Archive for June, 2007
June 29, 2007 at 11:08 am · Filed under Mostly Hilarious
Last night a coworker gave some chocolates to us. I took mine and chuckled at the name written on the package. Ah I should blog this cause it’s funny but maybe tomorrow. Later Sid came back to his desk and we were going to catch the same bus back home. I was packing my things to go and thought of showing him the chocolate but then heard him laugh. I knew immediately that he had seen the finished box of chocolates in the garbage can. “Who put D’asses in D’garbage!!!” he exclaimed. I laughed really really hard. I wish I had a recording of that cause it might make you laugh too.
Have not eaten my chocolate yet. Will update after I do. Tell you how good D’asses really taste.
June 26, 2007 at 5:21 pm · Filed under Social Technology
Modern Mechanix blogs a robotic message display for person-to-person notes in public from the 1930s. Write a note, pay a small fee and the message moves up behind the window to be on display for 2 hours. I love the name, “the notificator”.
My questions:
Did people use it for notifications or for other purposes? (example: “I saw you”’s of the 1930s)
Why are they not around anymore and what does it say for current research on channels for leaving content, messages in public places?
What were people paying for? A portion of public space? Protection for their notes (they are behind glass)?
Was two hours long enough?
June 26, 2007 at 10:07 am · Filed under Gadgets, Spend spend spend!
Guess what I did on Sunday? This is a hint…
I bought a new camera : )
PS. The picture is of my dino friend at work. I picked him up as a souvenir from a udon restaurant near the office. The restaurant was in an old house and there was a basket of little toys to pick from before you leave…kind of like when you go to the dentist.
June 23, 2007 at 2:51 pm · Filed under Learning, Words
Many of you probably know that many Japanese words are written using one of more kanji, each kanji having it’s own meaning. Sometimes the meanings of the individual kanji do not seem to relate to a word formed using them but usually they do. Take for example 電話, “denwa” or “telephone”. The “den” (電) means electricity and the “wa” (話) means conversation (roughly). The thing I love is that sometimes you come across words and the meanings of the kanji they can be written with give you a new perspective or sense to the word concept.
Example: 大抵 (taitei) means “usual” used in a sentence like “on usual days…”
大 has meaning of “big” and
抵 has meaning of “resist”
Learning that, I started to see the “usual” as being “big resistance” (ie. to change).
June 22, 2007 at 6:03 pm · Filed under Music
One more thing from last weekend. I got to see Jeremy and Yuki and listen to a pianica quartet by Kamagawa (a river in Kyoto). In the picture below is one of Jeremy’s friends, in a state I am currently quite envious us. But I can’t complain given that the day before I was floating on a pond in a rowboat.
Anyway, there is another point to this. In July I am going to band camp. Yes…band camp. Some guys in the music circle at NTT have organized a trip to an inn/music studio in Niigata. We’ve formed 4 bands whose members will drive up there, practice for a day, sleep for a night, practice a bit more, drink, hold a drunken concert, sleep (maybe) and then drive back.
Last week we had to think of what songs we would like to cover (to determine how to arrange the bands). I got a little gutsy and said that I would like to do a song that I wrote - if some people would be willing to spend a little time to arrange parts for it. I also mentioned that maybe some people should hear the song first cause like…I like it but…
No one has asked for my demo tape. We’ll see how it goes. I am half excited and half scared that they’ll hate me for the tune and the effort of having to make it sound good somehow. But mostly excited especially because I would like to learn more about the making music as a group process.
I have a first practice for this year’s summer festival performance on Sunday. Maybe I will test the tune out on those guys.
Hope you all have a good weekend.
June 21, 2007 at 6:25 pm · Filed under Experiences, Travels
Last Saturday I rented a rowboat for half an hour (800円) and floated around a pond in Nara park. I found it amusing how I always end up in the cliche romantic scenarios/scenes/places by myself but…it was really relaxing. Imagine having to take a rowboat to work everyday? Why don’t we have more of these?
June 19, 2007 at 2:37 pm · Filed under Japan
It is common for, when you are leaving a smaller restaurant, the servers or owners to stand outside the door and see you off. They wave and bow until you are out of sight. If you turn around they will still be there smiling. It makes you really feel like a guest in their home, not just a business.
June 19, 2007 at 2:25 pm · Filed under Travels
..there are deer in Nara. A lot and they are very used to the masses of people wandering the park. They hand around vendors of rice crackers sold to feed the deer and if you buy the crackers, prepare to have friends. I think this one wants a coke.
June 18, 2007 at 2:13 pm · Filed under In the Kitchen and Foodstuff
In Japan tofu is not just a meat substitute.
Well some funky things are done with it in North America too but this dish seemed like something you wouldn’t find out West (East). A slightly sweet (mirin) hot mixture of tofu, beef, and half cooked egg. It was really delicious.
It was eaten at がんこ (ganko) - a restaurant somewhere near the river with fairly reasonable prices, flowers in the front…
…and a really beautiful garden in the back.
