Tuesday, February 03, 2009
(That's Entertainment!) x 3
Found myself with some unexpected free time at work today and all I could think about was how much fun I had over the past three days, with each day featuring a completely different form of audio/visual amusement.
On Saturday, Mako and I watched a few more episodes of Prison Break. Two things continue to impress me about this show. First, each new episode fits tightly with earlier ones, and no matter how many new developments unfold the writers keep acknowledging earlier unsolved problems. It's like the exact opposite of Heroes, where characters seem to appear and disappear at the writers' convenience and past episodes are similarly ignored whenever it suits the latest crisis. Prison Break also manages to keep ratcheting up the tension and the already-high stakes with each new twist, even though (as I remarked yesterday) I know that the two main characters are going to escape...eventually. Again, contrast that with Heroes which has enough magical healers and time-traveling characters to undo anything and everything, leaving me to wonder why I even bother to watch.
Saturday night I went out and had a blast hanging out with Alex. I should explain who that is, shouldn't I? Alex is a fellow foreigner in the area, an English teacher (as in "from England")/video game enthusiast/blogger who I managed to "run into" on the 1UP forums. We had a couple of drinks last month at my favorite bar, Captain Kangaroo, where we got along quite well. Meeting people (male or female) after an online encounter is always a shaky prospect. You never know if the humor or mood of your e-mails will carry over into the real world. Alex and I, as it turns out, have a great deal to talk about and we both appreciate the occasional alcoholic beverage.
This time, we started our evening at Captain Kangaroo but then went to his apartment for a few hours of (drunken) gaming on both the PS3 and the Xbox 360. Ever since Mako flatly insisted that I never buy one, I have been tormented by my interest in the Xbox and a few of the exclusive games that it offers. Thanks to Alex, I finally got my hands on three of those games: Braid, Castle Crashers, and Left4Dead. Castle Crashers was not as much fun as I had hoped, but Braid and Left4Dead were even better than I had anticipated. Fortunately, L4D is also available on PC (if I ever upgrade) and Braid might very well turn up there by the end of the year. They both felt good with a controller in my hands though...Mako, won't you reconsider?
Sunday was the first of the month which in Japan means cheap movie tickets for all. At last, Mako and I went out and saw the latest James Bond film Quantum of Solace. Odd title aside, I loved everything about this movie, mainly thanks to the risky decision to make a direct sequel to Casino Royale. I say "risky" because Bond doesn't normally roll that way. He and his supporting characters may have existed for 40+ years and 20+ films, but rarely does any film have any significant connection to any of the others. Sure, he got married and his new bride died in one film, but other than the occasional acknowledgment of her death, he didn't change. This time out the entire film is a continuation of Casino Royale, picking up where that film so dramatically ended and featuring nearly every character in a return engagement. This sudden embrace of continuity added a lot of weight to the film: the customary opening action sequence actually means something for a change. I'm willing to admit that Casino Royale was a better film but that's honestly the strongest criticism I can muster for Quantum of Solace. Mako loved it as well, but she says that she still prefers Sean Connery. No argument here!
Yesterday was Monday and a work day but it also managed to be Super Sunday thanks to a Super Bowl rebroadcast after dinner. I was tired as hell and a little frustrated by my internet withdrawal but it all paid off beautifully. The game was terrific, packed with much more drama than I could have imagined from two teams I don't care a lick about. If anything, that neutrality helped me enjoy the see-saw of the final few minutes, though any game with more scoring in the 4th quarter than the previous 3 quarters combined should win over even the most disinterested fan. Or a non-fan, as Mako doesn't know a thing about the game but she got completely caught up in the intensity, especially that endzone-to-endzone interception return and the fast-paced touchdown passes of the last few drives.
So to wrap it up, I am feelin' fine. Great even, despite the long week of work that still lies ahead. TV, video games, James Bond and football are just as thrilling as ever. What did you people get up to this weekend?
つづく...(Click here to read more)
On Saturday, Mako and I watched a few more episodes of Prison Break. Two things continue to impress me about this show. First, each new episode fits tightly with earlier ones, and no matter how many new developments unfold the writers keep acknowledging earlier unsolved problems. It's like the exact opposite of Heroes, where characters seem to appear and disappear at the writers' convenience and past episodes are similarly ignored whenever it suits the latest crisis. Prison Break also manages to keep ratcheting up the tension and the already-high stakes with each new twist, even though (as I remarked yesterday) I know that the two main characters are going to escape...eventually. Again, contrast that with Heroes which has enough magical healers and time-traveling characters to undo anything and everything, leaving me to wonder why I even bother to watch.
