Tako Time Blog

BIC WiMAX

2010-01-09T02:22:00.003+09:00

I've been giving Bic Camera's WiMAX plan a try since last month and aside from the painful initial signup process where they had made me seated waiting for over a whole hour at the counter, it's been a pretty good experience thus far.

If you live in the metropolitan Tokyo area, the coverage is pretty good as long as you are not underground. I visited my folks in the Nagoya area over the new year holiday and I would say I was connected about 40-50% of the time on the bullet train ride there. I believe the N700 series Shinkansen cars now provide free low-bandwidth Wi-Fi internally so combined with that, you can have a pretty reliable and reasonably fast Internet connection throughout your trip.

Bic Camera's WiMAX plan comes with a complementary Wi-Fi service so in case you are in the area where WiMAX coverage is not available or you are in need of higher bandwidth, you can try and find a nearby Wi-Fi spot and get connected.

The plan also includes a USB adapter (and a mobile wireless router if you would like). However, I highly recommend that you pay a little extra and get the model BDSS01 which is considerably smaller and definitely is more slick-looking. If you sign up for Bic Camera's WiMAX plan now, it'll only cost you 2,800 yen. I signed up while they had this special one time deal where they were offering a BDSS01 adapter and a URoad-5000 wireless router together for 9,800 yen but I believe the deal has already expired.

The URoad-5000 router is about the size of a BlackBerry Bold. Perfect for when you want to quickly check something out on the web at a cafe or even on the train.

Bic Camera WiMAX sign up form:
https://www.biccamera.com/bicbic/jsp/w/service/bic_wimax/form.jsp

20th Century Boys - Chapter 3

2009-09-22T10:05:00.003+09:00

The last chapter of the 20th Century Boystrilogy has come out on 8/29. Based on the comic series by Naoki Urasawa (also known for other works such as Yawara!, Monsterand PLUTO), this was one of the most highly anticipated movies of the summer in Japan with heavy advertising. It was publicly announced that the film version of the 20th Century Boys has its own ending, meaning the identity of "Friend" (or Tomodachi), the masked cult leader who is supposedly one of the childhood friends of the main character Kenji, is different in the film. If you were in Japan this summer, you would have seen "Friend" saying "So-dayo, Boku-ga Tomodachi-dayo" (That's right, I am Tomodachi) in the trailer aired countless times on TV as well as in the theaters. The trailer has left a lot of people curious about who this "Friend" was and generated a even greater hype over the last chapter of the trilogy than the previous ones did. When the film finally came out at the end of August, it went straight to the number one on the Japanese box office chart.

I personally have fallen for this clever tactic myself and started to wonder who this "Friend" was before I even watched the chapters 1&2. After catching the chapters 1&2 on TV that were aired not too long before the chapter 3 came out, I just had to watch this film to find out who "Friend" was.

I am not going to disclose who "Friend" was here but I must say it was a bit of dissapointment.. it was almost impossible to guess who "Friend" was with the info provided in the movie because this character hardly gets mentioned throughout the series. I personally felt a bit cheated by this.

Other than that, however, the film in itself was entertaining and did a pretty decent job re-creating the world of Naoki Urasawa, which many said to be impossible to make into a non-anime film because of its unique and out of worldly storyline that spans close to 50 years. The scene of the music festival where Kenji performs was quite impressive. If you are planning on watching this film, my advise would be to not get too caught up on trying and guess who "Friend" is because chances are, you won't get it right.

Superfly - Box Emotions

2009-09-03T02:00:00.003+09:00

Superfly's much anticipated 2nd album Box Emotionscame out on 9/2. The 1st album that came out in 2008 took the one-woman unit consisting of Shiho Ochi to instant stardom and this one is set to turn her into an icon (if she isn't already). Already at the time of the release of the album, 5 tracks on the album have been featured on commercials as well as movies and dramas and you can bet there will be more tracks off the album used on various media outlets.
The album kicks off with a fun pop-rock tune "Alright!", which is followed by another catchy rock track "How Do I Survive?". In comparison to her self-titled breakthrough album Superfly, however, this album seems to focus less on the rock-side of Superfly and explores more of the tender and pop side of her. There are beautiful ballads like #4 "My Best of My Life" and #13 "Ai-ni-Dakarete" as well as more traditional J-pop sounding #3 "Searching", #10 "See You" and #11 "Haru-no-Maboroshi". In these tracks, Superfly's voice sounds more controlled and perhaps a bit toned down, which effectively demonstrates to us how skilled of a singer she really is. I personally, however, think that her greatest strength is in the unparalleled powerful rock voice of hers and find these tracks rather dull and uninteresting compared to the more rock-sounding tunes. All in all, this is a solid follow-up work by Superfly aiming to capture broader range of audience and I don't doubt it will be well-received by most of them.
Superfly gave a free performance on 9/2 at the Roppongi Hills arena in celebration of Box Emotions being dropped. Although this gig was announced only a day in advance, a couple of thousands of people showed up to catch the free performance by the rising star. I was lucky enough to be in the arena to watch her perform some of the tracks from the new album for the first time as well as her biggest hit tune from the previous album "Ai-wo-Komete-Hanataba-wo". It was my first time seeing her perform live and man, this girl's got pipes. I would love to see perform live again.

Free Coffee at McDonald's

2009-08-29T19:38:00.009+09:00

You can get a free cup of Premium Roast Coffee (ice/hot) at all McDonald's in the Kanto region if you happen to walk by one during the window of 6-7PM. This campaign runs from Fri, 8/28 - Thu, 9/3. In addition to coffee, you can get an apple pie for 50 yen and a Big Mac for 200 yen this week. Unhealthy, I know, it's so cheap, you just can't beat that.

All this for 150 yen

I would also like to make a note that McDonald's in Japan has probably made more effort in embracing technologies than any of their competitors. All their restaurants are quipped with Wi-Fi access (not free but one of the cheapest plans available), which is still rare in Japan. They have collaboratively set up with Nintendo this thing called DS download area inside their restaurants from which you can download free game trials, rare items for certain games, etc. Earlier this summer, they made some rare Pokemon data available through this DS area which attracted a large number of kids on summer vacation. If you were wondering why there were so many kids with DS running around at McDonald's, that's what they were there for. Now they are doing this campaign with Dragon Quest and you see a lot of grownups with DS at McDonald's.

Perhaps the best effort they have made yet is the dynamic mobile coupon app called "Kazasu Coupon". The way this app works is you select coupons of your choice then you just put your phone down on the scanner set up next to the cashier. And voila, your coupons are automatically read via RFID! You don't even need to say a word if you are not ordering anything that's nor part of the coupon(s) you are using.

"Kazasu Coupon" for a bacon potato pie and a medium Coke

http://www.mcdonalds.co.jp/menu/limited/coffee_dinner/index.html

Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance (ヱヴァンゲリヲン新劇場版: 破)

2009-08-20T02:30:00.021+09:00

Evangelion has come back. And this time, as a movie tetralogy instead of TV series. The 1st of the new series, "Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone", came out September, 2007, 10 years after the original series had ended. The 2nd film "Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance" has come out at the end of June this year.

Although the new series is called a "remake", it appears that the new film series does not strictly follow the original storyline. Aside from the cosmetic changes with the advance in technology (which in itself is quite amazing), minor (and some not so minor) changes in the settings were seen throughout the 1st film. In the 2nd film, the series has launched itself into a whole new storyline, even introducing a new Eva pilot, Mari Illustrious Makinami.

