January 24, 2007

"Wassup?" from Japan. Things are going well here. Listening to the NHL All Star Game online right now, waiting for lunch to roll around because I skipped breakfast - woke up late.

--- time passes ---

Ok, let me backtrack to since the last post.

Monday:
TeppanyakiWork was fine, and in fact was good all 3 days (today being Wednesday), so I won't bother talking about work too
much. Lunch was sushi -- 12 pieces for 1000yen (~$10cad), which is quite a deal here. Dinner was teppanyaki, which seemed expensive, but I never saw the bill. After dinner, I just walked around a bit, checked out some camera prices and went back to my hotel to rest. Nothing worth writing about.

Tuesday:
Lunch was tempura at a franchise restaurant. Fairly simple, but still good. After work, my coworkers and I went to Kawasaki just for kicks. Went to a large shopping complex where they had a massive Bic Camera store. I didn't stay long in Bic Camera, but ran off to Zara next door and bought an undershirt. Then we had dinner at a very nice restaurant within the complex that had a sign "RR". Anyway, my guess is that our meals cost $60 US or more. They had a live xylophone + clarinet duo performance while we ate. A key to better business, go with Sales people if you can. We were a group of 8, and 6 of them were either Sales people or senior people in our company and distributor's company.

Wednesday:
Raumen at the Shin Yokohama Raumen Museum
Went to the Shin Yokohama Raumen Museum for lunch. Then we went to Yokohama to the Pacifico Yokohama to set up for our conference/exhibition tomorrow. After setting up, we finished for the day early (5:00pm), and I went of on my own to visit some Yokohama sights. After 2 hours of walking about, I hit up the Yokohama Curry Museum. This was the first meal I paid for since Sunday, which is pretty much as I had planned. I was hoping other people would pay for my meals throughout my work week. Tee. Tired as I was, I fellCurry at the Yokohama Curry Museum asleep on the subway back. But I think it was worth the trouble, because the nap was great.

Ok, time to shower up, watch a short movie, and get to sleep.

Signing off.

Oh, but first, a few more impressions:

- If you like seeing legs, there are lots of them here. Mini-skirts galore even though it's cold. But if you keep looking, you'll feel like a pervert because they're mostly high school students (I think).
- My coworker has rancid breath. Maybe caused by his smoking. It's absolutely unbearable. I haven't smelt anything like it... since the last time he was in Taiwan.
- Yokohama has a pretty cool skyline, headlined by the Landmark Hotel.

January 22, 2007

First day at work, and I'm tired as hell. Had a long, long day yesterday in Tokyo yesterday, and didn't get to my hotel in Shin Yokohama until midnight.

Yesterday, my morning started at 7:30am. BC and I went to the Tsukiji Market, where they bring in the catch of the day and have the freshest sashimi in Japan. But, we found out when we got there at 8:30am that the market isn't opened on Sundays. Next was a visit to the Imperial Palace grounds, where we met up with CY, my ex-coworker in Taiwan. With limited time, we walked around the Imperial Palace and I.P. East Garden until 11:30am. BC left to meet with his realtor. CY and I went to Odaiba.

Fuji Television Station in OdaibaOdaiba is a full day's activity, if one could afford the time. We spent roughly 9 - 9.5 hours there, and still missed a few places. Shopping, mostly. Features?
  • A man-made beach
  • Rainbow Bridge: A suspension bridge with some lights - nothing special
  • A replica of the Statue of Liberty, but on a much smaller scale
  • Aqua City mall: lots of sales going on now, but I wasn't looking for anything
  • Decks Tokyo Beach mall
  • Fort Venus mall: where the interior is modeled to be like a street in Italy, complete with blue sky - really nice
  • A huge ferris wheel: similar to one in Neihu, Taipei
  • MegaWeb, Toyota's showroom building where you can test drive almost all the cars they have. Unfortunately, all cars were booked, and so we paid about $2cad each to sit in an electric car that drove itself for 7 mins. It was neat.

