Ho ho ho

Hello folks. It isn't my fault. I was powerless. My moves were forced. I was a slave to my environment. I didn't write anything on this blog in a long time. I blame Dr. Who.

And my lack of analysis of Tokyo life will continue. However, I point you to this news article about huge kites for oil tankers. Looks pretty darn cool. I want one.

busted

Blown out. Busted. Bursted at the seam. Done broke.

That describes the tube of my bike's rear tire. Or "tyre" depending on how you translate from Katakana. (That is a joke for expats only)

.. In my search for replacement parts, I stumbled upon this detailed website showing the difference between US tube valves and Japanese ones. Yes, they're different. The kind with the metal pincher-clip ("French type," or perhaps also "English type" apparently) is most common in Japan.

.. I don't have firm evidence on the advantage of one over the other, but looking at the design I'd guess the French type wouldn't afford as high internal pressure as the "America type" (which is used on car "tyres," even in the UK), and neither as high as the presto type which is used only on expensive bikes.

What's your guess?

PS If you know a good source for strange bike tubes in Tokyo please comment!

PPS I put my love-quiz score in the comments below!

ISO Photo Mascot

My family just returned home after a week-long visit to Tokyo. It was great to experience Tokyo through their eyes; they noticed more and more "only in Japan" details as their jet-lag wore off, and then of course it was time for them to go home.

One thing that we enjoyed doing was taking photos of a little stuffed bird, as a favor for an elementary school project in my sister's town.


Perched next to fortunes at Asakusa shrine

Yes, it's been done before. And yes the garden gnome in Amelie was funnier. And yes I'll have to carry it around where-ever I go. ...

But I'm considering it. Then the blog would be all thematic and stuff. .. & maybe it would help me to post more often.

What would be a good mascot? I wanna keep with the "Trying to make sense of Tokyo" theme. Any ideas??

I like Oprah...

... and I'm in-touch-enough to admit it. Let's face it: she's really good at saying like it is.

Today I read Oprah on CNN. Soon after, I took a "love type" personality quiz.

.. about the quiz: I'll show you mine if you show me yours!

PS What does it mean, when "Oprah" is in spell-check?!?

Strangely enjoyable PSA

I just witnessed some edutainment. Look for my favorite character in the PSA, "Annoying Loud White Guy Who Asks Why":


Of course, my second favorite character is "Inexplicably Non-Overdubbed Generic Asian Guy":


The movie is to announce fingerprint/photo requirements for entry into Japan from November 23, 2007. In general it's a very entertaining video. In a very disjointed and bad taste sort of way, the blunt "We're REALLY scared of foreign terrorists" repeatedly repeated message fits perfectly over the muzak light-jazz keyboard soundtrack. I also really like the non-tasteful random overdubbing.

(By the way, yes, it is a serious video. Check out the other channels at the website. TV isn't often quite this bad in Japan, but luckily web TV is.)

the future

Autoblog: When you blog about your own blog.


Is my screen too wide?

I had this question just a few moments ago, and it struck me how pampered I am. All this stuff here on the internet used to just be information--sharing data & facts, aka networking. Now I can decide on polka dots vs. squares and font colors.. The scientist in me wants to take the data points from the past and project into the future.

20 years from now, the necessity to be literate will drop. The proportion of information in text form will be lower; the "good stuff" on the net will be more and more in other languages. (And I say "good stuff" to mean the open internet--not the easier to access but regulated regional net, which doesn't exist yet.) Video processing will be a generation better, so having your head float around the screen talking about your favorite video game level while said game is playing in the background won't be a chore to make.

... What do you think? What will be the next big thing for computers? How will we use them in 2027?

heart chunks.

The heart is unlike the liver. When you give someone a chunk of your heart, that part doesn't grow back.

Not to say your heart can't grow--it just doesn't grow back into the same shape it was before. If having a good life means ending up with a big heart, then of course I'd rather have a big funny-shaped heart that a small pefect one.

But the question remains exactly what shape my heart will end up! C'est la vie.

