2007-12-31 19:49:00
Oh my :) I wish I'd an empty VHS tape with me, because I sure as heck would love to tape tonight's traditional Red & White New Year's TV show. It's so totally awesome ^_^
We'll watch the show for a few hours, with our roomies and then we'll head out to Shitennoji temple for the New Year's bells (and alcohol and food and friends, etc).
Yoshu! Welcomu too-sowsand-aato!
Happy new year everyone!
kilala.nl tags: japan, japan 2007, tv, holiday,
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2007-12-31 10:19:00
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Mind you, I've only seen about 1/12th of one of the days, so it's really a very limited impression :) |
The coolest thing to see though, is the great variety in artistic styles. There's everything from realistic, to super-deformed. There's messy artists, there's clean artists, there's traditional artists and there's modern artists. It's very cool :)
I wish I could show you guys all of the stuff that I've bought, but it's a bit too much work for now :) You can view the covers of the doujins I bought in today's gallery (linked below).
kilala.nl tags: japan, comics, manga, japan 2007,
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2007-12-31 09:06:00
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Pictures for day 5.
I got up around 08:30 and took care of the hotel's checkout. Luckily I could store my backpack behind the front desk, because there was no chance in hell that I'd drag that huge thing around the whole day. Speaking of the hotel: I took my breakfast there (as opposed to getting a pizza pan from 711 again) and I have to say that I really like the classical, Japanese breakfast.
My plan was to visit the Tokyo Big Sight, to attend day 2 of Comiket #73. This day revolves around manga drawn for the female audience, which are usually the stories I like a lot. There's something about the characters and stories that is more attractive to me.
Comiket, for those not in the know, stands for Comic Market. It's a huge convention, focused completely on amateur and semi-pro comics. Over the course of three days, about 35.000 groups of artists sell their manga to over 500.000 visitors. The event is spread across four square kilometers of convention space, bound together by a few kiloms extra of hallways.
I wanted to visit Comiket at least once, just to see what it's all about. I'd heard a lot about it and it really is quite an important event for otaku in Japan. Of course, it also featured prominently in one of my favourite anime, Lucky Star. So far I'd only seen dutch doujinshi and this's made me very curious about how things are done in Japan. I'll discuss that a little more in-depth in the next blog post.
In the meantime, let me say that the Japanese are the masters of crowd control! At no point in time were the crowds forced to a standstill, there was no shouting and shoving and there were no accidents. In general, everyone was disciplined and well behaved :) It's amazing to seen about 10.000 people, crammed into a square kilometer, without any crap breaking out.
A lot of Comiket's visitors come there with a plan. A few weeks before the event, their catalogue (about the size of a phonebook) is printed and people decided on which artists they really want to visit. This usually leads to big checklists, with exact "addresses" in the convention halls. It's all quite efficient :) Armed with checklists and shopping trolleys, these hardcore fans race across the festival, to ensure that they get everything they wanted.
I on the other hand went in there with only one plan: there is no plan :D
I'd decided for myself that I'd spend no more than Y10.000 (62 euros) and that I'd leave once I'd done so. Stats at the end of the Y10.000:
* I'd visited 1 row of clusters in 1 of the halls. This relates to about 1/12th of the whole con space.
* I'd spent about 3 hours circling that single row of clusters.
* 1 cluster consists of about 28 groups and one row of 15 clusters. This means I visited about 420 artists.
* I'd bought 23 doujinshi, ranging in price between Y100 (62 cents) and Y1200 (~7.5 euros).
Because my trip "home" was bound to be a long one, I'd decided to skip the rest of Comiket. I even skipped taking photos of all the cute/sexy/cool cosplayers.
Ah! A tip, if you're ever in Tokyo and have an hour or two of free time: ride the Yurikamome line back and forth, from Shimbashi station. This "train" (though it's more of a bus on a guided track) will take you past some awesome architecture, with the prettiest buildings in Tokyo. It'll also give you a great look at the Tokyo skyline, as seen from the bay.
