Archive for November, 2006
November 30, 2006 at 11:03 am · Filed under The Jumping Box
アンパンマン is a famous cartoon series in Japan. アンパンマン is everywhere. アンパンマン = anpanman.
an -> bean paste
pan -> bread
anpan -> japanese sweet bread or bun filled with bean paste
anpanman -> man with anpan head
アンパンマン is everywhere.
At the end of summer we went to the park near my apartment to light firecrackers. One of the firecracker sets was anpanman themed. It came with glasses through which all light sources turned into anpanman’s head.
Anpanman’s head is removable. When fighting evil, he can give it to friends in need of food. Then a new head is baked. I think by Jam Ojisan (Uncle Jam). Anpanman does not need to eat because his head is a continuous source of food.
Anpanman’s friends are also food related. My favorite is Melonpanna. Her head is a Melon bun…yummy. I don’t know if she can detach it or not. I suggest reading more about the cartoon and its various characters.
This is inflatable anpanman in Asakusa:
but come to Japan and you can find anpanman everywhere.
November 29, 2006 at 1:13 pm · Filed under Movies&Film
I don’t know if you Vancouverites out there see ads for this because there might not be many ads out there so just in case, make sure you check out the Canada Screens series put out by the First Weekend Club.Canadian films with talks by people involved with making them at Vancity Theatre. I won’t say much more. If you are reading this there is a 97% chance that you really like watching movies. So you should go. Funny though - I don’t talk much about movies (these days) and since March of 2006, have only seen 2. A little sad but it means my list of must sees is growing and will be nice and ripe on return to Canada.
November 29, 2006 at 9:45 am · Filed under On the Train / Bus
My train experience last night:
I JUST WEDGED MYSELF INTO A SPACE OF TRAIN SEAT BUT ONLY GOT HALFWAY IN SO UNTIL THE GIRL NEXT TO ME GOT OFF, I SAT IN AWKWARDNESS FOR 15 MIN..IT LOOKED LIKE THIS SECTION SAT 4 PEOPLE..CAUSE THE 3 WOMEN ON IT WERE REALLY SMALL..NOT SMALL ENOUGH..MY BUM HAS NEVER FELT BIGGER..EXCEPT FOR WHEN I TRIED ON THOSE ITALIAN JEANS..MISS YOU GUYS : )
and later…
DO NOT FEEL TOO BAD ANY MORE CUZ THE GIRL NEXT TO ME IS SLEEPING ON ME AND HER SHOULDER IS POINTY. I ACTUALLY I DO FEEL BAD BUT BECAUSE OF PHYSCAL PAIN..NOT AWKWARD SITUATION GUILT PAIN.
Caps not yelling, just easier from my mobile.
November 28, 2006 at 9:49 am · Filed under Sweet Finds, Travels
I found honey from Alberta in a Nikko gift shop a few weeks ago.
The Safeway shelf does not make it look 15$ good but I guess it is a special thing. I shall buy some when I return to Canada and apply it in globs to peanut-buttered whole wheat toast. Ooo…that just made my stomach cramp.
November 27, 2006 at 4:35 pm · Filed under I'm a Nerd
This week’s omiyage is from Australia. Chocolate koalas and too cute to eat quite yet so mine is sitting on the desk. I named it Moo. It smells strongly of chocolate. Very strongly. Testing my willpower. Actually it is not so much that I want to eat the chocolate. I have eating a good quantity of chocolate in my lifetime and unless someone weird allergy is developed between now and death, I expect to eat a lot more. But the smell tickles my brain in the most interesting way. I can almost pinpoint the nerve (or ) that fires off the yummy chocolate signal.
update: It appears as though my heater is indeed broken.
second update: Moo died.
November 27, 2006 at 10:49 am · Filed under Dreams, I am feeling...
It is currently warmer outside than in my apartment. A week ago I learned that my airconditioner doubles as a heater. I had an evening of glorious hot air and now, only a flashing green light. So yesterday I slept, I sat in hot water, I bundled.
I think I am being a wimp to the cold. I mean…it is still above zero. But my body is just not taking it this year. How will I react to Saskatchewan? Oh yeah wait though…I know how to work the heaters in SK.
