Math n' Rap

So this page, which I found on Rolling Stone, is pretty funny. I could only guess about 1/3 of the songs based on the information given on the graphs. How well do you fare???

MLS Cup

Ok, so once again it's the Revs vs. the Dynamo in the MLS cup this year.
I'm gonna have to root for the Revs this year-they've been very close in recent years (runners-up in 2002,2005, and 2006), plus they got to the the big game courtesy of this goal.

Then again, how can you not love what DDR has shown he's capable of?

What a nutter.

Still, gotta support the Revs this year. Now if I could only find my musket...

October Business Goings On

In early October I took part in MIPCOM 2007 , a large trade fair for the television industry. Which meant that I got to go to France for awhile, always nice. Although I was there for business, and was quite busy for most of the time, I did get a chance to visit the Henry Matisse museum in Nice, which was good. Actually, before going to Nice we were in Amsterdam to visit 2way Traffic , a company that we do business for. While there I was entertained by a man named Taco Ketelaar, who in addition to having an interesting name, served as the executive producer for the original version of fear factor, which originated in Holland. He said that for the original show, they didn’t have much of a budget, and so instead of hiring someone to test out the challenges the planned on filming for the show, he did most of the dirty work. He said that one time he was in a glass coffin wearing only a pair of briefs, while many boa constrictors were placed on top of him. One of the boa constrictors started to bite his belly button, but he managed to remain calm and have the offending snake removed. Talk about dedication to your work…
After our time in France we continued onwards to London for more business meetings. After spending 1 1/2 hours in the baggage claim of Heathrow Airport waiting for our luggage to arrive, we finally made it to our hotel. When I inquired about the weather for the following day, I was told,

“It’s supposed to be cloudy but no rain. However, in London you have to make sure you aren’t deceived by the three w’s. Weather, wine, and women”.

Thanks for the tip-

After 10 days I returned to Japan. I went straight to a 7-11 to buy some umeboshi onigiri, washed down with a bottle of pocari sweat. It was good to have Japanese food again…

I had a week to recoup/catch up on work/follow up on everything from MIPCOM, and also had to prepare for TIFFCOM , which was happening the next week.
Which meant more business meetings with clients…

I also somehow managed to get married during all of this. Well, just the “registering our marriage” part. Shoko (my wife) and I are officially married now, though we won’t have a real ceremony until next April-more on this later.

Recently...

It's been awhile.

Though it's not like I don't have my reasons-

Today I left for work at 8:30am, as usual, and got home at 11:30pm. Later than usual, but not by much.

So basically all I do is work these days. That and travel an hour to/from work. An hour commute is the norm for people living in/around Tokyo. The good thing is that I'm not driving that long, so I can just kick back and read/listen to music. The bad thing is I'm squished in between lots of other people on the train. So even if I wanted to blog about my life, it would pretty much only be about work and/or going to and from work. Lowlights of today:

1. Going to a lecture that laid out what anti-piracy measures are being implemented in Korea. Only thing I learned is that whatever it is they're doing, it's not working so well.

2. Calling a company in France sometime after 10pm, the woman on the other end said "isn't it quite late in Japan? Why are you still at work?"

C'est la vie...


So yeah, work, work, and more work.

OK, so that's not quite all. I got engaged back in August, and Shoko (my fiance) and I have been doing some wedding planning. The big event will be held here. Swanky! Is all I have to say. Oh, and in Japan, the couple getting married gets to foot the bill. Sweet!
Hmm...any other exclamations that start with "S" that I can think of?


Shazbot!

funeral wrap-up

OK, a week late-gomen!

I was at the funeral of my co-worker for most of last weekend, which meant standing outside in the heat wearing a black suit for most of the weekend. I was pretty tired after the whole thing was over and done with. I took a few pictures of the event-

On Saturday they had the equivalent of the wake, with various people caming to pay their respects throughout the afternoon/evening. I took this picture on the train home:



The next day was the actual funeral. A lot of people contributed flowers for the funeral-each placard is a person (or company) that chose to donate. What you can see in the picture is only about 1/4 of the total-needless to say, the guy had a lot of friends/close business contacts.

In need of a black tie

So...it's been a little while.

I put new strings on my guitar-first time in at least 2 years, I think. Which is...just sad. I really need to take better care of my guitar. I've had it since I was in high school, and it has always served me well (although the action is a little high)...and what do I do? Neglect it. I've been playing it a little, and suffice to say I am way out of practice. Plus I don't have any calluses, so it's kinda painful to play. I learned how to play Weezer's "Butterfly" the other day. It's ridiculously easy, as I suspected.

