Little Gaijin in the Big City

Happy year of the dragon!

2012-01-11T06:24:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!
2012 is, as well as being a leap year, and possibly the doomsday year (like it is almost every year may I add. I am personally looking forward to Year 2038 myself.)...
achem. 2012 is the year of the Dragon! Which may possibly be the coolest zodiac animal ever...Except for the Dog of course. (no guesses as to which year this blogger was born in).

the above photo is of various new years themed docorations, including a little dragon charm I got at a shrine. I think I'm going to start collecting all of the animals. What, don't look at me like that, I will most likely still be around 12 years from now! Even though I am turning 30 in less than 2 weeks. It does somewhat feel like the world might be ending, if only for me personally.

... Believe it or not, no one puts up all the new years cards on display as I have in this arrangement. It's quite a shame as they're attractive and original, they should be enjoyed before being shuttered up in the yearly shoebox-in-the-closet, only to be unearthed the next year when looking up addresses.
But if you're like my mother in law and recieve several hundred.... I suppose my decoration scheme wouldn't really work. ;)

Anyways, this year we did lots of new years Japanese traditional events. Like cleaning the whole house and sending out new years cards and going to a shrine and stuff.
But check out our awesome new years card, featuring 'Noboru-kun', our 20 year old newt that refuses to die. It's the year of the dragon so we figured eh, close enough.

Hope you all have similarly unusually long life-spans!
Cheers to a happy and healthy 2012~ kanpai!

iPhones overtaking the Galapagos

2011-12-18T23:38:00.000-08:00

It wasn't that long ago that Japanese cell phones were considered the most advanced in the world.
They were developed by, and for, Japanese users, with functions that were so intrinsically linked to Japanese culture that the makers somehow didn't bother to export to other countries. (e-mojis anyone?)
Back about seven years ago when I was an exchange student, most american cell phones were black and white, and the most advanced feature on them was a melody for a ring-tone (ok, there were PDAs but they were terrifically expensive).
And yet, as documented by yours truly, even way back then my cheapo Japanese model had full color, Java support for games, text-completion, a camera, and if you were willing to shell out the yen, internet support.

Fast forward a few years after that, Japanese phonese evolved even further to have email, SMS, analog television, 'digital wallet' IC chip feature you could use to buzz through train ticket gates automatically, infrared remote to beam information to your friend's phone without emailing it... and of course the highest megapixel count cameras you could want in a cell phone.
If those weren't enough, extra application downloads were just a button click away.

They evolved in a closed ecosystem independently from the rest of the world, filling their own environmental niches. Thus, Japanese cell phones (keitai) were nicked-named after the isolated archipelego, the 'galapagos islands'.
But these last few years, like a foreign species taking root, the iPhone has been sweeping even the Japanese market. Although it's much easier to type in Japanese in standard Japanese phones (they were built with that in mind!) and other complaints I hear on a daily basis from my coworkers, the sheer number of people using iPhones is causing an envy factor.
Now that major cellphone carriers SoftBank and recently, AU, have the licenses to sell iPhones, they've been selling like hotcakes. Or Beard Papa's chou-creams.

Why is this ?
There are still a lot of features from normal Japanese keitais that haven't been picked up by iPhones, things that are convenient and often taken for granted. Like the 'osaifu-keitai' - (digital money system).

I'm thinking the root of iPhone popularity is a combination of two things.
One, iPhone Applications are fun and often free, and universal for all carriers, and visible on the web for everyone, making them talking points.
Two - while Japanese 'Galapagos' phones have an overwhelming number of impressive features, these are hidden on text-only back menus.
Case in point; I've owned my current keitai for over three years now, and am STILL finding new things out about my phone: For instance - a jogging GPS tracker that will post your stats online for you and tell you how far you've run. This is a big feature! But it doesn't have much of a presence on the phone, or app store, and hence isn't something you'd chat about over the water cooler at the office. I know I have a Japanese - English dictionary pre-installed on my phone because I explicitly asked for such a model. But it was so hard to find, the clerk at the store had to show me how to bring it up.

Now on the iPhone, of course, really every single feature on the phone is visible with a bright graphic button visible on the first page. Easy to use, pretty, easy to talk to your friends about.

I was reading Malcom Gladwell's book 'What the Dog Saw', and it had an interesting article about the salesman Ron Popeil who made those kitchen gadgets you always see ads for on cable TV.
This particular quote about the difficulty of use of the VCR (another Japanese invention?) caught my eye as particularly relevent.

"If Ron had been the one to introduce the VCR, in other words, he would not simply have sold it in an infomercial.

He would also have changed the VCR itself, so that it made sense in an infomercial.
The clock, for example, wouldn’t be digital. (The haplessly blinking unset clock has, of course, become a symbol of frustration.)
The tape wouldn’t be inserted behind a hidden door — it would be out in plain view, just like the chicken in the rotisserie, so that if it was recording you could see the spools turn.

The controls wouldn’t be discreet buttons; they would be large, and they would make a reassuring click as they were pushed up and down, and each step of the taping process would be identified with a big obvious numeral so that you could set it and forget it.

And would it be a slender black, low-profile box? Of course not.
Ours is a culture in which the term “black box” is synonymous with incomprehensibility.
Ron’s VCR would be in red-and-white plastic, both opaque and translucent swirl, or maybe 364 Alcoa aluminum, painted in some bold primary color, and it would sit on top of the television, not below it, so that when your neighbor or your friend came over he would spot it immediately and say, “Wow, you have one of those Ronco Tape-O-Matics!”

I guess what I'm trying to say is, the iPhone is like a Japanese cell phone, re-invented by Ron Popeil.
;)

Decocars

2011-11-08T06:17:00.000-08:00

At the risk of making a sweeping general stereotype, I'm going to go ahead and say that here in Japan people have a thing for graphics. By graphics, I mean little cartoons used as visual representation for anything that could possibly be represented by cartoons, like rude manners, or the universal animation of a bowing cartoon lady when you buy something from a vending machine... and in some cases, extends to things that probably shouldn't be cartoonized.

Case in point - this year's medical exam included a picture of how to take a poo sample, as per a drawing of an adorable brown blob (let's call him Mr Poopy) riding a toilet backwards as he excreted his own fecal matter.

You think I kid! You are the lucky ones.

But the point I was trying to make was that ANYTHING is fair game when graphics are concerned here - either as subject matter or medium. So I really shouldn't have been surprised when a gang of motorists cruised down the highway in cars painted in.... anime figures!

...apparently this is a thing here. In fact, cars painted with really embarrassing painted emblems and doe-eyed cartoon girls are called 'ita-shya' - the kanji for which is 痛車; literally, 'painful car'. Check it out, it's got it's own wikipedia article! This hobby is bordering on legitimate! http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%97%9B%E8%BB%8A

So anyways, while most cars driving down the streets are normal and boring, every now and then I'll see a car decorated up the wazoo and will, like a crazy woman, try to chase it down, cell phone camera out. Here are the fruits of about a year of lucky shots! (note, some were inside a car dealership - Toyota was having a 'Full Metal Alchemist' tie-in.)

There is a whole realm of transportation decorating - including trucks (deco-trucks) and ... Did you see? One of them was a TRAIN! It had a retro 70's anime motif. Wow. Come to think of it, ANA seems to have a standing deal with Pokemon and has pikachus dancing merrily on the wings of their Boeing 747s.

Better Pikachu than Mr. Poopy!

(and we don't even know) The Name of Our Band

2011-10-20T20:22:00.000-07:00

Oops, another month has slipped away and I haven't posted anything! For shame, for shame. A quick update then?

I'm in a band! Playing electric guitar! (I borrowed the guitar from Takeshi's friend who hasn't played it since high school). Did I ever mention this is my second band? The first one was a bunch of old farts (I call them this out of love. Also because they were all in their fities and sixties). from England. There were six guitarists! Four too many! The six guitarists all wanted to do blues, while the bassist (the leader) wanted to do classic rock... you can probably guess how that worked out.

So, I tried applying for bands by looking at the bulletin boards near music shops. Of course they are all in Japanese. I was too nervous to cold call people to try out for bands, talk about intimidating~!!
I, being much more computer-friendly anyways, went online and found a band member search forum.
An ad for an "Advantage Lucy" cover band caught my eye. Advantage Lucy was a relatively minor indies band that reached their peak about ten years ago. When I was studying abroad, I picked up their CD in a ten pack of random CDs at a clearance sale for less than 100 yen, and theirs was the only CD I kept. Anyways, I figured, if these guys are trying to find someone for such an obscure cover band, they're probably legitimate.

It's been sort of rocky, because the bass player (the leader, again) has been causing trouble by threatening to quit twice, making the drummer quit, then arguing with the lead guitarist about who the new drummer should be, ultimately going off with the new drummer and asking me to come along. Jeez, don't drag me into your emo power struggles... !

I stayed with the guitarist and singer and new drummer #2. But now we don't have a bass player, and worse! Our band doesn't even have a name. Heavens to Betsy! We've been practicing for about three - four months now... if we find a new bassist in time, we want to do a gig in December. I've been practicing! I have calluses on my fingers to prove it. Also, the huge magazine rack in the living room (normally filled with fishing and boxing magazines) now also has ONE guitar magazine.

Next rehearsal is this weekend! Will there be more drama and power struggles? Will we find a bass player and schedule a gig? And more importantly, will we finally decide on a name?!
dum dum duummmmm!! Until next time....

TGS and Dash-Mura

2011-09-15T21:40:00.000-07:00

TGS and Dash-Mura Yesterday I went to the Tokyo Game Show! ...which is deceptively titled, as the show itself is all the way out in the boondocks of Chiba prefecture. But anyways. It's a huge deal, a video game conference and show of epic proportions, Japanese equivalent of E3.

I work in the game industry, so as a little treat to its employees my company bought everyone business day passes and allowed us a half day off to go check it out. I was only there for a morning and had to scuttle back in the afternoon to get to the office, but here are some of the games I liked the looks of: Ni no Kuni : So Level 5, a game developer that brought us Dark Cloud and Dragon Quest VIII , teamed up with Japan's national treasure of an anime studio "Studio Ghibli" (Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, the list goes on and on) to make the most beautiful looking game ever called 'Ni no Kuni'. It's a Japanese style RPG with cell-animated look that level 5 does so well. They already made one for the DS (didn't play it) but now they're making one for the PS3.

I'm SO EXCITED!!

I really like pretty games. As long as the characters in the game aren't too annoying (sorry Star Ocean, End of Time, I wanted to like you, but I can't stand girl characters with no substance other than a squeaky voice and massive titties), I say, bring on the HD. I'm spoiled, can't even play games on the Wii anymore because compared to the PS3, the graphics are crap. But Ni no Kuni... oh sweet Ghibli, I can't keep the drool in my mouth.

Other games I want to get my little paws on... Biohazard Revelations was fun to play and looked really good on the 3DS. Once I turned off the 3D, that is. Have you played or used 3D handhelds? They're different from 3DTV or movies, you don't have to wear glasses , you just have to hold it exactly right about a foot away from your face. I tried the 3DS out in the local 'denki-ya' a few months ago and was amused, until I put down the console, looked at real life things again, and my brain was like 'wait, this is 3D too! wait? what?!?!' and then gave me a massive headache for several hours afterwards.

Another very pretty game was Dragon's Dogma, which looks a lot like a western-style RPG like Dragon Age or Oblivion, only done by the Japanese company Capcom. I mean, you can tell they were trying to copy Dragon Age. The towns look the same. The character designs look the same. There's even a Dragon in the title. But it *looks* so much better. The previews and glances I stole over other people's shoulders got me pretty excited, but hopefully they'll bring something new to the genre and not fall into the trap of trying so hard to copy something all the fun is squeezed out of it.

FFXIII-2 ... I'm a sucker for Final Fantasy games. And once I got past that FFXIII wasn't an RPG, but a strategy action game, I had a lot of fun with it. I'll probably pick up a copy of the sequel, that features the continued adventures of Lightning and her sister Sarah. I tried it on the XBox, which is kind of strange because I read somewhere (oh yeah, this hilarious Penny Arcade comic) that the Microsoft's XBox 360 console will be slowly but surely phased out of Japanese stores. Like, all of them. The stores were fed up with slow sales and consumer complaints of crashes and glitches. I've never owned and XBox or its kin, so I wasn't particularly moved by this announcement, but it does seem a little unfair. Microsoft at least hasn't had a Massive Outage of it's Play Online services like a certain Japanese company I know. Whose name starts with an S and rhymes with Tony.

But that's not going to stop me from picking up a Sony Vita (their new handheld console). It already has like 80 games I want lined up! It has touch panels on the front and *back*! And best of all it doesn't encourage you to use the headache inducing 3D functions!
but I digress.

By the way, at the game show, there was an earthquake... just a little 6.2 magnituder. These happen all the time, so I didn't think much of it, but apparently it was a big deal to the international guests coming from places the earth is slightly less prone to movement.
...About that... it was just the 6 month anniversary of 3/11 this weekend, and there are still aftershocks, and still radiation troubles.

Speaking of televised treasures of the country, one of the best TV shows on air here is the show called 'Tetsuwan Dash'. : A group of four funny, good looking guys started a show ten years ago where they made a farm and started living off the land, raising sheep, digging a well, making a rice field, doing everything the old fashioned way with out electricity or power tools or pesticides. It's a really wonderful, environmentally-minded show. That wasn't the only thing they did, they drove an entire loop around Japan's coastline in a home-converted solar van... a little bit every week, in a little people carrier with a big 'ol solar panel on the roof. (they just finally finished their five year loop last year!)
Two years ago they also started and taking a tiny piece of the dirty Tokyo bay and putting in new sand, planting seaweed, nursing the little clams, and now it has a bunch of marine life in that one spot.

But the heart of their show was really the village they made, called 'Dash Mura'. It was a fixture of Sunday nights, Takeshi and I watched it every weekend, watching them laughing and cursing and making pickles or sheering their sheep or trying to figure out how to keep the monkeys from stealing their peaches. The location of the village was kept a secret, but after the earthquake, it turned out the village is in Fukushima.

Not only is Dash-mura Fukushima, it's within the 20Km exclusion zone. I can speak for the whole country when I say that that gets to me, the reality of the situation, when every Sunday we see the guys not able to go back to their farm.

This weekend on the show, on the anniversary of the quake, they went back wearing special radiation suits and gas masks, taking readings. The village was overgrown with weeds, but the peaches were still there, being eaten by the monkeys, the pumpkins were growing wild and had boar bites in them, and the honeybees had moved into the well. It had a beautiful overgrown wild feel, and if you didn't know, you would have never guessed that there was high radiation. The highest spots were the dead leaves, up to 35 microseiverts per hour, but overall the average was around 12 microseiverts per hour, still enough to make you pretty sick if you live there for a year.

I don't know any of the farmers in Fukushima but, thanks to Tetsuwan Dash, I can feel acutely that sadness of not being able to go back to that beautiful, painstakingly kept land. Its so cruel, and ironic, that the farm they made without electricity was rendered uninhabitable by a power plant.

Okay ... you nitpickers with the phD in Nitpickery are going to say 'that's not ironic! ironic would be ... a farm made without electricity being rendered useless by *lack* of electricity!'...
Fine, you win. But it's at least tragic. So please excuse me while I sniffle over here.

Maybe the real irony is me blogging about power-hogging video games and the tragedy of Fukushima in the same post? *looks away guiltily* ...
... by the way, Tokyo managed to cut its power consumption by more than 15% this summer, with both corporations and individuals doing what they could. Corporations turned off the lights of vending machines, civilians used fans instead of AC whenever possible and swapped out their light bulbs for LED lights. So at least we're giving this funky new thing called 'energy conservation' the old college try!

Papers, please : applying for a Permanent Resident Visa in Japan

2011-08-28T02:46:00.000-07:00

Being a foreigner in Japan has its quirks. Most of it I've come to terms with, like little kids openly staring at me on the street, or adults secretly staring on the train. Or is it that I have something on my face? Thanks to the humid weather I've recently developed a series of pimples that have consolidated and formed a giant zit the size of a softball on my right cheek. So maybe that's the real reason for the stares. Either way I'm very zen about it. (Except for you, giant zit the size of a grapefruit. I'm not zen about you.)

But anyways, another annoyance with being 'alien' is the little matter about visas. As the spouse of a japanese citizen, I "only" have to renew my visa once every three years or risk deportation. For some reason this date is always August 26 and it falls on Mom's birthday, so once every three years I'm like "happy birthday mom OH SHIT MY VISA APPLICATION!!"
This year was one of those years. (happy belated birthday mom!)
So I trudged on down to the immigration office in Shinagawa with lots of official papers. Of course on a weekday. You have to take a day off of work to submit your application, and another day off for the privelege to pay them some money when it is successful. Or if they don't accept it, you get to try again from square one. (luckily that has't happened to me. yet. I don't have that many vacation days left!)

About a month ago I was out drinking with some other expats, and one of them let me in on a little known secret: if you're the spouse of a japanese citizen, you can skip the normal 10 year residency requirement and apply for a permanent resident status after only 3 years. I have hellllla lived in Japan for more than 3 years. I am reminded of this fact every time someone says "hey Kyra your japanese is really good! how long have you lived in Japan for?" (about twice a week) and I dutifully do the math in my head. Um... about six and a half? 1 as an exchange student, two and a half before New York, three after New York. Anyways, enough for the damn requirement.

Permanent residency is ... well, the next best thing to citizenship, which I don't really want because being a japanese citizen means you have to either a. give up your american citizenship and be glared at when entering the US and be suspected of being a tax evader, or b. don't give it up and live within a legal grey area according to japanese law. So, permanent residence should be ok. anyways it means I won't have to update my visa, so no more excuses for missing mom's birthday. Hmmm... ;)

Before I went to update my normal spouse visa, I thought I would be really clever this time and look at the immigration office's website for what would be necessary to get the mythical permanent resident visa. It was there I discovered, although there is supposedly only a 3 year requirement, there is also a hidden requirement: the ability to read the extremely long, complicated directions on how to apply, in Japanese.

If you go to the official site, they have English. Here you go, here's the page. http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/english/tetuduki/kanri/shyorui/05.html
looks easy enough, right? Oh wait, what's that under "Necessary Documents"?
"For more information on necessary documents, please refer to your regional immigration office or immigration information center. "
In other words, we're not going to bother to translate for you, so feel free to continue your journey up shit creek without a paddle, stupid foreigner! BwaHaHaHa!!

The worst part is, even if you go to the immigration office and ask them for the requirements, they give you the three page single spaced list, get this: in Japanese.
Then they snicker at you.

Well I'm going to foil their evil plan and help translate. That's right guys, I'm on your side! Together we can get you your permanent resident visa!
...Unfortnately the requirements change depending on your current visa status, and gets really confusing really fast, so I'm just going to list with MY requirements: if you're the spouse of a japanese citizen, and assuming you work.

First of all, here's the official list. In Japanese, natch.
http://www.moj.go.jp/ONLINE/IMMIGRATION/ZAIRYU_EIJYU/zairyu_eijyu01.html

Let's see what it says. You need eight things, are you ready? Get out your pencils!

１永住許可申請書: eijyuu kyoka shinkei shyo . It's the application form where you write your name and address and why you want the visa and stuff like that. You can download it here: http://www.moj.go.jp/content/000050359.pdf

２パスポート及び外国人登録証明書　提示 : passport and foreigners card. It says 'either' but they ask for both.

3. 身分を証する文書等（取次証明書，戸籍謄本等 : An official paper that identifies you. I chose the kosekitohon, because it also fulfills #4. It's going to be your spouses if you're married, it will have your name on it. this is like a birth certificate but it has marraige entered on there. You will probably have to apply to the prefecture your spouse was born in for it and pay about 450 yen for one copy. seriously this was probably the hardest to get because I applied by mail, and takeshi's prefecture had a form to fill out and you had to pay the 450 in special stamps and include copies of your passport and lots of crap. I got two just in case, I really don't want to have to go through that again.

4. 　配偶者の方の戸籍謄本　１通 spouses's kosekitohon. same as above. you only need the one.

5.申請人を含む家族全員（世帯）の外国人登録原票記載事項証明書（外国人の方）及び住民票（日本人の方） For all members in your household, provide either their foreigner's card (if foreigners) or juminhyo (proof of residence) if they're japanese. The proof of residency can't just be a phone bill or something, no no. It's an official paper you have to get from your city office. They are also only open weekdays. Of course. Go there and look for the sign that says 住民票 and fill out a form and take a number, apply for the copy that has your entire household on it, and that will do. I think one form cost another 400 yen. This thing is getting expensive!

6.申請人又は申請人を扶養する方の職業を証明する次のいずれかの資料会社等に勤務している場合 So, if you work, you need to get a fancy peice of paper from your office. If you're dependent on your spouse you need them to get one from their office for you. It can't just be a paystub or something, what, are you kidding me? this is Japan, you have to have the OFFICIAL form. it has to be a : BAM! This thing right here. 在職証明書　. You can do what I did and email your HR department and copy those kanji into your email. ;) I think if you're self-employed, there's a couple more papers you have to bring. If you figure it out please comment!

７直近（過去１年分）の申請人又は申請人を扶養する方の所得及び納税状況を証明する次のいずれかの資料 : Something that proves you (if you work) or your spouse(if you're a dependent) have been paying taxes.
This is the document they specify: "　住民税の課税" (residency tax receipt) Must be within the last year. This is much easier if you have opted to have resident's taxes withdrawn from your paycheck, because then your residence tax will be on the little long white paper with blue ink that comes with your paycheck once a year around may. Bring a copy of that if you have it. If you haven't opted in for the automatic withdrawal scheme, you'll *know* because an enormous bill will come from the city office four times a year and it's extremely unpleasant. In that case you have to go to the city office *again* (same trip if you're smart) and ask for this thing: 住民税の課税（又は非課税）証明書及び納税証明書.

8.身元保証に関する資料 guarantor's authorization and signature. Basically get someone to promise they'll take care of you if everything goes wrong. I had my hubby sign mine. I think if your spouse is your dependent, you might be better off getting their parents to sign it. You can download the form here: http://www.moj.go.jp/content/000001990.pdf
You need them to stamp it with their official inkan (if japanese) or signature (if foreign) before you take it in to the office.

So uh, I think that's everything! I took all that stuff to the office, and waited in a two hour line (or was it three hours? it blurred together at the end) and got a little paper that says 'wait 6 months to a year'. So bad news, you're staying illegally if your normal one expires. Just be safe and renew it while you're there already. ... No I'm not explaining all the papers required to renew your visa, THAT one at least is in English!

I've got my fingers crossed and am about 85% confident I translated all the requirements right and will get my visa without a hitch, but I'll let you know for sure.
In six months to one year's time. o_O;

a little over my head...

2011-07-28T20:15:00.000-07:00

I started using some 'mindmapping' software to keep track of my tasks at work, so I thought 'maybe I'll try that with my personal projects too!'

..
..
Woah. Maybe I'm biting off a little more than I can chew here. But what can I say, I love my projects. They make me happy.

A check next to a note means I'm working on it ok, where as an exclamation mark means I think I should be getting my ass in gear on that one.

As you can see, I'm making terrible progress with my home programming category. Don't worry, I have excuses! As an experienced excuse-giver, I have plenty!
1. when I get home, I'm all tired out from programming all day and don't want to look at computers, except for maybe facebook. damn, fb, you're addictive.
2. and this is probably the main reason:
The back room where the desktop computer is with the higher processing power and more memory and where I have Eclipse set up and everything... is also the room where we keep the cat toilet.
Damn, no matter how much I clean it (alright not enough, obviously), I start to have respiratory problems if I stay in there too long.
...come to think of it, ... maybe I should set up the computer somewhere else. ;)

But at least I finally got a Flash license from my company!.. they're nearly a thousand dollars, which explained their reluctance, but I've been asking for one for like two years now. I can only use it at work, but that's a start!

Another point of interest, you can see there are no exclamation points near Gemini. I finally finished the first draft, so I'm cutting myself some slack in that area. But my book (Tokyo By Pen) has some bits that relate to current events, so I really can't wait too long or it'll seem old.

just from looking at this list there are some items that need some explanation, so here are some links for your nerdily pleasure.

Evil Editor is an editor's blog where he rates and mocks/praises people's query letters and generally gives helpful advice.
http://evileditor.net/

While we're on the subject of query letters, another favorite reference is Miss Snark (her blog hasn't been updated in years, but it's a great archive of querying advice). http://misssnark.blogspot.com/

"Heroku" is a Ruby on Rails platform hosting service, where you can get started for free, recommended by the kind folks at the Tokyo on Rails meetup.
http://www.heroku.com/

'Geeks' is the Tokyo Geeks meetup, where I help out with organizing geeky events around Tokyo. Yessss, even my social life is geeky. *shrug* http://www.meetup.com/TokyoGeeks

What are some good songs to learn on guitar that everyone knows? I'm thinking along the lines of 'Yellow' by Coldplay, 'Love is what I got' by Sublime, Everlong by Foo Fighters...

See you next time, where I will blog about my amazing penrose tile quilt!
... as you can see by the exclamation mark, I'm procrastinating, but never you mind that ;)

Gemini is done! how to read my comic on your kindle!

2011-06-16T07:19:00.000-07:00

I finished my comic, er, graphic novel Gemini! *fanfare commences*

it's 155 pages (not counting the filler pages I made back when I cared about weekly updates) and took from 2005 - 2011! so the artwork has changed a lot. But that is not the point! The cool and unique thing about Gemini is that it is a full story, from start to finish, that is one book long. It has a sort of manga style, but is based in the bay area.

If there were a back cover, here's what it would say...
"A child of divorce, Lauren Gemini sets out to find her father, an ex-cop of the SFPD.
To her surprise, he's formed a detective agency... before she knows it, Lauren is wrapped up in his latest case, investigating the poisoning of Crystal Springs. As the situation becomes dire, she finds herself uncovering the days surrounding her parent's divorce, and the culprit her father faced years ago.
This time it's up to Lauren to take on her father's enemy and save Crystal Springs!"

"A++! Five stars out of five! The angels are dancing on the head of a pin! "
- The New York Times comment section taken entirely out of context.

Anyways, if you have a kindle, here's how you can read it on there! I think. If this doesn't work, please comment and I'll try to troubleshoot.

1) download the zip file of my comic ( a bunch of gifs. I ran it through the program 'Mangle' - manga converter for kindle - and it came out numbered and formated this way.)

zip file: http://bit.ly/kLxXv0

2) unzip (should turn into a folder called Gemini)
(if you don't have a kindle, you can stop here and just read it on your laptop.)

3) plug in your kindle via USB. you will see some folders that say 'documents' 'music' 'audible'. Make a new folder there at the top level, and call it 'pictures'.

4) copy the unzipped Gemini folder as it is under the new 'pictures' folder.

(if you browse via usb it should look something like F:Kindle\picures\Gemini\ (a bunch of .gifs)

5) unplug your Kindle, go to your home screen, and hopefully... voila! a file called Gemini shows up. Click on it and you should see the first page, which is Helen slamming a table.

6) while looking at the comic, click the menu button, you should see some options. press 'full screen mode'. It looks better that way :)

Hope it works!

PS. I know there are tons of typos and plot holes, but!
if I ever get around to fixing them I'd like to try to sell this on the Kindle store. What do you think? :DDD

Wrong Side of the Tracks

2011-05-31T21:37:00.000-07:00

A perfectly nice day in a perfectly nice SEEMING town. Like a Transformer (tm), There is more here than meets the eye!

The other day, I ended up walking home from a different station than I usually do. It was a nice day, and the walk through the quiet neighborhood was peaceful and relaxing.

That is, until I noticed THE SIGN.

The sign in question was a yellow paper, your standard 8 1/2 x 11 page, laminated, and taped to a fence.
It looked like a haiku, and since I like that kind of thing, I stopped to read it.
It said:
変な人 (hen na hito)
話しかけられても (hanashi kakeraretemo)
話しちゃダメ (hanashicha dame)

Well, THAT's not in 5-7-5 verse! I scoffed superiorly, until I did a comedic mental double-take. WHAA?
Wait a second, did that sign say what I thought it said?
...yep.

"Strange people
Even if they talk to you
Don't talk back."

Well, there goes my plan to start random conversations in that neighborhood! *budum-ching*,
I joked to myself, and continued on my merry way.
But my merry way was littered with these signs, posted on windows, doors, gates, fences, all different, all creepy.

Slightly troubled and bemused, I went around snapping pictures of the signs.
Which of course in retrospect seems like a stalkery thing to do, and I'm probably lucky I wasn't arrested by a clearly traumatized populace.

whoops-a-daisy!

Anyways, in a move of support and solace, I am posting these up here for your ~~amusement~~ sympathy.


minna no me kodomo wo mamoru bouzai kamera	warui hito! boku-tachi minna mo miteru kara!	dourobo-san anata no mirai jigoku-yuki	tasukeai minna mimamoru
Everyone's eyes Are child-protecting security cameras.	Bad People! each and every one of us! Are watching you!	Mr. thief Your future is hell-bound.	Help each other Watch out for one another

This was the other side of the train tracks from my neighborhood, literally, and even though it looked like a perfectly nice normal place, I can't help but wonder. What the hell happened to you, my neighbors?!

Tokyo Geeks

2011-05-08T05:39:00.000-07:00

What? I've not been writing? Sorry, sorry. Everything is fine over here (well, as fine as it could be considering). The cherry trees have blossomed, bringing the gentle spring breezes and cheerful optimism that comes with the season. Cheerful optimism for people that don't have pollen allergies, which is ten times stronger this year (it was really hot last year so even the trees are cheerfully optomistic that now is the time to have seedlings). Anyways I didn't have any allergies that I know of so I'm pretty cheerful! Haha.

As for what I've been doing with myself... good question. Now might be the time for me to introduce a meetup I found called the 'Tokyo Geeks'! (drumroll please). This is a meetup group where, you guessed it, the self-proclaimed geeks of Tokyo get together every now and then and do geeky activities like playing board games, 'rock band' (tm?) hanging out in Akihabara, etc etc. After arranging a few anime screenings (what? I haven't watched any since I moved to Japan! I have a right!), I started to schedule different kinds of events. Right after the earthquake, we went to a bar in Shibuya called 'Famicon City', where you pay 2500 yen for all you can drink, and more importantly, you can choose from a huge selection of games from the beginning of video game time to the most modern games, on any console, in a comfy living room like environment. (my couch chose Smash Brothers on the N64).

The week after that I got an invite, casual like, to walk around the entire loop of the Yamanote line, and had a goal to finish in 12 hours...with a bunch of people at Oxfam Japan. 'It's for charity', my friend said. Well, how could you be heartless enough to say no to that? Our group of four (the Kit-Kats, or 'kitto katsu' which means "definitely will win!" ) made it around the whole 34.5 Km loop in, well, 13 hours, but we got a picture of every station and some interesting places in between. Like the Sky Tree, the new tower in Tokyo that is freakin' ginormous, breaking through the clouds. Then the VERY NEXT DAY (yes I'm a masochistic planner), despite the misguided calls from Tokyo's mayor Ishihara not to celebrate the coming spring with 'ohanami' - cherry blossom watching parties, or picnics under the trees with alcohol - we decided buying sake from Tohoku , the afflicted areas, was probably ok and had a picnic anyway.
So we went to Yoyogi park with our bottles from Miygi and Fukushima and Iwate and had a kanpai under the pretty blossoms.

