The camera arrived from the US yesterday, but was broken in transit. However, judging by the images in the last post, it looks  like I've solved the issue of getting at the images in my Blackberry. It also appears that the Blackberry camera is better than I had thought.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:02 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 55 words, total size 1 kb.

Well, today was the last day of Comiket 78.
After some thought, I decided to once again brave the river of fandom I had navigated last year. Instead of queuing up before the gates opened at 10. I arrived a bit before noon. I also took a different route which had the benefit of being simpler. It only involved transferring from JRs Yamanote line the Yurikamome, at Shimbashi station. This line runs near the Tokyo Bay waterfront and has spectacular views of the harbor. Additionally, Kokusai-tenjijō-seimon station is much closer to the Tokyo Big Sight than the other stations, this being the view from the station entrance...

^{Click Here For Supah size}

The line this time of day no longer wove multiple kilometers through the convention district, indeed there wasn't much of a line at all until the entrance at which point the traffic quickly became the shoulder to shoulder 99 degree+ mass of humanity I had experienced previously. While things do thin out a bit in the dealers halls moving from hall to hall is a tightly packed river of people that will sweep one along as it goes up and down escalators. Pictures are not allowed in the con proper, though, I am told, there is a specific  area on the roof, where, if one receives permission from the cosplayers, one can photograph them. I certainly did not press the issue but I note that the rules regards photography were widely ignored by the locals as the end of the con approached.

It was also hot, incredibly hot. Be advised if you go that the air-conditioning system gets pretty much overwhelmed by the combination of Tokyo in August, all doors being open and the body heat of nearly half a million people. I understand that people did pass out from the heat, one seemed to be receiving first aid as I walked by. I was sweating so profusely that one of my  concerns as I browsed was sweating on the product ( another reason,  that a man should always have his towel!).  I noted many people dramatically holding cloths over their noses in response to the  smell, but I'm pretty sure that drama was the actual motivator there. 

An enjoyable if exhausting day. I even made a few purchases and still got away for under 40 bucks.Unfortunately, this left me holding an inconvinient pile of damningly geeky items. Therefore I astutely purchased a 350 yen bag in which to carry them securely and ride home on the Tokyo train system at rush hour without any of the embarrassment of being considered an otaku or something...

Oh wait....

Lunch was 350yen Tonkatsu curry from an automat, and dinner was a 600 yen tempura bowl...because I splurged.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 08:20 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 459 words, total size 3 kb.

1 On the one hand, I feel for you with all these problems you're having on your holiday.

On the other hand, you have a K-On! bag fom Comiket.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sun Aug 15 17:50:21 2010 (PiXy!)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 12:15 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 468 words, total size 3 kb.

I'm trapped by the rain so here are a few links of note. Some of them are quite sobering but I highly recommend them.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 11:41 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 169 words, total size 2 kb.

Go look at what the Duck is up to. 

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:23 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 13 words, total size 1 kb.

Plans today called for rest, studying and doing laundry.

It's 10:40 PM and none of those have been acomplished yet.

I went this afternoon to try to find an ATM machine that would work. My plan was to hit the big post office in Tokyo but on the way I noticed a huge post office outside , and, never having gotten off at this stop, I hopped off, ambled over to the post office and found that I am having some larger issue with my acount, which is worrisome, I may not have gotten my vacation pay on time. Nevertheless, the post office ATM machines do indeed seem to work with most US cards including my Visa and Cirrus. I did get 10,000 yen out ( about 83 dollars.....yes the exchange rate sucks this trip )and spent a fraction of my loot at a CoCo's Curry.

I dallied before returning to the station and wandered around the area near the station, getting quite thourougly lost, in part because I walked the wron way after hitting my head on an underpass for a road....yes the clearance was 1.4 meters for an underpass used by cars.

I bought a tomato from an old lady in an open air grocery and got directions back to the station. The directions took me to another, smaller station near Sekiya Station. I noted that there was no english on any of their schedules, indeed the stops were written in Kanji with no furigana so I decided to see where the line went, confident that I could get off again at the current station with no problem.