Tokyo moment of Zen

To copy a term from The Daily Show,

A little video, taken by me.

... Can you hold your breath for the whole escalator ride?

I just can't understand how someone thought an escalator was more appropriate than a concrete ramp.

well blow me down

Must be typhoon season! My balcony had about 2~3 inches of standing water this morning, because the drain (which is shared by my washing machine--isn't your washing machine outdoors, on the balcony??) got clogged. I'll spray some mold-remover (HCl for all my chemist homies out there) down there after the rain lets up again.

And here's another little surprising experiment:


The prominent English/Roman words on the front are "Lot.DZA", "Cabernet Sauvignon", and 10% 500ml. What does that lead you to believe?

.. the biggest letters in Japanese says "SANGURIA" (Sangria). What does that lead you to believe?

... and finally, the beverage was located in the ... juice section of the convenience store. The full Japanese is "apple and grape Autumn Sangria". OHAYO is a milk company, apparently specializing in perishable beverages served in cartons. (Asahi and Kirin produce most beverages, so it's rare to find a different name--maybe OHAYO is a subsidiary, I dunno)

So is it alcoholic? Probably not. .. But that's the experiment I'm doing now. We'll see how much I enjoy work today...

Hello Jaws Of Life

The blank look and huge scissors is a... calming effect??

---

And now for a Japan version review, were we sample brands made a little different to suit the unique taste of Japanese customers.



Max Air. ? It's not a product listed at MountainDew.com (ie, Mountain Dew, Mountain Dew caffeine-free, Diet Mountain Dew, Mountain Dew Code Red, Mountain Dew LiveWire, Mountain Dew Baja Blast, AMP, Mountain Dew MDX, or Dew Iced [apparently a flavor at Cold Stone--eww! bleh!]).

So.. how's it taste?

Tastes like a less sugar, slightly bubblier version of Mt. Dew. Less syrupy, and less overall Dew-taste. Still smells like Dew, but a definite step towards 7-up. I like it.

Hear ye

In lieu of a real post, I direct you to http://www.japundit.com/ Good stuff.

tokyo-style auto-support

Can't think of a better title at the moment. Definitely a "Tokyo Style" post, and definitely automobile-related.



Because, as everyone knows, the sound of a moped is "Bun Bun." I'll have to put a new onomatopoeia in Japan post soon.. my recent favorite is "bisho bisho." Any idea what that officially sounds like in Japan?


How rich people park.


They can afford the house with street access, but they can't afford to pay an architect to give them a full sized garage. They didn't do this by choice--the car's back bumper is undoubtedly 1cm away from the back wall. Of course there's the space issue, but there might be some kind of squirrely tax reason for why builders/owners do this because I've seen this a lot.. ..it seems to be the norm.

Lazy day off

What do you do on your day off?


$4 at 7-11 (counting the beer, of course)

This is the not-oft publicized summer holiday of OBON. It is a day to remember your ancestors who have passed on. There is a traditional OBON dance, which I haven't actually ever witnessed, and old people go to cemetaries to cry. It's really pretty sad. Especially because the news photographers have the camera 2 inches from the folk's faces...

Anyway, I was pretty impressed with my pre-painted WWII bomber model. If I read the literature correctly (big assumption), this was the bomber model in the early/middle part of the war. Seats 3. At least, the pastic version does. :)

Sand Salad

Engrish constantly surrounds me, and I've grown immune to it. If it weren't bits of Engrish in the weekly customer email from www.jbox.com, I wouldn't have snapped a photo of this one:



At first, I thought it was a try at "We got beach food!" ... but now I realize what it really is. What do you think?

I'll post the real answer after a few of you give it your best shot ;) I think any Japanese people reading know it already..

Unit bath rapture

If I haven't complained enough about my cramped, plastic, you-just-showered-the-toilet-paper bathroom, it's because I'm turning Japanese and I've realized that the best way to cope with a "less than satisfactory but admittedly functional" situation is to ignore it completely. (Turning Japanese also enables one to write overly-long sentences.)

But now I can shower while standing up!!
 

