Microsoft support, with Japanese flavor..

I am not a fan of Microsoft. Or at least, I think Micorsoft should only concentrate on designing Windows, and office. They should leave the internet for google, the gaming hardware for Sony, and the desktop sets for Logitech. Anyhow, they usually have competitive pricing so I get tempted and buy.

A couple of months ago, 9 to be accurate, I bought MS wireless ergonomic desktop 7000. Shown in the picture. The price was right and since at home I usually use the keyboard while on the couch, I needed something to well fit my position. I can say I am satisfied.

The story begins when, as usual, MS hardware started to fail. After almost 6 months of daily usage, the keyboard stopped responding. I did everything from reinstalling drivers up to changing the batteries, and I got nothing. This totally blew me up. I paid some good money on this set and I expected them to live 3~4 years at minimum, and they did not live 12% of that period.

It was time to try and taste how customer support really works. I know for a fact that if this happened in Amman, then kiss your money goodbye since no shop will still identify you as a customer after 6 months. So I wanted to see if things go different in Japan, or rest of the world or not. According to my friends with experience in returning items in the United States, they confirmed this should be as easy as driving to the store and replacing the keyboard with a new set. I liked the idea, so I called microsoft support center in Tokyo for more information.

Eventhough I still have far-from-perfect Japanese, I was easily able to call them and tell them my problem, and hear what they have to say, all in Japanese. They offered to give assistance in English, but I refused. If I can understand 70% of what you say, they why not make use of the free practice! They understood my problem, but I did not exactly understand what they wanted me to do. They said I do not really have to come to the store, as I only have to send my malfunctioning keyboard by mail. I liked that idea, thanked them and hanged up after giving them all my information.

I could not send the keyboard for being totally busy in the lab. Three days later, my door bell rings. I open the door and its a mail from Microsoft. A big box. I open it, and its a totally new keyboard set, just like the one I have. I was shocked. I did not send them my old keyboard! This was totally surprising for me! They sent the whole package with a new mouse, eventhough my old mouse is working fine. With the package, they had a massage saying please send your old keyboard to this address. This kind of service, was totally new experience for me. Right now I had two keyboards, and I could have ran away with the two of them and gained some good money selling the mouse! On another hand, what if I called them lying about my problem, and my keyboard was just fine? How did they make sure I had a problem? How are they guaranteed I would send back my keyboard? That is something I did not understand!

Ofcourse, two days later I sent the keyboard back to Microsoft, and as they detailed in the massage, I asked the post office to make Microsoft pay for this delivery.

My new keyboard now works just fine, and I like it. I am now confident if I had any problems, it wont be a problem! This was a very nice experience.

What I missed in Tokyo..

During my time away from Tokyo, here are some of the stuff I missed:

1. The japanese female voice thanking me for choosing Tokyo metro to ride, eventhough i have no other choice!

2. The feeling of an emperor when entering a shop. Yeah, in europe they dont bow to u when u enter a shop. They dont thank you for not buying anything or just visiting their store. And when u buy, I missed the fact that the cashier uses his both hands to open the plastic bag for u not by using one hand and BLOWING inside the bag to open it coz the other hand is busy with the mobile! Yup! This is how the cashier treated me!

3. I missed paying for a 100 yen item using 100 coins of 1 yen each. I tried to pay an amount using 6 coins in Prague and I received a look I will never forget!

4. I missed strange people shaking their head to me only by walking past them.

5. I missed using the suica card, and not needing to count coins for every train ride. Using the suica card, you just put your wallet against a reader and it will read and charge your train card wirelessly.

Feels great to be back!

Europe in the eyes of a tourist..

Living in an expensive city as amman, which has a very low income/price ratio, gave me no chance of feeling like a tourist when I visited other countries. But, living in a city with a high income/price ratio with very expensive prices but yet higher incomes as Tokyo, made me see Praha (Prague) as one of the cheapest cities in the world.

Yeah! Believe it or not I even felt that the chocolate in the mini bar of the hotel room is not actually expensive! I bought a whole L size pizza, with salads and a cold drink for 1000yen (10$)! A 500ml cola is for 80yen, and a one hour bus from one city to another is 350yen!