My room in Shin YokohamaRushed back to BC's in Roppongi at 10:30pm, packed, and left at 11pm. An hour later, I arrived at my hotel in Shin Yokohama. My room, on the 19th floor, is the 2nd smallest hotel room I've ever stayed in (behind one in Hong Kong that I paid for myself). It's got a single bed, a small desk with TV, a long but thin couch, a washroom, and that's about it. I found that the air in Japan is fairly dry compared to Taiwan, and my skin itches because of it. But through my last 2 business trips, it seems I can't rely on hotel rooms to have lotion. But I could really use some now.

Slept at almost 2am, up at 7:30am, and at work since 8:30am. I think I need this evening to unwind and relax a bit. But I doubt that'll happen tonight. At least I can try to get to work later tomorrow.

More Impressions/Notes:

Toyota has so many cars here that each brand (Corolla, Blade, Crown, etc.) have their own emblem on the front, with the Toyota logo on the back of the car. For example, the Corolla series has 4 or 5 different makes.

People don't eat while they walk, or talk on cell phones in the subways. It's just not done here.

I pointed out to BC some people who bought ice cream cones while out in 5 - 10 deg C weather. Which I thought was kind of crazy. And then a few hours later, CY and I had some DAMN good ice cream. Green tea ice cream so intense it was like we were chewing the tea leaves.

January 20, 2007

[While waiting in the pre-waiting room]

If I were a kamakaze terrorist, I would pick Saturday to board my plane o' death. There are just so many people traveling on weekends that it seems the best time to get away with villanous activities.

Through customs, I took two carry-ons. Together, they clearly surpass the size and weight allowed by the airline. One contains roughly US$35K of hardware boards and boxes, and the other one has my laptop, a digital camera, and a DSLR. And yet, passing through the X-ray, no one said anything. I could have had a bomb and detonator! I'm dangerous! Pay attention to me! No one even cared to question my suspicious guava (I like fruit, can you blame me?), which is a little too soft in the middle. They won't think it's so harmless smothered in the captain's face and in his eyes.


[On the Skyliner train between Narita Airport and Ueno Station]

Turns out that the Japanese customs officials did ask me to open my luggage. But that was an open and shut case. Get it? Open and shut? Anyway.

The first thing I noticed about Japan (after leaving the airport) is that the Japanese have HOUSES! I didn't expect this. Given that this country has the 7th largest population in the world. Mind you, I'm not quite at Tokyo yet, and I'm sure this trend will change quickly as we get closer to the big city. Sigh... I want to live in a house again. Apartments suck. Even more so when it's just a room with a washroom attached.

For the first night, I will crash at my SFU friend BC's place in Roppongi. His company has given him a temporary residence until he finds his own place to rent. In Roppongi, the clubbing / night life district of Tokyo, his place costs his company $5000 CAD/month. Yowza.

Second thing I'm starting to notice as I'm looking out the window while typing this. Suzuki, Nissan, Mazda, Honda,... sure are a lot of Japanese cars around here. I wonder how many people would buy an American car. Maybe someone with a taste for dripping oil and depreciating value. Well, I see a few Beamers, Benz's, and Audi's too.

This train is fricken fast. Either that or everything's too close. My head starts to spin a little bit each time I look out the window at buildings whipping by. Can't stare out the window for too long.

A quick test with the wireless LAN. Random searches for networks returned 1, then 5, then 9, then 30, then 23 wireless LANs. This is while I'm still on the train.

Eating a Snickers bar now. My 3rd this week, thanks to NK. Ueno's the next stop. Closing my laptop.

[At the end of the night]

View of Tokyo Tower from BC's apartmentGot to BC's place in Roppongi, and then we went out to Shinjuku. First, we spent 30 mins trapped in the labyrinth Shinjuku station trying to find the right exit. Then we walked around the Shinjuku area and did a bit of furniture shopping (BC needs a bed ASAP because he's moving into an empty apartment next weekend). Came back to Roppongi, went to Roppongi Hills, and that was that. End of day. Tomorrow will have more walking, more adventures, and more getting lost.