With the changes in the plot, the way some of the existing main characters are portrayed have been changed as well. The most evident of that, perhaps, is seen with Asuka Shikinami Langley, the female half-German/half-Japanese pilot of Unit 02, whose Japanese last name has been changed from Soryu (惣流) to Shikinami (式波) for a mysterious reason. Her hair color also has been changed from red to a lighter tone and more importantly, her personality seems less twisted than what it used to be in the original. Compared to Soryu, Asuka Shikinami seems to be a bit more secure emotionally. She is also slightly more comfortable in sharing her own feelings with the people around her which makes her quite more likable than she was in the original (although some die-hard fans may miss the crazy twisted-minded Asuka). Rei Ayanami, the Unit 00 pilot and another heroine of the anime, seems to have gone through some transformation as well. There are no obvious changes made to her like in hair color or last name that are seen with Asuka. However, Rei, who is famous for her lack of emotion and interest in pretty much anything but Eva and Gendo Ikari, the head of NERV, appears to be more willing and makes effort to interact with the others in the new series. This becomes increasingly more observable as the story progresses in the 2nd film. There are scenes where we see her saying "Ohayo" (good morning) to her classmates at school and later in the film, she actually tries to learn how to cook for Shinji, the Unit 01 pilot. And last but not least, the main character Shinji Ikari actually acts like a hero in the new series instead of running away every chance he got like he did in the original. This in a way makes the story more straightforward and easy to follow. You see a growth in the characters' personality and a sense of resolution after watching (at least thus far) as opposed to the original TV series that left many questions unanswered and the audience puzzled.

If you watched the TV series and liked it, you'll get to re-live the experience again with the familiar faces and a plot fairly similar but possibly heading to a whole different ending. The 2nd introduced a number of new ideas and premises that were not part of the original and at the end of the film, it has become very clear that the new series is not following the footpath of the TV series (some say that the new film series is somehow a continuation of the original series, which we are unable to verify until the next film). Does the "Human Instrumentality Project" or "Jinrui-Hokan Keikaku" have a different purpose this time around? How is it being implemented and what will happen at the end of it? The film has all the sudden introduced a number of new mysteries to what was supposed to be a remake, by which many viewers were caught off the guard. The Internet is full of speculators, analyzing and dissecting the films from every angle and predicting what will happen in the end, reminiscent of what it was like in the mid-late 90's when people were exchanging their own interpretation of Evangelion. Only now, the Internet has come a long way and is available to a much broader audience. The heated discussions are likely to continue well into 2010, when the series is to be wrapped with the films "Evangelion: 3.0" and "Evangelion: Final" (exact date is TBA, said to be later in the year).

Summer Sonic 2009

2009-08-12T12:26:00.024+09:00

Summer Sonic is one of the biggest rock festivals in Japan that takes place in August annually featuring a number of big-name international acts as well as local acts. The festival is a dual-location event, based in Tokyo (Makuhari to be exact) and Osaka and the artists switch the venues between Day 1 and Day 2 (i.e. Band A would perform in Tokyo on Day 1 then in Osaka on Day 2).

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Summer Sonic since it first started in 2000 and instead of the usual 2-day format, they have expanded this year's festival into a 3-day event. Day 1 in Tokyo was headlined by My Chemical Romance along with other bands like Nine Inch Nails, Kasabian, etc. Katy Perry was scheduled to perform on this day as well but she was forced to cancel in the last minute following her doctor's advise to rest for a week. Linkin Park headlined Day 2. This was probably the most popular day as it also featured other big name acts such as Lady Gaga, Elvis Costello, The Specials, Hoobastank as well as Japan's arguably the most popular rock band B'z. The tickets for Day 2 had gone sold out well in advance. The fact that Beyoncé headlined Day 3 shows rock festivals today are changing. Last year, her husband Jay-Z headlined the Glastonbury festival in UK, which caused quite a media buzz as some, including Noel Gallagher of Oasis, criticized that his music was not suitable to headline a rock festival. Summer Sonic has been relatively open to music genres other than rock. R&B/Hip-Hop artists such as Black Eyed Peas, Alicia Keys and a number of others have made appearances as main acts for the festival in the past. Other artists performed on Day 3 include Ne-Yo, Limp Bizkit, The Flaming Lips, etc.

Summer Sonic is great if you are interested in checking big name international acts. It is also good if you have a particularly strong interest in one genre of music and you want to spend the whole day enjoying just the music you love. There are several venues at the festival, namely (for Tokyo): Marine (the stadium), Mountain, Sonic, Dance, Island and Beach. The performers are assigned to the venues by the kinds of music they play (Mountain Stage is for hard rock bands, Dance stage is for DJs and electronica artists, etc) and you could just stay at one venue and you'll get to see who's who in that genre of music perform one after another. At smaller venues, in many cases they have Japanese acts performing before or sometimes in between big name international acts so it is a good way to get to know the the local scene as well.

Another thing great about Summer Sonic is food. There are dozens of food stands available, many of which offer specialties from different regions around Japan. The foods are priced reasonably, usually ranging somewhere between 500-800 yen a dish and they really are quite good for festival food. This year, I personally was saved by the warm Hakata-style Ramen I had after being soaked in the rain during the NIN performance. It was quite good.

I have been going to the festival almost every year since 2004 or so. This year, I attended Day 1 of the 3-day event. Below is the list of the artits I saw (the text inside <> indicates the venue that the band performed at):

1. Red Light Special<mountain>
2. The Big Pink <mountain>
3. Girl Talk <dance>
4. Jenny Lewis <beach>
5. Mercury Rev <sonic>
6. Nine Inch Nails <marine>
7. Kasabian<mountain>

There were several memorable moments. #1, Red Light Company, I was able to catch only the 2nd half of their performance and I had never listened to their music before but I was pleasantly surprised by them. A bit dark and melodic, very UK-sounding. #3 Girl Talk was just plain fun, lots of good party songs mixed together seamlessly and turned the whole venue into one big party. MJ songs especially seemed to have gotten the crowd going. #4 Jenny Lewis was interesting, definitely a change from bands performing at Mountain/Sonic stages. She performed at the Beach Stage, which is an open outdoor stage and gives you almost like a MTV Spring Break kind of feel, if you know what I mean. To be honest, I'm not sure if her music really suited the venue, I think I would prefer to see her somewhere closed and possibly smaller. #6 Nine Inch Nails was definitely the most memorable performance of the day and one of the most memorable I have seen at Summer Sonic. This appearance at Summer Sonic being their very last performance in Japan (The NIN frontman Trent Reznor has announced that NIN will discontinue as a band after their current tour ends), the arena was full of the hardcore NIN fans and the band played all of their classic hits as well as more recent ones. It started raining as they started performing, which somehow seemed to have matched their music.

Summer Sonic:
http://www.summersonic.com

Saint Oniisan (Saint Young Men) Volume 3

2009-08-04T14:51:00.012+09:00

OK, this is not exactly brand-new, it's been out for over 4 months but I didn't know about this comic series until recently.

