Tag Archive for 'Japan'

Milestones

Published
by
jasohill
on October 28, 2008
in Administation, Iwate and Personal
. 2 Comments

Rainbow of Peace, originally uploaded by jasohill.

Hi everyone. I do apologize for the lack of blog updates. I’ve busy here in Japan and I realized that is has become so much like home for me that I don’t blog about it any longer. Well, I do intend to keep you updated on what is going on here a little more than I have been lately. To start off, I wanted to share with you a little milestone that occurred today.

You may remember my photo, “Rainbow of Peace.” I took it during my trip to Nagasaki in 2006. At the time I never thought it would be my most popular photo. I stood over the ground zero point at the memorial area and tried to get as many colors in the photo as I could. Once I got that photo on flickr, it took off and quickly became my most popular photo on flickr.

Well today, over two and a half years after I took it, “Rainbow of Peace” has surpassed the 15000 mark. I never though I would have a photo do that well. It’s certainly not my only successful photo on flickr, but it was the first to make me realize that I can take pictures that make people smile. It was the catalyst that lead to where I am today. On the road to a career as a pro.

I just wanted to thank everyone who helped make this photo the success it is today. I couldn’t get back to all of you, but I appreciate all the kind words you wrote for me and the photo.

Critical Bathroom Thinking in Japan

Published
by
jasohill
on March 13, 2008
in Culture and Language
. 0 Comments

 If you are going to visit Japan as a tourist, or even consider living here, there are two really important Japanese characters you need to learn.  In Japan, unless you collect all your urine and feces for your own personal composting projects, you will need a use a washroom as some point. Many washrooms have flushes that are not your typical flush, but rather a button on the wall. To complicate this further,  many washrooms have a seperate button on the voice designed to page an attendant to help you, should you be old and unable to help yourself. Some washrooms have one, some have both. 

   Here is the important difference between those two buttons. The first is （流）。 It means “to flush.”  The other is (呼）。 It means “to call.” God help you, should you accidentally call out the attendant.