Saturday September 20th

Flew to Hong Kong.

Found our way to a cheap hostel in Mong Kok
GMAP: GOOGLEMAP::HongKong::MongKok::22.319758,114.170694

Misaki wasn’t too pleased with the hostel… not surprisingly i guess…
Mong Kok is a crazy crazy busy busy people everywhere somewhat overwhelming area.

We met up with Dennis in Mong Kok and got some lunch.

We chilled in the TST (Tsim Shau Tsui) area of Kowloon.
GMAP: GOOGLEMAP::HongKong::TST::22.293623,114.173076

Waiting for the laser show at 8pm.

Also went to the interesting yet sketchy ChungKing mansion for delicious indian food… so weird… for a place like that to have a waiting room…

Sunday September 21st

We actually stayed with Dennis instead of the hostel.
Big Thanks to Dennis for his hospitality, letting us stay there, and showing us around taking us to many places

Sunday was for Dim Sum!

We wandered around the Hong Kong side (as opposed to the Kowloon side) from Central down to Causeway Bay.

GMAP: GOOGLEMAP::HongKong::CausewayBayVictoriaPark::22.28243,114.185983

HUGE numbers of a certain demographic of people use their Sundays to loiter around EVERYWHERE but especially in Victoria Park there were massive numbers of people.

Finally, we went up to the Peak for a nice Chinese/Thai dinner and observation..
before heading back down to Lan Quai Fung?, walking through central to the Star Ferry and back to TST.

Monday September 22nd

Monday was shopping day!

Bought an iPod Touch 2nd Generation which is great since I develop Apple iPhone/TouchCocoa application now.

We met up with Kenneth as well for ipod shopping, tea shopping, and Super Hong Kong style french toast!

We relaxed with Sayaka

Before heading to expensive but delicious dinner at a nice terrace area of TST

and dessert

Finally, after a stroll through the kowloon park (before the security told us we cannot ride bicycle in the park - there should have been a video of this but it is having technical difficulties)

GMAP: GOOGLEMAP::HongKong::KowloonPark::22.300731,114.170206

Tuesday 23rd September … yeah, i know the dates are consistently formatted… meh..

We returned back to Osaka…

Of course with the Typhoon about to hit Hong Kong, we were sitting on the tarmac for a VERY long time and because the time was crunched…
We couldn’t get off the plane in Taipei…

Ah well… back in Osaka… back to work…

Full Photo Album is here: http://media.derekwallace.com/2008/200809/20080920-23-HongKong

nobu

先週、日本語のレッソンの後で　バイクにのった。
天王寺から　西に　まっすぐ行った。
すぐアパートの場所についたけど、帰りたくなかった。
それから　左へまがりました。
西へ行ったんだけどど。
どこへ行くのか、和からへんかった。
不思議なトンネルを見つけた。
「どうしたらいい？」と思った。
トンネルへ行った方が大丈夫か？
トンネルへ行ったんだけど、料金所を見つけた（〜＿＿＿〜）

とにかく、ATCの場所に行った。
帰り方は和からへんかった。
家に　つく時にバイクがこわれた。
いっぱい　Coolantが出た。（〜＿＿＿＿＿＿〜）

So yeah… 3 cars pushed me out of my lane!! BMW 7 series and Mercedes included…
People don’t look where they are going… don’t look before they move anywhere…
whether they are pedestrians, bicyclists, drivers, etc…
I’m surprised that more people don’t die from this… but already the numbers are too high.

Coolant leaking out of my bike…
I think the coolant overflow hose has ruptured…
but more importantly, I think the cooling system for my bike has been struggling to keep the temperature down.
Very often I can ride for maybe an hour before I have to pull over to let the bike cool down….

mind you… Osaka summers are quite hot…

We’ll see soon how the bike is when i am scheduled to get it back from the mechanic… soon…

but before that, I’ve been taking more random rides lately…

in the middle of the night… left at 1:30am and returned at 3:30am… what did I do?
I went to the convenience store… but in a completely different city (Sakai)

Or randomly riding around trying to avoid toll gates…
unfortunately, went through a tunnel and ran into a toll gate with no escape….

ah well… weather’s getting better… and temperatures are going down to below 30C…

hope to get some more riding in… yet have no idea what to do about bikes in the winter.. do we winterize?

This video was inspired by Josh Leo’s New Year’s Image Collage videos.

Don’t blink or you might miss something.

