I can’t seem to ever count on any plan staying stationary for more than two seconds.

October trip - Up in the air. It seemed sure there for awhile, now, who knows.

August trip to Japan - This wasn’t even being pondered a few weeks ago, not it seems to be shifting back and forth daily.

Kansas City trip next weekend - Who knows. It’s getting closer, and I still have no idea.

It’s just the nature of running your own business though, you never know how things are going to pop up and change, but it would be nice once in awhile to be able to plan ahead!

Shari over at My So-Called Japanese Life has a great post today about the rudeness she and her husband encounter in Tokyo shops and out on the street. She thought this might be exclusive to Tokyo, but alas, it’s not. Let me quote the comment I left her, and then I will build upon it:

Again, afraid this isn’t a Japan only thing. My FAVORITE (and mind you, I live in a town of 17,000) is the person who will be going down a grocery aisle, will see something on the other side that interests them, will then stand in the middle of the aisle so they can keep one hand on their cart, grab the item from the other side…AND THEN WILL READ THE LABEL WITHOUT MOVING! In a Japanese store this would be an easy feat, in an American market, we’re talking some major real estate to accomplish this! They know you’re there, they don’t care!

Now something that is pretty small town-centric is the passing cars syndrome. Let’s say you’re on a side street and two cars are passing each other where the drivers know each other. Why, doesn’t that seem to be a good time to stop right there and chat driver window to driver window? I mean, it IS only a side street, and surely the person behind you is patient enough for two old friends to exchange a few words!

To clarify the grocery cart scenario more, that means their cart is on one side of the aisle, they leave a hand on it, they stand in the middle of the aisle and hold the item they are reading out at a distance, infringing on the other lane of traffic for the aisle. And unless you say “Excuse me”, and just barrel through, they have no clue you are there…yeah, right. You always get the “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there.” Mmhmm…sure.

I think this is just indicative of people becoming more and more self-centered. For some reason people everywhere are getting the idea that they are the most important thing out there and everyone else can wait on them. As sad as it is to say, I am kind of glad Shari brought this up because it shows it’s not just in the USA that people are getting more and more self-absorbed. At least we know it’s not just us.

Spotted this on Engadget today, and they found it on BoingBoing

Seems this was spotted driving around the Harajuku district of Tokyo this past Sunday. For those unfamiliar with Harajuku, especially on Sundays, it is the “hip” area of Tokyo where, supposedly, all street fashion begins. Yes, this is the place Gwen Steffani was singing about in her song “Harajuku Girls”. On Sundays it turns in to a Cosplay heaven, with people walking around in all sorts of outrageous outfits.

Little is known about our little robot friend here as he did not stop to talk to anyone. It was seen managing to go up and down curbs though, and easily navigating through the crowded streets. It was spotted with a different passenger at another time, but again, no info.

So, is this someone’s home-brewed project? A university experiment? What the heck is it??

Was taking a look at Jeansnow.net and was pointed to this article over at Newsweek. The short version, their technology writer, Brad Stone, went to Japan for some reason. During his wanderings around Shibuya, he checked out some arcades and seems he was struck with an idea for a lazy article. His first paragraph sets the tone for the entire article:

“July 25, 2006 - On a rainy night last week in a Tokyo arcade, a twentysomething teacher who wishes to be known as Momo saved the world from the evil forces of the Principality of Zeon. He was playing a videogame called Mobile Space 0079. It’s based on the enduringly popular Japanese anime television series, in which young soldiers wage space combat in giant robot suits. You may have seen “Gundam Wing” during a failed run a few years ago on the Cartoon Network. In Japan, it practically passes for religion, with conventions, extensive toy lines and libraries of manga comic books. Now it’s spawned a popular, networked, multiplayer arcade game.”

Oh where to even start. Ok, first off, while I have not seen this paticular Gundam game, I highly doubt it is called “Mobile Space 0079″ as the name of the series has always been “Mobile Suit Gundam 0079″. I have never seen it called “Mobile Space”, but oh well. As for Gundam Wing having “a failed run a few years ago on the Cartoon Network”. Um…I really wonder where he got that piece of info since it was one of their highest rated series at the time and was run multiple times. The rest of the article is filled with numerous inaccuracies, but I won’t bore you with all of them.

This is yet another example of “lazy journalism” to me. The journalist gets an idea for a story, but then realizes it takes more research than they expected and just decide “Oh well, not that many people will know this” and they go with what they have. There will always be a few people out there that do know the subject though and will know how wrong it is.

