Frank Goes Hi-Tech (in a fashionable, not nerdy way)

I was told the other day that you are a nobody in Japan if you don't have email on your phone by one of the younger engineers. I was definitely a nobody. My old phone was out of date - no email address, no ability to send pictures to others, no movie feature, no ability to play MP3 tunes, no access to the internet, etc. I had of course seen everyone on the train using theirs to control satellites in space, check the stock market, etc. but I barely knew how to turn mine on and off.

So here is my new phone, with a picture of me on the screen. It of course has screens on both sides and cameras on both sides. That way, when I am video-conferencing I can switch back and forth with the other person between looking at me and looking at my surroundings (I am not kidding). If I am video conferencing, there is a tiny picture of me in the corner talking and moving around and a bigger one of the other person. Is that cool? If I strapped it to my wrist I could be Dick Tracy.

Text messaging is a really big deal here and it seems like everyone does it. It is cheaper than a phone call and a good way to pass the time. The phones have something called E-moji which are like sophisticated smiley faces to communicate emotions or concepts. Like the emoticons on instant messenger with more choices standard. "E-mo" is short for emotion and "ji" is a suffix for characters or alphabets in this instance so E-moji means Emotional Alphabet. People also use old fashioned ones like our sideways ones e.g. :-) for happy or :-( for sad. But they can be a lot more complicated, are upright, and can use the hirigana and katakana alphabets.

Here is a simple example:

(^-^)

Of course I can also assign different tunes to different people's ring, have their picture pop up when they call, send email message, record movies, access the internet, play games, use it as a calculator, a calendar, alarm clock, and as an electonic massager if I set it on vibrate. So I should be fairly up to date for another 6-8 weeks or so.

That's all for now. I start my trip tomorrow so I'll write email and post to the blog when I can. And if you need to reach me, my phone works anywhere in the world now. Catch you later...

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Yokohama Chinatown

A Gate into Chinatown

Palm Readers

Chinese New Years was this last week and there was a big celebration at Chinatown in Yokohama. There were fireworks and this weekend there was a Dragon Dance (I missed it - went and ate Indian food at an Indian friend's apartment instead). Anyway, Chinatown is very interesting - tons of restaurants. I also found some other good places to take visitors such as the doll museum, red brick warehouse shops, Yamashita park, etc.

The picture just above shows the palm readers. I think this must be a big activity at New Years just like getting a new fortune at the temple is. I have seen Japanese fortune tellers and palm readers before but not quite like this. These were lined up in a row and doing great business. Also, they were using magnifying glasses to see the palm better. Chinese palm readers must really be into detail.

I missed a couple of photo opportunities this weekend. I always carry my camera with me. But this last week I cleaned out my backpack to organize it. I was trying to find my camera and thought I'd left it out of the backpack. So I missed an opportunity to photograph the Tokyo marathon and also what looked to be a photography club in the park by the apartment.

There were about 100 people in four groups photographing these girls posing in the park. It wasn't a fashion shoot or anything like that. I've seen those here before and in London. I think it was a bunch of goofy guys in a club (gee - I wonder if they would let me join?). There weren't any women except the 4 girls being photographed. Anyway, I could have got behind the girls and photographed the guys looking silly but I missed it because I couldn't find my camera.

Turned out it was in my backpack hidden behind the umbrella. I thought for a while I had lost it. I have really enjoyed taking snapshots and would have had to have bought a new digital camera immediately if I hadn't found it. By the way, if you want to see some more snapshots just click on the picture of Yebisu at right. I will put some more over there from time to time.

This week's new food word is "nameko" - a kind of small button mushroom put into Miso soup. They didn't have my usual "shijimi" - small clams - so I tried the nameko and tofu. Tasty.

By the way, HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

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Important Discovery for Snack Lovers

Today I was talking to one of the secretaries about rice crackers - called sembei and / or okaki (I'm not sure of the difference - I get different answers depending on who I ask). I mentioned last month that my favorite is kuromame sembei - black bean crackers. Another favorite is the mixes like in this bag. Sometimes the mix will have peanuts, various small rice crackers, even tiny dried fish. So I described it and asked what it was.

"They are friends of alcohol" she said, meaning they are something that is normally eaten while drinking. "Tomodachi no arukoru" I said and she smiled. That's good, I've been calling them Japanese Beer Snacks. The real name is Kawakimono.

