Category Archives: Japan

The T-Kawai Lockback Prototype–It’s a Mystery

1 Reply

Early last year I bought a knife. I don’t know much about it except that I’d like to know more about it.

I got the knife at the second knife show I attended. It’s a lockback folder made by T-Kawai. It has orange G10 handles and a 3.75 inch (9.5 centimeter) hollow ground drop point blade made from CRMO-7 steel. The overall length when opened is  8.67 inches (22 centimeters) but it is light for its size. It weighs only 3.42 ounces (97 grams) which means I have pens that weigh more than this knife.

The T Kawai partially opened.

The T-Kawai partially opened. You can see the damage/scratch at the top of the ricasso.

The CRMO-7 has high chrome content and polishes up nice. As I understand it, it was intended for use in razor blades but has become popular among fishermen and kitchen knife makers in Japan. When I tested the knife, I cut boxes until I ran out of cardboard in the house and it held its edge well and didn’t show any damage other than a few scratches. (For the steel geeks out there, it is usually compared to ATS-34 steel.)

Because it’s light, though, it feels kind of flimsy at first. Also, Japanese lockback folders don’t have that satisfying solid snap that most Western lockbacks have. That also makes it feel flimsy. That said, after my testing, I didn’t notice anything starting to come loose.  The blade didn’t shake open despite my best efforts to make it come open.

The long handle is well sculpted and I didn’t feel any obvious hot spots as I cut wood and other random items with it.  The handle may be a bit long for the blade (fully open it looks vaguely like an airplane fuselage)  but even people with large hands would have little trouble holding it comfortably. For its size, it’s comfortable to carry in the pocket.

A close up of the blade.

A close up of the blade to show the polish T-Kawai put on it. You can see the damage on the top right.

The big mystery is the knife maker, T-Kawai. When I bought the knife it was on sale for 90 dollars because it is a damaged prototype of a design he never brought into production. (Note: his regular knives sell between 180-300 US dollars.) There are scratches on top of the ricasso and the blade is off center. Even as I was buying it he dropped another ten dollars off the price.

I like the knife enough that I’m considering getting another. Even if I don’t, I’m interested in learning more about the knife maker. The problem is he didn’t have a business card at the time and he hasn’t attended any more knife shows. He was friendly, but he seemed disinterested by the entire knife show. He was scheduled to attend the last knife show I went to, but his table remained empty.

I don’t even know if I met the actual knife maker or just a salesman. Either way I’d like to tell him that even his damaged prototypes are terrific knives.

The Bad Timing of Wishes

2 Replies

In our apartment we are suddenly getting what we wished for. Unfortunately it’s happening now, not later.

Our rental contract gets renewed this year which means we are expected to sign some papers and hand over some money. However, before we did that, She Who Must Be Obeyed and I decided to request either lower rent or a bunch of fixes.

The management company opted for the fixes, and then did us one better, albeit at a bad time.

First, we requested new tatami mats and new wall paper in our bedroom. Because our apartment is on the first floor we get a lot of humidity which isn’t helped by every room having large sliding glass doors that act as water condensers. Our tatami mats near the sliding doors have gotten moldy and and the wallpaper next to the doors has become loose and moldy. All that will be fixed.

Second, because of the same problem, the linoleum in the Variety Room got moisture under it and it came loose. Over time the wheels on my desk chair began to tear holes in the loose linoleum and I now have it covered with a couple sheets of plastic. The management company agreed to replace that, but I suspect they are going to do it in an ugly patch rather than fix the problem.

Finally, the screens on all the sliding doors have torn and developed large “bug doors” that make it easier for insects to get in and out of the apartment. We were going to take care of that ourselves, but the management company suddenly confiscated all our screen doors and they are being repaired.

Unfortunately this means that during the coolest early July we’ve had since I’ve been in Japan we can’t open our windows and enjoy the cooler air without hosting several hundred insects. Also, the management company are in a hurry to get all this done at the same time I’m in a hurry to finish exams.

We asked for it, now we’re getting it. We just wish they’d waited a bit.

That Light Through Yonder Window

Leave a reply

The usual tip for getting things done involves placing butt in chair. I tried that today, but the results were mixed.

I spent the day marking high school exams which is a process, as I’ve written before that involves 50% denial, 50% distraction and 50% actual work. To finish the exams I spent most of the day in my home office in my home office chair with the tests on my home office desk. This, however, creates a problem.

