30 March, 2005

Japan vs. Bahrain

Yes. Japan won.
Own goal? It's a victory, anyway.

29 March, 2005

The US remake of The Office

One of the favourite things of Britain is comedy. Like Mr. Bean and Little Britain, Britain has produced lots of high-quality comedies. Even though I was tierd of British poor service system and lost my sense of taste by British tasty food when I was staying in the UK, the county's creativity of comedies undid what happened to me. Yes, BBC's hit comedy, The Office, is one of them.

The US remake of The Office is going to be broadcast tonight on NBC. Of course, it's impossible for me to watch it.

The Office is created as a mock documentary about ordinary people's lives at the Slough branch, the southeast of England, of a paper company, Wernham Hogg, and was broadcast in two series and one Christmas special on BBC from 2001 to 2003. The comedy became a huge hit in Britain and finally became the surprise winner of two Golden Globes in 2004.

The reason for this huge success mainly attributes to genius comedian Ricky Gervais and creative script writer Stephen Merchant. Thanks to Gervais's act and Merchant's realistic script, everything appears so real to make us feel as if this office exists in Slough. Cameras shoots human dramas at the office, including love relationship between Dawn and Tim, who are main characters and awkward situations mostly caused by an awful office manager, David Brent, performed by Ricky Gervais.

Because the original version was widely acclaimed, it will be hard for the US remake to be as good as the original one and to be seen without comparing it with the original one. Here are already viewer's opinions.

» BBC News | Have Your Say | Will the US version of The Office be a hit?

29 March, 2005

Shall we dance, Mr. PM?

Here is an interesting picture. This is a dance of Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and American film star Richard Gere.

Gere visited at the Prime Minister's official residence in Tokyo today. He is now in Tokyo to promote his latest film, Shall We Dance?, which is a Hollywood version of the Japanese hit movie with the same title. Among some fans of Gere in Japan, there is an opinion that he resembles Koizumi in that he's got silvery hair.

Here is more to it. Yesterday, Gere astonished reporters at a press interview of the new film in Tokyo. After the interview, he walked off a stage and grabbed presenter's microphone. Then, he expressed anger over Europe's plans to lift an arms embargo against China.

I so agree with your prime minister that the European Union should not remove the ban against selling arms to China. I agree with him totally.

As to a new Chinese law which sanctions the use of force against Taiwan, he said;

They should not be rewarded for this anti-secession legislation that's in now.

These comments were related to yesterday's disagreement between Junichiro Koizumi and French President Jacques Chirac, who is visiting Japan now and said that lifting the arms embargo would not result in an increase in weapons sales to China.

He's a Buddhist and supporter of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader. He also criticised Chinese government's policy before at the Academy Awards Presentation in 1993.

» Reuter | Actor Gere Hits at Plan to Lift China Arms Embargo
28 March 2005

» BBC News | France and Japan clash over China
27 March 2005

29 March, 2005

Have we entered seismic active period?

Last night, an 8.7 magnitude earthquake took place in the same area in Indonesia, damaged by that Boxing Day's earthquake and tsunami disaster that brought nearly 300,000 people dead or missing across Asia. The extent of the damage hasn't been cleared yet.

What's going on the earth? What the hell is this sequence of earthquakes in Asia??? Even looking at only Japan, we experienced two massive earthquakes; one is an 6.8 magnitude earthquake that occurred in last october in the Nigata area, northwest Japan, affecting 3,000 local people; the other is a earthquake on 20 March that damaged the Fukuoka region, southern part of Japan. What scares me is the fact that either Nigata or Fukuoka had been said to be one of the "safe zones", which means seismic gaps where not many earthquakes have happened before, in Japan, and not many experts anticipated the earthquakes in Nigata and especially in Fukuoka. This series of earthquakes made us fear that a massive earthquake occurs anywhere in Japan, even though some are defined as "safe zones".

It has been also said that Tokyo would experience a massive earthquake, causing approximately 10,000 deaths or more in the nearest future.

» Guardian Unlimited | '1,000 or more' dead in Nias quake
29 March 2005

» BBC News | Powerful earthquakes shake Japan
24 October 2004
Nigata Earthquake

» BBC News | Japan struck by strong earthquake
20 March 2005
Fukuoka Earthquake

Moreover, here is a shocking article I've found just now. It had already predicted another strong earthquake near Indonesia before this quake happened. It was written on 16 March 2005.

