Japanese Headbangers RAWK OUT

Rich Pav 11 Comments

Name: Maria
Sex: Who knows? (lol)
Birthday: May 24
Occupation: Dream chaser
E-mail: beautymaria@ezweb.ne.jp
Height: 178cm
Weight: I’ve recently gained weight
Hobbies: singing, cosmetics
Special skill: vocal range
Hairstyle: rainbow
Favorite words: beautiful, Maria
Personality: extremely narcissistic, extremely selfish
Favorite Food: thick, juicy steak
Least Favorite Foods: shrimp, squid, octopus, crab, all shellfish
Favorite Drink: melon soda
Least Favorite Drinks: sake, shochu
Favorite Book: I hate reading (lol)
Favorite Perfume: One I have at home, I forget what it’s called (lol)
Favorite Sport: practicing vocals
Favorite Animal: Hamu Taro
Favorite Pastime: street performing
Favorite Karaoke Song: I sing my own songs (lol)
Dream for the future: to mobilize 1000 people without ever having to set foot in an office. That and to sing at the Budokan

Podcast (video): Play in new window | Download (25.9MB) | Embed

Subscribe: RSS

Sembei with holy frikkin’ WASPS in them!

Rich Pav 7 Comments

This is the kind of news from Japan I suspect is the norm. Am I right or wrong? I’ll admit that it’s a fact, as reported a few days ago by the Asahi Shimbun, that that a town called Omachi in Nagano Prefecture is selling rice crackers with wholesome waspy goodness baked right in.

tky200708280430.jpg

But if you come away with only one new bit of knowledge after reading my blog, I hope it’s the realization that this kind of stuff makes the news because it’s not normal.

All the weird, zany, wacky news from Japan like this you read on blogs? Most of it is considered weird here too. I’ve seen and eaten all kinds of sembei throughout my 18 years of living here, but you could live out your whole life in this country and never come across any kind of food with bugs in it on purpose. The thing is, I bet if I started posting news like this more often, my readership and Google ranking (currently 4, which is pretty darn good) would increase. I refuse to do that. In fact, I try my best to do the opposite: show you what daily life is really like (i.e. kinda boring, really).

But I have to admit, I’d love to try jibachi sembei. If it passes for “food” somewhere in the world, I’ll eat it. Whenever there’s something on a menu that’s outrageous or I don’t know what exactly it is, that’s what I order.

And please, call them “sembei,” not “rice crackers.” It irks me it when people call food by its description instead of its real name.

Nonstop Rain & Thoughts on Commuting

Rich Pav 7 Comments

KC380017.jpg

It’s been raining for the past two days, at times heavy enough to turn roads into rivers. My wife drove me to the station this morning. Want to hear my excitement for today? I looked up in the car’s owner’s manual how to adjust the dashboard clock. It’s no longer running eight minutes fast, causing me to drive like a maniac at times from thinking I was late.

Notice in the photo that the platform isn’t so crowded that white gloved conductors have to cram commuters into cars. That’s the only scene you tend to see in video clips, but in reality it’s not the norm. That only happens when the trains are delayed during rush hour due to an accident, which isn’t very often. Trains do get crowded closer to Tokyo, but in normal circumstances not painfully so, unless you’re crushed against someone with demoniacally bad breath.

It’s also been said that Japanese people often are reluctant to sit next to foreigners on trains. Honestly, I can’t remember that ever happening to me, probably because like everyone else I don’t take a special interest in the people around me. Tourists have a way of looking around that makes Japanese uneasy, as if you might talk to them or ask them a question in English. To be honest, I avoid those types too. You just never know if they’re going to be crazy, smelly, embarrassing or annoying.

McDonald’s is mobbed

Rich Pav 4 Comments

KC380015.jpg

It’s lunchtime, swimming just let out and the department store shoppers are also hungry. The line to the register snakes through the restaurant and out the back door.
I have nothing better to do while waiting in line, ergo, I’m unnecessarily blogging. Who knows, maybe somebody out there was wondering what a McDonald’s in Japan looks like.

Saturday Swimming

Rich Pav

KC380014.jpg

Tony and Andy are swimming, I’m upstairs killing time by reading up on JavaScript objects and arrays.
Tony’s pointing me out to his friends, waving and trading funny faces with me. Just like how I sometimes miss the two year old Tony now, I know there will too soon come a day when I’ll miss Tony the 10 year old. My kids teach me the importance of always appreciating the present moment.

Typhoon? What typhoon?

Rich Pav 8 Comments

Last night I decided to sleep in the office because a “strong” typhoon (That’s how they offically catagorized it. Yeah, real helpful.) was headed directly towards Tokyo. Most typhoons come up from Kyushu and by the time they arrive here they’re not much more than bad rainstorms. This one was different. It came right off the Pacific ocean and hit land just south of Tokyo.

I have no idea how bad it was. Either I slept through it or it wasn’t as nasty as predicted. However, it’s 11am now and my coworkers are just starting to trickle in, so I assume the trains are a mess.

It’s pretty miserable to commute when the weather is bad. I have a 20 minute one-handed bicycle ride, holding an umbrella that the wind wants to turn inside out, followed a soping wet, jam-packed train ride that lasts around twice as long as usual. Screw that, I slept like a baby on the office sofa and commuted a whole 5 meters to my cubicle. Tony called me this morning (he has his own little ruggedized kiddie keitai) to make sure I was still alive. Someone in Nagano Pref. was killed when a tree fell on him. Ouchie.

It’s a good thing I didn’t oversleep, because I like to sleep in the nude.  (Ha, ha, just kidding. Actually, I wore my socks and wristwatch.)

Me and Jackie Chan

Rich Pav 9 Comments

The other night, David Letterman had Jackie Chan on and asked him if he enjoyed making the Rush Hour movies. His reply:

“Not really…On the set I just follow whatever they tell me to do. They tell me fight, I fight. They tell me speak dialog, I speak dialog. When I speak dialog everybody laughing, I don’t understand what’s going on. Then I don’t know why audience like it.”

I can sympathize. Every morning, I think about what I’d say if I were to do a podcast and I think, “Nobody would want to hear about that.” But when I force myself to do one, the reaction is positive and for the life of me I can’t understand why. It’s like I’m the only one not tuned into the appeal.

I know, I know, I’ve said the same thing 100 times. But I’m still trying to figure it out. The problem is, I really like all the people who come to this site, so I have to keep putting stuff out so you keep coming back.