Let us just clear some stereotypes about the Europeans:

1. Europeans are very organized and exact in time.

Nope. Far from the truth. When the bus leaves 16:04, that means its 4 minutes late. In Japan, this would never occur unless in rare occasions it was accompanied with a huge apologies. 16:00 means 16:00.

2. Europeans are so open minded and free.

Yeah right! Thats why they kept staring at me and my Japanese professor. You have never seen a Japanese person before? Yeah, I do not drink Alcohol. Yes never. Live with it and please do not keep giving me that weird look and stop whispering about it to your friends!

3. Nobody drinks Alcohol more than the Japanese.

Oh yeah, except for the Europeans. Europeans drink a beer between each two beers. And even during their working hours they drink.

4. Europe is soo clean that we wish Arab countries to be the same.

You are far from the truth here. For two years living in Japan, i did not notice 1 paper thrown carelessly in the middle of the road. That was probably the default case in Praha. Writing on the walls is so spread that you wonder how a clean wall looks like. Ofcourse, do not let me start to talk about their subways and metros! Shinjuku subway station in Tokyo (3 million visitors per day) is much cleaner than whole Praha (population of 1million). Amman also is much cleaner.

All in all, it was a very nice trip where business mixed with pleasure! Ofcourse, since my beloved university paid for all this, who am I to complain? Haha!

Speaking english is.... Weird!!

First let me state that I am no fluent in Japanese. Far from it, if u consider reading and writing. But what happened during my trip to Praha was just amazingly weird.

Since I left Tokyo and arrived Munich, I have this huge urge to speak nothing but Japanese. In Japan i would be extremely happy if I met a Japanese person who can make a conversation longer than 30sec in English, beside ofcoruse university professors. And now because I have the chance to babble in English, the words refuse to exit my mouth except in Japanese!!

In addition, English words sounded heavy on my ear and annoying too! I felt the language is slow and contains many unneeded particles. For example, I say to someone: “would you please do me the favor of buying this for me?” In English, or “kattekuremasenka” in Japanese! Yup! Short, fast, and delivers the same exact meaning you want.

After taking a break for one week from Japanese, I returned to feel that the language feels much easier, smoother and more understandable. Right now, I have no problems at all in detailed shopping, making long phone calls (like customer support calls) or understanding what my lab mates are talking about. I can also express myself and deliver the message I want to a person infront of me. In the class room, now I only ask my questions in Japanese. Ofcourse, that is in addition to daily life conversations that cause me no problems.

A strong language is defined as a language where you can express more in shorter time, or using fewer components. We say this man is a great speaker if he delivers his ideas using clear definite short words. And that is the case of Japanese compared to English.

Still, I have to apologize to the Japanese before I state, without any doubt, that Arabic is even stronger than Japanese. Since in Arabic you can express and deliver much better using much less components and in shorter time than Japanese.

I am sure now readers would be wondering why i am typing this English then.

I did not use Japanese because as I stated above I am not a fluent. And I also did not write in Arabic because simply typing in English is much faster. In addition, I have a lot of foreign readers of this blog and English would be the only suitable language for this.

Still, maybe in a couple of years I open a Japanese-language version of this blog! Who knows?!

Coming up on this blog..

Yup. Back alhamdulellah safely to Tokyo from a long tireful full-of-events-and-joy trip to Praha (Prague) in Czech Republic.

This blog is only aimed at posting helpful information about Japan. So, I will be posting about my experience in Europe, from the eye of someone living in Japan.

Thanks to Lufthansa's old planes (but really, REALY amazing customer service) there was no video on demand in my seat so I spent the time reading books, papers, playing DS and preparing posts for this blog. I have prepared the following posts I will be publishing soon, enshallah:

- Speaking English is.... Weird!

- Europe in the eyes of a tourist

- What I missed in Japan

Soon.. Just keep following!

First paper published..

In short,

I will be leaving to Prague, Czech Republic, very soon enshallah.

Through my research, I have reached to an equation that relates *cough, cough, Technical details alert* the noise in a wireless signal with the digital processor used in the receiver. I submitted this equation as a scientific paper to the 12th IEEE (Insitution of Electrical and Electronic Engineering) Symposium on Design and Diagnostics of Electronic Systems (DDECS) and it G O T A C C E P T E D!

