Quick one. My good friend Mr Trick linked me to this excellent article on Word magazine’s site about why records all sound the same today. The answer is probably not so shocking for those who follow this stuff or have an interest in it, but the article makes some very interesting points and the examples and references are pretty interesting. Next time you turn on the radio you may well listen to it differently if you don’t already.

Why records DO all sound the same

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written by Laurent \\ tags: Music, Random

Had a good chuckle earlier today after reading this article in the New York Times I was linked to.

For those that don’t know, or can’t be bothered to read, the world-famous Michelin Guide, one of the things the French are most proud of, make no mistake, launched an Asian version of its guide for the first time last year. It chose Tokyo as the first city up for ‘inspection’ and came out with a stagerring amount of praise for the capital’s cuisine and its establishment, giving it more stars than both Paris and New York combined.

Which you’d think was good news for a city. But not for the Japanese it would seem, as the results were not just greeted with pleasure but also with a fair amount of discontent and disdain from some of the city’s top chefs it seems.

My favourite part as to be when chef Toshiya Kadowaki said his Nouveau Japonais dishes, which take inspiration from French cuisine, do not need a Gallic seal of approval. A lot of the disdain and refutal seems to either come from the belief that foreigners are not qualified to judge Japanese cuisine or that bragging, competition and awards go against the Japanese tendency to not stand out from the crowd, to fit in rather than stick out.

Which is all well and good, but when this comes from chefs in a coutry responsible for murdering foreign cuisine in new and unimaginable ways it’s a little funny… nah actually a lot funny.

Still que sera sera right, and whether or not they want to admit it, accept it or do whatever with it, the Japanese are responsible for some amazing cuisine and Tokyo definitely stands out as one of the major culinary centres for any self respecting foodie. It’s hardly surprising that Michelin chose to lavish that much praise on the city and its restaurants, as it is hardly surprising that some of the people reacted in the way they did.

No matter how good food can be in this city though, I still stand by my belief that some of the abberations Japan has come up with when it comes to interpreting foreign dishes is some of the most shocking stuff I’ve been unfortunate to see, smell or taste. Mentaiko spaghetti? Ughhhhh…

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written by Laurent \\ tags: food, Japan, Japanese Food, Random, society

For most foreigners, Japan not only carries an image of the exotic and different but also of futurism, aided in no small part by its cultural output, especially anime. Stepping into Tokyo for the first time, taking in the sights and sounds of places like Shinjuku or the public transport system only reinforces this perceived impression of a hypercapitalist, futuristic society. Give it a while though and you realise that while this impression does have a grounding in reality, it’s also exagerated in parts, misrepresented through an outsider’s lens.

But as I found out last month when I went to the Dairoboto exhibition, in Ueno, Japan does lead the world in robotics, which given the aforementioned preconceptions of a futuristic society, is hardly surprising. Japan uses more robots than any other country and, as the exhibition’s blurb explained, is the world’s leading ‘robot kingdom.’ A term that would send the imagination of any self respecting nerd wild with possibilities.

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written by Laurent \\ tags: computers, geeking, Japan, pictures, robots, technology

Hindsight is a great thing, not least because with it comes the ability to be able to reflect on things that have happened and see them in a different light.

I’m coming up to the end of my short lived ‘career’ as an English teacher in Japan, or to give it a bit more accuracy, my Eikaiwa teacher career in Japan. As of the end of this month I’ll no longer be an English teacher (I guess there is always a next time, especially in this business).

I became an English teacher so that I could move to Japan, and live here for a while. I needed a change of scenery and a challenge, and it seemed like it could provide both. I took a CELTA degree before moving out, even though it’s not required for most Eikaiwa jobs. I always thought that if you were going to do something you should do it properly.

Four months or so after I arrived here and started working in the Eikaiwa industry, I wrote a series of posts debating the good, bad and ugly of the job. Well debating might be the wrong word. I was quite pissed off at the time, and it was more of a way to vent and put things down then really debating the pros and cons. And my experience at the time was limited to say the least.

Now with hindsight might be a good time to revisit some of the ideas.

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written by Laurent \\ tags: Japan, Teaching