I had a takoyaki party at my place for my birthday just to have lots of food and drinks XD
mmmmm takoyaki in the making… :O
mmmm fooooooood….
We tried to make some takoyaki with pancake mix…. this was the result 8D
We also made some “experimental” takoyaki with chocolate/banana, bacon, and fruits in it haha they were quite tasty though :O but I would prefer the regular takoyaki :3
Taylor’s American way of making bacon…. this was the result… 8D
Ok finally after a looooooong loooooooooooooong time I decided to update it (Nili kept bugging me D:< )
Few weeks back there was an open house at ATR, the company that I’m working for, together with the other companies nearby.
The open house was amazing!! So many high-tech research stuff like 3D-screens, robotics and other fancy stuff :3
Made some photos and videos so I’ll just explain those (can’t really recall the rest or too lazy for it :3)
This setup here was to simulate grabbing virtual objects. You had to grab the device and pinch it with your fingers to grab to object on the screen. They could then set the density of the object which you could really feel when you’re trying to grab the object
Next thing is the gCubik from NICT with screens on each side of the cube. You could interact with the table by tapping on a sea creature. The creature would then be transfered to the gCubik where you could view it from all angles, making it look like there’s actually a creature inside the cube! :O
Uhm I’ve no idea what these things are called but I’ll explain them anyway because this was my favorite of all the exhibitions :3
With this demo you had to look through special glasses with screens in it that would show the virtual object in 3D (the object you will see is shown on the screen above).
With the pen you’re holding you could feel the virtual objects because the mechanism of the pen would provide feedback. While touching and scratching it you could literally feel the texture of the object :O :O what was so amazing!!
The second one is in general the same concept, but here you had to pierce the balloons that would release a scent :3 It felt so real trying to pierce the balloon!! :O
Last saturday I decided to go to Kyoto, because there was some kind of Edo Period re-enactment event going on form 11AM until 4PM. I was so tired that week and guess what.. I overslept that saturday 8D woke up around 2PM so there was no use anymore going to Kyoto D:
Browsed on the internet.. and found a pre-halloween party in Kyoto from 6-9PM.. it was all you can drink for 3000 yen 8D 8D so why not! I wanted to tag the dude from 1 floor below with me, but he wasn’t home.. oh well.. :3
Had some drinks there.. talked to people.. older Japanese girls asking for my number, but my phone isn’t working here (and yes I should get a Japanese cell phone! 8D )..
Well I took to the last train home from Kyoto around 11:30PM.. on my way I fell asleep!! :O I woke up too late! Ended up 2 stops further (woke up 5 minutes too late) D: and it was the last train :’( :’( KAK! So I had to take a cab home… 2000 yen!! D: D: Confused, tired, raging.. I went to bed :@
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The next day would be a better day. Few weeks back I met a girl on myspace from Kobe and today is the day that I would be meeting Megumi at Osaka Station. We went to Osaka Castle.
The castle looked awesome from the outside! But on the inside it looked like a modern museum.. it even had an elevator in it! D: but the view from the top floor was great
lol bad lighting Megumi-chan!! And no that’s not my haircut.. there was a lot of wind 8D
Megumi-chan!
Done with seeing the castle we found these stupid photo thingies 8D
Me, Megumi and the woman on the right were part of our photo pose.. me being an evil samurai feudal lord refused to give her her land back and she had to pay more taxes… :@
So so so.. after the castle we went to a karaoke room! haha it was awesome! They had a huge amount of English songs… yaaay.. I can practice singing here 8D
And Megumi’s voice… wooahhhh :O :O she’s an amazing singer..nailed every song and it seemed like she didn’t even have to put too much effort in it haha… *jealous much* we switched singing after each song, but the last song we sang together.. sk8ter boi.. 8D 8D derp!!!
