Tim’s Ramblings

Yes….we in Japan have some fucked up television. As I’ve explained before, there are real celebrities and then there are the ones that only appear on variety shows. They may not get paid as much but they work harder and are probably more popular…

But anyway, this is not about them. There is also some interesting TV as well. They have what that PBS series Antique Roadshow was based on in Japan (yes…this was first) where people bring their treasures to the studio and they have various experts determine the price. And they also have a trivia show where they tell you odd trivia like “The boneless fish fillets that they serve in Japanese school lunches and hospitals are actually deboned one by one with tweezers by factory workers in China”.

Also, in organized dog fighting in Japan (yes…they still have it but it’s not the brutal stuff you see in 3rd world countries…this has a long and deep history and is fully organized with rules and officials and such and there are very little actual injuries…it’s like the dogs are trained to fight in a certain way) there is a “finishing move” that is illegal called “hentai” or “pervert”. Apparently there are times when the dog will actually mount the other dog (they are both male) and will start to hump his hips. The will actually cause the other dog on the bottom to lose all fighting spirit. Thus, in the official rule book, there is an actual rule stating that the move “hentai” is illegal. Weird eh?

But the funniest I saw was a segment where they will actually test out trivial stuff that viewers write in. This week someone wrote that it will probably be interesting and very intense to watch top ice hockey golies compete in air hockey with eachother. So they got the top 4 teams in the Asian ice hockey league together to have an air hockey tournament. They were really getting into it too. Calling time outs and everything. Can you imagine a TV show in the US getting the top 4 NHL goalies to play ice hockey just for shits and giggles?

Ah well. Thing things they do.

Just thought I’d share.

(^_^)

Edit: I have since been told that the Antique Roadshow thingy was a spinoff of a British show.  Huh.  Guess I heard wrong.  But the show in Japan is far more entertaining.  Really.

This is just a normal post….

Just wanted to note that, even with all these pictures and updates and such…in the end I’m here for business and it’s not all fun and games…

Sometimes at work, I have people coming up to me asking me if I’m “excited” to go back again. Um. Not really no. I mean, sure…the perks are there in terms of shopping and food and such. And the work is a bit easier here than at the office. But, still…I’m away from my friends and family. I’m away from my coworkers. And frankly, I AM quite alone here.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not lonely per se… And I don’t particularily mind traveling alone as I’m finding out. But there’s also something to be said about having people around. At least during dinner time.

Also, though I enjoy going to all these places like the Meiji Jingu Shrine and such, it’ll be so much better if I was there to share it with someone else you know? Just having someone to turn to and go “Wow…will you check that out??” is something that I think people take for granted.

So yeah….it’s nice to go around Tokyo. It’s nice to walk around Akihabara looking for geeky stuff. But sometimes, I think it’ll be fun to do it with someone else too.

So come to Japan dammit! I know I know…the flights are not cheap…the hotel’s not cheap either…but it’s not that bad either! I’ll be a good tourguide. I promise :)

Not much other point to this other than to say that no, I’m not on vacation…and no, it’s not all fun and games, and damn I wish all of you can see this in person as opposed to just through pictures.

(-_-)

Yes…once again…it just can’t be a trip to Japan without some meantion of the maids and other celeb wannabes in our favorite freakshow of a town….no not Harajuku…Akihabara.

This time I even have a movie. And it’s frightening. A bit big but might be worth it from a “holy crap” standpoint….

Anyway, on to the fun!
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Today I want to take a little break from the usual assortment of weird stuff from Japan and write about one of the places I went to today that’s a bit different from the usual hustle and bustle of donwtown Tokyo. Oh…don’t worry…soon after this post I’ll be covering maids again…but hey, I can be serious now and again too!
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Yes. This post will have a good number of pics. Soooo I put it behind the cut. If you don’t have broadband, well…it’s not THAT big but it’ll take a bit of time I think.

But first…before I move on….I must say this…and I know most of you won’t care but it doesn’t matter. I GOT A CRYSTAL WHITE NINTENDO DS LITE!!!!! HAHAHAAAAAAAA!!!!!! No word on a US release and it’s still pretty difficult to get even in Japan but I GOT IT!!!! By pure luck, I walked by Laox on my way back to the hotel from a day of wandering around Akihabara and spending more money than I should have when I saw a guy start to hold up a sign saying that the DS Lites are available. I quickly asked how many units and he told me very little…then I asked him if I needed to preorder and he told me that they didn’t do any preorders and that I have to get in line since they will start to sell it in 30 minutes. I looked at the line and there were about 15 people so I quickly got in line. I was #19. And after about 20 minutes, I was ushered up to the second floor where I got myself a DS Lite.

