Aug
14

We are just hamsters in a wheel

Monday, August 14, 2006 Posted by

Just read this: Japan Railway passengers to generate electricity at train stations (via: Newsvine) and it got me thinking that we are just a few steps away from being hamsters in wheels in full Matrix style…. OK, maybe not yet… 🙂

Anyway, I’m back from my vacation by the way. End of the drought, I hope!

Jul
24

Various snapshots from Japan

Monday, July 24, 2006 Posted by

I have collected quite a few funny and interesting photos on my cellphone, snapshots I have taken when I saw something that really caught my eye. I figured I got enough for a blog post, so here you go! Hover over the photo for a description, click to view the whole photo.


Go Dickies!
'Nice Guys' head piece
'Playboy' head piece
Heldass - great name for a diet supplement!
A classic: the women's lap pillow
Square-shaped melon!
Panchiettr (?!)
Ginza Chuo-Dori on a Saturday

In case you are looking for the “joke” or “funny part” in that last photo… there is none, I just wanted to post post how Ginza now looks on Saturdays and Sundays – when theyu turn Chuo-Dori into a no-car zone. Recently they have put out some tables and chairs in the middle of the street for people to sit and relax. It’s really really nice, actually.

By the way, a few months ago, I posted another batch of these kinds of photos, check that post out here.

Jul
23

Stormtrooper spreads Firefox

Sunday, July 23, 2006 Posted by

Do you know who Danny Choo is? If you don’t, you’ve missed one of Tokyo’s current cultural institutions.

Anyway, the Stormtrooper lended a helping hand to the Mozilla Foundation when they were spreading Firefox in Akihabara the other day. Numerous young lasses dressed up as maids (what else?) was spreading a good cause among the otakus roaming Akihabara. Not that there is anything wrong with being either an otaku or walking around in Akihabara for that matter! But these marketers sure know their target group!

Anyway, having Danny dressed up in his Stormtrooper gear made the whole event look even more surreal! Here he is trying to convince the Marketing Director of Dell Japan to install Firefox in all new PCs.

Dell and Stormtrooper

Jul
18

Preview of The Class

Tuesday, July 18, 2006 Posted by

Well it has been a few days (almost a week I guess) since the five TV pilots leaked online but not being as well updated of these things like I usually am, I did not notice until today. They were released under the moniker “Preair” and were immediately nuked from higher-up sites due to mislabeling (there is a fine but clear line between DVDRIP and DVDSCR)

Anyway, enough with the piracy mumbo jumbo. I decided to check them out. “The Class” and “Shark” sounded the most interesting to me, so I started with these two. I have not yet gotten around to seeing Shark but I checked out The Class a few minutes ago.

theclass1.jpg

I liked it! Thing is, I also thoroughly enjoyed Joey so my taste might not be something to rely on for the greater masses. The premise is simple: A bunch of people meet at a surprise party for Ethan’s (played by Jason Ritter) girlfriend. Ethan went to third grade together with her, and decided to invite as many people as he can from their time in third grade to this party. A lot of people show up, hilarity ensues. Andrea Anders from Joey plays one of the leads as well:

theclass2.jpg

Although I thought it started a bit stilted, the final joke before the title shows up was actually hilarious. I thought the humor was fairly obvious at times, but less obvious than it used to be in Joey. There is a definite Friends feel to it (I don’t know, could be the apartment, could be the ensemble cast of 20-somethings) without feeling like a rip-off.

This is definately a show I will try to follow when it starts in the Fall!

Jul
17

Weather Bonk – Amazing real time weather site

Monday, July 17, 2006 Posted by

A burst of activity from me recently, as you can see. It’s a three-day weekend here in Japan, and I’ve got loads of time on my hands suddenly.

I wanted to share with you a premier weather service I found the other day, courtesy of Waxy.org (King of Links!!).

It’s called Weather Bonk and uses Google Maps as a basis for presenting real time weather data and web cams from all around the world. You can add your own Web Cams to the page as well. It doesn’t seem like you can edit already exisiting web cams; which is unfortunate because I found a web cam which is in the totally wrong place. Scroll down slightly south of Tokyo (just by Tsurumi) and you will find a web cam there which claims to be Odaiba. Yes, the web cam shows Odaiba, but that is not where Odaiba is located! (I’m going to contact the people running it to see if it can be moved.)

Anyway, all in all, it is a brilliant site to check real time weather conditions for a large part of the world. Go check it out.