Interview for internet radio

Other day I got a message from a friend asking if I couldn't give a short interview for an internet radio broadcast. One of the segments involves short interviews with international students from different countries, and they were looking for a Brazilian because Rio was chosen as the host for the 2016 Olympic Games.

(And they had never interviewed a Brazilian until then...)

Well, considering good part of the contents were around subjects I am not that familiar with, I may have done a good job. What were those contents? Carnival in Rio (I've never been to Rio and don't like carnival that much), soccer (no idea who are the current "top players", although I do know the groups for the next World Cup), movies like City of God (I read the book and like it, but the film is a vague memory... and I've never watched all of it)...

All that makes me wonder: am I a Brazilian without first-hand knowledge of the mainstream culture of the country?

You can listen to the interview here. Click in "世界の留学生 (Foreign Students)", then in "ゲストー覧表" in the box below. Last, look for your "victim" and enjoy.

Now for some British humor

I'm still having a hard time with reports, tests and seminars. So don't expect long posts for now.

To relax a little, I followed Antonio's suggestion and checked the blog "an englishman in osaka"... It's very funny, but I don't know if I'd recommend to people who haven't been in Japan. They might start believing strange things... haha!

Anyway, just for you to feel the humor there, two sample entries:

One is handbag elbow. Humor about everyday life in Japan...

The second one is about Engrish... and I just wonder if I could ever avoid laughing if I met someone wearing of those T-shirts in front of me... love poetry on a T-shirt

Outside Enemy... Enemy Within...

I've mentioned some problems I have with nationalism before. Well, it's not that I hate it entirely. Unfortunetely, we don't live in an ideal world, and one of the bad things that usually happens is that governments use "nationalism" to make people submit to their will. Or, quoting Aldous Huxley in "Brave New World Revisited", "first to move the masses and then, having prided them loose from their traditional loyalties and moralities, to impose upon them (with the hypnotized consent of the majority) a new authoritarian order of his own devising".

In the book, that sentence isn't about nationalism but it's about Hitler and his aims. Anyway, the message fits, and Hitler was one who used it for the reason I said above.

As a sidenote, it's interesting to notice the influence that authority has over people. Claus once mentioned an experiment that revealed a high rate of obedience towards people with authority... That entry is worth checking.

And it looks that we're having a nationalism wave... and not necessarily a good one.

I don't even feel like looking for a link about the United States. Most people should know what has been happening since 9/11... in the US and in Middle East...

Daniel wrote about a youth movement in Russia called Nashi that supports the government. He also linked to this video explaining a little about the movement. Some points are scary... although we have to be careful about the veracity of all it's shown there, as Daniel himself says. The anti-americanism is an obvious choice, though.

Closer to my reality, Daniel also linked to a video about Japan in another of his posts. The video is about the recent proposal that Japan develops a full-fledged army. Currently it has only a "Self Defense Force". Part of the reason for that are the growing threats from North Korea (that always reminded me of a Japanese friend that thought that South Korea is "worse" than Iraq... I only imagine how Japanese media portraits both countries...) and China. The ironic point is that the only country in the world that was atomic bombed has politicians considering developing nuclear bombs...

And one thing in common I've noticed in those movements, Hitler included, is that they point some "external enemy" they "have to" fight against.

Well, having a common enemy is surely one of the things that can unite a group. For Brazilians, just imagine when the country is most "patriotic"... During the World Cup, when we have "common enemies"... Of course that's only one of the factors...

Plus, the more people believe that "enemy" threatens them, the more they would accept (almost) anything that they believe would help them against that "enemy".

But who's the real enemy? The ones pointed or the ones manipulating the hatred?

Considering all that, that campaign of the Brazilian government that was so criticized, "Eu sou Brasileiro e não desisto nunca" ("I'm Brazilian and I never give up". A campaign that had as aim improving the population's self-steem by showing Brazilian people who have overcome great misfortunes), doesn't seem so bad. At least it doesn't propagate nationalism through hatred, reviewing (i.e. manipulating) History or such...

