Entries this day: Life_in_Japan m.robnugen.com radar-fails-in-memphis-hundreds-of-flights-affected-cnncom thank-you-alan-greenspan the-hindu-news-update-service zzz_clarity_please zzzz_dan

Life in Japan

HI M

Thank you for your question about living in Kanagawa!

I hope this information reaches you in time for your interview on Friday.  :-)

Without consideration of the details regarding money and the amount of
living space you require, it sounds like from the tone of your email
that you would love to experience a year+ in Japan.

300,000 yen is enough to live in Tokyo and save probably 60,000 yen
per month.  I'm certain the price of living will be lower in
Atsugi-shi.

I am not familiar with Atsugi-shi in terms of its culture, but I can
see from Google Maps, it's a city quite close to beautiful mountains:

Google Map of Atsugi, Kanagawa, Japan

(I didn't try to find the exact address of your work location, but I
can if you like (with about 50% chance that I'll get it correct :-) )

--

Now I will write my general stereotype of Japan and foreigners living in Japan.

Basically, I've found Japan to be a racist country.  People who are
not Japanese can never be fully accepted into Japanese culture.

That said, I have been here 4+ years, have a lovely Japanese
girlfriend.  Most foreigners who are here for a while will find their
niche given enough time.

- - -

Japanese culture says that the appearance of something is more
important than its real nature.  As a result of that (and other
factors), it can be really difficult to find out what people *really*
think about any given situation.

However, this allows millions of people to live together in very close
proximity with a minimum of conflict.  (basically zero conflict)

- - -

Foreigners in Japan tend to stay just a brief time ("oh my god get me
out of here!!")  or stay and stay and stay ("just one more year...
just one more year...")

Japan can be a great point from which to base travel in Asia.

- - -

When I first came to Japan, I spoke zero Japanese.  I did have a great
passion for learning it, though that passion has waned to daily
questions, "will I ever seriously learn Japanese?  Do I need it?  Why
keep studying?  Why stop now?"

Japanese is quite a difficult language, for several reasons.  But with
diligence and focus, you can learn a lot in two years.

- - -

A friend of mine who has traveled and lived in *many* countries has
said he likes Japan the least of all.  He says the relationships are
all superficial and meaningless, so he wishes he had never come.

In my personal experience, the most difficult part of living in Japan
was lack of physical and emotional contact.  My imagination of France
is there's ample connection, with people hugging and french kissing
everywhere.  Physical contact in Japan is relatively rare.

In Japan, everything is ordered and has a place.  Once one gets to
know the rules, living in Japan is physically and logistically very
easy.  But I've found it spiritually and psychologically quite
draining.

---------------

I encourage you to take any job outside of France.  Experiencing a new
culture can be a great life experience!

If your choices are only this job in Japan, or a job in France, I
would go for Japan.  If you have job offers in other countries, then I
can't really say, but I might take a different country.

If you lived in Atsugi, we would be living too far from each other to
"hang out," but I would certainly enjoy visiting the mountains near
your new house!  From Atsugi station, it would take 45 minutes one-way
to get to Shibuya (the station nearest where I work)

- - - - -

How's that for a confusing answer????

   :-)

  - Rob!

m.robnugen.com

3:24pm JST Wednesday 26 September 2007 (day 13699)

Wow. I found a QR code generator around the same time I decided to make a mobile version of robnugen.com.

Though I haven't been able to test it, the above should be equivalent to http://m.robnugen.com/

Now I'm making http://m.robnugen.com/j, which will display a version of my journal.

8:43pm JST Wednesday 26 September 2007 (day 13699)

Unless I'm overlooking a huge detail, I should be able to get m.robnugen.com/j working with just a couple more hours of work. I wonder if that means I should rewrizzle my main journal.pl code. A big difference between the two is journal.pl allowed comments (though it does no longer), and it has some error checking that would not be necessary if I disallow any monkey business with parameters. I remember thinking that we should allow the user to enter just 1999, and journal.pl would come up with the most recent 1999 entry. That all required a bunch of checks and shit that simply aren't used all that often (are they?)

And journal.pl outputs log files for all the hits it gets. I'd like to know how many hits come to the mobile version, so I'll keep the log writing action.

radar fails in memphis hundreds of flights affected cnncom

##13:43 Wednesday 26 September 2007

The malfunction, which occurred inside a telephone company's switching office, made it impossible for air controllers at FAA's Memphis Center to communicate normally with adjoining centers to hand off control of flights,

Radar fails in Memphis; hundreds of flights affected - CNN.com

I find it interesting the article keeps the "telephone company" anonymous. If the phone company were to be outed, certainly the article would provide a bit of (bad) publicity.

Blogged with Flock

Tags: nopublicity is bad publicity

thank you alan greenspan

##02:33 Wednesday 26 September 2007

David Shuster looks at Greenspan’s “revelation” that the occupation of Iraq was all about the oil.

Crooks and Liars » Shuster on Hardball: Blood for Oil

I hope the video stays available on the site.

Also

AMERICA’s elder statesman of finance, Alan Greenspan, has shaken the White House by declaring that the prime motive for the war in Iraq was oil.

Alan Greenspan claims Iraq war was really for oil - Times Online

Blogged with Flock

Tags: blood, terror, iraq, oil, airplane day

the hindu news update service

##02:04 Wednesday 26 September 2007

We should explore the possibility of generating electric power through single cycle fusion process using Helium-3 on the moon," Kalam said.The former president, who led India's successful missile programme, said energy production through fossil fuel generates 30 billion tonnes of CO2 annually and countries should look for cleaner energy.

The Hindu News Update Service

https://ma.gnolia.com/badoscici

I quoted above the part with which I agree most. I'm glad some world leaders are suggesting stuff like this.

Blogged with Flock

Tags: future, space

zzz clarity please

1:12am JST Thursday 27 September 2007 (day 13700)

> = from Dan:

To: 2007.08.17Zzzz.html@robnugen.com

> I started on September 24th and I'm working my way back, made me think- I've
> never read a book backwards.

Well, you're the only one who I know that has read my book backwards..  I've had one person try to
start at the beginning and come *forward*, but I think he got overwhelmed after about 1997, when the
entries just become relentless.

>
> We snoozed for a bit and she just headed home. Wonderfully, that entails
> just 15 minutes walking, and 6 minutes of bicycling. No more hurrying before
> last train, nor taxis if she misses last train. Lovely!
>
> Why can't you just walk or just cycle.... is it a 22 min walk or a 9 min
> cycle??

At the time of the entry, she came directly to my house after work, by way of Motosumiyoshi Station.
But that morning, she had gone *to* work by bicycling from her house to Hirama Station (on Nambu
Line).

So after chatting with me in the evening, she had to walk 15 minutes to Hirama Station to pick up
her bicycle and then ride 6 minutes home.

Now she comes to my house in the evening by way of Hirama Station so she can get her bicycle.

Does that make any sense?

zzzz dan

> Yo bro- you up??.... I'm at work.
> I don't know why but this is truly amazing.....

I'm awake, but about to drop off to lala dreamland...

> genki dreams...........

Thank you.   Genki Work for you!

I know you're reading backwards, but I hope you don't mind a little
background information: (*)

http://robnugen.com/journal.pl?type=all&date=2007/09/26#zzz_clarity_please

(*) I'm not sure how to make this funnier.  Basically the joke is that
something written in the future of what you're reading has become
background information because you're reading backwards.

Normally (in the forward direction of time and reading) it would be a
plot spoiler, and I wouldn't tell you, but since you've already seen
it, I imagine you won't mind.  :-)

Thanks for being so great!

  - Rob!