Holy Grolius!

Only in Japan...

2006-07-23T22:00:00.000+09:00

I went to order a pizza from Pizza Hut tonight, and wanted to use a ¥600 off coupon. The coupon is valid on orders of ¥2500 or more.

Not only did Pizza Hut "lose" my address information (for the second time in a month), but the girl on the phone said, "I'm sorry, sir, but that coupon can only be used on orders of ¥2500 or more. Your order total is currently ¥2499."

Japan. Land of Robots.

Things to specifically like about Battlestar Galactica

2006-06-06T21:31:00.000+09:00

I just started watching this (about time I got with the program) and I hereby officially declare the following things about the show are completely Cylicious:

Kara Thrace (where did Katee Sackhoff come from!?)
The subtle, sexy opening theme
Whoever came up with the idea for the frenetic camera work they use during the Viper skirmishes

Totally awesome. And oh, sorry I haven't been blogging dutifully. One day very soon I shall return from the black hole of transration busy-ness, bigger and bloggier than ever before!

Cock-a-doodle-doo desu.

2006-03-22T05:43:00.000+09:00

In an odd moment of cultural backwardness, I discovered this morning that the people across the street have a pet rooster, and that was what had woken me up.

「日本語がお上手ですね」廃止キャンペーン実施中

2006-01-09T21:42:00.000+09:00

該当日本人に表題の禁句をやめてもらうキャンペーン。同情者あつまれー！　ふぁいっとばっく！

「コンニチハ」とか一言しか言っていないのに言われたことありませんか？　20年も日本に住んでいるのに18歳のガキに言われたことありませんか？　（俺は違うけど）

アメリカなら、外国人らしき人に「英語がお上手ですね」なんて言っちゃったらマジ蹴っ飛ばされてもおかしくないしね。いくらほめてるつもりでも、相手を困らせる表現なのでストップ！

以上。

Some People Are Jerks: A Case Study

2006-01-09T21:24:00.000+09:00

Warning: This post gets a little graphic, so if you're squeamish you might want to skip it.

Tonight I saw something very, very sad while biking home from errands. As I was turning the corner near my block, I saw a car stopped with its lights on, trying to make a very awkward turn. It was almost as if they were trying to retreat the way they came before I could get too close.

Well, it turned out they were running. When I reached where they were stopped, I found a cat—or more specifically, what I assumed to be pieces of cat—scattered everywhere. The people in the car must have really been flying, because there were cat parts all over the road, and this huge swath of blood. It was like something out of a horror movie, I swear.

I felt awful just being there. I wanted to do something, but what could I do? I would never have caught the people in the car on my bike, and I wasn't about to pick up one of Mittens' mittens and carry it door to door for an ID. But it made me really sad to think some kid could walk outside and find that kind of mess.

For that matter, I live right near an elementary school, and today is a holiday, so it could have very well been a kid instead of a cat they hit. It's gross, it's really sad, and it's a testament to how reckless and inconsiderate people can be sometimes. I still want to ralph and this happened almost a half hour ago. I keep expecting to hear a blood-curtling scream or something outside my window.

Anyway, sorry to gross you all out, but this bothered me a lot.

びかーずおぶゆー、紐育、紐育！

2005-12-18T01:39:00.000+09:00

Last weekend I took a trip down to NYC to see my friend Lisa. She taught for a year in Japan with the JET Program. Since she's one of the cooler people to hang out with, I was very sad when she decided not to continue the program and went all the way back to NYC. (Boo!) But now that I'm back in the US for the holidays, I got to go down to the city and hang out with her.

I came in by train on Saturday around noon, and we started by getting a soup-and-sandwich lunch here in the Mariott Hotel's Broadway Lounge overlooking Times Square. Then we went and saw a puppet musical called Avenue Q. Now, I was really skeptical about the idea of puppet anything. But I assure you, this one's a must-see. Think South Park meets Sesame Street. You don't even have to like musicals, you'll still be laughing your ass off. Don't listen to the soundtrack ahead of time and it'll be even funnier. I was lucky enough to not know a thing about it beforehand.

