Back To The R00ts

Went through some of my old issues of 2600 Magazine When I get some money together I'll buy the Best Of 2600 book. I might add that I suggested such a book to the editor of 2600 at the 21st Chaos Communication Congress.

Taught a kids' class for two lovely five-year-old girls. Afterwards I spent a long time thinking about what children should really be taught. I came up with the following list: cooking, knot-tying, hacking, throwing shuriken, phreaking, barehand killing, planning picnics, swimming, back flips and sword fighting.

Dear Karamoon...

Dear Karamoon,

This is just a quick note to remind you of the following: Industrial education is morally indefensible. Anyone who allows their children to enter the industrial education system is failing in their duty as a parent. There are no exceptions. Fuck school.

Yours,
Karamoon

Needless to say, my children will not be attending school.

Can You Sing A Rainbow Bridge?

Somehow I managed to get up early enough to meet up with Christopher in Odaiba. I found Christopher with a Canadian called Aaron. Aaron, like all Canadians (with the exception of the RCMP) was lovely. We had brunch at a chain restaurant. We then walked across the famous Rainbow Bridge all the way to Tokyo Tower. Rainbow Bridge isn't very rainbow-like in the daytime, but it was still quite impressive.

Tokyo Tower was crowded and silly, like many things in Tokyo. It is going to be pulled down soon, and a new Tokyo Tower will be built in Ueno, another part of Tokyo. Scientists have predicted that the new Tokyo Tower will be slightly less crowded than the old one, but just as silly.

The three of us took a train to Akihabara. Christopher introduced us to a good Indian restaurant where I ate some Kashmiri curry. We then wondered around for a while. It was my first time to go to Akihabara since the Akihabara Massacre. At the spot where the massacre took place people had left food and drink. Aaron bought an R4 card which allows the Nintendo DS to play copied games. Playing games is probably not a good use of Aaron's time, nor is writing the second "o" every time he writes his name. Don't people know there is a war on?

After saying goodbye to Christopher and Aaron, I went to Shibuya, where I spent an unreasonable period of time trying to find somewhere quiet to have a cup of tea. In the end I gave up and went to a chain restaurant.

The Robot Man

Today I met up with a Japanese man who used to work for Apple as a hardware engineer. He is retired now but works on projects of his own including building a sophisticated robot. He has also been a radio Ham. Run DMC once said "Next time somebody's teaching make sure you get taught". Wise words, which I intend to follow.

Propaganda

One of the perks of teaching English in Japan is that you are able to spread propaganda. There is something quite refreshing about spending 90 minutes indoctrinating a group of Japanese adults during an English lesson on the evils of the G8.

Debating Fuji

Stayed up late discussing the merits and demerits of attending the Fuji Rock festival. Merits include:
(1) The fact that the Fuji Rock Festival is the best music festival in the world.
(2) Being able to see Grandmaster Flash and Lee "Scratch" Perry.

Demerits include:
(1) The ticket price of 40,000 yen. (200 quid)
(2) It's held in the sky resort of Naeba, an expensive train journey away.

It's likely that I won't go and that, as a result, I'll be mildly upset for 12 months.

The China Syndrome

Twenty-eight years old and still packing a punch. The China Syndrome has certainly stood the test of time and has earned a place in my top ten films. Watch it, and watch it soon.

Iggy Pop's Ocelot Shop

Went to a local zoo. The zoo's main attraction is an Okapi which is related to the giraffe but looks more like a zebra. I was rather underwhelmed by the Okapi, but did see an ocelot, which I liked very much. The last time I saw an ocelot was at Iggy Pop's Ocelot Shop:
www.rathergood.com/ocelot

The zoo is owned by Yokohama city government, so it's quite cheap. Chichan and I had lunch at a restaurant in the zoo, which was reasonably priced and served great food. In the UK the restaurant would have been a complete rip-off. In the UK almost everything is a scam or a rip-off. I'm sure many Japanese business owners are just as greedy as those in the UK, but typically their pride outweighs their greed, so they tend to offer good quality products at low prices.

The Parallax View

Watched "The Parallax View". Not since THX-1138 has a film affected me so much.

Sketching With Sketchup

Played around with Google Sketchup. I designed a table. It's quite good. So is Japan. Unlike this blog.

Starfire Revisited

I watched the Starfire video again today with one of my students. I told her it was a good example of business English in use, which it is, to some extent.
http://asktog.com/starfire
My student was really enthusiastic about the content. I think it was the first time for her to question the status quo as far as human-computer interaction is concerned...

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.