he asked me to face a corner where I would listen to him use Shinto and Buddhist bells in order to align my brainwaves with a more meditative level. The whole thing felt like a religious ceremony, but it was brief and pleasant.

Bells and items used in preparation for entering the isolation tank.

After that, he left the room and I did the other things I was instructed to do before sliding into the tank and floating toward infinity. Inside the tank, I tried many different poses, trying to figure out which was the most comfortable. Ultimately, lying back with my fingers laced behind my head was the easiest to sustain for long periods, but even when I tried to stretch out I was happy to find I had plenty of room to do so. Every so often my elbow, toe, or head would bump up against the wall and with the most delicate of nudges, I would float away. Indeed, the first sensation I had was floating down a calm river, despite the fact that I was hardly moving at all. Even my second time in the tank, when I was much more calm and relaxed, I couldn’t help but marvel at the fact that after closing my eyes, then opening them, it still “looked” like my eyes were closed. And those patterns of faint light you sometimes see when you press your hands over your eyes continue with them wide open.

Since having both experiences I have talked to many people about how wonderful it was, and I wrote this because most people seemed genuinely interested in knowing more about it. Most people want to know how it feels, but that is of course the hardest thing to put into words. I have described it as having just your mind, floating in a starless space, but that is not accurate because your body is still there, under your control. Actually, one of the most interesting parts of the experience is hearing your breath and heartbeat from inside your own body. Most recently, I told a friend that it’s like instantly falling asleep, but staying lucid the whole time. When the hour is up, as promised, some gentle bells thumped out a melody which got progressively louder to wake you in case you were asleep.

Best of all, I never felt bored or tired at any point, either time. I get bored easily, too. I fall asleep on massage chairs, buses, trains, cars, boats, whatever. This situation is so unique, and liberating, though, that I think you would have to be immensely exhausted, either physically or mentally, in order to fall asleep. And if that is the case, then sleep is what you need. For me, though, both my first and second hour went by smoothly and felt like some of the wisest investments I had ever made with my time.

After showering the salty water off and helping myself to Kazuo’s awesome citrus body wash and herbal shampoo and conditioner, I got dressed and joined him back in the waiting room for some cold mugi-cha and to discuss the experience and talk about life in general. He also took me to the second floor of his apartment to try his Merkaba. Essentially, the Merkaba was a water bed and a strobe light, combined with relaxing sounds and some scented oils or something. I basically fell asleep soon after lying down and then woke up just before the half-hour ended and the music (actually, sounds from the Amazon rain forest) stopped. I went back downstairs and Kazuo was talking with two other customers. One got in the tank and the other stayed to chat. He told me he had been coming for awhile and that day was about his 100th time in the tank. They said the older gentleman who had already gone to shower was a regular and came in almost every day!

With the tank all the way up in Tokyo I won’t have many chances to get there, but Kazuo also mentioned helping a psychiatric clinic a short walk from Okayama Station in Okayama City, set up a newer, but slightly different tank, and that it is available to the public on Saturdays. The name of the place is Hikari Clinic, and because he helped set up the tank, you can receive a member’s discount there as well. This is great news, because membership is 10,000 yen. That may sound pricey, but after becoming a member, an hour in the isolation tank is only 4,200 yen. And both, I firmly believe, are wise investments.

Just as important as my experience in the isolation tank was how I felt when I got out. I felt lighter, happier, and generally more carefree. I didn’t feel like I learned any one profound thing about life during either time that I could share with you. For me personally, I focused more on letting go and taking whatever came to me with open arms. Afterward, I felt more positive and, in fact, I still do. I can’t wait for another hour in the tank, and I doubt three times will be “enough” either.

Are you an iPhone owner? And a learner of Japanese? Then this one’s for you. Harvey over at JapanNewbie has created some new iPhone Apps that he believes will be useful to help Japanese learners study Japanese numbers and particles.

Introducing two recently updated iPhone Apps to help you in your Japanese studies, Japanese 101: Numbers and Japanese 101: Particles.

Has this ever happened to you? You’re at a store in Japan having just made a big purchase. You managed to talk to the staff all in Japanese and are feeling pretty proud of yourself. The cashier rings it up and says, “yon man sanzen gojyuu ichi en ni narimasu!” in that rapid speech that only comes with years of repeating prices from behind the register. You sheepishly peek around to get a look at the display, because embarrassingly, you couldn’t quite catch the number that she said. Listening comprehension fail!