Finally last week, we went to the Suginami Animation Museum, a small but well equipped place near Ogikubo station, where you can try out dubbing your voice to cartoons, and watch selected movies on the big screen. After that we went to Nakano Broadway 'the mecca for geeks', as they proclaim themselves. It was a four story shopping mall dedicated to figurines, vintage comics, costumes, anything your geeky little heart could desire. I bought a book of illustrations done by Inoue Takehiko (Slam Dunk, Vagabond) and a how to guide on the proper use of markers.

As you can see, I'm quite the little busy bee. I think I deserve a little rest from all that planning. well...at least until next month, when the Ghibli Museum is supposed to be planning three new exhibits... including a neko-bus from 'My Neighbor Totoro' that grownups can ride!... we are so there.

No April Fools?!

2011-03-31T22:42:00.000-07:00

My company announced a week ago that, due to the sombre mood of the nation, we would be cancelling our plans for an April Fools prank.
What? Is nothing sacred?!
One sad small victim of the catastrophe was my plan to put up an April Fool's

joke on the main page of my company's site. I had given it some thought, it was going to be a fake update to one of our games. The update: "Beard Wars"!

Since I have no place to put it now, and it is April 1st, here you go, my faithful readers. A treat just for you.

So, Tokyo is really really pretty much back to normal. There are occasional scary press releases from TEPCO, or 'The Evil Power Corporation', as we lovingly call them here, but really the feeling is we're itching to return to our regular lives.
Even the TV is seeming to agree. For about a week and a half, there was nothing on but news, and in the commercial breaks, nothing but public service announcements. We, as a nation, were stuck watching the three stock public service announcements the stations had on hand , which included: 1. A dancing animals animated film about the wonders of saying 'hello', 'goodbye' and 'thank you', to a happy song that gets stuck in your head after listening for about 1.3 seconds 2. A voice-over of a gently scolding mother, telling us if we say 'baka' to someone, they will say 'baka' to us, and if we say 'gomen ne', they will say 'gomen ne' in return, to the background music of a whiny violin. 3. A schoolboy looking guilty about not giving up his seat to a pregnant lady, and then later in the day making up for it by helping a granny up some steps.

That's it. Over and over. For two weeks. I think their secret mission was to get us to save electricity by getting irritated and turning off the TV. (naturally the TV sponsors couldn't come out and say 'turn off the TV', although we were given all sorts of other tips on how to save electricity. This is a big deal because if we don't save enough, The Evil Power Corporation will initiate random blackouts.

But now the TV studios are, little by little, gingerly returning to their ordinary shows, and the infuriating public service announcements are being replaced occasionally with the famously weird, bright-and-happy cola and makeup commercials.
Other signs of recovery: A lot of foreigners that left the city for two weeks are now sheepishly returning, which is strange because the radiation is as bad as ever.
People (myself included) have gone slack on power saving, but at least the weather is getting warmer and we don't have to use heaters quite as much.
So, although if you look around carefully you'll see signs that things are still not quite right (the skyscraper down the street where I get lunch at sometimes has cracks on the sidewalk), on a first pass, things are looking cheerful.
My face mask - radiation panic index has gone way down, from 60% of people wearing disposable paper masks from the 13th to the 20th, to about 20% wearing them in the city now. ...of course it's hard to tell how many were just wearing them because of pollen allergy season, which coincided almost exactly with the radiation fears in Tokyo.

So I was 'working at home' for about a week in there, where my company was running around like a chicken with it's head cut off, ordering people in only to send them home in the afternoon, and then gave up and gave us five 'work at home' days. Notice the quotes - our schedules were put on hold and we programmers had no access to the servers, databases, or our source code, thus were given free reign.
I got a lot of work done... on my comic!

Also I've started a new blog to help me keep track of the very strange Japanese vocabulary I've been learning as a direct result of current events. Hopefully it will have other, more normal vocab in the near future as well as I keep learning the language.
Feel free to follow along!
http://intermediate-japanese.blogspot.com/

***Announcing the end of the Little Gaijin Emergency Broadcast. We will now return to your regular scheduled programming of funny photos of japan and attempts at witty writing. ****

Aftershocks

2011-03-15T18:44:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't been writing.. it's just that every time I think I will write something, a new development occurs.
It's day four after the huge earthquake, and things are not back to normal.
Things that are strange? Every single TV channel has been showing nothing but news. News about new quakes, new aftershocks, new areas that are being affected. The day after the quake, just here in Tokyo we felt at least a dozen minor tremors. We couldn't peel our eyes from the TV which was just catching up to the effects of the tsunami around Sendai. It's crazy, entire cities were washed away. You can really see how absolutely surreal the situation is by looking at this link that shows the before/after view.
Japan quake 2011 before after

On Sunday, we were all feeling determined to do something for the tsunami victims, so I went and donated blood at Shinjuku's west exit Red Cross Japan donation station. There was an encouragingly long line, and even though there was a complicated list of requirements and countries you couldn't be from to donate, the US wasn't one of them, and before long I was getting 200 ml of blood out and soon enough was the proud owner of a Hello Kitty x Kenketsu-chan mascot gift(blood donation has a mascot here. yes, welcome to Japan).

Takeshi was asked by his company to get some instant ramen / other long lasting foods to send up north. We went to the supermarket to see what we could get, but
...yikes. Nothing on the shelves. ...
(Well, we finally found some stores that had noodles, and stocked up a bunch and sent it with the volunteers to go help the evacuees. )

apparently the shortage is because
1. fires in chiba were at a gas refinery, limiting the amount of gas available for delivery trucks
2. people panicking and buying everything to stock up in case of another disaster.
3. people panicking and buying all the gas to try to get out of town, limiting gas for delivery trucks.

as you can see, there is a lot of panic going on. This was not helped by events at the Fukushima power plant one bit. Takeshi was talking seriously about getting out of the country, convinced a nuclear cloud would hover over the city and rain death on everyone.
I did some checks with various news sources and talked with friends (I found out one of my friends from futsal all this time works on nuclear systems for his job!) and they were all very convincing that, considering the plant withstood an earthquake 5 times stronger than it was rated for PLUS a tsunami, it is doing a great job. The biggest problem it might have had was if plant was still online, but as soon as the quake hit it went offline automatically. As long as it's offline, the rods might melt and cause a mess and some radioactive isotopes to get into the air, but these airborne particles have a short halflife and will lose their radioactivity as they get farther from the plant (12 miles or so). Even *within* the 12 miles the radiation is not as bad as newspapers seem to be hinting - like maybe getting an xray.

So *I* know it's safe. The experts know its safe. The Japanese government, the US government, the UK embassy know it's safe. (Except for France which is evacuating its tizens as we speak).
But it's goddamn hard to stay calm when everyone around is wearing masks to protect from radioactive pollen getting in their lungs, even if the risk is negligable.
Since the nuclear plants were providing a generous serving of energy to most of north and western japan, we suddenly have a loss of power. Blackouts are scheduled, and to accomodate them, trains are running less frequently. We turn on the news, and we see reports of thousands(!) of bodies washing ashore about 200 miles north of here. I went to the office on monday, and half of the lights are off to save electricity, a weird hushed silence as we all check online for the news and talk about our twilight-zone weekends.
We were dismissed early on Tuesday, told to go home and stock up in case we can't leave the house because of power plant troubles.
Like I said, the scientific facts all point to this not being a problem, but the general paranoia is a real problem. My Korean friends were called by screaming mothers ordering them to get their asses home. The French embassy is requesting for its citizens to leave for southern japan, and getting some air france planes to get them home.

And meanwhile, even four days after the big one, the tremors don't stop !! There is at least one magnitude 6.0 or higher quake somewhere around here once every six hours!
Last night there was a 6.2 one measured with it's epicenter close to Mt. Fuji. Considering that volcano is about 300 years overdue for an eruption, I can't help but eye it suspiciously.... I mean, it probably won't. But with everything that's happening, you can't quite cross it off the list. Maybe I'll be able to give those elementary school kids a first hand account after all!

Earthquake Day

2011-03-11T22:16:00.000-08:00

Thanks for checking in on us! Here's a recap of my day yesterday: (reposting from fb)

My office is on 'reclaimed land' in the Tokyo bay. At first we thought the earthquake was just a little one.. we had a small one two days ago, but then it got really big and we hid under the desks. when it stopped, we assesed the damage which was nothing much and so we evacuated. About 30 minutes of waiting outside in the cold, we went back up, and just as we were settling back in to work, there was another huge quake. This time we didn't hide under the desks, we speed-walked back down the six flights of stairs, shouting at each other not to run.

There was an announcement from the city to go to the designated evacuation areas, so we went to the park on the corner, but the place we were supposed to evacuate to had a crack in the land !and was leaking!! (landfills are not the most stable places in the first place). Then there was an announcement there would be a tsunami, so we went back upstairs. The tsunami didn't reach us, so we were told to go home. Actually we asked if we could go home, and were told the word from the president was to "use your judgement".

What the hell does that mean? we all wondered.

Another aftershock and we were starting to get nervous, and my boss shook his head, and excused us.

... but then there was a little problem with all the trains were stopped, the streets clogged with traffic, and the phones not working. A group of my cowworkers were walking to Ginza to try to ride Japan Rail trains (instead of the subway), which was close to Takeshi's office. An hour or so of wandering in the cold and we found each other there... *phew*.

We went into his building and there were cracks and broken celiing tiles... some people were wearing the official distributed disaster helmets, but most were just chatting and wondering how to get home. We found a restaurant that was open.. right next to it in the underground plaza they were setting up tarps and newspapers for people to have a place to sit down while waiting for the trains to start back up.

Me, Takeshi and two of his coworkers found that one of the train lines that go to our place was up and running if we were willing to walk for 20 minutes. So we hiked through the city, the streets jam packed with cars not moving an inch, but mostly people sharing excited conversation about the scraps of news we had heard. It was the voice of people who got away by the skin of their teeth and knew it.

When we finally got to the Oedo line, we stopped and looked at each other. The line was worse than a major disneyland attraction, it stretched out of the large station and around the block.

"Should we stay over at your company? They have futons there, right?"

We dejectedly walked back, dreading the 'told you so's of the employees who stayed behind. As a last resort, we checked the Yurakucho line, which was miraculously running and not even crowded. Amazing. So thanks to that, we were able to get home unscathed, only 7 hours after the earthquake.

Now I'm watching the news... it looks really bad up north.

Dosoujin Fire Festival - part two!

2011-02-22T20:45:00.000-08:00

When we last left our little gaijin.... she was joining the fifteen or so daring? lazy? guests that shunned the long walk into town through the blizzard and decided to take the tank into town crowded into the back of a hollowed out van (all unnecessary parts, including seatbelts and their respective seats removed) and we squatted down for the ride.
About five uncomfortable minutes later, we arrived to a stream of people walking downhill through a festively decorated street.

To the right! sculptures of snow lit up from underneath. To the left! twinkling christmas lights! To the front! a scarily large number of fire fighters and firetrucks lining up, 'just in case'.
You know that's the sign of a good party.

As we cleared the brigade and trudged up the back side of a natural ampitheater made of snow, we saw a spectacle I wouldn't forget for a while: A wooden temple was sitting there, made of sturdy logs, decorated on top with pine branches jutting out artistically and, perhaps more important, flammably. Sitting on the top of the temple were a group of middle aged men, looking somewhere between bored and amused. On the bottom were a group of young men in their skivvies. Across the ampitheater was a giant bonfire. Every now and then some people from the village would grab a flaming stick from fire, rush over to the wooden temple, and attempt to light it on fire.
What? apparently this was a perfectly safe thing to do, as it was clearly protected by the young men, swatting at the flames exhuberantly with paper fans. Although 'fanning' and 'putting paper near' are phrases that don't immediately come to mind as synonymous with 'putting out a fire', those kids managed to ward off wave after wave of attackers.
Meanwhile, we had wormed our way closer to the front of the ampitheater to
a) get a better angle for photos and
b) get closer to the giant vat of free sake.

This sake vat was surrounded by other foreigners, excitedly speaking every language under the sun and getting extremely wasted.
Actually, it wasn't just the sake vat. The entire festival audience was about 60% made up of foreigners.
Takeshi looked at me suspiciously. "How did you hear of this festival, anyway? I've never heard of it!"
I pursed my lips and made a wry smile. "From my underground network of foreign friends!"
"Figures...."
Some of the old japanese guys in the audience were trying out their english on the girls. I heard them gabbing away. "I asked one for a kiss, and she kissed my cheek! Festivals with mostly foreigners ain't bad, eh? eeeeh?" They jabbed each other merrily.
One started to make his way over to me, when Takeshi gave him a scary look of death, and he thought again. (I thought my look of death was scary, but TK managed to make the festival flames appear in his eyes. hee hee.)

After we were given more free sake shots than we really technically needed, the crush of the crowd brought us nearly an arm's reach away from the front. I was able to see the onslaught of villagers getting more intense every minute.
I was getting a little scared.
"If that thing goes up in flames, and we're here...." I was jostled by a merry maker and started to sweat.
The battle was heating up, and the swats were getting less effective. a flame had caught onto one of the rope hand holds. Was this okay? Was this going to end in a firey death??

(...in case you're not aware I'm trying to go for dramatic impact here, dear readers, please know that in all of its long history, no one had been burned to a crisp at this festival. At least not recently.)

While it made all of us first timers in the audience antsy, the old guys at the top were looking pretty bored, and not at all worried they were about to be turned into black smoldering charcoal briquettes, and the youths were getting black soot faces and hollering, but not running away in terror, which helped me realize this part was just an act, and those solid sturdy frozen logs were not about to catch fire just from a flame lick or two.

Suddenly, a taiko drum started, cueing a swarm of firefighter brigades to form a wall of arms and slowly march back, pushing everyone at about an inch a second away from the temple.
The old guys at the top took a last sip of sake and slowly started to evacuate from the top via a hidden ladder on the back, and though I couldn't see the kids, I'm sure they were busy making their getaway.
Now the real show was about to start. When the brigade decided we were all at a safe distance, the bonfire itself was moved, I don't know if the method was wheels or people carrying it via long poles or some sort of dark magic, slowly, slowly, towards the doomed wooden temple.

At an peal from the taiko drums, the bonfire made contact with the wood, which stubbornly refused to take for a few minutes, until the flames reached the decorative kindling at the top. Suddenly we were bathed in a flood of golden light as the thin graceful branches at the top sparkled and danced, ablaze.
It was snowing, so our thick winter clothes protected us not only from cold but from sudden flashes of heat that radiated from the temple as a new log would surrender and catch on fire.

The last treat was, on top of the entire thing and hanging suspended between two branches was a tiny gold shrine, which shone more briliantly than the entire flaming temple. I don't know what that shrine symbolized, but it was beautiful and probably symbolic moment, that refused to be caught properly on camera.

After the highlight was over, it became clear that the temple would probably take a few more hours to burn away entirely, most of the audience (yours truly included), trudged away and left the cleanup to the competent hands of the fire brigade.

It was a spectacular event, one of the best kept secrets in Japan. Except of course, from the foreigners.

Dosoujin Fire Festival Part 1: Getting there

2011-01-29T01:44:00.000-08:00

As our butts were being massaged by the buzz of tire chains vibrating up through the tightened suspension, the struts, shock absorbers, and finally through the seat mounts and cushions, creating a deafening hum, we gazed through the clouded windows at the whitened landscape surrounding Takeshi's Subaru.

On either side huge drifts were threatening to wall us in on the painstakingly snowplowed road, which was already covered with hardpacked frozen crystals. "Onsen hairite~!" Takeshi complained from the driver's seat, where truthfully he was having a much harder time of it than I was, even though the constant vibration was working through my cranium and threatening to give me a massive headache.

But that wasn't the only reason I couldn't complain. The much more important one was that this whole trip had been my idea.
"We can take as many hotspring baths as you like once we get there. Our hotel even has one," I commented, looking at the white specks drift through aspen trees and float serenely by the car. I tried to take another picture of the sun, shrouded and hazy behind the snow clouds.
Takeshi sighed. Of course he knew the details. Nozawa Onsen is a sleepy village famous for its hotsprings, ski resort, and once a year, the Dosoujin Matsuri, the reason I wanted to go in the first place.

Finally 60 km and several hours later (of going thirty km/h in the snow), we pulled into a labyrinth of small streets, flooded with water being used by its residents in a desperate effort to keep the roads clear of the still heavy snow. We were directed up to the hotel I had booked by the GPS navigation in the car.
'according to this, the hotel is practically on the ski slope' I tried to reasure the anxious driver. Indeed, the GPS system was leading us up past a group of skiiers in full gear, higher and higher up the hill.
It was leading us energetically on to a street that was blocked to the public and only open to snowmobiles. Whoopsidasies.
Well, after a lot of headscratching and rolling down the windows and asking people on the streets , we gave up and called the hotel.
Apparently you can't actually park at our hotel, as your car requires, just to get there, some crazy modified tires that resemble mini tanks.
We dutifully drove back to town and parked in the hotel's parking lot.
Getting to the hotel involved a ride on the world's longest escalator from the town to the ski slopes. (do I kid? I'm not sure. It was over 1 kilo in length.) The escalator (called the 'Yu' road, '遊' for play) was in this giant plastic tube that allowed a panoramic view of the forest it was mounted over. It was kind of amazing.

Anyways, we got to the hotel intact, and discovered the benefits of staying in a hotel located in the middle of goddamn nowhere: it was huuuge. And our room was more like a suite. And directly downstairs were the hotsprings, large indoor pools with volcanically heated mineral water piped in, with the bonus of an outdoor jacuzzi style bath if you wanted it.
It was truly sublime sitting in that jacuzzi, watching the snow float serenely by, the last of the sunlight filter through the evergreens... and covering up evey time a skier whizzed by for a closer look...
okay okay I made that last part up, we were facing away from the slope and there were no skiiers. Only the odd nature photographer. ;)

After we were all rested up, it was still a while until the festival started, so we tried to get back to town to do a little sightseeing before it got dark. Since we were on the slope, there was actually a little ski lift right next to our hotel that went directly there.
'Why doesn't anyone take this? it looks so convienent!' we thought as we consulted the map. It was much shorter route.
We soon found out this was because it was a rickety two seater death trap that had no a. side bars b. hand rails c. anything to keep you in your seat. Just a ski lift shuttling old planks of wood at scary speeds high over the forest floor, cliffs, creeks...
we held on to each other for dear life and tried not to look down.

Having reached the bottom in one peice, we ran around through the flooded streets, finding goodies like winter mottled sake and hotspring-boiled eggs, hot sweet bean buns, and the world's sweetest apples, we ran back up to the 'Yu' road about a minute before it closed for the night. There was no question about getting back up via ski lift, thank-you-very-much.

We got back to the hotel in time for dinner, where the owner/proprietor made a big deal, bringing out the 'no meat, execept for fish?!' dinner. Ah well, I guess they don't have the thing with the "gluten free, non-dairy, organic, vegetables farmed only on certain crop cycles etc. etc." pain in the ass order style like we have in the US, and are not used to picky eaters. She gave a raised eyebrow, saying 'the gravy is meat based, should I remove that too?' and when I said yes, gave the prim expression and slow sigh that goes with all-enduring waitstaff.
'wagamama de sumimasen, ne!' I smiled, busting out another one of those useful phrases you can use in a million situations in japan. Wagamama, in addition to being an adorable word (I dare you to say it ten times fast), means 'selfish', kinda.
Like, someone who does whatever they want despite other people's opinions.
Cats are often described in this way.

But after my deliciouly 'wagamama' non-(mammal/bird)meat meal, an announcement came on over the intercom that the shuttles would be departing for the festival. We rushed to get ready (stuffing ourselves into layers upon layers of winter wear), crammed about eighteen people into the back of a hollowed-out tank-tired van, and zoomed off, hearts beating, in anticipation of ~~giant fires and free sake~~ an ancient religious ritual being traditionally upheld. We were all very excited.

To be continued.... bu bu bum!!

achem.

2011-01-14T05:54:00.000-08:00

So! Sorry about that last post staying up so long. I was really hoping that leaving it up would somehow make the TSA notice and take down their stupid scanners before I went home. ... weellll that didn't happen, but at least I didn't have to go through any.

I went home! For the first time in two and a half years! And, my darling friends, if you're wondering why Kyra didn't mention this to you, the little ingrate, it's because I was only home for four days, two of which I was in sacramento and portland. When you don't go home for two and a half years, you are automatically obligated to see family first, or be threatened to be beheaded with a dull spoon, or something rather more painful.

But luckily for me I have wonderful family I love to visit. After visiting the awesome hostel in SF my sister manages, having dinner at a chinese restaurant with my parents and watching dad show off on the guitar, and I gave them the generous gift from the in-laws (they gave me a bunch of money and forced me to buy a present , a nice one, made in japan, that they would like, in a week! heh.)

The next day the rest of my extended family just happened to take it upon themselves to arrange two reunions, one in Sacramento, then a short plane ride up to Portland later we had a huge reunion and convened ten members in the same spot, most of whom I hadn't seen in over five years.
... kids really change a lot in five years! (But we knew that already.)

We talked about nerdy things, did magic tricks I brought from Japan with barely understandable english instructions, and ate lots of delicious homemade food, and drank dangerously delicious drinks until it got late. It was a nice excuse for everyone to get together after the busy holidays when they had all had their own separate plans, and there was still a tree up, and one of my uncles conveniently had a birthday three days earlier, so we got birthday cake as a bonus.

After the hilarious 'magic show', some of us adults went out to a bar and had more drinks. And much needed family bonding heart to heart talks. And then the bar closed, and other family members went to bed. So ... we went to another bar. The kind with ... dancing girls. (!) More drinks and bonding later, I sort of happened to fall off a bar stool, ( because of my simultaneous speech impediment, inner ear infection, and stomach flu ;)), and we got kicked out, which was probably for the best because the next day I had a flight to catch... a tiny plane, with propellers, that ran from Portland to San Jose.
Thanks to my pounding hangover, combined with jetlag, it felt like I was sitting *on the propeller*... but there was this amazing view of mount hood, mount shasta, the coast, and we flew low over san francisco and got great shots of the bay. Then my cousin picked us up and she was kind enough to drive us wherever my little heart desired, which was mostly Palo Alto. (I was very excited to find a gamestop there, as I had some shopping to do! ;))

Then, my last night in town, Mom decided the best thing to do was to go see Tron, which I hadn't seen yet because I thought it would be a big cheesy 3D effect soulless thing... was I wrong! It was awesome. ok, a little cheesy, a lot of SFX, but also nerdy in a good way, with a lot of soul. Maybe a little like my family, ;)

On the way home I found my lane in the airport was being sucked into one of the two backscatter scanners I've been complaining about, and if I were a little faster on my feet I could have gotten into a different line, but between my haziness from jetlag and a little subliminal masochism, I didn't do anything and found myself face to face with the Evil Naked Scanner of Doom! (dum dum duuummm). I just stood there, not moving, until the guy tried to wave me in it.

I just stood there and shook my head, and said, quote, 'I ain't going though that thing'. I was then shouted out, and it took me a moment to realize I was being shouted at to put my scarf through the baggage scanner, not to go through the ENSoD. I complied, and then realized there was a normal metal detector slightly to the right of the scanner. The tsa guy tried to point me through the scanner, but I shook my head, and then gestured at the metal detector with a hopeful look on my face, and he sighed and waved me through.

So I won! Take that stupid TSA. haha. ;) *achem*. But The Important thing is. I loves my family! They're awesome. Hope I see the again soon. ^_^

Suddenly, I don't want to go home

2010-11-21T06:59:00.000-08:00

My darling readers, you may or may not be aware of the new security procedures laying in wait for you when you go to the US, but they aren't pleasant.

To sum it up, you can now get a full body scan that shows your body as if it were naked to a TSA official in a closed off room and stores the images in a database, or a very thorough new pat down type that includes your private areas to search for weapons. Just in case you're holding a gun between your butt cheeks.

Here's the news for those who haven't been following it lately: http://abcnews.go.com/WN/tsa-pat-procedure-airports/story?id=11998304

Feel free to check it out. I thought this was a joke the first time I read it, but I assure you, it's very real.

I keep following these stories with a kind of morbid fascination. People are (rightly) kicking up a big fuss, and I hope they keep at it. Preferably, some action will be taken before January 9th, as that's when I'm going home to Cali!

So to help fan the flames as it were, I even used the online email system to write a letter to my congresswoman. But since it was me writing it, it turned out a little snarky and full of my 'writer's voice'. Well maybe she'll get a chuckle out of it. Or most likely an assistant will simply look at the topic, add a number to a tally, and ignore it.

So, as not to waste a perfectly good letter, I'm posting it here for your enjoyment. If you agree, please kick up a fuss with your local lawmakers! And try to make it snappy, I've only got a little over a month left ;)

(writing to Anna Eschoo)

Hi Anna,

I'm sure you've been hearing about this, but I am so personally disturbed by the new full body scanners at the airports that I have to write. (First time writing to a member of Congress! Well I'm sure there's a first for everything).

I like to think as an American, my rights are protected by the government. Rights like not having to choose between being seen in X-Ray vision with all my clothes off like some sort of perverted Superman, (with the side effect of radiation as a bonus! Yay?) or being groped inappropriately by a total stranger in a way that anyone else doing the same would be rightly arrested for sexual assault.

If the reason behind this is to protect us from a terrorist attack on an airplane, let's think of the odds for a moment. Walking on a sidewalk down a busy street is just about as likely to get me killed. By the same reasoning, should I wear full chain mail body armor and duct tape pillows around myself to walk to the grocery store?

Somewhere we have to draw the line between personal safety and common sense. The lower the odds of something happening, the less we should be forced to submit to rediculous (and in this case humiliating and insulting) schemes to prevent their occurance.

You are probably wondering what to suggest to the TSA as an alternative. That's a good question. Since every scanner cost over 100,000 dollars, each scanner would pay the yearly salary of maybe two air marshals. More air marshals on more flights would be great for security and much less personally invasive. Just a thought.

But please, we need congressional action on this. I'm currently living in Japan and can't 'take a train' home.

Thanks,

Kyra

Kids write the darndest things

2010-10-25T07:32:00.000-07:00

Well, I heard back from Rina's third grade class today.
Their questions are so adorable that they must be recorded here. ... in retrospect, I probably shouldn't have mentioned anything about the possibility of Mt Fuji erupting.
but anyways, here they are in all their grammar school glory.

"Dear Kyra, Have you ever seen Mt. Fugi? What animals live there? How many times does Mt. Fugi erupt a day? Are you having fun? Are you sick ove having a bath evry day? Is it fun living near the ocean? Do you swim? Do you like Japan better then California."
from マーク

"Dear Kyra
Konichiwa have you seen Mount Fougi? Do you live in tokyo. thanks for writeing. エーロン”

"Dear kyra, Konichiwa, How is Japan? Have you seen Mt fugi? Is it so difirit from Calafornya?Do you like your bed?
from ユーナ”

"Dear Kyra
KonichiwaI wanted toknow if you like rice. or Sushi? have you ever even seen Mt Fuji? Well that is all I have to say so please respond.
Sincerly サミー"

"Dear Kyra,
Do you live near Mt Fuij? Do you like Shuie?
from Binyamin"

"Dear Kyra
Did Mt fuji irupt sens you Moved?"

"Dear Kyra,
konichiwa Do you sleep well at all and what's an earthquake like? thank you for writing.
From ミミ"

"Dear Kyra,
What do you do wen earthquakes are there? Are they near you? Wen does maunt fugi explod?
from Sami サミー"

"Dear kyra,
I hav a Questio for you haw do you surfiv with a sliping Bag and cok in such a smul kcichin haw do you Surfiv?!
from Daniel"

"Dear Kirya
Konichiwa is your house small? Do you like soushi? Have you'r seen manfugy? What do you eat? Do you have brothers and sisters? What is is like in Japan? Are you happy in Japan?
from Makusu"

Dear kyra,
konichiwah do you like Shushi I do. And I love fish and rice do you. What does yen look like? What to you do when theris earthquakes. When does mount Fugi erup? is it fun to sleep on the floor.
from Mozesu"

I tried to include all the typos, to give the extra flavor of direct and innocent third degree questioning.
But they're so dang cute!!

Dear kids,
Just want you to know, it's spelled Fuji with a j.
sayonara,
Kyra. ;)

letter to a third grade class

2010-10-10T23:46:00.000-07:00

My friend Rina is teaching a class of third graders and asked me to write a letter to them about Japan!
Not being one to waste words, I will repeat it here.

"Hi Rina! I've been living in Japan so long sometimes its hard to remember what's different! but lets see, here we go...

Dear Rina's Class
hello everyone, and 'konnichiwa' from Japan!
I've been living in Tokyo for around six years, and I see lots of beautiful, cute, cool and strange things here.

Japan has weather similar to the east coast of america, so it has four distinct seasons (not like LA!) the winters are cold and sometimes snows, and the summers are very hot and humid, with loud bugs called cicadas in the trees.

The spring (in April) is famous for cherry trees blossoming, the trees have beautiful pink blossoms that bloom and blow away in the breeze like snow.

There are many mountains in Japan, and a good number of these are volcanoes. The tallest mountain (Mt Fuji) is a volcano, and if it erupted the lava might reach Tokyo! I don"t know if you have learned about the tectonic plates yet, but Japan is right on top of a fault line, so there are lots earthquakes, at least one or two a year.
But there are nice things about this, the volcanic activity makes the water under the earth hot, so Japan has natural hot springs, which are like a steamy hot baths that makes your skin feel nice and smooth.

Inside the house, we take off our shoes and wear slippers to keep the floors clean. In the winter we sit around a low table called a kotatsu that has a blanket over it and a heater inside, it's so nice to snuggle inside on a cold winters day and warm your feet and legs.
Bath time is really bath time, we take baths in big deep tubs every day, but we wash off first in a separate shower so the bath water stays clean, and reuse the same bath a few days.

Mostly houses are the same as american houses, but the kitchen is a little different. there aren't big ovens. In my kitchen we have a stove and sink and refrigerator and microwave, but also a rice cooker because we eat steamed white rice every day, usually with fish and miso soup. The oven we have is very small with a strong flame, and you put water in the bottom, it's used for cooking fish. It makes the fish way tastier than if you cook them in a big american oven.

Inside of Tokyo (the biggest city in Japan), it is a big, modern, and very clean city. People are very polite. Service in shops and restaurants is very fast and friendly, and there is no tipping here.
To get to work every day, most people use the subway or bicycles. It is very expensive to park so not many people drive every day, usually just on the weekends to visit relatives in the countryside.

In the countryside there are lots of rice fields (because we eat rice every day!) the rice is grown in a field with water, and is light green in the spring when it it planted, and gets dark green in the summer and starts to look like a giant golf course. Then in the autumn, the fields dry up and the rice turns a golden color, and the farmers cut it and dry it for a few weeks, then it's ready to be harvested! I love the countryside because the mountains and rice fields are beautiful all year round."

any questions, class? ;)
So many things I didn't get to... but hey. how would YOU summarize a country in a page or two?

