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Sushi
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Sushi brought to you by Hao ^^; dunno if it’s legal to call it sushi as any Japanese would kill me if they knew I’ve been messing with their food >_<
Today I received some very good news, the video-game that we published some months ago — Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles / 時空五行風水大戦 — was featured at gamesTM, a huge UK-based magazine and I had a chance to look at it today. Really neat and professional.
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Random Scramble Crossing at Shinjuku.
For those who don’t know, last time I wrote about my decision about applying for the Postgraduate Degree MEXT Scholarship (Mongukagakushou) to study in Japan, particularly to Tokyo University (東大), the most prestigious University in Japan.
The idea of going to the Embassy was to select a specific field of study and the three Universities of choice, however, for some reason or another, the person in charge told me that private universities were very expensive and so I should refrain from writing them down. However, I’ve seen people apply and get accepted at Keio, Waseda, etc., without problems. Greatswifty is at Waseda and applied for the exact same scholarship.
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More of Rinku Town in Osaka, a silent town where you can find peace away from the big cities. In my last photo article about Rinku Town and the Kansai Institute I didn’t show this side of Rinku Town.
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Been thinking about this for a while and now I need your help: This year, I will be applying for a Scholarship in Japan for a Postgraduate degree, still haven’t decided if Masters or Doctorate’s Degree and will explain why below.
Pictured above is Tokyo University (東京大学), usually abbreviated as 東大 (Todai), which will be one of my three choices, along with Keio University and Yokohama or Waseda University. But first…
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Take a look at how quickly Fuji Television’s news reporter aged. Between 2004 and 2007 he added twenty years to his life.
Update: The poor fellow is actually Tosaka Junichi from NHK — still I dunno what happened to him (thanks Michael!)
In case you didn’t know, employees in Japan are classified in numerous rankings, for example, 部長 (buchou) 課長 (kachou), and the top rank 社長 (shachou) meaning Company President. Usually, normal salaryman’s or OL’s stay on the same company for most of their lifetime, starting from the lowest rank and going up until they hit the wall. Say, if you won’t go beyond 部長 (buchou) for example, you may hear others saying that you’re a 部長止まり (buchou-domari), domari meaning stop/halt.
But in order to ascend, you need to work extra hours, not take your well-deserved vacation (since you might actually lose your job too — or at least people fear that), and keep going on until you turn like the old man above. After that, when you’re 60 years old, you’ll get fired from your current position. This does not mean that you’ll be retired: you still got 5 more years until retirement, and in the meantime, you can either live off your savings (not common) or go back to working like the lowest rank peasant — usually, the same company hires you again for a puny salary. After that, it’s 5 more years and you’re 65, retired, and with no energy in your batteries left.
That’s one scary side of Japan that we all would prefer not to know, and that’s why I prefer being my own boss ^^; of course, not all work force in Japan is like that, but most are. Anyone around here with a background as a salaryman in Japan?
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Buddha Statues at night taken by fellow blogger Muza-chan. Some days ago I wrote a photo trip article to Asakusa, Tokyo, home of the most beautiful temples and shrines in Tokyo. My pictures are mostly of daytime crowded Asakusa, but Muza-chan shows another beautiful side of Asakusa at night time. Be sure to check it out!
On other news, I’ve finally filled the footer of Instant Ramen with links to news and the Google Friend Connect widget which was missing since a long time ago ^^; along with threaded comments and the “related posts”, I’m planning on redesigning the front page so that people can catch what’s hot around here and I’m also planning on featuring posts from other bloggers who have great content. In the meantime, sorry if you see something strange walking around here!
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If I were to call any place in Japan home, it would definitely be Osaka. Rinku Town is located just next to Kansai International Airport (the one on an artificial island), and is an excellent spot to relax, and so is the Kansai Japanese-Language Institute, with an excellent view all around of the sea. BTW: This article is a blog entry for April’s Japan Blog Matsuri!
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Beautiful My Neighbor Totoro Bento by AnnaTheRed. In case you didn’t know, hand-made bento (lunch) making in Japan is a form of art for some ^^ looks delicious but I would feel bad eating it!
Beside decorated bentos, normal bentos in Japan are very common in convinience stores — you can find virtually any type of Japanese meal in the form of bentos and for quite a fair price. At least in the Tokyo/Osaka area, I’ve seen that bentos are usually in the 500 – 1000 yen range, which is quite affordable considering that most of them are a good, balanced meals (maybe a bit on the small side). Much better choice compared to fast food restaurants, which I am not very fond of.
Another tip when you’re in Japan is looking for bentos at night, since most of them will be discarded after one day, convinience stores put them a little cheaper. Just pray that you won’t get sick or something! ^^;
Do you prefer conbini bentos or fast food?
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Pictured above is Maruoka Castle by Dan, originally constructed in 1576 and one of the oldest castles that is the real deal. Since Dan describes it perfectly head over to his website to see the description and other beautiful pictures of Japan :)
As I mentioned in my Asakusa Photo Trip, unfortunately, many structures of cultural importance in Japan were destroyed by nature, wars, and what else! Fortunately for us modern dwellers, Japan has made a great job rebuilding most of them, including one of my favorites — Castle Osaka!
Do you prefer Japanese castles, temples, shrines, or nature?
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The latest installment of The King of Fighters series by SNK Playmore, KOF XII. was released this April 10th in Japan for Taito Type X2 type Arcades, and features 2D high-res dot (sprite) art like never seen before! The game is available only for arcades as of now but will be released for XBox 360 and PlayStation 3 on July.
Tasty~
