Japan - April 2014

This April I went to Japan for the first time with my family. It was a very intensive trip. 9 nights, 3 hotels, 6 cities: Tokyo, Osaka, Hiroshima, Kyoto, Nara, Nagoya. We had Japanese Railways passes for 7 days.

We met many friendly Japanese who came up to us and gave us sightseeing tips: in Nagoya, in Nara, in Tokyo. We met volunteer guides in Ueno Park and in Tokyo Edo Museum. Thank you!

We flew with a budget airline for the first time - JetStar - and it was quite a pleasant experience compared to a full-service airline. People who wanted airline food, bought airline food, people who needed to check-in many bags paid per bag and per weight, people who wanted extra in-flight entertainment leased iPads loaded with movies and games. People who wanted a window seat - like me, paid for the privilege. I especially liked the food part - in full service airlines the serving of the food is a logistical nightmare for the crew and passengers - it takes long, corridors are blocked, you are woken up just when you have managed to fall asleep, it is very uncomfortable to eat with your elbows in your belly, the trays with rubbish block your exit for a long time after the meal. In a budget airline the whole thing is a breeze. The few passengers who ordered meals get served, and we are done.

The only unpleasant surprise was that the window seat that I picked online didn't have a good view - the wings of the plane were in the way - I thought the wings were in a different place when I was booking the seats on the website. Next time, I will look more carefully and maybe check seatguru.com to confirm the layout of the plane.

Nara - the biggest wooden temple in the world. 

Reminds me of a helmet with horns.

Nara - old ladies and little girls, beware of the deer! 

The deer in Nara used to be sacred - 400 years ago there was a death penalty for killing them.

Kyoto - looking pretty in kimonos.

Kyoto - the temple behind the big gate.

Buy and pray. The proceeds go to the temple.

"Trees" of unwanted horoscopes. 

The rain and wind are supposed to dispose of them. It works like this: you go to a buddhist temple, leave a small coin, shake a hexagonal box and pull a stick from it, the stick has a number, you find a horoscope with that number, if you like the horoscope you keep it, if you don't like it, you attach it to this white "tree" outside.

Huge blocks of flats near Tokyo.

Between Nagoya and Osaka - a grim block of flats. Brrr.

Osaka.

Obviously there is no law that regulates distances between buildings in Japan. Or if there is, it specifies them in millimetres.

What I did on the train.

I was learning to read Kanji characters. I could read all characters in "eating and drinking forbidden" by the end of the trip (4 characters: to eat: rice cooked over fire, under a roof; to drink: to eat + person with mouth wide open; prohibited: you will end up on a sacrificial altar if you enter King's forest; stop: a foot). Len Walsh's "Read Japanese Today" is great.

A big rubbish bin.

Modern art in front of the Toyoko-Inn in Shinagawa. You will find almost no normal rubbish bins in Tokyo. No rubbish either. When you buy an ice-cream, unwrap it right away at the store, there should be a rubbish bin there. Sometimes you can find them next to vending machines too. That's it. 

Legoland Discovery Center 

Legoland Discovery Center in Tokyo is located in the Decks Mall. It's a small place, but our 7 year old liked it. What I did not like was that they sold us a Lego set for a price about 50% higher than in a department store we visited the next day.

A piece of art - a manhole in Tokyo with a fire-turtle.

Tokyo Ueno Zoo - otter exhibit.

A view towards Mt Fuji from the Tokyo Government Building.

On a very clear day (read: no rain, few cars, windy) we would be able to see Mt Fuji easily.

Tokyo Edo Museum

The Kanji sign above the word STOP originated from a drawing of a foot. 

The document of surrender of Japan in WW II.

The funny thing is that the Canadian representative signed it in a wrong place: under, instead of above the line, and all following labels had to be corrected. 

Modern and green Tokyo city scape near Shinagawa station.

Gundam robot statue (I hope) in Tokyo. 

There are many types of high speed trains in Japan - the Shinkansen.

Shinkansen Series 0

First Shinkansen travelled the Tokyo Osaka route in 3 hours. Its maximum speed was 220 km/h. An interesting fact about Shinkansen seats: do you know why you are always seating towards the direction of travel? The same reason why you have so much space for your knees and the folding table: because when the 400m long train arrives at its destination, it does not turn around in a loop, but instead somebody turns every set of seats 180 degrees with one flick of a hand. A team of two prepares a carriage for another journey in about a minute. In addition to turning all seats, they dust all seats and the floor, replace head rest cloths (antimacassars), open window blinds, and put seats in up-right position.

