Moving again

So I or we are moving again, even though my partner has not moved as many times as I have, she too has had her fair share, I mean she has now lived with me for a while.

I didn't manage to stay longer than 1 year 11 month at the present place before it was time to once again move. Apparently the longest I have every been in one place is one year and eleven months. Let's see if I can break that with this flat, even though I doubt it. However wish me luck!

The place that we are moving to is rather fancy, at least by my standards, which perhaps is worth to mention, are rather low. Unfortunately they have removed the actual blueprint of the flat so I can't show you that, but it is the biggest flat I have ever lived in so....I am indeed moving up.

Time to be a little political and perhaps even add an opinion or two of my own, which doesn't happen too often.

As many of you already know, Japanese prime minister Fukuda resigned the other day. A surprise to many, and of course to me too (I do not claim to have any inside info of any importance). To be honest, I feel a little sorry for the man. Let's just say that things haven't really gone his way. He inherited the pension scandal, where some people's records of their pension were lost by the authorities. The Democratic Party has been on his back all the time, more or less saying no to things they really ought to support according to their political manifest.

So why did I like the man? Well, he was good with China and to some extent also with South Korea. He didn't go to Yasukuni Shrine. And he tried to lead the G8 group, and accomplish something with it. There are of course many opinions concerning him and most probably a few (or perhaps many) more negative ones, but mine is fairly positive, not being a supporter of the LDP in any way.

So who will replace him? Well, there won't be a new election from the looks of it, even though the Democratic party has called for one. There seem to be at the moment four candidates. The strongest is of course, Taro Aso, the secretary general of LDP (the ruling party) and then we have Nobutero Ishihara (son of Tokyo mayor Ishihara), Kaoru Yosano, the economy minister and Yuriko Koike, the former defense minister.

Aso is an arrogant bastard, who will only make the relationship with the neighbouring countries worse and spend too much money on meaningless things. Japan has today according to Wikipedia the second largest national dept (196 %)!! (I usually say 160 %) Ishihara, I don't know much about him but (and this he can't really be blaimed for) his father is an even bigger bastard than Aso. Yosano and Koike, I know very little about. Koike sat only two months as defense minister before resigning, but she is a reformist and as such she should be applauded.

So I guess my vote goes to either Koike or Yosano. But then again I don't get to vote so that won't count for much.

Hot, hot, hot.
It is really hot here now.
And no, I don't want to hear that it is hotter in other places because I would like to get some understanding and sympathy, mostly sympathy, for the hot weather here in Tokyo, the heat island. Tall buildings, loads of people and plenty of asphalt and concrete. On top of that, not many green areas, a couple of parks but that is it. Even though Tokyo, as many other cities, is a city by the sea, I have yet to see the ocean. That is not completely true, as I have seen the ocean, but it is indeed difficult to both see and feel the ocean here in Tokyo.

Anyhow, I am about to flee the country......at least for a couple of weeks. Hopefully that with cool things down a bit. But then again, coming back in the end of August.....the very same weather that I left will still be around, so it will only be a temporary improvement. The heat is here to stay at last until mid September and probably longer than that.

PUH!

I guess it is unavoidable not to say anything about the terrible thing that happened in Akihabara even though some days have passed now. Many of you might already have read about it as it made the news in many countries.

A man from a province south of Tokyo rented a small lorry and drove to Tokyo, a trip that should have taken him at least over an hour and probably closer to two. Arriving in Akihabara he proceeded to to run people over that were walking in the street, a street that was closed off for traffic for the day. After having hit at least three or maybe four people he went out and started to knife people with something that has been subscribed as a survival knife. Panic broke out and needless to say people started to shout and flee. He managed to knife 17 victims and of them 7 died before the police managed to disarm and cuff him. The first report said that the man had stated that he was tired of life, and that any victim would have done. Later there were reports of the man having posted messages on the internet that something would happen in Akihabara.

