These guys watch way too much Anime

I've only ever seen snippets of the anime called "Naruto" over here in Japan, when it happened to come on the TV while I was lazily channel skipping away half an hour or so on an afternoon away from work. However, this production is still good even if you have never seen an anime in your life. Not a drop down and roll on the floor holding your guts while trying not to pee kind of funny, more of a little more than mildly amusing kind of funny. I just like the way that the whole thing has been put together. Quality work.

New apartment already named, 'Brainfry'

Before dinner last Wednesday, my wife and I took a short bike ride around the block looking in the windows of the apartment shops, as we have been for the last number of months. Ang's 3 year non-renewable job contract is about to expire this July, and along with it, our lease on the apartment which also belongs to the school. We've steadily been noticing a continuing drop in the number of 'nice' apartments in the last number of months. First of all, April is the end of the financial year and also moving season for almost all Japanese people. Another reason for the drop has been attributed to the Japanese love for June brides, so there are a number of young couples out there just like us snapping up all the best apartments.
Anyway, Wednesday night I decided we'd done enough waiting, so when the agent stepped out of the door to usher us into the store I put up very little resistance and followed him right in. By Friday we were being ushered around a small number of apartments to see how we liked them. We quickly realised that the price we were after was going to be impossible if we were to actually enjoy the next year at all in any semblance of comfort. Sadly our price bracket had to jump up another $150 a month. By Friday night we had registered our interest in one little place a little bit further away from the station than we are now, quite nice but it didn't have the separate kitchen we were hunting for. It was also quickly named Brainfry due to the fact that if you look up out of the living room window you get a beautiful view of an enormous neighbouring mobile phone tower. The only bonus of this is that the tower sits atop the local telephone switching station, our ADSL connection would be getting a mighty boost, fantastic. The fact that we will begin to glow in the dark in a few weeks time was put to the back of our minds.
On Saturday we continued our search at the next apartment shop in the line, and quickly found out that each store actually shares the same listings. This shop still managed to show us around a number of different apartments, one of which we were particularly interested in, due to the fact that it was only about 50 metres from our current apartment, and had everything we were after. The price was a little higher than we had wanted, but we were willing to absorb it for convenience's sake. We were later to find out that this property was owned by a branch of the local government, in charge of Japanese Agriculture of all things, and they happen to have a 'No Foreigners' policy written down in their books that there was no way around. It didn't matter who our employer was or our references, it didn't get around the fact that we were dirty foreigners. One of the worst things about that is that any Japanese person I tell about it, says that it is "too bad", but their facial expressions give away the fact that they aren't really too surprised about it. Damn government sponsored racism, 'please come to our country nice foreigner, but don't even think about staying here'.
Anyway, Sunday was also spent checking out properties, and we even visited a third and fourth shop. The third shop had a cool young agent that we really would have wanted to get a property through, and he also seemed so disappointed when we had already seen almost every property he could have shown us. Hopefully we can take a couple of friends to him shortly to cheer him up.
By Monday we were down to two properties. One that was the perfect design inside, next to a train line but not near the station (13 minutes walk) or any shops, and also on the 1st floor, which equals colder in winter. And one that was slightly closer to the stations (9 minutes walk), 2nd floor, potential for super fast internet, super close to good shops, restaurants and a big park, but had no separate kitchen, and would fry our brains. We had no choice but to go for the fried brains. We're hoping not to regret our decision in the next number of months, but hey, that's life. Mmmmmmmm Braiiiinnnnssssss...

May have to step down a notch

This week my wife and I continued our search for a new vehicle. We were taken down to the largest auction house in Sapporo, to cruise the enormous car lots in search of the specific vehicle that we were after. And would you believe it, they had one, two if you count the one that's 'colour wasn't right'. So we're thinking, sweet! Our guy had told us that we could get the exact car we were after for about 1,200,000 yen, later that day however, the story started to change, and the average sale price of the vehicle at auction climbed up to 1,600,000 - 1,800,000 yen (between AUD$18,500 and AUD$21,200), and this was not including the on road costs, registration, road tax, and sales tax (5%). This car was starting to look not so cheap and more, especially since when we get the vehicle back to Australia we're gonna have to pay at least 20% more on taxes, then pay for inspections and minor car adjustments to bring it up to Aussie standard.
The real problem was that the cars we were looking at just didn't have the kms on them that is needed to make them unattractive to a Japanese buyer. The cars available that day only had 25000kms on their clocks, quite within levels of acceptance. The cheaper vehicles that we'd been looking at in Tokyo had about 55000kms on them, which in three years is a fair amount of driving in a relatively small country like this.
So, to cut to the chase, we're either gonna have to, 1. wait, 2. go for the non GT version of the latest model which comes in cheaper, but sells in Aus cheaper too, 3. adjust our tastes to go for the previous model (pictured above) which consistently comes with cars with the level of kms to make them unattractive to Japanese buyers (80000kms+, which is nothing really), or 4. go to Tokyo. Sadly, number 4 is sounding good at the moment, but that is probably just cos I'm bored of work at the moment, and any excuse to get on a plane sounds great.

