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blog-L (2006a)
2006/06/05
00:11
"Choonji Temple" (First batch of
Olympus 810 photos.)
I stumbled upon a temple I'd never visited before - Choonji Temple -
and I've posted some photos I took of it here:
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/i_i_v/s/Choonji01/pg1.htm
Other than that, are some photos taken in the usual places... I aim to
start focusing more on posting pictures of areas not yet covered on the
site, but, for now, here are the links to some typical Shibuya,
Shinjuku, etc. images:
"Shibuya - June 2006"
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/i_i_v/s/Shibuya03/pg1.htm
"Iroiro #2 - June 2006"
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/i_i_v/s/Iroiro02/pg1.htm
"Ebisu - June 2006"
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/i_i_v/s/Ebisu04/pg1.htm
Incidentally, if there is anything you notice about these pictures
taken with the Olympus 810, let me know - I'm trying to figure out
precisely how it differs from the Ricoh R4, so I can best divide their
use accordingly.
Lyle
2006/05/31
"Rusty Rails"
I did some exploring along the Shinkansen (bullet train) elevated
rails, and I happened upon a big factory-like building that used to be
used for doing something to the Shinkansen rail cars - maintenance I'm
guessing, I don't think it's the factory where they were made, although
it could be....
What was interesting was the old rusty rails - something I've never
associated with the Shinkansen super-express trains before. ......
And... that's sort of it. I meant to write about this in some
detail, but the clock is saying I have to get in the sardine run for a
trip across town, so I'll go ahead and post this overly short
bit. There are photos and a little more text in the same tune
here:
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/i_i_v/s/ShinKSn01/pg1.htm
Lyle
2006/05/21
20:57
"Seven Pages, 367 Photos..."
Making use of some automation, I put up seven new "Photo Batch" pages
today, as follows:
"Iroiro #1 - May 2006"
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/i_i_v/s/Iroiro01/pg1.htm
"Yamanote Line - May 2006"
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/i_i_v/s/Yamanote01/pg1.htm
"Ebisu - May 2006"
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/i_i_v/s/Ebisu05/pg1.htm
"Nakamagome - May 2006"
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/i_i_v/s/NakaMagome01/pg1.htm
"Shinjuku - May 2006"
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/i_i_v/s/Shinjuku11/pg1.htm
"Ikegamidai- May 2006"
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/i_i_v/s/Ikegamidai01/pg1.htm
"Hatanodai - May 2006"
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/i_i_v/s/Hatanodai01/pg1.htm
I would rather have gone over those and arranged them the way I have
most of the pages in the Photo Gallery:
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/PhotoGlryMain/LHS_PhotoGallery.html
- but have decided that if I'm ever to get a more comprehensive
coverage of Tokyo actually up there on the screen, I have got to go
with the speed of automation. Once I've got a certain coverage
completed and have some time, I'll go back to putting up custom-built
pages. (Note that these photos are on the "PhotoBatch" page, and
not in the "Photo Gallery". The direct link for the "PhotoBatch"
page is here:
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/i_i_v/s/PtoBtc1.html
Lyle
2006/05/14
"Asakusa - May 5th, 2006"
I walked through Asakusa on one of its busier days - on May 5th,
Children's Day, in the middle of Golden Week on a day with beautiful
weather. If you go to Asakusa, chances are it won't be quite as
crowded as in the pictures:
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/i_i_v/s/Asakusa01/pg1.htm
Lyle
2006/05/05
"Hibarigaoka-kita - March 9th,
2006"
Views from a walk around the north side of Hibarigaoka Station on the
Seibu-Ikebukuro Line. Very early in spring, the trees were still
mostly bare - it has (surprise) a warmer feeling in the spring and
summer:
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/i_i_v/s/Hibari01/pg01.htm
Lyle
2006/04/30
18:18
"Traditional Japanese Restaurants
& Traditional Japanese Food"
It's not often that I am lucky enough to visit traditional Japanese
restaurants, so I took a few photos of one I ate in earlier this year:
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/PhotoGlryMain/pgb/TradA.html
Lyle
2006/04/29
"Friendly People &
Angry-Young-Men"
I see a couple of trends in the way people are thinking/acting - one
very welcome and one very alarming. The good news first....
Japan has always been a country of manners and most encounters with
people were civilized (exceptions existed for sure - like people out of
their element away on vacation who often decided not to bother being
overly polite while away from their home area), but form was usually
adhered to. Polite form is one element of a civilized society,
but being overly formal can interfere with true communication and
empathy when dealing with those who have come from afar. So, in
the eighties, I often wished that people would relax more when
interacting with me. Now, in the year 2006, I am realizing that
this wish has been granted! Much more than before, it's possible
to communicate with a lot of people in a relaxed, open, and informal
way.
Now for the flip side of this trend....
Three times in as many weeks, while walking through a crowded station,
I had the same type of encounter with three different angry-young-man
types. Walking through train stations like Shinjuku Station (with
vast numbers of people entering & exiting the station and vast
numbers of people changing from one train line to another within the
station), it's nearly impossible to avoid lightly bumping into a few
people and being bumped into by a few other people as you walk through
the dense crowds, but usually you try your best to avoid bumping into
people and when the inevitable collision does happen, the two people
generally nod, say a quick "Sumimasen" ("Sorry"), and go on their way
(or just go silently on their way if there's no time for a nod).
So, after 21 years of that scenario playing out over and over, I was a
bit shocked to have an angry-young-man aggressively throw out his arm
towards me as if to shove me with his forearm. It was an alarming
moment, because he had a look of blood-lust in his eye and if I had
taken a swing at him (which his provocation seemed to be begging for)
then we probably would have jumped into the insanity of doing as much
physical damage to each other as possible.
The next week, the same thing happened, and again the next, three
different angry-young-man types, all with that outthrust arm and look
of blood-lust in their eye. The provocation? None really,
just the usual situation of accidentally getting into the same physical
space in a very crowded situation. (Did a movie "hero" do some
"cool" people bashing that way? It's just weird how they did
exactly the same thing as though they were looking for a chance to try
it, and it's something I had never seen in 21 years of being in the
thick of things here.)
Well... there you go - nothing is free. One advantage often comes
with the price of a new disadvantage. I'll enjoy talking with
friendly types on one hand and be on the lookout for dangerous
angry-young-man types when changing trains on the other.
Lyle
2006/04/23
New "PhotoBatch" page
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/i_i_v/s/PtoBtc1.html
A new way of posting photos - I've included file names to make ordering
of individual pictures easier.
"Shinjuku Gyoen Gardens - April
4th, 2006"
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/i_i_v/s/ShnGyo01/page_01.htm
The first set of pages in this format. I'll still be continuing
the old format, but this method should enable me to more speedily
increase coverage of different areas of Tokyo.
Lyle
2006/04/22
"Mountain Breeze at Ontakesan"
Walking around near Ontakesan Station on the Ikegami Line on April
21st, I wandered into the grounds of a shrine and began walking down
the stone path leading to the wooden shrine building. As I was
about mid-way down the path, I looked to my left and was greeted by a
mesmerizing sight, so I stopped to take it in - standing there in a
half-trance while an older woman prayed at the shrine down the
path. The actual sight itself wasn't remarkable really - just
part of the roof of a traditional shrine building seen through some
trees and with a backdrop of deep blue sky with white cotton clouds
floating through the blue. The view was nice enough, but what was
really mesmerizing was a powerful flashback I had to standing among the
trees in the Rocky Mountains as a child way back in the late sixties.
I stood there transfixed by my old feelings and wondered how and why
they could come back so strongly in Tokyo! I looked around
quietly and figured it out though - April 21st was a dry day with a
comfortably cool breeze blowing (and singing) threw the trees, clean
air, deep blue sky with very white clouds, there was nothing in that
wonderful view but wood, earth and sky - no concrete, no asphalt, no
plastic, no glass, no exhaust fumes, no engine noises, no computer
screens - and upwind to my right was a large old pine tree scenting the
air with the pine smell I've always associated with the time I spent in
the Rocky Mountains during a few childhood summer vacations. It
was such a nice feeling, that I wanted to linger within it longer
still, but the siren call of concrete, exhaust gases, florescent
lighting and mind-numbing CRT computer monitors dragged me back to
"reality" or - perhaps more accurately - dragged me away from reality
and back into the nightmare. On the way back to the machines (and
I - very ironically - like machines), I walked down the tree-lined
shopping street leading to Ontakesan Station, taking in the warm spring
feeling from the trees with their new green leaves, and wondering at
how much better any street is with trees than without them....
And then today (April 22nd), I go out for a walk around my apartment,
and I discover that someone has cut down the exotic fruit tree (loquat)
that was growing by my apartment building. Asking around, I
discover that some imbecile on the first floor was afraid insects might
be attracted to the tree, so they had it cut down. I can't begin
to convey to you the rage I feel in contemplating this kind of
thing. You've got a tree that produces fruit that tastes great
(for those who are lucky enough to grab it in the few days it takes to
pick the tree clean), and there was no insect problem at all, but the
idiot is deathly afraid of any kind of life other than bipeds, and
thinks the tree needs to be murdered in order to prevent the remote
possibility of there being (gasp!) insects. This type of an idiot
should move to the desert and starve - they could sit in sterile bliss
while they drift over to the other side - presumably to a place with no
insects or trees. It's bad enough to have such an imbecile living
in the same building, but it's depressing that the rest of the tenants
didn't stand up for the tree and tell the idiot to either shut up or
move to the desert. well... maybe they're all in a state of shock
today like I am, but the building maintenance people apparently agreed
and actually paid to have someone come out and kill the tree.
It's just so... wrong!
Well... sorry for liking trees so much, but I really don't understand
why so many people seem to prefer barren dirt to living, green,
oxygen-producing trees.
Lyle
2006/04/19
"Suburbia"
I had to visit a company today, so I looked up their address on a
detailed map and figured out the on-foot part of the journey.
After getting off the train (train number four actually), I took the
easy route there, walking along a main street - sharing the air with
the trucks and getting a bit of a sore throat in the process. So
for the journey back, I decided to take back streets that ran more or
less parallel to the main street, but were far enough away that there
was no noise of the trucks at all. Doing that sort of thing is an
excellent way to get lost, but it worked out this time and I found
myself walking through an expensive bit of suburbia with the only
people on the streets being mothers with their pre-school children (one
each, most people only have one or two children these days).
It's a strange thing about suburbia... you get the feeling that you're
doing something wrong by walking through it. Just about everyone
you see is with children, so you find yourself wordlessly defending
your presence and trying to project that you're conducting business and
are just passing through.
That's it? Hmmm... well, what can I say? It was a wordless
feeling after all.....
Lyle
2006/04/12
23:59
"You Get What You Pay For?"
That custom-built computer I was given... going back to me
standing in Yodobashi Camera (the store
where I bought the new board), and talking
with the store clerk: I showed him the old board and - after
confirming that the CPU and memory in the old board would not be usable
in a new board - asked what they had in the way of replacement
motherboards that used AMD and are cheap. The clerk looked at my
old board, thought for a few seconds, and then went into a back room,
soon returning with a spiffy-looking green box with AMD written all
over it.
Thinking "How much are the three separate components (motherboard, CPU,
& memory) I'm about to buy going to cost?", I was surprised to hear
that the spiffy-looking box contained a set of all three of those for
Y9,800. "Well... that's cool!" I stupidly thought, envisioning
only the off-new specifications (not a problem) and forgetting there
was the not-so-minor issue of mechanical design to deal with, not to
mention my own personal theory (and experience) that a spiffy box
wrapped around a cheap product generally is indicative of garbage
inside. Looking at the box now, I note that "AMD" is proudly
written large in 24 places all over the box, and the board name "DFI"
just twice in small letters on the back (once as "DFI
K8M800-MLVF"). One could be forgiven for suspecting (in hindsight
alas!) that they are trying to hide a bad name with a good one.
