Godzilla in Tokyo!

Sometimes it is fun to be in the minority and visiting Tokyo with Brian's parents is definitely one of those times.  Brian was lucky enough to get a week vacation while his parents were visiting so we went to Tokyo for a few days before they headed back to the states. 

Where's the gaijin? 

Bill's 6'5" frame in particular drew quite a few stares on the subway, but even in a sea of people, it was always easy to find him!

We saw a lot of fun things and you can go to our flickr site for more photos if you are interested, but here are the highlights:

Imperial Palace East Garden

Tea and Japanese Confection, Nakajima Teahouse, Hamarikyu Gardens

This isn't our video but was taken at the same tea house and explains the rules pretty well:

Sensoji Temple, Asakusa

Imperial Palace, Nijubashi

We also ate at the Outback Steakhouse in Roppongi, which was oishii desu!   As always though, even the "American" restaurants here are strongly influenced by their host country.  All I will say is, in Japan, "Medium Well" sounds an awful lot like "Medium Rare."

Project ADL: Entry 1: Arduino Test

To maintain SOME mental stimulation, I have decided to work on a new electronics project.  I don't want to reveal the exact goal of this project, because that makes it more fun for me.  Brian purchased most of the necessary components for my birthday (much to his surprise!) and now I am ready to begin.

I have decided to use the Arduino Duemilanove as the brains of my device (for now).  Long story short, I have successfully uploaded and run a very simple program and I might be a little too excited about it (see video below).  Not a major accomplishment really, but like I said, I am excited about it, so back off!



Marco wasn't as stoked, but that is because he didn't fully grasp all the implications:

Make It Happen!

So I am a little late with this post, but as many of you may know, I officially completed my 28th year of breathing on 12 Dec.  I am not a big fan of birthday fanfare, but I wanted to thank everyone for the well wishes!  Especially Aunt Rita, who sent Marco and I a "Make It Happen" team uniform.  Since inside jokes don't make friends, I will explain.  "Make It Happen" has become my mantra since moving to Japan because that is how things work here. 

In Japan, you don't try to explain why a two-lane paved road suddenly becomes only one lane, you just keep driving.  And when that road abruptly becomes a dirt road riddled with potholes, you don't stop driving.  You Make It Happen! 

You don't try to explain why it is socially acceptable to stop in the middle of a skinny two-lane road on a bridge when you have an incoming cell-phone call in Japan.  As long as you turn on your flashers, everyone else trying to use the road for its originally intended purpose just has to Make It Happen!

And don't worry about the mess of crossed (but insulated, of course) live wires above your head or the fact that the same road intersects itself in multiple spots (see my post about Hirosaki).  Make It Happen!

I think you can see the pattern.

Thanks AR!

Christmas Time Again!

Although we are in a country where around 85% of the population is Buddhist or Shinto, we are celebrating Christmas with our first real tree!  I am conflicted about my excitement over this, as the logical part of my brain tells me it is beyond extravagant to cut down a perfectly good tree in Oregon, freeze-dry it, and ship it 2000 miles around the world to Misawa, Japan, so that I can hang energy-sucking strings of white lights all over it and enjoy its smell.  However, my American-brain tells me I should push the long-term effects of said behavior out of my mind and cross that impending-environmental-distaster bridge when I get there.  Hmm...well I have given myself a lot to think about. 

ANYWHO, Merry Christmas, everyone!

Marco was very helpful, as always!

I guess Marco is offended by the idea that we might want any gifts other than him, or perhaps we were giving the tree too much attention.  Either way he has decided to make this one of his favorite hang out spots.

Pick Up My Poop, Owner

I really enjoy this sign every time I walk by it with Marco, so I thought maybe it would lighten your day as well.  I am still enjoying a state of semi-blissful ignorance here in Nihon, so I have no idea what the Japanese on this sign says (although I get the general idea).  Given said information gap, this sign causes me to ponder such questions as:   Is that dog crying?   Is that a telephone number in the corner?  Who could possibly want to field phone calls prompted by a sign such as this?  Is this sign available for purchase here?  If so, I imagine all the people in my 'rents' neighborhood might appreciate this on their lawn instead of that ugly yet direct hunched-dog-behind-the-international-"no"-symbol sign they all have.  You know the one:

BOOOR-ING!

Also, apparently I am not the only one who is fascinated with the many forms of passive aggressive human communication when it comes to the inauspicious lack of interest dogs have for using indoor plumbing: http://www.jenlouie.com/category/dog-poop/.  

Hurray for Hulu!

The intellectual property rights fairy has finally come to the rescue!!  Hulu is no longer blocked in Japan!

That is all.  I felt the discovery warranted a blog post.

My Isorated Dream

Shopping in Japan is so much fun that I have decided to share bits of it with all of you.
Below is the image of a T-shirt from a store reminiscent of Forever21.

Since it may be hard to decipher, here is the text exactly as it reads on this T-Shatsu:

"BEATING HEART

Labialize

REAL

THE END OF AN

Isorated Dream

NEVER LEAVE ME ALONE

Run in the sky of dreams and phantams go

 through the brightness a trace to

draw beyond a limit now"

Insignificant as these words are individually, they should mean something in toto. I am only human; I must search for meaning even where there is none! Why has someone gone to the trouble of printing these thirty-four words on a cotton-poly blend in various sizes and colors? …these thirty-four in particular, out of the quarter of a million (let’s say) or so that exist?

First, I checked Wikipedia, (of course). It is not a Haiku. Interesting.

Next I decided to look at the word which causes me the most pause in this whole mess, "labialize." Labialize is not a word in my stock vocabulary and its reading was conjuring all sorts of unfortunate images, so I decided to refer to the always-reliable, dictionary.com. Essentially it means to give a round character to a sound. Since we know native Japanese speakers to have some issues with r’s and l’s (one needs not look any further than this very T-shirt for a perfect example) I checked the three other permutations of this word and found that none are legit, so we can safely conclude that this T-shirt is trying to tell us something about pronunciation. Dead end.

If I think about this anymore, my head might explode. Those crafty Japanese…is this a step in their plan for world domination?

My conclusion: This shirt clearly belongs at a poetry reading, Haiku or not.