I wanna learn to edit videos!!

Again with my same complaint. Here's a couple of friends looking to have shit loads of fun, while also putting together a short clip with some great editing. Hair flips to the beat, and general bouncing around fun. Looks like I'm just gonna have to suck in my bottom lip and do the obvious, and put the time into that damn machine if I'm ever gonna produce anything. With all the DV tapes I've got lying around I must be able to put something together.

BTW- Great song too. "Hey" by the Pixies. I don't know if I'd heard it before this or not.

Strangely reminds me of my brother

Must be the hair. I gotta start working on some videos, not like this of course, but the editing just inspires me to get onto that Mac and get into it.

The embedding option has been disbled on this video, so if you wanna check out this guys strange abilities you will have to click on the link.

Evolution of Dance 60's - 00's

This comedian dancer is really very good. Balding and all, he's a cool guy. Check out how many of these dances you remember having to struggle through, or even secretly enjoyed getting down to.

Xbox 360, PS3, or Nintendo Wii??

That is the question? We haven't even got one of each of these consoles to choose from yet, but for a while now it has been one of the burning questions on many a geek's mind.

A while ago now, when I first heard of the concepts of the new machines, I instinctively thought that the PS3 would be for me. The latest in technology with a supposedly uber fast new chip in it, the PS3 was gonna blast away the competition. As it got closer to the release date of the XBox 360, I started to hear comments bouncing around the net that some game developers were starting to complain about the process of making games for the PS3. The comments said that the platform was too different from the other machines out there that it would be very difficult for them to be able to design games that could be adjusted to work on other machines. Knowing Sony's history of only wanting 'Sony' stuff to work with 'Sony' products, this news did not come as much of a surprise, but already started to worry me that some of the best game makers might prefer not to be so constrained and would be looking elsewhere.

When the 360 then came out into the market, unavailable but still out there somewhere, the words from Sony started to be a little more subdued. I remember reading about a comment from a Sony exec, which said that the PS3 would be 'as good as' the 360, a little different from the 'far surpassing it' that I was originally expecting. It's getting even closer to the delayed release date of the PS3, so sale prices have recently been fed to the public to gauge their reaction. Now US$600 is a fair bit to slap down for a games machine, so it looks like Sony is going to have to do a lot of marketing to tout whatever else is in it that warrants that price. It would appear that the inclusion of a new technology Blue Ray drive is one of the costliest parts as well as the relatively expensive multi-core Cell processor. A report shown on Gizmodo last week, however, showed that if you take inflation into account, the Atari 2600 was actually a more expensive machine in its day than the PS3 will be now. I've only mentioned the US$600 machine cos lets face it, who is gonna want the shitty version?

Just before E3 in California and at the E3 itself, it was the less talked about Nintendo Wii (the machine formerly know as Revolution) that had been stealing all the attention and comment time. And now I must admit that I have been suckered down a path that I never thought I would travel down, the 'not being able to wait to get my hands on one of these!' path. The thing about the Nintendo that sets it apart from the other two machines is that it is sticking it's neck out yet again and using totally new ideas, basically on the premise that anyone and everyone enjoy should be able to have fun using their product, not just the console fanboys, but also not excluding them either. The new motion sensitive controller (I know the other machines are getting them too) looks like a shit load of fun. Given a large screen, a spacious room, a few mates, and a few of the games that were shown at E3, this machine looks like its gonna be an instant hit. Tennis without having to hit any buttons, should level out the playing field, so that even the kid with the lightning fast fingers will be able to play more evenly side by side with his slower Dad or even Grandpa (if you believe what Nintendo is saying). I've always enjoyed playing the Nintendo style adventure games in the past, even if they do look a little kiddy (who am I trying to fool, damn kiddy), so this new edition in the Zelda series already had me excited. But now, when I read that we can use the new controller system to wave around a sword and even a shield in a separate hand, I just gotta have one. Being able to drive a car by gripping the controller at either end and turning it like a steering wheel, will definitely make the new Mario cart version a riot. At less than US$250 I'm already sold on this product along with, by the sounds of it, a lot of others. Just gotta wait to see when it's coming out. Looks like I know what I'm getting for my Birthday this year.

