What does "Why not top up" mean?

I bought a weekly pass of Sydney Cityrail and noticed a word of caution: WHY NOT TOP UP. What does it mean? I speculate two possibilitie...

Why did it make him angry?

The text was my post for an international web forum about Chinese history of the Middle Ages. It was a reply for a Chinese who insisted t...

Contrived job offer: Give you advice please

I've still been looking for a job. I check Gumtree.com.au, a free classified site, and have found a suspect offer. One offer is as below...

"Adjective + desu" in Japanese

"Adjective + desu", e.g. "oishii desu (おいしいです)" and "ureshii desu (うれしいです)", is quite common expression as ...

Fail in the job trial

I've received a mail which says they can't hire me. Of course it always happens. I'm confident in my hospitality skill but maybe they ne...

Confusing point in Japanese time expression

# This entry is based on my comment for another learner's article. In Japanese, "gozen (午前)" means "am", "gog...

Job trial

I've been looking for a job in Sydney for a month and I have finally been able to find a restaurant which give me an opportunity as a wai...

E->J translation

Recently I have been trying to translate English Sci-Fi short stories to Japanese. I have done Rudy Rucker's "Message Found in a Gra...

Looking for a job

After I found a residence in Sydney, I have been trying to find a casual job. There are many Japanese restaurants which I can be easily h...

Mirror shops

Today, I found that there are some mirror shops in Sydney. It seems a bit strange for me because there are no such shops in Japan. In Jap...

In Sydney

I've been so busy that I couldn't have written an article for recent weeks. I arrived at Sydney a week ago as a working holiday maker. My...

15th movie by Kitano Takeshi

The 15th movie that is directed by Kitano Takeshi will be a violence movie which like as "HANA-BI", his masterpiece. Recent thr...

H2B's successful flight

Yesterday, Japan successfully launched H2B, their brand-new main rocket. It was the first flight of the launcher. H-II Transfer Vehicle (...

Credit card trouble

Yesterday, I received a call from a credit card company. She said that they detected my credit card was used illegally by someone and it ...

Moving

The day before yesterday, I moved in Chiba, the southeastern peninsula of Tokyo. My room hasn't been cleared yet so that I haven't been a...

Riding a bicycle

Yesterday, I came to my parents' home by bicycle. I rode about 60km along with Tokyo bay. The road is almost flat and I wasn't suffered, ...

Election

The election on August 30th ended in a landslide victory for the Democratic Party Japan. The party will form a left-of-center coalition g...

Typhoon is coming

Typhoon Krovanh is coming for Japan and may hit Tokyo on September 1st. I plan to go to my parents home, which is 60km away from my house...

New solid-fuel rocket

Japan plans to develop a new solid-fuel rocket which will be launched in 2012 for the first time. The rocket will be used to launch small...

Summer has gone

Today is a cool day. Noisy cicadas have gone away to anywhere and it has been like autumn flavor. The summer season is nearing an end. ...