Of course this won’t interest most of you, it’s just an article about arcades. So wrong. If a reporter is wrong on an article like this, if I hadn’t pointed it out to you, you would have believed it and figured everything was correct. What it does to me is make me wonder about articles I read on industried and stories I don’t know about. If the ones I do know are incorrect, isn’t there a good chance most of them are?

Fascinating article over at Engadget today. It seems the East Japan Railway Company is testing a prototype mechanisim that will turn their daily commuters in to human power generators. (eek! It’s The Matrix!)

They are experimenting with ticket gates that turn the kinetic energy of weight and vibration in to power as people pass through the gates. As the people walk through, the power will be sent to storage batteries and will reduce the amount of energy JR East uses from the power grid. This will make them a greener and more cost effective company. If you think of the staggering number of people that pass through the train stations each day, Shinjuku station alone handles 1.5 million per day, that is a heck of a lot of energy to be harnassed.

For now, the power is just lighting up a light bulb to prove it works, but the possabilities of this technology are staggering.

Amazing how plans change. Japan is off for now. Maybe in the fall. I honestly can’t say as I’m heartbroken this time. Too much going on in August as it is. And with the new company website getting ready for launch, I’ll be swamped anyway.

Well, I’ve reserved my seats to and from LAX/NRT. (Los Angeles International Airport/Narita International Airport) I’m still not 100% sure I’m going, but I’m like 99%, and seats were selling out. I normally fly on Wednesday, arrive Thursday in Japan, but that flight was sold out. The travel agent said I could get on the Thursday/Friday flight, but that would mean arriving in Tokyo after the banks had closed for the weekend. Yeah, I could get money changed here before I leave, but I get a much better rate if I do it there. So I am now flying out on the Tuesday/Wednesday flight, and I got the last ticket for Business class that day. Yes, business class is expensive, but when you are 6′4″, and you have a close to 12 hour flight, you need the leg room!

So I will now be in Tokyo from August 16th to August 31st under the current plan, one more day than I had planned on. Doesn’t break my heart, just raises my expenses. Perhaps I might actually have some time to do something touristy this time or, heaven forbid, LEAVE TOKYO FOR A DAY! *waits for the audience to stop gasping* I have made three trips to Japan now, totalling five weeks, and I have yet to leave Tokyo. But, when you consider that the city, and the surrounding wards, have a population of 12,527,115 as of October 1st, 2003, there is a heck of a lot to do!

I will be blogging while I’m there as I don’t want to lose my every-day record, but some of the posts may just be a picture, who knows, depends on how tired I am. Considering I am gone the first week of August on business, come home and leave for Tokyo, August is going to be a busy, busy month for me.

It’s one of those days. Problems from all sides.

Computers - I swear every computer in the office is having a problem. All the computers are named for anime characters except for the Mac.

Urd - My computer was slogging down. I transferred the 91 gigs of MP3s off my C drive and moved all of them to one of my externals. Wow…instant speed up.

Skuld - The computer designated only for shipping duties. She’s always been the slowest and we expected that, but now snails are passing her by.

Aika - Brian’s (an employee’s) computer had major issues today even movign folders, and his dvd-rom died. I can tell she’s on her last legs, but now is not the time for buying a computer.

Achika - Mom’s computer…poor thing is oldest computer in the office now (besides the Mac) and yikes is it freezing up.

The Mac - The Mac has no name as it is not well integrated in to the network, but it’s Dave’s computer. It’s going on 7 years old, but for a Mac, that’s no biggie, but we need a new one.

The NAS Box - (Network-attached storage) Basically this is a fancy name for some extra hard drives attached to your network that everyone can access. Well, they are like mini computers with motherboards and fans of their own and…I think a fan died and the other one is over surging to make up for it.

It as not a good technology day at AnimeUSA.

On the Japan trip front, I may not be flying my beloved Korean Air anymore. I’m looking at American Airlines more and more due to the number of choices of cities and flight times to pick from. As opposed to flying out to Los Angeles for the one Korean flight a day, I can fly even to Dallas (for far less then the LA flight) and catch multiple non-stop flights to Narita in Japan. Sure, it’s a few more hours in the air, but I sleep most of the way anyway.

I also have a lot more chances to earn AA miles over KAL miles. It seems you can’t hardly pitch a rock without hitting somone that has a deal with AA for you to earn miles. After 3 round trips on KAL, and some bonus miles, I am still not able to even get an upgrade with KAL and that is annoying me.

I still have some time to pick, but I am looking at it pretty heavily.

Well, things are shaping up for an INSANE Summer for me.

We have hired a web designer for the new version of AnimeUSA.com. We have used the same design since 1997, so it’s about time I think. I don’t want to say anything else yet as some of my customers do find this blog and I want them to be surprised by how radically different it’s going to be.