Two songs I liked in Taiwan in 2006:
- Pretence - Jolin Tsai (I found someone translated lyrics here)
- Wo yao kuai le - A-mei

Flash Video version is available here: http://media.derekwallace.com/2006/20060506-Taiwan/woxiangtaiwan.flv.php
MP4 Ipod-Ready Version is available here: http://media.derekwallace.com/2006/20060506-Taiwan/woxiangtaiwan.ipod.mp4.php
3000+ Photos from possibly 30+ videos from Taiwan 2006 are in my photo album: http://media.derekwallace.com/2006/20060506-Taiwan

Around the same time, Craig and Mizue also boarded a plane from Narita bound for honolulu.

Furthermore, Mizue’s mother, father, brother, and grandfather also boarded a plane bound for honolulu.

Moreover, Craig’s parents, sister, and brother-in-law also had, about a week before, flown to maui and would soon be bound for honolulu.

Why is honolulu so popular? Especially in Japan?

Well… the obvious reason in this case, is Craig and Mizue’s wedding.

For all those people all over the world who know Craig and Mizue and want to see their wedding,
I’ve put up a wedding website here: http://wedding.craigatkinson.org.

It was really great to spend time with my best friend, colleague, and partner in crime business –Craig– in a very relaxed environment.

Now, some may ask: Was it nice to get away from Japan for a bit of a change?
And while the climate was certainly better than Japan, most of the time I had to speak Japanese while in Hawai’i.

[Bad Tour Company Tangent]
I had booked my hotel/flight package from a big tour company in Japan, Kinki Nippon Tourist (KNT!) which was a nightmare.
I strongly recommend against this sorry excuse for a company (remember if it is true, it’s not libel!)
These people messed things up SO many times; they never bother to even read their own notes, nor anything we wrote to them;
they are extremely rude on the telephone (those who think Japan has excellent customer service would have a heart-attack dealing with this company);
They don’t have anyone responsible for anything so nobody cares about client care (they are not tanto for a case); however, the WORST (#$%&ing saite kaisha!)
is that they messed up my name even though we clearly wrote it FIRST NAME: ________ MIDDLE NAMES: ____________ LAST NAME/FAMILY NAME:____________ etc…
As I’m sure you know, names MUST match your passport!! and they couldn’t even get that right. Consequently (keeping in mind I was entering the United States!), I had about 3 or extra security checks at the Kansai Airport, could not use the express check-in machines at all, had 7or 8 extra security checks in honolulu, had to go through the much longer thorough inspection from the TSA, then even more security checks back in Japan again.

However, I have to say that in Hawai’i the United States Customs and Immigration Officers, and the Transport Security Administration (TSA) Officers were all very very friendly, kind, and helpful. Plus the TSA had some funky machine where they kinda swab your bags and shoes and then put it in some sort of analyzing machine… interesting.. but i have no idea what they are analyzing.

In the end, my only beef is with the Japanese Kinki Nippon Tourist (FYI: Kinki霑醍柄 is the name of the region I live in… similar to Kansai髢｢隘ｿ however, KNT is a nation-wide company).
The KNT staff in Hawai’i were usually extremely friendly, kind, etc.. but couldn’t necessarily speak English… so it was still good practice for my Japanese language skills.

[Back to the Wedding]

When I arrived, they gave us the opportunity to have a picture taken with a kumo… however, since my family has a polynesian dance studio, i wasn’t interested in some random picture with a polynesian dancer like a tourist might be.

They took us to the DFS Galleria (super Duty Free Store in Waikiki) where they have an office/resource centre.
Here, they gave us some information packages, showed us a slideshow of interesting tours they offer as they tried to upsell us.
Personally, I think this kind of upsell, is a great thing for Japanese tourists; they offer a LOT of language support,
and tours that people would really enjoy while in the comfort of their native Japanese language.

The first chance I got, I escaped the show, and proceeded to talk to the friendly staff (縺ｧ繧ゅ�∵律譛ｬ隱槭〒�ｼ�
While my japanese is not that great, I managed to communicate with them alright.

Checking my phone, it was getting close to my pre-appointed meeting time with Craig…
So, I took the trolley over to meet craig.

We were to meet in the Prince Hotel which was close to my Hotel.
So, I found my hotel, them proceeded to Prince Hotel

Walking over there, I stopped to wait for a light when Craig suddenly appears beside me!
He stopped at an ABC (繧ｳ繝ｳ繝薙↓) or something and saw me!

We then headed over the the infamous (at least in Japan) Ala Moana Shopping Centre.
Now, I’ve seen some big food courts before, but the Ala Moana food court was HUGE!! and very american, except for it’s wide selection of asian-ish foods

We had a lot of great food in Hawai’i

Went to a lot of places like the Dole Plantation

Did a lot of relaxing and chilling… chillaxing, if you will

And of course, the wedding!!

