Batgirl

Nico will be 5 months old in less than a week, on Feb. 6th.

So what new thing has she learned this month? Well, she can clasp her hands together, which is really cute. She's doing rasberries, and "gyah's" and "goo's" and a bunch of other sounds, but her absolutely new favorite is the high-pitched, ear splitting squeal. Happy or sad, or any state in between, she let's rip with the sonar. It's cute and interesting and seems really expressive, but it's a bit like living with a baby bat.

Tags: baby | sound | squeal

Today's Dailies

Dailies

Tags: Japan | Takayama | photos | dailies

Funny ED ad

A completely over-the-top Japanese TV commercial for ED, or erectile dysfunction. The bee and the dripping flower are my favorite bits.

Tags: Japan | TV | commercial | sex | oddness

Todays Dailies

Dailies

Tags: Japan | Takayama | photos | dailies

Bumbo party

We recently got a Bumbo for Nico after reading my brother rave about it on my lil' nephew's blog. And yeah, it's great! It's a really simple, smart product and just works so perfectly well it's hard to imagine this not having always existed. It projects a bumbo shaped hole retroactively back through time begging to be filled.

That, and it's a really smart baby seat. But even in our excitement removing it from the box I couldn't help but be struck by one of the photos on the packaging....



I mean seriously, they could have done waaaaaay better than this. These babies look totally wacked on sugary fruit juices and spiked mothers milk. It's like 3 am, all the party decorations are falling, the static cling has leeched out of the balloons and streamers, Mom and Dad are crashed on the couch and these three dudes are stuck in their comfy Bumbo's totally glazed, unable to move. Hardcore...



See what I mean?

Tags: Babies | bumbo | oddness | funny

Todays Dailies

Dailies

Tags: Japan | Takayama | photos | dailies

The Zoorasian Brass Band and the String Quartet of the Tsuru-Usagi

On Sunday we took Nico to her very first concert. Of course, this being Japan, the players were all wearing animal heads...

Actually, I don't know if this is unique to Japan, but it certainly is VERY Japanese to use mascots or animal characters (or any kind of character actually) to sell something. In this case, a little musical culture to the diaper set.


First the Zoorasian Brass Band came out and played a few numbers. The conductor is an Okapi, by the way.


Followed by the Tsuru-Usagi String Quartet, who, with names like (from L to R) Meg, Amy, Beth and Jo, apparently must be Australian rabbits.


After a brief intermission, both groups came out and rocked the stage.


They even came out for an encore.


Afterwards, they were available for autographs.


And photo opportunities.

Y'know, the thing is, we've been so starved of culture lately up here in our mountain stronghold that it was actually quite pleasant to see some live symphonic music played. Even if by forgotten sports team mascots playing to an audience, that for the most part, were probably sitting in soiled underpants.


In fact, I enjoyed it so much perhaps I'll download some bunny wallpaper to remember them by. And if you'd like to see more of my photos you can check out my flickr set.

Tags: Japan | Takayama | oddness | characters | mascots | music | animals

Todays Dailies

Dailies

Tags: Japan | Takayama | photos | dailies

First zombies, now vampires... oh my!

David Wellington is back at it. I pimped him here before for his excellent Monster Planet series, a trilogy of some of the finest on-line zombie fiction I've ever read. Of course, I haven't read much other on-line zombie fiction... but this guy's stuff is really good.

Now he's doing a vampire novel on-line, "Thirteen Bullets". I have never read vampire fiction before, no Anne Rice, no Lestat (as played by Tom Cruise.. yes?), nada. The whole cannon always struck me as too fetid, too oversexed and swoon-y... swarthy master players in silk shirts fronting rock bands and running the boardroom while choking down some neck of virgin. Or brooding, obsessive, bougainvillea scented tortured souls who after all, really, really just want to be loved. Now 13 bullets is only at chapter 6 (so now is a good time to go get caught up...) and the author might still take his characters in that direction, but I hope and think not. He played with the conventions of the zombie thing pretty well in his Monster series, so I'm inclined to be hopeful for this latest effort.