But back to Yodobashi Camera and before the storm - I stepped out into
the rain and proudly carried the box home and set about installing it
in the custom box. (Incidentally, what do you call a custom box
with no name that you are given? Do you give it a name like a
pet, or just call it a "box" forevermore? Suddenly I understand
why custom computer owners call their machines boxes - I sometimes call
my OptiPlex GX-1 a box, but generally think of it as
"OptiPlex-2".) First step was to plug in the CPU, its heat sink
& fan, and the PC3200 memory boards (the kit 256MB & a
separately bought 512MB, both in "CFD Sales Inc." boxes - "Memory
Module for EXPERTS" it says - He-he!) And then....
"What's this? The board isn't sliding under the overhanging
wiring the way it should be - what's getting in the way..?" I mutter,
and then discover that - rotten design - the power connector for the
board is at the top corner by the CD-ROM drives and the cable connector
and other parts prevent it from being installed without taking the side
screws out of the CD-ROM drives and sliding them halfway out of the
machine. "Well, that sucks! But I guess I can still use it
even with the CD-ROM drives hanging halfway out and in harm's way..."
think I as I push on. Next thing is the rectangular panel that
should snap into place and then match up with the external connectors
of the motherboard. It's so flaky and uncooperative that I decide
to skip using it - it doesn't provide any mechanical support for the
connectors anyway and I know what they are without the labeling -
"What's a little extra space around the plugs in the back... maybe it
will provide better ventilation..." I think as I begin sinking into an
unhappy and stormy cloud.
I was pretty disgusted with the project by the time I got the new
motherboard bolted down, so the discovery of the flaky and nearly
impossible to decipher pins and their bad labeling didn't come as a
shock, but just another wave washing into an already sinking boat (the
old board, by way of contrast, was infinitely more intelligently
designed). I made my best guess with the wiring, plugged in the
power, and the machine seemed to come to life, but the only effect on
the monitor was strange flashing of the setting lights, so with visions
of the bloody thing not only not working but damaging innocent external
equipment as well, I cut the power, removed the now hated board and put
the old one back in. It works fine again, but those ballooning
capacitors will not last long.
I thought of taking it back and exchanging it for a more expensive and
better board ("You get what you pay for"), but as I looked at the pile
of packaging around me and the new board with the CPU in place, I
realized it wouldn't be ready to just put back on the shelf, so I put
the board back in the static-free bag, tore up and threw away most of
the internal packing and put the board aside with a feeling of disgust
as I noted the time - 4:00 a.m. "Another night's sleep stolen by
computers - the greatest sleep deprivation device known to mankind!"
muttered Used-Machines-Lyle, ten-year veteran of the Equipment
War. Methinks I'm about to become "New-Machines-Lyle" as I dream
of an all-new custom box with parts beginning life under my
command. What I'm wondering now is what to do with the CPU - is
it one I should put to work for me or should I shelf it and go for
something newer? It's a... I'm not sure what - there's the name
"Sempron"; the box says "2600+ Socket 754"; and on the chip it has "AMD
2001"(!), so does that mean it's five years old? It can't be that
old... can it?
Lyle
2006/04/12
18:15
Boso Peninsula - Page-7
I had hoped to get more pages up on the Boso Peninsula, but going over
the photos and some other outside competition for my time has slowed me
down. Nevertheless, here's one more page (sorry it's not five
more pages):
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/PhotoGlryMain/pgb/b/Boso07.html
Lyle
2006/04/12 16:52
"Tada-hodo Takai Mono wa Nai!"
("Nothing is so Expensive as That
Which is Free")
Once upon a time, long long ago, I thought the day would come when I
would get my computers all arranged nicely and they would work for me
without mishap while I concentrated on writing and photography.
Now - while I have not absolutely and completely given up on that dream
- I have gotten to the point where I pretty much expect computers to
endlessly cause me trouble. The latest? I was given a
"free" computer....
It's a custom-built box that I was initially happy to use - for all of
three hours, and then I had a good close look at the motherboard.
Ballooned capacitors met my horrified gaze. "Oh no... you've got
to be kidding! Not again!" I silently screamed. I had just
lost a Dell Dimension-C to leaking capacitor-induced sudden death
syndrome. Oh well - "Tada-hodo takai mono wa nai" ("Nothing is so
expensive as that which is free"), and so I rushed off to an
electronics store to spend money on my "free" computer. I
expected some sympathy from the shopkeeper, but he just "explained"
that that's what happens.
Well... it may happen, but does it really have to? Dead mother
boards in only a few years? I think they should last a bit longer
than that....
Lyle
2006/04/04
Boso Peninsula - Pg. 6
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/PhotoGlryMain/pgb/b/Boso06.html
Continuing the Boso Peninsula series on my drive along the Pacific
coast....
Yushima Seido
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/PhotoGlryMain/pgb/Yushima01.html
A piece of old Japan in central Tokyo - strangely unknown by most of
the city's residents.
2006/03/25
"Mexico & 21st Century
JW-Bipeds"
The cherry blossoms are just coming out in Tokyo, but it's still a bit
cold (which is usual - by the time the weather is actually warm, the
cherry blossoms are gone), so I was sitting in my semi-warm apartment
in my inside-use-only down coat when I received an e-mail from Mexico
from a US e-pal living in California (who used to live in Tokyo) in
response to an e-mail I had sent....
LHS: "I've forgotten exactly when you said you'd be visiting Tokyo, but
it's soon isn't it? I remember you said you would be staying in
Daikanyama and I happened to be there yesterday. Very nice
scenery, if you know what I mean - JW-Bipeds here spend so much time
and money on their appearance, and several of the places that help out
(for a hefty fee) are around Daikanyama Station. The passing
bipeds I saw last night were quite easy on the eyes...."
SCJ: "I am in Mexico now and have
been travelling to other Carib islands... wow, I am so disoriented, but
in a good way. I was just smoking cigars on one of the most
beautiful beaches in the world, the water was warm, the beer was cold
... and no kidding, it was nice.
I am
going to try to go to Japan in a couple of months if I can, but I might
have to sacrifice that trip for this one. If only I could travel all of
the time ... heh heh.
Glad to
hear you were able to enjoy Daikanyama. I would trade this beach
for Tokyo in a microsecond... but for many reasons, I just can't be in
Tokyo long term right now. Uhhhgg.
On a
brighter note, I just witnessed the best live jazz jam session ever ...
simply incredible."
LHS: "That warm water and warm weather does sound quite nice! My
housemates are strangely happy with no heat in the winter - if I
attempt to warm up the apartment in the dead of winter beyond about 15
degrees (Celsius), one of them complains about the "heat" and throws
open the balcony doors. I survive the winter by wearing a down
coat inside all the time - it's the only way to prevent falling ill
from the cold. I think my housemates have antifreeze for blood or
something... good thing there are down coats, or I'd bloody well freeze!
Anyway... the weather is beginning to warm up
and - at the moment - everyone is out, so with thoughts of warm Mexico
dancing in my mind, I cranked up the heat to 27 degrees and am happily
sitting here with no down coat on! Warm weather never comes soon
enough for me and right about this time of year I think 'Whew... I've
somehow managed to survive another long and unpleasant winter!'.
There's something very stressful about working on the computer through
the winter months with frost-bitten fingers....
Daikanyama... yes, the scenery there is
mesmerizing.... In a similar way, I was on the Yamanote Line on
Thursday, going from Akihabara to Shibuya (I should have taken the
Ginza Line, but it's more pleasant riding above ground) when one of
those moments that stay with you forever happened. I was sitting
in a corner seat at the end of a train car when I looked across and saw
a stunningly beautiful JW-Biped sitting there - our eyes meet for a
second and then I looked out the window behind her and saw the evening
sky over the rail yards of Shinagawa as we zoomed towards the
station.... Earlier in Akihabara, I had looked up from the street
to see a train coming into the station - and the sides of all the cars
were perfectly straight without even a hint of any rocking. At
this point, they've gotten the rails into the kind of condition you
would expect in a precision watch... and something of that same feeling
came back to me as I looked again at the 21st century woman and the
21st century scene in and outside the train as it glided smoothly and
speedily into the station. From there, a crowd got on - blocking
out the view of the other side of the train, the view out the window,
and cutting off the never-to-be-forgotten memory video clip.
Good music, good weather, warm ocean, cold
beer, stunning scenery... that's what we're alive for my friend!"
Cheers!
Lyle
2006/03/24
"Boso Peninsula - Tateyama Sunset &
Return Journey" (Page-4)
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/PhotoGlryMain/pgb/b/Boso04.html
Pictures taken up on the hill that Tateyama Castle sits on, watching
the sun set into the Pacific.
"Boso Peninsula - Another Trip,
Driving Down the Pacific Coast" (Page-5)
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/PhotoGlryMain/pgb/b/Boso05.html
Another trip - continuing down the Boso Peninsula by car.
Lyle
2006/03/20
"Answering Machine? What's
That?"
In the past couple of years I've noticed an irritating thing with my
phone. If I'm busy working at home, I don't answer it - leaving
the answering machine to take messages... which it could very easily
do, but more and more people are hanging up as soon as they get the
answering machine, and - worse - some of them call back every 30
seconds for a burst of five or six calls, hanging up each time without
leaving a message, saying their name, or even saying "Ah..." "Ugghh..."
or "Yabba-dabba-do!". Not leaving a message doesn't bother me too
much, but the barrage of calls from single callers trying to bully me
into picking up the phone is really irritating and nearly feels like
harassment, especially when they repeat the barrage every 30 minutes or
so. Sometimes I have to set the phone to sleep mode so I can get
some work done (in which case the phone can still take messages, but
doesn't audibly ring).
It's all due to cell phones I suppose. People are now so used to
getting in touch with anyone almost immediately that the idea of
leaving a message on an answering machine never seems to occur to
them. In the situation of calling a cell phone and getting
someone's voice messaging service (when their phone is off), then
hanging up doesn't disturb anyone. So, no problem there, but the
people calling my regular phone should at least say their name and they
shouldn't call so bloody often in a short period of time. Yeah, I
know. I should just tell them, and I have told one person, but
what can I say to the rest? Maybe this:
"You know, your barrage of hang-up calls every 30 seconds is really
irritating! Would you mind not doing that? Why don't I
answer
the phone? Because I'm busy you dolt! If you would leave a
bloody %$#%#%# message, then I could call you back when I wasn't
busy! Is that too hard for you to comprehend!?"
At which point I would either succeed in ending both the friendship and
the calls or create an enemy who called even more often to "get even"
for my "rude" (honest) words.
Why don't I make use of caller ID? I do with my cell phone (when
it's switched on) but my answering/fax machine is an old one that
doesn't display numbers. Why don't I get a new one? Why
should I? That wouldn't solve the hang-up call barrages - it
would more precisely identify exactly who was being a rude idiot though.
Okay. Rant over.
Lyle
2006/03/16
"Character..."
That old buildings often have character is an obvious thing in most
cities, but in Tokyo, things are torn down and rebuilt so rapidly that
there isn't much of anything very old here. Never mind the
devastation of WW-II, vast numbers of buildings put up since then have
been taken down already. There are old buildings of course,
including per-war buildings that managed to get through the war years
undamaged, but the number seems to be less than in most other cities in
the world.
