A Week in Tokyo 34
Another late installment of A Week in Tokyo - got a load to go through to make up for it. The usual drill - article contains photos more than a week old.
First up is din dins with the folks from Good Smile Company, Dwango and Billy Herrington.
Met up with Billy and his manager before din dins to go over some stuff. Brought along Shosira who helped take photos for the evening.
At the Roppongi Gonpachi which was filled with fellow gaijin. Heard a lot about the restaurant but never been before. Food was delicious.
Japanese 101: At the end of a meal, one should say "Gochisou sama deshita" [ごちそうさまでした] and should say it especially to the person who pays for the meal at a restaurant.
many folks hold their hand in a prayer while saying this.
Some gifts from fans for Billy.
Folks who were total strangers became friends on the way home. Some university students. Why don't uni students wear Sailor-fuku anymore?
Travel on the public transport is never a ronery journey for a trooper - chatting to people for most of the way home.
Dinner at the German embassy with the folks at CScout - all photos in this article.
At the GSC offices for the GSC Live Broadcast. Huge increase in traffic from Japanese users - they are still a quiet bunch though ^^;
Will launch the News Items in Japanese language too hopefully by the end of this week - will require quite a few backend changes. The gone fishing page will be up for an hour or so.
Have always taken off shoes when entering the home since I was a kid and obviously took to the Japanese custom easily when I got here. Do you wear shoes at home or take em off before you go in?
Since the broadcast, an entry for Danny Choo (in Japanese) cropped up in NicoNico Pedia ^^;
Some gorgeous katsu for lunch.
This weeks desk. Mirai Saber now dons her gauntlet with sword and Aoi-chan is back in her slip with rifle.
The old PowerBook is connected to the external Optic line to monitor and control the image servers.
Been interested in how much electricity I'm using so got one of these Ecowatt devices. It plugs in the wall and you just plug in your electricity into the front socket. No buttons or settings involved.
The display changes every few seconds and shows how much CO2 is being let off together with cost per hour and how much has been used up until now.
The desk area in the previous 2 pics uses up 4 yen per hour.The air conditioner which acts as our heating device uses about 50 yen per hour. Vacuuming for a few mins uses up 1 yen. Still need to measure how much the server rack uses up.
Our monthly electricity bill of late costs about 15,000 yen but costs much less in Spring or Autumn when we don't need the heating or cooling devices. Are you aware or how much is being paid for electricity in your household?
Folks interested in this device can get it at Amazon for 2,980 yen.
Helping the fire brigade recruit the brave. Whenever I see the brigade this image always pops up in my mind ^^;
Veggies for lunch. 680 yen.
On the roads on the way to somewhere or other.
Bowl O dead cow for lunch.
Rainy day in Ikebukuro for meetings.
After meetings go exploring around whats has kinda become a "second Akihabara" what with all the otaku related shops.
At Toranoana. The text on the red strip says "Japanese Cultural Heritage Moe."
Just the usual public oppai.
Networking with a load of Internet related folks at the Tech Crunch Meetup in Ebisu. Met a load of folks here who came along to Tokyo CGM Night.
Grabbing some snacks for tea time.
Sushi din dins with Nendopuchi Runa Edomae from Seto no Hanayome. I think this Nendopuchi comes as a DVD exclusive. Some Seto no Hanayome action below which I never got to finish.
Eco poster to promote the use of bringing your own bag to supermarkets and refusing to use the given plastic ones.
I heard that its actually more harmful to the environment for one to use their own reusable bags as the amount of CO2 produced to make them does the environment more damage?
Lunch with the boss and engineer at Hobby Search. Hmmmmm.
Some deep fried goodies for Saturday lunch at home.
Been guest blogging at BoingBoing over the past two weeks and you can see all previous posts under Guest Blog. Its been a tough but fun schedule and it looks like many BB readers enjoyed what they saw and decided to stay on at dannychoo.com ^^
The gorgeous Seto Sun Figma and some pasta lunch. 880 yen. Her eyes are quite big which I didn't notice before.
Tis the jolly hayfever season. Japan has a load of Sugi trees which give off a ton of pollen every year that leave much of the Japanese population with red eyes and snail trails running from the nostrils down the sleeves.
Most folk here wear white masks but I use this Respro and get weird looks all the time ^^;
Had hayfever back in the UK but not this bad.
Some curry udon for dinner. 700 yen.
Om Rice with some fried chicken on the side. 900 yen.
Having some Ishiyaki Oyakodon with some ramen - this set meal was 990 yen. Bit too much.
Got another Mac Mini to deal with image serving on dannychoo.com. All avatars and static images are being served from one of the Mini's and the new Mini will serve the CGM (Consumer Generated Media) images - your news items. I know that image loading is a bit slow right now but thats because I still need to do some optimization.
How is the site loading time for you lately?
Currently looking for a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) which will continue to power the server rack in the event of a power failure. Am thinking about the APC ES 500 BE500JP. Don't have much knowledge about UPS but know that some come with a phone jack and USB to boot servers remotely. Any recommendations?
Had power failures back in the UK from time to time and experienced them a lot when visiting folks back in Malaysia - has never happened in the 3 years living in this house though.
Lunch again with my Seto Sun who's my fave figma of late.
Stroll on a warm afternoon. Suddenly became very cold though.
Some shabu shabu for din dins.
The rest of the shabu shabu set which cost about 5,500 yen for two. Comes with a load of dead animals and vegetables which are dipped in the hot soup boiling away in the middle of the table.
Which is more tasty - Seto or Icecream?
A load of old houses are being torn down and new houses being completed every day in this area. The price of land in this neck of the woods is going up quite a bit too.
BTW, the roof of this house is sloped not for aesthetic purposes but because of Japanese building regulations - the Nichiei Kisei (日影規制(にちえいきせい)) is a restriction to ensure that the surrounding buildings get a certain number of sunlight hours. For example, A building within X meters has to receive X number of sunlight hours per day during the winter season. This restriction also affects the height and shape of the sort of house you can build.
