Gamer lost in translation !

Can Rockman

2010-04-01T14:04:00.003+09:00

New Year Greetings from Platinum Games

2010-02-19T16:48:00.003+09:00

We received this a while back but I forgot to tell people about it.

(Sorry for the crappy image quality - my mobile phone sucks at it)

The perks of mixing work and hobby

2009-03-30T02:27:00.004+09:00

Here's one:
You get to meet people you look up to and ask them for autographs

GDC warmup

2009-03-19T02:24:00.002+09:00

Next week will see the biggest event for video games professionals: Games Developer Conference
It's an event where most of the industry people gather, attend sessions, meetings, discuss stuff and try to do business as well.
It's my first time going to the San Francisco one (I went to the one in Paris last year) so this is pretty exciting - lots of people, lots of sessions, lots of things to learn !

If you are in the industry as well and attending the event, see you there !

Snowing in Tokyo

2009-03-04T01:43:00.003+09:00

It's March already and it started snowing like crazy just earlier.
Roads are already covered, being slippy etc...

Agile development and project management

2009-02-06T23:01:00.004+09:00

Few months ago, I was looking for a simple way to organize my tasks and keep track of my work across the multiple projects I am working on.
I didn't find anything suitable at once so I just resorted to using post-its.

Then yesterday, a friend sent me a link to the software they just adopted at their company.
It's an agile development and project management tool:
http://www.rallydev.com

We hear a lot about agile development these days, specially in the video games industry (most of the time combined with extreme programming).
I never really took a look at such a tool, even though we're using scrums ourselves.

So I subscribed and am using it for my daily tasks. After playing around with it for a day (learning and planning tasks for next week), it looks quite powerful and useful though maybe a bit overkill in my case (many tasks across unrelated projects)
If it proves to be really worth it, I might pitch it to my boss for our projects - I only hope for them that they have a Japanese version :)

Fat Cat and his best friend, Owl

2009-02-02T19:02:00.003+09:00

I stumbled upon this shoot'em up game and I have to say, I'm a fan now.
You control Owl with the mouse and Fat Cat with the arrows on your keyboard.
Owl is pretty much invicible and has to lead Fat Cat to safety.

The gameplay, while basic (move/shoot for each character) takes all its "challenge" when having to control both correctly.
It's fairly simple, not difficult if you are used to keyboard/mouse combo and shoot'em up games.

Level design is quite simple as well and once you get used to it, it's easy to play through.
However, it's still a refreshing game for those like me who crave for 16-bits style graphics and soundchip music.

Fat Cat

Get the Cat safely through the levels.

Play this free game now!!

Still Alive

2009-01-31T21:02:00.002+09:00

I'm not referring to the fact that I am indeed, still alive but rather, the song from Portal (or the one from Mirror's Edge, you choose)

Anyway, I thought about reviving this blog a little, after nearly a year without any posts.
Two weeks ago, I had to travel to the USA for work.
That was my first time there and I have to say, it was really really impressive.
It's totally different from France and even more from Japan.
On the bad side though, I had no time for sightseeing. It was a short week full of meetings and training sessions.
On top of it, I got a headache the whole week.
A headache for one full week ! It even worsened when I traveled back that I had to spend two full days (basically, the week end I came back) sleeping and recovering.

I wish that never happens to you, one full week headache + having to fly 20 hours with one transfer.
At that time, I really thought I was done for...(but hey, see the title !)

BIG NEWS !

2008-03-07T02:33:00.002+09:00

Nearly one month without a single update !
Well at least with this post, I have another month going (kind of promised myself ~~with my fingers crossed on my back~~ that I'd do regular updates, at least once a month)
That's it.
No really, nothing more.
Big news you ask ? Well I just needed a title.

Till next time !

怖い話

2008-02-09T00:47:00.000+09:00

The title reads "kowai hanashi", it translates as "scary story".

Today, a co-worker came to tell me about what happened to him last night.
He stayed overnight at the company, catching up some work.
It was 3 am. He was alone...or at least, he thought he was...
All lights were off as he likes working in the dark (like the good nerd he is).
He had some music on but didn't had his earphones on his ears.
That's when he suddenly heard footsteps scratching the floor mat, like someone dragging his feet......and that was just behind him.....
He suddenly turned yet there was no one to be seen. It was all dark except for the light coming out from his monitor.
He pricked up his ears and waited....*scrriiisshhh**scrriiisshhh* !
There it is again ! Coming from the entrance ! Just behind that partition separating his seat from the entrance !
He stood up and looked at it ! No one !
"Goddamnit ! I'm not staying here !" he thought !
He quickly took his keys, closed the office and headed for the combini to take his mind off things.
Afterwards, he couldn't go back to the office so he spent the night in a manga cafe.

Today, when he told about it to everyone he could, many people trusted him.
Others also shared their own experience, whether it was at the office or not (yes, it's not the first time it has happened at the office it seems...)

That's when I remembered few years ago, when my Japanese teacher told me about ghosts in Japan.
They are omnipresent in everyone's life, many people trust their existence as they trust their own.
It's not uncommon to hear about people, even on TV, even coming from famous people, talking about what they had already experienced regarding ghosts.

Even though I don't believe a single word of it myself, it's quite frightening when you think about it.
Yet, it could still be an exciting experience (yes, you read it well).
I'm going to try it someday, staying overnight at the company, all alone.
The co-worker told me the ghost would definitely be there. It could even start speaking French to me !

Medical check-up

2008-02-07T01:51:00.000+09:00

Yesterday I went to my first annual check up (I missed it last year because I came back too late from France, for those who wonder...)
It's required by most companies (if I'm not mistaken) and is paid by your employer as well.
It consisted of (in the order which I took them) a chest X-Ray (take a deep breath, hold it and....), an urine test (25 cl !), a blood test (痛い！), an auditive test (*biiip*....*biiiip*...), an ocular test (didn't understand what to do at first, I had to take the test twice...) and the usual blood pressure measurement.

There were many nurses working like an assembly line, to optimize the time checking since, it seems, it is required for everyone at the same period of the year.
So, most companies send their employees at dedicated health centers where you would also meet other people from other companies and it goes on like that for few days.

I said "dedicated health centers" because, oddly enough, it wasn't a hospital or a clinic where I went, but rather an IT building with a whole floor dedicated for this stuff.

Regarding the tests themselves, I've never had a chest x-ray or an urine test (at least, not from what I remember).
I really wonder what kind of results will come back in two weeks....like something I wasn't aware of for all these years and from which Dr House[1] will easily deduce "Ok we can see you're a geek, you spend too much time in front of your games and your computer. Get a life !"

[1] If you don't know Dr.House, shame on you !

Can't sleep, can't wake up

2008-01-31T02:50:00.000+09:00

The title says it all.

I can't seem to go to bed early. That's one big problem.
I can't wake up early either. That's another big problem.
In-between, I sleep quite a lot and really well though.

Even if I'm really tired (I am now and still can't sleep at least not right away) it will take at least 20 mins to fall asleep.
When I wake up early due to horrible circumstances (aka something woke me up and I'm not in a good mood), I still can't go to bed early on that night.

