dannychoo.com - Danny Choo : Anime, Figures, Idols, Gundam, Otaku and Events from Japan

dannychoo.com - Danny Choo : Anime, Figures, Idols, Gundam, Otaku and Events from Japan http://www.dannychoo.com dannychoo.com Fortune Telling in Japan http://www.dannychoo.com/adp/eng/1380/Fortune+Telling+in+Japan.html

The fellow on the left of the pic is a fortune teller. You will occasionally see them at random spots around Tokyo and spotted in bunches huddled in small alleyways and under bridges with a little table (like the one in the pic) in Shinjuku and Ueno.

Some of these are experts in fortune telling by reading your palm, some can see the spirits floating about you and some are more of the standard fortune-by-birthdate/time variety. The average cost per fortune is about 1,000 yen to 2,500 yen.

Met up with a comrade yesterday who casually asked a fortune teller to read his fortune. The fortune teller spoke of a conversation held with my comrade and another person - a conversation that only my comrade had knowledge of - and obviously the other person but she died a while ago.

My comrade's skepticism disappeared and he listened on to be told something about his future that he realized is beginning to come true.

As I was listening I thought that it would be interesting to have my fortune told but after thinking about it for 10 seconds, I thought that I'd rather continue living without being given any hints.

I throughly believe that having a destination in life and being focused and passionate in getting to that destination will bring about a fulfilling future - thus not having to worry about knowing about what the future has in store for me.

For those who have "Mondays" down as the day you hate most and the reason as being "because I have to go to school/work after the weekend", then give the Destination article a read as it may help make not just Monday, but everyday a day to look forward to.

If you had the chance to have a fortune teller tell you your future and you was guaranteed that the information was going to be accurate, would you go ahead?
By Danny Choo on 2008/02/22 04:12 ]]> Fri, 22 Feb 2008 05:12:00 +0900 Japanese Sleeping Hours http://www.dannychoo.com/adp/eng/1234/Japanese+Sleeping+Hours.html

I can tell a tale or two (and I have in the past) about Japanese working hours. The majority of Japanese seem to spend most of their life at work. A typical day is a 10AM start and a midnight finish. I remember back at Amazon people sleeping in the office too.
According to a recent survey however, it looks like the Japanese are working even more and sleeping much less.

I'm usually up at an average of 6AM and try to turn in at midnight. Any less than 6 hours sleep means that I get sleepy after lunch. Sometimes I would get into the habit of sleeping even less but usually ends up with me getting sick.

Whenever possible, I try to make time at night to tidy up my mind a little by going over what I did that day and plan for the next day. By doing that while I'm awake, I find that I sleep better and am guessing that it helps take some burden off the brain from processing these thoughts while I'm asleep? Have no idea but it seems to work.

A friend of mine was saying that through his studies, humans should be able to get by with only 4 hours worth of sleep.
I've also heard some people say that people who sleep less die at an early age. I find this statement interesting and wonder occasionally if the time allocated to us by fate is predetermined.

How many hours of sleep do you get on average? Do you try to sleep less to get more done? If you knew that sleeping less (and getting more done while you are young) meant dying at an early age (lets say at 55 years), would you sacrifice sleeping hours?

For those who find it a bit tough to wake up in the morning - you'll need one of these. Once you have it, you wont need an alarm clock to get you out of bed. Its what drives me every day.

BTW, the adorable sleeping girl is Nanaka-chan from DC2.
By Danny Choo on 2007/11/08 22:44 ]]> Thu, 08 Nov 2007 23:44:00 +0900 More Hate Mail http://www.dannychoo.com/adp/eng/433/More+Hate+Mail.html

I thought I would set up a category just for hate mail seeing that I am receiving a lot lately. Also thought I would post the best ones. Todays hate mail is from a "Abel Martinez." I think I must have ruffled the poor chaps feathers or something. Whatever it is I did - he can bet that I'm going to continue doing it. Muhahaha.

From: "Abel Martinez" :abel431@gmail.com
Date: 2006年2月26日 4:05:56:JST
To: danny :danny at dannychoo.com
Subject: Fu*king Chink

Cmon danny your like a fu*king child. Quit buying those dumass toys n shit and do something more productive with your life. All you do it seems is buy toys and watch kiddy anime films. You are living a lie a fantasy that is not real. Japan is nothing but an island with a buncha delusional overgrown kids that have nothing better to do with their time except look at half naked dolls. WTF?!

