Slice of Life youtube video pans
Posted At: Wed 19 Sep 2007	Posted By: Derek Nobuyuki信幸 Wallace
Categories:life , Video , japan
	Leave A Comment

Over the last two years, i’ve posted a lot of slice of life video pans of various places.. particularly in taiwan and japan.

The man that wasn’t hit by a train
Posted At: Sun 24 Jun 2007	Posted By: Derek Nobuyuki信幸 Wallace
Categories:life , japan
	Leave A Comment

This was first posted by me on Mixi and was to prompt discussion about the events of the other night.

I want to know your opinions on alcohol consumption… on social drinking culture…. on the expectation in social drinking culture… People get so drunk and are oblivious to their surroundings… and all too often they die…

98% of the time, the trains/subways in japan are NOT dangerous (although there have been a number of major train accidents here in the past 20 years)
but walking into an oncoming train after stupidly jumping down 4 feet onto the tracks… is another thing…

What’s your opinion?

This is an excerpt of an email I sent…
It was followed by discussion�
about the events unfolding in front of me before my very eyes�

——-
argh fucking drunks!
almost got hit by the subway
bc he jumped down to cross
platforms his friend yelling
scrambling to pull him up…
the subways lights glaring…
the horn blaring…
the friend looses his grip…
the man falls back onto the track…

i was worried he’d be electrocuted…
but apparently not…

at first i thought what a dumbass
jumping down into the tracks…
what if its electrified

then i thought
shit a train is coming…
hes not stupid enough to cross
onto those tracks is he?

he was

as people yell
and he scrambles
i was concerned for his safety…

as the subway train came to
an abrupt halt and his friend
pulled him out,
i felt more annoyed and
a little angry

what if i miss my connection?
my last train?
i had already spend a lot of
time rushing to catch these
trains and make these connections…
taking a taxi might cost
me 80 to 100 bucks! and a lot of
wasted time

if he died his family must pay
for the lost income of the train co.
but not for all the overpriced taxis

dont get me wrong…
im glad hes okay and not just to
spare us the trauma of witnessing
someone get hit before our eyes

but it obviously shows that im
perturbed by it all from the
huge inconveniences he puts on everyone.

but this should go to show that
excessive drinking.. adopting or accepting
a social culture of excessive drinking
can get you killed and place an undo
amount of inconvenience and burden
on others…
—————
みんな様、あなた達、あんたら、おまえら、you….

どう思う？ what do you think? what’s your opinion?

i:ll more opinion after more discussion…

but one more point i was discussing…

In the end, what i’m not happy about is that after
this is all said and done.. nothing has changed….

usually after a near death experience, people will change… at least try to affect some change in their lives…

but in this situation… the guy who didn’t even apologize… blissfully unaware of the situation he was in… will not change… probably won:t remember it… and if his drunken friend tells him, they:ll probably just laugh it off…

is it all for nothing??
sure it has impacted us a few meters away…
but unless it affects some positive change in the guy, it seems all for not… =(

wakarahen vs shiran… wakarimasen vs shirimasen
Posted At: Thu 31 May 2007	Posted By: Derek Nobuyuki信幸 Wallace
Categories:life , japan
	Leave A Comment

Because I always make mistakes with this one, i thought i’d post this useful bit of information i found…

Wakarimasen vs Shirimasen (Confusing Expressions)
Many of you may wonder why Japanese people often say “Wakarimasen” for “I
don’t know”. “Wakaru” usually means “to understand”, but they often
use the negative form of this verb instead of saying “Shirimasen”(meaning
“I don’t know”). How do they distinguish the two? This question was taken
up by Jen, one of the former editors of this newsletter.
We, the Japanese think that “wakaru” (to understand) means “to make
effort and find out the answer”, while “shiru”(to know) means “To have
the information”. So, when we make effort but cannot find the answer, we
say “Wakarimasen”, while we say “Shirimasen” for the situation that we
are not in the position to get the answer. Sometimes, “shirimasen” has the
feeling “I don’t care”.
If you are confused which, “wakarimasen” or “shirimasen” should you use,
It is safer to choose “wakarimasen” except when you are questioned “xxx o
shitte imasu ka.?”.
If you are asked “xxx o shitte imasu ka?”, you should answer
“Shirimasen”. However, in general, “Shirimasen” may cause the other
party upset, because it often implies “It’s not my concern”, and
“Wakarimasen” gives softer and warmer feeling to the listener.

So, to stop offending people with my kankenai/kinishinai attitude, i will strive to learn to use wakarahen and shiran properly… erh… i mean… *with a polite sounding voice* wakarimasen and shirimasen….

The spring 2007 recap
Posted At: Thu 3 May 2007	Posted By: Derek Nobuyuki信幸 Wallace
Categories:life
	Leave A Comment

okay… this is the 3rd really late posted photo recap of what’s been going on…

First of all… if you didn’t know… a lot of my videos are going up on youtube…
Here’s a some little slice-of-life pans of somewhat everyday life scenes

although, keep in mind… that most of my videos up on youtube are private videos, so you’d have join and contact me to get access to those…. but you can see all my public youtube videos here: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=nobuyuki

This spring we’ve seen…
sayonara parties, slices anniversary parties, birthday parties, hiking in the mountains (see video above), etc…
but a few things…

anyone remember these guys? wow….natsukashii na~!! quite nostalgic!

how about super-bad-ass harley riding grumpy bear?

here’s the view from my mamachari bicycle full of groceries ~__~

A Rock Concert at Namba Hatch

omaera! uruse~na~! crazy oyaji…

it will make you feel so green and healthy.. that you will think you are living in a movie in the swiss alps!