The problem is that whoever thought of the place butt in chair advice didn’t anticipate computers and the internet. It’s therefore better to say “place butt in chair; place computer in other building (with family)”.

Typically I keep a TV show running in the background, at least at first, and this has mixed results if the show is actually interesting. My distraction of this marking season is the Scottish detective drama Taggart. Usually these shows are bland enough that they provide background noise but are not particularly distracting. Unfortunately Taggart is just good enough that it’s become distracting. It’s also got me practicing my Glaswegian and saying “murder” as “MARdr” and “dead body” as “deed BOdi” and has She Who Must Be Obeyed looking at me as if all her fears have finally been cnFARMd, er, confirmed.

The other problem is that I sit in one place long enough that mold and mildew begin forming on me and I often am not aware it is raining and I have to bring in the laundry or that it is now dark and I should close the curtains.

Eventually the 50% denial will go away Taggart will give way to headphones and music. That marks the last push.

I’m actually ahead of schedule with my marking at this point. That means I have to be especially careful as it’s too easy to fall in to the “I’m ahead so it’s okay if I fall a bit behind trap”.

 

 

Hurry Up and Wait And Wait Then Wait

Leave a reply

There was a train delay today that caused me to encounter into a train delay. I was also being clumsy so the delay was probably for the best.

At the start of July we finally got June weather–rain–but it’s been unusually cool this year. However, any time there’s rain, even though Japan has an annual Season in Which it Rains and a proper Rainy Season, there’s always a risk of train delays as certain train lines always seem to have delays as if there’s never been any rain on the tracks before.

This, of course, had to happen the first day of exams. However, on the way to work the only problems were mine. I was pouting at the rain and listening to music and didn’t notice the train signal and was surprised when barricade started to lower. Then I walked into the station with my umbrella still deployed and had to undeploy it before I got on the escalator.

Luckily, there were no problems with the exam itself, although I remain nervous during the listening test. There weren’t even any questions which is unusual as at least one person tries to trick an answer out of us (more on that in another post).

Then, after the tests were picked up and sorted, I found out that one of my students had arrived late because of a train delay and was taking the test in another room. I’d have to wait 20 minutes to get the test.

After the test arrived I headed home and as soon as I got to the station and saw the crowd of people outside the gate I knew there was a problem.

Someone had apparently committed suicide on the tracks about the time I left the school. If I’d left right after I got the main batch of exams I could have probably got home with not problem. Instead of hanging out by the gate I went to buy some pretzels. (Someone is dead and you are buying pretzels? Yes. That’s cold, dude, that’s cold.)

An hour and a half later the police had investigated and cleared the scene and the train finally started running. I had pretzels but didn’t eat them. I mostly napped. Which is also kind of cold.

Now You Know Me and What I Am

Leave a reply

The tenth graders at the school where I work are funny people. They are in their first year of high school and as they approach their first final exam in my class, they get, well, kind of funny.

For lots of complicated reasons the classes I teach don’t have mid-term exams. This creates a couple problems for me. First, because they haven’t had a major exam in my class but have had them in others, the students tend to not take my final exam seriously. This is a bad problem for them to have because they need a higher percentage in their English classes in order to get automatic recommendation for university than they do in all their other classes. However, because there’s been no big exams, they don’t act as if the coming exam is important.

Second, because they’ve usually just finished a major final project, they often act as if there’s nothing left to do in class. My job, then, is to remind them that they are wrong.

That was an issue this week with a couple of my classes that, for various complicated reasons, have had lots of extra class time. In such cases I usually offer a deal: if they study my class on the next to last class, I will look the other way at what they are studying on the last class. They should study my class, but I won’t look too closely at what they are doing.

However, if they play or waste time, I take that as meaning they want to study my class on the last day and I prepare a review lesson. It’s at this point that they start trying to test me. I had students laugh at me as if I were joking when I told them I’d give them work on the last day. I had students mock what I was saying by repeating it and laughing. When I pointed out that two guys who were supposed to be studying together had their textbooks open to different units (with one book open to a unit we didn’t study) they just ignored me.

This is partly because many of my students didn’t go to junior high at the school where I work so they don’t know much about me. Those that did are used to my English classes not having much meaning but they should also know that I never bluff (well, almost never).

At the end of the classes, I told them that because too many of them hadn’t studied, i planned to bring something for them to study. Most ignored me.

