Month: July 2003

Learn how to bow the proper way, with funny little animated sequences. Link via Jesper.

My neighbor is masturbating again. I guess he doesn’t know we can see him, but when we’re in the kitchen preparing something or washing our hands, we can see through his curtains, just 2-3 meters away from our window. He gets naked, lies on his bed, and then goes at it. Yuko just asked me how long he can last, because he seems to go at it for quite a while. When he’s not masturbating, we see him walk around in his room in just his tiny briefs. Yes, it’s quite exciting in my neighborhood.

We were in the mood for some Korean today, and so Yuko did a search on the Net for restaurants in our area, and we ended up finding this really great place called Sourutei. You would probably never find the place just walking around, as it’s in one of the back streets of Ikebukuro, in an area with lots of love hotels, and also on the 3rd floor of a building. The review she found mentioned that the place wasn’t much to look at, but that the food was worth a visit. Well, the place was definitely on the older side, but it had an atmosphere that I sort of liked (I’ll admit to liking old diners though). The food was cheap and good, and I can honestly say that the bibimbap I had was tastier than the one I had a few weeks ago in Seoul. The place was run by a couple of Korean women, and they explained to us that the taste is a bit different from what you would get in Korea, more suited to the Japanese palate (guess I’m turning Japanese). We’ll definitely be making regular visits, and I’m already planning on having some Korean style sukiyaki next time I go.

Today was all about F-ZERO GX for me. I’m a huge F-Zero fan, having played it on every console it was released (Super Nintendo, N64, Gameboy Advanced), and I was definitely anticipating this release, so much that I had pre-ordered it a while ago. Release date was today, and I’ve gotten quite a few hours of playing time already (thanks to the early morning delivery from Amazon Japan). Oh man, this game is good. The game was actually done by Sega, which is a bit odd, but they’ve made an excellent follow-up (and it’s the team responsible for the excellent SUPER MONKEY BALL games, so no wonder). Need to go play some more now.

This is so cool. Link via Jesper.

I just finished reading DREAMING PACHINKO, the third novel by Isaac Adamson. I’d been wanting to read one of his novels for a while now (as mentioned a few weeks ago), and decided to include the book in my latest order to Amazon. I can’t say that it’s an amazing read, but I did have a good time reading it, and went through it in just a few days (which is really good for me, I’ve been having trouble finishing books of late). I guess I got a kick out of reading a story that takes place in a world I know so well. Also didn’t hurt that the book takes place at the exact same time of year (July in Tokyo) and I would sometimes be reading a chapter that was taking place in the exact same area where I was reading it (like while waiting for a train at Nippori station, while main character Billy Chaka is doing some investigating in the area). If there’s one thing that bothered me a bit, it was the dialogue. I don’t know, there’s something about the slang the author uses that I just felt didn’t fit conversational Japanese (the characters are all supposed to be speaking in Japanese). But still, it was a fun read, and I’ll certainly pick up Adamson’s other two books (also featuring the same main character of Billy Chaka), TOKYO SUCKERPUNCH and HOKKAIDO POPSICLE.

And since I’m on the topic of magazines, I’ll also mention the most recent issue of AXIS, #104, which I picked up on my way to the airport two weeks ago to read on the flight over to Seoul. Features a great article on designing retail, and takes a close look at a few retail operations like Muji, Ikea, and Habitat.

Also picked up the new issue of +81, vol. 21. I don’t always pick up +81, but this issue is the Movie & Motion Graphics Directors issue, and includes a CD with a whole bunch of shorts on it. You really have to check out the site, which features a little movie that flips through all the pages of the issue. It also seems that there’s a +81Gallery in Aoyama (Kita-Aoyama 2-12-39). I’ll stop by next time I’m in the area.

Picked up the new issue of PAPER SKY tonight, which is #6. Pictured above is the fifth issue, which I only picked up a few weeks ago (PAPER SKY is bi-monthly). It had a nice feature on aspects of Germany we don’t tend to look at (i.e. the weird and wacky), and a fun little interview with comic genius Daniel Clowes (EIGHTBALL, GHOST WORLD). Haven’t had a chance to look through the new issue yet, but the feature article is “New York Urban Green.”