In the waiting line

You could say it is just as usual. And you would probably be right. This week is the last week of the term, meaning exams + term papers & group presentations. Time flies, it’s already been a year in IUJ… Many things have happened in the recent weeks (e.g. IUJ Olympics), but I keep that to have something to talk about in the coming weeks. Unless you’re very close family, you might not now what I will be doing for the next two months. Easy to guess, it is an internship. 2 months in Tokyo working in Ebisu, living in Takaido, close to Shinjuku and Shibuya. I’ll be working for a japanese company. I don’t know about writing the name of the company on this blog, I7m still wondering if it is a good idea or not. We are 3 students from my university to intern in this company. Internship is about Marketing / Business development. Honestly it sounds very interesting and I consider myself lucky to have found such an opportunity. It looks nice, seems to be in the hands of very nice people, they have organised activities for the interns. And most of all we will be actually working/learning, not making photocopies/coffee.

23rd of June ==> 24th of August. Uni starts end of September, therefore I still have one month where I have yet no idea of what I am going to do.

I think this summer is going to be a great one…

I find that always amazing to see Japanese driving French cars, especially in the countryside. In Tokyo, I’ve seen a couple a 206 (Peugeot), one Renault Kangoo, one or two 2CV by Citroen. Of course in Tokyo you see far less french cars than German or American cars… In the countryside (well at least in the area where I am living), I’ve seen more than in Tokyo. And people have less german cars, because of the lack of money I guess.

Again I’ve seen a couple of 206, 306 and 307. Only Peugeot. But I was even more surprised when I saw this car on the parking lot of the local hospital:

That’s right, a 406 Coupe with custom wheels. Maybe in Tokyo I would have been less surprised, but in Minamiuonuma, it was kind of a shock…

Notice the Peugeot Japan sticker, and the “Musketier” series.

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…