Check out the wedding website and there you will find a link where you can leave wedding messages and check out Photos and Videos from the time in Hawai’i

Check it out: http://wedding.craigatkinson.org.

At the beginning of this post you will find my wedding pre-video to recap some of the memories that brought us to this point where we can celebrate the wedding of Craig and Mizue.

Watch the video in Flash Video here: http://media.derekwallace.com/2008/200806-Hawaii/CraigMizueWedding.flv.php
Watch the video in MP4 iPod-Ready here: http://media.derekwallace.com/2008/200806-Hawaii/CMWedding-ipod.mp4.php

Music for the Video is courtesy of the PodSafe Music Network
Wintersleep - Drunk on Aluminum

Nada Surf - Here goes something

Glen Hansard - Falling Slowly

Ingrid Michaelson - The Way I Am
Check out the above bands for more information about them on the PodSafe Music Network.

Prologue
＾＾＾＾＾＾＾＾＾＾＾＾＾＾＾
it’s strange my fingers range from numb to hurt

thumbs hurt a lot
index fingers hurt a bit
middle fingers are a little numb and a little hurt
ring fingers are numb
and pinky fingers are really numb

hurt i can understand, but numbness is a little worrysome

But my first long (7.5 hours) ride in 2 years and in a new country, Japan.

Part 1
＾＾＾＾＾＾＾＾＾＾＾
I set out for my first *real* ride in Japan.

Although, unlike DNA, I didn’t have the luxury of local guides nor the
luxury of not having to worry about being home in the evening and at work
the next day…. However, after riding my bike home from the shop (finally
getting my NANIWA –aka Osaka– license plate) on the thursday, I set out
on the following Wednesday for Wakayama… the luring mountainous hairpin
filled supposed paradise for bikers.

For those who dont know any Japanese, the YAMA in Wakayama means mountain.
It is truly a prefecture (like province but smaller) completely covered
in mountains.

So, the night before I started doing some planning with my mapple (bike
oriented regional map book) and the NAVITime Navigation mapping/routing
website. Armed with these two resources and a recommendation from an
online forum, I plotted a route from home through the mountains of
wakayama to a place called koyasan. From koyasan, a highly recommended
skyline highway, and loop around back up another mountain highway back to
koyasan where I could take a variety of routes north again back to Osaka.

Now, the timing of this was critical…
This week was the ONLY feasible week for me to go on a ride since after
this time I won’t have any free time until June 12th (when the rainy
monsoon typhoon season would likely start). Plus, I can’t really ride on
ANY day I have to work since the probability of me getting horrifically
lost is just WAY too high making the chance of me being late or missing
work FAR TOO great =(

Plus of course after the rainy season is the scorchingly hot summer
season…. hot, humid, 35-48C weather

Furthermore, of the two days off in this week, Wednesday was supposed to
be nice with 23C weather and Thursday was to be getting cloudier and
moving towards rain (although about the same temperature).

So, the day was set and the route was plotted.

My first Japanese Riding (outside the city) adventure was about to begin!!

Part 2
＾＾＾＾＾＾＾＾＾＾＾
10:00am

My first task would be to find the gas station…
Luckily, I’ve managed to plot a gas station on my route
but with the huge number of the one ways streets and places where you can’t cross roads because they have traffic diversion

My first time getting gasoline was surprisingly easy.
In Japan almost all the gas stations are full service and unlike in Canada, the people working there actually know how to pump gas for motorcycles.

If you visit Japan, all you really need is
“Regular mantan” or “High-Oc mantan”
Japan has only really two octanes…
“mantan” means to fill it up all the way

Finally, they will ask if you want to pay by cash or card.

Now that I was fully gassed up at the overly expensive 165 per litre,
I was ready to tackle the Osaka streets of anti-navigational horror

In the first 10 minutes after leaving the gas station I made several wrong turns… the biggest problem with navigation is the lack street names and signage. Streets only have names if they are really big roads… and even then, the street isn’t necessarily marked with its name. Instead, navigation is given using Intersection names. That might good except you can’t always see the intersection names until it’s too late or the intersection may not even be marked. Dru suggested that our best bet is just to memorize your area.

Actually, in my route planning I used distances between intersections and the configurations of the intersection where i need to turn (like roughly if the turn is shallow, steep, and what cross streets go through it) and this saved me several times.

11:15am

Even though I followed my directions, and managed to double back everytime however I STILL managed to find myself lost eventually hitting a river area. Several elderly people seem to be farming even though we were still in the city.