More about Japanese building regulations in the Tokyo Property Purchase article.
Some health food is good for a change.
This weeks Mc Dees kiddy meal goodies are Dragon Ball and Herro Kitty.
Some Musubi and Miso soup for din dins. Total 660 yen.
Aoi-chan gets a new prezzie - the transplant was quite painful.
Time saving tip - make a jug of tea (PG Tips) once instead of making 3 cups ^^;
Still need to review Kos for you.
A greato discovery this week! Thanks to folks over at my Twitter for always helping out with stuff.
I came across a setting on the PS3 which allowed videos to be played through a Media Server - wondered if there was a way to play opensourced AVI files that I downloaded onto my Mac on the PS3.
Tried many packages which involved a load of command lines and a ton of configurations. Then tried out Media Link.
Downloaded and installed the Media Link Preference pane. Added a folder to share with the PS3 and clicked a single button to start the server...
...then headed over to the PS3 to see my Mac show up as "Nullriver MediaLink (name of Mac)." Was able to browse all the contents of the shared folder on my Mac and play AVI, MP4, MOV and *all* my media. Was rather impressed indeed. Next thing I need to work out is whether I can copy the folks over to the 60GB HD on the PS3. Most certainly worth the 20 USD for the package.
Looks like I will be putting the PS3 to very good use indeed.
Where do you spend most of your time watching opensourced stuff? I personally find it difficult to relax in front of the computer so never watch movies here - need to lean back in the couch to watch.
Just some of the figures that need reviewing or giving away.
If you are interested in reading about life in Japan, seeing photos taken daily around Tokyo, like Japanese subculture (anime, manga, figures, Dollfies) then you may want to start delving into the Japan or Figure categories for a start or have a gander at all photo articles.
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Web Developer
http://www.twitter.com/SteveKeys
That L-Bust is pretty damn big.
Student
What kind Katsu is that Danny? I'm very curious!
Guess
I think thats pork, it looks raw tho :o
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
Maguro I think ^^;
software manager
http://wawawawasuremono.com
maguro mebbe?
http://wingstrike.blogspot.com/
Yeah, i agree. It certainly do look like tuna
A Curiosity
Looks like something I ate in Hokkaido for a trip once. They had sashimi dumped into shabu shabu, or at least something like that... The sashimi came up with the outsides cooked and inside raw. It was like eating erm, fish flavored marshmallow candy. haha.
Kokoro Kotonoha's personal trainer
http://loli1983.wordpress.com
d00d, what Nendroid is that next to the Ecowatt device????
Student
http://ivan05.deviantart.com/
its, 12:34AM in the morning of Monday 23rd of February. Haven't read the blog yet, but was eager to see the photos..))Im tired.
Your mask is great, are there any other colors available?
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
Have only seen black.
http://www.alternatesam.com
how's your nose treatment for hay-fever going?
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
Nose treatment?
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
The eyes on my avatar Mirai Dollfie look tooo dark! ^^;
初音ミク命
It's like their eyes are staring into your soul.
Still cute though.
http://www.alternatesam.com
http://hq.andrewshuttleworth.com/hq/2008/10/nose-laser-trea.html
Check out andrew's nose laser treatment....it might work for you as well.
student
food..*so hungry*. the katsu looks really good.
流浪人
Take off shoes before coming in...just keeps the house cleaner... ^^
As for electric bills, our neighborhood has a strange system. They base your bill off of an average neighborhood rate. If you use around the same amount as the average, you don't pay anything (it's part of your rent, instead). If you use more than the average, you owe the electric company money. If you use less than the average, the electric company sends you a check. Currently, I get US$50 back every month from the electric company. ^^
university film student | ecchikid | the Archivist
http://www.vimeo.com/longhim
O_O That really is weird. So if you persuade everyone in your neighbourhood to use more electricity, you could make more money!
流浪人
Everyone in my neighborhood has families of four to five people...I live alone...I already use considerably less energy than any of them... ^^;
College student, Software Engineer, Otaku
my electricity bills run to at most $50
as for Danny's question, yes I have a custom of taking my shoes off at home usually
anyways, Toranoana seems really stocked compared to other anime places I've been to
三年せいとオタク
I need to get me a mask like that ;o It's good to see A Week In Tokyo back in action. That Seto figure looks amazing I'd choose it over the ice cream any day :D
Student / Software Engineer
It seems like you eat out everyday, that must get expensive.
Dance Trooper: DCX-001 O.D.E. (Order of the Dancing Empire)
http://dannychoo.com.my
Very fulfilling week, mentally & for the stomach ^_^
Been taking off shoe before entering anyone permisses since young, probably due to family custom.
Tokyo Trooper is the fire brigade spoke person of the day~~~~~
My monthly electricity bill is around USD70 on average~~~
"Japanese Cultural Heritage Moe" indeed~~~~~~~ "Moe" Figure LIFE!
Nice respiratory mask ^^
Seto with nekomimi is Moe~~~~
After reviewing those new SAFS, then give away for contest ^_^ WIN WIN
Software Engineer
http://hanifnorman.wordpress.com/
My electricity bills reach around $!00. 3 computers, 2 network drives and whatnot adds a lot to that since they're constantly running.
Also Danny, consider getting a bigger UPS for your servers. My experience with them is that the batteries get less power the longer it's used. My company have an APC that's been running for about 2 years now supporting 3 servers. Last month, we had a power outage and the stupid thing barely lasted the 20 minutes it took to get power back.
Catgirl Trainer.
http://www.phenie.com
Last month's electricity was 1420yen. I'm in budget mode!