Before heading to the Shinkansen, I'd lunch at Coco Ichibanya Curry, which is a chain of restaurants that I would heartily welcome in the NL. ^_^ Their curries are awesome, though I will never take anything about heat level 2. I think that my buddy Edmond (who usually puts tabasco on anything he eats) would stop around level 3. It's scary to think that things can go up to level 6. o_O;
The Shinkansen ride back to Shin-Osaka was comfortable, yet very busy. It was the day before New Year's and everyone was going back home for the holiday. Tokyo station was loaded with people and It was getting quite hard to move around. And yet again the Japanese shone in their displine! Travelers waiting for their trains were neatly lined up at the tracks and again there was no pushing or shoving. Very nice.
I got "home" around 20:30, had dinner (takeout udon noodles from 711) and had a chat with my roomies. Today (the 31st) I'll stick around Osaka and tonight I'll celebrate New Year's with some of them. Mostly, I'll be resting up a little bit :) the past five days have been very busy!
kilala.nl tags: japan, japan 2007, manga,
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2007-12-29 22:56:00
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How's this guy for a TV show baddy? ^_^ |
EDIT:
Hah! Durf has been totally awesome in helping me with stuff here in Japan. And one of things he's done, is find me the official website of YBD!
Unfortunately I probably won't be able to see the end of the show, because it only airs in the Tokyo region. Shame ;_; It appears to be a mini-series by the way: three episodes, on the days running up to New Year's.
kilala.nl tags: japan, japan 2007, tv,
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2007-12-29 21:48:00
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As I mentioned earlier, I stopped by Trader2 this morning, in search of some specific items. One of the items on the list was a set of DVDs for Romeo X Juliet. By buying the original DVDs I can rationalize getting fansubbed versions of the series, just so I can understand the whole story. And as you can see from the picture, I've succeeded! :) I also managed to lay my hands on a semi-rare (yet uber-cheap) Cowboy Bebop DVD+book set. |
Since Trader deals in secondhand goods, the prices of these DVDs were a lot better than their original price! Each DVD was knocked back from around Y6800 to about Y4000. That's less than the usual Trader discount, but that's probably because RxJ is a really new series. The Bebop DVD rang in at Y2400. In the end I was out about 76 euros for four DVDs. That's not bad, considering that none of this stuff will ever be available in the US or Europe.
I was astounded by the quality of the items, by the way. Japanese otaku really do keep their stuff in pristine condition! Two of the DVDs were still in their original celophane (inside the shop's wrapper), so someone'd been taking very good care of them :)
The item on the right, in the paper bag, is a gift I got for Marli-chan. I'm keeping this a bit of a surprise for her :p
I also got two of those phonebook sized manga, from Gamers. A little under 6 euros got me about 600 pages of reading pleasure! I really wish we could get manga this way in Europe! =_=; I'd love to take the books home with me, but I don't think I will, due to their weight. Then again, I may also just ship them home through the mail.
A bountiful day! ^_^
kilala.nl tags: japan, japan 2007, geeky, anime, games,
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2007-12-29 20:44:00
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Pics for day 4
This morning I left for Akihabara around 08:30, ensuring that I got there before opening hours. That way I could take my time exploring the place, while not having to navigate the crowds of thousands. I'd a few shops in mind that I really wanted to visit, so I wanted to scope things out undisturbed :)
Akihabara has become quite legendary on teh Intarwebs, leading a lot of people to think that it's a huge place. While Akiba does indeed span about three dozen blocks, I really wouldn't call it huge. One can easily traverse most of its streets in under an hour. Only when you start shopping, do you spend a lot of time over there. And seriously: it's -very- easy to get carried away in Akiba ^_^
I spent about three hours, visiting the most obvious shops: Trader2, Gamers, Asobit Chara and Mediaworld Akiba. An easy listing of all these shops (and many more) can be found here, at Akiba Channel.
One thing that's definitely worth mentioning is Sega Gigo, one of the many arcades run by Sega. The lowest two floors have annoying (and -very- noisy Ufo Catcher machines, but the higher levels have some very cool stuff! 4F is home to ten Gundam P.O.D.s (clip on YouTube), which are Gundam simulators that you actually sit in. Nice ^_^
5F houses card based video games, of which I have no idea how they work :D One nice example is Gundam Card Builder, set in the Gundam 0083 universe (clip on YouTube). This website provides detailed explanation on how it works. Basically, it's a video game that you control using both a keyboard and trading cards (like Magic the Gathering). The cards represent characters and mecha, which you move across a flat surface. The way you move the cards determines the actions of the mecha in the game. Confusing, yet uber-cool. If I have some time (and money) left at the end of my trip, I may just go back to try my hand at the game a few times.
