Continue reading »]]> Tokyo trip

Pictures of my Tokyo trip and the international Anime fair.

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The big bicycle trip through Japan approaches. Thus it takes a lot of resources to organize this event. A little side note in advance. I’m going to start in Korea. I have to begin my trip there due to the fact that there is no way to extend my stay in Japan after my working holiday visa expires. An advice for all who also would like to stay in Japan as long as possible. First make use of your tourist visa, extend it after the regular three months for another three months and make then use of your working holiday visa. It’s not possible the other way around!

Since last Friday I had only one day off which is why I still haven’t managed to do all the updates. This volume of work wasn’t predictable. Once I don’t work full time any more I can concentrate on blogging once again, so that there will be longer posts again.

Special thanks to: Hubertus Neidhart from  Webspace Provider Network for excellent web page hosting services; Lilith Pendzich;

Continue reading »]]> Merry Christmas!

The last Christmas holiday and then it will already be over again :( I hope everybody enjoyed the time and had a nice Christmas.

So I will start updating the blog this week. Since this is quite a lot of work it might take one or two weeks. Following will be improved:

The page will receive an index.

Posts will be extended by more useful links for tourists, people who also want to do working holiday in Japan or for those who are simply interested in Japan and its culture.

Also older entries will be enhanced by photos and – depending on how much time I will have for it – also by some films. Of course it will also be listed in the latest entry under which post you will find the new media.

PS:

Some enhancements have already been made.

• 25th week: the pictures of the added photo gallery received subtitles and descriptions.
• Break in style: photos of Moscow have been added. (Subtitles and descriptions will follow)
• 16th week: photos of the Tokyo Gameshow have been added.
• 12th week: photos from the Fuji San hiking tour have been added.

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Special thanks to: Hubertus Neidhart from Webspace Provider Network for excellent web page hosting services; Lilith Pendzich;

Continue reading »]]> Mountain Mania

So far I have been very lucky with my stay in Japan, and with my jobs as well. I am currently working in an Onsen Hotel in Manza. The mountain site is simply a dream come true, with crystal clear night skies – a nice diversion compared to Tokyo’s starless sky – and we have already had our first snow.

as you can see... you can get high. Even with only a little snow!

Sulphur pit and snow :)

Shrines even in the mountains

But every job has its down sides. My shift is split into two parts. The first shift starts at 7:30 and lasts until 10AM, the second shift begins at 15:30 and lasts until 22:00PM. I don’t have to schedule time for breakfast or dinner as we are given a 30 minute break during each shift to eat. However, you have to show up for work ten minutes before the actual shift starts. I’ve been told this is a regular procedure here in Japan. Obviously I was very lucky regarding this rule so far, as my previous jobs in Tokyo did not require me to perform 20 minutes of volunteer work every working day. But, according to my Japanese friends, volunteering is the norm. A quick analysis shows that I am losing 1.200 Yen (15 AUD, 15,62 CAD, 9,84 GBP, 15,36 USD) per week, 4.800 Yen (60,06 AUD, 62,50 CAD, 39,39 GBP, 61,48 USD) per month and 24.000 Yen (300,32 AUD, 312,50 CAD, 196,94 GBP, 307,34 USD) during my five month stay. (I only have a two month contract since the economic situation is still fragile). I wouldn’t want to know how much the unpaid work for the year adds up to for the entire working population! My job doesn’t pay all that well, so my loss is quite low. However, there is no exception for well paid engineers, specialists and managers regarding the rule. In the western world, the unions would mount their barricades. Yet here, this is considered completely normal. Still, I’m not all that compelled to complain. Besides the extras I mentioned last week, I receive two free Japanese lessons each week! As it turns out, the lessons are worth more than what I lose through the volunteer work. For my Japanese colleagues, this is actually unfair. Japanese lessons are the only lessons that are offered, which is useless for anyone who already speaks the language. It might even be beneficial to the hotel to offer other languages for those who already speak Japanese.

