May 30, 2008
15 Picosends of Fame
Go here, click on “Berlin Marathon”, then hit the right arrow under the photo twice.
February 21, 2008
February 20, 2008
Yukari: On CBC's "The Current" tomorrow
Attention Yukari fans:
She will be on CBC’s morning news show, The Current, talking about the victory of Blu-ray over HD-DVD.
You can listen here:
February 13, 2008
Luxury-Sized Guests
Today’s piece of euphemistic jargon is “luxury-sized guests”. Use it in a sentence? Sure thing:
The vehicles on Expedition Everest are the biggest ever used on a Disney ride. We had to make them larger to accommodate our luxury-sized guests.
February 12, 2008
Make a reservation, get a rebate
We were discussing strange restaurant practices with friends the other day when Yukari trotted out a story that I hadn’t heard before.
When you made a reservation at a nice place in Japan, many places used to give you a 10 yen refund (about 9 cents) on your check.
The reason? Credit for the telephone call you placed to make the reservation.
Apparently this is still done in some places and Yukari says I’ve been the unknowing beneficiary of it. Better not tell them that I’ve got flat rate phone service…
February 6, 2008
What's one consonant between friends?
I went to this little neighborhood restaurant for dinner last night.
I sat down at the counter, and the owner wished me a happy new year, since he hadn’t seen me yet in 2008.
The conversation then proceeded as follows:
owner: Hey! I heard one of your countrymen is running for President!
me (wondering if I misunderstood his Japanese): Err, ya, I think they are all my countrymen.
owner: No, no, I mean, he’s from Chicago! You know, Osama!
February 1, 2008
Smoke on the Water: Japan Style
A traditional-ish Japanese orchestra plays (and sings!) Deep Purple’s Smoke on the Water. Worth listening to just for the noise the audience makes when they recognize the opening:
(thanks, jde!)
January 29, 2008
Yukari's AM Radio Debut
Yukari was interviewed today on The Wall Street Journal’s morning show, a syndicated radio show broadcasted nationwide in the States.
Wondering why we’ll continue to buy flat-panel TVs, even as the economy collapses? Listen to Yukari’s segment for the details!
January 28, 2008
Epic Loss!
New Year’s Postcard season again. Yukari received 52 Japan Post postcards, each of which serves as an entry in a national lottery. I could win an iPod! Or a MacBook! Or postage stamps!
I had a fantastic victory in 2006, followed by a disappointing defeat last year. But since this is the last New Year’s we’ll be in Japan for the foreseeable future, I was sure that I’d win something.
Sadly, though, there wasn’t a single winner in all 50+ cards we received. No year of the rat stamps for me!
November 12, 2007
Champagne Sabering
AR and HA are here. And they just got back from a vacation (of sorts) in Champagne, France.
So, naturally the talk turned to champagne and whether any of us could open a bottle of sparkling wine with a saber. None of us could, so we turned to YouTube, the source of all important educational material on the Internet, to figure out how to do it. It looked really easy!
There’s even a 3 minute educational video that starts with “Don’t try this at home!” (this sort of reverse psychology always work on me):
So, armed with this detailed information, a knife and six bottles of Spanish cava, Aaron and I went into the streets of Tokyo to test our sabering skills.
Aaron tried first. After a few whacks, the lip of his bottle was looking pretty dodgy, but it was still intact. So I decided to to give it a whirl.
First try: nothing. Second try — success, of a sort. Sadly (luckily?) we don’t have video evidence of the attempt, but it went something like this:
Cava and glass went everywhere, including into my hand. So now I’m sporting an attractive bandaid on my thumb and am taking a few days off from wine sabering. But we’ve still got four more bottles to practice on. My goal: complete saber competency by Thanksgiving.