So is Japan is safe country? Has it become more dangerous in the last years?
I still feel rather safe here. I don't feel afraid walking home in the dark late after work or a drinking session. One way to know, a way I often use, is whether or not regular murders (is there something like a regular murder) is still big news. And, yes, I would say murders are still big news here. Apart from that, very few people own firearms, and the ownership of smaller firearms, such as revolvers or pistol, or more or less unheard of. Very few things make me as afraid as knowing that anyone around me might be carrying a gun. So, yes, I feel safe here.

So I finally got my driving license. Or rather, I finally exchanged my driving license. Since I have the fortune of having a driving license of a country with which Japan has a bilateral agreement I don't need to retake any tests but only exchange it. Now it sounds easy and in theory I reckon it is too. I shouldn't complain, as I said I didn't need to retake any test.

So what does one need? Well you need your original license and you need an official translation of the license from your embassy. With there two things together with your alien registration card, a photograph, your current passport and preferably any old passport(s) too. Why do you need the old passport(s). Well, in theory you need to be able to prove that you have been in the country of issuance for at least three months after getting the license. This can actually be rather difficult to prove especially if you live in a country where the citizens' passports are not stamped when leaving or returning to the home country. Now, I didn't have a hard time, probably most thanks to the fact that I got my driving license 15 years ago, but it might be trickier of your driving license is newer.

So I go the the driving license centre. Enter an anonymous looking building and inside it looks like something from the Soviet-era. It is grey and lots of different counters with only a few chairs, or rather black fake leather sofas.

I first go the counter which says foreign driving licenses in Japanese. After a short wait, the man behind the counter accepts all my documentation and tells me to wait, which I do for 45 min. He then calls me back and hands me some papers and tells me to go to a different counter to pay. I go to the specified counter, pay 4500 yen, and gets directed to some atm-looking machines where I choose a code after having shown a man that I paid my 4500 yen. He in turn directs me to a different counter to have my eyes checked out. This part I was actually worried about. On my original driving license it doesn't say that I need glasses while driving, however that was 15 years ago and I don't think my eye sight is as good as it was then. Fortunately however I pass the eye check and is just about to leave when the man calls me back and asks me about my arm and as you all know loyal readers I had a wee operation three weeks ago. So he directs me to yet another place for a health check-up or rather a consultation, but before that I have to get a stamp for what I don't know what but still, yet another counter.

After that I arrive at that health consulting room. An elderly woman asks what happened and then asks my why I didn't tick the box if I have ever experienced paralysis, convulsions or spasms. Well I said, all those actions are involuntary actions and I have complete control of my movements except for some temporary loss of muscle strength in two fingers. I see that "operation persuasion" is in need and I spend 15 min trying to get her to let me go without any terms stated on my driving license. At last she seems ok and lets me go.

I go back to the original counter, for something that I have forgotten now, and then quickly on to get photographed. This is quick and now all I have to do is get my driving license....for which I of course have to wait at yet another counter, this time on a different floor. I wait 30 min, get my license and now all I have to do is to go to a machine to..........I have no idea, but it seems that I need to activate it or perhaps it did something completely different, I still haven't gotten the foggiest.

So after a little more than 3 hours I am a lucky holder of a Japanese driving license. Now, as I said in the beginning, I got away easy.

I might as well continue posting about things that I come across on the internet. Next up is something that perhaps only people in Japan or people that have lived in Japan will understand, still I thought it was pretty funny.


Now, the two biggest regions in Japan are Kanto, which includes Tokyo and Yokohama, and Kansai, which includes Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe. The regions are bigger than the cities mentioned above but they are still the major cities. The relationship between the regions is a love-hate kind. Or at least people from the Kansai area loves to hate Kanto. Kansai people and especially Osaka people claim that Tokyo people are stiff and boring people, which Tokyo sometimes say that Osaka people are loud, rude and scary.お互い様やな。

Anyway, enjoy the clip.

Here is it, the music video that has cause so much debate in France and also in other parts of Europe. I have still to hear anything about it here in Japan. The debate is not surprisingly about all the violence in the video. Some organisations are against while others try to understand what the band, Justice, or the director, Romain-Gavras, are trying to say. Anyway here is the song, Stress.

justice stress (official video)
Uploaded by 75_prod

I can't help but thinking about the debate surrounding Prodigy and the song "Smack my Bitch Up" and how fast the debate ended on that one. Does any anyone even think of the foul meaning of the actual words, or are we just taken back by the fact that it turns out to be a woman that we are following throughout the video, which I think is rather cool.