Manza Onsen Hotel

And here’s a little something for penny-pinchers who go to the gym from time to time: Here, you could easily save the money from a monthly membership. Anyone who has to heave 300 solid wood chairs in a row onto the tables twice a day and put them down after cleaning the floor, carry 44 pound meal pots several times per shift from the kitchen to the buffet, and still have enough strength left over to clean really doesn’t need the gym any more. Even though the work is hard, I like it a lot. I have learned much about Japanese meals and how to cook them. My colleagues are very nice and explain everything to me. I never find the work tedious and there is always something to do. Since I work in the kitchen and in the dining room, work is diverse and time flies.

Japanese Mountain: You Rock

The hotel itself reminds me a bit of Club Mediterrane or Club Aldiana of the European Alps (actually, there is a mountain range in Japan which they call the Alps as well). Indeed, conversations with fellow men is not handled as laxly as it is in those clubs – the Japanese politeness is never forgotten here – but the buffet is also good, rooms are furnished similarly as well (as far as I am concerned, Club Med still prevails with a TV-set per room – or did so until the late 90′s). This is unthinkable in Japan of course, where rooms in lower price class come with a communal toilet, which we only see in hostels. Like in Kinugawa (week two) the guest can choose between rooms with traditional Tatami mat floor (rice straw mats) without a bed, but with a futon, or a room that resembles that of the west with a varnished wooden floor and its own toilet. Only the most expensive rooms have their own bath. Usually guests wash themselves with other guests in showers right next to the Onsen tubs. And like the clubs there is an event going on every night. While the programs of the clubs concentrate more on sketches, dances, quizzes or comedies, there are mostly musical acts here with – for western ears – quite kitschy songs. I was floored when I heard Johannes Brahms ‘Guten Abend gut’ Nacht’/'Lullabye of Love’ performed on a trombone. Most Japanese people seem to like it. The Japanese tand also has something special. When they are not playing trashy western style music it is at least their very own culture and custom which is nourished and cherished. When you have to listen to U.S. American or British charts for the thousandth time in western clubs, it would be nice to have the chance to listen to traditional Alps cultural music. Even if it’s just to get to know a bit more about the culture. A club dance spared to the guests.

Captain to the bridge!

more than meets the ice

Next week, I will explain why the bath water here is so healthy, what the Japanese Emperor has to do with this hotel and I will discuss more about the environment.

Special thanks to: Hubertus Neidhart from Webspace Provider Network for excellent web page hosting services; Zack Rosenthal, U.S.A (proofreading); Lilith Pendzich;

Continue reading »]]> Test the rest

It’s finally about time to say something about my new job. As I already mentioned it is a project based job, and slow but steady we are about to reach the end of our project.

The company in which I am working does so-called linguistic video game testing as briefly mentioned in week eight. Times in which we get video games only in its origin language are fortunately over since the nineties. Games are being translated and adapted to their respective markets. This process is called localisation.

Just translating every manual and game texts won’t suffice here. Every culture comes up with small but mighty distinctions which can lead to big misunderstandings or even provocations if adapted inadequately.

Some examples:

Cultural or history-bound distinctions

A move in a snowboarding game is called Super 9/11. Needless to say that the name will be changed for the U. S. market.

Measures

Whereas in Germany, Austria or Switzerland the metric system prevails in the U.S.A. or U.K. gallons, degrees Fahrenheit, feet and miles are used. The adaptation does not mean a problem when translating it in texts. But for speedometer and thermometer – scales which need to be calculated in real time – complete new algorithms have to be programmed.

Poems and puns …

… are certainly one of the biggest challenges of a localisation translator. On one hand one would like to preserve the rhyme or the wit but on the other hand, logic should not fall by the wayside. A problem which is also linked to the film industry. Here an example from the film ‘the downfall‘:

Drunk German soldiers in bombed down Berlin:

Hey Berlin ist die Stadt der Warenhäuser. Hier war ‘n haus und da war ‘n Haus.

Hey Berlin is the City of ware houses. Here were houses and there were houses.