And then he sent another mail later the same day!

From: "Abel Martinez" :abel431@hotmail.com
Date: 2006年2月26日 4:37:09:JST
To: danny :danny at dannychoo.com
Subject: Quit living for yourself

Quit living for yourself danny. You keep thinking that there is no hope left in this world and that the only option is to satisfy for your own selfish desires. What if this is not true though. What if there is a hope and you just dont realize it yet or dont want to believe it. You put so much energy into this world with your career and making money and buying things for yourself and trying to please your wife and fullfill your rediculous childish fanatasies. But nothing that you are doing holds any weight. It is all meaningless endeavors. In the end you will die and what will you have to show for? Not much it seems but if you are happy living your finite lifestyle go ahead. I hope one day you realize that it is not going to get you anywhere no matter how succesful you appear to be in peoples eye

Anyway, will keep posting the entertaining hate mail as it comes in!
By Danny Choo on 2006/02/28 23:55 ]]> Wed, 01 Mar 2006 00:55:00 +0900 Hate Mail http://www.dannychoo.com/adp/eng/423/Hate+Mail.html

Woohoo! Two hate/slagging mails within 24 hours! I must be doing something right here...

Aren't you at all embarassed to be parading your sexual fantasies (boob fetish, etc) around in public? In Japan it's considered shameful to express one's desire.

And...

Don't you think you wife could be a bit upset that you are MARRIED and spending thousands of dollars on pornographic dolls designed to titillate adolescent boy's fantasies? Grow up Danny!

LOL, the first poor person obviously doesn't know anything about Japan.
I'm starting to get more hate/slagging mails of late which has been increasing along with the number of visitors per day. Most of it slagging me off for spending *my* money on toys or figures like Natsumi or for trooping around Tokyo.

When you get to the stage where you can get people who hate you to actually spend the time and effort to slag you off - you know you are succeeding at what you do ^o^.
However discouraging the nature of the slagging messages may be (and I have had some very bad ones mixed with racist content), I think its important to remain focused and continue to do what I do and what I like doing - if I'm discouraged and stop, that will only mean that I'll end up not having fun before I die and will also mean that I wont reach my destination.
If you get the occasional slagging off, Its also best to remember that whatever one does, there will always be people out there who dislike who you are and what you do - there is absolutely no way to please everybody and your aim in life shouldn't be trying to do so.
By Danny Choo on 2006/02/23 04:47 ]]> Thu, 23 Feb 2006 05:47:00 +0900 Destination http://www.dannychoo.com/adp/eng/327/Destination.html

Question : What day of the week do you dislike the most?
I hear this question from time to time and I would always hear "Monday" as the answer.
When asked the reason, most would say "because I have to go back to work/school."
Personally I find this answer typical yet interesting. If one dislikes Monday because of school or work then why does continue to go back to work/school? I believe that folks like this are probably in the wrong job or studying the wrong course and probably should look for something that enables them to enjoy Mondays - and every other day for that matter. Those who genuinely enjoy work or school probably wont give Work or School as the reasons they dislike Monday if you see what I mean.

You may have already read my theory on the concept of life - I talk about life span and how I think that money is important. Today I would like to compliment that discussion and talk about Destination and how important it is to establish it.
First off, I would like to reiterate the obvious - we dont live forever and dont know when we are going to die (unless you just ordered a Candy Girl online - you *will* die when it arrives because your wife will beat you to death). OK, so know we know the obvious, what are we going to do before our time is up? Does it even matter? If you think it matters then read on.

We all share the same final destination - Death, but we all take different routes - different routes to a destination that we establish ourselves.
One doesn't have to decide on just one destination and have that as the be all and end all. Destinations may change from time to time but we need a destination, a direction that we should be headed in. If you are interested in getting what you want from life then I recommend that you always have an idea of where you are going and how you are going to get there.