I've built up this habit over the years and it probably won't be fixed anytime soon.
The only time when I am sleeping/waking up like a normal person is after a travel, when I suffer from jetlag and thus, wake up at 6am and go to bed at 9pm.
Unfortunately, it doesn't last long since I'm recovering slowly, day after day, up to the point when I'm back on my own cycle.

This morning, woke up at 9.30. It was a living hell getting out of bed.
Right now, 3am, still up though I'm pretty tired so I'm going to bed soon.
Tomorrow, nothing special to do in the morning, will probably sleep until 12pm.

じゃあ、おやすみなさい～

Avatars from work

2008-01-30T15:35:00.000+09:00

At work, like most companies, we have an intranet.
It includes the most commonly used features in a company, such as news, calendar to keep track of your meetings/appointments, room booking (if you need a particular room for a meeting for example), a wiki (for various uses, both technical and management), the list of people present etc.

We also have a page where we have to write our tasks for the day, things to do and done. It helps other people know what you're doing and also helps you keep track of your tasks over the days/weeks.
This page lists each person with an avatar of their choice.
It's kinda funny what people come up with (artists sometimes make their own avatar, I use gaijin pictures, those likely no one will ever have a clue about here yet so famous back in Europe).
Here are a few picks:

Mine (until next change)

The one from a co-worker (animator and hardware admin)

A slimey stuff from the chief animator, I think she did it herself

An artist wishing us Happy New Year

A freaky one (the one above is freaky too, I know...)

A picture from a programmer playing eroge (Japanese erotic games)

A lead programmer who loves cats

Look at that for a few mins...

Typical Japanese style

There are also many screenshots and pictures of what planners/game designers/artists do with the current projects, like the main characters wearing strange outfits and saying weird things, sometimes in strange positions (yea, you read that well, tolerance is rather flexible).
I won't post those of course, in case someone actually reads this blog and start spreading rumours in gaming forums.
Well, at least you have an idea what it's like around here :)

My dream last night

2008-01-29T14:11:00.000+09:00

I had a weird dream last night.
Thing is, I get weird dreams all the time, completely nonsense without any meaning yet they seem so natural when you're in it (I bet that everyone gets those kind of dreams from time to time, if not all the time...).

I was back in Paris and wanted to go to the beach (already a nonsense, Paris has no beach). I wonder why but I had to take my car so I headed for the garage in my swimming trunks and a towel.
Upon arriving at the garage, there were people already gathered chatting. I went in to get my car when I realized I forgot my keys.
Bummer, heading for home to get my keys. That's when one of the people gathered chatting with the others called out for me. He was actually the son of the caretaker (a guy I once "knew" back in elementary school, like...20 years ago, never been friends with him though).
He asked me what happened. I guess I was looking suspicious, coming at the garage in swimming trunks and leaving soon after.
I explained my situation (the beach and the keys) and said that I'd be back soon with my keys to get my car.
I already left when he called out my name again. I came back and I saw him turn around and wave his hand looking far up behind him, in direction of a window in a building. He shouted "WAIT ! DON'T SHOOT ! DON'T SHOOT !" and turned back to me to ask if I could give him a drive when I came back. He had few things to bring to the beach, something about equipments for a concert if I recall correctly.

The dream more or less ends here.
Now if I analyze the few facts present in this dream, some could be explained while others I have no clue about.
I'll start with the ones that could be explained:
- being in Paris: makes sense since I lived there for like 24 years
- going the beach, wearing swimming trunks with a towel over my shoulder: for many years, I've been going to Spain during summer holidays. My parents own a flat near the beach, like 20 meters away (or 65 feet if you prefer)
- my car in a garage: actually, not really my car - my mother is the main driver of that car (the former car of my father) although I can take it whenever I need it. It is indeed parked in that very same garage.
- forgetting my keys: I don't recall ever forgetting my keys though each time, I'm afraid of it so I make double sure I always have them with me.
- the son of the caretaker was indeed a guy I knew back in school and he was indeed the son of the garage caretaker
- something about a concert: a friend blogged few days ago about a concert he attended
- the presence of a sharpshooter in that building: playing too much CoD4 I guess...

Apart from the few specific facts like the keys or the concert, I guess that the background seems rather accurate (because I've already had dreams when the background definitely made no sense at all, with places I've never seen and people I've never met and speaking languages I don't even understand)

Now, for the unexplainable facts:
- why didn't it strike me plain the face that Paris has no beach ?
- why didn't I feel weird about wandering in swimming trunks and a towel in the middle of Paris ?
- why does a guy I've never seen in 20 years just pops into my dream like this ?
- why was there a sharpshooter in that building ? And more importantly, why didn't I say anything about having a guy aiming at me through his sniper rifle ?

Which brings me to the more general question: is there a way to tell I'm in a dream ? If in my dream I could say, "Ok this isn't right, things like that don't usually happen, you're in a dream so wake up !", well I guess I could wake up.

Some news

2008-01-27T03:48:00.000+09:00

I'm still alive for those who didn't know, I'm still in Japan though I went back to France last month for two weeks. Anyone needs a rest from time to time.

Recently, I've been playing a lot of Call Of Duty 4 (on PC) and it's just great.
If you can, be sure to check it out as it's really worth 50 bucks.
Also, been playing a lot on Nintendo DS Lite.
Regarding that, I bought one not so long ago, after I ran into the Zelda: Phantom Hourglass limited edition in a shop at Akiba. Imported version from the US of course, I paid 25000 yens for it (the price of a Wii).
Many will say it's expensive but honestly, all other models never really appealed to me. Since I had DS games but not system (I left my original NDS in France), that was a great opportunity.

Next games on the list: Final Fantasy III and IV when it's released in English (though I MAY try it in Japanese, not sure yet...), Children of Mana and still have to beat Yoshi's Island 2. Since I play mostly on the train when I go to work (read by small chunks everyday), they will last for quite a while. Perfect since at this period of the year, not so many games are released.

Regarding my work, I'm still working on Way of the Samurai 3 (though some rumors began to surface saying the project was cancelled, well as far as I know, it's not) and some other projects (not yet announced) will probably require me to work on them too. I'll post about those whenever I can but for the time being... :)

"Your English is weird"

2007-02-24T16:35:00.000+09:00

said a Japanese co-worker....to me !
Honestly, that sentence was a blast. Being told your English is weird....by a Japanese !
You have no idea.
For those who don't know, most Japanese people suck at foreign languages. They know Japanese and....that's it.
Even after spending like 10+ years at school learning it, they can't, for most of them, make a simple sentence correctly, not to mention the complex ones...
I know that we, the French, are famous for our lack of skills in English yet we are able to make sentences correctly and pronounce the words without chopping off most of the syllabes.
Because they have this hell of an accent, which is in my opinion dictated by the "alphabet" they use for foreign words : "katakana".

Here's an example: the word "elevator", the kind of word you see everywhere here, is written　エレベーター and is pronounced "erebeta" (because that's exactly how it's written in its katakana form).
The first time you hear it and without anyone telling you what it means, you spend like 2 hours looking for its meaning.