All about Cally

2010-09-28T05:27:00.000-07:00

... And I don't mean California. I'm talking about my - er, our frandabulous cat, Cally. Yes, she's a Calico, and apparently the name is not that original. Sigh. I'm blogging about her because it has come to my attention that out there in the real world some of my beloved readers are fans of my cat!
How this came to be and how I was not aware of it, I am not quite sure as I try to stay quite attentive to the needs of my small but sophisticated readership base. So from here on out, if you have a request of subject, I would be MORE than happy to write about it for you, as sometimes I scratch my head while thinking of writing topics.
What? how is this possible? are you not living in the land of the interesting and quirky? you may be thinking. I do I do... but I have been living here for nigh on five years, and my eyes have become accustomed to many sights that would have once-upon-a-time been strange. It is a sad but true fact. SO today please excuse me if the topic is somewhat mundane.

Our adorable feline comes from the streets of Nerima-ku, our district of Tokyo, where she had been living in the 'wilds' survivng only on her remarkable talents of charming treats and tidbits from the hands of passersby. We met her in the park on the corner, where she not only convinced us by her pitiful meaows that her very survival depended on us (now that I know this fiesty cat a little better, I am certain she uses this very effective technique on everyone she lays her eyes on), but after we fed her and continued with our original purpose of going to the park (playing badminton), she demonstrated what a good housecat she would make with her very fastiduous hygeine by shyly releiving herself behind a tree, and then the entire time while we played our game, pawed neat line of dirt over neat line of dirt over her small pile, until there was a small mountain with the aesthetic feel of a zen garden on top of her privy. She looked at us coyly after this, as if to show it off.
"Oh my gosh Takeshi we have to adopt this cat!"

Fun cally fact:
she has just one crook near the end of her long tail, which she is rather sensitive about and will growl or murmur a complaint if you try to play with it.

We're not sure if she's a little too chubby or not. It's hard to tell. She has short hair that is very thick all year round and will only reluctantly tolerate it when I try to use the brushing tool called the 'furminator' on her. It seems the cat standard for 'a little chubby' is waay off from humans, as she still has the stray cat instinct of gobbling up any food placed in front of her (lest the other stray cats in her mind get to it first). I think most cats really want to be as big as possible, as this allows them to beat up other cats and steal their food, and 'level up' and repeat the cycle to yet bigger and bigger cats.

Hopefully she's not doing this when we occasionally let her out, but it's pretty suspicious as the week when we were on vacation and Takeshi's mom fed her and did not allow her out, she got remarkably skinny in only a weeks's time. The killer bit? Takeshi's mom admitted she fed Cally twice the amount we asked her to, (apparenly she was not yet steeled to Cally's aformentioned talents of weaseling extra food out of people). And she STILL lost weight. Uh-oh.

But let's not dwell on this, shall we? I still haven't mentioned Cally's amazing ability. She is actually a bit of a supercat. And no, I'm not talking about the weasling part, I think most cats with a bit of practice are quite excellent actors.
Twinkie comes to mind.
"Noooooo I haven't been fed yet!" (what's that bit of food on your plate then?) "I haven't been fed by at *least* one out of the five members of the family!"

I digress. Takeshi and I live in apartment, on the second floor. Yet Cally is an indoor/outdoor cat. We tried to keep her indoors, but she is very vocal about her desire for freedom. So she manages it somehow, through her magical powers.

She doesn't like the stairs, so she (with magical powers including the ability to fly) jumps from the window to an awning of the factory next door. Although it is about two feet down and two feet of open air between, she also on a rainy day wanted IN very BADLY and decided that the jump up and across this gap was nothing to a supercat, and got herself back in.

We have to be very careful because her other superpower is that of Harry Houdini, showing remarkable abilities to escape our apartment, finding any unlocked window and jimmying it open. THe first time she did this we thought for sure we had been robbed, but by a very strange burgaler who only left the window open about five inches and stole nothing but the cat.

"Cally, Miss Cally, there's noone like Ms. Callity, She's broken every human law, she breaks the law of gravity!" ***

A Beautiful Disaster

2010-09-02T06:28:00.000-07:00

What to do when your company is being partly managed by perverts?

Well, whatever they do privately is their own business. I'll turn a blind eye on the nubile bikini babe poster on the wall above their computer.
But when the guy who is in charge of new campaigns called together a meeting to discuss his latest brilliant plan, I didn't know I should be a little worried.

Normally our campaigns for this online game company, normally have something to do with, you know, the games we're promoting. For instance, if you log in a certain number of times in a week you get a special item. sometimes they're a little more abstract, like in-game fashion contests.
rarely, we have cross-promotion deals with stores or movies...for some bizzare reason our FPS shooter game had a tie-in with "Robo-geisha". come to think of it, the previews for that movie looked pretty raunchy. And our cute game recently (well, ok, 6 months ago) had that tie in with a maid cafe, to promote the new in-game maid costumes on sale.

So there you go. Just shows this has been going on for awhile without me noticing it. But anyways, I didn't think much about it or care, until recently. Just lately I've been put in charge of a lot of miscellanous projects that require programming with game data.
These projects: campaigns.
These campaigns "idea man": bikini poster boy.

The first campaign I developed was for was one called 'Tashiro Masashi's temple", the main challenge to create a magic 8-ball like bot to randomly answer users questions.

I was mentioning it to takeshi, when he snorted and his eyes bulged out.
"you mean *The* Tashiro Masashi? The famous celebrity turned pervert who was arrested and never allowed on TV again?"
uhm, maybe? I googled this guy, and the first image that showed up on Google's image search was a mustoiched man taking an up-skirt picture of an unsuspecting booth babe at an auto show.
Right, that guy.

So for the life of me, I couldn't see any connection to our games, and the only reason to have this campaign was to create a bit of buzz among our users. The reason for that partiular 'celebrity'? ... he was cheap.

Emboldened by this successful campaign, bikini poster boy called us for the fated meeting. His next big plan? A cute - girl voting campaign. Some random girls were to be put up on a special voting page of the site, and if you vote for them, you can see 'special data' and get an email from them.

The guy's eyes lit up as he described how you would have to register for our site to vote and "see their data". "You can always rely on pervy power!" he giggled excitedly.

Yes, he said exactly that, I kid you not.
I tried very hard not to roll my eyes at the meeting, since it had already been approved by the higherups. The cheif of the design team, my friend I went to korea with, was a little more forthcoming with her concerns.

"This game you're putting it on the site of, its target audience is girls. Maybe you should make this a .. guy voting system".
I laughed in delight. Immediately his face turned serious. "We already got the contracts for the girls. But maybe next time!".
So anyways, before leaving on summer break I spend a good two weeks developing this stupid pervy voting system, but of course the dummy data I worked with was benign. While developing, I got lost in the details of coding and made it to the best of my ability, leaving the last ten percent or so for my coworker.

When I got back from summer break, the first thing I did was check on the status of the project. I was supposed to be released the week while I was gone, yet it wasn't up on the site.

My coworker, in a hushed voice, turned me to our games forum page.
A huge number of posts all mentioned the campaign, nearly all extremely negative. One stood out more than most: a thread called "Petition against the 'too-beautiful voting campaign'". This one thread had over three hundred replies by unique users.

I will quote you what they said, roughly translated from the japanese : (for those that want to test their japanese chops, here is the link http://ta-online.jp/main/community/bbs/detail.php?search_bbs_no=2467&page_no=18&)

"definitely stop it."
"I'm 100% against this disgusting campaign".
"Gross, this is the worst event ever." etc etc. the list goes on and on.

The company issued an apology and retraction, and just like that, three weeks of work went down the toilet.

And yet, I couldn't be happier!!~ bikini boy is no longer in charge of campaigns, so at least for awhile, "pervy power" is going to have to take a back seat.
grin!

Fuji San

2010-07-21T07:50:00.000-07:00

Hello beloved blog readers. As I was writing this, it was four thirty in the afternoon, and I was groggily waiting for dinnertime to start at the ninth station of mount Fuji. My head was throbbing dully from mild altitude sickness. A mouthwatering fragrance of frying onions fill the air, and if I looked directly behind out the front door of the quaint mountain cottage, there is a sweeping vista that extends over the entire Izu Penninsula and the surrounding Pacific ocean. If you shield your eyes and squint a bit, a hazy view of Yokohama... and could it be? Perhaps as far as Tokyo?

Climbing Mount Fuji is not for the faint of heart or underprepared, so as soon as I mentioned I was interested in joining Takeshi and his coworkers for this year's climb, he promptly took me to an outdoor goods store in the middle of shinjuku- and faced me with he top brands of hiking. North face, mammoth, mont-bell... All of which had special 'have to pay the rent for this middle of Tokyo store location' price hikes on top of already rather painful brand name fees. On the list of things to buy this time:
full body rain wear set,
hiking stick,
headlamp.

This is only part of the total amount of necessary luggage required to get to the top of mount Fuji. Are you ready for a long list?

I thought so.

Hiking boots (with ankle support ) ,
Heavy down jacket and fleece clothes for the summit ( it reaches freezing temperatures),
Comfy warm weather hiking clothes for the bottom/middle trek
Bug spray, waterproof spray
Oxygen(!! A must!)

2liters of water per person (heavy!)
Lots of snacks. Mine included bananas i brought along because they were just about to go bad, which along the road to the summit, slowly transformed themselves into banana slugs. Which I forced myself to eat as there are no places to throw away trash on the mountain. Eew.
A big backpack to carry all of your goodies.
Oh, and of course lots of money to pay for the crazy mountain prices!

Example of crazy mountain prices: use of toilet. 200 yen per time.
Cup noodle: 600 yen.
Mountain hut 'room' rental: 8000 per person.
... but I digress. The other hikers in my group were taking an early nap, which is necessary because we would be making the final climb to the summit at two AM to watch the sunrise from the top.

Why is this necessary? Because! That is what is DONE. this is japan, there are rules here! if you climb mt Fuji, you haven't done it properly if you don't watch the sunrise at the top. Preferably while wearing, holding and packing as many North Face goods as is humanly possible to fit on your body.

Even though it was four thirty PM, they were also sleeping now because we got up at four am that morning to make it to the special Mt Fuji fifth step bus by nine am, and then took a five hour hike to our mountain cottage. So needless to say, even though we took lots of breaks, including an hour nap on the mountainside around the 7.5th step and got rather odd triangles of sunburn where we failed to carefully cover up, we arrived at two in the afternoon, incredibly tired and with nothing to do.

We could have probably made the whole trip up and down in one day.
But I'm glad we didn't try, because after the mountainside nap my head was really starting to hurt. I tried to sip from the oxygen can, only to find it had been left open and slowly leaking my precious oxygen through the trip up, and was now empty. Luckily the other people in my group brought extra cans and are generous souls.

Finally, at five o'clock came around, bringing with it something to do! ... namely, eating. The owners of this mountain cabin started serving up tiny rations of curry to the 90+ occupants in turn, who like us, would be making the climb the next morning.

After we groggily munched it down ("that was a nice snack. where's the main course?" half-jokes takeshi) we realize the temperature (which was in the high seventies out in the sunshine) had dropped sharply inside the cabin in the last thirty minutes. I could even see my breath. The other hikers shivered, and were about to head back up to bed. Well, that's not happening on my watch, I thought, and snagged Takeshi's sleeve and dragged him outside. I was not sleepy at all and wanted some company.

The idea was to watch the sunset. It was still full afternoon and bright, but the sun has continued its western course on the other side of the mountain, and before our eyes the shadow of mount Fuji started building up mass. Soon an enormous triangle crept along the eastern shoreline, enveloping the woods, the cities, and finally stretched over the ocean to the distant horizon, boldly shadowing even the clouds that dared get in its way. This was the famous 'kagefuji', or shadow of Mt Fuji. Finally it started to get dark, and the temperature dropped to near freezing, and I was left to watch the sunset alone as the sleepy spoilsports evacuated back to the warm comforts of the hamster-like tiny wooden room where the five of us were allocated sleeping space.

This turned out to be their loss, as shortly after the 'un gai' (sea of clouds) floated in and covered the forests and town, with the remainder of the sun turning the clouds luminescent colors. I felt as if I were adrift on a solitary island on a sea of pink, purple and peach colored waves, and the bright stars of the milky way fading in one by one, as if shy.

Sorry, but my camera is apparently not fond of the cold and lied to me at night saying it was out of batteries, so I have no proof of this sublime occurrence. I guess it will be only for me to remember.

Finally I gave up fighting the cold and tiptoed past the snoring hamsters... i mean hikers, and turned in for the night.

We awoke around 1:30 to the noise of the cafeteria workers downstairs shouting breakfast orders. actually, shouting for people to get out of the chairs and make room for the next wave of people getting their breakfasts. since the sunrise was at 4:40 and the climb to the top was only supposed to take 65 minutes from our hut, we had been planning to leave around 3, but sleeping further was proving to be impossible, so we gave up any plans of further sleep and packed up our gear.

Miraculously my headaches from the altitude sickness were completely gone ...I was finally acclimatized. Well, we were currently at 3,200 meters above sea-level. It turned out to be a good thing we got an early start, because the line to the top was just that. A line.
In fact, it was a Disneyland major attraction type of line, meaning you sort of jostle and move maybe one foot every ten seconds.
Normally I hate lines, but Disneyland line was about the maximum speed I could handle with the steep path littered with volcanic boulders in the dark. Also I soon realized the lack of oxygen in the air was not to be trifled with. So slowly trudging along the path to the top, we were in good spirits. It had an almost festival feeling.

The headlamps trudging up the mountain seemed to merge with the bright stars at the top, as illustrated by my 'artists rendition' to the left. ;)

As 4 am got closer, the eastern sky got brighter and brighter, causing looks of worry to pass on the faces close to us. Would we make it? We huddled into our down jackets and fleece and trudged as fast as we could.
The sky was now a grey blue, and streaks of gold painted the vapor trail clouds overhead. a few more exhausting feet of near vertical ascent, and we passed through the wooden torii gate marking the top of the mountain!
We ran, tripped, ran some more, and reached the eastern ledge where a large crowd was already gathered, and scootched through the gaps in people to watch the brilliant sun emerge over the sea of clouds and the eastern seaboard. All of the Izu penninsula and the shimmering geometric shapes of the Yokohama skyline were lit up under the new day. Somehow, being tired and having suffered to see a view make it so much more spectacular. You feel like.. you deserve it. ;)

Takeshi taught me the trick of warming the camera battery and I was able to coax it back to life long enough to get a shot or two at the top!

We had a tight schedule going down, but we managed to check out the crater at the top, and the post office. Yes, there is a post office at the top of mount Fuji! go figure.

***
Afterwards: I think the climb down, although it goes faster, is more grueling. it was quite painful on the knees, and since you feel stronger with the rising oxygen levels, you don't take the number of breaks you do on the way up, which is killer. The sun is intense, and since you sweat like crazy, normal sunscreen comes off in a matter of minutes. i'd recommend thin longsleeved shirts and *definitely* a hat and sunglasses. I forgot mine and had to buy a pair of really ugly wacky glasses at the fifth level stop. ;)

All in all, it is something that should be done once! and once is probably enough. ^^

Oh dear

2010-07-11T21:34:00.000-07:00

Apparently, the importers of Winston, the american brand of cigarettes, thought it would be a great campaign idea to market their product as the cigarette of choice of bald, mascara-wearing, daisy-duke jean-short cutoffs body builders.

So, is that the image of Americans now?!

better than that *other* stereotype of obese rude loud obnoxious people, I guess.

who wears short shorts? tee hee ~

Kyushu!

2010-06-22T08:53:00.000-07:00

Hey there, my ever-patient readers.

Sorry to keep you waiting. I keep thinking I should keep these shorter and update more often, but when I write I get caught up in my own prose, end up going off on pointless tangents and inevitably write the length of a novella, which in retrospect seems tiring. Then I put off writing my blog until I find a nice short-seeming topic, and the cycle begins again.

Anyways, this short seeming topic:
Went to Kyushu during golden week!
... what do you mean, golden week was a long time ago? it was just.. a month and a half... ok, you win. Anyways for those who don't know, GW is a week in may where nearly every day is a national holiday, causing massive traffic jams and crazy ticket prices to anywhere in, out of, or back into the entire nation of Japan. But since you get the whole week off, you have to at least TRY to go somewhere.
We went to Kyushu. Where is Kyushu? Western Japan.
Like most gaijin, I think of Japan in terms of north and south. when viewed as a tiny blob on the world map, it looks a bit like a lower case letter j, which is mostly up and down... except for when it veers off sharply to the left at the bottom.
The left most bit is Kyushu. It is so much more to the west that the sun sets a half hour later, and it is extremely close to Korea. you can even get korean radio stations, if you try.

Anyways, we went there because we are slowly but surely trying to visit all the major sections in Japan. Check it out: so far we have been to:

Okinawa
Hokkaido
Kyoto/Osaksa/Nara
Gunma, Nagano
Niigata
Nikko
Izu and two of it's surrounding islands, Koushima, Niijima

um.. probably some more. I think I will make a map with pictures at some point.

So this time we decided to go south by south west to the vast unexplored region of Kyushu, home to beautiful coastlines, hotsprings, hiking courses, lovely seaside villages...
... okay, much like the rest of Japan. But anyways the main point was we hadn't BEEN there yet.

So the plan was to start from Fukuoka in the north, drive to Nagasaki on the west side of the bay, take a ferry to Kumamoto and stay the night, then drive over towards Mt Aso, the huge crater with the green toxic looking onsen at the bottom. Then from there head to to seaside hotspring resort of Beppu, and leave from Fukuoka airport the next day.

Of course, this was golden week, so we spent a lot of time stuck in traffic, and did not make the ferry. instead we hung out in Nagasaki, takeshi got to fish, I got to paint, and the highway around the long way was not to bad at night.

Here's our course on Google maps:

大きな地図で見る

I put up lots of pictures on Flickr, so take a peek if you like! Kyra on Flickr Here are a few to tantalize your tastebuds.

Well that wasn't so bad. Maybe I will write again a little sooner next time. *knock on wood*

Girls in Costumes

2010-05-12T07:35:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of meeting a girl from Arizona. We met through Couch Surfing, which is a friendly place to meet people from around the world, and sort of borrow a friend for the day when you're travelling.

Since I've already seen most of the really famous tourist sites in Tokyo several times, I tried to convince my new friend to see some of the things I have trouble getting Takeshi to see with me. (aka nerdy things). Luckily for me, Ms Mel is also a bit nerdy, and she had already of her own accord made plans to see one of the things I've always wanted to see: the Takarazuka Revue. Takarazuka is like theater revues of old, but with a twist: all of the parts (men's parts included) are played by women.
The actresses playing mens parts are made up with very dramatic overdone stage makeup that looks quite silly on the posters, ('is that a fake chin?!' I thought while inspecting the playbill in line), but makes perfect sense from the back row of the large theater.

Getting tickets was no easy matter as the presale tickets had all sold out. We had to wait in line for the B seats ... starting at 7 in the morning!
I got there a little before mel and there were already fifty people in front of me. the tickets went on sale at nine, but we weren't bored, as there was a festival atmosphere among all the ladies (yes, only ladies!) in line, and pretty soon the fan clubs started showing up. small packs of people all wearing one conspicuous matching peice of clothing formed a wall along the sides of the street in front of the theater, each pack a fan club for a different actress. But since this is Japan, everything about the fan clubs was strangely formal. They had official fan club leaders, who had the extreme honor of being the liason between the actresses and the fans.

Oh and get this. We noticed the fans would get out a small paper card and line up to get it stamped by the leader. Apparently the number of stamps on your card proved exactly how dedicated (and thus higher ranking) of a fan they were. It was madness! Well, very organized madness.

Anyways, the stars arrived, all wearing normal clothes but fancy hats to indicate their stardom, and the fans were allowed to give their little messages to them, bowing to them there on the sidewalk. Mel was explaining all of this to me in an excited whisper. "They give gifts, too, but those come later, after the show!" this was her second viewing but already she was an expert. I was starting to see if she lived in japan, she would already have a near-full fandom stamp card.

We were able to snag our tickets for a 4:00 showing, and so we had nearly a whole day to fritter away while we waited for the show to start. So this time it was my turn to be the expert, and we went to the emperor's palace and the Sony building, where I drooled over the new Cybershot camera. But that was nothing, because at lunchtime we went over to Akihabara and found a maid cafe!

For those of you who are not in the know, allow me to explain. A maid cafe is a purely japanese cultural phenonmenon where cute girls dressed up in skimpy maid costumes serve you tea and coffee, flirt with you and are generally adorable. The whole shop was very pink and frilly, and they served very cutesy foods like omelletes with hand-drawn pictures on them, or parfaits in the shape of a bear's head. It was soooo cute. You would think this overload of saccharine sweetness would scare men away, but the place was jam packed with young men with a look of coveting worship in their eyes. Me and Mel were a little out of place and the maids weren't quite sure what to do with us, but they chatted away cutely as best they could and drew on our omelettes for us.

I was giggling with glee about what I would tell my coworkers when I got to work on monday, since they like that kind of stuff, but when I did, by a crazy cooincidence, my company is having a marketing campaign with the EXACT shop we went to. I had NO IDEA about it, but apparently they were advertising one of our games on their site "You should have said something earlier, we would have gotten you a coupon!" my sempai said breezily, like it was no big deal.
Here's the cutesy pinafore site: Pinafore Cafe ... See the picture of the anime chick chasing the cat thing? that is a character in our 'Yume Sekai' game. OMG, that was so weird!

Anyways, having thoroughly enjoyed the maid cafe, I, full of confidence as the tour guide, promptly got us lost. But somehow we made it back to the theater on time, and thanks to Mel (who does not speak Japanese, did I mention?!!), explained the full plot as well the divisions of the different theater troupes. The ladies dressed as men were amazing! they were macho and cool, all Rico Suaves with glittering costumes. They were all great dancers. Apparently the system with the costumes was, the bigger the stars, the more sequins on the costume. So that makes the couple in the picture to the left, well, probably the biggest stars of them all. I mean, look at all the gold sequins, I didn't even know there were that many sequins in EXISTANCE, let alone able to fit on one costume. ;D

At the end of the day, the fans were lining up again to give their gifts, but mel and i decided we didn't need to wait for that and rushed down the middle of the street to get home, and turned a few heads. If only we had had fancy hats. We might have made a run for some of the presents. ;)

よろしく　ノ

2010-04-04T00:20:00.000-07:00

I just realized I haven't blogged much about my work.
This is probably because for the most part, I like it!
Unlike the jobs I had before I went to NY, it's not just mostly debugging and entering data into Excel, it's actually programming all the time, and I even get those late night coding session highs I was missing from back in college. Of course this makes making dinner a challenge, but every now and then Takeshi is a sport and makes food. This is easier said than done as about six months ago I stopped eating meat.

what? I didn't mention that here? only facebook?
... okay, probably because I was embarrased about it. I mean, it's not like I've always been the vegetarian type. In fact when I was a kid I refused to eat anything BUT meat, preferably raw, and would stomp around the kitchen calling myself "Kyranasaurus Rex!"
The big 'converting' experience, I suppose you could say, came when I was drinking with some colleagues at an izzakaya, and one of the dishes they served was ... raw horse.

This came as something of a traumatic shock to me, who has always loved horses and possibly doodled up to a million of them when I was little. Even Kyrannasaur, upon hearing a rumour that Jell-O may have ground up horses hooves in it, cried bitterly and refused to touch even her favorite Key Lime flavor ever again.
So it was with disgust and shock that I saw 'basashi' being eaten in front of mine own eyes, which was viewed with amusement by my coworkers. "What's the big deal? what's so different about horses and cows? both are tasty, if you ask me!"

...and sewer rat may taste like pumkin pie, but I wouldn't know cuz I wouldn't eat the filthy mo-fo, I almost retorted , but my japanese is not that good yet. And also, horses are not filthy. In fact, I couldn't think of any really good reason why it's so bad to eat horses, besides that they are like pets to me. It's really, entirely cultural. But I would still not eat one in a million years.

So, facing the facts, and having just seen a very adorable baby cow on a farm the previous weekend, and having just read an article about the extreme intelligence of pigs, I thought, 'enough!' and decided to try to abstain from eating meat.
that is...until I realized here in japan there is fish, or fish bullion, in nearly everything here. And Takeshi the fisherman pointed me to some convincing studies that fish don't feel pain, at least in nearly the capacity of mammals... this is at least what I am reciting to myself when I scarf down the catch of the day.

So, like someone weaning themselves from cigarettes, I am leaning on this 'nicorette' of pescatarianism, and so far I have not even missed meat. ..Okay, except for that one time when I was confronted with a juicy pork dumpling, ON MY BIRTHDAY. I'm a weakling for things on my birthday.;)
But mostly this is just to draw a line somewhere. If you really want, you can eat pretty much any mammal you want here, including bears, whales, dolphins... but this won't stop people from giving koreans grief about eating that one type of dog. give me a break.

ANYWAYS...sorry, that was an infintely long tangent. back to work, my 'main' topic!

There are of course, things I could complain about, like any working environment, like the required 1.5 - 2.5 hours unpaid overtime a day. Or the annoying quarterly reviews where they take 40 minutes to discuss solely what you've been doing wrong, such as "not working enough overtime". >_<;

But this room of guys (yes, 11 men, the only other girl was a contract worker and her contract ended about half a year ago) is a friendly environment, every now and then jokes are swatted around. I've been working in Japanese offices for about five years, which has the pleasant side effect of being able to contribute to the banter and make adequate comebacks when called for.

But every now and then there are words I don't know. You would think that business emails would be limited to boring, work related vocabulary... but in the inter-office chat/texting program, words tend to go slack, slang tends to be used, and Kyra tends to learn strange lessons in japanese.

Case in point: the other day I asked a guy in the other office for a document I needed, and he sent it over with a message:
'よろしく　ノ'
I leaned over to my senpai (senior coworker), and whispered 'hey, I know this yoroshiku. But what is that katakana 'no' doing there?'
He smirked at me and shook his head. "You don't know that yet?! fail!"
"fail what?"
"just, in general." he shook his head again. "it's the basics of basics!"
then he sent over an instant message, with this curious emotocon:
ノ（・u・）ノ "it's that arm."

Now you know. And knowing, as they say, is half the battle!

Kindle!

2010-03-11T06:55:00.000-08:00

So! I finally got my paws on an Amazon Kindle, which is an e-reader. What makes me drool over it is the way it displays text with some black sorcery called 'e-ink', magically moving actual ink around a page. It's ... well, rather like those moving newspapers from Harry Potter.
But it's even better than that because this sexy little device has FREE INTERNET included. Let me make myself clear: Free internet does not exist in Japan. No wi-fi anywhere can be had for free in the city, which I've been bitching about ever since we moved in and had no net connection for the first three months. But somehow, Amazon must have sacrificed some goats and appeased the internet gods to bless their device with wireless access all over Japan! Good for them.

Not to say it doesn't have it's bad parts. Although it comes with a keyboard and internet access, you really can't use it to type. Just imagine you're typing along at a cheerful 60WPM and the bluuuuugghh you move to the kindle and it's suddenly like you're a saber tooth tiger moving in a pit of tar. Every letter takes a full second to appear on the screen!! So my dreams of using it as a portable novel-writing device were dashed to bits.

Also not cool : this is supposed to be the *global* edition, but it doesn't have japanese character support. At all. Not even for the text reader, not for the internet. Haven't you silly amazonians heard of Unicode?!
This is a real shame, because with its text-to-speech function and built-in dictionary, it could be the world's best language learning tool. As it is, when I bring it to work at my japanese company, my coworkers gather around and ooh and ah 'is that the kindle? I heard of that. Ooh, but look at all that english. No thanks.' And that's the end of the story.

Also, purchasing content is pretty expensive. New books are around $10, which isn't much of a discount considering the purchase price of the device itself.

SO! I am blogging with ways to get juicy free content for your kindle. Because I'm just that nice.

Free contents 1: Internet. Say you're a little slow like me and it took you a while to figure out how to use this feature... from the 'home page', press the menu button -> turn wireless on. that done, go to the same menu and now choose 'Experimental'. click on Basic Web, the first choice on this semi-hidden page.

Free contents 2: Amazon's free goodies. Go to the amazon site, go to the kindle store, press the search button (search text can be blank, just get to the sub page) -> from the dropdown on the top left, choose Sort by-> Price: low to high. There's a bunch of free books, most are in the public domain. Don't scoff, there are some great classics available... like I read Dracula for the first time because it's free, and I loved it! But there are also some free new books that are the first in a series. (you know, like crack, the first hit's free. ;) )
Also, Project Gutenberg's books are offered in .mobi content, which can be uploaded directly onto your kindle and has chapter links and everything, all for free.

Free contents 3: Scanlated comics! This is where the kindle really shines in my opinion. Since it has 16 shades of grey, b/w or greyscale images look very pretty. Comics, especially the black and white, spacious manga kind, look absolutely fabulous. To take advantage of this, some clever person made freeware that converts images to the perfect contrast and aspect ratio for the kindle, called Mangle' Combine this software with a comic scanning and translation site like Manga Helpers, and you can semi-legally download from the net and upload to your kindle the latest chapter of your favorite foreign comic for free! ... (until the title gets picked up by an american publisher, of course. Then you should buy it.)

With all this excitement, I couldn't help but get caught up in it. I sort of nervously tried out running all 130+ pages of my comic Gemini through the Mangle software and uploaded it onto my squeaky clean new Kindle.
...
...
Check it out !!

Damn that's one good looking comic, all high tech and stuff.

As you can see from the gleam in my eye, it has gotten me thinking: maybe selling Gemini for a couple of bucks as Kindle content is the way to go. It would be SOO much easier than preparing it for print- no worrying about odd/even pages having different cutoff margins, higher resolution etc... the scans I made for the web are 600x840 pixels, which is almost exactly the optimum kindle display size. It's like.. it was meant to be!
*sighs with contentment*.

Unfortunately Gemini isnt' quite done yet, but this year! This year it is going to be listed on Amazon's kindle content, darn it! *points at random star and swears upon it*.

Wish me luck! /(*u*)/~

Snow Monkeys and Hot Springs

2010-01-16T23:35:00.000-08:00

Happy 2010 everbody! This is our my painstakingly photoshopped 'nengajyo', or New Years card.

While I have been busy procrastinating from blog writing, comicking, etc, I have been busy having many adventures in the countryside about an hour or two away from here.

One of the things I have always meant to do was do see the famous snow monkeys, if only because they are on the list of Things That Must Be Seen In Japan. Also on this list is Hiroshima, but it was a little too far away for a weekends visit, so we settled on the much closer Jugokudani (literally, 'Hell Valley').

Jigokudani is the home of several large groups of monkeys, who continually battle for the coveted land in the middle of the Jigokudani monkey park, which is maintained by humans. Long before it was a park, however, it was already coveted by the monkeys for its series of natural hotsprings bubbling up and joining the river. The steam and sulfurous scent was probably the source of the valley's name as a hell hole, but to the monkeys it was heaven-sent. When we visited in november, the park was already begining to show signs of snow.

When we went through the gates of the park, the first thing we noticed was hundreds upon hundreds of monkeys, walking on concrete paths and manicured lawns, ignoring us and even running through our legs when we blocked the path on a narrow wooden bridge. As we walked to the center of the park, white puffs of steam floated up from a small pond, where about twenty monkeys were dipping in their paws delicately testing the water, then either deciding the effort to dry their fur wouldn:t be worth it, or taking the plunge into the perfect monkey hotspring. The water looked pretty dirty, but that was about the only thing that was keeping us from being overly envious of our furry cousins. After watching their amusingly human-like expressions of relaxation and comfort, we wandered around and watched the alpha monkeys boss around the underlings, the moms groom each other while ocassionally screeching at their children to behave themselves, and the kids playing on anything they could get their hands on: ropes, other monkeys, brooms left by the park attendants, and even the 'snow monkey live webcam'. In other words, just another day in the life.

