Japan

Scratching an itch

Kaijuu — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 23:09:00 GMT

It's been a while since I went to Japan; a full year has passed since I visited the country I love so dear.
Kind of a luxury itch, I know, but compared to the frequency of my visits over the years since 2004, it's been a while. :)
The reasons for that are evident for those close to me; buying a house, for instance, isn't something you can do on the cheap.

However, I have something to look forward to; celebrating my birthday in Japan!

I won't be doing this alone; three of my closest friends are joining me, and I just bought my ticket, together with the others.
We're not there yet; we will also need Rail Passes and somewhere to stay, but first things first.

Anime 2011 is right around the corner, together with the new house, so that'll be the first order of business. We can book a hotel later on.

Cheers, K.

On the final verdict

Kaijuu — Sun, 02 May 2010 13:48:00 GMT

So we returned home and I got to work right away while battling a cold. Not the best way to return home, but it's sometimes the only thing you can do.
Despite that, I'm planning to have at least one extra day off next time. :)

With me kind of back to normal, it's time to get some things out and prepare for three weeks of crunch time, but first; the final verdict on KLM.

Last time I flew with KLM was back in 2005. Hardly an undivided pleasure with poor substitutes for food, old planes and back-breaking chairs, so I was kind of dreading the flights this time.
As I already said, the flight to Osaka was very good, and made me revise my opinion on KLM. With the return flight, the new opinion stands, but crumbles a little.

You see, the overall service is good. Nice flight attendants, the seating is good, the food is very good and they managed to stay out of turbulent area's for most of the time.
All in all, I'd say that KLM has managed to put itself back with the top dogs of air travel.
They feed you well, make frequent rounds with water and juice during the flight and tend to your needs.

However, there are some small things that are handled differently by the likes of JAL and ANA.
The cabin attendant woke me for dinner, for example. I just managed to get some shuteye when she tapped me to ask what my preference was. Whyyyyyy!?!
As a result, I pretty much didn't get -any- sleep for the rest of the flight, and thus completed 24 hours of being awake (being alert is another story) at the end of the day.
For comparison; JAL cabin crew just checks visually whether you're awake or not, and in case you're not, tries to avoid disturbing you and leaves a note stating that they didn't want to disturb you and that you can give them a signal once you're awake again, and while they might not have any dinner left by that time, they sure try to accommodate you in a different way.
Most often you aren't given the chance to signal, by the way; they keep an eye on you. :)

Another thing is the entertainment. These days, all long-haul flights have personal entertainment systems (PES) in every seat which allow you to pick from a vast collection the inflight movies you want, or to pick and sort out a play list of songs, play a game or just enjoy the view provided by a camera at the bottom of the plane.
KLM's 777-planes are equipped with a PES, but when the person in front of you is reclining, the viewing angle is discolouring the image. Add that to a dodgy plug for the headphones, and you'll understand why I was kind of relieved having brought my personal music player along.
I managed to see Avatar and Inglourious Basterds, but with shoddy colour and without sound.

The 747 on the return flight was even worse.
Not with the predicted CRT monitors and projector, but TFT-monitors hanging from the ceiling, which was basically it. The plane itself looked like it was refurbished, so I fear that part of KLM's passengers will keep on flying in a blast from the past.

The seating was OK though, but I was glad I got a new DSi LL and a personal media player to keep myself occupied for my inability to get some sleep.

Summary; KLM has come a long way, but they aren't there yet.

My apologies for the crappy pictures; this is the best the DSi LL can manage and I was unable to get the dSLR out.

Cheers, K.

On returning home

Kaijuu — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 15:40:00 GMT

Well, this is it; tomorrow, we're going back home.
I've been fixing my suitcase and I'm a little over weight, so I reckon I will have to stop at the post office at the airport if push comes to shove.

It's been fun, here's hoping for Christmas.

Cheers, K.

On falling water

Kaijuu — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 16:50:00 GMT

The weather here in Tokyo is a mix between cloudy and downright rain, and everything in between.
I'm working on a couple of stories, but I'm taking it easy. :)

Only one full day left before flying home again. The volcano is big news here, and the people I talk to are concerned whether I can return on Sunday or not.
I'm pretty confident that I can, but Niels dropped an e-mail to KLM just to make sure.

Cheers, K.

On Tigers vs Giants

Kaijuu — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 16:51:00 GMT

Last Thursday I slept in and went to a nearby park to have lunch and enjoy the cherry blossoms.
The sakura is really something; it's amazing to seen those trees in full bloom, creating an ocean of pink and white petals.

After arranging some things for our trip to Sendai, we went for an early dinner, and headed for Koshien Stadium for the Hanshin Tigers-game.
That night's game featured Tigers vs Giants again, which the Tigers sadly lost.

Despite that, everyone had a good time, and there were no riots or hooligans in sight.

Some of the pictures I made:

They did make it to the last inning; it's either nine innings (with room for another one in case of a tie) or 90 minutes, whichever comes first. The Tigers were behind with 8 to 4 by the time of the last out for the Tigers, so the umpire called it a night.

One of the people behind us gave me a Hanshin Tigers towel, and another man provided us with balloons.
The idea behind the balloons was to have everyone inflate their balloons at a certain point, in order to let them all fly into the sky at once. A plastic valve made sure the ascent went smooth. It was quite a sight to see.

