2008-01-31 21:01:00
Well, this is a remarkable change: I've started drinking my coffee black, without cream. I used to be a cream or cappuccino guy and I still like that stuff. It's just that, by accident, I learnt that I also love coffee without cream.
A few days ago, instead of punching 1-4-4 to get my regular coffee-complete-mocca, I did a 1-3-4. As I started sipping my drink I noticed something was different, but I didn't know what. Somehow the coffee's flavour was much fuller than usual :)
Well, now I know. And to think that three years ago I still hated this stuff.
kilala.nl tags: coffee, drinks,
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2008-01-30 21:46:00
I'm very grateful to my buddy Edmond for introducing me to the Russian folk-rock band Iva Nova (their MySpace page).
These five, crazy ladies from Russia make awesome music. Sometimes creepy, sometimes sensual and sometimes just outright fun! I'm sure their live performance must be a blast to see.
In the meantime I'm listening to their CD while hacking away at my schoolwork. And here's a sample for you :)
EDIT:
Speaking of "sensual", I just love their tango Gorod which simply oozes sex. At least, to me... The song can be heard in this YouTube clip of a tango demonstration.
kilala.nl tags: music,
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2008-01-30 18:05:00
Well, it's finally going to happen! I've been putting this off for a long while, but Marli kicked me hard enough to get over it.
I'm going to teach a class.
The very thought still makes my stomach do somersaults, it's silly really. This is exactly what I'm studying for, so I ought to be longing for this moment! Of course, I realize that stage freight is something completely natural, but to be putting it off for months on end is just stupid. But now it's going to happen! In part because Marli got me out of my rut and in part because I'll fail my VAKDID2 class if I don't D:
My classmate Gineke is giving me a huge break, but letting me teach this class to one of her first year's groups. She tells me their absolute sweethearts, so I really have nothing to worry about.
In a week's time (OMG!DEADLINE!) I'll be introducing a group of first year's students to the concept of negative numbers. On the one hand this deadline's great, since it's putting some real pressure on me. On the other it's a bit scary, because I really have to push myself hard to make it.
I'm going to teach a class.
My very first time, in front of a room filled with youngsters that -aren't- there to listen to me talk about anime or Japan. My very first time, trying to educate the young. My very first time, making my career switch more real than it ever was! This is why I've been working my ass off the past few months. I need to remember to enjoy the experience and not just try to be perfect.
I'm going to teach a class.
Oh my!..
kilala.nl tags: school, teaching,
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2008-01-29 23:53:00
At the Ars Technica fora we're chronicling the famous moments of our community, through the medium of comics. All of these comics are quickly put together using the awesome Strip Generator applet.
I've contributed a few comics, about stuff that's stuck in my mind. Stuff like the Jacqui cheated on Clint with Visigothan, but it was a joke drama. Stuff like Thallium's insatiable lust for brains. And of course there's Androgen's insane asshattery.
I am very flattered though, that someone saw fit to also include my very recent There is poop in the server room thread ^_^ Wingfooted's comic has had me giggling all day :)
I really love this thread and I'll be saving it for posterity. I love looking back on a community that I've been a part of for over seven years :)
kilala.nl tags: comics, geeky, internet, fun,
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2008-01-28 13:32:00
Well, it's official: I'm a greedy, shameless bastard ^_^;
In light of the upcoming move to our school's new building, everyone's doing a major cleanup of their offices. For the past few weeks, folks have been putting out piles of crap in the hallways, with notes like Free! or Take me home!. Most of the stuff wasn't very interesting, until I came to school today.
In our section of the building, a pile of about 300 maths books had appeared! They were all old prints of the books used to teach math in high school. A bit outdated, by surely still useful. I managed to compile one complete set of books for the Moderne Wiskunde method, books used in years 1 through 5.
Of course, I do feel like an egocentric ass for taking a complete set of books. I'm trying to tell my conscience that it was a good thing to do, because we don't have the money to outright buy these books. But then again, the same goes for a lot of my classmates. Oh well...