Anyway, that will teach me to make things easier for them to understand.
I was purposely speaking slowly, using simple words, making simple sentences and lowering myself to use their horrible accent when speaking English, up to the point that recently I found it quite difficult to use English as I used to in the "old days".
But no more. I will make sure they are flooded from now on and we will see who's the weirdest of the two.

PS : if you want to see English in its full nature, as seen by Japan (and more generally, asian countries) be sure to check http://www.engrish.com.

And here he is !

2007-02-12T01:35:00.000+09:00

Yeeeaaaaahhh that's him ! Please applause ! *applauses*
As many of you were wondering, this blog is not dead. The lack of updates was only due to the lack of will from the blogger. What a lazy-bone !
Anyway, my last post was my coming back to France. Now is my coming back to Japan.
In fact, I've been back for one month already and will probably stay here for a much longer time, at least one full year.
My visa is currently under process and everything seems to be going smoothly.
So, what can I say ? This blog should be about video games and whatever topic about Japan I can think of.
Let's start with my work, which is if you don't remember or if it's your first time here, game developer.
We're still working on Way of the Samurai 3 for PS3. It's going pretty well I guess. I've been trying to get more and more involved in the project, and not just sitting around coding my own parts. That's quite a task, considering one important fact: I'm not fluent in Japanese (and far from it). That means a lot yet I'm doing my best (of course). I'm impressed at how much I've improved in fact, honestly. There's still a long way to go though. Wish me good luck.
As for the game itself, since many of you surely want to know more, I don't know if I can "leak" some information but I will ask about it and possibly, post few artworks.

Something related to my work but not entirely work itself, that's my being graduate. I've finally been through ALL the necessary steps required to get my diploma and I am proud to announce that I am finally done with studies. (*switching to a more general context*)
When I take a look back, that was quite a long way till where I stand right now; not only the 5 years of computer engineering but the 24 years behind me. I've spent most of my time at home at my parents' or at school studying. Now I'm living by myself at the other side of the planet, one of the furthest place on Earth from home.
Though I was mentally prepared a long time ago, to think that I ACTUALLY made it; I mean, as far as I remember, I've always wanted to work in the video games industry. After all these years of useful/useless studies (depending on your own opinion), 24 years of life spent living with your parents, a few years less living for your own dream and when you actually make it through...I wish everyone to live their dream :)

Well, that post was a small coming back so my ideas were a little widespread but next time, I promise to focus on more precise topics and subjects, as anyone would expect from a good blog (nearly all the cool blogs I read about here and there from time to time focus on precise topics in each of their posts, I'll try to do the same).

See you next time !

Back to France !

2006-12-11T23:13:00.000+09:00

Hey everyone.
I'm finally back, though it is temporary. I really needed some holidays so I took one month off to settle the last things with my school and other stuff.
Meanwhile in Japan my company is making the necessary steps so I can get a real working visa (and not a working holiday one) and start working again next month.
I'll be going back in January for at least one full year. The real life begins !

Now that I'm back in France, I can enjoy cheese, French bread, chocolate sweets, yoghurts and much more !
I definitely missed those.

I'm also working on my final presentation regarding my internship and my school. That will be my last exam, the last test to take as a student.
がんばるぞ！

Anyway, see you later.

What do we do at work besides work ?

2006-12-02T01:13:00.000+09:00

Here is a list of things we do at work besides work:

play tetris DS (everyone has his own DS)
try out demos and games on the company's XBOX360 (we haven't received a PS3 yet)
read game magazines and give our opinions on the games
discuss game concepts and ideas (it may be work for a game designer but that's not my role)
intrude on co-workers' discussions, read the following discussion

- "hey guys, what's up ? what are you talking about ?"
- "エロゲ" (eroge)
- *goes back to work*

For those who don't know, "eroge" is the contraction word for "erotic game". Yes, the kind of PC games Japan is famous for.

PS for gene: man you will be like in heaven here...

Question pour un champion (French ahead)

2006-11-21T16:49:00.000+09:00

Il fallait absolument que je vous montre ca, je me retiens d'eclater de rire au boulot la :D

Merci a NoFrag (ou j'ai trouve le lien dans les breves) pour cette petite minute de fou rire :D

Puke.

2006-11-19T06:38:00.000+09:00

Send the kids to sleep and scroll down.
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A picture is worth a thousand words.

11/11

2006-11-11T16:38:00.000+09:00

What happened just yesterday night and this morning in Japan ?
Of course, the release of the Playstation 3 !
I could not have missed that, so after enrolling few co-workers, we went, like many other thousands people, queuing in front of a store, trying to get our hands on a PS3.

What you may not know however, and that's what I will explain now, is that Japanese people are crazy when it comes to a console release (specially the PS3).
They want a PS3 and they want it now.
There were only 80,000 units for whole Japan.
What do they do to get one ? They start queuing the day before, at 7 PM for a sale the day after, at 7 AM.
They have experience in this, Japanese people are really patient and are used to wait for various stuff.

We headed at first for Akihabara in front of the Yodobashi Camera.
Queues like these were seen

And going on

Gathered like that

Again

And again

and again

I wonder if this ever stops

Probably not...

Ah ! Here is the end !

More shots on the way back

They thought about every possible case and prepared for the worse.
I even heard that some fights occured in Yūrakuchō....

Seeing that this would be impossible, we headed for Ueno, Yodobashi Camera again.

Much less people, around a hundred in front of us. We decided to wait here, next to the trash

You can see that they have prepared everything !
Some people even came with their own deckchair ! (No pictures for these sorry...)

So you can see where we were exactly, we could see the Pasela center from there, where a SEGA arcade center lies (and where I go playing VF5, if you ever want to drop by some day)

Just in front of the Keisei entrance

More people gathered after we arrived

Everything is good enough to make the wait feel better. We chatted with other people from the queue over Pictochat.

At around 2AM, a truck arrived and started unloading huge boxes.
I was too late to take some good pictures, the truck was already empty.

There definitely were the PS3 in some of the earlier boxes.
Like 30 minutes after, a guy came with a megaphone shouting that they only had 40 units of each version, making it 80 units in total. Our position was like 150, too bad for us :/

From what I heard (internal sources + info on the net) :
- 700 units for the Yodobashi Camera in Akiba. When you look at the amount of people, that was definitely impossible.
- around 1200 people gathered in Shinjuku (you can easily find the videos on Youbube)
- few stores held a lottery to decide who would be able to buy a PS3 :D

That's it for today. This was quite fun and I had to do it at least once in my life.
See you next time.

一緒に行きましょう！

2006-10-30T00:47:00.001+09:00

In Japan, most of the activity in cities are gathered around the subway and train stations.
There are malls, restaurants, game centers, shops of all kinds and hostess bars.
There are few of them at Kameari station (the station where I live).
Every day, when I go back home, there are few guys trying to lure customers in.
It seemed that recently business has not been so good for them, as tonight, when I went past them, the hostesses themselves were on the task of baiting people.
They probably understood that a girl asking you in (saying "Let's go together !") is much more attractive than a guy.
Unfortunately, the girls are not really attractive either.
The only customers I see sometimes in front are either old and fat 'salarymen' or a group of friends (both girls and guys).
Business is not easy...