A build-up of stress on faults in Sumatra following the Indonesian earthquake is likely to trigger another large quake and perhaps a tsunami.

According to this article, the answer to my question - Have we entered a seismic active period? - is YES...

» BBC News | New Asian quake threat warning
16 March 2005
By Paul Rincon

28 March, 2005

Sping brings a new start

After spending three months to recharge my batteries, finally I'm starting a new stage of my life. I've got a job at a web design office in Tokyo and will start in mid April. That's very very very good news.

At the same time, however, that means I have to move to expensive, suffocating, lonely city, Tokyo. Yes, I like Tokyo itself and find it very exciting. But too expensive and too many people and buildings to live there. In the last few days, I went to Tokyo to find a place to live. Each of the rooms I was given from house agents was very tiny and too expensive and didn't satisfy me. It took a few days to find a good one.

Now I've found a nice room in the bay area (Actually this area isn't by the sea any longer because of ongoing reclamation projects of the waterfront, but used to be.) of Tokyo where my uncle and aunt live. The room, situated on the top floor of a five-story flat, is not that expensive and not that small. From a window of the kitchen, I can see down to a row of cherry blossom trees by a canal. It will be beautiful next mont. Moreover, I can use the rooftop of the building for drying the washing and for parties (not officially allowed).

I say I don't want to move to Tokyo, but cannot help getting excited about the new start, of course, including moving and living there. I'll write more soon.

26 March, 2005

Japan vs. Iran

Ummm. Japan lost the Asian qualifying match for the 2006 World Cup against Iran. Although Japan managed to catch up with Iran in the first half after Iran got the first goal, Iran scored another goal in the second half. The result was 1-2. Japan is going to have another match against Bahrain in Japan.

23 March, 2005

Stinkogame

Homestarrunner has done a great job again. They've released a new game, called "Stinkogame 20X6", featuring Stinkoman who is one of the characters in Homestarrunner and originates in Japaese video games. This game is apparently inspired by Capcom's masterpiece, Rockman (aka Megaman. I've never heard of it. But do Amrican people call this Megaman?). So coooooooool.

» Homestarrunner | Stinkogame 20X6

21 March, 2005

Congratulation, Wales - Rugby Six Nations

I wish I was still living there on Saturday. Wales's rugby team earned the victory of 32-20 over Ireland at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on Saturday, which meant their first Six Nations grand slam in 27 years.

I don't go deeply into this, because I don't know much about rugby. But I just want to say to Wales, Congratulations!

But I'm not convinced of the fact that many things have been happening in Cardiff, since I left there...

17 March, 2005

New trailer of Sin City

A new version of a trailer of Frank Miller's Sin City has revealed itself on its official site and Apple trainer page.

Also some sections have been updated in the official site. Go to the game section. So cool.

» Sin City

17 March, 2005

No logo - from BBC Magazine

I found a perfect article, in BBC Magazine, which represents what I've thinking of for a long time. It's collision between cultural identity of each city and corporate strategy. In another words, every city is full of chain stores and consequently looks alike, resulting in losing its identity.

The article itself is about the situation in Britain, but I think it's applied to Japan. And Japanese situation is much worse, I believe.

The same brands dominate: Starbucks, McDonald's, WHSmith, Carphone Warehouse, HMV, Currys, Marks and Spencer, Waterstones, River Island... such names are fixtures the length and breadth of the country.

Tesco, which recently accelerated its opening of small stores in High Streets, says it is prepared to be flexible.

"We have a corporate image and a corporate look and we need to retain some consistency around that," says Tesco's Richard Anderson. "We are also willing to speak to local people and authorities to adapt that."

Brockenhurst in the New Forest, Hampshire, was a case in point, he says. The signage was "deemed a bit too much" by locals so Tesco is changing the white face to off-white, with less window stickers.

NEF policy director Andrew Simms says the signs are part of a deeper problem.

"The aesthetic impact really does matter to people if you live in an identikit environment, because people draw their own identity from their environment and it's rather depressing to travel from town to town and find they're all the same."

» BBC News | Magazine | Signs of the times
16 March 2005
By Tom Geoghegan

17 March, 2005

"Are you eccentric?" Independent asked Björk

I like Björk. Her music, fashion and style - I'm interested in all of them. But her avant-garde style can be described "eccentric". When I showed her music video "Cocoon" to my mum, she lost words. I don't know whether it was because she was moved or shocked. Probably, scared, but I like the video.