Books! /o/ *spends three hours just browsing through them*
kilala.nl tags: school, reading, maths,
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2008-01-28 09:59:00
I'll tell more later, but for now let it be known that I'm very happy with my new desk! I've always wanted a rolltop secretaire and now I have one. Glee!
Film at eleven...
EDIT:
Okay, so it's 13:05 and not 23:00, but who cares...
The desk in the picture used to belong to Marli's grandmother and was then passed on to her father. It's by no means an antique, possibly hailing from the seventies or eighties, but it's still quite pretty. When Marli's father passed away, the desk went to her brother, mostly because we had no room for it in our old house. However, now that both them and us have moved to bigger houses, we got the desk.
I'm very happy with it, because I've been fascinated by these desks every since I was young. All the slots and drawers and of course the roll-down front make me all gooey ^_^
Unfortunately there are a few little nags I have with the desk, some of which I may be "fixing" in the near future.
* My Powermac doesn't fit in the cabinet on the left. It's too high and too deep. Modding the cabinet to fit would require quite some restructuring though, so I probably won't be doing it.
* My monitor needs to stand on top of the desk, making it hellish ergonomics-wise. I have to tilt my head backwards, which makes it ache awfully. Then again, maybe this is finally some good training to sit up straight, because that puts my face a bit higher.
* The roll-down front doesn't fully slide into the desk when it's moved upwards. Three slats, plus the handles and lock still protrude, thus obscuring about 12 centimeters of the desk from my view. I'm thinking of removing three slats and sewing the band behind it shut, thus giving me a more unobstructed view of the desk.
* At night the desk's interior becomes very dark, making it very hard to read my schoolbooks. I've already bought three cheapo LED spots that I will install under the shelf, hopefully providing ample lighting.
Anywho... This desk looks a hell of a lot better than the previous white plastic + steel desk from Ikea. ^_^
kilala.nl tags: house,
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2008-01-25 00:33:00
Azrael Esangel, thanks for the laugh ^_^
It's a shame that I couldn't find the chatlogs on my Mac (I think the Mac EVE client doesn't do that very well just yet), so I'm going to have to paraphrase this.
Tonight I made my first real venture into lo sec space, on a wild goose chase for a free Micro Warp Drive (MWD). I was quite careful not to walk into anything, keeping a lookout for any PVPers in my solar system. Miroona is supposed to be a rather quiet system, with little traffic, so I took a dare. I did manage to track down the bogeys I was supposed to hunt, then made a return trip to get my salvager.
Getting ready for bed, I warped over to the first space station in sight. Just as I'm saying my goodbyes to the Ars crowd, I get a private chat request. That's where Azrael comes in :)
This fine fellow proceeds to exclaim something like: I need help in Deadspace! My frig can't take much more. Can you help?. Knowing that my char is only ten days old, I know that I'm a prime target for pirates and such. Thus, my reply was simply: Nice try :). Azrael proceeds to act confused, asking for more help and incidentally how much ISK (money) I have. That's a surefire sign that he wants to hold me hostage ^_^
I told him that no, i'm sorry, unlike most n00bs I -did- take a lesson from Admiral Ackbar. Of course, Ackbar's the Star Wars fishy admiral famous for his It's a trap! exclamation. Which is when Az decides that the jig is up and ask if I just want to PVP. Sure... I'll salvage you to death :D I didn't bring any arms, 'cause my rig isn't big enough to carry both arms and salvagers :) Nah... I'll pass.
Anywho... We shot the breeze a bit, before my EVE client crashed. He's a cool+funny guy, even tossing 1M ISK my way, suggesting that I buy something and come back when I can kill something. I didn't get to say goodbye properly, so if he happens to read this: Thanks Azrael! I enjoyed the laugh. I'll meet you again, once I'm a bit better armed ^_^
Also: hooray for me avoiding my first trap! /o/ I couldn't have asked for a better PVPer!
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2008-01-24 21:11:00
We all know I love Diesel Sweeties. It's because of gold nuggets like these two that I'm an avid fan of R. Stevens.
kilala.nl tags: comics,
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2008-01-23 10:14:00
So, the second semester has come and gone.
