Cameron Beccario : Japan

Installing Japanese Keyboards on Windows XP

cambecc — Tue, 25 Jan 2005 01:32:00 GMT

A little while back I bought a Japanese keyboard to use with my laptop while docked. It's a Microsoft Basic Keyboard 1.0A, with 109 keys. Not only does it have more keys than a standard US keyboard, but the layout is slightly different (such as the location of the apostrophe ' and at-symbol @ keys). To enable this layout in the US version of Windows XP, I configured IME by adding the Japanese keyboard layout to the Japanese input language service. Unfortunately, this didn't work. A bit of searching turned up this very helpful page written by Michael Eng for installing Japanese keyboards on Windows XP (scroll down to the bottom of the page since it also contains instructions for NT4 and Win2k).

Not only must you add the Japanese layout to IME, but you must also install a Japanese keyboard driver. Here's the set of instructions, updated to Windows XP SP2. Of course, use at your own risk.

1. Navigate to Start->Control Panel->Keyboard
2. On the Hardware tab, click Properties (note that the current driver is probably "Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard")
3. On the Driver tab, click Update Driver...
4. The Hardware Update Wizard launches. When it asks if Windows can connect to Windows Update to search for software, select "No, not this time" and click Next
5. Select "Install from a list or specific location (Advanced)" and click Next
6. Select "Don't search. I will choose the driver to install" and click Next
7. Uncheck "Show compatible hardware"
8. Select "Japanese PS/2 Keyboard (106/109 Key)" from the manufacturer "(Standard keyboards)" and click Next
9. Click Yes to continue with the installation when the warning about installing incompatible device drivers appears
10. Click Yes to continue with the installation when the warning about replacing PS/2 mouse port drivers appears
11. Click Finish and reboot

A friend of mine said he didn't need to jump through these hoops, that his Japanese keyboard worked out of the box on his US WinXP machine. Not so in my case. It's interesting that step 7 is required; Windows seems unable to detect that I have attached a Japanese keyboard. In fact, if Windows could detect it, this whole workaround probably wouldn't be needed.

Outsider's Eyes

cambecc — Sun, 02 Jan 2005 06:32:00 GMT

It may sound strange, but odd-numbered years always bring me better fortune than even-numbered years. Sorry, I won't elucidate.

I've returned to the United States for the holidays to visit family and friends. Having spent the previous 9 months living in Japan, I've wondered how this experience has changed my perception of the US. What would I see differently with outsider's eyes?

First thing that struck me is the disproportionate amount of over-the-counter/prescription drug commercials on TV. No matter what ails you, it seems there's a drug to help.

If English is the national obsession of Japan, then dieting must be the national obsession of the United States. I realized this when drinking some diet orange juice for breakfast. Diet *orange juice*? It seems everything comes in a diet form these days. Furthermore, newscasts report the latest findings on diet science, diet technology, diet success stories, etc., etc. Don't forget the commercials for exercise equipment, dieting books, and dieting drugs (see above).

Speaking of diet, American cuisine is drenched with dairy products. Not that I'm complaining; I love dairy. Fried cheese anyone?

It seems 1 out of 10 cars has a magnetic "hero-ribbon" or "flag-ribbon" stuck to it.

In Japan, the ambient noise is loud and the people will rarely tell you exactly what they think. In the US, the people are loud and usually tell you exactly what they think (about you).

America contains people who think voting for George W. Bush was a good idea. As far as I can tell, Japan does not.

Finally, the American lifestyle is luxurious. Living spaces are huge. Transportation is super-convenient, assuming you own a car, and cheap (if I wanted to drive 45 km on the highway in Japan, it would cost me $14 in tolls). Food is cheap and portions are large. Also, houses can be heated all day long. In Japan, I can afford to heat my bedroom, but not my kitchen or bathroom. This makes for some really cold showers in the morning (which perhaps partly explains why Japanese prefer to bathe at night).