We’ve all been in this situation at one time or another. Numbers are tough in foreign languages. Big numbers are tougher. And in Japan, big numbers come up all the time!

Since 1,000 yen is the equivalent of just about 10 U.S. dollars, any big purchase or discussion about prices will quickly have you dealing with numbers beyond 100,000. The fact that number groupings in Japanese are different from English makes things extra tricky as well. For all of these reasons, accurate listening comprehension of large numbers often comes relatively late for Japanese learners.

Japanese 101: Numbers is built to train your listening comprehension muscles by challenging you to listen to and identify a large number spoken by a native Japanese speaker. There are two test modes available. In one mode you simply have to identify the number in a multiple choice quiz format. In the more difficult fill-in-the-blank quiz mode you have to actually type in the number that was said.

You can also browse the study cards to study a large range of numbers, currently spanning 1 to beyond 16,000. Future updates will continue to expand the range, including numbers beyond 1,000,000. Every audio file is recorded by a native speaker. You won’t find any robot-generated speech here. Check out Japanese 101: Numbers if you want to pump up your listening comprehension skills for big numbers.

The Japanese 101: Particles App is similar in structure to the Numbers App.

However, this time instead of identifying numbers you are challenged to listen to a sentence read in Japanese without the particle, and then identify the particle that should have been in the gap. The app has a fill-in-the-blank study mode where you must type in the missing particle using hiragana, and a more simple multiple choice mode.

This is sort of like hearing…. “I went __ the store and ate __ apple.” Without the “to” and “an” the sentence is understandable, but obviously incorrect and wrong. Messing up Particles in Japanese will have you sounding like that to Japanese people. Particles often give students of Japanese trouble at first, but frequent practice and lots of listening will eventually make the particles second nature.

The questions in the Particles App are modeled after those that appear in the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) levels N5 and N4 (previously JLPT 4 and 3). Appropriate kanji are used in the questions, and in the Study Mode you can touch to flip the card over and see the romaji, so even beginners shouldn’t shy away from this app.

Like in Numbers, the focus of Japanese 101: Particles is on listening comprehension, so you’ll hear a native speaker read each of the 160+ sentences included in the application. With enough use you’ll eventually be able to naturally “feel” what particle is missing from each sentence.

These are both solid applications that drill very specific aspects of Japanese. The thing that sets these apps apart from all of the other apps out there is the huge amount of native audio. If you like the other apps in the Japanese 101 series, you’re sure to enjoy these as well!

Enjoy!

— Harvey

Related Links:

Particles App reviewed by Yonasu.com.

There are a surprisingly large number of applications for studying Japanese to be found in the App Store, and you can find applications suitable for all occasions and ability levels, from on-the-go cramming on the train or bus to several-hour study sessions at your local café. It would be a daunting task to cover all the Japanese study applications found in the App Store, but having tried a good number of them, I’ve compiled a list of my favorites. The following apps were all downloaded from the U.S. iTunes Store and paid for in U.S. dollars.

Japanese – $17.99, by codefromtokyo

If you buy only one application for Japanese study, buy this. The Japanese app virtually eliminates the need to carry around your electronic dictionary. At $17.99, it is the most expensive app on the list, but it is by far the best. Frequently updated, this Japanese-English/English-Japanese dictionary provides an extensive list of features. Included are plenty of example sentences, full conjugation charts, and a jump function activated by simply touching any word in an example sentence. These are just a few of the useful features available when looking up words. Japanese also allows you to make several of your own vocabulary lists, complete with notes and color-coded labels and allows you to study these words via a spaced repetition flash card program. In addition to the standard word look-up system, Japanese allows users to look up words based on classification topics such as sports, economics, or literature, as well as lexical categories such as nouns, verbs, onomatopoeia, and counters. I cannot recommend this application highly enough.

Cheaper alternative: Kotoba! – free, by Pierre-Phi di Costanzo

While not as feature-rich as Japanese, Kotoba! is more than competent as an offline Japanese-English/English-Japanese dictionary. Considering that it’s free, this application is perfect for those who are not in need of the bells and whistles found in the Japanese application.

iKanji Touch – $9.99, by ThinkMac Software

Another heavy-hitting study application, iKanji Touch is a fantastic flash card based kanji study application overflowing with useful features. All of the kanji are broken down into either JLPT or grade school levels, and are then further broken down into sets of 20. Browsing the kanji flash cards, which include readings, meaning, and radicals for over 2,000 kanji, is as simple as swiping your finger, while tapping the flash card will flip it over and show you the proper stroke order. Tapping the bottom of each card will bring up a list of vocabulary words and compounds that incorporate that particular kanji. An extensive testing system is also in place to help users actually learn new kanji rather than simply review them. The test system covers kanji meanings, readings, compounds, and stroke order. This is as close to having a comprehensive kanji workbook on your iPhone or iPod Touch as you’re going to get. Also try: ShinKanji – $5.99, by Benoit Cerrina.