We left the snow monkey park to visit a hot spring town built for human needs, called Nozawa onsen. Here the springs that naturally come out are superheated by nearby volcanic vents, and even after they travel the miles to the earth's surface come out at a piping 70 degrees Celcius. As this is enough to char even a veteren onsen granny's skin clear off, the big public baths scattered around Nozawa have two pipes: one constantly running hotspring pipe, and one cold water tap that is normally left closed, or open to only a tiny dribble. It's up to the people in the bath house to control the temperature manually, and the people that have the say in the matter are of course, the residents of the onsen town.

locals boiling vegetables in the onsen water.

These residents have grown up around scalding hot baths, and like to keep it that way. I came in to a lovely wooden old bath house with three other girls from tokyo, all of whom said it was their first time. As it was getting dark out and you could already see your breath, we were looking forward to getting into the hot water. I put one toe in, and promptly drew it out with a cry of pain. I swear to you I have never been in a hotter bath.

I figured that I could probably get used to it, after all, look at the slightly overweight middle aged ladies laughing and gossiping right next to the hot water spout! I put a whole foot in and this time left it there for about fifteen seconds. Instead of getting used to it, my whole foot was now as red as a lobster and tingling with the pain you feel after being sunburnt. I looked at the other girls, who had discreetly split up and were trying to get in at the spot closest to the cold water spout, which was only open a dribble. I watched with envy as one was able to immerse her whole body, albeit with the intense concentration of a yogi coal walker, and emerged less than twenty seconds later.

Putting my cold hands on my burnt foot for relief, I was starting to shiver and become resentful, and hatched an alternate strategy... using a small tub, I spooned out some of the hot water from the bath, put my washrag in it, and gave myself a very hot sponge bath. Not very satisying, but it kept me warm. The tokyo girls made a hasty exit, but by then the town ladies turned their attention to me and became concerned.

"Why dont you get in? You'll catch your death of cold out there!" I shook my head patheticly. "I would like to, but it's too hot." They looked at each other. "Really? I think this is perfect." "Yes, just lovely." They looked at me and frowned. "Your skin is too thin."

... I had to bite my lip to keep a plethora of comeback lines from bursting out. Instead I politely laughed and quickly escaped the Hell Valley Hotspring.

As I rejoined Takeshi, he said the Tokyoites had overpowered the locals in the mens bath and turned the water on full blast, making a slightly more reasonable temperature. Another discovery: According to the locals, None of the out of towners ever came back. Apparently they like it that way.

But the temperature aside, we had a great time wandering around the scenic town of Nozawa dressed in the yukatas and the yukata-coats borrowed from the hotel we stayed at, wandering from bath to bath and eating snacks between. Eventually we even found one with a reasonable, or, according to locals 'lukewarm' temperature of 41 C, called 'bear's handwashing spot'. It was even bear free.

So that is one of our adventures out of three. New years resolution is to post more often, but that is also up there along with waking up earlier and finishing my comic. So we'll see.

... (can I blame facebook for my lack of posts?)

Tokyo By Pen

2009-11-11T06:45:00.000-08:00

This month (November) I'm an Official Participant of 'National Novel Writing Month', aka 'NaNoWriMo' for short. All this means is that some of my friends, being mean bullies afraid to fail alone, dared me into writing a 150~ page (50,000 words or more long) novel between the 1st and 30th of November.

So far I'm loving it!!

Anyways, thought I'd post about it because I got this cute little pep-talk mail from the guys who run the challenge, and one of their points of advice was this:

Tell everyone you know that you're writing a novel in November.
This will pay big dividends in Week Two, when the only thing keeping you from quitting is the fear of looking pathetic in front of all the people who've had to hear about your novel for the past month.
Seriously. Email them now about your awesome new book. The looming specter of personal humiliation is a very reliable muse.

Very true.

Anyways, here's an exerpt from my novel, to keep those tounges wagging.

Excerpt: Tokyo By Pen

The narrow back alleys of the tokyo neighborhood were barely wide enough for two cats to walk side by side, and were astonishingly vertical. Neon signs lettered in kanji and cute mascot logos ran up and down the sides of the buildings like flourescent spiders, and fire escapes were littered with boxes, plants and airing laundry. She always wondered what would happen if there were an actual fire in one of those places, considering what she had just seen as entertainment was a fireball lit by an amature on the third floor of the building, and shuddered.

Speaking of the devil, she saw the amature himself, still in costume, resting on a box on the fire escape on the back of the club. He was busy texting and smoking at the same time, occasionally switching hands and showing ambidextrous phone-texting talent.

Aya got to the bottom of the narrow metal stairs and waved up. She caught his eyes, which got bigger and he nearly dropped his cigarette, but quickly caught it in an effort to remain cool.

She neatly stepped over the various obstacles, high heels digging into the ridged aluminum stairs. Her knee length white dress blew prettily in the chilly autumn air. When she got to the third landing, she smiled and proffered her hand. The bartender-monk shook it, bewildered.

Half-japanese, she switched over to her mother's language fluently and softly explained her intentions: to interview him for her latest article.
“I find interesting people all over tokyo, and listen to their story, get pictures, and write about it.”
“I don't think I'm that interesting, but thank you. Why did you pick me?” he said sheepishly, with typical japanese modesty.
“Actually”, she smiled guiltily, “I just wanted to come clubbing because it's been awhile. I got a great picture of you doing your fireball and thought, 'I just have to use this!' Anyways, you seemed like an interesting person to talk to. Do you mind if I ask you some questions?” She got a notepad and pen from her white synthetic snakeskin clutch.
“So you work for a newspaper or something?” he raised his eyebrows, impressed.
“Something like that”.

Across the street, behind a window, a pair of eyes glimmered sinisterly at the holy pair of angel and buddhist monk. The mind behind them was thinking very unholy thoughts indeed.

-------------------------------------------------------

dum-dum-duuuuuum! :D
Anyways, if you want to see more exerpts when they're posted, or how pathetically far I have fallen behind my daily word count quota, you can check my NaNoWriMo profile page.
I'll post again sometime in December to let you know how it went. :D
Also, if anybody knows how to go about publishing a book, let me know.. I am completely clueless on the subject!

Hokkaido by Rent-A-Car

2009-09-18T22:27:00.000-07:00

Even though I've worked at this cute little game company for almost a year now, I *still* do not have any personal vacation days given to me... since half the time I was a contract employee. But no big deal! There is this great system where the Japanese government keeps making more and more national holidays, trying to keep its workers from overheating.

Not only is there Golden Week (a 5 day stretch in May), Silver Week (a 5 day stretch in September, which I am currently enjoying while writing this), every month has at least one three day weekend. On top of this, we got an extra week off during any time of our choosing in either June July or August. We decided to go to Hokkaido for our week off. No particular reason except that's the one main area we'd never been to that was still inside the country.

Our route took us from Sapporo (the city in the south-west), all the way to Shiretoko, the national park at the very north-east tip of the island, and back again in a sort of oval.
We started our first day in Sapporo: The biggest city in Hokkaido. (And that's about it.)

Sapporo is not that great for sightseeing, as it is just like any neighborhood in Tokyo, completely overrun by office buildings, chain stores and apartment complexes, but there are a couple of places worth seeing, such as the Sapporo Beer Hall (yes, Sapporo is the birthplace of Sapporo beer). That's where we had dinner and consumed large quantities of "Genghis Khan" style barbequed mutton. Or, at least Takeshi had the mutton. I was trying hard to maintain my newly discovered vegetarianism... and failed, as I had one piece. But really, the best food there was the baked potatoes with butter, crusty bread with fresh cheese, the scallops, and the musk melon for desert. Oh and the beer. ;)

The next day we woke up at an early 7:00 (ok, early for *me* anyways) and decided to drive the 300km to Shiretoko in one shot. This was a tricky business, because the only highway stopped about 1/3 of the way, and we were traveling on small back roads where the posted speed limit was around 60 kph. (40 mph!) Of course, I took the liberty of ignoring that, but it still took the entire day to get there.

The main driver for the trip was yours truly . We had rented one of the cheaper car classes which turned out to be a Suzuki Swift, a teeny little hatchback. After Takeshi's love affair with his new suped up Subaru Legacy B4 (Sport edition, natch) , he tried out the rental and wouldn't stop making little exasperated noises any time he tried to accelerate. Finally, sick of the whining, I took over the wheel and found it a perfectly acceptable little car.

We stopped for lunch at a spot on the northern coast which wasn't so much a restaurant, as a whole-sale fish market, with a spot in the back with barbeques open to the public. We picked out some oysters and scallops and started to heat them up, when we got more and more nervous by the lack of other customers, and the cheapness of the oysters, which may or may not give you extreme food poisoning. Also, as we were waiting for them to cook, takeshi leaned over and whispered "I don't like the name of this place, 'wake ga aru'." It literally means "There's a reason". (for what? the cheapness? the lack of customers??)

Indeed, rather ominous.

Luckily we survived our lunch with no apparent ill effects, and took off for the second half of our day's journey . Grumbling, Takeshi took the wheel. We were just trying to kill time by tuning between the two radio stations (kabuki theater live, or some guy droning on about something), when I squeaked "wait!! Go back!!!"

We had passed a huge, no, enormous open pasture filled with hundreds of horses. I could not resist. The only problem was they wouldn't come over to the fence, because what was there to tempt them with? grass that they had plenty of?
"if only I had a carrot", I thought wistfully. But on closer inspection, the orange patch they are standing on in the photo is an enormous patch of carrots.

It's like a little piece of horse heaven. I just really, really hope that they are not being fattened up for eating.

I was finally peeled away so we could get on with the drive. As June through August is the 'high season' of Hokkaido, ie the time when they get the most tourists, everything was at its most expensive. Luckily we got a pretty good deal at a ryokan (japanese style inn), where the fresh-caught seafood dinner, breakfast, and lovely natural outdoor onsen were all included.

As a benefit of having driven all day, we had time for a full day at the national park (aka, 'Bear Country Shiretoko"). There is the habitat of a few hundred Higuma bears, which are about the size of the California black bear. So when we went hiking, we kept to the very well-trodden path around the lakes where the other hundreds of tourists were, so we wouldn't have any unpleasant encounters. The hike itself was nothing challenging, but I'm glad we did it because the next segment was walking up a hot-spring waterfall. This waterfall 'Kamui-wakka taki' or, God's hotspring waterfall, was a wide but shallow path of warm water down a stone surface, laced with quartz. it was breathtaking.

The best part was the bus ride up to the waterfall where the driver stopped to let us take pictures of the foxes and deer that trotted up along the side of the bus.

That afternoon we decided to take a 'bear-seeing' ocean cruise, which involves riding up the coast until you get to a riverbank, cutting the engine and getting as close as you can to try to see the bears hunting for salmon.
By close as you can, I mean, maybe a quarter of a mile away, which is why I have fond memories of my bear seeing experiences, ('oh, is that it? yes! that black spot is moving! I think that spot is definitely possibly a bear!!') but no pictures.

But this was made up by the return trip, where we took a route farther into the open ocean, and were greeted by a pod of dolphins playing in the surf made by the boat.They were graceful, playful, close, and ... impossible to catch on camera. I took about twenty pictures, and none of them contain a dolphin in them. Well one has half a flipper, I think. siiigh.

That night we went scouting for a famous outdoor onsen mentioned in a guidebook, but on the way we drove next to a river, on the bank of which were several excited photographers. Curious, we slowed for a look, and on the opposite bank was a bear! but not just any bear, a momma bear with cub, both looking a little freaked out. We got the heck out of there, and I marked the spot mentally to look for tragically severed body parts on the way back. After what seemed like a half an hour of driving very slowly behind a pair of large-antlered deer ambling up the road in front of us, we arrived at a hotel.

Inquiries made at the front desk pointed us to a dimly lit spot a few hundred feet into the woods, which turned out to be a natural, outdoor hotspring. Getting in and out was cold, but the water was wonderful, and we could hear the gentle rushing of the river closeby, and the screams of photographers getting dismembered by bears in the background.

Alright, I made that last part up. Maybe.

The third day was spent driving through seemingly limitless beautiful, bountiful farmlands. For lunch we stopped by the lake 'Akanko' which is famous for Ainu culture (the native people of Hokkaido, which to my untrained eye looked a lot like native americans).
We had lunch at an Ainu-cuisine restaurant. I ordered the 'ponche pizza', which had its crust made out of a root vegetable... chewy but good. Takeshi had a venison rice bowl which he approved of. But in the background, the restaurant was trying a little to hard to have a sufficiently 'ainu-y' atmosphere, and was playing traditional Ainu music, which sounded like a large spring bouncing around: "sproing sproing SPROING sproooooiiing sproing...." The 15 minutes while we were waiting for our food started to feel like an eternity. All I can say is, thank god music has evolved, even to only slightly better teeny j-pop.

We had to get to Furano by sunset to set up camp, so we booked it, pushing the limits of the little Suzuki Swift's power. As I was rushing over the apex of a slightly hilly overpass, I think I might have been caught by the flash of a speed camera(!!) which catches the license and your face. Unfortuately the car was rented in my name, so they'll have no problem catching me if so. I'm crossing my fingers that it was just my imagination, but also, next time I think I'll try the trick they recommended on Top Gear: bring a mask. ;)

We made it just in time to catch the last of the light and pitch the tent, and then wandered into town to try to find dinner and fuel for the car. Dinner was easy, I had a sushi salad with hokkaido cheese on top. News flash: Cheese and wasabi go really well together!

Anyways, the next day we went to the famous lavender fields of Furano, and sampled cheese at the cheese factory, and bought some famous musk melons (if you buy them in Tokyo, the price suddenly inflates to about $100 per melon!!). The guidebooks all mention Furano as the don't miss spot in Hokkaido, and it didn't dissapoint.
One unfortunate point was that the lavender season ends in mid July, and it was the end of August when we went... no lavender flowers. But there was a field of autumn blossoms to enjoy, and more importantly the lavender had been freshly harvested and pressed into various goods, like bath oils, teas, room freshener, and soft-cream flavors. (lavender soft-serve! yum!)

That was the last day, so we made our way back to the airport, with only one minor fiasco of me trying to drive on the right (ie, wrong) side of the street when exiting a gas station. Oops.

All in all, very worthwhile and full of adventures, a proper vacation. And that was our trip!

She works hard for the money

2009-07-27T07:43:00.000-07:00

...So my company better treat me right!

This week on my attempt to update more often, I bring you Kyra's Code Dash, Summer play. Enjoy!

Kyra's Code Dash Did you ever have one of those days at work where someone assumes you have something done that you very much don't? That happened to me this week and damn, was it annoying.

Apparently about 4 months ago we scheduled the site for BlackShot (the online FPS game we bought from the korean company Ntreev, if you've been paying attention)... and the higher ups ordered a code review of the site to be scheduled at a future date. Fast forward to last week, and my team leader looks at a peice of paper with a shocked/bemused expression. 'This here says the entire site is supposed to be finished by 7/27! ... (glances at me, the site coder). "give me that!" I snatch the paper out of his hands. Sure enough, the testing company is going to test 26 pages the following monday. 19 of which do not yet exist. These pages are on my schedule as taking through mid-august. Aaaand the one guy that knew about this date of the test and my schedule is (CONVENIENTLY) on vacation!!

A somewhat heated discussion with the rest of the department concluded:
1. This would cost too much to reschedule.
2. You can get ignore TWO (out of 19) pages.
3. Get them done, kiddo.

AAAAAGGGHHHH!!!!

So this past week I have been in a coding frenzy. I have worked my little fingers to the bone, eyes blurring, butt numbing, legs cramping, and leaving at 11 PM every day only so I don't miss the last train. I worked most of saturday, and put finishing touches on sunday. But now, at last, it is done. Done! DONE!! (cue the hallelujah chorus!) And now I get Wednesday off to make up for saturday.
But now they're going to test my pages and probably find some nasty security holes. What can I say, that's what happens when you give someone a week to make a forum, a ranking system, and a site that appears private for every clan. Oh well, at least my work for the next two weeks is pretty much done and now I'll be able to take my sweet time. I'm thinking naptimes are in order.

Summer Play I love Japanese summer. Even though it's hot, and the humidity makes it seem even hotter, it's the season when vitality is literally bursting through the seams of Tokyo. It's this season when you forgive them for making everything out of dreary grey concrete, because if they didn't the weeds and plants would take over the place quicker than you can say 'heat island effect'.

To take advantage of the glory of the season with its deep blue sky and bright white clouds, I've been meeting up with friends and organizing trips. It was a 3 day weekend last week, which was busily and happily spent with Jen, Elaine (and Paul and Mel) from the US going to Kamakura seeing the Great Buddha. Monday was 'Umi no Hi' (Ocean Day), so we went to the beach with some friends we dragged along at the last minute.

Then Sunday, even though I was dead tired and had worked in the morning, I had organized a trip to my neighborhood (one stop by train!) amusement park. Even though it was tiring, we had a great time making fun of each other and getting sick on rides and ... having beers. Yes, beers! in the amusement park!
Japan is a very advanced country.
I've never been a big fan of beer until I had one after that long hot tiring day. I swear that kirin was made of sweet ambrosia.

Next time: Calorie Mate... aka, Ship's Biscuit.

Team Leader = Cheemu Ri-da-

2009-07-17T09:12:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! long time no see. I'm going to try a new format, maybe this way I can get myself to update a little more regularly. Instead of one long story, from now on this blog will be divided into tasty magazine-like nuggets. Here goes.

Working at Play work blurb of the week from an online game-hosting company. In japanese companies there are always strict hierarchical systems. You know exactly who is above and below you in the food chain (you'd better because your style of speech depends on it).
These ranks are accompanied by a plethora of titles. The way this traditionaly works is instead of saying 'Yamada-san', you put the title at the end, so the division head becomes 'Yamada-kacho'.
Of course japanese titles are used, but for some reason there is a love of western titles as well, and with the ever complex political system of everyone needing a title, they always need new ones.
So it's not strange here to hear of a Yamada-Team Leader, a Suzuki Project Manager, etc. But this way it's hard to know who's in charge. As of yesterday, one of the managers was promoted to Chief.
Does this rank above Kacho? Who knows? Who cares? But more importantly, do they know how silly 'Yamada-chee-fu' sounds? Deep thoughts.

Projects: For an anniversary present, Takeshi got me an iPod Touch. That thing is so sexy. But it seems a little crippled without the internet connection. There is *very* little free wi-fi available in this most hi-tech of cities.
Anyways, so this limits the gadget to movies, music, and applications. As a developer, I cannot help but drool at the thought of making an app for the ipod. Even with very modest pricing units, if you can just get a few hundred downloads, you just made a month's rent. Plus it just looks fun. I wanna make a 'learn japanese kanji through comics' app... drawn by moi. ;)
I was looking around, but to my dismay I found that you need a mac to develop for it. Waaaaah.

Question of the day... if you could make any ipod app, what would you make?

A typical morning

2009-05-28T02:06:00.000-07:00

Hey guys. I have no internet connection at the office this morning, thus plenty of time to sit in front of the computer and type something to try to look busy even though I can't do any work without the internet. So here you go, a typical morning in the life of K. (drumroll please!)

6:30 - T wakes up. He has to get to work early every day, unlike me. My job starts at 10, so I am a lazy bum in the morning. I usually don't even notice his alarm clock.

7 - hubby is dressed and ready to go, but he comes back to bed to snuggle. I am not a snuggler when I sleep. I have a distinct marked territory that I guard with sharp elbows and cold toes, and in the morning, stinky breath. I know I am a terrible person, but somehow this does not make me want to snuggle any more.

Typical 7 am dialogue: T tries to snuggle. I put up with it for about a minute, then slowly roll away.
Then I am chased. This slow persuit usually end with me pinned at the wall, and finally, I groggily complain and/or defend myself with above tactics.
T: don't you LOVE me?
K: I love you... now go away please.
Usually it's not too much longer until he is satisfied that he has bothered me sufficiently and gets up to leave, where we exchange the Japanese 'itekimasu/iterashai' lines. If I'm not already asleep ,that is.

7:15 - 8:15 I have the bed to myself. Well mostly to myself. Cally thinks this is a good opportunity to steal T's pillow, which is orthopedic and has a round impression in the middle for good neck support. This pillow is apparently also manufactured for cats (or should be), beacuse the depression is exactly the size of Cally's body. She approves of it wholeheartedly. In fact, sometimes she waits stealthily even at night for T to roll over and temporarily discard his pillow, at which point she pounces and steals it. T has to wake up and push her away to get his pillow back(at least for the time being). Ah, domestic squabbles.

8:15: my alarm goes off. Of course I ignore it.
8:30 - sometimes 8:40 - once 9:00(!) : Wake up for real. depending on remaining time, do the following things...

Not Optional: Get dressed, feed Cally.
Probably Should Not Be Optional: Wash face and brush teeth and put on deodorant. Put rice in rice cooker so its ready when we get home.Yeah, sometimes I am bad and have no time, so replace with teeth brushing with Good ol listerine and face washing with a wet towel. No wonder I have cavities.
Definitely Optional: makeup. I often put this on in the train. I know I am not supposed to, as there are big manners signs everywhere on the train illustrating improper behavior, and makeup was on at least one of them. what a punk.

It takes 40 odd minutes from station to station, but the office is about 12 minutes walk from the station, so depending on which train I catch determines how fast I have to move.
Best train: 8:59. (can walk at a normal pace. heavenly!)
Not great train: 8:04. (have to power walk).
Bad train: 8:08. Have to run like Flash Gordan, panting and causing little kids to stare and point.

I usually run through the ticket gates, which are made for speed because they have a touch-free system whereby you just place your card near the sensor and it lets you in. (It's the FUTURE!)
Then I get down to the platform, thirsty from my run, and go to the vending machine where I can use my train pass to buy a drink, also via a touch-free system. (Also the FUTUREEE!)

I almost always get the power walk train. Am thinking of joining Olympic competition for speed-walkers. (have you ever seen those guys? creepy snake walk!)
On the way to the office (while power-walking), I am usually guided by about 5 - 10 construction workers pointing out obvious detour routes from various construction sites. Since I see them every morning, I should probably say hello, but instead I take the typical Tokyo attitude of pointedly looking away and pretending they do not exist. Hm, this was the attitude in New York, too. Something about big cities makes you really want to ignore the 30,000 people you see every day. Too much stimulation.

Anyways, as long as I get to my computer by 9:58, am Ok. We use time card software, but since we have to turn off our computers every night, 8:57 - 10:00 is usually a stressful time where I tap my fingers and wait what seems an eternity for my computer to boot up. (And no, changing the system time on my computer does not change the timecard software time. I did try this. ;) )

10:00 : "chou rei".Literally, First Bow. hee. Yes, we do bow. And also greet each other in unison. Japanese meetings like having you say stuff in unison. Like 'Good morning!' and 'Good work!'
Anyways, this is the morning standup meeting. Team leaders announce what they do for the day, but more importantly, individual tardinesses are announced. Even if you are going to be one minute late, you have to email in the office, so they know what to announce about you during the chou-rei.
Is this tre lame, or non? We didn't even do stuff like this in college. Le sigh.

10:10~ : The work itself is not bad. I make web pages for the official sites of our supported games, but more the calculations/db connections,data display parts.. ie, the parts that require programming as opposed to the layout and design. While sometimes I am jealous of the creative nature of the design teams job, I am quickly comforted by the fact that they work until midnight every day, where I get out a semireasonable hour. Ha-ha!

Lunch: usually bring lunch from home. Or more often, realize that I left my lunch in the refrigerator of our apartment, curse to myself, and buy food from the 7-11 on the first floor.

7-11s in japan are the same as 7-11s in america, except that they are about 1000 times cleaner, in convenient locations, packed to the gills with japanese snacks like octopus tentacles and rice balls, have a big section of those phonebook size mangas (businessmen often read them standing up without purchasing), and contain everything else you might possibly need like a surcharge free ATM, a cpoy machine, dvds, household supplies, stamps, anything. So really, nothing at all like American 7-11s.

Lunch time is the time I gab to my other systems team co-workers. They are mostly non-japanese (chinese and korean), so often the one or two japanese guys will end up trying to correct us, or say something slangy to each other and end up being forced to explain what they mean. This must be tiring to them, but is a nice japanese lesson time for us. For instance, one of my co-workers hates veggies. He picks tomatoes out of his lunch, shudders at the thought of vegetable juice. From him I learned 'kyouteki na piman', which means "My arch-enemy, the bellpepper." Now if that's not something you can use in daily conversation, I don't know what is.

Next time... an afternoon in the life.. (or not. Mostly it's just the morning in reverse, except for less rush and includes making dinner and squabbling over who gets to play their video game at home. Ahh domestic squabbles.)

Seoul Trip

2009-04-07T06:54:00.000-07:00

One of the benefits of being in Japan (if you are originally from a western country) is the proximity of *other* new and interesting places. Considering the flight time from America, most Asian countries require at least a formidable week off to see. But if your base is Japan, suddenly the entire orient opens its arms to the curious traveler. With only a $300 ticket (round-trip, including taxes and fuel surcharges and whatnot) I was able to see my friend in Korea... only 2 hours away by plane.

My itinerary was kind of crazy, because in order to get the cheap (I know, not that cheap) priced ticket, I was to land Saturday night at 10 pm, and leave Monday morning at 8:30. So the airline Asianic was pretty awesome. Maybe it's just that they had all the things you got used to back in the carefree days of air travel- like complementary meals, and metal silverware.

But arriving at 10PM in a foreign country is nothing to sneeze at. Luckily Gimpo is connected to central Seoul via subway. And the subway system is pretty similar to Japan... except of course that everything is written in Korean. One ticket ranges from 1000 to 3000 won, which is cheap! but on the weekends they don't bother to power on the ticket vending machines, you have to buy them from the guy at the booth, so it's best to have a map handy to point at in case you can't pronounce the station names.

Having printed out a subway map before I left, I managed to get to the place where I had to change trains, but just missed the transfer, which happened to be the last train. Thank god I had rented a cell phone. I was able to find a taxi without much trouble, but the taxi driver didn't speak English. I tried speaking to him in Japanese, but no luck. So I called MJ, who came to my rescue and told the driver where to go over the phone. phew!

It was really really cold in Seoul, only a few degrees above freezing. For some reason my geographical sense was a little confused and I thought that since Korea was closer to southern japan, Seoul would be warmer... but of course Seoul is in the northern part of the country, north of Tokyo in fact. Oops. My thin coat was enough, but just barely.

Luckily MJ found me with help of cell phones, and guided me to her and her brother's apartment. Both of them are very sweet people, and fluent in English. In Korea they don't use kotatsu (the Japanese low table covered with a blanket and heated inside)... they have heating in the floors, which kept the entire apartment very warm and made me want to roll around on the floor like a cat. (which is probably not acceptable behavior for a guest).

It was great staying with friends, because we stayed up chatting and gossipping, and watching Korean TV shows and talking about the differences between japan and korea, and the korea-china-japan relationship. MJ: "So Japan hates Korea, right? Koreans don't like japan because of the colonization in WW2." me... "hm... maybe, but mostly they hate China more. whenever China does something bad, it's on the news for weeks." MJ: "oh yeah, Korea doesn't like China either, but we think of Chinese as underneath us." Me: "It seems weird for this kind of squabbling between neighbors. it's like... sibling rivalry or something." North Korea wasn't even mentioned, even though we were both a bit worried about that missile launch test. I mean... "satellite launch test"... right. But at my company, there are plenty of koreans and chinese and japanese working (plus the one american) and we all like each other. So it's not as bad as it sounds. But of course, it's probably like this everywhere, like in Europe where I can't even remember half of my history classes because there's always some war going on somewhere for most of the last millennium. le sigh.

Anyways. We also watched the figure skating championships, and Kim Yu-Na kicked some serious ass, getting 10 points more than any other competitor and making a new world record. We stayed up gabbing and munching on snacks and watching TV and planning my day, which was going to have a very tough schedule.

I ended up waking up at 8, and taking a train into the city. The plan was to go to one part, take a cab, go to another part of the city, take another cab, and so forth, but the downtown area where most of the tourist attractions were was not that big, and I wanted to see everything, so I ended up walking everywhere.

First stop: Geyoungbuk palace. This palace really reminded me of the forbidden city in Beijing. The same barren courtyard filled with cobblestones, the same hundreds of small rooms making up the courtyard walls, the same style of animal statues on the eaves of the roofs. The interesting part was the changing of the guards, where about fifty men wearing silks did an elaborate ritual of salutes, music playing and marching to show that the new guards were not impostors. Next was the folk museum, which was free this year for some reason or the other. It had some nice exhibits on what life in Seoul was like for the past few thousand years. It has always been a big city, and the overall layout hasn't changed that much. but by far the most interesting exhibit was their kimchee one. For those who don't know, kimchee is a name for a style of pickling... any kind of vegetable pickled with hot peppers and garlic falls under this category. And this style of food is a huge staple in Korea... so much so that when I had lunch and dinner, both meals came with four kinds of kimchee as an appetizer, like a bread basket in France.

After the folk museum I studied my map for a good five minutes, scratching my head and trying to figure out where to go. I tried asking for directions, but no one I asked knew English. finally I found an information booth, where the lady there gave me a free map and helped me out. So I walked to *** , which was a very touristy little area lined with small shops selling touristy trinkets. Wedged between the souvenir shops were little art galleries, some stores selling paintings and some selling handmade silk embroidered wall hangings. I wanted to get one, but they were priced like art, so I made do with the cheap trinkets.

After that I was tired and hungry, so I found a restaurant where they served chicken dumpling soup (with Kimchee of course), which is what I was told to try. It also satisfied my other requirements, namely 1) picture menus 2) not too pricey 3) clean interior 4) lots of locals eating there. I made sure to order the *non spicy* chicken dumpling soup, seeing as how my definition of spicy and that of the average korean is vastly different. ;) Sorry, I don't remember the name of the restaurant ... but there were a lot on the alleys around the main street, so you probably can't go too wrong eating around there.

Next stop was the Lotte department store. Lotte, while mainly just a snack manufacturer in Japan, is a huge conglomerate in Korea, selling everything you can imagine. They even have a "Lotte World" amusement park, apparently. But this department store was very expensive even by Japanese standards, and is probably for only the rich in Korea. I spent a long time there trying to find 'cheap brand name goods', but gave up. Plenty of brand name goods were there for the having, but none of them cheap.

While walking further on my self-guided tour, I had to cross many streets that don't have crosswalks. What they do have are underground arcades leading across the street, lined with small stores. A lot of these stores are sad looking affairs selling things like calculators from the '80s and watch-bands.. but a few were chain stores capitalizing on the cheap real estate. One of these chain stores was an amusing outfit called "THE FACE SHOP". (Not in any way affiliated with THE BODY SHOP). It had about a million pictures of the Korean drama star the Japanese middle age ladies reverently call "Yun-sama", who apparently endorses all of the facial cleansers, pore minimizers, mud packs that the chain had to sell. Intrigued by the concept and the inexpensiveness of the goods, I bought a few things, and the lady at the counter threw in at least four free samples. Definitely a recommended stop if you're into facial products.. and/or Yun-sama.

