Well, this has turned out to be a good weekend. Yesterday we scaled Mt Shosha and visited the Engyō-ji Temple complex--famous for being the location of certain scenes in The Last Samurai--before venturing into an onsen for the first time. We also joined other ALTs in Himeji for a Thanskgiving dinner, and finished the day in a karaoke booth (also for the first time since our arrival in Japan). Unfortunately, further details and pictures are going to have to wait until a future post.
Today Emma is being treated to a guided tour of Kobe's shopping districts courtesy of several female members of her ESS club. I'm supposed to be occupying my time learning Japanese--but instead here I am, procrastinating, as usual. Maybe I would be able to concentrate if I was able to tune into the cricket match currently underway between Australia and Sri Lanka in Hobart, but unfortunately due to rights restrictions the ABC stream of its radio coverage of the game is only available to listeners within Australia. So I am forced to resort to the second-best option: a ball-by-ball text coverage of the match provided by cricinfo.com. For those of you who are interested, Australia currently has Sri Lanka bent over the bonnet of a Holden Commodore sedan, with their pants somewhere around their ankles (again); Australia having declared their first innings at 5 for 542 and having recently dismissed their hapless (and pantsless) opponents for 246. Interestingly, Ponting decided not to enforce the follow-on, and Jaques and Hayden are currently occupying the crease and scoring at about 5 an over.
If only the Japanese followed cricket more ardently than they do. (One good reason for this might be that it is virtually impossible to watch live cricket here, despite Japan having in recent years been elevated from Affiliate to Associate membership of the International Cricket Council.)
Cricket is played in Japan, by the way:
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Matt and Emma's (Very Brief) Guide to the Federal Election (Senate)
Emma and I have recently received our postal vote forms, and we've been discussing who we will vote for (and in what order of preference). For those JETs who are reading this, the Australian Embassy in Japan website has information on overseas voting, but you basically have a choice of either pre-poll voting at your nearest Australian consulate, voting at the Embassy or at a selection of consulates on polling day, or postal voting (a form for which is available here).
If you want detailed information on how to vote, your best bet is to consult the relevant pages at the Australian Electoral Commission website:
How to vote for a Member of the House of Representatives
How to vote for a Member of the Senate
But the long and short of it is that at the polling booth (or in the mail, if you're postal-voting), you'll receive a green House of Representatives ballot paper and a white Senate ballot paper. While on the House of Reps paper you must mark all of the boxes in order of preference, the Senate ballot paper is slightly more complicated. There you have the option of either marking all of the boxes below the big black line in order of preference, or placing a "1" in the box next to the party you want to vote for above the line (leaving all other boxes unmarked).
Now, remember: Australia has a preferential voting system, and this includes voting for Members of the Senate. Each party (actually each "group" on the Senate ballot paper: candidates for a particular political party are grouped together, but so also are some independents) lodges with the AEC a full ticket of preferences to all candidates who appear on the ballot paper. It's called a group ticket. Why is this important? Because if you vote above the line, you're consenting to having your preferences allocated according to the group ticket. Apparently more than 95% of voters use this option--this is why you hear of various parties doing "preference deals" and so forth--and I'm betting that relatively few of these are aware of its implications. If you're thinking of voting above the line, I suggest you take a bit of time to look at your state's group voting tickets first.
Anyway, here are the websites of the parties (and independents) that appear on this year's Senate ballot paper:
Nationals
Citizen's Electoral Council
Christian Democratic Party
Non-Custodial Parents Party (Equal Parenting)
Democratic Labor Party
Liberal
Australian Democrats
One Nation WA
Family First
Senator On-Line
Carers Alliance
Australian Labor Party
Eric Wynne (Christian Independent)
Kevin Fitzgerald (Independent)
Climate Change Coalition
Socialist Alliance
Jennifer Armstrong (Secular Party of Australia)
Michael Tan (Secular Party of Australia)
What Women Want (Australia)
Conservatives for Climate and Environment
LDP
The Greens
Richard McNaught (Independent)
Edward Dabrowski (Independent)
If you want detailed information on how to vote, your best bet is to consult the relevant pages at the Australian Electoral Commission website:
How to vote for a Member of the House of Representatives
How to vote for a Member of the Senate
But the long and short of it is that at the polling booth (or in the mail, if you're postal-voting), you'll receive a green House of Representatives ballot paper and a white Senate ballot paper. While on the House of Reps paper you must mark all of the boxes in order of preference, the Senate ballot paper is slightly more complicated. There you have the option of either marking all of the boxes below the big black line in order of preference, or placing a "1" in the box next to the party you want to vote for above the line (leaving all other boxes unmarked).
