ricesuki

07:17 am: Well there are 3 main lines and a few others on the side...
http://san.mobilesuit.ms/images/sanmtr.gif

10:49 pm: I should circulate this at work and see what happens...
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/magazine/26FOB-2DLove-t.html

08:18 am: The stream continues
Off to HK (again) next Tues. for (another) cousin's wedding. I log in to AIM for the first time in ages and lo-and-behold, kaki's engaged and getting married.

Nothing like an endless stream of relative and friend weddings (going back to October last year) to drive home the fact that I'm old. There's got to be an emoticon for that, right?

12:21 pm: First Morning Musume, now...
Maid Cafe at AX. Be afraid.

07:09 pm: Genius!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090423/en_afp/entertainmentjapancrimearrestpeople

07:20 am: The what?
The Hiroshima Carp, Hiroshima's pro baseball team, have a new stadium. It's called the Mazda Zoom-Zoom Stadium.

I kid you not: http://stadium.rcc.jp/

08:54 pm: One more box checked off
When I left the town I was originally living in as a JET, the kids at my main Jr. High School asked me to promise them that as long as I'm still in Japan, I would go to their graduation ceremony. The kids who were 1st years (equivalent to 7th grade) when I left them finally had their turn today. It was definitely worth getting up and driving from 4AM for 3 hours to get there.

There was this odd sense of release though, as if one of the strings holding me here has been let go.

09:02 pm: Ah yes, LJ as well...
It was only a matter of time...This thing is going around well enough, so I'm not going to tag anyone either. Different friends know different things, so I guess there's a little something for everyone here.

1) I was born with a ventricular septal defect (VSD), which is essentially a hole in the wall dividing the heart's left and right ventricle. I couldn’t do extended periods of strenuous exercise when I was a kid and had to go in for regular EKG sessions with the dreadful gels. The hole got smaller as I grew up and is no longer an issue.

2) I was born in Hong Kong and lived there until elementary school 2nd grade, at which point my family immigrated to the States.

3) I was a huge trouble-maker when I was a kid. One of the more epic incidents involved a large fish tank that was at my grandparents' place in Hong Kong. I couldn't have been more than 5 years old when I contrived to pull it off the stand and have it break over my sister's head.

4) I was picked on a lot by my uncles, aunts, and cousins. Thus I earned a Cantonese nickname which literally translates as "Face (to) Wall," which perfectly described what I tended to do when hounded by relatives.

5) I was dropped back to 1st grade after arriving in the States as my English wasn't good enough. So much for the Queen's English.

6) My parents have pretty low-level English abilities so I was the family interpreter/translator from a young age. This was good and bad: It sharpened my listening/observing and got me used to learning things quickly, but at the same time it led to an attitude issue over my parents that I’m not proud of.

7) The Chinese school my parents sent me to was run by a local Chinese church, and through its ministries I eventually accepted Christ and became a baptized Christian. My actions don't always reflect this and it’s another thing I'm not very proud of.

8) When it comes to music, Asian kids tend to be pushed towards learning the piano or the violin. I somehow managed to draw alto sax from the hat (although piano did come later).

9) Growing up, I had the most fun making things from a tub of Legos. My parents then gave me such subtle hints as books on Hong Kong’s architecture, land reclamation projects, and public transport infrastructure. Before I knew it, I was filling in the bubble for civil engineer.

10) I was the first in my family to graduate from a university, and even that very nearly didn’t happen. After Spring Semester of my junior year in college I decided I’d had enough of mixing cement on weekends and filed the papers to transfer to the Japanese major. Coincidentally, the College of Engineering also decided they’d had enough of me sucking as an engineering student and kicked me out. As I had filed before it all went down, the grades for my Japanese coursework were very good, and my Japanese major advisor and some professors vouched for me, I was allowed to transfer and finish the Japanese degree after sitting out a semester. I now have an idea of what it’s like to have the world crumble around me.

11) I've had casts on my left forearm (thumb compound fracture and dislocation), right forearm (broken thumb), and left foot (horribly sprained). My right leg is just waiting its turn.

12) Somewhere in my closet back home I have a collection of stamps from pretty much all the countries that are/were in the British Commonwealth.

13) US TV programming has never appealed to me. I’ve seen episodes of popular shows, but I’ve never followed any series and certainly don’t feel the need to buy full season DVD boxes.

