Ip Man kicks ass. Donnie Yen kicks ass! Wilson Yip kicks ass! Hiroyuki Ikeuchi kicks ass! The martial arts kicks massive ass! Go see it! Now!

trailer:

A happy effin 2009 muckers. Everyone survive the holidays? Hope 2009 will be a splendid year. The first good news has already been received. For you people who live under a rock (like me), it appears that ABC bought the tv-show scrubs and they’re starting a new season next Tuesday the 6th of January. w00t w00t. Can I get a hell yes?

About time though!! The last season on NBC was HORRIBLE! I think we deserve better. Right? RIGHT??

Heya what the hell, look what a little googletubing came up with. Complete SCRUBS Season 1 for you to watch, for free. ere.

Oh and for those who really live under a stone…….Wednesday January 21st LOST continues with season 5!! Can I get a double w00t??

Any other recommended TV-shows??

You will be missed. I really think 2008 has been my best year YET. I’ve had so much LUCK and happiness. Many dreams came true of which one was: ‘marry the missus’. This year has been really amazing. I really hope 2009 will be a equally or even better year. Also for my friends of which some had a really tough year.

Let’s all raise our glasses at midnight and celebrate a kickass 2009.

Have a splendid 2009 everyone!!

There are many first time events bound to happen for foreigners in Japan. Having an accident is one of the things we’d of course prefer steer away from. Saturday I was shocked back into reality after being flanked by car. Nothing to worry….still in one piece, minor scratches on both vehicles, so not really worthwhile to mention. But since it’s Japan, maybe it’s nice to provide some information for other gaijins.

I was biking to the gym last Saturday, usual speed……very fast. Still safety first, never ever cross red lights, unless it’s a district. heh. Without kidding, signals green and I race. Some T-crossings a bit slower than the other. Japan puts the lights on green for parallel traffic lanes. But in all times, pedestrians and bikers have priority, cars have to wait when making the turn. Or so I thought. Light was green so I crossed the street when a white van made the turn, slowed down a bit at first so I thought it was safe….WRONG. The f*cker gives gas and flanks me in the rear and I stumbled to the side of the road with the bike.

Actually forgot what I said, but I think it was something with: “mother, asshole, green light, idiot, fucker and something else”…and all that in Japanese. Hey what can I say, I was shocked as hell. I put my bike next to the road and walked towards the car. The guy was obviously shocked as he didn’t expect me to be a gaijin and especially not to walk to his car . I made the gesture to roll down the window and said in Japanese: “How could you NOT see me (a big gaijin for that matter), the light was green and, I had my bike lights on and you stopped because you saw me”.

He replied shyly in Japanese that he didn’t see me. (yeah right…) I couldn’t understand much of the conversation that followed, so I gestured that I wanted to call my wife or to give me his number so I could call him when I got home to straighten things out. Then a friend of the guy hopped out of the van and told him to call the cops. That’s when I started to get worried!

“Was I right?” “Where the light’s really green when I crossed?” “Did I miss some unwritten Japanese rule that gaijins are not allowed to cross the street?”. My mind filled with all kinds of worries. Being in a foreign country and only know half the language. Plus being the minority and there were at least 3 people in the van. For all I know they could make up a fake story and get my ass booted.

Waiting in the damn cold, nervous as hell we waited for over 30 minutes for the cops to show up. In the meantime I tried to reach the missus. Dial, redial, trying to get a connection….nothing. Sent 4 messages….nothing. *beep beep* “Your prepaid amount has finished, please buy a new prepaid card”. double-F*CK!

In the meantime the police asks us about the accident and our information. Ask if I am a tourist or live here and eventually I have to handover my gaijincard. You think it finishes there, but no…they continue asking questions about my private life. “Are you married? Is she Japanese? where do you work? What is the name of the company? Name of the boss? Address of the company? Telephonenumber even? WTF!!! Next thing I know they walk over to my bike and register the framenumber, see if it’s not stolen…very thorough I have to admit… and then suddenly the cop pulls out a measuring tool and starts measuring the bike’s dimension..I mean…what the hell…

They hop back into the police car, write down more info and 10 minutes later, the guy who flanked me and I get face-offed to talk about the situation. I only understand half of what they are saying and I insist we leave it at that and go our separate ways. The guy still offers me to pay for any damages, but I thank him and only ask for his contact information just in case shit hits the fan later.