For a very different take on the whole vampire thing though, head over to Peter Watts site, and check out his "Vampire Domestication: Taming Yesterday's Nightmares for a Better Tomorrow". It's a scary spot-on parody of a PowerPoint presentation from the good folks at FizerPharm of what to do with vampires for fun and profit. Oh yeah, Peter Watts also has some absolutely AMAZING fiction available on-line as well.

Tags: Fiction | Zombie | Vampire | Horror | reading

Celebu

Nico was quite the lil' celebrity today. We went for lunch to a new "Japanese style" restaurant today that opened up about a week ago. The place is really pleasant, with a big, airy interior, great views of the nearby mountains and some very, very yummy soba and udon dishes. Miyuki had soba (which is a kind of buckwheat noodle) and duck and I had udon (a flour noodle) and katsu, which is basically a veal schnitzel.



But Nico was the real star. She was the waitress special. The sweet, old(er) ladies couldn't get enough of her.



New ones kept coming by to get their turn holding her.



I got slightly (only slightly) nervous when one of them asked if she could take her around to show to the rest of the staff. I wasn't sure if in their zeal she might not accidentally end up in a soup pot. But no such worries. She came back to us undipped, unbreaded and just as sweet and tender as ever. She got to be a celebrity and we got to slurp down our noodles at ease.

Tags: Japan | Takayama | baby | soba | udon | food | noodles

Todays Dailies

Dailies

Tags: Japan | Takayama | photos | dailies

4 months +

On Wednesday Nico got her 4 month-ish check-up. Everything checked out fine.


She's a bit on the small side for her age: weight = 6155 grams (or 13.6 lbs), height = 60.3 cm (or 23.7 in); but well within the average.


Developmentally she's doing good: holding her head up nicely, tracking with her eyes, grabbing stuff, giggling, babbling, smiling and just being an overall cutie-pie.

But now starts all the immunizations (they start later here in Japan) and we've got a difficult decision to make. We're planning on following the Japanese immunization schedule for Nico as it's fairly similar to the U.S. schedule. But it's got a couple of major differences... and the biggie we're trying to decide within the next couple of months is whether or not she should get the BCG vaccine. It's for tuberculosis, which while in steady decline for the past several decades, has shown a slight uptick recently here in Japan. We'd like to give Nico all the protection we can while we're here so it's seems like the thing to do. However, not everyone agrees it's an effective treatment.

On the other hand, if she does get the vaccine and when we or she returns to the States, every routine health exam where they test for TB, she'll show as positive (because of the presence of the vaccine, ie: dead virii... is that a word?). That means a lifetime of hassle taking unnecessary medication and chest xrays to prove "all clear". Miyuki had an adult (Japanese) friend in NYC who had to go on a 9 month drug regimen just to convince her doctors of being cured of the TB she never had.

So we're still not sure what to do... protection now, here, for a lifetime of potential hassles there? ...Just not sure.

Tags: Japan | babies | health | vaccine | tuberculosis | BCG

Todays Dailies

From Takayama

Tags: Japan | Takayama | photos | dailies

Todays Dailies

Now with more design goodness.

Tags: Japan | Takayama | photos | dailies

Todays Dailies

From Takayama

Technorati tags: Japan, Takayama, Dailies

Kazarimono 2006

It's that time of year again... Kazarimono time, or "display objects" time. It's an annual tradition here in Takayama going back some 200 years. Basically, each year there's a contest to display everyday objects in accordance with that years theme. They're like homegrown versions of Duchamp's urinal readymade. This year it's "dog" (being the year of after all) and "smile". Last year it was "bird" and "walking". You can get the fuller skinny on it from last years post.

Here's a few entries from this year that caught my fancy.


A dog sled team.


Guard dog.


Seeing eye dog.


A rather succinct entry for "smile".


Another entry for "smile" (it's an antique mirror).