Then, today, I handed out a work sheet that involved writing a couple hundred words.

Suddenly I had their attention.

One student reminded me that I’d said there’d be free study. I reminded him that I’d said that not enough people had studied and that I’d bring an assignment. However, when he finished the assignment, I wouldn’t look at what he was studying.

They were all annoyed but they were quiet as they finished the assignment. After they finished I checked their answers with them which also kept them from having any free study time.

If this goes like normal, this will be the last time I have this problem with these students.

 

Starting Off a Good Day in a Crappy Way

1 Reply

Everything was proceeding according to plan this morning, I wrote my morning pages, ate some breakfast even had some to waste. Then I got my migraine spot.

Today spot started out looking like the burn mark a camera flash leaves in your eyes but then then it didn’t go away and started to grow. I guzzled some coffee and took some Excedrin Migraine. In the past I might have sipped some whiskey as part of a homemade version of Tylenol 3 (which is basically alcohol, caffeine and dope). However, there were two problems with this plan: First I got the spot before I went to work and it would be bad to show up even half drunk (or half sober if you’re more optimistic) and Second, a scientist told me my home remedy would ruin my liver. (I was like: but will it cure my migraine and he was like, yeah, by killing you slowly and I was like, that can’t be worse than a migraine but I finally took his advice.)

One of the problems with my migraine spot is it blocks part of my vision of and makes it difficult to read. Not only am I about to be in pain when I get the spot, but I can’t enjoy my last few minutes before the pain because I see anything clearly.

Luckily the Excedrin worked and I didn’t have any pain and I didn’t get the usual migraine hangover. I did, however, feel sluggish and cranky most of the day. When my better bad class of 8th graders didn’t want to study for their final exams, I ignored them and let them not study. (I don’t have to pass the test and the fewer questions they answer the easy it is for me to mark and do the math.)

This also effected the way I taught high school. During a study hall in a last class of ninth graders one of my students was making gestures around his crotch that resembled, well, things involving the crotch and/or the Divinyls. Normally I would have told him to get back to studying, but since it was a free study time, I dismissed it as him studying biology. When he later tried to twist off the arm of a fellow student, I dismissed it as him doing a physics experiment.

Now I’m feeling the hangover set in. It’s time to go to bed.

Spelling in Translation

1 Reply

Today’s post will have lots of bad words, but don’t worry, I’ll spell them so that young children can’t understand them.

The Japanese language suffers from two fatal weaknesses.

The first weakness is that the people don’t have middle names. This means as a child you rely on force of expression rather than the presence of your middle name to know you are in trouble. There’s a huge difference between “DWAYNE LIVELY! GET IN HERE!” and “Dwayne Edward Lively, get in here!” The latter doesn’t even need to be shouted.

The second weakness, especially if you’re a parent, is that because Japanese is a phonetic language you can’t spell words to hide them from your kids. Growing up in the USA all of us remember our parents spelling words to hide them from us. “That Kathy is a B I T C H.”  or “I think that Kathy is  P R E G N A N T” (often they try to use code to hide the actual words “I think that Kathy is PG.”) Or “I think that little S L U T Kathy is having S E X with that little S H I T Bobby.”

The problem is we eventually learn to spell and when we talk with our friends, we interpret the sentences as “My M O M thinks Kathy is a fucking bitch.” (Note, when you’re in junior high, “fucking” is attached to many phrases.) Or “My O L thinks Kathy got knocked up.” or “My O L thinks Kathy and that asshole Bobby are fucking.”

(Note: Kathy is a fictional character with a name chosen at random. Any similarity to an actual Kathy is unintentional and purely coincidental. Bobby really is an asshole, though.)

In Japanese, parents can’t spell the words because each letter in the alphabet represents an actual syllable in the word. For example if they spell “yariman” (slut) or “kuso ama” (unpleasant bitch) they have to actually say “Ya Ri Ma N” and “Ku So A Ma” which helps the child pronounce the words correctly rather than disguise their meanings.

I believe this is why Japan doesn’t have a lot of bad words and most of the profanity is implied through tone.

This of course, is why I want to teach Japanese parents English. I went them to be able to say “Y A R I M A N” and “K U S O A M A” rather than teaching those words to their kids.

Not a Day for Creativity or Self-Discipline

Leave a reply

There’s no nice way to say it: I’m useless on Friday’s.