I am so happy for such news. But, I could have never reached such results without the absolute full support of Tokyo University. They have provided everything starting from laboratory equipments ending with supervision by the professors. In addition, Tokyo University will be paying for the whole trip expenses I have to make to Prague to present my research infront of the world's scientists. I thank my god for giving me a chance to study in such a University.

Ofcourse, this full support in the University could have never had an effect except if I had another full support at home. My wife, may god bless her, has helped me all the time and always gave me the confidence I need to reach such results.

I will be detailing more about the trip soon.

AEON Laketown, a HYYUGE shopping experience..

I have been so busy the last previous months that I did not even notice such a big event in my neighbourhood. The grand opening of AEON Laketown, one of the biggest (HUGEST?) shopping malls I have ever seen in my life. From their website:

Total commercial area of approximately 220,000sq m, diverse range of 565 specialists shops and service providers all in one place! AEON Laketown is being opened as the commercial hub of a new town called Koshigaya Laketown being created by the Urban Renaissance Agency in Koshigaya City.

Koshigaya Laketown is located on the shores of a 400,000 square meter lake (Chosetsuchi) and will be home to around 22,400 people (approx. 7,000 homes) and will include detached houses, condominiums, pedestrian paths and parks. Through its innovative combination of lakeside living and an urban lifestyle the Koshigaya Laketown will be unique in Japan. The AEON Laketown shopping center is located alongside an arterial road, the East Saitama Road...

On my first visit, it took us, me and my wife, around 2 hours to "fastly" scan the place. This mall is huge and has its own JR station, only two stations away from where I live (5 minutes by train). The mall is divided into two main sections called KAZE and MORI. To only go around KAZE section, while checking out "some" of the shops, it took us more than three hours. We did not even dare to check the shops of MORI by then!

Ofcourse, needless to say that its always packed with hundreds of shoppers. But since the place is actually not-Japanese-style-shopping-mall, you do not notice or feel the crowd. This American style (or Jordanian style?) mall reminded me alot with Mecca mall in Amman, but ofcourse at least four times the size. Restaurants are all scattered on the third floor with the cenima, while other shops and brands like Zara, adidas, Gap lie on lower floors. The shops are big and, to my surprise, are not packed with items everywhere, and they do not make full use of the space as I got used to in Japan. They have items I could not find throughout Tokyo so far! For example, I could not believe it when I saw a shoe that could fit my feet, or a tux that doesnt make me feel like a giant!

As for the prices, yeah everything is a little bit more expensive inside. But its worth the while since the mall is standing on a river (lake) and just sitting there enjoying the view from the glassy walls of the mall while drinking your favourite coffee is more than enough.

Here is a video for some parts of the mall (watch in youtube for high quality):

Question: How safe is Japan?

I was reading this artice at Japan Times and found it to be very interesting. It answers the question of "How safe is Japan?" in some details.

I will post some of that article here and the rest is here.

In Japan, paper advertisements hang from the ceilings of train cars. In how many other countries would that be a viable advertising option? Certainly not in my hometown of Melbourne. Back in Australia, the majority of those ads would not survive any given Saturday night.

The buttons that train guards push to play those pre-departure jingles: They are fully exposed! Anyone can walk up and push them. And yet nobody does. They would back home in Melbourne.

The fire extinguishers frequently found sitting out by the sidewalk: No one rolls them down the hill at 3 a.m. Amazing!

Fish tanks that are less than fully secured: Oh my! Back home, the occupants of those tanks would greet the Sunday sunrise floating on their backs in a murky goo.

Valuables: When you lose your wallet in Japan, chances are you'll get it back — cash intact and cards untouched.

Salarymen asleep on the train: They are woken at the terminus with a sympathetic prod by railway staff. Inevitably, the bag containing both laptop and wallet is still resting on the overhead rack.

The last train: Hundreds of drunken people sardined into carriages and not a hint of aggression. Back home, guys would be squaring off on every second platform.

Violent crime: The average victim of violent crime in Japan is attacked by someone they know. Random violence is rare. Perhaps this explains why it is so common to see solitary girls and women wandering home on narrow, dimly lit streets — even in the wee hours in the entertainment areas of big cities.