Once I'd spent enough (and couldn't walk anymore) I headed back to my hotel to rest a little. I'd already started on this blog post, when Safari crashed ;_;
EDIT: Damn! I just remembered that I forgot to buy a Comiket #73 catalogue. I wanted one as a souvenir ;_;
I left for Ikebukoro around 15:00, wanting to at least visit the observation deck at Sunshine City. However, I couldn't find the building, so I gave up around 17:30. How I managed to completely miss a forty storey building is beyond me =_=
Anywho: dinner at the Ikebukoro station was quite tasty! I worked up enough nerve to eat among the Japanese all by myself and hopped into one of those small ramen shops. The measly sum of Y340 (about two euros!) got me a big bowl of Udon noodles, with tempura kakiage. Oishi!
kilala.nl tags: japan, japan 2007,
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2007-12-29 20:39:00
1. Their thin, unperforated toilet paper. It's not easy to neatly tear of a sheet or two and once you have it, it's easy to tear through. :[
2. The occasional scents on the streets. Usually things smell just like home, but sometimes you'll get a face full of the overpowering scent of either nori, or the sewers ^_^;
Speaking of scents... I may be imagining things, but I think the changed diet is also affecting my body's scent. Rice every day, almost no meat and loads of tea (both black, green and jasmin) is most definitely a change from my dutch diet.
Eh... I just need to get used to life over here :)
kilala.nl tags: japan, japan 2007,
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2007-12-28 22:37:00
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For the past few months I've been dreaming about Haruo Suekichi's steampunk-ish watches. Just type his name into my searchbar and you'll find a few posts about his work :) |
Because the store clerk didn't speak english, he called over a colleague, while I was taking a look at the watches. And while I was talking to this friendly lady (I hope I didn't take up too much of her time) he also called Suekichi-san over! The phone call must've started out with something like: You wouldn't believe who's asking for your work at our store! ^_^
All three of them were very surprised that:
A) Suekichi-san has many fans in Europe and America too
B) I came over to Tokyo, from the Netherlands, just to visit their store
Anywho... Over a cup of coffee (Haruo ran to the vending machine around the corner) I managed to learn a few very interesting things about his work...
* The article in Chief Mag that originally made him famous abroad, came into existence by pure coincidence. One of their employees saw one of Suekichi-san's watches in another Tom's store, bought it and got all of his coworkers enthused.
* Originally, the watches were meant as interesting objects for daily use. They'd be very functional, but also look good. Over the years, it's become more "form over function", so Suekichi-san's been letting go in the designs :)
* A few of his watches may look outlandish, but are based on very basic ideas from daily life. Take the watch I bought for example: it's meant to store one's Suica card in an easily accessible manner. By making a little frisbee-throwing movement, the wallet with the card pops out, so you can hold it up to the machine.
* My absolute favourite watch may look functional, but that wasn't its purpose. I mean sure, it's great to have coins at the ready for your trip to the vending machine. But the original idea came from the Japanese TV show Zenigata Heiji, in which the protagonist disables criminals by knocking them out with coins. Here's the show's opening on YouTube.
* Some watches are just meant to be fun :) There's one that looks a bit like a gaslight (I cannot find the picture just now), that's Suekichi-san's "idea lamp". Whenever he runs out of inspiration, he can strap on the watch, snap his fingers and get an idea! The watches internals consist of an accelerometer, a light and a speaker. Snapping your fingers (thus twitching the watch) will result in the light illuminating, with a "sproi-oi-oing" sound coming from the speaker ^_^
* While watchmaking is usually associated with exact science, Suekichi-san usually takes a freehand approach. He confided in me that he was never very good at math (after hearing that I'm going to be a maths teacher) and that he never calculates any of his work beforehand. It's all made up as he goes.
