James’ World

Looks like my Nice Air instructor pilot, Shoki Haraguchi, 26, died yesterday along with 2 of his students. They were doing a training flight near Gilroy in a Beech Travelair.

Shoki was a friendly, organized, enthusiastic instructor pilot who will be missed.

Yomiuri Shimbun: 3 Japanese killed in Calif. plane crash
Mercury News: Helicopter lifts plane wreckage from Gilroy sewage tank
Air Accident Mashup

I had dinner tonite with some Japanese friends, at Juban Yakiniku House in Japan Town Center tonite.

The restaurant has a wonderful Japanese ambience, though seemed very quiet for 6:30 pm. I guess it’s a quiet Monday nite.

We each had filet mignon (marinated in miso sauce) yakiniku and various pickled salads. One person also ordered scallops. Although we bbq’ed the meat ourselves, the server made sure everything else was taken care of.

Japanese people like to bbq meat medium (still squishy), and note that Americans often like to overcook it to well-done or burn it.

We had a nice dinner. Prices are about $30/person plus tip.

Juban Yakiniku House
1581 Webster Street, San Francisco, CA 94115
(415) 776 5822

I’ve done internationalization programming on over a dozen web and email projects since the 80’s.

Without a doubt, Japanese is the trickiest to design, program and test.

Some factoids:

• written Japanese uses 4 sets of symbols: hiragana, katakana, kanji, and romaji (roman alphabet)
• 4 character sets have been used for web and email: Shift_JIS, EUC-JP, ISO-2022-JP, and UTF-8. It is standard to use UTF-8 for web pages and ISO-2022-JP for email now, but you may still receive input in the other character sets. Note that there are multiple variant character sets called Shift_JIS and EUC-JP.
• Unicode is annoying to Japanese IT staff because of the limited repertoire. Person and bridge names may use unique kanji, for example.
• UTF-8 is annoying to Japanese because of text expansion - each symbol becomes 3 bytes. I’ve actually run into situations where a 50 byte first name field was too short: 13 characters in hiragana became 52 bytes when UTF-8 and base64 encoding were used. Acceptance is increasing though.
• Unicode is annoying to Japanese people because most existing apps use Shift_JIS
• a separate CSS is usually needed to make text the right size
• white background is common on web pages
• Japanese users don’t like it when headings wrap in multi-column displays
• address block is written in reverse order (country … name) compared to western style
• Japanese users like to see inventory item counts in shopping carts for reassurance that the item is still in stock. This is an example of their preference for things to be convenient.
• Japanese people normally write their name in Japanese symbols, but can also write it in romaji when necessary,for example on credit cards.
• Japanese managers like to view when their employees logged in and out, so a session tracking module is needed for web apps.
• large Japanese corporations are paranoid about network security, and normally firewall off everything possible. Ports 25 and 80 are open but inspected.
• greeting on a web page should be last name san, in email last name sama.
• most Japanese people have studied some English, but even those in large corporations are uncomfortable using it. It’s embarrassing to them to pronounce it wrong, and it’s more work to read than Japanese. So typically they will read emails if sent in English, but respond in Japanese.
• Japanese partner resellers will likely ask you for source code to improve the Japanese localization before they will sell it in Japan. Large Japanese companies are generally trustworthy and have in-house resources to work on the project.

Brian Wilson: About International Properties: IE5.5 or CSS

I had dinner at Sumiya Japanese Yakitori Restaurant tonite with some friends. Yakitori is a Japanese meal of skewered meat and vegetables over a charcoal grill.

The restaurant was packed with Japanese customers and Japanese staff. That is a good sign indeed.

We shared various skewers of chicken, beef, sausage, egg, and potatoes with different sauces. It was more like snacking than dining.

You can store your own sake bottle. There is fairly good WiFi signal access.

Food was good. Bill was $30/each, including beer and tip.

Sumiya
5160 Moorpark Ave.
San Jose, CA 95129
408 973 0604

Other reviews on yelp.com

My Sharp Zaurus SL-C3000 Linux PDA arrived from eBay (also an SL-5500 with a broken SD port for parts to fix a screen on one of my broken ones.)

The SL-C3000 has a color 640×480 twistable screen, a 4 GB hard drive and good USB support. The built-in hard drive is really only useful to me because it allows mass storage without taking up a CF or SD slot.

It was produced for the Japanese market, so the markings and manuals are in Japanese.

It’s cute - the size and feel of a large make-up compact. I hope I can find a use for it!

Review of Sharp Zaurus SL-C3000 from Dynamism
Cacko English ROM is available.