携帯電話！

2006-10-09T22:46:00.000+09:00

I finally bought a mobile phone !
Here is it: Sony Ericsson W42S.
It's a model only available in Japan.
I chose this one because it was the cheapest. I got it for.....10 yens !
But don't be mislead by its price, it was actually a bargain, lasting until the 10th of october.
The monthly fee is around 3000 yens with 1000 yens of included communications. I can also use mails and other services specific to au by KDDI, such as music download, GPS localization, web browsing and buy stuff through their portal.
But as you can see on the website, its most useful feature (besides calling and taking pictures) is to be used as a music player.
It has a 30 hours autonomy of continuous listening, 1 GB of internal memory and a Memory Stick Pro Duo slot to extend to 4 GB.
You can either download from their LISMO service (for a small fee of course) or transfer your audio CD via the computer.
The phone comes with a nice controller and pretty good earphones, I have been really surprised by their quality.
Finally, here's a picture taken with the phone :

That's it for today. See ya next time.

Dead I am not

2006-10-06T01:29:00.000+09:00

Heeeyyy guess who's still around.
Yeah I know I haven't been posting lately. A lot happened and work is still taking too much of my time. Anyway, I'll try to catch up later and post as I remember what happened recently.
I'll save the TGS report for later. It was fun with hot girls and everything, as you would have expected.

Today, I'll talk about a business here in Japan where you can get girls, money, alcohol, tabacco, not subject to taxes and everything in the most perfect legal way. In fact, people will even thank you for what you do.
I know many of you are interested to just read on.
The job I'm talking about is being a.....MONK !!!
HAHAHA look at your face, I got you there heh ? Just kidding....
Actually, I'm not.
I had a talk yesterday with a co-worker who taught me everything about monks in Japan.
He told me that there is a type of monk who will pray for people and stuff, like mostly all monks do.
In what they differ is all what I mentioned above.
They are paid very well (I heard something like 10.000 yens, the cheapest of course) for praying and doing their stuff.
They are not subject to taxes, have a lot of clients, meaning they have a lot of money.
Being that type of monk, you can even get girls (many at once, money you know...) drink alcohol, smoke and possibly other things the money would permit.
"How is that even possible ?" is what you wonder. I don't have a clear explanation myself. Something about religion, not real faith and stuff like that.
Anyway, you can now become a monk in Japan !
In fact it's not that easy. It seems it is only hereditary, "passed from father to son" to quote my colleague.
Too bad heh ? It was too good to be true/easy. Anyway I'm sure some of you will find a way to work around this :D

This Friday...

2006-09-20T02:08:00.000+09:00

Click here.

Gddamn fcking blody mosquitoes

2006-09-14T01:37:00.000+09:00

I HATE THEM !
Since Saturday, I have been going through a true living hell.
I went to put my clothes in the laundry (which is outside, a small room fit up just for this purpose).
It was as usual very very hot in that room and I made the huge mistake to go in there while wearing shorts.
When I came back, I had 5 mosquito bites all around my left leg. I didn't care about it as I always have been bitten and barely felt anything afterwards, or it lasted 1 or 2 days at most and it was over.
But this time, I was mistaken. Why ? Because they are Japanese mosquitoes. How are they different you ask ? I'll tell you. When they bite you, the bump coming out of it is NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN in your whole life.
The bites doubled the volume of my leg and I really mean it. It became a hard red stone. I could barely stand up more than few minutes before a cramp showing up. Oh, and of course, the itching is proportional to the size of the bump, which means YOU'RE DYING.
But there's more to it. The day after, when I got back home, it was very hot as usual and I was sweating a lot. I didn't notice that a mosquito followed me in my room and had already bitten my on my left arm, right near my elbow. Soon after, it was my right foot, near the ankle and the morning after, he got my left wrist.
The two days that followed I spent them scratching my leg and my arm. All day, I was unable to concentrate more than 5 mins on work before the coming back, more powerful than ever, of the itching.
My co-workers advised me to buy a medicine called キンカン. I did so on the same night I knew of its existence (damn there my left hand starts to itch again, aaaAAAAaaaaaAAAAHHHH).
It's supposed to be efficient, though you have to use it like 5 times a day. So far, it's relieved me a little of the pain and the itching but the latter still comes back from time to time and it's freaking annoying.

I wonder how long this will last. I can't stand it anymore. The next mosquito I see will pay for all the others. I don't mean to kill it, no....just a long and painful torture...
I also wonder how come their bites can be so "destructive". It's like they sucked ten times more blood out of me, in 5 different places at once, as if Japanese' blood is not tasty enough ?
A co-worker suggested a reason : "Maybe because you eat too much meat ?" (Japanese people barely eat meat and I'm known in my company for being someone who loves meat)
Time to ponder over it :)

Earthquake !!!

2006-08-31T17:29:00.000+09:00

My first one ! Just 10 mins ago !
Everything started to move, my desk, my chair, the walls, all furnitures...
It felt really strange, you are supposed to be on a steady ground and yet, it moved and shaked around.
It lasted few seconds and faded away. Its strength was around 3, from what a co-worker says.
Also, I feel a bit dizzy right now. Really a strange feeling, definitely not like being on a train or on a plane about to take off.

Well well, back to work now.

Toilet paper

2006-08-27T22:19:00.000+09:00

I ran out of toilet paper, lucky that I noticed it before something "urgent" came up if you know what I mean.
So I went to the drug store near here and to my surprise, they didn't have toilet paper. What the hell ? No toilet paper in a drug store ? I'm not kidding, I searched through all the store, nothing to be found. Then I resigned to ask a salesperson when he lead me outside, where the toilet papers are stored. THEY HAVE TOILET PAPER STORED OUTSIDE !! And tons of it. The funny part is that you have to get one pack and go back in to pay. If it is an emergency and you don't have 200 yens to spend for it, you could also run away, I bet no one would notice.

Japanese cinema

2006-08-27T02:44:00.000+09:00

As I said earlier, I went to watch Superman Returns.
Honestly, it is a great film but I can understand why some critics went all the other way about it.
But it's Superman so, who cares ? :D
Just go watch it, 'nuff said.

Now I will talk about cinema in Japan. I will compare it with cinemas in France, since I don't know about cinemas elsewhere in the world.