I've taken the only test on my list and I think it went fairly well. Unfortunately I'm well behind on my reports, meaning that I'll had to finish two courses next semester. Because of that, I've chosen to only follow one new course, which should give me enough free time to tie off any loose ends.
Luckily I've gotten some of my drive and energy back, so I'm motivated to keep going. Also, my EVE trial account will run out in a few days, so I'll be safe from that distraction as well. I -will- be getting a full account some day though. It really is an awesome game.
kilala.nl tags: school,
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2008-01-23 10:01:00
I'm not going to say much about it, but this morning I ran into something that put me right back to my teenage days. Back then, I was working on the side at a local sauna. It wasn't the cleanest of work environments. And now I run into something similar in the server room... o_O WTF?
Cleaning buckets: apparently handy, when you're in a tight spot. >_<
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2008-01-21 12:04:00
Ever since I upgraded my Powermac to Leopard it'd been having problems with my Wacom Graphire4 tablet. The tablet would work, but only in its very basic mode. I suspected driver issues, but couldn't figure out which driver to use.
I finally got it to work though. Here's how:
1. If you have a directory called "Pen Tablet" or "Wacom" in /Applications, go in there and run the uninstaller. Remove both the prefs and the software.
2. Go into /Library/Preferences and remove all mentions of "Wacom" or "Pen Tablet".
3. Go into /Library/Application Support and do the same.
4. Go into ~/Library/Preferences and do the same.
5. For good measure, use the Find function in Finder to search for other mentions of Wacom.
6. Download the proper driver over here.
7. Install the new driver.
It should work now :)
kilala.nl tags: apple, problem, sysadmin,
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2008-01-20 15:17:00
We're doing much better again. I'm much less depressed and Marli and I have stopped bickering/fighting. It really was just a week we had to get through.
So: thanks everyone. Especially you Kaijuu, for calling Marli and taking extra interest in her. She appreciates it. And so do I :)
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2008-01-20 14:46:00
TLDR: I've finally buckled and am playing an MMO game. I love it. I'm also trying to recruit some friends.
The full story:
I'd heard about Eve Online a few times before, mostly on the Ars Technica fora. The game sounded interesting, but I didn't feel like committing to it back then. However, after coming back from Japan I decided to give in and see what the game is about. They offer a free, 14-day trial, so why not take them up on it?
So far I'm loving the game! There's a lot in there that I loved about other games, as can be seen from the "maths" I did above. So why is EVE-O the equivalent of (Syndicate Wars + Uplink + Firefly) x MMO?
Syndicate Wars. The classic cyberpunk game from the nineties, that had you train and customize cyborg assassins in order to subvert the masses. It was a strategic combat game (light on the strategy), that saw your cyborgs fight in urban environments from an isometric point of view.
Quite like the cyborgs in the game, EVE-O presents you with lots of customization options. There is a wide range of ships that one can choose from, all of which can be customized to the T. Your character in the game will need to acquire and train skills in order to operate these ships and weapon systems. Finally, there are mods that can be made to your character's body, in order to boost certain stats.
Also, like in SW, your character will need to take into account his standing towards all manner of corporations, factions, characters and governments. Piss off the wrong people and you're in for a world of hurt.
Oh... And the game is completely from the third person's perspective, never going first-person... Like Syndicate Wars :)
Uplink. A niche game from 2001, that has you playing a computer hacker. Mistoffelees will remember this game well, since both he and I loved it to bits.
The parts of EVE-O that do not play out in free space all happen on board of space stations. Training your skills, outfitting your rig, trading on the market place, communicating with agents (to get missions) and your fellow astronauts: it all happens through text interfaces in windows. This is quite like both SW and Uplink.
Also, like in Uplink, it's common for you to hop through systems to get to the place where your mission will taken place. Although in this case it's solar systems and not computer systems. Planning out your route through the universe feels a lot like the planning of your computer hops in Uplink.
Firefly. A scifi TV series that was very popular among a small group of people. The show was cancelled by Fox halfway through the first season, which ironically has led to its huge popularity. Word of mouth through the Internet has done the show good.
