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Encyclopedia
Taro’s grandmother passed this morning. She was 94, and one of the coolest old ladies I ever knew. The first time we met, she regaled me with her full knowledge of the English language, “Hello,” “How do you do?,” and, “encyclopedia!” We never figured out where she picked up that last one. She will be missed. I’m on my way out to Nara from now.
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Standing Urination Prohibited
A sign specifically forbidding standing urination in the parking lot of Ms. K’s, a funky cafe in Nara where T plays gigs every week.
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I hate the term Web 2.0
Mostly because it is an overused marketing term with seemingly no real meaning aside from “a new generation of web sites with nifty features and groundbreaking/useful services.” However, there’s a great comparison of US/JP Web 2.0 sites over at PingMag that’s definitely worth a look: Web 2.0 in Japan
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Bad Company Names
It’s official. A post-lunch stroll through the company parking lot confirmed my suspicions: Japanese CAD (Computer Assisted Drawing/Drafting/Design) companies have the funniest names. I’ve written about this one a couple times before: ZERO PLANNING With a name like that they pretty much have to be doing work for the government (or perhaps Sony’s been using them as of late…). They had a branch office near our apartment in Tamade, and seeing their logo everyday on my walk to the subway never failed to put a smile on my face. As I walked among the parked cars today, one with a huge green logo on it stopped me in my tracks:…
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The End of the Nikkei Visa?
A while back I wrote a post regarding the Ministry of Justice proposing changes to immigration/foreign worker policy, and specifically how the Nikkei (Japanese ancestral) visa will be affected. Gen Kanai left a comment on that post yesterday which I will reproduce here in full (the only change I made was to add hyperlinks and remove double hyphens because I think they might still cause problems in MT): J, I was holding back my opinion on this because I knew that there was information lacking. I’ll forward a review by Arudou Debito of the proposed changes. He was, like you, initially angered by the proposal, but after investigation into the…
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Independence
I miss big fireworks shows on the 4th of July at the beach every year. Hell, I miss just having the day off from work. Barbecue, longnecks, bottle rocket wars, I miss all of it. Y’all have a good time on my behalf, I think I will go out of my way to buy a bottle of shitty American beer at the convenience store and maybe light off some incense when I get home. On the brighter side of things, I intend on seeing a natural fireworks show as soon as I get to Thailand in October: The Naga Fireballs And I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to tell the…
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Promoting Decay
Article in question: “YouTube” Web site has Japan’s broadcasters in a tizzy “Piracy of web contents, both in Japan and abroad, has been increasing recently,” an NHK spokesperson tells Shukan Asahi. “NHK devotes time to confirming these violations one by one, and requests their removal. Even if extra efforts are involved, we believe that it serves as a discreet means of preventing illegal use of program contents.” Good luck with that, assholes. And stop coming around my house to beg for money to squander on this bullshit… Resistance is futile, biooootches! “One of Japan’s top promoters of showbiz talent, Johnny’s Jimusho, the office of Johnny Kitagawa, said it is mulling…
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Retirement Lawson
As if it wasn’t already official, convenience store chain Lawson has now sealed the fate for my beloved island as the Isle of Dentures (and Onions): Lawson opens 1st store tailored for elderly I am so gonna get the first photos of the brown Lawson sign up on the net. w00t. BTW, Awaji-shi is the new name for the area of the island north of Sumoto, including Tsuna-cho, Higashiura, Hokudan, and Iwaya. UPDATE: Oh no, I’ve been scooped! So I imagine photos are online at some Japanese news site, as well. Oh well, I’m just gonna have to make up for it by taking really good photos, say of an…
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Ocean Odyssey
I have just watched possibly the best ocean documentary, ever. That’s pretty much all I can say, because it just completely blew me away. Well, on second thought, I guess I can quickly describe it as a two-part show (1 hour each) that traces the life and amazing journeys of a sperm whale. I should also add that this show features some of the best computer graphics I have ever seen in the sense that the models are just real enough – they aren’t too real so as to seem spooky ala the Uncanny Valley effect, but they were good enough in places to make me wonder if it was…
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Sumoto River Barge
I took my camera to work last Thursday so I could snap some photos on the way home. This is a construction barge that’s been scooping mud from the river bed in the city’s effort to deepen it, as an anti-flooding measure. There was a huge school of mullet fingerlings under a bridge I crossed, where two branches of the river merge and the current runs strongest. Another shot of the barge, and the adjacent “dump boat,” taken from the opposite bridge. The high resolution shots are available here: 2006 Sumoto River
