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Julianne live
Julianne is a musician I know through DigitalEve. Last night she played at the Artist’s Cafe, a bar/restaurant on the 43rd floor of Tokyo Dome Hotel. Although I’ve heard her music recorded, I’ve never heard her live, so Tod & I met at the hotel after work and listened to a set. Julianne’s music mixes…
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Adding comments
To celebrate the half-year, I’ve added comments to my weblog. Thanks to enetation, you can talk back to my posts. I’m not sure if this is wise or foolish. Why don’t you tell me? Click down there…
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Half-year
Today marks the nominal half-way point of the year. It’s even observed as a holiday in China and Thailand. In reality, the halfway point is July 2nd (the 183rd day of the year) but let’s stick with the easy-to-remember start of July. It seems like a fine reason to celebrate. What should I do to…
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Countdown
Shortly after Tod & I arrived in Japan, we saw a big billboard with a digital display counting down the number of days remaining until the 2002 World Cup. It was a lot of days in the future, why should anyone care? In Shibuya this week, I noted a sign counting down the days to…
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Taxi phobia
I have a phobia about taxis. Not being terribly fond of cars in general, I don’t like trusting a stranger to drive me around town. Maybe you can imagine how I was feeling when I was deposited at Ikebukuro at 1:15 am on the last train around the Yamanote line. I had a difficult decision:…
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Brand name fever
I’ve never been sure whether to believe the idea that Japanese are excessively fond of brand names. None of the Japanese women I know display flashy, expensive belongings that are outside their means. If they have them, they don’t flaunt them. Since showing off is the main purpose of brand name goods, I think they…
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No more loanwords
The education ministry is setting up a committee “to propose ways to prevent too many imported words from entering the Japanese language.” Spoken Japanese is a mishmash of Japanese and ‘loan words’ from English, French, German, Dutch & other languages. Rendered in katakana, often both the pronunciation and the meaning change from the original. Are…
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Take that, smokers
Japan is one of the most smoker-friendly places I’ve ever lived. So many people smoke here I forget sometimes what it’s like to breathe non-smoky air. But one of Tokyo’s wards just passed a new ordinance against smokers–the first one of its kind in the country. As of October 1, Chiyoda-ku is banning smoking outdoors…
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Move or quit?
If presented with a dilemma–follow your job to Singapore or become unemployed in Japan–what would you choose? We’ve decided on unemployment. In about 30 days, the door closes on the current chapter of Tod’s wage earning. It’s a little bit scary, but it presents a million possibilities for new directions and challenges so it’s exciting,…
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With Africa Against povery
A couple of weeks ago, I accepted a pro bono job to make a virtual banner to accompany the “With Africa Against Poverty” campaign that the United Nations Development Programme is running. All of the footballers in Africa (along with some FIFA executives and the heads of several African nations) signed a huge, 7 meter…
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