14) I love to drive, both in reality and in video games, and am very picky when it comes to cars.

15) The first prefecture in Japan I lived in had the previous Japan Grand Prix circuit (Suzuka) and the current prefecture I live in has the current Grand Prix circuit (Fuji). Despite this, amazingly I still haven’t actually been to a Formula 1 race.

16) I helped pull one of the logs that will be used for the next rebuilding of the Ise Shrine up a river, as in I was in the river chest deep yanking on a huge rope.

17) I’ve performed as a taiko drummer on stage in one of the pavilions at the 2006 Aichi World Expo.

18) I once used masking tape (non-stick, I'm not THAT cruel) to cover every crack (including all the doors, windows, the hood, trunk, fuel lid, key holes, etc.) and tape down all the wipers and retractable side mirrors on a friend's car.

19) For a 20-something single guy, I’m really frugal and have a ridiculous savings rate. A clean life with no smoking, no drugs, no clubbing/bar hopping, with just the periodic splash of alcohol certainly helps.

20) I absolutely abhor being late. I have a habit of setting my clocks 5-10 minutes ahead and like to get to places and appointments early. Usually this is a positive but it does bite me back once in a while, like when I got to the top of Mt. Fuji too early and waited 3 hours in the freezing cold for the sunrise.

21) Regardless of where I happen to be, if there is a TV nearby and turning it on won’t bother anybody, one of the first things I do after waking up is to switch it on to a local morning news program.

22) I reserve a special level of animosity towards all types of onions, spiders, and idiots behind the wheel.

23) I can tolerate a lot of things, but I definitely cannot tolerate injustices to family/friends or betrayal of trust and loyalty.

24) I like a good deal as much as the next person, but unless the potential savings are substantial I don’t haggle. I just can’t be bothered stressing over a buck or two, and I believe the other side needs to eat just as much as I do.

25) Egg tarts are my all-time favorite pastry. If I’m desperate enough I can make a passable batch with a toaster oven.

11:00 pm: Kamen SMAP Rider
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of TV Asahi, there was a special show starring SMAP tonight. One of the corners was this: http://www.tv-asahi.co.jp/decade/news/02.html

Inagaki Goro wasn't just any kamen rider either. His special belt buckle (what kamen rider wouldn't have one?) was shaped like a wine bottle opener, and to transform, he plugged a mini wine bottle into the screw end and clamped the wings, which caused energy to flow through his costume like wine and create a flaming "G" pattern. His obligatory sword was a giant sommelier knife.

It has to be seen to be believed.

10:59 pm: Been a while since I laughed that hard
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=E6m2NzdN7o0

09:38 pm: 12 years is a long time
Flipping through the channels of regular Japanese TV can be great fun (except if you're in Miyazaki-ken, where you'll need cable if you want more than the 2 existing regular channels). There's a show where one of the things they do is put comedians on a frozen lake and tell them to live for a week on just the fish they catch. There is a show where boy bands play capture the flag in Tokyo with Jackie Chan. There is a show where they take a group of TV personalities to a restaurant, make them order a meal that is worth a certain amount without telling them the price of anything, and at the end the person farthest from the set amount has to pay for everyone.

Aside from the really messed up programming though, there are some truly neat gems, one of which I caught again tonight. Looking for something to watch while eating dinner, something on one of the channels made me think "where had I seen that before." It turned out to be a new segment of a documentary about a big family with 11 kids, which is a huge rarity in the 1.x birth rate Japan of today. Cameras have been following this family and documenting their lives, and the show is apparently aired just a few times a year, at the usual TV special periods (New Year, Golden Week, etc.). The thing is, the documentary has been following this family for 12 years, so I had seen it some time before. When I last saw a segment of this show, some of the kids were still fighting and crying and the oldest one had just graduated and was moving out. Now, some of them were married and had kids of their own, the baby of the family is entering high school, etc. so the new segment had a lot of flashbacks as everyone came back for a family gathering.

As boring as the show may sound, because it was a normal documentary about normal people who went to school, struggled with adolescence, dealt with work at an office, did housework, etc. and the (mis)adventures in their lives. Unlike the so-called reality shows of the West, it couldn't get any more real than when the mom of the family had to get surgery or when the 2nd son decided to join the self-defense forces and the TV crew had to get permission from the military to keep filming him. The documentary followed each of those choices, and their conclusions or their progress thus far.