What prompts me to write this is the demise of the string of concrete
apartment buildings in Jingu-mae (between Harajuku and Omotesando
stations), that were put up with international financial assistance
right after the 1923 earthquake that destroyed most of Tokyo and
Yokohama. By the time I came to Tokyo in 1984, the buildings were
comfortably sitting among large old trees and some of the apartments
had been converted into art galleries. The area felt quite
relaxed and comfortable to walk through, and I thought how nice it
would be to live there.... That was then, and before I even
realized it was going to happen, they were all torn down and an
ultra-modern complex of shops and very expensive apartments (on the
upper floors above the commercial space) was built on the land where
the old apartments and trees had been. While the main street
still has its row of large trees along the road, the other plants were
cut down to make way for the long & large structure that is now
Tokyo's newest "trendy spot".
Hearing that the complex was open, I went over for a look and to take
some pictures - feeling a very deep sense of a lost opportunity
regarding not having extensively photographed the old buildings while
they were still there! The new complex, called "Omotesando
Hills", is pretty much what I imagined it would be - modern, with nice
shops, cafes and restaurants, and with many strolling young
couples. The inside will be better with age, but is a little
weird now, as it smells like new-construction-chemicals, so as you walk
about inside listening to the recorded bird sounds, the contrast
between the slightly toxic air and the sounds of a forest - where the
air would be so radically different - is a little bizarre. Once
the chemical smell is gone, the atmosphere will improve no doubt - by
this summer?
Photos of the new Omotesando Hills complex are on this page:
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/PhotoGlryMain/pgb/Omotesando01.html
Lyle
2006/03/15
"Omotesando Hills"
The newest trendy spot in Tokyo is Omotesando Hills (I think - but it's
been open for a month now, so maybe there's something newer by now!),
where I stopped by to have a look and take some pictures, which are
posted here:
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/PhotoGlryMain/pgb/Omotesando01.html
There are several nice complexes like this in Tokyo now, so I'm
beginning to wonder if there are enough customers to go around...
probably there are though, what with 30,000,000 people in Tokyo and the
surrounding suburbs!
Lyle
2006/03/12
"Boso Peninsula - Crossing Tokyo
Bay & Train to Tateyama" (Page-3)
The third page (if you count the title page as page one) of the Boso
Peninsula series has been posted here:
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/PhotoGlryMain/pgb/b/Boso03.html
Lyle
2006/03/12
"Working Freelance & Wearing
Sunglasses"
I received a letter today from a friend who is also doing freelance
work from home - among other things, he reports:
"The job was supposed to have
been finished by Friday, but I missed the deadline... so the editors
probably won't hire me again, but it's their fault because they always
ask for impossible deadlines. I tried to tell them the quality of
the artwork would be compromised with so little time but they don't
care. Everything is expected to be speedy and well done, with
very heavy emphasis on 'speedy'!"
It's the same problem here with freelance translating and rewriting
work. I was recently offered a freelance rewriting job (they
called it "checking", but that was disingenuous - most of the sample I
saw needed to be completely rewritten!) of some really horrible English
in a huge PowerPoint file. Good thing I demanded to see a sample
of the text, or I would have ended up getting stuck with an impossible
project at a ridiculously cheap rate and with too little time to do it
in. I told the company that I would do the job if the rate was
much higher and if
I could have access to the author of the
difficult-to-decipher English in the report in order to talk with them
(in Japanese) and discover what they were trying to say. The
intermediary company refused (not surprisingly), as they would never
want the cheap worker (me) directly talking with the client - they
could end up being cut out of the loop that way... which they probably
should be! All the intermediary company does is: take the job,
call or e-mail someone, dump a pile of work on them, and then send the
result back to the client. For this, they take half (or
two-thirds) of the money!
Re: "I have to take pain pills
because my eyes hurt from looking at the screen. I'm definitely
taking a small vacation after this!"
Ouch! Be careful with your eyes! Have you tried wearing
sunglasses? Seriously! Especially when working late at
night, the white light from a monitor is very bad for the eyes!
What you could do is take the sunglasses off for detail work, and then
put them back on for other things. Recently I don't watch much
TV, but when I used to watch it late at night with the room lights off,
I wore sunglasses! It sounds a little weird, but after the first
minute or two, it felt comfortable and then I could watch TV for an
hour or two and not experience the eye strain I got from watching TV
without the sunglasses. I wonder... does anyone else do
that? The difference between direct light and incident light
isn't something people seem to think about, but they should - looking
at a white sheet of paper (reflected incident light) and looking at a
white computer screen (direct light) are two rather different things!
Lyle
2006/03/11
"LL-336"
It's full of stuff from the end of 2005, but... LL-336 has been posted
to the LL-Letters page, here:
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/LL_R/RArchive/LL336a.html
The Pollen count this year is high again, but at least it's reported as
being slightly lower than last year - which I'm glad to hear. I
had a pretty hard time last year with pollen allergies.
Lyle
2006/03/08
"Sweet? Okay... But Not For
Me!"
I called a friend in California today and talked for a bit, and I asked
him about modern usage of "sweet". He demonstrated its usage on
the phone and it didn't actually sound so bad. After hanging up,
I'm beginning to realize how cut off I am from this sort of
thing. I read a lot, so I'm probably as up-to-date as most people
in vocabulary, but reading a word like "sweet" and hearing it are two
very different things!
So - to my "sweet" using e-pals out there - sorry for the fiery rant
about that word! In hearing it skillfully demonstrated, I don't
think it sounds so bad... but I still don't think I want to use it
myself!
Lyle
2006/03/07
"'Sweet'? - Yuck!"
I guess it's hip to use the word "sweet" now, but the problem for me is
that it's not something new and cool, but something old and
disgusting! I still remember my older female relatives who would
refer to anything insipid by saying "Oh, now isn't that sweet?".
Uggghhh! Yuck! It makes me sick to remember it! So
every time I get an e-mail from someone in their twenties now and they
use the generational code word "sweet", I have a gag reflex and see
visions of old women with too much perfume cooing about how "sweet"
kittens and babies are!
But wait a minute - I get it - it's the twenties again! The bored
"opinion leaders" and "fashion" writers probably dusted off some old
magazines from the twenties and figured:
"What the h**l, most people who were alive in the 1920's are dead now -
so they won't/can't complain if I steal their fashions, 'trends', and
vocabulary and call it something new! From the other end, people
in their twenties (now... they can't stay there) haven't a clue about
the nineteen-twenties, so they'll think they're being hip as they use
the old dusty words and fashions, and - best of all - they'll make me
rich in the process! Ho-Ho-Ho!! Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha!!!"
I mean... let's be honest here. Every old person was once young
and every young person who doesn't die young will get old. 100%
of us die sooner or later - there is no eternal youth and - the "We're
in the same group, ho-ho!" usefulness of generational code words aside
- words are only tools and... and... wait a second... this is
degenerating into sophistry....
Well - I just wanted to complain about that really horrible,
disgusting, insipid, nasty word "sweet". Man I hate that
word! I guess that makes it a perfect generational code term -
"Say it and watch middle-aged Lyle gag! He-he!", but if I could only
bring those old relatives of mine back to life to blast the ears off
those in their twenties now with the insipid version of "sweet", they
would cover their ears in horror and run away screaming when they heard
the word!
Lyle
2006/03/06
23:57
"Nine Years in a Trunk..."
Yes, that trunk - the trunk of my previously written about 1984 Honda
Prelude (R.I.P.). At some point back when I was still driving the
car on a regular basis, I changed out of a pair of dress shoes into
running shoes and the dress shoes ended up staying in the trunk.
They weren't originally forgotten... I think I just left them in there
thinking that they might come in handy some time if I needed to dress
up while out on the road somewhere. But after a few years, they
were very much forgotten and they didn't resurface until I completely
cleaned out the trunk just before paying to have my old Prelude friend
scrapped (such is the fate of old cars in Japan - they don't go into
garages, they go to the scrap yard to be shredded).
Looking the newly resurfaced shoes over, they seemed to be in
reasonably good condition and when I tried them on, they fit
comfortably enough and looked okay, so I put them in the shoe closet by
the door and determined to use them again in the near future.
That near future came today, so I put them on and - looking at my watch
and seeing I was running late - I ran to the station, contemplating how
strange it was to be wearing shoes that I had last worn some nine years
ago. Once on the first of two trains into central Tokyo, I forgot
about the shoes and looked out the window - thinking of something or
other... until I noticed a man standing next to me looking at my
feet. I looked at his feet and saw a pair of shiny black shoes...
"Hmm? Is he happily noticing that his shiny black shoes are newer
than my older dull-brown shoes? What's up?", thought I, but once
off the train, I again forgot about the shoes.
On the next train, I was able to sit down, so I read the Japanese
version of Botchan half way into town and the National Geographic for
the remaining half. Standing up at my station, I walked to the
door, and as I waited for the train to stop, I looked down and noticed
that there was something sticking out from the side of my right shoe...
"What the...?", thought I as I lifted up my right foot and tilted it
sideways - "!!!!! Wow! Look at that!!!", I thought as I saw that
the heel was disintegrating and bits of rubber were coming out the
sides! Same thing with the other shoe! I walked off the
train, suddenly feeling a bit like a character in a comedy movie with
bits of rubber falling from my shoes with every step! Seriously!
From there I went to work and was horrified to see that the rubber
leakage was getting worse - I was leaking so much rubber on the carpet,
that I couldn't pretend nothing was happening, and so I had no choice
but to apologize to people at the company for making a mess and then
make the best joke I could of it - "This is like a comedy movie or a
comic book story! Ho-ho-ho!", etc.
Work eventually ended and I headed for the station - trailing rubber
all the way. By the time I got to my transfer station, the heels
and front section of the right shoe had come off and it was painful
walking on only the middle section of remaining rubber, so I stomped
and scrapped my feet a little to knock off the middle section.
Once that was done, the height of the two shoes was different, so I
stomped and scrapped my left foot a bit to knock the remaining chunks
of rubber from that side off. As I walked home, more bits fell
off, and by the time I got home, I was wearing moccasins.
The moral of the story? If you find an old pair of leather shoes
that has been sleeping in a car trunk for nine years; bury them in a
deep hole, put them in the trash, put them in a glass case, whatever -
just don't ride the trains into central Tokyo with them on your
feet.
Lyle
2006/03/03
"Rampaging Monkeys"
The monkey problem here - as in too many of them - is an ongoing
problem that resurfaces in the news from time to time. Yesterday
I saw a report about a town somewhere (forgot the name of the town -
somewhere in Japan in any case!) that was having town hall meetings
trying to decide what to do. The town is divided between those
who like the monkeys and don't want them harmed, and those who want to
kill some of them off. Tempers flared at one point and a couple
of people were telling each other to get out of the meeting, and then
others were interrupting each other as they gave their opinions to the
town leaders and television crews.
Apparently there's been a progression from the monkeys only coming out
when people were not around, and then coming around in front of people,
but staying away from them and running when approached, to being
unafraid, and recently they are stealing crops in the fields, making
off with shopping from the hands of people walking down the street, and
even biting some people. There was a video of a bunch of monkeys
chasing away a camera crew, and then discussion about the different
monkey groups. Apparently one group in particular is causing most
of the trouble.
I must admit, when I watched the monkeys ganging up on the camera crew
within the city, I imagined myself being in that position and images of
baseball bats and flying monkeys came to mind. I like animals,
but seeing them come threateningly towards the camera in the middle of
the city set off some primal survival thing in my mind that predates
civilization. Eating or not eating, and being physically
challenged on your home turf brings out base instincts....