Tags: Japan | Takayama | oddness | art

Todays Dailies

From Takayama

Technorati tags: Japan, Takayama, Dailies

Google Earth

OK, before I forget... Google Earth is now available for Mac. It's just TOO cool a waste of time. Go, get it now. Zooming between Brooklyn and Takayama and all points between is just too much fun.

Technorati tags: Mac, Google

Dondoyaki

So I'm finally over this cold. Kinda threw me for a loop.

But yesterday was a lovely day AND it was time for dondoyaki, or "burn all your bad mojo" for the year. Basically, it's the tail end of the New Year's rituals. All those lovely wreathes that have been around town, hanging over doors, from the front grills of cars, in front of businesses... time to round 'em up and burn 'em. They've been sucking up the bad mojo for the past few weeks and yesterday it was time to do a little cleaning by fire and burn all the bad shit off. Or... it was just a lovely day for a festive bonfire.

So we all took a stroll down to Hachimon, the big Shinto shrine in these parts. The ladies looking lovely, of course. Nico doing a nice job of gripping Champ's wreath (our car) on it's way to holy immolation.

Then it was flame on courtesy of a Shinto priest.

Champ's wreath ready for the flames.

One of several piles of fuel for the fire.

Even Daruma went up in flames.

Nico, suitably impressed.

Tags: Japan | Takayama | religion | Shinto | New Year | Daruma | fire

Todays Dailies

From Takayama

Technorati tags: Japan, Takayama, Dailies

Todays Dailies

From Takayama

Technorati tags: Japan, Takayama, Dailies

Todays Dailies

From Takayama

Technorati tags: Japan, Takayama, Dailies

Todays Dailies

From Takayama

Technorati tags: Japan, Takayama, Dailies

Todays Dailies

From Takayama

Technorati tags: Japan, Takayama, Dailies

Cold as a witches...

teat!

I normally NEVER got colds back in the States. Seriously. Of course I had the assorted hangovers, headaches, injuries and excruciatingly painful gum surgeries... but never colds or flu's. Really.

But it's SO damn cold up here in the mountains and has snowed SO much (continuously for about 2 weeks) that I just keep sniffing and getting sore throats, etc. I'm fighting a fairly nasty one now. It also doesn't help that the houses here are so poorly insulated against the elements. My office today, before turning on the kerosene heater, was only 2 degrees Celsius warmer than outside. And outside it was -8 degrees, or 17 degrees Fahrenheit.

Times like these I really pine for our overheated Brooklyn ghetto pad.

Tags: Japan | Takayama | winter | cold | Brooklyn

Dailies

You may have noticed an absence of the Dailies from Takayama for the past few days. Seems my trusty keitei, my mobile, my cellphone went missing in a bottle of alchohol one fun night out last week. But, this being Japan, I was able to pick up a new one right quick, a Sanyo w32sa, that has even more features than the last one and for the astoundingly cheap price of (equivalent to) $20 U.S. As for features... this lil' guy is amazing, besides taking pics and movies it also can receive FM radio and analog TV signals... I can watch Japanese TV on my phone. It also can act as a mini FM transmitter so I can beam music from it to stereos, etc. And it has an infrared port for remote controlling stuff and exchanging info. Oh yeah, and it's GPS enabled. And of course, it's got web access. Basically, it's got shit I'll never use in a million years. But, I'm in love.

BTW, Sanyo just keeps making great stuff lately. For regular picture and movie shooting I use my Sanyo Xacti which I also love.

But without further ado here are today's Dailies from Takayama.

Tags: Japan | Takayama | photos | dailies | keitei | Sanyo

Geek heaven

I've been on a bit of a Star Trek jag lately. Going waaaay back, deep down to the heart of my geek beginnings. I've been a lifelong Trek fan. I even bought a Federation uniform when I was in elementary school(!). Thankfully I had he good sense to be embarrassed enough by my purchase not to wear it out of the house... much. Ironically, I believe it was one of the red shirt (security) uniforms and anyone who knows the original Trek series at all knows it's always a red shirt who gets picked off in the first 5 minutes of an episode. Luckily I never got vaporized by an ancient alien artifact or dissolved by a rock eating Horta. But I recently came across a few web sites were Trek fans not only wear their Federation uniforms out of the house, they're re-imaging the Trek universe and making they're own TV.