It struck me profoundly. I really don't know how to explain it, but it was the same feeling I get every time I go through an airport - that each of us is on a journey to our individual destinations, whatever it may be, and each journey is one with a purpose. I guess that if we could just turn down our self-centeredness a few notches we'd all see other people as, well, people, dealing with the cards that life has dealt and living life to the fullest. Then maybe we'd stop trying to showboat or convince others (or is it ourselves?) that the flight we've got is the best deal and mock others for taking different flights to different places.

07:04 am: Merry Christmas!
Hope all of the you in the civilized world are enjoying the holiday!

I'm off to work now...

12:43 pm: 96 hours this time!
So where are Friday nights usually held now? I can maybe make the one on December 12th when I'm back in country 11th-15th.

If anyone wants anything, now is the time!

12:02 pm: You're not helping my headache here
Product Designer 1: Eric-san, do you have a minute?
Me: Sure, what do you need?
Product Designer 1: Product Designer 2 and I came up with an English name for a new R/C truck that we want you to check. Is this OK?
Me: Well let's se....oh...um, no, this is bad, find another name.
Product Designer 1: Wait! We wanted this name since it describes the thrill of driving this really fast truck!
Me: Sure, but...
Product Designer 2: (cuts me off) and it's common in English to use emotion words as names, yes?
Product Designer 1: Yeah, like those fancy fragrances name "Desire"! Simple and emotional!
Me: That's true, but...
Product Designer 2: (cuts me off again) So it's fine, yes? We really like the sound of it!
Me: Do you know what "Anxiety" means?

What a way to start the week.

06:11 pm: Why?!?!?!?
And you thought all those ricers with Type R stickers on their Scions were scary...

http://www.geibunsha.co.jp/mook/ita/index.cgi?cmd=500

05:28 pm: These people amaze me...
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/30/2405987.htm

06:21 am: Well, that was quick
It was nice to be back, short as it was.

Hertz lent me a Mazda 3 to play with and after the 9hr flight I was welcomed back by gridlock on the 405 North. Checked into the hotel, made sure I found the chapel, a late double double lunch, then stayed awake by bugging friends at work through AIM and watching Man vs. Wild.

Breakfast at IHOP, which was enough food for 3 Japanese servings for less than half the price, wuntun noodle soup in Monterey Park, then the afternoon wedding and reception going into the night. Then back to the airport through thick fog for the morning flight.

12hrs later, I trade sunny 90 degree LA for dark and rainy 60 degree Tokyo, and now (the next morning) it's back to business as usual.

Not enough time, not enough time at all.

06:20 am: In country for 48hrs
From Friday morning.

Quick, someone recommend a good place for Mexican food, preferably in the north LA area!

06:52 am: Disney!
Just spent 3 of the last 4 days wondering the Disney complex with Mike, Jenn, and Bekah, which, combined with the 2 days at Disney Sea last month with my cousin's family, gave me more time in Disney resorts in the past 2 months than I had in the previous 15 or so years. (BTW, the other day was filled with Ghibli, lingerie, and the largest gathering of CAA officers I've attended since AX2007. A few more people and it would've been like the infamous CAA spring break.)

Led by the Mike (who else?), we spent an afternoon running around the new Disneyland hotel, posing like teacup-holding gentry and ballerina hippos before catching a preview showing of Cirque at their new ZED theatre. It was my first Cirque, and aside from the trapeze (it was really the fault of the stage layout) it was amazing.

As nice as all the shows, rides, and dancing pirate girls at the Banzai! Villains night parade were, just chatting away the time on trains and in lines with old friends was the real joy.

12:35 pm: And the Moral of Today's Story is...
There's a few, actually:

1) Italian licensing managers are quite picky about the use of their companys' designs, but all you need to do is ask them to actually provide corporate logo manuals that explain all the rules and they will inexplicably become quite lenient.

2) Never tell a group of Japanese writers the exact date that their work must be turned in in order to get the stuff translated into English in time to be sent off for German/French translations. You just get them all in the afternoon of said date and will be left with no escape from OT (bastards...).

3) Always say that your translation of the Japanese script for a promotional video is final. Leaving the possibility of changes open only means you get dragged off to the recording studio "just in case" any changes need to be made.

4) OL circles in Japanese offices are downright scary, although their forms of passive aggression are truly ingenious.