This past Saturday night I was relaxing at home after a day spent out and about, when I heard a commotion outside. I went to the window and saw two punks on the street below shouting at a young guy on a scooter who was waiting at the stoplight on the corner. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but they seemed to be upset about something. Suddenly one of punks shoved the guy off of his scooter and then punched him in the eye when he tried to get back on.

It seemed apparent that the guy on the scooter wasn’t going to fight back and was probably going to get his ass beat, so in the most intimidating angry-Japanese-man voice that I could muster, I shouted down, “Oi, nani yatten da yo!” (roughly, “hey, what the hell is going on?!”). The punks must have heard me, because they backed off and the young guy quickly got back on his scooter and rode off.

At that point Judy rushed into the room to see why exactly I was shouting out the window in my most intimidating angry-Japanese-man voice. As I began to tell her what I had witnessed, I pointed down to where the action had taken place and was surprised to see the two punks now standing in the middle of the road blocking traffic. A Mercedes was stopped in front of them, and the punks’ arms were up in the air in the universal “what’s-up-bitch?” pose. Suddenly, one of the punks went to the driver’s side and yanked open the door, apparently to go after the driver. Once again mustering my angry-Japanese-man voice, I shouted down, “OOOIII!!!“. That seemed to do the trick, because the two punks backed away from the Mercedes and (peculiarly) mounted a single bicycle and pedalled away.

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After our ordeal with the typhoon in Okinawa, Judy and I took advantage of the sunshine the following weekend and headed to the beach in Zushi, Kanagawa to soak up some rays while we had the chance. Some candid photos from that day are below. (Regrettably, the many women in bikinis were forced to go unphotographed due to the fact that Judy would have drowned me in the sea had she seen my camera pointed in their direction.)

It’s well-known that Japanese people have a sincere appreciation of the four seasons. Having grown up in Northern California, where the seasons are essentially limited to two: warm and cool, I find the heightened awareness of the changing of the seasons in Japan rather endearing.

There are, however, instances in which this obsession with seasonal changes goes a bit too far. Case in point: the sheer number of people that I have met who seriously believe that Japan is unique in the world as the only country with four seasons is astonishing. Seasonal food products are another example; in Japan, seasonal items extend far beyond fruits and vegetables into things ranging from tea to potato chips to chocolate. Most of these items are hardly distinctive and tend to sit inconspicuously on supermarket shelves until their time is up and the next batch arrives to fill their place

There is one seasonal product, however, that due to its overwhelming divinity, holds a special place in my heart and a special roll in my ever-burgeoning gut. The product of which I speak (or, um, write) is none other than Kirin’s Akiaji (”Taste of Autumn”) beer. Forget about the temperature outside, the changing of the leaves or the so-called “equinox”, this is what signifies the arrival of autumn:

Yes, folks, autumn has come and it’s in the form a tasty malt beverage made from the finest ingredients and now available in your local store for just ¥218 for 315ml or ¥286 for 500ml. With a distinguished, rich flavor and at 6% alcohol, this truly is the Nectar of the Autmnal Gods.

Japan is pretty well-known for its high level of customer service. I am reminded of just how great it is each time I go back to the States and have to deal with salespeople who act like I’m some sort of rude bastard for forcing them to do their job and ring me up at the till.

Anyway, the last time I was back in California the Apple iPod Mini was released and I, unable to resist my magpie-like lust for small shiny objects, caved in and bought one. I had been very happy with it from the start, but then a couple of weeks ago the sound started becoming distorted and the music would skip whenever the click wheel was touched (even with the lock on). 0.32 seconds on Google revealed that what I was experiencing was not an isolated case, and so the next day (a Sunday) I submitted a support request through the Apple Japan website.

Two days later on Tuesday morning a courier arrived at my door, boxed up the iPod and took it away. Fast forward just one week later to the arrival of a second courier bearing a brand new replacement, despite the 4-6 week retail waiting list here in Japan. And, because it was still under warranty, I didn’t have to pay a thing.

Pretty sweet, eh?

Earlier this month my company announced that the name of my office is going to change from the Tokyo Office to the Tokyo Head Office. This being Japan, of course, the insertion of the additional word is a major affair, and thus everything from the wall plaque to the stationery to the business cards has to be updated and replaced.

A three-member team was created to prepare the new business cards: myself, a male colleague and a female administrative assistant. My company’s business cards are incredibly dull and completely unremarkable, so during the first group meeting my colleague and I discussed ways in which we could make the cards more visually appealing, or kakkoii (cool), as he put it. The assistant, however, was unable to accept the notion that such radical change could be suggested by anyone other than the management and merely hemmed and hawed equivocally until the meeting was over.

After several follow-up meetings, we came up with a slightly more sleek, modern design and submitted it to our boss just before the summer holiday. The new cards arrived yesterday, and with great excitement and anticipation (well, not really), I opened the box and removed a crisp, new card. . . .