Poems or lyrics from Disney films are often mentioned as paragons for localisation work.

The localisation happens almost simultaneously with the creation of the base frame of a game. So relatively early in the development phase. After all the script has already been written so that the localisation agencies can begin with the translation work. And this is how the programmers don’t just work with a single version of the game from the very beginning but in all versions in which the game will be released.

This is where the localisation testers come into the play. Our task is to check every dialogue, every menu, the whole content which was translated and adapted on semantic, grammar, formatting, terminology mistakes, misspellings, or culturally conditioned mistakes.

Theoretically now every game tester would have to complete the game including all menus and sub menus. So that the publisher does not have to pay too many hourly rates to us testers we are being given cheats by the developer with which we can win or – should the test require it – lose at the touch of a button. Also we receive cheats with which we can select all the levels directly.

By and by it should be getting more clear how linguistic game testing works. But how does it look in detail?

Games are being tested on so called debug consoles which are only available for the studios and can only be purchased by the manufacturer directly. With this systems it is possible to run games which are still in their development stages. The single version of a game in development is called a build. As soon as the first build is on the table the team arranges who is going to test which game mode respectively and which menu including sub menus. This way every language forms a team which single members sit in front of on their respective platforms (PC, console, handheld). Because no full priced game is being developed for a single system any more these days except for exclusive titles.

What kind of bugs are there? To answer the question briefly: many! Too many to be mentioned altogether in this text. But the most essential shall be mentioned: crashes, freezer and blocker.

Crash

As the name indicates the system simply crashes at a certain point of the game.

Freezer

The same here with the name. The system simply freezes at a certain point of the game.

Blocker

One is caught in a certain situation or menu in the game, might be able to go some steps forward or back, but can’t escape the situation as something was simply not considered during the programming. The program runs consistently stable but the player is given no other choice but to turn off the system.

All bugs of this category have a high priority and must be fixed before the release. Even if those bugs don’t have a lot to do with language they will also be reported by linguistic testers as they hinder the tester to proceed with the testing. However the linguistic testers priority is to check all the game texts.

The following bugs are the most important ones:

Incorrect string,

translation or

incorrect formatting.

Are the translations placed correctly in the game? Are there any misspelt words? Were some texts forgotten or are there some place holders or even the texts in original language at some spots?

Formatting mistakes are being given a lower priority. An example would be that a text is being displayed correctly in a text box however shown squeezed as it is simply too long.

Also it has to be checked if at certain spots the right symbol or letter graphics are being showed. Testers ‘biggest pleasure’ regarding this is the Nintendo Wii at the moment. Because all menus have to be checked three times. Why? The Wii has three different joy-pad interfaces. The old Gamecube joypads, the Wii-mote together with the Nunchuck or the classic controller. So every menu has to be checked that the associated button graphics are being displayed correctly depending on which input device is being used. And of course graphics do also have to be checked regarding their system affiliation. Nintendo wouldn’t be flattered at all if the menu in one Wii game were to say: ‘Press the X-button to proceed or the O-button to cancel’. Also a certain text might be very readable on a high resolution Play Station 3 or Xbox 360 version. The PAL or NTSC resolution of the Wii might only show a blurry line. This is where the so called cross-check goes into play. After extensive testing the bugs are checked at the end of the day if they can be transferred to other plattforms or language versions. Most of the time blockers can be reported for all versions as it is inevitably a mistake which happened when programming a situation, which is to say that it will be the same in all versions. It becomes more complex with freezers or crashes. Does the system freeze because the code is insufficiently adapted to its system or because of the fact that a mistake was made when programming the base frame? Was a line only translated incorrectly in the German version or did someone make a mistake when compiling the script and all versions show the wrong string at a certain spot?

