Job hunting in Japan البحث عن عمل في اليابان

فيديو رائع يجسد معاناه الشباب الياباني في عملية البحث عن عمل وكيف أنه في معظم الشركات على الفرد أن يفقد استقلالية شخصيته حتى يندمج مع الأغلب السائد و يجد لنفسه مكاناً في المجتمع 

A real piece of art ! 
A little bit sad and funny at the same time but his is what job hunting in Japan is mostly about.

あけおめことよろ！

平成25年になっちゃいましたー　

明けましておめでとうございます。今年もよろしくお願いします。

漢字のＫちゃんより

من نشاطات متطوعي الجايكا اليابانيين في الأردن

JICAボランティアの活動＠ヨルダン

الآنسة تومومي تعمل كمعلمة موسيقى متطوعة في إحدى مدارس الأونروا في مخيم للاجئين في اربد و فترة عملها ستمتد إلى سنتين من الآن.

من أحد الأشياء التي أخبرتني بها في لقاءاتي معها أن مادة الموسيقى في

 المدرسة كانت تعطى بشكل نظري فقط حيث تقوم الطالبات ب"حفظ" المادة النظرية من نوتات وايقاعات من غير فهم المعنى الحقيقي لها.. كما أن المدرسة لم تكن مزودة بأي آلة موسيقية تتيح للطالبات تطبيق ما يتعلمونه عملياً.

آلة الريكوردر التي تعزف عليها الطالبات في الصورة قد تم جمعها كتبرعات من طلاب المدارس الأساسية في اليابان لإستخدامها 

في المدارس التي يذهب إليها المتطوعون حيث أن العزف على هذه الآلة يعتبر الحد الادنى من الثقافة الموسيقية للمرحلة الأساسية في اليابان.

و الصورة هي لعرض أداء طالبات الصف السادس في المدرسة أمام المعلمات الأخريات بعد شهر من تعلمهم لآلة الريكوردر على يد المعلمة تومومي التي تقول بأنها سعيدة لأن الدو ري مي بالنسبة للطلاب لم تعد مجرد نصوص في كتب بل أصبحت شيئاً يستطيعون الشعور به وادراكه.

النشاطات اللامنهجية : مدارس العرب ومدارس اليابان

   . تجميع لتغريداتي على تويتر  عن النشاطات اللامنهجية

(@86kchan)

-الشباب العربي والأردني بشكل خاص لديه الكثير من الطاقات والمواهب لكن فرص تفريغها واستخدامها بشكل إيجابي قليلة جداً . 

-النشاطات اللامنهجية مهمشة جداً في معظم مدارسنا بالرغم من أهميتها في بناء شخصية الطالب خارج إطار المدرسة الضيق .

-سأبدأ سلسلة عن النشاطات اللامنهجية في مدارس #اليابان.  

1-في اليابان تولى النشاطات اللامنهجية أهمية كبيرة جداً في المدارس والجامعات . 

2-في كل مدرسة أو جامعة يوجد أندية أو مجموعات ذات إهتمام معين سواء رياضي فني أدبي أو موسيقي. كل نادي له جزء من ميزانية المدرسة لدعمه. 

3-ينضم الطالب في بداية العام إلى النادي الذي يناسب ميوله وإهتماماته. كل نادي له أوقات إجتماع للأعضاء بعد الدوام المدرسي. 

4-يأخذ الطلاب مهمات واجتماعات النادي على محمل الجد.معظمهم يقضي على الأقل ساعتين بعد الدوام في التدريب أو في نشاطات النادي

5-لذلك المدرسة بالنسبة للطالب الياباني ليست فقط مكاناً لإكتساب العلم، بل مكان لتعلم مهارات القيادة وروح الفريق. 

6-قد تجد بعض الطلاب ضعيفين أكاديمياً لكن لديهم مهارات فنية أورياضية على مستوى عال تكسبهم الثقة بالنفس والقدرة على الإندماج في المجتمع. 

7-في مدارسنا نحدد الطلاب بالخط الأكاديمي في الحياة.ولضعف النشاطات اللامنهجية يجدالطالب الضعيف أكاديمياً نفسه راسب إجتماعياً.  