Granted, I have great intentions. It’s the start of the weekend a chance for new projects and activities and a chance for more reading and writing and a chance to study something new.

However, first I deserve a cup of coffee and a short rest. Then maybe I deserve a nap and if I don’t take a nap I deserve to play a couple rounds or three or four or more of a game. A couple hours later, after I finally get frustrated at my lack of success at the game I get another cup of coffee and break out a notebook and pen to do some writing.

First, though, I deserve a chance to check a couple newsreaders and peruse a couple pen and paper blogs. I also deserve a small snack to go with the coffee.

After that I shift the notebook and pen back front and center to do some work. But first I deserve a chance to watch an episode of a mystery drama.

Before I can get back to the notebook and pen it’s time for supper and I have to herd our oldest and youngest to the kitchen and get them to set the table (this process would require another post).

After supper, because it’s Friday, I deserve two fingers of bourbon but that requires me to first pose the glass with the notebook and pen and post it as part of my bad ideas series on Instagram. That is followed by sipping the bourbon and editing the picture and actually posting it.

At that point it’s time to start thinking about these blog posts. That requires another round of gaming or another finger of bourbon or a quick read of some pen website or another.

Eventually I sit down to write these posts and, if I’m lucky, I manage to think of a topic. If I don’t, there might be more games and more pen websites. Eventually I think of something, write it and go to bed.

Being that useless can be tiring, and I deserve a good night’s sleep.

This Year the Stress is Not Mine

Leave a reply

I’ve written before about how this time last year I was stressed because I’d decided to change things and was waiting for them to fall apart.

This year, though, the stress isn’t mine.

Once again we decided to have our students film two minute “television” commercials for original inventions as their final project. This process involves first screening the inventions to make sure 1) the inventions aren’t just modifications of an existing product (in other words, no “These totally aren’t Google glasses” glasses or iPhone 12s) and 2) the inventions don’t already exist. For example, a couple of my students tried to use “Memory Bread” but I said they couldn’t use it because Doraemon already had some.

The students then had a chance to prepare their scripts and visual aids and polish their presentations.

This week, though, I started filming. Unlike last year, I’ve made friends with one of the computer lab teachers as they also serve as the “Keepers of the Cameras”. This means I’ve already got cameras and tripods reserved which removed a lot stress. I’ve even moved an entire class of students to make it easier to access the few open rooms we need for filming.

The new teachers are feeling the stress a bit more, as are the students as we’ve emphasized that they will fail if they don’t do a good job.

Last year several students taped their scripts to the backs of their posters. Because I didn’t have time to have them do their videos again, I let them get away with it. This year, though, because I have more time, I let them finish their commercials and then tell them they have to do it again.

Today’s only glitch was that I had students misunderstand my instructions. I told them I’d give them two takes to do their commercials. I meant that they could stop once and start again. They interpreted it to mean they could do a crap job today and get a second chance.

Once I corrected this misunderstanding, the performances suddenly improved and a couple pairs hurried back to finish.

I just relaxed and let them do their work.

 

 

The Sacrificial Lamb Faces the Sacrifice

Leave a reply

Today I got to watch a person who was showing physical signs of stress try to wave the company’s flag for a few hours.

I’ve written before how the company I work for likes to send observer’s at the worst possible times. Today our observer arrived and we were shocked by a couple things.

First, it was only one guy. Usually we get two visitors, one foreigner with no real authority and one Japanese with slightly more authority. I do not know if that means the school where I work only gave permission for one visitor or if this was a case of symbolism over usefulness. (i.e. I’m here to show the flag and pretend I’m here to critique these people who’ve been teaching almost as long as I’ve been alive.)

 

Second, the observer looked stressed and even had physical symptoms of stress. We do not know if this is because of the less than friendly greeting I gave them this time last year or if there are other things going on behind the scenes (or both). Either way, we usually treat the foreign observers well because they don’t have much more authority than we do so I don’t think it had anything to do with us.

Third, the observer only stayed a few hours. Mind you, this is not a problem as nothing cramps your style more than having “the man” hovering over you at all hours, but usually, to make the trip worth his time, the observer stays longer than a couple hours. The goal is to get a feel for working conditions. (Which got worse as some “genius” at the school decided to lock the air conditioners at a surprisingly warm level. This may have driven the observer away, too.)

Then again, I like to think the observer was scheduled to be there all day but decided to take the afternoon off.

I hope that’s what he was doing.