Yuki's Web

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  • Visiting United States military bases in Japan

    Visiting United States military bases in Japan

    Visiting US military bases is fun for me. The US Army, US Navy, US Air Force and US Marine Corps use 75 facilities within Japan and Okinawa, 51 of which are dedicated and the rest 24 shared with Japan Self Defense Force. Though those facilities are usually closed to civilians, they are open to residents around them once or twice a year, and you can get inside the military places during these festivals.

    Visiting those facilities is one of the few occasions to get in touch with the United States. You can eat American-made hamburgers, hot dogs, steaks, turkey legs, and other American foods. You can pay foods, sodas, beer, sweets, and souvenirs with US dollars. You can talk to Americans in English. And, you can find out how average Americans live their daily life. What kind of groceries do they buy? What kind of foods do they eat? What kind of newspapers do they read? What kind of school do they make their children attend? You can catch a glimpse of those things without flying more than 12 hours to get to mainland America.

    I have visited US bases and facilities in Japan and Okinawa for more than 15 years. With respect to what I have experienced, I’m grading each of these out of 5 by categories of accessibility, smoothness of entry and exit, freedom of movement, and availability of on-base building. 5 is the most excellent, and 0 the worst.

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  • もうひとつの朝ドラ：近江友里恵さんトークライブ

    もうひとつの朝ドラ：近江友里恵さんトークライブ

    ８月31日に青山一丁目のＮＨＫ文化センターで近江友里恵さんの講演会があったので行ってきました。こちらのエントリにも書いたように、私は近江友里恵アナウンサーのファンで、一昨年には名古屋での講演会に出かけていったことがあります。今回は東京で行きやすいので、受講募集があったときに速攻で申し込みました。

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  • Another Asadora: a talk show by Yurie Omi

    Another Asadora: a talk show by Yurie Omi

    On August 31, I went to NHK Culture Center at Aoyama-itchome in Tokyo to attend a lecture presentation of Ms. Yurie Omi. As I wrote in this entry, I have been a fan of the NHK Announcer, and once met her at her talk show in Nagoya two years ago. This time it was held in Tokyo and it was much easier to have access to the venue, so I applied to this lecture presentation as soon as NHK Culture Center began selling the tickets.

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  • The words of the year 2018 / ２０１８年のキーワード

    The words of the year 2018 / ２０１８年のキーワード

    日本文が後ろに続きます。

    I’m writing such an entry right now because I couldn’t post any entries in the end of 2018. When I tried to open the “add a new post” page, I had a 500 Internal Server Error and couldn’t open the page. Now I fixed it. It was because some of the plugins I installed in this blog system conflicted, so I deactivated the troublesome plugins and now I can post new entries. Thank you this article.

    I’m looking back what happened in the year 2018 as I usually do it in the end of every year, and picking out some short words representing the last year. The words of the year 2001 were getting a flat within the Tokyo metropolitan area, a position change at the office, and Soarer. The word of the year 2002 was America. The words of the year 2003 were the airplane and the musical. The words of the year 2004 were the blog, Asian countries (Singapore and Hong Kong), and the GSM mobile phone. The words of the year 2005 were darts, the GSM and WCDMA mobile phone, and visiting Hong Kong again. The words of the year 2006 were the US stock and the mutual fund. The words of the year 2007 were changing my car and visiting Hawaii. The words of the year 2008 were England and Fukagawa. The words of the year 2009 were office position change, MacBook Pro and JR Seishun 18 Ticket. The words of the year 2010 were Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia, iPhone and the credit card. The words of the year 2011 were the car, the British culture and China. The words of the year 2012 were Oji, the mahjong, the flight attendant and Facebook. The words of the year 2013 were Ayurveda, Korea, high school alumniand Tsuyoshi Takashiro. The words of the year 2014 were England and Android. The words of the year 2015 were Maine, United States; Estonia and transfer of workplace. The words of the year 2016 were traveling to places in Japan, mapping and Jeep. The words of the year 2017 were Yurie Omi, NHK, shingles, and English exams.