8-في كل عام هناك عدة مناسبات في المدرسة يستطيع من خلالها الطلاب إستعراض مهاراتهم التي تعلموها من خلال انضمامهم للأندية 

9-هناك أيضاً إهتمام كبير بالبطولات الرياضية للمدارس على مستوى اليابان لعل من أهمها بطولة البيسبول للمدارس الثانوية. (تسمى كوشيئن)

10-كوشيئن حدث رياضي مهم جداًويتابعه البالغون وطلاب الثانوية على حد سواء. حلم كل فريق بيسبول في كل مدرسة ثانوية هو نيل المركز الأول.

11-خلاصة التغريدات السابقة:النشاطات اللامنهجية لها دور مهم في #التربية ولو تم الإهتمام بها أكثر لكان حال الوطن العربي أفضل.

12-الأمانة،اخلاص العمل،روح القيادة والإلتزام أموريجب العمل عليها منذ نعومةالأظفار. نموذج مدارس اليابان يمكن الإستفادة منه في مدارس العرب.

大好きなジャパンへ

4年半大変お世話になりましたm(__)m 今日は帰国しますが、またいつかこっちへ帰国します☆
未来で待っててねー！

Thank you Japan for the amazing 4.5 years☆Will come back for sure one day！

أمة اقرأ اليابانية

ثقافة القراءة وحب الكتب في اليابان مش طبيعية ولجميع الأعمار .. حتى الأطفال الذين لا يتجاوزون بضعة أشهر من العمر لديهم كتبهم الخاصة المصورة الزاهية.

بحب أعرفكو بهذا الكتاب وهو قصة للأطفال الكتير صغار عن -عفواً عالكلمه- الكاكا إلي بتحكي XD 

日本代表応援ソング Victory by EXILE

You hear this very often recently on radio and in convenience stores.
It's the cheering song for the Japan team in the world cup. Nice song and nice PV!



頑張れ！！日本代表～！o（＾▽＾）O

はーやく来い来いお正月～♪

あれからもう２年！

天日初来日（←自分で作った言葉）のことですね。
そう！今日は天日の初来日２周年記念日だぞ！
２００７年７月１１日は一生忘れない特別な日だった。あれからもう２年も経ってるんだーとしみじみと思った。
時間は正にあっという間なんだよね～

超ハッピーな私


太鼓の達人？ｗ

詳しくは
http://nippon86.blogspot.com/2007/08/dreams-do-come-true-1.html
http://nippon86.blogspot.com/2007/08/dreams-do-come-true-2where-is.html
http://nippon86.blogspot.com/2007/08/dreams-do-come-true-3-final-set.html

をご覧ください！
それでは！

小浜 :: OBAMA

Some few days ago, I was walking my usual morning way to the station and thinking how Japanese-like the name Obama is.
I also went as far as flipping some kanji in my mind and created a combination for the name. I thought that the combination of 大　and 浜 would be funny.
I was surprised to find later that I wasn't so far away from an actual Japanese city name!!
The actual name is just "SMALLER" than the "BIG" one I had in my mind.
See this video about the city of OBAMA(小浜).

I ate Nattou

先ほど初めて納豆を食べちゃった！全然大丈夫だった！
Believe it or not, I ate nattou for the first time in my life a while ago! It was totally ok! I don't know why its considered the ultimate challenge for foreigners regarding eating Japanese food... :D some times its said that its an indicator on how much you are used to Japan.

Read about Nattou on wikipedia here

Summer Memories 2 :ターマヤ～！隅田川花火大会

Sumidagawa Fireworks Display July 26th 2008

As I mentioned before, summer is the festivals season in Japan.
After the last Japanese language course lecture, we(class 3) decided to go to the fireworks display of Sumida River; which is considered one of the biggest and the most amazing firework displays in Japan.
花火（はなび= HANABI） means fireworks in Japanese.
The literal translation means "fire flowers".

＊＊

Usually people go to such fireworks displays in traditional Japanese Yukata and Jinbei . But you can also find a lot of people going in casual clothes.
In this festival, Firework manufacturers compete to display it's best products.
You can see fireworks shaped as Smiley, Micky mouse, Heart, Cat, Planet..etc. It was really a nice display.

＊＊

Someone we all know is being very noisy behind the camera =p

And it was a good opportunity for us as foreign students to have an all-class-go-out in traditional clothes!