TechEd Impressions

cambecc — Thu, 09 Sep 2004 02:27:00 GMT

I've finished my last session for the day here at TechEd. Right now I'm staring out over Yokohama Bay where the expansive Yokohama Bay Bridge dominates the view.

I attended the VB 2005 session this afternoon to see what the audience was like and what kind of topics were discussed. The room, which sits about 1200, was probably 1/3 full (the same was true for the C# session immediately following). The presentation started out with demos of new language features such as My, unsigned types, operator overloading, and generics, and ended up discussing application settings and project related improvements. I sometimes forget that there is so much more to VB than the core language. The VB language and IDE team (the folks who do Intellisense, Edit & Continue, etc.) at Microsoft has historically been around 10 people in size, but there are 20 to 30 other developers in VB working on vital features such as Data, Project, and Deployment.

Talked with a few attendees after the session and asked what they thought about the new features in VB 2005. The favorite by far was Edit & Continue. I asked about Refactoring (prominently featured in C#) and the reception was lukewarm. My Japanese isn't good enough, so I couldn't figure out the reason why.

I am surprised with how many women are attending TechEd, and I don't know whether it's Japan or a general industry trend (maybe not). We, society as a whole, need more women working in IT. The industry simply cannot grow and innovate if 50% of society's intelligence resources aren't significantly involved.

More to follow tomorrow.

Tech･Ed 2004 Yokohama

cambecc — Sun, 05 Sep 2004 22:41:00 GMT

This week I will be attending TechEd 2004 Yokohama. The event runs from Tuesday, Sept. 7th, but I'll be heading out on Wednesday in time to attend the VB and C# sessions. Not sure exactly what to expect since everything will be in Japanese (I still feel like an absolute beginner despite my efforts to learn the language over the past five months), but I'm looking forward to it. If you're attending too, drop me a note. Hope to see you there!

Sumo

cambecc — Tue, 13 Jul 2004 04:27:00 GMT

A week ago three classmates and I went to the Nagoya Sumo tournament and the experience was simply amazing. For those of you who think Sumo wrestling is a bunch of obese half-naked men pushing each other around, well... you're right. But that's about as useful a definition as "a lot of men on bikes" for the Tour de France or "hitting a ball with a stick and running around" for the World Series. Sumo is so much more than this simplistic definition. Quoting from the booklet handed out during the tournament (published by Nihon-Sumo-Kyokai, Japan Sumo Association): "According to Japanese legend the very origin of [the Japanese people] depended on the outcome of a sumo match. ...Apart from legend, however, sumo is an ancient sport dating back some 1500 years. ...The first sumo matches were a form of ritual dedicated to the gods.... Later in the hands of the samurai, jujitsu was developed as an offshoot of sumo." In other words, this is a sport steeped in history, tradition and ritual, and should not be confused for other forms of wrestling.

A Sumo tournament (there are 6 held yearly) lasts 15 days. Since we attended the second day of matches, tickets were easier to find. We would have liked to attend the final day, when winners are determined, but tickets had sold out quickly. I believe matches start at 9 am but we showed up at 10 am and found a mostly empty hall, perhaps 12 other spectators. This suited us just fine because we could watch the lower-ranked rikishi, or wrestlers, compete. (Higher-ranking bouts occur at the end of the day). Since there are no weight-limitations in sumo, we sometimes saw huge rikishi matched against astonishingly small opponents. It was awesome.

The day progressed and more spectators filtered in. At lunchtime they served chanko nabe, a delicious throw-everything-into-a-pot-and-stir soup that rikishi eat to fatten up. As we headed down to grab lunch, we didn't realize we would soon be featured on Japanese national television.

It turns out that this day was the first day that chanko nabe had ever been served at a Nagoya Sumo tournament. We didn't know this and so were quite surprised to find a throng of TV camera people and photographers documenting the entire chanko nabe purchase and ingestion affair. As I placed my 300 yen on the counter and waited for my bowl of caloried goodness, I couldn't help but feel somewhat sheepish as photographers snapped photo after photo...of me...waiting...for a bowl of soup. But it was very much worth it. The chanko nabe was simply excellent.