Cheers, K

On Avatar and 3D

Kaijuu — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 02:43:00 GMT

Went to see Avatar yesterday in 3D here in Osaka. After seeing the film during the flight to Osaka, I decided I wanted to see it again, but properly this time. Since Avatar has stopped playing in my neck of the woods, I figured I'd have to wait until the Blu-ray comes along to see it in my theatre at home.

I must say, it was really something. The visuals are stunning, the story is good and the whole film is properly executed. It's long though, and while everything fits, I can't help but feel that 30 minutes less would have worked as well.
The point is, those 3D glasses are pressing down on your nose like there's no tomorrow, and this becomes very irritating, very fast.
Luckily, Toho Cinemas had glasses with a cord which you can tie around the back of your head, letting your eyebrows do most of the work of carrying the thing.

The 3D effect most definitely adds to the film. Especially the seeds from the sacred tree are very cool to see in 3D, and I'm glad I saw the film this way.
That said, I don't think there's much to gain from the effect.

You see, in order for the effect to work, the depth of field has to be quite short. This means that scenes with lots of action in them become blurry and hard to see. Some try and play the effect to the hilt, which makes the film restless and tiring to watch like in Alice in Wonderland. I liked Alice, but the 3D was somewhat overdone.

Another spanner in the works is the edge of the screen. If you have something "floating" in the theatre, it's all good and pretty, until it hits the edge of the screen, which kills the effect instantly.
Finally, the glasses. It's kind of a nuisance to keep having to wear an extra pair of glasses in order to see the effect. Until the day comes where the effect is visible without them, those things pinching your nose really kills the pleasure of seeing a film as the director wants you to see it.

I think the 3D effect is currently nothing more than a fad. Very cool if done properly, but until they get it right, it's not something I'd go out of my way for.

Cheers, K.

On big cats

Kaijuu — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 01:05:00 GMT

They lost, yesterday. Did have a blast, though; pics will follow soon.

Cheers, K.

On meeting friends

Kaijuu — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 17:34:00 GMT

Today, I went to Tokyo. Normally, it would be rather redundant to travel 600km to a city that's already part of your journey, but Freek, a good friend of mine also happens to be in Japan (along with his brother), so we decided to meet in Tokyo to visit the Miraikan museum.
While this would be my third visit to Miraikan, his would be his first. The museum also keeps on innovating and remodeling, so a visit every now and then doesn't hurt. Kind of like the Evoluon used to be (Evoluon is a congress center these days, but used to display the cutting edge of technology).

As expected, Miraikan changed its temporary exhibition again; this time focussing on 3d printing, nano technology, lab-on-a-chip, various robotics (including Asimo, which we missed, unfortunately) and how ideas are formed and certain things were discovered.

These are some examples of 3-dimensional printing:

The furniture is ink-based; just by using a special form of ink, you can stack the layers on top of eachother, making a three-dimensional objest.
The cogs and their axles have been "printed" in one go, making it seamless. They do this by lighting resin with a laser, which hardens when the laser touches it, one layer at a time.
When you remove the excess resin, you will have moving parts without having to put the whole thing together.

The museum also has a hardware model of the Internet (well, the principle; it consists of five stations, with different networks), which Freek and his brother managed to hack and send a spam message to two other stations.

We went to Fugetsu's for dinner and headed home at about 20:00

I reckon tomorrow will be an easy day; this is a holiday, after all.
Also, Niels arranged tickets for the Hansin Tigers, which will be a blast.

Cheers, K

On biological clocks

Kaijuu — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 20:29:00 GMT

It's currently about three in the morning, and I'm wide awake. While our flight yesterday was a good one, I totally failed to get even an hour of sleep due to the fact that we took off at an earlier time compared to what we're used to with JAL. (JAL takes off at around 19:00, arriving in Japan at 15:00; KLM takes off at around 14:00)

The positive side of it is that we arrive at eight in the morning, which means we've got all day to do our business, check into the hotel and whatnot.
The down side is that, in order to avoid jet lag, you have to make it through the day until your regular bed time to get your routine started in the different time zone.

I gave up at around 19:00 yesterday evening; after nearly falling asleep in my food, I decided to call it a day, which started almost 30 hours earlier back home.
Eight hours later, I'm done sleeping. :P

The positive side on this is that I now have ample time to figure out what I'm going to do today, apart from giving Niels some advice on camera equipment at Yodobashi Camera later this morning.

Cheers, K.

On faithful pets

Kaijuu — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 20:21:00 GMT

Against my better judgement, I decided to give Hachiko: A Dog's Story a try.
It's an American adaptation of the famous story about the Akita dog who waited in vain for its owner to return after he (the owner) died while at work.
I wrote about Hachiko a while ago

While there's some good drama in there, the whole story can be told in about five minutes.

Director Lasse Hallström takes 90, but the result is surprisingly good, respecting the original story (the end of the film tells the viewers who the real Hachiko was, when he lived and died and where his commemorating statue resides) and clear ties to Japan. You can't help feeling for the dog; I even got a small lump in my throat at the end, despite knowing what was going to happen.

The makers also warn about the nature of the Akita breed in the credit roll, probably to prevent the Dalmation-effect. :)
It's not something to watch over and over again, but as a film it's very well made, and worth it if you're a bit into drama.