Now, remember: Australia has a preferential voting system, and this includes voting for Members of the Senate. Each party (actually each "group" on the Senate ballot paper: candidates for a particular political party are grouped together, but so also are some independents) lodges with the AEC a full ticket of preferences to all candidates who appear on the ballot paper. It's called a group ticket. Why is this important? Because if you vote above the line, you're consenting to having your preferences allocated according to the group ticket. Apparently more than 95% of voters use this option--this is why you hear of various parties doing "preference deals" and so forth--and I'm betting that relatively few of these are aware of its implications. If you're thinking of voting above the line, I suggest you take a bit of time to look at your state's group voting tickets first.
Anyway, here are the websites of the parties (and independents) that appear on this year's Senate ballot paper:
Nationals
Citizen's Electoral Council
Christian Democratic Party
Non-Custodial Parents Party (Equal Parenting)
Democratic Labor Party
Liberal
Australian Democrats
One Nation WA
Family First
Senator On-Line
Carers Alliance
Australian Labor Party
Eric Wynne (Christian Independent)
Kevin Fitzgerald (Independent)
Climate Change Coalition
Socialist Alliance
Jennifer Armstrong (Secular Party of Australia)
Michael Tan (Secular Party of Australia)
What Women Want (Australia)
Conservatives for Climate and Environment
LDP
The Greens
Richard McNaught (Independent)
Edward Dabrowski (Independent)
Friday, November 9, 2007
Oh yeah: the blog header
. . . hasn't worked out as well as we hoped. Anyone familiar with GIMP or Paint.Net and who might be able to suggest how we can get the text to stand out more from the image, we're all ears.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
October
OK, I have a backlog of three weekends worth of touristy adventures to get through (not including the current weekend), so here goes:
October 13-14: Akashi Planetarium
A 3 minute walk north of Hitomarumae Station on the Sanyo line (or 15 minutes east of Akashi station), this is an astronomy education centre housed in a building that looks as though it should be gracing the cover of a 50s science fiction novel. The planetarium features exhibits on the stars and planets, as well as the signs of the Zodiac and the history of timekeeping. Why the history of timekeeping? Because Akashi Planetarium stands exactly at 135 degrees east longitude, and is used to determine Japanese Standard Time. We would have gotten more out of the exhibits if we understood Japanese, but they were interesting nonetheless.
The Imax-style skyshow itself would have been more enlightening if we understood the language, but we followed as best we could. The narrator highlighted and discussed several planets and constellations visible in the northern hemisphere night sky, and at one point played a short cartoon depicting the tale of one of the Greek mythical figures for which many of the constellations are named (I forget which one), underscoring how far human astronomical knowledge has come from the days when the significance of constellations was taken seriously. After a short while I tuned out the drone of the narration, and simply allowed myself to become lost in all those stars and planets. It was very peaceful and relaxing.
The building also sports an observation tower, giving a 360 degree view of this particular corner of Hyogo—including fantastic views of Awaji Island and the bridge. You can take an elevator to the top, or you can act like you’ve got a pair and climb the spiral staircase, tracing the history of life on Earth as you go. Click here for a slideshow.
October 20-21: Sumaura Kooen/Suma Aqualife Park
When I first espied Sumaura Kooen on my first day in Kobe, I thought to myself "I'm so climbing that!" The hill (actually called Hachibuse-yama) is an outlier of the Rokko Mountains, and at 248m it dominates the skyline of the adjacent Suma and Tarumi areas. While there is the option of taking a cable-car up to the summit, we opted for one of the thickly-wooded trails that wind their way to the top, having purchased hiking boots in Perth for just this kind of activity. The hill features various ancient shrines and commands amazing views of Kobe city (and beyond) to the east, and the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge to the west. In Perth I used to spend hours on end wandering the tracks that run through Kings Park; in Sumaura I think I've found a replacement.
How to get there: take the Sanyo line to Sumaura Station. A cheaper option would be to take the JR line to Suma, then walk 15 mins. west.
Slideshows:
Climbing Sumaura
View from the summit
Sumaura area
The following day we returned to Suma to visit its well-known aquarium. (Plus we had coupons
for discount entry.) This was my first visit to an aquarium since I went to Underwater World when I was about eleven or twelve years old. Suma has many advantages over the aforementioned: it is far more reasonably-priced, its giant fish/shark/ray tank makes for one breathtaking entrance-statement, and nobody has yet slipped Suma's dolphins any happy pills, so you can still see them performing regularly. The tropical fish are amazing, and thanks to Emma's nifty camerawork (and image manipulation work) we've hopefully managed to capture that for you.
How to get there: From JR Suma Station, walk 15 mins east. In warmer months I suggest walking there along Suma Beach, which is apparently a very popular spot with the citizens of Kobe and is highly reminiscent of the beach in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (albeit minus Harold Perrineau firing pistols into the water for no apparent reason whatsoever). Take the beach route back to the station as well if you're returning in the late afternoon: it's worth it to see the sun setting over the shoulder of Hachibuse-yama. Click here for slideshow.
