If you’ve ever been to Japan, or even watched something on TV that shows every day life there, you are sure to have seen at least a few people wearing surgical style masks.  They wear them for multiple reasons, but the main one being it means they are sick with something and they are trying not to give it to the people around them.  As someone who gets sick fairly easily, I have always loved this idea, but somehow I don’t ever see it getting taken up here in the United States unfortunately.

I am currently suffering from a case of bronchitis, and after the doctor’s office this morning i had a couple of unavoidable errands I had to run.  I gave serious thought to wearing a mask because apparently the type I have is viral, but seeing as one of my stops I needed to make was a bank (although every teller there knows my name), I didn’t think walking into a bank with a mask on might be the smartest of ideas.

So, barring a sudden shift in American thought process where we all start wearing masks, there are some common courtesies I see people break all the time that would be so easy to remember if they just thought about it.

Things To Do To Prevent Getting The Lastest Bug/Not Spreading It Around

Turn your head and cover your mouth when you cough

As someone who worked in a retail store for years, I couldn’t believe the number of times people coughed in my face.  Is it really that difficult to turn your head, or at least cover your mouth?

One hand for coughing,  one hand for everything else

As I’m right handed, I always make sure to cough into my left hand as I use my right hand to open doors, handle items in stores and so on.  Sure I’m still infected, but at least I’m attempting to reduce exposure.

Cover your hands when you push a cart

This is easiest in the winter, but since that is when most people get sick, it works.  If I’m wearing gloves, I leave them on as I shop so I’m not handling the cart with my bare hands.  If I’m grabbing packaged foods in the grocery store I don’t worry too much about the gloves, but if I’m picking something like fruit, I take off the gloves and reach for the highest items in the bin as 1) I’m tall enough to reach them and 2) that means they haven’t fallen down the bin yet reducing the risk of exposure to infected hands.  A lot of stores or also now offering sanitizing wipes to wipe down the cart before you use it, since they’re free, do it.

Wash your hands, Wash your hands, Wash your hands

Do you have any clue how much you could reduce the spread of colds and flu if you just washed your hands more often?  I wash my hands numerous times through out a day, and I carry hand sanitizer in my car so I can wash my hands off quickly after leaving a store.  Hand sanitizer does have a draw back in that it can kill off good bacteria also, so do use it sparingly.

Don’t scratch your eyes or rub your nose

The quickest way for any virus to enter your body is through your tear ducts or nasal passages.  Unless you’ve washed your hands (see above), then keep your hands well away from your face.

Sleep

Sleep is one of the best ways to prevent yourself from getting sick, and Americans especially need ot learn this rule.  I am definitely one that lacks in sleep, so I’m certainly not guilt free in my health.

Things To Do If You Catch Something

Chicken Soup

Sure it seems like something your mother just said to you as a child, but it’s true.  Good old chicken soup will always soothe the soul and help your immune system.

Spicy Foods

I stumbled across this trick when I was in Japan in 2001 and came down with bronchitis just as I arrived.  (Yes, I get bronchitis very easily)  I stepped across the street to a MOS Burger as it was an easy walk, and I was unaware my burger came with a mayonnaise laced with chili powder.  I ate the burger, I could tell there was some sort of chili powder in it, I walked out of the establishment, and within seconds… evacuated one of the largest coughs I’ve ever had from bronchitis.  (I’m trying to be tactful)  The next day the same sequence of events happened, and I was sold on having mildly spicy food any time I was sick after that.  And it works!

Follow The Other Rules

If you have to go out, think of the people around you.  Somehow I doubt any of them want to be sick, just like you didn’t want to be.

Why You Should Follow Any Of This

I realize this list makes me sound a bit of a hypochondriac, but I’m really not. These steps are all simple and become like second nature to you once you start doing them.  Sure the mask would still be one of the simplest solutions, but since I don’t see that happening any time soon, you can at least take some small steps to help those around you, as well as yourself.

What are your tips for staying healthy?

Post from: SeanPAune.com

Social Etiquette While You’re Sick

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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!

Post from: SeanPAune.com

Shifting plans

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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.

Post from: SeanPAune.com

General Rudeness

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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??

Post from: SeanPAune.com

This is just…creepy

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“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?

Post from: SeanPAune.com

Stupid reporting about Japan

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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.

Post from: SeanPAune.com

PEOPLE POWER!

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Post from: SeanPAune.com

Oh well

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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.

Post from: SeanPAune.com

“I’m leaving, on a jet airplane…”

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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.

Post from: SeanPAune.com

ugh

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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.

Post from: SeanPAune.com

Work Craziness

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