It was absolutely awesome to get the chance to talk to Suekichi-san. He's a friendly, yet slightly bashful man who will gladly talk about his projects. He's also quite tall, compared to the average Japanese man :) Suekichi-san also gave me a copy of the Time Magazine issue that he appeared in as an omiyage. I just hope it wasn't his only copy of the mag -_-; I really ought to have brought one of my sets of omiyage along for the trip.
kilala.nl tags: haruo suekichi, japan, japan 2007, awesome,
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2007-12-28 21:39:00
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Photos for day 3.
According to my planning, today would be my first day in Tokyo, starting off with a quick hunt for a watch made by Haruo Suekichi and finishing in Akihabara. I'd also meet up with Durf during the evening.
However, I decided to change all of my plans. I hitched a shinkansen ride to Tokyo at 11:20, arriving around noon. I hung around Tokyo's central station a little, to get my bearings, a Suica card and some more cash money. A leisurely metro ride to Yoyogi Uehara finally put me near the Yoyogi Tom's Studio store. "Near" being the proper word, since I managed to misread the map I had drawn myself. Joy! This led to me stomping around the wrong block of houses for about half an hour.
I stayed at the store for about an hour and then left for the hotel. I arrived around five and was welcomed by a rather charming young lady ^_^ The hotel room is not very big, but it's comfortable and comes with a nice bath. Not bad, for 7400 Yen per night! For my dutch friends: thats about 90 euros for -two- nights.
Since I'm rather tired and still feeling a bit ill, I've asked Durf to cancel our date. I hope I haven't caused him too much trouble. :/
kilala.nl tags: japan 2007, japan,
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2007-12-28 20:44:00
Anyone remember Lost in translation? (which I found "meh" by the way). Well, so far I've seen my share of western celebs appearing in Japanese commercials :) Cameron Diaz seems to be the spokesperson (spokes-face?) for a mobile phone provider and Tommy Lee Jones appears in silly commercials for Suntory Boss Rainbow Mountain coffee.
kilala.nl tags: japan, japan 2007,
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2007-12-28 08:16:00
Darn... I wanted to upload a whole wad of pictures to the gallery, but the upload over here sucks :/ It'd take way too long to get it all on there. I'll try again later.
The Gallery itself can be found over here. They will just not fill up that quickly :)
kilala.nl tags: japan 2007, internet, meh,
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2007-12-28 07:51:00
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Photos for day 2..
This morning I set out to visit the Arima onsen village. I was very much looking forward to starting this trip with a quiet day, soaking in nice, hot water.
The trip started out well, with me exploring the way along Higashi Umeda (see before) and Shin-Osaka. The latter is also where I learned not to leave out "unimportant" parts of a station name, like "Shin". In this case I was supposed to take the Shinkansen (bullet train), to Shin-Kobe. What I -did- get onto, was the local train from Shin-Osaka to wherever, which goes nowhere near Shin-Kobe (though it passes through Kobe station).
A video clip, taken on the train.
One of the things that struck me while travelling by train is the huge diversity one sees in Japan's buildings. They really are a very diverse mix of architectural styles and ages. You'll see temples, both ancient and modern. You'll see buildings from the 40s, 60s, 80s and 2000s. You'll see brick, concrete, glass, wood and even sheet metal. You'll see western buildings, functional buildings, pretty buildings and sometimes just plain godawful buildings. There's absolutely no discernible "standard" for the housing around here (Osaka/Kobe district).
Anywho... Instead of going to Arima the quick way, I took an hour or two to explore the Akashi local park. It's pretty damn big and sports not only their local castle, but also stadia for both baseball and track&field. Seeing how the weather was lovely, there were quite a few people there enjoying a leisurely stroll.
From there on, I travelled back to Kobe in order to take the subway to Arima. I stopped to grab lunch at Kobe, but made a bad mistake as well. Nowhere during the day did I take a half hour's rest to eat and rest. This would come back to bite me big-time later on.
At Shinkaichi station I learnt that two people can work out the buying of a subway ticket, even if they speak no common language. Case in point: me and the attendant at Shinkaichi station. I only speak english and can ask basic questions in Japanese (Arima Onsen no densha wa doko desu-ka?), while the kind fellow speaks next to no English (Ticket, there *point*). He helped me out with the ticketmachine and wrote down the amount of money I had to drop in. Yay teamwork! And: yay friendly railway attendants!
