JapShake

Posted on 10 marzo, 2008 by jorgeml

I have tried sushi, sake, karaoke, teriyaki and all the well-known Japanese stuff. I was still missing something, but I couldn’t do anything to arrange it. When I thought that I was coming back to Nederland, it came: my first earthquake.

Indeed it is not the first one. Ten years ago I was in the States and there was an earthquake during the night. I couldn’t notice. Indeed I’m a deep sleeper so the room could be on fire and I wouldn’t notice.

A year ago there was another one in Madrid, but it was during the holidays and I also didn’t notice. Not the kind of thing that you expect in Madrid, anyway.

But since I arrived to Japan I have been wishing for one. A small one, of course, not like the one in Kobe that devastated the city and killed many people. I wanted a nice and friendly one.

So I thought that it was Jorrit moving the bed, but not, it was a real earthquake. A nice and friendly JapShake.

Telephone in the train

Posted on 2 marzo, 2008 by jorgeml

You might think that there is a lot of people sending and receiving phone calls in the metro or the train because Japanese people love their mobiles so much… No.

It was the case some years ago, when the mobile fever started. The situation was so bad that the government passed new laws and calling is forbidden in trains. Even further, the telephone must be set on manner mode (silence or vibrating). Calling or receiving a call is completely forbidden in the metro and in trains you must go to the link between the wagons.

If you seat in the priority seat or stand near it, the telephone must be completely off.

Thus, no *ssholes shouting on the phone, but a calm ride. Isn’t it nice?

Then, what do peple with their telephones during the train rides? They send e-mails (SMS is sooo from the past) or watch TV in panoramic format, turning the screen 90º while holding the main body of the telephone as if they were having a videocall. Isn’t it cool? Still in Europe we are discussing which standard to use.

Number 2

Posted on 1 marzo, 2008 by jorgeml

What you see in the photo is not an advance remote controller for a Home Cinema device but the toilet control. There are three kind of toilets in this country, the plain European one, the traditional Japanese (mainly a hole in the ground) and the hi-tech version of the European.

The latest has some of this functions:

A heating system integrated in the seat.
A shower-like function to clean your thing after the unloading.
A mechanism that opens the toilet when you enter the room.
(Optional) A massage function in the shower-like function.
(Optional) A drying function.
(Optional) A power deodorant.
(Optional) Music to cover the “launching” sounds.

Thus, the only thing I miss is the iPod docking connector.

Anyway, the reason why I am writing this is because yesterday I used one of this hi-tech toilets for the first time since I am in Japan and I must say that the experience was wonderful. I tried all the functions: spray, soft, bidet and drier, in combination with the massage and the oscillation and the thing is great. There was no music function but who cares.

Now the question: when will we see this things in Europe?

Buzzword

Posted on 28 febrero, 2008 by jorgeml

During the last three weeks I have attended many presentations. Some of them are full of buzz-words and I want to summarize them in a new definition for Smart Surroundings:

A new innovative high-speed seamless customised semantic context-aware user-centric face/pattern/image/emotion-recognition-capable high-definition multimedia ubiquitous set of applications, and services developed and implemented using state-of-the-art frameworks, middleware, next generation sensors, RFID, Near Field Communications, optical devices and wireless technology.

Is this buzzword-compliant enough?

Communication issues

Posted on 27 febrero, 2008 by jorgeml

A lot of people warned me beforehand about the level of English spoken in Japan. It is not as bad as in my home country, but still. Ordering food in the restaurant is an adventure and asking a price in a shop can be a challenge.

Anyway, the new generations seems to be more prepared, there is awareness about the problem and Erik sent me the link to the solution proposed in the Japanese TV, combining fitness and language, body and soul in one. Please enjoy.

Five minutes

Posted on 26 febrero, 2008 by jorgeml

Time goes fast around this corner of the world and I wanted to mention some small thingies about our trip to Japan:

The temperature in Japanes offices is terrible. In most places we have seen the airco working at 25 degrees, and people are working happily while we sweat our suits.
It is impossible to find a trash can. For whatever reason it takes minutes to find one. Most of the time I keep the stuff myself during the whole day and drop it in the hotel.
On the other hand WiFi networks are easy to find, even on board of the Shinkansen, but most of them are closed or you have to pay to use them.
QR Codes are 2D bar codes. They are printed everywhere in ads, posters, magazines and so on. The idea is that using the camera of your mobile you can take a picture and your mobile will decode and show the information: an internet address, contact details from a person, etc. The idea is quite cool. The most bizarre place where we have found a QR-Code is in the box of the McDonald’s frites. Nevertheless, the macro function of our mobiles’ cameras doesn’t work that well and so far we had little / none success with QR Codes.

The Dutch Factor

Posted on 24 febrero, 2008 by jorgeml

We arrived at the station at 17:30 and the panels were showing that trains were scheduled at 16:06 and 16:30. Time travel? No… the Dutch Factor. The Shinkansen, the worldwide famous bullet train was once again delayed, as if it was ruled by the NS, and that could be due to the presence of Dutch travelers.

After some communication attemps we found out that there were some strong winds and the Shinkansen is not supposed to take off, so the trains were grounded.