Lyle
2006/03/03
"Blue Skies Bank?"
There's this bank in Shibuya called "Aozora Bank", which probably
prompts you to say "So what?", but "Aozora" means "Blue Sky" or "Blue
Skies" in English (there's no plural in Japanese), so that basically
makes it the "Blue Skies Bank". .....
Cool name, but do they really mean to say that it never rains on them
in a financial sense? I like the name so much I'm tempted to open
an account there, but the banking industry in Japan has been going
through so many changes, you have to wonder where is safe to leave your
money.
Just in case you're interested, the bank began life in April 1957 as
the The Nippon Fudosan Bank, Limited, changed its name to The Nippon
Credit Bank, Ltd. in 1977, and then changed its name to Aozora Bank,
Ltd. in January of 2001.
Blue skies... nothing but blue skies... happy, happy future, blue
skies. Maybe I better get an account there just so I can get
cheered up every time I go to the bank!
Lyle
2006/03/01
"Ubuntu Linux Mark Shuttleworth
Visit Follow-up"
As a follow-up to my previous posting about Mark Shuttleworth's Tokyo
visit, there's an article about it posted here:
http://www.linuxforums.org/reviews/converging_paths_in_tokyo.html
Recording are great, but transcription isn't the funnest thing.
I'm looking forward to better speed recognition technology so I won't
have to transcribe things any more!
Lyle
2006/02/27
"Lights... as Far as the Eye Can
See..."
Up in a highrise in Tokyo - I look out at the lights of Tokyo and there
is no end to them - the city seemingly goes on to the edges of the
earth. The size of this city is an amazing thing to behold at
night. Down on the streets it doesn't seem quite so huge, but up
here in the sky, it's quite a sight. I suppose that's the way it
is in any large city - "The city for the buildings" you could say - you
can't see the city at street-level with the buildings getting in the
way.
And... that's it... I thought I would burn up the keyboard
writing something about the experience, but it's a simple enough
one. You get up into a sky-side restaurant, sit by the window,
and the world outside seems endlessly interesting. It would be
nice to have an apartment 50 stories up - turn off the apartment lights
and write while contemplating the city of lights stretched out before
you like something from a science fiction story.
Hmmm..... taking a look in the windows of one of the neighboring
highrises, I see people at work (it's 7:15 p.m. as I write this).
How often do they look out the windows and contemplate the world
outside? Maybe not that often at night - the interiors tend to be
a bit overlit, so it's not so easy to see outside anyway.
Well - enough on that. It seemed downright magical when I first
contemplated the view, but the more I look, the more ordinary it
becomes! Truly, there is profound in the mundane and mundane in
the profound!
Sore dewa!
Lyle
PS - There
are a couple of night view pictures (taken on a different day) here:
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/PhotoGlryMain/pgb/NtScn01.html
2006/02/23
"Folklore or Science?"
When I grew up in the US, whenever I caught a cold, I always
(always-always-always) took a very hot bath or shower just before going
to bed to try and sleep it off.
I crossed the Pacific and suddenly everyone in Japan acts horrified
when I mention taking a hot bath when I have a cold. The local
belief is that taking a hot bath when you have a cold will make you
sicker, so people never (never-never-never) take a hot bath when
they're sick with a cold.
Is this just local folklore, or is there some science to this
view? My personal theory is that when you live in a house or
apartment without central heating, there's a stronger possibility of
getting cold after heating yourself in hot water - thus the horror on
people's faces when I mention my custom....
Any comments? I'd really like to know the answer to this one -
for the sake of my own health it would be good to know, and also it
would be great to be able to put this long-running dispute to rest with
science.
Lyle
2006/02/22
"Empirical & Amusing?"
I visited an Australian pal's house last week and had a great time
drinking wine, eating, talking, and watching a movie on his new wide
screen TV. But... there was one point where I was going on about
the naming of "Nishi-Tokyo" and my friend suddenly said "There you go
again! You're always so empirical!". I was a little taken
aback, as I considered it to be a non-touchy topic, especially since
every local I've talked with also doesn't like the name "Nishi-Tokyo"
(formerly "Hoya-shi & Tanashi-shi" - two cities that were merged
and renamed "Nishi-Tokyo", which means "West Tokyo"), but I did the
social thing and backtracked... for a few days that is, and then I
decided to write my Australian pal a letter, which is as follows (with
some names taken out to protect the guilty):
Hello Abcdef-pal,
I was thinking about your
accusation that I'm too empirical, so I thought I'd respond to
that. First, let's have a look at the dictionary definition of
"empirical":
empirical, adj.
1. derived from or guided by
experience or experiment.
2. depending upon experience or
observation alone, without using scientific method or theory, esp. as
in medicine.
3. provable or verifiable by
experience or experiment.
[1560-70; EMPIRIC + -AL1]
empirically, adv.
empiricalness, n.
Syn.1, 2. practical, firsthand,
pragmatic.
Ant.1, 2. secondhand, theoretical.
While some of that I would agree
with - that I make many decisions and take many stands "derived from or
guided by experience or experiment", and I don't have a problem with
the synonyms "practical, firsthand, and pragmatic", but with regards to
some recent issues, like [a certain software company], [a certain bunch
of politicians], etc., those are most definitely not "depending upon
experience or observation alone, without using scientific method or
theory, esp. as in medicine". Especially regarding [a certain
software company], I think you must know that there is something foul
and very wrong with that company! As for [a certain politician],
I hope [that certain politician]-supporting PR spinmeisters haven't
gotten to you and made you blind. Short-term they are happy to
buy their new plasma TV's, but long-term they don't care what happens
to this world of ours.
Closer to home, that idiot at the
company we worked at really did try to pawn off mutant English as a
company slogan for the website. I wasn't able to get it all the
way over to real English, but at least they fixed it
grammatically. Again - this is a very real thing - and the real
issue here is having the backbone to stand up against that which is
wrong. An embarrassment on the company's website is a stain on
everyone in the company. Again-again-again, it's real, very
real. Not simply a matter of opinion.
Cheers!
Lyle
PS - Nishi-Tokyo. I may
have overstated my case on that, but I was purposely going overboard in
an attempt at humor. Obviously that failed, but I'm disappointed
in you that you failed to see the humor of the situation and chose to
attack me on that instead.... Nishi-Tokyo is high comedy you
know, in a very irritating way, but high comedy nevertheless.
And then I got a phone call from him this evening... and he stated that
he was "amused" by my e-mail (Hmmm.... why does that sound like
fingernails on a chalkboard?), and that he had been thinking about the
Nishi-Tokyo issue and "It occurred to me that it's more cultural than
geographic". I was about to answer that, when he said "But that's
not why I called!" and he jumped onto other conversational tracks.
Sigh... here we go again! We talked for a bit about this and that
and after hanging up, there I was in front of my computer, so I sent
him another e-mail, as follows:
"Nishi-Tokyo"
Abcdef-pal,
You mentioned that it occurred to
you later that the meaning of "Nishi-Tokyo" might be more cultural than
geographic? It doesn't matter mate! Either way the name
enshrines the inferiority complex some people in Hoya-shi had regarding
being on the fringe of the Ku's and right next to Saitama...
It's... like... very nasakenai desu yo! Mattaku!
Sophistry may cloud the issue,
but the issue is still there for those who open their eyes!
(He-He-He!)
Lyle
Yes, I know - it's foolish to be going on about this! Anyway,
here is some background on what comprises Tokyo and what the issue with
"Nishi-Tokyo" is. In an attempt to get you interested, I call
your attention to the fact that Tokyo is not a city.... Details
below:
The quick road to understanding the geographical nature of Tokyo and
the cities within it, is to look at Los Angeles. When people say
"Los Angeles" from afar, generally they are referring to everything
within Los Angeles Country, (which includes, confusingly enough, Los
Angeles City). Here is a list of the cities within Los Angeles
County:
Agoura Hills, Alhambra, Arcadia,
Artesia, Avalon, Azusa, Baldwin Park,
Bell, Bell Gardens, Bellflower, Beverly Hills, Bradbury, Burbank,
Calabasas, Carson, Cerritos, Claremont, Commerce, Compton, Covina,
Cudahy, Culver City, Diamond Bar, Downey, Duarte, El Monte, El Segundo,
Gardena, Glendale, Glendora, Hawaiian Gardens, Hawthorne, Hermosa
Beach, Hidden Hills, Huntington Park, Industry, Inglewood, Irwindale,
La Canada, Flintridge, La Habra Heights, Lakewood, La Mirada,
Lancaster, La Puente, La Verne, Lawndale, Lomita, Long Beach, Los
Angeles, Lynwood, Malibu, Manhattan Beach, Maywood, Monrovia,
Montebello, Monterey Park, Norwalk, Palmdale, Palos Verdes Estates,
Paramount, Pasadena, Pico
Rivera, Pomona,
Rancho Palos Verdes, Redondo Beach,
Rolling Hills, Rolling Hills Estates, Rosemead, San Dimas, San
Fernando, San Gabriel, San Marino, Santa Clarita, Santa Fe Springs,
Santa Monica, Sierra Madre, Signal Hill, South El Monte, South Gate,
South Pasadena, Temple City, Torrance, Vernon, Walnut, West Covina,
West Hollywood, Westlake Village, Whittier
Tokyo is along the same lines, but there is no Tokyo City only
"Tokyo-to", and how to translate "to" is such a headache that I'm not
even going to attempt it right now, so let's just simplistically and
inaccurately call it a county to clarify the idea that it's an area
that contains a group of cities. Another complicating factor with
Japanese cities, is that whether they are called "shi" (city), "machi"
(town) etc., depends upon their populations and other factors. I
regularly surprise people here by explaining that in the US, a tiny
town with a population of 173 can still be called a "city". In
Tokyo's case, the central area is composed of "ku"s (generally
translated as "ward" in English), and outside of those, there are
mainly "shi"s (generally translated as "city"). But increasingly,
most (all?) of them are operating just like cities. They each
have a town hall, elected representative, etc. In looking around
for a list of everything within Tokyo, I find on the Tokyo Metropolitan
Government's site:
http://www.metro.tokyo.jp/ENGLISH/
- that Tokyo has 23 ku, 26 shi, 5 cho and 8 son. The
following paragraph (from the TMG site), explains the complicated
system in some detail:
"Tokyo is a metropolitan
prefecture, divided into smaller administrative bodies. The 'central'
region is divided into 23 special wards (ku in Japanese), and the
western Tama Area is made up of 26 cities (shi), 3 towns (cho) and one
village (son). The 23 special-ward area and the Tama Area together form
a long, narrow stretch of land, running about 90 kilometers east to
west and 25 kilometers north and south. The Izu Islands and the
Ogasawara Islands, two island groups in the Pacific Ocean, are also
administratively part of Tokyo, despite being geographically separated
from the metropolis. The islands have between them 2 cho and 7 son."
