Entries categorized as ‘Japan’
No surprise but the iPhone is a phenomenon everywhere except in Japan. Of course, the great 3G network in Japan makes it the perfect place, but unfortunately there are four things that Apple needs to do to make the iPhone sell in Japan.
1) Add MMS and make the SMS more robust. Maybe MMS is unnecessary because all Japanese cell phones come standard with email, but it’s still a good feature that is missing. The real problem is the SMS. There are no options to forward messages or send messages to multiple people. This desperately needs a fix.
2) Upgrade the camera. A cell phone is the primary camera for most people in Japan, so 2 megapixels and no video just doesn’t cut it.
3) 1seg TV antenna support. TV on the cell is huge because of all the time people spend on the train. Sure, he iPhone has video playback and you can buy stuff on iTunes, but that’s no replacement for watching a live baseball game on your phone.
4) There needs to be a small notch cut into the side of the phone to accommodate cell phone bling. Everyone and their mothers puts danglies on their phones. The more the better.
That’s all the iPhone needs in my opinion. The apps, maps and other functions are miles ahead of anything you find on a “futuristic” Japanese phone and emoticons are coming this month, so Jgirls can be all fucking cutesy with their messaging.
Oh yeah and marketing. In the weeks leading up to launch I saw no iPhone ads. People won’t buy what they don’t know about.
Categories: Japan · iPhone
every once in awhile, I get the feeling that I miss Osaka. But that’s not really true it’s more than I just miss living in a big city. Of course living in a city is very convenient there’s stores everywhere and especially in Japan public transportation is fantastic. Now here in Waltham, the buses don’t run very often the training also doesn’t run very often and it takes a while to get anywhere good. So it’s just not as but it’s it’s a very beautiful place clients are apartment is very nice and of course it’s America everyone well almost everyone speaks English so very no communication problems in the morning most of what I find that I miss is just simple conveniences of living in a city of course I’ll so do miss my friends from Japan’s I get to talk to them every once in a while end up meeting new well not really meeting new people here but I have no friends in the area and close in a the cellular telephone
I’m not going to edit this entry at all I’ve written this entire thing using a patient and software that I got. I just want to see how it works and what I need to do when speaking in order to make it works as best as it can just looking back so far I can see that I need to start saying my punctuation, so instead of saying I want to do this I need to say “,”. Otherwise the accuracy of the program is very good so it should should be very good for different things and I will give it to Nadja (have to teach it to understand her name) so that she can type out her or her well-known type puts a speak her dictate her papers.
The only problem with dictation from me is that I tend to repeat myself or stutter us a little bit which comes out awkwardly and dictation but it is faster so editing will be easier
Categories: Japan · Randomness · Software
For a while now, my parents have been telling me about an episode of “No Reservations” with Anthony Bourdain that took place in Osaka. It took me a long time to find it, but I finally did and of course he went to some amazing places in town. The annoying part is that the show gave no indication of where the places are in the city and because of the editing, it is completely impossible to figure it out.
As a bit of setup, Japan doesn’t have street names for the most part. Larger streets will have names, especially those following train lines, but that’s about it. The way addresses work is sort of like on Google maps where you start far out and focus in. As an example my address in Japan goes:
Osaka-fu (Prefecture)
Osaka-shi (City)
Chuo-ku (Ward)
Kozu 2(Neighborhood)
3 (Block)
15 (Building)
As you can imagine, unless you have a map and an address or at least some landmarks, it is nearly impossible to find a place.
Anyway, on the show there was an izakaya (bar/restaurant) where Hanshin Tigers fans got together to watch the game and eat sushi. I was able to find the place through a tourist info place. The place ended up being in Tennoji, my old neighborhood (though in the show it looked as if it were in Shinsaibashi, 4 train stops away from the actual location.) Adrian, Steve, Nadja and I went on Sunday, and it was fantastic. It was the best sushi I’ve ever had in my life. Of course the sushi was a bit awkward.
As you can see in the video, there was a live fish in the case in front of us. The thing about that is that if you look closely you’ll see that the bottom half of the fish has no meat on it. That’s because we ate it. The fish was flopping in front of us the whole time. It was delicious, but very strange.
The Tigers ended up winning the game, which meant that after the game beer was 100 yen ($1)! And to top it off, throughout the night the chefs and waitresses took quite a shine to us (likely because we were eating and drinking far more than any Japanese people could.) The chef who loved us the most was (I think) named Yuzu. He was a great tiny little man. I hope his name really is Yuzu, because that would be funny. A yuzu is a grapefruit/orange hybrid fruit here in Japan. Anyway, Yuzu ended up giving us some free sho-chu (delicious (because is was expensive) Japanese alcohol) and ice cream.
It’s probably for the best that we didn’t know that this place existed when we lived in Tennoji, because we likely would have spent all of our time and money there.
Categories: Drinking · Food · Japan · Sports
A couple Jehovah’s Witnesses came by just now (new people, not our usual pair,) and I thought the interaction was pretty amusing.
Bob – “blah blah Noah’s Ark. blah blah teach us a lesson. Do you think the flood actually happened or is it just a story to teach us a lesson?”
Me – “It happened.”
Bob – “Yes! blah blah lesson. So you must read the Bible?”
Me – “No.”
Bob – “…”
Me – “Yeah, never read the Bible, never really been to church.”
Bob – “Ah, well you believe in God right?”
Me – “No.”
Bob – “Uh…”
Me – “I believe that the flood happened, because there is geological evidence, but whether Noah was there or the Ark, I can’t say.”
Bob – “Ah… Yes, the evidence… And, have you always felt that way about God?”
Me – “Yes.”
That’s when his tone changed to how everyone needed spirituality. He gave me a couple magazines, we chatted about the shit-storm that was Nova and then he and his J-partner went on their ways.