    Now I’m picking out as the words of the year 2018: cashless, Japanese language and comeback.

    I’ve been in touch a lot with the cashless society since last year. I set up Apple Pay in the Wallet of my iPhone8, and stored my American Express Gold Card and Suica, a rechargeable contactless electric money card used as a fare card on train lines, convenience stores and other shops in Japan. Other than Apple Pay, I have used Line Pay, which allows payment using your Line account, mainly for the payments at Lawson and major drugstores. I use Origami Pay for dining at KFC and shopping at Loft department store. Today I rarely use cash for buying a can of soft drink at the vending machine, buying groceries at the supermarket, buying coffee at Starbucks, dining at McDonald’s, and passing through the wicket to take trains. All I need is my iPhone8 to do these things.

    I paid attention more to brushing up skills of Japanese language than to mastering English this year. I took the first grade of Nihongokentei test (This is not the JLPT N1 test!) and passed it. I don’t know how it helps in my work or life, though. As for comeback, I was appointed to a new position of the company I work and my workplace was relocated in November.

    Almost three months being passed since the beginning of the year 2019, I have already experienced a lot of things in this single year. I’m so excited.

    今ごろになってこんな記事を書いているのは、昨年末はＷｏｒｄＰｒｅｓｓのトラブルのせいで新規記事投稿ができなくなっていたせいです。新規記事投稿のボタンを押すと５００　Ｉｎｔｅｒｎａｌ　Ｓｅｒｖｅｒ　Ｅｒｒｏｒが出てしまっていたんですが、どうやらプラグインが悪さをしていたらしいことがわかり、いくつかプラグインを停止すると表示できるようになりました。ここのサイトに感謝です。

    で、２０１８年も例によってキーワードをまとめたいと思います。

    ２００１年のキーワード：都内一人暮らし、職場異動、ソアラ
    ２００２年のキーワード：アメリカ
    ２００３年のキーワード：飛行機、ミュージカル
    ２００４年のキーワード：ブログ、アジア（シンガポール・香港）、ＧＳＭ携帯電話
    ２００５年のキーワード：ダーツ、ＧＳＭ／ＷＣＤＭＡ携帯電話、香港再訪
    ２００６年のキーワード：米国株、ミューチャルファンド
    ２００７年のキーワード：クルマの買い替え、ハワイ旅行
    ２００８年のキーワード：イギリス、深川
    ２００９年のキーワード：職場異動、ＭａｃＢｏｏｋ　Ｐｒｏ、青春18きっぷ
    ２０１０年のキーワード：台湾・シンガポール・マレーシア、ｉＰｈｏｎｅ、クレジットカード
    ２０１１年のキーワード：クルマ、イギリス文化、中国
    ２０１２年のキーワード：王子、麻雀、ＣＡ、Ｆａｃｅｂｏｏｋ
    ２０１３年のキーワード：アーユルヴェーダ、韓国、高校の同窓生、高城剛
    ２０１４年のキーワード：イギリス、Ａｎｄｒｏｉｄ
    ２０１５年のキーワード：アメリカ（メイン州）、エストニア、職場異動
    ２０１６年のキーワード：国内移動、地図作り、ジープ
    ２０１７年のキーワード：近江友里恵、ＮＨＫ、帯状疱疹、英語の試験
    でした。

    ２０１８年のキーワードは、キャッシュレス、日本語、復帰にします。

    昨年はキャッシュレスが本格化した時代でした。自分のｉＰｈｏｎｅ８のウォレットにＡｐｐｌｅ　Ｐａｙを入れ、クレジットカードやＳｕｉｃａをそこに入れてコンビニや鉄道やその他のお店を利用しました。Ａｐｐｌｅ　Ｐａｙ以外にも、ＬＩＮＥが提供するＬＩＮＥ　Ｐａｙはローソンや大手の薬局で利用できますし、Ｏｒｉｇａｍｉ　ＰａｙはＫＦＣやＬｏｆｔなどで使えます。今では自販機でジュースを買うのも、スーパーで買い物するのも、スタバやマクドナルドも電車の利用も、現金を使う機会が極端に減りました。ｉＰｈｏｎｅ８があればこれらのことがみなできてしまうようになったからです。