Proudly introducing Class 3 members in Yukata and Jinbei.
This picture doesn't show everyone, since 2 members couldn't come that day.
And I know we do look like a group of Japanese but no one is! ^^;

Sumida River in the background

It was very very hard to find a place to sit! We arrived at 3:00 pm thinking that we were "smart" coming this early but we found out -late- that normally people come to the place very early in the morning of that day, reserve their space by marking it's boarders and writing their names by sticking tape on the ground and come back later at the display time to find their space waiting for them as they left it.

Also the stations close to the display place were very very crowded before the show. Streets near the river are closed and no cars are allowed in.
This is to accommodate the large number of people attending. You would really feel that some 2 or 3 million people were gathering in the area around the river. (2 or 3 million are nothing compared to the population of 12 million in Tokyo city alone)

I was wondering why were all these people sitting under the bridge where they can barely see anything...But when the street was closed..I understood.
I saw people holding their picnic mats and waiting VERY carefully for the policemen to give them the OK sign to advance to the street..then when the policemen gave the OK, you suddenly see them run all at once to reserve a sitting place on the street...
I was really amazed. It was truely like a scene of AL-HOSON (Takeshi's castle) Japanese game show!!（^▽^）
I wish I could have taken it on video!! But it just happened in the blink of an eye.

＊＊

It was also my first time to see "PORTABLE TOILET ROOMs" （＾▽＾） Alot of them are placed in the display area for the convenience of people.

When it was time to go back, we were stuck in the station for some time before we could finally arrive to the platform and ride the train.
And I arrived home dead tired but happy for enjoying a nice Japanese summer experience~

Pictures with ＊＊　are provided by V!W! チュウさん.

See you next post~!

Summer Memories 1 : Tanabata

Here I will start a series of posts about the events that were worth posting while I was away from my blog. I will try to finish them asap before I drown into the business of the toudaisei life.

Tanabata the star festival is an occasion based on an old Chinese story about 2 stars that are separated by the milky way but are only allowed to meet once in a year.
In this occasion people hang their wishes on a tree hoping that they will come true.
See Tanabata on wikipedia here.
The Tanabata season starts around a week before the actual day that the story refers to.
In Tokyo, this day is the 7th day of the 7th month. (July 7th)
By the beginning of July, you start to see many bamboo trees in public places waiting for people to hang wishes on.
We had a tree in the International center of the university where I used to take the Japanese classes.

The tree in the International Center.
It was still new, only a few number of hanged wishes and other decorations..including "Fanoos Ramadan" if you notice well =p


My very smart wish=p
It says “I hope all my dreams come true “
You can hang any wish you can think of.."I want to be a panda" is also valid （＾▽＾）

The tree in the summer party of the Faculty of Engineering

In some shop I passed by

In a building in Shinjuku.
I had a reunion with my environment course friends I met last year.

The best part about it is writing with the brush on the tanzaku..I love writing kanji with brushes and if I get a chance I want to take shodou (calligraphy) lessons!!≧ω≦

That's all for today. See you next post.

How Japanese TV teaches Computer Engineering..for kids!

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

SANJA Festival@ASAKUSA

*Edited : Info added on the fish game

The foreign students support club in my university arranges activities and trips nearly once each month to famous places inside or close to Tokyo.

This month's activity was visiting Asakusa (浅草) to see the famous SANJA MATSURI (sanja festival 三社祭).
Actually this was not my first time to Asakusa and sensouji(浅草寺) since we went there last year, but for today, it was my first time to see a Japanese Festival.
(Most festivals in Japan are rather religious celebrations).

It was really an interesting experience.
The place was crazily crowded... smells of food being cooked/grilled/fried is filling the place..traditional matsuri games for kids..kakigooriかき氷....and of course, a lot of omikoshi!神輿(portable shrines)
All these things would make you feel the matsuri(festival) atmosphere!

On the way towards sensouji ..kiosks and shops on both sides. They sell interesting nihonppoi stuff..so if you want to make your room so, this is a good place to buy such stuff!