Anyway, Independent has offered a chance for its readers to ask their questions to Björk. Here are selected questions from the original article. Some are pretty outspoken.

Do you believe in magic?
Nicholas E Gough, Swindon

Of course. It's up to the individual. If you want magic to be in your life, you will have magic in your life. It's about faith really. As I get older, I am experiencing a lot more little abstract moments. For example, when you're stuck at a red light in a taxi, you stare into the sky and experience a bit of magic. It's just a little buzz. It's not about red sparkly shoes or Santa Claus. It's more in between the clouds, more invisible.

Do you consider yourself eccentric?
Holly Brightman, London

I personally don't. People in Iceland don't think so, either. I went to a birthday party in Manhattan recently where there were only Icelanders. I was talking to a clerk who said he often just jumped into a taxi in the middle of the working day with no money and asked the driver to drive to the ocean now or he'd suffocate. Icelandic people are not like most people.

The British have always been very fond of you and your music. What do you think of us? How would you describe the British?
Frances James, by e-mail

Top sense of humour. I really like the British character. They're not emotional on the outside, but I don't mind working at getting to know people for a while. I lived in Britain for three years. I lived in Little Venice in London. Back then, it was a granny area and I liked it. But I had to move away because of the tabloids. There were 20 photographers sleeping in my bushes and I didn't like it.

» Independent | Björk: You Ask The Questions

16 March, 2005

Something about Independent

Since I wrote an article about British newspapers' sales competition during the course in Cardiff, I've been interested in Independent. For improving its sales, the newspaper changed its size from broadsheet to tabloid. As a result, the sales successfully grew up, although many conservative people didn't like the change. It created a boom, which involved other rival newspapers including the Times that followed the Independent way and adopted a tabloid size. The tabloid Independent is, in fact, easy to handle not like cumbersome broadsheet. Moreover, it's got own style of design and layout that can appear much better in its smaller pages, as well as own style of articles. That's why I like it. Since I came back to Japan, I haven't read and even touched it. As to the Independent, I found a related article from Media Guardian.

The Independent and the Independent on Sunday lost around £10m last year as the cost of improving the papers' editorial offering and marketing spend ate into revenues.

The loss - which does not include the cost of turning the Independent tabloid between September 2003 and May last year - was in line with results the year before.

But with circulation rising at the Independent and advertising revenues up 20% so far in 2005, the titles will narrow their losses this year and reach breakeven at some point in 2006, according to the group's chief executive, Ivan Fallon.

"We would hope that during the course of 2006 we will reach the breakeven point, though that doesn't mean we will show breakeven for the whole of 2006, I'd be surprised if we did. But we hope to get to that point in 2006."

Mr Fallon was toasting the success of the Independent's transformation from broadsheet into a tabloid, a change that has given its circulation a major boost.

Circulation increased 23% over the course of 2004, though advertising revenues were hit by a dispute with advertising agencies over rates for the new size.

Mr Fallon said the two papers recorded an increase in advertising revenues of 2% over the whole of 2004, with the second half of the year better than the first.

"The key factor was to get the Independent's circulation up, then get advertising up, and then have a big drive in 2005," he said.

"So far advertising's up 20%, and our target for the year is more than 20%. So we're absolutely on target - and no other newspaper in Britain is recording 20% increases in advertising."

He said the dispute with advertisers had been resolved as "an honourable draw", with advertisers "responding very well" to the Independent's improved market share.

While the focus is on driving advertising growth, circulation growth is not expected to be of the same order.

"In the two and a half months of this year revenues are 2% ahead of last year, and we're not looking for huge circulation growth in 2005," Mr Fallon said. "But we hope to maintain what we did last year."

Although pleased that the paper was narrowing the gap on the Guardian, he said the target was "to get the Independent into profit".

The Independent was planning fresh developments and innovations, he said, as the paper evolved its style and content.

And the Independent on Sunday would probably one day turn tabloid too, he said, though he added that there was no rush to change.

"It's been in our plans for some time, but we have no immediate plan to do it," he said. "It's doing very well and while it's doing well we have no plan to disturb it."

"But at some stage we will do it - it looks a bit of a fish out of water compared with the six-day-a-week Independent."