Why does one test a language’s menus during the development stage at all? Wouldn’t it be more simple to finalise the game first and to check everything at the end? One might think so, however, there are situations which can be explained in one language with only one word but might devour three lines in another. It won’t happen that a wider text box is programmed for only one language version. Either the text box will be enlarged for all language versions or one will try to shorten the text in that version in which the text is too long. So errors do occur which require code changes. Hardly possible with a finished game. Also it happens that some menus change after the localisation or menus or areas are added subsequently. Most of the times these translations are done by the linguistic testers and not by the localisation agencies any more.

How does it go on with the reported bugs now? Most developers use an encrypted online database to monitor the development progress of their products. Its advantage is that the progress can be checked from anywhere in the world. This is how the developers may sit in Canada for instance whereas the testing studio might be located in Japan. The development team now has the bug report and starts with the corrections. As soon as the bug is being wiped or the programmers think they have cured the error the ball is being passed back to the testing team. Because even if the bug is described in detail it is not always plain to see if a bug was really fixed. So when the testers then received the list of the fixed bugs they are checked if they are completely eliminated. If there isn’t any recognised change or the tester declares the alteration is insufficient the bug remains in the database or is enhanced with a more detailed description. This procedure is continued until the last bug is being fixed.

What atmosphere prevails in such a company? At first glance, somewhat deterrent might be the fact that you don’t have access to any area without an RFID chip key card. Also every tester has her or his own locker as any kind of data carrier has to stay outside the office. That is valid for mobile phones as well as for mp3-players. Cameras are an absolute no go. And communication with the outside world? The office place of the video game tester is one of the rare ones which copes without a phone. Emails can only be sent by the administrator authorised mail addresses. And who was hoping to gain further recreation during breaks by checking out XXX-web pages will be grievously disappointed. Even here only admin authorised pages can be viewed. Damn it! … In other words it is quite difficult to smuggle the testing game onto the internet or outside the office.

And what kind of working atmosphere prevails? Tester are young folks, rarely over 30. Who would like to keep up her or his second language(s) an passant rejoices to receive a free conversation course with this job. The Italian girls are wondering in their language about Berlusconi’s latest achievements, the guy behind me almost walked Spanish on me, and to my left someone is cursing in French. In other words we are weird folks. But we like it to be weird.

What qualifications does one need for such a job? Of course good native language skills. Because you will have to pass a ten page (!) long test at the job interview at the least. All bugs are being reported in English. Thus you should have good English skills as well. The job interview will be in English. As in every office job, good office software skills are required. And last but not least you should know how to hold a joy-pad correctly of course. The introduction to the database is quickly learned. Graphic or video editing programme knowledge is a plus but can also be conveyed within the first working week.

What salary/wage can one expect for such a job in Japan? It can vary depending on the region of course. It shouldn’t be below 1.300 yen per hour. In general wages fall around 1.500 yen per hour. Testing happens full time in a 40 hour working week, with a high volume of work even on Saturdays and Sundays!

Who now feels like getting such a job and would like to link it with a work and travel/working holiday stay in Japan should check out following links:

http://www.uniconpro.co.jp/de/recruit.html

http://www.enzyme.org/index.php?id=75&L=1

Special thanks to: Hubertus Neidhart from Webspace Provider Network for excellent web page hosting services; Lilith Pendzich, Germany; Brandon Lamb, U.S.A.;

Continue reading »]]> Here comes the mouse!

Die Maus

Friday. My host Celine has no internet access at home which is why she is taking me to her university, Dokkyo university. There she hands me her wireless password and heads off for her lectures. It’s simply great. This is how I even get to know Japanese student live. Even though I can’t make out any major differences to western universities. As you’d expect from a university there are many lecturing halls, a huge library and of course the canteen. The food there is good. What puts me in a good mood is that the Dokkyo university uses “Die Maus” from the German children’s edutainment TV show “Sendung mit der Maus” as its mascot.

The best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley. Well, but I don't want to prevent him from his plan to study.

.

Schoolgirls visiting

Presented in Surround

I’m moving once again. This time to Bryan, an American host who had lived in Germany for some years and is – how else could it be – an English teacher. Since it is weekend once again it is my good fortune to get treated once again to a weekend trip to the mountains.