I was quite amazed by how creative the story's premise was when a friend introduced the series to me. The story is about Jesus and Budda taking vacation in Tokyo after completing their hectic end-of-millennium tasks. In some countries, I suspect this could possibly cause quite a controversy as Jesus and Buddha are portrayed to be equal (and they don't seem exactly sacred or holy) but the setup is highly unique to say the least. Only in Japan, they would even think of a plot like this where the worlds of after-life for Christians and Buddhists co-exist (from I have gathered from the story, it's one big world where all the all mighties and souls live together happily ever after).

The two saints are enjoying being away from their superior responsibilities and living an ordinary life for the first time in centuries on Earth. In the story, both Jesus and Buddha appear to be not only fluent in the Japanese language but also pretty knowledgeable about the current Japanese culture. They have no problem getting around Tokyo, however, their super-natural powers do cause problems from time to time such as Buddha not being able to conceal his halo whenever his feelings get heightened or Jesus turning hot water into wine at a public bath house.

In the 3rd volume of the series, Buddha wins a trip to Izu (伊豆), a city famous for having a numerous hot spring sites, in a raffle. They travel together and stay at a ryokan, traditional Japanese inn, where they are joined by the archangels Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel and enjoy the countryside. Other episodes include: Jesus and Buddha trying various methods to cool themselves down in one hot summer afternoon (telling each other scary stories, camping at a Denny's-like family restaurant, etc), two of them looking for a new place around Tokyo, two of them looking for a part-time job (Jesus considers selling the real "indulgences" signed by himself but forces himself to give up the idea), etc. The 3rd volume introduces many new characters such as the archangels and Bonten (梵天), one of the highest ranking gods in Buddhism. Jesus and Buddha, the saints they are, do not usually do anything that is overly outrageous or foolish and the introduction of characters with stronger personalities have made the story more exciting.

I wouldn't recommend this to someone who takes his/her religion seriously, however, having a bit of background knowledge would help you enjoy the manga better. It makes you realize how outrageous and sometimes cruel what these religions claim, especially when applied in the modern world settings. However, I don't think it's the intention of the author to ridicule these religions. Rather, she has made these seemingly serious and hard to approach subjects more accessible by converting them into a fun comic series. With that said, she is probably not trying to advocate any religion in particular either. It's just comics, not religious references or comparative analysis of Christianity and Buddhism. Take it easy and have a laugh, that's all there is to it.

You can check out the online English version of the manga here:

Shūmatsu no fūru (終末のフール) - Kotaro Isaka

2009-07-23T23:41:00.009+09:00

A novel by Kotaro Isaka who is well-known for works such as "Jyuryoku Piero (重力ピエロ)", "Shinigami no Seido (死神の精度, Accuracy of Death in English)" and "Ahiru to Kamo no Coin Locker (アヒルと鴨のコインロッカー)". Some of you may have watched the film versions of the above titles.

"Shūmatsu no fūru" comprises of 8 short stories, each of which features a different family living in the apartment complex called "Hills Town" located in Sendai, Miyagi. The story takes place in the world where an asteroid is said to strike Earth in 3 years and kill all the living creatures present.

Despite the unique setting, the story does not focus on the asteroid or the fear it caused amongst people. The author has chosen the time period after 5 years the initial public announcement of the incoming asteroid was made. After 5 years, all the craze and chaos that have been taking place around the world are winding down as we humans cannot live in the state of panic forever. People have come to accept and face the destiny that they only have 3 more years to live and are trying and find the productive use of the time. As a result, people are finding themselves in this peculiar temporary state of peace, which they know will come to an end as the judgment day draws closer.

In this rather strange context, people are struggling to re-discover what really matters in their lives. Many things they thought they have valued prior to the announcement such as money, career and fame no longer carry much meaning. The common question all the characters are facing is how and with who they want to spend their lives. Our society has grown so complex and so have our lives. It is at times quite challenging to figure out what you are really after in your own life. Isaka has done a fantastic job demonstrating what life is and should be about when you remove all the distractions and strip it down to its fundamentals by employing a rather dramatic plot.

I highly recommend this book but I believe there is only a Japanese version of this book available at the moment. Hopefully it will be available in other languages soon. Or they may decide to make this into a movie in the near future like they did with some of his past works.

SLAM DUNK 10DAYS AFTER complete

2009-07-14T14:06:00.007+09:00

Slam Dunk, a comic series about a red dyed hair high school punk Sakuragi joining a basketball team, was enormously popular in the mid-late 90's along with Dragon Ball and Yuyu-Hakusho all of which were published on the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine.
The Slam Dunk series has come to a rather abrupt end in 1996 after the Shohoku High School basketball team, the team Sakuragi plays for, defeats the national defending champion Sannoh Industry Affiliated High School. Although the series had run for 6 years and published 31 volumes, the actual time span of the story is less than half a year. The abrupt ending of the series has left lots of unresolved stories such as Sakuragi's rivalry with his team mate Rukawa, his romance (or should we say lack of) with Haruko (his crush who happens to be a younger sister of the Shohoku team captain Akagi), various nationally famous players that got mentioned but never really came in direct contact with Shohoku, etc. Fans were also left to imagine what Sakuragi, who is highly atheltic but is a complete beginner to basketball and a notorious high school gang of the area, would have become of.
"10 Days After" originally was an event hosted by the author Takehiko Inoue in 2004 celebrating Slam Dunk series selling over 100 million copies total. Inoue borrowed an abandoned school building of Misaki High School in Kanagawa prefecture for this event (Incidentally, Kanagawa prefecture is where the majority of Slam Dunk story took place). He drew scenes out of the lives of the prominent characters 10 days after where the series took off on the black boards in the classrooms. Despite lack of major promotion, over 5,000 people came to the school to check out the drawings, excited to discover what happened to the familiar characters they grew up reading/watching after the main story line had ended.
Now due to high demand, they have compiled all the drawings into a book, which the author Inoue declares to be the very final piece of work to be published under the name of Slam Dunk. Inoue did not re-draw the pictures on paper, rather the images found in this book are all photographed images of the black boards from the Misaki High School in 2004.
The episodes found in the book are to be portraying what the characters have been up in the 10 days after the storyline has ended. It is quite a delightful experience to be re-uniting with these characters. Reading this not only gave me a reminiscent feeling but I have also come to realize how strongly established and likable (in their own unique ways) each of the characters was. However, don't expect to find anything new or a clue to any of the unresolved stories from the main storyline as these are more of supplementary episodes about the beloved characters. The author has moved onto his new works such as Vagabond and Real and it seems that the "10 Days After" was done solely for the purpose of celebration and thanking the fans, providing a little something to feed our imagination on but no resolution or new development.

Pepsi Shiso

2009-07-09T22:37:00.010+09:00

Here comes Pepsi's limited-time flavor of the summer: Shiso. They've had Blue-Hawaiian, Cucumber and now this. It just sounded so bad I had to try it.

Well, let's just say that I most likely won't be drinking this again.. It's pretty weird to be *drinking* something that tastes like shiso (I love ume-drinks but shiso just doesn't work..) and when it's mixed with soda, it is just wrong. The sweet-shiso aftertaste lingering inside your mouth is quite unbearable.

Well, if you are keen to try something *different*, try it now before they stop selling them.. I doubt they'll be selling this much longer. But even if you don't, I can assure you that you are not missing out on much.

サントリー　ペプシしそ　500mlX24本

Life-Size Gundam Statue

2009-07-08T02:12:00.006+09:00

Gundam in Odaiba!
Originally uploaded by stonetako920.

