Peter's Japan blog

Last Sunday, a 25 year old male stabbed 17 people after driving into 3 of them with a 2 ton truck in Akihabara, Tokyo's otaku shopping district. The incident happened on the big crossroad in Akiba next to the new Sofmap building. Police caught up with him in an alley in the direction of the train station. He dropped to the floor when they threatened to shoot him.

Tomohiro Katou was born in Aomori but lived in Shizuoka where he worked. He allegedly rented a truck and drove all the way to Akiba, just to run over some people, and then stabbing them and in the process stab 14 others. Three people died on the spot, 4 others died of their injuries at the hospital. They were 6 men between 19 and 74 and 1 woman of 21 years old. I seriously hope that the rest will pull through.
The guy said he was tired of his life, but other people would be fine, and he wanted to commit suicide. Well, so much for a suicide, 7 people died and he lives...

Apparently they found some drawing that he made in his school yearbook of a character from some rpg game. I sure hope the media won't jinx otaku community again because he made a drawing in the past. Even I draw, and don't see me doing any of those things.

Honestly, my thoughts are with families of the victims. It should never have happened. So many young people involved...

Update: apparently, he liked watchinganime... so, here we go again... what about American action movies full of violence and shooting? I don't have anything against those movies, but you get my point.

Source: ANN, DannyChoo.com, Japan Probe

Japan has to have its own strange etiquette about escalators. In most parts of the world it is custom for the people who are not in a rush, to stand right, so that other people who are in a hurry, can go up on left. Well, Japan has 3 ways ;p
In Tokyo, you stand left.
In Osaka, you stand right.
In Kyoto, it doesn't matter (people from Kyoto are not so much in a hurry than those in Tokyo or Osaka).

How did all this happen? While walking on the pavement in Japan, I tend to have to feeling, that 80-90% of the time, people walk on the left, when crossing each other. This might explain why people in Tokyo, stand on the left side of the escalator.
In Osaka however, I've read that there was a world expo in there. A world expo has a lot of foreign people visiting, and in 90% of the world, people stand right, and so people stood right in Osaka. So I've read.
In Kyoto, where people are in less in a hurry, I've read about another story. That there was a rule, that you stood left in the subway, and right on the Keihan lines. Thus creating confusion.
Also, knowing that people in the street walk left, it makes for a small paradox ^^

I had just stayed a week in Tokyo, standing left, and was now staying in Osaka, thus standing right. And today I went for a day to Kyoto, and I actually noticed it myself that in Kyoto, there isn't any rule. Some were standing left, some right. So it's actually true, and I was confused myself because I didn't know it was actually like that in Kyoto. I was thinking, who is right and who's wrong here?

Tokyo, Osaka & Kyoto may be one of the biggest cities in Japan, but how is in the other big Japanese cities. Is it only in Osaka that they stand right, or all cities down from Osaka? I will probably notice in a few days, when I'm in Hiroshima & Fukuoka ^^;

Yeay, I passed the Japanese Language Proficiency Test level 4!! (Level 4 is the lowest level, but still ;p) I got my official certificate in the mail today. I wasn't expecting it so early, because they said it would probably be around the beginning of March.

My scores:
Part 1: Kanji & Vocabulary: 85 / 100
Part 2: Listening: 71 / 100
Part 3: Reading & Grammar: 130 / 200

Total: 286 / 400 = 71.5% (and you need 60% to pass the test)

The statistics for the last test are not yet on the JLPT website.

But I'm so happy that I got it, because I wasn't sure about whether I would pass or not, but I even made it with 11.5% above it ;p Now, on to level 3. I now know a bit more what I must focus on, which is for example, to quickly recognize from what verb a conjugated form comes. Because I know how to form that conjugation, but to do the reverse quickly is very important, especially for the listening test and the grammar, as you don't have heaps of time to think. I had already started on my kanji for level 3 last month, the rest is during the course of the year, and hopefully I will pass again for the exam on December 7th.

Japan seems to be filled with it: yellow bumpy lines, tiles with a grooves or dots. They are to be used as a guide for blind people. There are a few patterns that indicate different kind of obstacles like stairs, cross walk or cross sections. They can be found on the street, train stations, subway stations, ...

This pictures seems to be taken at the entrance to the subway in Narita Airport. As you can see there are several of these yellow lines here, that can guide blind people around and to the escalator.

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Japense barber shops can be detected by looking for a long tube with a blue/red/white cylinder in it rotating. Each one of them has it, and in all sizes.

I've read stories about these barber shops that have like 12 employees each having another task: one that takes your coat, one to put on a hot towel, one to ask how you would like your hair cut, one to cut your hair, one to ask if you need your side burns done, one to put on the shaving cream, one to shave them, one to finish up, and on at the counter ;p
I haven't been to one personally, but I'm guessing this is not in every little barber shop, but then again, you never know in Japan ^^;

Furoshiki, the traditional Japanese wrapping cloth. Before the time of plastic bags, since hundreds of years, people in Japan used cotton or silk cloths to hold and carry stuff. They had invented useful ways to fold a simple cloth so that it could be used as a purse or to hold boxes, books, water melons and even bottles. But since the introduction of the plastic bag, it has been on the decline and there don't exist many furoshiki shops any more.

The Japanese government is trying to promote the people to use the furoshiki more again.

Here are two video about Furoshiki. (the first one is cheesy I know, but it gets the message across), the second one is from inside the Kakefuda, a furoshiki shop in Kyoto.

You can find folding patterns and other info on Furoshiki.com.

The world famous video of how to fold a T-Shirt Japanese style.
Quick, easy and neat ;p Enjoy ;p

A team from a Hokkaido Industrial Research Institute has made a road surface that plays a song when you drive over it with a certain speed. Depending on the distance between the grooves the car will act as a tuning fork and play a "note" at a certain frequency. The song lasts about 30 seconds and you have to drive over it at a fixed speed of 28mph.

Source: The Guardian