Overview: I've been in Japan for over 10 years. This is my personal blog, covering a mixed bag of topics including Japan, my family, the web, programming, ESL and the occasional rant about politics and the media.

My JapanSoc profile lists all the social networks I belong to, so you can connect with me from there. Check out my Lifestream, too!

World Opinion — 6 comments
11
Sep 09

Recent Developments for 9/11 Truth

I don’t expect many of you follow “9-11 truth” quite as much as I do, and since the mainstream media refuses to touch the subject, let me share a few recent developments that add weight to the growing understanding that 9/11 was not what we were led to believe.

  1. Whistleblower – Former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds, previously gagged by the Bush administration, blew the whistle on government corruption when she testified under oath about former and present congressmen accepting bribes from Turkish lobbyists. She previously claimed that the US maintained ‘intimate relations’ with Bin Laden, and the Taliban, “all the way until that day of September 11.”
  2. Whistleblower – Former FEMA videographer Kurt Sonnenfeld, currently living in exile in Argentina, went public about his persecution at the hands of U.S authorities after he refused to hand in the 29 tapes of “disturbing material” he filmed at Ground Zero.
  3. Scientific evidence – an international team of independent scientists discovered a military-grade explosive, nanothermite, in the dust from the World Trade Center – Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe (.pdf)
  4. Pentagon Eye Witnesses – A 3-year independent investigation into the attack at the Pentagon revealed that the actual flight path of the aircraft was considerably different to the “official” path. Learn why this is significant here.
  5. 800+ Architects and Engineers – The number of architectural and engineering professionals who publicly support the controlled demolition theory has surpassed the 800 mark.
  6. 9/11 Commissioners Admit Stonewalling – Actor Charlie Sheen recently wrote an open letter titled “Twenty Minutes with the President” which described a fictional interview with President Obama. In it, he correctly points out that “60% of the 9/11 commissioners have publicly stated that the government agreed not to tell the truth about 9/11″. Read their individual statements and those of other credible people here.

On this eighth anniversary of 9/11, I support the NYC Coalition for Accountability to get an independent, impartial investigation into the 9/11 attacks, and having read point 6 above, everyone else should, too.

Japan — 12 comments
26
Aug 09

I’m a Programmer – It’s Official

If you were fresh out of school and moving to Japan for 10 years, what would you hope to achieve? No doubt you’d want to travel the country, learn about the culture and indulge in such oddities as Pachinko, Print Club, karaoke boxes and authentic sushi restaurants. But 10 years? You’d probably be keen to learn new skills and advance your career somehow.

Actually, I’m not so sure anyone makes a decision to move to Japan for 10 years. It just kind of happens. Usually, you come  for a year and teach English while experiencing Japanese culture, but when that year is up and you realize you’ve saved no money and haven’t seen or done all you wanted, you choose to stay… just a bit longer.

When I first came here at 21 years of age, I was confident that I’d find a good job in the I.T industry, after all, I had just graduated from university with a degree in Computer Science and expected doors to be open for me. I figured it would take two or three years to learn enough Japanese and then I’d be on my way up the corporate ladder.

How naive.

I studied the language hard for three years, passing JLPT 2, but by that time, I had lost touch with the fast changing pace of the IT industry, had no work experience in computing, and my Japanese was still far from fluent. It was then that I went to Tokyo for an interview with a recruiting company and failed miserably when they gave me a Japanese newspaper and asked me to read an article aloud.

That was a tough time for me, and still reluctant to accept a future as an English conversation teacher, I suddenly found myself as a network marketer in Japan, trying feverishly to sell enough vitamins to get myself out of teaching. Funnily enough, that experience, although a tremendous failure, was a wonderful education, putting me on the road to self-employment.

Fast-forward to 2009 and I’m now a programmer. At least that’s what my alien registration card says after today’s trip to City Hall. Although I’ve been running my own internet business full-time for a year and a half, it’s somewhat rewarding to be officially recognized as something I always wanted to be.

Funnily enough, programming is only a hobby of mine, but try explaining “Adsense Publisher” to the ladies at City Hall and you’ll understand why we settled on “programmer” as a job title.

Japan — 7 comments
17
Aug 09

God, I’m So Illiterate!

I’ve just come back from immigration where I went to hand in a double application for both spouse visa renewal and permanent residency. Everything seemed to be in order, but at the end I was asked to fill in a form that gave my permission for immigration to make copies of some documents.

I may have been in Japan for over a decade, but my Japanese skills are sadly lacking. I passed level 2 of the Japanese test back in 2000 and have steadily forgotten everything since. All right, my Japanese isn’t that bad, but certainly not good enough for today’s situation…

The gentleman behind the counter rattled off in Japanese how I needed to list the documents by name on the form, which to him, was just a formality, with no need for debate. For me, however, this was far from simple. While I understood what I needed to do, I first pleaded that I wouldn’t be able to write the names of the forms, e.g. 住民税納税証明書 (certificate of residence tax) to which he responded that I could write them in English. I told him I wasn’t sure of the English translations, and he, showing signs of impatience, said I could just write the hiragana, which would have been okay if I could read the document names in the first place.

I figured I’d just try to copy the titles of  each document, but on realizing some of them didn’t have clear titles and the names were instead embedded in even harder sentences, I gave up and returned to the counter to beg for someone else to write them.

Typically, since I was the one applying for a change of residence status, I would have to write them myself. Clearly the immigration official couldn’t understand at all why I was having such trouble and I eventually had to ask him to circle the kanji I needed to write. Unfortunately, he did this rather willy nilly, wrapping unnecessary kanji within his halfhearted circles, or cutting other characters in half, leaving me wondering whether to include them or not.

Perhaps it was more difficult for me because I’m self-employed and had to produce a number of forms that would normally be handled by your employer, but I think it’s more accurate to say my Japanese is woeful for a potential permanent resident and I have no excuses for being so illiterate.

However, since this isn’t an application for citizenship, but merely the right to stay long-term in Japan, I certainly think I’m qualified. I’m in my 12th year in Japan, 5th year of marriage to a Japanese national, I’ve bought a house in my name and we have a 2-year-old son.

In fact, since I owe a Japanese bank the cost of my house, I’d  like to think permanent residency was a given.

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