(A video was recorded here)

(You can see the farmers here… on the outskirts of Osaka City Proper)

After 2 hours I finally made it out of the city.

I was really surprised that so many of the speed limits are really slow like 40 and 50kph! However, out of the city the traffic started to tie down and the speeds finally started to pick up.

A great sense of relief and that sense of mobility and freedom that I had longed for since leaving riding and my home country 2 years earlier, began to grow as I headed down the highway.

Off in the distance I spotted a VERY odd site and my renewed sense of adventure also began to return.

(Note this picture is not mine)

Crossing Over
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This area is filled with mountains… hell, wakayama –my destination prefecture (like a province)– and koyasan –my destination– both have the character for mountain right in them.
For those of you not familiar with how Japanese works, they have borrowed chinese-like characters they fit into the language… yama and san both mean mountain in this case and use the same character.

So, to get from my home prefecture, Osaka, into Wakayama, I have to go through a rather daunting tunnel.

Now, keeping in mind my previous bike was a ZZR250 that weight perhaps 320lbs and my current ZZR400 weights probably about 450lbs…
I was concerned about the winds pushing my bike laterally, but the new bike wouldn’t have it…
She stuck to the road not letting those japanese gods of wind and thunder have their way.

However, this tunnel was something else.

In Vancouver, we’ve all been through the George Massey Tunnel countless times… and in comparison that tunnel is miniscule.

Upon entering the tunnel, it started to strike me… I couldn’t see the exit and it was rapidly getting VERY dark.

Since I use an orange high-contrast visor I also wear sunglasses… however, there is no where near as much lighting in this tunnel as the George Massey Tunnel.

This tunnel spans a few kilometers and quickly became extremely disorienting. A very narrow tunnel where I can’t see and with no dividing to “protect” me from oncoming traffic ended up being my least favourite part of the ride; even worse than stop and go traffic.

However, once I made it through the long night of a tunnel, I would find my self in Wakayama… the kind of place that is 99% mountains and in the dreams of most of the riders in the region.

Of course, not wanting to take on some adventure on an empty stomach, I made a pit stop at the teenager filled yet not smokey McDs.

Finally, it was on to the twisty stuff.

Now, keeping in mind I hadn’t ridden in 2 years and I had promised my girlfriend that I’d take it easy in the mountains…
It took a REALLY REALLY long time to get through the twisty mountain paths to my destination.

On the bright side I got lost much less in this leg of the trip (away from the cities).

I started out in 1st or 2nd, still unsure of my new bike’s powerband and I couldn’t help but recall riding back in Canada with
no hesitation revving the bike up or counting on the little 250cc engine to control my speed with ease.
On my new bike, however, it was time to start getting to know her… a little wining and dining if you will…
a process that took far longer than I had anticipated

New Destination
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Koyasan wasn’t really supposed to be my final destination for the outward bound portion of my trip; I had hoped to have taken the
supposedly beautiful 371 Skyline Highway from there, looped around like a little duffy loop but it had taken so long just to get out of the city that I had to head back.

So, Koyasan, a quiet mountain village with tons of temples nestled into the mountains became my last rally point before making the return journey.

Now, back in the twisty mountain path on my new journey home.

By this point, I was much more comfortable being on a bike again in the twisties… but a far cry from when I was riding every day rain or shine with nearly daily jaunts up the mountains on the north shore (vancouver)

This time, being behind another vehicle allowed me to set my pace much faster…

The worst part about Japanese Mountain roads are that every corner is blind with only big mirrors that are hard to see anything in…. and everyone from the granny driver, GIANT tour buses, to the street/mountain racer will cut almost EVERY apex crossing over into my side of the rode. Many many times, a giant bus or some car would come flying around the corner nearly hitting me as they drove me almost off the rode.

You know, they say that these mountain paths don’t have anywhere where the guardrails aren’t scratched up from car grinding them….

I don’t know how true that is, but it is certainly easy to find scratched up railings here

Once you get over the threat of flying cagers, you can really start to enjoy the mountain scenery, the still silence (when you’ve pulled over and turned the engine off), the nice twisting paths.

Furthermore, unlike what I might see near Vancouver, the twists are continuous; there are no straightaway on this stretch longer than about 80 meters?

Finally oddly enough, this leg took about 60% of the time it did going in.

The route home I recorded most of it and used it when cutting together the video.

Not surprisingly, I got horribly lost even before leaving Wakayama Prefecture…
several map checks plus mobile phone GPS checks later, I was finally on my way back.
The tunnel was no better this time around except I knew what to expect this time…. still disorienting though.