Japan fscking rules when it comes to friendliness and customer service! /o/
By the time I got to Arima, it was already too late to drop in at one of the communal onsen. I was also starting to feel bad, so I decided to turn back. And that's about when the trouble started. I was -very- low on energy, after not eating well for two days and only sleeping two hours, so I felt awful. I had to get out of the train at least three times, because I was ready to puke. Somewhere between Arimaguchi and Tanigami I figured out I was having a panic attack, so I just allowed myself to fall asleep. After that things became a bit better again, especially so when I stocked up on chocolate at Shin-Kobe. Hooray for instant sugars ^_^
As I mentioned earlier, I got fscking lost at Higashi-Umeda (forty fscking minutes to transfer between trains!), so I was well beat when I finally got home. Did I mention that I managed to get lost in the 500 meters between our station and our apartment? I ought to be ashamed :)
A dinner and a bath later I'm starting to feel a lot better. In the end I managed to sleep a solid seven to eight hours, so I'm feeling a lot better now. I didn't even wake up when my roomy came home around midnight!
kilala.nl tags: japan 2007, health,
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2007-12-27 22:00:00
Argh! x_x
Higashi Umeda is one of the key stations in Osaka, combining a big JR station, with a bunch of metro lines. It's one of those stations that all of us will have to cross when going out on a little trip. Unfortunately it doesn't help on iot that the blood station is mixed and mashed together with a huge shopping mall! The building apparently spans about ten square kilometers! And I feel like I've covered almost 40% of it this evening.
I had to switch from the red line (Midosuji) to the purple line (Tanimachi), which would seem to be an easy enough task. I guess I took a wrong turn somewhere though, because it took me forty friggin' minutes to finally find the entrance to the purple station. Ugh!
It really doesn't help that the signs indicating the various lines are among hundred, nay thousands of other neon signs on the ceiling ^_^; Hopefully I'll have the hang of it by the end of this holiday :)
kilala.nl tags: japan 2007,
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2007-12-27 21:55:00
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... and their near-anal-retentive desire to please and take care of their customers. |
EDIT: Wow... I guess I was tired! Usually I don't make spelling mistakes like those :)
kilala.nl tags: japan 2007, japan,
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2007-12-27 09:05:00
Oh dear lord... I'm 28 years old and still fretting about going out into the great unknown by myself.
/me kicks himself out the door and in the direction of Kobe
kilala.nl tags: weird, japan 2007,
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2007-12-27 03:43:00
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Photos for day 1. |
(Crap... Apparently I woke up Niels-sama with my annoying cough)
Anywho... This was my first trans-continental flight and I have to say I'm impressed by Japan Airlines flights. We flew aboard a 777 that was next to empty, so each of us got a row of three seats to himself. That way we could kind-of lie down to sleep a little.
I'd packed my backpack with all kinds of stuff, just to get through the sixteen hour trip, but honestly: I never touched any one of them. The in-flight entertainment offered by JAL was more than enough to keep me entertained. The offer a pick of twenty movies, so there's really something for everyone. I tuned into the 50' JPop channel while trying to sleep and was pleasantly surprised by The Drifters, with Ii yu da na, which is a song that I -really- love :D
BTW: I stopped Transformers about half way through. OMG, that's a crap movie ;_; ChildhoodMemoriesRaped++
Oh yeah... The stop over at Narita airport was pretty nice. We'd to wait a little for Niels to get all the railcards and other paper worked sorted, but after that it was clear sailing. Niels and I hit the showers to freshen up a little and it worked a treat :) After that, the flight to Osaka was a breeze.
We took the shuttle bus to Obenobashi station, so we could take the metro into Osaka. Luckily, the train makes a direct line to "our" station: Tanimachi 4choma. A few minutes walking from there took us to our home for the next two weeks: Weekly Mansion Otemae. The appartment isn't very large, with two bedrooms, a cramped living room and the tatami room, but it's damn well good enough for us! ^_^
Oh! Remember how I got serious stomach aches at Christmas, from overeating? Well, I'd been feeling "full" ever since, but our late-night curry dinner fixed a lot :D Even at "level 2", that stuff is quite spicy! ^_^;
Right... Now I'm off to hack that base station. I'll sort through my pictures tomorrow and start posting stuff later.
kilala.nl tags: japan, japan 2007,
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2007-12-25 12:11:00
Well, I'm all set for the trip to Japan! Nervous, anxious and rearing to go! :D
I don't know how, or why, but my suitcase is already at the limit. It weighs in around 18 kilos, so anything I buy in Japan will have to be sent home through mail.
