Android: Writing Japanese Characters (esp. Kanji)

Up until now I've not made much use of Nikolay Elenkov's Kanji Recognizer. I've had the general hunch that it was better than aedict's stock drawing recognition. However, since I primarily use the Japanese dictionary on the way to work, or otherwise wifi-less, I've not gotten much use out of Nikolay's WWWJDIC dictionary.

I'm not sure which recognition engine aedict uses, but Kanji Recognizer apparently uses the Zinnia engine with the Tomoe dataset, which is something that I've fiddled with in the past.

My hunch that Kanji Recognizer is superior has been kind of muted by the fact that with my old HTC Tattoo, changing applications was a bit tedious. Now I tend to use my Nexus 7 for translating (its so much faster!), which has a much quicker switch windows function, the idea of switching app every time I come across an annoying character doesn't put me off like it used to.

I thought I'd further test Kanji Recognizer by pitting it against aedict's drawing recognition. Using aedict as the benchmark (because I love that app), any character aedict failed to reproduce, I would attempt in Kanji Recognizer. Here is a list of some characters that Kanji Recognizer managed that aedict failed at*:

頸 腕 割 適 堅

OK, so that's not a particularly big list, which actually goes to show that aedict still fares pretty well, because I tested an awful lot of characters.

Now that I think about it, I also talked about an app called Hanwriting some time back. It was pretty awful for Japanese when I tried it, but it appears to have developed a lot since then. Now it is the hanwriting plugin integrated in the the multiling keyboard.

I tried all of the above characters without any trouble, and it even came up with some that neither aedict or Kanji Recognizer could manage*, such as 梟.

Since I've only just tried this, I'm not going to rave too much about how great that is, but it could be nice to have an IME like this that means I don't need to switch apps, and can stay in aedict for my dictionary needs, even when writing complicated characters. My first impression is good, but I also noticed that its significantly more difficult to draw characters in the smaller space they give you (though, of course, this is less of a problem now I'm using a Nexus 7).

Its nice to see such a broad range of support for Japanese getting well established on Android. I'm interested to see where it will all go from here!

*(or rather, I failed to input correctly into aedict that Kanji Recognizer identified regardless)

Japanese Radio & Android (AKA My Tattoo is Getting Old)

Lately I've been listening to a lot of Japanese radio. Not only does it alleviate some of the tedium of work, but it also helps improve my Japanese simultaneously. Brilliant.

Of course, support for doing this on Android is excellent. I believe I only downloaded a couple of programs before settling on TuneIn (that's not to say that TuneIn is the best... Just that it took me almost no time at all to find a decent internet radio program). The internet radio has a search function which can be very quickly used to identify Japanese radio stations (I primarily use FM Hirakata and BanBan Radio, perhaps a discussion for another time).

My rapidly ageing HTC Tattoo, however, was an altogether uglier case. The HTC Tattoo still runs Android 1.6, and virtually no one makes apps for it anymore (myself included, for the most part). I downloaded a variety of music players and other apps in the hope of simply being able to stream from the station's URL...

Eventually I settled on mediaU, which has all the functionality that I use with tuneIn (station search and favourites). It's a bit ugly, but it works on my elderly Tattoo, and that's good enough for me!

Unfortunately, I'd intended to use this set up to listen to the radio on the way to Southampton over the weekend, and didn't realise how much mobile network eats the Tattoo's battery (which, by the way, tends only to last a day after a couple of years of use). I think I got about 30 minutes of radio out of it before deciding that I'd best conserve the battery... But it was a good 30 minutes with only occasional cut-outs, and better quality that I'd expect considering I was travelling by car. This really is a testament to the stability of mediaU and the HTC Tattoo... And to some extent the network coverage Orange offer in Dorset...

Much as I've enjoyed my Tattoo over the last couple of years, it seems it is reaching the end of its useful life... Android 1.6 is becoming increasingly neglected by developers, and I wonder how long it will be before I lose some "critical" functionality like aedict.

That said, I'm more inclined to get a new battery than dispose of it. Then, perhaps when it finally does die, I'll frame it to show my grandchildren...

"Back when I was a young'n, we had to lug these bricks around! The batteries only lasted a coupl'o' days and you couldn't even plug them into your brain!"