Saturday night I went out and had a blast hanging out with Alex. I should explain who that is, shouldn't I? Alex is a fellow foreigner in the area, an English teacher (as in "from England")/video game enthusiast/blogger who I managed to "run into" on the 1UP forums. We had a couple of drinks last month at my favorite bar, Captain Kangaroo, where we got along quite well. Meeting people (male or female) after an online encounter is always a shaky prospect. You never know if the humor or mood of your e-mails will carry over into the real world. Alex and I, as it turns out, have a great deal to talk about and we both appreciate the occasional alcoholic beverage.
This time, we started our evening at Captain Kangaroo but then went to his apartment for a few hours of (drunken) gaming on both the PS3 and the Xbox 360. Ever since Mako flatly insisted that I never buy one, I have been tormented by my interest in the Xbox and a few of the exclusive games that it offers. Thanks to Alex, I finally got my hands on three of those games: Braid, Castle Crashers, and Left4Dead. Castle Crashers was not as much fun as I had hoped, but Braid and Left4Dead were even better than I had anticipated. Fortunately, L4D is also available on PC (if I ever upgrade) and Braid might very well turn up there by the end of the year. They both felt good with a controller in my hands though...Mako, won't you reconsider?
Sunday was the first of the month which in Japan means cheap movie tickets for all. At last, Mako and I went out and saw the latest James Bond film Quantum of Solace. Odd title aside, I loved everything about this movie, mainly thanks to the risky decision to make a direct sequel to Casino Royale. I say "risky" because Bond doesn't normally roll that way. He and his supporting characters may have existed for 40+ years and 20+ films, but rarely does any film have any significant connection to any of the others. Sure, he got married and his new bride died in one film, but other than the occasional acknowledgment of her death, he didn't change. This time out the entire film is a continuation of Casino Royale, picking up where that film so dramatically ended and featuring nearly every character in a return engagement. This sudden embrace of continuity added a lot of weight to the film: the customary opening action sequence actually means something for a change. I'm willing to admit that Casino Royale was a better film but that's honestly the strongest criticism I can muster for Quantum of Solace. Mako loved it as well, but she says that she still prefers Sean Connery. No argument here!
Yesterday was Monday and a work day but it also managed to be Super Sunday thanks to a Super Bowl rebroadcast after dinner. I was tired as hell and a little frustrated by my internet withdrawal but it all paid off beautifully. The game was terrific, packed with much more drama than I could have imagined from two teams I don't care a lick about. If anything, that neutrality helped me enjoy the see-saw of the final few minutes, though any game with more scoring in the 4th quarter than the previous 3 quarters combined should win over even the most disinterested fan. Or a non-fan, as Mako doesn't know a thing about the game but she got completely caught up in the intensity, especially that endzone-to-endzone interception return and the fast-paced touchdown passes of the last few drives.
So to wrap it up, I am feelin' fine. Great even, despite the long week of work that still lies ahead. TV, video games, James Bond and football are just as thrilling as ever. What did you people get up to this weekend?
Labels: Alex, football, friends, Heroes, James Bond, movies, Prison Break, sports, television, video games, Xbox
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Saturday, January 17, 2009
The Opposite of Stockholm Syndrome
After months and months of waiting (years really, if you go back to Casino Royale which opened in November 2006) the new James Bond movie has finally opened in Japan! I spent all week checking showtimes in anticipation of a trip to the movies this weekend. Even if the buzz ranged from "decent follow-up" to "confusing mess," as a long-time fan of Bond I was eager to sit down and see this movie at the earliest possible opportunity.
Too bad we didn't go to the movies today.
Things got off to an awkward, if pleasant start. I was taking it easy this morning, talking to my sister on Skype when Mako expressed there was an urgency to get ready and head outside. She had mentioned an interest in heading to Nakayama Temple for the sake of the baby. What's more, today was inu no hi (literally Day of the Dog) which is part of the whole Chinese zodiac time management thing. It seems that dogs are associated with an easy birth, although having never seen a dog reproduce I don't know why.
Indeed, the whole "let's go honor this tradition for the unborn baby" thing is a little weird for me. Normally I would not say Mako is particularly superstitious or prone to fantasy. She doesn't care for horoscopes and she ignores the many, many outlets for fortune telling in this country. It's one of the big reasons I love her, because I'd have a hard time taking anybody seriously who gave those ridiculous things more than a passing glance. But as a I noted earlier this week, Mako is scared about having a baby and as we can all understand, when you get scared you fall back on tradition and superstition to ease your fears.