Kinda like the Japanese version of the guy that says “Whammy!” from the movie Anchorman ^__^

Ling Ling (the panda) isn’t as cute in person…

but the puppets are! (Ueno Zoo, Tokyo, Japan)

Now available in new Elmo flavour! Guaranteed 65% real ground up bits of Elmo…
(this is what happens when you don’t let cookie monster eat his cookies…)

Justin visited Osaka… hooray for 280円 eats…
actually we tried some famous oyakodon from kyoto’s kiyomizudera area.. and it was pretty good…
and of course… Osaka being famous for food… we were sure to eat our share of fried osakan foods too!

justin took some cool pictures of osaka while he was here!

yumm! okonomiyaki and modanyaki!!

strange i’ve never seen her on the OC before… (just kidding)

The Light Up event for Sakura Hanami (cherry blossom viewing) at Nijou jou (castle) in Kyoto with Maya

Now motorcycle helmets come in not only Pikachu… but also Doraemon…
but i wouldn’t want to use these helmets on a real motorcycle…
but maybe one of these instead:

Happy Spring and Happy Golden Week to everyone….
My Post Golden Week working vacation is to Taipei, Taiwan… Vancouver, Canada… and Victoria, Canada….
May 4th to May 6th = Taiwan…
May 6th to May 27th = Vancouver…

If you’re in Vancouver… give me a shout… my Vancouver mobile phone number hasn’t changed…

Have a great spring and summer to come….
みんな、がんばろうな〜
美信says DS yo

PS: I really want a Wii… I picked one up from loft for only 2.5万円 taxes in! (but it was for Justin..)
ah well…

xin nian kuai le - shin nen akemashite - happy new years 2007
Posted At: Mon 1 Jan 2007	Posted By: Derek Nobuyuki信幸 Wallace
Categories:life
	Leave A Comment

( i know it’s late.. but here’s another photo recap [Posted 20070512])
Happy Gregorian Calendar New Years!
Happy Lunar New Years as well!

This year we welcome the year of the boar… and in Japan.. they’re so excited about the year of the boar that they can’t wait for the lunar new year’s… so it’s welcomed in on January 1st instead.

A bit of 2006 Recap…
some of my favourite moments, and places….

Starting with Ringing in the Last New Year’s with Marian, Lisa, May, Mavis, Jeremy, Yindar, etc….
of course only a very small group of us actually made it to midnight…

Ice Skating with the AIESEC Global Intern Pim, and AIESEC UBCers Nelly, Eilleen, and Alice at the UBC Rink… and riding around on my motorcycle in the UBC parking lot with my friend Eilleen afterwards

trying to enjoy my last few opportunities to ride my motorcycle before leaving canada

Enjoying the Sakura in Vancouver!

the various BBQs and get-togethers where I was afforded the chance to see a lot of friends before I left the country

Enjoying the beautiful Dansui Sunsets in Taipei, Taiwan with Candy

Seeing the beautful Hualien Beaches and Mountain Gorges with Candy

Being reunited with Craig, Mizue, Guy, Yongmi, and Vicky in Tokyo

moving into my new apartment!

Karaoke in Taiwan with Candy, Peggy, Justin, Fiana
Karaoke in Japan with Mi~chan

Chillaxin in Kobe with Mi~chan

Universal Studios with Mi~chan

Nara with David

Kyoto with Guy for New Year’s 2007.

Happy New Years….

Did you make your New Year’s Resolutions?
After reading Craig’s New Year’s Blog Entry and Matt’s blog to go with it… I feel more motivated to set more goals and set some action plans to accomplish them this year…

2007 is our year of rebirth… it’s time to fire it up…

xmas highlights 2006
Posted At: Fri 29 Dec 2006	Posted By: Derek Nobuyuki信幸 Wallace
Categories:life , japan
	Leave A Comment

(Sorry this is really late… but here’s some highlights)

The Sogo and Daimaru christmas lights… when I first saw it, I was shocked and surprised… it looked pretty cool…. BUT it got old really quickly as the same lights are up and shining for the following almost half year

We also had some Slices christmas festive decorating!

but I didn’t really celebrate christmas in 2006….
on christmas eve… i didn’t really do much of anything….
on christmas day, I worked ALL DAY….
when I finished work at about 10 to 11pm at night… I headed up the Umeda to catch an overnight bus to Tokyo…

I’m so glad I bought that Nintendo DS Lite as it really came in handy for that long journey north…

But it was great to see Craig again… I hadn’t seen him since the previous June (before I had moved down to Osaka).

At one point we really want to go to a yakitori place in the shinjuku takitori street…
it was great except for this weird ika or tako mouths on a skewer…
i’m so glad i don’t eat that stuff… blech…

shortly after, I returned to Osaka before the month was over…
so that was my christmas season….
news year’s on the other is another story…