Before this weekend, I had no shower curtain. I had the idea to buy one when I first moved in, but I couldn't find anything to match my active/American/computer-geek/bad-taste type of style. I might have even seen the above selection at the store but passed, considering the crayon-sunbathers-on-beach-towels too normal for my bathroom.

But then I realized that I couldn't stand up while taking a shower. The splatter and spray of the water bouncing off my body would get everywhere, including my toilet paper. That's just wrong. My vision of toilet paper is "sterile", and damp soggy soapy mushy stuff does not qualify. I don't even like to use "previously wet" toilet paper--the tell-tale water wrinkles and rougheness decrease my bathroom experience.

So I got into the habit of "squat mode shower". This is the mode Japanese people use at onsen, while washing every last bit before getting in the super-hot natural spring soak tubs. Sit on your haunches, crouch over, and get to work with the soap & shampoo using the shower wand. (One advantage of this geometry is access to .. well, parts that are arguably hard to wash in a western style shower--thus the proliferation of shower wands.)


Improvized twist-tie technique

But now I can stand! I can use the wall mount for the wand! Makes washing the backs of my knees easier, and I can use both hands while washing my face/hair. Joy!

..and not to mention stylish! Wouldn't you admit, my previously mono-tone off-white unit-bath hell is now up there in the runnings for Best Unitbath Decor of the Year!?! To quote Borat, "Nice!"

Beef!

Beef. As my American readers might remember (and my Japanese readers are sure to remember), there was a scare about BSE in the US about 2-3 years ago. BSE is "mad cow disease", and you can catch it if you eat bad beef. When the UK had a big mad-cow scare, the international response was to ban all imports from the UK. Most other countries followed suit. So when the same thing happened a while later to the US, the same thing happened. Most countries banned US beef, including the premium-priced market which is Japan.

But after most countries cleared the ban and accepted US beef, Japan has kept the ban in place. With every year that passes, it becomes clear that the BSE threat is just an excuse, but what's unclear is why. I can't tell if it's a political ploy against the company Yoshinoya (a fast food chain whose #1 main dish was US beef over rice--they still manage to hang on by selling pork over rice now), effective lobbying by Australian beef execs, or if it was a collective Japanese wish to be free of US Beef dominance. (Everyone agreed that US beef had "Clearly The Best! Better Than All The Rest!" kind of taste.)

So, I was amused to see this ad on the train recently:




Japanese baseball kids with HUGE HUGE HUGE steaks

The slogan is "BEEF DE GENKI" which translates between "Beef makes you strong!" and "Beef is Healthy". At first you might think that showing kids playing baseball is an innocent depiction of any active kid, and that serving a kid a steak whose mass is 1/4th the kid's body weight is excessive, but then you wouldn't be Japanese.

Japan's recent performance in baseball is a huge thing here. Baseball is solidifying it's position as the #1 popular Japan sport, having lost ground during the world cup craze a few years ago. Seeing Japanese stars excel in the US Major League makes Japanese people feel less inferior on the worldwide stage. (The normal feeling is "Of course we're inferior! If not we wouldn't have lost the war!")

BUT: most Japanese also see that kids are bigger now because they eat "western style food" more. All the current stars, for example, grew up in a time when suddenly US steaks were for sale. The above ad is supposed to scare Japanese parents into the idea that "If your kids don't eat US steaks, they won't have a chance at international baseball when they get older."

At least, that's my take on it.


MYSTERY!

What's this? (No, it's not beef.)

white bread 4th o' July

It may be corny, but: Have a Blast this 4th of July!



I might be nutty, but: Me Likey High Fiber!

Beer makes you constipated

.. or is it just "Too Happy"? ... You be the judge.

What the..

Why did I take this photo? ... and what am I doing?!?

yummy music

Just a shameless bit of commercial promotion from one of my favorite musicians..




Here at my work computer I don't have access to my photos, but.. at least you have alpacas orgling to enjoy.