The cinema I went to is the MOVIX, near my home
It's located on the 3nd floor (3rd in Japan, 2nd in France) of a mall, called Ario.
First of all, the ticket. Before coming, I already checked about the whether the movie was showing in English or not. Hopefully, it was. So, as a 外人 (gaijin) and totally assuming it, I bought the ticket all in English, that way there would be no mistake if she would have ever sold me a ticket for the Japanese version. She then showed me a map of the room, because you are assigned a specific seat when you buy the ticket, compared to France where you have to fight your way in for the best ones. I chose a seat in the middle, when she told me that the best seats are behind.
Anyway, I sticked to my choice, bought a coke (200 yens, pretty cheap compared to what you see in France...) and headed for the entrance.
There, I showed my ticket to the staff and as I headed to the room 5 for the movie, I saw people getting blankets (you read well) and cushions, which were available for anyone to take. If you are afraid of getting cold during the movie or if you want to do things with your boy/girlfriend without being seen, go for it.
Then you spot your seat, thank God or whatever you trust in for not having listened to the girl because your place couldn't be more perfect, get on it and wait for the movie to start. They show trailers, along with a small serie called "Rabbit's minute" or something like that. It's just a very short CGed movie, featuring 2 rabbits and their so-wonderful life near a public trash where living carrots prevent them from taking a disposed but good-looking and working piano (if you don't understand, nevermind).
Finally, when you think that the movie is about to start, a staff comes in, stands in front of the screen and says stuff like "welcome to movix" "you are about to watch superman returns" "please turn off your phone and don't smoke" "enjoy blabla". Besides what I enumerated, it's pretty much the same in France.

Planning this week end

2006-08-26T13:32:00.000+09:00

There are many interesting things to do this week end. Things like :
- attend the location test for the new Guilty Gear at Akiba
- go watch Superman Returns
- play VF5

Yeah all those cost money.
Otherwise I could stay at home in front of the computer.
If you have any suggestions, post them in the comments.

Failure

2006-08-20T23:54:00.000+09:00

I hoped the computer/internet would help me keeping away from VF5 and game centers.
It doesn't. With the computer, I can now download and watch VF5 videos, which means going to the game center later to try the new stuff I learnt.
Fortunately, I'm starting to win some matches now. The count is like, 25 wins for 150 losses (don't laugh, you don't know what it means to play against Japanese people...)
Maybe one day I will be like those 1337 players who, with just one coin, manage to play the whole afternoon.

PS : For those who don't now, 1337 == leet

Back to nolife !

2006-08-19T01:07:00.000+09:00

I have the net at home now ! Hurray !
It means that I will have more time for blogging and that I will probably spend less time/money in Virtua Fighter 5 (or not...).

Speaking about VF5, I said I would blog about this. So let's start.
It's incredible to see how much this game is played here.
It even has its own dedicated FLOOR (yes, an entire floor) in some game centers, the Sega Game Center at Akiba for example. The whole basement floor is dedicated to this one game, with 20+ versus city cabs (making it 40+ players).
I am playing Eileen, a new character introduced with VF5.
I won't go into details and you probably don't give a f*ck about it but it's the kind of technical character, quite hard to play and you just lose if you keep smashing buttons (like I do...).
I have like 17 wins for 120 losses. This is stored, along with your character customization, name and stuff in a card you buy for 500 yens (400 with a small discount from the Okachimachi game center, near the JR station !).
There are 5 other co-workers playing VF5 too. Characters are El Blaze (a new character also introduced with VF5), Pai, Vanessa, Brad and Goh. For more information about those, just check Virtua Fighter 5 Website.
Thanks to them, I got addicted and spent my money like I never did. We usually go twice or three times a week. Each time, I can't help spending at least 1000 yens (up to 2000 once...). Just count, even if this is rather cheap for a single play (100 yens), when you are addicted it runs quickly out of control.

Anyway, I hope that with the net at home now, I will spend less money on week ends...

Hail !

2006-08-16T20:33:00.000+09:00

So many things to say and yet no time for it....but fear not ! For the time is near ! The time when I will finally have a computer at home !

Anyway, I attended the Comicket this week-end with 2 co-workers. It was kinda fun, will post pictures later. If you have watched Genshiken, just know that it is exactly the same...

French culture in Japan

2006-08-09T21:11:00.000+09:00

Today, I had a small talk with co-workers. We were talking about differences in our culture when it came, inevitably, to manga and comics (I use the word comics because Japanese people seem to use it more often than "manga", at least in our conversations).

When they asked me about famous French comics, I was stupefied to learn that they didn't know (or had barely heard of) Tintin, Asterix or Lucky Luke.
Tintin seems to be known, at least when they see the pictures. As for Asterix, never heard of him. Same for Lucky Luke.
Honestly, I thought that they were quite known and I was proud to refer to them.
I mean, who doesn't know Tintin or Asterix ??? That's like completely unbelievable.
And now I feel to start nostalgic about it, for I have read all Tintin and dozens of Lucky Luke/Asterix when I was a kid.
Next time, when I get the opportunity to drop by a library or when I'll go back to France, I'll be sure not to miss my chance.

Alive this blog is

2006-08-08T20:10:00.000+09:00

Indeed, even though I hardly have time to update it, and having tons of stuff to say.
Last week I intended to update about the week-end before but there were too much to say. I have to learn to keep it to the essential. If you want a small summary (the week end 2 weeks ago) here it is :

went out

spent too much money (bought stuff, played too much VF5 - I'll make a special post about it....someday, played too much UFO catchers and so on)

train problems, had to walk home
witnessed an accident (a car bumped into a cyclist)

Anyway, I also have few pictures I'd like to share. Will post them once I have some time.

Little contest : orz

2006-07-31T19:07:00.000+09:00

I launch a small contest. Nothing to win.
Try to find the meaning of this : orz
Post your answers in the comments.
If you already know what it means, then sshhh and let the others think a little :)

Revelation !

2006-07-27T23:25:00.000+09:00

It doesn't seem to be a secret anymore (well, it never has been one to start with, it seems...), the project I'm working on is...Way of the Samurai 3 on PS3 !

That's it. See you next time :P
(I have to hurry or I'll miss my train and wait another 15 mins...)

Truth about Japan

2006-07-20T23:04:00.000+09:00

You thought you knew Japan ? Its culture and customs ?
In fact, people never really wanted to tell you the truth.
Here it is, unveiled for the first time ever :
What you never knew !

Politically incorrect

2006-07-18T16:35:00.000+09:00

Hey folks.

I just learnt from a friend currently in China that my blog is inaccessible from there.
I wonder, is there any content in my posts that could be forbidden in China ?
Like, I talk about random topics taken here and there, video games, code, Japanese food, post some pictures and that's it.

Anyway, maybe if I start posting about communism and stuff, they would allow this page to be displayed ? :P

.....

2006-07-16T19:28:00.000+09:00

Hey everyone.
Don't be mislead by the title, the thing is, I have a hard time coming up with good titles so...
Anyway, this is another week end post.
Fortunately, I came but not to work today, nor yesterday.
After seeing me coming to work the whole week end last week, they wondered if I had too much work. Since priorities were not clearly defined, after a small meeting, I'm less stressed while still having the same amount of work. It's really important to define the priorities :)

I quite don't know where to start, so I'll just enumerate briefly what happened this week.

Every morning, I have a meeting regarding the project I'm working on. It's still a secret so I can't tell much but this kind of meeting is really important, the kind of meeting, though simple, can save you a lot of time. We usually talk about what we did yesterday and our plans for today. I expect the meetings to grow longer as the project goes on.

