Three Days Of The Karamoon

For the first time in my life I watched "Three Days Of The Condor", a 1975 film directed by Sydney Pollack, staring Robert Redford. It's based on the book "Six Days Of The Condor". The film is well-known throughout the hacker community because of its realistic depiction of phone phreaking. At one point in the film Robert Redford steals a lineman's handset which he uses to beige box with. He records some DTMF tones and uses a remote computer to decode them. He also makes a call from within a telephone exchange, directly connecting to the switch. This enables him to route his call through several phone lines, thus defeating the CIA's attempt to trace his call.

Watching Three Days Of The Condor made me want to watch "The Falcon And The Snowman" and "The Conversation" again.

Akihabara Massacre

There was a massacre this afternoon in Akihabara, the tech and anime area of Tokyo. Some guy drove a truck through a crowd of people, he then got out of the truck and started stabbing people. Seven people have died so far.

Akihabara is not a place I often go to because it's the opposite side of Tokyo to me, and nowadays it's far more sleazy than it used to be. When I fist came to Japan in 2001, Akihabara was a tech paradise. During the years I was away from Japan, it's changed to a scummy place full of maid-cafes, porn shops and other unpleasant places.

Like many parts of the modern world, Japan is sick. We should therefore not be in the least surprised when sick things like this happen. It is, of course, tragic when people are killed in this way, but it also highlights the many social problems here. Japan has the highest child-suicide rate in the world, something that nobody here seems to give a fuck about. Prostitution is endemic here. The yakuza control many aspects of life here, and nobody tries to stop them. There is an HIV timebomb here, but nobody talks about it. Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

The Japanese here are hoping that the guy who committed the massacre was on drugs, or was mentally ill, or was a gangster. If he is, then every one will sleep soundly, knowing that Japan really is perfect, and that their are just a few rotten apples here.

Piracy Is Good

Downloaded over 100 MP3s including stuff by Peaches, Negativland, Kraftwerk, Red Martian, Le Tigre, The Talking Heads, Sleeper, The Flaming Lips, Grandmaster Flash and Gonzales.

Hatsumi Interview

Found an interview with Ninjutsu teacher Dr Hatsumi on the Tokyo Journal website: www.tokyo.to/stories/ninja/index.html

Meeting Wamono

I spent most of the day doing nothing. I had planned to have a haircut, do some exercise, write some of my film script and save the world, but instead I just sat around, watching anime and surfing the Net.

In the evening I met two people from Wamono, a new England-language magazine published in Tokyo. I was very nervous at first but I soon managed to relax. We went to a very pleasant restaurant in Shibuya and discussed many things. I hope to get involved with Wamono is some small capacity, for example as a proof-reader. Check out the Wamono website: www.wamono-web.com

Thai Festival

An early start. I went to Tower Records in Shibuya to get the free weekly English magazines. In an unprecedented departure from the norm, I actually bought some stuff at Tower. I got a copy of Tokyo Journal and JSelect.

I met up with my friend Tomoko and we wondered around the Thai Festival in the rain. It had grown considerably since the last one I had been to, which was seven years ago. We ate various Thai foods and tried to avoid the rain. We had some coffee at a doughnut shop then Tomoko headed off to a Linux meeting.

I went round the Thai festival again with Chi-chan and Pasinee, a Thai friend. It was raining more heavily, so when I finally went home I was cold and wet.

Stuff I Read And Why

M0oo...
UK-based hacker BigM000 always delivers entertaining tales of his daily life, seeking work and adventure in and around Sunny Norwich.

Tomoko's Blog
Tomo-chan candidly explores the role of women in Japan, while struggling to understand the OSI 7-layer model of networking.

WAMONO BLOG
Wamono Magazine aims to take Japanese culture "from Japan to all the places in the world". This is the Wamono staff blog.

Sungypsy
Damon Coulter is a professional photographer who happens to live very close to me. His photos and insights are well worth checking out.

Citizen Reporter
Bicycle Mark reads news from around the world so I don't have to bother.

Whining About Wine

I'm starting to enjoy teaching a lot more recently. I had a discussion lesson this morning which went pretty well. In Japan it's always hard to get good class interaction. When I asked the class to suggest a topic for the next lesson they remained silent so I just said "Plan a bank robbery". I look forward to seeing what they come up with.

My next lesson was with a new student who works as a wine waiter in a famous Italian restaurant in Tokyo. I couldn't bring myself to tell my student that I don't drink. Instead, I pretended to be interested in issues such as plastic-cork technology, emerging markets for Australian wines and the amount of alcohol Japanese people are able to consume in a typical evening.

My last lesson of the day was to coach a university student for the TOEIC English exam. TOEIC is a stupid exam, but the lesson was still fun. Cynical readers may wonder how two hours with an 18-year old Japanese cheerleader can be anything other than fun...