We now have Gundam protecting Japan from nuclear missiles! The statue looms over the Odaiba water front area at 18 m tall inside the Shiokaze Park.

This statue was built as part of the eco-movement called "GREEN TOKYO GUNDAM PROJECT" advocating to increase the number of parks and public-showcasing of cultural projects across the Tokyo metropolitan area. It also aims to support the 2016 Tokyo Olympics invitation project.

Gundam 30th Anniversary Web Site (Japanese):
http://www.gundam30th.net/

Pluto - Volume 8 (final)

2009-06-30T20:56:00.013+09:00

The final volume of Pluto came out. For those of you that are not familiar with Pluto, it is a Japanese comics series by Naoki Urasawa based on a story out of the great Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy (鉄腕アトム). The series received lots of media attention before it even started. Urasawa, who is thought to be one of the most talented and successful cartoonist of his time, taking on a spin-off of his childhood influence, Tezuka's masterpiece, Astro Boy, had drawn mixed responses. The Pluto story arc is considered to be one of the best works done by Tezuka, the founding father of the Japanese anime industry, and there were suspicions that it might be too big of a story to handle even for an accomplished cartoonist like Urasawa.

When the much anticipated first volume of Pluto came out, people were pleasantly surprised by the take that Urasawa has taken on it. The story is told from a point of view of Gesicht, a German police inspector robot that makes a relatively brief appearance in the original. Although most of the major characters are shared between Pluto and the original, Urasawa has managed to make them his own characters by changing their looks greatly (yet still identifiable) and also supplying them with rich side-stories that were not part of the original story. The added side stories have introduced a lot more depth to Pluto compared to the original and you really get to know each of the characters, their personalities and where they are coming from. Urasawa's interpretation of the Pluto story arc was so superb that even though for those of us that have read the original know exactly what would happen next, still kept us highly curious and excited about how he would unfold the story.

In the final volume of Pluto, Gesicht is deceased and the story revolves around Atom who has inherited Gesicht's computer chip and hence all of his memory. The story touches on many issues we have in our society today such as war and war-time crimes, racism, environmental issues, etc. As they are in the real world, these issues are not solved easily. Pluto, like its original Astro Boy, is not a comics series that everything resolves at the end and everyone is happy. Rather, its aim, I feel, is to make us aware of how imperfect this world we live in is. It is ironic that the message of world peace that Tezuka has tried to communicate in Astro Boy over 40 years ago is still very much relevant to our world today in 2009.

Patriotism in Japan

2009-06-11T02:20:00.005+09:00

Swarm of soccer fans heading to the stadium
Originally uploaded by stonetako920.

I happen to live 5 min walk-away from one of the largest stadiums in Japan, the Nissan Stadium (seen in the background). Today, there was a FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifier game against Qatar hosted there. As you can see, the streets were swarmed with people in blue jerseys, the Japanese national soccer team uniform. This happens at least a few times a year and I have grown accustomed to this.

The national sport of Japan is Sumo. And aside from that, baseball probably is the most-watched sport as far as domestic leagues are concerned. Most TV stations don't even broadcast J-League (the Japanese professional soccer league) games during the prime time whereas professional baseball games are aired live at least a few times a week during its season. However, when it comes to international soccer matches, EVERYONE watches them, even those that don't follow soccer normally. It's really a national event and you see your workaholic co-workers leaving work early for once just so they can catch the game.. and next day, that's all people talk about. I found this a bit surprising and quite frankly taken aback a bit after having lived in US for some time. I had never seen any single sport event being discussed in US at the level that these soccer matches were in Japan.

This brings me to a curious topic of the manifestation of patriotism in today's Japanese society. Expressing one's patriotism for his/her country is almost considered a taboo in Japan. Japanese people in general are not comfortable about the idea of "being proud to be Japanese", "representing one's country" or "serving one's country". I have had the pleasure to meet with people from various countries around and I really haven't seen this with people from any other country. They may have issues with their own country but at the end of the day, they are still proud of their home country and what it stands for. But somehow, the same cannot be said about Japan. And I've always found this troubling.

By patriotism, I don't mean supporting the current government. People can be critical of their own government. People don't have to be supporting every decision made by their government. I believe we can all agree regardless of where you are from that government makes mistakes more often than we would hope. What I mean by patriotism is that being proud of the country you are from and the person you are as a result of having been brought up in the environment. And being able to proudly support and represent the community. I see a serious lack of this sentiment towards their own country amongst Japanese people.

I have been supporting Tokyo's 2016 Olympics invitation movement. However, whenever I talk to people about this, I get a response like "Why should we spend our tax money to host another Olympics?" "What good is it going to do to me?" And I just think it's sad that they are unable to find any motivation beyond their personal well-being in supporting a movement like this. It's about your city and your country and it's not every day that we get a shot at something grand like this. And Tokyo has what it takes to make it happen as far as infrastructure and technologies are concerned. But there's one thing critical that's missing and that's the support and motivation of the local community.

I think history has a lot to do with this. It is no secret that the militant government utilized patriotism as its tool to brain-wash its own people during the WWII which eventually led to crazy suicidal missions such as Kamikaze. People in Japan to this day still associate being patriotic with the war. Also, the fact that the majority of Uyoku (right-wing) people nowadays are affiliated with Yakuza, Japanese mafia, doesn't help in improving the already negative image of patriotism. As a result of these factors, making a comment even remotely patriotic could potentially get people to think you are either a militant or a yakuza-affiliate; neither of which are well-accepted in the society and hence people have to come to refrain from showing their support for their own country, how unfortunate.

So I got side-tracked a little but I find it quite interesting and rather astonishing to see the level of enthusiasm and support for the national soccer team in the society where being a patriot violates the taboo. The entire nation backing the team and cheering "Nippon!" at the top of their lungs. It is almost as though that their secretly suppressed patriotism have sprung out of the shell and exploded.

How Google Can Eat Amazon’s Lunch

2008-04-02T12:09:00.002+09:00

"I can’t believe I’m going to do this, but I’m going to do it. Yesterday, Dave Winer ranted about how blogs have become an ecosystem of recycled conversations about an original thought that happened long ago. Even so, I am going to talk about a post that Dave Winer wrote this weekend."

Well, this article sure does make Google seem evil but if Google were to provide a hosting service at the same level of quality that Amazon does for free of charge, I'd be interested in using it.. and if they decide to buy me up, all the better :)

read more | digg story

Driving

2007-11-18T13:51:00.000+09:00

So I'm back in Australia once again. Last time I was here for approx 3 weeks, this time, I'll be here for a month (the exact returning date is actually TBD but most likely will be sometime mid-December).

One thing I was grateful about when I moved back to Japan 5 years ago was that I no longer had to drive everywhere I needed to go. I'll be the first one to admit that I am not the greatest driver and there were all these complications that driving created such as insurances, gas, you have to get it fixed if something breaks, and finding parking always was a pain even in Seattle. Can't even imagine how bad it would be in Tokyo..

However, in Australia, it appears that you pretty much have to have a car if you have a slightest desire to go out and maintain a social life of a sort unless you live in Sydney and Melbourne. And I'm not in either one of these big cities. In fact, I'm staying in the suburb of Gold Coast, which itself is like one-seventh or eighth the size of Melbourne and I'm in the suburb of it, meaning you really gotta drive to go ANYwhere. There's only one bus every hour at the nearest bus stop and it's not even on a major route.