I used to go to the combini everyday for lunch and dinner, until co-workers told me that "if you eat combini every day, you will die". Well, I sure didn't expect that but you get the idea. This is why I now eat at Hokka Hokka Tei for lunch. It's more or less the same price, has much more choice and is also very good. I usually order (not all at the same time :)) a カツカレー(katsu curry, curry with pork cutlet and rice), a チャーハン(chahan, Chinese-style fried rice), a かつ重 (katsuju, similar as the so popular katsudon) or, just recently, after a co-worker recommended it as "original Japanese mother taste" (in short, all Japanese mothers know how to cook this), a しょうが焼弁当(shouga yaki bentou). I'm expecting much more good discoveries next week, as someone told me we would go to cheap places where they serve food good for your health. I'll try to take pictures next time :)

I also received a new monitor. I really didn't see that one coming, here is what happens.
I am working, headset on.
Someone comes up, with a huge 24 inches 16/9 LCD flat monitor on his hands.
He says "Here, it's for you".
That's it. I still don't know why I was the one who got it, he just said "I got a new one so I'm giving this".
Anyway, now I have too much free space on my desktop, with a screen res of 1920*1200. I can have a split vertical window in Visual studio, while displaying all the width content of my files.

Yesterday, when I came at work but not to work, I tested my new monitor, along with the new comp I received the week before (some huge monster, like Athlon 64 X2 and a Geforce 7900GT) by playing Prey again. I can only say that it's F*CKING beautiful with a constant high framerate. Honestly, I never thought I would get to play on this kind of machine one day.
One hour later, I was browsing the web, looking at some industry news when someone popped up behind me, saying "おつかれさまです" (see my last post few pages down to see what it means, or actually doesn't mean...). I removed my headset, turned around to see....the president, my boss, THE BIG BOSS of the company, along with his daughter. We shared few words (mainly regarding the monitor, honestly I wonder if it is right for me to have it, like there are other designers at the company who may need it or, I don't remember having seen such a monitor, even on HIS desk) and he then went on to speak with other people currently present AND working.
He sure frightened me. I came to work, not to work, in the middle of people who work and NEARLY got caught in the middle of a game. I don't think there's any risk, since I first asked my chief before coming but still, in front of the president among others who are here on important matters, it's definitely not the best situation to be in.

Anyway, I think I talked too much so here is the return of the pictures !

The back of a chocolate box. Why the hell is there a naked baby angel you ask ? I have no clue...

The kind of show you can see on TV. Yes, this is Arale....or not :|

A picture taken at the north exit of Kameari, the nearest JR train station near where I live.
This statue has been erected after the famous anime serie こちら葛飾区亀有公園前派出所(Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kōen Mae Hashutsujo). Here is a Wikipedia link.

A Silent Hill horror house I found near Shinjuku. Was it Kabuki-chou ? I don't quite remember.
Anyway, it just opened. If I get the opportunity to try it, I'll tell you.

That's it for today. That's quite a lot though :)

See you next time.

World cup, work and sleep (or trying to...)

2006-07-10T21:59:00.000+09:00

France lost in the finals, too bad !
Anyway, I think they did pretty good all along (during the World Cup) because I never imagined they would go this far. In 4 years I expect at least as good :)

I also came to work yesterday. Honestly, when I look at it, it seems to be a never-ending pile of work waiting ahead.
Day after day, I work for about 11~12 hours (including 40 mins for lunch). I think that I do pretty well, given the amount of "code" and functionalities I produce....but there always seems to be much more. Like you finish one task and behind it, you discover 10 new ones. Great.
Thanks god I'm working in the video games industry in Japan. I'm definitely motivated about it otherwise, I would have given up long long ago :P

The 12 other hours, there is 1 hour and a half for transport (15 mins walk to the station, 30 mins of train, twice a day), 1 hour of GBA (I have to take my mind off work you know) and the remaining time, I sleep....or try to.

Yes I try to because some factors seem to prevent me from doing so :

- It's damn hot here in Tokyo. Even though I have the air con, it won't do leaving it running all night. It makes quite a ruckus too.

- The neighbours. While I first thought that other tenants would be silent at night, they aren't (I forgot I was in a gaijin building...). Some are talking (phone or not), others are watching TV and yelling to let you know that they are watching a funny show, or watching the final of the World Cup (two Italians next door, that's how I learnt this morning, through the wall, that France had lost).

- And finally, the electric drill ! Because, every morning, and they sure are right on time (8.20am) I wake up to the sound of a peaceful and loving electric drill, operating just 5 meters away from my window. Isn't that nice ? There has been better however. One morning, it was a jackhammer, right under my window (2 meters to the ground). I could clearly hear it (who wouldn't ???).
Just imagine how would you react if you barely slept for the night because of neighbours/heat and once you are finally asleep, you're awaken by a drill.

That said, however, don't think that I'm not happy being here :D
I couldn't be happier. That's what I have hoped for so many years. There's no reason to complain. I think I will just find another apartment once I get the opportunity.
(French mode : Petit clin d'oeil a Kitti, toi qui a vecu plus ou moins les memes choses que moi, quand je me relis, j'ai l'impression de recopier ton blog :))

That's it for today. It's been a long time since I last posted pictures. I don't have time to use my camera though. I barely took new pictures since then...

Until next time, またね。

aaaaahhh those Japanese people....

2006-07-08T19:29:00.000+09:00

Week end post ! I promised !
In fact, I came today to work, a Saturday yes. I didn't feel like staying at home playing GBA today so...Plus I have quite some huge amount of work waiting to get done and sitting around, even on the week-end, won't help.

Anyway, I won't blog about work, as you may noticed by the title. I will blog about Japanese people. Both good/funny and bad/irritating ones. I'll start with the good one or else it will ruin the mood for everything else.

On Wednesday, I went to the bank office with someone from the company, the one in charge of all HR stuff. I needed a bank account and since I received my pay few days ago, it was the perfect moment.
I'll pass about the name stamp which is required for any official papers and stuff in Japan, this thing cost me 2000 yens, to have your name written on it.
So we arrived at the bank, got our line ticket and were immediately received. We explained that we wanted to open an account and the girl gave us a form to fill in.
As you may have guessed, the form was all in Japanese and honestly, I was quite happy that someone came with me, like when I went to get my "Alien card" (yes, I'm officially an alien in Japan), he helped me fill in the form.
Unfortunately, this time, that was not possible. The girl specifically told us that "I" should be the one filling the form. And in Japanese please, no gaijins letters.
Ok ok, I have seen worse in my life, so I took the pen and started to write my address all in kanjis, my name in katakana and stuff.
Once done, we gave the paper to the staff for checking. After few minutes, some formal talk I had no clue about, the girl gave the paper back asking me to FILL IT AGAIN.
What the... ?! Is there a problem ? I can correct it directly on the paper if you want. But no, I had to fill it again. The reason ? Be prepared, this is going to be a tough one.
I had written my name all in capitalized letters, which includes a "i". This makes it "I" but in my handwritten "font", I wrote the capitalized "i" with a dot on top of it, which is not considered capitalized then (even if the size of the letter was perfectly correct, add the top and bottom SHiT and it's capitalized).
Yes, for this I had to fill the entire form again. They didn't want me to correct the "i" into an "I".
So I wrote it again, this time making sure that the "I" is definitely capitalized (at least, for them).
She took the form, watched it and started criticizing my capitalized "U", which is much like the "u", meaning with the small tail. But thanks god her manager told her it was alright because I definitely was not going to fill in a 3rd form...
So, if you ever go to the bank to create an account, be careful, you have been warned.