So what is my stance on the whole thing. Well, I am not sure. First of all I don't live in France so I have no experience of the sometimes chaotic situations, with alienated youth seeing no future and riots with the police. Sitting here about 10,000 kilometres away from Paris I reckon I have a hard time seeing how the video would actually influence people from doing the same in real life. However I am certain that others might think differently.

So I've been away for a couple of days. I reckon no one really noticed but then again I guess it is time for me to realise that the world doesn't revolve around me, no matter how much I would like to think so.

I've been to the hospital for three days, which is a second best personal record for me. Last time was for appendicitises a week in hospital, this time for cubital tunnel syndrome. No, it is not a mental syndrome and instead of me trying to explain it, look here.

I feel a bit handicapped, especially since the splint locks the elbow so I can't bend it meaning that I cant move my hand closer to my body leading to some strange situations such as not being able to hand over exact change or scratching the upper right arm. On top of this, I am left handed meaning that I can't write anything. My signature when leaving the hospital was rather two circles than a signature. Apparently I will have the splint for at least two more weeks. Right now it feels like I can't stand it for another 20 minutes with all the itching.

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation released their new report on broadband penetration, speed and price per Mbs, together with a composite score in different countries. In the top as you can see it is two Asian countries followed by the Nordic countries together with France. Why France is there I have no idea, but perhaps it thanks to their early implementation of Minitel.

However, even though Japan is number two and the country with the highest average speed this is not an accurate picture of the actual picture (according to me that is). While it is true that here in Japan many households have a very high theoretical speed, I have 100/30Mbs. However, since most servers are in either Europe or the US the internet* as a whole is not necessarily faster here. I will give you some examples. Game servers are fairly limited here in Japan and even including China, Korea and Taiwan the amount is not even comparable with Europe and North America, meaning that I can't always play a game or mod whenever I want. Servers in the US has an average ping of 150ms and servers in Europe has around 300ms. I had as a comparison pings of 30-80 while living in Europe being able to play more or less any game and mod at any time.

Downloading things from the internet is also often slower here since once again................the servers or users are mostly in Europe or in the States. For instance downloading through torrents usually don't exceed speeds of 200 KB/s. In Europe it wasn't uncommon for my to have speeds around 800-900 KB/s using a 8/1 Mbs connection. This was a couple of years ago.

Ergo, I would still prefer to live in Europe if internet was the only factor.

ps.
make sure you know the difference between bytes (B) and bits (b).

* the word internet here means all aspect of the internet; surfing, mail, downloading, games ect

IKEA Japan was in the news today in a paper in Sweden. Apparently a man in Chiba had little accident when trying to assemble a chest. According to a METI's recent press release a screw broke and a piece of it hit him in the eye. Apparently the man had tried a slotted screwdriver (flathead) on a phillips (whether they really mean a phillips, or pozi, I don't know). Now, I could be wrong but the things I have bought from IKEA has a manual containing a rather big picture of a screw head with a cross on it. For me this means that one should use a crosshead driver and preferably nothing else.

So a little info on screwdrivers, link
Read it and think of the man in Chiba.

So it is time to educate mankind, and what better subject than the Japanese language. Some people say that the Japanese language is the world's most difficult language and when it comes to the written Japanese this might be correct. However the spoken language is very simple, you only need two words, or rather two sounds.

You see how easy it is. The best part of it is that it is also true, at least to 63 %.
Now you try!

Update on "the change of layout". As you can see it looks the same. After a lot of contemplating I decided to revert it back to the original layout, mostly because I liked the colours. But I still had the problem of the width, or rather the lack of width. So what to do? Well, some advanced edge programming skills can sometimes come in handy. So I altered the margins. To alter the margins however, is a delicate operation where there is no room for mistakes. I usually use the analogue of a surgeon and surgery.


Ok, so I know that was just a load of rubbish, I had a look at a manual and changed the pixel value in three places. Still, being fairly illiterate when it comes to computers I feel rather good with myself.

