tag:www.shock-e.com,2010://1 2010-04-26T20:27:57Z Random things from a Bostonian displaced to Japan. Movable Type 3.34 tag:www.shock-e.com,2010://1.582 2010-04-26T20:19:06Z 2010-04-26T20:27:57Z

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you a wonderful specimen of machine translation. "The Yususco" is a rather tasty sauce product which a coworker brought in for everyone to try. Word has it that the company wants to try the...

Justin http://www.shock-e.com "New sense! Liquid type citron pepper of fascination　-　YUZUSCO (citron is not crowded)" or "We "cannot part anymore" once when we take It is one of them getting sick," how can you possibly go wrong?! http://www.yuzusco.com/ (Click on "English" in the upper left hand corner for the goodies, or click here to go directly to the "English" version) I do recommend giving the product a try, if you ever have the chance. Despite not apparently having the budget or motivation to hire human translators, the product is very good. ]]> tag:www.shock-e.com,2010://1.581 2010-03-30T13:59:06Z 2010-04-01T18:26:38Z

Yesterday I was presented with some very unexpected news. Mr. S, of world's weirdest interview fame, passed away in November. He was still young, probably less than 45, and it was quite the shock to everyone. This hits me on...

Justin http://www.shock-e.com world's weirdest interview fame, passed away in November. He was still young, probably less than 45, and it was quite the shock to everyone. This hits me on several different levels, but mostly in that he was a very interesting, very generous person. He took a big chance in hiring me in the first place (what with my limited Japanese and marketing skills at the time), and when that didn't pan out, he allowed me to stay at his palatial Tokyo house. He was always kind and interested in my life, and was certainly a very enterprising individual. I find myself disappointed that I didn't know until now, and also that I hadn't visited the company when I last visited Japan. I know those kinds of thoughts are inescapable, though, at times like these. Wherever he is, I do hope Mr. S is causing consternation with his incorrigible interview style.]]> tag:www.shock-e.com,2009://1.580 2009-07-27T20:25:23Z 2009-07-27T20:41:51Z

The greatest mistake I ever made was falling in love with something I could never have. Seven years ago I visited Japan on a whim and a $450 plane ticket, and promptly I fell in love. With such wonderfully enticing...

Justin http://www.shock-e.com The greatest mistake I ever made was falling in love with something I could never have. Seven years ago I visited Japan on a whim and a $450 plane ticket, and promptly I fell in love. With such wonderfully enticing foods, locales, language, and seemingly everything else, how could I not want to be there? So it was that less than three years later I set out on the JET program to live and work in the place I loved. I got a taste of the life I wanted to live. After three years on JET my time was up, but I didn't feel like my "Japan life" was over. I applied for jobs in Japan and in the nick of time managed to land one. I would be living in Tokyo in an amazing house, and living the dream of working a "real" job. What could be better?! In the words of Chris Martin, sometimes the things that you love just don't love you back. After a particularly long period of waiting, my work visa application was denied, and I was ejected unceremoniously back into the legions of the unemployed, this time looking in a city and even a country that I didn't really want to be in. Fast forward two years later, and I'm still in that city with another rejection under my belt. It's becoming abundantly clear that Japan just doesn't want me back. It's hard watching your dreams crumble in front of you. On days like today, I really think that getting that $450 ticket was the biggest mistake I've yet made. Had I never made it over to Japan, maybe today I wouldn't be stuck in this seemingly-endless cycle of disappointment. tag:www.shock-e.com,2009://1.579 2009-05-07T20:19:37Z 2009-05-07T20:36:39Z

In Tokyo, the number of annual train rides per person is 742. Tokyo's population is 35 million. I'm not sure if each of those people is taking 742 rides per year, but it's nonetheless impressive, considering New York's population is...

Justin http://www.shock-e.com per person is 742. Tokyo's population is 35 million. I'm not sure if each of those people is taking 742 rides per year, but it's nonetheless impressive, considering New York's population is 19 million. Paris: 216 London: 129 New York: 94 Boston: ha ha what? Other facts:

• The average delay for the shinkansen (bullet train) for the entire year of 2007 was 30 seconds. Let's see the airlines duplicate that!
• The shinkansen started running in 1964. "Bullet" train in the US? 2000. 36 years later.
• France's TGV system is almost as extensive as that of the shinkansen, spanning 1180 route-miles. Vive la France!