Now, the irritating one.
Two days ago, when I left for home at around 11.30 pm (quite late indeed), the train was packed with people, as usual. So packed that you could barely move. It also reeked of alcohol, with all those salaryman (and not salary men, since this word became Japanese as a whole) drunk every evening.
As some of you may already be aware of, this kind of situation is bliss for perverts. You barely see what's happening, you can barely move, you can barely tell who is next to you.
And that evening, there was one just next to me.
I won't go into details but the girl was definitely a minor. If I'm not mistaken, getting caught and brought to the police is a free-trip to prison.
That's really disgusting, you really want to place a nice headbutt on the guy, plus the fact that he wasn't very tall either. But when you see that other people around also notice and don't say anything (the guy just in front of me definitely saw it and immediately turned his head around) you start thinking that making such a fuss in a crowded public place is not really appropriate.
Instead, I used the train jolts as an excuse to hustle the guy. Not really efficient but that's what I could only do.
Sorry for all the girls out there (and reading my blog ? are there ? honestly ?) who most probably would have whacked him.

Anyway, that's all for today. I have to get back home, since all my clothes are out drying and I fear that rain suddenly starts to fall, as it usually does on week-ends...

Small update

2006-07-05T12:39:00.000+09:00

Hey guys.

Just to keep this blog alive, I do a small post.
In fact, I'm getting more and more busy days after days and hardly have time for blogging now :P
I will try to post more by the end of the week...

Week end post

2006-06-24T19:57:00.000+09:00

It's Saturday and I came at work, but not for working :P
In fact, I came because I was too bored at home and because 3D Realms finally released the demo of Prey, a game I wanted to try.
So I left for work like everyday, except when I got here, there were nearly no one (or there was surprisingly someone, as you wish).

As for the game, the gameplay is quite original in itself. It has good ideas and I expect more (as what is said on the demo preview) from the full game.
This is also caused by the fact that I haven't played one good occidental game for a while, and I needed that, here are only you-know-what kind of games (I generalize of course, but occidental -> action/violence/gore/fps and stuff while in Japan you only get to see RPGs, fighting games, mechas and hentai).
Go for it, it's worth trying.

For those who are waiting for more posts about life in Japan, well...the thing is, I get to see tons of facts everyday, facts that may probably scare all of you gaijins (-> foreigners). But those are common here, too common, that I would be ending up taking a picture and remembering everything that goes by. This is just impossible.
Like the other day I saw someone from the back, thin and tall, white skin, hair stuffed with some gel product AND a girl's handbag.
I ASSURE YOU that at first glance, it was a girl. No doubt about it. But looking at his face, it turned out to be a guy (not that I started a conversation, I'm not crazy, I know where I am and know that things like that happen everyday). Hell I was scared :|

Another custom here, besides "taking off your shoes", is politeness at work (and elsewhere too but I'll only cover a small part of politeness at work).
When you meet a co-worker, like when you go to the toilet, pass by him in a corridor or simply meet him in the morning, it is common sense to say ”おつかれさまです” (pronounce "otsukaresama desu"). You can even use it when writing e-mails or starting a conversation, instant messaging or not.
What does it mean ? For us foreigners, nothing. But what is it for then ? It's just plain politeness. And this only applies to co-workers during working hours.
Honestly, it took me quite some time to get used to it. Managing to trigger your own mind to pull that sentence out at the right situation, definitely not easy.

As a last anecdote, I'll tell you about this Thursday.
What was so special on that day ? It was the release of Valkyrie Profile : Silmeria on PS2. Yes. It's special because video games have a really important place in Japan. So important that a colleague, knowing me and my tastes for games, asked me to go with him get a copy of the game. That was perfect since I had to try and get the Artifact Box for a friend in France. So we purposely left earlier (it was 9PM) and headed for Akiba, in the probably only store still opened at that time : Yodobashi Camera.
It's a huge mall disguised in a building (I'll get pictures the next time I go there, promise). They sell everything from TVs, cameras, computer stuff, watches, DVD, video games...well everything you need in our electronic world, and video games are on the 6th floor.
Upon arriving, it's surprising to see so many people around. And Valkyrie Profile Silmeria is there as well.
Unfortunately for me (well, for my friend in fact), the Artifact Box was already sold out. My colleague got his copy and we were prepared to leave when....he headed over to the Gachapon area :D
For those who don't know, gachapons are small toys you get in a machine, by inserting coins and turning a crank.
The area was filled with those machines, that was pretty impressive. There already were people (adult and rather "old" people, like 40+ years, meaning those are not only for kids) around, examining the machines and trying to get an interesting gachapon (there, you are used to this word now).
My colleague didn't see anything interesting and we left soon after.

Well, that's all for today (sorry no pictures this time).
See you later.

Where's my breakpoints window ???

2006-06-22T13:35:00.000+09:00

Microsoft' decisions can be really strange sometimes.
I'm using the Express version of VC# 2005 and noticed that the breakpoints window is.....gone.
There are none.
This wonderful window allowing you to keep track of all your breakpoints in the code, allowing to enable/disable them without removing them in a single click, saving you all the hassle to search through your hundreds (or thousands) lines of code just looking for a breakpoint, is no more.
But what's more surprising is that this window seems to be present in VC++ Express 2005.
So, what does it mean ? That debugging is too hard to handle under C++ language that you need a specific window for it ? That C++ is for impaired people who need assistance ?

Give me back my breakpoints window !!!

Mind at ease !

2006-06-14T19:16:00.000+09:00

Money problems are no more (at least, for now...) so -> \o/
Anyway, I've been quite busy recently, plus the fact that I may try too hard at work, I built up too much exhaustion but I'm fine right now, thanks to a good week end rest.
It's already been a month that I am here and work is going on quite well I guess (or so I hope...)
I guess I should post more often since I don't know what to say right now :P

Anyway, pictures time.

In front of the SEGA Game Center at Akiba.

For all the Bleach geeks, this is what I got for 200 yens in one of the many thousands UFO Catcher.

What the hell is such a picture doing here you say ?
I'll tell you : this picture was taken from my window, when it was like, 4 am.
Yes, 4 am and it's already dawn. The sunset is at around 6 pm. Pretty scary I tell you...

A huge Valkyrie Profile : Silmeria ad at Akiba.
The game store is a Sofmap, a very famous chain store selling all kinds of electronic entertainment.

I have more pictures but hosting is rather limited here. I'll find a way to put up an album somewhere, so you can all enjoy them.