So I changed the layout. Change; something to like, something to hate or just something to get used to. I usually hate when newspapers change the layout or the size too for that matter. I can't find things and I want it to return to what it looked like before. Then again one doesn't want to be a conservatist (is this really a word?), someone that can't stand change and wants things to remain like they have always been. I guess I am a one of those who are annoyed for a couple of minutes and then forgets the reason why and is finally content with the change. To take an example, web browsers. I, like many others, used MS Internet Explorer, and had for a fair amount of years. In my defence I can say that I used Netscape and only defiantly change to explorer*. A friend of mine showed me firefox and its at that time unique tab-system. Anyhow, firefox, no not for me I thought, but after giving it a try I changed web browser and have never used explorer again, apart from those rare times when a programmer have missed out on the wonders of non-MS web browsers and decided just to support explorer.

So, where were we, right, change of layout. Yes, I had to change the layout since, my previous layout was too narrow to show the full size of youtube. Now I use something called "streched...". Unfortunately it also meant changing the colour of my blog, too bad, I liked the ochre colour that I had before...............but then again, we can't be against change can we!

* Yes, I try to stay away from anything MS, at least if I can. Open source all the way!

I just noticed that I still haven't written anything about music.
I know this is a bit old but I just had to spread the word or at least let more people see it. Not that that many people come to my little blog. Still though.



Yes, a wee bit of a political statement of the situation of today's Japan from the foreign community in Japan - GAIJIN INVASION

No, I'm only joking but the song is really catchy, please enjoy. I sure do. now having listened to the song eight times to the despair of my partner.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote that spring was here. Today it almost felt like summer was here. Of course not the real summer, since summer here is terrible with humid and hot weather, around 35 C. This might sound like nothing to some people but for an Eskimo like me from northern Europe it is much too hot.

Apparently it is ok to say Eskimo if you are talking about a native Alaskan according to my MA-holder-in-anthropology partner.

Early morning

I used to wake up fairly early before, I reckon you could have called me a morning person which I still am since I am not an evening or night person, having trouble staying up late at night. However this has changed the last couple of months and I no longer wake up that early. Kind of sad when I think of it since I liked getting up early in the morning, gave me a chance to take better advantage of the daylight I presume.

However this weekend I woke up early. Felt really nice. We are not talking about six in the morning or anything, but here waking up at half seven or even eight on a weekend is considered early since it seems to be a pastime to sleep during the weekends.

Anyway, so I wake up, ask my partner whether or not she wants breakfast. She replies deep from the bed (futon) that she would like to sleep longer. So I ask her to move over since our sleeping room/living room is also our dining room. On today's menu is pancakes, American style.

It's really nice. No TV, pancakes straight from the frying pan, orange juice and freshly brewed tea with milk in it. Sun rays are dancing on the floor, the window is still wet from the condensation building up every early morning. I wonder if I will be able to wake up early tomorrow too.

Spring is here!
At last winter might be over and spring is here. Today it is 15C and it will stay almost that for the rest of the week. It is strange that I like winter and the cold, but...not here. Here it is almost (a little lie I know) as cold inside as it is outside. I have no problem with cold in general but when it is cold inside it really gets to me. I think the reason why many people that live in cold places can stand the cold outside is that whenever they go out they are usually warm.

An experiment of mine.
I am certain that you can stand, let's say minus 5C, for two minutes even if you are naked if you were warm to start with. Now here in Japan you are never warm because the body never gets the chance to be warm since it is cold inside too. Meaning that even if you dress up really well when you go out, you still feel cold. Clothes themselves don't warm you. They retain the heat coming from your body. Hence with no body heat, nothing to retain. You feel cold.

Now, hopefully that won't be a problem for the next 9 months since spring is here (?). Now if only they could finish building on that new flat complex next to us it would be great. Today is suppose to be the last day, but I am not so sure.

I just found this blog, it took me a while but finally I found it. I am not sure why I started looking for it in the first place. To be honest I was probably looking for something else.

