Genki? Kyo wa mushi atshi desu! (Today is very humid). I hope all is well in NZ. How are the science fair projects going? Mrs Williams told me the art auction pieces look incredible.
It's almost the weekend. I'm looking forward to a moonwatching party on Saturday night, I'll tell you all about it next week!
I thought I'd tell you a little about being blind in Japan today. Here goes.....
Must be alot easier than in NZ! At 4 way intersections, pedistrian crossings play different songs depending on which way you can cross. In Government buildings there is a really annoying beeping sound: it's to help blind people find the exit. Also, there are government vechicles that drive really slowly up and down streets playing pre-recorded messages (I guess incase you can't/didn't read the news). I heard one yesterday reminding people not waste power and to turn off appliances when they aren't using them. Japan has lost 20% of it's electricity generating capacity from the March tsunami/nuclear power plant incident. By the way, apparently flea powder helped to save the day with cooling down the reactors. If you can explain to me how that would be awesome.
All throughout Japan, there are brick squares painted yellow with raised patterns on top. This is to help the blind move around Japan. If the raised concrete is in straight lines, it signals the blind that the road goes straight. If there are raised dots, this indicates that you have the option to change directions. You see these in all train stations and many of the larger stores and on main footpaths.
And no, I don't think there are more blind people in Japan, I've only seen one person with a cane in the last 5 weeks, and this is a huge city.
There is a lot of braille in Japan, more than NZ. See the braille on the stairway saying how many stairs there are?
I was thinking about how much I use a computer and how hard it must be if you are blind. Here's an interesting article about a blind Japanese computor programmer and how he makes using a computers and cell phones more vision-impaired friendly. He even makes business cards for people with one side Japanese and braille, and the other side English and braille. Cool!
http://pingmag.jp/2006/09/29/accessibility-for-blind-people/
That's all for today,
Jaa mata,
Amelia
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