So just an example, one of my "destinations" is to eventually start my own company and be wealthy from the company's earnings - and at the same time enjoy the path I take. At this moment in time I have several options but it looks like I will be doing something in web development - its what I get all passionate about when talking about it, its what I know best and already make a fair bit of money from it. I may end up with a different destination but for now my destination is to set up my own web development company in the future. So what am I doing to get there?
Well, I have been working at internet companies like Amazon where I get to work with some of the most talented people in the industry, I meet and learn from folks working in many fields and I also get the opportunity to push myself as far as I can go within that environment. The result of this is ( in the case of Amazon for example ) a contribution to the fastest growing e-commerce site in Japan and recognition by peers in the internet business.
I also constantly push myself to learn and research new technologies which I can utilize to create online business ideas which lead to that financial kick back. The tools that I develop then become part of my "showcase" and I use them to demonstrate my abilities - which then leads to new employment opportunities and/or business deals. Along the way I have unfortunately bumped into people who have tried to bring me down who hate the fact that I 'brag' about my abilities. Keeping quiet about my achievements is not an option however just to please these few. Letting people know about your abilities and achievements more often than not leads to new opportunities.
I also constantly endeavor to meet others doing similar stuff online and have met an incredible amount of talented entrepreneurs who I have been able to partner with to generate ideas that we mutually benefit from.

For those who do have destinations, have a look at your daily routine and re-focus from time to time to establish whether you are on the right path - is what you are doing now/tomorrow going to contribute to where you are trying to get to? If the answer is "No" or "Not sure" then you would probably want to spend quality time thinking hard about your current options and what options you can start to generate to help you get back on the path to your destination - dont leave this for another day to think about - do it now - especially if you are one of those who dislikes Monday because the chances are that you are not doing what you need to get to your destination.

So how about those who haven't discovered their destination? Well there are some who don't particularly care but if you do care then you could start to take a look at what you like and what you do best. You will always end up excelling when you are doing something that you enjoy and are passionate about - passion is like an orb of energy within you that enables you to be engaged and focused on your destination.

Now all of this speak is very general but what I would like to leave you with the following take away from this discussion:-
Establish your destination. Once you have done that, make sure you are spending everyday moving towards your destination. You will start to look forward to Mondays and in fact you will look forward to every day of the week each morning each night. Once you are in this mode, you realize that you wont need an alarm clock anymore because your body naturally wants to get up and work with the challenges awaiting in the day ahead. Establishing your destination is almost like discovering the answer to why you exist - well for me it is anyway - I mentioned it before and just to reiterate, my purpose in life is to enjoy life while it lasts. "Enjoying" meaning to do what I want whenever I want, buy what I want when I want, go where I want wherever I want.

Before I leave you, I would like to wish you all a happy new year and thank you for your continued support. Many of you may have made some new years resolution but maybe you can fit in this one for me...
Dont wait a year to make a resolution. If you decide to take on something, dont wait for the new year to start - do it straight away and you'll probably find your destination quicker and/or approach your destination sooner rather than later.
By Danny Choo on 2006/01/01 23:32 ]]> Mon, 02 Jan 2006 00:32:00 +0900 Quality - not Quantity http://www.dannychoo.com/adp/eng/101/Quality+-+not+Quantity.html

Quality, not Quantity
I was looking for information on using CSS instead of tables (as one does) and for some reason came across the Death Test which I know you will take for just for a laugh. According to my test results, I am going to die at 80 ( and got this rather naff icon).
I could be wrong but I guess that most people think that they are going to live to a similar age. Until the beginning of this year, I used to think that living until an old age was important. But what I learnt was that the duration of being alive is not important. What is important is the "quality" of ones life. An example: if you could have one of the following two for free, which would you choose?
1. A bowl of the worlds finest purest caviar.
2. Five Tons of the worlds finest caviar infested with maggots mixed in poodle poop with a sprinkle of dried baboon saliva.

I watched an extremely moving documentary about a girl who had a particular condition (cant remember the name) where her body aged 13 times faster than a "normal" human being. There are said to be only 8 or so known people on this planet with this condition. A person with the condition normally dies at the age of 13. She just had her 14th birthday and she knew that she was going to die any day. She said that she was prepared to die and that she had lead a great life up until now - it was all about her experiences, the friends she was able to meet and generally being happy. Living a longer life was not important.

