Tokyo Blog

I’ve been using this retro flip style clock for my Mac recently. You can get yourself one over at 9031.com. I’m liking their retro site with the floppies etc. To install (if you use Mac), drag the .saver file out of the disk image and directly into the screen saver pref pane.

It’s certainly very useful to be shown what time it is full-screen whenever you’re not using your computer, but I’m still looking for a screensaver that just says the words “GO TO BED”.

I like trying the different beers on offer in Japan, and I’ve decided to start reviewing them, which gives me a good excuse to buy beer. This one is the Yebisu breweries answer to stout, and is actually pretty good (as are most Japanese beers). The taste is bitter, like Guiness, but without the smoothness. It retains the sharpness of normal lager beer, but has the same rich flavour you normally get with a stout. The spiel on the can reads, “This premium black beer is brewed using dark roasted malt and caramel malt in good balance, and fine malt and select hops for a rich aroma and hearty roasted flavour”. I grabbed it from the chiller in my local 7-Eleven on the way home from work, and accompanied by grilled cuttlefish with mayo, a nikuman (pork bun), and a pack of calbee cheese snacks, it definitely hit the spot (I bought two cans to be sure).

5 O’clock Chimes of Kotobuki from Stephen Smith on Vimeo.

Since I previously showed you the 5 o’clock chimes of Takanawa in all their ambient glory, I thought I’d show you the more oriental, and slightly spiritual sounds of the 5 o’clock chimes of Kotobuki, my new area in Tokyo. I think this will be a recurring feature: whenever I move to a new neighbourhood, I’ll upload a recording of the 5 o’clock chimes every time. Tokyo is pretty musical like that. Did you know that the JR line stations in Tokyo each have their own distinctive jingle to subliminally inform their passengers when it’s time to wake up / get off?

Maybe not soon, but Tokyo story has to change. I really love how it looks now, but there’s little scope for it to grow. For example, I want to add more categories but at the moment this will destroy the arrangement at the bottom of the page. Also, as permanent new items need to be added towards the top of the page, I will need more pixelspace in which to plant them. Right now there’s nowhere for them to go, so I need to address that also. I would like to maybe monetise the site to pay for the increasing hosting costs too, which would require some space at the top.

You’ll notice I’ve already updated the site for 2009, but expect bigger changes to follow as the Tokyo Story Blog expands to include new features. I want to do some ‘programmes’, a series of posts relating to a certain subject. I also want to put together a radio podcast or mixtape. There’s some ventures of my own and those of friends starting up soon for which I’ll want to reserve some space too, so stay tuned.

I’m now the very proud owner of a work visa for Japan. When I originally came here on January 15th 2008, I entered Japan on a working holiday visa for 1 year. The term of this visa, therefore, was due to expire in January 2009 (about now), so I was sailing pretty close to the wind getting it switched. The rules state, that a British national with a working holiday visa cannot change their visa status. So, when I first entered the immigration office in Shinagawa hoping to do just that, I was massively deflated. Then, after me utilising my best Japanese, and saying ‘Sorry’ and ‘I am being rude’ and ‘If you would be so kind’ many times throughout our exchange, the lady at the counter gave me the forms to apply for a certificate of eligibility. A certificate of eligibility is usually the first step in acquiring a visa to stay and work in Japan. I filled in the forms using the info my boss had given me, and took them to a different counter on another floor. To my dismay, I was greeted with another “You’re a British working holiday visa holder, so you can’t change your status”, but after checking my application she said that my application will be filed for approval, but I may not have enough time left for the process to complete. I had to await the certificate of eligibility in the mail, and hope that it comes in time. I also had to return the following day with my degree certificates which I hadn’t bought with me that day.

When I came back to Tokyo after my Christmas break I had an undeliverable item notification waiting for me from the Japanese postal service. The notification told me that the letter had been sent from the immigration office! So I piled down to the local post office with the slip of paper and collected my letter. That was the day I got my certificate of eligibility. Then, the next hurdle presented itself to me: it said I had to use the certificate to get a visa in a Japanese embassy in a country other than Japan. I had to leave again. I also spoke to a friend who confirmed that this was true, and advised me not to waste my time taking the certificate to immigration, as it I would not be able to get a visa from there. I wanted to try anyway, so I did return to the immigration office in Shinagawa, and I took my certificate of eligibility with me. It was the first day of business of the new year, 5th January, so the place was total pandemonium. Never the less, after a three hour wait and 4 counter visits, I proved my friend wrong. I got a visa to live and work in Japan. Then I had a load of Japanese food and got drunk with my friends.

I was in the popular convenience store AMPM today, when I saw the coolest soft drink idea ever. Final Fantasy potions! I didn’t have my camera so I couldn’t take a picture, but a quick search unearthed this advert now airing on TV. Power up!

I was holding off upgrading to Mac OS X Leopard (v10.5) because I thought some versions of my installed software would cease to function in the new operating system, namely: Cinema 4D and my aging copy of After Effects. I had some time over Christmas, so I finally got it installed and, suprisingly, everything continued working! I upgraded After Effects anyway as this also needed doing, and cleaned up my files and folders. It feels so much better with my machine cleaned down and up-to-date. Better put it to use I suppose. Leopard is incredible by the way, and I advise everyone using an older version of OS X to bite the bullet. It’s not as dangerous as you might think.

