Of course

In my previous post, which began as an excuse to post some pictures of autumn, and then changed to become a ramble on seasonal rigidity here in Japan, I mentioned how the large number of rules governing Japanese society – and its perception of the world, gives:

“A sureness and certainty and a sense of organisation to things.”  

But ‘rules are made to be broken’ says the Western saying; they’re perecieved as bad, as limiting. Not always: the Jesteress has borrowed her brother’s keitai, but forgotten the charger and now it has run out of battery. Her mum asked me this morning if it was on the NTT DoCoMo network, like her phone.

“Yes,” I replied. She then got her phone’s charger and – even though it’s a completely different model – plugged it in to bro’s phone.

“All NTT phones have the same charger socket?” I asked, surprised. “Yes,” she replied. “Of course.”

A good example of how rigidity can create convenience. Fat chance of Orange enforcing this in the UK though.

Autumn in Japan

So last week I got to see Autumn in Palau and this week I’m in Japan, visiting the Jesteress’ family and friends, and of course, enjoying Japanorama for myself. Like many Japanese, the Jesteress is fond of saying that one of the reasons Japan is so great is that it has four seasons. At first this seems a bizarre claim – fine, places so close to the equator such as Palau don’t have distinct seasons, but the UK certainly does… but when you’re here in Japan, you appreciate there is a very certain, very definite distinction between the seasons. Even though it’s been quite warm, the people on the trains are often swaddled in woollen jumpers, because it’s autumn. In restaurants we’ve been enthusiastically served mackrel (“an autumn fish”). There are posters advertising particularly scenic autumnal locations at the railway stations.

It’s often said Japanese society is very ritualised and subject to many rules. This extends to the seasons and the observation of the seasons. Whereas in the UK you might say ‘oh, it feels very autumnal today’, or talk about an ‘indian summer’, in Japan, the date says it is autumn, so it is autumn. Although this is rigid, from such rigidty comes a sureness and certainty and a sense of organisation to things.   

Speaking of scenic autumn locations, we’re currently in Gunma where the Jesteress’ mother lives, and along with some friends we went to Lake Haruna this afternoon. I joined in with a horde of photographers comitting the fabulous foliage to memory.    

Travel Writing

One thing I’m surprised I’ve not done more of this year is travel writing; this year I’ve been fortunate enough to go to places that, while within easy reach, are still somehow slightly out of reach, out of frame at the same time – Monaco, Syria, rural Ibiza, and in about two hours, Palau1 and my third trip to Japan.

Thinking – and writing is often just thinking with a keyboard – about this is something I should do, because next year, I’m taking a sabbatical. Having worked for Dennis/Custom PC for 5 years (!), I’m eligible for 8 weeks extra holiday, which I can combine with 2 weeks of my usual leave for… 10 weeks, more than 2 months, away. Not sure where I will go yet, but I’d like to do some travelling in that time. I’ve never ‘done’ South America, have never been to to India to find myself and I’m not about to start now. But I do think about travel as a part of life; the difference between there and then and here and now; about how it can/should work as applied curiosity.

1 Palau?!? Yeah, Palau. The CIA knows all about Palau. It’s a real country. In the middle of the pacific, about here.

From the ‘what-were-they-thinking-department’: The Chair ‘O Bears!

Today I had to visit Harrods to buy some presents for relatives and friends I’ll soon be visiting overseas (don’t ask me why, but they all want Harrods tote bags); while there, I spotted this monstrosity – an oversized armchair made from minced up teddy bears.

Children walking past it were both fascinated and shocked. This is not surprising given that it looks like someone’s taken several armfuls of cuddly bears, chucked them in a rubbish compactor, mashed them up good and proper, and then stretched their furry little pelts over a threateningly large chair.

More pics of the monstrous Chair ‘O Bears after the jump.

Continue reading “From the ‘what-were-they-thinking-department’: The Chair ‘O Bears!”

On the quality of the iPhone’s camera



Autumn in the shire
Originally uploaded by Sifter

I’d been weighing up getting an iPhone for a while, ever since the new and improved 3G one launched. My existing contract with Orange featured rapacious data costs and distinctly rubbish data speeds, so the iPhone/02 combo of Exchange email, a decent mobile web browser and all-you-can-eat 3G data was tempting.

A couple of things put me off:

1. The iPhone’s camera looked rubbish, and I’m a big fan of mobile phone cameras – I remember paying to upgrade my phone back in 2002 just to get one of the first phones in the UK with a camera.

2.Several people at work told me the iPhone’s call quality was poor.

3. Crappy battery life.

Points 2 & 3 were quickly rendered null by the fact I couldn’t believe anything would be worse at these than my dreadful Samsung Windows Mobile machine…

And point 1? Well, I got the iPhone a week or so ago, and it’s all up and running now, synced with Exchange, hooked up to my number that I’ve had since the late 90s and… well the camera’s ok.