So I've been busy at work lately working on finished up a contract for a company in Spain, which means I have to do a lot of contract writing-which is difficult sometimes seeing as how I'm not a paralegal. It's interesting though. I've been modifying confidentiality clauses lately, and my favorite phrase as of late is "...which shall not be unreasonably withheld by Licensor".

Anyway...

This morning when I got to work I was informed that someone I work with had died suddenly, at the age of 49. I had weekly meetings with him to talk about music.

So I'll be attending my first Japanese funeral this weekend. Japan is mostly a mix of Shinto and Buddhism, where Shinto is used for auspiscious events such as weddings and births, wheras most funerals are Buddhist.

The dress shirts I had made arrived yesterday in the mail-I guess I'll be wearing one of them to the funeral parlor-

As of August 2nd, I will have been living in Japan for 6 years. I'm very much looking forward to year number 7-already there are some big things planned, and I think year 7 will be a year to remember...

but first, a look back at some of the highlights of the first 6 years (in no particular order)

1. The Erekocha festival in Miyazaki

Held every year in downtown Miyazaki, this festival is basically a big dance/taiko competition. Groups from all over come to compete, and it's worth checking out just for the costumes alone, which are very elaborate. So there is a taiko competition as well, which features a guest performance by the taiko group Hibikiza. I don't think they are allowed to compete though-they're just too good Yeah, so I highly recommend you check this movie out-might be a bit slow, but worth it. Eventually around the 0:45 mark. Did I mention I go drinking with that guy from time to time?
What was I talking about again? Oh right, Erekocha...so my first year in Miyazaki Wes and I somehow got recruited to "judge" the dance performances. We had to rate each group based on how well they worked together, how nice their costumes were, how well they represented Miyazaki, and...some other stuff that we couldn't figure out because we couldn't read the Japanese. Oops! Ah...good times.

2. Going to Yatogi Falls

Yatogi Falls is a 73m high waterfall, located about 45 min from where I lived. I went there many times, and it never failed to impress me. There's a good swimming hole around there too...

3. Adventures in Thailand

I went there for xmas my first year with Joe and some other coolie. We saw the royal palace and wat pho, including the gold buddha that's the size of a school bus in Bangkok, then headed south to Ko Samui, where we relaxed on the beach
. Highlights of the trip include: the foam party, the three of us performing an imprompteau karaoke version of "Baby's Got Back" in the back of a taxi, MBK, and...need I even say it? Shaking railings...

4. U.S. Vs. Portugal, 2002 World Cup

The World cup was being hosted by both Japan and Korea-the U.S. team was playing only in Korea, so Wes, Claire, and I went to Korea to watch it. The U.S. was up 3-0 only 30 minutes into the 1st half, and hung on to win 3-2. It was a pretty intense game-I can remember glancing nervously at the clock like once every 5 seconds after Portugal scored their 2nd goal, hoping the U.S. could weather the storm-and they did! Which set the stage for much celebration/consumption of jinro

5. Becoming friends/family with Mariko

Ah...Mariko...my host mom, basically-though we never lived under the same roof. I spent countless hours at her cosmetics store just talking to her/customers who happened to be there. I don't think I would have made it this far without her *sniff*
random pictures of Mariko

6. Other Cool People

I've met a ton of interesting/wacky people in Japan-like the trombone playing Buddhist monk, the oil painter who happened to be yakuza, a guy who, the night before a soccer game, decided to eat an entire block of cheese, knowing fully that he was lactose intolerant (he missed the game), and a whole mess of other crazies. Gotta give a shout out to Joe, Wes, and Swatch/Tomomi

7. My Main Squeeze

Yeah.


That's about all I can think of off the top of my head...

forgetful

So I got some custom-tailored suits, and they fit very well. So well, in fact, that I keep forgetting to put on my belt before I leave in the mornings.

Part of the problem is that I'm totally not awake yet...getting up at 6:25am and leaving around 7am so I can hit the gym before work.

Today I forgot my towel (which I use as a sweat towel, washrag, and towel to dry off after I shower at the gym). You can rent one from the gym, but it's a little under $3. For a set of towels. Blah. It's about $4 to go use the gym.

Gotta make sure I don't forget my towel/belt.

"(back in the) cut like neosporin"

Shoko came back on Sunday evening, which was cool. We lazed around and I cooked dinner, and afterwards we enjoyed the passing thunderstorm. There weren't many thunderstorms when I lived in Miyazaki, but there have been several in the short time I've been in Tokyo, which is cool, 'cause I enjoy them.

It's 4:15pm, local time-glancing up at the TV I saw a bit of this new show we have on-some kind of mystery show that takes place at a high school. At any rate, one of the main characters had on a t-shirt that said "Alien Sex Fiend".

Yeah, typical high-school male, I suppose.