    ２０１８年は英語よりも日本語のほうに目を向けた年でした。日本語検定（日本語能力試験ではありません！）というのを受けてみて、７月に２級、12月に１級を取得しました。まあ１級とったからって仕事で有利になるかといえば謎ですが。

    復帰といえば、11月に職場が異動になり、それまでの子会社出向から本社に戻ることになりました。仕事はきつくなりましたが。

    今年も３ヶ月近くたち、はやいろんなことが私の身に起こっています。今年もどうなることやら。

  • Celebration 2018 / 謹賀新年２０１８

    Celebration 2018 / 謹賀新年２０１８

    Praying that
    This Imperial nation will be prosperous
    In the clear morning sky.

    Happy New Year 2018

    すめろぎの御國に榮あれかしと祈る朝（あした）は晴れわたりけり

    本年もよろしくお願いいたします。

  • The words of the year 2017 / ２０１７年のキーワード

    The words of the year 2017 / ２０１７年のキーワード

    日本文が後ろに続きます。

    The last day of each year is a good chance to look back on what happened in the year. Each time I wrap up what I did experience for the first time and what impressed me most in the year, I sum them up as a few keywords, and then I post some “words of the year” in this blog.

    The words of the year 2001 were getting a flat within the Tokyo metropolitan area, a position change at the office, and Soarer. The word of the year 2002 was America. The words of the year 2003 were the airplane and the musical. The words of the year 2004 were the blog, Asian countries (Singapore and Hong Kong), and the GSM mobile phone. The words of the year 2005 were darts, the GSM and WCDMA mobile phone, and visiting Hong Kong again. The words of the year 2006 were the US stock and the mutual fund. The words of the year 2007 were changing my car and visiting Hawaii. The words of the year 2008 were England and Fukagawa. The words of the year 2009 were office position change, MacBook Pro and JR Seishun 18 Ticket. The words of the year 2010 were Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia, iPhone and the credit card. The words of the year 2011 were the car, the British culture and China. The words of the year 2012 were Oji, the mahjong, the flight attendant and Facebook. The words of the year 2013 were Ayurveda, Korea, high school alumni and Tsuyoshi Takashiro. The words of the year 2014 were England and Android. The words of the year 2015 were Maine, United States; Estonia and transfer of workplace. The words of the year 2016 were traveling to places in Japan, mapping and Jeep.

    Considering what I saw this year, I have decided that the words of the year 2017 are: Yurie Omi, NHK, shingles, and English exams.

    Yurie Omi is, as I wrote in this entry, an NHK broadcaster, and an idol of me. For me, this year began with her and ended with her. I got to know her for the first time on New Year’s Buratamori, I watched the TV shows where she appeared, I went to Nagoya to see her presentation, and there I talked to her face-to-face.

    At the same time, I got to know a wide variety of broadcasters of NHK. I didn’t know NHK broadcasters’ names so far, since I wasn’t interested at all in anything about so-called joshi-ana, or female announcers. All I knew among NHK announcers were Yumiko Udo and Maho Kuwako. This year I got to know Mayuko Wakuda, Keiko Nakamura, Tomoko Kogo, Izumi Tanaka, Aiko Terakado, Naoko Suzuki, Naoko Hashimoto, Sayuri Hori, Risa Hayashida, Nonoka Akaki and more, who hosted or made narrations in various types of NHK programs, from news shows to variety ones. I got to know male broadcasters as well, from a top-notch player like Shin’ichi Taketa to Kozo Takase, Jun’ichi Tosaka, Keita Mochizuki, Yuki Inoue and Masaiku Nomura. I got to know NHK’s human resource development system where rookies start their careers at one of NHK’s local broadcasting stations spreading nationwide and return to the Broadcasting Center in Tokyo after several years’ experiences. Plus, I got to know that, besides broadcasters, NHK has various kinds of options for employees such as correspondents, directors, broadcasting technicians, and more. One of the positions is assigned to the employees upon recruitment, and even if they wish to be a broadcaster when they are hired, they may be appointed as a director, and vice versa.