Well not really - I only ever really use lights and my PC ^^;
Before coming to Japan it took me awhile to get used to taking my shoes off whenever I walked inside; but I've gotten so used to it now I'm sure it'll continue even once I return home...
keroro platoon member
http://heathorn.wordpress.com
Always love your 'week in tokyo' especially the food coverage ^_^
student , otaku and awesome blogger
http://otakudan.com
i really like these week in tokyo posts.
by the way, this sentence needs to be fixed on your post "He eyes are quite big which I didn't notice before." ^^;
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
Thanks and corrected ^^;
http://www.marvinryan.com
sound like a cool software, will try that out with my ps3. anyway looks like it was a buy week for you Danny, it's good though that you had fun with your work. cheers
http://www.marvinryan.com
hmmm typo... I meant busy week not buy week
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
Didnt buy much this week - received a load of SAFS though ^^;
http://www.marvinryan.com
lol. ^^;;;
SOS Brigade Leader
Well iusually in Asia we opened our shoes and slippers first before entering the room because it is just soo relaxing but in western countries u still have to wear them
NEET part-time - Technical Support Officer - Network security engineer
http://burugureibi.blogspot.com/
this 'week in tokyo' is rather long - maybe i should rotate my monitor vertically ^^
My household electrical usage is on average 0.2kw/h, but when i turn on my computer + equipment, it jumps up to 0.6kw/h - When the aircon is on, it jumps to 8.3kw/h!!!
I get a little device from the elec company that plugs into the mains and recieves data from the main electrical box outside with EOP (Ether Over Power) - Displays current household energy usage, CO2 emissions, Yearly/Monthly/Daily/Hourly graphs, costs, etc. Very nifty
You should- wait no... YOU MUST finish Seto no Hanayome! The last episode is made of PURE WIN (and GAR)
I relax on my (king-single)bed which is 2m away from my monitors - Most importantly being able to play .mkv files
Dropping computers, starting all over again at Journalism
http://xspblog.com
Danny uses 3.3 GIGAWATTS!!! at home.
Metrosexual Narcissist
http://www.michaelflux.com
In reply to your "do you take off your shoes?" question...
Why WOULDN'T you take off your shoes... I mean how can you just walk around everywhere, step in some dog crap maybe, and then just come into your home and continue walking around smearing crap everywhere... ugh...
Some people are just such pigs... :(
But to answer your question, yes, I take off my shoes when entering anyone's home.
Student
Awesome article as always:)
Pokemon master
http://thecococafe.wordpress.com/
We always take our shoes off inside. Keeps the carpet clean. ^^
Hmm... is it just me or does the McDonalds in Japan have separate toy sets (one aimed at boys, and another aimed at girls) more often? From what I remember from my childhood, we only had that happen once or twice a year. Most of the time the toys were gender-neutral.
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
Yep - boy n girl toys are different.
Student Otaku (ITM Student) and ACG NA Staff
http://koiaichaku.com/
I swear Danny...you should give out some of the directions to the places you eat at for people who visits Japan...I would love to go to some of those places to eat!!!
I see a Kodomo No Jikan Rin Kokonoe box I think...by Freeing too...
Maybe when I head to Japan again in July I should visit Ikebukuro...as last time I didn't spend as much time there...
Fledgling repowriter
http://sn.im/sdr002
The snag with this is that your typical Japanese address is as confusing as understanding Kanji. Danny could tell you this ramen shop was at [e.g. - this may or may not be an actual address] 1-46-10 Higashi-Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku, but without an atlas, or at least a reasonably detailed map of the neighborhood, you will get lost trying to find that address. You might eventually wind up queueing for the first line you see, figuring that this must be for that shop.
I've been taking off shoes at more and more places lately. Even residences here in Chicago.
I haven't really shopped Ikebukuro yet. I wound up trainspotting at the Tobu station after using the toilet in the Tobu department store.
初音ミク命
At my house I always have my shoes on, or slippers, since we have wood floors that are really old and were not taken care of very well by the previous owner. I'm always worried that I might get a splinter or something. At my friends house I always take my shoes off to be courteous.
The electric bill is rather small since the only thing that's on often is the computer and a light. The house doesn't have central air so during the winter I have to use the fireplace to warm up the house and during the summer it's just a couple fans to keep cool.
Seto no Hanayome is probably the anime that I've enjoyed the most recently, I'm still waiting to hear about a dvd release and soon I'll have to get that Set sun figma.
university film student | ecchikid | the Archivist
http://www.vimeo.com/longhim
I definitely take off my shoes before going in - was raised that way in Hong Kong and in Canada as well as I grew up. I remember being quite shocked and a bit disgusted when I realized that wasn't the policy at my friend's house.
I thought you would have all of that hooked up to a UPS already...by the way, Danny, is there a heat problem with your server rack? It certainly looks like it could, but you haven't reported any problems so far...
"Lunch again with my Seto Sun who's my fave figma of late." Is this because poor Kagami has been defiled? x_x
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
No heat probs so far - may be different in Summer but this room is quite cool.
University Student
Just remember something that happened to me older bro. He ordered a dish in some korean restaurant, and didn't know how it was supposed to be eaten, started eating it regularly how a human being would eat a tiger and the waiters/waitresses were all staring. So question is, is there some jap dishes that requires a certain way to consume it?
former Emperor of Britannia
http://reflectiarx.wordpress.com/
$100 USD since there are a total of 3 Desktops and 3 laptops in the house. ( 1 desktop and 2 laptops for me.)
Nice cover here again danny. On the UPS, caution is always a good option especially with people who handle servers such as yourself.
New figs for review? I can't wait to read them when your done.
Oh, how much was the prezzie you gave to Aoi? A friend of mine started to have an interest in
her dollfie to do the same thing after reading this.
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
About 4000 yen for the bust.
Culinary student, Vampire
whatever it is... im hungry
Manufacturing Technician
I always take off my shoes when entering a house. My step mom would get furious if I didn't and would always threaten turning off the internet when I was younger if I forgot to take them off. She was a clean freak. But I'm glad I got into the habit of it cause now that I live in my own house it helps to keep the carpets cleaner so I have to vacuum less often. Never had slippers to change into though. just socks or bare feet.