The second to last stop was within a thousand feet of the new Tokyo Tower construction site so I had to get off and get pictures. This is one impressive structure. It is already over 400 meters high (it will be 600m when finished).   I can't see at this stage of construction what precautions, if any are being taken to deal with the posibility of attack by collassal caterpillers, winged reptiles or giant apes (mechanical or otherwise). Still it is a supremly awesome site. From there I wandered down the creek that runs adjacent to the structure and eventually ended up on a bridge overlooking the Samuda RiverFrom there I followed the road signs to Ueno, taking a detour in Asakura to take pictures of a big temple and pagoda, where I was able to confirm via an area map that Ueno was only 1.7 more kilometers distant. "whew!" Anyway I'm in Ueno as I type this about to hit the train for home...where I still must do laundry.

...gotta leave before the trains shut down!

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 08:46 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 449 words, total size 3 kb.

this hyperlink.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 08:00 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 14 words, total size 1 kb.

If anyone has any horror stories to tell on any of the following subjects:

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 05:07 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 36 words, total size 1 kb.

  I'm taking it easy today and tomorrow, mostly studying Japanese, and trying not to exacerbate my sunburn, which, as it peels on my bald head looks like mutant dandruff...or something and seems to be scaring people. The intertubes went out at the guest house so I'm again at the sublime geek heaven that is N-Cafe in Akihabara, where I took care of some online stuff for the university (and I took a few moments to kill some Zombjas)  I note that in seven days, I've been to Akihabara twice and haven' gone to any of the anime, CD or manga stores....hmmm.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 04:53 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 270 words, total size 2 kb.

I returned today to find that the comment spammers had left their spoor during the night..........and had actually gotten into a flame war with each other.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 02:43 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 28 words, total size 1 kb.

Just to keep me from getting cocky...

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 12:36 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 12 words, total size 1 kb.

  Yesterday I got a text from Verizon informing me that I'd incurred over a hundred dollars in roaming charges.

Eek.

I shut the phone down and called Verizon...and got put on hold. Since my total phone time in Japan has been under 6 minutes and 4 texts time on hold was really disturbing, so I turned off the phone, then called my folks to have them go to the Verizon store and find out what was up. 2 dollars a minute and 50 cents for texts does not =100 bucks. It turns out that although I'd gotten the phone switched over to an overseas plan, this did not cover internet or E-mail. Everytime I recieved an E-Mail I was incurring large roaming fees. I did get my plan changed but later in the day I recieved a text to the effect that I had exceeded 200 dollars in roaming fees before the new plan kicked in.

Urp...

I'm currently in a ManBoo Internet cafe in Ueno, charging my Blackberry via USB and trying (in vain thus far) to get at its pictures.

While purchasing the time, I was informed that Tokyo has passed a new law covering internet cafes. All internet cafe customers must now get membership cards and provide contact information to be turned over to the government. I'd missed this at N-Cafe because it was one of the few that had always required a membership and ID. I had a membership already and when they asked for ID to issue me a new card I'd just assumed it as because my 4 year old card was ragged.

All foreigners using internet cafes now have to provide their passport number!

Internet cafes used to be a neat way to travel on the cheap as you could get a 6 or 8 hour time block and sleep, for far cheaper than you could a hotel room. Now, I'm just going to avoid them as my passport# is not something I wasnt floating around in multiple sketchy establishments.

This is a large hassle aside from the privacy issues, one used to be able to duck into i-cafes to avoid rain, upload pictures or make quick blog posts, now one has to deal with filling out a rather intrusive form for each one, even though one may never visit there again. I gather that this card will not be good at any other ManBoo.

I also note that several internet websites are blocked at both cafes I've been to on this trip are blocked and this is particularly true of thumbnail links, that is you can look at an art site but clicking on the thumbnail gives you the BLOCKED SITE page.

I assume this is in preparation for a crackdown on pirates, but given Japans sliding obcenity scale of late, the potential for abuse is great. The potential for identity related woes is really worrisome as well.