As my day was limited, the next place I went was the cable car up to Seoul tower. (7000 won round trip.) It was a nice view on the way up, but the line for the cable car took easily half an hour each way. I'm not sure if it was the best use of my limited time... if I had to do it over again, I'd probably get a one-way ticket and ride the very cheap bus back down the hill. But definitely don't skip out on the hill of the tower, it has a breathtaking view of the city. I didn't go up the tower because they wanted another 7000 won (rip off!) but was perfectly satisfied with the view from the base, as it's on a tall hill overlooking the city anyway. And surrounding the hill is a chain link fence with thousands of locks, put there by lovers to 'lock in' their love. They were decorated and very cute. After I got down the hill I walked through Myong-dong (a shopping district) and enjoyed the foreign looking signs lighting up as the sun was setting. Somehow, even though korea is so much like japan in many ways, not being able to read the signs made it seem so much more foreign and exciting. Heh. There's something about seeing a pretty lantern at a festival and reading "McDonalds" on it that takes away a lot of the enchantment. ;)

It was time to get back as my friends were going to be back from work/class soon, so I hopped on the subway... and proceeded to get very lost. I scrutinized my map, and the map on the train, and realized I had got on the wrong line. After changing trains three more times, I finally made my way back to the apartment, but this turned out to be rather serendipitous? is that a word? because I found a lot of tiny shops in the subway stations that sold cute clothes/shoes/snacks for much cheaper than any of the stores I had seen in downtown seoul, and was able to supplement my rather meagre shopping.

Dinner was traditional korean BBQ, of course delicious, and of course came with kimchee. ;) It's definitely better to visit a country where you have people to recommend restaurants and take you there!

After dinner I went to the neighborhood public bath, where they had four kinds of saunas and six different kinds of baths. Event bath, jacuzzi, scented, massage... super hot and ice cold. Not too different from japanese sento, but maybe more selection. I have to admit that the japanese sento are a little cleaner.

The next morning I took a taxi to the airport. "Gimpo e-ru-po-ru-to!" I said to the driver, as I had been instructed by my friend. The taxi driver copied it back to me as a question, and when I said mm hmm! he drove a bit. Then stopped. "Gimpo ee-ru-po-ru-to?" he said, just to really confirm that , that was in fact where I wanted to go. This time I said 'yes!'. This seemed to satisfy him, and he got me to the airport in a timely fashion, for a mere 20,000 won (less than $20).

All in all, a great trip. Thanks again so much MJ and Luka! Next time I will come when I have more than one day to hang out. :)

Being unneccesarily guided

2009-03-20T20:46:00.000-07:00

Trying to thing of something to blog about, I decided to continue the good ol' whats different about Japan series. Some may say it's too easy, but hey. It's a three day weekend and I'm feeling lazy.

After the vending machines, cuteness, everything being small, and no greenery anywhere except for public parks, another thing that you start to notice after living here are the people whose sole job is to guide you.

I'm not talking about people guiding you through the wilderness, or on a tour of a foreign country or other places where you would actually need a guide. What I am talking about are those unfortunate men and women whose day of drudgery involves guiding you
*up an escalator
*into an elevator
*into a parking garage
* on a clearly marked pedestrian path when there is construction.

Yes, they do exist. On my route to work in the morning, due to the hopeful investors building hotels in case Tokyo wins the bid for 2016 Olympics(the proposed stadium site would be really close to my office), there is a frenzy of construction. Due to some law or another, they have to make a pedestrian route around the construction zone (fine with me), but they also have to dedicate a worker to guide you onto the *clearly marked* path.

Also, for some reason... my station has an over-enthusiastic elderly worker who takes it upon himself to say "ohayou gozaimasu" to every single person, and gesture you onto the escalator. Every time. Just in case you forgot where the escalator was since yesterday.
So between him and the three construction sites on my route, I can't help feeling a little... okay, a lot like a cow, being very politely herded to the office. もおおおお！ (this means both "moo" and "jeez, enough already" ;))

blog to book project

2009-02-28T23:06:00.000-08:00

disclaimer: this entry is about programming. (sorry! but I get the feeling most of my blog readers are probably not too scared of technical things anyway...)

Although I've mainly been a Java programmer until this point, my company's needed some help making campaigns and such for its game websites, and these are all done with PHP. Note: if you know Java, besides the inevitable syntax mix ups for the first few days, php is pretty much a piece of cake. (ok, except for debugging which can be quite painful, forcing even... (gasp) medieval print statements to see what your darn variables are, if you don't have the right setup. which I do not.

So anyways, as a happy side effect I have been getting downright comfortable with PHP. And this opens a lot of doors for the hobbyist programmer, as many APIs (including Google, and probably Facebook...) are interfacable wih PHP. Which means, in a word... Apps! With sufficient time and energy, you can probably make something pretty neat and hook it up to your favorite Web2.0 site.

Which is why I want to do one! Ok... I don't have that much time or energy as it is mostly going to reading every single English book in the hikarigaoka public library. ;) But I can dream....

Ladies and gentlemen, here is my idea and how to do it. (drumroll please): Blog to PDF! I really want an application that will make my blog into a book. I think the best way to do i would be to make a PDF, and then send it to Lulu or some other such self-publishing site.

1. to slurp in all of a person's blog info, help them choose entries, and store, you need this: http://code.google.com/apis/blogger/docs/1.0/developers_guide_php.html

2. To write the book out to pdf format you need this: http://www.sitepoint.com/article/generate-pdfs-php/

So now, dear reader, you know how (in theory) to make the application I want. Please let me know when you're done, as I will be much to busy to write it myself, seeing as how the King of Torts is due back in a few days. ;)

happy valentines!

2009-02-14T18:52:00.000-08:00

Well ok, it's officially February 15th in Japan, but I often count both the US and the Japanese dates as the "day". Like.. my birthday, for example, which just happened.
On the 6th in Japan, it was a Friday and I managed to get treated to lunch by my coworkers, get out of work a little early, and then get treated to dinner, because it was my birthday.

Then on the 7th, I decided that that was also my "birthday" as that was when I was actually born, so I allowed myself to eat an entire package of After Eight mints, get treated to dinner (again) and get excused from being the designated driver (so I could have a toast to my birthday!)... not to mention get presents!

This is a very nice scheme, and I am probably not the first person to use it. ;) I have heard of people who fenagle an entire week out of his or her birthday, and for that, I salute them.

Anyways, it is not all birthday all the time over here, I am actually working pretty hard over here. Like I mentioned in a previous post, I am working with a mostly guy team of programmers, crammed in a back office working on system maintenance and customer accounts. Exciting! you may be thinking.

Well, a few days ago, a mysterious noise floated through the air ducts. Listening closely, it sounded like

"tasukete!!" (help!!)

Slightly concerned, we looked at each other and listened closer. A squeaky, high pitched voice cried in response:

"omae nara dare mo tasukete agenai yo!" (no one's gonna help you!)

Then we realized almost at once. Today they were doing voice acting auditions for one of the games! We rolled our eyes and tried to get back to our exciting accounting systems, but every now and then the whine of the servers would be punctuated by a high squeaky scream for help.

It's times like these when I realize... oh yeah, I do work for a game company.

The other time this fact was brought to mind was the time my friend from the Alliance team asked for help tranlating a teaser for the new game "Black Shot".

The game was made by a Korean company called Vertigo games, but for some reason the trailer was in English. Very difficult English.

Here is the youtube video she asked me to transcribe:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKXe4qy40YE

...!

Yeah, that took me about 40 minutes.

Oh! And I FINALLY figured out what C&C Media DOES. They are an online game hosting company, specializing in free games. Well, free to play... I think you need to buy items with real money to get anywhere in most of them.

Anyways, happy valentines day. I think I will make and eat an entire batch of Rice Krispies Treats to celebrate the special occasion!

(...after all, it's still valentines day *somewhere* in the world.)

Return of the Cell Pics

2009-01-15T06:19:00.000-08:00


There I was, innocently riding a bus, when BAM! A minivan, decked out suspiciously like a Transformers vehicle, pulls up right next to us. I wonder what it turns into! (A cooler car than a minivan, maybe?)	....Oh my. Unfortunately I didn't see what the 'his' key looked like.

Bar in Roppongi. Name of the pub: "Hang-o-bar"! Well. I know where I won't be spending my Friday nights.	Two ads for the 20th century boys movie on the Seibu department store in Ikebukuro. It's the scary "tomodachi" mark!

Kentucky Fried Chicken (along with Coca-cola and the "Christmas Cake" have successfully convinced the Japanese public that KFC is a very traditional Christmas Dinner! (to be had enjoyed with coke and Christmas cake, of course.) In case you think I jibe you, here is a photo of the long line outside the KFC on Christmas eve.	I had to buy this Tupperware because of the terrifically terrible English on it. The best part is of course the company name next to the copyright mark: "Lube Sheep". (yikes!!)

Fish knives seen in a "traditional Japanese crafts" store. Just imagine if these were the only knives in your kitchen and you had to use one to ward off an invader! See if either you or your attacker could keep a straight face.	My New Years card! Drew it myself. Happy year of the Bull, everybody!

Passive Aggressive Subway Notes

2008-12-27T07:52:00.000-08:00

I've gotten hooked on http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/ and decided to post one of my own. Here it is:

Please Do It At Home

As any frequenter of the Tokyo subway system knows, the way the management tries to get people to behave is through some very PA notes. These notes normally include guilt-trip oriented cartoons... ie, adorable grannies looking sad because they can't sit in the Priority Seating.
This time they really outdid themselves and have made a whole series of "Do it at ..." posters, showing where you should be doing the inappropriate behavior. ..I'm slightly dissapointed there hasn't been one made of a couple making out (caption: "Do it at the Love Hotel".)

full set here!

Just In Case Your Mother Isn't Doing The Job

2008-12-18T21:50:00.000-08:00

Today I got an email from my placement company's Mental Health Department. Normally they just say "Come in for counseling if you have concerns!"... but today's was a real keeper. Apparently it is flu season and they are concerned for their employees. Wouldn't want us to take any days off sick!

While I could translate this properly, it is much more amusing to run it through BabelFish and let you guys try to figure out what it says.

■予防策1
しっかり食事や睡眠をよくとって風邪に負けない体づくりをしましょう。
"Securely taking the meal and sleep well, it will do the body making which is not defeated to cold."

■予防策2
手洗い・うがいを心がけましょう。特に外出から戻ったときには、必ず行いましょう。
"Aim to do toilet gargling .
Especially when returning from going out, be sure to do."

■予防策3
マスクは風邪をひいてからではなく、外出するときに着用することでウイルス侵入を防ぐことができます。
After the mask catching cold, is not, when going out, it is possible to prevent virus invasion by the fact that it wears.

以上を心がけて、元気にお過ごしください。
Let's aim to do the above and please pass vigorously.

Ahh, Babelfish. The best source for free Engrish lessons.

Dear Santa

2008-12-10T20:10:00.000-08:00

Hey guys. It's nearing the Christmas season so I thought I'd share with you my recent exchange with a jolly old saint we all know and love.

Dear Santa,
Takeshi and I have been pretty good this year. I paid off my student loans, which has to count for a few hundred "goodness" bonus points, right? ...please feel free to ignore the fact that I missed, well pretty much everyone's birthday and sent lame 'happy belated' emails, and sometimes only Facebook Wall comments, to them instead of presents.

So I am writing you, Mr Claus, to plead the case for new household appliances.

1) Refrigerator.
Our refrigerator's main compartment is on the brink and is about as warm as the rest of the house. You are probably thinking this is not a problem as Japanese apartments are, for some reason that escapes me, not insulated and therefore pretty cold. But let me assure you, the milk and eggs seem to disagree. Let's not even go into the smell of raw fish coming from a malfunctioning refrigerator.

2) (Clothes) drying machine.
Yes, we do not have one. No, it is not common to have one here. Yes, that is very strange that in a country where it rains perhaps twice a week, and sometimes nonstop for a whole two months, they have not discovered the marvelous invention that is the drying machine.
As I'm working now and can't rescue the clothes when the aforementioned rain starts to fall, we have been trying to dry our clothes in the house, by hanging it on the door frame of our bedroom. Please, Santy, we have to duck under wet clothes to get into the bedroom. Every time! And clothes take 2 days to dry in the house. Can you see my tears? Can't ya?

3) Dishwasher.
While not perhaps *strictly* neccessary, in households where there are two workers, it becomes a battle of wills as to who has to do chores. We have taken to sneakily stacking them unwashed in the sink, hoping the other person will do them. These dishes stay unwashed sometimes days at a time.
They have sometimes even been known to evolve into the dread Mountain of Dirty Dishes. This mountain's peak is yet uncharted, but jaded mountain climbers who are sick of Mount Everest are hungrily eyeing the top as a worthy opponent.

4) New mattress.
Although I blogged with pride only two years ago about our new mattress from Ikea (one of the years we were in New York, not even using it), our mattress has developed a large sinking depression in the middle. Like an annoying relative, no matter how often and creatively we try to get rid of it, it keeps returning to cause a pain in the neck.
As a very late afterthought, I checked for consumer reviews of Ikea mattresses. Damn. 10 reviews, and every review gave the SULTAN mattress 1/10!!
Woops.

So as you can see, the case is dire. Please give us stuff from the list and we'll give you lots and lots of milk and cookies!
Love, Kyra and Takeshi.

Dear K&T,

While I would love to deliver the above-mentioned gifts, have you seen the size of my sled lately? There's barely enough room for a couple of my elves, let alone three large appliances and a mattress.
By the way, have you taken into consideration that I am both elderly and overweight?It would take WAAAAY more than milk and cookies to get me to haul that stuff from the North Pole.

Best of Luck,
Santa Claus

Well, I guess there's always Yamada Denki.

Turkey Day in Tokyo

2008-12-01T21:17:00.000-08:00

The week before thanksgiving,I was definitely feeling it.

By it, I mean, the holiday spirit haunting your thoughts and making you want to celebrate the day in the traditional style, preferably by overdoing it. This is probably the same urge that makes otherwise entirely sane people cover their roofs in tacky fake santa clauses, complete with moving riendeer and blinding lights that cause sticker shock when you see the electricity bill.

Unfortunately for the Thanksgiving Holiday Spirit, This Thanksgiving was spent in a city that doesn't give Thursday off for a traditional American holiday. Or the following Friday.
In fact, the total amount of thanksgiving time off is 0 hours, unless you count the previous Monday which is off, and is called 'kandou no hi'. (Thankfulness day). But it's just not the same, because no one eats turkey, yams or mashed potatoes on Kandou no hi. Nobody does *anything* on Kandou no hi. The only thing they are thankful *for* is the fact that the japanese government has been upping the number of three day weekends to a crazy number. (there were two in November alone!).

So on Kandou no Hi I found that entirely against my will, not only was I looking up recipes for soup and dinner rolls, I was absentmindedly googling for turkey.
As in, "Where to buy turkey Tokyo". (Nothing good).
and in, "Turkey Japan" (Nada).
Or finally as an act of despiration, "Whats a giajin to do to get some damn turkey around here?!"
But alas, 0 hits. The giant bird was proving to be elusive.

Finally, thanks to Metropolis, my very favorite foreign magazine dedicated to English speaking Expats living in Tokyo, I found a lead. For all others like me, who are googling the above phrases, you can get a TURKEY in TOKYO, JAPAN for THANKSGIVING at the Kinokuniya supermarket right by Omotesando station on Aoyama-doori. (-street). You don't even have to order in advance, they have frozen butterballs, and they even have turkey stuffing and cranberry sauce! Heaven!

Standing there in front of the turkeys, I conjured up a mental image of our tiny oven, (it's so high tech it has both a microwave, and a convection oven feature! I didn't believe it until I had made some toast in the microwave. Awesome. Unfortunately, it's.. the size of a microwave oven...) I realized there would be no room for Butterballs. Sigh. But I found a tiny turkey, which turned out to be a baby turkey, so I feel a little guilty about cutting short its tiny feathered life. But it fit!

This was the first time I ever roast a turkey on my own. Luckily I didn't spoil it.
Not so luckily, Takeshi decided to go fishing that morning, and for the first time this year, caught about six huge ocean fish, which he decided needed to be descaled and cleaned right as the turkey was finished defrosting. But true to form, he cleaned them at frightening speed and soon nothing was left in my way but the odd scale. So, guests, if you found some fish scales in your turkey, please be aware that it was not some ungodly fish-bird-hybrid creature I was feeding you. (At least, it didn't say so on the label.)

Since there was no time off on Thursday or Friday, and I didn't feel like working 9 hours and then having a cooking marathon, I decided Saturday was the new Thanksgiving.
As it was only a baby turkey, after all, we only had a few guests over. I decided to subject Takeshi's family to an "American Experience", meaning they could not do many of the very Japanese things they wanted. Here are some of the things that I vetoed as definitely NOT American:

*Eating dinner at the kotatsu. (No!)
*Using chopsticks. (NO NO!)
*Drinking sake instead of wine. (NO NO NO NO!!! What, you trying to destroy thanksgiving here?!)

So, eating at the *dining room table*, using *forks knives and spoons*, and drinking *red wine*, we had: Turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, salad, cream of carrot soup, and mashed potatoes. The dishes were all traditional, following the Thanksgiving template my holiday memory craved. (Well... except for the very japanese sweet beans and rice dish my mother in law brought, so apparently I'm not a total nazi.)

And finally, finally, the holiday spirit was sated, sinking back into the earth to wait until next year to haunt again. Or.. at least until Christmas. (Please stop me if you catch me googling for "giant novelty santa claus roof ornaments Tokyo".)

Expectations

2008-11-15T23:13:00.000-08:00

There is sumo wrestling on my TV right now. Tee hee.

I keep wanting to blog about what it's like to work at a japanese game company. The problem is while I would be running to work, or bowing with everybody in the morning saying 'yoroshiku onegaishimasu', clever anecdotal phrases would come to mind. Of course these all dissapear the instant I have time to write about them.

Anyways. The best part about working at a game company is mostly the nerdy benefits. These include
1)The ability to talk about the latest games to your coworkers
2) Boss bringing in a big stack of his favorite xbox games to lend out
3) If you're bored and done with your work (or at a lull), we're encouraged to play the online games our company has made, to get a 'sense of the product'. So far I've only gotten as far as making an account, but... good to know.

Also we can wear whatever, but most people are pretty fashionable. So I am reading the dress code as informal yet fasion conscious. Which is actually much harder than just business wear. Especially in Tokyo! Takeshi noticed me looking at fashion magazines for help, since I normally avoid them like the plague. But I needed a reference manual. Tokyo fashion is so hard!!

But it's of course, not all fun and games. For all the fun the product offers, the company itself takes itself very seriously and has strict rules. Example of Random Rule: greet each other in the halls as you pass with a bow and a 'otsukaresama desu'.(this basically means 'thanks for the hard work'). This is not just a courtesy, it's a RULE! They sent an email out about how to do it properly!!

I guess I was imagining a kind of funky vibe like you see on the DVD bonus features on 'Making a Pixar Movie!' But no, it's very serious. Once I was two minutes late and was taken aside and given a talking to. Compared with my position in NY where you could come pretty much whenever you wanted provided it was before 11, and even then your never get 'in trouble', it will take some getting used to. I often end up running from the station, in heels.

There are a lot of cool, creative people here though. Too bad my team, the Systems team, is segregated from them. We work in a small room in the back with lots of cables and cardboard boxes all over the place. But luckily when we went out for drinks as a welcome party of sorts, I got to know some of the people from other departments. My coworkers are all very nice, funny people.. once they've had a drink in them. ;)

So on the whole, so far so good. But not quite what I was expecting. :)

Obama Win Fuels Hope for Democracy, Metric System

2008-11-10T19:53:00.000-08:00

As the United States of America's 44th president gears up for his first term, nations around the globe are expressing hope for a return to 'sensible' values.

"Here in Europe, we have for most of the last century enjoyed basic rights that Americans have simply been too stubborn to accept, such as universal health care, and measuring things in base 10. Maybe now that Obama will be president, he truly will bring about change. We'll see." quoted Eidman Lodderbump, a sceptical Swede.

The previous eight years have seen an unending war in Iraq, the worst deficit in the history of the nation, and plummeting house prices, but most feel that with a new leader comes a new era of hope and measurement units.

There have been previous attepmts to bring the metric system to the US, most recently in the late 70's, but the sensible plan never caught on. Most people blame "Reaganomics". When asked for opinions, it was found that Democrats favor adopting the metric system a full 3 percentage points above the Republican party.

"What's this? Kilograms?! Here on my farm we use *rocks* to measure things, and it's been good enough for my grandpappy and my old man. Sure as heck it's good enough for me!" Cried staunch McCain supporter Juffy McBigbritches.

Whether or not the Obama administration will adopt the long overlooked measurement system, this reporter is fervently hoping it will at least become an item on the party ticket.

...can you tell I have been reading too much of "The Onion"? ;)

Employment!

2008-10-30T21:28:00.000-07:00

So, as anyone keeping up with current events could probably guess, the whole working in the finance industry thing didn't pan out. But worry not readers, I have found employment in an industry that is relatively unscathed:
video games!

No I am not working as a teller at GameStop. ;) I have, through my great 'kone-ga aru hito' ('has connections') friend, found a job as a programmer at an online game company. Just check out my nerdy employee badge!! And my new co-workers are complaining that they have to try to conceal it when they walk outside because its 'embarrasing'.

Whiners!

Anyways. I'm not doing actual game development, unfortunately and that's all done in C++ .. and in China. (go figure. I wonder if other companies are like that too). I am part of the system team that handles all the secondary stuff, like promotions, payment, etc. So, not as exciting as you might think. But the office is very cool, with dark wood and track lighing and music (from the games?) playing in the background. And the illustrations/game concept art is all done here, which I get to peek at.

So far, I am quite happy. The only problem is I'm a contract employee for now. If they still like me at the end of three months, (and the feeling is mutual), I will become a permanent employee. At a game company!!

Anyways, here's the link to the games that we run:
"Legend of Chusen": http://chusen-online.jp/
"Perfect World": http://perfect-w.jp/intro/
"Yume Sekai" (Dream World): http://yume-sekai.jp/landing/
Feel free to try them out. (I haven't yet... but I probably know all the music by heart.)

neko!

2008-09-30T19:18:00.000-07:00

Ooops, it's now October 1st. Which means somehow September was completely blog-free... how did that happen? I'm sure I was greatly missed. ;)

When I last left you, I was previously interviewing for a large financial corporation. You know the kind, rediculous salaries and even more rediculous working hours. I was on my fifth (fifth!!) interview, at which point I had met maybe 11 people, who all seemed to approve of my humble self. But suddenly an order came from the heavens ( er..the American head office) which declared headcount to be a problem in these turbulent times and to not hire any new people!! ..so, for better or for worse, I was not asked back to the 'trick interview'. Ce la vie.
Don't worry though faithful readers, it looks like I will most likely be employed soon. And until that day I am being a very good housewife. I had better get a job soon, because the housewifelyness is creeping in and infecting my SOUL. You know you have a problem when you actually *get excited* about your prefecture introducing a plastic recycling program.

Besides the garbage sorting, (which is no joke a full time job!).. I have been keeping busy with...

*Japanese.
I'm studying for the Japanese Language test Level 1, which I am very likely to fail as I still have problems with newspapers. Those sneaky chinese characters still trip me up, even after 7 years of exposure. Wow, it's been awhile! But I passed level 2 so I gotta study for something... unfortunately there's no 1.5.

*Jobhunting (but that's boring so I will overlook it)

*Enjoying the geeky media available in this country.
Otaku alert! For fans of manga author Naoki Urasawa who penned the famous 'Monster', 'Yawara' and others, his 22(3?) volume masterpeice "20th Century Boys" was made into a live, hollywood budget style movie. It's the first of a trilogy. And it's awesome!! :D
To those who want to get up to speed, I found a link to translated scans of the comics, done by someone with a lot of time on their hands. Lucky!

*Adopting a stray cat
That's right. A cute little scraggly skinny calico cat lives in our neighborhood, and coerced us into giving her food (by coerced, read 'meowing','looking sad', 'being super skinny' and 'being rained on'). Finally we tried bringing her into our apartment, and she immediately made herself at home. Having gotten that far, in the few weeks that followed, she also 'coerced' us into:

*taking her to the vet and getting shots and checking for an IC chip (there was none)
*researching the best kinds of cat food. Note: none are available through easy means, and so we gave up and are feeding her Friskies, which is according to several sites, a 'bag o' crap'. At least she likes the stuff.
*Making her a cat house/jungle gym thingie.
*Being dissapointed she never uses the jungle gym thingie.
* taking her to the vet for her 'squinty eye', and paying $80 for treatment.
Oh Cally, you know how to make our purse-strings sing!

My mother in law thinks that the cat is a sort of surrogate baby, which is such a mother-in-law thing to think. (Can you tell she wants us to have kids right away?)
Well, maybe the cat is sort of practice for one. I expect a kid would be right there along the lines of messiness, hungriness, adorableness, expensiveness, but maybe multiplied by a factor of about a hundred. ;) If you don't hear from me by November, just remember, I am feeling guilty on the inside.
Chao!

*UPDATE*: Here's a picture demonstrating Cally's saccharine sweetness :)

Jobhunting again

2008-08-27T18:14:00.000-07:00

It's that time again.... time to stop being a slug and find a job in Tokyo. Although I am thoroughly enjoying my summer break, summer is coming to a close, and is making me feel vaguely guilty about my unemployment.

Strange fact: I have been waking up earlier during my vacation than I ever did when working in New York. Probably because we have shoji screens instead of curtains in the bedroom, so it's bright and hot at about 8 and I can't sleep. Case in point: on a rainy cool day, I slept in until 10:30. Ah, delicious.

Fortunately (or not so), I had become accustomed to a nice fat paycheck from my job in New York. I signed up with a few recruiting companies, and when they took one look at my salary history, said:
'ah, you're looking for work in the Finance industry then'. me: '...finance? like banking and all that? I don't know the first thing about it!' them: 'time to learn then!'
Fair enough, I suppose. As long as I get to write code I'll be happy anywhere.

My first interview was at an appropriately intimidating enormous banking corporation, where they have their own gym in the building (not that anyone has time to use it). I was cramming fundamentals of programming to try to prepare for the interview, and looking nervous, when Takeshi started playing with my straightened hair.
"Don't worry, you have nice hair. Maybe they'll hire you just for that!"
heh.

Perhaps that was the trick, because I was called back for a second and then a third interview, meeting with people higher and higher in the company, and trying (and failing miserably) not to be intimidated when I was called into a beautiful honey-colored conference room overlooking most of Tokyo.

The recruiting company helping coordinate these interviews has been very helpful, so much so that I can't help feeling a bit like a peice of bait on a line, there to get the recruiters a big tasty fish. But hey, I would like to work for that huge company, with a big fat paycheck and a glittering brand name on my resume. Bling bling!

The only thing is, the interview process gets a little rediculous after the third time, because mostly they have asked you everything they could possibly want to know at that point, and so have you. So the recruiters have told me to prepare for 'trick ' questions, there soley for the purpose of psyching you out and throwing you off.

My favorite prep question: "Why *wouldn't* we hire you?"
Um. So what, you're supposed to think of a reason they shouldn't hire you that is secretly a good thing...and thus a reason they *should* hire you? I call B.S.!!

I was posing this problem to Takeshi, and his proposed answers were enlightening.
1) "Because you're A-holes"
(right, I'm really gonna say that.)
2) "Because I'm.... I'm..."(starts dancing)
"I'm ... too sexy for this work! So sexy it hurts!"

Hey, That's as good an answer as any I can think of. ;)

Officially Cute

2008-07-30T01:03:00.000-07:00

I passingly mentioned it last blog, but I have no choice but to clarify how *rediculously* cute things are here. There are many places where one from another country would thing adorable mascots have no right to be... and yet they are. I took the liberty of going around town and photographing the glaring, saccharine sweetness all around. Enjoy!


Police mascot. I am shaking in my boots!	Tokyo Water company... on the back of my bill. (you can't see it, but there's a boy water drop and a girl water drop!)

The Tokyo bus mascot, Minkle.	Nothing says 'keep out' like a little cartoon bowing construction worker!

Not to be out-done by the police, the firefighters have a cute li'l guy on all their firetrucks.	Even the city of Nerima has a mascot. I'm not quite sure what it's supposed to be, but it has a leaf for a hat!

This was on the train, for a blood drive. I think they're supposed to have.., blood droplets for ears. Creeepy.	Custom-kun, the customs dog. This cute little guy sniffs out the drug mules, but don't worry, he's got no mouth so he can't bite!

Tee hee!

Okay, I'm alive

2008-07-22T22:58:00.000-07:00

Woo, I'm back in Tokyo!

So I'm living in a different part of town than we were last year, this time closer to Ikebukuro and downtown. This is good news if I have to commute to work, since last time it took an hour just to get to the main hub of Tokyo (shinjuku) and transfer from there.

Anyways, even though I lived here for a couple of years, my year in New York was enough to refresh my 'gaijin eyes' as I like to put it. And hillariously, Takeshi is finally seeing things with American eyes. The most amusing things he said were 1) "Woah! People are SO SKINNY here! Like, creepy skinny!" (me: 'dude, I've been telling you that for years')
2) "I kinda miss the grumpy american grocery clerks" (me: WHAT?! even I don't miss them!)

Anyways, I am happy to announce, after seeing adorable, pokemon-like mascots for everything from Customs-immigration, to Nerima City, to the police and firefighters, that Japan is indeed the Land of the Cute. Things are cute. products are cute. even People are cute. (I happened to see some maid-cafe girls, in their skimpy uniforms, taking a break at the 7-11).
Feeling the pressure of the Cute People, I succumbed and got my hair done at a nearby salon, and it looks awesome! It's super-straight, with a hint of layering.>:D But I digress.

I forgot the sheer mass of vending machines, there is statistically one for every twenty people. I also forgot about how everything (moving trucks included) talks. Even my bathtub has a little speaker telling me the temperature, in Japanese of course. The result is a very cute, slightly irritating cacophony, and combined with the bright lights and signs of a city that never sleeps (think of a NY Times Square that goes on for miles and miles!)... it's easy to get sensory overload. Luckily our apartment is in a pretty quiet neighborhood.

Oh, for those of you that were wondering (I was).... there is STILL a massive line outside of Krispy Kreme doughnuts in downtown Shinjuku. Tee hee!

Jya ne!

Goodbye and Hello

2008-07-07T08:27:00.000-07:00

Hi there faithful readers.

I am being a serious blogger and writing this from the airport to kill time provide insight to my year in Manhattan.

I will miss my job at Trading Metrics terribly. Not only did the senior Java programmer write beautiful code (thus allowing me to learn by example), the company was small enough to
1) feel like a family and
2) allow you to actually make a difference through the work you do. But there are benefits to leaving Manhattan, like
1) leaving our roach-infested apartment... it was getting bad by the end.. and
2) going back to the land of wonderful customer service! (not to mention hot springs.. :D)

Luckily my boss has connections with some of our business partners centered in Tokyo, and is passing my resume along. I'm keeping my fingers crossed as I got a little spoiled with my nice fat paycheck here, and really don't want to go back to the In'n'out Burger stand salary I was receiving in Tokyo. I flatter myself and believe I did a pretty good job while I was here (I completely redid the user interface of our product into something much more attractive and consistent)... so I was promised a glowing review. (yay! here's hoping!) Still, I kind of doubt I'll be able to find a place that allows you to choose your own furniture and has a ping-pong table. (I'm going to miss you, my white chair! And John if you're reading this, do NOT use it as a foot rest!!!)