EVE-O isn't like Firefly just because it's set in space. Nope... Because then we'd be able to say that Apollo 13 is like Star Trek ^_^
No... EVE-O is very similar to the Firefly setting, because your character is completely free to choose his career. You can fly solo as a smuggler, privateer, miner, or whatever. You can join one of the many corporations, to fly with friends and to reach larger goals. Or you can join up with one of the empires, to be part of a huge organisations that keeps the universe "safe".
What you can do in the game completely depends on your own actions. You can choose to not fly any missions, but you'll be stuck in your piddly little boat. You can choose to go mining or bounty hunting and rake in some nice dough. That'll get you a bigger ship, which in turn will allow you to do more difficult missions. Or you can join a Corp and ride along on their infrastructure.
You're completely free. You'll never take the sky from me!
MMO. Ask anyone on the street and they'll know the name World of Warcraft. The game that made the mundanes familiar with the concept of MMOs (Massively Multiplayer Online games). EVE-O has over 200.000 players from around the world.
What's different from most MMO's is that EVE-O puts all players together on the same server. You won't need to go to a specific server to join up with your friends and be stuck with only 3000 players on the same game. Nope... EVE has all 200.000 accounts in the same game, with approximately 32.000 players online at the same time. The universe is a big place and it's full of people!
What's also different is the way your character progresses in the game. Most RPG games dish out experience points to your character. By gaining EXP, your char will get bigger/better/stronger and will thus progress. EVE however, works with a time-based system. Learning the skills that you need to progress happens in realtime and thus, even when your offline, he'll still keep on getting better. The side effect of this is that you won't have to login to the game every single night to keep on grinding. This is one of the downsides to World of Warcraft that has kept me at bay: I don't want to commit to nightly games that I can't miss.
Anywho...
All of this put together (to me) becomes Eve Online. So far I'm loving the game and I think I want to keep on playing it. The folks of the Ars Technica corporations have been very helpful and I'd like to join one of them in the foreseeable future. The good thing about EVE is that, if I can't make the monthly payment a few times, I can still return to the game after that time. Nice :)
Of course, i can't help but try and recruit a few souls :p
* Menno, I'd love to have a fellow-n00b wingman so we can go on missions together.
* Mistoffelees, the same goes for you!
* Willow, you disliked the commitments WoW needed of you. How's EVE sound so far?
Sounds interesting? Read What I've learned about Eve Online, for some more details :)
kilala.nl tags: games, awesome,
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2008-01-16 18:08:00
Well, today sucked.
Today was the culmination of all the bitchiness from the past week, all the anger and frustration and all the confusion. The monetary issues don't help either, making me feel quite guilty about my trip to Japan.
In the long run, we'll be okay. Especially if one of the things we're hoping on works out. However, it won't be a smooth ride.
To be honest: my bad mood even got me doubting about school today! What if all I wanted back in June was to enjoy my spare time? What if that blowout wasn't a sign that I wanted to switch jobs, but that I wanted to have fun and play games? Because right now, I'm in a position where I can play even -less- games!
We've chalked that up to my current mood though. Whatever happens, I'm going to at least finish this year properly. During summer break I'll be able to relax and get my bearings again.
Also: the fact that all of our checking accounts are maxed out landed me in some hot water today. I'd gone to the office by car and had been unable to find the free parking spaces, so I had to park for the extortionate amount of twenty euros! At the time I didn't know that I was maxed out, so I was in for a nasty surprise in the afternoon! ;_; I had to scrounge for loans among my colleagues who, cool as they are, did loan me the required bucks. That was quite embarrassing, having to fess up my brokeness to semi-strangers. :/
Luckily, I'm feeling a bit better now, all thanks to Marli. We were both feeling horrible, but we talked a lot and we're not as bad anymore.
I'd like to apologise to my colleagues though, for leaving the office so early. :(
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2008-01-14 14:53:00
Our DVD collection is getting out of hand. I've already discussed many solutions when it comes to storage, like in this discussion at Ars Technica. For now it looks like we'll be getting a few storage racks from Ikea.