Since it was a traditional festival, it felt OK to put on the hachimaki (I once was told that putting such hachimaki with Japan flag on it is not very much appreciated, since it has something related to the WW and being an extreme nationalist or something... but I took the advantage of being a gaikokujin and pretended that I don't know! :p )
One old man that I encountered even told me 「お！日の丸、、かっこいいですね！」　="o!Japan's flag, that's cool!"
I'm not sure if he meant it ^^; But anyway, I have my own meaning for putting on the hachimaki, and it has nothing to do with history ^^

Carrying omikoshi

Before I come and see everything, I was thinking that it would be nice to participate in carrying one, and take a picture too...but after I saw with my own eyes how heavy it looks and how many people it needs to be carried..I changed my mind!

I posed here last year w

Actually seeing this and remembering that senseouji is a Temple and not a Shrine has "corrupted" my information a little at first.
I know that the festival is a Shinto matsuri so I was thinking why would there be a Shinto matsuri in a Temple.
Then I realized that this festival does not belong to the sensouji, rather it belongs to the nearby ASAKUSA shrine , which was built to honor the people who built the sensouji.
lol Am I making it any easier this way?

The traditional fish game. 金魚すくい(SAKANA SUKUI)
The principle is that you have to catch a fish with a tool that is made of thin paper that melts easily in water, so you have to be quick.
I saw a lot of happy kids walking proud with their caught fishes put in a plastic transparent bag.




The Anpanman(الرغيف العجيب) mask is so cute, I wanted one just to stick to my room's wall, but... cough! :p

So now! What is a festival post without...VIDEOS?!
I took a lot of videos and I want to share some, so you can FEEL the matsuri!
(Sorry for the low quality, I had to make them smaller in size so I can quickly upload them..Also I don't think that you want to download a 2 minutes video of size 200MB !!)

Carrying the OMIKOSHI (In this festival, 100 such omikoshi are carried to begin touring the town) :



Gotta see this one! :
Kids can also participate by carrying a smaller and lighter omikoshi.
They were really cute!

That's all for the SANJA MATSURI!
I hope it was informative and enjoyable~ comments people! ^_^
K-chan logs out!

My Golden DAY - Re-living memories + a first meeting

Today was such a wonderful day.
During the whole golden week, I've gone no where... nowhere worth mentioning; and the weather was not encouraging at all. It had been either rainy or cloudy in a very gloomy way.

But today was such a full day, a real golden day.
Sunny and warm. Just looking out through the window would move you to get dressed and go out.
I don't like unplanned go outs, so I spent like 10 minutes planning what to do, where to go and how to go! But the day ended with a nice unplanned surprise :) Follow on with me!

As an engineer, I was looking for the most efficient way,in terms of cost, to reach my destinations utilizing my monthly pass as much as I can.

At last I decided to go first for a walk near Tameikesannou station(溜池山王駅), to bring back memories of last year's summer!

I walked beside the ANA Hotel, where we were staying.. "ohisashiburi~"

Stared at this shrine.. "oh! I remember you!"

And wondered about these 2 jidouhanbaiki(自動販売機) which are still in their places.. I used them to buy a bottle of juice last year, I remember that clearly..

I thought: "There should be a 24hours McDonalds if I turn here", and there it was.
I remember the place very well! We used to walk here a lot in the humid nights of Tokyo summer =)
Each time I pass by a building or anything thing that I remember from that time, it becomes like : "Hi! I am back as I promised!"
I was really happy to walk there! A happiness with a small hint of NATSUKASHII-ness, since I miss those youth exchange program days~.

The tameike sannou part is over now.
Next, I was planning to go to Akiba, to buy some stuff and to,again, re-live some memories.
I went there from Ocha no mizu station. But before that I had a small walk near this station..ocha no mizu is really a nice place~ with a small river/stream of ocha water :p

ocha no mizu..literally !

After arriving to Akiba -which is only the next station after ocha no mizu on the sobu chuo line- I headed to Yodobashi Akiba and spent most of the time there.
I got myself the 8MP Canon IXY 910IS DigiCamera and some other stuff..
Although the Sony cybershot ones where attractive..but when it comes to photography, I prefer to choose the name with longer history in photography.

