I just bought a Sony DSC-T70. Mainly because it’s small, it’s fast, it has internal zoom, and I’m satisfied with the image quality. The menu is pretty slick. There are nice icons, lots of Katakana, and I also downloaded the English manual form Sony’s website. All it took to get used to it was going through the settings, reading the Katakana, and memorizing a little of the manual. Now I’m golden and I’ve saved about $50. I mean… um… ¥5000…

If you’re interested in this camera:
You can download the English manual and get specs here.
You can read a review here.

And here’s a nice hands on review.

Speaking of McDonald’s, their profit grew five-fold according to The Japan Times

McDonald’s Holdings Co. (Japan) Ltd. said Thursday its consolidated net profit in 2007 was five times higher than in the previous year, totaling Â¥7.82 billion on record high sales of Â¥395.06 billion, up 11.1 percent.

I find that pretty interesting.

 Super Bowl Commercials

I’ve tried a few pizzas so far in Japan. Although the normal Japanese pizza toppings sounded a bit wrong to me at first, the pizzas taste ok. It’s not as satisfying to me as the ‘Itallian Style” and I’d rate the flavor average. I’m sure that rating will go up the longer I’m here as I adapt more and more to a seafood type diet.

Can you imagine if the role was reversed though? Here I can get toppings similar to back in the U.S. but in American a Japanese person is pretty screwed. You can’t normally get squid, octopus, etc on your pizza in the U.S. so they’re stuck with pizza they’re not really used to.

Another Pizza LA featuring MMA Fighter Bob Sapp

Here’s a Sausage roll Pizza From Pizza Hut Japan

I miss snowboarding so I thought I’d share a video from last season. I had my ipod blaring, I was thinking about the next stretch of the mountain, and I was wondering why there was a crowd of Ski Patrol. I didn’t see her until it was too late. By the way I hope to book a secret trip soon for me and my fiancee, so if anybody is in Fukuoka and wants to hit a mountain let me know!

• One day I was sick. I blame the dust mite demons, but I had flu like symptoms. One morning I work up feeling like I was going to die. I slept for about 48 hours. I woke up at 100% health. Nice!
• I read every post on a few sites that are new to me like The Daily J, Alex’s Japan Blog, Jamaipanese, and Urutora No Hi.
• I have updated my iGoogle homepage.
• I’ve been playing the hell out of my Xbox. New games I want seem only to be available on the Xbox360 or PS3. And this picture is funny.

Speaking of video games, I found this commercial for the PS3 entertaining. Btw, I hope to get an xbox360 (or PS3) for 1 and 1 reason only. NHL 08… oh what? 08! oh what? oh hellz yeah!

For just 4,000 Yen per night you can sleep in a capsule which looks like the size of a coffin. A coffin with a shit load of stuff packed inside so you can feel trapped in a hole. Even though each capsule is small as hell it comes with TV, radio, alarm clock, adjustable lighting. I wonder if I’d fit in there being 190 cm tall. They have a lounge area with internet and have 100 Yen coffee. I’ve been searching for a cheap ass cafe here in Fukuoka with 100 Yen coffee so I’m a little bit jealous of that. So far I’ve found 300+ yen coffee which is ridiculous because I could get 350ml of coffee for 320 Yen or for just 80 Yen more I could enjoy some bomb ass ramen. Seriously, what’s up with that?

The site says “Everybody that travels to Japan should experience this unique accommodation, at least once” but I don’t get it… they have a men’s section and a women’s section. How are you supposed to get it on with your woman with this setup?

Check out their site and make your reservation today! Then email me and tell me what it’s like because I’ll probably never hit one up. CapsuleInn.com

Here are a few videos so you can tour a capsule hotel (but it’s not the one from capsuleinn)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kamFnYCtylo[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXWGvHV2rQE[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9iYqnGGSxE[/youtube]

The Good:

• Sliding doors are cool
• You usually get a balcony
• Washing machines fit nicely in the bathroom area
• Shower room is huge
• You don’t need a car where I live, so you save money on the car, gas, parking, and you get free exercise.
• If your apartment is capable, you can get hooked up with fiber optic internet.
• Mirrors in the bathroom area have an anti fog button. That is totally kick ass.
• The “tankless water heater” is great for showers. You turn it on when you need it and you never run out of hot water.