KanjiBox – $2.99, by Unknown Genius Software

Recently updated to add the quiz modes found on the popular Facebook version, KanjiBox is perfect for kanji and vocabulary review in short bursts. You can choose from five levels of difficulty ranging from JLPT levels 1 through 4, as well as a more difficult “sensei” mode. For those not familiar with the Facebook version, the functionality is simple; it is a multiple choice quiz game where you will be presented with either a kanji or a vocabulary word and you must tap the correct answer. That’s it. KanjiBox is extremely simple yet highly addicting. The application will remember which words you consistently answer correctly and which words you tend to miss. Missed words will appear more frequently until they are learned. Also try: Kanji Flip & Japanese Flip – $5.99 each, by Proffitt Ink.

KanjiPop – $1.99, by Lima Sky

Another time-waster, KanjiPop is a time-based game where you are given the on-yomi, kun-yomi, and English meaning (which can be turned off) of a kanji, and you must tap the corresponding kanji character from a box of 16 possible answers before time runs out. This application is not ideal for learning kanji, but it is a fun way to review them. There are 127 levels of increasing difficulty, and you must complete a level in order to advance to the next. There is one drawback to this application in that you cannot choose which level you would like to play from the title screen. In order to play previously completed levels you must first “fail” a level and then select which level you would like to attempt from the “game over” screen. When you restart the application, you will be brought back to the highest previously completed level.

By Greenose Zazaki
Guest Contributor

I am a Hong Kong Chinese who loves to travel to Japan a lot. Even though my wife is a native Japanese, and I have learnt Japanese for years, when I’m traveling alone there are times when I find it difficult to communicate with the local Japanese people.

It is well known that Japanese mostly don’t speak English. In fact, many feel nervous when you try to talk to them in English. With my still rudimentary Japanese (four years of study has only taken me so far), I thought that I could get by speaking Japanese about tourist-related topics. But the difficulty started when they heard me speaking in Japanese, and they assumed that I would be able to understand conversational Japanese well enough. What usually followed was a stream of Japanese responses, likely in the polite form, which is difficult and mostly an unknown territory to me.

Now that I have an iPhone, however, besides using it as a “phone” for roaming in Japan, I actually have a pocket-size computer that I can download tons of apps for. There are several useful apps that I have downloaded and used that I would like to introduce here, as well as another app that I wrote myself after observing the shortcomings of these apps.

Kotoba!

(Free App)

The straight forward choice is to download a Japanese Dictionary app to my iPhone. There are plenty and many are free. I have been using “Kotoba!”  for a while now. It’s free, and it’s based on the JMDict Project. The download is hefty (123 MB), so you may want to connect to WiFi when downloading. Besides English to Japanese, and Japanese to English, it also supports French, German and Russian (activated by going into the Settings). Search is fast and it comes with examples. The nice touch is that all result text can be copied to the clipboard for further usage, such as Google searches or emailing. The biggest drawback is that it doesn’t have any voice features.

Talking Japanese Phrasebook

(US $0.99)

But a Japanese dictionary won’t offer enough help if you want to express yourself during your travels. A phrasebook app will come in handy, especially when you’re doing a specific activity and you’re hunting for a specific sentence to say (like asking for directions). Talking Japanese Phrasebook is an inexpensive choice with an easy-to-use interface. Dialogues are divided into categories like accommodation, food and drink, shopping etc., and are narrated by a pre-recorded voice in Japanese. The main shortcoming of this app is that dialogues are a bit limited and Westerner biased (for example, there are only three entries for Japanese Food Dialogues, for sushi, Kobe beef and sake).

Yubisashi Japan – The Original Point-and-Speak (English Edition)

(U.S. $2.99)

The Yubisashi series offers well-known travel handbooks in Japan that show dialogues in bubbles with cute illustrations, which is pretty handy for the purposes of pointing and speaking. The design is clean and it’s usually easy to hunt for the sentence or words to say. This iPhone app is a faithful migration of the book contents, with one strong function: now the dialogues are spoken for you by a synthesized Japanese voice.