Except that it was probably done to help undercovering some of the government's wrongdoings... A good example from them would be better.

Protection or Denial?

I think I mentioned Outpost Nine posts someday in this blog. Well, it was about experiences of an American living in Japan as a JET English teacher. As his stories were funny and showed a side of Japan that people usually don't know, I used to check it quite often.

Times change, people too. That guy is not a teacher anymore, but still is in Japan. His blog also moved to Gaijin Smash. As I resumed reading his posts recently, I found one talking about Japanese people (or should I say "government") feelings towards WWII (World War II)...

The war is largely regarded in Japan as - "there was a war in the Pacific, and then we got a-bombed." That's it. Japan's involvement with Hitler and the Axis Powers is rarely ever mentioned. Their imperialistic marches into China and Korea and given a footnote at best in historical textbooks. And Pearl Harbor is also little more than a fleeting thought. If you talk about WWII in Japan, the conversation goes straight to the a-bomb and how pitiable Japan is.

I don't mean to play down the bombings, not at all. They were horrible, tragic losses of human life. Even if one wanted to say "the ends justify the means", these means were indeed, truly horrendous. We should hope that such an event is never repeated in human history ever again.

But that sentiment doesn't just go for the bombings. It goes for all of the terrible things that happened in that war. Of which, the Japanese participated in quite a few.

However, when it comes to any of Japan's faults during the war, their tune suddenly changes. The Rape of Nanking "wasn't that bad", or "you can't prove all that stuff actually happened." Other horrible atrocities committed in China and Korea are also flat-out ignored. Some politicians would have you believe that the Japanese were over there "helping" their Asian neighbors. Japan forced thousands of women into sex-slavery during the war; some of these survivors and their descents have been trying unsuccessfully to get recognition/compensation from the Japanese government about this. The government's response? "You can't really prove that the government sanctioned this" (despite there being proof otherwise) or "you girls weren't slaves, there was no coercion". Some will even go as far as to say that America forced Japan to bomb Pearl Harbor.

Textbooks are altered to completely gloss over these things. Recently, the government moved to strike any reference to the Japanese military forcing civilians to commit suicide in the Battle of Okinawa. Of course, anything else - the comfort women, the atrocities in China and Korea, are nowhere to be found. These things don't seem to matter that much. If you're Japanese, all that matters about WWII is how poor Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed.

For the full post, check here. It may be worth reading.

I've never tried to engage in a discussion with a Japanese person about those subjects, but I know that the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are a high issue here. They should be. I don't know much about their opinions about the reasons of the bombing or about the Japanese war crimes, so there's not much I can add in that aspect. Although I've heard that even some Univeristy professors in Japan have points of view like the "Japanese opinion about the war" mentioned above, and they're not open to discussion.

One of the things that I regret not doing the first time I came to Japan was taking classes about Japanese History or World History. It'd be nice to learn those under a different perspective. Not that I'd understand much with my Japanese language ability at the time... even now it'd not be much better. That issue about Japan during WWII made me more eager to check a World History book in Japanese someday...

In fact, many are concerned about the movement of the Japanese government to wipe out of History books some of Japan's past wrongdoings. One of the most common justificatives is that, this way, children would feel more proud of being Japanese.

Putting my feelings about nationalism aside, now what is that!? So, one country must have a beautiful History for people to have pride for having been born in it?

Sorry, that's not how I think it works. If that's "patriotism" you're looking for, the current situation of the country may influence that more than its past. Or, in another point of view, kids won't have pride if they are bullyied at school. And I don't think what's happening today may be because the bad roles of Japan in History were taught...

In fact, looking at the past may help to understand the current situation and try to solve it... At least it may be true for Brazil, where violence in some places, for example, now rise to levels close to civil war after decades with little efforts to control economic inequality, among other reasons.

Another point of view is that wouldn't you feel proud to know that, although your country was in bad situation and had done bad things, it was able to overcome it, improve and evolve, like the "Japanese miracle" of becoming one of the most important economies of the world even after all the destruction during WWII?

