My wife and I having dinner in our old place. The camera is sitting on the fridge in the "kitchen" (pictured below). You can just barely see our bed in the lower left corner, and a ladder leading up to our modest loft on the right. This is a 1R (w/ loft) in Japanese lingo. We'd probably call it a studio apartment, but here it's a one room. Slightly larger would be a 1K, or one room plus a kitchen. We now live in a 2DK (two rooms plus a third room that is big enough to be considered a dining room and kitchen rolled into one).
Yong-nam doing something in the "kitchen". The kitchen was actually just some appliances lined up on the wall opposite the unit bathroom (pictured below) in the corridor leading to the front (and only) door.
Labels:
moving
At the end of last week I went to Ginza to find the Apple (MacIntosh) Megastore.
Two years ago I received a 40GB iPod (3rd generation) from my wife as a birthday present. In a moment of wisdom that came out of nowhere, I decided to plunk down $70 for the extended warranty.
After two years of constant use, the battery was nearly nonexistant (less than two hours of life per charge), and the screen was incredibly faded. I decided to bring my iPod in and see if they would at least replace the battery (which only lasted 8 hours on a full charge when I first got it).
The Apple shop in Ginza is beautiful, and the service was very good despite the large number of customers that were milling about.
To make a boring story short, they didn't replace the battery. They didn't do anything to my old iPod for that matter. They just gave me a new one. Nice nice!
So 30 minutes later I walked out of there with a brand new 40GB (3rd generation) iPod at no additional cost. This one's not under extended warranty, but I figure that $70 for a 40GB iPod is a pretty fair trade.
Labels:
consumerism
Dan already posted a fantastic photo from back in the day that was provided by Matt. It inspired me to awaken the scanner sitting next to my computer (it's actually part of an all-in-one setup), and all in the name of wishing Steve Schlesinger a happy birthday!!
Happy Birthday, Steve!!
Here's one from a few years ago. I don't have any good photos from high school with me in Japan. I'll bring some back the next time we head to the states. In the meantime, here's an old 4th of July pic (2000?). Pictured are (l to r) Travis, Steve, Lance, Aaron, Dan, and Ryan.
Korea beat Japan 3-2 tonight in what many will term an upset. Carried by clutch defense, and some good base hits up the middle of the diamond, Korea was able to come from behind for a well-deserved win.
With the score 1-2 in Japan's favor, Lee Seung-yeop took Japan closer Ishii Hirotoshi yard with a man on. That proved to be the deciding swing as both teams brought on their MLB pitchers to stifle each other's late inning ambitions. Park Chan-ho closed it out on the mound for Korea, and Otsuka was pitching for the home team during the top of the ninth inning.
It will be interesting to see what the Japanese media says about this one tomorrow. In my eyes, Japan came ready to play, but just kept hitting the ball within reach of the Korean gloves.
Korea played very well, and should be able to make some noise in the states if they play the same way during the second round.
And you just had to love that small band of white and blue camped in the left field bleachers!
Apparently it's OK for a man to hit a woman here in Japan. I just saw it again with my own two eyes out in front of the sushi restaurant across the street.
Lots of families have lunch at the sushi restaurant after visiting their deceased relative's tomb at the local cemetery. Saturdays and Sundays are busy days at the cemetery. As one family poured out of the restaurant, an argument erupted between a youngish looking woman (I live on the second floor across the street), and an older man. He had probably just had a few because his face was bright pink. I don't know if it was a father-daughter argument, or a quarrel between more distant family members. The outcome, however, was much easier to define.
The older guy punched a younger guy in the jaw (who was obviously on the woman's side of the equation), and then socked the woman in the side of the head. A lot of other family members (about 10) had gathered at this point, and they did an OK job of separating the beater and the beaten. But as I've learned to expect here in Japan, the old man was allowed to just walk away.
The woman had long since flipped out, and after a couple minutes of wrangling with other members of her family, she ran up the road after the guy who had dealt her the right hook. I could hear the makings of another quarrel about 100 meters up the road, but my bathroom window opens in an awkward way, so I wasn't able to see. The ladies who cut hair up at the beauty parlor probably witnessed an interesting performance.
This incident (12:50pm) was similar to the last time I saw a man punch a woman in that the woman was treated as the criminal.