It’s nice when people who come to your home to spout their beliefs at you actually respect your beliefs. I liked this pair better than our usual ones, because as nice as the other ladies are, they are a little more insistent with the “Yay, God!” propoganda.
Categories: Japan · Randomness
I guess more than a study in Osaka fashion these photos are just to create a sense of the people in this city. The fashion is what originally started me into taking the pics, but overall it’s more about the incredible image consciousness of Japan.
Every Japanese person will admit to the society as a whole being obsessed with appearance. However, as I’ve mentioned before, plastic surgery is very rare here. Most common is the surgery to make their eyelids more “Western”, but all other issues are dealt with by applying a few inches of makeup or an amazing hairstyle. Oh, and hats. Lots of hats. I personally enjoy seeing women in cowboy hats, but that’s not too common, mostly it will be awful trucker caps, or my personal favorite, the fedora.
Of course there are always the different groups in Japan. The hippies, the host boys, the schoolgirls, and of course the poodles. But aside from that there is a pretty solid variety. Unfortunately, there is also a huge population of fashion victims in this country, but I guess that comes with striving to look different.
One fun thing about taking all these pics is that Japanese people are quite different from Westerners when it comes to cameras. In America, if I were to sit in a downtown area and simply photograph people going by, people would get angry and look at me like a pervert. But, here in Japan people smile and pose. If someone does get annoyed, it’s probably because you don’t take their picture.
It’s just a lot of fun to watch people. I’ve always been a big fan. You get to see incredibly interesting human interactions and behaviors. One of my favorite things to watch is the subtle ways that people have of avoiding the sun here. Because the sun is evil. Or, seeing how meticulously put together someone is and knowing that it took them hours to get the look just right, not to mention the touch-ups on the train. I just wish I could get better pics of the makeup because it is truly ridiculous what is done here.
Anyway, I don’t want to write any more. I just want to link this picture and of course, the rest of the album. I’m out.
Categories: Japan · Photos
I’m still not 100% sure how it happened, but I was talking to a few Japanese businessmen (of course after some continuous drinking) and suddenly I was showing them that if you tense up your abs and someone hits you, it doesn’t really hurt. So, at about 2AM in the Shinsaibashi arcade next to the Dotombori bridge, I punched a Japanese businessman in the stomach, he stumbled backwards a couple steps, and said, “Thank you.”
Bizare.
Categories: Japan · Randomness
Today, as with every Friday for the past month and a half or so, I’ve been teaching a lovely little girl out near Kobe. And today, unlike every Friday for the past month and a half, I actually took the time to go to Kobe after my lesson instead of just coming straight back to Osaka. I came back with the same realization I have every time I go to Kobe: I should go there more.
Kobe just feels so much nicer than Osaka. Yes, superficially it is nicer. It’s new (because of the earthquake), it’s clean, the air is clean, there are no bikes in pedestrian areas, and the women aren’t dressed as overtly slutty as in Osaka. It’s just so nice. That said, the entire downtown area is basically one big red light district that is Japanese-only. Not that I have any interest in frequenting a Soapland, or snack bar or what have you, but because all of the landscape is taken up by places like that, the overall variety of the area is seriously limited. There aren’t many good stores, the restaurants are fairly gaijin-unfriendly, and really the best place to go is Chinatown, which unfortunately closes at 9PM, restaurants included.
That said, as a place for a random wander, it is a breath of fresh air. Literally. When I got off the train back in Osaka, within 3 minutes of exiting the station I:
-was hit with the overwhelming, ground-in stench of urine and feces.
-was nearly run over/deafened by assholes on bikes with squealing breaks.
-was almost hit by a taxi.
-saw a J-boy either a) try to lure a whorishly dressed girl into a host bar or b) lure her into a porno filming.
It’s good to be home.
Categories: Japan
Part 4, the grand finale, takes us to a little porn shop that Steve and I stumbled upon on Dotombori in an area where we had previously walked about 300 times.
Keep in mind that if you go into a regular bookstore or convini you will find porn mags galore, but all you are allowed to see is boob. If you find a Playboy you will notice that a shopkeeper had carefully gone through page by page to scratch out any possible vagina viewing. And, of course video porn is carefully blurred so as to make sure that no one is sure exactly how sex happens. The shame of this country is that there are no laws at all for illustrations or animation, wherein you can show anything you want (let us not forget the horrors of tentacle porn) including underage girls and robots having sex. The logic in this place astounds me.
The porn shop
Categories: Japan · Photos
Part 3 takes us on a short tour of the neighborhood in which I live. The lead picture you can see here pretty much sums it all up. This is the corner a couple buildings down from our apartment, at which you can find a Yakuza headquarters, a porn shop, and the National Bunraku (marionette) theater.
We live in a hell of an area. One block has the mob, the next is homeless people and the next is a Lamborghini store.
Come take the tour.
Categories: Japan · Photos
Part two of the series takes us into Amemura (America-town) and a little back on Dotombori for a look at the fashion that can be found in Osaka.
The Japanese are very very conscious of appearances, so they put a lot of time and money into fashion. Oddly, they don’t put much money into plastic surgery, save for the “Western eyelid surgery”. The fashion trends are very grouped. There are the hop-hip kids, the princesses, the punks, the goths, the dolls, the Bon Jovis and the surfers. They make up the majority of the groups in Osaka, but outside of that is still a very distinct smattering of hippie fashion and hobo/gypsy influences.
I felt a little awkward taking pictures of people randomly on the street (mostly because they all probably would have posed and flashed the annoying peace sign,) so I took the pics with my arm hanging at my side (stealth style!) As a result the framing is awkward and some pics are pretty blurry.
Osaka Fashion
Categories: Japan · Photos