Mr Fallon was speaking as the papers' parent company, Dublin-based Independent News & Media, announced full-year results that showed turnover up 14.2% to 1.56bn euros - £1.08bn - while profits before tax were up 55% to 189.1m euros - £131.5m.

The total revenues of the UK operations, which also includes earnings from the profitable Belfast Telegraph, were up 8.7% in 2004 to 201.9m euros or £140.4m, INM said.

The chief executive, Tony O'Reilly, acclaimed "record results" at the company, which trades in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa and owns more than 200 newspapers worldwide.

» Media Guardian | Independent eyes breakeven in 2006
16 March, 2005
By Chris Tryhorn

16 March, 2005

World's fast intelligent shoe

Spike Jonze has done a great job. He's created a fantastic world for Adidas' new TV spot of introducing the Adidas_1 trainer. You can watch it at the link below.

» 'boards - Screening Room - Adidas - Hello Tomorrow

14 March, 2005

Don't mix up, Moby

Moby is going to release his new album, Hotel on 22 March. Like Doves' album, Some Cities, I recently knew about the release of Moby's new album. I don't catch up with music scene lately.

Along with the release, Moby.come has established the special site, called Moby Hotel - www.mobyhotel.com. You need to resister yourself with the site, but it's free. After you've got a room number, you can check in, that is, log in at the reception of the site. Then, the site leads you to a twelve-story hotel, which offers various amenities, like listing, movie clips, wallpaper download, etc, in each floor. One of them is called MEDIA SUITE, news section. We can pick one of the selected countries, depending where you are situated, and can get related news to US, UK, France, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Australia and my Japan. I clicked a button, which represents Japan, with enthusiasm. But what's that!? It's Chinese. We don't use it and so cannot understand what it says. Meanwhile, Chinese people don't use Japanese and so cannot understand it. This misunderstanding often happens to someone illiterate or stupid or indifferent to this kind of stuff. Don't mix up Asian languages. Japanese have own language, and so do Chinese. So do Koreans.

Apart from that, the site is beautifully done. And the hotel layout is pretty unique.

Moby / Hotel
1. Hotel Intro
2. Raining Again
3. Beautiful
4. Lift Me Up
5. Where You End
6. Temptation
7. Spiders
8. Dream About Me
9. Very
10. I Like It
11. Love Should
12. Slipping Away
13. Forever
14. Homeward Angel

» Moby Hotel

11 March, 2005

iPod shuffle for Sony maniacs

This could be another step for Sony which tries to revive the company.

Sony introduced new Walkman, NW-E505/E507 and NW-E405/E407, equipped with 512MB or 1GB flash memory. NW-E505/E507 series has a FM radio tuner. And Sony is pleased to adopt MP3, which is a widespread format, and ATRAC3plus, which is an unknown format but Sony has been sticking with. As you noticed, except for an FM tuner, basic specs are pretty similar to Apple's iPod shuffle.

Ummm... Can Sony get back its lackluster Walkman brand? The sudden personnel reshuffle, which appointed Wales-born Sir Howard Stringer as CEO, made headlines around the world. So, 2005 will be an important year for the electronics empire to strike back. auspicious is going to support Sony more strongly than ever before.

10 March, 2005

GCS... what?

Like Japan, the UK also has problems with education. Here are two related articles.

---

» BBC News | Education | Black boys separate classes plan

Last year, half of pupils in England got five or more C-grades at GCSE, while one-third of Black Caribbean pupils did. Therefore, those "black boys may have to be separated from classmates to help improve school performance," according to BBC.

Trevor Phillips, the head of the Commission for Racial Equality, says "a lack of self-esteem and positive role models for black boys also compounded the problem, as well as an attitude that being clever is not cool."

However, Martin Ward, deputy general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, warns; "Clearly there is scope for schools to help all children who are doing badly." But "to single out black children for special treatment could be counter-productive and even illegal," she adds.

Simon Woolley, co-ordinator of Operation Black Vote, says; "I would prefer to focus on these things (poor housing and fractured family life) first before we start blaming the victims - and demonise them for their failure."

---

» The Guardian | Education | 1.2m pupils 'unable to read properly'
2 March 2005 | By Rebecca Smithers

Moreover, from the Guardian;

More than a million children have been failed by Labour's national literacy strategy, which has left them unable to meet basic standards of English, according to a new report out today which warns that the number unable to read properly could be even higher.

9 March, 2005

Different type of Samurai

Today Yahoo News Japan introduced some articles about Japanese Samurai actor, Ken Matsuraida, written by American media including the New York Times.