Best. Book. Title. Ever.

"If You Liked School, You'll Love Work" by Ivine Welsh. It says it all. I haven't read the book, and I'm not going. Fuck work.

Video Killed The DVD Star

VHS is so cool and retro, like my beard. I bought 4 ex-rental videos from a stall outside a supermarket today:
(1) Heathers (Michael Lehmann, 1989)
(2) Roger And Me (Michael Moore, 1989)
(3) The Way Of The Gun (Christopher McQuarrie, 2000)
(4) Gummo (Harmony Korine, 1997)

Please watch all four films if you haven't already done so and post your comments here.

Open The Pod Bay Doors, HAL

Watched "2001 Seconds", which is the film "2001: A Space Odyssey" with the boring bits removed and a new soundtrack added. It's very, very good. You too can watch it, just download it from 2001 seconds - the Swith Edit

Sexy Beijing

Found a professional video podcast from China called "Sexy Beijing" while aimlessly wondering around Youtube. It's rather light, but still worth watching. Just search Youtube or check out the website: www.sexybeijing.tv

I'm still crazy about China and Chinese culture. Once my Japanese is better I'll start learning Mandarin properly. If I can get the cash together I will spend a month in Beijing studying Mandarin at a language school.

Ups And Downs

Walked up and down Takao-san twice today as part of my training for climbing Fuji-san later this year. Takao-san is a very small mountain, just 600 metres tall. Fuji-san is about 3700 metres tall, so I must do a lot of training. Going up the second time I spotted this tiny shrine.

Keepin' It Real In Da Tokyo Hood

Went for a walk in my 'hood. Found my local telephone exchange. W00t. Spotted some other cool things including this roadside shrine. I also found a very tempting storm drain...

Just Walk Away

During one of my classes today a student was very disrespectful. Although she was actually expressing the opinion of another student, it still pissed me off. I will probably quit the class or at least make them feel bad. I feel very lucky to know that I can essentially just walk away from any class I don't like and still be able to just find some more students and get enough money to live on.

Full On Sunday

Got up at 7am to help old people clear up the cherry blossom in the streets around my town. Networking is very important here as most things are based on personal relationships. That is what I was telling myself as I sleepily wondered around my neighborhood with a witch's broom and a rubbish bag full of blossom.

At 10am I queued up to get free trees. Every year since 1975 free trees are given out by the Tokyu train company to people living on Tokyu train lines. The idea is that this will make the areas along the train lines nicer, so more people will live along the lines and use the trains. I got a peach tree and a grape vine! Sometime Japan is just too damn cool.

In the afternoon I went to a "Tea Salon" event. It was organized by an international association in a nearby city. It was embarrassing, silly, childish and fun, just like many events in Japan. I met a couple of cool people, and the event was free, so I guess it was worthwhile.

On the way home I bought a couple of dumbbells to use for Crossfit training. I plan to do dumbbell thrusters, which are very evil, but also very effective for improving your fitness. I will blog my results...

Wink Or Swim

Swimming in Japan is very strange. In most public Japanese public swimming pools, half of the people walk up and down the pool instead of swimming. At the end of each hour, everyone has to get out for a rest.

I went swimming at a school swimming pool near my house. The staff seemed really pleased to have a non-Japanese customer. One of the lifeguards rushed up to me as I entered the pool, and asked where I was from. When I told him I was English, he got very excited and started talking about Mr David Beckham, a British footballer. I tried to explain that football was the opium of the people etc, but I'm not sure I was able to fully get my point across.

Fallen Cherry Blossom, Strange Party And Film Editing

At 8 am I met up with some old people to sweep up the fallen cherry blossom. After an hour, we had some tea and I was formally introduced to the others. In Japan it is common for old people to be fit and active until they die. I don't think it has anything to do with genetics, it's just that Japanese people have a very healthy diet and lifestyle.

At 11 am some of my students came over for a party. It was rather strange. We ate cold squid and spoke in a mixture of Japanese and English.

At 2 pm my good friend Ando-san arrived. Ando-san is going to edit my film. She has had 10 years experience working in TV. Although TV sucks, needless to say, Ando-san rocks. In the evening we went for ramen.

Murder On The Orient Express

It rained all day today. I stayed inside reading "Mastery Of Hand Strength" and watching "Murder On The Orient Express". Both are very good, like life.

2001: A Lunch Odyssey

Arthur C. Clarke has died.

In the afternoon I had lunch with Scott Lockman. We intended to go to are usual restaurant, an Egyptian place that does an excellent buffet lunch. Sadly they restaurant in no longer doing lunch, so we ended up in an Indian restaurant. The food was good, and it was reasonably priced. After lunch we went to a expensive coffee shop here we ate expensive cakes and talked about Second Life.