Once I emerged from the tunnel, I found myself back in my home prefecture, but still a long ways from home.

Not surprisingly, I got lost several several times more and stuck in stop and go traffic…
but I figured as long as I am headed in the right direction I should be okay…

But the funny thing about Japanese roads is that they are not straight and you can start heading in a completely other direction before you know it.

Stuck in traffic, I rarely split lanes or filtered through traffic… the combination of still trying to get used to a heavy sport touring bike and paranoia
about police ticketing me for crossing a line kept me waiting in the hot hot heat and stop and go traffic. Of course, I don’t doubt that in time I will be
filtering with the rest of the bikes since cagers would probably expect that.

Final thoughts on my ride…

I was great to be on a bike again… but it is something I need to devote an entire day to.
I cannot go for a ride on a day I work since the risk of getting horrifically lost is too high and I would be late for work.
People generally have poor spatial awareness… while cagers are more used to bikes being around them, they will drive
all over the place without concern for how much space is needed.
Kosoku, raised toll expressways are ridiculously expensive but don’t always save you time.
Gasoline has risen to about 178 for regular and is expected rise again next month…
GPS Navigation is really expensive but since we get lost SOOO easily is very popular

but in the end, it’s worth it.

Music Courtesy of the PodSafe Music Network.
Please check out the following music artists:
Dashboard Confessional - Hands Down
Wintersleep - Drunk on Aluminum
Tricky - Evolution Revolution Love

Finally, after 2 years without riding motorcycles since I moved to Japan, I am back in the saddle.

Last year in April of 2007, we started this adventure with our strange journey out to JAF.

JAF is the Japan Automobile Federation and they are a road-side assistance, etc.. service like AAA, CAA, BCAA, etc…

Joey, Sone, Misaki, and I took the journey out to find a JAF branch. For some reason this ended up being in the middle of the nowhere next to the Osaka Harbour.

With JAF, we had to present our Canadian/Australian/etc… Driver’s Licenses for inspection.
After turning over our licenses, we settled in at a nearby cafe for some lunch.
It was one of these strange retro (by on purpose) cafes… truly bimyou蠕ｮ螯�

After our odd lunch, we headed back to the JAF office to pick up translations of our driver’s licenses.
JAF ( in a reciprocal agreement between the Japanese Government and governments of some other countries)
has detailed information about the licensing programs in regions of numerous foreign countries.
I got one describing my license and the meaning of Class 5 and Class 6 (Full Car + Full Motorcycle) from my home jurisdiction.

Step 1 was finally completed.

Yet Another day, we had to head out to Kadoma (the city in North Osaka prefecture where a driver testing centre was).
Unfortunately, I forgot something at home and had to go back to get it; Sone and Joey went ahead to the testing centre
where I met up with them about half an hour late.

Of course, lots of forms to fill out here… but if you are going there… remember there is a special line/counter JUST for foreign license conversions.
You definitely want to skip reception and everything else and go to that counter.

Basically, we spent the entire morning waiting.
Head over to a donburi place to get something for lunch, then
headed back to the testing centre to wait some more.

After countless arguing, disagreeing, etc…
The license people would not accept Sone or my application due to technicalities.
And only accepted Joey’s after having to manually count individual days and add them up.

Here’s what you need.

1.) 90 days in your home country as shown on your passport. If you have a relatively new passport, this is a problem!

2.) 90 days in your home country as being licensed. Most licenses only have the issue date of that version of your license…
not how long you’ve been licensed for.

3.) You need those two sets of 90 days to be the SAME 90 days!

Joey managed to get his car license from small bike license (up to 125cc).

Sone didn’t get his license because it’s a HUGE hassle to get the required information from Canada.

I returned to Canada for 3 1/2 weeks in May 2007 where I could get the required information plus show more “IN CANADA while licensed” days.
I returned back to the license centre again in June 2007; to resubmit with more paperwork from Canada.
While I didn’t need to rewrite my application since it was on file (and my file, i mean paper files),
I still needed to wait around all day for them to process things.
After, I had to get the official photo taken (in addition to the one you provide them for your application)
and listen to a short lecture that i didn’t understand.

But finally, I got my car + middle-bike (up to 400cc) license.

You can do an upgrade test to open bike class… but 400cc is generally enough in japan.

Last week (7May2008), I purchased a Kawasaki ZZR400.
This thing is big and heavy (about 200kg)

On May 15, 2008, I got back in the saddle again for the first time in 2 years.