I can't think of a country that has never done anything wrong. Every Germany had its Nazis (and it's interesting to compare how most Germans and Japanese regard the war), every US had its Vietnam. Brazil had/have things like slavery (brought from Africa mainly, although even today there are some cases here and there...) and discrimination (against African-descendents is the most talked, although most immigrants suffered it too).

Internationally speaking, I remember the War of the Triple Alliance as some kind of "mistake". I'm not a historian, so I may be ignoring facts or distorting something, but considering that Paraguay had a growing economy before the war, with some chances of catching up with some of today's "developed countries" and was destroyed after the war, with some considering it as a "Chinese products retailer" wasn't Brazil responsible for that in some way? (Brazil's situation after the war wasn't good as well though...) Also, it may be intersting to check the Wikipedia entry for that War in different languages... there are some sensible differences sometimes.

My examples are feeble, in part because of my lack of deep knowledge of History. I just hope I made my point clear.

But it's true that it hard for a government to really admit what it did wrong and really apologize (I put the word really because sometimes the apology has no real meaning). Brazilians may know it well from the current political situation... I couldn't find a good link in English, but let's say that corrpution is becoming commonplace and no one ever admits involvement. US also has Iraq invasion as an example. And even if they do recognize, the government tries to minimize the situation, at the moment or later.

Not only governments, people are like that as well... It's easy to feel proud of one's accomplishments, but it's hard to admit and compensate for one's wrongdoings.

There's the saying that people should learn from the past to avoid making the same mistakes in the future...

Maybe that's why it's also said that History repeats itself...

Noodles

Some interesting cartoons I've been reading since I was in Japan. It's "Noodles" from Gwen Muranaka, published weekly on Japan Times. That and "Zero Gravity" (Roger Dahl) are funny to read, but if you haven't been in Japan already, you may miss some punchlines.

Some samples below. Click here if you want to read the rest.

Indexed

Quick post. I've found (through a magazine) an interesting blog. It has nothing written (besides comments). All posts are pictures of graphics, like cartesian planes... and they're fun! For example, a graphic showing the proportionality of "blood pressure" and "IQ of your boss".

That's Jessica Hagy's "Indexed", and it's worth a visit:
http://indexed.blogspot.com/

Eyemaze

Checking my friends's blogs, I found something interesting. It's a site with puzzles (Eyemaze). Interesting Flash puzzles. I stayed for hours trying some without finishing yet... I'm not giving up yet, though.

This link will lead to one of them, but you're free to try any other. Definitively worth a look... and a try.

How a prejudice is born

My inbox had one of those "half-spam" texts that exist on the net today. I remember I've recieved this one before, and is quite interesting. Worth posting.

----

Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hangs a banana on a string and placed beneath it, a set of stairs.

Before long, a lone monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana . As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water .
After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result - all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm!

Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, and then the fifth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked. Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana.

Why not? Because as far as they know that's the way it's always been done around here.


"It is easier to desintegrate an atom than a prejudice"
- Albert Einstein

-----

Anyone beating without thinking?

Folhainvest

As years goes on, there's always some kind of mania among Engineering students, or at least my classmates. Maybe as a way to stay sane during the couse... hehe. As Grissom said in the CSI series, you must have something to enjoy outside work, or else you break down (not exactly these words). In the first year, it was the game "Age of Empires". So it wasn't uncommon to see studants leaving classes to play. There were others, like futsal. That time some friends tried to play every week... alhtough it wasn't possible (it IS Engineering after all...), we did it plenty regularly.

The current one seems to be stock market. Weird maybe, but lately I've been wondering if our conversations are becoming too "economic related". Of couse we have "normal" conversations (like the one on the previous post ^^;), but it's not uncommon to hear someone complaining about stock fluctuations or an investment that turned bad, or good.

They're not investing in real stock market, but a simulator created by a Economy Newspaper, Folha Invest. That simulator is updated continuously with real market data from the stock exchange in Sao Paulo (Bovespa) with only a 5 minutes delay. They recieve some virtual money and shares in the beginning and have to administrate that. As it's based on real stock market, the responses will be like the real thing.

