Tokyo: 'Blade Runner' on a Bad Day
Topic: Me

Syd Meade the "visual futurist" of film 'Blade Runner's said to me that the Tokyo's Kabukicho was his inspiration for Blade Runner's look in his set design. He said he was looking for LA gone bad feel and Kabukicho, Shinjuku area was "perfect."
He spent some time "studying" Kabukicho (since he's gay, Shinjuku 4-chome was "perfect" too).
By mistake, I got to interpret for Syd Meade at a Asahi Shimbun conference on the "Future of Tokyo" back in beginning days of the Bubble, 1985.

If a f'ed gaijin in Japan has not filed an IRS tax return in years...
Topic: adviceS
FAQ of the IRS wrote:

....the statute of limitations for IRS to assess and collect any outstanding balances does not start until a return has been filed. In other words, there is no statute of limitations for assessing and collecting the tax if no return has been filed. ....

...The IRS continues to improve its database of income transactions and increase its ability to identify people who have a filing requirement but have failed to file a return. Eventually, contact will be made and the correct tax liability computed. By this time, howevr, the original tax bill will be multiplied many times by the addition of interest and penalties....

....There are numerous practical reasons to file tax returns. Whether buying a home or financing a business, copies of filed returns must be submitted to the lending institution. Important programs like federal aid to higher education also require applicants to submit copies of tax returns to qualify for loans. And the filing of tax returns has a tremendous impact on the future. Social Security retirement and disability benefits as well as Medicare are all computed based on a person’s lifetime earnings reported to the IRS and the Social Security Administration. State benefits such as unemployment compensation and industrial insurance are also based on reported income...

For people with multiple unfiled returns, IRS practice is generally to limit investigations and examinations to the last six years.
http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=122901,00.html

How to find any Japanese technical term in English
Topic: adviceS
You can get better results by Googling with the following trick:

1. Access the Google site, either Japanese version or select Japanese-only in the Google preferences.
2. Enter each compound term delimited with double quotations.
3. Either select "Japanese sites" or add a Japanese term in kanji/kana.
4. Out of the output references, select any document that includes both the English original and a seemingly synonymous term.

Japan's newest action hero: Shinichi Kitazume
Prisoner escapes after climbing through roof of detention center
(Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, Aug. 24, 2004)
SAITAMA -- A prisoner escaped a detention center on Tuesday by ripping the wire nets on the roof of the 4-story structure and then by fleeing through several nearby buildings....
Kitazume tore the wire net on the roof of the Saitama detention house and jumped across to the roof of a nearby structure in the detention compound.
He climbed down to the ground through several buildings and finally managed to escape over the detention facility's 2-meter-tall concrete wall...

Suprise! Japanese hate their bosses the most
Suprise! Japanese hate their "leaders" aka bosses the most of all the countries of Asia according to this survey. See chart.

Korean Employee Commitment World's Lowest
KoreaTimes.co.kr / 08-23-2004 18:19
A recent research by an international employee-research and consulting firm has found Korean employees to have the least commitment to their organizations and among the least respect for their leaders.
he research by ISR, drawn from opinion surveys ..... with 56 percent [of Koreans] expressing favorable opinions of their leaders, Korean employees’ perception of their leadership is also one of the least positive in Asia, behind that of all Asian countries except Japan.

Posted by trek/taro at 4:32 PM KDT
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Whoa! $12M for an RSS bunch of crappy blogs?!
Topic: Japanese Tech
My friend, Gen Kanai, is saying on his weblog [August 24, 2004] that $12 million in venture capital is being dumping into often-offline-&-buggy, RSS blog search engine, Technorati.

Gen Kanai wrote:

Technorati = $12M?! Whoa! Draper Fisher Jurvetson does a $6.5M Series A of Technorati at a $12M valuation. Now.... it's a waiting game for Bloglines and Feedster. Technorati gets fed VC dollars Posted by trek/taro at 3:14 PM KDT Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post Monday, August 23, 2004 Coke "Can bottle" can go boom This has been the hottest summer in Japan. Here is the sticker on all Japanese Coke machines warning against leaving "can bottles" in the car. It's so hot in Japan, the new aluminum "can bottle" can explode. Posted by trek/taro at 10:33 PM KDT Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post Topic: Japanese Tech Habitat Perspectives "talks about that process in the form of a visual representation as users gradually turn strange spaces into neighborhood..." 'Habitat Perspectives' is a Keitai-cam experiment were people send in images tagged with GPS space/time info. As people send in more and more pix from their cell phones, a social/mental map Tokyo gradually emerges of the keitai users' personal "opportunity space." Posted by trek/taro at 7:16 PM KDT Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post 'Move Latte(tm)': the car, not the enema "Move Latte" by Daihatsu Motors AFP/Getty Images, Aug 23, TOKYO, JAPAN - - - A campaign girl of Japan's auto maker Daihatsu unveils its new small car "Move Latte", aiming at young women...a new car with 0.6-liter engine on the domestic market today at prices ranged from 0.96 million yen (8,800 US dollars) to 1.515 million yen (13,900 US dollars) Posted by trek/taro at 6:19 PM KDT Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post Gaijin wins Silver for Japan! Ok, ok, he only half gaijin...a son of a five-time Japanese Asian Games hammer champion and a Romanian javelin thrower. See the profile of Koji Murofushi Murofushi gets silver in hammer throw. Monday, August 23, 2004 at 07:18 JST japantoday -- olympics 2004 ATHENS ---Koji Murofushi put his Sydney Olympics nightmare behind him Sunday by capturing the men's hammer throw silver medal at the Athens Games. Murofushi failed to live up to his billing as Asia's "Iron Man" when he finished ninth in the final four years ago... Posted by trek/taro at 4:19 PM KDT Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post Baka but beautiful gaijin TOKYO - AUGUST 23/Getty Images: Actress Milla Jovovich attends a press conference to promote the film "Resident Evil: Apocalypse" on August 23, 2004 in Tokyo Posted by trek/taro at 3:52 PM KDT Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post Saturday, August 21, 2004 Mr Sparkle violates Pink Cows! Mr Sparkle show part 1 Posted by trek/taro at 6:07 PM KDT Updated: Saturday, August 21, 2004 6:13 PM KDT Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post Thursday, August 19, 2004 Japanese Stranger in Strange Lands Counselors now target Japanese overseas --Agencies address expatriates' increasing mental health-care needs-- The Japan Times: Aug. 19, 2004 The growing number of Japanese nationals residing abroad -- expected to surpass 1 million by 2006 -- is being matched by the need for specialist counseling agencies that help with the stress of living in an Work-related stress is meanwhile exacting a toll. 2003 saw a record 1,878 suicides in Japan alone directly related to work out of the 34,427 suicides for the year, according to the National Police Agency. Company employees who killed themselves, including those posted overseas, also hit a record 9,209 for the year.... .... [Quality Life Consulting Ltd.] Harada observed that women who live abroad and seek her help typically are in three social positions with three typical problem types. "The first are expats who feel they have missed out on women's happiness by solely pursuing their careers," Harada explained. "The second are expats' wives suffering an identity crisis who want to shut themselves in because they feel they aren't good for anything, and the third are students who study abroad because there are no jobs in Japan but have lost confidence trying to cope with a foreign language and culture." Posted by trek/taro at 3:23 PM KDT Updated: Thursday, August 19, 2004 3:26 PM KDT Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post Epson Japan's micro-robocopter, autonomous with Bluetooth, w00t! Topic: Japanese Tech Honey, I shrunk the robo-copter Epson Announces Advanced Model of Micro-Flying Robot Epson's microFR-II Aug 18, 2004 / Tokyo (JCNN)- Seiko Epson (TSE: 6724) has announced the successful development of a lighter and more advanced successor to the FR, the world's smallest and lightest micro-flying robot. Utilizing advanced micromechatronics technology, Epson has redefined the state of the art with its FR-II micro-flying robot, which also features Bluetooth wireless control and independent flight. The FR-II will be on display at the Emerging Technology Fair, part of the Future Creation Fair that runs from August 27 to 30 at the Tokyo International Forum. モ’ベッタ... more... Posted by trek/taro at 12:33 PM KDT Updated: Thursday, August 19, 2004 1:43 PM KDT Post Comment | View Comments (1) | Permalink | Share This Post Wednesday, August 18, 2004 Mine is longer than yours (China vs Japan) Shanghai to build longest bridge ---BEIJING, Aug. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- The Central Government has approved a 19-kilometer bridge and tunnel link in Shanghai, one of the biggest projects of its kind in the world...The route to Chongming Island would combine a 10-kilometer suspension bridge with a nine-kilometer tunnel... the Chongming bridge would more than double the size of the world's longest suspension bridge, the nearly four kilometers Akashi Kaikyo bridge in Japan ... ... Chongming, known as a sanctuary for waterfowl, is being aggressively developed as a residential and leisure outpost for Shanghai’s 20 million people. Posted by trek/taro at 12:47 PM KDT Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post Tuesday, August 17, 2004 Crime/trauma scene cleanup job is better than teaching English in Japan Oh, gross: A job I couldn't bear Dallas Morning News (vile "free" subscription required), TX - 09:18 PM CDT on Monday, August 16, 2004 Michael Tillman's students have to be tough. During a class last week, the group shouldered in close for a sober view of training exhibit A, a beat-up mattress soaked to the springs with partially congealed blood and studded with flecks of tissue and bone. They listened earnestly as the lecture commenced. I edged toward the door and fought a powerful urge to vomit. It wasn't the worst the students would see and smell that day – they had yet to cover "decomp," Mr. Tillman's brisk shorthand for the natural effluvia produced by a corpse in the later stages of decay --- and they were paying $1,400 apiece for the privilege.... One woman who said she has an undergraduate degree in literature from Texas A&M told me that she spent the last five years in Japan teaching English. She wants a career change, and she figures that decontaminating trauma scenes is a valuable service. "Someone has to do it," she said matter-of-factly. "If you think you can handle it, you can help people who can't." read the full text here.... Posted by trek/taro at 2:13 PM KDT Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post Monday, August 16, 2004 Tokyo Gov Ishihara works to increase the number of call-girls Tokyo governor gets hard on world's oldest professionals Mainichi.co.jp, WaiWai, by Ryann Connell August 15, 2004 - - Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara's battle to drive sex businesses from the capital may well be appearing to work on the surface, but is in reality making the flesh trade sleazier and dirtier by driving it underground, according to Spa! (8/10-17). Ishihara's clean-up campaign that really kicked in from July has already started wiping out erotic massage parlors and imekura, or "image clubs," establishments where customers can ask to be serviced by workers clad in selected outfits such as schoolgirl uniforms or maid's dresses. Popping up to take their place, however, are the seedier varieties of call-girl businesses, which only need to register with the national government above Ishihara to be permitted to operate. "I suppose the government is aiming for increased tax revenue by having a greater number of call-girl operations registering with it. But, sex businesses operating without a storefront can easily do things on the sly and I fear the sex business is going to be driven underground like it was in the past," adult entertainment industry writer Namedaruma Shimamoto tells Spa! ".... Posted by trek/taro at 3:06 PM KDT Updated: Monday, August 16, 2004 3:09 PM KDT Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post No wait. Bobby Fischer isn't a German Jew, he's Filippino. Fischer said to have Filipino family; RP asylum sought Philippine Daily Inquirer, Aug 16 BAGUIO CITY, Benguet, Philippines -- Filipino chess grandmaster Eugene Torre has asked President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to grant American grandmaster Bobby Fischer asylum in the Philippines, saying that Fischer had a family here. "I spoke to (First Gentleman Jose Miguel) Arroyo and I asked him to raise the possibility of Bobby's asylum here. There is a good reason. He has a wife and child here. He wanted them out of the limelight because he was afraid the US might try to get to him through his (Filipino) family ... Posted by trek/taro at 2:39 PM KDT Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post Sunday, August 15, 2004 Let's Loser Day! 3 ministers visit Yasukuni <---poster in front of Yasukuni 3 ministers visit Yasukuni Shrine Japan Today, Aug 14 TOKYO---Three members of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's cabinet visited Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine on Sunday to mark the 59th anniversary of the end of World War II ... Posted by trek/taro at 2:14 PM KDT Updated: Sunday, August 15, 2004 2:16 PM KDT Post Comment | View Comments (1) | Permalink | Share This Post Saturday, August 14, 2004 Boobies! Bull! Bjorked! Boobies! BULL! Bjorked! Posted by trek/taro at 10:47 AM KDT Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post Newer | Latest | Older