So Damn Cool
This is possibly one of the coolest things that I have ever seen! (In a totally nerdly manner of course. I mean, how else could you get excited about wireless plug.)
Basically it’s a souped up wireless access point. It has the ability to extend your own wireless network, or act as a very limited one of it’s own. That’s pretty cool on it’s own, but there’s so much more.
It has a USB port, so if you plug a printer into it, you’ve got an instant network printer.
But the coolest thing (in my view) is the audio functionality. You plug it into your stereo, and then you have wireless audio streaming. Bingo. Using iTunes 4.6 on your computer, you target a particular speaker/audio output, and then iTunes will stream your music to your stereo. Sweet. No more cables, plugs, patches. No more crap.
And the coolest suggestion that I’ve seen (from Todd Dominey) is for a wireless iPod, where as you walk into your house, you switch the audio output on the iPod and Bam!, it’s playing on your stereo. No plugging in. Just working.
Of course, all of this depends on whether or not the product actually works. And considering I don’t know anyone who actually uses it, this could be all a load of conjecture.
Brain Imploding ... Can't Think
I’d heard quite a bit about Harajuku before I went to Japan, about how young Japanese dress up in whacked out costumes and spend the day parading around, but believe me when I say there’s no preparation for the real thing.
So what goes on at Haraujuku? I’m sure there’s some deep thinking psychological analysis of the phenomenon, but I don’t think it would really explain it. Basically it’s a collection of young Japanese (I suppose somewhere between 15 and 25 … it’s very hard to tell), who dress up as characters from books and movies, dolls, goths, and any number of other things.
They all congregate on a bridge just around the corner from Harajuku Station, and stand there all day. They willingly stand for hours while people photograph and stare at them. They have their own little groups where they talk about whatever they talk about. The two girls in the pic above were posing with people for at least 4 hours. Quite happily standing there and staring at camera after camera. Looking like little dolls.
There were probably more tourists there than actual “exhibits”, but they just seemed to wander around, a little bewildered by the experience. A whole lot of head scratching going on.
The Power of the Collective
So Saturday was Shoma’s (one of my nephews) School Sports Day. Most interesting.
Unlike most Australian school sports days which tend to be nothing but disorganised tedium, the Japanese school sports day is highly organised tedium sprinkled with moments of sheer craziness.
Exhibit A: The skipping rope game. All of the students in a particular year, in each of the three factions, are grouped in a line, bookended by 2 larger students with a large skipping rope between them. Then, each team in turn, they play jump rope, but with 25 students each jumping as one! And the team with the most jumps after 3 goes is the winner. Group participation at it’s best, with the objective apparently to create a feeling that “being part of the group, and doing things with that group, in the same way is the best that you can do.” HiveLogic.
Exhibit B: Each faction lines up, and bends at the waist. Another student clambers on to their backs, and runs along the line. As the kid on top runs over a student, they stand up, run around to the front of the line, and so the line moved forward. The objective being to get to the other end of the ground, and come back. The HiveLogic object probably being to show how working as a team can accomplish things that benefit all. Either that or they’re just having fun.
Sunday was Taylor’s (other nephew) sports day: for the younger kids. Pretty much the same sort of deal, but with different whacked out activities, including a massive group callesthenics and acrobatics display. This day also had some real sports. Running.
In Australia, it might take 30 minutes to get through 10 x 100m races. In Japan, it takes less than 3. Before each race is finished, the next lot are in the blocks. As soon as the previous race is finished, the starters gun fires and away they go. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.
Shibuya: People, Food and Lights
A day in the office, doing some of the stuff that I actually came up to Tokyo to do in the first place. The computer company delivered the server today, about 2 hours late, with four (!WTF?) guys coming along for the ride. They brought the box into the office, and then all stood around staring at each other and at me. I wasn’t sure if I was committing some serious social faux pas, but eventually Habu-san came along and saved us. Apparently they were just waiting for someone to take the initiative and probably would have waited for 20 minutes if someone didn’t tell them to set it up!
They had it set up within 5 minutes and then scarpered off to home base. I spent the rest of the day squashed up in the office, trying to setup the japanese version of Windows. I pretty much got there in the end, so it probably went better than I thought. Probably a couple of hours work over the next couple of days.
After work, I went into Harajuku and Shibuya with Imei-san and Habu-san to have a walk around, some dinner and drinks. Plenty of time gawking at all the buildings, and all the lights. Shibuya is extremely hard to describe: total chaos of people, buildings, cars and light is probably the best way. Times Square after a hard night on the tiles might be another.
It was quite an effort to find somewhere for dinner, but we eventually found an okonomiyaki restaurant. It’s a kind of pancake mixed with vegetables and meat and all sorts of stuff, which they cook on the hotplate that’s in the middle of the table. We had three different kinds, and they were all delicious.
A couple of beers with dinner on my ownsome, as neither of my companions drank! Which meant I was of course drinking for Australia. Don’t worry. I did us proud. Mostly.
Of course, the most interesting thing to do in Shibuya is to just walk around experiencing it. An astounding number of people, all going in seemingly random directions. It could take 1 minute to cross a 20 metre road because of the volume of people. I felt a little like a spawning salmon swimming upstream.
A fair bit of walking, and looking like a complete tourist snapping pictures of everything, and then we found a little bar that Habu-san had been to before. Of course, if you didn’t know it was there you’d have no chance because it was on the fourth floor of a building down a little alleyway up a hill. And then it only had about 8 seats. We walked in, and everyone in the bar had to rearrange themselves so that we could get in. But it was worth it because I had some of the best ginnantonix I’ve had in a long time (lime, not lemon), and a good translated conversation with the bar staff. Great feel to the place, and an astounding range of whiskey.
A great night out in chaos.
Karaoke! Karaoke! Karaoke!
So, it’s finally happened, and on only my first full day in Japan. Karaoke!
But first I must tell you about the magnificent food that I’ve been eating here. All sorts of different stuff, and all magnificent. A Korean BBQ for lunch on Wednesday where we cooked our own meat on the hotplate built into the table; Yakitori that night (which is kind of like a Yum Cha, but less reliant on deep fried food, and actually includes vegetables); Noodles and fried rice at a little mum and pop noodlehouse where they could barely contain their glee at my ability to use chopsticks; and a more traditional Japanese meal last night with an array of interesting things, including deep fried chicken knuckles (tastier than they might sound), whole prawns, whole fish and of course, sake.
Then after the meal (and some beers), off to Karaoke. And as much as I resisted, it’s actually kind of fun. Though, I chose a song that was way out of my limited range and I sounded like a castrato who was actually being modified.
The Japanese seem to take it very seriously, and have their own songs that they practice (I presume on their own?) and the put on mini stage shows. Of course, it’s all liberally lubricated with sake, beer and gin, but it’s good fun.
It was my own little Lost in Translation moment. They had “More Than This” on the list, but I never got around to singing it. I am, however, as yet to see Scarlett Johanssen smiling at me in an elevator. Something that will disappoint me to the day I die.