Playing with my Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 for some reason this weekend. It’s remarkable as far as PDA’s go, since it runs linux, has both SD and CF ports, a color screen and a slide-down keyboard. I use it with the Ambicom WL1100C-CF Wireless CF card. Most people feel the organizer application software is not as smooth as most PDA’s.

Here’s some useful links:

OpenZaurus
TriSoft
Zaurus Comparison Chart
ipkg commands
zgcc
modifying batteries
Laptops for Less: Replacement Battery
Disassembly

To my surprise, enplaned hasn’t posted on the recent JAL Narita meltdown, so I will.

Due to a snow storm at Narita around Friday, Jan 20, many of JAL’s international flights got cancelled on the ground. Snow cancellations happen, right? Well, those flights starting Jan 21 to/from JKT, SFO, Manila, LAX and Vancouver remained cancelled until Monday, Jan 23 with no information and little aid supplied to passengers on the affected flights.

Saturday, Jan 21 - JKT

In my case, I arrived at JKT Jan 21 at 5 pm for JAL’s 19:15 flight from JKT-Narita, for a connecting flight to SFO. At the counter I was informed the plane was snowed-in on the ground in Narita. Initially, the plane’s updated arrival time in JKT was 1:30 am the following morning, later updated to 3:30 am. I asked why I hadn’t been called on my cell. The rep said some were called, not all, no transit hotel would be offered, and would I be happy to sit in a chair over there by the wall for 8 hours? Gee, no thanks. I left a 4-star hotel (the Sari Pan Pacific in Thamrin - thanks for the complementary Silverbird-operated limo!) at 3:30 pm to sit in the heat and humidity near the counter? So I booked the very nice Quality Hotel Bandara - Jakarta transit hotel located upstairs for 6 hours for $50, had a shower, relaxed and watched TV in air-conditioned comfort. (Later that would turn out to be an excellent decision.) Since I was connecting to SFO at Narita the next day, JAL was kind enough to offer Garuda GA880 at 1:30 am and I took it.

Now the adventure really begins.

Sunday, Jan 22 - Narita

Upon arrival in Terminal 2 at Narita, I spent an hour at the JAL arrival transit counter. I was informed my connecting flight would be late, although the rep was not sure at all how late. Also, the previous day’s flight had been cancelled. I looked outside and saw a blue sky and no snow on the ground. Puzzling. I asked how long the train trip would be to Akihabara and was told 90 minutes. I had about enough time for that, and my flight would likely be late, so I headed for immigration, got a 90 day stamp, and looked for the airport information counter.

The trains information rep wrote down the train connections to Akihabara, optimistically said it would take 51 - 60 minutes each way, I changed $20 to yen, and started down the escalator to the train. It actually took 105 minutes each way, cost 2200 yen, was alternating cold outside and hot in the train, and dragging my heavy backpack around made it tough going between train connections.

Airport => Keisei Line Limited Express => Keisei Funabashi
switch train stations on foot (5 minutes)
JR Funabashi => JR Sobu Line => Akihabara

I arrived back in Narita Terminal 2 around departure time. The JAL counter reps urged me to hurry to the gate, but didn’t know which one. Curious. Various airport personnel gave me a funny look when I inquired about JL002, but had no information that it was delayed. So I went to gate C83 as displayed on the departure screens … and found a bunch of people heading to Thailand on another airline. So I went to the JAL first-class lounge … and found a mob trying to get departure information. So I went to the departure transit counter … and found a line that was blocks-long. So I found a chair and vegged out for an hour, since obviously JAL has no clue what is going on and waiting in line wouldn’t change that. At that time I checked a departure screen and found the gate was now A61. So off we go again.

At gate A61, I found a lot of unhappy people. Soon it came out that yesterday’s JL002 had been cancelled and most had slept at the airport. And for some this was the fourth attempt at a departure gate (D84(?), C83, A66, A61). Changing gates often at Narita is inconvenient because there is a train ride between some gates. The departure time was still displayed as 5:25 pm, but it was already after 5:45 pm. Eventually, an announcement was made that there is a plane, it was being cleaned, and will start boarding in an hour. Around 7:30 pm I was in my seat.

I waited and waited in my seat, on the ground. I watched “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”. The excuse for not departing was initially that 14 passengers with baggage had not arrived. Then 25. Then 20. Then there will be a 30 minute delay to remove their bags. Then the departure clearance expired. Then we were told the flight was cancelled. (later some passengers would say the ultimate reason for the cancellation was the duty time for the pilots was exceeded). Everybody was stunned. We were given the choice of leaving the plane, or staying and having dinner. I watched “Gladiator” and ate the Japanese-style rice and beef dinner. After getting a headache from watching a small, blurry LCD screen for 3 hours I decided to leave the plane, went through immigration, got my bags, and looked for a hotel.