So I decided that I'm really gonna have to start driving or I'll be stuck here at home on weekends. I've already got my International Driving Permit issued by AAA and one of my co-workers that happens to be in Japan right now graciously has agreed to let me drive his car while he's away.

So I'm supposed to go pick up the car this evening. It'll be my first time driving in Australia, driving back (first time driving in the left-hand side of the road, as a matter of fact). We'll see how it goes.. If this works out well, I think I'll start thinking about getting my license in Japan when I get back. I guess it is about time I do that after 5 years..

Details Revealed: Google OpenSocial To Be Common APIs For Building Social A

2007-11-01T03:04:00.001+09:00

This is very interesting.. They've got major career-oriented SNS sites like LinkedIn and salesforce.com to personal ones like Friendster and hi5... and of course their own orkut. Not sure what Oracle's role is in this... the backend DB used for this is Oracle?

This is obviously Google's way of countering ever-growing Facebook.. instead of creating or promoting an SNS site of their own, why not create a platform for all of them. Nice concept. Let's see how well they'll do..

Kinda reminds me of when Google Base came out. There was a lot of hype and people were talking about how it was going to change the way the Internet works and all but haven't heard much about it since..

read more | digg story

Hello, I'm a...

2007-10-08T12:57:00.001+09:00

Mac vs. PC ads taken to the next level; hilarity ensues.

The categorization scheme isn't exactly consistent (some are OS whereas some are PC manufactures, etc..) but thought was funny anyway. Good image for Vista :) Haven't seen much of him on TV recently though..

read more | digg story

Nagoya

2007-10-02T16:38:00.001+09:00

Goju-no-to
Originally uploaded by stonetako920.

Haven't updated this blog forever.. I guess that's what happens when you have multiple blog accounts that you need to maintain.. you eventually grow weary of having to updating all of them and just focus on one where you receive the most amount of feedback and ditch others..

In any case, I was in my hometown Nagoya last week. I've been away from the city for so long that I really don't have any friends in the city that I keep in close contact with anymore. So I usually just visit my folks, go watch a movie, take it easy for a couple of days and head back to Tokyo. This time, however, there was a Jugo-ya (full moon) festival going on at the Koshoji temple, to which I used to go as a child, while I was in town. So I decided to go to the temple for the first time in at least 15 years, possible close to 20 years..

The festival had changed quite a bit from what I had recalled. Back in the days, they used to have this big bon fire in which people threw their expired omamori (Shinto amulets) and ofuda (Shinto talismans, maybe?). There were also a bunch of food stands. This time, however, there were only a few food stands and they turned the whole thing into more of a show with a host and lighting and Noh performances.. it was pretty interesting though. It was my first time watching Noh live. Also the temples were beautifully lighted up as you can see in the pic.

Sun and Apple Forging Alliance

2007-05-10T22:26:00.001+09:00

The relationship between Sun and Apple hasn't been hotter since the merger talks were going on in the early 90's. With yesterday's announcement of JavaFX taking on Microsoft's Silverlight and Adobe Flex Platforms, it can only get hotter. The three major trends that are gathering momentum:ZFS, Open Office, J2EEThis is interesting.. more reasons to abandon Windows..

read more | digg story

Yahoo launches Alpha search engine

2007-04-08T03:51:00.001+09:00

"Taking a page from Google's Searchmash experiment, the Yahoo Alpha search engine provides neatly organized results from the web, Flickr, Yahoo Answers and other sources. Alpha generates a dynamic search-results page with modules that can expand or collapse."

Pretty interesting. Not sure how practical these mashed search sites are at this moment but if we were allowed personalize the layout maybe.. what's w/ these cryptic names though.. alpha (which is still in beta) and searchmash... they wanna keep it low-profile for whatever the reason, is that what they are trying to do?

read more | digg story

Hanami - Yoyogi Park

2007-04-01T22:47:00.001+09:00

Hanami - Yoyogi Park
Originally uploaded by stonetako920.

Went to the Yoyogi Park today for a Hanami get together. Hanami, a Japanese tradition whose original purpose was to get together and "watch the blossoms" (literal translation) nowadays is more or less considered to be an excuse for people to publicly get drunk. As the cherry blossoms are only in bloom for only approximately a week, the Japanese media closely keeps track of when exactly people would be able to go to Hanami this time of the year and as soon as they make the "official announcement" of the arrival of the Hanami season, people would rush to the parks with tarps and alcohols.

There were lots of street performers and food/drink stands around the park. What I was surprised to see were DJ booths playing house/trance tunes for some outdoor dancing. It was fun.

Dell powered by Linux?

2007-02-22T00:10:00.001+09:00

Apparently Dell is going to ship computers pre-installed with a Linux distro! This is great news for the Linux Community, and we see a great awareness increase between the people who still believe that the rounded E from Internet Explorer is the INTERNET... finally!

I've always thought Desktop Linux was something you would install on an cheap box yourself.. like installation was part of the fun. Would be interesting to see how this will go though.

read more | digg story

Google developing Artificial Intelligence

2007-02-19T23:15:00.001+09:00

In a speech Friday night to the Annual American Association for the Advancement of Science conference, Google co-founder Larry Page stated that Google was developing Artificial Intelligence and that the company wasn't far off from completing real AI.

Google AI.. or Google Brain maybe..? The way their search engine collects and processes info and spits it out as you request it.. guess it may not be that big of a leap for them to start building an actual AI.. Hopefully this is not the beginning of the end..

read more | digg story

An Eraser Shaped Like A Delete Key - Designed by Art Lebedev

2007-02-19T03:25:00.001+09:00

The palm-size Tersumus eraser is shaped like the well-known key on a computer keyboard.

Nice... hope it "deletes" as well as it looks.

read more | digg story

Muay Thai

2007-02-05T01:01:00.001+09:00

4th Match - Counters
Originally uploaded by stonetako920.

Went to this Thai restaurant in Ayase where there's a small Muay Thai ring INSIDE the restaurant and you can watch matches live while dining and drinking.

They had 5 matches scheduled for the evening and the pic is from the 4th match of the night (photos were not allowed for the main event). The guy in blue is apparently a former champion from some major venue in Thailand. His opponent, the Japanese guy in black, fought well but was no match for the former champion.

One thing about this restaurant is that you get to watch the moves exchanged between fighters literally right before your eyes. I mean, our table was probably just about 1 meter away from the ring.. I guess sometimes fighters get knocked outside the ring and end up landing on customers' tables..

By the way the food there was OK too. The service exactly wasn't the best but oh well. I don't think people go there for food nor service anyway..

Anyways, the atmosphere is very unique and I definitely recommend this place to anyone that likes martial arts. Not very often that you get to watch matches this close at a reasonable price.

Wong Wen Jai (オーエンジャイ):
http://www2u.biglobe.ne.jp/~wongwen/

Krispy Kreme in Shinjuku

2007-01-07T01:19:00.001+09:00

Krispy Kreme in Shinjuku
Originally uploaded by stonetako920.

They opened up the very first Krispy Kreme dougnut store in Japan. Despite the cold weather, there was a long queue in front of the store in Shinjuku regulated by Krispy Kreme's security staff...

I guess this doesn't surprise me too much though. They opened up the first store in Northwest a few years ago in Issaquah, WA when I was in still in college and people spent over 1 hour waiting to get inside the store. Considering Japanese people's tendency to line up when they hear about newly opened stores and also the fact it's located in Shinjuku I wouldn't be surprised if the line was much longer.. I don't think I'll be going there anytime soon though.

