Kyosho put on a show in
Queen’s Square with their
Mini-Z R/C cars. I could have stuck around watching them race all day, but we were taking our daughter to the park to run around. The Mini-Z cars are 1/24 and 1/27 scale and have tons of awesome speed and handling for such tiny cars. I have loved R/C cars since childhood and used to dream of designing and engineering them. Yeah, I used to dream of working for Lego and Kyosho when I was a kid. I built quite a few R/C kits in my days and enjoyed racing every summer with the other kids in the neighborhood. I guess that is why I got in to the automotive engineering field…I really never thought about until after watching these tiny cars zip around. Fun stuff!
A short walk past Queen’s Square and we ended up at the Pan Pacific Convention Center. Surprise…we ran right in to a food festival for Yokohama and Niigata, Japan to celebrate the G8 meeting, coming soon. It will take place in Yokohama and Niigata. We enjoyed some dark local beers from the Yokohama Brewery and lots of good food from the Niigata prefecture (my wife’s home prefecture).
They also had some crazy bicycle-like, 3 passenger, taxis that you could take a ride in and…
they even brought in some snow from Niigata for all to play in. They also had a small slope (not shown) for kids to try some sledding. Good times for all. It was nice to see some snow, as Yokohama normally gets some flurries…this year, none. We actually witnessed about 5 mins. of flurries from our balcony this winter, but when we went down to the street level…there was nothing. So, for the official record, there has been zero snow recorded in Tokyo and Yokohama for the 2006-2007 winter. Boo.
A fun weekend for the the Hama-ko (people who grow-up in the Yokohama area) to enjoy. On Sunday there was an all women relay marathon. The last I knew…the Russian’s were in 1st, U.S. was 2nd, and Japan was 3rd. Check google for the latest results.
Here a drunk, there a drunk, everywhere a drunk-drunk…
Various pics of some drunks around Yokohama station on pay day.
Almost every salary worker in Japan gets paid once a month on the 25th. If the 25th falls on a weekend (like this month), then they’re paid the Friday before…today. It really makes for a good laugh on the commute home. Why? Drunk…extremely drunk people everywhere. Pay day is the day when everyone goes out with co-workers or meets up with their friends to spend a good portion of the money they just received a few hours earlier. There are a lot times when I would ask co-workers if they wanted to go for dinner a week or two before pay day and the response is usually “I would love to, but I have no money”. If you ask them on pay day, they also say “Yes, let’s go drink!”. Why do so many people get so drunk on pay day? Simple. With the great transportation in large cities it is so convenient to get totally wasted and hop on a train, subway, bus, or take a taxi home. It happens every month…red faced salarymen and women, stumbling around, puking on stairs, and train platforms, or where ever they get the urge to puke up the their dinner…sometimes in the train car…not a good time. That train car will smell for days. On the way to work the next day you must be extremely cautious where you walk because more than likely the cleaning crews haven’t started working yet and puke is everywhere. Also, on a rare occasion you might even see a salaryman using his briefcase as a pillow while sleeping on a bench or the floor from the night before.
Yes, I have a lot of stories. But, I will keep them for now. Good times…
A lot people with flickr accounts had the same problem as I did. Even people that are paying for Pro accounts are having problems.
Read CNET’s article.
But, now I am…why? Well, I am growing tired of carrying my 2nd generation 10GB iPod around everywhere. Yes, after 4+ plus years of heavy use I am still able to get 6+ hours of battery life (so, I never did join the iPod battery class action suit). Does anyone really know what the 2nd gen. iPod looked liked? Well, it was the first application of the touch-wheel! (Everyday, I feel like I am using a piece of history that I should not be touching…the technology is now so old). Not only is my 2nd gen. 10GB “old” iPod heavy, it still causes a lot of distractions on my way to and from work. I have over a 1 hour commute to and from work and recently I have found myself scrolling and listening to Fallout Boy and Linkin Park instead of trying to learn some Japanese with podcasts from JapanesePod101.com. So, I am considering buying one of the three colors shown above to just load JapanesePod1o1.com on it and use it exclusively for learning Japanese to and from work. The 2nd gen. Shuffles only hold 1GB, so I really can’t load a bunch of other songs on it. After owning a real iPod for years, I am kind of pessimistic when it comes to buying a such a small POS without a screen. If I stay committed and keep to J-pod1o1 podcasts than I will be cool…Anyone out there really using a Shuffle everyday??? I see many Japanese sporting iPods with most using iPod Nano’s or regular 5th gen iPods , but for the cost and just studying…is a Nano worth it? Also, the Nano’s have more storage space and a small screen to make more distractions from studying. Stop! No, I won’t fall into the Apple zombie trap. More is not always better. Buy what you need, throw it way (recycle it), and then buy the new latest and greatest Apple product next time. I will have to sleep on it because I am so afraid of an iPod without a screen!
Moe Oshikiri (Japanese model) displays Sony Ericsson’s new SO703i mobile phone with a real jewelry panel designed after fairy Tinker Bell from Walt Disney’s classic film, “Peter Pan,” as the mobile phone company launches its SO703i Beauty Renaissance Collection in Tokyo on Monday, Feb. 19, 2007. The 3 million yen ($25,100) jewelry panel with 6 diamonds, 1 emerald, 1 sapphire, and 1 ruby that Oshikiri holds is not for sale but the same design with Swarovski crystals comes in three colors and 200 will be up for sale from March 23 at 13,440 yen (about $110). Photo courtesy of the AP
This is courtesy of dailymotion.com…the new video pirates. You can stream The Simpsons, South Park, and anything else that you might me missing from the TV world.
