I’ve been getting a few comments on the forums about people who haven’t been able to embed videos on the forums. So, here is a little tutorial I did with the aid of Coffeebot, Olly and a few 500 milliliter cans of Kirin beer. I hope it makes sense. We use Simple Machines Forums for our forums so this tutorial should help you out if you are using the same one. I should also mention this is not necessarily an endorsement for SMF, we installed it, people joined and it’s the one we got stuck with. It’s not the worst but you might want to try the alternatives before eventually giving up and intalling this one anyway…
If there are any other tutorials that you would like to see please leave a comment at the bottom of this post.
In this week’s podcast, Waka sensei teaches us how to use the phrase 間に合う/ ma ni au / to be in time. The easiest example of this would be “電車に間に合った” densha ni ma ni atta – I was on time for the train or I made it in time for the train. This is a really useful phrase that I hear all the time.
However I was interested to learn that this in fact has another meaning I had never heard of before which means to “be enough”. For example, “お金は間に合ってる” okane wa ma ni atteru – I have enough money. This isn’t quite as common as the first usage but it is used. Enjoy the podcast.
<p><a href=”http://media.libsyn.com/media/japanese/ff20090515.mp3″>Directly download the Fun Friday MP3</a></p>
<p>On this week’s Fun Friday Podcast, I interviewed Stone River and Goldhorn, two friends of mine who have just completed a 1200km bicycle tour of Japan. Their trip started in Tokyo and took them up the east Coast of Japan to Sendai via route 6. From there they cycled north west over the mountains, through some amazing hot springs and eventually Akita. From there they took a ferry to Sapporo their final destination. </p>
<p>Judging by the silly smiles on their faces they had a great time when I met up with them in Tokyo after they had completed the trip. According to them it went very smoothly and people were very supportive and helpful along the way. Although they broke a few spokes they didn’t get a single flat tire during the entire trip. When Stone handed back my bike which I had given him for the trip I managed to get a flat within five minutes of riding home. Thanks Murphy</p>
<p>We will be adding more detailed information about their trip soon including diary entries, equipment, things to take or not and general advice for the dos and don’ts of doing cycling tours of Japan. In the mean time, here is a partial map of their progress on the tour. </p>
<h2>The Grand Tour</h2>
<p> </p>
<iframe width=”640″ height=”480″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no” marginheight=”0″ marginwidth=”0″ src=”http://www.google.com/maps/ms?source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&ie=UTF8&near=&split=1&msa=0&msid=100340913416573645891.000468d12bf8ca37698dc&ll=39.571822,140.339355&spn=8.127639,14.0625&z=6&output=embed”></iframe><br /><small>View <a href=”http://www.google.com/maps/ms?source=embed&hl=en&geocode=&ie=UTF8&near=&split=1&msa=0&msid=100340913416573645891.000468d12bf8ca37698dc&ll=39.571822,140.339355&spn=8.127639,14.0625&z=6″ style=”color:#0000FF;text-align:left”>Stone’s Tokyo to Hokkaido bike tour</a> in a larger map</small>
According to this article from NHK news, a whale has become stranded off the coast of Wakayama near the town of Tanabe. Local residents are helping to free the whale so it can swim to deeper waters. This story raised a few questions in my mind.
1) Why save the whale when this is a perfect opportunity to eat it?
2) Have the residents from Tanabe town got something against the tradition of eating whale meat?
It’s been a while since I posted a Fun Friday but here it is. This week I escaped the madness of Tokyo for the beautiful surroundings of Yamanashi at the foot of Mount Fuji at the Earth Embassy. The Earth Embassy is a cafe, organic farm and learning center focusing on sustainable lifestyles and environmentally friendly technology.
I’m here to help out with a project to build an all year green house and lodge from recycled materials over the coming summer months. I interviewed Natsuko and Jake the manager of the Earth Embassy and the green house project. We talked on various subjects including what they do and even their favorite and least favorite Japanese phrases.
To find out more please check out the following links:
