hullooo
Nice slow weekend, good change after shinkansen-ing between Tokyo-Kyoto last weekend. Went to a house that’s just been completed by the company, slept in and went to the 7-storey bookstore in Shinjuku. Went out for drinks with people in the company Friday night as a belated welcoming and got royally soaked Saturday evening, rainy season is starting in Tokyo now. House in Tokyo was really interesting because the house plan is closely linked to a Tokyo style of living (duh we’re in Tokyo) but it was very differently designed from say a Malaysian or Australian plan. Also little details, facade etc. Will put up more pics on www.flickr.com/photos/folio check it out
Went to the technology department at some of the Tokyo malls and drooled over techie stuff They’ve got an Olympus MP3 player that with a Darth Vadar slick black front and touch-sensitive face for all controls, smaller and lighter than an Ipod. There is a Sony Vaio desktop, but looks like a laptop with attached speakers at the back. When the keyboard snaps shut, it acts as a hifi with slick black plasma console and when open, it’s a desktop with plasma screen. It would have been even cooler if you could just undock the desktop from the speaker and use it as a laptop and even cooler if they could have could use an ENGLISH operating system…but they can’t. They even have a Panasonic MP3 player that is a 2cmX2xm silver cube (yes, it is that small) and let’s not even get started on the handphones, cameras, video cameras, lens….
The downside is all the cool techie stuff (except for Ipods) are in Japanese. The way I use Japanese gizmos here is through trial and error, in fact all the software I use in the office is in Japanese. But most options on the menu bar is in the same place and order so it’s alright. It also takes me awhile to decipher where plastic/paper/tins go if there are no icons, and I still point to the photos to order my food.
One of the redeeming things about my apartment is that I have an indirect view of the Shinjuku park. The bad news is that I have to go back to KL in 2 months time because the offer in Tokyo fell but am going to hunt again.
Resolve to get myself to Tsukiji (fish market) next week the Sony store and the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.
Laters,
Shi.