This Def Tech video is a Jawaiian (Japanese – Hawaiian) song called “Catch the Wave”. It reminds me of when we first arrived in Japan in March 2006 and our daughter was just learning to walk. We were staying in a weekly mansion at the time and had free cable, so we could watch all the music videos and this video was on ALL the time. One guy is from Japan and the other guy is from Hawaii. All of Def Tech’s other songs are really rap…this song is totally different from their usual style. Enjoy some English and Japanese…
After e-mailing flickr support, I had a response to my problem within an hour. All is well with my flickr photostream now! Flickr responded “Part of the fix included flushing the image server cache. If you’re still experiencing odd photos in your photostream, it’s likely that your browser has cached a few of the incorrect images.” I just checked my flickr page and everything is showing correctly. Only my pictures. I did not reset my browser cached. I am just wondering what the other “part” of the fix was besides flushing their server cache.
Starting in 2007, Daylight Saving Time (DST) will begin 2:00 a.m. (local time in U.S.) on the second Sunday in March and will end at 2:oo a.m. (local time in U.S.) on the first Sunday of November in most of the United States and its territories. Clocks must be moved ahead one hour when DST goes into effect.
For 2007…
DST begins at 2:00 a.m. (local time in U.S.) on March 11, 2007.
DST ends at 2:00 a.m. (local time in U.S.) on November 4, 2007.
Why did DST change? On August 8, 2005, President Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which included the changes in DST to begin in 2007. Prior to 2007, DST began at 2:00 a.m. (local time) on the first Sunday in April, and ended at 2:00 a.m. (local time) on the last Sunday in October. The new rules mean an extra four weeks of DST each year. In 2007, there will be a total of 238 days of DST, compared to a total of 210 days of DST in 2006 under the previous rules. Daylight Saving Time and time zones are regulated by the U. S. Department of Transportation.
NOTE: DST is not observed in Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and the state of Arizona (with the exception of the Navajo Indian Reservation, which does observe DST).
DST effects the whole world and not just the U.S. Anyone that does business or makes contact with the U.S. regularly, must keep track of what time is it now in the U.S. For example, right now Tokyo is 14 hours ahead of New York. On March 12 (in Japan), Tokyo will be 13 hours ahead of New York.
いまなんじですか
Ima nan ji desu ka?
iKana is by far the best app for all Mac users to learn Japanese Hiragana & Katakana characters. Now I can study at home on my iMac and take my iBook to work. No more lame Windows apps with terrible UI’s that look like they were made for Windows 95.
On my Sony Viao – Windows XP craptop for work, I tried six different apps to help learn Hiragana & Katakana. They all sucked as you were extremely limited in controlling what characters you already learned and how long it took to correctly recognize the kana character. With iKana you can check your speed, choose what set of characters you want to practice, create your own flashcards, practice with over 300 built-in simple phrases, and it even works with your Apple remote. Not only does it just teach you to read, you will also learn the proper way to write. Before I had to use 3 apps with XP to get most of these features and still nothing tested my recognition speed or let me chose sets of characters to study.
How much does it cost? $18…I spent more on one book and had to create my own flashcards. I love this app as I can fire it up any time that I have a little free time and keep up with my memorization, so I don’t forget characters that I don’t use or see frequently. It is amazing how quick you can learn kana with this app.
I almost spent $180 for a year subscription to Japanesepod101.com just for their kana practice as it lets you customize which sets of characters you wanted to study. I still love Japansespod101.com for their audio, but that is free & now I just saved myself $162 to put towards a new Mac or wide screen iPod that will be released next Tuesday (the Mac fans know what Tuesday’s are famous for) or the Tuesday after that.
So, how is Vista treating all the bleeding edge users? Do your games work? How about SecondLife? Mac…Apple…Mac…Apple…Mac…
Kyosho put on a show in Queen’s Square with their Mini-Z R/C cars. I could have stuck around watching them race all day, but we were taking our daughter to the park to run around. The Mini-Z cars are 1/24 and 1/27 scale and have tons of awesome speed and handling for such tiny cars. I have loved R/C cars since childhood and used to dream of designing and engineering them. Yeah, I used to dream of working for Lego and Kyosho when I was a kid. I built quite a few R/C kits in my days and enjoyed racing every summer with the other kids in the neighborhood. I guess that is why I got in to the automotive engineering field…I really never thought about until after watching these tiny cars zip around. Fun stuff!
A short walk past Queen’s Square and we ended up at the Pan Pacific Convention Center. Surprise…we ran right in to a food festival for Yokohama and Niigata, Japan to celebrate the G8 meeting, coming soon. It will take place in Yokohama and Niigata. We enjoyed some dark local beers from the Yokohama Brewery and lots of good food from the Niigata prefecture (my wife’s home prefecture).
They also had some crazy bicycle-like, 3 passenger, taxis that you could take a ride in and…
they even brought in some snow from Niigata for all to play in. They also had a small slope (not shown) for kids to try some sledding. Good times for all. It was nice to see some snow, as Yokohama normally gets some flurries…this year, none. We actually witnessed about 5 mins. of flurries from our balcony this winter, but when we went down to the street level…there was nothing. So, for the official record, there has been zero snow recorded in Tokyo and Yokohama for the 2006-2007 winter. Boo.