After the puppet affair was over, Lisa and I walked around a bit—to the Virgin Megastore, the Colony, and then over to a park near the HBO building. There was a kiosk there selling very groovy stuff by Our Name is Mud. Next we shivered our way over to the New York BOOK·OFF store. (Sorry, I can't pass up a BOOK·OFF!) We also hit a nearby Japanese café called Café Zaiya for some hot chocolate...which didn't taste Japanese at all.

That evening we went to some sort of JET reunion for New Yorkers. I am neither a former JET nor a New Yorker, so it was a little weird for me, but after a couple drinks and a few hastily-warbled karaoke songs, no one seemed to care.

The next day, we went to the Disney Store on Fifth Avenue to get a gift for my friend's son. Then I dragged Lisa over to Rockefeller Center. We saw the Christmas tree and the skating rink, but the real reason I wanted to go was the new Nintendo World store, which was just freaking awesome. They had this monitor set up inside the entrance with Mario on it. There was a guy in the booth behind the monitor, and when he talked the Mario on screen moved with his voice, so essentially Mario was "talking" with the kids gathered in front of the monitor. They also had a mini-Nintendo shrine set up on the second floor which was fun to look at. The clothing and other items for sale were reasonably priced and a lot hipper than you'd think, and of course there were plenty of kiosks there for people to try out the games.

After the Nintendo had completely gotten out of my system (it took a while), we went to the Europa Café. This was the eating highlight of the trip for me. Affordable food, and the sandwiches and soups and salads were all fresh and delicious. Apparently they also deliver. They could have used more seating, though. The place was packed.

I had to catch a train at this point, but Lisa and I went over to the New York Kinokuniya Book Store since it was nearby. Then it was off to Penn Station and farewell.

Now I want to go to New York again! What do I do?

The PSP...

2005-11-20T14:25:00.000+09:00

...is a mighty drug.
もじぴったん中毒になっちゃいました。
誰か助けてくださーい(^~^)モジモジ

Resolutions and colossi

2005-11-16T18:24:00.000+09:00

Some of you already know that I recently made a big change in my work life. And in celebration of that, I've made some other changes as well. For starters, I stopped buying drinks for home. It had gotten to the point where I was grabbing a can of chu-hi almost every night, and although I hear alcoholics make great writers, I'm not really ready for that experiment, thank you very much.

I also have been trying to cut down on eating after 10 P.M. Sometimes the munchies will overtake me and I'll make myself a bowl of soup—but if I get home late now, I try to stick to light eating and hold out until morning.

Speaking of which, I've been trying to get my schedule in order. Wake up early, get work out of the way ASAP, enjoy the afternoon, go to sleep at a reasonable hour. So far this plan has all but failed. After quitting my job I've found myself scrambling for freelance work to get myself going, but now I have too much work and I have to spend my evenings balancing everything out. I think I'll be able to get my schedule back in order before the end of the year, though. And there's always New Year resolutions.

One of the less expected changes is that I've started praying again, at night before I go to bed. I haven't really done that properly in a while. To be honest, it feels a little weird—I even feel like I need to tack on a disclaimer or risk being called Christian!—and I wasn't even going to mention it here. But faith used to be an important part of my life, so I figure it's worth looking into again.

So yeah, in general I'm trying to sort of reassemble the interesting person I used to be. Enslaving myself to a foreign company for three years really didn't prove to be the character-building experience I thought it would be. But I'm glad I did it, made good friends, and who knows? I might give it another shot somewhere down the line.

For those of you with PS2s, do you own Shadow of the Colossus (Wander and the Colossus) yet? It's really good. It feels as original as games felt back on the NES, when it seemed like every game was doing something new. If you like beautiful, simple and focused games, then do yourself a favor and buy this. Buy it for your kids! Share the Wanderlust.