    The third keyword is based on the fact that I was suffered from shingles this summer. I knew some of my friends and acquaintances suffered from shingles, but before I was really suffered from it I didn’t think it would be such a painful disease. Rashes appeared from the right side of my face to the top of my right ear, and my face quickly turned into a grotesque look. Early cure contributed to the distorted face returning to normal in a week or two, but an unbearable pain on the right side of my face followed and lasted for months. The hardest thing was that, though doctor said that I should warm up the suffered part, not cool down, no stores were selling warm canned coffee, warm pads or anything that could warm something up since it was mid-summer.

    The last, this year I took English exams, both exams of English itself like TOEIC, and exams written in English such as CCNA Collaboration. This time I failed CCNA Collaboration, but in TOEIC I marked more than my target score. I want to take IELTS or something like that next year.

    Probably the next year will be harder, but I’m looking forward to the forthcoming serendipities. Have a happy New Year!

    今年も恒例の「キーワード」のまとめの時期がやってきました。

    ２００１年のキーワード：都内一人暮らし、職場異動、ソアラ
    ２００２年のキーワード：アメリカ
    ２００３年のキーワード：飛行機、ミュージカル
    ２００４年のキーワード：ブログ、アジア（シンガポール・香港）、ＧＳＭ携帯電話
    ２００５年のキーワード：ダーツ、ＧＳＭ／ＷＣＤＭＡ携帯電話、香港再訪
    ２００６年のキーワード：米国株、ミューチャルファンド
    ２００７年のキーワード：クルマの買い替え、ハワイ旅行
    ２００８年のキーワード：イギリス、深川
    ２００９年のキーワード：職場異動、ＭａｃＢｏｏｋ　Ｐｒｏ、青春18きっぷ
    ２０１０年のキーワード：台湾・シンガポール・マレーシア、ｉＰｈｏｎｅ、クレジットカード
    ２０１１年のキーワード：クルマ、イギリス文化、中国
    ２０１２年のキーワード：王子、麻雀、ＣＡ、Ｆａｃｅｂｏｏｋ
    ２０１３年のキーワード：アーユルヴェーダ、韓国、高校の同窓生、高城剛
    ２０１４年のキーワード：イギリス、Ａｎｄｒｏｉｄ
    ２０１５年のキーワード：アメリカ（メイン州）、エストニア、職場異動
    ２０１６年のキーワード：国内移動、地図作り、ジープ
    でした。

    そして今年のキーワードは

    近江友里恵、ＮＨＫ、帯状疱疹、英語の試験

    にしたいと思います。

    近江友里恵さんは、この前のエントリにも書いたとおり、今年はこの人に始まりこの人に終わったといっても過言ではないほどで、年始のブラタモリを見て知って以来、ずっと近江さんのファンになってしまいました。毎朝ニュースを見て、名古屋の講演会にも行き、そして質疑のパートでじかにお話もできました。

