ixday - Two years in Japan

Thanks to Fanta, now Japan knows what we really like to drink, Muscat Fanta. Not to mention they already have Fanta Grape in Japan. Didn’t try Fanta France, but I am not a huge fan of Fanta Grape…

IUJ (my university) Open Day 2009 was held last Saturday. As a member of the students association and of the European team, I was a bit busy, but it was really nice. But what is Open Day? It’s an event where cultural groups within the university (such as people from India, people from Vietname, …) and some groups from the local community present something to the locals. It can be a performance, cooking or both. European team was doing both although I did not perform. It is a very good chance to taste various cooking styles from all over the world. For Europe, we chose to make Crepes and French toasts, quite a success since our booth sales were the second biggest after Americas team (grr!! ). We were afraid that it might rain but in the end weather was just fine.

Let’s start with two videos I shot, kind of quick tour of Open day:

You can find more pictures by clicking here: Photos (select the open day album).

Finally, the only performance video I have (and only part of it) is Japanese taiko (drums):

I will try to find videos of the other performances, some were really awesome (Japan!).

These are two songs that have been for a while in my winamp playlist. Not that amazing, but that sticks in your head and soon you become obsessed…

It quickly becomes annoying.

My favorite.

Remix is far better than original, but that’s not the true reason why you listen to the music. You listen to this because you have watched the clip at least once.

Apparently a big hit in 2008, I am listening a lot to this one atm… Wait Universal disactivated embedding for this videoclip…　Ok found another one. Wait it seems it’s from a drama, Rookies (and a manga I think). Looks cool, maybe I should give it a go.

I just want to tease you:

So… Any idea of what this is?

4:00AM, Just finished a design for an internal competition in my university for the next t-shirt available for all-students. Rules were: 2 inks maximum, which does not help obviously. But since I had a very busy week end (week (month)), no choice but to produce something in an hour to meet the deadline. I am not very satisfied, it just looks like it might have been done with Paint… Anyway I guess I will do better in another life. Was wondering if I should go and check Rockets vs Lakers, game 7 full of promises (and surprises?), but it is kind of late.　And I don’t like waiting 3 hours, half being the game and the other half ads. And Marseille is playing against Lyon in the french Football Championship, a game that could be the title decider for Bordeaux… What time was it again? Whatever…

I’m not dead. Just having terrible computer issues. All my hard drives are down, including the system drive. My dvd player is not recognized by the gios… S I have been trying for the past few days to boot from a usb pen drive, without a success so far. Good thing is I should be back “online” by the end of Golden Week. Bad thing, I’ve lost everything: emails, pictures, videos, movies, software, music… Ok, back to trying to install xp.

When I went to Tokyo for New Year, I saw one b-ball shop in shibuya, in front of TGIF (Thank God It’s Friday, american style restaurant). Name is “Player’s Basketball”.

Shop is quite small, but it has an amazing choice of sneakers, clothing and accessories. Price is ok, and you could find some exclusive models such as All-star game 09 shoes, KG Shoes, several pairs of Jordans. There was a wall with picture of famous people who came to this shop, and I saw Bow Wow. Actually it was the only guy I could recognize (sorry for legends of Japanese basketball…). Anyway, I bought a nice pair of And1 shorts.

The other shop I found out last time I was in Shibuya is called Gallery 2.

This shop is much bigger than the other one, looks more commercial, less eeeer personal and underground I would say. There is good stuff, and pretty impressive choice of sneakers, but nothing original, few exclusive models, shorts and jerseys are just not original, it’s like black and white only. There’s a part for ladies as well. Obviously after reading this you understand my preference goes to the first shop. This one is not that bad, it just looks like the basketball section of a sports shop, just a bit (ok much) bigger.

Anyway I’m sure there are many moreb-ball shops in Tokyo, I guess it will be for next time…

If you are French, you might have already heard about franponais, it’s when the Japanese use a French word and either it is completely mispelled or either it gets a very funny meaning. Here’s a good example:

Si on vous le dit...

I guess you can imagine what kind of stuff the shop is selling. It’s a shop close to Roppongi I think. Anyway, “C’est bien” in French means literally “It’s good”, you even have the katakanas below if you are unsure about pronunciation. I’m always amazed to see how French can be used in Japan …

This is just dynamite:

Dear IUJ students

Today, around 3pm, there was an exhibitionist on campus.  He left the area, and we don’t think he will come back.  But if you see a Black Prius car, license plate 3*-*7, on campus please report to the SPSC or the Guardman as soon as possible.

Please take care.  Thank you.

G****

for SPSC Team