Next Wednesday I fly back to the good old USA, just in time for Thanksgiving! I'll be there until after New Year's, so if you're on the East Coast, drop by and say hello.

Until next time!

"Would you be so kind...?"

2005-08-31T23:13:00.000+09:00

Gosh. Here it is, almost September. I haven't blogged in, like, two months! But I've made a resolution to not beat myself up over it. My past attempts at online journals (including LiveJournal) have all ended in death by procrastination, so this time I'm going to just accept that I might not write all that often. Better I write once every six months than not write at all because of mounting journal frustration.

Anyway, funny story for the day: I was walking home today, and when I passed this stoplight, I saw a cop throw on his siren (probably because someone had run the light). But instead of peeling out and chasing after the suspect, the cop stopped at the red light and called out after the suspect with the megaphone in polite Japanese, saying: "Would you be so kind as to stop your car and wait?" Hah! Granted, the megaphone muffled everything, so I might have gotten that part wrong, but it's still a riot that the officer actually stopped his cruiser at the stoplight during a bust.

So my summer is drawing to a close. The highlights were a trip to Fukushima to see friends (featuring beautiful mountain drives, historical excursions, relaxing yet mildly erotic trips to the hot springs, and lots of cucumbers) and my very first f-------e game p-----t.

The latter was quite an undertaking. I learned a lot about what I can do as a translator, but it was also interesting to see how other game companies handle localization and get a sense of translating from home. I also had a blast working on something I would probably not get a shot at otherwise, so I'm feeling very good about the whole experience.

Speaking of translations, this guy deserves a big pat on the back. He oversaw a fan localization of Ys I & II Complete, the PC remake of the first two installments of the classic Nihon Falcom action RPG series. While from a business perspective I can't really commend unauthorized translations of games, from a fan perspective I'm really impressed with the quality of this particular fan project, in particular with the programming and artistic effort put into it. It's a far better final product than the official Ys VI localization fiasco published by Konami. ("Jue wants you to give Jue a less annoying personality! Jue doesn't like referring to Jue in the third person!")

One final note: If you haven't tried Skype yet, what are you waiting for? I can call my family in the US from Japan for 1.7 cents a minute. If they signed up for Skype too, it would be free. I've made hours of international phone calls, and I have yet to spend more than $5 total. On top of that, the chat and file transfer features are better than anything else out there, including AIM or MSN. What are you waiting for? It's free money and a load of fun!

See you next time!

Fun with pegs!

2005-06-30T12:55:00.000+09:00

Oh, one more thing!

People here in Japan, run! to your local toy store and buy a couple of these. Basically, they're like Lite Brite (without the light) and you can make different pixelated characters from Super Mario Bros. Even if you're not in Japan, go to the website and click "Play" and you can peg it up online!

Totally radical, dude!

It dead end! We go no further!

2005-06-30T12:31:00.000+09:00

Holy grolius, where have I been!?

After that last post in April, I had some work. Then more work. Then some work after that. I went to LA, did some more recording, met more famous peoples, and then I came back. I questioned my existence and my will to pursue my current career. Then I had some work. Then more work. Then some...

So yeah, we're all caught up. Last week my friends Jason and his mom Maria came to visit Tokyo. That was pretty fun. We went to a ninja restaurant in Akasaka. The whole place is designed like underground caves. After being seated in the bar for a bit, we went back to the cave entrance (?) and the girl at the front proclaimed, "I will now summon a ninja!" (忍者をお呼びします！) clapped her hands and then this ninja rolled out of this passage in the wall. Our English-speaking ninja led us down into the caves, until we reached a dead end. Then he announced that we could go no further unless he used his ninja arts—which is to say he flashed some ninja hand gesture, air-kicked the wall, and a drawbridge came down. Ridiculous, I kid you not. Anyway, the food and sake was good. If you go to the website and click the leftmost red button on the main page, there's an English introduction to this inanity.