    近江アナウンサーつながりで、ＮＨＫのこともより深く知ることができました。これまでいわゆる“女子アナ”の類にはほとんど興味はなく、ましてやＮＨＫのアナウンサーなど、知っててもせいぜい有働由美子さんや桑子真帆さん程度で、あとはほとんど知らなかったんですが、近江アナウンサーのほかにも和久田麻由子アナウンサーや中村慶子アナウンサー、小郷知子アナウンサー、田中泉アナウンサー、寺門亜衣子アナウンサーや鈴木奈穂子アナウンサー、橋本奈穂子アナウンサー、保里小百合アナウンサー、林田理沙アナウンサー、赤木野々花アナウンサーなど、いろんなアナウンサーがいて、ニュース番組でニュースを読んだり、番組の司会をしたり、ナレーションをしたりなどいろんなことをしていることを知りました。男性アナウンサーも、トップクラスの“たけたん”こと武田真一アナウンサーをはじめ、“眉”こと高瀬耕造アナウンサー、“麿”こと登坂淳一アナウンサー、そのほか阿部渉アナウンサー、 望月啓太アナウンサー、井上裕貴アナウンサー、野村正育アナウンサーなどが番組に出ていることを知りました。またＮＨＫのアナウンサーは、入局後まず地方局に送られて修行を積み、そこからその地方の拠点局へ異動したのち優秀な人が東京の放送局にやってくるというシステムになっていること、またアナウンサー職のほかにも記者、ディレクター、放送技術などの職種があり、入局時に希望や配属などで決まること、記者やディレクター志望でもアナウンサー職で採用されたり、その逆があったりすること、などなどのＮＨＫの営みについても触れることができました。

    今年の夏は帯状疱疹に悩まされました。帯状疱疹という言葉はよく耳にするし、周りでかかったことのある人の話は聞くんですが、いざ自分がなってみるとこんなに辛いものとは思いませんでした。私の場合は右の顔から耳にかけて発疹ができたんですが、みるみるうちにグロメンと化してしまい、ふためとみられないほど醜く変形してしまいました。治療開始が早かったのでグロメンは一週間もすれば元に戻ってきましたが、そのあと顔の右半分の耐え難い痛みが何ヶ月も続きました。痛いところは冷やしてはだめで、暖めなければならないんですが、なにせ真夏のときのこと、カイロも温かい缶コーヒーも売っていなかったので、暖めるものを探すのに苦労しました。

    英語の試験は、英語そのものの試験（ＴＯＥＩＣ）と、英語で受ける試験（ＣＣＮＡ　Ｃｏｌｌａｂｏｒａｔｉｏｎ）と両方受けました。今年はＣＣＮＡのほうは落ちちゃいましたが、ＴＯＥＩＣのほうは目標の点をクリアしたのでまあよしとしましょう。来年はＩＥＬＴＳあたり受けてみたいものです。

    来年も前途多難ですが、また新しい出会いに期待したいものです。それでは良いお年を。

  • 笑福亭里光師匠のこと

    笑福亭里光師匠のこと

    落語家の笑福亭里光師匠は中学時代の同級生です。同じクラスのときはけっこう仲良くしていて、同じ部活に入って、同じ日にその部活を一緒に辞めに行った間柄でした。中学時代から落語をやるのが趣味で、学校のイベントなどで高座を設けてもらって一席やったりすることがあって、それがただの趣味の域を超えてけっこう上手かったんですね。

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  • Shofukutei Riko

    Shofukutei Riko

    Shofukutei Riko (笑福亭里光) is a professional rakugo artist who speaks Kansai-dialect rakugo stories. Rakugo is, as written in Wikipedia, a form of Japanese verbal entertainment where the lone storyteller sits on stage and depicts a long and complicated comical (or sometimes sentimental) story using only a paper fan and a small cloth as props.

    He was one of my classmates when we were junior high school students. Besides, he was one of my best friends. In junior high I talked him a lot, played with him a lot, belonged the same club as he did, and resigned from the club together with him on the same day. He sometimes played rakugo on stage in school events. His performance was rising above the level of amateur, so he was called shisho, a title which is used to a professional rakugo storytellers.

    After we graduated from junior high, we went to different high school. We didn’t see each other for ages.

    One day in 2012 I was staying in a hotel room watching an entertainment program on TV, where several rakugo artists who had just promoted to the shin’uchi rank were on stage and they were giving speeches in turn to show their thankful feelings for the promotion. The program reminded me of the wanted-to-be-a-rakugo-storyteller classmate. I wondered if he still kept up his hobby. Watching TV, I thought he might appear on such an entertainment program someday. To my surprise, he really did it in the very program that day.

    According to the information online, after graduating from university he became one of the disciples of Shofukutei Tsuruko (笑福亭鶴光), one of well-known rakugo artists, to start his rakugo career in 1998. He promoted to the futatsume rank in July 2002 and became a shin’uchi in May 2012.