My first impressions…. omoi (heavy)!
after two years, i need practice with my throttle control..
the throttle is certainly a lot more sensitive than the ZZR250

I started to take a video…

but unfortunately, after 17 seconds i accidentally turned it off….

and there I was making a video, talking to the camera while on the bike, etc..
only to discover the camera had turned off.

First, I tried to ride slowly around the quiet neighbourhood of the bike shop.
After I started to get used to it, I started to head home.

I had written out directions I got my NaviTime (search keyword: 繝翫ン繧ｿ繧､繝�)

If you’re not familiar with Japanese streets, most of them do not have street names. However, many intersections have names.

I wrote my directions using Intersection Names…. only to find out that only 30% of the turns I had written actually had signs with the intersection names… and other times I couldn’t see those signs until I was already in the wrong lane…
So, a few times I turned too late or too early.

Once I got into the minami area, it was not so bad; riding down midosuji, I had a better idea of where I was.

Travelling from the outskirts of the city into the northern downtown core was a breath of fresh air; the speeds start to pick up as i travelled along the riverside road.

Once I reached the Northern downtown everything slowed down a lot.
Stop and go traffic is quite difficult and every car (especially taxis) always stopped within 80cm from my bike.

I’m not at the point where I can start lane splitting with the heavy bike.
Definitely need to get more used to the bike, it’s weight, and it’s power first.

Getting lost is quite the problem in Japan.
I can see why nearly EVERY car has navigation in it.
Might be worth checking out in the future, getting a bike navi unit

Speaking of navigation, mapping and whatnot, i’ve been experimenting with geocoded photos and googlemaps. However, google’s picasa web has launched a new feature recently where they put the photos directly on the map.

Check it out: http://media.derekwallace.com/map

If you’re not familiar with geocoding… you inject GPS data into the IPTC/EXIF meta . In this case I take photos with my Casio Exilim Mobile Phone which then tags the photos since mobile phones have Navi and GPS in them.

Moving is finally completed!
However, it left me for 3 weeks with no internet connectivity other than my mobile phone
(or huddling on the balcony in the snow trying to connect to a distant wifi)

On the bright side, I finally have my fiber internet hooked up.
If you live in Japan, then you would know that this is flets hikari offered by
Japan’s incumbant telecommunications company, NTT.

To my surprise, the Fiber internet costs about two thirds of what I was paying to YahooBB for their ADSL
service, yet Hikari has far greater upload speeds.

As you can see in the image above, I’m getting about 30M download and 8.5M upload inside Japan
(however) 8M download and 1.5M upload connecting across the world to Vancouver.

Hopefully this will enable greater ease of connectivity with colleagues in Vancouver.

As you may know, I bought a top of the line Sony Vaio in July 2007.
You may or may not know, however, is that I’ve had a lot of I/O issues with the RAID Controller and iTunes.

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7588_102-0.html?forumID=70&threadID=236344&start=30

This forum I stumbled upon today, finally sheds light on the matter and has allowed me to fix my computer
without getting new hard drives and having to reinstall everything.
Nor was I forced to lose a lot of data… *phew*

Apple may very well suck… well at least iTunes does… and the iPod could use some improvements
———————————————————————————————-

Also, if you hadn’t heard, I ended up buying an iPod before my trip to Korea in early October 2007.

The iPod classic is a decent product but it still has a lot of short comings and WOEfully inferior software.
I don’t understand how company can put so much money into their hardware based product design yet have
incredibly poor software. Sony and Apple in particular have been called to mind with this problem.

The bottomline, iTunes is a horrible piece of software that doesn’t work very well.
Of course, Apple DEMANDS that you use their POS software to use the ipod for anything but a portable hard drive.
It has caused A LOT of problems with my computers (the reason why I stayed away from iTunes as best i could before)
including numerous blue screens of death.

Apple should stop spending so much on marketing and concentrate on having better software….
We all saw how poor their itunes software was when podcasts were introduced.

On a further negative note on iTunes,
How is the supposed to work?! They don’t really support people who live in different countries…
or more importantly, people who live in a particular country but are not fluent in that country’s language.

Is there a way I can link iTunes Canada, USA, and Japan together?!
then… it might actually be useful (not withstanding the whole NBC debacle)

Another supposedly great feature Apple Zealots are pushing is the Cover Flow.
This is a useless feature that doesn’t work unless ALL your music was purchased from ONE iTunes store
and you ONLY listen to that music from that ONE country’s selection.

what can I say but… iTunes: utter crap. Cover flow: needs more work for the international market.
I don’t know about you but I don’t live in the United States of “Amerika”…
I live in the world.