Not to die

2006-11-13T00:51:00.000+09:00

Why do we try so hard not to die?

One moment, you are alive.
Next, you are dead.

What does this shift in the state really mean.
Everything that we are, we have been, and we would've been ceases in a single moment.
A simple malfunction inside our body could cause it.
If it is so important not to die, why are we not built more robust.
Or do we think it's important not to die because our life is so vulnerable?

At times, it is inevitable.
Many cases, it is predictable.
Some are said to be excusable.
We all wish the possibility of it to be forgettable.
But when it does happen, we want it to be memorable.

However you arrive at it, death separates you from the life you once belonged to.
You can never go back to it.
Many times it's abrupt and indeliberate.
But the change still is permanent.

Maybe we are all dead by default and being alive is a temporary change in our status for a limited length of time.
Maybe that's why we put so much meaning in "being alive" and "staying alive"...

My Accent

2006-10-30T21:01:00.000+09:00

I've sorta come to realize that what I speak is not really "English", it's more American than anything else... my current company is quite diverse and you hear all these accents around the office: British, Indian, Australian, Spanish, Portuguese and of course Japanese and American.. and many more.. You'll be amazed how different that one language can sound. Some accents are harder for me to comprehend than others. Guess it's something that I've got to get used to..

Ever since I came to Japan, I've had people telling me that I have an American accent. Never really thought of it that way but I guess that makes sense... All those years I spent in ESL thinking I was learning English, ah well :)

The Group

2006-10-22T01:20:00.000+09:00

Went to a Canadian friend of mine's wedding party. They had the actual wedding in Vancouver, Canada (I actually attended the post-party) but had this party in Japan to share this special event in their life together with their friends here as well.

The Canadian friend of mine, I've known from the days when I first moved over here in Japan and was out partying with the group of random foreign people every weekend. It really was an interesting mix of people from North/South America, Europe, Oceania along w/ some locals. We simply called this gathering "The Group". The sole reason of the Group's existence was so we, most of who were fairly new to the country, could stick together and enjoy the weekends by drinking and partying. The beauty of this Group was we didn't know much about each other aside from some really basic info like where everyone was from, how long they had been in Japan and maybe how old they were.. A lot of times, we only knew each other by the nick names they went by inside the Group and never found out what their real full names were... We didn't really care what everyone else did in the day time or what their real names were. All that mattered was that we had good times whenever we got together.

It'd be a lie if we said we didn't have any problems inside the Group. Being a bunch consisted of people of various origins from all over the world, it was never easy to get a consensus within the group. And a gathering like this was probably not meant to last forever anyway. As we all aged, many of the Group members found significant others and started "retiring" from the Group. Also because the majority of the Group were foreigners who somehow winded up in Tokyo temporarily, one by one (or sometimes by couples) people left the country. Getting back to the reality, basically, seeking a real career, etc.

So the Group has practically died. Most of people are long gone from the country. And even the ones that are still around, we rarely see each other except for special occasions like this. However, when we do see each other, we still have good times. We may not know that much about each other's lives but we certainly know how to have good times together from countless night outs in Tokyo. And it really doesn't matter where we are, it seems. I've met up w/ some of the European former Group members that used to live here in June in Germany and Spain. We really had good times despite a drastic change in geographic location. And this past September in the US and Canada, I met up with some of other former members again. Whenever we meet up, it almost feels like we are back in those good ol' days when we were meeting up every Fri/Sat night in Roppongi around 11PM, anxious to hit the clubs, just a little older, maybe :)

True, it does kinda blow that many of them are no longer around to hang out on weekends but this is life, I guess... and instead, I am now able to say that I have friends in all these different countries that I could go visit and have good times together, which really is something. By far, the friends from the Group are the most important assets that I have gained ever since I've come to Japan. I do miss my friends from Seattle at the same time though.. they are friends of different.. qualities, I guess.

Tokyo is Tiring?

2006-10-15T12:15:00.000+09:00

Quite a few of my Japanese friends that have lived overseas and come back to Japan (or foreigners who somehow winded up here) tell me Tokyo is a tiring place. I don't know if it is the number of people, the fast pitch at which things seem to be moving.. But I must agree that the city does wear me out sometimes. You really don't need to be doing anything special, something as simple as just getting to work or going out to meet up with your friends can be pretty tiring. There's too much of everything: too many people, too many buildings, too many stores, too much noise... and anywhere you go, it seems so congested and everything is moving about at this amazing speed... it just wears your mind out.

If you spent all your life here in Tokyo, it's something you would grow up with and not be really conscious about. But once you move away from the noise for a while and come back, things would appear to you way too hectic and almost insane. And a good number of the returnees say they just wanna get away from this chaos again. I sometimes feel the same way. Get away from this place all together and live a more quiet and peaceful life somewhere that's not so busy... but at the same time, I realize that if I were to pursue my career, this probably is the place to be for me. My market value is much higher here than the rest of the world, being Japanese/English bilingual and all. Mmm. Such dilemma. I only got a few years left though if I were to do working holiday.. so gotta make up my mind soon, I guess.

NUKE ME NOT

2006-10-09T17:59:00.000+09:00

So looks like they are ready to nuke us.. Now they've officially got nuclear weapons, successfully-tested-out, what can you really do. They won't just give up their precious big guns just because someone told them to..

Well, no one really wants a war. Not even the North Koreans. They are the ones that'll lose the most should a war breaks out for they'll probably get bombed to ashes. Someone's gonna have to talk some sense into them. The question is who will do that... I mean, we obviously can't expect much from Bush as far as talking sense..

Every Vote Counts

2006-10-09T00:48:00.000+09:00

We have a 3 day weekend here in Japan. Mon (today) is the Health Sports Day (Taiiku-no-Hi), a day when we are all encouraged to exercise apparently. But more importantly, we have the day off. That's what's really important :)

We had a mayor election for the city of Shinagawa, where I live, yesterday (Sun). You know when elections are coming up in Japan. The candidates go around in their vans w/ speakers making sure you remember their names by repeatedly yelling out their names on the microphone. They do talk about their policies and stuff a little but every other sentence is "My name is so-and-so. Remember my name! Please put down my name on your ballot!". I guess it's a pretty effective strategy since unless you really care about the local politics, you are likely to pick a name that sound familiar... which was what I ended up doing.

For the past a few weeks, the candidates went from a station to station in their district each morning greeting "their voters" on their way to work. It's bad enough you have to go to work and they were just making it worse by blasting their names out on the speakers early in the morning. So many times, I was tempted to just snatch their precious mic from them and just toss'em away. I'm sure if it wasn't illegal, many people would've done that.. seriously, I don't know how they can get away w/ doing that w/o getting noise complaints. They all looked like typical politicians too, w/ fakey smiles and everything...

So I fulfilled my responsibility as a registered voter by going to the booth and casting my vote once again. I really don't know much about politics and I must admit that I really don't follow it too much. Yea, I may have voted for someone whose policies I hardly knew. But I believe the action of going to vote is almost as important as who you actually vote for... a vote is a vote no matter how you cast it, who you choose or how you choose the person. And every vote does count, believe it or not. It's easy to say "my vote won't make a difference anyway so I'm not gonna even bother". But then you really can't expect the government to be responsible for you when you are not being a responsible citizen yourself. Well, that's how I see it anyways.