I also went with Jason, Maria, and her brother Tony (who works as a reporter here in Tokyo) to the Ghibli Museum, dedicated to the animated works of Hayao Miyazaki. That was pretty cool, especially for someone like me who nerds out over 1980s animation. I took a picture with the Laputa robot! Ba rusu!

Other highlights include Kaminari-mon, Sensou-ji, and okonomiyaki at Sometaro (染太郎) in Asakusa with Maria, Jason, and my homestay family and visiting Nakano Broadway with Jason. They went back to the US on Sunday.

Now I'm focusing on getting my apartment in order. I bought a file cabinet and I'm starting to get all my papers and stuff put away. I want to buy a Windows PC at home for games and for taking work on the run (I'm tired of staying in the office all night just to finish things up). Will keep you posted, Continent Readers.

Back in the swing

2005-04-18T22:11:00.000+09:00

I'm back from LA, once again living it up in this grand ol' city we call Tokyo. Except I'm not, really. I'm actually living it up in the grand ol' cubicle I call my cubicle. I've been working every day since I got back, including weekends, and now it looks like I'm going to be spending the night here. Whee!

Thankfully, there's coffee and tea and places to take a break if I need one, but I still hope that tomorrow I can score at least a couple hours off to go home and sleep. The thought of keeping this pace up for the rest of the year is seriously depressing... Must survive...

In other news, I got to use the word "numbnut" in a translation today. I wonder if it'll get dinged? ^^

On not getting shot at

2005-04-03T01:48:00.000+09:00

Just when I thought I was out of L.A. stories, tonight brought yet another bizarre little adventure.

I went out at around 10 to meet up my friend Heather from college. She's the only college friend I know in L.A. right now and I really wanted to see her. We met up at the Highland Mall, and she showed me the theater where the Oscars are held, the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the Chinese Theater with all the handprints and signatures in the concrete. Then we went to Hamburger Hamlet and had a nice long talk.

Where things really started getting interesting was when we were walking home around midnight. The streets were crowded so I felt totally safe. Heather and I got to a crosswalk next to a souvenir shop and were talking while waiting for a signal. Then she let out this disturbing gasp and just started running. I turned around and there are all these people getting out of a car (Heather later told me that one of them had his hand in his pocket and that two people in the shop had gotten into a fistfight).

At this point I knew that something life-threateningly bad might be taking place, so I started running. Heather had run into the souvenir shop and taken cover, so I followed the lead and headed into the next store. But the people from the cars filed into both stores and started spreading out. Oh snap, was I scared. An employee in the store I had run into defused the situation and told them to take their drama outside, but all I kept thinking was what am I gonna do if shots are fired?

After a minute or two I called Heather on her cell and she was laughing hysterically because we'd overreacted, but even though we were laughing I think we were both kind of shook up. For my part, I had just seen my L.A.-savvy friend totally freak out, so as an L.A. newbie I was genuinely spooked. It's funny how you can assure yourself you'll be cool when situations like this arise, but the minute you realize bullets might be flying through the air, all the balls of steel in the world aren't going to convert to bravery if you're armed with nothing but a T-shirt and a parking ticket. (Prepare to be validated, evildoers?)

Anyway, no shots were fired and it turned out to be nothing even remotely dangerous, so no one needs to be worried (this means you, Mom). I'm perfectly safe, a little wiser, and even got some great blog material.

On eating motile shrimp heads

2005-03-31T02:47:00.000+09:00

It's me, signing on from my hotel in Los Angeles. I'm here on business until April 9.

Last night I had one of the strangest dinners of my whole life. I went with some of my coworkers to a Japanese restaurant in Studio City called Asanebo. One of the dishes we ordered and split among us was "shrimp heads". Problem is, the shrimp heads were still moving, despite no longer having bodies. Their multitude of legs were waving about. One even fell over and tried to pull itself off the plate. It was wild. It was morbid. It was...crustaceous.