In other news, I made sure that my ATM Visa would work in Japan before I left. Yet every time I've attempted to use it I get "SERVICE TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE". This is also worrisome but on a personal level only.

Finally, the inscrutable apostrophe problem seems to have been limited to those two keyboards at N-Cafe. (Seats 33 and 6) I have no apostrophe problems on this machine as shift+7 works just like the Japanese keyboard says it should.

Food wise I had a Sailsbury steak and salad at a Jonathans and I ordered a 450 yen tempura bowl from a tempura shack outside Taiteshi station.

I'm back to trying to get my Blackberry to let go of its photos.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 11:06 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 608 words, total size 4 kb.

 Anyone who has any idea how to type an apostrophe on a Japanese keyboard please chime in in the comments. SHIFT plus 7 gives me the & symbol for some reason.

 Earlier this year I pondered the wisdom of going overseas again. I decided that IF tuition was paid up and IF classes were proceeding in line with my graduating next year and IF I had enough money to not be in a constant state of worry that a Japan trip was at least defenseable.

I had lost all my Japan pics when my camera memory cards were lost in the destruction of the trailer. Rather more importantly, last semester I had been forced to drop all my classes including Japanese. The next Japanese class in sequence is only offered in the fall and I will have to wait another YEAR to take it if I can^{(insert apostrophe here)}t test into it this fall. My teacher said she would let me take the placement test this fall, so imersion training seemed like a good idea. Adding to this is the fact that I have had to drop that same class because of familly illness, trailer destruction, mobilization or a work schedule change...I am getting REALLY tired of this course and I REALLY want to move forward...of course we just switched to a new book, which is rather different, which means that its not REALLY the same course, so immersion study is an even better idea. Of course shortly after I bought the ticket, I ended up in the hospital accruing hospital type bills while simultaneously missing over a week of work. This hit to my cash flow was too much so, as I had purchased trip insurance, I attempted to cancel the trip....alas, it was too late to do so.

My friend BOB^tm was most helpful in getting an expedited Rail Pass through his travel agent, and I nixed the plans for staying in the Fujimino guest house and instead am staying in the Yotsugi Crib.

Yotsugi Crib is only about 10 minutes by foot from Taiteishi station. Note that this increases dramatically if one leaves the from the wrong station exit and dutifully follows the instructions on ones map ( which will put one approximately 30 degrees off course, but provide one with many of the same sorts of landmarks that are on ones map ie: gas station, police box, bank, post office....just the wrong ones). This is further increased if ones 74 pound suitcase has its towing handle break and then has its wheel seize up, and then its carrying handle break and one has to carry it on ones shoulder in 98 degree heat while going in the wrong direction. A good way to add further to ones time in transit would be to knock ones own glasses off with ones suitcase breaking then and then taking time ti dig out an eyeglass repair kit. Actually, this travel time can be increased to over 4 hours if one has not been informed as to the nature of the Yotsugi Crib and naively think it is an apartment with a name on the outside....

I finally realized that the train tracks on the map were on the wrong side of me. I backtracked, crossed the tracks and after a bit had gotten my bearings. However, I could not find the guest house despite thinking I was at precisely the right place, so I went to a police box and asked directions. The officer did not recall a guest house in the area but everything else on the map was legit so he gave me directions that took me through an alley, down a side road and put me exactly where I had been. So I quartered the area looking for the words Yotsugi and Crib (or Clib even). At this point a young man riding by on a scooter took note of the fat bald man carrying a briefcase half his size and asked if he could help, I asked him for directions and received a blank stare, but he ran over to a local Cannibal Cat warehouse and asked for directions. He also graciously let me rest my suitcase on his scooter. The directions put us.....exactly where I had been earlier. After some perplexidness the young man ran up to the Crest Star Apartments and looked in the window. Sure enough Yotsigi Crib is actually two single family apartments that have each been divided up into 9 rooms and sublet. None of the rooms have windows. 6 of the rooms are 'Rukia Specials'.....that, is they are a shelf in a closet that has been fitted with bedding, over or under another err...room.