Mountains close to Tokyo

Together with Bryan’s friends I’m treated not only to delicious Japanese food once again, but also the best Japanese alcohol later that evening at a married couple with whom Brian is friends. But they are also equipped with a good range of western style alcoholics and I mix them some drinks. Well, I once worked at a disco…

Cozy Cocktails

Suddenly some kind of mobile phone sound breaks the chilled atmosphere. I’m asking myself if I’m this drunk already or if this is a damn good surround sound cell phone. I could swear I’m hearing the sound from at least three spots in the room. “Oh man, does it have to interrupt our nice conversation!?” two of Brandon’s friends are complaining and get their cell phones out of their pockets.
“What is it?” I’m asking.
“That’s the earthquake warning system”
“Everybody is quiet for ten seconds.
“Here it comes!” says Denise.
“And the room starts to tremble for about five seconds.

Never isolated!

It’s Monday evening I’m waiting at Kitaurawa to be picked up by my new host Andy. The Advent of couchsurfing to the Japanese population seems seems still to be in progress since I am mainly hosted by foreigners. And so this time. Andy gives me a warm welcome in a beautiful British accent. We are on our move to his house as we talk about hospitality and and how he ended up in Japan. Andy 45, a journalist specialising in the Japanese metal industry, comes from Portugal but grew up bilingual. He writes for a British magazine he tells me.

Poster wall of Andy's 16 year old daughter.

It is a nice 3 stories house. Minimum twice as big as the one I’ve stayed in at my host in Shibuya. Andy is married and has a 16 year old daughter. Even though the week has just started and there are no holidays, wife and daughter are not around: “My wife lives at the other side of Tokyo together with our daughter. She attends a kind of elite high school there. It would simply be too long of a commute every day, so my wife and me decided to rent a flat for both there. It is not common to live on your own in Japan when you are 16. It’s actually normal to live with your parents when you study at university. Sounds weird hm? No rioting.”

“Rioting?” I’m asking.

“Well, I mean a lot of things are so preordained. Few chances do develop your own life. I think this is what Japan misses a bit. A lot of things are overly organised. Which, in my opinion, leads to the fact that only a few people – too few -, form their own opinions or are really individual. Or let’s put it this way. Of course they have their own opinions, but they rarely express them and do even less to change certain grievances”

“Hm, this might be a reason why there are almost never demonstrations going on on the street. And if they happen at all they are not really big.” I’m thinking.

Andy is cooking a Moroccan dish for our dinner: “I came to Japan years ago where I found and married my wife. She is a trained biologist and held a well paid position at a company researching cancer back then. After a few years, we had decided to move to Portugal where I had a job which meant she had to give up her job here in Japan. Even if it was difficult for her in Portugal, she did actually very well in finding a job there. But after some years we realized we both didn’t belong there and decided to go back to Japan again.”

“May I ask about your wife’s job?”

“Sure, she’s a housewife. When we came back from Portugal she applied once again for research jobs but could not get any work. Only minor positions like an assistant job or being a secretary.”

“Was the branch in which she researched no longer lucrative, or what was the reason for it?”

His respond comes quickly almost with a little anger: ”No! Her ‘mistake’ was that she gave up her job to leave Japan! The Japanese people consider this to be not reliable. So when she came back nobody wanted to hire her based on this ‘argument’ that she could not longer be considered reliable. It does obviously not count how talented you are! This country has such a pool of wasted talent. You know, this is actually one of the few things that makes me furious about Japan! And after some years she simply couldn’t stand those kinds of jobs any more and this is how she ended up being a housewife.”

I’m bewildered.

Despite the fact that Andy is the only bread earner in the family, he still takes his time to host and cook for me and even for showing me around the next day.

