Category: Japan

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Facebook Kansai Dialect

Facebook surprised me this morning with the following announcement.

Does this mean I can customise my Facebook to use Kansai Dialect?

Facebook Kansai Dialect

 

Not really interested in that, but may be funny for a day or so

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Japan Economy – an interesting analysis

Nikkei has an interesting interview on Japan economy with Bill Emmott, former Economist editor.

 

My take: reform of the Labor Market :

 

I think the big thing that needs to be done is to have a single labor law that applies to everyone, so to reduce the amount of protection for regular workers to make it easier to fire people, but then have the same protections for the irregular workers, so there should be one law for everyone.

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“My Man” /私の男 The book

As expected, the book was better than the film.

Winner of 2008 Naoki Prize, it has some faults, but definitely more depth than the movie.

The movie and the book differ in the flow of time. While the movie flows from Hana losing her parents and ends with her fiance meeting her father, the book goes back in time.

From the wedding ceremony, back in time to her first date , two murders and eventually Hana as a 9 years old, losing her parents and adoption by Jungo. Each part is told by a different Narrator, including Komachi san, Jungo’s “girlfriend”.

I must admit that the last part was a bit tiring, as I saw the movie and felt it didn’t add enough to the story.

Books are always better!

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“My Man” /私の男

“My Man”  (Japanese: 私の男 , watashi no Otoko), won the “Golden George Prize”  for best film.

As it happens, I watched the movie last week (before the announcement 😉 ) .
The Good:

The acting,  Nikaido Fumi, Asano Tadanobu and Kawai Aoba were great. Was mostly impressed with Kawai Aoba. A relatively small part in the film, but strong impact. Nikaido Fumi played her part very well, childish in parts, seductive in others.

The Not So Good:

Left the cinema feeling disappointed, last part of the film ended too fast and not clear. While spending a lot of time in Hokkaido, The Nature and murder (?) in the snow, Tokyo life were quite short.  Could be that the movie follows the book, but it did not feel right.

 

My take:

1. Going to read the book
2. Although I found Kawai Aoba to be very interesting as an actress , her blog is quite boring

 

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謝罪 – Apology

Japan has some fixation with Apologies.
Although “sorry” is used quite often, an apology , bowing down is respected.

Recent sexual harassment story was followed with an appropriate (?) apology , covered extensively in news reports this morning.

To me it doesn’t look real, especially when he denied all accusations for several days and seen smiling going out from the room.

This reminded me a movie I saw (on a plane) called 謝罪の王様 (”The Apology King”), of an apology expert helping his customers getting away from their mistakes/misdeeds.

 

 

 

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Delivery dates

End of year sales? Tablet wars?

Kindle whitepaper delivery date moved from November 2012 to January 2013! Seems like I am going to see many kindles in the train in the near future.

And the iPad Mini, how is it doing?
From Nov. 2nd delivery, it is now “Two weeks”.

At least we know that Apple supply chain is working better than Amazon

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Finally!!! Amazon Kindle in Japan

Almost there…

Finally, Amazon will release Kindle for the Japanese market.
After the Nexus 7 Fiasco, Kindle Fire HD is definitely the first runner up for my new tablet.

Only two small issues/questions:

  • Can I connect my Amazon.com Kindle to Amazon.co.jp?
  • Kindle will be available in November, while Fire HD in December

 

 

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Aftershocks? – Earthquakes

What is the difference between an Aftershock and an actual Earthquake?
Who cares? they feel the same.

Anyway, see below a snapshot from yahoo Japan of earthquakes we had today, April 12.