And wouldn’t you know it, the top managers had vetoed the new design for being “too different” and no changes had been made except for the addition of the extra word.

Oh well. Here are some more photos from Okinawa:

So we’re back from Okinawa. The trip was a lot of fun, but by an unfortunate and rather astonishing twist of fate, the meteorologists actually managed to predict the weather accurately, and it rained. Well, perhaps “rain” isn’t the right word . . . during our visit, the Okinawan archipelago was subject to a fierce anal reaming courtesy of Typhoon Megi (or Typhoon #15 as it was called by the imaginative Japanese). Seriously, it must have been some sort of karmic payback for all of the times that I pissed on the seat as a kid or something.

However, as a sign that the universe may not entirely have it in for me, for some reason or another our room was upgraded to a top-floor suite with a great view of the ocean, and, on the morning of our last day there, the sun even made a surprise appearance for about an hour and half (although immediately thereafter we were caught in a sudden downpour and ended up having to change our clothes in the bathroom of the lobby because we had already checked out).

Nonetheless, despite the horrible weather, we had a great time. Now it’s back to workin’ for the man, tryin’ to make a dollar outta 15 cents and all that jazz. Here are a few photos:

Well, it looks like everything is set for our trip to Okinawa. We leave bright and early tomorrow morning — actually, it will more likely be dark and early, since we have to be at the airport by 6 a.m.

We were able to get a pretty decent deal by going with a combination airfare/hotel package, but the only catch was that we weren’t able to choose what time our flights would be. We figured that with the money we’d save, it would be worth the risk, and as it turns out, it looks like we’ll be getting our money’s worth: we’re on the earliest flight down there and the latest flight back up. It’s a nice arrangement, except for having to wake up at 4:00 tomorrow morning and then come back at to Tokyo at about midnight Thursday night, especially since I’ve got work on Friday. But oh well, it should be fun.

I just checked the weather report and apparently thunderstorms are expected in Okinawa during the next three days. Great. However, since Japanese meteorologists are notorious for being exceptionally inaccurate, hopefully we’ll still be able to relax in the sun as planned. My fingers are crossed.

The other night I was up late, flipping through the channels on TV when I saw that the 2004 K-1 World Grand Prix was on. Seeing as none of the other ten channels were showing anything even remotely interesting (late night Japanese TV sucks, too), I sat back and made myself comfortable.

Since I’m not really a big K-1 fan, I couldn’t help but find it funny how clichéd and caricature-like the fighters were. Among the contenders were the rotund former sumo wrestler, the Neanderthal-esque Eastern European, the stout Somoan, the muscled black heavyweight and even the lanky white pretty boy. Suddenly I was eight years old again, playing Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!.

Anyhow, after watching the competition, I came to the realization that on some primal level, very little ranks as high on the entertainment scale as watching two super-men beat the living shit out of each other.

On the topic of sculpted hardbodies, today’s photos are of the famous Kamakura Daibutsu (Great Buddha). Weighing in at close to 90 tons, this big bronze bad boy was originally constructed in 1252 and has withstood the tests of time (including a giant tsunami in 1495) to become the primary attraction in the historical city.

I’ve just put up the last of the photos from my trip to Taiwan. Took me long enough, eh? Now I can finally start putting up more photos I’ve taken in Japan.

Next week is the Obon holiday so I’ll be off from work. So far it looks like I’ll be staying around Tokyo, but the following week Judy and I will be going down to Okinawa for a few days. I’m definitely looking forward to kicking back on the beach. Maybe I’ll even be able to turn myself a shade or two less pale, too.

These last photos are just a hodgepodge of random things, but here you go:

On our third day in Taiwan, we stopped by Hsimenting, a hip shopping/hang out area packed with droves of young people. I was pretty surprised to see the considerable influence of Japanese pop culture on Taiwanese youth — it almost seemed as if we were walking through Harajuku (minus the goths and the rockabillies) or Shibuya (minus the kogal and the drug dealers).

Later in the day we took the train up to Danshui, but because it was overcast we weren’t able to witness the sunset for which the area is well-known. It was still a nice time though: we walked along the wharf, visited a night market and stuffed ourselves silly with scrumptious Taiwanese specialities (unintentional alliteration, I swear).

I’m not a very big fan of posed photos (especially when I am the one doing the posing), but these ones actually didn’t turn out all that bad (except for the stupid grin on my face). Anyway, here you go:

On Saturday, my friend Zach and I headed down to Kamakura in Kanagawa prefecture, where we spent the day wandering through the many temples and shrines, snapping way too many photos and getting horribly sunburned in the process.

I’ll try to put some photos up this week or the next if I can find the time. I’ve still got a few more Taiwan photos to put up as well.