]]> tag:www.shock-e.com,2009://1.578 2009-04-29T14:06:14Z 2009-04-29T16:50:08Z

Not long ago I was reading a monthly publication released by some sort of train-system watchdog in Japan. Being that I am in love with the idea of quick and non-shitty rail transit, it was pretty interesting to me, despite...

Justin http://www.shock-e.com Almost 40 years later, the MBTA has yet to catch up. In other news, I noticed in the news paper this morning that the MBCR (the commuter rail division of the MBTA) has given up on its bid to buy new trains from the Toronto transit system. Of note is the fact that those trains are 20 years old. So wait, if those 20-year-old trains are considered "new," how the hell old are the old trains?! With our public transit system in such a state, it's a wonder anyone uses it at all. Way to go!]]> tag:www.shock-e.com,2009://1.577 2009-04-23T13:53:40Z 2009-04-23T14:04:52Z

Yesterday evening I attended an alumni hobnobbing function for my college. It was interesting enough, I suppose, with the requisite social posturing and asking how/what everyone is doing. This time, of course, there was a great deal of condolences about...

Justin http://www.shock-e.com flees. Unfortunately, for both myself and the "interested" party, social graces again dictate that they continue forward and ask about what exactly I do. This is where I tell them, and we both do our best to steer the conversation in a new direction. I hate how I bore people.]]> tag:www.shock-e.com,2009://1.576 2009-01-12T13:41:14Z 2009-01-12T13:51:47Z

A few interesting tidbits about the sushi that everyone loves to eat because they think they're cultured: While I was in Japan, I was told in what I think was a half-joking manner that the best people to make sushi...

Justin http://www.shock-e.com A few interesting tidbits about the sushi that everyone loves to eat because they think they're cultured: While I was in Japan, I was told in what I think was a half-joking manner that the best people to make sushi are old men. They have dry and cold hands, which enables them to pat the rice together in the perfect way, and also preserves the fish in its freshest state. Thinking back on it, I do recall that most sushi makers at "regular" (read: not 回転寿司 kaitenzushi, the conveyor belt kind) sushi places were gentlemen on the elderly side. Just the other day I heard from a coworker that women are a poor choice for sushi makers; they have warm, moist hands, which apparently can cause problems patting the rice and also can spoil the fish. Of course, this is why you don't see many, if any, female sushi makers. I'm not sure how much I believe that a pair of warm hands can "ruin" the raw fish in the very short time it takes to make a single piece of nigiri sushi, but it is true that the female headcount of sushi makers in Japan is very low. Food for thought. tag:www.shock-e.com,2008://1.575 2008-12-12T18:01:04Z 2008-12-12T18:25:54Z

The building I now work in houses a great number of financial institutions, which puts me in the enviable position of being in frequent contact with "financial types." I've spent quite a few elevator rides listening to them gab. Aside...

Justin http://www.shock-e.com Honestly, who says Q3? Just say "third quarter" like everyone else! "...and she asked me if I wanted any help on the Johnson account and I said 'do you need the hours?' Hee hee hee!" I take exception to the use of the phrase "the xx account." It's just lame. "...I am a complete douchebag and love talking in acronyms and silly buzzwords to make myself sound important! Har har har!" Not an actual conversation...sadly. Unfortunately I can't quite remember any of the stinkier piles of verbal doo doo, so you'll have to just bear with my lame attempts at recollecting conversations that I try desperately to sear from my mind. Of note is the fact that when I am conversing in the elevator with coworkers, likely those finance people are thinking "What an idiot, and what stupid language does he think he's talking in anyway?" ]]> tag:www.shock-e.com,2008://1.574 2008-12-04T21:28:57Z 2008-12-04T21:37:51Z

Natto is a Japanese concoction made up of fermented soybeans. It's supposed to taste good on white rice and with mustard. As an American and somewhat sane person, I don't have the same appreciation for Natto that many Japanese do....