I wanted to put a complete list of all ku's, shi's, cho's & son's
in here, but I've only come up with a list of the 23 ku's and the 26
shi's, which is as follows:
Tokyo's 23 Ku's: Adachi, Arakawa,
Itabashi, Edogawa, Ota, Katsushika, Kita, Koto, Shinagawa, Shibuya,
Shinjuku, Suginami, Sumida, Setagaya, Taito, Chiyoda, Chuo, Toshima,
Nakano, Nerima, Bunkyo, Minato, Meguro
Tokyo's 26 Shi's: Hachioji,
Tachikawa, Musashino, Mitaka, Ome, Fuchu, Akishima, Chofu, Machida,
Koganei, Kodaira, Hino, Higashi-Murayama, Kokubunji, Kunitachi, Fussa,
Komae, Higashi-Yamato, Kiyose, Higashi-Kurume, Musashi-Murayama, Tama,
Inagi, Hamura, Akiruno, Nishi-Tokyo
With that background out of the way, let's return to Nishi-Tokyo
(West-Tokyo). As Nishi-Tokyo is right in the center of Tokyo, the
term "west" only makes sense if you forget Tokyo and focus on the 23
ku's. It's a nonsensical name that looks very much like a
heavy-handed and clumsy attempt to make sure people understand that
that area is actually in Tokyo, and is not part of neighboring Saitama
(to the north!). I should go into more detail on this, but I'm
tired and you've probably stopped reading this way up the page anyway,
so I'll stop here! If you want more details, send me an e-mail
and I'll add something to this.
Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/
2006/02/22
"Tokyo - 1950 & 2006, Etc."
The following is composed of quotes from an e-pal in the US who was in
Japan from 1949-1951 and my responses. There wasn't much of
anything in Roppongi in 1950, but now it's possibly the most notorious
area of the city.
Re: "In the Blog, you talked about visiting
Roppongi and the train station there. I don't believe there was a
train station there in 1950. I used to jump on the trolly over to
Shinjuku, or was it Shibuya, and there catch a train to Yurakucho or
Yutenji. Do street cars still run?"
Going to Yutenji from Roppongi via surface transportation in 1950, you
would have first gone to Shibuya (or gone to Shinjuku and taken the
Yamanote Line to Shibuya), and for going to Yurakucho, either Shinjuku
or Shibuya would work, via the Yamanote Line or the Chuo Line (with a
transfer to the Yamanote Line). Now that there are new
subterranean train lines, the fastest way to Yurakucho from Roppongi
would be to take the Hibiya Line three stops to Hibiya Station (which
is right by Hibiya Park), and just walk over to Yurakucho (about five
minutes).
Streetcars. Once people started buying cars here, the roads
became so jammed up that streetcars were increasingly unreliable as a
timely means of transportation. In the 1948 "Principal Part of
Tokyo" map I have posted here:
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/PDF/PDF_History/PH_01/maps/1948Tokyo.jpg
- there is only one subway line - the Ginza Line, that ran (and runs)
from Asakusa to Shibuya (which was originally two lines - one from
Asakusa to Shinbashi and one from Shinbashi to Shibuya - they were
later connected to form a single line), and now there are... thirteen
different subway lines, and they're still tunneling! You should
see the subway maps - guaranteed to strike terror into the hearts of
lost tourists!
There is one streetcar line left - the one that runs from around Waseda
University, past Otsuka (Yamanote Line), Oji, and over to Minowa (of
which I have some pictures on the "One Evening in Minowa" page, here:
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/PhotoGlryMain/pgb/Minowa.html
- but it runs on off-road rails for almost the entire way, so it's more
like a one-car surface train, with only a couple of areas where it
actually runs in the street - the most interesting part being going
through traffic near Oji Station.
All the rest of the streetcars are gone. There are two subway
lines that stop in Roppongi - the Hibiya Line and the Oedo Line.
To get to Yutenji today, you would take a Hibiya Line train to
Naka-Meguro and then change trains to the Toyoko Line for the one stop
to Yutenji, or - if you timed it right - you could take a single train
from Roppongi to Yutenji without changing trains at all. When the
train runs straight through onto the next train line's tracks, they
just change drivers at the border, so at Naka-Meguro, when going to
Roppongi from Yutenji, the Toyoko Line driver steps out, the Hibiya
Line driver steps in, and from the passengers' standpoint, it's just
one train ride.
Re: "Is this a fact or just western
fantasy?" [Regarding a mass-forward e-mail with pictures of Asian
(Japanese?) women in impossibly small swim wear that left key parts
hanging out in the breeze, entitled "The latest Japanese swimsuits (WHY
BOTHER...) Goodbye Momma I'm Off to Yokohama".]
After looking over those photos, I can tell you that it's definitely
not the norm in swim wear here! I think that was probably taken
from a local magazine. The truth of the matter is, many men long
to see such sights, and local publishing companies are only too-happy
to hire some models and make the fantasy seem quite real. No big
deal, but then someone from outside the country gets ahold of the
magazines and sends scanned photos here and there all over the world,
saying "the latest from Japan!" and the fiction is believed to be
reality overseas. Certainly those look quite real - the one with
the child in the photo makes it look like you'd really see those women
at the local beach, but absolutely, definitely, no mistake - that is
not what most (any?) Japanese women wear to the beach!
And the title, "I'm Off to Yokohama"
is nonsense - there are no beaches in Yokohama! There's an
artificial beach not far from Disneyland and then there are the beaches
of the Izu Peninsula, but not in Yokohama (unless they've created one
on a land-fill island or something that I don't know about, but I don't
think so).
Re: "Just reading your latest note
in your blog (I have no idea what blog means) and I see myself when I
wrote 8th Cav news - "Does anyone read this?". Turned out that
mostly the only responses were from those who objected to what I had to
say. The approving group were silent, or I like to think that."
Thanks for pointing that out - I would have to admit that I also don't
write to authors I like and say I like what they write - I just read
their articles, like them, and look forward to more. If they say
they're thinking of giving it up due to lack of interest, or they say
something I think is wrong, then I write! As for the word "blog",
it began as "web log" and then - as the story goes - an Internet writer
re-spaced that to "we blog" and thus "blog" was born. I resisted
that stupid word for several years, but finally gave in since it's
become a standard term now. But even if the word itself doesn't
make much sense, there was a need for a term to explain the phenomenon
of people self-publishing their thoughts on the Internet, and so blog
is good enough.
Re: "It seems that pricking people
with opposing views or even misspelling their names is a sure way to
get response."
I've found that criticizing Microsoft is a sure way to generate very
nasty letters - so predictably and with such a high level of nastiness,
that I have to wonder if Microsoft actually employs people as attack
dogs to strike whenever a bad word about Microsoft gets into
print.... It's weird. But being an extremely PR-conscious
company, they might actually do that.
Re: "What is the current rate of
exchange Yen to Dollars? I tried to find that info on internet
and it seemed I ran into cousins of used car salesmen. I never
did learn the exchange rate."
The last time I checked, it was about Y119 to the dollar or
thereabouts. It was Y245 to the dollar when I came in 1984.
Re: "Interesting to me the talk of
Roppongi. In 1950 it was just a place, and not much of one. Lots
of shacks. I think it was heavily burned over by the air
raids. No night clubs and no train station. There were some
embassies - I recall the Russian Embassy wasn't far from our
barracks. One of our men told of stealing their flag. For
me, Roppongi was just a place to catch a trolley to get to the real
action."
Ah... that has completely changed then! Now, just saying the word
"Roppongi" makes people think "nightclubs, foreigners, discos, drugs,
craziness, prostitution, etc., etc.", which is why the Canadian guy
[referring to another letter here] said he never went there because
he's a family man. A woman was recently found there in a parking
lot - dead from an overdose of one recreational drug or another, and
there was a special report on it in the news, saying that the US
embassy has even put out a warning about the area recommending the
unwary to avoid it! Think Ginza, take out the class, the
department stores, and any sense of order and politeness and you might
begin to imagine Roppongi. That doesn't mean it's cheap!
Many clubs there are quite expensive, but the overriding word is
"decadent". I don't particularly care for the area myself, but it
is interesting!
In case you're interested, there are some nighttime photos of Roppongi
(at the end of the page, the first photos were taken elsewhere) here:
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/PhotoGlryMain/pgb/Roppongi01a.html
- and some daytime pictures of the spiffy side of Roppongi here
(located a ten minute walk away from the "fun zone":
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/PhotoGlryMain/pgb/Ubuntu01.html
Lyle
2006/02/16
"Something in the Air...."
Back in the days when I only sent out text via e-mail to the members of
the newsgroup I put together, I had this nearly visual feeling of a
group out there - I'd imagine people receiving my e-mail, clicking on
it and then reading it as they scrolled down the page. While it's
true that any one of them could have forwarded it on to someone else or
copy-pasted the text into a new e-mail, etc., still - it was a finite
list and I imagined a finite number of people who read the
newsletter. And then I posted the first one on-line....
Stage One -
Suddenly there was this strange feeling... who was reading it and who
would read it in days, weeks and months ahead? How many people
would read it? Where were these people?
Stage Two -
Without noticing exactly when the boundary was crossed, things just
drifted out of that strange zone and into a state of normality....
Stage Three -
Right now. A year and a half since the first posting, and now I
sometimes find myself thinking "Is anyone going to read this?".
Stage Four -
The future.... I have no idea! Is there a Stage Four?
Or will it cycle back to Stage One?
It's a strange thing about writing - you have an idea, you try to put
it into words and you hope that it's of some interest to someone. On
one hand it seems sort of hit-or-miss, but sometimes an idea begs to be
put on the screen and you don't really care what anyone thinks of it -
the act of getting it written and posted seems like the whole
task. It had to be done and whether someone likes it or not isn't
the issue. This is exactly the type of thing that tends to be
well-received.... On the other hand... when you do care what
people think and you push a little hard in a direction that you want
them to think... look out! This a dangerous thing to do!
You have a momentary feeling of glee as you whack the Enter key at the
end and click on Send. "Go get 'em!" you silently think.
Then, the next day arrives and - with the new sun - an in-box full of
angry/over-enthusiastic/disappointed/etc. letters.
Ah... the disappoint of it! The very text you write with the most
enthusiasm often dumps you into the lowest level of shame! Full
meaning sitting in the air and begging for form in words is another
matter however! This seems to be the key. There are things
that need to be said, so when you find them, give them voice and/or
form! If you just want to say something, go ahead and try, but
not too enthusiastically and try to look for something real in the air
to fit between the lines.....
Lyle
2006/02/15
"Another Side to Roppongi"
It feels a little odd how I ended up in Roppongi yet again last
night. It's not a place I have spent much time in since my
arrival here in Tokyo in 1984, but while the number of times I go there
are few, those few visits always seem to be interesting (in both good
and bad ways). There was my first visit there with a group I was
staying with in 1984, when I met a woman in a disco that I was smitten
with (but events ended the encounter in a complicated tangle of
misunderstandings). And then there was the first visit there with
a friend from LA after the yen has shot up in strength and Japan
suddenly became a place to emigrate to... I still remember the shock of
walking down the street and seeing foreigners here and there...
everywhere! Never before in Japan had I been anywhere where
locals didn't comprise at least 97% of the group in sight. I had
grown used to the idea that foreigners here were - by definition - a
radical minority. Thinking about that issue, I realize there is
something to be said both for higher numbers (more familiarity with
individuals from across the sea) and for lower numbers (the fun of
always being unique, no fear of being overrun)... as well as something
to be said against both (but never mind that aspect, let's stay
positive with this).
What next... a short memory, like a video clip, of going to some noisy
club with that same friend from LA and ending up talking with a local
woman who suddenly (why?) told me "The moon landings were faked!" as
she looked at me with fierce and "let's fight" fire in her eyes.
I was so flabbergasted by the intensity of the toxin she was beaming at
me and not having any idea what prompted it, that I was rendered
speechless... (end of memory-video clip).