Wish me luck!
kilala.nl tags: japan, japan 2007,
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2007-12-25 12:07:00
Yesterday we celebrated Christmas Eve with my family. Everyone who wasn't stuck in a foreign place (Finland, the US) was there, so we had a nice little gathering :)
Dinner was great, as always, and of course I overate. The salmon starters were alright, but (like every year) the ham was awesome. Apparently my dad had some Finnish minister bring over a Christmas ham from Finland, just in time for Christmas. Awesome stuff and it's a shame that I couldn't bring any with me. I mean: it'd spoil on the way to Japan ;_; By the end of the night I was falling over with both sleep and stomach cramps :D Ah, you gotta love the holidays.
It was very nice to be together with the whole family again. :) I would've posted a picture, if my camera and SD reader weren't packed already :p
kilala.nl tags: holiday, family,
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2007-12-23 11:54:00
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With a bit of luck, this is what my trip's going to look like. There's still a few days that I can fill in, but I reckon I'll figure out what I'll do when I get there.
Now... I -really- must finish some homework for a group project at school. If I don't, then half of our presentation will fall apart :( Crappy thing is that I really don't feel like doing my homework. The trip to Japan is just -too- close! -_-;
EDIT:
I'm putting together a Google map with all of my destinations. You can find it here.
kilala.nl tags: japan, holiday, japan 2007,
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2007-12-23 10:55:00
Earlier this year I fell in love with the works of Haruo Suekichi, who makes some awesome watches. Back then I thought I'd have to travel to the northermost part of Honshu (Japan's main island), just to get a few of his watches. Luck would have it that this is not true and that his work can actually be bought in Tokyo!
After digging around a lot, using translation websites and with the awesome help of some of my friends, I've found the shop. My travel buddies are the best! :)
The shop is quite easily accessible, once you know where to find it :) If you look at the big picture, the shop's rather close to the Tokyo Big Sight (location of Comiket) and Akihabara. It's still about twenty to thirty kilometers, but hey :)
View Larger Map
kilala.nl tags: haruo suekichi, japan, japan 2007,
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2007-12-21 13:53:00
A few days before my departure to Japan, the pieces to the puzzle start falling together. I've made a list of things that I really want to see, leaving a few days to spare.
Tokyo-area:
* Comiket 73
* The Ghibli museum
* The Miraikan museum of tech
* Namco Namja Town
* Visit my Arsian acquaintance Durf (assuming that he's in town)
* Some shopping in Akiba
Osaka-area:
* New Year's
* The Kojasan temples
Kumamoto-area, on Kyushu (southern island):
* The Kyushu Railway History museum
* The ryokan Chikurakutei
Wow! This is going to be awesome <3 It'll be especially exciting to visit Kyushu by myself, since I really don't speak any Japanese :D
kilala.nl tags: japan, holiday, japan 2007,
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2007-12-16 11:46:00
For the past few months we've been thinking about what we're going to do once I land that teacher's certificate. That's still three years away, but a little planning never hurt anyone.
One of the things we'd been pondering is to move away from the urbanised west of the Netherlands. Don't get me wrong, I really -love- living in Utrecht, but housing doesn't come cheap over there. Let alone in the bigger cities, like Rotterdam and Amsterdam. And at one point in time we will want to move to a bigger place. Again: I love our apartment, but wouldn't mind have a two, or three storey house.
Which is why Marli's been drooling over the Funda housing website since last night. She's been going over houses in Friesland (one of the Netherlands' rural area) and she's been falling in love :) For same amount of money that we paid for our 85m^2 apartment, we'll be able to afford a nice house with a garden! If that doesn't sound good, I don't know what does!
