I just ordered delivery pizza from one of two locations that are near where I live. In Japan, I prefer Pizza Hut but there is no location nearby that will deliver to my address. So I am stuck with Aoki and Pizza California. They are mediocre and I think it is a blessing in disguise. Because of the medicority, I don’t order so much. Saves me money and a few pounds around the waist.
Anyway, my point of this story is that when I got my monthly pizza delivery I also get an ad, and in the ad, they usually promote their most recent pizza campaigns. This month actually made me laugh and worry at the same time. Below is one of the campaigns for this month.
This is just bothersome, and something I am surprised I have not seen in the USA yet. Maybe it is because in the USA we are more closer to the European origins of the pizza where as in Japan, they are more closer to the marketing origins (whatever those may be). Why not just order a pizza and get your french fries at the same time.
I would like to apologize to my readers and fans. I have been gone for awhile and mostly it is due to just not being interested in writing in a blog. I am not a man of habits and I thought writing in a blog would help change that. What I did wrong was I jumped all the way into the deep end of the pool when I should have entered from the shallow end.
So what is going to happen now? Well, for starters, I am still interested in writing about my experiences in Japan. I think they might be useful and interesting for someone out there. If not, then it will be a constructive way for me to relieve stress that I have in a a positive way. My posts will be irregular and not based on a specific topic. Most likely a weekly post about something going on with me somewhere in Japan.
Stay tuned and I hope you keep coming back for more. I can’t promise they will be interesting but I am always open to positive feedback if they suck.
This week is a two-for contest. I will post two photos that are taken from the same location but viewing two different cities. Post a comment giving the details of the location I am taking the photos from and which cities I am looking at.
I am starting a new column called Adana (aka Nicknames) and it will be mostly focused on my 1 year old son because it seems that I am always giving him a nickname. My wife laughs and actually suggested I do a blog about it, but I think I will just include it on this blog….less work to do.
So the first nickname I am posting is “Gokiburi” which means Cockroach in Japanese.
The Story
We laid my son down for a nap the other day and my wife and I assumed he slept, the symptoms were there. Anyway, we hear this rustling coming from the apartment. Now, I have found at least one Gokiburi in our kitchen and the noise I heard then was the same as the one I heard this time. So I assumed it was another one…it is kind of the season now for them in Japan. Anyway, we heard the noise again, so I went to investigate the kitchen. When the noise came again, it was actually coming from the hallway in our apartment. When I opened the door, there was my son rolling around on the floor….sounded just like a Gokiburi.
So for the next few days or until I find a better nickname for him, he is now known as “Gokiburi-kun”!
My daughters, Nicole and Emi, and I went to a small farm near Gifu to pick and eat Blueberries.
Overall, the experience was great, the farm was small and they offered multiple different versions of blueberries (I never knew there were more varieties). If my kids were interested in insects, it would have been a double trip. The farm was enclosed in a net which kept insects out but also kept them in.
The blueberries were very good. Unfortunately, we had to be a little selective because the day before it rained pretty hard so many of the berries were splitting.
We ended up going by bus so it was a long day for us, we had to ride the train to Gifu, which took about 30 min. Then we took a bus from Gifu to a small village called Hise, which took us about an hour. In this area, there are not so many buses running throughout the day. I think to this particular village there was only two.
I just installed a new i-appli for my Sharp SH906iTV phone that allows me to see and send tweets to Twitter. I will document how I installed it and what I think of the software.
To install the software, it took some searching to find it because the phone and most (if not all) of the software for this phone are in Japanese. I came across the software at App Get, which is a site that provides free and not free software for japanese based phones. There was only one entry for Twitter on there, called Twittie. Twittie is actually part of a package of software by Colors, which includes a Flickr and News Viewers. You can initiate the Twittie download here.
Step 1
Give them your mobile address so that they can send you a link to view from your mobile phone.
Step 2
Get the email from App Get which includes a link to view via your mobile phone. After clicking on the link, you will click on about 3 links to get to the final viewing page. On the final viewing page, click on send email which will send them an email and they will auto-reply back to you
Step 3
Get the auto-reply email which has a link to get the i-appli software.
Short Cut
If you just want to get the software, send a blank email to this address dl@colors.naked-tech.com. You will get an instant reply with the download link in it. Click on the link in your phone to get the application.
So now after the installation process, which only takes a few minutes if that, I was able to start using the application. My initial review was that it looked really well and was easy to use, with the rotating menu at the bottom. Once I logged in, I was able to see the most recent tweets and could scroll down to see past tweets. Via the menu, I could see archives, my followers, my replies and messages. You can view some screenshots at their websites located here and here
As you can see, it looks really well and is easy to navigate.
My issues with the application are as follows:
1. Logging into the application was easy, and as along as you close the application without logging out, it saves your username and password, well rather it preserves your connection. When you come back the next time, you will auto connect. I think the application should svae my username and password, if I chose to, so that if I do log out, then I can log back in fairly easily. This is not a huge issue, and is probably best security wise that it is the way it is now. Just a small issue mind you.
2. There is no way to submit photos to twitpic or even flickr for that matter. They provide a flickr viewer, where I was able to view my photostream but I could not add any from the phone. And when my phone has a camera and video camera, adding multimedia content would be very nice.
3. There was no way that I could tell, on how to setup short URLs within the application. Being that tweets are limited to 140 characters, short URLs would be a nice addon in the future.
4. Finally, with Tweets being limited to 140 characters, there was no indication in my editors how many characters I had entered or had left. I literally had to count or guestimate what I was at. This is kind of a hinderance I feel.
Based on the previous issues, I think that Twittie is a great app if I want to stay in touch with Twitter on the move. But for anything else, it is basically useless (when it comes to multimedia content). The issues are enough for me to keep searching for a better app that is actually up to date with the technology out there. If anyone has any suggestions for such an application please let me know. Keep in mind that I am in Japan using a Docomo SH906iTV, so apps for Nokias or iPhones won’t help me at all.
This is a video of the summer matsuri we had here in Kakamigahara, Japan. The quality is very bad because I took it on my cellphone and it was getting dark out. But the idea is that people will dance around the center to some Japanese folk songs. This particular festival had booths around the edges of the park, that sold cotton candy, hotdogs, yakisoba, popcorn, shredded ice, and drinks (beer, juice, water). There were also some games where the children could fish out goldfish or water balloons. All in all it was a good time, and luckily the weather was really good.
Well, I finally got around to setting up some kind of website to share how we are doing in Japan. I am not 100% sure what exactly I will be sharing, so will be winging it for a few months till I can find my topic track.
I would like to use this website to share photos, videos, and just amuzing information about how we are doing. Some of the posts could be private so I ask that you create an account and if you understand RSS feeds, subscribe for those as well.
If you have a request or would like to know something in particular about Us, Japan, Food, Culture, or anything else along those lines, feel free to make a request by sending me an email.
I hope you enjoy this blog as much as I will enjoy writing articles for it.
Entrepreneur, working from home, raising two kids, and living in Japan.