Then there is a memory of wandering through the area and sensing the
atmosphere as I took pictures in the afternoon; then a job interview
for the Stars & Stripes newspaper, at which I was told I would have
to abandon my permanent residency visa if I was offered the job
(why?!), followed by the melancholy walk down the street taking
pictures... looking over to see what was to become the Roppongi Hills
Tower under construction. That particular memory-video clip is
longer than most - I remember nearly everything - from walking by the
helicopter pad, to the interview itself, and the view of the large
building under construction down the street, with the final scene being
the entrance to the subway as I headed down.
Those are a few experiences, but spread over something like eighteen
years, and then suddenly three in just a few months:
First there was the visit to the new place opened by a friend of a
British pal (see "Ebisu & Roppongi":
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/PhotoGlryMain/pgb/Roppongi01a.html
- at which I missed the last train and ended up drinking several
bottles of Guinness and talking with the English guy until the first
train in the morning ("I've had enough of Roppongi to last a few
years!" thought I, on the walk to Roppongi Station for that first train
at 5:00 a.m.).
Then on February 3rd, there was the Ubuntu Linux meeting with Mark
Shuttleworth in the Roppongi Hills Tower complex (at the Grand Hyatt
Tokyo hotel) no less (see:
"Ubuntu Linux Round Table at
Grand Hyatt Tokyo, Roppongi Hills Tower":
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/PhotoGlryMain/pgb/Ubuntu01.html
)
- something I didn't imagine when I saw the building under
construction; and then finally last night....
I recently posted the first version of a website for a singer
acquaintance (a friend of a friend), and she asked me if I could come
by a club where she performed a Valentine's Day concert to talk about
the design, etc. I had to work in Shinjuku until 21:30, but she
said that she'd be singing until 22:00 and that she'd wait for me, so I
took the Oedo Line subway from Shinjuku to Roppongi, marveling at how
deep underground it is (as the most recent large-scale subway line,
they had to put it under everything else) and felt annoyed at the extra
walking time it took to get down to the platform (I very seldom use the
Oedo Line). After over 21 years of marching up and down subway
stairs, I've gotten used to it taking a certain amount of time, so when
that time is tripled, it's quite irritating somehow (they should try
running the escalators at higher speed I think)....
On the train, I looked around and thought how different it felt from
the other subways in Tokyo, so I looked and listened for the causes,
which seemed to be that (combination of on-the-spot perception and
previous technical knowledge about that line): it uses linear-motors
(although it's not a maglev - it runs on steel wheels on rails); it's
smaller (to accommodates the smaller diameter tunnels running deep
underground); it's running closer to the floor of the tunnel (with
smaller wheels, part of the reason for the linear motor design
apparently); the sounds of the train in the tunnel are a bit different;
and the feeling of acceleration is different in a way that's hard to
pin down (thanks to those linear motors no doubt, but also due to
computer control?). Lastly, there is just some strange extra
element - that feeling you have when you ride a subway in a foreign
city; you look around and see the design is basically the same as what
you're used to, but everything is a little bit skewed in a different
direction, giving the experience a different personality.
Running a little late (it was a couple of minutes past ten as I stepped
off the train at Roppongi Station), I hiked up the escalators to get to
the top as soon as possible. As I hiked past people, I wondered
why they were just patiently standing on the slow-moving stairs.., but
by the time I had negotiated several long flights of escalators, I
understood only-too-well why! Man, that thing is deep! It
must be something like six or seven stories underground! (Come to
think of it - it's got to be way below sea level... I wonder if the
tunnel walls are holding back water seepage?)
Once past the mountain passes of escalators and breathlessly outside, I
was able to figure out where the place was via several public maps
located on boards at intersections - which is an excellent idea by the
way! A huge thank you to whoever is responsible for getting those
put up. While there have been maps put up here and there the
whole time I've been here, there weren't that many and they weren't as
detailed before.
I stopped in front of the building and looked up at the 2nd floor club,
getting the about-to-enter-social-situation butterflies. I
thought about how I looked ("Am I presentable?") and then climbed the
stairs, asking myself why I felt nervous. Inside the place, I
found the singer and eased through the typical transition phase from
nervous to part-of-the-scene, and then moved on to
worry-over-catching-the-last-train home. I took in the singer's
requests regarding the site and when I left, as I was saying a last
ten-second string of words at the door, she said "Get home!" after
three seconds and slammed the door shut; her laughter through the
closed door fading as she walked away from it. Since she's a
tri-cultural person, I have no idea if that was a deliberate insult or
just unintentional rudeness, but I walked to the station muttering a
bit nevertheless. Since I was in danger of missing the last train
though, she was probably just helping out, but still... "Bang!
Ha-Ha-Ha". Hmmmm.......
Lyle
2006/02/14
"Roses & Chocolate"
Re: [From a US e-pal]: "Tomorrow is Valentine's Day in the US. Rumor
has it that a dozen long-stem red roses will go for $99.00.
However, a local nursery is advertising them at $13.99. It's
amazing what some folks will pay - they are the ones who haven't the
time to look for the lowest price. We managed to get our cards today."
It's Valentine's Day in Japan too, but - like most imports here - it's
been localized. In the J-version of Valentine's Day, only women
give chocolate to men, and on March 14th, there's a male version of
J-Valentine's Day called "White Day" where only men give chocolate to
women (sometimes white chocolate - hence the name). Basically, it
seems to be a very cleaver marketing move by the J-chocolate
manufacturers!
Lyle
2006/02/12
"Onsen Resorts"
The following is part of an e-mail conversation with an e-pal (SCJ) now
living in the US who used to live in Tokyo.
Re: "Fortunately, I still have a few
friends who will let me crash on their floor - the best of which is in
Daikanyama. (He swears that it is the "cool" place to be - much
improved since 2002.)"
I don't know the area very well - but the locals definitely consider it
a "high-fashion" area. The first time I heard anything about it
was when someone told me it was becoming an area known for fashion
photography or something along those lines. I think it's only
about a fifteen or twenty minute walk to Shibuya Station, so it's part
of that scene in a way.
Speaking of Shibuya - it's become a sort of
flaky area in a way, popular with teens and people in their early
twenties, but... I stumbled into the 109 building in December and it
was quite a weird experience to wander around in that zone of dyed
blond hair and on-the-other-side recent fashion. I felt
completely out of place - half expecting someone to grab me by the arm
and say "Hey! What are you doing in here! Have you had a
look in a mirror lately? You're not young, you're not hip, you're
a stodgy-looking middle-aged bozo - you shouldn't be in here!"
Back out on the street again, I remembered
once again how you can enter a whole different world in Tokyo just by
going up into some of the buildings.
Re: "I agree with you 100% -
wouldn't Japan be an awesome place to be if one were filthy rich!
My wife's family is comfortable, and when my wife visits them they
always take her to some exotic 500 year old ryokan - the details of
which I will spare you. I've never been in Japan when they go,
but I've heard the lore - it sure sounds like something I would enjoy!"
That does sound nice! I'm still running on the fumes of a visit
about 20 years ago to Kusatsu Onsen in the winter, where I (after one
of many dips in the bath) walked out on the street in the ryokan's
yukata and wooden clogs. The combination of everything - the old
wooden building I stayed in, the snow, the smell of the hot springs,
the sound of the wooden clogs on the street, the feel of the clean cold
air after the hot bath, and the endless energy of a
25-year-old.... Sometimes I wish I could jump back into myself in
past experiences like that and relive them all over again.
Re: "China will have to wait.
My pennies having been counted, I realize that I can easily spend a
month of relaxation at my uncle's in Mexico (near the beach) and not
spend very much at all, whereas the China trip would be too much if I
hope to do Japan in May. Then I probably have to go back to
coding, and back to the cubicle. <shudder> Oh well,
c'est la vie."
Financially, I should have continued my computer studies, but the
classes I took in 1978 were too heavily focused on engineering, and I
wasn't cut out for the math involved. If the classes I was in had
been focused on programing, I may have gone in that direction, but I've
always liked photography too much to abandon it, so... my position of
struggling to make money but spending a certain amount of my time doing
things I like may have been inevitable. There's no money for
taking a vacation though....
Anyway, back to trying to turn words into yen!
Sore dewa, mata!
Lyle
2006/02/11
"Ships & Singers"
I've been going over some of my pictures of the Tokyo Bay ferries - and
it's gotten me thinking about ships in Japan in particular and ships
anywhere in general. There are a lot of islands in this country,
so there are a lot of ferries - but the only ones I've ridden on are
the last remaining Tokyo Bay ferry and the one that used to run on the
route that has been taken over with the latest bridge and tunnel.
What am I getting at? I have no idea... I'm just curious how many
of you are ship riders on any kind of a regular basis. Every time
I ride a ferry, I find myself envying the lucky people who get to
commune that way every day.
Ah! There was a point to this! I've put up two new pages
about the Boso Peninsula - as follows:
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/PhotoGlryMain/pgb/b/BosoMn.html
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/PhotoGlryMain/pgb/b/Boso02.html
And now on to the second part. The singer - specifically the
singer I've put together a preliminary website for. If you're
interested, the link is:
http://www18.ocn.ne.jp/~annaquin/
Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/
2006/02/08
"Roppongi Hills Tower & Grand
Hyatt Tokyo"
Mark Shuttleworth of Ubuntu Linux held a round table discussion at the
Grand Hyatt Tokyo (which is right behind and connected to the Roppongi
Hills Tower complex) on February 3rd and I took a few pictures, some of
which I posted on this page:
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/PhotoGlryMain/pgb/Ubuntu01.html
Speaking of Linux, there are several versions of it - one of them being
Ubuntu, which is based on Debian Linux. For details about the
company, have a look at their website:
http://www.ubuntu.com/
Too much time spent on the computer today. I'm tired... enough
for one day! Yawn... talk to you again tomorrow (or the next day)!
Lyle
2006/02/08
"Snow Family"
I put this on the site a while ago, but forgot to point it out in the
blog - which I will now. The photos are of the first snow of
winter in Tokyo, with the bottom three taken on the day the snow fell,
and the top picture on the following day:
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/PhotoGlryMain/pgb/SnowFamily.html
Tokyo gets very little snow, but occasionally it will fall. We
had another snowstorm late at night on... February 6th, I think it
was. The next day was fairly warm though, so it was almost
completely gone in a day.
Lyle
2006/02/05
"Passionate and Reasonable... I
Hope!"
I'm still in the process of reading up on Ubuntu Linux to prepare for
writing about it in some detail, but there was one moment of the round
table discussion I partook in last Friday at a conference room at the
Grand Hyatt Tokyo hotel that has stayed very firmly in the "Pending"
section of my mind, so I've decided to go into that moment and its
ramifications first and foremost. I recorded the meeting (with
permission) and so the following part of it was transcribed from the
recording word-for-word. There is the main issue of face-value
content, and there is also the sub-issue of the gap between writing and
speaking. For some, there is little or no perceptible difference,
but for others (such as myself), the gap is wide. For those of
you who have never heard me speak, have a look at the transcription of
what I said at the meeting... and you will have at least a small idea
of what a horrible speaker I am!
The following except from the two-hour meeting with Mark Shuttleworth
is just a few minutes beginning from the 15-minute, 17-second part of
the recording (which wasn't begun until about ten or fifteen minutes
into the meeting - a round table discussion with about twelve
participants):
Mark Shuttleworth: "Perhaps I could
ask a question of you [this directed at me as a freelance
photojournalist] as somebody who watches the industry - how would you
characterize free software in Japan today"
LHS: "Well, I'm not an expert
actually - I mean, I use Linux on the desktop myself, and I'm very
interested in promoting Linux and that sort of thing, but I'm actually
not specifically focused on technology. I've been doing a lot of
more general kind of issues about Japan... and about travel to the Boso
Peninsula and that sort of thing. So I'm actually not an expert
at all, but I'm a user of Linux and I want to do anything I can to
promote it, so I'm sort of a crusading anti-CSMSC person - I really
hate CSMSC."