Rainy season

There is a period of time, from late May into June, when Japanese people talk about the rainy season. And sometimes it really comes down hard for 20 minutes or so. The husband in the above photo is going out to unblock the path of water flowing in front of his house.




Drain clogged near my front door

Occasionally, the rain comes suddenly enough, and the clouds are powerful enough, to produce lightening and thunder. And since rain in Japan is usually gentle, many people (most people?) are frightened by thunder. I remember being near a busy train station when one of these squalls hit, and I heard girls screaming after hearing thunder.



Of course, at times like these, I get the overwhelming urge to explain that in Texas, thunderstorms that last all night are common. And for me thunder is calming. (Of course, if a lightening bolt hits your house or the tree in your front yard, it isn't so calming. But in general, it stays up in the clouds, and has a nice effect.) .. Think of the beginning of The Doors "Riders on the Storm".



But I can't see why Japanese people insist that the "Rainy season" lasts for weeks and weeks. It does not rain every day, and it is not depressing like a Portland Oregon winter. There's sun. And flowers. And cool weather days. And the sky is clear enough (pollution-haze washed away) that you can see Fuji-san. And I like that.


view from work

Perhaps the big talk is people's way of expecting the worse, so that if they do happen to get hit by a steady week of rain, they won't get depressed. Or maybe it prevents people from having their picnic plans ruined. "Oh, can't do it then--it'll be the rainy season." It's like a social insurance safeguard.

Is this common to all countries? Do we all expect the worst, for a specific season? For people not living in Japan, can you think of something similar from where you live?

PS

For a PG13 bit of wackiness, I recommend http://www.rathergood.com/looking/

The little train that could..

.. go underground.

Ahoy, and welcome to what promises to be a burst of blog activity. As you might notice, today I uploaded a bunch of pictures that I'd like to blog about. And today is the first one, about trains.

Today I waited about 25 minutes at a train track crossing for a (legal) chance to cross and go to work. I didn't have anything important to do, so I took it as a chance to watch how Japanese people handled the inconvenience.. ..which quickly turned into watching folks from the neighborhood duck under the warning barrier pole and scuttle across.. and I mean literally scuttling old men amidst the students, office ladies, and even a foreigner with a bike helmet--who wasn't me! Only about 30% waited longer than 5 minutes .. If I manage to catch this on camera, and I'll it post up later.

The train line's traffic has obviously exceeded the originally intended capacity. Apparently, the solution is to dig some tunnels and draw some cartoons.

From 20070614 blog...

What struck me was the sad/happy faces both as text art and on the trains. Otherwise the PSA seems serious.



"Serious" is a relative term.. and in Japan the above faces are not considered cute or for children--their purpose is to describe the problem quickly without technical details. I like the concept, but the faces still get to me. I guess I'm still not Japanese enough. ;)

PS

I got sick of the tiny tiny font and my inability to easily change it, so I switched over to the new Blogger style. It means I gots no more cool peek-a-boo comments. They're apparently possible, but it's a pain, and it's not clear to me if changing my "Page Elements" will hose my peek-a-boo hacks.. so.. I guess we'll live without them for now. Apologies to all my peek-a-booers out there.

where's my Erlenmeyer?

Got a kick out of reading this today:

Who's the Scientist?

PS. Bonus points for anyone reading (without a PhD) who remembers what an Erlenmeyer is. (I mean, before you Google for it.)

Nothin Beats Meat

Fire + Meat = Heaven!

I know that Japanese have a reputation for favoring fish over steak, but that could easily be due to economic reasons. (Fish is a LOT cheaper than beef, and vegetables too, actually..) But luckily there's a place I can fulfill my inner instinct for freshly cooked meat--Yaki Niku!

The above photo is proof of my addiction--I went to the restaurant solo. This might be par for the course in Korea (where this type of restaurant heralds from), but not in Japan. I'm hard core. .. or something.

Anyway.. snapped the shot, a little slice of Tokyo. Enjoy.

paper

If you want a more sane version of Cheryl Crow's "use only one sheet of toilet paper" suggestion, how about:

http://thesecomefromtrees.blogspot.com/

.. but where do the stickers come from?