I did have the most amazing dream the other night. At the park near my apartment (right next to the water) a charcoal sky storm was in progress. The most gigantic wave reached up further than my field of dream-view and then came crashing down on me. I lived, of course, so it was really cool. Can’t believe I conjured that one up.
November 24, 2006 at 4:55 pm · Filed under Thinking
That part done. Now what?
Yesterday and the day before I was demo’ing work at ORF 2006 in Tokyo’s Marubiru. The past…five months…have been preparation for ORF. Last week was final crunch time. Wednesday morning was I’m gonna die (I probably won’t die) I’m gonna die (I probably won’t die) [...] time, Wednesday night was that turned out to be alright time and last night I could pull off my painful boots with a smile on my face because I was (and still am) grateful for how things turned out.
I had fears. In this field the words new, novel, breakthrough stand out to me. Everyday I read articles introducing new interfaces, devices and services that make me think, “wow, yeah, they can (maybe we can) do that now”. It makes me want to invent, make new and revolutionary things. I write, I draw, I get ideas out and in the end they are always applications of what exists now. The old new things.
In the past long time (since 4th year engineering project??) I have been chasing this idea of my purpose and my success being based on doing something that has never occured to anyone before. Actually this probably started long before that. Maybe in early teens when different was good and we all strived to be the one that “starts” something so that you could be the first to stop it because it is just not cool anymore. Why was the word “copycat” used so much and is it the same in Japan? Anyway, I was usually not the kid to “start” something and now I have become less concerned with the timing of fashion (like…can I wear leggings next spring?) or hearing someone say “no I havn’t heard of that before” when I throw a name because all that desire to be original has been dished out onto the work and research plate. Not because I want to be cool (I’m reminded of Milhouse: And the kid with the backpack said “radical”. _I_ say “radical”.) but because I think that the only way I can succeed is by making people say “ooooooooooh yeah…..wow”.
Or thought? I won’t really get into the progression of thought here (cause there’s not so much progression as a mess that might be the start of a fever that I *think* is a sensible thought) but in the past few days I have come to better define (for myself) developing new and revolutionary technologies, understanding current usage, and shaping future usage of the old technologies. I don’t think I got this so much before. I based my priorities on the last two areas but I determined my success using “performance cues” from the first area. Not that I shouldn’t create, be fresh, be new. But I shouldn’t base everything on that outcome because caring about it too much blinds me from a lot of interesting stuff going on out there.
Does that make sense up there? My body and mind feel a little battered…probably fighting a cold…so I am not sure I make sense (to you or to myself) but I need to get the thought down now because I will likely forget by Monday (or in a few hours).
What else is up? That and some cool stuff with work I think. I thought that after this event I would want to toss my current work in the pond and not see it again but I actually feel really inspired to continue it which is…amazing I think. Andrea from highschool is visiting Japan and staying with me this weekend. She brought me magnetic poetry which is the coolest thing ever because I have always wanted it but never bought it. Now I have it and it’s the Genius edition too so…time for Meghan to learn some words! Tomorrow we will meet some friends in Tokyo to tour the Tokyo tower and do supper. Sunday I think will be a day of almost rest.
Oh and last week I booked flights to go back to Canada for Christmas. Hard to believe but…I think a quick dip in Regina will be really good. I especially like the idea of going back knowing I will be returning to Japan because I sometimes feel like I will not want to leave here.
November 15, 2006 at 4:29 pm · Filed under Spend spend spend!, Sweet Finds, Toys
(BTW the girl in the photo, her name is Kristin according to the jpg filename. Just in case you were wondering.)
November 14, 2006 at 10:28 am · Filed under Japan, Work
Am I on strike? I was recently told that it is a National (or similar scope) Blogging Month but I have been too busy for words unless they are combined with {curly braces} and //comments and.operators++. Maybe I care too much about what you (who is reading this now) think so I am holding back because I have no time to correct and assess the neutrality of my writing.
So what is going on? I am preparing for the SFC Open Research Forum to be held on November 22nd and 23rd. Check out the site - it’s really cute except I have mixed feelings about the tossing of crumpled paper into the pond. If I navigate among the menus enough will that beautiful scene become polluted?
Two weeks ago I went to Nikko and I actually did write a few things about it but have not posted. Maybe in a bit.