As much as I like his house there is something about it – about Japanese houses in general – that drive me mad/crazy. The missing insulation. No matter how many windows, window shutters, curtains and doors you close you hear the street noise constantly. Of course it leads to the result that a huge amount of energy is being wasted. The walls have a width of maximum ten to 15 cm (6 inch). There’s no glass wool or polystyrene insulation in between preventing the hot air from the outside to funnel into the air-conditioned rooms. And it’s of course right the other way around in the winter time. They rather waste three or four times more energy than they need just because it’s not common at all to insulate houses here. Also the windows aren’t double-glazed. Neither the ones in the air-conditioned trains nor those in houses. My last host Ryan told me he heats his flat with a movable kerosene heater. All this in one of the richest countries of the world? How does this fit together?

To save energy the government recently tried once again to introduce the “Super cool business” including a casual dress code that aims to save energy by not having to use the air-condition to cool all the guys in their stuffy suits. Not only since 3/11 – but especially since then – Japan’s economy suffers. Like in most economic crises of the modern times, people don’t spend more money than necessary which leads into an economic vicious circle. To combat this Japan’s government introduced subsidies for household devices. Andy’s family made use of it. However, the fridge came from a Japanese company but was produced in China. So it did not really help the domestic economy. Instead of such measures, Japan would be well advised to facilitate the local construction industry – a branch which does not really export and is thus totally reliant on domestic demand. With this Japan could kill two birds with one stone. They could save a decuman amount of energy so that they wouldn’t need as many nuclear power plants as they have today. And it would be a blast for those sector of Japan’s economy that cannot rely on exporting their way out of trouble.

tombstone

The next day Andy shows me around in Omiya. Since he has a well equipped family household he provides me with a bicycle and we both cycle to Omiya’s main temple. We are on our way to it as Andy stops to show me a Buddhist churchyard. Beautiful, so far I haven’t had the chance to enter one and see the graves close up.

At the cemetery

Once again on our way to the temple. Only a few minutes later he is interrupting our trip once again to show me the newly built Saitama Shintoshin station and its city centre with it’s new built stadium. Yoko Ono’s John Lenon museum used to be in there as well. Well, this is Japan’s attempt of beautiful modern architecture. All those buildings are pretty new.

Omiya Metro station

Omiya's stadium

As Japan suffered a plethora of bomb attacks during the second world war this temple is unfortunately not as old as I was hoping for. But it’s nice anyway. In addition to that, I haven’t been to a place in my life where I’ve seen so many turtles at once in one pond!

Omiya's Tempel

turning turtles

Omiya's temple

Even on our way back we can’t make it in one go and have to stop off to do our dinner shopping. But I’m grateful for it because Andy is the first host who shows me that there are actually greengrocers that have bargain prices.

At some time in the morning the bell is ringing. A man in a blue overall wearing a building-site helmet is passing Andy a little, plastic packed towel as a present to apologize in advance for eventually occurring inconveniences which might happen within the next days as they are just about to begin to paint the neighbours’ house.

Hm, maybe I should try something like this when I’m back in Germany before having a party which might get a little louder and could also lead to disturbing the neighbours. Should some drunk people roar too loud, the neighbours would even have something to plug into their ears as tiny as this towel is. Hm… but on the other hand such a small towel fits quite well into the mouth of a roaring drunk. Hm… one shouldn’t give up on every new idea too quickly but on this idea, it’s maybe better to throw in the towel!

On Wednesday evening I’m moving once again. On my way to my next hosts I’m facing a new problem. All I can say about it is: “Don’t use Tokyo’s metro during the rush hour with two backpacks!”

Once again an American-Japanese couple. Dylan, 30 recently married his wife, 29. They both are preparing for leaving Japan and want to gain foothold in the U.S.A.

Oh, well …

Oh, did I forget to tell? This Thursday is my first working day at the day care. Yes, I took the job! But it does not mean that the job search is over yet, as this job is unfortunately not a full time position and I need to find at least two further jobs in order to finance my living here. Well, since one should not really measure its value based on just one day, I’ll wait a little until I think a little deeper about it. So I’m asking for some patience please….

Special thanks to: Hubertus Neidhart from Webspace Provider Network for excellent web page hosting services, my hosts and especially Andy for the text revision.

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