February 2009
11 posts
Please Vote For Me →
Chinese documentary about elections for class rep in an elementary school. A little democracy is a dangerous thing.
A day of mourning →
Balls. The only decent sandwich shop anywhere nearby in Tokyo, The Exchange, has closed. It was in the Palace Hotel, which has just been demolished prior to a rebuild, and it looks like it won’t be coming back. Quiznos in Ginza may now be our only hope.
The state of the sterling/yen rate →
I haven’t seen any press here yet on what’s happening to tourist numbers, but I imagine Japan isn’t all that popular a destination for UK holidaymakers at the moment. Richard Lloyd Parry at The Times gives a few hints as to why.
If, conversely, you’re paid in yen and visiting the UK, it’s a stunningly cheap experience.
Death Van for Naughty →
Alarming story about China’s mobile execution wagons. Unsurprisingly they’re not mentioned on the manufacturer’s English website.
An Aso goes to Washington →
Cruel, well-deserved, and hilarious.
DoCoMo starts offering local numbers to... →
After a couple of overseas trips that have left me with bills in the hundreds of dollars, this is a welcome development: DoCoMo’s offering roamers to South Korea a local SK number to use, for a nominal signup fee and small monthly charge. Call charges drop drastically and, critically, it no longer costs anything to receive calls. Let’s hope this idea spreads to other countries, quick.
This 'top-secret' phone →
has _got_ to be a hoax. I had to stifle a giggle at the earpiece it comes with—clearly a mockup, yes, but it looks like a piece from one of those flat-packed wooden toy kits; the leg of a triceratops, as it might be.
Will be interested to see if this makes it to market and succeeds. Unfortunately, phrases like “innovative British technology” tend to coexist with phrases like...
Knock down ginger? That'll be a prosecutin' →
What business 18-year-olds have playing knock down ginger is anyone’s guess, but one chap of that age has just been prosecuted in Kyoto for ringing some poor family’s bell ten times over a couple of nights last autumn.
This is one of those times when it’s interesting to compare the English and Japanese Wikipedia entries on the subject. The English one goes extensively into the...
Disappointment or dismissal? →
Interesting to see the different responses to the week’s two high-profile sports-‘n’-drugs incidents. Michael Phelps gets called “disappointing” and the head of the US anti-doping agency hints darkly that his “participation in a pilot test programme designed to increase the accuracy of doping tests could be at risk” (excuse me - HA HA HA HA HA HA HA). But...