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!
Apart from the background of the flag there are more white things I noticed in
Japan.
First one is the white mask, similar to those that the dentists use, that some
people use in public spaces such as metro, bus and so on.
What are those things for? It is no more no less than a sign of respect for the
healthy ones: they are sick and they don’t want to spread their sickness. Useful?
No idea, has anyone in the room the statistics around?
The other white thing are the white squared small cars, a.k.a. “the fridges”,
“koelkasten” in Dutch. They are f*cking ugly, a sample will be available some day in my Gallery.
Don’t you feel like opening it and grabbing a “Kirin” beer? I do.
Lately we have been eating really a lot: sushi, teri-yake and even hamburguers for breakfast. Together with the lack of sleep and the jet-lag, the mix is not really good.
We were in the bus to a company and Ronald, from the organizing committee (OC) suddenly looked like a balloon-fish. He started to puke and half of the bus was covered with his food left-overs. I could escape from the flood literally for centimeters.
Later we were visiting the company research lab. A nice Japanese woman was showing us the terrace while explaining that it was the gathering point for smokers. One of the employees was lightning a cigarette up in the background while our Erik was leaning against the balcony, maybe with the same intentions. No. He started to puke, and the Japanese woman covered his laughing mouth.
Later came Maarten, and my guessing for numbers 4 and 5 is Pascal and Freek.
Soon I will write something about the mouth masks, another Japanese icon. Now we are going to sleep and digest the McDonald’s dinner, that hopefully is safe enough.
There are two things that so far have impressed me a lot. First of all, I really can’t understand the signs, excepting those for the toilets.
Second impression: Japanese people are really nice. Two examples: the cabin crew in the airplane was telling me “Sorry for the delay in bringing the food”, “Thank you very much, we are proud of having you here” and so on. We went to a restaurant for dinner and even if we were supposed to use the touch-screen automated waiter service a waiter came to us to try to explain the menu in her poor English.
Now, as a Japanese would say: “I feel deeply sorry to inform you that I must stop writing due to the jet lag effects and because it is re”
In a few minutes I will leave to Rotterdam and tomorrow I will fly to Japan. Currently I am doing a list in my mind of the things I shouldn’t forget.
Yesterday we went to a traditional Japanese restaurant in Borne. I must say that the food was delicious. We had a cook cooking just in front of us and the process was quite impressive. I guess that Japanese are more similar in that sense to Spanish people than for Dutch. The lastest just want to have the food as soon as possible, while Spanish cooking takes more time and some people even enjoy it.
I guess that my next post will come from Japan.
It feels like it was yesterday when I told Jorrit: “Hey, it seems that some guys are going to Japan“. In a couple of days we were in an office asking for information. Today we finished all the previous work, after all it is a study trip, and now it is time to pack the stuff and go.
I might say I am quite excited. I have learnt that Japan is a totally different country, the cultural shock is going to be 100 times bigger than when I moved to the Netherlands.
In eight days we will take the airplane to Japan. After several hours of trip we will arrive to the land of the rising sun. Then we will spend three weeks visiting companies: Toyota, Sharp, Nintendo, NEC… We will learn what is happening there in the topic of Smart Surroundings. Smart Surroundigs is the technology that will allow our fridge to know that meat is not longer good, we drank all the beer last night, and we have a last minute appointment. Our cars will avoid collisions because the road told it that there is an accident ahead. We will know where our children are, if they have fever or not, and they will have a PDA that thell them where their favourite toy is. Sounds good? It is.
From now on I will write here some stuff about my trip. I will do it in English as a courtesy to my groupmates because my Dutch stills sucks (not as much as my Japanese) and they haven’t learnt Spanish yet. And everyone in Spain speaks good English, right?
Konnichiwa.
Ayer volví a casa, como el del Almendro que hace la mili todos los años y eso que ya la han quitado.
La parada del autobús está a cinco minutos andando desde mi residencia neerlandesa. El autobús, a las 15:30, no tarda ni media hora en dejarme en la estación de Enschede. Desde allí el tren tarda dos horas hasta el aeropuerto de Schiphol. Allí llegué con las dos horas de adelanto recomendadas más una de propina para ver a Jesús (crack). El avión, programado a las 21:50, sale más tarde de las 23:00 por la niebla. Aterrizamos en Barajas y nos avisa el comandante de que tardarán entre cinco y diez minutos en colocar el finger porque hay huelga del personal de tierra.
Gracias queridos trabajadores por vuestra huelga. Porque vosotros estabais en casa, mientras yo esperaba hasta casi las cuatro de la mañana a que salieran las maletas. El perjudicado fui yo, esperando en la T4 habiendo pagado mis tasas religiosamente mientras tú roncabas. Y el empresario, contra el que haces la huelga, duerme a pierna suelta. No tenéis mi apoyo ni el de muchos otros ciudadanos, también trabajadores que rellenaban las hojas de reclamaciones.
Desde Sintel no he visto una protesta en condiciones en este país.
Y esto es sólo un ejemplo.
Cada viernes y sábado por la noche un hombre abre su taller de reparación de pianos en Berlín. Tiene tres o cuatro pianos a la vista y un banco de herramientas. Hay una mesa donde hay botellas de vino, agua, vasos y copas.
Además hay muchas sillas. Cincuenta, sesenta, setenta, contar nunca fue lo mío. El taller se empieza a llenar de gente. Hay una pareja de jóvenes. Junto a un señor mayor se sientan dos lesbianas. Un matrimonio va con su hija pequeña. Delante se sienta un grupo de jóvenes en el suelo. El sitio está lleno y apenas es posible moverse entre la gente.
El programa de hoy anuncia ópera. Da igual, podría ser otro tipo de música clásica y también se llenaría. Hoy vienen un pianista, una soprano y un tenor. De Canadá al pequeño taller.
Empieza el concierto. Durará más de dos horas. La gente emocionada, aplaude a rabiar y los músicos no pueden por menos que hacer unos cuantos bises.
A la salida el propietario del taller espera junto a la puerta mientras el público va saliendo. En su mano sostiene una caja donde cada uno deja lo que puede. El señor mayor deja más que los jóvenes. Incluso hay quien no paga. Da igual, no es por dinero. Es arte, puro y duro, y está en cada esquina de Berlín, incluso en los talleres.
Es viernes por la noche en Madrid. Por desgracia no hay ningún taller de pianos abierto. O si lo hay, nadie lo sabe. Seguramente si lo hubiera sería ilegal. Y el alcalde no puede permitirlo. Madrid es gris.
Menudas tonterías tienen en Internet:
Seguro que a Sergio se le ocurre algo para el trofeo Julian Cano.
Acaba de volver Adrià de Barcelona, con Vueling. Él ha tenido un buen vuelo, la mochila de Xavi NO.