To fund said acquisition, we'll be selling off some hardware and furniture that we aren't using anymore. We'll also be selling about 5% of our current DVDs. If you're interested, the entire list is over here. If you happen to see a title you like, just leave a comment behind. Else, just wish us luck ^_^
kilala.nl tags: movies, money,
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2008-01-14 09:56:00
Meh... iPhoto is not without its bugs, unfortunately. I'm busy copying a few gigs of pics from Japan to my Powermac. iPhoto keeps borking up the exports, saying that a number of files are locked due to activity. This lock appears to be taken away, once I give iPhoto the command to "revert to original" for the pics in question. It seems that the editing process in iPhoto doesn't always clean up its crap :/
This bug's changed a process that should've taken fifteen minutes into an hour's endeavour.
kilala.nl tags: apple, problem,
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2008-01-14 08:52:00
Well, this is creeping me out... Kinda...
I have my Powermac booted in Firewire Target Disk Mode, meaning that it acts as if it were a dumb firewire disk. I've done this to copy over a few gigs of photos from my Macbook, since doing that over Wifi will take ages.
Well, the fans on my Powermac started out at a low hum, but over the course of two to three minutes their pace has been steadily rising. It's kind of creepy to hear their pitch go up for more than a minute. It makes me wonder how far they can go before breaking ^_^;
So now there's a -very- noisy hairdryer sitting beneath my desk, while I'm waiting for the copy to finish. I'm still waiting for a *SNAP!*, followed by an awful racket from one of the broken fans bouncing around the case. >_>
kilala.nl tags: apple, powermac, weird,
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2008-01-11 14:42:00
Ever since I've gotten back from my trip to Japan I've been in a very bitchy, testy mood. Unfortunately this means that Marli's been bearing the brunt of it ;_;
I don't know if I'm still tired, if it's the jetlag, if it's the fact that I miss Japan, if it's the fact that I need to get back to work, or if its the awful weather over here in the NL.
Maybe it's a little bit of everything. Although I have to admit that I really hate the grey, ill-lit weather conditions right now. It really is awful -_-
kilala.nl tags: meh,
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2008-01-11 08:10:00
Would you believe that I have actually found a set of Arrow Emblem - Grand prix no taka DVDs? I found them at Trader2 in Akihabara, for the princely sum of Y24.000, which was way over budget for me. Besides, the box was set 2 (PIBA-7168) as opposed to set 1 (PIBA-7167), which makes things a bit less interesting for me.
I was so close, yet so far ;_;
kilala.nl tags: arrow emblem, anime, japan,
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2008-01-10 12:52:00
Oh come on already!
The three parcels I sent from Osaka arrived in the Netherlands at least 36 hours before I did. Now they've been stuck in customs for over 60 hours. Good lord! *grr* I hope they aren't sicking The Man on me for the "questionable" content of some of those doujins I bought at Comiket. :/
EDIT:
Yay! It seems that the dutch postal service doesn't share EMS track&trace information. Hence, the status of my parcels wasn't getting updated. I just got all three parcels in the mail :3
kilala.nl tags: annoying,
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2008-01-10 04:52:00
Just to keep my own log updated: I've had two cases of hyperventilation in the last two months. Once, about six weeks ago when I was sleeping and once last night.
The odd thing is that last night it happened while I was reading in bed. True, the lecture was rather exciting and I'd been exhausted all evening, but there was nothing to panic about. Though maybe it was connected to my anxiety of returning back to school in two weeks.
Ah well... *shrug* I'm just very happy that I didn't have any "attacks" during my holiday in Japan. I'd fully expected to pass out at least once, due to all of the excitement. Yay for that! /o/
kilala.nl tags: hyperventilation, health,
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2008-01-09 14:06:00
Sorry for the odd ordering. I only had time for a quick "I'm home" earlier today :)
On my final day in Osaka I'd decided to do some last minute shopping. I still wanted DVDs 4 and 5 or Romeo X Juliet and the Nana OST CD. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find either, though Niels-sama bought me a lovely present: Gauche the chellist on DVD. He knows I love Ghibli films ^_^ Thanks again Niels!