The trade-off for faithful migration is that a full page doesn’t fit quite well on the small iPhone screen. Zooming and scrolling is a bit cumbersome, especially when you are in the street with people waiting to see what you want to say.

“Decent” Japanese Travelling Communicator

(Limited time sale: US$4.99 -> US$3.99)

There are several drawbacks on the Japanese phrase book apps: Dialogues are not customizable (e.g. you can’t ask for the directions to a place directly), the dialogue selections are Westerner oriented and inappropriate to use sometimes (e.g. you shouldn’t ask for a cheaper price in a shop or ask for the bill in most restaurants). But the biggest problem is that you can’t easily understand the response from the locals even though you manage to say what you want to say!

With the objective to solve these limitations in mind, I have written my own iPhone app called “Decent” Japanese Travelling Communicator. Conversations in the app are categorized into places like train, traditional Japanese

hotel, ramen shop, etc. Within each place, the possible dialogues and the corresponding responses are listed with recorded voice narration (done by my Japanese wife). Some dialogues contain blanks for customization purpose, where the user can sketch the words (e.g. name of place, product, etc.) on the interactive notepad. The interactive notepad can also serve as a place for sketching their answers, too. Culture-related reminders that foreigners may worth noting are included for each situation. The app is also fully illustrated by me (I am also a moonlighting children book illustrator!).

I hope that you will enjoy traveling around Japan more easily with these handy apps!

Greenose Zazaki is a childrens book illustrator/author, a university lecturer of multimedia and interactive design, and a husband in a Chinese and Japanese multicultural family. Formerly a software developer in the Bay Area, United States, he now resides in Hong Kong but travels to Japan frequently. He is the author of the iPhone app: “Decent” Japanese Travelling Communicator. His Chinese illustrated blog can be found at http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/fu-fu.

By Joshua Zimmerman

Disclaimer:  You can in fact get in trouble for downloading movies, music, and TV shows you do not own. While you have a better chance of being struck by lightning while being bitten by a shark, there is still a chance that you might get in trouble. If you do, its not my fault.

If I was back in the United States I’d be watching the season premiere of Lost right now. But I’m not. I’m here in Japan, which means I’ll either have to wait two years for the DVDs to come to my local Japanese video store, or find a digital solution to the problem.

The Very Legal Way

You can in fact watch a show very legally for a very low price. It’s call the iTunes store. Use a credit card and sign up, then buy your TV shows at a couple of dollars a pop. Legal and easy. Plus, as a bonus you can just pop those movies or TV shows over to your iPod or iPhone, no hassle whatsoever.

The Semi Legal Way

There are several ways to somewhat legally watch your favorite TV shows on the Web, such as with Hulu.com. Hulu lets you stream (watch in your Web browser) TV shows and movies. The only problem is that it doesn’t work outside of North America. But there are some ways to get around it if you’re smart.

What you have to do is fool Hulu into thinking your computer lives in North America. This can be done several ways. Programs like Hotspot Shield or Ultrasurf create a VPN (Virtual Private Network) that replaces your normal IP address with one that’s from North America.

If you’re using the browser Firefox, you can download any number of free proxy plugins/filters that make you appear to be in North America (though this rarely works for me). This usually requires some techie know-how, and also requires constantly looking around the Web for proxies to use.

If you’re lucky, some of your favorite TV shows might be available for streaming within Japan. Websites such as The Daily Show and South Park work fine in Japan at the moment (though as I recently found out, South Park does not work in New Zealand or Australia).

The Not Really Legal Way

Streaming doesn’t have to be done through “official” websites.  There are plenty of websites out there that stream new media to anyone who wants it.

One example is the website Sidereel. It’s well organized, includes links to both legal and not-so-legal streaming, and is always being updated. Sidereel doesn’t actually stream anything to you. It’s more a directory of other random semi-sites that do stream stuff.

If Sidereel isn’t your bag, you can always try SurfTheChannel, which has more or less the same setup as Sidereel.

While this approach works well for new content, older content often disappears. So while this might be a great way to watch last week’s Lost, it’s not a reliable way for you to watch all of Season 1.

The Most Certainly Not Legal Way

So if all else fails, or if you hate dealing with streaming sites, you can always turn to downloading content. To do this you need to use a process called Bittorrent.