Some bad news for children of the 80′s: The VHS format has finally officially died. There were loads of VHS tapes in my house when I was growing up, most of them had stuff recorded off TV. The ones that got the most rotation were Watership Down, Wind in the Willows, Ghostbusters and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. These were not allowed to be recorded over. The little tab had been broken using a bic biro to copy protect them! The fondest memory I have of VHS is the Manga range of UK released Japanese Anime features. I remember Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Perfect Blue, Fist of the North Star and Ninja Scroll with the bad dub and garish colours adding to the VHS tape feel of blurry images and white line interference. Wonky sound was also hilariously lo-fi. VHS died on Christmas Eve, 24th December 2008.

I picked up this useful issue of computer arts magazine before boarding my flight back to Tokyo. The insights into Japanese graphic design style are slightly rudimentary, but it’s got some good techniques and inspirational material inside. Also, Shane Lester from W+K Tokyo gets a mention as do several other foreigners working in the metropolis right now.

What a crazy last few days that was. I’m struggling to stay awake as I write this post as it’s now after 6pm Tokyo time on Friday 2nd January 2009, and I haven’t slept properly since New Year’s Eve. In fact, I’ve been traveling for most of the last 24 hours with a nasty hangover and an even nastier cold. I was completely blocked up when I got on the plane which resulted in massive pressure building up in the tubes of my head and now my ears are blocked too. Just to top it off, I got my UK mobile phone nicked during the festivities of New Year’s Eve which I spent on the streets of London, something I won’t be doing again.

Anyway, it’s nice to get back to Tokyo and get set up ready to attack the coming year. I’ve got loads of exciting work coming up in the first quarter of this year, and I’ll be launching a major new flash site over the next week or so, so look out for that. Once I get some sleep and a bowl of rice I’ll be OK.

So here I am on a flight out of Tokyo, heading back to the UK for Christmas and New Year’s. I’ll be catching up with old colleagues and old friends, and seeing my family of course. It’s been an amazing year in Tokyo and I’ll be back January 2nd to tie up a few loose ends and meet some prospective clients before heading to Kores. Until then, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and thanks for reading Tokyo Story!

UPDATE: I just watched The Mongol starring Tadanobu Asano on the plane. It’s a really good movie.

The Motoman SDA10 is a Japanese robot manufactured by Yaskawa Electric’s robotics division. It seems to be really versatile, as it can handle a number of different tasks without any problems – even fiddly jobs like putting a disposable camera back together out of lots of tiny individual parts! It’s amazing how fast it moves from position to position during the assembly process, and I can totally see robots taking over the world in the next 100 years. Taken from Fuji TV’s The Best House 1-2-3, a popular Japanese TV show.

Big thanks to the team at Cerego for offering the services of their amazing social learning platform, iKnow. Everything is totally free, and the site blew me away! I’ve only tried one lesson, so I haven’t properly explored all the features of the site, but I have an account set up, and it’s monitoring my learning progress! The lesson I tried was delivered in the form of an interactive Flash movie. You can tell that a huge amount of work has gone into this project, especially the approach to teaching, which is designed by some boffins in-house.

Basically, if you’re learning Japanese, or some other foreign language I recommend it. It’s far-and-away the best thing available of its kind. Disclaimer: I don’t know what other languages are available at present. It does seem to be aimed mostly at people learning Japanese right now…

UPDATE: If you check my account, you will notice I took a lesson for dummies. For anyone thinking I should be a lot more accomplished at Japanese considering the amount of time I’ve been over here, I am. I was just testing it out. I’m super busy with an interactive project of my own right now, but will be doing a proper lesson on iKnow pretty soon. If you join, look me up!

Here’s how it looks when I stand on my balcony (at night), in my new neighbourhood of Kotobuki. I’ve only had chance to have a short look around, but already I can tell this area is going to be so much better than Shinagawa (which I can’t recommend at all; too boring and no atmosphere). Already I’ve found an old paper merchant, a german beer bar, a small shrine nestled between old buildings, and a retro camera shop, and that’s just on my street! A little farther afield, and you’ve got a traditional Japanese toy shop, an incredibly old-looking bookstore, and lots of shops specialising in the model robot kits you can get over here. There are several toy companies on my street, and you can see the Bandai headquarters from my balcony, so it would seem, unbeknown to me, that I’ve moved into the area of Tokyo specialising in toys. Christmas shopping is going to be much easier, but I’ll have to take less clothes with me when I return to the UK for the holidays. I fly back to Japan on New Year’s Day. I thought it would be a nice idea to be sipping champagne at 30,000ft on a Virgin Atlantic flight to Tokyo on the first day of 2009. Time will tell if I’m right or not, got to watch I don’t get into too much of a mess welcoming in the new year.

The 5 O’clock Chimes of Takanawa from Stephen Smith on Vimeo.

I shot this footage from the balcony of my apartment so I could capture the strange music I’ve been hearing every evening at 5 o’clock. When I’ve been walking in my neighbourhood, I’ve been looking up under the eaves of public buildings and at the pylons and powerlines, trying to work out where it comes from, but I can’t find the source. So everyday at the same time, you get this haunting melody drifting through the cold night air. Today it chimes out my last evening in the neighbourhood of Takanawa, Shinagawa before I move on to Kuramae near Asakusa tomorrow.