Flyjin

I was thinking about something I heard about the word "gaijin" supposedly being offensive, and happened across the term "Flyjin". Needless to say it tickled me sufficiently to write this post...


"Never believe everything you read in the newspapers"... Is that an excuse to leave, or to not leave? I guess it depends on perspective.

Japanese on the Google/Asus Nexus 7

If you're reading this, you're probably already aware of aedict and ankidroid (my two favourite apps). Kudos to the development teams of those programs for keeping Android 1.6 compatibility so my old HTC phone is still useful!

I think its probably also worth mentioning that Japanese support is much better in Android 2+ (including the version on the Nexus 7). I use the built in Japanese IME, which works spectacularly, except that my UK keyboard buttons aren't mapped properly in it see edit below.

One thing I did find strange is that the built-in document viewer doesn't allow the selection of words in documents. This is a real pain if I want to read a Japanese document on the train, as I have to manually type the word into aedict... Assuming I know the kanji involved.

To fix this, I downloaded a number of document viewers and editors, but the best by far was Kingsoft Office. Japanese input works perfectly in it, with the exception of when you do go to select a word to copy it, the whole line can get selected, because the app only recognises spaces and punctuation as delimiters for words... Unfortunately, this makes the process of copying words from Japanese documents a bit cumbersome, and in that respect, I've failed in my original goal, but at least in the process I've found an excellent word processing app*.

*If you're wondering, yes, you can do word processing on a Nexus, it doesn't take long for the fingers to adapt to a keyboard the size of the screen. Try and get a keyboard with a tab key, though!

EDIT (15th April 2013): Regarding mapping of UK keyboards in Google Japanese Input, go to the "Language & input" menu, then hit the settings button beside "Google Japanese Input". Then tap "Preferences for hardware keyboards". Setting it to the system default worked wonders for me!

Anki woes

For years now, Anki has been my go-to-app for learning Japanese vocabulary. Now, however they have pushed the upgrade to version 2. This sounds just fine, but my largest deck failed to import from the previous version of Anki, and now (despite the fact it exists on both my tablet and phone) I can't use it. I downloaded the 2.0.3 client for windows, which gave me an error telling me to use the 1.2 client to try rectify the problem. What kind of stupidity is that? Backwards compatibility, guys. Yes, its not always easy, but yes, it is necessary! It shouldn't be necessary for a user to download an old, and likely soon-to-be unsupported version of a program to rescue 5-6 years worth of hard work. The data of the cards must still be intact, because the decks were working fine with all my devices just hours ago.

Anki 2 had better be eye-wateringly spankingly good. Either that or bin 6 years of diligent deck-making and start a new one.. Though if it comes to that, I'll use the competing apps.

EDIT: After experimenting with Anki 1.2 and Anki 2.0.3 on windows, and getting nowhere, I've given up with this. Anki 1.2 still happily reads the deck, but refuses to do a database check to completion, and the old Android and web client was perfectly happy with it too. That just leaves me wondering, do I dare continue using Anki after it corrupted several years of work, or do I try something different? Or is Anki 2 sufficiently different to warrant experimenting with? Either way, its now installed itself on both my android devices, it would seem defeatist to not give it a go.

Superstorm USA: Caught on Camera

The BBC touts Superstorm USA: Caught on Camera  as

The first great natural disaster documented and shared on the social network

Hang on a second.. This is barely a year and a half after the Great Tohoku Earthquake, which if I recall correctly the BBC (and others) hailed as the most recorded natural disaster in history..

I guess in another couple of years we'll be saying the same thing when some other prominent country is devastated by natural disaster..

I guess you could argue that most of the footage we saw of the Tohoku Earthquake was CCTV and other video footage, but to say that Earthquake wasn't well documented in the social networks in Japan is also totally false. In fact, take a look for yourself! I wrote a blog article commenting about that documentation here, here and here.

I guess all the above quote really proves is the West-centric viewpoint of the media, which is hardly surprising, and I suppose forgivable overall.