(And if for some reason you still have Limewire or Kazaa on your computer, please please please delete them. We’re no longer in the 90s, so why are you using 90s software?)

BitTorrent is a process by which you download stuff. In a nutshell, instead of you downloading a file 100 percent directly from me, you download small bits of the file from many people while at the same time uploading to other people.  It’s a “share as you go” system. Thus download speeds are much faster than traditional methods because everyone shares the burden.

To use BitTorrent, you’ll need to download a BitTorrent client program.  There are hundreds of BitTorrent programs and they all do the same thing. Why not try the official BitTorrent client for a starter? Or if you have a Mac, give the program Transmission a try.

Next you’ll have to find a BitTorrent indexing site, a place that lists what you can download. Here are a few you might enjoy, though there are thousands of such sites all over the Web.

• EzTV (Great for TV shows)
• ISOHunt
• Demonoid
• ThePirateBay

Now you’ll have to find  something to download. Go to one of the above sites and find a file of any type (such as this very legal set of desktop pictures). Then find a link that says “Download the Torrent.” What this will do is download a very small file that ends in “.torrent”.

Open this with your BitTorrent program and wait (you probably can just drag it into the program window). You’ll see something like this, though depending on what program you use it could have a different overall look.

See, that wasn’t so tough now, was it? Just keep in mind that the speed at which you’re downloading a file depends on how many other people are downloading a file. Thus the new season of Lost might go very fast, whereas old episodes of Knight Rider will probably be slow. (Not that we’d do something so illegal.)

Here are a couple key words you should know and keep an eye out for before downloading something via BitTorrent:

Seeder – Someone who has the entire file you’re after.

Leecher – Someone who has part of the file you’re after.

The key to downloading something via Bittorrent is to find files that have a lot of Seeders. Stay away from files (if you can) that have one Seeder and 10,000 Leechers. In these cases you have 10,000 people all trying to get the same one file from the same one person. The more Seeders uploading your file, the faster you’ll get it (probably). This is very important when, say, you’re downloading 4 gigabytes worth of old seasons of Lost. Not that we’d do that, but in theory, you totally can.

If you’re having trouble playing a video file you’ve “gotten” off the Web, why not try the very free program VLC? It works for Windows and Mac.

Now if you want to convert any files you download so that they’ll work with your iPod or iPhone, one free program you can try is Handbrake, which works for Windows and Mac. It will convert nearly any video file into any other kind of video file, with presets for iPods and iPhone. Just convert, throw the new video file into iTunes, and then move it to your iPod or iPhone. Easy.

To Wrap Thing Up…

There are many legal and illegal ways of keeping yourself up to date with movies and TV shows. If you really like a TV show, PLEASE attempt to watch it legally, whether it’s through Hulu or by buying it on iTunes. Every time you buy a show, you’re “voting” for it with your money and telling the networks to keep it on the air and help ensure that the show will continue to be made in the future.

By Joshua Zimmerman

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, or have a social life with real people, you’ve probably heard about Apple’s crazy new product: the iPad. What is the iPad, you ask? It’s a 9.7-inch touch-screen tablet that lets you watch movies, listen to music, surf the Web, and read books. While all those other things are all nice and dandy, for those of us studying Japanese it may also turn into an amazing study tool. Those things are all nice and dandy, but what’s really exciting about the iPad is its potential to become an amazing study tool for those of us learning Japanese.

Here is how I see it. If you’re a hard-core learner of Japanese, you’ve probably got a bag full of study materials that you haul around everywhere you go. There’s your Japanese language grammar book, your kanji book, your electric dictionary, the Japanese children’s book you’re trying to read, your study notebook and journal, flash cards and note cards, and if you’re lucky also an iPod filled with J-pop music and maybe a Japanese movie you’re trying to get through. Now imagine you can replace all those things with an iPad. It’s not such a stretch.

Image from tofugu.com

First and foremost, Apple is trying to sell people on using the iPad as an eReader. Meaning you can download books from their store (just as you can download music from the iTunes store) and you read them on the go. Instead of carrying around four or five books you now just carry around a 1.5-pound iPad. The best part is you no longer have to decide which book to carry when you leave the house, because you’ll have them all with you.