Now, the iPod itself…

okay, it’s a decent machine aside from it’s lack of support for varying formats.
But what I would really like to see are improve to accessibility.
how about intelligently putting together title, album, artist information.
how about scrolling information if it’s too long to fit on the screen?
how about giving us ANY of the additional information found in ID3 tags.

For those of you who are early adopters of mp3 technology, you are likely to either have NO tags or only ID3v1 tags.
CD rippers way back when largely used the filename to hold information.
How about those of you who listen to non-english music. Obviously the iPod doesn’t even support character encoding.
Unicode UTF8 is a good thing… but it’s acceptance a lot newer than my mp3 collection.

How about iTunes using my folder hierarchy to let me intelligently tag my mp3s?

Again for the iPod… WHY on earth is there a volume limiter. That is rediculous!!
They should have a volume decibel limiter like any high product SHOULD have.
It shouldn’t be about how high you want your slider set… it should be about how loud the audio actually is.

For a so-called progressive intelligent company that understands it’s users needs, they sure are disappointing.

Finally, since iTunes sucks and crashes my computer, i listen to or watch NOTHING in iTunes.
I listen to or watch podcasts on the iPod itself.
However, iTunes comes along and disables podcast downloads because it things I haven’t been listening to them.
Are they mad?! Of course I’m listening to them. If the iPod and their POS software iTunes communicated better with
each other then they’d know that! Why the @#$% would they disable the podcast?!?!

Rediculous Apple… You’d Better Get your act together fast!

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

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… =(

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….

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…

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…

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…

so lately ive been sick uh 4 weeks now (*$B!-’%!.(B)

worried that riding my bike in the rain or the cold is making me sicker i given in
and bought a subway pass between umeda and minami tatsumi i have to use it 20 days in the next 31

Note: this post was posted from my mobile phone (so it is short)

im at mos burger in fuse [map] right now and it reminded me of a happy memory of mos in
zhong shan @ taipei [map]…

that mos in taipei had a phone number to phone in orders...
i ate my burger and croquette set but was still thirsty but we were feeling so lethargic...
so instead of going downstairs to the counter candy just phoned it in..
and they brought it up for us
v(^-^)v
good memories

[ MOS Burger @ Zhong Shan @ Taipei @ Taiwan ]

wo xiang ni
wo xiang taiwan

Note: this post was posted from my mobile phone, so it’s short

is the colonel dead?
i remember when dave from wendys died but maybe sanders was before my time
sanders and dave... did they die from heart attacks?

i know ben,jerry,baskin,& robbins died from unhealthy diets but i wonder about dave
and sanders...

ok sitting around kfc at fuse is boring...
does anyone know if there is a banana republic in osaka?
there is a zara in the walk market between namba and shinsaibashi but havent seen a
banana yet...

nobuyuki

NOTE: this message is from mobile phone

I had an accident (http://press.derekwallace.com/2005/0809/drawn-blood/)

I was on my way to see my friend, Smita up at SFU when to avoid a collision with a jeep, i collided with the pavement underneath me… Thank you Smita for being so understanding….

When I phoned him up and told him I was just in an accident, Pardeep hopped into his truck and came to my aid… He helped me with an on-the-spot repair. He accompanied me as I made my way home and also to Burnaby Kawasaki to take my bike in. Thanks Pardeep for all your help.

Zizi was kind of enough to help me seek medical attention to make sure I didn’t have any injuries that were worse than I thought…. Thank you zizi for all your kindness and support (http://press.derekwallace.com/2005/0810/zi-style-support/). I hope I did cause you too much trouble around your birthday.

Unfortunately, two weeks later, in the crappy rain… and oil on the roads… despite taking the lynn valley westbound highway ramp very gently, i hit oil in the corner and lowsided (http://press.derekwallace.com/2005/0830/low-sided-ouch/)

But there were very good times riding… Cyprus mountain, Baker, Victoria, Harrison, Julia’s Loop, etc…
and there were tougher times like the winds in merrit, storms in victoria and the ferry, and riding in -2C cold to get to the passport office super early….

But through it all… Thanks to everyone who helped me through the tougher times… and thanks to those like James, Monica, Scotty, Tomasz, Julia, etc… for making the good times and happy riding….

that said… I am grateful for my friends and i REALLY want another bike!!