Gray Sky

2006-09-26T21:33:00.001+09:00

Gray Sky
Originally uploaded by stonetako920.

Fri the 8th was my last day at my previous company. So I had approx. 2 weeks off until I started my new job yesterday.

Over the past 2 weeks, 2 of my friends, whom I actually met in Japan, had their weddings in Seattle and Vancouver. The timing couldn't have been any better for me and I decided to fly to Seattle on Wed the 13th primarily to attend the weddings but also to catch up w/ old-time buddies in town.

The picture was taken at the Sea-Tac airport when I had just arrived in Seattle. The sky, as you can see, was gray, typical of Seattle all year around except for its very limited summer. Some things never change, I guess.

African Fair

2006-09-03T23:19:00.000+09:00

Went to the Africa Fair that's going on now in Odaiba There were booths representing countries of Africa where you could basically walk up to and talk to the natives and also a food court with various African dishes.

One thing I really enjoyed was a performance by this band called "Tabureka" which featured an African sax player/lead singer and drummer w/ the rest of the band being Japanese. It was a really intriguing performance. As the performance reached it climax, these African MC and dancer invited themselves onto the stage to joined the band then started pulling random people onto the stage who then were practically forced to dance along to the music. It was a pretty memorable and funny moment that you couldn't help but to smile at. There was a strong sense of having a good time together which everyone in the audience could feel and I really enjoyed the performance.

Massage Therapy

2006-08-26T21:41:00.000+09:00

Went to this massage therapy place nearby my place. It said "First time examination fee: Free" so I thought to give it a try. What I didn't realize was this didn't include the actual therapy session fee. What they were advertising to be free was just the initial checkup of your bodily condition. So after the really brief initial checkup, the therapist started giving me massage. The therapy session lasted well over 90 min, which basically was a non-stop torture. So many times, I wanted to just kicked the guy off and run away.

After the therapy, the guy was telling me in his bad Japanese (he apparently was Chinese) that my body is not exactly in its best condition and I have to come back in 2 days. I was thinking "in 2 days!? That soon?" Then he went on to say that "I'll give you a discount since this is your first session. I normally charge 5,200 yen for 60 min but I'll round it down to 5,000 yen." And I was like "What, I thought it was supposed to be free since it's my first time." And the guy was like "No no, it's just the check up fee that we are waiving, not the actual therapy fee." I was trying and tell him that the ad was misleading and I only came because I thought they were giving away free trial sessions. But his Japanese suddenly got noticeably worse and at that point, I just decided to give up and pay and leave.

I'm probably not going back there any time soon (not in 2 days for sure) but when I think about it, it really wasn't that bad of a deal that I got.. The guy only charged me 5,000 yen for a 90 min session. Ah well. The ad was misleading though.. or maybe it was just my lack of common sense that caused the misunderstanding..

Summer Sonic 2006

2006-08-14T01:03:00.000+09:00

I somehow got lucky and got myself on the guestlist for 1st day. My friend that got me on the list told me that we are going in as editors. I was like "Editors? Editors for what?" But my friend was just instructed to do so from her friend that got us on the list and didn't really have any more info. So we went to the guest sign-in table and told them that we are editors and our names should be on the list. Naturally, they were like "You are editors? With which company?" And I was like "um..." And they suggested "Did you mean you are on the guestlist for the band Editors"? I was like "ah, maybe.." and sure enough our names were listed under the guests for the band. It was a rather embarrassing moment, I could see receptionist the girl was trying hard to hold herself from laughing aloud. But in any case, we were able to get in for a hugely discounted price so it was all good.

I didn't really get to see all the bands I wanted to see because of schedule reasons. But this time, there was no single band I really wanted to check out so I decided to catch as many band performances as possible by going from one band performance to another. That's what's really cool about going to these rock festivals, seeing all these different bands performing, including ones you would not necessarily go see live if was not for the festival. Out of the ones I got to see, Zebrahead was pretty fun to watch. Editors, our band, was pretty good too.

Coldplay

2006-07-23T01:29:00.000+09:00

Went to the Coldplay concert this past Tue. My second time at Budohkan in like 5 days which my friend that went to the concert with obviously found to be funny. "Who does that?" was what she had to say.

Anyways, my expectation for the concert wasn't exactly high. It was my first time going to their concert and the only time I had watched them performing live on TV was when they were performing a slow song at some award show. I was somehow under this wrongly impression that they were a kind of band that would do better in the studio since Coldplay songs all have this very distinct feel and sound to them but was a bit skeptical how well that could be re-produced live.

So I went to the concert thinking I would probably get dissapointed. I was plesantly surprised to learn how fantastic they can be live. Their setlist for the night wasn't exactly creative; they basically performed a major song after another but the performance was nothing but excellent. My concern about them not being able to re-produce the unique feel and sound on the CD was gone after a couple of songs into the concert. The songs virtually sounded better live because there's more energy yet still sounded very much Coldplay if you know what I mean. I had this image of them performing slow songs w/ the lead singer Chris Martin on the piano but at the concert, he was jumping around all over the stage and hardly in front the piano. I think a lot of us were surprised to see how athletic he was...

Songs that I found to be memorable:
- Yellow: They had huge yellow balloons roaming around Budohkan, which was interesting...
- Scientist: This was one song that Chris Martin actually stayed in front of the piano the entire song. Beautifully performed.
- Clocks: Sounded much more energetic live. Chris was literally jamming on the piano.
- In My Place: Everyone was singing the chorus together.
- Fix you: Was rather predictable that they were gonna play this song last but still a good song.

I guess my only complaint was that it was a bit too short... they started at like 8:20PM and finished 10 min before 9PM... they could've played a few more songs, I would say.

Yokohama Fireworks

2006-07-17T04:44:00.000+09:00

DSC00227
Originally uploaded by stonetako920.

Went to check out the annual Yokohama fireworks festival with Kirk, Hiroko and Mario. As usual, the area was packed. In order to save ourselves decent seats, we had to go down there way before the fireworks started (Fireworks started at 7:30PM, we met up around 2:30PM). We first went check out the Yamashita Park but it was way too crowded there already so ended up watching the fireworks from this park up on the hill called Minato-no-Mieru-Oka-Koen (Harbor View Park). The seats we got ourselves were nice in the way that we were able to lie down on the grass but there were trees that sort of got in the way for those fireworks that didn't go very high up... was still fun though and the weather remained relatively cool for this time of the year in Japan contrary to our concerns.

Afterwards, we decided to go to this bar in Ishikawacho called Stagecoach. Back when my friends Jun and Maura used to live in the area, I used to go there every once in a while mainly because they were going there practically every night. But it had been quite a while since I last went there. Was nice to see the familiar faces of the bartenders Yondo and Yuki. If only the place was a bit closer, I would go there more often.

Black Eyed Peas

2006-07-16T00:12:00.000+09:00

Went to see Black Eyed Peas live at Budoh-kan last Thu. I guess a lot of people consider them to be shameless sellouts that decided to give up their style and spirit in exchange for the stardom they have achieved. Well, I guess I can kinda see that esp in the songs like Don't Lie and My Humps. These songs are hardly Hip-Hop. But if you look at the members of group and their diverse backgrounds, you can kinda see why how their sound may differ from ordinary Hip-Hop groups that typically solely consist of African American rappers. Each member of BEP comes from a very different ethnic background (most of them are of mixed ethnic origins). Consequently, their musical backgrounds significantly differ. The unique chemistry and style that the group now has achieved, I believe, owes a lot to this diversity. Their music is not bound to a single genre just as their ethnic backgrounds.