Back to work-

Updates

So it's been a little while. I've actually been busy this week (gasp) at work, as I am currently negotiating deals in Spain, France, Holland, and Thailand. After work on Wed. I had plans to hang out with Jon, who is the boyfriend of Sarah, who introduced Shoko and I. Anyway, I had to walk through Shinbashi station in order to get to where we were going to meet up. In the station this Japanese guy comes up to me and says "excuse me, do you speak Japanese?"

"yeah...what's the problem?"

"I think we might have met before"

"Ummm...I doubt it"

"Ok, well, sorry, but do you have any change?"

"Knock it off!"

and he scurried away. Accosted by guys looking for spare change in the station-life in the big city, baby. So when I looked up Shinbashi station on wikipedia, I also found a link to the area where I work, which is part of Shinbashi. The picture of the building I work in from that article is kinda nice too:




A friend of mine from college who has been living in Japan is switching jobs, and has just moved to Tokyo. So today I'm going to show him around a little bit. The plan is to eat lunch in Shinbashi, then maybe head to Odaiba, which is where Shoko and I went on our first date. Speaking of Shoko, she left Friday morning and won't be back until Sunday evening, leaving me to my own devices this weekend. Apart from hanging out with friends, my only plan is to buy alcohol in order to mix up some cocktails. Considering I didn't leave work until after 9pm last night, I think I'm entitled to a lazy weekend...

Things I Learned Today

From Kidscreen magazine

Grandparents buy one out of every four toys sold in the US

Kids adopt consumer electronics devices at age 6.7 now, compared to 8.1 two years ago.

Weekend Wrapup

So lately I've been making mixed drinks at parties I've been going to-which is not to say I've been to many parties lately, but...at Sarah's "Girlie Drinks Party" I ended up making something called a Southern Soing, which is a Singapore Sling, except w/ apricot liqueur. Then it was green-tea matrini's at Wes's place in Kyoto, which also turned out fairly well. So...I decided to get a cocktail shaker so I could make some stuff at home. Which meant going shopping on Saturday, which meant braving the horde of people who were also shopping in Tokyo. I was at Shibuya crossing around 6pm, which was a giant mass of people. I ended up with a cocktail shaker in the shape of a penguin. Question: will drinks taste better simply because they were mixed up in a penguin? My gut feeling is "yes, they do".
I spent a large part of Sunday playing Pro Evolution Soccer. After several hours of playing the game crashed, and I had forgotten to save...bah. I was pretty out of it all Sunday, having made myself get up (relatively) early, since I knew I would have to get up early this morning. Got up at 6:25am in order to hit the gym before work. I go to the gym in Ginza, and can walk to work from there. So around 9:15am I set out to head to work, hobbling down the street because of both the lack of exercise (first time going to the gym in 2 weeks) and my choice of footwear (half a size too small). On my way to work I often see foreigners wandering around Ginza-there are several hotels where foreigners visiting Tokyo often stay in Ginza. The problem is that at 9:15am there's nothing going on in Ginza-none of the stores are open yet. Even if they were, do you really want to spend your vacation shopping at the Gucci store in Ginza? I wouldn't think so, but...what relaxes you, I guess.

Oh My Lord

You said it, Mr. announcer.

Salaryman Adventures

What I did at work today:

1. Talked to the big boss, relating to her the conversation I had with my direct boss last night. The conversation is about entrusting a company (hereinafter referred to as "company A") with one of our shows so that they can adapt it for broadcast in other countries. This is the first time that my company has done something like this, and we were looking over the draft of the contract that company A had sent us. Except that my direct boss hadn't really read it. Oops. Anyway, I summarized it to him, and we talked for awhile...and then I relayed it all to the big boss this morning. We all agree that the conditions are very favorable. 30% off the top, minus expenses, followed by an even split leaves us with....not much money.

2. Emailed a company about using footage we shot of the Amagasaki train wreck from last year. Turns out they don't want our footage because they were able to "obtain broader rights elsewhere which pleased our broadcaster". We offered them worldwide rights...maybe they wanted to broadcast on the moon or something...

3. Agreed to participate in an "English lunch" with B, who is a native English speaker. The other participants are not...so I'll be teaching English while eating lunch tomorrow. I'll sit patientially and listen to people struggle to tell me how much they like to play pachinko. It's good to be back teaching (sort of), just as a kind of altruistic, volunteer thing.

Haha, it's totally not. I need to ask B some information (namely, what's the norm in terms of splitting profits for the deal outlined in point 1 of this post), which she officially can't tell me-so I have to do it on the sly. During "English lunch".

