Silly Sign

This happens to be one of my favorite signs in Tokyo. I like it in part because this is a new ordinance almost everywhere, and it's nice to walk down the street smelling only car exhaust. :-)

These signs are all over the sidewalks in Japan. This one is on a brick-covered sidewalk in Ueno.

But I do think the sign is absolutely ridiculous in one respect: anybody with half-a-brain knows that walking cigarettes do not have pockets in their pants! :-)

Grocery Shopping in Tokyo

This (Saturday) morning I went to a section of Tokyo where most foreign countries have their embassies. Walking around down there, I haven't seen so many white people in... oh... a little more than two weeks! I also found a foreigner's grocery shopping paradise.

Near my apartment, I've been doing all of my grocery shopping in a small grocery store called "Yoshiike." There is almost nothing there that is a familiar brand from the U.S. I've been living as the Japanese live, going to the grocery store about every two days, because it's impossible to carry a lot of groceries back and forth between home and the store. Each time I go grocery shopping, I bring home two bags of stuff, and it costs $20 to $30 (yen equivalent).

No wonder it's expensive for foreigners to live here!!! This store I found today in Hiroo, called "National," has imported U.S. brands, and it has things like cold cereal, frozen microwavable dishes, etc. - all things my local store does not stock. I got a few things, mainly so I could do quick meals, and two bags later, instead of $20 to $30, it was $50! I'm glad the place is far away, and that I won't be shopping there very often!

I also found something pretty funny there. Check out the picture for this posting. Have you ever wondered why most Japanese kids you see are all polite and nice? Apparently, it's because they cook the brats!!! :-)

Good Train Manners in Tokyo

So... the subway system has this big "manners" campaign going on here. Be nice to your fellow passengers, keep things clean, don't talk on your cell phone, don't beebop to the headphones from your MP3 player, etc.

As with nearly all advertising campaigns here in Tokyo, this one, too, engenders some pretty interesting signs. I thought this one was pretty funny. Apparently, if you're gonna be a slob, taking up lots of space, looking at girly magazines, you better do it at home.

For all the pictures I've posted from this trip to Japan, click here.

It's been a long week; I'm looking forward to a slower weekend, so I can catch my sanity before it slips away...

How Do I Look in Pink?

Haha... the title of this posting made you look. No, I'm not wearing pink; I'm surrounding by pink cherry blossoms in the background. On either side of me are associates from Emergent Game Technologies. Kohei is our "TAM" (Technical Account Manager) in Japan, and Val is our Global TAM (based in France), overseeing all of our TAMs worldwide.

Cherry blossom season is over in Japan, but there's this one place that has a special kind of cheery tree that triggers late, and these were in full bloom.

This picture was taken down in Kyoto, where we had meetings on Tuesday. As this is Val's first trip to Japan, he obviously had never been to Kyoto, but neither had Kohei (but I've been there at least half-a-dozen times).

I haven't had time to post much on this trip; each of the past two days were 16-hour days. I have been interpreting nonstop for the past three days, as well, and I forgot what tiring work that is! Plus, my neck is having a hard time supporting this head (inside joke). G'night, everyone!

Cold and Rainy in Tokyo

Greetings from Tokyo, everyone. I arrived last night, and am staying at the same apartments where I stayed at when I was here in February. It's so nice staying in an apartment and being able to do my own grocery shopping, etc. I still need to go to a good yasai-ya (literally "vegetable market," but they have all kinds of yummy fruits, as well), but hopefully mama would be proud of what's filling my fridge: strawberries, yogurt, cheeses, bread, eggs, ham, bacon, milk, water and juices. :-)

So on the flight here yesterday, I watched two in-flight movies: "Golden Compass" and "P.S. I Love You." So... I remember all of the fuss that "Golden Compass" was anti-Christian and all that, but I didn't sense that; it was just an awful movie!!! Not even Nicole Kidman could save it (in fact, she might have been the worst part of it!). And then, "P.S. I Love You"??? What a major chick-flick that was!!! Not even if I knew I was about to get my ticket punched, I don't know if I could coordinate letters to my wife after I was gone. But I sure would love to be able to post to the blog from the other side! :-)

Oh... and last night while walking around, I saw four random black cats here in Tokyo. I rarely see stray cats wandering around here, so it was weird. Hopefully none of them crossed my path! :-)

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Where Did Spring Go???

What a surprise it was to wake up this morning and find this outside. Apparently Jack Frost missed the memo that it's Spring.

College Tour - By the Numbers

I'm sorry that I didn't have time to post more while Christopher and I were on our college tour. To the right here is a photo of Christopher standing next to our car, which is parked right on the sand at the beach in Daytona Beach, FL. For all of the posted photos from our trip, please click here.

We had a GREAT time together, and were just too busy driving/touring to do many postings. Christopher commented that he was grateful for our relationship, because he didn't think he knew too many guys his age who would be excited to spend a week with his dad in a car. I was quick to point out to Christopher that that is probably due to the fact that I never matured beyond 16 years old, myself. He agreed, as I'm sure my readers will. :-)

I've always liked numbers, so here is a numerical summary of our trip:

• 9: Number of days traveling.
• 5,964: Total number of miles driven.
• 1,705: Total number of miles driven by Christopher.
• 645: The most miles driven by Christopher in a single day (the last day of our trip).
• 1,194: The most miles we drove in any given day (the first full day of our trip).
• $3.099: The cheapest gas (per gallon) we found on the trip. In Newton, Iowa. It's amazing what difference state taxes can make on gas prices. Forget big oil companies - it's the government that really profits from gasoline!!!
• $3.679: The most expensive gas we found on the trip. In Daytona Beach, Florida. Gas prices in Nebraska ran a close second in the most expensive gas category, followed by Georgia.
• 12: Number of states visited/passed through on our trip: ID, UT, WY, NE, IA, KS, MO, IL, KY, TN, GA, FL.
• 3: Number of states that Christopher had never been to prior this trip: KS, KY, TN.
• 1: Number of states that John have never been to prior this trip: KY.
• 8: Number of states in which Christopher had driven past a particular speed he had in mind (nothing not allowable by law, that's for sure - wink wink).
• 0: Number of speeding tickets (nor moving violations of any kind) on the trip.
• 1: Only one near accident, caused by a hapless truck driver. Christopher was driving at the time.
  
• 21: The number of miles left in our journey before said hapless truck driver nearly drove us off the road.
• 32,496: Estimated number of times son laughed at father's corny jokes.
• <3: Number of times those laughs were genuine.
• 98.4: The percentage of my readers who will feel that the stat listed directly above this is a number far too high.