Net Neutrality

Something scary that I've read a little bit about in the last week or so is the new topic of net neutrality. Supposedly American congress is discussing whether or not to give internet service providers free reign to choose which internet content you will be able to see and which you can't. Giving them the ability to charge companies and individuals to have their sites made accessible to the public; thereby destroying all that is good about the internet. The level playing field is once again tipping in favour of the large corporation. It sounds as if somebody out there wants the internet to turn into some kind of giant yellow pages service. The number of ways in which this could be bad for consumers and companies is innumerable, and yet I find it very hard to think of one way in which anyone other than service providers could actually benefit from such a system. The best explanation that I have found on the topic of net neutrality was found on the ask a ninja site, his funny yet descriptive video can be viewed here.

"Hanami" Time

The title for this post could more aptly be name, "drinking beer in the park under trees that just happen to have cherry blossoms on them", but I thought that it was too long winded. Last weekend was cherry blossom time in Sapporo. One of the most looked forward to times of the year, especially in this part of the country, because it signals the true end of winter. The whole town gets out on the best weekend for viewing the flowers, and they all try to cram into the same parks to sit under said trees, fire up coal barbecues and get thoroughly sloshed. In Japanese this whole process is described with one simple world, 'Hanami'. Sounds a little like Hanabi, which means fireworks, or tsunami, which I think we are all sadly familiar with. And this event comes and goes with a similar type of intensity to both of these similar words.
I have heard it said in Japan that the shortness, beauty, and fragility of the life of the cherry blossom can teach people of the importance and beauty of our own lives, as well as the need to cherish it because it could be snuffed out at any time. Not very poetic, but I think you get the gist of what I'm trying to say. I've heard a similar thing said in the west that could also be said to apply rather well here, 'Life's short, play hard!'.
In Sapporo, Maruyama Park is the place to be at this time of year. Never have I seen so many people BBQing together in such a small place. It sure gave a buzz to the whole thing, though I'm still a fan of having at least a little bit of space to kick a footy, or swing a cat, or whatever else takes your fancy on a nice spring day.

Lunch was gooooood!

Just had to brag about the lunch I just ate. Went out to lunch with a couple of the school caretakers, to a great little restaurant nearby called 'Fujiya'. Their signature meal is called 'Butadon'; slices of juicy marinated barbecued pork placed on rice with a sweet salty sauce poured on top. It even tastes as good as it sounds. The set meal came with a side of udon noodles, a salad and of course tea. I'm feeling good and I just had to share it.

Personal Luxury Subs

Now I reckon that you could have a fair bit of fun with one of these things, and also likely, scare the hell out of yourself on numerous occasions. An unusual entry on the gizmodo site today was an article about a range of personal submarines available for purchase and order from a company called U.S. Submarines. The largest available is known as the phoenix, it is 64 metres long, and looks something like a cruise ship but with more viewing windows up front. One of the cool features is the ability to have an attached mini sub capable of carrying up to 8 people if you so desired. The mini sub can get to a depth of 600 metres which would be well and truly deep enough for me. Even the slightly smaller one known as the Seattle comes in at 36 metres, it is capable of trans Atlantic voyages and also of being submerged for up to 20 days. Well, since I used to get scared just jumping in to the 2 metre deep end of the swimming pool, I don't know how I would fare regularly traveling in one of these things, but they would be cool to use for a while wouldn't they. A major benefit would be the ability to simply slip down and away from all of the rough weather and seas to the tranquility below. As long as you don't order one that looks a little like a sperm whale or something, you should be pretty alright. Though that has just brought me to think about weapons for the sucker. I reckon a few high voltage shocks should be enough for those giant squid and octopuses people keep making movies about.

E3 musings

I am a geek. I freely admit it. I share numerous tastes and traits with people who are known around the world to be geeks, so I must be one. Some of the things I enjoy include science fiction shows, fantasy novels, spending hours in front of computer games, and when I was younger in early high school I even tried my hand out at desktop roleplaying games. So where am I going with all this... One day I would really love to go to E3 in California. All that geeky gadgety goodness all in one place... Fantastic! I've just been reading about the latest and greatest things as they come out on the Gizmodo site, as those lucky bastards get to cruise around 'working', and experience first hand all the soon to be cool gear. I take my hat off to a group of guys and a gal who have turned their passion into a successful enterprise. I reckon it wouldn't be quite so hard to get up in the morning for work if that were the case for me. Can't say that I ever really thought that English teaching was gonna do it for me really, but hey, I'm still young, right...RIGHT!? Just gotta get out and get started. On what, is the only question.