The bad:

• If you’re getting no help from your job or friends in Japan you’ll need about $5,000 USD to rent an apartment. You’ll be paying the landlord some stupid fees you won’t get back + first months rent + some other things to furnish your apartment. If you factor the landlord fees into your average monthly rent then it becomes affordable I guess. If your monthly rent is $800 USD you can expect to have a down payment around $4,000 for rent + fees. Then you’ll need to furnish your place and it can cost $1,000+. That part is lame when you compare it to the US.
• You can easily hear your neighbors
• Small closets + small rooms = not enough place for your clothes
• Small bathroom area + washing machine = not enough space for bathroom stuff.
• No hot water unless you turn on the hot water heater and then waste water waiting for it to become warm. This means washing your face in cold water because you’ll get lazy.
• If you have a car, parking space can be expensive depending on where you live. I’ve seen it range from 0 to 20,000 yen per month.
• If you mark the wall or dent a door you’re going to lose your ass when you move out. You’ll be charged 500-1,000 Yen per pin tack hole you put in the wall.
• They don’t come with a refrigerator, washing machine, oven range, or light fixtures (that’s something new to me)

This is my first apartment in Japan and it’s pretty cool. My apartment in Fukuoka is a 2LDK (this means 2 = 2 rooms. and LDK = Living Room, Dining Room, Kitchen). I have a bedroom with sliding doors connected to the living room with sliding doors and then a kitchen where I can put a small dining table. There’s a small hallway between the kitchen and the bathroom area. The bathroom area consists of three tiny rooms… 1 is the sink + washing machine (decent), one is the toilet (small), and one is the shower room + bath tub (huge). Also in the living room and bedroom both have sliding doors leading to the balcony where I have a view of some shops and other apartments. The bedroom does not have tatami, but instead hard wood floors. My place is a square layout, or you can say L-Shaped if you don’t include the bathroom area. It’s pretty cool. Instead of giving you a video tour of my place I decided to just show you ones that already exits. All in all they’re about the same. Walls, floors, and location is what differs. You can get new and modern or old and busted depending on your budget.

Here area few pictures from some apartments I found on Flickr and Danny Choo’s site. This should give you an idea on what the interior looks like.

For more views of what a Japanese apartment might look like, you can do a search on Flickr and check out Danny Choo’s blog. Here’s an interesting link talking about neighbors and here’s another one about renting and real estate.

Here’s an apartment tour from two English teachers:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-_JOzq6D_c[/youtube]

If you want to see more videos you can do a search over at Youtube for Japanese Apartments.

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Photo credits: japan-apartment-206482700_9161de7239_b.jpg by durian http://www.flickr.com/photos/durian/206482700/ || japan-apartment-10976231_8e03f2fbdc_o.jpg by dannyman http://www.flickr.com/photos/dannyman/10976231/ || japan-apartment-301794304_651573916b_o.jpg by quasarsglow http://www.flickr.com/photos/quasarsglow/301794304/ || japan-apartment-219865767_2f7d820afd_o.jpg by sleepytako http://www.flickr.com/photos/sleepytako/219865767/

A new Web site built by an American technology student has uncovered the lengths that companies apparently go to improve their public image by tweaking their entries on Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that – famously – “anyone can edit.”

The WikiScanner site, developed by Virgil Griffith, a researcher at the California Institute of Technology, reveals changes to the online encyclopedia by linking edits back to the computers from which they emanate using each computer’s unique IP address.

Griffith, 24, says he created the site “to create minor public relations disasters for companies and organizations I dislike” – a mission he may well have succeeded in.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsCmNps-R4U[/youtube]

(Vid is from Daily Motion)

Here’s the video:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyxRVBkZCag[/youtube]

Here’s some more info on wtf a Super Famicom is.

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System or Super NES (also called SNESa and Super Nintendo) was a 16-bit video game console released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia, and Brazil between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the Super Family Computer, Super Famicom (スーパーファミコン, Sūpā Famikon), or SFC for short. In South Korea, it is known as the Super Comboy and was distributed by Hyundai Electronics. Although each version is essentially the same, several forms of regional lockout prevent direct compatibility.