As we ate, we were approached by a reporter from NHK (the Japanese equivalent of NBC/CBS/ABC/PBS rolled into one). She asked us what we thought about the soup and we all said "oishii" (delicious) and meant it. One of us got adventurous and *gasp* actually used a grammatical construction: "futoku narimasu" which my friend wishes meant "Superb; the konyaku nicely accents the chicken" but instead means "I will become fat", and requires conjugation of the adjective "fat" combined with the polite form of the verb "to become".

(Let me go out on a limb and make a huge, broad, sweeping generalization and say that Japanese people, no Asian cultures, adore food. After sampling first hand the culinary delights to be found over here, I desperately wish the United States had a similar passion. Alas, we have only The Food Network. In Japan, every broadcast channel is kinda like The Food Network, except in Japanese and features more fish.)

Later that night our pictures and actual spoken words were featured on NHK news and shown again two days later (but that time featuring only my friend exclaiming "I will become fat").

As the tournament drew to a climax, the arena filled up further but not as much as we expected. We got to see Asashoryu (the top rikishi) beat Kokkai. There was much rejoicing. My Taiwanese friend kept saying "he's strong" and "I like Asashoryu", which gives you a rough idea of where we are, grammatically, among friends outside of class.

After the tournament ended at 6 PM, we headed out to eat miso katsu and again there was much rejoicing. And for a very brief instant I thought to myself, if I eat enough I too could become a Sumo wrestler.

Tokyo Trip Report: the Java-in-Japan question

cambecc — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 08:07:00 GMT

Had a great time in Tokyo last week. Used Freespot to find some places with free wireless access, among them Cafe la Voie and Mixing Cafe. Also went to a meeting of the Tokyo PC Users Group where I heard an enjoyable presentation on the application of the electromagnetic spectrum to weapons technology. Spent some time in Roppongi Hills, which is just absolutely amazing in its vision, style, and labyrinthine layout. (And convinced me once again that wealth knows no boundary). Finally, I had a great talk with Yuki Ito (official Nice Person in my book) about user groups, Visual Basic, Java, and a slew of other topics. Why is it that Java is so popular in Japan? I like to gauge a technology's popularity by the number of books for sale. While browsing the stacks at Kinokuniya (a book store), I noticed one shelf of books for .Net, one for VB, two for C/C++, and six for Java. Perhaps more telling, the aisle was full of people reading the Java books. Talking with Yuki, it seems .Net usage is growing extremely quickly, but no doubt it has a lot of catching up to do (since .Net is still "new" in Japan). What happened?

Tokyo

cambecc — Wed, 23 Jun 2004 04:36:00 GMT

After three grueling months of Japanese language study, I'm ready for a break. Thankfully, summer vacation is coming! All next week I will relax in the quiet and peaceful expanse called Tokyo. But what to do? Cool cafés, restaurants, shops... any suggestions? I want to skip the major tourist attractions. Perhaps there is a .Net user's group that meets around then (which the Visual Basic Users Group Japan seems to, but I don't know enough Japanese to tell where).

Life in Japan

cambecc — Thu, 29 Apr 2004 00:24:00 GMT

(Next post will be about VB, honest! :)

So far I've had 15 days of Japanese language class. I try really hard to refrain from using English when in the building, but sometimes it's necessary. There's only so far a conversation can go when the participants only know how to say "I ate food yesterday" and "Where is the toilet?" Out of classes A through K where A is the top class, I was placed in J class. That's not bad for me because I've been filling-in quite a few holes in my knowledge. By next March I hope to have graduated-up several classes.

In Japan, there's stuff written everywhere. Millions of signs, characters, exclamation marks and bright colors assaulting your senses. I realized this just now. Maybe the US is the same way--I never noticed in my 28 years I spent living there. Leave it to another country to show you how much you don't know about your own country.