I am living high on the hog. I have a room I can stand in. It is about 6 and a half feet long and around 4 feet wide, windowless & un-airconditioned it has a wooden bed over a desk and chair and just enough room to put a the carcass of my suitcase and have it open.

A slim majority of the tenants seem to be 20 something European tourists, the rest are Ethiopian and Philippine guest workers, a few   Japanese tenants and, of course, there is now one American.

As spartan as the place is, its price cannot be beat and it has 2  full sized showers with changing rooms. This latter is important as the place is coed... which I discovered when a really attractive French woman named Clementine popped out of the shower. There is a single window AC  that cools the communal kitchen but this does not affect my room in the least. My only complaint aside from the heat is the fact that I did not bring bedding which means I am sleeping on bare linoleum, however, as it gets over a hundred degrees in the top of my room I would end up wringing  out and washing the bedthings every day. I am going to pick up a pillow and a fan this afternoon. Aside from studying, I am not going to be in the apt. much as I am going to be out doing things, so this is not a bad place to stay.

If anyone chooses to use this place remember: As one exits the train station exit so that the tracks are on ones left as you face the station stairs at the main entrance...also bring a fan, and some bedding...and one might consider not coming in August. Yotsugi Crib is very austere and one of the refrigerators smells like a bait locker (so use the other one) but +-300 dollars a month in Tokyo is astoundingly cheap and it is only a few minutes by train from Ueno, which is a major transfer point for the Tokyo train system and the home station of the bullet trains.  There is a laundromat 5 minutes away and a really impressive looking bath house right down the street, which I hope to partake of tonight.

My big gripe is that I left my camera and my adapter for my blackberry. Earlier today I scuttled out to buy an adapter and left early to beat the rush hour and the "pushers" but the stores don't open till later.

As for food, I had breakfast yesterday at the Hotel in Ueno which consisted of toast, a salad and a soup that appeared to be chicken broth with fish in it. My first attempt at lunch was a blind purchase of the 450 yen special at a bento box store. It turned out to be steak, the first bite of which was delicious, all subsequent bites were canceled when a kids tennis ball removed the bento box from play ( I thought the poor kid was going to have a heart attack.). Second attempt was a piece of fried chicken from a Lawsons. Dinner was a Teriyaki Burger from McDonalds which always begs the question WHY DONT WE HAVE THESE HERE? 

Today, as I type this I am at I-Cafe in Akihabara eating vending machine fried rice while waiting for Electric town to open up so I can try to buy an adapter for my now dead Blackberry as well as my laptop.. If I draw a blank there I will head out to Shibuya this afternoon and pick up some supplies from Tokyu Hands.

My 21 day rail pass kicks in on the 8th and I will head out into the wilds of Japan then. In the meantime I am studying, interacting with the locals and trying to uncover the mystery of the apostrophe.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 07:13 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 1443 words, total size 9 kb.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:11 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 41 words, total size 1 kb.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:01 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 10 words, total size 1 kb.

Kidney infection....every piece of me hurts. Fever slowly going down. I'm very dizzy and was convinced earlier that an octopus was eating my leg.

Fortunately the leg is still there.

UPDATE: Temp back up to 102, shakes and nausea, still wracked with pain but feel slightly better. Difficulty standing, but leg is still here and no octopus in sight.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 05:49 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 62 words, total size 1 kb.

Development has overtaken a certain bus stop.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 03:36 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 14 words, total size 1 kb.

Nosirree.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:18 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 7 words, total size 1 kb.

Ever wonder what'll become of those twentysomething emo kids when they grow up in 15-25 years?

When Emo kids grow up they become Beta Hippies. Beta Hippies are a degenerate urban subspecies of  hippie. Unlike their commune reared relatives, Beta-Hippies are completely dependent on the beneficence of the state and  are utterly incapable of coping with reality outside of their urban environment.

To wit:

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:03 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 106 words, total size 1 kb.

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:09 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 1422 words, total size 12 kb.