[Japanese translation]
LHS: "And... and also...."
Mark Shuttleworth: "There is a
danger in the fact that many of the people who are passionate about
Linux, are really passionate about their opposition to the status
quo... because the question arises - when the status quo changes, what
will bind us together."
LHS: "Haha - Yeah, okay..."
Mark Shuttleworth: "And, ah...
And ah... So I think my focus is very much on promotion of what is good
about this software."
LHS: "Yeah."
Mark Shuttleworth: "To a certain
extent, everything [???] good work has been done on the outside [??] as
well... setting a reference."
LHS: "But I do make a point of
trying to... you know... ask as many people as I can, and kind of
mention it, and the thing that is always a little bit depressing is...
is... of most of the general people I meet, they've never even heard of
it, so it's really hard to get them interested in trying...."
Mark Shuttleworth: "There's a low
awareness of free software..."
LHS: "I think it's a very low
awareness amongst... you know... ordinary users. Yes... um..."
Mr. A: "At the same time, there are
many magazines - published glossy magazines - that feature free
software, but they're just for the... like... really technical crowd."
Mr. B: "But I think the thing is, if
you look at the bookstores here in Japan, that ah... the publishing
industry is very strong here, they'll publish about anything.
........ [etc.]"
Notice how to the point and focused Mark Shuttleworth sounds above and
how out-of-focus I sound. It's a strange thing for me. For
some reason, I can conjure up what I want to say when I'm writing alone
(or by tuning out the people around me and thinking as though I were
alone), but in a public situation like that, I usually don't articulate
what I want to say very well. (Maybe I should imagine that I'm
going to write it down and then just verbalize it instead.)
All of that said, when I think back to when I was working at Linear
Power in the late seventies, I found it easy enough to focus on the
product, and when you talk about the same subject to large numbers of
people, one after another, on and on, you fall into patterns - which is
useful for smooth speaking, but also a hazard in that you can
misidentify where someone is coming from and launch into one of your
automatic responses - as Mark Shuttleworth seems to have done in
mistakenly identifying me as one of those who "...are really passionate about their
opposition to the status quo...". No, Mark, I'm not
against "the status quo". When the status quo is something I feel
to be a good thing, I'm happy to jump on the bandwagon, but when the
status quo (or fringe element, whatever) is something I feel to be
destructive to the common well-being of us all, then I end up going
against it.
There is certainly some truth to the situation of people more easily
banding together when they have a common enemy, but I think the
situation Linux users are in with regard to CSMSC is one
where CSMSC
plays dirty - very very dirty. How can you be complacent and
purely positive about something that threatens the very existence of
tools you depend on for a living? So - yes, I'm passionate about
Linux and passionately opposed to CSMSC, but I
don't care what the
status quo is, other than I find it distressing to see large numbers of
people supporting tyrants - committing a kind of collective slow
suicide through the ignorance of not knowing any better.
Conclusion? I'll try to be more positive and I hope that Mark
Shuttleworth doesn't underestimate what Ubuntu Linux is up
against. And - Mark - I promise that, even after CSMSC has gone
bankrupt and saner days return to the computer software scene, I will
still be with you on Linux! Passionate, reasonable and with no
regard whatsoever to whatever the "status quo" is. A good thing
is a good thing. The more people on board, the better!
Lyle
2006/02/03
"Ubuntu Linux"
I often mention Linux to my friends and acquaintances - and generally
they say "Linux? What's that?" - to which I sadly shake my head
and attempt to explain something about Linus Torvalds and the worldwide
Linux community. After talking about 30 seconds, I look at them
closely and am generally shocked and dismayed to see their eyes glazing
over. It's a depressing thing my friends - when something as
profoundly important to peoples' lives as the computer is not deeply
thought about, you have to wonder what sort of future is in store for
this planet's bipeds.
Yeah - I'm joking... sort of, but I'm also serious. The thing
that people forget when discussions turn to a certain sinister and
monopolistic software company (hereafter referred to as "CSMSC", is
that the issue doesn't begin and end with whether a CSMSC-run machine
is easy to use or even if its performance is better (which it isn't in
many cases). The connection between what you support and how it
influences all of us is worth thinking about.
What to do? At this point in the short history of our long lives,
there is a way to escape the tyranny of CSMSC. Using Linux, you
can completely eradicate CSMSC from a computer and use the hardware -
which is yours - with software that is yours as well (remember that
CSMSC never allows you to own the software that they overcharge you
for). Linux is getting better and better, but what worries me is
that there's too much of a complacent "I'll wait until it's perfected"
attitude with most of the people I've spoken with who are not using it,
but are at least thinking about it a little. The problem here is
that CSMSC is not sitting still (they are taking out patents on things
that have no business being patented) and if there is not a strong
stand for our computing freedom, the chance staring us in the face now
could be lost. (Mind you, I'm not anti-CSMSC because I want to be
anti-something, I'm anti-CSMSC because of the threat CSMSC poses to our
computing freedom.)
Okay. Enough preamble. I'm going on and on about this
because I met Mark Shuttleworth and Malcolm Yates of Ubuntu Linux
today. And... now that I've finished the preamble, I realize that
the Ubuntu Linux story is deserving of more time than I have right now,
but I'll be back with details. In the meantime, have a look at
the Ubuntu Linux website:
http://www.ubuntu.com/
Lyle
2006/02/02
"State of the Economy..."
One of the English language schools in Tokyo (NCB-English) has suddenly
gone bankrupt, leaving the employees without pay for the last month
they worked (the pay system at most companies here is one where you
work from the 21st to the 20th and get paid a month's salary on the
25th/31st), so many of the teachers who were leading a hand-to-mouth
existence are suddenly left with empty bank accounts and unpaid
rent. English teaching was once a lucrative business, but these
days it's very cutthroat and precarious. A small version of the
economy in general perhaps. Some of the largest companies are
doing well, but the rest of us have to scramble to survive. I
suppose that's the way of the 21st century, but one would hope that
things could take a better turn and we bipeds on this planet could live
with each other in peace and prosperity. It doesn't hurt to
dream....
Lyle
2006/01/31
"A Reluctant Mechanic &
Technician"
It's been a day of fighting the machines. I could not possibly
toss them out the window, slap my hands together to knock off the dust
in glee and happily walk away, but I'm feeling none too friendly
towards the beasts today nonetheless. Computing is still too much
of a mystic art - I'm forever in the middle of different worlds here,
with my computer-literate friends laughing at my non-expertise and my
computerj-illiterate friends applauding my ability to work magic with
the mysterious boxes. I guess what it comes down to is that if I
were running a company and had enough money to pay for a team of
computer experts to handle the under-the-hood stuff, I would, but I
don't and so I must do everything myself. Just like in the old
days as a high school student when I would have been happy to have had
a good garage repair my car, but I could barely even just buy the
necessary parts, so there was no one to do the repairs but myself -
with some help from other semi-technical friends. Satisfying when
the problems are surmounted, but it would be nice to just drive the car
and it would be nice to just write and edit photos and websites without
having to perpetually crawl around under literal (in the past) and
figurative hoods half the time to keep the car on the road....
Lyle
2006/01/30
"Snow
and Hot Tubs"
Subject:
Baths
From:
KJA [US]
Date:
Sat, 28 Jan 2006
Been
browsing at the LL-Letters website and found your comments on baths to
be dead-on. I made much the same observations in 1950.
At
that time, far as I know, the Japanese bathtub was not known much in
the western world. Now, hot tubs are known by all, with much
utilization of plastics, groups soaking with glasses of wine for all,
and even outdoors where water splashing causes no problems at
all. While in Korea, winter of 1950, I fantasized about those
Japanese baths filled with scalding water.
And
yes, travel does have an effect on people (maybe mostly in their own
heads). But travel broadens one's mind and our lives are enriched
by getting to know that those places in pictures are real and people
everywhere are much the same.
How
much snow did you get? Our own winter is dry and fairly
warm. Even now, I sit by an open window.
The
Gem and Mineral Show of Tucson kicks off this weekend. It occurs
once a year and is the largest one in the world. People come from
everywhere to buy, sell, and trade
gems
and minerals as well as dinosaur bones and whatnot.
KJA
Re: "And yes, travel does have an
effect on people (maybe mostly in
their own heads). But travel broadens one's mind and our lives
are enriched by getting to know that those places in pictures are real
and people everywhere are much the same."
Yes,
I definitely agree with that. The thing I was alluding to with my
comment:
"The
experience should simply be a matter of visiting another spot on the
globe with different customs and different languages, but nearly
everyone gets travelitis - which leads them to either glorify or tear
down the lands they visit."
-
is how it can become a competitive issue, with one person competing
against another via any number of meaningless yardsticks - such as "How
long were you there?", "Did you try...?", "Did you go to...?", "How did
you travel...?", "How many countries have you been to?", "How many
languages do you speak?", etc. etc. The deep meaning that should
be in mind is often lost in idiotic competition as though the
competitors were school children comparing test scores. Over the
years here in Tokyo, I have been in the middle of many such
competitions.
Re: "How much snow did you
get? Our own winter is dry and
fairly warm. Even now, I sit by an open window."
An
open window! Most of the snow in Tokyo has melted by now, but
it's too cold to leave windows open! For the one day that snow
fell though, we residents of Tokyo were able to build snowmen, have
snowball fights, and take photos of a world covered in snow. It
began melting by the next day, but I think there was about... three or
four inches of it after it snowed all day.
Lyle
2006/01/28
"Bright
Lights & Water Fights"
There's
a strange thing that happens to people when they go to a foreign
country. The experience should simply be a matter of visiting
another spot on the globe with different customs and different
languages, but nearly everyone gets travelitis - which leads them to
either glorify or tear down the lands they visit. Either way,
they think they are special for having traveled. Maybe it's
something in our bones; an ancient belief that travel is something only
extraordinary people do, and so we think we are automatically entitled
to special status for having ventured past the village boundary to the
lands far away across mountains and seas.... Maybe it's even
true, who knows. Anyway - as free of travelitis as I'd like to
be, I'm in the situation and the situation is in me, so I've decided to
try and balance out the positive/negative dilemma regarding reporting
from a foreign country, by reporting on one thing I consider to be
positive and one thing I consider to be... er... not so positive.
Japanese
baths. And by that, I don't mean the hot springs or public baths
(which are fast disappearing, by the way), but rather just the standard
kind of bath found in most Japanese homes. Two things are great
about Japanese baths: a) they are usually separate rooms from the
toilet (as they are in many of the old houses in San Francisco, come to
think of it), and b) they are - from corner to corner and from floor to
ceiling - built to get wet. You could almost call them very large
shower stalls, if you want to compare them to something in the
West. So, they feel cleaner to begin with and, from kids having
water fights to adults jumping into the bathtub and spilling water,
everyone can get everything in the room wet to their heart's content
and there's no problem. No water leaking into the downstairs
apartment, no soggy towels from mopping up spilled water after a bath,
no... problem! In short - they're great! (Note: Some of the
newer small apartments have everything in one room, but still it's
basically watertight.)