Tokyo Osaka route

In 2014 Shinkansen travels Tokyo Osaka route usually in 2 hours 30 minutes with maximum speed of 270 km/h. It can go a bit faster: 285 km/h but it doesn't on this line. Using a JR pass you cannot take the fastest non-stop Nozomi services. The fastest you can take - Hikari - needs 3 hours for this trip. Beware of Kodoma trains - they stop at every station and your journey will very likely take twice as long.

A few thoughts about JR passes: they are very good value: a return trip between Tokyo and Osaka costs as much as a 7 day pass, but they are quite inconvenient to obtain and use: usually you fill a form and order them online, then vouchers are mailed to you (you can buy vouchers at some airports - Cairns for example), then you need to go to a JR office when you arrive in Japan, where you need to fill another form, wait in line - up to an hour when there are 4 people in front of you, present the voucher, and your passport, and get the pass. The pass does not fit in a wallet - it is a size of a booklet. You need to present it to a railway official every time you enter and leave a station - you cannot use automatic gates. The pass is not valid for Nozomi and Mizuho trains, which are the most common at peak times. You may need to wait for a Hikari train up to 1 hour. Still, JR pass is a bargain. Use hyperdia.com or maps.google.com to check train times and prices.

JR recommends getting seat reservations for Shinkansen trips: the problem is that when you arrive at a station 15 minutes before departure there may not be enough time to get it, or you may be told that there are no more seats available. Don't despair, go to the platform, find the section where cars with unreserved seats stop and get in line. There is a very good chance that you will have a seat.

Current frequency in Japan

Funny fact: western Japan uses 60Hz current, eastern Japan uses 50Hz current. Both use 100V and North American style plugs.

Line up of JR Central Shinkansen - Railway Museum in Nagoya.

Evolution of EMUs.

Shinkansen, like many other Japanese products, was an evolution of earlier designs, which can be seen in this picture.

Funny thing - locks for umbrellas.

Nagoya port

All these Toyota pick-ups will probably be shipped to America. There are two Toyota museums in Nagoya and also there is a Toyota factory tour. Did not book the factory tour - not enough time.

Nagoya - a newly re-created part of the castle. Beautiful.

Mt Fuji captured from Shinkansen 

Look at the angle of the closest pole - is it leaning because the view was changing faster than my camera's rate of reading pixels? If so, then knowing the time needed to read one pixel, the resolution of this picture, the height of the pole, and the distance to it from my camera, I could calculate the speed of the train.

In Gold Coast we have quiet cars, in Osaka they have Women Only cars.

Hello snake. 

Different kinds of paint, same body part.

We visited Mazda Museum in Hiroshima and took the factory tour. No pictures allowed. The factory was not fully automated. It had very few robots in the section for visitors. It was very packed and loud. You wouldn't want to work there. Since the assembly is manual, mistakes happen. I saw a worker dropping a nut somewhere into a half-assembled car. He found it and screwed it in. Good for the owner of that Mazda. My Australian made Toyota has a part lost somewhere under the floor. I can hear it rolling every time I take a turn, but only when it is warm outside. Why?

Re-built Hiroshima Castle. 

The original was destroyed by the A-bomb in 1945.

Did you know about dummy A-bombs? I did not.

Before the A-bomb.

After the A-bomb.

A-dome history

A piece of trivia - the notorious Hiroshima A-dome building was designed by a Czech architect Jan Letzel.

An old tram in Hiroshima. 

Beware of people with bicycles in Hiroshima! Why is this guy chasing me?

A block of flats with a parking lot under and around it. 

In Europe these buildings are usually surrounded by green spaces. In Japan a green flat area is a luxury. On the other hand, the land seems to be either flat and completely built up or used for agriculture, or hilly/mountainous and left alone for the trees to grow in peace.

A Korean bronze shoe from the 6th century AD - Tokyo National Museum.

Buddha triad - 12th-13th century, Cambodia. 

It turns out many religions have triads or trinities.

Ukraine, 12 March 2014

Putin does not want to negotiate about Crimea. He does not talk with the current Ukrainian government. He repeats his version of events to those he talks to. He is still lying about Russian troops not taking part in the events in the Crimea. It's a blatant lie. I wonder what Russians think about it. They must know it too.

Crimea is controlled by Russia. That's a fact. Crimea will become part of Russia officially in a few days. The remaining troops loyal to Ukraine will be treated as foreign forces, and will be attacked.

