Little contest : orz

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 !

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

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

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

.....

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...)

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....

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

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

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 ???

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 !

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

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.

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 ?

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 !

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 !

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

See you next week !

I'm back !

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 !