Police apprehension: It has become apparent in the last couple of years that the average member of the Japanese constabulary is not exactly fleet of foot. Could the extraordinary number of wanted criminals who simply walk into police boxes and give themselves up be one of the reasons why?

The incarceration rate: The prison population of Japan tends to hover around the 60 out of 100,000 mark. For most Western nations it is at least twice that number. For America, more than 700.

iKnow.. Do you know?

After hitting my head against the wall for several days for not knowing about this before, here I am carrying to you one of the best news ever for Japanese language students.

iKnow.

iKnow is a free Japanese language teaching website that provides great tools and techniques to help you improve your Japanese. iKnow will help you increase your vocabulary not only for conversation purposes but also gives you a good helping hand in memorizing Kanji and building complete sentences. iKnow is suitable for beginners, intermediates and advanced students as well.

iKnow is divided into three main sections:

1. iKnow study:

iKnow study helps you in studying new vocabulary and memorizing them. iKnow gives you a chance to select your current level in Japanese and starts with you from the point where you think suits you best. This section will help you memorize around 6000 words and phrases along with their kanjis. 

As shown in the pictures below, this section first starts by introducing the new word along with its Kanji, voice pronounciation, type and meaning. Then, the program puts this word in a useful sentence, along with the sentence's pronounciation and meaning while being pronounced in voice with fluent Japanese. After you memorize a couple of words, the program will start testing you and checking if you really memorized the previous words, or not. I can no more explain this, you have to see for yourself.

2. iKnow dictation:

This section improves your listening skills along with your writing skills. A sentence, which you already have learned in the previous section, is introduced and you are asked to fill in some blanks. To do so, you have to listen to the sentence a couple of times. The picture below shows iKnow dictation.

3. iKnow BrainSpeed:

This section is like a test or a quiz for all information you have learned in the previous two sections. Its fun and can help you realize how much this learning was useful to you.

After knowing about this program, I have been using it and it totally helped me improve my Japanese and Kanji collection. You have to try it too. Try it, and post your comments about it here.

Ueno: the downtown of Tokyo

People get surprised when I tell them that I have been living in Japan for almost two years, and yet I still did not visit Ueno! But that is the truth, at least until last week.

This weekend, I finally visited Ueno, and I was surprised.

Ueno felt like Amman's downtown. Shops are scattered on both sides of the streets, where shop owners yell calling people to visit their shops, just like what happens in Amman's downtown. Shops are small and barely fit a person or two, while most of the items are stacked outside the shop itself to give a chance for passing people to buy.

There was a huge fish store in Ueno, which is actually closer to Okatchimachi. In that store all types of fish, some that I have never seen in my life, are being sold. The experience was new for me and fun to see this many types of fish. 

The great part was the suprise that many shops in Ueno sell arabic spices and goods like Hummos and Fuul. The prices were fair, eventhough they were a little bit more expensive than the prices in Saitama.

Ueno was a fun experience. If you still did not visit it, I advice you to do so ASAP.

I will leave you with the pictures.

Sorry for no-blogging

Dear readers,

I apologize for not updating my blog so often.

I am going through a critical period, study wise, and I barely have time to eat or sleep.

I thank my wife for all her support during this very tough period.

I promise you all that I will be updating often very soon, once I pass the couple of deadlines I have.

A scream from Tokyo: Stop killing people in Gaza!

A mixed group of Japanese and non-Japanese raised their voices asking for the very basic human right, the right to live, to be given to people of Gaza..

Let the whole world know who the terrorists are...

14.99 = 15.00 ?

 

What is the default facial expression that you’d receive from ANY employee in Jordan if:

1. Your bill was 1.5JD and you paid him a paper of 50JD waiting to give you back the 48.5JD change?

2. The price of an item is 14,99JD and you paid him exactly 14,99 not 15JD??

3. You asked the waiter to give you back the 2JD change without leaving any tip behind after having  a delicious meal at any respectful restaurant??!!! 

Of course if the employee was someone patient and he doesn’t usually say it direct in the face, he will only give you this bothered shocked angry blaming facial expression that is telling you ARE YOU CRAZY??!!!

Yes, it is WELL-KNOWN that we shouldn’t bother employees to look for 48.5JD change in order to give it back to us. Also, 14,99  ALWAYS means 15, who said that there is something on earth called 14,99!!! Or you had a delicious meal and you don’t even care to give this little tiny tip for the person who served you??? What a shame!!!!

