Friday, February 20, 2004

testing 7:55:08 PM    Comment on this post! []

Monday, October 13, 2003

Wandering through Aoyama Robert wasn't kidding about the breadth of the Tokyo Designers Block. Damn, my feet hurt from all the walking. Aoyama is NOT an area I hang out in, so even walking around there was an experience. Further proof, if any were needed, that Tokyo is a world-class, exciting place to be, something I sometimes forget during my mundane day-to-day activities. More later. 10:16:05 AM    Comment on this post! []

Saturday, October 11, 2003

Tokyo Designers Block Well, this looks interesting. It seems that this weekend there's some sort of art/design festival going on all around Tokyo (predominantly in Aoyama, it appears) called the Tokyo Designers Block. Not mentioned, according to Robb Satterwaite (of Tokyo Food PAge fame) is the container city: On October 9, a new 39,600m2 "city" comprised of 200 six-foot containers will come to life in the Aomi Area of Odaiba. Featuring container bars, container theaters, container museums and container shops, this innovative exhibition will also feature a music event with sound, design and video art installations. The containers will be conceived, designed and furnished by a variety of artists, young designers and international corporations, and laid out along themed "streets." Something I'll defintely be checking out this weekend. 11:58:20 AM    Comment on this post! []

Wednesday, October 8, 2003

No Luck No ballot faxed from California was waiting for me at the office: not that it would have made a difference, it seems. Yes, I know that my single vote would have been less than a rounding error in this election, but I would like to have had the chance to at least add my voice to the minority and to have given me the sense I was doing my part against the onslaught of the barbarians. Polls closed back in California at noon Tokyo time, about the time I went to lunch with a co-worker at a nearby Indian buffett. We had finished and were walking to the cash register when a college-age Japanese guy (presumably from nearby Keio University) walked past us to join his buddies at a table. As I sat down, I distinctly heard him say something that used the word "Schwarzenegger"--do NOT ask me to reproduce the Japanese pronunciation--causing me to turn and ask what he meant. What he meant was that the kid had heard that--less than two hours since the polls closed--Schwarzenegger had been declared the winner. "Are you sure?" I asked "Yes, Schwarzenegger won," said one of them in English. I took the news rather well, I thought. "FUCK," I said. "I'm from California," I told everyone who had looked up, including the waiters, "and this is just STUPID. Fuck!" Well, at least I'm registered to voter with Alameda County now, so I'll be able vote on Arnold's recall when it comes up in a few months. 11:06:55 PM    Comment on this post! []

Tuesday, October 7, 2003

Crushing the Would-Be Governator Long-Distance Okay, a bit of hyperbole, but it looks like I may be voting in the ridiculuous circus that is the California gubernatorial recall election, despite the fact that I'm typing this in Tokyo. MXG mentioned to me--and I confirmed at the US Embassy Tokyo website--that the California Secretary of State has ruled that given the short timeframe for the election, faxed ballots would be accepted. So I checked at the Federal Voting Assistance Program website, downloaded a PDF of the Federal Post Card Application for an absentee ballot to be sent to me. Normally it's mailed, but in this case I faxed it to the FVAP via a toll-free number (toll-free numbers available in 59 countries!) to be forwarded to the Alameda County Registrar of Voters, and if I'm still on the voter rolls and the Registrar is willing, they should be faxing me in Tokyo a ballot that I can fax back. I have to sign a waiver of secrecy (obviously, it's not a secret ballot anymore) and get it back to them by twelve noon tomorrow Tokyo time, but if the ballot is in the fax machine tomorrow morning, I WILL do it. I'm crossing my fingers. 11:58:29 PM    Comment on this post! [] Macroeconomic reading; or, I'm going cross-eyed Still rereading Paul Krugman's The Accidental Theorist, and I think I'm getting a better handle on macroeconomics. Of course, some of what he says doesn't apply any more: Krugman's advice in the book for solving Japan's economic woes by increasing the money supply and therefore stimulating demand (in other words, printing money) has changed in his more recent writing, because thanks to the Japan's near-zero interest rates, it's in a so-called liquidity trap. Of course, I'm still at the point in my economic education where I can barely keep straight to most basic concepts, never mind the more subtle and sophisticated theories. Back to the books. 11:39:35 PM    Comment on this post! []