What should Ukraine do? If I was the Ukrainian government, to protect life, and the remaining parts of the Ukraine, I would ask the loyal Ukrainian troops in Crimea to surrender weapons. I would seal the borders with Russia and Crimea. I would delegalise far-right parties in Ukraine. I would have referendums in eastern parts of Ukraine - if they want to join Russia too, let them go. Ukraine, and the people living in its borders currently will be stronger, better off, and most importantly alive, if they go their own ways. There is no point in starting a war for a line on a map. Putin will not live forever and Russia may have a democratic government in the future. Until then we live and wait.

Ukraine, 2 March 2014

I hope no more people die for political reasons in Ukraine. I hope the Ukrainian government stands the ground and does not let itself get provoked. Putin's Russia is the aggressor here in political terms. His armed men are taking control of Crimea, which is politically part of Ukraine.

What should Ukraine do? Talk. Negotiate. Get the European Union, China, and the U.S. to convince Putin to talk. Make it clear for Putin that it is cheaper for Russia to negotiate a deal than to suffer sanctions.

There are Tatars, Ukrainians and Russians in Crimea. If Crimea is to become part of Russia, then Tatars living there should be given a chance to create their own country in Crimea or should be compensated to move to Ukraine. Ukrainians living in Crimea should be given similar choice. Russia has money. Let it buy Crimea. Life of innocent people is most important.

Of course, negotiating with Putin may not work. He's just breaking an agreement he made with Ukraine when it gave up its nuclear weapons. As long as Russians support Putin and the vision of an empire, there may not be much to do.

Don't Send Us Your Resume!

At a small company where I work, we had a job opening about 9 months ago (it takes a bit of time to finish writing a blog post). We were looking for a software tester of a particular kind: one that can program. Automated testing is absolutely crucial in making maintainable, good quality software.

First attempt - FAIL.
We posted a normal ad first, and in two weeks we received almost a hundred CVs/resumes. The advertised position was a 3 month contract with a very good rate, and a chance of extending.

A side note:
Although both leading job search sites: seek.com.au and mycareer.com.au ask for resumes, in Australia, the terms "CV" - Curriculum Vitae and "resume" seem to be used interchangeably in this context. In the US it's usually "resume", in Europe - "CV". Australia takes words from both cultures. In the US a CV is usually a complete career history, and a resume is a short 1-2 page version of your CV tailored to the job you are applying for. Unless you are applying for a highly visible job, for example, a CEO of an international company, a university lecturer, or something similar, you should probably send your 1-2 page resume, not 7-9 page CV.

Back to the main story:

It took me a few days to go through the submissions and identify potential candidates. It was not something I would like to do again. Here is why:

1. CVs instead of resumes.
Some of the documents were very long: 7 to 9 pages. It would take me days or weeks to read everything carefully (7 x 100 = 700 pages), so I skimmed.

2. No cover letters.
Maybe a third of submissions had cover letters. Without a cover letter it is sometimes hard to determine if you are applying for a job with us, or if you submitted your resume by mistake. A short cover letter helps me get interested in your resume.

3. Missing information.
Many candidates did not include their address. I did not know if they were local or not. Many did not provide addresses (city, country) of their employers. I did not know which country they worked in. A few did not provide e-mail addresses or phone numbers.

4. Inappropriate information.
At that stage I am not interested in your visa or passport number, I assume you have the right to work in Australia if you are applying for a job in Australia, if not, please say so in your cover letter. You definitely should not include your picture, unless you are applying for a job as an actor, TV presenter, or a model. :-)

5. Language errors.
Good communication skills don't need to be advertised, they are self-evident. In some jobs they don't matter much, in others they are crucial, but a resume must not have glaring errors, and no, it is not enough to run a spellchecker.

6. Multiple submissions.
Not keeping track of where you applied and sending your resume twice for the same ad doesn't look good. It's not about quantity, it's about quality.

Initially, I planned on confirming every submission by e-mail, and then informing every candidate about their status, but after the first five I realised that I did not have time for that. Sorry. The reality is: if the employer is interested in you, they will probably contact you quite quickly. Some organisations take long though, weeks or even months.

From the 100 candidates we selected 10. We asked them to complete a simple programming task in Sikuli and Robot Framework. At home. Time given: we were prepared to wait a few days.

Only one candidate completed the task, but not very well, half of the code worked, the other half had a sneaky bug that made it look like it worked, but in reality it didn't. We still would consider that candidate, but he was not readily available - he was in India, and he had other commitments at that time - we needed someone quickly. The others, well, the main excuses were: "the task is too hard", and "I had no experience with that technology" -  the technology was listed in the ad, so there was time to check it out, and we did not require being a master in it. Quite the opposite, we assumed no candidate worked with it before. One candidate misunderstood instructions, couldn't do it, and then started whinging. That's probably the worst you can do. Positive "can do" attitude, courtesy, and ability to learn quickly are very important.