We watch the news and see people dying left right and center - people being stabbed, run over or just plain dying in everyday accidents. I also think that many of us think "well that's not going to happen to me", and most probably most people who we see dying are amongst those who thought the same thing.
I was talking to my estate agent at the time we purchased our house - I asked him how I should go about writing my will - he looked at me as if I started to grow horns and said that people don't usually write their will until they are about 60. I was thinking to myself "apart from being a lair, this estate agent is an idiot too - bafoon."
This may seem the obvious but the thing is, none of us have been given a guarantee that we are going to live until we are golden. One could live in the "safest" part of the world, be healthy and still die from whatever.

Meaning
There is not a single day that goes by without me thinking about what I should be doing to get to my destination and I have been like this for the past few years. Being like this has enabled me to improve my quality of life and generally do anything that I have wanted to do based on my current monetary situation.
Thinking about the meaning of life is important because it helps you to discover your destination - without a destination, we would just be driving around in circles - occasionally going beyond that circle.

Worms exist to be eaten by Birds, Birds exist to be eaten by Cats and Humans exist to eat Cats - well only if you are in to that kind of thing. But you know what I mean. I have obviously simplified this idea (because Worms are actually Earth Warriors who protect the stratosphere from evil Space Spiders) but there is nothing around to eat Humans (not yet anyway). There must be a reason as to why humans exist - apart from polluting, destroying and in general being greedy (perfect description of a politician there).
I decided after many years of thinking that there *is* no reason as to why we are here and that we have to make the reason/the meaning ourselves.
I came to the conclusion that my meaning in life was to make our (her indoors and me) lives as pleasant and comfortable as possible - at the same time live how we want to live, buy what we want to buy, go where we want to go and eat what we want to eat.

Money Matters
Many people say that money cant buy happiness - but in our case, we think it can. No matter how you slice it - money is a fact of life. Maybe it should not be that way but the sad truth is that it is.
I came to Japan with two suitcases and with about 500 quid in the bank - 5 years on, my total income is about 15 times more that it was before we came and now own a chunk of land in Tokyo and most importantly - I am able to purchase Gundams and gadgets without being beaten up by the wife (well only sometimes). I account my mid term success to being constantly focused on my destination. Being in a state of focus is something that any of us can acheive but may be difficult without a destination or realizing what ones purpose in life is.
As for whether I will live to see my destination - that's another matter but at least I will die with piece of mind knowing that I tried to get there.
My wife was reading this as I was writing up this post and said people may think that I am bragging. Indeed - there is actually nothing to brag about - there are a ton of people who are doing much better than I am who earn in a blink of an eye what I earn in a year. All I want to do is to share my thoughts and hope that my thoughts serve as food for some of you.

So what are the takeaways for this post? Well for me its...
1. Make as much money as I can while I am alive so that I can...
2. Do what I want to do while I am alive.
3. Buy what I want to buy while I am alive because....
4. I could die tomorrow - don't know how much time I have remaining but use time well and enjoy it while I still have some left. Which is why its important for me to....
5. Gain as much skills and knowledge as possible - especially skills and knowledge which contribute to generating money.
6. Stay Focused. Losing focus means that I get lazy, forget about my destination and end up thinking that I have all the time in the world and "work on it tomorrow." Next toy

Above: One of my goals is to have one of these - I am not sure which one to get but I like the propeller bi-wing type. But I also want my own runway too. Nobody is going to give one to me for free and I probably wont get far by stealing one. Stealing a runway would be tough too.

I used to be a stand-in and was a member of Richard Starnowski studios back in the UK. We were filming a documentary about fireworks in the countryside. T'was a beautiful evening. During the middle of a break, the owner of the land that we were filming on flew his propelled plane at a low speed and altitude around us - it was an amazing site that I would remember to this day. I felt something ignite inside of me. There was a sense of exhilaration and a feeling that I could take on the world. It left me with a giddy tingling feeling that this poor student was going to make it somehow.
If dannychoo.com goes down for more than a month - it means that I have died and did not get to my destination or buy one of these planes - if I don't die before then however - watch this space for pics of my new toy :-)
By Danny Choo on 2005/07/21 13:06 ]]> Thu, 21 Jul 2005 14:06:00 +0900