The first is the Starship Exeter, which follows the adventures of, well... the Starship Exeter. It's situated in the world of the original Trek, right down to the production methods the show uses. No CG ships here, they're strictly old school, shooting with little plastic models on wires.



Handbuilt sets full of funky angles and Soul Train lighting schemes.



And before the Klingons got kitted out with brow ridges and were just some bad ass intergalactic Hispanics with shivs.



No bat'leth here friend.

It's a stellar effort (pun intended) that manages to capture the original goofy tone of the old Star Trek without devolving into parody. It's more an homage than anything else. And it's impressive for being a completely amateur, volunteer production that relies on donations. I've made mine.

Unfortunately the next effort Star Trek: Hidden frontier is much more cringe inducing. Guess it's hidden for reason. It's like Girls Gone Wild, except it's high school math teachers with access to too much A/V equipment.



It's scene after scene of paunchy, pock marked, bad hair day, white people in ill fitting uniforms badly blue screened and stumbling through their lines across looped clips of sets from Voyager (I think). Ironically, if a United Federation of Planets ever becomes a reality, it will most likely be populated by schlubbs like these employing PowerPoint presentations on a galactic scale. But I guess mediocrity breeds success, these folks have been at it for 7 seasons now.



Oh yeah, and the brow ridges and bat'leths are in full effect. I just KNOW this guy can recite his lines in the original Klingon.



The final Trek effort is Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning, a full length feature amateur effort years in the making. It also happens to be one of the most popular and often downloaded Finnish films ever. It's a full on parody full of astoundingly juvenile humor, bad acting and women in the tiniest leather miniskirts ever in space.



It also has some truly impressive CG effects.



And a Klingon named "Dwarf".

And it's just so damn odd... Star Trek. in Finnish. Yeah it's totally worth the download.

So that's how I've spent the last few nights getting back in touch with my inner geek. Who needs TV when you've got broadband.

Tags: Star Trek | geek | video | Klingons | Finnish

Todays Dailies

From Takayama

Technorati tags: Japan, Takayama, Dailies

Todays Dailies

From Takayama

Technorati tags: Japan, Takayama, Dailies

Todays Dailies

From Takayama

Technorati tags: Japan, Takayama, Dailies

Todays Dailies

From Takayama

Technorati tags: Japan, Takayama, Dailies

Todays Dailies

From Takayama

Technorati tags: Japan, Takayama, Dailies

ジーザスディアマンテ

Jesus Diamante


Because the new year needs oddness...

Big Hair is alive and well in Japan. Along with ridiculously frilly fashions.

Technorati tags: Japan, Oddness, Big Hair, fashion, girlie, girls

Year of the Dog

2006, and welcome to the year of the dog!


Around here, that means New Year's wreathes everywhere. Dig that tasty looking shrimp.


Even Champ (our car) got his own lil' wreath.


It also means a midnight return to the Hachimon shrine, where earlier in the day we gave our souls a good scrubbing (see previous post).


Which was very crowded.


At the top of the stairs, we tossed our 100 yen pieces, clapped twice and prayed for the new year. Actually, I'm not a big fan of religion (could you tell?), but I took this opportunity to wish for a healthy recovery for my Uncle Fred, whose just undergone major cardiac surgery. The Shinto priests sang in their beautiful, eerie, warbling voices and waved tree branches about. Inside the shrine acolytes performed various tasks. We then stopped on the way back home at the foot of the shrine to buy some nice sweet, warm amezake (sweet unfiltered sake) for the frigid walk home.


Nico was suitably impressed by it all.

Tags: Japan | Takayama | religion | Shinto | New Year

Todays Dailies

From Takayama

Technorati tags: Japan, Takayama, Dailies