More impressions: Japanese people generally dress very well. The girls are "very well packaged" as BC says, referring to their make-up. He says "their make-up technique is so advanced that you don't even notice they're wearing make-up". Based on what I've seen, I'd agree.

There are a lot of Japanese people.

Major Subway Stations are confusing as hell.

Veggies are EXPENSIVE. Try a handful of green beans for $3 CAD. A single red pepper (a beautiful one, like BC Hot House) for $2.50 Cad. Ouch.
When good smells come at the wrong time, they become bad smells. Example. I like the smell of green onion... but not when it comes from my garbage after I've thrown away a couple stalks of green onion. I like the smell of garlic... but not off the breath of someone telling me a secret.

Now you go. What similar smells can you think of?

[I'll be boarding on a plane for Japan soon. Might not blog for a while. Or I might. Who knows? You'll just have to wait and see. Exciting, isn't it?]

January 16, 2007

The last couple of days have been a crazy whirlwind of panic and resolve. It kind of went like this.

Bad: I was reminded that my passport was about to expire March 14. Which meant I may not be able to go to Japan (Jan 20 - 30) or Vietnam (Feb 17 - 28). Crap.
Good: Japan doesn't have a requirement that a Canadian passport must be valid for at least 6 months. So I can still go on my business trip.
Bad: But Vietnam has this type of requirement. So I'll still have to get a new passport by then.
Bad: I don't know anyone here that can be my guarantor.
Good: I don't need one if I pay an extra $1500 NT and fill out another form.
Good: The Canadian Consulate says that there should be no problems in getting my new passport if I apply for it after I get back from Japan (because I need my passport for travel to Japan).
Bad: But I still need time to get my Vietnamese visa.
Good: It looks like I can apply for my passport before I go to Japan and still hold on to my passport provided that I write a note stating that I understand that I must give the Canadian Consulate my passport afterwards.
Bad: But I still need my birth certificate if I want to get a 5-year passport instead of a 1-year. And my birth certificate is in Canada.
Good: My parents can fax for me it to the Canadian Consulate from Passport Canada in Vancouver.
Good: I just need to head to Taipei tonight, and apply for my new passport tomorrow.
Bad: Because of the mishap with my courtesy scooter, I can't get my passport photo in time.
Good: I just delayed going up to Taipei by one day. I'll get my passport photos tomorrow, and then head up. And do the application on the next day.
Good.

These ups and downs are absolutely DRAINING. But there's more.

Another reason I didn't take my passport photo early enough today was because I needed to get a haircut. So, let me tell you about my haircut.

I went to my regular stylist, and as usual, I told her short on the sides and the back, and about 1/2 length up top. I took off my glasses and placed them on the table in front of me, and away we went with the snip snip snip. Then I felt that she was cutting really really short on the sides, and kinda high up too. At the end, she said, "This style is really popular right now. Really short on the sides, and just long at the top. So-and-so celebrity is wearing his hair like this - I think it looks really good." Immediately, I said "Uh, I need to put on my glasses." Short was right! I needed to take my passport photos, and a week away from attending an exhibition in Japan, and here she was trying new styles like Vidal Sasoon?!

Anyway, I managed to keep it clean for my passport photos... and I think it'll be okay in Japan. Stylish? I guess it's okay. I'll live.
accidents happen.

I was on my way to running some errands after work last night. As I saw a traffic light turn red, I made a fairly hard stop. A couple seconds later, I heard screeching tires behind me and was rear-ended hard. My scooter thrusted forward, but I managed to get my footing to keep the scooter from falling down. I turned around and saw a guy lying on his side with his scooter on its side about a meter behind him. After I moved my scooter off to the side of the road, I called 119 (the ambulance number), and asked them to send a police car and ambulance. He (name: Yi Shong) kept saying his leg was hurting a lot. My only apparent injury was a bruised spot on and next to my left shin.

My coworker Nathan happened to be driving by, and he stopped to help. My other coworker Melissa came scootering around a few minutes later and stopped too.

Ambulance came and took the injured guy away. Police came and took some photos, some measurements, and asked a few questions. I went to the police station to describe the accident, and was back on the road about an hour and some after the accident took place (at 8:45pm).