Now many Japanese people are fascinated by his flashy song, Matsuken Samba, and his performance. As far as I know, he is just an actor, specialising in Samurai dramas. But while I was in the UK for two years, somehow he became a man of the moment. When I saw him on TV for the first time, I was astonished - his white make-up, glittering costume, samba dance and extravagant stage.

What is the most astonishing is the gap - between when he plays in Samurai dramas and when he performs as this weird samba-Samurai. The fact that he is an serious actor seems to support this boom further.

The New York Times wrote;

Perhaps it was the equivalent of Americans waking up one morning to find John Wayne transformed into the Cowboy of the Village People.

To many, the enormous success of "Matsuken Samba" struck a deep chord in a Japan gripped by uncertainty and pessimism about its future. Here was a samurai icon for a quarter century, no longer bent on fighting with his sword for a better society, transformed into a hedonistic samurai who lives only for the samba.

This summer MTV is going to promote his song in America. Is he going to be an international Samurai? In any case, this Samurai figure will twist an Samurai image of people all over the world. I'm sure in the future when I travel somewhere abroad, I will definitely be asked; "I know Japanese Samurai! They wear a golden costume and dance a samba, aren't they?"

Here is part of the lyrics of Matsuken Samba;

Olé! Olé! Matsuken Samba! Let's fall in love, amigo. Let's dance, señorita. Let's forget about sleep and dance through the night! Samba! Viva! Samba!

» The New York Times | A Samurai And Japan Get Samba Night Fever
19 February 2005
By Norimitsu Onishi

9 March, 2005

Lucky T-shirt

As to Eboy's special T-shirt competition, here is good news. Guess what. I've won it!!!

The T-shirt designed by Paul Smith, British fashion designer, and Eboy, Berlin-based art group, was offered by Japanese fashion magazine, Popeye as a prize. Very cool T-shirt.

9 March, 2005

Charles, look at me

Prince Charles' five-day visit to New Zealand was caught up in some accident. Two topless New Zealand women shouted and showed her chest at him, when he was meeting the public in Wellington.

At first, I thought they protested against his engagement to Camilla Parker Bowles, but they didn't. Their motive for the protest was pretty serious.

The pair, who were both arrested, said they were angry at the postponement of a breast-cancer screening truck during the prince's visit to Wellington.

One woman had "get your colonial shame off my breasts" written on her body.

The demo comes a day after the country's prime minister, Helen Clark, said it was "inevitable" that New Zealand would become a republic.

The two protesters, Holly Goldman and Hana Plant, said they were also angry over reports the prince was offended by bare-breasted aboriginal dancers in Alice Springs last week.

Clarence House denies Prince Charles had been insulted by the welcome dance in the Australian Outback.

Those two women were led away by police afterward.

By the way, this picture is awesome.

» BBC News | Bare breast protest greets prince

9 March, 2005

I bought a mobile, finally...

Yes, finally. I bought a mobile phone. In fact, in the last few months, I could live without it, even in this information society. And I got used to the state which was a non-mobile-phone life.

But it's time to get it and finish being an archaic human. Trying to be employed, I'll start my new life with this new mobile phone. Hahahahaha.

My new phone is Sony Ericsson's SO501i, aka, premini-II. Very very small, but it has a digital camera. Since I left Japan, Japanese mobile technology seems to have advanced further. So I don't know some complicated systems and not sure if I can use half of them.

7 March, 2005

Sony's link with Wales

Today, Sony announced Nobuyuki Idei, its president and CEO, is going to step down from his post and nominated Howard Stringer, currently chief executive of the Sony Corporation of America, as a new CEO.

Idei became CEO in 1995. For the first few years, he was being in luck. With favourable elements such as Play Station's hit, the profitable movie sector and strong Yen, Idei was successful in presenting his management skills. However, recently Sony's sales of main products have been ailing. As a result, Sony decided to carry out this personnel reshuffle as part of the reformation.

Personally the point of this news is a new CEO, Howard Stringer. It is a first time for Sony to take non-Japanese into its top management team.

Mr Stringer's appointment as chairman and chief executive is a ground-breaking move designed to symbolise Sony's determination to bring about corporate change, the BBC's Tokyo correspondent Jonathan Head says.