So, I was invited to join the thing. It's pretty interesting, since I want to know more about stock market. The problem is that they spend a considerable amount of time in that thing, and I don't know if I'll have that time (besides, the simulator is open to change shares only at the times the stock exchange is open). It's a good thing to practice in a simulator, though... We discover interesting things, like a friend who was investing in banks since, in Brazil, it's the kind of company unlikely to go bankrupt or something like, but he was surprised when a Ministry was dismissed and that caused that kind of shares to drop a lot...

Maybe it's worth a shot. I'll think about it and accept suggestions. For those interested, the site is here.

More online tests

That's a Friday! Classes all the morning, experiments in the afternoon. Last one cancelled for electricity cut (due to a heavy rain)... or should I say postponed to next Thursday? And after going under the rain to the last class, find out that it was just a small talk, since the teacher's changed...

So, what a better way to finish a day like this than knowing when and how I'll die? That's another online test a morbid friend (thanks, Dalai) sent me. Let's laugh!

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Your Personal Day of Death is...
Wednesday, January 17, 2057

The Death Clock
http://www.deathclock.com/

Humm... I'll have a long life... a little less than 51 years left... hauhauahuahuahuahauh! What if I throw myself in front of a car?

-----
Let it be told...
You die from complications of liver failure caused by years of heavy drinking.

The Death Psychic
http://www.thedeathpsychic.com/

...!?
......?!?!?!?
.........What!?!?!?!?!?!? Now THAT's a strange one! Ok... One enters his/her name for this test... I'll try another combination.

You are bitten while tormenting a sickly-looking squirrel. You die from rabies days later.

Ridiculous, but better... One more!

While attempting to remove a slice of burnt toast from your toaster using a metal fork, you're electrocuted.

Hummm... I'll stop here before it gets worse.

Online tests

Procrastinating while I wait for a file to be uploaded on my e-mail (damn connection... but maybe is a problem on their server... second thought, how could the problem happen to Gmail and Yahoo servers at the same time...), I checked some friends' blogs. Then I notice that two of them (Steff and Jo) posted things about some online tests.

I really don't believe that a test can "tell what you are and what you're becoming", "tell what you were in your past life" and so on. But thay're sometimes fun to compare with your vision of yourself. So I tried some while I was waiting...

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You Are a Dreaming Soul

Your vivid emotions and imagination takes you away from this world. So much so that you tend to live in your head most of the time. You have great dreams and ambitions that could be the envy of all...But for you, following through with your dreams is a bit difficult.
You are charming, endearing, and people tend to love you. Forgiving and tolerant, you see the world through rose colored glasses. Underneath it all, you have a ton of passion that you hide from others. Always hopeful, you tend to expect positive outcomes in your life.
Souls you are most compatible with: Newborn Soul, Prophet Soul, and Traveler Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?
http://www.blogthings.com/whatkindofsoulareyouquiz/

Humm... now what. "Dreaming"?! I thought I was logic... Although the positive outcomes expectation is right. Heh, whatever...

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The Keys to Your Heart

You are attracted to those who are unbridled, untrammeled, and free.
In love, you feel the most alive when your lover is creative and never lets you feel bored.
You'd like to your lover to think you are stylish and alluring.
You would be forced to break up with someone who was emotional, moody, and difficult to please.
Your ideal relationship is lasting. You want a relationship that looks to the future... one you can grow with.
Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment.
You think of marriage as something precious. You'll treasure marriage and treat it as sacred.
In this moment, you think of love as commitment. Love only works when both people are totally devoted.

What Are The Keys To Your Heart?
http://www.blogthings.com/keystoyourheartquiz/

Now what!? This one seems even weirder... But the result isn't so bad as most of the love tests I try... hehe... Zero cheating chance?! Can I use this as propaganda? Huhauahuahauauhauhu!