Anyhow, it is supposedly written by a foreigner living in Shanghai, it says that "he" is involved in arts, which might be true for all I know. What I wanted to say is that even thought at first it seems that he only writes about different women that he has managed to conquer he still includes harsh criticism concerning the Chinese political system and actually also the Chinese culture. I am not an expert on everything Chinese but it is indeed powerful stuff being written on:

Sex and Shanghai

So does the same applies on/in Japan? No, not really I would say. If anything would be applicable here it would perhaps be the sex part, but that is a different story.

The birth of a new nation

Yesterday the world saw the birth of a new nation, Kosovo or Kosova. Kosovo used to be an autonomous province of Serbia, which in turn used to be part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, consisting of Serbia and Montenegro. Now to add to this is of course that all of the above mentioned three countries used to be part of, together with Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and lastly Macedonia, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

I know that is quite a lot to take in, but please try, it might be important to some persons.

So 17 February, 2008, the birth of a nation. At least for some, among the important "countries", the EU and the US, Kosovo is likely to be recognised.* Russia and Serbia on the other hand does not recognise Kosovo and at least Serbia still sees Kosovo as an integral part of Serbia, a province of Serbia. This must be a fairly awkward situation for Serbia, administratively I mean, especially if they really see Kosovo as an integral part of its country.

For instance, the welfare system ought to be given to people in Kosovo if they so wish for it. Kosovo citizens can ask for money from the central government in Belgrade (capital of Serbia), since they are "citizens of Serbia". I am not sure how they will solve the border issue. I reckon that there will be a border on the Kosovo side, but there really shouldn't be any border on the Serbian side. One can have a situation with internal borders but I know of very few countries that do have that, especially concerning customs and tariffs. The obvious exception is of course a customs union, i.e. the EU, but no need to discuss that now.

Really what I wanted to say was, after my long rant, Kosovo, welcome! I wish you the very best!

*Now I did write important countries, which might sound a little subjective, but unfortunately the two mentioned countries do constitute the major players on the political world arena. Secondly EU does not recognise countries but this is done by the individual member states however the European Council makes a statement, a very influential statement.

So I was to write something about a film called "The Blue State". I had hoped it would be like one of those movies that you come across, not very well known, you watch it and you just like it. Not for any particular reason, not because the movie contains an actor or actress that you like. This movie didn't even have a really good soundtrack, not hat the music was bad in any way.

Anyhow I watch the movie, and unfortunately it just wasn't one of those movies. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad in any way. I don't regret watching it, and it did have that certain mood to it, but still not enough. It was still about people, a subject that I find very intriguing. So watch it if you can.

What it is about? Read here.

So finally I went to the rehabilitation centre. It is not as fancy as it sounds it is mere a local clinic not far from where I live. I have been thinking of going for quite some time but with the insurance not coming through until now...well.

So why did I needed to go? I have something called Cubital Tunnel Syndrome, and no, it is not a mental illness. It is actually very physical. A nerve controlling hand movement is squished at the elbow, making my little finger and half of the ring finger numb. Furthermore I have reduced strength in my fingers. It is not as bad as it sounds but it is difficult for instance to use chopsticks.

Anyhow, at the clinic I first met a doctor who confirm my diagnosis, and then I received electric treatment, rather interesting actually. They put these things around the elbow which sends a weak current down your arm. Apparently this will help. I have only been there once, but unfortunately no change so far. They did say that I should try it for a couple of weeks going three times a week so I reckon it is too soon to say anything.

Even though this is only my second post here on my blog I hope I am still allowed to say that this will be the first post including a complaint. I am certain that there will be many to follow, still this is the first and there will never be a first complaint again.

Having said that, on to the complaint. I have had a Japanese bank account since the beginning of time when I was an exchange student here at a time when you only needed one digit to say what year it was (I know it is difficult to understand but it means the times before Heisei 平成 10. Along with this bank account I also had a cash card or an ATM card. It had only the Sumitomo name and logo and not the Mitsui Sumitomo thing, which I was a bit proud of, a relic from old days so to say. Unfortunately the card broke the other day. To be honest it really broke in two pieces..... So needless to say I needed a new card.