    I tried to contact to him. Since he had a Twitter account, I sent a direct message to him. He replied to me soon. We talked a bit on Twitter for a while. Several months later we met face-to-face for the first time in more than 25 years. He had not changed at all since we saw in the junior high.

    Now I sometimes go to his stage to listen to his story, and see him offstage. Last night I saw him in Shinjuku and went for a drink with him at an izakaya in the westgate area of Shinjuku. He was fine. We talked a lot. I drank too much and I have hangover this morning, though.

    I think that being friends with public figures might help me have a chance to see the celebrity world, and maybe it would even change my life.

  • Going driverless

    I used to watch Knight Rider on TV when I was a junior high school student. Knight Rider is an American TV series where a hero, Michael Knight, together with a talking self-driven car, KITT, beats the evil and sometimes has romantic experiences with a heroine of each episode. I thought that such a car was just a pipe dream at that time, but the dream will probably come true in a decade or two.

    The development of autonomous cars, or driverless cars, is widespread. Google started testing of the developing autonomous cars on public roads as Nevada state law allowed to do it and issued license plates to them in 2011. Following Google, Audi obtained the road testing license as well from the state government of Nevada in 2013. In the same year, the United Kingdom also permitted road testing of automated cars. In China, Baidu is also planning similar testing.

    Automated driving is categorized into five levels. Level 1 (hands-on) means that driver and system shares control over the vehicle, such as adaptive cruise control where the driver controls steering and the system controls speed, and parking assistance where steering is automated and speed is manual. Level 2 means hands-off, where the system takes full control of the vehicle, including accelerating, braking and steering, but the driver must still keep an eye on the vehicle’s movement in case of unprecedented failures. At level 3 (eyes off), the driver can text or watch a movie while the system is driving. At level 4 (mind off), the driver may go to sleep or leave the driver’s seat while driving. In a level 5 (steering wheel optional) autonomous car, no human interaction is required for driving.

    Some car manufacturers are releasing level 2 or 3 cars to the market. Tesla Motors, one of the leading car manufacturers, released level 2 cars with Tesla Autopilot capability in 2015. Those cars can act automatically on limited-access highways, requiring the full attention of the driver. Mercedes will add automated driving features such as an active brake assist, a steering pilot, a parking pilot, a cross-traffic assist system and braking assist on production cars by 2017. No car manufacturers today succeed in making level 4 or 5 cars.

    There are some hurdles to achieve the development of level 4 or higher. Possible software bugs may lead to sudden malfunction and put drivers and passengers at risk of a traffic accident. Crackers may hack the system and do some destructive actions. Laws and regulations should be properly arranged by politicians knowing well about an autonomous driving system to cope with possible problems it may cause.

    In spite of these hurdles, things are going step by step. The development of artificial intelligence, or AI, also helps the automated driving system evolve. AI is being wiser and wiser over time. AI being installed in the system will dramatically quicken their pace of evolution. I think some car manufacturers will achieve the development of level 4 cars or higher in a few years. We know the rapid growth of the internet and smartphones. We know that the world was changed to what nobody had even imagined 15 years before. That will be true to automated cars.

    In the world where cars are fully automated, traditional cars will be removed from the roads, because such cars that cannot follow the new order of the traffic will be nothing but obstructions. Driving such cars manually will be totally banned. Driving (or letting the car drive) will be just a means of moving, not fun.

    What should such people who love maneuvers of a traditional, manual-driven car do? Such cars will be parked at dedicated paddocks to play them within a restricted area such as circuits or off-road trails, just as today’s motorsport drivers do. Driving a car will be just one of hobbies like hiking, hunting, yacht sailing, golfing, or fishing. The day when you can handle your car anywhere by yourself will be over.

    Autonomous cars will change the world a great deal. You will think the change might be strange or uncomfortable, but you will have to adapt to it since nobody hasn’t stopped any changes of the times ever before.