AND, to my surprise, this 63-year-old CEO is born in 1942 in CARDIFF, WALES. Do you know the connection between Wales and Sony? They have been related, since Sony opened its first factory in Wales in 1974. Prince Charles has once visited the factory.

When Sony announced its reform plan called "Transformation 60" that would result the downsizing　of 20,000 workers worldwide, Welsh workers was threatened with closure. But they were saved as a result.

So, is he going to turn round Sony's fortunes like Japanese car manufacturer, Nissan's Carlos Ghosn has done?

He doesn't speak Japanese, by the way. And he's Sir.

» BBC News | Sony appoints first foreign head

5 March, 2005

The end of the MD era

Do you know Hi-MD? It's a new type of MD, which has a huge memory capacity and can store mp3 files. You can store about 250 songs, 17 hours long in total, in a 1GB Hi-MD (mp3/128kbps).

Recently, Sony introduced two new MD Walkman models for Japanese consumers. Yes, they both are Hi-MD models. One of them is, to my surprise, equipped with a digital camera and can display the jacket image of an album, which you are listening, on a tiny screen of the body. Wow, MD has got a digital camera?

Sony introduced Hi-MD last year in Japan, featuring a young pop singer for its promotion. Hi-MD players were to fight against other hard-disk music players and mp3 players, especially Apple's counterpart. Sony must have wanted to keep young consumers who would be influenced by the iPod boom. In addition, it might have been Sony's loyalty to the owners of old MD players. In fact, it was just a decade ago that MD got a top position as a recording medium from cassette tape in Japan. It was in 1993 or something, I guess. Too soon to disappear. I think Sony knows that point.

So, in order not to make MD short-lived and to keep existing MD consumers, Sony names a new format Hi-MD. But it's not the same. Completely different object, except for its shape. So you need to buy a new Hi-MD player to use it, even if you have already had a MD player, because it's not compatible with existing MD. So, how many MD player users switch to this out-of-date product. If there are some, they are some like Sony mania (that's me) or someone who loves anachronistic act.

This is definitely a counterplot product against iPod. Seeing the popularity of the iPod series, I must say the MD era is over. But at the same time, Sony also understands the MD's deadlocked destiny and the potentiality of hard-disk/mp3 music players. Nevertheless, Sony likes to walk its own independent way and to release unique products. This Hi-MD Walkman with digital camera is no exception. Yes, this is pretty hard-core.

Although I cry over the end of the MD, I respect Sony's strong product development capability and hope it will keep its own style.

3 March, 2005

Messing up with css on Thursday night

I really don't know. What the hell is this? I'm talking about this css.

CSS - Cascading Style Sheets, which enables us to design and lay out a web page more freely in conjunction with HTML.

I'm not sure whether this is enough explanation. HTML is a basis of web pages, and css is, let's say, a design helper or something. However, this helper makes me crazy, indeed...

There is a reason why I'm challenging this css. That's because of the rise of css style, as well as its extensibility and potentiality. I often hear it's not professional to rely on "table" for web design. When I was a beginner, I used to rely on the layout using "table" and a magic spacer(1 pixel transparent gif, which can control space width and height). But I got fed up with designs made from "table" and spacers, because they were boring. There was a limitation of "table/spacer" design and I couldn't go any further. But css made pages vivid and colourful. Tricky things like mouse-over actions and image swaping are related to this css. Therefore, I want to master css design.

However, there is a risk which css code isn't compatible with all browser. So too many tricky things happen and make me angry. Now I'm not using Internet Explorer, which most of you are using now, but Mozilla Firefox, which is a newcomer browser. So when I check a completed page with Firefox, sometimes the browser doesn't read css code and breaks design. Then I check the same page with Internet Explorer. But it looks fine. And I start freaking out, as a result. Then come back to Dreamweaver (homepage building software) and repair the page. But, in nine cases out of ten, the result is other way around - Firefox is ok, but IE is no good, this time.

In fact, I'm being trapped in it. That's why I'm writing. This blog has become a hard-core PC topic. Anyway this is nothing but the release of my anger. Back to work.

2 March, 2005

Slick eroticism

I came across a nice site. It is a deodorant spray brand, Axe's site. But I don't know exactly what it is for. Promotion or just experiment? Anyway, this is a very coooool and also quite erotic.

What visitors have to do is to tickle a lady with a feather. She's lying on a bed and waiting for being tickled. If you don't start she yawns. If you begin to tickle, she reacts. And her movement is quite real. Depending on where you touch, she shows many different reactions.