Oh yeah.. no photos or vids.. too lazy and forgot 8D.. next time! when I’ve practiced enough! :3
After karaoke we had dinner at a restaurant that looked very very fancy pancy from the inside! :O :O food was great A great ending for an awesome day :3
Oh yeah! On our way back to the city from Osaka Castle, we saw Nekos!! :O A guy was fishing there and feeding the nekos chubby nekos :3
God I love spam mail from teachers/coaches at school
These e-mails were sent to all the students and employees of the Industrial Design department :3 I’m going to start collecting them
No one has the guts yet to spam back… I guess I have to provoke Mark more… :3 DO IT FAGGOT! :@
March 20th 2009
Did anyone find a grey hat? One of the Italian students who are visiting us this week, lost it. If you found it, would you please bring it to me, Thanks!
September 9th 2009
Dear Students,
This morning, lots of students have been at my desk asking me questions about assignments, projects and coaches.
Accidently, one of you took my silver colored parker pen.
I would appreciate it if you could return it to me asap as it was a gift from my parents.
Thanks,
October 26th 2009
Dear All,
Friday morning I left my jacket in the staff room in the studio-lab, as I did every morning during the Dutch Design Week. In the afternoon at 14.00 however, my jacket was gone.
It’s a black thin all-weather Helly Hansen jacket, with some keys in the right pocket. Please let me know if you’ve seen it around, I would really like it back
Some of you might have already seen the gundam model I bought…. I went to Kyoto and found this model shop full with gundams, tanks and other stuff Looked around and bought the Force Impulse Gundam from Gundam Seed Destiny :3
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Well I’ve actually nothing intersting to tell… during the weekdays it’s just work work work.. come home.. eat.. chill..f..a….p..ahum.. and sleep XD During the weekends I usually go out and go shopping in Osaka, Kyoto or Nara…
Went to this place where bands were playing gigs in Nara, had to pay to get in though… it was ok.. the crowd was a bit young, around 16 i guess, so the the audience were mainly classmates AND they covered naruto’s 2nd opening song D: D:
But there was 1 performance that caught my attention XD the girl had such a nice voice :3 By far the best performance of that night
I found their myspace.. so check it out! http://www.myspace.com/mikiwakabayashi
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Oh and btw.. finally found my first buddy here in Japan haha.. an American dude also working at ATR, majored in Psychology and Neural Science… long interesting and braincracking conversations haha and he lives 1 floor below me XD now going on a quest in search for my second buddy! :O
Had some fun lately talking to an old friend Nana-Chan on skype :3 she made a drawing of me and a maid haha.. Arigato! :3
Wow wow! Few weeks ago when I was trying to sleep, I somehow fell into this sleeping paralysis state… it felt like I was sleeping and awake at the same time. Lying on my bed I felt constrained like someone was holding and pressing my arms down or that my hands were nailed to the floor.. so I tried to get up but I couldn’t.. my muscles and body were so heavy….
After trying and trying.. I don’t know how long I was exactly trying, it felt like 10-15mins.. I could finally get up from bed… :O so weird… never had this before… it was scary yall! :O
Between my arrival in Japan and going to Tokyo, I went to Nara again to check out the more southern and eatern part of Nara.
On my trip I came by the Nara-machi Koshi-no-ie. (copy/pasta time from the brochure) It’s an old urban townhouse that served as both residence and worplace for local merchants and tradesmen. Representative features are the structure’s long rectangular design, its narrow front, and deep interior.
After same wandering around in the area.. walking towards the Sasayakino-Komichi Path, which was recommended to me the last time a was in Nara…
Some random shots
The path was actually quite creepy.. I was the only one walking there and the path was surrounded by some kind of mini forest D:
Some more scenery pics…
Deers!
Night!
Had dinner in a tempura restaurant and the desert that came with the menu was a very tiny green tea ice cream the size of a tea spoon XD and sorry I forgot to take a picture of it D:
Ps: for those weeaboos who are going to correct me on the jap title.. it’s an inside joke 8D… to make it up for it here’s a short story in Japan that connects to sushi…(based on a true story.. and fat joe doesn’t live here)
“One night on a quiet and boring day in Japan, I was strolling in the mall searching for food. Loud noises came from my stomach as I walked numerous circles around the restaurant area. All of a sudden something struck me, saying that I was destined to go and eat at a sushi bar. Following the instructions of this strange sign, the first steps towards eating food were set inside the only sushi bar in the mall. The waitress at the counter started talking with very strange words, like the language of the moon.