Desk
lights. The type of desks that most kids use when studying at
home (beginning with elementary school) usually have a sort of built-in
bookcase in the back of them where books can be kept, with a florescent
tube mounted to the bottom - just above eye level. The design is
a great one with regards to making good use of the floor space that a
desk takes up in rooms without a lot of space to spare, but the
florescent lights are positioned in a spot that ends up shining some of
that horrible florescent light directly into the eyes of the victim
using the desk to study. As any good photographer can tell you,
light shining directly into the lens is almost never a good thing - not
good for cameras, and not good for the human eye. The bad thing
about having elementary-age school children studying under those
conditions from a very early age, is that they get used to studying
with direct light shining into their eyes, and get so used to it over
the years that they feel as though it's dark (at work, etc.) if there
isn't very bright light, including direct light shining into their eyes.
For my part - I grew up with
indirect light and I always took great pains not to have any light
shining directly into my eyes, so when I arrived over here... there was
a bit of frustration over the very high levels of light in most
workspaces.
To
summarize:
Japanese
baths are good, great, wonderful, fun, fantastic, subarashii, etc.
Japanese
lighting is occasionally good, but too often vastly overdone and not
optimally placed.
Lyle
2006/01/25
"Location
Filming"
For
as long as I've been watching (for about 20 years) Japanese "drama(s)"
(a cross between a TV-movie and a soap), they have always been
half-mystery/romance/action and half-travelogue. Typically, they
will start with someone being pushed over to the other side, and then
the trail to the culprit will lead the detectives off to some region of
Japan where they can show historical places and comment on the area's
history. Back in Tokyo (where many of city scenes are based),
they will have scenes filmed on location of people meeting in coffee
shops in famous areas, etc. Overall, the show is interesting to
watch even if you're not overly excited by the storyline.
Living
here, you come across film crews getting such scenes recorded here and
there from time to time. I've seen several - from along the
Sumida River to Yokohama to Shinjuku, etc. The most recent was In
Shinjuku and - luckily - I had my camera with me, so I opened my
backpack and it leaped into my hands. The result being this
picture:
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/PhotoGlryMain/pgb/LocationS.html
Lyle
2006/01/25
"Linked
LL's"
I've
finally finished going through all of the LL-Letters posted at the site
and internally linking the titles to the articles, so you can go to the
LL-Letters page:
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/LL_R/RecentLLs.html
-
click on any one of the LL's there, and whatever title at the top of
the page you think might be interesting, just click on it and it will
instantly appear. To get back to the top of the page, click on
any of the "Top of page" links that I've added throughout each of the
LL's. It took a couple of weeks to go through them all, but the
result will save time when looking for anything. Also, once you
have clicked on a title, the link in your browser's link window
(assuming your settings allow it to be visible) can be copy-pasted to
an e-mail and sent to a friend (the specific article, not just the
whole page). The article can also be bookmarked (or added to
"Favorites", etc.).
Lyle
2006/01/23
"Feeling
Like Winter"
In
spite of the locals often stated reason for liking their country - that
it has four seasons - the country is a long one and not all regions
actually live up to that very well. Tokyo is certainly cold in
the winter, but usually above freezing and generally with no or very
little snow in the winter. Paradoxically, Tokyo's lack of extreme
cold makes it one of the colder places in Japan in the sense that -
historically - many people have gotten by without heating their
homes. True, there is the traditional "kotatsu", but that's just
an under-table heater that heats the feet and legs of people sitting at
the table, without actually heating the room. While just about
everyone has a heater of one kind of another, most people don't run
them 24 hours a day in the winter. The usual method (practiced by
myself, as well), is to have all forms of heating completely shut down
at night (energy isn't cheap and it dries out the air too much in
typically dry Tokyo anyway) and to only heat one or two rooms to a
semi-comfortable temperature when awake (I'm wearing a down coat as I
type this, with the thermometer indicating 18 degrees Celsius).
All
of that is too much preamble to finally get around to what I was
meaning to write about in the first place - how it actually feels like
winter at the moment in Tokyo, with ice and snow on the ground and the
outside temperature just under freezing. It's helpful for heating
inside as well, as the higher humidity keeps the air from getting
overly dried out when using the heater (and that's "the" heater - one,
in one room).
"Half
a Recording"
I
made a recording for a friend in an orchestra - or more accurately - I
recorded his recording of an orchestra that he had made with an MD
recorder over to an electronic file in my computer from a portable MD
player. The recording, made with KRecord (on SuSE & KDE)
worked fine, except for the very irritating fact that it's only one
channel! The left channel to be exact. The music is of the
type that tends to fill up the room and I didn't notice, until I had
made a CD, that it was only on the left channel. Any tips or
advice on how to get both channels working with KRecord - or
recommendations for something better to use for recording?
LHS
2006/01/21
"Snowing
in Tokyo?"
What's
this? Frozen bits of water falling from the sky.... So it's not just
folklore then!
Just
when I thought that Tokyo would stay its usual wintertime dry, we got a
lot of rain last week and now it's snowing! It hardly ever snows
in Tokyo, so when enough frozen water falls from the sky to actually
pile up, it's a bit of an event. It's fascinating to see the
world suddenly transformed into a canvas of dazzling white, but
hopefully it won't get overly deep, as it has in so many other areas of
Japan this winter. Or... come to think of it, it would be a lot
of fun if it got quite deep in a day or two, and then melted away the
next day - providing the fun of snow without the long drawn out
weariness of trudging through it day after day.
LHS
2006/01/14
"Nikkor
85mm f1.4 Lens, R.I.P."
Yesterday's
jewel, today's trash? My lens... sob.....
When
I lived in San Francisco (1982-1984), nearly all the photos I took were
with a Minolta 85mm lens, and in around 1990, after moving to Tokyo, I
bought a Nikkor 85mm f1.4 lens for my Nikon FM2 camera. It is...
um... was... a nice lens and it cost about Y80,000 - just a drop in the
bucket for filthy-dirty-stinking-rich people, but nearly an entire
bucket-full of water for squeaky-clean poor me. So - imagine my
distress, if you will, when I pulled that jewel out of a drawer and
discovered (Auuuggghhh!!) that it has mold (mold!!) growing inside
(inside!!) of it!
After
the initial shock of the discovery, I began thinking it might be
interesting for creative photos ("The Moldy Lens Series", by Lyle H
Saxon), but then I discovered that it's almost impossible to rotate the
focus ring (internal threads full of mold?). Well... it's not
absolutely impossible, so maybe I'll try to do something with it yet.
Why
mold? Have you ever noticed the little anti-moisture packs that
come with new cameras? Now you know why! If you live in a
city like Tokyo with high humidity and in a concrete building, then
keep anything damageable by mold far away from outside walls and
especially windows!
LHS
2006/01/12
"Under
the Tracks in Yurakucho..."
Subject:
2006
From:
SCJ [US/JP]
Date:
Wed, 28 Dec 2005
I
just wanted to say that I enjoyed "One Cold December Day" [here]. It
seems that I've had that day, those thoughts. I used to visit a
friend at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Yurakucho - and it was as
you suggested, overly bright and way too artificial. They were
always networking & I felt out of place. But the best part
was eating under the train tracks - we also used to go to a little
Japanese restaurant with a ceiling so low and the room so narrow.
One night there, a few Japanese customers were recognized (famous?) and
encouraged to play music after their meal - so the owner removed a
table, the guests sat on the floor & played blues/jazz!!! I
thought, "Am I in New Orleans? Austin? Memphis? This
is either extremely good music or I am much drunker than I
thought!" The night went on and on, we laughed & sang when we
could join in, and everyone got drunker - and now that I think about
it, I guess it was a year-end party as well. (The fact that the
whole restaurant shook when the train rumbled just a few feet above our
heads just made the experience better.)
Has
it snowed in Tokyo yet?
All
the Best in 2006! <Wine Glasses Raised!> :-)
SCJ
It
was great to hear this from SCJ, since my friend who was playing at the
club that night was displeased that I didn't stick around. I'm
hoping to have another go at it sometime actually (I hear that the
drinks are not so expensive), but it would be nice if they'd turn the
lights down a little more....
I
think jazz may well be more respected and appreciated here in Japan
than in the land of its birth! Certainly I've been exposed to
much more of it here than I was in California....
As
for the rumbling trains... it's hard to explain, but it definitely adds
to the atmosphere. As a weak comparison, think of the excitement
added at an amusement park with the round of a roller coaster in the
background....
Snow
- it seems to be snowing just about everywhere in Japan but
Tokyo! Even generally warmer Kyushu down south got snow!
The first time is something like eighty years I hear! But this
doesn't mean it's been warm in Tokyo - it's been quite cold - just the
traditional dryness of Tokyo in the winter has saved it from the
snow. Had there been any precipitation, it certainly would have
been snow, but no... just dry-dry-dry... a typical Tokyo winter!
Lyle
2006/01/11
"Bone
Smasher... Why?"
What's
with the game of showing how powerful you are by grabbing an innocent
victim's hand and smashing the bones in a vice-like grip? Can
such a biped be called civilized?
Many
years ago, in a fit of extreme frustration, I punched a wall that
turned out to be concrete. Momentary pain was to be expected, but
I seem to have damaged something in my right hand that has caused me
pain from time to time over the years, particularly in the winter and
also after shaking hands with one of those neanderthal bone smasher
idiots who think there is some good reason to show how powerful their
hands are by giving a "firm handshake" and cracking the bones in the
hands of their victims.
I'm
sure there must be many good reasons for the custom of shaking hands,
and I'm happy enough to engage in the custom from time to time with
civilized human beings, but every time I end up in the painful grip of
a neanderthal, I end up cursing the bloody custom and having to deal
with the painful aftermath (sometimes lasting a day or two after the
assault). The most recent experience of this happened a couple of
weeks ago - I innocently put out my hand to shake the hand of someone I
was meeting for the first time (a friend of a friend) and he grabbed my
four fingers instead of my hand and showed what a fine neanderthal
gorilla he was by smashing them together with 30x more squeeze than a
civilized man would use. Not being a politician myself, I pulled
my hand back and said "Ow!! #$%#, that hurt!!".
That
would have been the end of the story, but I unfortunately ran into this
same neanderthal again (making very sure not to let him touch me this
time) and after he shook the hand of a friend I was with who was
meeting him for the first time, I asked my friend, the new victim, "Any
broken bones in your hand?" to which Mr. Neanderthal said - "Oh yeah,
you had a problem with that last time, didn't you?". Notice the
choice of words Mr. Gorilla used - insinuating that his gorilla
non-human bone-smashing sport was somehow my fault....
Methinks
that hand shaking between strangers is a barbaric custom. Far
better to do the Eastern thing and bow - a way of showing respect
without having to come into physical contact with neanderthals.
Rant
over....
2006/01/08
"Indexing
the LL-Letters"
Actually,
it's not exactly indexing, but rather making links within the same
page, but now - with LL-287 through LL-293 (December 19th, 2000 to
April 22nd, 2001) having all the titles linked to the text further down
the page, and with "Top of page" links to get back to the top, it's
vastly easier to look for specific articles. Once you see
something you want to read, just click on the title and that article
will immediately display (being part of the same page, there's no
additional download time, it just shows you the right part of the
page). For short pages, this would be no big deal, but most of
the letters are over 15 pages long, so it makes the difference between
something being rather difficult to find and it effortlessly coming to
screen. At the top of the page, there's a new "LL-Index" link
(only the LL-287 to LL293 batch, but I'm aiming to go over all the
letters) to make it easier to have a look at different LL letters
without using the "Back" button or going through the Home page
again. The link to the LL-Letters page is:
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/LL_R/RecentLLs.html