October 27-28: Oji Zoo
I learned something new this weekend. In fact: I learned three new things. First, while pink flamingos might be charming in a kitschy kind of way as lawn ornaments, a pen of live birds has to be one the foulest smelling things on Earth. Second, I was wrong about the first point: the foulest smelling thing on Earth has to be Japanese brown bear urine. Third, Amazonian pythons doubtless seem intimidating when encountered in the wild, but when you coop them up in a glass cage, they just look really, really bored.
Come to think of it: the same could be said for most of the animals we saw that day. That could explain why the European timberwolf, which is really just a dog in the “state of nature,” was playfully following children from window to window. On the other hand, it might have been hungry.
Click here for the slideshow.
Oji Zoo is about a 10 minute walk north of Nada Station on the JR line.
October 13-14: Akashi Planetarium
A 3 minute walk north of Hitomarumae Station on the Sanyo line (or 15 minutes east of Akashi station), this is an astronomy education centre housed in a building that looks as though it should be gracing the cover of a 50s science fiction novel. The planetarium features exhibits on the stars and planets, as well as the signs of the Zodiac and the history of timekeeping. Why the history of timekeeping? Because Akashi Planetarium stands exactly at 135 degrees east longitude, and is used to determine Japanese Standard Time. We would have gotten more out of the exhibits if we understood Japanese, but they were interesting nonetheless.The Imax-style skyshow itself would have been more enlightening if we understood the language, but we followed as best we could. The narrator highlighted and discussed several planets and constellations visible in the northern hemisphere night sky, and at one point played a short cartoon depicting the tale of one of the Greek mythical figures for which many of the constellations are named (I forget which one), underscoring how far human astronomical knowledge has come from the days when the significance of constellations was taken seriously. After a short while I tuned out the drone of the narration, and simply allowed myself to become lost in all those stars and planets. It was very peaceful and relaxing.
The building also sports an observation tower, giving a 360 degree view of this particular corner of Hyogo—including fantastic views of Awaji Island and the bridge. You can take an elevator to the top, or you can act like you’ve got a pair and climb the spiral staircase, tracing the history of life on Earth as you go. Click here for a slideshow.
October 20-21: Sumaura Kooen/Suma Aqualife Park
When I first espied Sumaura Kooen on my first day in Kobe, I thought to myself "I'm so climbing that!" The hill (actually called Hachibuse-yama) is an outlier of the Rokko Mountains, and at 248m it dominates the skyline of the adjacent Suma and Tarumi areas. While there is the option of taking a cable-car up to the summit, we opted for one of the thickly-wooded trails that wind their way to the top, having purchased hiking boots in Perth for just this kind of activity. The hill features various ancient shrines and commands amazing views of Kobe city (and beyond) to the east, and the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge to the west. In Perth I used to spend hours on end wandering the tracks that run through Kings Park; in Sumaura I think I've found a replacement.How to get there: take the Sanyo line to Sumaura Station. A cheaper option would be to take the JR line to Suma, then walk 15 mins. west.
Slideshows:
Climbing Sumaura
View from the summit
Sumaura area
The following day we returned to Suma to visit its well-known aquarium. (Plus we had coupons
for discount entry.) This was my first visit to an aquarium since I went to Underwater World when I was about eleven or twelve years old. Suma has many advantages over the aforementioned: it is far more reasonably-priced, its giant fish/shark/ray tank makes for one breathtaking entrance-statement, and nobody has yet slipped Suma's dolphins any happy pills, so you can still see them performing regularly. The tropical fish are amazing, and thanks to Emma's nifty camerawork (and image manipulation work) we've hopefully managed to capture that for you.How to get there: From JR Suma Station, walk 15 mins east. In warmer months I suggest walking there along Suma Beach, which is apparently a very popular spot with the citizens of Kobe and is highly reminiscent of the beach in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (albeit minus Harold Perrineau firing pistols into the water for no apparent reason whatsoever). Take the beach route back to the station as well if you're returning in the late afternoon: it's worth it to see the sun setting over the shoulder of Hachibuse-yama. Click here for slideshow.
October 27-28: Oji Zoo
I learned something new this weekend. In fact: I learned three new things. First, while pink flamingos might be charming in a kitschy kind of way as lawn ornaments, a pen of live birds has to be one the foulest smelling things on Earth. Second, I was wrong about the first point: the foulest smelling thing on Earth has to be Japanese brown bear urine. Third, Amazonian pythons doubtless seem intimidating when encountered in the wild, but when you coop them up in a glass cage, they just look really, really bored.Come to think of it: the same could be said for most of the animals we saw that day. That could explain why the European timberwolf, which is really just a dog in the “state of nature,” was playfully following children from window to window. On the other hand, it might have been hungry.
Click here for the slideshow.
Oji Zoo is about a 10 minute walk north of Nada Station on the JR line.
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