Things are taking more and more shape for my August trip to Japan as a date I have been waiting for has fallen in to place for an event I need to go. So, as it stands, I will fly to Los Angeles on August 15th, fly out of LA for Tokyo on August 16th and arrive in Tokyo on August 17th. I will be there for two weeks and depart Tokyo on August 31st, arrive LA on August 31st due to time difference. After that is when things get tricky, I will either be flying to Dallas or Atlanta depending on which convention my employees end up doing. So I won’t be coming back to Kirksville until September 5th or 6th, meaning I will have been gone from home for 3 weeks. Lucky me. I will be dead.

I have so much to do while I am in Tokyo that it’s nuts. Sunday August 20th I will be heading out to Tokyo Big Sight for Wonder Festival. That means being up at 6 AM to hit the trains at 7 AM to get there in time. It makes for a long day, that’s for sure. The rest of my events have no set days, but I have so many wholesalers and stores hit, I will be running around like crazy. That’s what I get for not going for two years. I am also going to hit some new places that I have been locating on Google Earth which I have added train stations too, shopping areas and so on. Craziness!

So while I am trying to set up a whole new website, I have also got to start “training” for Japan, planning my meetings and prepping to be out of the office for three weeks. Good times, good times.

As I get ready to return to Tokyo again, I decided to go through my Google Earth on my laptop and mark the places I go the most so I could refresh my memory now, and when there. I also thought it would be fun for my family to see where I go, and I also thought I will post screen caps each day in the blog so you all could see where I go each day.

Well, as I went through marking spots, there was a couple of places I couldn’t find because they were not near any major stations, and especially not near any of the Yamanote stops. So I started seaching the Google Earth Keyhole groups for downloadable overlays. I finally found one that marked EVERY subway and train station in the Tokyo region. I had no clue there were that many stations! Yikes! But, I found the places I was looking for.

I then found another overlay that showed shopping centers, coffee shops, bars, resturants, parks, shrines and so on. So many new places for me to check out and explore. I will have to study the maps harder before I go to make sure I don’t get lost…which is easy for me.

Now, I have talks specifically about Tokyo, but these same sorts of overlays exist for just about ever major city in the worl. So download Google Earth, and begin exploring yoru favorite cities, even if you’ve never been there! It’s hours of fun, all for free!

Well, I am probably dooming myself by mentioning it this early, but, barring any major disasters, I will be heading to Japan again on business in August. This will make my fourth trip to the Land of the Rising Sun, and I couldn’t be happier about it. Yes, I will be hot, sweating, tired, sore and ready to fall over….but I’ll be hot, sweating, tired sore and ready to fall over in my favorite place in the world.

I will keep you all updated as the time gets closer. Yes, I will be blogging from there daily, with pictures I’m sure.

As lots of you know, I have been to Japan three times. Everytime has been in August, and the last two times I have stayed at the same hotel. (I just prefer not to say where that is since I plan to stay there again.) You would think being in a city such as Tokyo, I would have a wide selection of night life to partake in, but honestly I am so tired at the end of the day, and not knowing the language, making going out impossible. Instead I have found a very enjoyable way to spend parts of my evening.

Along one side of my hotel there is a tree lined side street. It’s just a small two lane street. Across the way from the hotel is a post office and police station, across the other street is a hospital. So I have discovered it ia fairly quiet street at night. Lining the hotel are raised planters that are perfect to sit on. So late at night I like to go and sit on the planters and just watch Tokyo life pass me by.

The employees entrance is near here, so I watch the employees come and go. I admit, my enermous size compared to the common Japanese person seems to make the female employees nervous, but I always make sure a)to sit in plain sight b)under the lone street light c)in view of the police stations camera and d)as far off the sidewalk I can.

Then you have the many, many bike riders…the police who go to and from the station (and oddly never give me a second look!)…the couples walking back to the residential housing nearby after a night on the town…the late-to-get-home salarymen and office ladies, who obviouslly have had to much to drink.

To me, this is the heart of a society. I do the same sort of things when I am in an American city for the first time. Tourist spots are all well and good, but I prefer to see the everyday life, not the gltizy facade a city puts on for the tourists. Give me the guts, the heart, the common everyday person going about their everyday lives. How else will you ever get to “know” a city or a society?

Sure, this is an odd way to spend your evenings, but it is extremely relaxing and allows me to see a small sliver of everyday life in Tokyo that I enjoy so much.

Vending machine dispenses free drinks during disasters - Engadget - www.engadget.com.

A vending machine that switches to battery power to dispense drinks for free in a disaster. Would NEVER work in the USA, but in Japan, its a fantastic idea.