My electric bill has been about 120 USD for the last few months. Hoping it goes down now that the weather isn't so cold.
"Just some of the figures that need reviewing or" . . . . . giving away?!?! who do you give them to? have you ever done any contests through this site for figures or whatnot?
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
Many ^^
http://www.dannychoo.com/basedir/mac/eng/image/tag/giveaway/danny/0000/00/0.html
Nekophilia
Its quite the norm to take off shoes before entering house, no? O_O
Hmm... Mai bills are around 50USD I think.. And yes, Malaysia power provider sucks.
Out of nowhere without any warning POOF! and there goes all my data.
As for the Nichiei Kisei...
If it really works, why is Ryuuji(Toradora) having mold problems due to some new apartment blocking the sunlight? Just wondering. xD
I think I need one of those Ecowatt thing to prove that PC doesn't use THAT much of power, so my parents can stop nagging me for leaving it on for weeks.
College Freshmen
I've been meaning to watch Seto no Hanayome for a while but haven't had the time.
Nekophilia
You're missing out on one of the top comedy shows.. ^^
part time illustrationist, doll clothing seamstress
http://puppy52art.com/
Did U have to heat up the L bust? I only needed to wiggle it in ^^; I think I read on a japanese blog they use hot water to heat up the bust plate too ^^; Your food pix are killing me, remember to look at mine (revenge!) lol is Seto standing next to some seafood? O_O Veggie for lunch look so goot!!!
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
The room was warm so the oppai was just about soft enough to get on without a hair dryer. Did struggle a bit though.
Otaku, US Army, Student (Political Science)
http://figure.tsuki-board.net/profile/Syaoran
Very rarely do I take off shoes when entering a house. Usually only when asked or when the carpet has been recently cleaned.
Electricity seems to be much cheaper in Japan than here. With all those computers and servers the bill would easily be $300USD here.
I'd go broke in Toranoana so fast...and that curry udon looks very tasty. Seto in the ice cream is the tastiest.
I'll buy a GSC calender! No need to give it away ^^
Injured
Someone ate Kagami in the 1st dinner table shot. No wonder Seto-san and Luna are now the dinner guests. (hope Kagami was good).
Only take shoes off here if they are muddy or dirty and wear flip-flops in the house.
None of those figurines melt or drip or sag from being set on the Server boxes from the heat the Server boxes make? I wouldn't get much work done with so many figurines about as every time I turn or move something every thing would get knocked over. Nice picture of you and your wife on the desktop now.
Thats a load of unsold figurines against the wall in the one photo I wonder if that store or chain of stores moved all inventory to a big city shopping mall here how long they would last.
Lastly, Aoi-chan is going to need a new desktop and a stand up front to hold her now. :D
Student!
http://zh3us.wordpress.com/
^^; Great pictures of good food over there!
Always takes off shoes before entering houses. Every house 1 went to in Singapore's like that :3
Always watch Opensourced Videos on my 24" on my desktop ^^
Student!
http://zh3us.wordpress.com/
kinda getting alot of "FORBIDDEN" Messages though. :3
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
How do you mean? Could you post a screenshot?
銀河帝国五〇一軍团 TK/TD 8316 M.E.P.D. Police Sergeant
http://gordonator.com/
ya i got these too. in fact when i'm typing this comment i got it as well. have to click back and retype everything. very dangerous if a member is typing a long reply and didn't copy his text.
http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk27/gordonator008/danny_forbids.jpg
sometimes the layout of the news items gets totally messy as well. have to refresh to correct it.
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
Hmmm. Could be a browser bug or something. Never seen this before. Will look into. Happen a lot?
銀河帝国五〇一軍团 TK/TD 8316 M.E.P.D. Police Sergeant
http://gordonator.com/
yup. couple of times. learnt to copy my text whenever i post to be safe. ('~')
http://www.alternatesam.com
Yeah, I'm getting it as well. Using google chrome here and it doesn't seemed to be a browser side issue, more like a server side problem.
I've been getting it quite a few times daily for the past few weeks but didn't realize that somebody else was getting it so I didn't say anything.
Anyway, it happens maybe 1-2 times every 10 links in dc.com. Usually a refresh (or twice) will load the page properly.
http://www.alternatesam.com
An example today.
Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /detail/mac/eng/image/15380/Practice+Ecchi.html on this server.
Apache/2.0.52 (Red Hat) Server at www.dannychoo.com Port 80
銀河帝国五〇一軍团 TK/TD 8316 M.E.P.D. Police Sergeant
http://gordonator.com/
ya i got these too. in fact it happened 2 times when i'm typing this comment. have to click back and retype everything. very dangerous if a member is typing a long reply and didn't copy his text.
http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk27/gordonator008/danny_forbids.jpg
sometimes the layout of the news items gets totally messy as well. have to refresh to correct it.
Student and full-time otaku
So busy again this week it seems. I hope that you'll have the time to do some of the backlog figure reviews soon ^^
I always watch anime on my tv, which is connected as a secondary monitor via scart to my pc. For the future, I hope to build my own htpc, but still need to find a good package that can play *all* filetypes. I'm thinking of Xbox media center, but it still has issues with .sub files embedded in .mkv's.....
3D artist
http://andyh.cgsociety.org
Nice update - i always enjoy the 'week in tokyo' posts. Damn - i remember ikebukuro so well from the last time i stopped there :-(
That katsu looks raw! Was it fish or something - kinda looks like salmon or tuna.
Me.
http://eltworld.wordpress.com/
The food ... the food ... oh my ... your A Week in tokyo column always make me hungry ... and San-chan! ~ (^_^)
銀河帝国五〇一軍团 TK/TD 8316 M.E.P.D. Police Sergeant
http://gordonator.com/
hairstyle looks neat btw danny. it's not that short.
most of us here takes off our shoes when we are in the house. more comfy. i do know someone who wears shoes in his house. got a surprise when i visited his place the first time. feels kinda awkward. ^^;
Pseudo-Graphic Designer, 触手 wrangler, H-Man
http://lightningsabre.blogspot.com/
Oh, so do you wear the Respro under the Stormtrooper helmet too? I was just thinking about the combination of you having hay fever and wearing the helmet at the same time... ^^;
And I think the ice cream is yummier, unless Seto Sun is a real person and not a plastic figma :P
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
Respro + helmet = cant breathe.