I did manage to score on my final item on the list: the traditional cloth hangings at the entrance of a restaurant (like these). I thought it'd be a cool idea to have those hanging in front of our kitchen door :) Niels, Katrien and I went on a trek through the huge, Osaka shopping streets, finally ending up at the Doguyasuji shopping street. Doguyasuji is home to about forty stores catering to the local diner and restaurant businesses. Their stores carry everything from raw ingredients to cookware, knives, stoves, uniforms and furniture. Honestly, anything you need to run a restaurant can be bought over there :)
And it was over there, in a small, tucked away store, that I managed to get my hands on a discounted (Y2000!) hanging! It even matches the colour of our doorposts perfectly :)
In the evening I had okonomiyaki again, this time at the small restaurant next to our apartment building. The joint looks quite grubby, but the food was awesome :D
By the way: there are no pics for day 12. That day was spent completely on sleeping in and eating. Robert and I first went to the post office, to ship home all of my purchases. After that we had lunch at Yodobashi Camera's food court and just headed back to rest up. I felt a bit ill and got a total of thirteen hours of sleep! o_O
kilala.nl tags: japan, japan 2007,
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2008-01-09 12:19:00
*yawn* *stretch*
Well, I'm back home. The jet lag's doing me in though, so I've taken two additional days off from work.
kilala.nl tags: family, japan 2007,
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2008-01-07 01:24:00
Lemme tell you, shopping for retro video games is something wonderful, over here in Japan. While most of us are stuck to eBay in the Netherlands, over here you'll find loads of shops dedicated to the subject.
So far, my favourite is Super Potato, who have shops in both Den Den Town and Akiba. As you can see from this video at Akihabara News, their Tokyo shop is huge. With over 50.000 titles at your disposal, it's hard not to spend huge amounts of money :)
I was amazed to find -very- good prices on PC Engines (~Y1800 for a complete set of hardware), Wonderswan Crystals (~Y5000 for a brand-spanking new one, complete MIB) and Famicom Disk Systems (~Y3500 for a complete set).
It's just a shame that most of the stuff won't work in Europe, without convertors or step-down power convertors. But damn, the price is right! :)
kilala.nl tags: games, japan, japan 2007,
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2008-01-07 00:56:00
Well... My trip's coming to an end... Only one more day and then we'll depart for the Netherlands again. It's been an awesome (once in a lifetime) experience! I'm very grateful to everyone who's made this possible, but most of all to Marli-chan who both encouraged and forced me to go :)
The odd thing is that the past twelve days seem so much longer! It really seems like I've been here for a month already. It seems so long ago that I got lost on Umeda station :) Ah well...
I thought I'd make a few short lists, that sum up how I feel about my trip.
I will miss about Japan:
* TV. I love their wacky game shows and their drama series.
* Tatami rooms.
* Sleeping on futons.
* The ever-present vending machines. The wide range of drinks' flavours.
* The ever-present lavatories.
* The polite people.
* Public transport. Punctual and 99.9% reliable.
* Decent, quick meals for low prices on every street corner.
* 100 yen shops. Everything from food to household items, for 60 eurocents a piece.
I would miss about Europe, if moving to Japan:
* Bread. I want dark bread, with seeds and fullgrain stuff in it.
* Veg and fruits. I don't want a puny salad, I want a plate of veg!
* Decent toilet paper.
* Curvaceous women.
EDIT:
Of course, it's obvious that I'd miss my family and friends horribly. I thought that'd go without saying...
kilala.nl tags: japan, japan 2007,
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2008-01-05 09:11:00
I've been a fan of Studio Ghibli's films for years now. I well and truly love their work, ranking them very highly among our expansive DVD collection. Yesterday I finally got the chance to visit my Mekka: the Ghibli Museum, in Mitaka ^_^
The level of detail that has gone into the museum is awesome. Everything from the doorknobs and small decorations in the woodwork, to the doors, stained glass and the ceiling fan have all been custom made. When you step into the museum, you really do step into a slightly different (if happier) world.