Justin http://www.shock-e.com like it. Imagine my surprise and horror to discover the work refrigerator absolutely packed with the stuff. The first time I discovered it, I was so bewildered that I had to retreat to the safety of my office to take stock of this new development. Over the period of a week or so the Natto vanished, with only a hint of grungy socks lingering as evidence that it had ever been there. Apparently a local New England maker allows our office to order it in quantity; all of the Japanese workers here swear that it's actually better than Japanese-made Natto. Such a statement, of course, is a huge deal, as anyone worth his salt in Japan knows that anything Japanese is far superior to its equivalent from other countries. This time around (it happens with a certain regularity) I got in on the action and ordered a couple tubs myself. I just can't wait to have that slimy stuff hanging from my chin.]]> tag:www.shock-e.com,2008://1.573 2008-11-20T04:11:42Z 2008-11-20T04:12:32Z

I swear this blog isn't dead yet. There's just so little of import to write about these days....

Justin http://www.shock-e.com I swear this blog isn't dead yet. There's just so little of import to write about these days. tag:www.shock-e.com,2008://1.572 2008-10-16T20:07:22Z 2008-10-24T12:48:08Z

In the States, I've gone from being "average" to definitely on the small side, according to clothing retailers. It's a pain in the ass. In Japan, being "American small" was a relative advantage. I was somehow considered a size large...

Justin http://www.shock-e.com the small side, according to clothing retailers. It's a pain in the ass. In Japan, being "American small" was a relative advantage. I was somehow considered a size large there (somewhat of an ego boost), and most things fit me very well and looked damn good. Hot damn. This was true for pretty much everything except hats. According to Japanese people, they have huge faces. What this really means is that they have huge heads. Now before you get riled thinking I'm saying something racially unkind, ask a Japanese person about it. Besides, I have pictures to prove it. Anyway, in Japan my head is like the head of a pin. It's miniscule.* It made for a painful time when shopping amongst the many fashionable choices of headgear. I'd thought I would have escaped the phenomenon when returning to the States. Sadly, it's simply not true; I still have a tiny head. Normal men's hats engulf my head like pacman eating one of those little dots, and of course I can't wear women's hats, which tend to the pink and pastel side of things. I've resorted to children's hats, which are universally crappy in build quality and also hard to find in colors other than "very bright" and "related to cartoons and movie merchandising." It's a tough life. *Ironically enough, in Japan the statement "you have such a small face/head" is perceived as a compliment, much as "you have such a big nose" is. They're a part of the ideal beauty as represented by white people. As you can imagine, me with my child-sized head and king-sized nose, I was a frickin' god. Or at least, so the story should have been.]]> tag:www.shock-e.com,2008://1.571 2008-10-14T21:20:56Z 2008-10-15T03:10:52Z

Last week I finally caved to the pressure and got myself a cell phone. Let me tell you, it was a difficult decision. I had been holding out for some miraculous and entirely unexpected leap in American technology that would...

Justin http://www.shock-e.com It has no strap loop. A "strap" is a little phone accessory that is wildly popular in Japan. For the first couple of years in Japan I'd held out on buying one because I thought they were pointless and distracting. Then I realized that there was an incredible variety of cool stuff specifically made for dangling from a phone. Fast forward to January 2008 when I last spent time in Japan, and you'd see me buying up every cool one I could find in anticipation of the long dry period ahead in which I'd be forced to live in the States. Fast forward again, and you'll find me discovering that the phone I'd just bought doesn't have a space (in the form of a little hole/loop in the shell of the phone) for a strap to fit. I was, as you can imagine, devastated. So devastated, in fact, that I have considered exchanging the phone for another model. It sounds idiotic I know, but sometimes it's the small things that keep you afloat. I really wanted to use those things!]]> tag:www.shock-e.com,2008://1.570 2008-09-24T18:07:11Z 2008-09-24T18:13:45Z

Hi ho, to the three RSS subscribers I have who haven't yet abandoned this cobwebby page. I spring forth from the shadows bearing news: I got a job. Of course, I'm pretty sure anyone who reads this page already knows...