4. Sent a draft of a contract to Spain for one of our shows.

5. Ate the "western-style lunch plate"

6. Worked on some royalty reports.

7. Responded to a company who has the right to broadcast one of our shows in Spain-turns out they also want the right to broadcast said show in Portugal-as well as in Angola, Cape Verde, and Mozambique-but only in Portugese. They only have the rights to broadcast in Portugal starting about 1/3 of the way through the series, so...looks like they will be needing to purchase the rights to broadcast in Portugal for the first 1/3, as well as the rights to the whole show for those three countries in Africa. Gimmie the Verde!

8. Off to dinner with people from work...by the time I get home, Shoko will be sound asleep, as she has to get up around 4:30am for work.

On the return of the Smashing Pumpkins

Smashing Pumpkins was the "band of my youth", and when they broke up (I was a sophomore in college at the time) I felt like I had suddenly grown up somehow, as a link to my youth had vanished.

But now SP is back. Well, sorta. D'arcy and James Iha aren't part of the new lineup, apparently, but I'm not really sure to what extent D'arcy and James were in the band in the first place. I mean, there are songs where James does the vocals, and I'm sure D'arcy recorded the bass parts on at least some of their songs, and of course they played when SP went out on tour, but in terms of how much they acually contributed to the band...difficult to say. Of course, in any band you're not going to have an even split between the contributions everyone makes in terms of songwriting, but when it comes to laying down tracks, I think that generally everyone performs their part during recording-but that's probably not the case with SP, as Billy did almost all of the songwriting and a good chunk of the recording. My personal favorite album by them is Siamese Dream, and by "them", I mean "Billy and Jimmy", as Billy Corgan recorded most of the guitar/bass parts himself, it would seem.

At any rate, SP is back, and I listened to the album...and found it to be incredibly mediocre. Something about it...maybe the lyrics? just doesn't do much for me. Maybe on the surface it appears that D'arcy and James Iha don't do all that much, but really they provide a very valuable service-providing that "something" that allows the band to make good music.

I think I'd rather listen to the new Pharoahe Monch, which is pretty damn good.

"Keep sleepin' keep snorin' / I'll keep tourin' / come back and lay in the cut like neosporin"

Travellin'

So....it's been a little while. 2 weekends ago I was in Okinawa for a few days with Shoko celebrating our one year anniversary.




Okinawa sunsets are nice. Forgive my lack of skills when it comes to layout...


I'm way too pale to be doing this. I got a pretty wicked sunburn while I was there. I had a great time though. The highlight of the trip was definitely the sea kayaking tour we went on. We went over to a deserted island, cooked lunch, lazed around, and went snorkeling. I proceeded to chase some parrotfish around. It was a ton of fun, but I was really sore the next day from using muscles I don't normally use to paddle around.

Ukiki

So I work for the Yomiuri Broadcasting Corportation. This year is the 50th anniversary of the company's founding, which we're celebrating by continually placing 4th (out of 4) in the ratings battle between the 4 main channels in Japan. Oops.

Yeah, so we also have a new mascot this year, too. It's a monkey. I highly recommend you check out this site

Feel free to play with the monkey-

-Don't even try to molest the monkey.

-I mean it when I say, "no molesting the monkey". Don't even start.

Ch ch ch changes

So I decided to skip the list of "things that annoy me". I only came up with two, and they were both transit related. At any rate, here they are:

Things that annoy me (｀へ´)

1. People who are busy looking at the cellphones/reading/whatever when they get on/off the train. Let's move people! I gotz places to be...

2. When I get off at my stop, I have to go down from the platform to the main part of the station. There's a set of stairs, but there's also an escalator. The thing is, the escalator is only wide enough for one person. Most people walk down the escalator, but occasionally there will be people who just stand there. I freely admit that this is a ridiculous thing to be annoyed by, but...like I said, I gotz places to be.

Speaking of taking the train, when I first started working in Tokyo, I thought that if I went home around 6pm, the trains would be packed, but if I got on around 8pm, it wouldn't be too bad. It's actually the opposite-The 6 o'clock hour trains are semi-full of vibrant young office girls on their way home from work. Anytime after 8pm you end up getting on a train full of salarymen, their boring grey suits and bad ties adding to their generally weary demeanor brought on by working such long hours day in and day out. I try to be a in the former, but often times I find myself in the latter (>_<)

A new start

After a long hiatus, I have decided to start blogging again. Mainly it's becuase I've been having a lot of random thoughts lately that I've kinda wanted to express. I'm also looking at it as a way to help keep my English from deteriorating-I've been living in Japan for over 6 years now, using mainly Japanese everyday, and I feel like my English is slipping. Finally, I was sort of inspired to start write again by Wes . Anyway...I think I shall start with a "list of things that annoy me"...once I figure out how to make lists.


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