Pseudo-Graphic Designer, 触手 wrangler, H-Man
http://lightningsabre.blogspot.com/
Ah gotcha... but then you'd really sound like Darth Vader if you can breathe that long... >.>
Student
Seeing so much food makes me Hungry... ç.ç
However, i want a week like yours ç_ç
Dirty Gentleman
http://cantstanzya.wordpress.com/
I'm asian, so the shoes always come off. So much so that when my friends tell me I don't have to, I wonder how flithy their floors are.
My electric bills are thru the roof. Especially now that i'm attending school, and I sometimes leave the pc on by accident all night long.
That shabu shabu setting looks so nice. Do they always present it that nicely in Japan? Here they just give you a bunch of food laided randomly on plates. Hobby Search, give me discount!
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
Food presentation over here is generally good.
Online Shop
http://wildarms.egloos.com
As usual, all those yummy looking food and photos of nostalgic places. Ikebukuro is my second favorite place, Akihabara being the first. With Toranoana and K-Books being at Ikebukuro, it's fun visiting there :D
Public service employee
http://stary84.blog.de/
Thank you for the nice photos.
If i go into a house, i take my shoe´s off too, but not always. In Winter it´s sometimes very very cold and slippers aren´t available most of time.
I wan´t to try japanese food too, but in my hometown there´s nothing (realy realy nothing) ^,^ Must drive over 100 km to find a japanese restaurant.
I use a freeware server called PS3 Media Server ( http://ps3mediaserver.blogspot.com/ ) for streaming.
Works on every OS, is free, zero-config, and it the only one which manages to play all of my media in any format including subtitles. :)
You should've had a look at it, might have saved you a couple of bucks ;)
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
Thanks. Tried that first but didnt work for me.
Student, Otaku, She-Geek(Sheek lol)
http://meimi132.wordpress.com/
Bowl o dead cow... makes it sound so appetising... lol.
Trains in the uk are NEVER chatty. God we're unfriendly on public transport lol. I usually use the oppurtunity to read/play ds game I havent in a while and listen to MP3.
Love the Cultural Heritage Moe lol. I see Haruka-chan!!!! Auuuuuuuu........
And as for that pile of figures.... I'll takes the Haruka and Aoi maid set gladly lol. Heck, I'd had any of 'em. No one in their right mind would say no to freebies.
Whats in the giant red box? My intial guess was puchi nendo's.... but my hiragana isn't so good that I can read it without checking yet lol so I don't know if its Haruhi of Lucky Star.
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
Tis Rin Kononoe Freeing.
Student, Performer
http://kesenaitsumi89.wordpress.com/
Just some of the figures that need reviewing or giving away.
> give away!!! I want that calendar!! ^.^
pervert
we take off our shoes here too but we do not that that many pairs of slipppers
struggling undergraduate student
http://playevolution.wordpress.com/
Figma base body figures! I hear they are pretty hard to come by.
Programmer
http://injapan.tumblr.com
"heard that its actually more harmful to the environment for one to use their own reusable bags as the amount of CO2 produced to make them does the environment more damage" へええ？？うそ！
Student
http://shockerz.wordpress.com/
Asian always left their shoes behind and walk into the house shoeless. I don't know about the US side. Gimme those figma!!!
Navy Recruit
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/profile.php?id=519499924&ref=profile
my fave time of the week. (a week in tokyo series). food looks yummy as always. in the winter our monthly electric bill is around 350 USD (it gets really cold here in chicago) as for the summer around 150 USD or less.
大学生
http://justaskeikaku.net23.net
lol the fanart of Billy is GAR
Medical student
http://www.protocolsnow.com
*drools* That sushi looks delicious!
Procrastinator, n00b blogger
http://zatsudan.wordpress.com
Electricity here is awfully CHEAP. I mean, I pay like 40US$ monthly, and we have here 3 industrial sewing machines, 2 computers and the basic electronic stuff running (almost) all day.
Otaku
http://imperiomoe.wordpress.com
We take our shoes out here for sure specially in winter^^
Student
http://www.lesterho.com
Not to mention my electric bill for last month is around 25000 Yen but luckily enough it was included into my monthly rental fees that I wouldn't need to worry about water,gas and electric bills payment as it was included together.
studying comp studies, planning to look for part time job
http://bruneian-otaku.blogspot.com
I say around B$120+ for us, saving our 'black gold'
Student, Uncle & hopfully a good husband..
Takes off shoes at home...since it is cooler...So miss the mornings in JP...
Pori Student
http://justin-kun.livejournal.com
Oh noes kagamin-chan has been replaced!
No UPS is a pretty big oversight for a site that handles that much traffic. We don't have power outages here either, but how much per hour would an outage cost you in lost revenue, and are you willing to risk it?
The UPS you linked is pretty light, and geared more toward home usage. I'd recommend getting a beefer, rack oriented UPS; the low end of these starts at $300-$400 if I remember right, and should be sufficient for your config.
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
I probably should calculate the costs - have rough numbers though.
IT Director
Quick UPS comment from a IT consultant guy who deals with racks of servers, making retail Point of Sale build specs, and so forth -- I think the VA rating of your UPS is the least relevant part of the equation (so long as it can handle enough watts to manage the load, whatever -- so long as your load in Watts * 1.20 = ~Size_of_UPS, then you should be good to go. For little UPS units (eg: that one or two people can lift, that come in one box :), the VA or Wattage rating typically indicates how big a battery your unit will come with, which in turn dictates how much run time you will get.