Here my problems begin. I went down to the local Mitsui Sumitomo branch just around the corner from where I live, which is totally irrelevant but still. I enter the bank, walk up to the elder female clerk sitting not behind the counter but standing by machine where you get your queue number. I let her know that I would like to get a new cash card since mine is now in two pieces. She asks if I brought the bank book, an ID-card and the cash card itself. Of course I had forgotten the cash card which wasn't really needed but if I couldn't show it I would be charge 1,000 yen. Fair play, it is not that far to go back to the flat and pick it up.

I come back to the bank, get directed by the lady to the form that I need. The form is rather straight forward, the Japanese is not too difficult and she helps me with the things that I don't understand. After having filled in the form I walk up to the counter with: ID-card (Alien Registration Card 外国人登録所 (a card all foreigners with a visa is required to always carry with them. I will probably post concerning this card later), the form and the broken cash card(s).

The clerk looks at the form and at me, and you can see that here comes trouble, and not any kind of trouble but troubles involving a foreigner. How can I see it? I see it in his face, he's nervous and why is he nervous? Because he doesn't know how well I speak Japanese and he probably thinks that I will be very angry and make a scene if things don't go the way I want to.

Apparently since the account is opened at a different branch I need the address I had when I opened the account. Fair play you might think, one usually remember the addresses where one have lived. Well first of all, I have moved almost 30 times, and when I opened the account I have no idea where I lived to be honest. It could have been an address of the host family where I stayed for a month before moving out, it could also have been the student house where I lived for nine months and finally it could also have been the address of the university. Needless to say I had no idea. It didn't help that the university was not even in Tokyo but in lovely Osaka and have also relocated in the last years.

Since the clerk isn't helping me much I take command and say that it might be easier just to get a new account and tie a new the cash card to that and the ancient address won't be needed. Right. He directs me to a different counter manned by a younger woman. She smiles at me and asks how she can help me. I tell her that I would like to open an account and get a cash card to go along. Excellent she replies and asks for some ID while I fill in some form which I have already done, but theses are new forms so.....I'm filling in forms again. She looks at the ID, and.......apparently you can't open a bank account in Japan without having been in Japan at least 6 months. WTF!!! I wonder if this applies to Japanese ppl that live abroad and comes back, for instance take my partner who lived abroad for several years wouldn't she be allowed to open an account before she has been in Japan at least 6 months? I usually refrain from calling Japan a discriminating country, but wait there is more to follow.

Right, I can't open a new account. Ok, perhaps we should try to see if we can't get a new card to the already existing account anyway. Please remember that this wasn't possible before since I didn't have the address. Well what do I spy on one of the forms, the old address. Apparently the bank had it all the time. Wankers!!

So the "only" thing that I need to do is to fill in some forms again since apparently my current address needs to be written the Japanese way, which starts the city and ends with the street name, even though here in Japan that is a combination of digits instead of a street name. I fill in everything, decides on a cash card with an IC-chip which can be used for withdrawals in convenience stores too and after-hours. Right, please sit down over there it will only be a minute (or rather five minutes) she says. Please note that I have already been waiting for an hour and a half since first coming to the bank.


I wait for 15 minutes and then the elder lady that helped me out first comes back and says that it will be a couple of more minutes. I let her know that I have already been here soon two hours. She apologises like everyone does here and walks away.

After four more minutes I am called back to the counter by yet another woman. She says that the IC-card that I have chosen is impossible for the bank to issue since I don't have a stamp, a hank or inkan 印鑑. The account can't be opened using only a signature. Would I instead be interested in the internet bank service which is shite here in Japan. I look at her for 10 seconds without saying anything, my patience is not what it was when I first entered the bank two hours earlier. I ask her to get me all my money from the account except for one yen. It was actually quite a bit of cash which I receive.

It goes with out saying that I left the bank without saying thank you.
Japanese banks are what you would expect a bank in a developing country to be like. So unbelievably backwards. To keep it short: BLOODY TOSSERS!!!

So I too have decided to have a blog. To be honest this is not a new idea of mine and the blog has actually been registered since 2003. Don't ask me why I never really started on it, but here it is and here I am.

So with no further due I present to you, the blog of blimp.