After a long time of life more-or-less as usual, another culture shock. A bad one. I'm still traumatised as I'm writing this.
Yesterday, I was in Akihabara Donki, and I found Ramune in their fridge.
Ramune is a soft drink well known to many anime otaku, so being at least somewhat related to them, of course I've been wanting to try it. But so far I've only found it in two restaurants so far, never in a shop - so I immediately decided to buy it. However, it was just next to the cash register, and I was next in the line, so I just grabbed the nearest bottle - the red one.
When I came back home, and realised I was thirsty, I remembered the Ramune I bought, and started to open it. Now the Ramune bottle is a bit strange, and there are numerous Youtube clips demonstrating the proper way to open it. Basically, it has a marble inside, and you have to push it in with a provided instrument; then you turn it so that the marble gets stuck between two "reefs" in the bottle before tilting the bottle to drink or pour (otherwise the marble gets in the way again and stoppers the bottle from the inside). What I forgot was that Ramune has a tendency to spray when opened. It of course did, and I did the only thing I could think of - I popped the top into my mouth, in order to avoid spraying Ramune all over my room (or at least mitigate it, since I was not quite quick enough).
Bad mistake.
My reading is still quite slow - in Croatian or English, I can't not read something if I see it, reading is automatic and subconscious. Not so with Japanese - I have to invest effort and time, even if it is just a couple of words it will not be automatically processed. So only then I finally paid attention to the label, and what I saw horrified me, almost as much as the one gulp I got.
キムチ風ラムネ
or, Kimchi-style Ramune. Who does not know what Kimchi is, look it up on Wikipedia or something.
Next to that, a picture of garlic and chili - and yes, you can taste them both, and very strongly.
Anyway, it's the most godawful drink I've ever had the misfortune to have in my mouth. It's positively vile. I've even done some research on the net, and most people agree that even people who like kimchi (I'm not one of them) think it's vomitworthy. Some people probably remember the dream tea that Oz brought back from America. This is worse. If I had to choose between a glass of dream tea every day for a month or a glass of Kimchi Ramune once, I'm going with the tea. So you people who remember that can kind of get the intensity of my feelings on this subject.
Now I'm quite pissed off, because, a) how can anyone produce something like this? and b) since it's being sold, some SOB is actually buying it!
That's not the end of the story though. Today I related the story to one of my lab friends, who is kind of an experienced Japan-dweller, Nihon-sensei kind of person. When I came to the middle of my story, he started smirking and saying he thought he knew what happened, but fortunately it wasn't it.
There is a trend in Japan of hiding things that could be embarassing. For example, a third of the people you see on the Metro are spending their time reading a book, and half of those have the said book in an opaque paper book cover. The book cover does not serve to protect the book - it serves to prevent other people from seeing what you're reading. Of course, it does not really work - if it's really a book, fine, but in many cases it's manga, and if there's nekkid girls inside, people do not need to see the title page to realise what kind of book it is. Still, the book covers are widely used. Also, you can find sex toys that look just like deodorant bottles - you would not look at them twice in the shop. In the same vein, apparently, some companies have started packaging lubricants in bottles with the same imagery as popular soft drinks and teas - including Ramune. The name differs a bit, but the shape and colours are quite similar. I also heard someone tried the matcha lubricant, and that it even tasted of matcha. But it was not matcha.
So in the end, I count myself lucky, I guess.
Showing posts with label Akihabara. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Akihabara. Show all posts
2009-06-10
2008-10-25
Umbrella games
I've met the gamers!
Admittedly, so far, it seems our Japanese counterparts mostly go for the lighter gaming fare, but a game is a game, and I'm not complaining.
To begin from the start: After several misses, I was finally going to have the time to go to the Yellow Submarine - and knew which Yellow Submarine to go for. So immediately after my classes, I went off to Akiba to search for the store, guided by the red marker dot the helpful store attendant in the last week's Yellow Submarine miss helpfully painted onto my map. However, it seems the treasure was moved in the meantime - the store was nowhere to be found. The ex did not mark the spot.