Take a load like you have there, and put it on a typical 1400 VA UPS, and you'll probably get 20 minutes run time, which would be somewhere between fabulous and overkill for your needs. A typical 1000 VA UPS would probably have enough battery to get you to 10 minutes, which would probably be about right.
What is much more important is what sort of power events it protects you from, and what it does when it breaks. The APC ES-500 model that you mentioned there has a variety of failure modes in which it will cut power to the load (eg: the Utility power is still on, but your equipment is Dead).
The ES-500 model, like all virtually all other cheap mini-UPS units is an "off line" or "standby" UPS, meaning that the *only* thing it protects you from is complete blackouts. In all other respects, it is nothing more than a garden variety power bar that's put on a couple pounds.
I'm in Canada, and while I've travelled to Japan, I had other things on my mind than making note of common UPS manufactures and their technical pros/cons.
The relatively modest cost of a good UPS (Like an APC Smart-UPS 420 VA unit -- similar models no doubt available in the Land of the Rising Sun.) is well worth it (about $130 USD). This is a "Line Interactive" UPS, which means that it filters and regenerates to some degree the incoming power (things like boosting or capping the incoming voltage to deal with brown-outs, filtering out spikes from Air Conditioners or other motor-type inductive loads turning on/off, and so on).
The most bomb-proof UPS one can get is a "double inversion" UPS, which essentially goes whole hog on the distrust of incoming utility power thing. It does this by using utility power to drive a AC-DC converter in order generate a float voltage for the Battery. Then, a separate DC-AC inverter uses that float voltage to regenerate the AC wave-form from scratch, and deliver it to your equipment. A common manufacturer of these is Eaton Powerware. (I've had retail clients that had computers crashing all the time install these, and had their mysterious problems drop to Zero -- if you have dirty power, this is pretty much your last, best hope.)
(Of course, if you want the Ultimate in power protection, get a couple of these: http://www.hitecups.com/p3.php?RubriekID=2798 -- a HiTec Continuous Power Supply. It uses utility power to drive a fly wheel, which in turn, runs a generator. If utility power ever fails, the fly wheel keeps spinning while the diesel engine fires up, and takes over the spinning of the flywheel. It ensures rock steady power no matter what happens outside your building. Of course, a single unit is more square feet than you average Japanese home, but nobody said that the Ultimate in Anything ought to come easy.)
The Wikipedia article is generally correct to my eye, so if you have a sudden urge to learn more, check it out at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uninterruptible_power_supply
I'll warn you about one instant headache perpetuated by UPS makers -- they typically refuse to identify what sort of technology a given UPS is built upon, preferring instead to use marketing jargon that makes it *sound like* it uses "Most Super Awesome Better Than All Competitors And Not Even Bound By the Laws of Physics Technology", when in fact, it uses one of the standard approaches detailed in the wikipedia article.
As such you'll likely get whatever you settle on, and take comfort in three things: (1) a UPS is usually better than no UPS (regardless of it's underlying technology), (2) you live in an area with good power anyway, so it's not going to be a big deal even if it isn't an ideal UPS, and (3) you live in an area with limited electrical storm activity/dirty power, so even if your UPS doesn't do a good job of providing electrical isolation, you'll probably be fine anyway.
I hope that helped, and have a great day!
-D
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
Thanks for the incredible write up!
Missionary
http://suigeneris-me.blogspot.com/
in ma house we never take off our shoes before entering! but all of my closest friends are asian so i got used to doing it at least 4 days out of the week!!!
Programmer, IT Consultant
http://www.ienso.ch
Awesome <3 <3
Love your "Server Rack" danny!
May I ask what Clock application you're running on your iPod Touch?
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
Its called Flip Clock from the App store.
Dental Technician, i make teeth!
http://antsizedman.blogspot.com/
Looks like another busy week, that is one crazy looking mask for the hayfever. use to live in Germany and they grew a plant there which made my nose go crazy, hated the spring back then.
maintenance
http://labx.altervista.org/
about the recommendations:
the mac-mini I do not think you can define server but if it supports WOL / WOW you can avoid additional wires.
UPS generally does not protect from voltage surges but if the power lines in Japan are so stable then put a UPS type offline if you want more of an online model solves the problem. (remember to check the batteries from time to time)
In Italy it is not uncommon occurring Black-out, in 'company I work, I installed a UPS 1000VA for : modem, router CISCO, PBX, firewall zyxel35 and other.
Watch the pattern of power that I made with DIA
http://labx.altervista.org/dia/esempio-power.pdf
this is the corporate network
http://labx.altervista.org/dia/esempio-rete-lan.pdf
diagrams are simplified in order to perform a diagnosis of failure in less time
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
Thanks for the info!
~Undine~
http://bluebluewave.wordpress.com
Nice "A week in Tokyo" article. Some people may prefer focus on certain topics but I like the diversity of it having a bit of everything. ^^
I've got my LCD television plugged into one of my computers through a PAL/video-out cable. That way it's detected as another screen and I can launch anime or series on the computer which then display on the LCD television so I can watch from my couch chair.
Currently using Zoomplayer & MPC from CCCP on Windows. (Not taking the trouble to step over to Linux on that one since I'd have to convert too many storage drives and even with VLC watching everything smoothly in Linux is still iffy at best.)
Not sure about my electricity bill lately but I try to switch of monitors more often, us a lot of energy saving light bulbs, one of my computer uses a power brick like a laptop,... all to save on power usage.
Bounty Hunter
http://myanimelist.net/profile/andrewgk
Sometimes I bring my laptop along to watch anime when I'm planning to take a long ho bath. xD
Usually I watch the stuff I downloaded on my xbox360 via TVersity streaming program while laying down in my bed :>
maintenance
http://labx.altervista.org/
to my house I have a voltage stabilizer that compensates for up to + or - 15% of tension after a UPS 600VA to the PC, 2 printers, monitors lcd19 ', TV 19', nintendo WII, 2 audio amplifiers, lamps, and more more ... (my room)
another UPS 300VA modem router and 500GB NAS,
yet another UPS 500VA to pc in the garage workshop.