[GPS Info URL]
http://walk.eznavi.jp/map/?datum=0&unit=0&lat=%2b34.39.08.44&lon=%2b135.33.15.65&fm=0

haha
gone for some mcGrease and found tandoori chicken pita at mcdonalds

okay not bad
but obviously far from great
of course waaaay too much mayo in the pita

time 4 the bike ride home.. can you burn off transfats and liver damage?hehe

nobuyuki

NOTE: This message is from mobile phone

have you tried kua'aina sandwich?
weird 2 locAtions@hawai'i but 12@japan...5@tokyo

nobuyuki

[GPS Info URL]
http://walk.eznavi.jp/map/?datum=0&unit=0&lat=%2b34.39.45.26&lon=%2b135.30.06.32&fm=0

NOTE: This message is from mobile phone.

Shirahama beach has great white sand beaches (imported from australia), and onsen =)

Sorry, I don’t have any of my japanese photos up yet (except for the ones used for GeoCoding), so i can’t post any shirahama photos here… but check out these two posts on the Osaka-Daze blog:
shi-ra-ha-ma-aka-our-beach-vacation and photos they posted up from the onsen we stayed at (View Discretion is Advised)

Shinsaibashi covered market… there are sooo many covered market areas in Osaka.. and many underground ones as well

The famous dotonburi canal

Super Fugu (Dotonburi)

Urban Garden on top of a mall (Namba Parks)

An icon of Ame-Mura (aka Amerikan Mura aka Amerkan Village), a young trendy area

But that isn’t really what this post is about…..

I left Taiwan on June 11th, 2006 and Arrived in Japan on June 11th where I stayed in the Tokyo region until June 20th, 2006.

[Arrival Photo here when i get it from Craig]

It was of course really hot in the 30s in taipei… but when i arrived at Narita Airport in Eastern Japan (Tokyo Region) it was soooooo cold…. like 23C or something… although normally for back home (Vancouver, Canada) 23C is a nice warm day… but after being climatized to the may/june of taiwan… 23C felt super cold…

My best friend Craig and Mizue came to the airport to greet me =) Although it had only 3-4 months since i had seen Craig and 6 since I had seen Mizue, it was great to see them!

The 2nd or 3rd day in Tokyo, I tried to meet up with Craig at Shinjuku station!! of course it is the busiest, largest, most hectic station in all of japan!! Needless to say… Craig had Mizue’s mobile phone and I had only a phone card for the payphones…. it took us an hour to find each other =P

Craig and I at Shinjuku!

Omotesan Hills

Harajuku

Mizue, her Mom, and I went to see the sighs of yokohama =)

Got to see friends in Shinjuku like Vicky, Guy, Yongmi, and Craig =)

On a little adventure, Craig and I even found a secret little pathway running through and behind a university… nicely forested.. it headed down steep until i reached a back area where there were stables…

I don’t know why i decided to live in a city where I don’t know anybody while my friends in Japan are mostly in the Tokyo region…. but soon enough, it became time for me to leave Tokyo and make my way for Osaka…. some 600-700 kilometers away… and 3 to 3 1/2 on the nozomi shinkansen here… i believe that’s japan’s fastest bullet train… and certainly the fastest one between kanto (tokyo, etc) and kansai (osaka,etc)….

but the most difficult part of this trip between cities was carrying my super super heavy luggage from Saitama onto the train to ikebukuro… carry it all the way through ikebukuro, get my ticket, get my way across the city to tokyo station, then get to the shinkansen station, and get it onto the train… when I left vancouver, I had one 60L MEC backpack and my Arctryx notebook backpack… by this point, I had those two backpacks very heavy and full, another suitcase-like bag from TingWei, and a small messenger bag like “man purse” (if you will) from taiwan… needless to say, I could barely stand let alone walk…

It’s so very sad to leave Taiwan… Over 31 days, i have be very accustomed to being in taiwan…

Thank you to everyone who has made my experience in Taiwan a memorable one!
I hope to return to Taiwan in the near future!

I almost wish I could have just stayed in Taiwan and live my life there…
but moving on to Japan in something i have to do…

Good bye Taiwan… i miss you… one day I hope to return…

530… 520….

wo hen xiang taiwan. wo hen xiang ni. wo yao chu de taiwan.
boku ga honto ni taiwan wo omotte irun… anata wo honto ni omotte irun… modoritai…
Please watch my video…. BIDEO wo mite kudasai… onegaishimasu…

Addendum: Sorry, the video has been delayed… It has been extremely saddening puting together this video… and the process is a slow one… Videos emcompasses my final weeks in Vancouver, Canada… my time in Taiwan… my time in Tokyo… and moving to Osaka… I expect the video to be released in September 2006… sorry for the inconvenience…

Edit: 20 June 2008: Finally a Taiwan video is now up; it’s available here