11 Apr 2012

Good News! United Mileage Plus Star Alliance Reward Bookings and Regional Upgrades

posted in: Uncategorized |

I found out some good news today about the post merger United Airlines Mileage Plus system.

First (finally after years of waiting!) the booking of awards on united.com allows to book almost all Star Alliance tickets on line. I did a test search and it really came up with a deep search on non stop and multi-stop itineraries. You can see an example below of an itinerary which I used to do about once a week TYO-SIN. I found trips from HND to SIN on both SQ and Asiana on both economy and business class. I was surprised how easy it was to find a business class award ticket from Haneda airport!

One thing is I could not find any ANA award tickets. I called up the UA desk in Tokyo and the man confirmed that although almost all Star Alliance award tickets can be booked on united.com, currently ANA does NOT allow the award tickets to be booked on united.com. ANA has a history of being pretty inflexible with award tickets through United (they also are one of the only ones which require booking 1 week before departure).

Another piece of good news is that the nice man at the UA Tokyo desk told me that REGIONAL upgrades can be used for inter Asian markets such as TYO-HKG. SWU is no longer required for inter-Asia market. That is brilliant news because in the past years I have lost many UA regional upgrades because they could only be used in the north american market. Now I can make use of them.

8 Apr 2012

Bansenshukai:Top Secret Ninja Texts

posted in: Uncategorized |

萬川集海: Even in today’s hyperconnected world there are still things you can not find on the internet. One of these is Bansenshukai (萬川集海) which is a secret text on ninja which apparently had a few hand-written copies distributed after World War 2, but now is not available except in the Japanese government and some Japanese university archives. All my searches have come to the same result, that there is no English translation. If you do know of any translation then please contact me.

For those people who can read Japanese, you can see scanned copies which were taken at the Japan National Archives.

You can read more about the Bansenshukai here:

The Bansenshukai (Sea of Myriad Rivers Merging) is a multi-volume secret written transmission (densho) of Iga and Koga Ninjutsu. It was compiled by Fujibayashi Yasutake (also, Yasuyoshi) of Iga in the fourth year of En’o (1676). The Bansenshukai collection includes one volume of introduction, question and answer section, and a table of contents; two volumes on thought and philosophy; four volumes on leadership; three volumes on Yo; five volumes on In; two volumes on astrology; and five volumes on weapons. The Koga version has twenty two chapters bound in ten volumes with an additional one volume. The Iga version has twenty two chapters bound in twelve volumes with additional four chapters in four volumes attached to it.

The Bansenshukai is a written transmission of philosophy, military strategy and tactics, astrology and weapons that are identified specifically with Ninjutsu. Although the author of the Bansenshukai was influenced by Chinese thought, and even indicates a connection to Chinese military traditions, he presents the material as the ultimate accumulation and perfection of Ninjutsu knowledge—as the name Bansenshukai itself suggests.

A limited number of hand written copies of the Bansenshukai were offered to the public after WW2, but the publisher stopped producing more copies and there are none available for purchase. For those interested in reading the Bansenshukai in its original language (which is not modern Japanese, rather a form of Japanized Chinese called kanbun), some major national and university libraries hold a copy of the collection. 

7 Apr 2012

Tasting with Sounds

posted in: Research |

It’s now an accepted fact that our sense of taste is intrinsically linked to our sense of smell. But scientists now think that it can be heavily influenced by what we hear, too. Time to reach for Sounds of Skillet Bacon Vol. 2. The Smithsonian reports a new study published in the journal Food Quality and Science which investigated the relationships between music and taste. In a blinded experiment, 20 tasters reported that high-pitched music made toffees taste sweeter compared to low music—even though they were exactly the same candies. Elsewhere, a series of experiments carried out at the University of Oxford asked volunteers to match wines, milk and other foods with particular musical notes. They found that that sweet-tasting desserts tend to be matched up with high notes, while deeply savory dishes tend to be paired with brassy, low-pitched sounds. Charles Spence—an expert on multi-sensory experiences—has found that it’s even possible to sway our experiences of taste. Speaking to The Smithsonian, he explained: “We’ve shown that if you take something with competing flavors, something like bacon-and-egg ice cream, we were able to change people’s perception of the dominant flavor-is it bacon, or egg?-simply by playing sizzling bacon sounds or farmyard chicken noises.” So, what’s happening? Are we primed by advertising? Is it something to do with the way parents offer up food? Actually, it’s unclear to all these researchers why the effect exists. Which probably means you shouldn’t worry about it too much—just stick on your favorite falsetto-laden track and shovel candies down your throat. They’ll taste all the sweeter for it. [The Smithsonian]

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