If you ever plan to ride a bike, scooter, car or a friggin tank in Japan, make sure you ALWAYS watch others, they will most likely not see you. Many people are sleeping while driving here in Japan and just cross streets suddenly.

So my advice to you gaijins: Never run a red light, even though Japanese people do it (DUH!!) that’s a given!! Be calm and polite when talking to the police (second DUH), And always, and I do mean ALWAYS in every sense of the word, even if you intend to go out….naked (shove it up your ass for that matter) BRING your GAIJINcard. It’s the most important thing for a gaijin in Japan.

I didn’t want to jinx the good news of posting about finally having a job on my blog, without being really sure I actually had the job. For all I know I could’ve mistaken the Japanese message. But I didn’t. And today….was my first day working for a real Japanese company.

I woke up this morning after only having slept for about 3 hours. My body….stiff from all the stress and of course being super nervous. NEED to make a good first impression and vice versa. After all you don’t wanna be late on your first working day. Finally after 6 months of hardcore jobhunting I shit you not, I managed to find a Japanese company willing to hire me for my…well actual SKILLS instead of languages.

For a gaijin it’s pretty rare to get a job at a Japanese company instead of a EIKAWA. So I consider myself lucky, especially since my Japanese is really …REALLY limited.

So off I went this morning, joining the commute. Now I’m used taking a crowded train at around 9 AM in the morning. But I wasn’t aware that it would be more crowded at 7:30ish. Not THIS crowded but very close nontheless. This also made the trains run slower than usual, so I was starting to get worried if I’d make it in time or not. However in Japan they have improved the railway systems so… that if you get off on the next station you will catch a faster train. Grab that one, get off on the next station and the next train will go even fast. Just great!

Getting off at Umeda…well this is one of Osaka’s biggest stations. A melting point of all Hankyu lines that come in from Kobe and Kyoto. You exit the train and all you see is people. Huge masses flowing from the train, trough the ticket gates and onwards to their jobs. Me included.

After a 75 minute commute I finally arrived at the office. Rushed into the restroom. Looked in the mirror and trying to motivate myself. “Don’t be nervous, you can do it, you can do it.” and of course repeating my introduction line in Japanese. Hoping not get one word wrong. “Ganbatte yo!”

Not 10 minutes later I was standing in front of 50+ people, introducing myself in the best Japanese I could muster. “Hello everyone, nice to meet you, my name is Giuliano, I’m from Holland, yoroshiku onegaishimasu”. Surprisingly I received a warm applause. DOPE! Settled that.

I was shown to my desk. Turned on the pc and was happy to see: “Software…all installed in English. YATTA!!!” Sat down and prepared my computer for usage. 2 minutes later I got tapped on my shoulder, I turned my head and noticed everybody was standing because the boss was making an announcement. Shoot! Got up and joined the rest and faced the boss.

The boss ‘Furukawa’-san, a big guy, typical Japanese man in his 40ies talked for 15 minutes. I didn’t understand anything except for some words here and there. I did feel the message to the employees was not a cheerful message, the translation confirmed my feeling. A employee had resigned. Sad but phewww… better news than what happened 2 years agothough.

After the speech I sat down again and continued work. My main job (from what I understood heh) is creating 3D objects, which eventually will be used for architectural agencies and promotion stuff. Things I’m good at, if I say so myself.

10 minutes into working time…*BUMP* “Ouch!” my colleague next to me laughing. 10 minutes later *THUMP* “Shoot, ouch! friggin hell”. I bumped my knees to the bottom of the desk again. Aye, what they didn’t realize and what I also forgot was that this Gaijin is much taller than a usual Japanese, thus my desk was too low. I looked like a friggin giant behind the desk.

During lunch I got formerly introduced to more of my colleagues. All Japanese and of course all IN Japanese. They all brought and ate from their bento. Made by their partners or themselves. I had to rush to the combini and get me some instant ramen and onigiri. Ahhh onigiri, riceballs with stuffings, tasty as hell.

After a 1 hour lunchbreak….work continued. More knee/desk meet ups and a lot of laughter with my new colleagues, mostly over translation mixups.