Justin http://www.shock-e.com Hi ho, to the three RSS subscribers I have who haven't yet abandoned this cobwebby page. I spring forth from the shadows bearing news: I got a job. Of course, I'm pretty sure anyone who reads this page already knows this, but whatever. It's hardly the glamorous or career-path employment I had been hoping for; in fact it's very well embedded in the "well, it's a job..." category. It means for 9 hours of work every day I get a (quite meager) paycheck and a (very meager) sense of having a place in the world. I guess these days with the economy in flames, it can't hurt to have a job, no matter how boring or pointless. But I digress. What having a job also means to me is that I have a slightly more elevated sense of purpose in life, a condition that hopefully will lead to a more regular set of updates for this poor neglected weblog. It also doesn't hurt that I'm working at a Japanese organization, which for you, my loyal reader, means continued anecdotes about Japan. I promise they'll be interesting ones. tag:www.shock-e.com,2008://1.569 2008-07-09T16:47:51Z 2008-07-09T17:47:12Z

It's a hot week. In rural western Massachusetts, that means we get up to eighty-five degrees with a humidity of seventy percent or more. The air feels heavy when you walk outside, and it's a recipe for a good deal...

Justin http://www.shock-e.com hot there. While I was there it regularly reached ninety-five during the day, usually with ninety percent humidity. The summer I left, it actually reached one hundred and seven (point six!) degrees, again with that same lovely humidity. Phoenix ain't got nuthin'. "Oppressive" doesn't begin to describe the air in Gyoda. Walk outside, and you're hit smack in the face with a brick wall of heat and humidity. You haven't sweat until you've spent a summer there, I can tell you. Literally the moment you walk out of the sweetly air-conditioned train, your shirt is soaked. Add to that the fact that you're using a bike to get anywhere, along with the fact that your apartment's air conditioner is broken (and will be for three years), and it's a surefire way to get heatstroke. I'm pretty sure I had it every day there. So now when I sit in the relatively balmy New England heat, I just remember that I've been through worse. This is nothing! But somehow when I tell that to people, they don't quite appreciate it...]]> tag:www.shock-e.com,2008://1.568 2008-06-11T17:56:39Z 2008-06-11T18:24:07Z

Today was lawn-mowing day. Lately I have made small inroads into "greening" my parents' lifestyle. Why not also take a stab at their grass-butchering routine? On paper, it's a very good idea; conventional gas mowers are loud, smelly, inefficient beasts,...

Justin http://www.shock-e.com bend grass rather than cut. Oldschool push-style mowers are quiet, emissions-free, and would give me a workout pushing them around. I could even listen to some tunes while I mowed. Just me and the outdoors, and no combustion engine to get in the way. To me, there should really be no question as to which option is better. So it couldn't hurt to dust off one of their two (two!) push mowers just to see what it would be like, right? It was a backbreaking, sweaty, horribly misguided, and short-lived experiment. At the beginning the thing cut with aplomb, tossing clippings behind it in a satisfying arc. I smiled when it happened, but I hadn't yet realized that I was cutting very thin grass near the driveway . Then I got into the thick of things, and it got hairy very quickly. On anything but the absolute sparsest of weeds, the thing would choke up and become a very heavy plow, digging itself into the lawn where it should have been cutting. By the time I'd "mowed" about two meters worth of lawn space, I had stopped probably five times to see if there was a buildup of grass or a stick that might be obstructing the spinning blades. No such luck; this thing just sucked. Adjusting the cut-height seemed like a good idea, but did nothing noticeably useful. So I gave up, cursing and stumbling as I dragged the hunk of useless metal back to the garage to get the gas mower. I can see why people tend to deride the old push mower. What a terrible experience! I think that there's probably a reason that these relics were left to gather dust in the garage, beyond the simple answer that gas mowers are slightly easier. Perhaps they are broken or very dull. Perhaps some magical new technological wonderfulness has been poured into the newfangled ones (which look exactly the same) that virtually all of the neighbors use. Certainly, this lawn isn't going to get a carbon-neutral mowing with our current options. Chalk it up as a work in progress.]]>