This leads to one of my pet peeves. None of my dictionaries consistently list all the same words if you go from Japanese to English and then English to Japanese. For example, I knew that a word for friends is tomodachi. I decided to look it up just now to make sure of the spelling. When I looked up friend on the English side it listed yuujin, mikata, etc. but no tomo (tomo is singular - tomodachi is plural). But when I looked up tomo on the Japanese side it says friend. I especially dislike it when my electronic dictionary does this since it seems like it would be easy to have consistent linked words.

Only an engineer, or maybe an English teacher, would spend time considering something like this. I guess it is harmless entertainment though.

Mystery to Sowa Ice Cream Shop Solved

This map should solve the mystery of why I had not previously spotted the Sowa Ice Cream Shop as first reported on February 3rd, 2005. This is the actual map given to me by Kiyoko-san and it clearly shows the location of the shop with a pointing hand. Even I was able to pinpoint the location immediately on the map by following the finger to the spot where the shop is located. I have added a large red arrow which indicates the path I normally follow along the street when going through this area.

At this point, I should mention that I don't take this path every day, but maybe have gone down the road 20 times or so in the past on the way to Kamiyacho. If you will observe, I would have to twist unnaturally to the right and look somewhat behind me down the small side street in order to observe the ice cream shop. Also, I should mention that I normally go this way in daylight when the admittedly garish sign is not near so obvious.

Let he among ye who hasn't worn glasses throw the first cone. Or said another way, those who live in glass igloos shouldn't snow cones.

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Japanese Holidays and Observances

We have a holiday coming up so I thought I'd post them just so people interested would know what they are:

• Jan 01 – New Year’s Day
• Jan 10 – Coming of Age Day
• Feb 11 – National Foundation Day
• Mar 21 – Spring Equinox
• Apr 29 – Nature Day
• May 03 – Constitution Memorial Day
• May 04 – Citizen’s Day
• May 05 – Children’s Day
• Jul 18 – Sea Day
• Sep 19 – Respect for the Aged Day
• Sep 23 – Autumn Equinox
• Oct 10 – Sports Day
• Nov 03 – Culture Day
• Nov 23 – Labor Thanksgiving Day
• Dec 23 – Emperor’s Birthday

Happy National Foundation Day!

Shibuya - Another View from the Station

This may be the dinosaur building.

Crossing the Street at Shibuya Station

This crossing is always crowded, and of course, lit up at night.

I am fine and hope you are also. This week I posted some pictures and sparked unexpected interest from my readers about fashion accessories, in particular bags from the train picture. Pull down the comments and you will see. Thanks to those who make a comment - I get a message when that happens and always go to look and see who posted it.

By the way, you might have noticed that sometimes I put a V=xxx at the bottom of a posting. This is the cumulative number of times the blog has been viewed since I started the counter about 2 months ago. So by looking at that I can tell that it is accessed over a 100 times a week right now. So, even though some of you access it more than once a week I am guessing there are a fair number of people I don't know visiting and sometimes they leave comments. Interesting...

Sa, mata ato de...

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Sowa Ice Cream Shop

This is the Sowa Ice Cream Shop which is just around the other side of Atagoyama from me. The little factory where they make the ice cream is just next door. Amazing, but I had never noticed it before and I've walked through that area many times. I was talking to one of the secretaries and she said she used to work near Kamiyacho and there was a famous ice cream shop there. So this evening I walked over there and this is it. Good ice cream too. So there is still more to do and taste even after a year. By the way, the word for ice cream is aisukurimu (Romaji spelling). It is pronounced "ice cream" with a hint of an Italian accent.

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I've Been Here Officially One Year

Today I've been here officially for one year. My visa was issued on February 3rd of last year and so I had to get it renewed. Today I had to go to the Ward Office to report that I had a new visa and get my alien registration card stamped. In addition, I had completely filled all my passport pages and it was about to expire, so last month I got a new passport.

So, my passport is blank except for a Japanese visa. I guess I'll have to go somewhere.

If you look back in the blog, I started the semi-regular weekly emails in February of last year also. Sometimes it feels like the time has gone really fast and sometimes it feels like I've been here forever. Mostly it has been good and I've been able to go home regularly and have visitors too.

The blog thing is interesting for me - it has turned into a little bit more of a diary than what it used to be which was a place to post email I sent home. I have never kept a diary (except for those running mileage diaries I used to keep) because I never felt it was worth recording what I was doing. But this is interesting because it is more about things happening around me.