High quality pictures on this blog from now on~~

We are not done yet!
The nice surprise was waiting~
When I came back home, I was about to open my room's door when I noticed that the horizon was very clear and that I could see some mountains.
I saw these ones before, but the thing was that today was clear enough that I could see mount Fuji.
I grabbed my mobile phone, rushed to the 7th floor of the lodge and there was the wonderful view.
At first I wasn't 100% sure it was mount Fuji. But given that it was further than any mountain I could see, yet bigger than anyone of them. + It's symmetrical shape + It's exactly where it should be direction-wise ..I became positive it is Fuji!
ドキドキ!! ..ワクワク!! is the best way to describe my feelings at that time.
Taken by my 3.2MP mobile camera, the pictures are not good! But I hope they can deliver at least a small part of the idea!
There are 2 pictures. The first is the original one, and the second is an edited one to make it easier to see.

The original picture - probably wont be able to see it

I edited the contrast and sharpness of the picture so if you look well you can see its upper part. (pointed to by an arrow) It's hiding behind the mountains to the front
Of course It was much clearer to be seen by bare eyes

This last picture is one got from the Internet. It's a view of Fuji from Tokyo Tower. I should go there next time the weather is clear..

This picture is NOT taken by me

This picture is NOT taken by me

Of course Tokyo Tower is much higher than my lodge building (duh!) . It's the highest in Tokyo Actually. So you can see more of Fuji san.
Also given Tokyo Tower's location with reference to my lodge, Fuji will be seen a little shifted to the left with reference to the mountains in front of it. And this is what you will see if you compare the 2 pictures.

....What I am trying to do here is to prove that the 2 previous pictures are for the same thing. i.e. what I saw was indeed Fuji.

...A verryyyyyyy long post for a veryyyyyyy nice day.
Hope you enjoyed it~ I expect comments! ;)

Golden week.. and some pictures

Today arrived a little earlier, so I had a small walk in the campus before the class starts and took some pictures.

People are now preparing for the golden week holiday. (I made a post about Golden week last year. Click here to read the post).
The question you will hear the most these days is: "Golden week ni nani wo shimasu ka?" = "what are you going to do in the golden week?".
..For me, I don't know! .. but I should go somewhere, it's a shame that I have been here for nearly 3.5 weeks now and the furthest place I went to is my university ^^;
..And yea tomorrow is a holiday. It is SHOUWA NO HI, and it's the first day of the golden week.

KOI NOBORI in campus
KODOMO NO HI is coming soon

A buddhist dog!^^

Dogs can be so smart! This dog is called Conan and belongs to a temple in Okinawa.

When the priest starts chanting and raises his clasped hands, Conan also raises his paws and joins them at the tip of his nose.

Very funny and very cute! (>ω<)
Full story : Yahoo News

第11回日本語弁論大会- The 11th speech contest

*Edited*
First, OMEDETOU GOZAIMASU for all the winners. Congratulations!!
This year's speech contest was also an unforgettable event. This time there was a presentation section(English) and a speech section (nihongo).

Official report on the Embassy of Japan site, HERE!

A lot of interesting subjects were introduced in the presentation; I remember from them: a presentations about festivals in Japan, another one about vending machines, schools, karaoke and a lot of other topics.

Winners. To the left on the lower row is MOMIJI san, the grand winner

The speeches also were really great! There were topics about Thanking mothers(winner speech), OTAKU, music, Islam... there was a topic that talked about how a cockroach could change someone's life! lol
(人生を変えたゴキブリ).. It might look like a fun topic, but it holds a deep meaning about respecting all forms of life , as I believe.

In addition to this, students from JUST and UJ performed great skits. Both were wonderful but I am mostly proud of the JUST skit performance! ^^

nihongo nakama from JUST with O sensei to the left

This year I was the MC , so you can guess, it was TAIHEN! But I'm glad everything went smoothly!

A BIG Group picture


3 big fans of nihongo!
Wasabi san, Ocha dono and Saemon san

Another thing, I would like to thank the T/O/S NIHONGO SENSEI team!! I could see how much effort it takes preparing for the supikon! おつかれさまでした！Same thanks go to anyone who contributed to this event!

Leave you now with 世界に一つだけの花 (SEKAI NI HITOTSU DAKE NO HANA) song by SMAP. It was performed in the first day of the Japan week. It's my favorite.




dewa,shitsurei shimasu!
kanji chan logs out!