Stores and TV shows seemed to be obsessed with "The Girl from Ipanema". I've heard various renditions in a garden shop, a 100-yen store, a household goods shop, and on TV programs. Now that I think about it, background music is much more prevalent here. At the grocery store I frequent, poppish instrumental covers of 80's soft rock hits blare in the background while I peruse the mushrooms, pickled vegetables, and extensive fish selection. The same is true of the US as well, but usually in a subdued manner. Everything is just louder here.

I mentioned grocery stores; these are fascinating. The selection is enormous and everything comes so nicely packaged. Being Asia, much of the produce is vegetables I've never seen before, let alone tasted. I saw something which looked like a cucumber/eggplant with spikes. The small bags of gelatinous seaweed were interesting but expensive. From my judgment, Japan is an onion and mushroom lover's paradise. Pickle lover's paradise, too. Rice comes in all forms, and you can choose between several prefectures' offerings. I chose Aichi-ken because that's where I live. Last week I was at the grocery store and one of the employees there who was trying to sell stuff (i.e., the people with the free samples) shoved some stuff into my hand and said "oishii" which in Japanese means "tasty". It was a bunch of small whole fish about 2 cm long and a couple mm thick. I stuck them in my mouth, chewed, and they weren't so bad. :)

Convenience stores in Japan are actually convenient. They sell not only junk food and beer (the extent of American stores), but dress shirts, gift boxes, fax service, yogurt, baked goods, silverware, tools, music, and pretty much everything else the standard household may need. You can even pay your utility bills at the counter. However, they don't sell gasoline. You have to go to a gas shop for that which isn't convenient at all. It's also $4 per gallon.

There's a convenience store just down the road from my apartment. Every time I go in, someone is cleaning the floor. And "The Girl from Ipanema" is playing in the background.

I've met quite a few people here, some Americans, a surprising number of Swiss, an Australian, Icelander, Spaniard, Chinese, Korean, Taiwanese, German, Britain, etc.

Three-prong electrical plugs are not common in Japan; just two-prong with no ground. When an appliance needs ground, it comes with a wire which you attach to a special grounding-point in the wall's electrical outlet (assuming it has one). To complicate matters further, eastern Japan, such as Tokyo, runs on 50 Hz AC whereas western Japan, where I live, runs on 60 Hz AC. Thankfully, most of my power supplies handle 100-240 V, 50-60 Hz.

There's a driving school behind my apartment with a driving course of various obstacles and intersections; a place for parallel parking, a straightaway for driving at high speed, a railroad crossing complete with draw-arm and warning bells. I woke up one day to the sound of jack hammering and trucks. What? Yes, road construction. Seems the school needed to make some road repairs.

Medical costs in Japan are not expensive, and many people have national health insurance. A one-year premium cost me 8000 JPY ($73). After a trip to the hospital for a bad cold, the total bill, including medication, was 7700 JPY ($71). That's before health insurance paid 80%. A similar bill in the US would be $300-$400, and many people have no health insurance.

One note: if coming to Japan to study, make sure you decide upon and learn the katakana spelling of your name. When applying for health insurance and the foreign resident registration card, I needed to write the katakana representation of my name, roughly Beh-kya-rio Kya-meh-ron. Since I came to Japan to learn Japanese and not the other way around, I goofed on the application and wrote Beh-ka-ri-hoo Kya-meh-ron, which is now my official name as far as the Japanese government is concerned. Whoops.

Transferring money to Japan can be costly depending on the method. I did a bank transfer for my initial tuition payment and paid a $30 fee plus a 4.1% premium over that day's $/JPY exchange rate. Ouch. (What did I do wrong? Other people say bank transfers are the best.) Credit cards are cheaper, but not great. While there's no fee, I paid a 2.37% premium on the exchange rate; better than the airport money exchange at least. By far the least costly way to transfer money from the US to Japan is by using the Post Office ATMs. I was surprised to discover a premium of only 0.07%. This might as well be no premium at all given the day-to-day fluctuations of the exchange market. I haven't tried traveler's cheques yet, but the post office already beats them since I paid a 1% (or 2%?) charge during purchase.