This fits in well with a story I read on BlogD.com the other day about how the author of the site had never had a power outage in 15 years. Here it is a monthly occurance. So what could make the Japanese power grid so much more stable??

ICv2 News - Viz Covers Up ‘I’’s’

This irks me to no end. It looks like American’s can’t handle nipples. So when Viz Publishing brought over the series “I’s” from Japan, they decided they had to place stars over the nipples in the book.

Why is it just about anywhere else in the world people can handle the sight of nipples, but yet America, the supposed “leader” of the world can’t handle this? What is it about something so simple as a portion of a womans anatomy, and something men have also, makes people run screaming into the night?

Gotta love how prudish we are somedays.

I just realized that I have had this blog for a year now, and this is only my 40th post…I really need to work on that.

I am home from Japan. Happy to be “home”, but I would feel that way no matter where “home” was, it has nothing to do specifically with Missouri or Kirksville. I am already beginning to plan my next trip back though.

*SOB* I am mere hours from leaving Japan to head back to the USA *SOB* This trip has some real ups and downs, but it seemed to really come together towards the end. Things with my new company seem to be happening. Finally got some good buys for the regular old AnimeUSA, and some leads for my next trip.

No matter what though, I have to remind myself sometimes “Wow…I’m in Japan!”. Maybe it’s because I kinda know my way around now that it seems a little mundane, but no matter what, I am thrilled to be in a country I dreamed of coming to for 20 some years.

I can clearly remember the first time I was really aware of Japan, and it was also the same day that I knew someday I had to come here. I was in 2nd grade at Kachina grade school in Glendale, AZ and my teacher had invited another teacher who had been to Japan to come talk to us and show us slides of her trip. Three things struck me in that talk:

1. Explaining how their language structures sentances differently
2. A slide showing how close two houses were to each other. Not even a foot between them.
3. And the final sales pitch…a picture of two Geishas.

I knew even then, at the age of 7, that that little slide show had just changed my life. I knew that no matter what, that someday I had to come to this country. And now I can say that I have spent 5 weeks of my life here. I know that is a drop in the bucket compared to some, but it doesn’t matter, I am thrilled to be able to say that.

When this trip wasn’t going so well business wise I was really questioning if I had enough reason to come back again. I think that question has now been answered, and I *will* be back. However the thought that this might be my last trip ever here, it was really depressing. I tried to enjoy every minute though, and I am thrilled to say that things look like I will return again. Not sure when, but it will happen.

Yeah, so I said I would blog in from Tokyo. Problem is I am so tired by the end of the day that I keep forgetting! Never mind the fact I brought my laptop all the way to Japan, but I had to use the hotel computer in the middle of the day to have enough energy to do it!

Things are going well and today my new business partner arrives, so the second phase of my trip begins. Should be an interesting new experiance.

As always, August is darned hot!

More later!

muahahahahahhahahaha for once I have movie news before everyone else. Gotta love it. I can’t share it, but at least I know it;)

I always have mixed feelings about my visits to LA. I am never here for even a full day, and to be honest, I’m glad. I am sorry to anyone who lives here if I offended you with that comment, was not my intent, but this town has just never done it for me for whatever reason.

Anyway, off to bed so I can get to the airport in the morning, and in turn, fly out for Tokyo!

Well, in less than 12 hours I am leaving for St. Louis. Will stay there tomorrow night. Fly to LAX on Tuesday. Stay in LA on Tuesday and come Wednesday, is off to Tokyo again. Kind of scary how I am not getting that “stoked” feeling I got the first two times I went. I would hate it if going to some place I love as much as Tokyo would become commnon place.

I will be logging on while I am there, but not sure how much time (or energy) I will have for blogging. I have SO much to do on this trip it’s not even funny. I thought 2 weeks was to long to stay at one point, now I am not sure even a month would be enough time to get everythign done that I need. As expensive as it is though to go and stay there, 2 weeks is really all I can afford. Hopefully no hiccups will happen this time, but I am going to try my darndest to make sure they don’t.

Hope to blog ya from Japan!

Well, t-minus 1 week to the first part of my trip to Japan. I go to St. Louis next Monday, Tuesday I fly to LA and Wednesday I fly to Japan. Due to the time difference I land in Japan on Thursday afternoon. Thus begins 2 weeks in my favorite place on Earth, Tokyo.

This time I am going to try to do a daily journal type thing with at least one picture a day as opposed to my ususal randomness. I am trying to get the 2001 trip pics up before I leave. I am also working on a super-sized new addition of content to my site, but not sure when that will be going up.

Not a whole lot else to talk about, just trying to get ready for my trip. Yay!