I knew it had to be somewhere in Akihabara, and I did not yet want to admit defeat (even though it was quite probable I (was) already lost); so I started wandering around aimlessly (well, aimfully, though I had no clue where the bloody target was); but my staunch spirit paid off, as I looked up and spotted my Holy Grail!
So, where there's a banner, there's a store, so up I went - but when I came to the store, it was way too small to hold any gaming. At first, the attendant had a blank look on his face, and then he got it - "kaado geemu?" "hai, kaado geemu ya boodo geemu nado!" Then he pulls out a real Akihabara map - not the photocopied flyer they had at the other store - and showed me where, exactly and finally, I can find a game.
During all that time, it was raining. Not too fun. But I finally arrived, and was welcomed, and accepted into Carcassonne: the New World, that no-one really knew rules to, except this one guy who was just leaving. I won. I later found out we had some rules wrong; I still would have won. Lucky game :)
I met the founder of this event, who rode the train for one hour in each direction each Wednesday with a suitcase-sized sampling of his 300-odd collection; I met the tall BGG liaison guy improbably called Joe; and I met two Germans who studied in Kiwiland together, of which one was visiting the other for a week, and the other is working in German Embassy for half a year. Had a long chat about nontrivial games with the latter, while the former charmed a female gamer, and received an email address, despite the fact that the only language they could communicate in was his very rusty French.
I got invited to the special Heroscape day the following evening, so I came back and played a bit of that. Funnish, certainly beautiful, but not that much involved. "Age 8+" summarises my impression rather succinctly.
Change of topic.
I am amazed sometimes at the practicality here - when it rains, every store (yes, every store, including the hardcore software ones) have cheap umbrellas for sale. Wherever you are, you can avoid getting rained. (Bad English, works in Japanese, so meh.)
Also, the first time I saw another Japanese umbrella-related surprise was in my cafeteria. Don't know yet if they do that elsewhere; I'm sure they must, but I haven't been to any other very public place while it rained. They put umbrella condoms at the entrances, along with a big disposal bin. You come inside, you put the tight baggie over the dripping part so there are no accidents while you're inside, and you take it off when you're done and drop it into the provided bin. Quite convenient.
Otherwise, many other places, for instance most of the buildings in my Uni I've been to, have umbrella lockers. You put your umbrella inside and lock it, and take the key. There may or may not be a deposit required. Ever gone somewhere and had no clue what to do with your big wet stick? Well, not in Tokyo.
Except in subways. But then, we have these great signs telling us how to behave.
Change of topic.
Things really work differently here. When we gaijin were leaving the Wednesday gaming, we heard someone calling after us. It was a policeman running after us. He was holding a piece of paper, and when he caught up with us, he said we dropped it. It was the email address mentioned five, or seven, paragraphs earlier, depending on how you count them.
The next day, I was getting off in Nezu (from the train!), and I noticed that the escalator that was out of order and under repairs the week before was back in function. I probably would have noticed anyway, but what really drew my attention to it was not a what, but a who. There was a construction worker, or a train line officer, or whoever it was wearing a helmet and a uniform, standing rather motionlessly next to the bottom end of the escalator, extending his white-gloved hand in its direction, inviting people to use it. I would not be surprised if that was all he did that day.
That said, I see a lot of people with a strange job description, at least according to my worldview so far: standing in front of their stores and holding up a sign advertising something in the shop, or the shop itself. They are not yelling anything (that's apparently another job), just standing around holding a sign, which probably could just as well stand on its own, with a bit of proper propping. They did get my attention though, so I guess it works.
Change of topic.
So I finally bought the One-Seg tuner for my PSP. So now I can watch TV. Or rather, what passes for TV in Japan, which is mainly strange game shows I don't understand yet, strange talk shows I don't understand yet, and strange food shows I don't understand yet. Hopefully, one day, with the help of the intensive lessons I'm taking, that will change. My understanding, not the programme. Did I mention over three hours of classes every day, plus homework? We even have listening homework. The teachers upload mp3-s to the web server, which we download and listen at home. Fun! but a bit tiring.