Thing is: in Friesland there's next-to-no call for ICT specialists at all. So we'll have to put off moving there for at least three years. And when you're already browsing through all these neat looking houses, that's not what you want to hear :)
kilala.nl tags: career, life, house,
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2007-12-16 11:21:00
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Notwithstanding the fact that yesterday we celebrated my sister's birthday (which was a nice family get-together), she wasn't the only one to get gifts :) |
Also, from his last trip to Japan, my dad had bought us a small souvenir bought at the Doll in Seiko store in Ginza. Without knowing it, he'd picked out pluchies from my favourite movie studio, Studio Ghibli. They're so cute! We now have six, very cute keychains from the My neighbor Totoro movie. Glee! <3
kilala.nl tags: japan, family,
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2007-12-16 11:07:00
It's going to be an interesting day when you're woken up by a call that goes: "At the following tone, it will be nine and a half days until you leave for Japan. ... Beep!"
kilala.nl tags: japan, friends, japan 2007,
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2007-12-15 11:20:00
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From here. I've been a fan of Ishida-san's work for quite a while now. This one (today's comic) falls neatly into the "makes you think" category :)
kilala.nl tags: comics,
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2007-12-14 12:27:00
Also, I'm at home today due to a cold that's taken over my body. I honestly don't feel that bad, but it's drained away my strength completely. For the past few days I haven't had on iota of energy, thus ensuring that no homework gets done :( Basically it's wake, work, cook, eat, sleep.
Marli ordered me to stay home today and I tend to agree with her :) Time to rest up a little and to get over this cold. *cough**cough**wheeze*
kilala.nl tags: health,
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2007-12-14 11:16:00
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Marli's beloved Harry Potter special edition iPod has died. Or actually: its hard drive has died. It's making the dread whirr-whirr-clickety-click noises ;_; I bought it for her as a belated Christmas present in January of 2006, so it's a little under two years old. |
And thank $DEITY for that! Because now it's still covered under its AppleCare protection plan! If this thing'd died only a month later, we'd be out the money for a new hard drive. Let's see how quickly Apple can replace the hard drive on this thing. And let's hope that it'll still be a Harry Potter iPod when it comes back.
In the meantime I'll let Marli use my iPod, since she really lives by that thing. Not a day goes by without her playing it at least for two to three hours. One of the most useful presents ever, I'd say :)
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2007-12-11 21:33:00
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Our cat Blackie usually isn't one to pose, or even sit still, to have her picture taken. Tonight she was in a giving mood, which resulted in this pretty picture. I'm guessing the warm heater she was lying on had at least something to do with her benevolence :)
kilala.nl tags: cat,
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2007-12-11 20:17:00
As you can imagine, this whole deal about the New Learning has the whole country in uproar. Teachers, educators, students, parents, scientists, educationists and simple bystanders: everyone has an opinion, well-informed or otherwise.
And of course, as things go with conflict, most of the people are only willing to see things black or white. "You're with us, or against us!" Stuff like that. To aid each party in their cause, public fora have appeared on the Internet: the opponents seem to gather at Beter Onderwijs Nederland, while the proponents assemble at Natuurlijk Leren.
So far I haven't joined any discussions at the latter, opting instead to visit the BON site. This is in part due to the fact that I like their website design a lot better (it's more transparent). BON's opponents typecast them as grouchy, old men who are completely stuck in their ways and who disparage any ideas that are not their own. And unfortunately they're not doing much to break down those stereotypes.
So far the questions and opinions I have voiced (which partially contradict their own) have been met with derision and hidden insults. Which is a shame, because I think there's a lot to learn from healthy discussions. I'm still studying to become a teacher, so I'll grasp any straw that may include some new information.
Of course, I have no desire whatsoever to have my ambitions quashed by snide remarks. I'll try and maintain a level head in my forum discussions. Developing a thicker skin may actually help protect me from students later on. ^_^ Of course, if things keep going like they are I'll just leave BON again. Practicing my debating skills is one thing, letting people sap at my enthusiasm is something else entirely.
kilala.nl tags: teaching, school,
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2007-12-11 20:05:00
I'd taken the day off from work today, in order to work on a school project. This project has each group looking into the so-called New Learning (which really isn't new, but just different), in hopes that we learn something about recent education reforms.
You see, over the past few years the Netherlands have seen quite a few changes to their educational system. One of the big-ass ones, is the move from class-based education, towards a more individual approach. If you're interested, we're discussing the matter over here, at Ars Technica.