Saturday, October 4, 2003

Random Book Stuff Given the recent hoo-ha over currency exchange rates (a bit of economics that affects me directly), I've started rereading Paul Krugman's The Accidental Theorist, hoping to get a better handle on the whole issue, which involves, among other things, the US current account deficit, the Bank of Japan's interventions to keep the yen weaker, the question of whether the dollar needs to be weaker (or, really, how soon the dollar should be weaker), and if 80's-style trade protectionism will make a comeback. The Economist devoted much of its recent Survey on the World Economy to this (last week's issue, still at your local library if you're interested), and so did William Pesek in a recent column. Much of this stuff, is, admittedly, over my head, but I know enough to be bothered by some neo-protectionist rhetoric I'm hearing from folks back in the States. Give me some time, I might even be able to articulate my concerns. Eric Gower, author of The Breakaway Japanese Kitchen (which I own a copy of, and have mentioned here before), is participating in an interactive discussion on The WELL (http://www.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/) for the next few weeks, moderated by Frako Loden of Berkeley and Ed Ward now of Berlin (regular listeners to NPR's Fresh Air will know him as the rock historian commentator). Eric discusses his creative, Western-style uses for Japanese ingredients. Took a look, and ask questions if you like. 12:11:09 PM    Comment on this post! []

Friday, September 19, 2003

"If I can fight off a bear with a brolly, I can do anything" Last October, I told the story of a co-worker, a Scottish woman named Marianne, who was attacked by a bear while hiking near Nagano. She returned to Scotland in May, but I hadn't heard from (or about) her until today. It must have been a slow news day in Scotland back in June, but it seems Marianne told her story and the story was picked up by the BBC's Radio Scotland: Friday, 27 June, 2003 Woman fights bear with umbrella A Scottish tourist, who has just returned from Japan, has told how she beat off an attacking bear with an umbrella. Marianne Campbell, 42, from Tain in Easter Ross, was hiking in Karuizawa, near Tokyo when the incident took place. Miss Campbell tried to run off after spotting the animal but told how it gave chase and knocked her to the ground. With nothing more than a plastic brolly to defend herself, she managed to escape with just a small cut on her forehead. Speaking on Radio Scotland, Miss Campbell said: "Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a black shape about five metres to my right. I thought it was a wild boar, so I thought I would go and run around a tree. "By the time I started to run away, I saw it was a bear. "When it stood up it was easily the same height as me and it knocked me to the ground with its paw." She described how she lay on her back, swiping at the bear with her umbrella whilst screaming as loud as she could. "I wouldn't have had the courage to fight back if it wasn't for my brolly," she said. 'Empowering experience' Miss Campbell added: "It eventually ran off and I got up and ran too - in the opposite direction. "I met a Japanese couple who took me to hospital." Miss Campbell escaped with just a cut on her forehead and a faint scar is her only reminder of the attack. She describes her experience as "empowering." "If I can fight off a bear with a brolly, I can do anything," she said. (You can listen to an excerpt from the Radio Scotland interview, and tell me how badly I rendered her pronunciation in my original posting.) 11:58:18 PM    Comment on this post! []

Thursday, September 18, 2003

Stalking the Noir Streets of Tokyo This past Sunday I went to something I used to take for granted back in Berkeley but rarely hear about here: the author appearance. This one, of thriller writer Barry Eisler, took place at a foreigner hangout in Aoyama called The Pink Cow. I saw a flyer for Eisler's appearance posted at my office, and the name of his first book rang a bell, recalled from a Japan Times book review last year. The basic plot sounded very high concept: John Rain, half-Japanese, half-American (or, as reviewer Benjamin Reese at Amazon.com charmingly calls him, "half-breed") is an assassin working in Tokyo, specializing in hits that look like death by natural causes. He gets emotionally involved with the daughter of his most recent victim, and all hell breaks loose--or at least a lot of plot complications happen. It sounded vaguely interesting when I read the review, but not promising enough to seek out. So I was in Kinokuniya Books last week, and came across the first of Eisler's books, Rain Fall, now in paperback.. I flipped it open, and was hooked from the opening chapter, where the protaganist follows his victim through the streets of Shibuya. So I bought it. What caught my attention particularly about the book was Eisler's attention to detail: I recognized the very real locations that Eisler put his protaganist in, places that I'm familar with from living in Tokyo. And like any good noir novel, the protaganist has to dig beneath the oft-times glittering surfaces to uncover the ugly truth underneath. A big part of good noir novels is, for me, is evoking a strong sense of place. Something like the Boston of Robert B. Parker (before he descended into self-parody), the Los Angeles of Michael Connelly or James Ellroy, or the New York of Lawrence Block. Barry Eisler does this for Tokyo, painting a vivid and believable portrait of the city. Anyways, it's getting late. More later. 11:52:27 PM    Comment on this post! [] A Makeover Just trying out a new look for this weblog, a Radio theme called Soundwaves (There some others I liked better, but for some reason the comments buttons on them didn't work) 9:51:29 PM    Comment on this post! []

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