Then the restaurant staff came and took the shrimp away. Five minutes later, back they came, only this time they were a lovely golden brown (the shrimp, not the staff). And, like most things, they tasted wonderful when fried: eyeballs, legs, and all.

Weird factor aside, it was really great food, though. No complaints here. And the shrimp were the only food that wasn't dead.

Oh, right. CASSHERN

2005-03-21T18:47:00.000+09:00

Yesterday I watched Casshern, Japanese film director/Utada-hubby Kazuaki Kiriya's ambitious live action adaptation of a 70s anime series by the same name.

I'm kind of torn. The lightning-fast battle sequences are breathtaking (I really mean that), but the bizarre "time freeze" shots inserted to allow conversation between hero and villain are pretty dumb. The characters are deep and interesting, but the story is long-winded and preachy. The cinematography and use of color is outstanding, except when it's amateurish. I want so badly to recommend this movie, but the only thing that's polished all the way through is the stirring soundtrack.

Even the subtitles are spotty. Just when I was about to say, "Wow, these might be the best subs I've seen for a Japanese movie in a long while"...WHACK! Typo. WHACK! Mistranslation.

I guess if you like superhero stories, this is no Spiderman, but it's still very much worth checking out. I wonder if it's headed for the States?

Chrono Trigger and the ASS-100

2005-03-21T18:18:00.000+09:00

The latter being the actual model number for a set of speaker stands I was going to purchase. What a riot!

So yeah, my first thought as I sat down to write this is, "What the hell took me so long to update my blog?" My second thought, though, was that Chrono Trigger (1995) is a truly wonderful game. I was watching the animated intro sequence added to the re-release, and it brought back such wonderful memories. Man, I wish I had been in the game industry ten years ago, when you didn't need a thousand underpaid people to make a game—when you only needed 30 or 40 underpaid people who cared about the things that really matter: a compelling story, likeable characters, and (the big one!) solid gameplay.

I wonder if people realize just how much it costs to make one of these vid-ee-oh games. We're talking a crapload of money here. And with the next generation video game consoles coming up, it's just gonna cost more. When Super Mario Bros. was made—the original one—the artist drew the art on oversized graph paper. Now you need a whole row of artists and enough computing power to launch a space shuttle just to accomplish the same feat. Unbelievable.

Localization (that's me!) is the same way. Games like Chrono Trigger were likely translated by one guy in a brutally short period of time (maybe a month). Now games can take upwards of a year to complete, and when you factor in translators, editors, voice directors, and everything else, you've got a lot of people dipping in the inkwell.

The moral of the story: don't write blog entries when you're overworked and overtired. Moving on...

My mom texted (I finally got to use that word! First time in English) me yesterday, worried that I might have been crushed or otherwise maimed by the Kyushu earthquake. Tokyo's actually a fair distance away from where it hit, so I didn't feel a thing. So if anyone else is worried: I'm not dead. That will probably come next week, when James Woods beats me senseless with a studio microphone.

That's right, I'm off! Hollywood awaits! I can't say what I'm working on (and if you know, don't you go posting it in my blog!), but I'll be in the L.A. area from March 27 to April 10.

One more thing before I go: Are these Super Mario Bros. bottle caps not the grooviest thing ever? I've been collecting them (and in the process buying enough Pepsi Twist to last me through the summer); so far I've got about two-thirds of the collection.

Wonk-wonk-wonk [as Brian disappears into a Mushroom Kingdom pipe].

Quiet weekend

2005-02-21T12:36:00.000+09:00

Not much happened this weekend. Friday night was fun—I hit an outstanding restaurant with Richard since we were both at work until pretty late. On the way home it started to snow (only the second time this year, I think). By the morning it turned to rain and washed away, but it was nice while it lasted.

Saturday I had some furniture delivered to my new place: an AV cabinet. Up until now all my AV equipment and game systems and whatnot were stacked precariously on cardboard boxes in the front of the room, but now that they have a proper home the room is starting to look a little more spacious. Now I just need to get bookshelves...lots and lots of bookshelves. And maybe a cactus. A cactus would be cool.