Second attempt - PASS.
My project manager is a bit of a cowboy sometimes (the "quick on the trigger" type), so seeing that the first ad, prepared carefully by our boss, was not working, he took a risk, wrote another ad, and using his own money posted it. The new ad's headline?

"Don't Send Us Your Resume!"

The ad asked candidates to NOT send their resumes, but instead it had a link to the programming task. That obviously did not stop a few people from sending their resumes. Seriously, sending your resume off without reading the ad carefully, doesn't increase your chances of finding a job. It just shows your carelessness.

After two days we had the first submission, by a local software engineering student looking for a part time job. A few days later, we had another, by a French software developer who was on a working holiday visa, working on a farm nearby. Both started working with us within days, and they are still with us 9 months later.

Mosaic by Diane Armstrong

Mosaic - A Chronicle of Five Generations by Diane Armstrong

Diane Armstrong was born Danuta Baldinger in July 1939 in Kraków, less than two months before the outbreak of World War II. Her father wanted to call her Diana, but the registration clerk did not let him. Children of Polish citizens usually must have names considered Polish at the time of registration. Exceptions are made when one parent is a foreigner. Today, the name "Diana" would not be a problem, but back in 1939 it was not considered a Polish name. A side note: I am actually assuming here that the author was born Danuta. In the family tree and throughout the book she uses the name Danusia, but I haven't heard about anyone who would have the diminutive form as the official name.

"At home [in Australia] my parents spoke Polish to each other, but soon I was replying in English. Changing your language in childhood is not just a linguistic loss. Apart from losing a world of subtleties, nuances and connotations of the words themselves, you also lose part of yourself. Language and culture influence the way you form thoughts and express feelings. English is more concise, blunt and matter-of-fact; it has a larger vocabulary but a smaller range of emotional expression than Polish, which is the language of affection. Nowhere is this contrast more obvious than in people's first names. While in English we truncate them into impersonal monosyllables devoid of tenderness, in Polish names are lengthened by endings which in themselves are endearments. Danuta, for instance, became affectionately softened to Danutka, Danusia, Danushka and Daneczka."

Mosaic is a story of the author's family. Starting in Kraków in 1890 and ending in 1990s in Australia. The story is mostly chronological, but it is freely jumping through time, and between people and places. Without an index and only with numbered chapters it is hard to navigate its almost 600 pages.

Danusia's personal experiences and stories told or passed in letters or memoirs by members of the extended family are augmented by well researched historical facts. Sometimes, I wished for a bit more background, but it's ok, this is not strictly a history book. For example, a quota system for Jewish students in pre-war Poland is mentioned a few times, but we don't learn much about it. Here is the starting point, if you are interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numerus_clausus#Numerus_clausus_in_Poland

We see communities that no longer exist, and homes that often still do, but with different occupants. It is a moving journey, often heartbreaking, but also uplifting. There are bad and cruel characters there, but there are also friendly ones.

"Centuries of Jewish blood runs silently and secretly through millions of Polish veins [...]"

Diane's immediate family miraculously survived the war in Poland posing as Catholic Poles. Diane's father got a false identity document in March 1942 and since then he was known as Henryk Bogusławski.

"It was hard for a Jew to find a hiding place in Poland in 1942 as for a deer to hide from a pack of wolves on a treeless plain. Our only hope of survival was to pose as Catholics, [...]"

Diane's parents told her that she was Jewish only when she was 7 years old. They migrated to Australia in 1948.

Diane's father left this grave warning shortly before his death:

"Jews should never become complacent, even in a tolerant society like Australia. All Jewish children should know that anti-Semitism can occur anywhere at any time so that they're prepared."

Official website: http://dianearmstrong.com/mosaic.htm

Sunshine Coast

Another beautiful weekend, another family camping trip. This time we went to the Sunshine Coast. The trip should have taken 2 hours by car from Gold Coast, but we spent extra 30 minutes in a traffic jam past the Gateway Bridge. Next time, we will try the toll-free route through Brisbane. We stayed in Maroochydore, or Maroochy for short. Some of the places have very peculiar names: there is Bli Bli, Mooloolaba, and even Dicky Beach. No worries.

Looking south from Cotton Tree towards Maroochy

Looking north from Cotton Tree towards Mt Coolum 

Sunshine Coast - less built up than Gold Coast

Mt Coolum from street level

Stone stairs up Mt Coolum

The steep part

The east-north view. Somewhere there should be the Clive Palmer's dino.

The south view from the top of Mt Coolum