This can be too chic and sensuous for geeks, who usually put themselves in emotionless cyberspace. This is a very different type of eroticism from what widespread cheesy hard-core porn sites offer. In addition, there is more if you use a high quality display or screen. Because the background is black, a screen can reflects your smiling face, which may be the silliest face you don't want to show others - slack lips and leering eyes.

After enjoying tickling, there is only embarrassment and loneliness. And start asking "was I smiling?" or "was I like a geek?"...

Please don't say a word. Just visit the site.

» Axe Feather

2 March, 2005

Cultural Export - Kabuki in NY and Sushi in London

Today, I happened to see him on TV - Kankuro Nakamura. He is a famous Kabuki actor in Japan. The Heisei Nakamura-za company's performance, "The Summer Festival: A Mirror of Osaka" ("Natsumatsuri Naniwa Kagami"), which took place last summer at the Lincoln Center in New York, was a spectacular success.

The programme I saw today was about the backstage of the performance. Maybe, the reason why the last summer's performance is being shown now on Japanese TV is because of the release of the DVD of the performance.

I saw the performance itself on TV at the beginning of this year, in fact. I'm not an expert of Kabuki or particularly a big fun, either. But this was fun to see even for Kabuki beginners like me.

The story was about Danshichi Kurobei, performed by Kankuro, who murdered his uncle and was being chased during the play. The knockabout drama starts with a scuffle between Kurobei and chasers who appeared from audience seats. I'm not going to write in detail.

Whenever this kind of "cultural export" is spotlighted, I wonder to what extent it is exact compared with what we know in Japan and how it is perceived by foreigners. In this case, the performer, Kankuro Nakamura, is a real Kabuki actor (although his performance and style are said to be, kind of, avant-garde among Japanese critics). So he is not a Chinese alternative like Hollywood. The set is also the same as ones in Japan. Moreover, it seemed successful in being acclaimed from those who came to see it, including New Yorkers and critics. The New York Times wrote;

The Heisei Nakamura-za company's "Summer Festival: A Mirror of Osaka" ("Natsumatsuri Naniwa Kagami") turns out to provide thrills that "Spider-Man 2" can't deliver.

That's great. But I'm not sure, if I'm asked how many New Yorkers can understand the story. However, perhaps I can answer "many of them", because although the performance was in Japanese, a Japanese-English translator earphone was supplied and also the play was filled with dynamic scenes. Therefore, it could be relatively easy to understand.

It's also an important factor that New Yorkers' awareness of Japanese culture was ripe for receiving the Kabuki performance. My personal opinion; New York's understandings of Japanese culture are quite deep. Let's take up Japanese food as an example. It's popular nowadays in many places around the world. For example, in London, where also many Japanese reside, we can find many Japanese restaurants and sushi bars. But what the hell are they? I have an experience of sushi rolls, sold at Marks&Spencer in Covent Garden. Looks grotesque, tastes lamentable and makes me feel regret having lost few pounds for cross-cultural experience (you may say this was because of Britain, and I agree with you. But let's talk about it later). But I could meet many tasteful sushi rolls in New York (although I never admit California rolls and "Japanese dishes" served at "Japanese restaurants" owned by Chinese or Koreans or other Asians). I know it's nonsense to judge the awareness of Japanese culture by sushi rolls. But it can be part of the matter.

He's now busy at dealing with his son who misbehaved after drinking heavily at the celebration of Kankuro's succession to his predecessor's name... But I think Kankuro's attempt is enough great to make up his son's misbehaviour.

I decided to know more about this Japanese beautiful tradition, Kabuki. I hope Japanese cultures overseas will gain more authentic and true shapes, not like grotesque sushi rolls.

» The New York Times | Theater Review | The Stuff of Nightmares in a Kabuki Carnival Maze
20 July 2004
By Ben Brantley

2 March, 2005

Walkman + Mobile = Sony Ericsson W800

Sony Ericsson has introduced the first Walkman mobile phone, W800. The new model is equipped with not only a high quality digital music player but also a 2.0-megapixel-digital camera function.

With this Walkman branded mobile phone, Sony is going to win a place, which iPod holds currently, in the competitive digital music player market. It comes with stereo headphones and a 512MB Memory Stick Duo. In addition, it is compatible with MP3 and AAC music file formats... Bla, bla, bla... but I want iPod.