So now I have to also write the handouts because the book circle was moved to Monday this week, and tomorrow I've signed up to go see some Tea Ceremony so I have to get up early, and there's so little time...
At least I'm well stocked in grapefruits. Thanks, 99!
Admittedly, so far, it seems our Japanese counterparts mostly go for the lighter gaming fare, but a game is a game, and I'm not complaining.
To begin from the start: After several misses, I was finally going to have the time to go to the Yellow Submarine - and knew which Yellow Submarine to go for. So immediately after my classes, I went off to Akiba to search for the store, guided by the red marker dot the helpful store attendant in the last week's Yellow Submarine miss helpfully painted onto my map. However, it seems the treasure was moved in the meantime - the store was nowhere to be found. The ex did not mark the spot.
I knew it had to be somewhere in Akihabara, and I did not yet want to admit defeat (even though it was quite probable I (was) already lost); so I started wandering around aimlessly (well, aimfully, though I had no clue where the bloody target was); but my staunch spirit paid off, as I looked up and spotted my Holy Grail!
So, where there's a banner, there's a store, so up I went - but when I came to the store, it was way too small to hold any gaming. At first, the attendant had a blank look on his face, and then he got it - "kaado geemu?" "hai, kaado geemu ya boodo geemu nado!" Then he pulls out a real Akihabara map - not the photocopied flyer they had at the other store - and showed me where, exactly and finally, I can find a game.
During all that time, it was raining. Not too fun. But I finally arrived, and was welcomed, and accepted into Carcassonne: the New World, that no-one really knew rules to, except this one guy who was just leaving. I won. I later found out we had some rules wrong; I still would have won. Lucky game :)
I met the founder of this event, who rode the train for one hour in each direction each Wednesday with a suitcase-sized sampling of his 300-odd collection; I met the tall BGG liaison guy improbably called Joe; and I met two Germans who studied in Kiwiland together, of which one was visiting the other for a week, and the other is working in German Embassy for half a year. Had a long chat about nontrivial games with the latter, while the former charmed a female gamer, and received an email address, despite the fact that the only language they could communicate in was his very rusty French.
I got invited to the special Heroscape day the following evening, so I came back and played a bit of that. Funnish, certainly beautiful, but not that much involved. "Age 8+" summarises my impression rather succinctly.
Change of topic.
I am amazed sometimes at the practicality here - when it rains, every store (yes, every store, including the hardcore software ones) have cheap umbrellas for sale. Wherever you are, you can avoid getting rained. (Bad English, works in Japanese, so meh.)
Also, the first time I saw another Japanese umbrella-related surprise was in my cafeteria. Don't know yet if they do that elsewhere; I'm sure they must, but I haven't been to any other very public place while it rained. They put umbrella condoms at the entrances, along with a big disposal bin. You come inside, you put the tight baggie over the dripping part so there are no accidents while you're inside, and you take it off when you're done and drop it into the provided bin. Quite convenient.
Otherwise, many other places, for instance most of the buildings in my Uni I've been to, have umbrella lockers. You put your umbrella inside and lock it, and take the key. There may or may not be a deposit required. Ever gone somewhere and had no clue what to do with your big wet stick? Well, not in Tokyo.
Except in subways. But then, we have these great signs telling us how to behave.
Change of topic.
Things really work differently here. When we gaijin were leaving the Wednesday gaming, we heard someone calling after us. It was a policeman running after us. He was holding a piece of paper, and when he caught up with us, he said we dropped it. It was the email address mentioned five, or seven, paragraphs earlier, depending on how you count them.
The next day, I was getting off in Nezu (from the train!), and I noticed that the escalator that was out of order and under repairs the week before was back in function. I probably would have noticed anyway, but what really drew my attention to it was not a what, but a who. There was a construction worker, or a train line officer, or whoever it was wearing a helmet and a uniform, standing rather motionlessly next to the bottom end of the escalator, extending his white-gloved hand in its direction, inviting people to use it. I would not be surprised if that was all he did that day.