The area in which the iPad will really shine is software. Since the iPad is running the same operating system as Apple’s iPhone, the iPad has access to any of the 120,000 iPhone applications that have been written. For example, all the Japanese learning tools outlined in this or this WIV article can be run on the iPad, no problem. What does this mean for you? Now you can leave behind your electronic dictionary, your flash cards and your notebook. The iPad can serve all these functions.

If that doesn’t thrill you, then how about watching videos and listening to music? You could download Japanese podcasts for studying, or put your favorite Japanese movies and music on your iPad. Plus, if you sign up for the Japanese version of the iTunes store you can have access to thousands of Japanese movies, TV shows, music and books to help you study. If you spring for the more expensive iPad (and a $30 wireless plan) you could use the always-on Internet connection to access any Web-based Japanese content you want.

While the iPad hasn’t been released yet in any country, it’s worth a look if you’re a frequent traveler and dedicated learner. And with an entry level price point of $500, it’s something that will be affordable to most people.

Harvey is the Webmaster of the 5+-year-old JapanNewbie.com. He lived in Japan from 2001 to 2007 and passed JLPT level 1 in 2003. He is now a Japanese to English translator and maintains JapanNewbie.com to share tidbits on Japanese language and culture.

By Harvey
Guest Contributor

The JLPT exam is just around the corner, and if you need one last learning tool to really solidify your understanding of Japanese particles for the JLPT level 4, a new iPhone App I created called “Japanese 101: Particles” just might do the trick. (A future update will include JLPT level 3 content.)

“Japanese 101: Particles” was just released on Nov. 25, so it’s really hot off the press. The application trains users in the correct use of Japanese particles. It takes an audio-visual approach and uses native-speaker audio and large fonts to really drive home the examples sentences.

I’m a real believer in developing a “gut” feeling for Japanese, and especially for the particles. It’s important to first read the “rules” for particle usage, but unless you’re some sort of idiot savant with a flawless memory and super grammar processing mind, the rules alone are probably not going to do it. Native Japanese speakers usually cannot explain the usage of the particles because they’re just used to it – just like native English speakers usually cannot explain article usage. Advanced Japanese speakers immersed in the language will also eventually reach a point when they can hardly explain them either, but they know what just “sounds right.” To develop this gut feeling for the particles you’ll need to hear, read, and speak, plenty of example sentences. It also helps to hear a sentence without the particle inserted so that you can use your intuition to figure out which particle should be there. This app lets you do all that.

Indeed, after studying with this application enough you should be able to say which particle should fill in the blank before the app is even finished reading the sentence. Not necessarily because you have memorized the answer, but because your intuition is starting to kick in. Currently the app has 50+ sentences, but 50 more are in the works for the JLPT 3 level and they will be added to the app for free as an update before the end of the year.

In the “Study Mode” you can see and hear each sentence with the particle omitted. You can then flip the card over to see the correct answer, the romaji, and a translation. If you’re the type who enjoys the nitty gritty grammar explanations you can check the “Notes” section to see that as well. The grammar notes were put together by a professional Japanese teacher, so they’re accurate and to the point.

The “Quiz” mode will have you listening to the audio of the spoken Japanese, and have you attempt to touch the correct particle that should fill the gap. After the quiz, you can see what you missed and study those cards again. This quiz format will improve your listening comprehension as well as develop that important gut feeling for the particles.

That’s all we’ve got time for here – but enjoy. Particles are one of the most frustrating aspects about learning Japanese at first, but they can be conquered! A Japanese teacher told me once, “Mastering Japanese is mastering the particles.” I think that’s about right. Hope this application is of some help!

LINKS

You might also be interested in the other Japanese 101-series applications. See a big list of them here:
http://www.japannewbie.com/iphone-apps/

Application Information Page on JapanNewbie.com:
http://www.japannewbie.com/hiragana/particles/

Direct link to iTunes Store for App Purchase and Download:
http://bit.ly/4vfInD

Related Articles:

http://www.wideislandview.com/?p=1892%20JLPT%20Preparation

Particles in your Pocket - Japanese 101: Particles for iPhone and iPod Touch

By Joshua Zimmerman

Nothing is worse than a very long commute time to work, unless it’s a commute with nothing to do. Luckily if you have an iPod Touch or iPhone there are a number of ways to pass the day. Below are a few games to kill time on your daily commute.