The myth of gaydar

2005-02-13T12:43:00.000+09:00

You know, people have an amazing need to classify. It's bad enough that the limited language of sexuality relegates everyone to one of three clubs: the man-schtuppers, the woman-schtuppers, and the either-schtuppers. But the need to lump gay people together in a giant pink basket is so strong that we've even come up with the concept of gaydar—a supernatural talent to identify the man-schtuppers once and for all.

But what is gaydar, really? Let's say there's a guy walking down the street in high fashion, shaking his bottom in rhythm to whatever is playing on his iPod (probably Madonna) while flailing his limp-wristed hands around so fast that flies steer clear—well, a lot of people who claim to be gaydartronic look at this guy and say, "Aha! This man must be GAY! I can always tell." But come on, people. That's not gaydar. It's common sense that this guy isn't tapping women.

Gaydar (at least as most people think of it) doesn't work because it's based on the idea that all gay men are like the easily identifiable gay men in society. People look for wrist twitches or leather pants or a copy of the Beaches soundtrack—"signs" that someone might be gay cognito. But what about the other gay guys, the ones who don't give any signs?

The moment they come out they get emasculated. Friends will tell them, "Yeah, it makes sense now. Something about the way you walk." A couple months later the same friends will say, "Hey, you seem gayer than last time I saw you." A gay friend might be even more cryptic and just say, "Yeah...I always knew." No one ever wants to admit that they had no idea.

So gaydar lives on. People assume that they can find gay people because all the gay people they know are obvious, which is ridiculous because the non-obvious ones are obviously the ones they aren't going to know. Follow?

If we have to have a "gaydar"—a way to know if a man loves men—then let's stop looking at the outer signs and focus on what makes him tick. When you ask if he has a girlfriend, does he shift his answer away from gender? When he's talking about someone he likes, does he use "they" or "them"? Is he totally comfortable when meeting new girls, but shy and awkward when it comes to meeting new guys? There's never going to be a way to know for sure if someone is gay, but if we're going to be taking wild guesses, let's do it for the right reasons.

Now where did I put those leather pants...

"PLEASE COFFEE"

2005-02-07T16:07:00.000+09:00

That's the actual name of a coffee shop I passed on the way back from lunch today. Those silly Japanese and their silly misappropriation of English, ma ha ha!

This weekend was a lot busier than I expected. I was going to just chill at home, pay some bills, keep working my way through Metroid Prime 2. But I ended up busy both days.

Saturday I headed up the Chuo Line to Kichijoji to hang out with Mr. Alex. We hit the Village Vanguard for lunch. I'd been to one in Asagaya before (good burgers, good beer), but I had no idea it was a burger chain, let alone some kind of massive corporate entity. The restaurant in Kichijoji had lots of English picture books stacked on a shelf in the corner. It was a real trip to see Shel Silverstein's A Light in the Attic and flip through it. The store also had cool decor, including a sign that said "The Mayor of Buffalo, NY Welcomes You" or something like that. How'd they steal that and sneak it through customs?

Sunday morning I got a call from my homestay brother Atsuto. He wanted to come see my house in Kunitachi. We got caramel lattes at this cafe called Squall. Then we went back and watched The Matrix on my projector, since he'd never seen it before (the projector or the movie). While he was over he got a call telling him he got the part-time job he wanted, so that was kinda cool. Anyway, it was fun catching up—I don't think we'd hung out since last summer.

Lately I've been playing Dead or Alive 3 a lot, and it amazes me that there must be some guy working at Team Ninja whose sole job is to "keep abreast" of the dynamics of boobies.

Bounce, bounce...

Gobusata!

2005-01-31T15:55:00.000+09:00

Wow, it's been less than a month and I'm already kind of neglecting my blog. I've had a sort of slow week at work, but an exciting one! I'm working on the casting for ○○○ and we might get ○○○ from ○○○ to play ○○○!!! Hehe, gotcha.