That said, I see a lot of people with a strange job description, at least according to my worldview so far: standing in front of their stores and holding up a sign advertising something in the shop, or the shop itself. They are not yelling anything (that's apparently another job), just standing around holding a sign, which probably could just as well stand on its own, with a bit of proper propping. They did get my attention though, so I guess it works.
Change of topic.
So I finally bought the One-Seg tuner for my PSP. So now I can watch TV. Or rather, what passes for TV in Japan, which is mainly strange game shows I don't understand yet, strange talk shows I don't understand yet, and strange food shows I don't understand yet. Hopefully, one day, with the help of the intensive lessons I'm taking, that will change. My understanding, not the programme. Did I mention over three hours of classes every day, plus homework? We even have listening homework. The teachers upload mp3-s to the web server, which we download and listen at home. Fun! but a bit tiring.
So now I have to also write the handouts because the book circle was moved to Monday this week, and tomorrow I've signed up to go see some Tea Ceremony so I have to get up early, and there's so little time...
At least I'm well stocked in grapefruits. Thanks, 99!
2008-10-04
Shopping Spree
I finally got my bank book. Which meant, I was finally ready to get a keitai. And also, I thought, I would take a stroll through Akihabara. It was interesting, all around. I went out in the morning, and came back in the evening, and I had no idea where all the time has gone, except for about an hour and a half at SoftBank, and why my feet hurt so much. But I've took a nice photo, bought the first part of Death Note (which I'll probably be reading the next month or so), got a rice cooker in Don Quijote (now if only someone would tell me how it works!), collected a thousand flyers and promotional handkerchiefs (or whatever they are, I still haven't opened any), managed to do what I set out to do (buy a keitai, remember?), eat an oyakodon, forget about matcha cream mochi till home, down a can of pulpy apple juice from the vending machine (yummy!), look at maids, procure a bedsheet and a mug (tired of drinking water from a used PET bottle), and probably also something I managed to forget in the meantime.
Those who don't know about Akihabara should now really read the Wikipedia article. Really. Because explaining what I do takes quite a lot of time, even without explaining about all the rest of the world. It's explained already, more clearly and concisely than I could ever manage to do. Also, Google Images, there's loads on Akiba (and if someone now asks me what's Akiba, I'll smack them in VR) on the 'Net already. And it's a fun read, and funner look.
On my way back, I guess I thought five bags of Stuff wasn't enough, so I stopped by in Shibuya to pop into BicCamera and finally buy a computer. This blog post is a direct consequence - I'm writing on my own hardware! Yay!
As I said, the best laid plans and all that, so I couldn't get a huge iMac, and I didn't want to get the expensive MacBook Pro (oh, maybe I haven't said - macrumours talked about a defect in the nVidia chip, and also, it would leave me begging for rice in the foreseeable future). Thus I settled for the medium MacBook - I would have taken the best MacBook, were it not for the superficial observation that they didn't make the 250 Gb MacBooks in white - after I already color-coordinated all my other electronics! Rude.
So now I'm connected in our dorm's common room. My room's connection shouldn't be expected till about Thursday. It's a funny story, really: We got this magnetic card that goes into this machine where you have to swipe it, then feed the machine ¥1000 notes, and the internet connection costs ¥2750 per month, and the machine does not give change, but the remainder apparently carries over to the next month, and when you first do so, they ("They") will connect you in 3 work days, and last two days when I came back to my dorm I never had three ¥1000 notes, so despite my desire to pay in advance and have my connection ready when I finally get a computer, it backfired and now I have to wait.