The concert lasted approximately 2 hours, maybe a little less. I had seen them live once at this Rock festival called Rock Odyssey a couple of years ago and I had been wanting to check them out again. The songs they played were mostly from their most recent full album Monkey Business with some popular tracks from their previous album Elephunk mixed in. The show was nothing short of entertaining and they really got the crowd going with their solid musical performance as well as breakdancing. I missed the first 5-10 min of it but was able to catch most of their popular songs such as: "Don't Phunk with My Heart", "Don't Lie", "Where is the Love?" , "Shut up", "Pump It", "My Humps", "Let's Get Retarded", etc.

During the show, they had a segment where each of them performed a song that demonstrated their background: Fergie doing a Guns N'Roses cover, apl.de.ap singing in Tagalog, Will.i.am playing guitar and drums, etc... It was really interesting to watch.

Yeah, BEP may have changed, they are no longer doing underground Hip-Hop which to some may seem like they've gone "soft". But I personally actually really like how their music is not bound to a single genre of music. And like or not, not many can deny the fact what they are producing is unique. I definitely would be interested in what they'll come up with next and checking them out live again when they decide to come here next time.

Rak Thai

2006-07-09T05:57:00.000+09:00

I used to go to Thai restaurants a lot back when I was in the States but haven't really been able to find a good Thai restaurant here in Japan. Most of the places I've been to, they were ok but it just wasn't the same. Like they made phad thai taste too much like yakisoba, etc... But finally I was able to find a decent Thai restaurant and I'm quite happy about it. The place is called Rak Thai, located in Gotanda nearby the hotel Yu-port. I went there with a friend that's been to Thailand before and another friend of mine who is from South East Asia (well, Indonesia but I would think he'd be more familiar with Thai food than most Japanese people) and they both thought the food was good. So I'm convinced the food there is pretty authentic :)

Was just watching the Germany vs Portugal game. Germany actually played Oliver Kahn this time, wow. I was kinda hoping that Portugal would win, I personally think they are more exciting to watch than any other teams that made it in the top 4 this world cup. Germany had the home court advantage and the momentum throughout the 2nd half though. Ah well. Now, that only leaves the final. France and Italy, not many had expected these 2 would be facing each other... Will be interesting to see what happens.

Microsoft's iPod killer to provide free versions of all your iTunes tracks

2006-07-07T10:25:00.000+09:00

To attract current iPod users Microsoft is going to let you download for free any songs you've already bought from the iTunes Music Store. They'll scan iTunes for purchased tracks and then automatically add those to your account. Microsoft will still have to pay the rights-holders for the songs, but they believe it'll be worth it to converts.

Hum. MS breaking into the market, will see how well they will do... I like what I've read about it so far though.

read more | digg story

Yahoo! Music LAUNCHcast on Yahoo! Messenger

2006-07-05T21:48:00.000+09:00

I know I'm really slow on catching on this but the recent version of Yahoo! Messenger now comes with Yahoo! Music LAUNCHcast player built-in. I never thought much of it until today but I think I'm gonna start using it more... for someone like me that has Yahoo! Messenger running almost at all times when working on computer, it saves running anoher application for playing music. It also allows you to rate the song being played (and the artist and the album) on the spot, the result of which gets reflected on the music you can listen to via your "My Station". In case you are you are too lazy to keep your preferences up-to-date, they provide numerous stations with a broad range of genres of music that you can listen to. But the best part of this, again, is that you can pretty much do everything you need to do on the messenger interface without having to open up a browser or some other application interface. Everything you need is right there on your Yahoo! Messenger.

If you are like me and didn't even bother giving it a shot when you first saw it, I highly recommend you at least try it out.

Real DJs Code Live - Amazing

2006-07-05T05:01:00.000+09:00

Some DJs spin vinyl or twiddle fader knobs. Others write subroutines in C++.
Wasn't sure whether to put this in the Programming Topic or Music Topic!!

Yea, let's code the night away...

read more | digg story

New Musashikoyama Station

2006-07-02T23:33:00.000+09:00

New Musashikoyama Station 2
Originally uploaded by stonetako920.

They just replaced the old onground station with the newly finished underground station.

Under the red hot moon...

2006-06-30T01:05:00.000+09:00

I took the subway downtown to the graveyard shift tonight.

It's maintenance time, woo hoo!

Outsmarted by a Chatterbot

2006-06-06T10:35:00.000+09:00

"...So, I figured a conversation with a chatterbot would be a good idea. First I tried infocombot, but it was down. So, I gave the Encarta bot a whirl, and I asked it something that would give a few readers a chuckle. I was very surprised by its response!"

Wow.. those bots are getting smarter..

read more | digg story

My German Interpreter

2006-06-05T03:10:00.000+09:00

My German Interpreter
Originally uploaded by stonetako920.

Taken w/ my brandnew Docomo phone camera.. The max resolution is somewhere around 3M pixels.

2006-05-29T00:38:00.000+09:00

Went to watch the movie "Da Vinci Code" with friends but was sold out. So we decided to settle for "V for Vendetta" which apparently has been in the theater for a while even here (this was the last weekend that the film was shown at the theater we went to). I didn't expect much from the film since it wasn't the film we wanted to watch in the first place but I actually enjoyed it.

The film is about the totalitalian government that somehow took over the country of the UK and the battle against it started by this masked "terrorist" calls himself V. The similariy found between the UK government in the movie and the paranoid and controlling state of the current US government I'm sure is not a coincidence. The movie reminds us of the mistakes made by many governments around the world by going militant and where we might be headed. Who is it really that's creating the terror?

It's one of those movies that'll get you thinking about something that won't produce no definite answers. In the movie, the answer was to blow up the parliament which I'm sure has upset lots of people... over all, not a bad movie though, there are lots of things you may find either cheesy or not believable but it does get you started on questioning some of the things that have going on around the world.

We'll try and give another shot at "Da Vinci Code" next week... hopefully we'll be able to catch it this time.

World Cup Tickets

2006-05-19T01:19:00.000+09:00

P1000030
Originally uploaded by stonetako920.

I finally received the tickets!

.XXX rejected by ICANN Board

2006-05-12T10:41:00.000+09:00

The controversial .XXX domain has been rejected by ICANN - the organisation that decides what domains can be for sale. This comes after intensive lobbying by certain countries that it is an inappropriate domain. The supporters of .XXX argued that it would help separate porn from the rest of the net.

Hmm.. inappropriate domain... isn't it more inappropriate that these pornographic contents are currently being served on .com and .net domains and thus hard to be distinguished from others?

read more | digg story

FedEx flights dodging thunderstorms (radar time-lapse)

2006-05-10T04:29:00.000+09:00

Radar view of FedEx flights dodging thunderstorms that are moving towards Memphis Int'l airport.

I guess the black dots moving around are the the FedEx carriers... pretty neat.

read more | digg story

2006-05-09T16:45:00.000+09:00

I'm switching from LiveJournal to Blogger. I probably won't be actually writing much on here though. Will mainly be using this to post from Digg and Flickr...