Fortunately, the Japan Railways, JR (a.k.a. Junior) provides a best-effort service and instead of cancelling trains they came with only 3 hours of delay.

Another topic that I wanted to mention today is how civic Japanese people is. Despite the lack of trash cans, which are more difficult to find that a seat in a metro in rush hour, there is not a single paper on the floor. No graffitis, no broken glasses… everything seems new. That’s quite impressive.

Linking this to the previous post, I found some more signs in the train that I would like to share with my readers:

First one is an introduction about smoking and the effects of aerodynamics:

Next one is really advanced: acoustic filtering performed by body anatomy parts and sound propagation, in the same sign!!

This one introduces navigation concepts and shows you the route to the next senior and minor:

The last one is perfect for school children: using the backpack they explain the difference between 2D and 3D:

Say it with a smile

Posted on 21 febrero, 2008 by jorgeml

I have see all kind of presentations around here. I might say that presentations in big companies are mostly really good. Today we went to NTT DoCoMo and the movies there where amazing. On the other hand, the first presentation, in another company, was extremely boring, with a guy telling us how wonderful his campus is, how many companies are there, in which buildings, and the specific details of the 20 divisions of his company. Not interesting at all.

Anyway, the thing I wanted to write about today is how Japanese make signs. I mean those signs that normally have a meaning of warning, in Japan are decorated with childish figures that make the message more appealing. Some examples:

It seems that it is prohibited to take that path, but this sign says it with a smile and with an explanation. If the explanation makes sense or not is another issue.

This one tells you not to smoke in English. In Japanese probably says something more polite, as: “We are sorry to inform you that due to the need of preservation of this monument, smoking is spatially not allowed. We did our best, but the law is the law, and it is made by politicians. Next time we will vote for another party, but right now we are ashamed and we committed suicide in order to clean our honour and the honour of our families. Have a nice day“.

This one is about cars. It was shown in a Toyota video. As you can see the cars are actually kind of happy, and that’s why they are in Japan and Japanese are quite polite while driving. If the cars were in Madrid they would be underground and not so happy.

Here comes my favourite one:

The meaning of such sign located in the 6th floor of an arcade is still a mystery for us, the only clear thing is that we were not welcome. Indeed, the guy in the sign seems to be specially frustrated.

Thus, a Japanese sign may tell you: “Take care of your balls, this metro door can cut them“, but they will tell you so with a smiling figure.

A-Day in Hiroshima

Posted on 17 febrero, 2008 by jorgeml

People don’t work usually here on Sundays, so we didn’t have any company visit on the program. We started the day with a nice buffet breakfast, including some unhealthy but delicious meat stuff.

Later we took the once more delayed Shinkansen to the city of Hiroshima. For those who do not watch “Who wants to be a millionaire”, Hiroshima is the first city that suffered the devastating effects of the American atomic bomb during World War II. A few minutes later Nagasaki was also bombed and Japan signed the capitulations. For more information, please refer to Google, Wikipedia or National Geographic.

Some trivia: we passed across Kobe but we couldn’t see anything from the train. Kobe was severely damaged some years ago due to an earthquake. Just after suffering some turbulence in the Shinkansen we arrived to the city and then we took a tram which was the only mean of transportation that we have seen so far that doesn’t use the iCoca chip-card.

The first stop in our visit was the A-Dome, which is the only building of the old city that remains in the place. A broken structure supports some burned bricks and the skeleton of a dome. The contrast with the new buildings is quite impressive. The building has declared World Heritage by the UNESCO.

There are some more monuments around that preserve the memory of the victims, we took a look around and take hundreds of pictures, as usual.

Later we walked around the city. There are some crowded streets around full of shops, including the most famous Spanish one: Zara. Erik, Jorrit, Roel and I went to the Mac Store to eat something and afterwards we did some window-shopping.

We found a six stories arcade where we found many games: from slot machines to the newest stuff, but also classic games such as Mario Kart, in which I won the competition. We spent some time and money there. Message to my parents: could you send some of the latest here? Thanks in advance.

Then came a visit to Starbucks, as usual and the discovery of the closest thing to paradise on Earth, a seven stories shop with all sort of electronic gadgets. Unfortunately time was running fast and we couldn’t stay much.

For dinner we went to a building where we spread in two or three stories. There we ate “Okonomiyaki”, some kind of Hiroshima typical pancakes / crepes with a lot of different stuff on them.

After dinner we went outside and we met “Mr. J“, a DJ who was driving a white big Mercedes. The came some fuelling once again in Starbucks we went back to the station, where we met a group of three Geishas and for the first time during the trip the Shinkansen was not delayed.

The Kyoto protocol

Posted on 16 febrero, 2008 by jorgeml

Yesterday we spent the night in a budhist temple. I was expecting something more classic, but instead it was more IKEA-style. If I summarize my experience in one word it would be “cold”. The thing was freaking cold. Moreover we had to walk around without shoes and the thing sucks. For the last two days I have barely used shoes!

Anyway, now I understand what all this Kyoto protocol is about: since there is a global warming, let’s switch us the heating!

it's my life

it's a wonderful, wonderful life