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Your Candy Heart Says "Hug Me"

A total sweetheart, you always have a lot of love to give out.Your heart is open to where ever love takes you!
Your ideal Valentine's Day date: a surprise romantic evening that you've planned out
Your flirting style: lots of listening and talking
What turns you off: fighting and conflict
Why you're hot: you're fearless about falling in love

What Does Your Candy Heart Say?
http://www.blogthings.com/whatdoesyourcandyheartsayquiz/

What turns me off is right... Doesn't the two tests enter in conflict?

Ok, the file was finally sent. Time to go back to work... At least some of the results were funny...

Superpowers

My sister used to joke telling that I'm learning the "Japanese hidden techniques" and I'll use them to "take over the world" (Pinky and Brain?). So, just for fun, a list of some "Japanese superpowers" and some of I've "got" here.

Note: the comments are only for fun purposes. They don't intent to hurt anybody. If you feel bad about this post send me a comment and I'll delete it.

• Teleport: you're suddenly in a place like a waiting area or a train station with nobody around. Suddenly the place becomes crowded with people you don't know where they came from... I still haven't mastered this hability, although some friends say sometimes I got out of nowhere.



• Compression: that the Japanese are very good in making things smaller is well known (electronics and ikebana, for example), but not many know their ability to compress themselves or their possesions. For the latter, go to a Japanese house or office and you might find things stored in impressive ways or interesting ways to use space (like a washbasin that can be moved to make toilet vase or shower available in an arnund two square meters space). For the former, enter a train in a very used line (my recommendations are the Yamanote or the Keio Inokashira lines in Tokyo) during rush hour... I'm not good in this one.



• Sonar driving: that is visible when a Japanese is driving a car. Some streets are very narrow, that and some small parking places makes me think if a human being could possibly enter/park there... but they can. And most times without failing. As I don't have a car, there's no chance for me to learn this one, although it's very useful.



• Multiple tasks: one of the surprising things noticed after staying some time here is how people can use their mobile phones or hold their umbrellas while cycling... even elderly people do that (more with umbrellas than phones). With time, I learned to do that within certain limits... I still can't do BOTH while cycling (don't laugh... I've seen it).



• Selective ignorance: In certain situations Japanese act in an incredible cool way, not even paying much attention in things that would stir most westerns. Although there's some kind of good side in this (I don't see so much gossip around, and I've left my house in ways that I wouldn't do in Brazil... and you really have to do something really out of usual, or look like a foreigner, to draw some attention involuntarily) there're strange situations that happen as "consequences". Steff and Shu's blogs have topics with examples. No, I can't act like that.



• Instant sleep: In short, it's possible to see people sleeping in many places. In buses or trains, inside Starbucks, in classes (whoops...)... In part that's due to the combination of their lifestyles (busy with work/studies/other activities so they don't get much regular sleep) and the relative secure society, even so it's surprising sometimes. That's an hability I can say I've mastered. I slept most of the long trips, waking up at good timing to not lose the transfers... slept in the train to Kobe (30 min)... even in the bus to Shosha (20 min)... standing in the train (just once though)...

Changing a little, in the Outpost Nine page there's a list of "gaijin powers" in Japan. Although that post is funnier, most of those powers don't apply if you look like Japanese. So, a few extra "super powers" are below.

• Camouflage: that's usually the ability obtained instead of the "gaijin powers" if you don't look like gaijin (foreigner). You can mix yourself with the crowd and most times (especially if you don't do anything that gives you away) nobody realizes there's a foreigner around. There're good and bad points in this.



• Language shift: that's something you get after living in an international environment so that you're forced to use different languages. I've been in some where I've caught myself shifting between Portuguese, English, Japanese and "Portunhol" (a.k.a. some weird Portuguese and Spanish mix where one only changes some words in Portuguese by similar words in Spanish... and turns out to be none of them... Used by Brazilians who can't speak proper Spanish) at the same conversation with different people. Of course that I make lots of mistakes (like talking in Portuguese with members of the Himeji Gang or saying a word in Japanese in the middle of an English sentence to an English teacher), but that's part of the fun. And the more I'm forced to shift, the less the errors occur later.