The museum was a bit smaller than I expected it to be. I'd originally expected to hang around there for over two hours, but actually I was already done in an hour. Of course, that's also because I forgot to go and watch the movie that they were showing ;_; Then again, I could have easily tacked on half an hour extra, because I just couldn't stop gawking at the Bouncing Totoro display in the animation room.
This room starts you off with the old fashioned animation tools: the wheel with pictures and slots, that needs to be turned to see the animation. Where things get cool is when the guys at the museum make a giant wheel, with chara models from their movies! By putting a strobe light above it, you'll get to see a bouncing Totoro, a girl riding a monocycle, a cat-bat flying and so on. It's too cute! <3
One of the higher floors is home to the giant Catbus, in its own playroom. Imagine a Catbus, about 1.5m high and 2m x 6m, with kids crawling all over it :) I love it! I want one at home! It's a couch + bed in one ^_^
I'm not quite sure why, but two of the rooms focussed on the Three bears fairytale, showing books, pictures and a lifesize replica of their house. And with a lifesize house of course, there's also lifesize bears! :D I just -had- to stick around for a few minutes, just to wait for a kid to get scared by the 2.5m high Papa Bear.
Anywho... I can't even recollect everything that I've seen, so I'll just stop talking :) I am -very- happy that I "wasted" a whole day, just for an hour at the Ghibli museum. Unfortunately photography is not allowed inside the museum, so the gallery page only has pics of the outside. Luckily the have a beautiful book on sale (at around 20 euros) that has bunches of pictures and stories about the museum :)
kilala.nl tags: japan, japan 2007, anime,
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2008-01-04 21:37:00
Back in March of this year, when the guys were also in Japan, Robert made a blogpost that piqued my interest. One of his many pictures shows my alltime favourite train, the JR 481(-603). There's just something about that train that I really love :)
His post on the Kyushu Railway History Museum had spurred me on to make a trip down to Mojiko. All in all, that's a 4.5 hours trip by bullet train (a little over 470 kilometers).
The museum itself wasn't very large (the new Tokyo museum is bigger), but it was still worth the trip to me. Besides, I also got to visit the Mojiko observation deck. Drinking Calpis Soda on the 31st floor? Now that's pretty neat! I had a very nice view of the Mojiko bay(s) from there.
kilala.nl tags: japan, japan 2007,
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2008-01-04 21:14:00
Pictures for the eight day of my trip.
Last Wednesday I did something that was high on my "to do" list: visit a ryokan, a traditional inn. After bugging the whole group, I managed to find someone who was willing to take the trip with me: Nick :) So on the morning of the 2nd, Nick and I took the Shinkansen to Hiroshima.
In Hiroshima we made the "compulsory" visit to the A-Bomb dome and the Peace Park. I hadn't been looking forward to it, but in the end was very happy that we took this little sidetrack. Hiroshima seems like a nice city and the architecture around the park reminds me of Helsinki :)
An hour long tram ride later we arrived at the ferry that would take us to Miyajima. The island itself was bustling with people who were there to open the new year. Miyajima you see, is an island with a multitude of temples. The island isn't one of the most important temples, but it sure is popular :) The fact that it's has lovely surroundings and those damn cute deers also helps...
By the by: let me just say that I have now also discovered the attraction that lies in women dressed in a kimono. There's just something about the full-blown kimono getup that gets to you. The beautiful cloth, the pleats in the garment that are just right, delicate makeup and a hairdo that's been detailed with a flower or a few jewels. Kirai! Kirei!
Ryokan Iwaso was awesome. -Very- beautiful and luxurious and well worth the Y24k we paid apiece. The rooms were uber-comfortable and decked out in tatami. We had a view of the forest, complete with a loud-ass cat yowling away through the night ^_^; Dinner was very special, no less than we could have expected. Unfortunately, Nick and I discovered that we only liked about 50% of the food (which was also true for breakfast). Well... We may love Japan, but we'll never be ones for traditional Japanese food :) I'll stick to the more modern stuff for now...