On the downside:

* There are zero controls over it (no white balance or exposure comp) which is annoying – although Apple could, presumably, add these in a software update.
* No flash.
* No video (also could possibly be fixed in software).
* It’s only 2 megapixel.

On the plus side:

* It meshes really well with the rest of the iPhone – it’s easy to email photos, for instance.
* It performs reasonable well in daylight
* And best of all, the speed at which it freezes the video into a picture when you press the photo button means you can create some nice mindbending pics like this one.

My Favourite Piece of Travel Writing

My favourite piece of travel writing is short and to the point, but it questions everything about ‘here’ and calls to mind perfectly the change of ‘there’ that is its lure.

It is a description of people in an airport, and how easily they strike up conversation with each other. They are:

‘Strangers rendered open-hearted from jet lag’
(Pico Iyer, The Global Soul)

We travel to be operated on; by the sun, by the sights, by there, the place we want to get to, and most of all, by the miles of distance between there and here, by the separation itself.

What I’m Reading This Week

Noel Gallagher’s blog1. Don’t worry, it’s funnier than Be Here Now. Now, Noel might not have written a decent tune since back when Tony Blair was popular, but if you’ve ever seen him in an interview (or the excellent documentary, Live Forever2) you’ll know that he’s very funny and pretty savvy. Oasis have a new album coming out before Christmas and instead of/in addition to the usual pre-release campaign of slagging off other bands and punching photographers, they’ve got a website with some community features, a YouTube video campaign etc etc – but best of all is Tales From The Middle of Nowhere, Noel’s blog. You have to register to read it, but it’s well worth it. The posts are short, sharp and mock pretty much everything about being in a big rock band, while never forgetting that it’s one of the best jobs in the world and as such, should be relished:

“Did a couple of interviews yesterday. One with a guy who looked EXACTLY like Woody Harrelson. And one with some guitar magazine. They’re funny those guitar mags, unless you’re into discussing the science of guitar sound. The questions are always ludicrous. Example:

Q: “Describe to me the guitars you used on this new record.”
A: “Erm..one was red and one was blonde!? Are you gonna ask me what my favourite string is too?”
Q: “You have a favourite STRING!?”
A: “Yep..the ‘e’ string”
Q: “Why?”
A: “Cos there’s 2 of ‘em!”
Q: “Really!?”

OH, FUCK OFF!!!”

1 Although the big N denies it’s a blog, sagely noting that “I never heard of hearing such a thing!! This isn’t a blog. A blog is for someone who’s got no mates (I’ve got more than a dozen, and that’s a fact) or who’s in a band that no one can remember hearing of.”

2 You can actually watch the whole thing on YouTube – part 1 is here.

What I’m Reading This Week: US Election 2008 blogs

A short post about what I’ve been reading this week. Hence the name. This week, blogs about the American election. I’ve always had an interest in politics, and this election has completely drawn me in. It has all the elements of fine drama – a hopeful protagonist and a shady nemesis, stunning reversals and Hollywood celebrities demanding one of the central characters talks about how old the dinosaurs are. So, how to keep up to date? This is an issue at the moment, because there’s a lot happening, but not a lot easily spinnable into a news story, so quite a lot of the story hasn’t appeared in the UK media.

* Firstly, a blog called Marbury. The best of the lot for me: it’s written from a British perspective, it’s not too opinionated, and it’s not written by a political hack on from one of the papers so it feels a little different.  Mixes latest stories and videos culled from US TV with some very on-point analysis.

* Secondly, and this is if you’re really keen, Andrew Sullivan’s blog. You’ll need to be fast on your RSS reader to keep up to to date with this – think 30 updates a day (!!) – and he’s no fan on McCain and Palin. But it’s passionately written and makes you feel this election really is a titanic struggle. Today’s quote of the day:

“John McCain isn’t running against Barack Obama. He’s running against reality.”

* Third, a bit of a cheat because it’s a podcast, so you can’t read it. Slate’s Political Gabfest. A weekly update that usually strikes a fine balance between chat and analysis.

Halfway through the year, and where are we up to

Mosaics at the mosque

Well, it’s slightly more than halfway through the year, but part of me, deep down, still runs on a school calendar I think, and it’s the tail end of July, when all the exams are done and the holidays are up and running, that feels like the year’s mid-point. The Wired Jester has gotten a bit dusty – the last update was back in March (!!) – owing to a very busy first four months of the year at Custom PC. We’ve now finished hiring, and the team is up to six people in the office, which feels excellent. So now that I have a bit of time, where am I at, nearly seven months through 2008?

Continue reading “Halfway through the year, and where are we up to”