6 o’clock and people started to head back home, only thing remaining is conclude the workday by congratulating everybody on a good day at work (Japanese tradition). “Otsukaresama deshita”. Where we gaijins usually just say: “Alright, i’m off, have a nice evening Bob” in Japan “Otsukaresama deshita” means something like “Good job today”. After I round up my best wishes I left the building and hopped on another crowded subway back home. Phew, happy this day is over.

No I’m not one of them heh. But the video beneath will show you the type of gaijins in Japan that I REALLY utterly hate and wish they get booted back to their homecountry.

I was lucky to actually visit Tsukiji 2 years ago. After these kind of incidents, Tsukiji banned foreigners from visiting the place. Which is a shame actually. I’d rather see they put like a path and some guidelines for tourists there instead of banning them all.

In case you have lived under a rock! Love the ending btw.

All I have to say to this video is, I hope the secret service will protect Obama better than W, I mean comon, the guy was able to throw 2 shoes. Not 1. BUT TWO! Secret service sleeping or something? Sjeesh.

This post could contain spoilers

Well we are halfway into Season 3 right now. The season started of great, spectacular and gave me the feeling that it had a decent build op and a good plot, but after last nights episode I’m like: “Dude …WTF??”.

What the f. is going on with this show. Heroes needs a new pair of writers. PUHHLEASE! I seriously don’t like how things flow this season. Something is up with the directing and editing this season and it’s ruining the show for me.

They made the ultimate villain (Arthur) and the canceled him just like that! Elle? Whoppa, 1 episode..dead.

I was actually really hoping the series would keep Arthur, the ultimate villain and put Peter and Sylar together vs Arthur or something.

But that’s not all, there’s more stuff that’s been bothering me: (caught this from a Heroes forum and I thought I copy and edit the list a bit).

1. They’ve completely eliminated the Nicki and Micah storylines, and have forgotten certain characters.
2. They KILLED Nicki, then replaced her with an ice queen. (It actually didn’t bother me at first, but why was that necessary? One good reason was that they could easily erase Micah from the picture, with his mom not being there anymore.)
3. They KILLED Elle for no apparent reason.
4. They completely reversed the first half of the season. While there’s still a lot tied into the formula… just look at what changed:
a. They’ve given up on the “Sylar maybe good” storyline, therefore completely canceling out his empathic abilities, which he gained from his father.
b. They contradicted themselves. Suddenly, Sylar is no longer Peter and Nathan’s brother?
c. Season 2 ignorance…
I. Claire’s boyfriend forgotten
II. Micah and mimic girl gone
III. Nicki dead
V. Adam of the second season killed for no reason and too easily
VI. Elle now dead, too sudden
- Hiro without powers

The whole catalyst stuff could’ve been a great part of the show to keep it running longer, but with the formula finished and Arthur dead the show has not much left to offer anymore. Not sure if Arthur also gained recovering abilities.

Ah well, I’m very disappointed in all of this. There is no depth in Heroes, which it actually already lacked from the beginning. Needed a better character and abilities build up. Maybe they should hire J.J. Abrahms.

How about some hardhouse or hardmetal now heh.

Behold! My first warning of parking in a no-parking zone. I know nothing shabby but what the hell, I was shocked since my Japanese is only limited and the other side of the sticker showed the amounts of money I HAD to pay IF I was actually getting a fine. Luckily for me, they gave me a warning instead.

Seriously though, a fine would’ve been absurd, as a foreigner who’s Japanese is only limited I feel like it’s unfair if I’d had to pay a fine immediately.

Today I had a second encounter with ‘the man’ though. This time I got a bit freaked out. As I left the elevator to the exit of the recruitment office building, a guy suddenly stopped in front of me and whipped out his shiny golden police badge. WTF. In my head it was going: “My wife told me she was older than 18…..right?”

It turned out to be a routine questionnaire about my living situation in Japan, to see if I’m not illegal and what not. In the end he shoved this paper handout with information for foreigners in Japan. The folder contained some really USEFUL info I shit you not. I asked him why they didn’t hand these out at the airport, which would save him a lot of work and Japan a lot of trouble from foreigners if ya ask me. To which he couldn’t give a clear answer duh. But no bad feelings, it was hopefully one of my few encounters (to come) in Japan with ‘the man’ and hopefully equally as smooth.