Even if I'm not a "believer" I can go with the flow on these kinds of customs. Going to visit a nearby temple and making a silent, private request to an unseen spirit is harmless. It's not like she wants to engage in some kind of risky behavior or forgo a doctor's advice. And while I am not all that keen on religious customs, being less than confident in my belief that someone's upstairs listening, a visit to a temple is so quick there's little to object to. Not to mention the line between "religious observance" and "cultural tradition" in Japan is so blurry they can never be completely separated.
Getting back to the story, I was OK with going to Nakayama today but I wasn't aware that we were under pressure to get there by a certain time. It was then that Mako very casually mentioned that her parents were coming to pick us up and take us there. This I did not know and I was not ready to hear it. It's not that I didn't have enough time to wash before they arrived, but I was planning on calling my dad this morning to wish him a happy birthday. With a sudden rush to get out the door, I didn't have any time to even leave him a message. Hopefully my sister told him I was thinking of him and I'll reach him tomorrow. I did mail a present but I know it hasn't arrived yet.
I digress again...we drove to the nearby temple and aside from the thickness of traffic (it would have been much faster to just take the train) the visit was stress-free. In fact, it was completely free - the temple charged no admission and Mako's mother paid for the only keepsake we took away. Mako also declined to participate in whatever these folks were lining up for. She said it cost more than $100 as well, so I agreed with her decision. The whole visit took less than half an hour and we all had lunch afterwards. The weather was nice and things seemed perfectly normal.
We then started driving and I didn't know where we were going. Mako's dad made some kind of comments about Kyoto and Hana Town*, the rural area where I work, but otherwise there was no clear goal. We ended up going through the city we live in and headed directly towards Hana. I pointed out a couple things along the way, still not clear on where we were going. We passed through the town and kept going. Initially I just tried to relax and enjoy the "scenery," even though the Osaka/Hyogo/Kyoto border area is pretty barren. It wasn't long before I fell asleep.
I woke up thirty or forty minutes later and we were somewhere in Kyoto near Kameoka. Mako's dad made a couple U-turns, a clear sign he didn't know where he was going. Suddenly he stopped and got out of the car - alone. We waited while he walked around a quiet building that appeared shuttered for the season. He came back and said "Yeah, it's closed" and then we left. I still don't know what that building meant or what he thought he would find. All I knew was that we had spent an hour and a half in the car and gotten absolutely nowhere. I felt like I was a hostage, even if my captors were super nice people.
On our winding way back through Osaka, Mako's dad spotted a sign pointing towards a mountain. This mountain happens to be near Hana Town so I was a little curious to see what the sign was pointing towards. As we drove up and up, it became apparent that the sign was simply indicating that yes, this was a mountain. There wasn't anything to see, we simply drove around tight curve after tight curve, surrounded by trees. Eventually, he just turned around and we ended up on the same road as before, only we were a few miles further from home.
As we passed through Ikeda I knew that our apartment was getting close. I asked where we were going and he said we were going back to their house which was probably an hour away. At that point I didn't know what else to do. I simply said I "didn't feel well" and asked if I could go home. It wasn't a lie as much as it was an exaggeration (thank you, Spock). After all, I had been trapped in a car for almost four hours and I really wanted to get out. He understood and diverted towards our place. Much to my surprise, Mako also decided to come home with me, either out of solidarity or out of genuine agreement.
It's not that I dislike my in-laws at all because they are genuinely friendly people who have treated me and my family with extreme kindness. I have no problems spending time with them from time to time, even if I occasionally feel trapped in their house with nothing to do. What drove me (literally) nuts this afternoon was the fact that we did nothing and it took the entire afternoon. I couldn't bear to spend the rest of my evening in the same state of waiting to go home - I had to just go home.
I hope that they didn't perceive my behavior as rude and I also hope that Mako's dad doesn't feel like he did something wrong. I mean, I think he was wrong but I don't want him to feel bad about it. Ideally, I just want to talk to Mako and her family about spending time together and find a middle ground where we meet and do things rather than meet and do nothing. I certainly need all the support I can get in this country so I'm not about to burn any bridges, especially when it comes to family.
* I know it's been a while since I used this pseudonym for the area where I work, so just a reminder: it's not really called Hana Town.
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Too bad we didn't go to the movies today.
Things got off to an awkward, if pleasant start. I was taking it easy this morning, talking to my sister on Skype when Mako expressed there was an urgency to get ready and head outside. She had mentioned an interest in heading to Nakayama Temple for the sake of the baby. What's more, today was inu no hi (literally Day of the Dog) which is part of the whole Chinese zodiac time management thing. It seems that dogs are associated with an easy birth, although having never seen a dog reproduce I don't know why.