This kind of leads me into another funny story: the one about how to get a mobile phone in Japan. Now, everyone I heard from says I should sign up for SoftBank, and not one of the two other major operators, or one of the apparent million of minor ones. Why that should be so, I have no idea, but simply by the logic everyone else was on SoftBank and my fees would be less if I followed suit, I followed suit. I was already twice checking out the mobile phones: once with my tutor on the first day in BicCamera (when I was all indecisive and stuff etc), once by myself when I thought I had finally decided (in a proper SoftBank place, but this time they refused me on the grounds I did not have my bank book yet), so third time's the charm, as they say. Besides a bank book (or a credit card - debit card is apparently no good), you also need your Alien Registration Card (or a certificate of the said Alien Card being In Procedure, since it takes about 3 weeks to make), and of course your passport. Also, I learned in the meantime that to take advantage of a monthly repayment plan for the mobile phone over 2 years, I'd need a 27 month visa. So I had to buy a mobile phone and actually pay for it. Which would be okay, but for the fact that the mobile phones are insanely expensive here. I bought my MacBook here because it's cheaper; I bought my keitai here because the ones used everywhere else won't work. The cheapest phone I could find costs about ¥17000; however, they informed me I better buy a charger as well, otherwise the phone is not usable (another ¥2000). I thought about iPhone, but whereas I remember Apple announcing its new price ($200, or $300 for more memory), the Japanese had other ideas, and it costs over ¥800000. Wow. So, the cheapest one for me.
So this time I picked, as I later thought, the worst place to finally Do It: I thought it was a SoftBank shop in Akiba, but it turned out to be a Yodobashi Camera pretending to be a SoftBank shop. Which is bad because I already have a bonus point card (with some bonus points!) in BicCamera; now I have a Yodobashi point card as well. (You get points on the point card by - what else - purchasing things, and then you can spend them on your next purchases as discounts). However, it seems I got off lightly - some people I talked to later said they took over 3 hours on a SoftBank chair. However, it seems they managed to find some weird discount that I missed (which apparently involves signing up for a more expensive plan, then canceling it by receiving a call in Japanese).
So that's it for today. I still have some bread left over from yesterday (bought 6 rather delicious slices for ¥350 or so, quite a bargain), one pack of natto to go with it, and there's still a bit of Pocari Sweat. I should be fine for today. And tomorrow... I don't know. See Shinjuku and Harajuku, maybe. Get a metro day pass, maybe. Maybe even go see some temples or sights or something. Dunno. If my feet stop hurting that much. If not, I guess I can space out in the common room watching cooking shows (which is what is almost always on telly).
Oh, one more thing: Mac rocks. A guy with another Mac came to the common room (the 3-hour-keitai one), and all the cables were taken (one of which by yours truly). It took about one minute to enable internet sharing on my machine and for him to connect to it, neither of us having done it before. Take that, Bill Gates!
Skype is installed, but I won't be using it till I'm in my own room. I did not buy a headset (Moniq should note here it's a perfect place to use the explicative construction). Also, by virtue of having a keitai, I can now be reached by email wherever I am (in theory at least, I haven't tested it yet, and there's also some setting up to do to make it even easier - for me, at least). The interested ones may ask me in a private email, please - I'm not naming any names here.
Except for Bill Gates, obviously.
See you soon, dear readers.
Those who don't know about Akihabara should now really read the Wikipedia article. Really. Because explaining what I do takes quite a lot of time, even without explaining about all the rest of the world. It's explained already, more clearly and concisely than I could ever manage to do. Also, Google Images, there's loads on Akiba (and if someone now asks me what's Akiba, I'll smack them in VR) on the 'Net already. And it's a fun read, and funner look.
On my way back, I guess I thought five bags of Stuff wasn't enough, so I stopped by in Shibuya to pop into BicCamera and finally buy a computer. This blog post is a direct consequence - I'm writing on my own hardware! Yay!
As I said, the best laid plans and all that, so I couldn't get a huge iMac, and I didn't want to get the expensive MacBook Pro (oh, maybe I haven't said - macrumours talked about a defect in the nVidia chip, and also, it would leave me begging for rice in the foreseeable future). Thus I settled for the medium MacBook - I would have taken the best MacBook, were it not for the superficial observation that they didn't make the 250 Gb MacBooks in white - after I already color-coordinated all my other electronics! Rude.
