Japan ProTip: How to fill out forms

If you're American, you probably don't think filling out forms is a big deal. If you misspell something, check the wrong box, or don't fill in a field, it's fine -- they'll figure it out.

This is NOT TRUE in Japan. Case in point: I just returned from a Japanese post office after spending far too long trying to mail in my passport renewal. I had to include an international money order with my application, and the lady at the counter scrutinized every single line to ensure absolute correctness. Address written in English? Nope, needs to be in Japanese. First name first? No, last name first. Business address on the form? Need to see your business card. If you make a mistake, you need to cross it out with two horizontal lines, then put your name stamp (hanko) or fingerprint -- on the original and the two carbon copies. And so on. All told, it took me 45 minutes to mail one letter with a $75 money order.

I had a similar experience trying to do a bank transfer at Shinsei Bank (bank transfers are used instead of checks in Japan), one of the most English-friendly banks in Tokyo (the other being Citibank). Not only did it take forever to get the form "just so" I had to come back again later because I had incorrectly categorized the destination account as Regular (futsuu) instead of whatever the other kind is. And no, they couldn't just check the other box for me; I had to come back to the branch to correct it.

So, to the Japan form-filling ProTips:
- Follow instructions completely literally. If it says, "fill out the name as it appears on your ID card," fill it out exactly in the order and character set it appears in on the card. Form fields in Japan may specify that you use roman characters, kanji, furigana (hiragana/katakana), or just katakana.
- Cross out mistakes with two horizontal lines
- If you're not sure about the right way to fill out a field, don't use common sense -- ask, because there is only one Right Way to fill out the field and it's a pain to make corrections. (see above)
- If you can't write Japanese and a form requires Japanese, you can ask the person at the counter to help you out. But it's less embarrassing if you come with a friend who can do it for you.

Anyone else have tips to share?

melody married. a blogger mourns.

My favorite Japanese singer is a Japanese-American from Hawaii named "melody." (with a period on the end). She's got an amazingly smooth, pure voice and is quite hot to boot.

The song that really got me hooked on her is "Miss You," a guest appearance with Ryohei Yamamoto on an m-flo track.



(Bonus track: miss you x baby cruising love)

I had the fortune to see her at a free live show at Tokyo Midtown last year, and while her own material is rather sedate, I enjoyed both the audio and "visual" immensely.

Late last year, she unexpectedly announced her retirement from music, saying she wanted to pursue a career in fashion design. I was, of course, devastated. Now it's come to light that she is both married and pregnant. The lucky groom: visual kei artist Miyavi (no, I don't get it either).

They were hoping to keep the marriage under wraps until April, when Miyavi was slated to leave his record label, but word leaked out in late March. Miyavi posted a expletive-laden apology to his fans for keeping them in the dark.

It sounds very much like melody. was pressured to retire due to the marriage. As melody. posted to MySpace:

We got engaged last year in May, before he went on his world tour.
Things were fine until July last year… after hours of talking with my management, i had to chose to retire.
I guess I couldn’t have two good things in life at once.
I chose my happiness as a woman, as a human being. I felt very strongly that this love is something i cant just throw away like i always did in the past.

I know that it's preferable for Asian stars to always appear to be single (gives fans like me hope!) but superstars like Namie Amuro and Utada Hikaru have both been married, had children, and divorced without having to retire. Perhaps that luxury is reserved for the highest echelon of j-pop stars?

In any case, I wish her the best and hope she can someday make music again!

(top image: toy's factory)

Viewing chinese, japanese, and korean web pages in Windows XP

Say you want to view Chinese, Japanese, or Korean web pages in Windows XP and you don't have your Windows CD handy (which is what you normally need to install the required fonts). Rather than digging through a big box of crap, you can install these fonts from Microsoft:

Japanese
Korean
Chinese Simplified
Chinese Traditional (Complicated?)

Note that this will only let you view these languages -- if you want to input them, you still need your CD.

If you have a different version of Windows (2000, Vista, etc.), follow the directions here:
Japanese
Korean
Chinese

Japan's mobile internet

Check out my post on my tech blog Spundot about Japan's mobile web -- a very different place from the internet you and I inhabit.

world famous CGM Night v4

Danny Choo and Andrew Shuttleworth put on the fourth fun edition of this Tokyo nerdfest at Nishi-Azabu's excellent Super Deluxe venue.

Among the highlights:
- Danny reveling in the glory of his new Nikon TV commercial
- Kevin Cooney (tokyocooney) announcing the launch of Jibtv, a website sharing Japanese TV with the world. Although, unfortunately, it's not available within Japan -- complain here).
- Cool demo by the CEO of EyeFi (although people were rude and talking loudly during the demo)
- People going nuts over the availability of new Poken (?)
- Jonny Li showing me how to do light painting with my D60
- Meeting Amano Ai!



(Photo: Steve Nagata)

Lotte Fit's gum and dancing in my underwear

By now you've probably all seen the way-too-catchy TV ad (or "CM" as they say here) for Lotte Fit's gum, which is a soft gum in Orbitz-style packaging. (Most gum here comes in gross hard pellets.)

The ad starts a cute idol named Nozomi, but the really cool part is the dance contest where you can make your own video to the dance. Dance moves illustrated here:


I entered my video, but it'll take a while for them to post it, so in the meantime I'll let you enjoy the one I posted myself (EDIT: They posted it, so I've updated the embed. Whoever has the most views by May 11 wins $10k and a year of gum, so please watch as many times as you can stand and tell your friends!):


Please share with your friends (http://tinyurl.com/fitsfu) and post comments on the video page.

I made this all by lonesome with a Canon iVIS (Vixia) HF10, iMovie, and a SLIK U6600 tripod. Additional helpful software: Final Cut Express (for conversion from AVC-HD) and the truly amazing freeware app MPEG Streamclip for deinterlacing and conversion. Props to Macworld for the handy tips on conversion.

Monogamy...now more than ever.

 

Seen in Taipei.