Indeed, the whole "let's go honor this tradition for the unborn baby" thing is a little weird for me. Normally I would not say Mako is particularly superstitious or prone to fantasy. She doesn't care for horoscopes and she ignores the many, many outlets for fortune telling in this country. It's one of the big reasons I love her, because I'd have a hard time taking anybody seriously who gave those ridiculous things more than a passing glance. But as a I noted earlier this week, Mako is scared about having a baby and as we can all understand, when you get scared you fall back on tradition and superstition to ease your fears.
Even if I'm not a "believer" I can go with the flow on these kinds of customs. Going to visit a nearby temple and making a silent, private request to an unseen spirit is harmless. It's not like she wants to engage in some kind of risky behavior or forgo a doctor's advice. And while I am not all that keen on religious customs, being less than confident in my belief that someone's upstairs listening, a visit to a temple is so quick there's little to object to. Not to mention the line between "religious observance" and "cultural tradition" in Japan is so blurry they can never be completely separated.
Getting back to the story, I was OK with going to Nakayama today but I wasn't aware that we were under pressure to get there by a certain time. It was then that Mako very casually mentioned that her parents were coming to pick us up and take us there. This I did not know and I was not ready to hear it. It's not that I didn't have enough time to wash before they arrived, but I was planning on calling my dad this morning to wish him a happy birthday. With a sudden rush to get out the door, I didn't have any time to even leave him a message. Hopefully my sister told him I was thinking of him and I'll reach him tomorrow. I did mail a present but I know it hasn't arrived yet.
I digress again...we drove to the nearby temple and aside from the thickness of traffic (it would have been much faster to just take the train) the visit was stress-free. In fact, it was completely free - the temple charged no admission and Mako's mother paid for the only keepsake we took away. Mako also declined to participate in whatever these folks were lining up for. She said it cost more than $100 as well, so I agreed with her decision. The whole visit took less than half an hour and we all had lunch afterwards. The weather was nice and things seemed perfectly normal.
We then started driving and I didn't know where we were going. Mako's dad made some kind of comments about Kyoto and Hana Town*, the rural area where I work, but otherwise there was no clear goal. We ended up going through the city we live in and headed directly towards Hana. I pointed out a couple things along the way, still not clear on where we were going. We passed through the town and kept going. Initially I just tried to relax and enjoy the "scenery," even though the Osaka/Hyogo/Kyoto border area is pretty barren. It wasn't long before I fell asleep.
I woke up thirty or forty minutes later and we were somewhere in Kyoto near Kameoka. Mako's dad made a couple U-turns, a clear sign he didn't know where he was going. Suddenly he stopped and got out of the car - alone. We waited while he walked around a quiet building that appeared shuttered for the season. He came back and said "Yeah, it's closed" and then we left. I still don't know what that building meant or what he thought he would find. All I knew was that we had spent an hour and a half in the car and gotten absolutely nowhere. I felt like I was a hostage, even if my captors were super nice people.
On our winding way back through Osaka, Mako's dad spotted a sign pointing towards a mountain. This mountain happens to be near Hana Town so I was a little curious to see what the sign was pointing towards. As we drove up and up, it became apparent that the sign was simply indicating that yes, this was a mountain. There wasn't anything to see, we simply drove around tight curve after tight curve, surrounded by trees. Eventually, he just turned around and we ended up on the same road as before, only we were a few miles further from home.
As we passed through Ikeda I knew that our apartment was getting close. I asked where we were going and he said we were going back to their house which was probably an hour away. At that point I didn't know what else to do. I simply said I "didn't feel well" and asked if I could go home. It wasn't a lie as much as it was an exaggeration (thank you, Spock). After all, I had been trapped in a car for almost four hours and I really wanted to get out. He understood and diverted towards our place. Much to my surprise, Mako also decided to come home with me, either out of solidarity or out of genuine agreement.
It's not that I dislike my in-laws at all because they are genuinely friendly people who have treated me and my family with extreme kindness. I have no problems spending time with them from time to time, even if I occasionally feel trapped in their house with nothing to do. What drove me (literally) nuts this afternoon was the fact that we did nothing and it took the entire afternoon. I couldn't bear to spend the rest of my evening in the same state of waiting to go home - I had to just go home.
I hope that they didn't perceive my behavior as rude and I also hope that Mako's dad doesn't feel like he did something wrong. I mean, I think he was wrong but I don't want him to feel bad about it. Ideally, I just want to talk to Mako and her family about spending time together and find a middle ground where we meet and do things rather than meet and do nothing. I certainly need all the support I can get in this country so I'm not about to burn any bridges, especially when it comes to family.
* I know it's been a while since I used this pseudonym for the area where I work, so just a reminder: it's not really called Hana Town.
Labels: family, frustration, James Bond, Japan, movies
つづく...(Click here to read more)