Tower Defense Games

Fieldrunners $2.99

A very popular “tower defense” game with great graphics, open gameplay, plenty of replay value, and a low price. If you like your tower defense games, you’ll like this.

geoDefense $2.99 & geoDefense Swarm $0.99

The former is a “tower defense” game on rails featuring retro graphics and stunning particle effects. The latter is the sequel that expands on the original idea, only with complete open gameplay for add difficulty. (Free lite version available.)

Arcade Shooters

Blue Attack! $1.99

Protect your base against ever-increasing swarms of enemies. Featuring rich graphics, two modes of play, customizable ships, and plenty of action, it’s a game that will keep you entertained for some time.

Isotope $1.99

A beautiful top-down shooter in the style of Geometry Wars. With dozens of ship upgrades available and over 100 missions, Isotope will provide you with many hours of gameplay. (Free lite version available.)

Dropship $0.00 a.k.a. Free!

Pilot a ship through various 3D style mazes while picking up crew members. An interesting space flight game with retro graphics and plenty of replay value. Even more if you download the extra maps the company occasionally throws out. Plus it’s completely free, so give it a try.

Racers

MotoChaser $1.99

A 3D motorcycle racer in the grand tradition of Road Rash. Easy to play, but difficult to master. It’s a well-crafted game that makes nice use of the accelerometer for steering.

Action

Alive4ever $0.99

An overhead shooter with an RPG element, the game provides plenty of zombie killing time. Think of it as a very simple version of Left4Dead. You can even play via Bluetooth with a friend.

Samurai: Way of the Warrior $2.99

It’s one of the few games in the iTunes store with beheading. Seriously. A beautifully rendered game with a rich soundtrack that allows you to cut your foes in half. Take on enemies in the story line or in a never-ending challenge mode. (Free lite version available.)

Flight Sim

F.A.S.T. $0.99

A complete combat flight sim that lets you pilot over a dozen planes across a 3D environment. Compete the challenges before taking on real people online. The missions range from very easy to hair-pulling insane.

So these are just some of the thousands of games you can find in the iTunes store. The best part about most of them is that they’re very cheap and provide hours of gameplay — something you occasionally need.

If you’d like to read more about iPhone/ iPod Touch games check out TouchArcade.com.

By Joshua Zimmerman

One of the most annoying things about the iTunes Store is the way it treats different countries. Every iTunes Account is linked to the country of origin, usually the country the credit card is from. While this isn’t a problem when you’re living in your home country, this is a big problem when you’re living in Japan because there are some iPhone applications that are only available in the Japan iTunes Store. One example is the very wonderful free weather app named Weathernews Touch. Unless you have a Japanese account, you’re not able to download this free app.

But don’t lose hope, there is a very easy, and free, way to get a Japanese iTunes account without using a credit card. (You can also use this to get access to music, movies, and TV shows in the Japanese iTunes Store as well.) Just follow these easy steps.

1. Get an e-mail address.

You need an e-mail address that is not already being used with iTunes. So if you already have an iTunes account set up, you’ll need to use a different e-mail than the one you’re already using. If you’re in need of a free e-mail account, try gmail.com.

2. Switch stores.

Open up the iTunes Store. If you’re already logged into your account, log your account out. Scroll down to the bottom of the Store. Click the country icon, and change it to Japan.

3. Find a free application.

Once in the Japanese Store, search for Weathernews Touch (or any free application). Click the FREE APP button.

4. Create your account.

A window should pop up asking you to sign into your account. Click on Create New Account. Then keep hitting “Continue” and fill out all the information. When you get to the billing section, there will be an option labeled “None”, found to the right of all the credit cards.

5. Wait.

Once you fill out everything and submit your information, you’ll have to wait for Apple to send back a confirmation e-mail. This could take a long time. Days even. So if you don’t get it right away, just relax and take a nap.

6) Verify your account & sign in.

Once Apple does e-mail you back, click on the verification link. Afterwards, sign into the iTunes Japan Store using your new e-mail address and download to your heart’s content. When you’re finished with the Japan Store, log out and just scroll down to the bottom and change back to whatever county’s store you were using before.

Bonus: Buying

If for some reason you want to buy something on the store, such as a Japanese movie or music, you can easily add money without a credit card. Just head down to your local 7-Eleven and buy yourself an iTunes gift card. Then log into your Japanese iTunes account and register your gift card.

WARNING: Before posting messages about how it doesn’t work, please read the guide and try again. There is also always the chance that Apple could close this loop hole with an iTunes update. So if you’re reading this and it’s not the year 2009, you should probably try doing a Google search.