So now I'm connected in our dorm's common room. My room's connection shouldn't be expected till about Thursday. It's a funny story, really: We got this magnetic card that goes into this machine where you have to swipe it, then feed the machine ¥1000 notes, and the internet connection costs ¥2750 per month, and the machine does not give change, but the remainder apparently carries over to the next month, and when you first do so, they ("They") will connect you in 3 work days, and last two days when I came back to my dorm I never had three ¥1000 notes, so despite my desire to pay in advance and have my connection ready when I finally get a computer, it backfired and now I have to wait.
This kind of leads me into another funny story: the one about how to get a mobile phone in Japan. Now, everyone I heard from says I should sign up for SoftBank, and not one of the two other major operators, or one of the apparent million of minor ones. Why that should be so, I have no idea, but simply by the logic everyone else was on SoftBank and my fees would be less if I followed suit, I followed suit. I was already twice checking out the mobile phones: once with my tutor on the first day in BicCamera (when I was all indecisive and stuff etc), once by myself when I thought I had finally decided (in a proper SoftBank place, but this time they refused me on the grounds I did not have my bank book yet), so third time's the charm, as they say. Besides a bank book (or a credit card - debit card is apparently no good), you also need your Alien Registration Card (or a certificate of the said Alien Card being In Procedure, since it takes about 3 weeks to make), and of course your passport. Also, I learned in the meantime that to take advantage of a monthly repayment plan for the mobile phone over 2 years, I'd need a 27 month visa. So I had to buy a mobile phone and actually pay for it. Which would be okay, but for the fact that the mobile phones are insanely expensive here. I bought my MacBook here because it's cheaper; I bought my keitai here because the ones used everywhere else won't work. The cheapest phone I could find costs about ¥17000; however, they informed me I better buy a charger as well, otherwise the phone is not usable (another ¥2000). I thought about iPhone, but whereas I remember Apple announcing its new price ($200, or $300 for more memory), the Japanese had other ideas, and it costs over ¥800000. Wow. So, the cheapest one for me.
So this time I picked, as I later thought, the worst place to finally Do It: I thought it was a SoftBank shop in Akiba, but it turned out to be a Yodobashi Camera pretending to be a SoftBank shop. Which is bad because I already have a bonus point card (with some bonus points!) in BicCamera; now I have a Yodobashi point card as well. (You get points on the point card by - what else - purchasing things, and then you can spend them on your next purchases as discounts). However, it seems I got off lightly - some people I talked to later said they took over 3 hours on a SoftBank chair. However, it seems they managed to find some weird discount that I missed (which apparently involves signing up for a more expensive plan, then canceling it by receiving a call in Japanese).
So that's it for today. I still have some bread left over from yesterday (bought 6 rather delicious slices for ¥350 or so, quite a bargain), one pack of natto to go with it, and there's still a bit of Pocari Sweat. I should be fine for today. And tomorrow... I don't know. See Shinjuku and Harajuku, maybe. Get a metro day pass, maybe. Maybe even go see some temples or sights or something. Dunno. If my feet stop hurting that much. If not, I guess I can space out in the common room watching cooking shows (which is what is almost always on telly).
Oh, one more thing: Mac rocks. A guy with another Mac came to the common room (the 3-hour-keitai one), and all the cables were taken (one of which by yours truly). It took about one minute to enable internet sharing on my machine and for him to connect to it, neither of us having done it before. Take that, Bill Gates!
Skype is installed, but I won't be using it till I'm in my own room. I did not buy a headset (Moniq should note here it's a perfect place to use the explicative construction). Also, by virtue of having a keitai, I can now be reached by email wherever I am (in theory at least, I haven't tested it yet, and there's also some setting up to do to make it even easier - for me, at least). The interested ones may ask me in a private email, please - I'm not naming any names here.
Except for Bill Gates, obviously.
See you soon, dear readers.
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