It’s…so…beautiful…*sniff*….

There will be pictures for all you geeks to drool over after the cut…but before I get to it, there are tons more pics so check it out!!

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I have to say, sure, Japanese TV is just as full of crap as US TV, but there are a few shows that are at least genuinely entertaining.

One of it is this show that covers real odd trivia and see if it’s really true or not. For example, there was a record that was released back in the 60′s in Japan that is just one recording after another of women’s voices praising you… Just odd stuff.

This one segment tonight was interesting though. This was more of a question… A viewer asked what is the best way to act and look good to your girlfriend if, during dinner at a nice restuarant, she finds a human hair in her dish.

What do you all think?

To test what the best way to act is, they created an edible fake human hair and placed it on top of the dishes of 100 women on a date. Then they taped the guy’s reaction to the situation and then showed it to 1000 women to get their reaction and see which guy they thought acted the best.

Of course, we get the guy that’s causing a scene, bitching out the waiter, then the manager, and not stopping while the girl is sitting there uncomfortably. Needless to say that got a huuuge negative from the women that viewed the footage. All saying that that’ll be the end of that relationship and that if a guy loses his temper on something as small as that, they’re afraid to see what he would be like in other situations.

Then there was a couple where the guy couldn’t decide what to do…tell the waiter or not…totally wishy washy…and that was a negative too.

There was a couple where the guy had her eat most of the dish except the part around the hair and THEN asked for a new dish…..cheapskate…and another negative.

The 2nd runner up were a few of the guys who descreetly got the waiter’s attention and asked for a new dish without making a scene. The women liked that because he was being considerate of others and not making a scene embarrasing her and was a gentleman about it.

But the winner was the guy that got the waiter’s attention and made a light hearted joke about it saying that they just won a little bonus prize in their dish but would like a new one. This made the girl he was with chuckle as well and lightened up the mood while getting a new dish right away.

The women who saw this all liked him because he was lighthearted about it, didn’t make a scene, AND was considerate to the restaurant by not saying that there was a hair in their food so others around can hear that and get concerned.

Interesting eh?

I’ve done the runner up thing. It happens. They don’t all wear hair nets in there…what can you do right? Hell…I’ve found a STAPLE in some egg foo young in the past. That was a bit crazy but I just got a new dish and it was free.

Anyway, what do you women reader’s think? I suppose in the US, the women would be the one telling the waiter and not expecting the guy to take care of the situation….but if he did? Or WOULD you expect him to take care of it?? That’s an interesitng question from a cultural perspective too.

(^_^)

Not much to report today. Work work work. 2 meetings, one longer than the other. Yay.

Oh, I DID mess up once today though. See, this trip I’m staying in Shinagawa rather than Kawasaki. This morning I had to go to Kawasaki. But for some reason I totally forgot where I was and got on the train going the opposite direction. I can only imagine I did that because, when I stay in kawasaki (which is most of the time), I get on the train that I got on this morning. Ooops.

It was no biggie…I got off at the next station and went the other way. But still….inside, I was embarrassed.

So anyway, rathern than go into the delcious dinner I had tonight or the Peruvian band playing traditional Incan music outside of the station, I wanted to show you all 2 of the funniest buildings that I pass every time I go to one of the partner’s office. I find myself amazed each time and today I remembered to bring the camera.

See….with land at an all time premium in Japan and especially in Tokyo, people just buid where they can and they buld up. Much like NYC but with even less land…

Of course, this results in some funky buildings.

First off, let me introduce you to the narrowest building I have EVER seen.

Take a look at the vending machines in the foreground for perspective. It is NARROW. I think I’ve seen doors in the US wider than this building. Now, granted, it DOES widen a bit as it goes further back…but not by much. I think its about 1.5 car lengths at the other side. The amazing thing is, there’s actually a small restaurant in there. That doorway you see on the side is the entrance to a small eatery inside just big enough for a few stools with the kitchen in the narrow side. Crazy eh?

Walk about a minute further down the street from that building and look across the street to see the most narrow hotel I have ever seen.

Yup. That brown building there is called Hotel Double. Double what??? Double windows? I guess it’s about as wide as some double doors at a bigger American hotel… I’m just very very happy that I’m not staying in this place.. The scary thing is, looking at the way the balcony is offset, I think that the hotel is split in half to fit 2 rooms there…. Eeeesh. The picture doesn’t do the narrowness justice. But just take a look at the bush in the foreground. That is NOT a big bush….and at it’s widest I think it’s more than half the room…..

So anyway, these 2 buildings amuse me..what can I say?

Unfortunately the weekend turned out to be rainy and chilly during the day…..