Place your orders!

Hello! I'm writing from the blissful land of Home Internet. Much like the cell phone post, I get to use the internet before I know how much it costs, so.. I'm happy. ... and would you believe it, despite being an email addict since 1991 (no joke), this is the first time I've paid for internet access. (no joke.) So.. I guess that means I'm getting old. :)

Place your orders! I have too many photos and too many bloggish topics to choose just one, so please help me out! Post a comment if you want to see something.. photos.. wacky photos.. food photos.. non-photo-philosophy.. whatever you want. Here at T,TDV we aim to please.

Here's a little something.. uh.. to whet your curiosity..

Japan & WW2

I just stumbled upon a thought provoking view of Japan. I'm curious to hear the thoughts of any Japanese people who read my blog.

Although I haven't seen the plaque in the photo, I expect it is still on display. I think most Japanese people don't think so hard about "Why", they think more about "How". ... so from my perspective, there are still many things they didn't learn from WW2. Of course, there are many many Japanese people who will feel bad if they see the plaque in the photo, because it goes against their personal philosophy. But most of those Japanese (the free thinkers) wouldn't actually take action to remove the plaque.. only a crazy guy would do that! (Whereas, in the US, the fight to have it removed would be in the news. ..and an even more liberal example: in Europe, the people who removed it would be heroes.) The majority of Japanese people would read it and say "Oh, yeah, whatever, I guess so.."

(At least, that's my opinion.)

New apartment: Quaint!

Finally! A chance to update the blog. Things have been whirlwindishly busy the past few weeks--to be expected with moving an starting a new job, and all, but... not what I enjoy.

So yes: I moved! I have a 1K again (translation: 1 bedroom + 1 "kitchen", and to prove it 1 door in between), but this time I have two or three new Tokyo features!!


Shot looking through the bedroom


My "shoes off" area + storage, GENKAN 玄関

(My old apartment also had a GENKAN--not a new feature.)


My "not quite a kitchen"

(My old apartment also had 1 burner, but it had an ounce more counter top space. Not a new feature.)

So what's new? First up, a "Unit Bath"!


Shower while on the toilet, if you like!

My previous apartment had a seperate room for the toilet. Actually.. the toilet room took a lot of space, but I realize now it provided one important feature: dry toilet paper. Hopefully I won't ruin too many rolls due to stray showering.. Getting a shower curtain would help... (add that to the list)

And what else? The astute observer already asked--why's there a ladder? ==> Loft!


Shot looking back towards the kitchen


Floor 2: computers, underwear, and empty suitcases

Note the rail on the upper right--that's where the ladder hangs when not in use. (It's also how you trap people from being able to get down.) Eww... bad idea.


Taking a peak from the top of the ladder

The loft is empty now, but it'll be my little computer room soon. A bed would fit up here, but the girl who showed the apartment thought in summer it would get pretty darn warm up there (the angled roof is facing south). Also, I wouldn't want to navigate the ladder if I was extremely tired, or otherwise impaired, just to crawl into bed. .. also, I'm really groggy in the morning.


The ceiling light, and a window for light that tilts open

I'm on the 2F in a neighborhood of 2F, so the roof & skylight get a lot of sun. Nice!

There's also a balcony/veranda, where my AC, gas on demand water heater, and ... WASHING MACHINE now reside. Not much space for anything else. I'm planning a laundry post soon, so stay tuned.

... so what else is new here? Quaintness!


Old folks playing morning croquet


Bakery and (mostly) pedestrian shopping* street on the 5 min walk to the station

*enlightened shopping. (There's a video game store, and a CD shop.)


Old Japanese house view from balcony

Note the sign where I can chain up my bicycle. I should add, there's a convenient 7-11 about 100 meters away (T: a meter is about a yard), and, luckily, it's not directly visible. (No glare from the sign at night) ... (which on second thought probably wouldn't matter since there's huge glare from a light illuminating the next building's exterior stair-case.)

So, that was the 1 hour blog post tour of the apartment. Any questions?