Finally, the hot spring? I wish we had something like that in the Netherlands. That's all I can say :)
kilala.nl tags: japan 2007, japan,
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2008-01-04 00:11:00
Sorry guys... I'm feeling awful (nauseous) and as of *beep* now, I'll only get a chance for about five hours sleep before I need to get up again. I'll be able to tell you more about the trip by tomorrow evening. Just not now :[
kilala.nl tags: japan, japan 2007, health,
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2008-01-02 07:23:00
Hey kids :) I'll be gone for a day or two, without my laptop. So I won't update for a while. I'll be going to ryokan Iwaso (check out the pics!), for some lovely R&R, together with Nick. I'm very much looking forward to it.
See you in a few days o/
kilala.nl tags: japan, japan 2007,
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2008-01-02 07:06:00
Yesterday I'd decided to make it a very slow day: I'd stick around Osaka to recuperate from New Year's and to rest up a little bit. I stayed in bed (with my laptop) until ~11:30, cleaned the apartment and did the dishes. Then, around 14:00 I went out to Shitennoji temple again. I wanted to see it by daylight as well :)
Afterwards I wanted to go back to Den Den Town, to see if any of the shops were open. On January the first, usually -everything's- closed over here. Luckily, two of the shops that I'd been meaning to visit were indeed open: Super Kids Land and Super Potato. The latter being a (retro) video game store and the first being a toy/chara/model shop.
It's a shame that dutch law explicitly forbids the ownership of Airsoft guns, because oh man! SKL has a whole floor dedicated to those things and some of them are exquisitely crafted! Around Y2000 will get you a simple Desert Eagle lookalike, that simply put looks awesome. Now, I'm absolutely of a fan of guns etc, but the idea of owning a replica of Rally Vincent's (from Gunsmit Cats) CZ75 seems way cool to me ^_^;
I also managed to get lost on my way to Den Den Town. Not by far, but I did end up in one of Osaka's unsavory districts. Niels and Robert assure me that it may look a bit threatening (to a gaijin), but that I was still perfectly safe. Still, to my westerner's reflexes being surrounded by homeless folks, drunks and ramshackle kots made from a few planks felt unsafe. =_=; Menno, you asked about hobos earlier? Go over there and you'll find them aplenty :)
When I got out of that district, I ran into the abandoned Festival Gate amusement park. It's an indoor amusement park, which runs straight through a mall. The roller-coaster winds through a number of buildings and can be clearly seen from both the streets and the trains. The design may be godawful, but the concept's pretty cool.
kilala.nl tags: japan, japan 2007,
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2008-01-01 10:37:00
Yesterday was my first real day spent in Osaka, after travelling to Tokyo, Kobe and Arima. I tagged along with a group of my friends who'd wanted to go shopping at Yodobashi Camera and Den Den Town (Osaka's electronics and otaku heaven).
I didn't care much for Den Den Town, which looked rather rundown to me. Sure, they have a bunch of nice shops in there, but I think I feel better about Akiba. I'm sure that my buddies Edmond and Frank would love Yodobashi Camera though! OMG, they've got a whole floor filled with nothing but cameras, lenses and accessories. It'd be their personal Mekka, I reckon :) All the stuff they'd ever want to play with at their fingertips! Thing is: unlike stores in the Netherlands, YC has -all- the cameras you can think of (except maybe the Hasselblads) and you can try them out completely. Nice!
As you've already read, New Year's eve was quite nicely spent at "home". We got together to watch the traditional musical contest on NHK. We left for Shitennoji temple around 2230, rang the bell for the new year and got our prediction for 2008. After that we headed to the Osakajo temple, since they at least had fire baskets out ^_^ Last night was damn cold out!
I got home around 02:30 and went straight to bed. Woke up around 08:00 to call all of my relatives and wish them a happy new year. Ah, this was nice :)
kilala.nl tags: japan, japan 2007,
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2008-01-01 08:24:00
Well, it's officially 2008 in the countries that I'm involved with, so: HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Champagne all around :) It goes well with croissants over breakfast, so fsck it ^_^
kilala.nl tags: holiday,
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All content, with exception of "borrowed" blogpost images, or unless otherwise indicated, is copyright of Thomas Sluyter. The character Kilala the cat-demon is copyright of Rumiko Takahashi and used here without permission.