Last week I was leafing through one of my Japanese lesson books and found the most informative diagram. (My lesson books are very informative on aspects other than the language but often I’m like, “okay yeah I know that already”, but this…this was very useful). So traditionally, women used squatting style toilets (see this link for good toilets in Japan info) and they are still found in many public restrooms. Often they are the only choice and sometimes you will be asked if you are okay with using the squatting style toilets. In the past I have always answered with a confident, “of course, I’m from Saskatchewan”. I had some complaints though. Like why I had to balance while reaching behind me to get toilet paper…why couldn’t they hang it from the opposite wall? Well. Minna no Nihongo informed me via stickwoman drawing that this whole time I have been facing the wrong direction. Why didn’t I realize this before? There is even a splash guard on the one side. The first time I used one, I likely just transferred my western toilet orientation to the new case. We get used to facing the stall door. So now I know and I hope this little bit might help someone finding themselves in a similar situation (sorry I did not include a diagram - if you are interested enough, I imagine Google will be suitable for all sorts of interesting diagrams).
Last weekend I went to ATR around Kyoto for an Open House event. It was a whole new place. Very international and a little bit culture shocking because when it came to reception time, people were just taking their own beer. An intern from Canada working at ATR, Anton, was super kind and let me crash at his place. Again culture shock or space shock as he was put up in a 3 room + dining/kitchen apartment. If I had that kind of space I’d be learning how to do cartwheels! Anyway, I met a number of his coworkers and they were all very fun and interesting. I also learned that this is not an unripe tomato, it’s a fruit called a persimmon (in English). Actually, I knew “about” persimmon’s but had never actually seen one. Persimmon’s are yummy, they have little barrier between object and eating the object (like seeds and skin) and the flavour is a little almond-y, leaving one quite satisfied.
It’s getting cold here. But it’s not really that cold. It’s weird. I’m weather-confused.
November 1, 2006 at 5:46 pm · Filed under Thinking
I can’t believe it is inching below zero in Regina. Yes all in Regina can kick me for saying this, but I am longing for the cold weather a bit. Maybe because it helps you long for warm days more. Warm days and chilly nights have been the regular thing here. I can’t believe our afternoon temperatures are still around 20 degrees celsius. It feels a bit like spring but with fall colours (so says the leaf decorations at the department store). And I am going scuba diving in 3 weeks. Yiipee!
I am also going to the Kyoto/Nara area in…holy crap I guess that is next week and I can’t find a hotel. Good job last minute Meg…didn’t think about the leaf rush. In autumn the places to travel are ones beautiful for their changing leaf colours. People here are particularly fond of the maple leaves - Japanese maple that is. The leaves are smaller and a bit more pointy than Canadian maple leaves. So it is weird because Canada = maple leaf but I have seen more real maple leaves here than I did in my other life:part_canada.
This was supposed to be a Halloween post in which I discuss Halloween in Japan but I didn’t finish writing yesterday and now it is All Saint’s Day. Can anyone tell me what All Saint’s Day is? I have never received an explanation, or comment on it, even from the most religious people I know. Even going to a Catholic school…I don’t recall anything special happening on this day.
For Halloween - nothing spooky happened. Possibly, I should have gone to Tokyo on the weekend as I hear there were some crazy things going on there (gaijin takeover of the yamanote train line…you could probably google it…I hear it was messy), but I stayed home to learn Actionscript which I guess is a little spooky. I did go for Halloween supper with Roz and Billy last night…well…it seemed like all the food we ordered was of some orange hue and that is kinda Halloween-y.
No really, I had been thinking that I should find something exciting to do but the spirit wasn’t in me. I love Halloween but I love Canadian Halloween and despite some pumpkin decorations sold in the depaatos and a parade for costume-d children and various shinanagins in Tokyo…there was something missing in the air here. Something that I need to feel Halloween-y. (Maybe just my visible breath).
One treat to be had: finding this yakitori stand off a street around Yokosuka-chuo. Once you get a space between the row of suited men and uniformed girls stopping for a snack, you can stand there and…eat. Take skewer of meat after skewer of meat and eat and when you are done, a woman counts your skewers and you pay. It is enjoyable to watch the meat being prepared. The roasting robot to the right of the picture below is quite hypnotizing. So cheap to! (60円 = about 60 cents).
Tonight we have a farewell party for one of our group members. I’ll try to not take pictures of food but seriously, lately I have been considering the possibility of a career switch to food photography.