Among other tasks, each group member is expected to pay a visit to a New Learning school. I decided to be a little off-beat and opted for a democratic school (which are actually quite rare in the NL): De Kampanje.
The talk I had with one of their staff members was rather educational. I will probably never see eye to eye with them on schooling, but it -is- always interesting to hear new ideas. Such talks allow me to take a step back and take another look at the work I'm doing myself.
De Kampanje bases most of their work on steps that have already been taken by the Sudbury Valley School in the US. Most of their ideas really are quite daring and I'm sure that 95% of today's educators would be infuriated even thinking of them.
For now I will refrain from fully forming an opinion on their methods. I still have to write an objective paper in the issue ~_^
kilala.nl tags: school,
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2007-12-11 08:06:00
From here. |
Recently I've been following two of the most wonderful weblogs, both of which have little to do with my daily habits. It's quite refreshing :) |
kilala.nl tags: internet, awesome,
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2007-12-08 17:37:00
Whopping Wifi usage, Batman! |
Oh my... Wifi usage in our neighbourhood sure has exploded! |
kilala.nl tags: other tech, house,
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2007-12-08 12:21:00
I'm going to have to fit in various "unwieldy" tasks, that will not fit properly into my normal agenda. Among others, I'm expected to make multiple visits to schools: to talk to students, to teach classes, etc. Given my normal day job this is simply impossible. I've also fallen slightly behind in a few areas, so I'm going to have to shuffle things around to make it all work.
This semester:
* I have to finish last semester's General didactics, or I'm going to fail it completely. That would mean I'd have to completely redo the course next year.
* I've already dropped the maths part of Analysis 1 in order to make room for other stuff.
* I'm going to postpone my work for SLB and WER, after conferring with my teacher. She understood my need to make room in my schedule.
* I will finish both Kijk op leerlingen and Analysis 1 - Didactics on time.
Next semester:
* I'll drop the second year's Counseling and mentoring project, so I can take it next year. That ought to free up enough time to finish this semester's SLB and WER and to tie up any loose ends.
kilala.nl tags: school,
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2007-12-03 22:07:00
Awesome! One of my teacher just gave me a big-ass compliment!
In the first three weeks of the Analysis 1 Didactics course, I'd turned in my first four reports. So far Theo's graded three of them, giving each a 90%.
Today he came up to me to tell me that he thought my work was extraordinary, because of all the extra research I put in. He also wanted to know whether I'd allow him to distribute my reports among his colleagues. He thought they'd be useful, to set an example of what they'd expect of their students.
Hot diggity! ^_^;;
kilala.nl tags: school, awesome,
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2007-12-02 14:25:00
Last night we got together with some friends to celebrate Peter's birthday, which was last week. It was nice to finally meet some people from Peter's WoW Guild.
As a present, we gave Peter a bottle of Drambuie, which is a whiskey-liquor with honey and various herbs. Opening the bottle immediately made me think of our Daro cough syrup :D While I usually loathe whiskey, I have to admit that I'm surprised that I actually -like- Drambuie!
Anywho: it was a great evening and made for a perfect distraction from my homework. ^_^
kilala.nl tags: friends, birthday, drinks,
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2007-12-01 15:31:00
Image (C) of Donald Duck / Walt Disney Corp. 2007 |
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Translation for the USadians:
Pic2: "Did you go out and buy that record anyway? With what money?" "Don't worry, we DOWNLOADED the music!"
Pic3: "Then we burnt it onto a CD. We'll keep this one until we buy the original."
Pic4: "Why not KEEP this one then?" "That's not nice! There's COPYRIGHTS on all music. If noone bought any CDs, then the musicians and record label bosses would go poor!."
I love reading Donald Duck magazine each week. However, this was a rather "meh" surprise. Apparently DD has taken to lecturing kids about pirating music and how it's like stealing. The story goes on with Donald thinking he can go out and sell a hundred copies, making a quick buck. At that point, Uncle Scrooge jumps in through the window and threatens to sue him for all he's got. Of course, Donald decides against his plan and Scrooge promises not to sue him "because he's family".
Anyone else reminded of the RIAA? Meh, two perfectly good pages of a comicmag ruined :/
kilala.nl tags: comics, politics, meh, netherlands,
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