June 15, 2007 at 3:53 pm · Filed under Spend spend spend!
(This was stewing in my pot but Eric’s comment on a flickr picture pushed this post forward so Eric, this is sort of in response to, discussion related to your comment.)
This is MUJI, a lifestyle chain in Japan. MUJI is short for 無印良品 (Mujirushi Ryōhin) or “no brand quality goods”.
They sell products for life: clothing, furniture, stationary, bicycles, food, and so on, that are “not branded”. Minimalist design and color palette; dark blue, white, creams, brown, black with possible hints of burgundy but I think only on the labels.
MUJI started in Japan but has expanded to other corners of the world. I don’t know the store counts in other countries, but in Japan they are everywhere - 285 stores. I have two within a 15 minute walk from my home. All of them have the same look, feel, and repetitive jingle (which is weirdly abrasive amongst the simplicity of everything else).
MUJI sells “non-branded” products but it has become a brand, it is a brand. Their clothes may have no logos but often you see someone in the train and they screen MUJI kid. Did they plan that from the beginning? (That MUJI would be the no-brand brand.)
In his comment, Eric brought up the book “Pattern Recognition”, where the main character is allergic to logos and brands. Eric - does she really shop at MUJI? I read that book a while ago but I can’t remember whether or not they mentioned MUJI.
The best is MUJI food. because prior to MUJI I didn’t think of food as too branded. Of course it is in a huuuuuge way…but…I don’t feel that aware of brands while grocery shopping. (k I wrote that and then I thought about all of the ways I am totally influenced by the brand of food items but…) …MUJI made me think strongly about food fashion.
I would love to meet an only MUJI person.
June 15, 2007 at 3:17 pm · Filed under Dreams, Lists, Mundane
waking up first thoughts:
- someone’s phone is ringing, no that’s my alarm
- wait a minute, I can’t leave this dream I wasn’t done that conversation
- my face feels greasy
- my teeth are wearing sweaters
- am I hot or cold?
- my mind is here my vision is not
- was I going to wake up today?
- is that really sunshine or is the day just happy to see me?
- how can I get coffee?
- have I changed position since I fell asleep?
- is someone expecting me?
- where am I?
- did I say bye before I left my dream?
- are there really bugs crawling on my ceiling or are those eye spots?
- where is food?
- this seems to be my reality. What if one day it is not?
- uuuuuuuuuuuuuggggh………
- (…)
Continue the list in the comments or share your related story.
June 15, 2007 at 2:26 pm · Filed under Evil Things, Lists
What limits us in urban space? What makes us uncomfortable?
- fatigue
- not knowing people
- knowing too many people
- not being able to find needed services
- indecision, having too many choices
- finding places to take care of personal things (toilet, cleaning, rest, etc.)
- time (transit, waiting)
- space (crowds, seating space)
- weather
- boredom (options do not seem like options)
- noise pollution
- feeling alienated from people, culture around
- feeling pressure to spend money
- impulse spending
- fear (crime/not understanding cultural norms)
- self consciousness (how do people see me?)
- (…)
Continue the list in the comments or share your related story.
June 12, 2007 at 10:23 am · Filed under Toys
Remember these?
Can I even say remember? They might have stopped selling the ones that are obviously cigarettes by the time I ventured into the candy market. I had floured gum and chocolate wrapped in paper - you could get about two and a half puffs of flour smoke out of one with the first few blows.
It goes one step further with these cigarette toys. I loved the surprised parent.
I talked to the salesgirl about these and she said that they are popular.
June 11, 2007 at 6:27 pm · Filed under Site Specific
in the process of renovating…stripped down the wallpaper…excuse the appearance…but need to catch a bus so can’t finish now…
need some change…will get to it again tomorrow.
UPDATE: Yeah this might take a while. I guess the proper thing to do would be to play with the CSS offline and then when everything is perfect, move the new version online. But I think it might be more fitting to have all aspects of this change, of this metamorphosis, online. I’ve played enough this morning. Excuse the mismatched fonts and the bareness. Maybe I should tell you about something interesting to make up for the mess.
June 7, 2007 at 1:35 pm · Filed under Reflection
After purchasing 神の雫 I walked by a display of “drawings of dad” put up for father’s day. What did I notice the most? The large number of fathers drawn with a 5-o’clock shadow. I don’t know why this struck me. No I do - I feel sensitive to the stereotypical situation of a Japanese family: mother at home and father who is never home during the week and come weekend his children don’t know his face. It is a stereotype, not all families are like this but still…when I hear about situations supporting the stereotype I am sad. The stubble makes me think that someone is working hard, over working. It makes me think that the only image a child has of his or her father is of an overworking man.
But I guess most of the faces are smiling. That is good. Maybe I feel a little sad when I think about family-style in Japan but I have to remember that most of the sadness is rooted in the expectations I developed for what a family should be. These children likely have different expectations and are probably (hopefully) happy in life.
Heh - and my dad had a beard so I guess we could never use stumble as a “how hard is dad working” indicator anyway.
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