Scientist, unemployed.
http://fmphoenixhawk.livejournal.com
APC makes a good UPS. Just remember every 2-2.5 years to change the battery in the UPS. Not sure how much those run. I don't have one, but was looking at them. The phone line is to protect your dial-up modem (As that line has power to it as well). The USB connection is so the computer can monitor the UPS and report on system usage/surges/etc.
When I watch something online, I watch it through my nice 19" LCD. When we bought the new TV, (Insignia LCD TV, 720p hi-def unit.) I could have hooked it into the comp, but that will happen only when and if the LG monitor dies on it (Not expected for a while.)
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
Thanks for the tips. Didnt think about battery changes.
Freelance Artist
http://edcomics.deviantart.com
Those clear Figmas look pretty interesting.
Art/Media
http://sgallen.wordpress.com/
Looks like it has been a nice week for you Danny. Over here, its been cold and barely any sun light.
Question on taking shoes off, Chinese custom to take off shoes before entering the home is the same as the Japanese. I'll feel right at home in Japan lol.
For the figure reviews, can't wait till you review the Archetype:She Figma. It looks good. :D
what a long and great week !!
food always looks yummy
what i will remember for this week is this great idea about ecowatt devices
fantastic idea !!
projectionist, artist
The one reason I hate reading A Week in Japan segments, too much good looking food!! It makes me get hungry. ^o^
I don't mean to pry in to your life Danny, or in this case your wife's. But I was wondering what her hobbies were? Maybe you should do a post about things your wife likes to do. What she likes to watch or collect. I'm just interested in what the spouse of an anime/manga/figure fan is like and how she manages to put up with your hobby. I mean there's a lot of people that would be put off with so many figures and stuff. She must be an awesome person.
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
She is awesome - I would not be where I am without her.
http://www.fifthdreamtoday.com
In the eco poster, it looks like shes saying "no" to a tooth...
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
Thats what I first thought oo ^^;
projectionist, artist
Oh God! I thought the same thing too! ^o^
Student
Here too. First thought was that it was promoting dentistry in some weird way.
Ninja / Engineer / Sensei / 魔法少女 (What!?! I can't be, I'm a guy...)
Another reason to become successful like Danny: Always be eating the yummy foods. ^^
Blogger, consultant
http://www.netharuka.com
Your Tokyo features are always my favorite things on your site Danny. Thanks again for sharing.
Accounting Technician
http://alpharalpha.com
we have electric heat so right now our electric bill is sky high, dead of winter and two computers on at most times (mine and teh gf's) doesn't get any better in the summer since our cats demand air conditioning.
IT Student
http://www.dev.my
Danny Choo visit malaysia before? and the i never seen this ice cream at my country.
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
Been to M'sia before one la.
Space Pirate
Holy, whats with the cheap electricity?
Monthly bill here in the house is about $300 a month.
Thats with about 1 TV and 2-3 PC's running about 12-14 hours a day.
Civil Engineer, 토목 기사
Always take off my shoes when entering a house. To try anything else when married to a Korean is suicide. ^^;
As for the UPS the minimum you should be looking at is 1500VA.
I have one that I run a quad core server, a Linux box, a dual core Optiplex, three external hard drives, two routers, a switch, the cable modem, a printer and a 24" monitor, and I get 15-25 minutes run time in the case of a blackout. Just enough to do a proper shut down of everything. provided you are in the office at he time. The higher end rack mounted UPS's should allow you to simultaneously shut down multiple cpu's without human intervention. I'm thinking of getting another 1500VA UPS and putting the computers and monitor on one and all the peripherals on the other and you might think about a couple yourself.
And like others have said you do need to change the batteries every couple of years to keep them in top form.
Of course one of my friends has all his servers on high end laptops. Or as he calls them, server blades with built-in UPS.
Civil Engineer, 토목 기사
Also Danny, for everyone's birthday this year can you please give us an edit button?
Maybe we should do poll:
Edit Button?
Yes
No
I don't care, I'm just Lurking
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
Comment editing is currently in 135th place on the "to do" list ;-)
In first place is site stability.
Pseudo-Graphic Designer, 触手 wrangler, H-Man
http://lightningsabre.blogspot.com/
What's the 136th? Just curious what's less important than the comment editing ^^;
こうこうせい
http://stickymochi.blogspot.com
Yay another Week in Tokyo! :D I love these. Your daily life seems so amazing, from my point of view.
BTW, I don't wear shoes in the house either.
???Confused???
So who's getting the new eyes? Aoi or Saber? And is it bigger than Aoi's original?...
Core Analyst
http://tuanvo.jimdo.com/
Another busy yet entertaining week for ya.
pop culture archivist
http://supremenothing.blogspot.com/
A great post, these "Week in Tokyo" segments are my favorite pieces here! I'm always wanting to look in the window at life in the East..
My first experience with the Asian custom of removing shoes was a bit embarrassing. Many years ago I dated a Korean girl with highly traditional parents that I really wanted to make a good impression with.
I wore nice clothes and my best face but my socks had a hole in the toe! I had completely forgotten about the custom of taking off shoes, and was terrified of coming in the house looking like a bum, so I rather awkwardly tried to talk to them in the doorway without coming in.
They waved me into the house and I noticed a chair right next to the door, so I stretched over to sit in it and attempted to talk to them while levitating my feet over the floor! I felt (and looked) like such a moron but they were of course very polite to me. My girlfriend explained my faux-pass to them later.
Nowadays, I throw away my socks when they get worn out!
.NET/Web Developer
http://scrumptious.animeblogger.net
been waiting for this post. ^^ the food are as scrumptious as ever.
