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-
Edo
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Saturday, July 28, 2007
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...
"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...
Monday, July 23, 2007
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.
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.
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.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Thursday, July 19, 2007
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.
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"
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"
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
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.
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.
Friday, July 13, 2007
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.
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 (>_<)
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 (>_<)
Thursday, July 12, 2007
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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