Killin' Em
I finally watched Kill Bill the other night, and being a big action movie fan, I had my expectations running pretty high. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite the mind-blowing action revelation that I was hoping for, although I will hold final judgement on the film until I've seen part 2. I don't know, maybe because I never "got" Tarantino films (Pulp Fiction- good, but great?) And it was so violent, in fact, that it cut into my enjoyment of the action- turns out that the Japanese cut of the film is even bloodier than the US one. And this is coming from a John Woo veteran. It really did make me think about how violent movies should be, and that's a first for me. I understand the stylistic reasons behind it, but for some reason that line of argument doesn't impress me enough with this time.

Going to watch Vol. 2 when I get back to the States. And if any of you bloodthirsty types want to see the Japanese version (remember, no subtitles for the Japanese language!, at least in the one that I watched), let me know and I'll pick it up.

Oh, one more thing
Congratulations to the (former) perennial laughingstocks Calgary Flames and Tampa Bay Lightning on making it to the Stanley Cup finals. Good to see the little guys (and a Canadian team) get some shine. It'll be interesting to see this tough Canadian town going up against possibly the least natural place for hockey on earth. Well, it will make for good sports editorial page fodder at least.

My weekend
I went to a baseball game in Yokohama on Saturday. It was pretty cold and rained for a little bit, and the game ended up running for 5 hours and 40 minutes, but I still had a good time and the game ended with a walk-off homer, which is always exciting. Fans here are pretty crazy, both teams had a large fan section with a small band, huge flags, guys at the front leading the cheers, and general craziness. Maybe I can get some videos up soon that I took.

Also, as a bit of an aside, anyone out there with extensive knowledge of movie Westerns?

Wait, this is May, right?
Apparently, there's a typhoon heading Japan's way right about now, it caused a lot of problems in the Philippines and now its making a turn north. I don't think anything's too serious about it, mostly a rain event, but it is interesing to note that if the trains have to stop running due to the weather (not likely), they have to shut the school down for the day. The trains really are that important here, kind of like if buses could run or not way back when. The good news is, after another day of not so hot weather, the forecast is looking good for the next week or so.

For news on the typhoon, and Japan related news in general, I recommend www.japantoday.com. I think it's a pretty good site.

Heeey everyone
if you want to see some more pics of places around where I'm living, check this page that a friend made:

Click here!

No people, just places and an assortment of interesting/strange things. Go check it out.

School Daze
I really don't want to be in school right now. Combine the facts that I just got off a week long vacation, I don't really like any of my classes, there's a lot of interesting things to see and do outside of class, and the fact that this is my normal time of year for summer vacation to start up, and you have a recipe for apathy. I still have two and a half more months of this to go. Hopefully, it'll start going better soon.

What's going on here
panthers' 10 anniversary. -Vote for best players, plays, and games in Panther's history. Knowledge of the past of the franchise will separate the real fans from the posers, which I'd imagine a large number has popped up recently. Even despite the success of the past year, I'm still finding myself partial to the old timers from '96 and '99 or so (Mills, Beureulein, etc.) Well, vote at cpanthers.com and then check out the results later this year.

Median Age of Gamers increasing. Will this lead to an increase in respect for the industry as well? I wouldn't count on it.

What I'm doing now- not much. School. The weather is starting to get poor, apparently its going to start raining just about everyday, so that's going to douse my plans, if you will. The occasional game of soccer, watching movies at night and trying to learn from the subtitles. That's about it.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/2004-05-11-nintendo-ds_x.htm

Nintendo DS info. If this turns out to have some really fresh games, I'm there. Otherwise, who needs it. And did you catch the part about the touch-screen? That could be very interesting. But so far all we have apparently is a lot of interesting ideas and potential.

Oh, and the PSP as well. Slick.

http://psp.ign.com/articles/514/514135p1.html

I always enjoy the first time you see the design of a game console. Its very interesting to see, definitely. Almost like seeing the birth of a child in a very non-living way.

mouichido itte kudasai
Hello from Japan, again. Im safe and having a good time. Ive been to Yokohama, and all over Tokyo. However, Id still love to hear from people back home. Just so you know, I cant get AIM Express to work here. So dont expect to see me on. Calling internationally is prohibitively expensive. So again, the easiest way to contact is through email. My phone email is posted below. Or you can send something to fdiddy49er@hotmail.com . Again, It would be good to hear from people at home. So, send an email.

PS. How about them Panthers. 3 and 0 and that is just awesome. Too bad Im missing it all. Oh why couldnt I have gone the year that they were 1-15? Oh well, Ill take their success any way that I can get it, even if it is across the Pacific Ocean.

EZ contact the Fro
My cell phone number here in Japan (dont know the country code) is 08054050673, and my cell email is --- so contact me sometime.

Edit: removed email. I think that I picked up spam by having it on the web.

Nihon de
Hey. Here is some info from Japan.

The plane ride over was hell, but I`ve recovered very well. There is no daylight savings in Japan, so the sun rises at about 530 and sets at about 6, no joke- so i end up going to sleep and waking up very early. When I got to Tokyo Narita Airport, I had to wait an hour in Immigration, and then almost missed my luggage, but I found it. We drove through Tokyo on a bus to get to my school, and it was flat out incredible, I don`t know how else to say it. I will try and get some pictures up soon. The school here is actually quite nice, and my host family is very kind and understanding of my relative lack of Japanese. I take the trains (denshaa) every day to and from school, they are cheap and reliable but incredibly crowded. The Japanese people that Ive met are very kind, which is good. I got a cell phone (keitai denwa), but it doesn:t seem to want to work right now. Oh well. Classes started today, they are mostly in english so I think that I can handle them. Agh, I just wished that I had studied more Japanese before I got here! Ah well, I am just trying to have the most positive `can do` attitude when it comes to language difficulties.

I`ll have more later, stay tuned.