Japanese Auction Fun

Went in to an auction yard yesterday, cos we're cruising to buy us a car to take back to Australia. Didn't find anything though. Many of the cars are fine to take back into Australia because the specs are pretty much identical in both places, and an added bonus is that we drive on the same side of the street. The car that we've had our eyes on for a while now is the Subaru Legacy GT. A car with plenty of grunt and still enough space inside to actually work with. The all wheel drive aspect is appealing but at the same time it's a problem due to fuel issues. We've been looking at the latest model mainly because it feels great to be in one and also because it would give us the greatest boost in resale value when we take it back to Aus, that is if we can bring ourselves to sell it. I'm not gonna list any of it's specs here, because most people wouldn't be interested, and for those that are they can be found on many a website.
Of course, with the potential purchase being a car, I've got absolutely no idea whether it's a good idea or not. The main issues that I have with the car is that it uses a little too much fuel for my liking (only about 9.5 kms to the litre for city driving) and that it's also known for rust in the front brake area. I am supposing that every car is going to have it's issues and these are just a couple that I am going to have to deal with for the time being. As I said, I've always got the option of selling it.

Golden Week

Japanese Golden Week has now come and gone, and it's time to get back to work. For those of you who don't know, Golden week is a series of public holidays lined up in a row, in which every Japanese person in the country gets out and about to have a bit of, you know, fun: ie, not work. It's similar in a way to the Easter break in Aus, where most people want to get out and do some camping or travel. This urge to travel is especially strong in Hokkaido due to the length of winter prior to Golden Week.

Ange and I are lucky enough to have a friend who was willing to go on a bit of a road trip to the distant eastern side of the island to a gorgeous area called Akan. The Akan area is famous for it's lakes and especially for a strange algae that grows in one of them called 'Marimo', which forms into strange round ball shapes and continues to grow in that same shape. The marimo start small but can become quite large over a number of years.


On one day of our trip, it decided to rain, and this severely limited our option of what to do, so we all decided it was a good time to hop back into the car and head a little further out to an area called Shiretoko, recently put on the world heritage list, much to the delight and pride of all Japanese who hear its name. Shiretoko is also famous for it's population of Japanese Grizzly bears, locally known as 'higuma'.

The story of our almost running into one is better told with vocal intonation changes and hand gestures to show size, but I'll see how well I can do. Anyway, one of the more famous areas in Shiretoko is an area with five lakes all within close vicinity. It is a popular area with both tourists and bears alike. There are three short walks available for tourist there, a 20 minute walk to see one of the lakes, a 40 minute walk to see two of the lakes and a 90 minute walk to see all five of the lakes, which was currently closed. The previous few days had been a series of disappointments as far as plans went, as much of the hiking some of the group had been looking forward to was all 'dekinai' (can't do or no go, in Japanese). This led to some feeling a little pissed off and was probably what led to us going under the roped off danger sign and out onto the 90 minute walk anyway. It only took about 10 minutes or so for us to spot the first bear track. Now, we had one in the group from Vermont and she reckoned that she knew bears, and that it couldn't be a bear because it was just too big (will post a picture of the print when it comes to hand), however, the rest of us didn't believe a word she was saying cos we had seen a stuffed version of the famed animal in a souvenir store two days earlier.

Hearts started to pound a little but why not just push on, it couldn't really be that further till we got back now could it. The path was a little worse for wear and covered in snow and fallen trees in parts, but did that stop us? No. We pushed on and had to retrace our steps one time to find the right path again, only to bump into some much clearer bear tracks straight across our path. This time there was no disputing that this was a bear. The funny thing was that we knew that there was absolutely nothing that we could do if we actually spotted a bear, we were done for. It was almost sunset, we were in their territory and without shelter. Everyone was starting to work out their plans for who they would trip up before making a dash for it when the time arose. This led to a whole lot of giggly laughter by the group. The pace picked up and there was no more stopping for happy snaps. But to make a long story short, we all got back safely, so our atrocious singing and horrible guffawing must have worked in keeping the bears far from interested in getting closer to us. The whole event made everyone a little less certain about dropping under the 'danger' ropes in Japan from now on, but I predict that this little lesson will be forgotten in the space of a few weeks if not days, cos that's just the way these things are.