• Secret code: that's for having Portuguese as first language. As it's a language that few know, it's some kind of cypher that we use sometimes when we don't want our notes to be understood, our conversation to be overheard, etc. Funny sometimes, but still not that useful. And, on the other hand, as my Japanese is far from good, the reverse can be used against me...

Now... how could this be used to take over the world???

Styles, dreams and culture shock

Styles

I was so focused on my backlog that I forgot to write about last week. So, two Sundays ago (Jan 22nd), I went to a different aikido dojo, invited by one of the instructors who I met at the Tiger pub through Silvia.

It was interesting. Like when I watched the budo in Kyoto, I had the impression that the same moves are used in a different way. Plus some that seem unique to each. I surely don't have experience enough to tell if there's something really unique, but I felt that the approach is different. For those familiar with video games, it would be something like Ryu and Ken from the game "Street Fighter" (especially after the "SF Zero". It's possible to tell that by the way the training is held. Seems that one focus more on the "ki" (energy) and reaction moves while the other practices more reflex and counter moves and "randori" (fight simulation). Even so, I won't antecipate any conclusions since I've trained only once at the other dojo, and don't know much even about the university club style.

Changing the subject, after that and eating in a all-you-can-eat restaurant (rare in Japan) with some members of the dojo (nice people, and an interesting mix between Japanese and foreigners), there was Rezaur's house warming party... after losing some time looking for his new house.


Dream

New year... some TV shows change. From my previous post about it, the "Oniyome Nikki" is not broadcasted anymore. Recently I found a substitute: "Journey to the West" (that's the "official" translation of the title 西遊記). It's some sort of adaptation of the legend of Son Goku (forget Dragon Ball). Funny and entertaining enough.

So, in this week's episode they found some kind of temple where dreams come true. Then, after sleeping one night they all found their dreams coming true and didn't want to leave the place anymore. All except Goku who couldn't sleep (because he had dozed all day before reaching the place. He occasionaly learns that there's some kind of creature, artifact or whatever (didn't get this part right) who makes dreams true, but also eats them.

Trying to convince his friends, Goku is confronted with the "head priest" of the temple who says that it would be cruel not letting them enjoy their dreams coming true, having to deal with the harsh reality again, using a paraplegic as example. And anyway,they would refuse to leave since nothing is stronger than a dream. (I might be mistaken about details.) Goku replies saying that there is something stronger than dreams, the future. It allows us to go even beyond our dreams for something better. And a dream that keeps people from going on is bad.

I won't spoil it any longer. That's the interesting part. Take whatever conclusions you'd like about it. I've took mine.


Culture Shock

I was, for a change, reading Claus's blog when I found a post about culture shock. But the topic was more about the shock when living with people whom you don't have a "common reference" with.

Thinking that way, that's the origin of the culture shock itself. We usually think of it as being something that happens only when in a different country with a different culture, though, as he said, we feel the shock most when it comes to small things in the background of the people around us. And we don't even need to go too far for that. Different groups (like skaters and akiba-bei), or even different generations usually don't mix very well (Stereotyping... sorry for that. For the sake of examples only.) One of the reasons is because they lack common "experiences" to talk about. By experience I mean anything from preferences, background etc..

Some examples of my own. Hanging around with other Electric Engineering students in Brazil, we always had subjects to talk about: the news, soccer championship, some teacher/test... plus, as we shared the engineering background there were jokes and comments that only engineering students would understand. And I can't understand the pharmacy ones when my sister talks to her friends, so I sometimes don't have much to talk about when with them (one or other likes animes like me, so then we have something to talk about).

Also, in Japan I met people, especially during the first months, whom I started talking to, but couldn't really get closer because there was no subject to talk about that would be interesting to both. Sometimes I even wanted to talk... And then comes the problem: about what? Now I got some friends with things in common. We undestand each other better and have things to talk about. And that's about it.