I also use my ps3 to watch most of my animes/movies whilst sitting back at the couch streaming/moving them from my pc w/c acts as a media server. ^^
student, part-time NEET
Danny, you've got a million dollar smile. Just seeing your smile cheers me up for some reason. ^^;
That mention of power outage reminds me of a strange occurrence from a few years ago. I heard an explosion in the distance and it seemed like the power was out for the whole neighborhood. It was fixed a few hours later, though, and I never found out what happened - probably a transformer blew or something.
student
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm6142623 ：the picture
TBD
Always love your food pics.
Daydreaming student
http://princessrisi.tumblr.com
The food you get always looks so delicious, I barely found anything in that price range I wanted to eat in Japan, so ate KatsuKare and macdonalds pretty much everyday.
I want kitty-chan happy meal toys now :(
http://tidamation.blogspot.com
well, it is like a common thing for us to leave our shoes on the door and walk with a house-sandals or bare feet.
As always, the food looks so delicious ^_^
Customer support/Evil Mastermind
The food looks so good! You're making me hungry even though I just ate!
As for the electricity bills, I'm not a 100% but I belive we are quite a bit over 150 USD. The reason being that the Electricity is fairly pricy here and we actually have three houses on the same yard that goes into the same bill. (Main house, Smaller house, Office house, Garage with some welding equipment etc.)
When it comes to taking your shoes of when going indoors, it's a given here. If you don't people will get mad - And rightly so!
Is it just me though, or does Japan seem very very clean? The pictures of Ikebukuro really makes it seem like it. Nice and tidy. Me like.
Hobby fan
Great pics as always DC does =^_^=.
What called my attention was those posters to promote using a personal bag when you go to supermarkets so, there's no need to use plastic bags and that's very useful to minimize the pollution of the soils since the plastic delays thousands of years in degenerating.
A very smart idea let me tell you.
And I cannot leave without referring to the "beautiful" notices with gorgeous oppai ladies, extremely cool. Greetings.
Artistic Freak Photographer ^^;
Hey Danny, i was seeing lately that the streets in most of the places u show to us, don't have any way of separation from the footpath...
i wonder if that is a problem for the people, or just used to things like that...
I ask that cuz here is always a lower level separating that, and most of the reason for doing it is the constant overflood after the frequent rains...
Student
http://yellowguy89.blogspot.com/
i like the last photo with all of the bicycles. Such a blue sky!
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
The blue sky is lovey here.
Otaku, Animation Major
http://xlhaseolx.deviantart.com/
So much food....Danny your Week in Tokyo articles never cease to make me hungry!
I always take my shoes off whenever I come in my house. At first it was mainly because my parents yelled at me for tracking dirt into the house but now it's a force of habit.
website/graphic designer and karaoke amateur~
http://www.furudango.com
Super long post~ Danny, you look so cheesy when you take photos of yourself, but looks like fun either way, I want to see more~ lol.
I don't take my shoes off before entering the house, but will do once I get my own place. My filo friends got me used to taking my shoes off before entering, though at first it was a little awkward xD;; The guys were cool about it though, now I just do it.
Sushi set looks yum~!
Physical Therapist
http://www.flyingpussyfoot.com
Danny have you ever thought about becoming a Ninja with that Repro mask?
You could sneak around at night and take pantsushots and post them for your fellow ni8njas (us) ^^b
My monthly electricity bill is 50€ and 100 for gas.Lukcily my rent is very low.
I usually keep my shoes on when im entering my OWN flat but not when entering other peoples places.
All this Food makes me hungry
the past few elec bill has put me in tears 479USD one month 350USD the next. but it's usually around 150 a month.
Ork Warlord
Good article, pal, thanks for it. Usually I pay about 40 euros all months for electricity bill, but in December I payed 75 €, the cold was really tough this year!
teacher
Shabu Shabu is my absolute fav meal in japan! Any restaurant recommendations? I've only ever had them at ryokans or with groups where I paid little attention to restaurant details, sadly.
だいがくせい
http://www.myspace.com/awsumchino
must admit danny your pics are really nice... =3
Theme Park Otaku
http://servoism.blogspot.com/
Really great! Please keep em' coming! (^_^)
And yes, always take off the shoes. (Even if it's someone else's house and they themselves wear shoes in the house, I think it's just the right thig to do. Gotten several "Oh so you must be into the Japan thing" just by doing that...*-* )
Engineering Student (Mechatronics)
just wondering.....
since Japan is okay with public "oppai" visual, is it OK also for wives to let their husband watch AV's or some sort of hentai + ecchi???
or do the husband watch the AV secretly???
hurm....
IT specialist for application development, Business Process Manager
http://www.lukisblog.de
Nice article and nice pictures as always... thank you so much Danny.
Supreme Commander of NERV Co.
Love the last pic, thats what a morning should looks like ^^
Hikikomori in the making
http://supermariabros.deviantart.com/
Danny! You have got to finish the series! The last episode of Seto No Hanayome was awesome! I recommend this series to anyone who wants to have a good laugh!
Most Singaporeans take off their shoes before entering the house so... Smelly feet anyone?^^;...
http://www.dannychoo.com/detail/mac/eng/image/396/Must+save+Pr0n.html This lad is definitely a brave one!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dannychoo/3301670031/sizes/o/ You're never gonna see this kind of pictures in Singapore... Wish there were though^^;...
An awesome week as usual Danny! I don't see much food for this post though... Or is it just me?
Help Desk Associate
I agree with the recommendation for APC UPS's to anyone perhaps looking for . That's a slightly lower-numbered model than my company uses for about 250 server locations; each one usually handles a firewall, modem, hub, server, and sometimes up to two more machines without many glitches. We only have maybe 10-20 die per year out of 250 running; and those are usually older ones. Just make sure you leave it to charge for long enough or its life later will be shorter. >.< And change the battery, just buying a new one is easiest IMHO.
Student
Hay Fever sucks :( I've had it for the past 2 weeks!!!!! it's killing me!!!!!!
btw nice mask! it's pretty unique.
Restaurant and foodindustry student
theres a lots of bikes on last pic!!!