But of course, I braved the rain to hit the usual places to pick up some gifts for people and some stuff for me. The problem is, with Japan being a walking city not unlike NYC or other big US cities, everyone has umbrellas. And it’s crowded. And those 2 combine to make it a very very uncomfortable place for someone who’s even mildly claustrophobic like me….

As you can see from the picture, even when it’s raining, a tourist spot is a tourist spot…

Now this was taken in the main temple complex when the rain letup for just a bit. Pretty crowded eh?

The problem is, the giant shopping section right before it is narrow…. Imagine if you will all those people with umbrellas up trying to walk down a narrow path…and you get something like this….

Ew…..

It was a bit too much for me. Umbrellas hitting each other, tourists just stopping in the middle of the path. People bumping into you all the time. And of course, even in the shops, since they’re so small, it’s hard to move around, especially with a backpack. Gah…. The only saving grace was it was chilly as opposed to oppressivly hot and humid like it will be in July….

So I got out of there as fast as I can…..I could tell I was getting really really antsy. So I got MOST of what I came there for and headed out to Akihabara to get some stuff for myself. Of course, the problem was, it’s still raining and because of that, the roads aren’t closed off to traffic like most Sundays. So once again, you’re faced with 100s of people jostling for position on the sidewalk trying to walk in both directions with everyone carrying umbrellas. There were a few points where I just wanted to scream… I’m so not a city person…

But I braved the crowd to hit the figure shop first to pick up some new figurines from Samurai Champloo, Ranma 1/2, and most importantly the Final Fantasy series. It’s one of those things where you buy boxes of them but you don’t know which figure you got until you open it… I got lucky with the first 2…no doubles. BUT, I picked up 4 Final Fantasy figures and what happens? 2 doubles. Goddammit. Oh well…I guess a few people at work are going to get them as gifts… Of course, this also means I’ll be back there to buy more boxes…it’s so addicting….

Then I moved on to Yodobashi Camera to pick up a few things for the laptop. First I picked up a nice wireless mouse from Sony as seen here:

Now…some of you may think this looks really uncomfortable…but it’s not. It’s small so you never rest your hands on it. Instead you find yourself holding it lightly with your thumb and ring finger with the index and middle finger used for buttons. And because it’s flat, it’ll fit perfectly in a laptop bag pocket. The sensitivity is really good too.

I also picked up a nice little light laptop bag for this new little laptop that I got during my last trip and also a new game for my PSP, Taiko no Tatsujin – Portable. It’s that fun taiko drum rhythm game but for the PSP. It’s actually really well done and it comes with 32 or so songs (mostly J-pop but with some anime, videogames, and even classical pieces to mix it up a bit). But with the internet, you can download another 10+ new songs (which I did). I’m hoping they’ll continue to add more too :)

Also stopped at Tower Records to pick up a live CD from Seikima-II, the metal band from Japan, and also a DVD for my sister.

But this whole shopping trip lasted me all of 2 hours where usually I’m out and about most of the day. That’s including lunch. The rain and the crowd did me in. I went back to the hotel and just relaxed for a few hours playing the video game, watching TV, and just chilling out.

Last night I went back to Kawasaki to have some good sushi and then did some window shopping before getting back around 8:30pm. Of course then, for the first time in a while, jet lag hit me…. I couldn’t sleep for the life of me until like 2…. and of course I was up at 6:30 this morning. Oh well. I guess that means I’ll hopefully sleep well tonight as I have a full set of meetings this afternoon. I got a slow morning though so I’m hoping to do some preliminary research and sunch into some questions and issues I’ll be going over with our partners this trip.

So there you go. In the end, it’s just another weekend in Japan :)

Oh…and one more thing. I found another whacky thing from the land of electronics… Some of you may remember the USB powered vacuum duck…. There’s the usual USB powered fans and mug warmers and such too. But yesterday, when browsing, I ran across an USB powered ionic air cleaner! Unbelievable! (^_^)

Ok. Time to take a shower and start the day.

Yeah…it’s 7am…and I’m awake. Jetlag? Probably a mild one…

But anyway, as it’s too damn early to do anything and I feel lazy, I thought I’d take the time and pop up those images from the plane that I wrote about earlier.

So, here are 3 pics I took from the side of the 747 as we flew over the eastern edge of Siberia. Impressive eh? It’s even more impressive in person but still. Just…so much land and all inaccessable due to snow covered mountains. One of the few places left that’s still mostly untouched. Though who knows? In another 100 years of so there may be theme parks down there….

Gotta wonder just what lies hidden down there huh? I’m sure, as is lots of other companies, just TONS of oil. But what else? Archeological sites? New species? New fossils? Who knows?

Anyway, at least I was impressed (^_^)