Hmmm... This post is a little confusing, I think... For those who want to check Claus's post about it, it's here.


Weather

An extra topic. Today is a cloudy day in Himeji, and it rained during the night. In my hometown in Brazil, this usually means today will be colder than usual...

What happens is quite the opposite.

Here during winter I'm not sure why the rain rises the temperature e little bit. It's not so cold today as it was yesterday, or the day before that. And last time it rained, was the first time this year the temperatures reached more than 14 degrees Celsius, I guess.

On the other hand, during summer, the rain is refreshing all right, but later it rises humidity and it seems even hotter...

Online habits

Since I'm quoting Claus again, I think I should mention one of his posts. It's about differences between Brazilian and Japanese online habits, especially about anonymity.

That's something very interesting and I'd noticed some parts of it, but never really thought about posting about.

For those who want to check it out, follow this link.

Quotes

After a good, but tiring weekend, once again lots of things to catch up. In times like this some cheering up is nice. So, as I still haven't prepared the albums to post (it's taking forever, I know. Hope to upload some soon...) just some quotes to prepare myself for the week. To make justice, one in each language.

"Humanos não são perfeitos. Você tem o direito de falhar. O que te faz uma boa ou má pessoa, é O QUE você faz com essa falha. Se aprender com ela, ótimo. Senão, merece mesmo ser chamado de inútil."
- Ban/Dekared (Dekaranger)

“If you believe that you can do a thing, or if you believe you cannot, in either case, you are right.”
- Henry Ford

「きみと僕の差は今まで歩いて来た距離の差でしかないんだよ。ひとはみな・・・同じだ。精算しきれなかった悔恨（かこ）と・・・目の前（げんざい）の障害と・・・行き先（みらい）への不安と・・・闘いながら歩いて行くんだ。あきらめるのは・・・道が途切れてからでもいいんじゃないか？」
- レミントン牧師 （クロノクルセイド）

Challenge Vader!

Quick post. Just a link that a friend has mailed me. The thing is that "Vader" says he can "read your mind" and discover a thing that you're thinking of after you answer 20 questions. Guess it's some kind of computer program with some learning/data gathering level. I don't know much about it though.

Well, if you want to challenge Darth Vader and the powers of the Dark Side, meet him at
http://sithsense.com/flash.htm

May the Force be with you.

Vending Machines

Atendendo a pedidos, vou tentar escrever mais em portugues e menos em outras linguas. Mesmo assim, algumas vezes vou voltar a escrever em ingles (ou tentar em japones um dia). Isso eh util como treino de escrita pra mim. Desculpas aos que se sentirem incomodados com isso.

Alguns ja sabem, mas, ate agora, acredito que a coisa que mais tenho visto no Japao sao vending machines. Por nao saber o nome correto em portugues, vai esse em ingles mesmo. E, como curiosidade, o nome em japones eh jidohanbaiki (jidouhanbaiki) apesar de poder ser dito em katakana como "bendeingu mashin" ou algo parecido (nao sou expert em "katakana-go"). A seguir, viriam combini (lojas de conveniencias) e locais de pachinko na area de relativamente exoticos.

De volta as vending machines, as mais comuns sao de bebidas (sucos, chas e outros "soft drinks", mas existem as de bebidas alcoolicas tambem) e de cigarros. Existem outros tipos mais exoticos, e eu mesmo ja encontrei alguns, mas por uma eu nao esperava...

Dando uma olhada no blog do Claus, achei um comentario sobre uma que vende calcinhas usadas... Que!? Tipo, o mais exotico que ja encontrei foi uma que vende camisinhas. Pode ate ser uma opcao (estranha) pra quem nao quer ser visto comprando certas coisas, a nao ser pelo fato que fica bem na frente de um ponto de onibus. Alias, isso ate merecia uma foto... Hum...

Mas mesmo essa vending machine nao eh tao bizarra quanto a de calcinhas... Minha mente ainda nao consegue conceber isso...

Para aqueles que quiserem ver com os proprios olhos, este site tem uma foto disso...