Last Thursday night I went to the Dartmouth Alumni Club of Tokyo's shinnenkai (New Year's party). It was fun—I got to catch up with friends I hadn't seen in a while, and the food was incredible! We had the party at the Hobgoblin in Roppongi. I'd never been before, but I definitely will be going back when (if?) my wallet thickens up a bit.

This weekend I finally got around to checking all my Visa receipts. I knew it'd been a while, but it turns out I hadn't done a proper check in about 15 months. That's baaad. Fortunately everything checked out, but I really need to discipline myself to keep on top of my finances.

Random fact: You know how in English we write "lol" for "laughing out loud"? Well, the Japanese write "w" (for warai = laugh). So next time you feel like wowing your IM partner with your cultural sensitivity, give it a try! w

Generosity, thy name be Nintendo AGAIN

2005-01-21T15:03:00.000+09:00

So the other day I was writing about how awesome Club Nintendo is. Well, they did it again. Last night when I opened my mailbox, I found two limited edition Kingdom Hearts towels as a bonus for purchasing and registering Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories.

Speaking of which, for readers living in the USA, buy your copy of KHCOM today! Support this humble blogger. Hit the bad guys with a giant key. Be a hero. You'll love it.

Today I stopped by Club Sega and won a little stuffed Rirakkuma (Relax Bear) with the UFO catcher (you know, the machines in the arcades where you use the claw to pick stuff up). I think that's the first time I've ever won something from one of those. Sweet,

Language crossing

2005-01-16T17:28:00.000+09:00

I was just rearranging some furniture around in my bedroom and I had the TV on. I haven't really gotten my TV set up right so I only get two BS channels (BS being the name of a satellite network here, not an indication of quality!).

I flipped through both channels to see what was on. On one they were showing the X Games, and on the other sumo. Which isn't that odd, really, except that the commentator for the X Games was Japanese and the commentator for the sumo match was speaking English. I'm not sure whether I'm more thrown by middle-aged Japanese men getting psyched about skateboarding or middle-aged Western men pointing out the finer nuances of fat men smacking each other around.

Only in Japan.

Generosity, thy name be Nintendo

2005-01-15T10:43:00.000+09:00

This week Nintendo proved once again that it's one of the most dedicated companies in the game industry. It all began on a bright and stormy morning, when a package from Club Nintendo arrived at my doorstep...

For those of you who live overseas or don't know what Club Nintendo is, it's a service offered by Nintendo of Japan to its gamers. Basically, when you buy a Nintendo product, there's a little piece of paper instead with a code. When you register this code on the Club Nintendo website, you're awarded points based on how much the title cost and how soon you buy it after it comes out. The points you earn can be exchanged for prizes, including posters, CDs, special controllers, and sometimes even limited edition games. Sometimes you'll get a bonus prize instantly just for registering a certain game. If you earn a lot of points over the course of the year, you can move up in member status to a platinum account, and so on. Follow?

So last month I was out of Japan for five weeks visiting family and friends in the US, and when I came back I found a slip saying that I had gotten a package from Club Nintendo that, after the postman tried to deliver it for a week, was returned to the sender. My mystery prize was gone! Oh, how I mourned.

I sent an email to Club Nintendo explaining my plight and asking if they'd send it again, but seeing as how it wasn't something I paid for, I figured the issue was closed.

Then one foggy Thursday eve, an email came that said: "We're sending the item again. It won't be there tomorrow, but expect it the day after at the latest. Sorry for the trouble. Love, Nintendo." (Okay, they didn't say "love.") And lo, the package did come. Nintendo really came through for me.

But the icing on the cake is WHAT came. I became a platinum member this year, and as a reward they sent me a little golden figure of Mario. This isn't your usual tchotchke you get in the mail for buying that washing machine. It's really nice and comes in a nice box, too. Check it out at the bottom of this page.