We went back to California last weekend for a last visit before our jump across the pacific ocean, and my family is as silly as ever, to my relief. We went to Berkeley and celebrated my maternal grandmother's 70th birthday! (happy birthday Grandma Blue!)

Anyways, at that park opposite the rose garden where we had our party, there was a giant concrete slide built into the hillside, which my mother slid down when she was little, and she dissapointedly reported it had "shrunk". It was still about three stories high though, and so she made all of us ride it so she could ride it herself and not feel silly. (don't worry mom, you still looked silly! hee hee.) Once was clearly not enough, so the entire Weaver clan (Takeshi included) ended up going down it three times. Ahh memories.

I also ended up dragging Ellen along to Napa Valley so she could teach me how to taste wine, with a moderate degree of success. I was able to tell that the red wine Takeshi just brought for me here in the lounge was a Merlot because of its slow 'legs' and from the smell of the 'second nose'...(the sniff you check after the 'legs'). Oh wine, so fun and pretentious. Anyways we drove up to the hills around the valley and discovered charred sections of hillside and a *melted* metal fence. the air was also very smokey, so I just have to give a shout-out to the California firefighters... thanks for putting out the fires and saving the wine! :D

I put some photos up on Flickr in the usual place (http://www.flickr.com/photos/kyranoshashin/)that vaguely follow my adventures, so feel free to take a gander. (there should be a link/badge thing to the right).

All right, that's the last post from the 'Little New Yorker'. Next post, the Little Gaijin returns!! (dum-dum-duuuuuuuum....)

Yay, guests!

2008-05-31T19:36:00.000-07:00

Hi faithful readers (as you must be since I haven't been blogging too much lately). Time to spill the beans... we're going back to Japan after the first week of July. sniff. This is bittersweet news; I love my job and all the perks of being a native citizen of the country you're living in: mainly, getting all the jokes and old TV references people make. (I don't do so well with that in Japan.)

But, as some of you may know already, Takeshi and I are moving back to Tokyo on the first week of July. That's right, our year here is up. One sweet year in New York, for all its glory and strange smells, is coming to a close.

What does that mean? It's Time to Finally Be a Tourist!

Lucky for us, we had some guests come in to town last weekend, giving us the excuse we needed to see all the touristy things as 'guides', and keep some of our dignity as 'New Yorkers' (even though I myself had not seen a lot of them). Our 'Guide' tour included:

*The Metropolitan Museum of Art (we had seen it, but last time our visit had not included the south-east asia wing or the American wing, which were both very cool. Although our guests were a little dissapointed at the lack of Vietnamese art, most of it being from "Vietnam / Cambodia", which is weak sauce. But I digress.

*The Museum of Modern Art (or MoMA): made me very glad I took art history, because some incredibly famous paintings there I would have possibly overlooked otherwise. There was also some "art" that was disturbing for the sake of being disturbing (video of a naked lady hula-hooping with a barbed wire hula-hoop, anyone? anyone?) which is not my taste, but it also housed a very cool light display, including a room that made everyone's shadows look like iPod commercials, and another that made everything look sepia.

*Top of the Rock: this is the view from the top of the Rockefeller building (the one that has the ice-skating rink and a big christmas tree out front during the holidays). It's almost as tall as the empire state building, and has a great view of it to boot. We went to watch the sunset over the Hudson river from there. Too bad the winds kicked up and we were all wearing skimpy little tees that did not adequately protect our skins. But we got some pictures , so it was all worth it. (True tourist motto! ;)

*Ate at 'touristy' places: Serendipity 3 , which was undergoing remodeling or something when I tried to take Takeshi, was open for business. The only problem is, they are most famous for desert, (including their frozen hot chocolate drink), but you can't make reservations for just dessert. So we ended up putting our name on the list for a 2 hour wait and ... getting dinner there anyway. For food, I recommend the Brie + apple +turkey sandwich.

We also got a hot dog and tropical drink at the Papaya King, which is famous for their bizarre combination of healthy, all natural, no-sugar added papaya/mango/banana juices (packed with vitamins and antioxidants!) and.... hot dogs. (why hot dogs? dont ask me!)

* Had dim-sum at chinatown at the Golden Unicorn, which was worth the wait. We had to share a table, but that seems to be the way it goes at touristy restuarants because it was like that at the pizza place under the Brooklyn bridge called Grimaldis, which had amazing pizza.

* Went shopping in SoHo (I got a cute necklace made from handmade glass beads!) and we saw the strangely anime-themed UniQlo store there. UniQlo is a bland, Gap-like store in Japan. It was very odd to see it suddenly made over into an otaku's paradise.

*Saw the musical 'Spring Awakening', which was filled with teen angst and alternative rock music, always a good combination. It was a little mature but had some good comic relief. Too bad the characters weren't developed to a point where the audience could actually care about them. But did I mention the music was great? We got the CD and now those songs are all stuck in my head, especially 'I don't do sadness'. Love it!
* and probably some other stuff. Oh yeah, Central Park, FAO Schwartz, got bagel at 'Ess-a-bagel', etc etc. It all blurs together since I saw those ones already.

But anyways, I thought it was a very symbiotic relationship... I was able to help our guests see our town as a guide. But they helped drag us along to see our city from the predominant view New York City is mainly seen: through the eyes of a tourist. My summary of tourist vistion: hectic, heel-hurting, expensive, crazy! Oh and tons of fun. Thanks guys. :)

Strange New York

2008-05-09T20:48:00.000-07:00

I haven't been entirely fair.

In Japan, I carried around my camera-phone and would take amusing pictures whenever I saw fit, to post them on my blog and make sniping comments about the funny things I saw in Tokyo. But New York has its fair share of odd things too. The difference? Lack of a phone with a camera. So I started bringing my camera around in my bag, and lo and behold, I got some classics (when I had enough batteries).

Here are my favorites I have caught on film...Of course, the biggest fish get away, so to speak- I saw lots of things the times when I forgot my camera, like the mailbox painted to look like R2-D2. But hopefully this will give you a taste.


My office is very close to the convention center. Caught this guy commuting to the comic con!	For anyone who isn't up on the video game scene, the latest 'Grand Theft Auto' game takes place in a city suspiciously like New York - "Liberty City". And it has a "Statue of Happiness". This enormous painted billboard takes you that much closer to living in the game.

(what this doesn't show is the constant honking in the background).	The city just has these around, I'm assuming for firefighting purposes, or maybe just in case you'd like to freeze something and shatter it to show off. You can never be too prepared.

McCain has the homeless vote! (grafitti on a NYC homeless services advertisement.)	Amusing mechanical malfunction. This happens to tbe the 'real' sign for New York pedestrians, who often cross six lanes of traffic during a red light (sometimes with a baby stroller!). It means 'feel free to ignore this don't walk sign'.

The New York Police Department in Times Square is lit up with purple and pink neon lights, to make it visible. The amusing this is it's STILL hard to see, while surrounded by so much sensory overload.	Empire State building with flowers! (ok this isn't that funny, but... pretty,right? :) )

That's all for now, folks!

Spring

2008-04-06T21:40:00.000-07:00

New York in the winter and early spring is a sad, cold, grey place. Takeshi and I were counting down to our trip to Cozumel, Mexico feverishly, dreaming of blue waters and big fancy drinks on the beach. Even though we had only booked our trip a month in advance, it seemed like forever to wait. I even penned in the trip onto our calendar on the wall, and I *never* do that.

Finally the trip came, and even though several things conspired to ruin our vacation - (Takeshi had a fever for half the trip, $60 got stolen from our hotel room while we were at dinner one night, and there was an on-site sewage processing plant at the hotel!! pew) - it was still *AMAZING*.

Instead of doing a lot of shopping, we spent all our money on doing things.. horseback riding (sorry Wendy ;)), snorkeling booze cruise, crocodile swamp tour, renting a jeep and driving around the island, Mayan ruins exploration. Ahh, the pretty tropical birds! the towering white clouds! the raw jungle and the crash of the blue-green surf! The scurrying thousand iguanas!

When we got back, we realized - the only thing worse than March in New York is ... March in New York after getting back from a tropical island. The buildings seemed greyer. the sky seemed greyer. The streets were depressingly iguana free. I was desperately thinking of ways to get some green back into my life. Perhaps by moving to Mexico!

Well, since that was out of the question, the very next weekend, we got out of the city and went to Washington DC... to see the cherry blossom festival. In 1913, Japan gave America a gift of about 3000 cherry trees, which are planted all around the capital and all bloomed *that weekend*. Plus, it was windy so an incredible number of people (read, everyone and their dog), was out flying kites. It wasn't cozumel, but the kites and the cherry trees in front of the white dome of the Capitol building was a sight for sore eyes.

Luckily, the next week in New York, even this city decided to get with the program (Spring-wise), and the trees started to blossom and the daffodil buds planted in the ground next to the trees all started to sprout and blossom. Its.. actually pretty here. It looks like I might not have to move to Mexico after all!
...(until next winter, anyways.)

Tragic Crane Collapse Locks Couple Out of Apartment; Also Crushes Building.

2008-03-16T19:40:00.000-07:00

It was a lazy saturday afternoon like any other. I had just gotten back from jogging in Central Park, and Takeshi was in the shower after boxing. That's when the noise started - a not-so distant rumbling, then the crashing sound of something heavy hitting several tons of brick. Then a few seconds - again. BOOOOOOOMMCCRSHH!!!!

Ok you can tell I write comics, trying to think of sound effects like that.
I rushed to the window, and saw nothing but dark clouds of billowing dust.

"GODDAMNIT! It's that DAMN CRANE! It finally FELL OVER, I KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPENNNNN!!!" I yelled, running in circles trying to find the camera. Takeshi leaped out of the bath and ran to the window, seeing the plumes of dust rising to the west. I finally found the camera and he pulled on some clothes and we rushed downstairs.

The doorman was not in the lobby. We found him on the doorstep of the apartment, where a small crowd had gathered to try to make sense of the noises. Then we saw and I knew I had been right - the crane about halfway down the block had fallen over, and was balanced precariously on a tall brick building directly south (and across the street) from the construction site.

I had passed that site every day on the way to and from work, and every day would see that precarious looking crane hauling up concrete, and every day I'd think 'man, what if that dropped something. Right now. On my head.'
Ok, so that didn't happen. But I was right to be scared of it. Saturday was perfect weather, only partially cloudy, and more importantly, no wind. That crane toppled in perfect weather, and when I saw how it had fallen, I couldn't help but feel incredibly lucky that it didn't fall into the street.

That's when we realized we were only seeing half of it. The top of the tall building on the south side of 51st had served as a severing point for the crane, breaking the top part off and (this being a very tall crane), crashing down on the north side of 50th. We ran around the block to see.
The building directly in the path of the crane happened to be the runt of the litter, only 4-5 floors compared to the surrounding 10 story buildings. The taller buildings seemed to shrug off the crane, and deposit it on their shorter neighbor, which was completely crushed by the weight.

The police and firefighters were already on the scene, even though this was at most five minutes after it happened. Luckily the 17th precinct police department on 51st and 2nd were fast on their feet, and were already in the process of rescuing some poor soul who had been trapped in the builing.
Actually seeing a stretcher with a person on it coming out of the crushed building so close to our own was a little much for my weak stomach, and we headed home, leaving the situation in the competent hands of the authorities. (of course, not without checking every news channel first to see if the press had gotten wind! And what kind of citizen would I be if I didnt send my photos to several news agencies! heh.)

We headed out later to meet a friend for dinner, when we passed a blockade and were told we would not be able to come back in for an undetermined amount of time 'in case of secondary collapse'.

"Hey guys, so what do you wanna do tonight?" said our friend Ken.
"Stay at your place!"
Poor guy. We had a fun time in Korea Town in a shady karaoke bar and went back to his apartment and played Star Wars Legos, and lucky for us he had a fold out couch. By the time it was around 12, I tried calling the city.
I learned that:
1) My building was not one of the evacuated ones
2) they weren't sure about the roadblock
3) we could find out more info by going to 57th and Lex. (we were across town).

"So are you staying over?"
I blinked my eyes in doe-eyed fasion, thinking of the horrible trek home in the cold, only to be (possibly) turned away. "Yes please!"

This morning we were able to get back in by showing ID, but cable is out, and the cable guys aren't scheduling fixes until, reasonably enough I SUPPOSE, they can get back onto our block. And this is why I read all of Orson Scott Card's Invasive Procedures in one day today. I probably should have done my taxes, as an afterthought.

Here's the link to the real news article about this: (note the address of the construction site is 303 E. 51st street, and my address: 340 E. 51st street.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/nyregion/16collapse.html?ex=1363320000&en=fe214583a26e51d0&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
I am extremely dissapointed the press did not end up using my particular photos, but the link is here for alert readers.
http://flickr.com/photos/kyranoshashin/

Goodbye old office

2008-03-06T08:47:00.000-08:00

You will not be missed.

... well, except for the awesome view on the 17th floor terrace which we were allowed to use during the summer for lunches - I took my camera up there one time and took a bunch of shots, and just now got around to assembling them into a panorama of sorts.

This is looking north, with the Hudson on the left (west) and Midtown rising up in the front. :)

The Interpreter

2008-03-02T17:51:00.000-08:00

It finally happened - I was asked to put my Japanese skills to work for my company. One of our potential clients is a large middle-man of technology, thinking of reselling our lovely latency monitor to stock exchange users in Tokyo.
Thus, I was only slightly surprised to be invited to a meeting with only the sales people, the CEO and myself... starting at 7:30 *PM*.

As the meeting grew closer and closer, I started getting nervous. I haven't really been speaking Japanese much while I've been here, and I wasn't sure how I'd do while under pressure.
My CEO assured me Id be fine. Unfortunately this was spoken with the breezy confidence of someone who didn't actually have any idea of my skill level, unlike my husband. He gave me a skeptical glance when I failed to remember how to say 'sink', and suddenly I grew nervous again.

Later into the week it turned out that the Japanese company already had a translator brought along for this meeting. I breathed a sigh of relief, and tried to confirm that they no longer needed me to come along.
"Are you kidding?" said my coworker. "You'll be our secret weapon! You should go along just to make sure they don't say anything bad about us!"
Wow, I thought to myself, I should get business cards. They can read, "Kyra Weaver, Corporate Spy."

It was a little strange to see Japanese business ettiquette from an American perspective in Japan, but even stranger to see American business ettiquette after having worked in Japan for three years. I asked my boss what I should wear. "Should I wear a suit?" I had brought my suit from Japan for the purpose of interviews, but I hadn't worn it once since I got here.
My boss shrugged, and said I could wear anything I wanted, after all, I was a developer. Then, with sudden doubt crossing his face, he turned to my coworker, who has also been to Japan. "Or should she?"
Co-worker: "Mmmm... on a business meeting? Better keep it formal..."
CEO: "Yeah, they're Japanese. So no jeans, I guess."
Me: "...Riiight. I'll wear my suit."

So last Wednesday I was dragged along to a meeting at 7:30 PM. The introductions went smoothly enough, but I had a jarring sensation as I noticed my CEO not formally exchanging business cards with both hands and a bow, as I had been taught, but tossing them down on the table like a dealer with a deck of cards. I tried not to wince. Fortunately (or not, depending on your perspective), I had no business cards to hand out, so had no fear of showing him up on the subtle art of business card exchange. ;)

Unfortunately due to technical difficulties, the Web-X conference wasnt actually working until 8PM, which meant we had to exchange small talk for half an hour, and my 'secret' came out. The manager of the project found out I spoke Japanese, and his face lit up greedily.

"You speak Japanese? You know, we really need a developer who is bilingual. What do they pay you? They can't be paying you that much, they're a startup! Come work for us!" He said laughing, in English. With my CEO sitting right next to me. Um! Actually that is not true, I am very nicely compensated, and I saw your depressing low-walled cubicles and flickering florescent-lit office as I came in, and I was very glad to escape from that working environment when I came to New York. We are moving next week and I got to pick my own furniture(albiet from IKEA); I'm getting a glass desk and a pimpin' white leather chair in a window office! ...is what I wanted to say. But you know. :) Instead I just demured politely, and winked at my CEO, hoping he'd remember this on the day of my anual review.

The meeting itself was not too bad. For the most part the translator did a good job, and I only had to step in when the people in Tokyo had a question about our product. The hard part was remembering to translate the question back into English before I answered it, I forgot to do that once and nearly got poked. Luckily, although I had forgotten the word for sink, three years of business Japanese on a daily basis had drilled words like 'click', 'screen', 'open a new window', 'generate a report', 'memory' and 'database usage' into my head. The only time I really started to get worried was when my stomach started growling towards the end of the meeting at 9PM.

We ended the meeting, and I shook everyone's hand, and stepped out into the freezing night air with a sense of relief and a job well done. My CEO was pleased, and I have an amusing anecdote to tell my coworkers. Hopefully it will help the time pass pleasantly while we spend the next four hours assembling our new IKEA furniture. :)

embarassing video <3

2008-02-13T19:16:00.000-08:00

So I started taking hip hop dance class on Tuesday nights... little did I know that the instructor's friend was going to videotape it and post it on You-Tube.
I'm the one in the pink. :D
(I'm gasobare-ing!)

Superbooooooooowl!

2008-02-03T19:21:00.000-08:00

So I have to say. I was never a football fan. But the New York Giants have been doing surprisingly well, and seeing as how I live here, I couldn't help hear about it.
"Watch the New York Giants with us on their road to victory!" announced a sign outside a neighborhood pub. and that wasn't all... "After the Giants win the game on Sunday, our store will be open additional hours!" trumpeted the local Sports Authority.

And actually I was kinda getting into it.
It started on the way back from our ski trip - we were getting pizza on the way back from the bus, when we noticed that our pizza was emerging very very slowly from the oven... the guys running the pizza shop's eyes were all fixed on the bigscreen TV behind our heads. Turning around to watch, I saw the Giants going long in an amazing touchdown against the Greenbay packers. (Hey.. weren't my coworkers taking bets on the outcome of this game?) I thought. When we got home, we had the pizza and some beers, and I flipped on the game out of curiosity. I suddenly felt like a True American.

There was one problem - I didn't actually know the rules. I knew there were four quarters and four downs and there were touchdowns and field goals, but Pesky Takeshi kept asking me pesky questions I didn't know how to answer; like - why does one team keep the ball? it's been more than four downs!

After a not-very fruitful search on Wikipedia, I pulled up the official NFL rules page and actually learned them. And then suddenly, the game seemed much more interesting! Funny how that works.

Unfortunately the enthusiasm didn't catch on with Takeshi, who started taking a nap during the first quarter of the superbowl, even after promising he'd watch it in a bar with me.

I tried various methods of waking him up, like suddenly cheering loudly when there was a good pass. Of course that was hard because most of the first half of the Superbowl went like this:

1)Wait nearly the whole 40 seconds of the play clock
2)Throw the ball to the QB
3)DOGPILE!!!
and repeat a bunch of times.

So ok, there weren't that many exciting passes to cheer. But damn it, I was in New York, and the New York Giants were playing in the Superbowl! I had to get in on the local action. Right at the end of the third quarter the Giants suddenly pulled ahead and were in the lead! I had to see the reaction in a pub. I poked Takeshi and told him I was going, to which he grunted 'nnmmmff, sure, go ahead zzzzz'.
I rushed past the doorman, who was studying his phone, and shouted 'they're up by three!' and he suddenly came to life. 'Yeah I saw!!'

When I got to the bar it was humid, dark, and a buzzing hum of general excitement. Every fumble, pass, tackle and dogpile were cheered and booed in loud happy voices. Even the commercials were chuckled at appreciatively.

Then suddenly the game got very exciting - as the players got tired, there was less dogpiles and more speedy rushes to the endzones, and suddenly the Patriots and the GIants were playing an odd game of tag. At the last 50 seconds, the Giants came ahead with a touchdown, and everyone in the bar was suddenly on their feet screaming, old men hugging each other, and strangers giving each other high fives, and the few Patriots fans even managed to boo cheerfully.

Out on the street the cars and trucks on the road were honking, horns blaring and lights flashing in a raucus victory dance. Looking around, I felt very happy and silly being a part of something so chaotic and so very New York.

When I finally got home (after exchanging high-fives with the doorman), Takeshi was awake, and very very aware that the Giants had won. 'aggggh, the stupid traffic won't shut up!' he grinned. 'Guess I should have come to the bar after all.'

Damn straight! ;)

good credit/bad credit/no credit

2008-01-28T18:09:00.000-08:00

Hey guys.

I can't think of my usual one-topic anecdote, so I'll just mention a few things I've been doing lately. Sorry if they're boring, but not really. Got netflix and have been watching movies endlessly. One of the movies we watched was a documentary on predatory lending called 'Maxed Out'. Normally I don't get really involved in anything political, but I thought it was interesting that there are no limits on how high the interest rates can go on major credit cards, and the fine print on all credit card contracts reads they can raise rates at any time, for no reason.

Limits on interest rates are called usury ceilings. After a bit of indignant poking around, I found two relevant facts:
1) most banks are located in Delaware or South Dakota where there are no legal usury ceilings, (for that very reason) and
2) there is a lot of research showing that usury ceilings can actually be bad for the economy if the ceiling is below the supply/demand equilibrium- ie the standard market values.

What's not really mentioned in those reports is that a lot of people with poor credit are getting reamed with interest rates WAY higher than market value, and there's not much anyone can do about it. I thought I'd write congress or something, but the pbs website 'Frontline' is pretty pessimistic.

SO anyways, careful with those credit cards, kiddos.

Tipping isn't a city in China?!

2007-12-30T18:05:00.000-08:00

One of the new experiences gained from living in Manhattan is the experience of having doormen.

Customer service in New York, as a rule, is terrible. Everyone is grouchy, if not scary. Witness the lady in the movie theater who while handing me my tickets, shouted to noone in particular "Oh my GOD is this shift OVER YET?"
Or the guy at Quiznos who, when I asked him to wait a second while I got out exact change (a bad habit from Japan, where coins plague you if you don't use them), muttered "Thou shall not kill. Thou shall not kill". Yes, right there in front of me. I tried glaring, but he didn't make eye contact, and when I said 'excuse me?!',he replied "NEXT", resulting in me getting jostled out of place.

I'm a pretty nice, laid-back person, in my humble opinion, but I can truly believe the story of people going back to Japan from New York and crying in gratitude.

But the exception to the rule of bad customer service has been the doormen. True, they don't do that much, but they are very friendly about it, and always have nice recommendations for restaurants and things to do.

I brought this up to my coworkers at one of our thursday evening drinking parties, and got a nasty shock: "Well yeah, but they're expecting to be compensated at Christmas."

All of them?! I thought...don't they get a salary?
Being new to the service industry expecting tips, (I hardly ever get my hair cut, don't get my nails done, and avoid valet like the plague), I quickly googled an appropriate tip for the doormen. Apparently, unlike 15% at restaurants, there is no 'appropriate' price, and those who do tip keep the exact value a well-kept secret, and those who actually talk tend to exaggerate.
"We gave him the keys to our mercedes-benz to use when we're out of town" snobbed one Upper-east side CEO.

There are six doormen and one superintendent in our building. Apparently Takeshi found out that none of the people who lived in this room before us (placed here by his company) knew to tip. Unfortunately, we didn't have that excuse.
After pacing around, fretting about it, and biting my nails, Takeshi said 'let's just give 'em $20 each and be done with it.' So that's what we did. And now there are 7 twenties missing from our pockets, and I'm still feeling guilty. I haven't noticed any change in attitudes from the doormen, so either they didn't mind, didn't notice, or are very swell gentlemen.:) Hats off to the doormen!

Dear sky, please stop snowing. From Kyra.

2007-12-11T07:46:00.000-08:00

It is officially December, aka, "offically" winter. If by official, you mean, in my head.

All throughout October and most of November, it had been unseasonably warm. I remember right before the halloween parade, walking to get lunch with my coworkers. It was around 80 degrees outside, and I had to ask.

"Is this normal, or is this global warming?"
"Global warming"
"Definitely global warming"
"yep" said the third, wiping sweat out of his eyes.

But now the tide has turned. It got cooler and cooler in November, and the air became clean and crisp (for New York, which means you can't acutally *smell* the garbage, as it is being refrigerated). To take advantage of the nice weather, I plucked up my courage, steeled my stomach, challenged the system and used my New York drivers license for the first time.
"Wow!" you should be saying. "I've seen movies about NYC and the crazy taxi drivers! Kyra, you are a brave brave girl!"

Yep. This brave soul took one look at the swerving cars and crazy bikers and pedestrians, and took the first train to New Jersey and rented from there.

Our vague plan was to drive around, look at some farms and stuff, and then go horseback riding. But as fate would have it, it was December 1st (which apparently the tri-state area weather system also sees as "officially" winter), and it started snowing.
"We can still go horseback riding!" I said with the crazed tone of someone who drew about 70 horses per day when she was little *and* owned a full set of my little ponies. Takeshi looked at me with an appropriate mix of disbelief and accusation. "It's below freezing!"
Me:"It'll be..romantic?"

That's when the snow turned to freezing rain, and even I gave up. Cars were spinning out and the roads were icing up. So we did the logical thing: going to an outlet mall and spent our remaining time purchasing sweaters and down jackets.

Thankfully it's gotten warmer, but it's already snowed 3 out of 7 days last week. I am not looking forward to January...did I mention it's supposed to get to negative 15 degrees? Farenheit?!

More whining next blog! ;)

Rocking out on Thanksgiving !m!

2007-11-28T08:09:00.000-08:00

(In case you couldn't tell, the above m surrounded by exclamation marks is supposed to be a 'KISS'-style rock and/or roll sign.)

Thanksgiving in New York should mean a good opportunity to see the Macy*s Day parade, but we had other plans. Wendy invited us to have thanksgiving with her family over in Ronkonkoma, which is about halfway down Long Island. We always enjoy going out there as an excuse to escape the city. (To give you an idea of the tranquility of their neighborhood, it's about 45 minutes PAST a place called "Hicksville". )

We did, however, go out the night before to 79th street and Columbus to see the parade balloons being blown up. "It's nice, usually no one is around, and you can see the baloons up close. We had the whole place to ourselves!" one internet site stated. "If you get there later, most of the people will have gone home". Said another.

The internet is a liar.

Takeshi, Phil (visiting from California) and I braved the 30 block hike, had terrible and expensive food for dinner, and waded through the crowd for the privelege of seeing 1 (one) Energizer Bunny(tm) balloon's *ear*, the body of which was blocked behind an enormous bus. That was when we saw the line to enter the balloon inflating area.
It was about the size of all Disneyland rides put together, extending four city blocks. We took one look, shook our heads, and went off to a pub.

The next day we did catch a glimpse of the parade on our way to Penn Station to catch a train to the suburbs. Unfortunately we were in a rush, and were running all the way from where the cab driver was forced to drop us off on 5th and 35th... dodging in between people, strollers, and the odd bicycle. We caught the train with about a minute to spare.Needless to say, it was also packed.

Once we got there, Wendy and I got busy. I made our family's traditional yams and green apples dish, and she worked magic with her brand new futuristic dual oven (with meat temperature probe!) and roasted an 18 pound turkey in under 3 hours, a feat accompished by few. There were about twenty people, and everyone brought something delicious, be it an amazing salad with candied pecans, about eight kinds of wines, or the homemade pumpkin pies and lindt truffles that no one had room for but somehow managed to dissapear.

WHile in many households the boys wander off to watch football, in Wendy's house, we all wandered over to the XBox and plugged in various musical accoutrements for some serious music making with Rock Band. Unlike Guitar Hero (which they also have), this game allows input from not only fake guitars, but a fake drumset and microphone for some hardcore synthesized sound. (jury's out on the realism of the mic.) While some might poo-poo use of these cheating tools, it is quite clear to all involved that the quality of music produced is approximately 100x more pleasant than if we were holding real guitars in our hands and attempting to reproduce, say, "Keep on Rocking in the Free World". And, in a bonus move, we looked almost authentically rock-band cool, with our loved ones able to watch the performances with a minimum of cringing....(I'm not saying there wan't any cringing, as we were only able to unlock about 8 songs and played them approximately eighteen times each... but it was kept to a respectful minimum.)

Rock 'n Rollllllll!

... Hope you all had a similarly rockin' turkey day. ^_~

halloweeeeen!

2007-11-01T19:08:00.000-07:00

(the pumpkins are supposed to be, from left to right:

Mika (Wendy & Matt's dog),
Stitch from Lilo and Stitch fame,
a japanese ghost (Takeshi's very impressive first pumpkin carving attempt!),
and my evil Totoro.

Since this was Takeshi's first Halloween in America, I wanted to do it right. But we didn't have any parties to go to, and it was on a Wednesday, so I wasn't sure what we should do. Luckily, there were signs on the entrances to the subway mentioning different routes to a 'Greenwich Village Halloween Parade.'
Halloween parade? I thought to myself. Hm. I wonder if it's anything like the West Hollywood street party...

"So I'm thinking of going to the Greenwich Village Halloween parade" I casually mentioned to my coworkers, trying to get a feel for what I was getting us into.
"Oh, I heard it's a lot of fun" said the new guy. "Yeah, just as long as it's not too warm. The trannies come out wearing practically nothing" smirked the cynic.

Yep, that sounds just like the west hollywood street party.

So anyways, Wednesday night found us at the corner of 3rd Ave and Spring street. We were supposed to get to 6th, but at that area of town the street names stopped being numbers.
"I think that way is North. That means that way is 6th" said Takeshi authoratively.
We started walking, and it was not long before we noticed we were surrounded. "Don't look now, but there's a very frightening and realistic Dracula behind you" I wispered. But he was too distracted. "Hey it's Mr and Mrs PacMan!" he said, pointing to two yellow half-crescents walking across the street.

But three blocks later, the people were getting fewer and fewer. Takeshi's coworker (our mountain climbing expedition leader Shue) scratched his head. "I don't think this is the right way..."
In the end, we ended up asking a Rollerblading Pirate directions. Good ol' Rollerblading Pirates. Is there anything they don't know?

Thanks to our good friend R.P., we were able to find the parade. Or rather, the human wall surrounding the parade. After about 15 minutes of standing on benches, jumping, trying to squeeze our way in, and at one point being me being carried on Takeshi's shoulders, we gave up and went to get drinks. But we while we were there, we were able to see some pretty neat floats, and the specators wandering around were hillarious. One girl was wearing an inflatable giant penis costume, and needless to say, she was very popular. ;)

"If we're here next year, we should definitely come in costume!" I enthused.
You know me, any excuse I can get. Even Takeshi grinned sheepishly.
"I might go as Tsurikichi sanpei. I'd have to get a big straw hat though." Hee! (I know what I wanna be for my costume. No stealing!)

Between the parade and the scary movies (Rosemary's Baby and The Ring) and pumpkin carving, we had a great time. The only dissapointment I suppose was the lack of candy. ^_^

Is it autumn already?

2007-10-19T07:33:00.000-07:00

I was trying to think about something amusing to say, when I realized ... it's just not as fun to write about your own country. For one thing, when I was in Japan, I could write amusing opinions about my coworkers, feeling safe that none of them spoke English well enough to stumble upon my blog and get me fired, like that nintendo girl. But even so, there's not really much to complain about.

....well, except for the guy who sits next to me. After he drinks a cup of coffee tends to run around the room like a hyperactive hummingbird, and does every action with about three exclamation marks after it. (put down the coffe.. *bam!!!* type on the keyboard... *BANG bang bang!!!*)...achem. Plus every single joke he makes is somehow related to QA. OMG be quiet QA guy!! I know you do QA! That is what you do! ...but I will stop whining now. (At least, until I find myself a more anonymous blog). ;)

Anyways, I actually really enjoy working at this little startup. I was hired as QA, to transition to a Java developer, and I have safely made the transition and am now starting to learn all about GWT. GWT stands for 'google web toolkit'...which is a framework that takes your Java code and transforms it into platform independent (well, mostly) javascript/html. It is tre cool. I would like to take this point to grumble that I wasn't hired by google... but then, I'm not sure I buy into the whole 'do no evil', as their hiring practices seem pretty ageist. I don't think there are very many newly hired people over there over the age of 35.

Unfortunately, that is probably true of a lot of companies. I'd better refine my manga drawing skills now, to rely on when I get old. I just hope I don't get arthritis, or the much dreaded carpal manga syndrome. (Did I mention that my webcomic Gemini is on page 106 now? It should be over in a mere 15 pages! Which at my rate, will be like.. March.) ;)

I'm trying to think of more 'american traditions' to subject ..er, I mean, immerse Takeshi in, so Halloween seems a good fit. We're going out to a friends' to carve pumpkins and watch scary movies. Hopefully candy will be involved.

past weekends

2007-09-25T16:31:00.000-07:00

Since I can't think of any one amusing anecdote for my loyal readers today, I thought I'd share some random tidbits.

Last weekend, Takeshi, his friend and I all went to a soccer game! Yes, that's right, they have soccer here. It was a game between the New England Revolution versus the New York Red Bulls. We took the bus, which got us there about 45 minutes early, and the place was EMPTY. Scarily, depressingly empty. We started giggling nervously, especially when, half an hour to the game to go, the only one who had joined us in our entire section was a challenged gentleman who started franticly cheering for the Red Bulls... when the field was empty.

But 10 minutes to go, all the semi-enthusiastic fans started meandering to their seats, and there was a decent crowd to watch the game. I don't know very much about soccer other than getting it in the goal is a good thing (except when it's the your own team's), but I thought it was a good game. The final score was 2- 2. But more importantly, the soccer enthusiasts I came with told me it was a good game, even by international standards, so I was content.

Renn Faire pictures are up. We did NOT go in costume to my dissapointment, but I believe a gentle immersion into the world of the American Nerds is probably a good thing. As it was, a random costumed gentleman grabbed my confused husband by the arm and made him do a jig, which made my day. We had some delicious mead, some turkey legs, and watched knife throwing and a joust (at separate times). Also, a parrot tried saying 'hello' while simulateously trying to bite Takeshi's ear (this is after it tried to steal his watch).
So all in all, it was a good day.

If anyone has seen Kanye West's new video, it may be worth noting that the whole 'escaping from the hospital scene' was taken from the anime Akira. (Must re-watch Akira!). Amusingly, the katakana splashed across the screen says 'gasobare' instead of 'ganbare', and 'kosero' instead of 'korose'. tee hee.
(those who have taken a few years of japanese might want to look at in in depth, as it is rife with typos!). But I appreciate the anime reference, so I hope Kanye continues to gasobare in all his future endeavors.

Fit TV?

2007-09-16T08:53:00.000-07:00

One of the nice things about our Manhattan apartment is that it came with cable pre-installed.
Normally we don't watch cable, but since it was all set up with our internet, and I need the internet like most people need their right arms, we kept it.
Unfortunately, with more TV channels come more commercials. I have to admit- american commercials, especially CABLE commercials, can be really annoying. In Japan, the commercials will never say 'buy this now!' or yell at you 'COME ON DOWN TODAY' or any of the other super annoying traits of American commercials...(Takeshi's pet peeve is showing piles of cash on the screen, and talking about MONEY MONEY MONEY)... they rely a little more on subliminal messages, and skits and the like. True, sometimes they are SO subtle and indirect that they come off as truly bizarre. And they ARE big on jingles. The last month I was in Tokyo, I had the Aflac song stuck in my head. "What Aflac song?" you may be asking. Dear reader, if you really want to know the answer to that question, just follow that link. But you have been warned, it won't be getting out of your head any time soon.

But after that counter-culture shock, cable is fun. I had really been missing the ability to see new drama on TV, like my favorites Grey's Anatomy and CSI (although my guilty pleasures include shows like "America's Next Top Model" and "Top Chef").
But of course, cable's strength is that, if you really want to, you can see shows that are actually good for you in some way. You can learn stuff on the Science channel, learn to cook on the food network, and last but not least, thoroughly embarrass yourself by following along with FitTV.

I have been trying to find a way to keep in shape in Manhattan, and after looking at all of the incredibly expensive gyms close to my house, tried jogging in Central park a few times. Unfortunately, although it looks close on google maps, it's still a mile just to get there. A mile of either walking or running through crowded, high-traffic, smokey streets. I just don't want to breathe NYC air too deep, I'm afraid that crap will never get out of my lungs.
Anyway, after an hour or so of lazily channel surfing one day, I came across FIT TV, and the program with creepily zombie-smiling host Sharon Mann. I shuffled to a stand, lured with the promise of lean, toned muscle, and tried doing some squats along to the beat. Every few minutes, one of the background dancers would hoot or yelp with encouragement.
"How Are you guys doing out there!!" Enthused the fitness lady. It was not a question. But you know, rhetorical questions are just begging to be answered.
"Horribly in pain!" I enthused back.
Within the course of half an hour, crazy fitness lady had somehow produced a yoga mat, 2 five lb. weights, a pilates stretchy band, an elevated platform to jump on and off of, and a 'fitness pole'. Needless to say, I had none of the said accoutrements, and had in a pathetic attempt to reproduce the excercises, produced a towel and a mop. THe rest of the program I followed along with 'imaginary' versions of the necessary tools, which were much cheaper, but I am sure they did not help me create long, lean muscles.

So I gave up on Sharron Mann, but since then, have discovered the delights of morning yoga. As someone who likes Judo, I had always filed yoga under the 'pshh - whatever' mental filing section. But I gotta say, not only does it help you stretch and wake up, it also allows you to make absolutely rediculous poses under a veil of dignity. (Promting Takeshi to try to take pictures the first morning I tried it. And no you can't see the pictures.)
I swear the yoga people get together in a little room, putting their heads together to think of the most crazy looking poses imaginable and giggling.
"Oooh, I know! how about one foot to your nose, meanwhile waving your hand back and forth like it's stinky." "Good idea! we'll call it the 'never washes feet' pose!"
So if you're poor and in need of excercise, I recommend the Namaste yoga program on Fit TV. Unlike the other program, it only takes one yoga mat, and all your self-esteem. ^_^

Because!

2007-09-04T19:52:00.000-07:00

That's the reason I gave Takeshi when he asked me "why are we going to the Rennaisance Faire again?"
"Because!"

There really isn't any better answer. I mean, first I tried the "it's an American experience!" tack, but that didn't really pan out when he logically responded "how can it be an american experience when the renaissance didn't even HAPPEN in america?"
..hm, I guess he's got a point.
Well, it's kind of all-american in the way that you can see a bunch of people (some of whom are far too overweight for that sort of thing) wear tights, speak with fake accents, and generally act like a bunch of idiots for a day.
Yay!!!

Well, I think it's high time to do something silly. For the last few weeks we've been doing entirely wholesome activities... going to museums, going to the beach, hiking in the woods, etc. Apparently Takeshi's coworker is an aspiring mountain climbing guide who's next stop is Mnt Kilimanjaro... after he's taking us up Mount Marcy in two weeks, that is. So manly! So wholesome!
I think a fruity dose of Ren Fair next weekend will clean my pallate nicely for the manly adventure to come.

(All things in moderation, you know.)

photos

2007-08-22T10:02:00.000-07:00

So, I put up some pictures on Flickr for your amusement. (Wendy, if you want your photo taken down, let me know!)

And also Mom put up her photos and a nice little summary about her time out here on her blog, which is linked to the right.

A hell of a town

2007-08-21T10:55:00.000-07:00

Well, after a month and a half of potato-couching, video-game-playing, and NYC craigslist-surfing (occasionally punctuated by the odd interview), I am proud to report that I am gainfully employed. Hurrah! My summer break is ohhhhhhver!!! (cries).

I feel like I should do some more NYC investigative sleuthing, because I don't think I gave my dear readers very much to go on from the last entry. But as anyone can attest to when they are married, or perhaps in a deep relationship, all of your opinions tend to be influenced by your significant other. So I will list both of our observations here.

Things I have noticed:

amazing architecture, especially all the old churches and gargoyle-clad buildings
dirty streets, but there are potted plants and lots of trees.
slightly sub-average american service (Manny, who set up our bank account, was chewing gum and had his lunch delivered to his office while he was helping us, grinned that he was the most popular guy in the bank with the customers).
music everywhere! Even when you don't want it! Like... there was a mariachi band playing ON a RUNNING SUBWAY on the way to an interview! .. but when I got off there was an opera singer singing carmen, who was awesome.
There is a musical about EVERYTHING here. Did I mention there is a new 'Legally Blonde, the Musical"?! yeesh.
Central park has a million horse-drawn carriages. I want to pet them ALL!
We have cable! Soooo many channels of delicious television! I now have a secret longing to be picked up by the Cash Cab.

Things Takeshi has noticed:

Fancy cars. "Holy shit! that's a Mercedes SLK something something!" or, "Woah, that's the third Land Rover I've seen today!" (or was it range rover? can you tell I'm not a car person?). anyways, he is dying of car envy, since he had to give his away before we came here.
Customer service that is so bad that people would be sacked in a second in Japan.
Is that a building? whatevah. (not so impressed with architecture)
laidback, lazy office environment and good friends at work, way less stressful than the office in Tokyo.
Filthy streets and horrible smells, soot in your pores, and all the nasty smoke smells in combination leading to unbreathable air. (I don't think it's THAT bad...) but it is bad.
All the signs that ask that you have good manners, and then say 'It's the LAW'. Example: 'clean up after your dog. It's the LAW!'
Distinct lack of fishing stores!! ;)

For all that, I'm really enjoying my stay so far. Especially when my mom and sister visited, because then I had the opportunity to enjoy guilt-free tourism. I'll post pictures soon, promise.

Live from New York

2007-07-16T14:26:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, sorry I haven't blogged in so long. I am alive!!

So now that I'm in New York, I feel it is my duty to mention my first impressions. Forgive me, dear readers, if some of them seem somewhat random.

Almost all of the buildings here are made of brick! This terrified Takeshi and myself at first, because we are both from earthquake-intense cities. Just imagining the effects of one modest, oh.. 6.0 on the richter scale gives me the shivers.
One of the drawbacks to brick as a building material is that it can't hold all that much weight. This causes the architecture of brick buildings to become layered... about at the tenth floor of the older buildings, they start having a chunky, elongated pyramidal effect that is, in my humble opinion, rather aesthetically pleasing. Oh yeah, and the building right next to us has gargoyles on the roof. Awesome. I like to imagine they come alive at night as I was promised they would on that cartoon show Gargoyles. ^_~

And mom, the subway system is really not that bad. I first imagined millions of hungry eyes on my purse/ wallet when I entered, only to find the car filled sweaty, tired tourists from Alabama. They were similarly wallet-weary though, I think a couple gave me an appraising glance before writing me off as harmless. (note to self, possible future as a pickpocketer!) ;) All of my meager life savings in unfortunately still in yen, and completely and inconveniently inaccessible through my Tokyo Mitubishi ATM card. Takeshi's summer bonus was generous, but it was paid to his Japanese account. Also, we were given a modest amount to help us with the move, but also, frustratingly, into an inaccessible account. This means we are tourists, but can only shake our fists ineffectually at the Empire State building ($18 each to go to the top!) , the Rockefeller building ($20 each to go to the observation deck), MoMA ($22 for nonmembers) and the like. Sigh.

But heck. I don't mind that much, because I am not a tourist! I even bought a guidebook filled with maps, the cover proudly stating "Not For Toursists". 'That's for me then!' I thought. It *has* been very handy. And everyone knows that locals never go to the touristy things. I lived in the San Francisco bay area most of my life and have STILL not made it out to Alcatraz OR Napa Valley.

So what have I been doing? well, a lot of walking. I applied for a copy of my social security card so I can renew my driver's licence as a New York State local. (Takeshi's going to have a fit if we don't get to see some wilderness soon. And central park, although lovely, doesn't count.) I've also been applying for programming jobs, and so far there's been fairly decent interest in my resume. Google even checked me out, but when I had a pop quiz, I was strong in Java, not that bad in Perl, but they asked me an algorithms question that I did embarrassingly bad at. Ok, software developers, here was the question:

Google Guy: 'If you are trying to guess a number from one to one-thousand, and you are told either too high or too low after every guess, how many guesses would it take maximum to guess the number?'
Me: 'Uuuuummmm...499?'
Google guy: '*snicker!*'

So it turns out the correct answer is log2(1000)+1. So.. a little less than ten, plus one? I guess. It's log base two because it's a binary search, it gets exponentially smaller as you keep checking. I found this out by checking out books from the library, (another great option for poor people like myself) and am now hitting the books to avoid further embarrasment from other, GoogleGuy-like people.
... Well, hitting the books and playing Final Fantasy XII. (I am only human! I can finally play it in my native toungue!) ;)

Hope all is well with you guys!

comparisons

2007-06-27T23:53:00.000-07:00

OK!
All our stuff is finally in storage or on its way to the US, in some form or another. I now have officially nothing to do between now and Saturday. With this free time and the thought that I will be back in my own country in less than a week, I can't help thinking about what I'm gonna miss and what I'm looking forward to.
There are lots of nice and not-nice things in both countries. You know what that means, right?

Pro/con list!

I will miss:
*hand drying machines. They actually work here, really well. You dip your hands into these intense air jets and your hands get dry in approximately 3 seconds. You gotta try if you come here.
*bowing instead of hugging. I thought bowing was silly at first, but I like bowing to friendly aquaintences better than I like hugging them...I'd rather only hug very close friends. Does anybody else thing hugging is akward?

*No tipping!! Oh my god I hate tipping so much. After you live in Japan you will never want to tip again.
*Great service at stores. Super professional, smiling, fast service, and they are very good at dealing with annoying customers without getting self-righteous. And all without requiring tips. I think America and Japan's stranger/service friendliness is reversed.
*manga for cheap!
*japanese candies! They change all the time, there are always new ones to try ^^
*yes, even the crazy garbage sorting. I know this sounds weird, but now that I have gotten used to sorting the garbage, it's going to feel almost criminally wasteful to throw out pretty much everything in the same can.
*karaoke!! I love karaoke so much it's not funny. And most drinking parties end with karaoke, so I get to go once every two weeks or so. So, whether from all the karaoke practice, or natural ability, almost all of my coworkers have been great singers.

I am looking forward to... (drumroll, please...)

*drying machines
*native english speakers
*good TV
*seeing movies without waiting four months after they've been released
*friendly strangers
*...(tiny voice)..anime and comic conventions ... Ok. obviously they have them here too, but it isn't subculture and so it isn't the same thing.
*sourdough bread, toasted bagels with cream cheese, cereal... mmm ^_^
*Ovens! being able to bake food! here there are just these little tiny fish ovens that only fit one fish (or two little fish) inside. There are some cool microwave/ conventional oven all in one machines, but they don't get very high up temperature-wise. So basically, you can't make stuff like roasted chicken or lasagna.
*not being served scary foods like raw horse meat and still-moving fish at drinking parties. I'm still traumatized by the moving fish incident.
*streets that are wide and easy to drive on. Also.. street names!It's so hard to get directions to places here, because you can't say something like 'left on jefferson'... you have to count intersections and hope you see a landmark.
*diversity. I think Japan is slowly getting more diverse, but I'm really looking forward to NYC, the melting pot of every culture in the world. Or more importantly, all of said culture's food! Hee hee!

..I'm sure I'll think of more things when I'm in New York, but that's all for now. Wish me luck! ^_^

Not the Oz I know

2007-06-15T20:30:00.000-07:00

I finally got the book Wicked. It had caught my attention when I was in Kinokuniya, the big bookstore in Shinjuku with an entire floor dedicated to English books (this is big in Japan). I thumbed through it, and was meandering to the checkout line, when I saw the price tag: 2500 yen! It was apparently 7.5 UK pounds, which, with import taxes and stuff, made the book not quite worth it. Suddenly I am quite glad we're not being transferred to London, which was a possibility.

But the musical is now coming to Japan, and there are posters of the book's cover art everywhere on the subways, so I finally got a copy out of curiosity. It's good! and delicious! I love the clever, cynical Elphaba (wicked witch of the West) and her witty repartes with her friend Glinda.

Unfortunately, it's also kind of scary. In the book Wicked, Oz is having a severe drought, making it look dryer than kansas. The Wizard of Oz is a tyrant who is systematically marginalizing the populations and creating a hitler-esque regime.
Also, there are eyes-wide-shut style orgy scenes.

As an Oz fan when I was a kid, I have to say in a meek voice, I'm a little traumatized! It's not the Oz I know. My great-grandmother left me the original books published from 1904-1930, and I loved them as a kid. Well, more specifically, I really loved the fabulous illustrations done by John R. Neill.

The wizard of Oz, and most of the Oz books, have fallen out of copyright and into the public domain, so they're available as free ebooks. (yay free!) And yeah, definitely no sign of concentration camps in the kids book.

But I did find this gem, taken from The Marvelous Land of Oz:

"What does that word 'fool' mean?" enquired the horse.
"It is a term of reproach," answered Tip, somewhat ashamed of the expression. "I only use it when I am angry."
"Then it pleases me to be able to call you a fool, in return," said the horse. "For I did not make the river, nor put it in our way; so only a term of, reproach is fit for one who becomes angry with me for falling into the water."
"That is quite evident," replied Tip; "so I will acknowledge myself in the wrong."

hee hee!
If ten year old boys actually said that in 1904, could I just somehow get in a time machine? It's a way better response than what would actually be said today, ie
"dude, it's not my fault!"
"yah, my bad."

Anyways, back to my book. And don't look at me like that, yes, I know I'm supposed to be packing.

Always in the Summertime

2007-06-06T21:18:00.000-07:00

Lucky me. I went drinking friday with some other coworkers, and explained my sad plight, and they were immediately outraged that I am being coerced to work up to and including the day before my international move.

"Woah, that's just wrong! I would have flat out said NO if I were you."
"I did! I almost had a fight with him on the phone!"
"The president is coming next week. I'll have a little talk to him for you" said a slightly higher-up the food chain colleague. He had a knowing grin and I felt much better.

Anyways, I was feeling pretty optimistic at the monday meeting... and it all turned out for the best. I am free to leave on Friday the 22nd. (woo!)

The only stipulation of this agreement is that I am now subjected to passive-aggressive comments from the 'bad cop' boss. Just the other day, we had lunch, and I got a special earful of them, through smiling teeth and laughter...

'Family is more important than work. You won't be working in New York, will you?'
'When you come back I bet you'll have four kids.'
'It's nice that the president said you could come back if you wanted.' (pause Special emphasis on *president* and slight eye-rolling)

Hah. Whatevs, sourpuss, I won and am free like a bird!

I am celebrating my new found freedom by looking at the NY. Craigslist site and dreaming up things to try, places to go, etc. Here's a list so far of craigslist-inspired daydreams I've had: *jazz bands I can sing with!
*$75K Java programming job?!
*Computer Graphics studio may want to hire me?
*Ooh, modeling agency looking for petite models!
*Publish Gemini and sell a few copies in the Big Apple comic convention?!
...ahhh.. so delicious, these sundae-flavored daydreams...

In other news, Takeshi still has six more english classes (read, 'Anger management classes'), and it looks like he's about fail, ie, kill his english teacher.

"Is understanded a WORD?!" he yelled incredulously when he came home.
Apparently his 'english teacher' (aka idiot) used that atrocity in a sentence. Then Takeshi challenged him, asking him what the difference between 'understood' and 'understanded' was. For those who want to know, "'understanded'[sic] is what you use when you're talking about someone right in front of you". That is awesome in the way that 80's fashion is awesome. You can't quite look it in the face without giggling.

Oh. And amusingly, his company has a budget for spouses to take classes in the language of the country they're moving to, as well. So I could also take courses in anger management too, if I really really wanted.
(But I will pass, because I think I would be misunderstanded.)

Anyways, I was just noticing that each of the last three years, my most exciting trips have been in the summer.
May 28 2005- moved here!
July 14 2006 - wedding in Hawaii!
and now, June 30 2007- (drumroll please...) moving to Manhattan!

Dang, I am becoming a bit of a jet setter! ^_^

Just let me go!

2007-05-31T17:09:00.000-07:00

Hm, operation Quit the Job is unfolding a bit worse than expected.
Unlike America, the polite time of giving notice in Japan is one month, and I had made the deadline. I thought I'd be totally fine, no problem at all. But...I knew I was going to be in for trouble as soon as I started drafting my resignation letter two weeks ago. It went kinda like this:

I regret to inform you that this July, my husband is being ...
"Hey Takeshi, how do you say 'transfer'?
"'tenkin.'"
"thanks."
...transferred to New York. Due to this unexpected occurence, I have to offer you my...
"And how do you say 'resignation'?!"
"Heh, how would you be able to quit your job without me?"

Anyways, a week after, I nervously met with the boss, re: my letter.
The company president was also there, just to make me even nervouser. (that is apparently a word now). He asked me to tell him why I was quitting. (naturally I had totally forgotten the word for 'transfer' during my interview. )
Also I wasn't counting on my boss and company president playing 'good cop, bad cop' with me.

"Yes. Um. My husband is... um..." (dammit what's that word?)
"er,..*going* to new york, *because of his company*. We're living in his company dormitory, so life in Japan would become difficult for me if I stayed here."

President:"A-ha-ha, 'difficult'? Well, I suppose we could do something. What if we made our own company dorm?"
Boss: "Right. You have a contract until September. We'll figure something out for you."

I started a mild panic sweat. But... I don't really want to stay here. I am really starting to look forward to New York! Plus it's boring and I'm being paid 'In & Out Burger' wages.

me:"Oh. But... I thought you said our customers were willing to let me go at the end of June.."
president: "I see, you want to be with your husband. Well, that's natural. SO you'll probably want a bit of time to pack."
Boss: (cringing)"but really staying until september would be best."

Luckily for me, the good cop had more authority. At the end of the interview my boss had given me leave to quit one week before the end of June in order to move.

Or so I thought!
my boss (Bad cop) called me monday. "Kyra-san, I have some bad news. The customer needs you to stay until June 29th."

Dude, no. My FLIGHT is on the 30th. I have to fit everthing in our huge apartment into boxes! All my things will be shipping overseas at that instant! I will be living out of suitcases!
I couldn't quite say anything but odd little yelp.
Boss: "I'm not trying to bully you, but contracts come first."

Wow. Um, but I'm QUITTING. not only that but I'm LEAVING THE COUNTRY. what are you gonna do, hunt me down?... no, probably just deduct from my wages an exorbitant sum as a 'breach of contract' penalty. Oh oh oh.. just let me go...

I realized this was gonna be a headache and a half, and to buy time, fell back on the 'ol reliable :"I see. I will need to consult my husband about this." "Of course, I understand. Please call me back at your earliest convenience."

Luckily for me, I was on friendly terms with the customer (the project manager at Canon), in this case. In search of assistance, I busted into his office (or, desk. nobody has private offices in Japan, except for the president) and announced:
"Hello! Sorry to bother you, but I thought I had permission to leave on the 22nd? My company said I was supposed to work until the 29th, and I have a flight to catch and a house to pack..."
He looked at me and furrowed his brows. "That's strange. All I requested was for another one of your company employees to come and cover for you that week."
..Oh. Reeeeallly.
Apparently, my company is trying to cover my remaining week with... myself! The friendly Canon PM immediately phoned the Bad Cop and called him out on it, and I cringed as I listened to the ensuing (in very polite japanese) quarrel... 'I told you to get someone to cover the gap!' 'No one else is available!''So look harder!'
You could cut the air in the room with a knife. Frustrated, both parties agreed to talk to their superiors and come to some conclusion next week.

Is this normal?
I mean, I'm sorry I'm inconveniencing everyone, but other people *have* quit this company before. But no conclusion has yet been reached, and now there will be a BIGGER meeting (involving the customer's boss) on Monday, where I have to state my plea again. Please wish me luck, because I will be at my nervousiest.

(because obviously...ten to one I'll forget the word 'transfer'.)

boob pudding

2007-05-27T17:56:00.000-07:00

I'm gonna miss Japan.

I mean, I'm sure New York will be quirky and fun, but... where else can you find, at a convenience store off the highway, something as highly entertaining as boob pudding?
(for those who can't see the picture for some reason, imagine a package of two perfect half-domes of pudding with white peaks, with a proud-yet blushing anime girl as pictured on the wrapping.)

I spent a few minutes trying to figure out to whom this product was being marketed. Was it for flat-chested girls, hoping eating this magical pudding would somehow enhance their budding bosoms?( that was my first guess, but I had trouble imagining any self-conscious girl actually going up to the counter with it. Oh man. Talk about dying of embarrasment.)
More likely it's for the pervy Otaku crowd. Try NOT to picture this: A sweaty overweight guy, crouched over his computer screen, is feeling hungry... and takes out his favorite emergency backup food: anime-girl's boob pudding! He unwraps each one slowly, hungrily, first licking the peeled off backing, and then like a predator, goes in for the main course....

*EEk!*
Are you scarred for life now? hey, don't blame me, I told you not to imagine it.

Another only-in-japan photo I got this weekend was taken out of disbelief.
In Shinjuku, on the Southern Terrace (close to Takashimaya department store) is a newly-opened Krispy Kreme dougnuts. At least, it was newly-opened, four months ago.
This otherwise unexciting snackery boasts doughnuts, coffee, and.. a five mile line!!

When K.K Tokyo first opened in December, I was amused at the large number of Tokyoites willing to brave a one-hour line outside to experience the tasty, tasty treat waiting within.
But it is now May. And the line still rivals one at Disneyland. In fact, it is longer that your average Disneyland Paris ride.

Walking past on my way to the bookstore, I just want to grab and shake these people and yell "It's just a doughnut, people!! And even if you, understandably, happen to have an insatiable hunger for a doughnut, Japan has other doughnut shops!"

I think this critical mass of lines, like a black hole, is big enough to suck in people through sheer force of gravity.... after a point, people are just getting in line because there are so many people in line .
Or perhaps this is a front for some seedier operation. Like black market kidneys. Either way, I don't get it.

no cheeseburgers

2007-05-19T07:54:00.000-07:00

I hate cigarette smoke. This is a horrible country to live in if you're not a smoker...you can smoke just about anywhere here, and when I come home from dinner with my coworkers, my hair and clothes always smell like smoke. Ugh.

But that having been said, I think smokers have it tough. I mean, think about all the signs everywhere, telling you where you're not allowed to smoke. There are three main reasons I can think of that you shouldn't be allowed to smoke in public, and they are:

1) Cigarette smoke stinks, and is a public nuisance.
But what about people with *really* strong cologne? Or worse yet. Body Odor!! That's definitely a nuisance to everyone around, yet there are no signs.

2) Smoking is bad for one's health.
... but then again, so is a double cheeseburger with a side of fries. AND chocolate.
Once again, a disturbing lack of signs for anti-cheeseburgers.

3) Second-hand smoke is bad for all people around!
....*achem*... cars emit smoke too, if you really think about it. So where are no driving signs?

Definitely discriminatory. But no fear, concerned citizens, I've drafted up some signs myself. Feast your eyes on these puppies, they totally level the playing field...

(I can't wait for the no bad breath section on rush hour trains especially!)

Little Gaijin in the Big Apple?!

2007-05-10T05:18:00.000-07:00

It's strange, exciting and official: I'm moving to New York ! from July this year on, I'll be living in Manhattan. I have never been to New York, except once on a bus from Pennsylvania to JFK, and that didn't really count.

How did this craziness come about?
Takeshi's company is sending him, on an "overseas training program". This is supposed to make him internationally aware and better at English, which I find hillarious(um, he's visited LA alone 7 times to visit his AMERICAN WIFE, and we speak english at home). The best part is, now they're making him take English classes to prepare for his trip.
Apparently in the class, Takeshi has to read a text book aloud, and is then asked to comment on what he read. Ironically, his text book is full of typos. His first comment after class:
"I hate that fucking English class!"

I think if you can say that, you probably don't need to take the lessons. ^_~

Anyways, at first I was kind of thinking of staying here. I mean... it's just a few years. It would be such a pain in the ass to quit, find a place where they'll hire me , then get another job here in Tokyo. Also, I just got a raise!

... but then I realized I can't stay in this nice company dormitory anymore. And would be living by myself in a high-rent Tokyo apartment, and it wouldn't make very much sense.
... but mostly, New York is sexy!

So if you know anything about New York, or live close by, please tell me everything you know! I am information-hungry!!

^_^

coder's high

2007-04-19T20:25:00.000-07:00

So anyway, I got the job from the previous post. I don't know why they were making a big deal about how late I could stay, since the company policy here is to go home at 5:30 (!!). That's the earliest I've gotten out in a long time.

At first I thought of myself as mysteriously good at interviewing, because through the contracting company I've had many an interview. So far I've passed even the ones that I thought for sure I had made a fool of myself at. But now I'm starting to realize that the main reason I'm probably getting through all of them is because I'm *cheap!*. I mean. That sounded bad. I mean I get paid near-minimum wage. Think... full time McDonalds worker. It was kind of sad because when I filled out the tax form for the US I had to translate my salary into DOLLARS which made my meager salary look even cheaper. Cry!
... Ok, my boss gave me the raise, almost the amount I asked for, so I was pretty happy. So now I'm paid the same as a slightly better paid fast-food worker. Possibly In'n'Out burger.

But this new job is BORING. I heard in the interview I'd be coding PL/SQL, which I haven't done so much of. "sweet, I'm gonna learn new stuff!" I thought to myself. In the interview, my manager said "this will require you to use PL/SQL and stay late."

Here I was thinking my work would involve cola-inspired late night coding sessions, for which I had been getting a little nostalgic.

The first day of the job, however, the reality was pretty different.
manager: "Here's an excel file. Copy all of these columns and make one big select statement."
(there are 200 + of these files, some of them over 400 rows long.)
me: "Erm, so is that all? Copying and pasting,pretty much?"
manager: "It's a lot of work! You have until the middle of May, good luck!"
Me: ....I have been a-fooled!

After one day of painstakingly copy+pasting, my wrist was really starting to hurt and my mood was getting foul. I grumbled to myself "there's GOT to be an easier way to do this!!"

Then, in a moment of glory, I realized you can write programs with visual basic in excel. I hunted around the internet and found a sample excel output-to-text program, tweaked it around a bit, and had a macro that did my work for me. ...I'm feeling a little guilty because I will now have all my work done in the span of two days, rather than the month I was given.

This weeks lesson: If it's boring and repetitive, there's probably a way to do it with a computer program, and there are tons of examples on the internet.

Hooray, internet! ^^

In other news, fashion in Japan is very uniform. when you see a million other girls wearing trench coats, and you have a trench coat in your closet, it's very hard not to wear it. But I don't tie it up with a ribbon like everyone else because I am a daring non-conformist. ^_~

Is it sexism?

2007-04-05T19:22:00.000-07:00

There's a subtle, invisible line you're not supposed to cross in interviews about your potential employee's personal life, at least in american interviews, that is definitely stepped over here.
At almost every interview I've been at so far in Japan, the same questions in the same order...they go down the resume and ask questions about all the information on it. So normally they start off with
"tell us about your programming experience.."
it then gets a little more personal, with questions like
"So, how good is your japanese? " which is fine, I now have at least some certification, even though I usually have to explain what it means.

Next is slightly more personal, but still work related.
"how long will your commute be? Is that going to be alright for you?" Well, you know, hour long train rides suck, but minute for mintute it's probably better than being stuck in traffic.

...and then there is a little check box on these resume forms here that says if you're married or not, which generally leads to the question:
"I see you're married. Is there a particular time you need to be home at?"

I never know how to answer that.
Yesterday I tried the tact of saying:
"Um, I don't have a curfew, if that's what you're asking..."
The interview guy exchanged glances with my company's contract coordinator, who was also in the interviewing room, and together they sort of hummed and hawed.

I felt myself starting to brew with a slightly unwarrented anger.
"WHAT? go on and SAY it! You mean, 'Don't you need to GO HOME and COOK YOUR HUSBAND DINNER?' because you're a WOMAN?!"
the little feminist in the back of my head was standing on her soapbox with a megaphone, causing the drunken crowd in my mind to yell"MrRRRYYYEAHYOU TELLEM!!"

As I tried my best not to burn smoking holes into the interviewer's shirt with my glaring eyes of vengeance, the contract coordinator stepped in with a quick "well her husband works at a bank on a shift schedule, he often has the late shift".
This caused the interviewer to look a bit relieved, so it looked like the day had been saved.

Still, did he really need to say that? Did he really just say "she's not a bad wife for being willing to work late, her husband has the late shift so it's ok if she doesn't make him dinner?"
I hate to sound mean, but he's a big boy who can use a frying pan all by himself now!

Maybe I'm overanalyzing this.

How about them apples

2007-03-27T04:06:00.000-07:00

I found a giant apple the size of my head at the supermarket the other day! Just had to take a picture. Of course this warrented the question "would I take this at, say, Albertsons if I saw that apple in the US?" ..probably not.... ^^;

Sorry I haven't been updating my blog, we don't have internet at work and I used to update on my lunch breaks. (I know you're thinking.. "what?! no internet at work?! How do you read the JavaDocs?!" but we have internal internet with the japanese javadocs. ^^ )

But anyways, my contract with JCB ends this week, and for the interim I'll be back at my company's headquarters. They most certainly have internet there, so hopefully I'll be blogging again soon.

In the meantime, here are some little news blurbs:

1. I asked my boss for a raise, and he said "sure, how much?" ..always a tricky question.
2. Realized I never actually got my diploma from LMU, so I got in touch with the registrar's office and they're mailing it to me here in Japan. It'll be nice to see what it actually looks like!
3.Takeshi bought a nintendo Wii, and we suddenly had four game systems and no place to put them, so I made a little shelf for them from wood from the nearby home improvement store. It was fun! I measured everything so it all fits perfectly. Wow, am I a hardcore gamer, or a hardcore organizing homemaker? ^_~ (probably the first one since the sink is full of dirty dishes...) 4.Gemini (my comic) is now on page 99!(!!!!)

How about you guys? some blog updating is in order! Except for mom, she just wrote a funny blog about catching our cat, which everyone should read. ^^

Rock On

2007-02-22T07:16:00.000-08:00

The results of the Japanese test finally came today. I signed up for it last September, and the $100 bet was made in October, so I had almost forgotten about it. But when the test result came in the mail, I was sort of trembling with excitement, unsure whether I could stand the 30-second wait of actually getting inside the house to open it.
I finally grabbed my keys, fumbled with the lock, threw off my coat, and ripped open.. eep! (a small tear started to appear) then very carefully pryed open the result of the Level 2 Japanese Language Proficiency Test.

here is a literal transcription of the words that came out of my mouth.

"...!!"

".....!!!!"

".......fuck YEAH baby that hundred bucks is *MINE*!!" *cackle cackle*

hee hee. So that makes two tests I've passed this month. (Too bad neither of them was the first time I took it.) To celebrate, I'm posting my two favorite pics I took on my phone recently.


On the road to work someone lovingly grafittied this crosswalk sign. Kinda looks like Speed Racer...	Catering to the small but loyal demographic of people with only one tooth.

And on another note, I finally learned how to say "counting your chickens before the eggs have hatched":
"取らぬ狸の皮算用【とらぬたぬきのかわざんよう】" : "don't count your 'coon skins before you catch em".

Have a rockin' day! ^_^

The Driving Ceremony

2007-02-09T03:09:00.000-08:00

A few days ago, I turned 25. Although this is a scary age to turn, it does come with a small benefit in the US: namely, lower car insurance rates and ease of car rentals. You would think this would be a good time to go driving. That is, unless
1) you were in Japan
and 2) you were me.
This is because my driver's licence just expired.

I had been content driving on an international licence, available from AAA for $20 and very little hassle, and merrily getting used to driving on the left side of the street, using the right hand instead of left hand for the blinkers, and the disturbingly unsafe feeling of the driver's seat being on the other side of the car. Although they are only good for a year, I was under the impression that you could keep renewing them as long as you needed. Back in the good ol days of carefree driving, (ie July), I got a new one while I was back visiting. Confident I had done my drivers duty, I continued merrily ~~terrifying Takeshi~~ getting used to the quirks of driving in Japan.

But! One day, surfing the internet for some other foreigner-related info, I found this scary warning: "THE LAW HAS CHANGED! As of 2002, the new Japan traffic act states that you can only drive legally using an international driving permit up to 12 months from your entry date into Japan. Bottom line, you need to obtain a Japanese Driver`s license."

Hmmm, I thought... it is now... November. I have been driving illegally for... oh, 6 months now!! ...Awesome! >_<
Anyways, I made my mind up to get a Japanese licence ASAP. Little did I know this was going to be the most timeconsuming, painful process imaginable.

I soon discovered that the licence center was only open weekdays, and 8:30am to 3pm. Of course. Oh well, I can take a morning off of work, I thought, and browsed the net to find out what documents were required. a valid drivers licence, passport, alien registration card.. "Oh yes and you will need a translation of your drivers licence. This is available from the AAA-like agency of Japan. Open only weekdays." Of course.

Due to this arrangement, when I found myself with a bad cold and called in to work sick, I struggled, thinking "can't waste my day off...gotta..*wheeze*..get the translation..*wheeze*" and staggered over to the agency.
A few weeks later it had been significantly long enough to get time off of work to go to the licence center.
There are two tests, trials, if you will, involved with getting the prize I sought. One was a written test, I took it on the first day I was there. It was a joke.

There were ten questions, (only ten!). One of them was actually the following:
"True or false: It is OK to drive after drinking alchohol if you only have a little."
Regardless of your personal opinions on this issue, you can probably guess what you're supposed to answer on a DRIVING test. I grinned as I signed up for the driving portion of the test, to take place two weeks later. This was now January, getting a bit risky as my American licence (and my chance of getting a Japanese one) would be due to expire in a month. Before the test, I was hungry for information. I heard the test would be hard. I would have to remember all the tricks from the licence test I had taken almost ten years ago. "My friend said you should wear your hair in a ponytail so it swishes when you check the mirrors!" Peet advised me, back when we were both in high school.

I found a great site with all the tips and tricks. The test course was a private road, and the test route and some pointers for the course were online, so I printed them out. Go slow through the curves, but fast on the straights, you can fail for going too slow... I repeated to myself like a mantra, lining up with the other foregners. I was gonna pass this thing! The instructor doing the test even grinned at us and looked like one of those buddha statues with the big lucky bellies. "Relax, just follow the rules, and you'll do fine!"
I resisted the temptation to rub his belly for luck, and borded the car. I went slow on the curves, I went fast on the straights, and my ponytailed hair swished smoothly as I checked my mirrors at every turn and lane change. I was in the zone!
Which was why I was surprised when the instructors passenger brake went on and we jerked to a halt.

"Weaver-san! Do you know why I applied the brake?!" He said, half annoyed, half amused.
I was honestly at a lost and could not answer his question. He shook his head."What side of the street is this?"

...crap. That wasn't the only big embarrasing mistake I made either. I drove on a curb at a tight corner, and I turned right from the left lane. My only excuse for driving this badly was that there was no traffic on the road. It's hard to vigorously check for vehicles and drive courteously for other drivers when you KNOW THEY AREN'T THERE. Ah well.

The second time (and consequently the third morning off of work) went better. I was smooth, calm, confident, and this time I stayed on the left side of the street the whole time. ! I was, in my opinion, perfect.

But not in the opinion of the test proctor. Apparently I had to get closer to the left side of the street when I turned left "to block bicycles. If one gets past you while you're turning left, you could kill someone!" my proctor scolded me. "but I checked for bycicles, there weren't any.." I protested weakly. "That has nothing to do with it, you have to block them." ahhhhhgh. Fine fine fine. Third time is the charm, right? I was running out of time. My licence would expire in a week. But this guy was the strictest of them all. Out of eleven foreign test takers, NOBODY passed. Not a one! normally it was a ratio of about 3 out of ten, but this guy was rediculous. His reason for failing me?? "The way you held the steering wheel when you turned the corner was not correct." He could see my face drop, and a confused and (probably pitiable) look replaced my beaming glow of confidence I had passed. His cold heart must have thawed a tiny bit, because he looked a bit embarrassed as he explained. "There was nothing else you did wrong, you just have to work on that one part! Good luck next time!" WHAHHHHT?!?!?! did he really just fail me on my third try for HOLDING THE STEERING WHEEL INCORRECTLY?!?! I was SO incredibly annoyed. I had had to take off work for this! We all did! And this guy didn't pass any of us! we were all experienced drivers, give us a frickin' BREAK!!!

I must have sounded approximately like that when I was explaining my plight to Takeshi. "Want me to come over and punch them for you? I will!" Takeshi said in his scary angry voice. I think he may have been serious.

"NO!" I said giggling, scandalized. But I felt better immediately. ^_^

The fourth time (and last chance) was scheduled for the day before my birthday at 8:40 AM. I normally took me an hour to get to the test center. I woke up at 8:02. I think I felt that crazed rush only once before when I was a half hour late to my english final. Luckily for me, Takeshi had the late shift this week, and drove my sorry late ass over to the test site, muttering "we're not gonna make it". We got there at 8;45, and I rushed over the pedestrian overpass at the speed of light and handed in my papers just in time.
The girl who went in front of me turned left on a red light, ran over a curb on three seperate occasions, and parked about half a lane away from the curb at the end of the test. It was now my turn.

I think my heart was audible from outside the car, probably for the whole test vicinity. I wouldn't have been surprised if people inside the building had turned around and stared at me thinking "what's the test car with the subwoofer?!"

I drove,in my opinion, the exact same way I drove on the third try. I did everything right, and blocked imaginary bicycles and everything. I decided not to even think about my "wheel turning technique".

I parked the car the perfect allotted 30 centimeters away from the curb, stopped the engine, and prayed.
"Did I pass?"
A grunt emmited from the driver.
"So I did?"
Another grunt, this time accompanied by a nod!!
"YATTA!!!!" I screamed. This time I'm SURE it was audible from ouside the car, because Takeshi came running. I had passed!!!

In conclusion, I hate that frickin place and I am glad I never have to take that test again.
But...my new licence has kanjis on it! I must admit I think it's pretty cool. *^_^*

The march of the Inoshishi

2007-01-16T03:58:00.000-08:00

Happy New Years!

Here in Japan, there are tons of traditional things you're supposed to do on the new years. Here is a small list:

Making special New Years lunch boxes (which are supposed to take a lot of time to make)
Scrub the entire house from tip to bottom, including changing the paper screens.
Go to temples at midnight and ring a gong, which probably is the one time of the year the neighbors remember and regret they are living next to one ^^)
and last but not least, write new years cards to everyone you know.

Who here has done everything on this list? .... nobody?

Yeah, me neither. But I did ring the gong though, because, I mean, come on. It's a gong.

I also wrote new years cards to my friends in Japan in the hopes of getting some in return . I wrote some last year, and got about three. Japanese new years cards are post cards, generally with a picture of the animal of the year from the chinese zodiac. Last year was the year of the dog (year of the dog rules!^^), and this year (2007), is the year of the boar... which in japanese is called 'inoshishi'. I just like saying that word. inoshishi inoshishi inoshishi!

Last year we stayed with Takeshi's family after the new years holiday, and reporting my new experiences, I said "I got some new years cards in the mail!" to my mother in law, excitedly.

She replied "That's nice. Did any of them win the lottery?"

"No.. wait, what!?!"

Apparently new years post cards that include a special post office lottery ticket as the stamp. If you send a bunch to friends, they might win the post office lottery, and win prizes, some of which are even not stamps. (what did you expect from the post office? Money?!)

I had not won anything with the three cards I had recieved, but was determined to make a better go of it the next time. So this year I sent out a LOT. 30 in total! They have a picture of our japanese wedding ceremony on them (no inoshishi, sadly).
I was following the advice Mrs S. had given me about how to get more, when she idly waved out the 200 or so she had gotten in the mail. "Send a lot, one to everyone you know. If you send them, they will come!" she prophetized mysteriously, sounding a lot like that movie that I can't remember the title of right now.

But new years came and went, with the same three cards in the post as last year.

They hadn't come.

Takeshi would watch me check the mail with like an excited child every day the week after new years, only to be dissapointed with the eventual discovery of nothing but junk mail.

Until one day...about five days after new years.. they started, at first a few, then a few more, and then.. a flood! twenty total! Twenty postcards of dancing inoshishis in the mail made me happy in an utterly silly and girly way, and I celebrated by taping them to the wall near our hallway, which made Takeshi raise an eyebrow or two. Here's a photo of all their lovely hooved glory.

I finally got around to checking the lottery. I actually won something! If you can't guess what it is, it's not money and you can affix it to small peices of paper. Oh and it starts with an S and ends with an TAMPS.

Good ol' post office! ^_^

An Ikea Christmas

2007-01-09T04:55:00.000-08:00

Here in Japan, Takeshi and I celebrated our christmas cheer by pooling our winter bonuses and buying...*drumroll please*... A real bed! Like, with a mattress and raised above floor level and everything. It isn't even one of those sneaky raised tatami-mat-that-you-can-put-a-futon-on fake beds. But this raised a question.

When you want a real bed in Japan, where do you go?

A: where the rest of the world goes: ie, Ikea.

Ikea, like Costco, is kind of new for Japan. They just opened in Yokohama, so we went over to check it out. We spent the better part of a day testing out beds. Big enough? Not ugly? When we were trying out the bedframes, we discovered another criterion: Not possible to bruise your shin on. Found about three that failed THAT category, which made the search easier. Of course, after we found the frame, we got to the part where we chose mattresses. After sleeping on futons for a year and a half, almost everything in the store felt wonderful... but we decided to get a really hard one to sort of ease us into the whole bed thing. (It still feels like a feather bed to me.)

The only problem with Ikea is that even though they're so cheap and cute and dependable, their funiture takes SO long to assemble!! and of course, do not underestimate the risk to life and limb. There are perils involved, I say.. PERILS! About two seconds after scoffing at the warning label, Takeshi managed to get a cut that looks EXACTLY LIKE the picture on the warning. Coincidence? I think NOT. ^^ (Eew!) All in all I am quite pleased. Even more so because I have a new contract with a company based in Shinjuku and I get to sleep in until 8:30 am, which means I get an entire hour of queen-sized luxury bed to myself. You can almost hear me purring from the next room. ^_^

Another good thing about Ikea is you can get christmas stuff there! It's true, I had already bought a little cone-shaped bush and decorated it and even put lights on it and a star, but it was still, after all things considered, a christmas BUSH.

So I got a gingerbread house kit for something really cheap like 400 yen, and suddenly got a urge to have a christmas party. Most of my japanese friends here have lived in America at least a few months, so we had a potluck and a white elephant gift exchange. I think I must have not explained the game very well, because I got someone's gift of a DVD burner(!), while some poor sap got my gift: a picture frame I wasn't using and a koala-shaped pocket-heater holder. (only in Japan!) Taka-san swears he didn't need that DVD-burner because his new computer came with one built in, but I still feel a little guilty. ... (excuse me while I go off and chortle evily). ^^

But the main event of the christmas party was assembling the gingerbread house. we had to improvise, because I only had one small packet of powdered sugar, and I made the mistake of adding too much water. The sugary mixture was supposed to be like cement to hold the house together, but it ended up being about as effective as using some *really sugary* soda.

While my friends were lokoing at me with a mixture of helplessness and incredulity that it was even worth the effort of sticking some big cookies together, they suggested various sticky substances as a substitute.These substances included: 1) glue 2) some normal sugar heated to a very high tempurature 3) (my personal favorite:) sticky rice. We actually tried that one. Finally when these all failed, I melted some chocolate in the microwave, which seemed to do the trick, and it all started to come together. One good sport had even been using a hair-dryer on the "cool" setting to make the chocolate dry faster. We had to work fast, but we managed to get it all up, and it turned out very cute. Ok, so the brown didn't have quite the romantic snowy feel of sugar, but it still tasted good. We all cheered as the last part of the chimney went up, and we all felt a sense of acheivement. Then they looked at me like "now what do we do with it?" The answer to that question ended up being : "leave it at our place, for Kyra to nibble on, until she finally loses all pretenses of self control and eats the entire house by herself." Oh, and don't even bother asking what my new year's resolution was because I already broke it. I think it invloved eating less of that gingerbread house. (but it was so tasty!) Happy year of the boar everyone!

A Tale of Two Taxes

2006-12-19T20:03:00.000-08:00

If you are a resident of a foreign country, and your taxes are deducted from your paycheck (a fat percentage, may I add)! You might expect not to have to pay income tax in your original country. This would be true for all but two nations on the globe. Yep, you guessed it... one of the stingy two is the good ol' US of A.

I've been wading through the international tax laws during my lunch break, and I am about to bang my head against a wall. OK. I *think*, if you live in a foreign country and make less than 80,000 dollars a year, you don't have to pay american income tax. (no problem there!). I checked the irs site, and here's what they have to say...

"To claim the foreign earned income exclusion, the foreign housing exclusion, or the foreign housing deduction, you must satisfy all three of the following requirements.

1.Your tax home must be in a foreign country.

Ok, so far so good. Just let me check out what a "tax home" is real quick.

"You are not considered to have a tax home in a foreign country for any period in which your abode is in the United States. However, your abode is not necessarily in the United States while you are temporarily in the United States. Your abode is also not necessarily in the United States merely because you maintain a dwelling in the United States, whether or not your spouse or dependents use the dwelling."

...?

Ok, I must admit, I've been playing the "Brain Age" game on the nintendo DS, and it says I'm a ripe old 57. So I'm not exactly the sharpest crayon in the box. But... WTF?

Perhaps they have a form 1042SUPEREEEZZZFORYOUSTUPID form I can fill out? Because right now I just want to figure out how much I will be gouged for and cry with patriotic pride into my Asahi beer.

Back to the future

2006-12-04T19:26:00.000-08:00

Hey... so I'm back in Japan, after a well-deserved thanksgiving break.

You know, I was getting really used to Japan and started losing my 'gaijin eyes'.. ie, seeing everything rendered through a foreign lens, where everything is either mysterious, awesome, quirky, or all three. I like to equate looking at a foreign country from the outside something akin to looking at an aquarium.

"look at those pretty rocks!" you say, or "my goodness, look at the weird fish with 17 arms, isn't that a hoot?!"

Whereas, living in the foreign country is like being a new fish in that aquarium. You think about it that way for maybe two, three weeks before you start realizing that the pretty rock is a pain in the butt to swim around, and the weird fish with 17 arms is trying to eat you.
You no longer think of things in terms of aesthetic or quirky values, but how they help or inconvenience you in everyday life.

This practical vision is, in a word, boring.

But! Now I have refreshed my vision from being back in the US, and I can say with confidence: Japan IS weird! It is marvelous in its own quirky way, and before my gaijin vision fades again I think it's time to post some pictures i took on my phone. Tee hee.


Imagine going to your local Toyota dealer to try to test-drive a car, and you see THIS! It's a one-seater, basically a futuristic glowing wheelchair. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let me give it a test-drive.	This summer when we went to the beach, Takeshi caught an octopus. "Look what I caught!" he said proudly. "It's still alive and squirming! Let's take it home and eat it!" Normally those sentences do not go together. EeeWww!! ... but we did end up eating it, and it was.. actually pretty tasty, when chopped up into bits and cooked with rice and soy-sauce and cooking sake in the rice-cooker.

Man, you think you're having a bad day, and you come home and BAM! There's a giant praying mantis waiting for you on your doorstep like a little butler. I wonder if I gave it my hat, would it hang it up neatly on one of its many protruding limbs?	This little gremlin is the mascot of a glasses store. I don't know what her name is, but she's kind of creepy. Although nowhere near as creepy as the plastic colonel sanders near our station... that thing is in the middle of the street with hands in a grope-ready position and a leer in its eyes. It's my very own "Kentucky Fried Chikan"!

I was innocently making miso soup one day while Mr. T was slicing up some sea-bass he caught to make sashimi.. and plunked the head in my nice soup. "What are you doing?! There's a monster in my soup!!" I said, half mortified, half giggling. I just had to take a picture.	On the quest to find my dad an authentic manekineko, we stopped at a different shrine first by mistake. This shrine's theme: snakes. Snakes! (does anyone but me think of the badger badger mushroom mushroom oh here comes a snaaake song? anyone? no? ^^) This one wrapped around the torii looks like it's about to strike. >_<;

There is a shrine dedicated to "Manekineko" or lucky-cats about three stations away from my house.. dad sent us to get him one. Here's where they were all lined up by people who bought them for the express purpose of making a wish and leaving them at the shrine. (oops, hope it wasn't bad luck to take it home!) But yeah. Kinda creepy, huh?	Don't ask. This moving truck has a large sign reading "Duck!" on the front. Perhaps its to warn for the times when they throw furniture out the window to plow through particularly congested rush-hour traffic

Here's to gajin eyes forever! *clinks glasses*

politicians are like diapers

2006-11-07T06:09:00.000-08:00

...and must be changed often for the same reasons. ^^

I read a funny article in the news the other day and couldn't help it. I drew a political cartoon!

Ok, to be fair, Jack Straw made a point of not ordering them to do anything, leaving the choice up to them. He just "strongly urged" them to stop wearing the full veil.
Not that I can talk, being from the US, whenever I hear 'daitoryo' (ie "president") I flinch and reach for the remote, hoping to surruptitiously change the channel before I see GW Bush totally embarrasing me in front of the entire nation of Japan. I think he sometimes gets on TV on purpose to personally embarrass me by saying everything with like 40 "ums" and "uhs" and my newest pet peeve: squinting at the teleprompter for his next line. Take a public speaking class man, you're President of the US, can you please at least *talk* like one??

From overseas we see a lot more of Condoleezza Rice than our dear GWB, which is fine by me. Fine enough that sometimes I wish she WERE the president. I mean, ok, she admittedly has the same agenda, and is most likely evil and sadistic. I've heard it before. But! At least she is a good enough public speaker that I don't run and hide when I can't reach the remote in time.
sighhhhh.

Ah, so for japanese politics, it's all getting boring now that Koizumi is out of office and no longer scandalizing the political community all over asia by going to the shrine that honors WW2 war criminals. Tch. Now what are we gonna watch on the news?!
by the way, Japanese news is a bit different. It has a lot of extremes. They show the very worst news from all around the world, and then they'll show something entirely non-vital/ non-interesting. "large litter of puppies born to Chuo Jr High school class! next at News 10!!" the news reporter says with an urgency you can tell they are thinking "crap we're about to lose half our viewers!" But on the whole I like Japanese TV. Drama acting here is *terrible* so I am having a constant need for american TV fix, but I am even starting to get the jokes on japanese comedy shows, which are actually pretty funny. My favorite show so far is Mecha mecha iketeru(Mecha-ike for short), and it is now celebrating its 10 year anniversary. I guess I'm not the only one that thinks it's a good show.

My new new favorite is Fountain of Trivia: a show where people write in with amusing trivia they've learned over the years, or wanted to know but didn't have the resources at their disposal to find out.
A sample trivia question: "How big of a fish will a stray cat be able to carry away?" SO random. They put, one after one, about thirty types of fish from a little anchovy all the way to a giant tuna, all measured and weighed, in a forresty area where lots of stray cats were. They hid in the bushes and videoed cat after cat dragging away larger and larger fish, and at the end, this big badass cat with a scar over one eye was struggling to get a hold on a 10-pound tuna. God I love that show. ^^

Here is a random trivia of my own: the slang for "comb-overs" (ie the embarrasing hairstyle of balding men) is called "ba-codo" here. (that is katakana pronunciation of "Bar code". It makes so much sense!! ^^)

I'm going back to the bay area for thanksgiving! I'll be there from wednesday night to monday morning, so if anyone wants to get together and swap stories...

*creepy old man voice from Family Guy* "Callll meh!"

Randomities

2006-10-25T00:45:00.000-07:00

So I know I should report about the entirety of the japanese wedding party like a good undercover japanese society reporter, but I'm too lazy. Instead I will reduce it to easily consumable factiods. (coming soon in sour mango flavor!)

Factoid 1: I wore a kimono and Takeshi wore a suit. Kinda ironic. But I'm not gonna complain too hard as I generally will take any excuse I can get to wear something kimono/yukata/ or pretty much anything costume related.

But why did Takeshi wear a suit?!

I will mourn this to the end of my days since that was pretty much the only chance I would have had to see my own dear Mr T. in a man-kimono. He totally has a badass samurai vibe goin' on, it would have looked so good on him. If it were up to me, I would have made him bring a samurai sword to add to the look. ^^ (maybe that's why it wasn't left up to me...)
But anyways, the main reason he didn't wear the man-ono was because of the handler's fee: even if you bring your own outfit, they have to hire a staffer to get you in and out of your duds for pretty much 4 hours of the day.

My handler was a little old lady who, from the time I arrived to the minute before we walked to the hall with the guests, would not stop touching me!! Literally. Every time she stepped back and I thought she was done, she would do a comedical double-take and rush back to fix little detail of the kimono. An obi wrinkle was slightly off-kilter? she was there. An invisible layering arrangement of the three under-kimonos was not perfect? She was there. My fancy geisha up-do had only two full bottles of Aqua-net hairspray applied to it?? She was There!
Even while we were having our professional pictures taken, she was pacing, staring at me from the back corner, hands twitching to correct imaginary imperfections. I still have nightmares where I wake up in the middle of the night and she's back!! (dun-dun-dun...)

Factoid 2: Apparently a Japanese wedding tradition, and I swear I am not making this up, is to have teddy bears made with the height and weight of the bride and groom from when they were born. These teddy bears are supposed to be given to the newly-wed's parents in a touching portion of the ceremony where the bride and groom tearfully say "you took care of us since we were this size. Now we won't be around anymore, so have this keepsake bear to remind you of me!"
Definitely a touching moment. If it were semi-spontaneous, that is, or if both sets of parents had been there, or, if it had been me and T's idea. But the sweet sentimentality was kind of missing as we were told, almost at gunpoint: "Here are your bears. Now give them to us at the ceremony. And think of a touching, tear-jerking speech. Or else!!"
This was coming from Takeshi's mom, who was getting annoyed at our apathy at the whole second ceremony. But in our defense, one wedding is enough. After that, you can't help but get emotionally detatched as a sort of post-wedding shell-shock.
So, we gave the bears to Takeshi's mom and dad during the ceremony. The speech I said had actually been written by Takeshi's mom, because I didn't know what to say. But it turned out good.
But what they don't tell you is those bears are HEAVY! Mine was eight pounds of sand and fluff and beady glass eyes. Picture a kimono-clad american precariously balancing on tabi-sandals bringing an enormous teddy the weight of a bowling-ball across a large hall, and you will have an acurate vision of part of 'touching moment' of the ceremony. I think I may have giggled at some point.
Plus I had a cold, so it was hard to resist the temptation to wipe my nose on "little Kyra".

Aahh, enough about the ceremony. If you get past the stalker-lady and the 2-ton bears, it was supremely lovely. A lot of Takeshi's relatives and friends from my study-abroad days were there, it was a crisp autumn day in the country and the weather was beautiful. Autumn is the best season in Japan, btw, if you're thinking of visiting. Early October is soo nice.

For pictures you can go to my flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kyranoshashin/ But now onto other topics.

Work is getting a little frustrating as the general manager of our project, through no fault of his own, keeps demanding changes to the online shipping system we're creating. The customers keep wanting changes made to the pages, which is understandable. This whole situation kind of reminds me of the time I tried to buy some sweet puma sneakers on sale, but they wouldn't give them to me on sale, as the display I saw had actually been for some other shoes. The pumas had been put on the display by someone too lazy to put them back where they belonged. The store clerk showed me the actual (ugly) shoes on sale, and explained to me sadly, "you know those messy customers."

But messy customers or not, this is like the fortieth time they've pulled this on us, and if they change the page layout, we have to start all of the developing over. ALL of it! Weeks of work goes down the tube! My optomistic coworkers are all like "it's a good learning experience. I'm getting SO FAST at developing the whole program from scratch!!" they say, with crazy glistening eyes. This makes me suspicious and think they are perhaps
1) smoking some sort of crack, or possibly
2) actually work androids that have been placed at my company as part of an experiment by the japanese government. You know those cool robots Japan displayed at the world expo last year were just the tip of the iceberg.

Anyways, by the 28-th or so time the project manager came by, I stopped developing stuff at the crazy pace of my android co-workers, and started "multitasking": ie, finding interesting things to read on the internet while I lazily redo the latest version, waiting for the word to start the whole process yet again.
What? Don't give me that look. Just yesterday, Project-Manager-san came by, looking dangerously close to seppuku-stage. "I am SOO sorry but you might as well stop what you're doing today, because the customers have told me they're going to tell us some big changes tomorrow..." he said, busting out the waterworks. He escaped from us with a bow and an akward "You know those messy customers!"
At that point, even the Androids were even starting to lose it as it WAS the seven-billionth rewrite, but I really didn't mind too much as I had found a great time-killer by then: reading cynical TV-show recaps on a site called "Television without Pity". Just the right balance of detail and good recapping and amusing tangents, plus the vital sarcasm when a show does something lame or cheesy. Another bonus is if you minimize it and put it at the side of the screen so the ads don't show, it just looks like a screen of text and it's hard to tell you're slacking off until you start laughing at something hillarious one of the recappers said. ^^;

My favorite read at the moment is 24: Season 2, recapped by the fabulous "Gustave". Takeshi and I are dangerously addicted to 24. I know it's super old news and it's on like season 6 by this point, but that show is GOOD! ^^ And it's really popular here. Tangent alert, but Keifer Sutherland has even been in several Japanese diet product "Calorie-Mate" commercials where he manages to save Tokyo with help from a skinny J-Pop idol and some "calorie-mate" bars. Apparently there are even multiple "episodes" of these commercials. Tee hee.

Oh man, sorry about this insanely long post. I'll try to keep it short and sweet next time.

Can you tell I'm writing this at work? ^_^;;