What I would say, watching the program is how out of proportion everything is. The superstorm was a great survival victory for the US. In its summary, Wikipedia states:

In Jamaica, winds left 70% of residents without electricity, blew roofs off buildings, killed one, and caused about $55.23 million (2012 USD) in damage. In Haiti, Sandy's outer bands brought flooding that killed at least 54, caused food shortages, and left about 200,000 homeless. In the Dominican Republic, two died. In Puerto Rico, one man was swept away by a swollen river. In Cuba, there was extensive coastal flooding and wind damage inland, destroying some 15,000 homes, killing 11, and causing $2 billion (2012 USD) in damage. In The Bahamas, two died amid an estimated $300 million (2012 USD) in damage.

Of the US it states just:

 In the United States, Hurricane Sandy affected 24 states, including the entire eastern seaboard from Florida to Maine and west across the Appalachian Mountains to Michigan and Wisconsin, with particularly severe damage in New Jersey and New York. Its storm surge hit New York City on October 29, flooding streets, tunnels and subway lines and cutting power in and around the city.

Its hard to sympathize with a band of Americans screaming about their car getting crushed by a tree (from the relative safety of their house) when I'm concurrently relating that with the media images of Japan's disaster.

That's not to say I shouldn't sympathize. I've the pleasure of sailing through life without even a broken bone, my closest encounter with disaster is having my foot run over. Rather gently at that...

But nor would I say the program was actually particularly bad, the events within are certainly newsworthy. Just somewhat blown out of proportion. We live in a modern society with modern comforts and next-to-no-reason to complain. What you don't get much sense of in the documentary is the ability of developed society to overcome the situation. Simply (and to get back to where we began so I can shut my big mouth), the program just doesn't do what it claims it set out to. If they wanted to show how a natural disaster was captured in modern social networks they were looking in the wrong place. Probably we're not even talking about the Japanese earthquake anymore.. Surely the trend started some time before even that? Social networks and viral videos were around when I was still at school... I just can't remember any disasters from back then. And neither can anyone else, because we just don't care.

The Admiral (A film by Shohei Kotaki)

I'm not one for doing film reviews, but I found this one interesting for a few reasons.

But first some introduction. It's called "The Admiral" or in Japanese "Isoroku Yamamoto, the Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet", and is the story of Admiral Yamamoto's command of the attack on Pearl Harbour, and the naval defeats that followed. The story hinges on Yamamoto's desire for peace, as evidenced in his (highly unpopular) opposition to joining against the allies as war commenced in Europe, and attempts to dissuade government from war with America. However, Yamamoto is "promoted" out of naval government to the position of Admiral, where he must obey his orders to attack America.

Having only read up to the Meiji era in Jansen's "The Making of Modern Japan" (my bible on the history of Japan), it was good to watch a film about this grey area in my picture of history, though I can't comment much on its accuracy.

So, as a non-cinema-goer, what is so interesting, then? Firstly is the essential Japanese-ness of this film. Yamamoto is torn between his desire for peace (his personal duty to his country), and his need to fulfil his duty to his superiors. This burden of conflicting duty is Japanese enough, but to cap it off, until very near the end, Yamamoto says hardly a word about this conflict, and through much of the film exudes a cheery disposition as if somehow everything is going swimmingly. Extreme internalisation of one's problems. Its so stereotypical that had the film been made in the West, it could be construed as racist (hah).

Apart from deepening my already well-indulged stereotypes, the timing of the film is also interesting. It is set in a time of heightened Japanese Nationalism that was key for support in the war. But this fits ominously into modern politics. Relations between Japan and China have been getting steadily worse over the last few years, and there are reports of an increase in nationalism in Japan. That report also blames China of the same. I've no idea how much of either claim is true, but it makes me sad. Both sides should know better, right?! It seems to me that Japanese Nationalism was a key factor to precipitating war with America and probably China too. For both China and Japan the war was devastating beyond comprehension (beyond mine at any rate). The film ends:

"When and how did we go wrong? And what did we lose? The answer to that may have to wait 50 or 100 years... But that might also be enough time for the people of our country to forget everything."

I can't help but wonder this myself.

The film itself was quite enjoyable to watch, with more emphasis on military politics than on raw combat, which I think is a good thing in this case, where the Japanese side of events is decidedly unrepresented. Kudos to the translators, who make understanding what is going on very easy, and though there are a couple of references that non-Japan-history-buffs will miss out on, the film is quite accessible. As a piece of cinematography? Ask someone else. All I'll say is that I liked the actors, the effects were OK, but I felt the story was a bit slow, begging for a bit more fleshing out or less use of the dramatic pause.