ricesuki

Well there are 3 main lines and a few others on the side...

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 22:18:49 GMT

http://san.mobilesuit.ms/images/sanmtr.gif

I should circulate this at work and see what happens...

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 13:50:05 GMT

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/magazine/26FOB-2DLove-t.html

The stream continues

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 23:24:02 GMT

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?

First Morning Musume, now...

Thu, 07 May 2009 03:23:12 GMT

Maid Cafe at AX. Be afraid.

Genius!

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 10:10:17 GMT

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090423/en_afp/entertainmentjapancrimearrestpeople

The what?

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 22:23:11 GMT

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/

One more box checked off

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 12:06:19 GMT

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.

Ah yes, LJ as well...

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:03:07 GMT

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.

Kamen SMAP Rider

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 14:12:15 GMT

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.

Been a while since I laughed that hard

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 14:02:17 GMT

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=E6m2NzdN7o0

12 years is a long time

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:02:51 GMT

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.

Merry Christmas!

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 22:05:57 GMT

Hope all of the you in the civilized world are enjoying the holiday!

I'm off to work now...

96 hours this time!

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 03:46:26 GMT

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!

You're not helping my headache here

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 03:10:53 GMT

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.

Why?!?!?!?

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 09:11:20 GMT

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

These people amaze me...

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:41:38 GMT

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/30/2405987.htm

Well, that was quick

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 21:47:58 GMT

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.

In country for 48hrs

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:36:13 GMT

From Friday morning.

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

Disney!

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 22:25:07 GMT

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.

And the Moral of Today's Story is...

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 03:56:27 GMT

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.

Hit Me Again

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 09:02:20 GMT

So I've signed on for another year.

This second re-negotiation went much smoother than the first, though still not as well as I had hoped. It was nice to know that I am now considered the company's "Lead Translator" and "Intellectual Property Supervisor" after 2 years, but a title is just a title. Asked for what I thought was a reasonable raise, was offered half that, and eventually ended up with about 3/4 of the request. Considering my work visa was expiring at the end of this month, my position wasn't the strongest for playing hardball. Maybe they're doing this on purpose, waiting until the visa is close to expiration, and if I don't take their final offer I have mere weeks to bundle everything home. HR really is the same anywhere you go.

Need to be even more prepared with backup options next time...if there is a next time. Shoot, one more and I can, on paper, qualify for residency status.

A Blur

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 11:46:53 GMT

- Took a day off earlier this month to watch Joe Hisaishi in concert at the Budokan. The performance of the huge orchestra and 1000+ member choir almost made everyone forget about the sky coming down outside (except for the periodic roars of thunder). Shoot, just having Hirahara Ayaka come out and sing 2 songs from Spirited Away was worth the price of admission.

- The next 3 days at work were long, but with all the stuff to take care of before the company shut down for obon holidays, I hardly noticed. It was like I closed my eyes to sleep and woke up at my desk every morning.

- Beijing Olympics start! Japanese Judo athletes proceed to drop like flies, prompting the media to whine about the world "changing the ideals of Japan's Judo". Their men's soccer team also lose 3 straight games amidst cries such as "the Americans are all so tall", while their volleyball teams also lose repeatedly to the same commentary. Hell, if wasn't for ESPN I wouldn't know there were other sports going on besides the ones above, marathon, and breaststroke.

- Cousin from HK arrives with her family! Proceed to hit every store in sight that sold Gundam stuff and spent nearly 4 hours taking pictures at the Gundam Expo at Ikebukuro for the sake of her 2 boys. I still can't believe how much I spent buying Gundam for them. They were also into UFO catcher games. Amazing how good one can get if you spend a few hours at a game center everyday for the better part of a week.

- Also spent 2 days running around DisneySea with the kids. Actually they were done within an hour of getting there as they lost all interest after visiting the main shops near the entrance. I didn't think it would be possible for 2 elementary school boys to be absolutely bored at a Disney park, but there they were, saying "uncle, can we leave yet?" every other minute while their parents were probably in line for an attraction and wondering if I'd have lost my mind by closing time.

- Oh yeah, as of August 2nd I've been over here for 4 years...

Reminiscence

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 11:00:32 GMT

「あの頃の楽しさに囚われて今の楽しさが見えなくなっちゃいけない。」
If you're caught up in the fun of the past, you will lose sight of the fun before you now.

「あの頃は楽しかったじゃなくて、あの頃も楽しかったよ。」
It's not "It was fun back then" but rather "It was fun back then as well."

「きっと本当に楽しいことって比べるものじゃない。」
Surely, that which is truly enjoyable cannot be compared.

Saw Ponyo and...(some spoilers ahead)

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 08:29:47 GMT

cannot help thinking it was Little Mermaid for toddlers. This doesn't have the "everybody loves it" wide appeal of other Ghibli movies, as this is without a doubt aimed squarely at children (I figured that much out from standing in the ticket line, pretty much every adult present had an elementary school-aged kid in tow). Dialogue is simple, plot is really non-existent (the only way to save the world is for a 5yr. old boy to say that he likes this lifeform called Ponyo regardless of her shape? Huh?), and there is no character development at all so characters seem to be added at every turn as random extras. The audience doesn't really know why the characters do what they do (Why does Ponyo's father need to fill the well with magical potion and bring about a new oceanic age? Indeed, how did he, a human, end up with this diety who is Ponyo's mother? Surely there must be some reason why Sousuke calls his parents by their first names only? Hell, considering how much screen time he got, why was Sousuke's father even needed at all?). Oh, and even though this movie is about the ocean and not flying, Miyazaki goes and throws in random helicopters and planes to satisfy his fetish at the end anyways.

It was nice to see the old Ghibli art style make a return from the pure fantasy tangents of Howl's and Gedo. It has a delightful mix of realism (the town, house interior) and fantasy (the underwater scenes, the jellyfish) throughout. Of course, there were scenes that reminds one of other Ghibli films (the attacking globs of water kinda looked like they were inspired by Mononoke, the part where the sea creatures parted for Sousuke as he walked was like Totoro, etc.). As a whole though, it didn't feel like I was watching a movie at all, but just a few memorable scenes (the dredge net, the signal light morse code, when Sousuke's mom pops the clutch to start the wave chase, when Ponyo offers ham-less sandwiches to a lady and says they'll turn into good oppai) mingled with a lot of blah.

Oh yeah, right before the movie started, after the previews of Pako and the Magic Picture Book and yet another new Naruto movie, they went and showed the preview for 20th Century Boys Part 1 of all things. Nothing like seeing giant terrifying robots, soldiers pointing guns at people, bodies on the ground, and a bandaged man with a giant eye on his face to get kids ready for Ghibli! Geniuses.

One More Place Off the List

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 22:39:54 GMT

After nearly 4 years in Japan I finally made the trek out to Nikko yesterday. Probably the wrong time of year to go, but once I decided there was no turning back. The walk from Nikko station was a lot shorter than I expected and the temple complex (a world heritage site) was also a lot smaller than I expected. Took my time, went through all the temples, and still finished in about 3 hours, which was a little disappointing, considering that's how long it took me to get there to start with.

Heading back into Tokyo there were thoughts about staying longer to catch the new Ghibli movie. It's opening weekend though, and theatres full of kids didn't sound appealing. If only this 3 day weekend was in August...