Saturday 23 August 2008

Vistor from outer space...

okay...a visitor from Australia...which is similar. Haven't seen Marc in ages...well since his last had a conference in Tokyo. He'd changed a little bit since I last saw him though....

BEFORE: Nov 2006



AFTER: Aug 2008

Tuesday 5 August 2008

...the world has gone mad.

...I thought I'd lost the ability to read properly today (that and thought I was going slightly crazy) only to discover, it wasn't me who was totally nuts, but that the internet - and I do love the internet - is definitely bonkers.

As my eye passed over the google translation page (I far too often frequent this page, as my language skills are crap) I thought I saw a very strange language in the list of languages that the google homepage can be set to;

*glance*



...haha...I thought I just saw 'Klingon'...*snigger*


...Nahhhhhhh...
It turns out I DID see Klingon, and it wasn't my love of Star Trek coming to haunt me...just that some devotee has managed to translate google into Klingon...now, I know my geography is not so good, and being all ignorant about the world in general, but (...feel free to correct me if I'm wrong..) I'm pretty sure that this is the language by those big aliens with the ridged foreheads, two hearts, two livers, 4 lungs, millions of ribs, which tend to shout "Kaplah!" a lot.

I also noticed that 'Pig Latin' also exists (is this latin for pigs?! - I guess not) as do a multitude of languages that I have never heard of.

Isn't the internet great?

Monday 4 August 2008

Tokyo Metro Manners

In what is often perceived as the most polite cultures in the world (outwardly at least), Tokyo Metro [東京メトロ] is trying to improve the travelling environment for all who use their subway trains by improving peoples manners. They decided that the best way to do this was through a poster campaign which seems to be taking an exaggerated and slightly comical look at bad manners that people tend to have taken to on the metro. The posters highlight annoying bad habits which are deemed unsuitable for the Tokyo Metro environment, and they suggest, should be reserved for the comforts of your own home. Each month has brought out a new poster:
The first poster appeared in April and asks that you share your seat with other people, by displaying a young man taking up several seats to read his magazine and munch on his snack, surrounded by open cans. The May poster, shows a lady putting on make up on the train; which is apparently another no-no (personally, I think, if you can put on make up on a moving train it's a skill not a public nuisance - but is guess it's more a case of you taking up lots of elbow space to do certain make-up-manoeuvres)


June is slightly more comical; with a lady acting out an array of emotions on the phone, and suggesting that no-one really wants to hear the ins and outs of your life on the train. July shows an old man taking a similar pose the young guys he is sitting next to, the young man is busy appreciating music, while the old man is busy trying to block out the sound with his fingers in his ears...

Augusts poster is, however, genius. Changing from the heading of 'Please do it at Home' they have now got 'Please do it at the beach' - in keeping with the summer time. Some guy dives for the closing train doors but is caught as they shut. Although, I'm not entirely sure if he's meant to look as though he is swimming or diving for a volley ball or something...it's hard to tell. Looks great anyways.

Sunday 3 August 2008

Hammock Day

...feeling the need to use our lovely hammock, we headed off to Yoyogi Park [代々木公園] to look for trees at a convenient distance apart



So we spent the afternoon lazing around in the hammock, occasionally waving at amused Japanese passer-bys...