Merry belated Christmas, Nintendo, and thanks for the pronto platinum plumber prize!

Extra: Stationmaster lays down smack

2005-01-14T15:30:00.000+09:00

This morning at Kunitachi station, I was headed up to the train platform on the way to work when I heard a unusually commanding voice (for a Japanese guy, anyway) call out "Excuse me!" in my direction. After another "Excuse me!" I turned around to see what was up, only to see a uniformed blur fly past me toward the platform stairs yelling, "Hey!"

By the time I reached the stairs, the stationmaster was on his way back down with a killer grip on the arm of a 20-something guy who looked like he'd just gotten the death sentence. I guess he must have crashed the ticket gates...but still, I don't think I've ever seen the train station guys lay down the smack like that before. As I write this, they're probably taking turns beating the poor sap in some dark basement beneath the station.

In other news, today I got two CDs to sate my cancerous addiction to video game soundtracks. One is The Black Mages' (Uematsu-san's band) new disc The Skies Above. I feel kind of mixed about the disc on the whole, but it was worth the price of admission just to hear Alex Smith say, "Maybe I'm a lion."

The other disc was a retrospective featuring music from all the Zelda games. The Four Swords tracks and the so-simple-it's-kinda-goofy arranged track by Shinji Hosoe made it a worthy purchase in my book.

But then again...maybe I'm a lion.

Fun weekend

2005-01-11T11:37:00.000+09:00

This weekend I ended up going from having no plans at all to spending almost all my time out. Sunday night I went out with Noriko to this bar in Kichijoji ("Kich!"). Yesterday I was in Kich again with Natsuko for lunch at this curry place (武蔵野文庫), followed by a round of shopping that left me poorer for money but richer for fluffy pillows and Uni Qlothing. Then that night I had dinner and fro-yo with Lisa, who just got back from her vacation in the US.

Next weekend the curtains for my living room are supposed to finally arrive (yeeah!). Right now I'm making do with undersized hand-me-down curtains from Momoi-san. The bottom 8" or so of my windows isn't covered, so curious passersby get to see full-frontal leg round the clock. The new curtains are also lightproof and supposedly keep some sound out, so the trains won't be quite as noisy when they go by.

Oh noes! It's Cornello!

2005-01-08T11:56:00.000+09:00

I had a seriously weird dream last night.

In the dream, I was purchasing bootleg DVDs off eBay, when suddenly I was confronted by a team of customs officers. Fortunately, they were very understanding and let me continue on my way (except one female officer who insisted I owed her 500 yen). But just when I was about to pack up my bootleg luggage and go, I was thrust into a futuristic war in a sci-fi world starring Cloud from Final Fantasy VII, an evil mutant woman named Cornello*, and a lime green octopus with a bad attitude.

* Actually, I got to pick her name (FF-style), but the default name was Cornello so I just went with it.

I definitely need to lay off the video games...

Farewell my rockubine

2005-01-07T19:48:00.000+09:00

Tonight I went to the women's university near my office for what was supposed to be a special treat: Uematsu-san, Final Fantasy composer and rockaholic extraordinaire, was holding an open rehearsal with his band The Black Mages for the university's students and Square Enix employees.

Actually, he's still holding it. I walked out. Don't get me wrong, I have deep respect for Uematsu-san and his music has a special place in my heart. But after an admittedly entertaining opening act with "muSik" (who performed impressive technopop renditions of well known FF tunes), someone (I won't name names) came out and decided that talking for 30 minutes is exactly what the rock-hungry crowd was looking for. That was too much for me, so I left before the "rehearsal" ever really took off. No sign of Uematsu-san whatsoever.

I'm thinking about maybe heading back there later to see if the real show has started, but I think 30 minutes of bad jokes and unneeded karaoke have knocked the rocklust out of me for good tonight.

Here goes...

2005-01-07T11:36:00.000+09:00

I've been having these weird thoughts lately...

Like, is any of this for real...or not?