Getting assigned to a seat at the loop of infinite sushi the moon speak continued. Clueless and lost I somehow managed to communicate making it clear that I wasn’t able to understand their alien language. When that news struck her mind, something snapped inside of her neural network causing her to panick and running to her fellow members.
Minutes were passing by and the food on the track made me feel like a fat kid without money looking at a candy vending machine. Eventually 2 guys came to me explaining in broken English the procedures of taking sushi from the track, eat and pay an amount according to the number of plates. Even though being aware of this process, the dark side of me took pleasure in seeing them struggle and entangle themselves trying to speak English.
At last I was able to eat like there’s no tomorrow and hydrate my veins, after trying to consolidate the decoding of all the unknown and incomprehensible input.
Oh yeah and the sushi was great! The End! “
Wow took a while for me to post my day in Tokyo.
So I checked out from my hostel at 11AM, went to Ueno station to drop off my luggage in the locker because at this station I could take a train to Tokyo station. While I was in Ueno I explored the area… couldn’t find anything interesting except a huge park with temples and stuff. I wasn’t in the cultural mood so I left Ueno after a quick round in the park and for Harajuku.
Some photos of Ueno….
Kids playing some kind of beyblade game.. OH YEAH! (H)
As I said, this was the last day in Tokyo so instead of just sightseeing I went shopping in Harajuku :3 Too lazy to take pictures while I was there because of the crowd and the clothes were way better than the ones in Shibuya 8D
Harajuku street!
Ended up buying some stuff, retrieved my luggage from Ueno, got on the shinkansen and headed back to Kyoto around 7PM..
On the shinkansen I bought a lunchbox (hungry D:) and there was this red pickle thingy in it (Umeboshi). Had a bite but the taste was so horrible and strong.. so I tried to eat in 1 go and flush it down with tea and rice.. BAD IDEA! D: My stomach got instantly upset and I had to take a break for a few minutes before I could finish the rest of my food and the taste stayed in my mouth
This was my face when I ate the umeboshi…
The rest of the trip was ok, slept a bit and got home around 10:00PM… unpacked and prepared myself for work the next day 8-|
Today was adventure day all by myself….
I walked around in Asakusa, the area near my hostel, and apparently this is thé cultural neighborhood of Tokyo. They had some temples and stuff, I’ve already seen quite some temples in Nara and Kyoto and I wasn’t in the cultural mood XD
BUT I made a quick walk through the places just so I can say I’ve been there to you people 8D
On my way I saw a baseball practice in the middle of the neighborhood…. :O
And a neko!!
It was so crowded because it was a holiday! :O
Asakusa area and the temples :3
During my trip in Tokyo I hadn’t really shopped yet so I went to Shibuya to look for some clothes… People told me to go to 109 for Men… and… it was horrible!! D:
The clothes were so male-ganguro-ish.. blingbling prints everywhere with tacky text on it D: and to make it worse everyone was wearing the same clothes and style… bleeehhh
Left Shibuya with disappointment and went to the Sony Building in Ginza, which I missed out the day before. Nothing really mega fancy inside the Sony Building, just showing off some new products and gadgets; cameras, tvs, mp3 players, headphones, videocameras, etc. Bought new earphones for my mp3 player and that’s about it
Here I was testing one of the headphones… great sound though!!
The XEL-1 OLED TV!!! :O Finally seeing this thing in real life after having to do an entire project about OLEDs and not even being able to see a real OLED haha
After that just walking through Ginza… it was so quiet! I guess everyone was out of town because of the holidays
Ginza in the late afternoon…
Ginza in the evening! :O
Later in the evening I stopped at Akihabara again on my way back to the hostel.. had sushi there and took some pictures…
So ronery pillows!! for bob! :3
And a maid on video! She enraged when she saw me camera
Arriving back in Asakusa I made another round near the temple :3
they were quite tasty though :O but I would prefer the regular takoyaki :3
I guess I have to provoke Mark more… :3 DO IT FAGGOT! :@