I quickly stopped by a scooter shop to see how much repairs would cost. 2 out of 3 parts I needed to fix were quoted at $800 and $1500nt.

I visited Yi Shong at the hospital. My bruise didn't seem nearly as bad as his fractured leg, and apparently not a clean fracture, but a shattering fracture. He would have his operation today (the next day), but seemed rather well-humoured and upbeat in spite of his situation. Anyway, he offered to pay for any damages on my scooter. And I will take him up on that offer.

This morning, I stopped by another scooter shop because my usual one was closed. This shop quoted me $550 and $1100 for the same parts. Hmm. I don't think I'm going to go to my "usual" scooter shop anymore. So I got 4 things changed/replaced on my scooter and took a courtesy scooter in the meantime. Courtesy scooters are generally really for the dumpster. I was lucky and got one with one of two sideview mirrors. The brakes are weak enough that I feel like I'm about to get into another accident at any time.

So that's my scooter accident story for Jan 16, 2007.

I'm glad my injury wasn't worse with a business trip/vacation in Japan at the end of this week.

January 11, 2007

Here's something I'm not particularly fond of: When the temperature difference between the inside and the outside of a shower causes the cool shower curtain to float inwards and stick to your unsuspecting bum.

January 09, 2007

I don't want to say I'm brilliant... but I'm brilliant! I love coming up with creative ideas for inventions. Here's one that I think is awesome.

The Stuff:

I would love to invent some kind of drug (food, let's call it food) that would temporarily give the ingestor acute laryngitis. This food, when taken, would cause the larynx to inflame and swell, kind of like that happens when we shout too much at a club over loud music. The result? Peace and quiet.

The Application:

Can't stand your boss's constant nagging? Slip a little of this in his/her coffee and enjoy a day of harmonious zen-like tranquility.

For cat and dog owners, this food cleverly mixed in with that pussy/doggy chow, will save you from waking up early in the morning to out the pet.

Honestly, this can't be that difficult to invent. There are currently hundreds if not thousands of drugs on the market that reduce swelling. We just need the reverse effect. Of course, FDA approval may be harder to come by.

January 07, 2007

To the right, you can see a posting that appeared on our apartment bulletin board late last week. The posting is written on an A4 sheet (8.27" x 11.69").

For those who can't read it, the writer says that s/he saw a spider in the laundry room - the drawing is of the actual size (and confirmed by another tenant). S/he also saw a slug too. And so s/he wonders what we can do to keep the building cleaner. Another person states at the bottom that s/he saw a mouse crawl under the door.

Anyway, I've only at most seen a single cockroach in my room. Nothing else.

I never saw the spider, but that's HUGE!!! I hate spiders. Glad I never saw it. I'm only brave around spiders when I have a vacuum cleaner.

January 04, 2007

I'm glad to see that the Memphis Grizzlies are still bottom feeders in the NBA, with the worst record in the league so far this season. Also interesting is that "Mighty Mouse" Damon Stoudamire, the ex-Toronto Raptors star rookie (10 years ago) was acquired by the Grizzlies from Portland last season. Is this Vancouver's revenge on the Grizzlies organization? It's funny how the Grizzlies website quickly skipped over the dark history in Vancouver. I hope Michael Heisley's consistently losing millions year after year. And if he made a bit of money from the last three years where they made the playoffs, I hope he's losing it all now in this abysmal season.

Mind you, if the Bad News Bears stayed in Vancouver, they might still be just as bad as they are now and we'd be even more upset.

January 03, 2007

Efficiency is a product of experience.

When I first joined my current company, it took me 15 minutes to scooter between work and home. After one year, I was down to 6 - 8 minutes, by riding faster, and knowing the traffic lights. And now, the biggest break-through comes in the form of a new path.

The shortest path between home and work used to be by-foot only because of a gate. But that gate has been recently renovated, and now scooters can pass through -- dropping the travel time between the two places I spend most of my day to 2 minutes!!

In the map attached, the orange path shows the route I used to take, and the green shows the new, more direct path.