The disembarking mob of passengers was angry at Gate A61 and one self-appointed leader chewed out a male JAL employee rather thoroughly. They were angry about sleeping another night in the airport with no idea when they can return home. (Later I learn a male JAL employee has arranged hotel rooms for about 40 people still at A61.) I talked about hotel rooms with some passengers, then headed out to information. It was after midnite and the train system had shut down, so my usual hotels in the Omori Bellport area were a $200 taxi ride away. After 2:30 am I finally get to the head of the queue at JAL information and demanded a hotel room. I got the usual brushoffs (all hotels near the airport are full, everybody else is sleeping in the airport too), told the rep to find a phone book and try harder, and got booked in the beautiful New Otani Makuhari Hotel and 10,000 yen compensation. I got a standby booking for tomorrow’s JL002. After a 45 minute ride as the only passenger in a free shuttle bus booked by JAL, I checked-in, found my room, and crashed at 4 am. Those remaining in the airport were not so lucky, sleeping on cardboard on the floor at best or under blue airplane blankets on a bench at worst. In the morning I paid 1100 yen to take the shuttle back to Terminal 2. The JAL counters and information desk refused to refund the shuttle fee, giving various excuses (”we normally don’t pay for that”, “nobody else got such a refund.”)

(For future reference, some hotels in the Narita area are: Nikko Airport, ANA, Narita Airport RestHouse, Rainbow. 45 minutes away in Makuhari are several very large hotels located on the same block, including: New Otani, Francs, Prince, Manhattan.)

Monday, Jan 23 - Narita

Arriving back at Terminal 2 at 2 pm, I strolled around the food court on Level 2 and had lunch at McD, then queued up at the departure counter. The security person looked at my ticket and told me to come back after 3 pm. I insisted on seeing a rep to confirm a standby number, saw the rep, and am informed there is no information about JL002 departing today. I queued up again at 3:30 pm. This time the security person handed me off to a security person who looked like a sumo wrestler but called himself a “JAL guide”, who moved me to counter M for group departures. It appears JAL has gotten organized and prepared 2 planes to SFO today, one for 5:25 pm and another for 7:25 pm. At around 4:45 pm I got booked on the 5:25 pm one, changed my yen to dollars, went through immigration and raced back to gate A61, used the Internet kiosk, and started boarding around 6 pm. JAL employees in the jetway are handed out letters to those passengers cancelled for 2 days only. The letters have an apology followed by offer to reimburse living expenses directly related to the cancellations and 50,000 yen as compensation, directly deposited in a bank account. One letter claims to be issued by the JAL VP of Narita. Some passengers clapped when the plane started taxiing, but most reserved cheering until rotation at takeoff. We just had no confidence of an actual takeoff until in the air.

Although snow cancellations are unavoidable, there’s no excuse for the lack of information available to both JAL employees and passengers, and abandoning the affected passengers in the airport. A central command post should have been setup with information on flights, compensation, hotels and hotel transportation. Instead there was chaos - short of a riot, but not by much. Passengers on my flight missed job interviews, meetings with clients, and endured continual anxiety and sleep deprivation. I spent a great deal of time walking on a sprained ankle, which held up just long enough. With more information, most passengers could have taken the time to happily visit Tokyo shopping, nightclubs and sleep in a hotel. Without a schedule that isn’t possible for most people, who are anxious to catch their flight. The information phone line that reps touted was always busy when I called (4 times on Jan 22.) Hopefully, JAL will learn from this debacle and train their staff better for contingencies like snow days.

There were some small bright spots in this event. Japan immigration officials were available very late, still formal but a little less strict and even more efficient in dealing with passengers entering and exiting after cancelled flights. My bags weren’t lost. And I personally got to sleep in a hotel overnight after insisting on it.

And luckily in Jakarta I had rebooked from Jan 20 to Jan 21, so got to avoid living in Narita for an additional day, like many.

Update: The Asahi Shimbun, March 3(IHT/Asahi: March 4,2006): EDITORIAL/ JAL management crisis

Whenever I’m in Japan, I make an effort to eat traditional Japanese food like sushi or nabe. I had dinner in the Sushi-Hokake Hotel Nikko Narita restaurant near Tokyo.

The decor was beautiful Japanese traditional - lots of pine and lacquer. I ordered the Chirashi Zushi dinner. My chopsticks were placed on a blue origami swan - a nice touch. The sushi was fresh, delicious and plentiful. The price including tea was 4,030 Yen.