These are what I’ve always thought as the default rules, or the least thing we can do as a social etiquette. And people who do such things deserve such a reaction. But for my cultural shock, the first thing I’ve learned when I came here to Japan is that those rules DO NOT apply. A client is always honored and whatever he does he should be always thanked and appreciated.

199 yen really mean 199 not 200 yen. So you should always wait for the employee to give you back your ONE and only YEN without forgetting the wide smile and the many thanks you will receive from him/her! I remember that my husband laughed out loud when I told him I want to leave the 10-yen change, it doesn’t really count as we always say for the employee it’s for you!! I discovered that if you did, the employee wouldn’t really understand what you mean!! It’s your right and you should take it.

You don’t have to be worried if you entered a taxi cab or a market for having a 10000 yen paper (almost 100$) and paying only 800 yen or even 110 yen (around 1$), on the contrary, the employee will apologize for making you wait to give you back the change!

Also, tips in Japan never exist, you only pay for what you eat and staff is meant to serve you respectfully in order to make you satisfied!!

Well, it is a cultural shock but the basic rule says 1+1=2, so in Japan it is never considered rude to say it is TWO.. (^_^*)

 

Sindbad, the ARABIAN"?" sailor...

اتا سندباد المغترب.. ابعد ابعد اقترب..

لا اهاب الموج ابدا حين يعلو و يضطرب..

Sindbad, the very VERY famous cartoon in the arabic world, talks about the story of an Iraqi kid who sails around the world.

If you were born in the 80s, then you probably grew up watching this cartoon.

To my surprise, this cartoon is actually Japanese. Yup. Its actually Japanese dubbed in Arabic. 

Nowadays when I have time, I watch the Japanese version to enjoy my childhood memories and practice my Japanese.

Check the video below..

Watching this video as a grown up, I could see the big mistakes regarding the arabic or the islamic culture. 

For example, on the first episode, people are shown praying and bending over on their knees for the king. This is neither an islamic nor an arabic behaviour because bending over is only for god.

The director of this cartoon made some effort in reading and reflecting the arabic environment, but it was not the best he could do since he could simply just avoid such simple mistakes.

Anyhow, sindbad is my favourite cartoon. Its best of the best and if you watch it you will be amazed how the story builds up. 

The WAR between Jordan and Japan..

If you think Jordan and Japan have never clashed together in a war, then you are mistaken.

Yup, I am talking about the famous war, which had Jordan fighting against Japan. The very famous one. If this is the first time you hear about it, then you have to continue reading this post.

The war was so big, that some people I know could not sleep for days after it. Other people I know, hated Japan forever (not me ofcourse!!) (^_^). Some other Jordanians decided to boycott anything Japanese! Well, it was a very sensitive, important, historical war between the two countries..

Even me, the Japan fan, feel stressed and sad whenever I remember the war..

Maybe this youtube video would express better than anything I would write..

2004, the Asian cup. The second round of the tournoment. It was the first time in history Jordan would acheive such a place in football. At around 1pm Amman time, one might think no one is living in Amman. Everyone is watching the TV. Everyone is hoping, praying, and cheering. The score ended in 1-1, full time. Its penalties turn.

As shown in the video above, the refree strangely switched the goals. This made Jordanians feel it was some kind of a trick to help them lose. After the match, Jordanians cried, yelled, even some went down the ground. I was speechless, I even had some tears in my eyes.

The next morning, Emad Hajjaj, the famous cartoonist, draw this cartoon to express how Jordanians felt about the match:

For those who dont read arabic, I will explain. The person in the middle represents all Jordanians. They want to commit suicide using the Japanese Samurai sword. Am angry business man in the back is calling Japan and yelling. On the left a guy telling his friend that Chinese products are even better than Japanese! 

For Jordanians, it was a war. A war of football game. Jordanians are peaceful people, u know? Their heaviest war is a football match, against our friends the Japanese. 

This was an unforgotable match. Even my Japanese friends still remind me with it saying "Oh, so you are from the country who couldnt score one penalty out of four?!!!!"

When they say that, I cry (T_T) .......