See you later.

LCL : La banque qui sait prendre soin de ses clients

2006-06-12T16:31:00.000+09:00

I apologize in advance for this post in French but since this mainly concerns a problem with my French bank, it'd be better to write it in French. I don't want to make a whole post in English just for them either.

Ce week-end je suis parti a Sakura-House pour payer mon loyer. Pour ceux qui ne le savent pas, Sakura-House est une entreprise qui loue des appartements ainsi que des chambres a coucher, voire meme des lits, aux etrangers venus sejourner au Japon.
J'ai pris un appartement chez eux et ca m'en coute dans les 550 euros par mois.

Petit contexte. Etant donne que je ne suis arrive qu'il y a 3 semaines (fin du mois de mai) et que le compte de mes heures effectuees se fait a partir du 20 du mois precedent jusqu'au 20 du mois suivant, ma premiere paye n'arrivera en fait qu'a la fin du mois de juin.
N'ayant bien evidemment pas pris autant de liquide sur moi je comptais donc aller payer avec ma carte bleue (car j'ai, comme quasiment tout le monde, une carte bleue qui est bien pratique.....quand elle marche).

Et bien, il se trouve que ma carte est expiree. Normal, vous me direz, etant donne que les cartes bleues expirent au bout de 2 ans.
Cependant, j'avais prevu le coup avant de partir. Ma carte etait censee expirer en avril 2006.
C'est pourquoi en mars (il y a 2 mois) je suis parti expliquer mon probleme a la banque, ils m'ont donc refait la carte. Elle est toute neuve, elle expire en mars 2008. C'est ecrit brillant sur bleu sur la carte. On peut pas faire plus explicite, d'autant plus que j'ai aussi les recus et autre paperasse chez moi (en France). J'ai aussi rencontre la conseillere par la meme occasion, en lui expliquant ma situation (qui a au passage a essaye de me refourguer un service avec une carte bleue plus chere, plus d'avantages !! Elle expire pas des qu'elle est emise a tous les coups...) donc elle etait parfaitement au courant que je partais a l'etranger pour une longue periode. Personne ne m'a prevenu de quoi que ce soit.

Seulement, la carte est expiree. Oui. Je me retrouve donc coince au Japon, avec le porte feuille qui se vide de jour en jour, un loyer qui arrive bientot a son echeance (mercredi prochain, le 14 juin), tout ca a cause de quoi ? Une carte soit disant expiree alors qu'elle a ete renouvelee il y a deux mois.

J'ai passe plusieurs coups de fil en France, sur leur serveur vocal surtaxe qui m'a coute une fortune, sans avoir pu joindre qui que ce soit.
Heureusement que ma famille est la. Mon frere a donc fait les demarches pour moi. Vous savez ce qu'on lui a repondu ? Au choix, c'est selon les gouts :
- "C'est normal, votre carte est expiree." (elle est neuve, elle est expiree, c'est normal !)
- "La carte est bloquee a l'etranger, c'est une securite anti fraude." (2 ans auparavant, je suis venu au Japon avec une carte bleue du meme type de la meme banque sur le meme compte, aucun blocage anti fraude ou quoi que ce soit, la meme chose au mois de fevrier en Chine)
- "Allez directement a votre banque, ils pourront vous debloquer votre carte, ca ira plus vite." (heureusement qu'ils ont dit ca a mon frere qui est en France...)
- (Une fois a la banque) "Desoles, on ne peut rien faire sans avoir la carte entre les mains." (super, la carte est au Japon, aucune procedure pour arranger le probleme en vitesse, faut que je rentre pour la leur filer peut etre ?)
- (En leur expliquant que c'est urgent) "Demandez au central LCL de nous dire quoi faire." (....)

C'est vraiment super de voir qu'en France, l'organisation est vraiment au top de sa forme. Pour tout vous dire, meme ici au Japon ils sont au courant.
LCL a un client dans la grosse merde a cause d'une de leur connerie et ils sont pas foutus de regler ca. Le pire, c'est qu'ils laissent couler. Aucune remontee d'info. Aucune recherche. Aucune demarche pour essayer de resoudre le probleme. Rien.

Un conseil donc : n'allez JAMAIS chez LCL.

Et pour ceux qui veulent savoir comment je vais m'en sortir, ma famille va m'envoyer de l'argent.
Voila.

Feels nice working naked.

2006-06-02T20:30:00.000+09:00

That's what my feet say everyday.
At the company, we have to take off our shoes. That's typically Japanese, meaning everyone are used to take off their shoes when entering the company or at home.
But, there's a little difference from what I once heard.
While I thought we would use sandals, we actually don't. We just walk in socks. And for those who (I don't aim at anyone, no offense there) "can't" take off their shoes for obvious reasons....I haven't met anyone like that here yet so I can't really tell but I guess they would have to comply with it anyway.

So, how are things going ?

2006-05-26T21:30:00.000+09:00

The first update after my first week in Japan.
There's still not much to say, except about my own life but that's what this blog is for, right ?

Every morning, I eat 2 onigiris with orange juice (you can't beat your French side).
I'm leaving for work at about 9.30~10 AM and go back home at around 11 PM.
If I'm still standing, I watch TV (though I have no clue about what they're talking about).
This pretty much what I did this week.
Quite boring huh ? Well, what do you expect ? :P
It's been only a week so...nothing much to say yet (or too "secret" to reveal it, at least now).

Anyway, some random pictures.

A lot of people in Akiba watching Taiko no Tatsujin.

The kind of food I get everyday, for around 500 yens (3~4 euros).
I know you're not jealous, it's ok.

My neighbourhood, very calm. You can see the post office.

We have one of those at work ! They really do exist ! I tried it too :)

My morning onigiris. They have different flavours of course.

Well, see you later.

Finally back online !

2006-05-22T21:42:00.000+09:00

My first day at work just ended and I have some time to update this blog (yes, I promised I would).

So, what can I say about my work here....
Everyone at work is really nice and kind, they accept "gaijins" very easily.
Actually, I'm quite surprised of my situation here, from what I once heard...
Maybe I'm lucky to have ended in the company which already employs 2 other foreigners.
In all cases, I'm sure I will spend a very good time here.

Now, just for the fun, a message dedicated to all geeks out there.
One of the other foreign employee is German. A girl. She is kind, cute and top of all, she is a programmer. Yes. You read well. An European cute girl coding games in a Japanese company.
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No you won't have her contact.

Yiiihaaa !

2006-05-19T15:49:00.000+09:00

Just to let you know that I arrived safely in Japan.
I will post more later.

See you next week !

I'm back !

2006-05-13T08:39:00.000+09:00

Well well it's time to revive this blog, once again....
For those who just arrived, I once went to Japan for 2 weeks, a year and a half ago.
I started this blog thinking that I would be able to update it daily and stuff but...trying to cover almost every detail, I covered nothing.

Now, a year and a half has passed and here I am again, about to reach Japan once more. And for a much longer period too.
So, this blog is brought back to life and I hope to update it when I can, if I am not too busy.

More to come next week !