My kitchen sink currently has two tap water temperatures: warm water and hot water.

It is just mind-boggling how many Japanese have come away convinced that I must be a US citizen, on account of my shirt having a tiny US flag shoulder patch (right above where it proclaims in large gold stitch letters that I am a “Boy Scout of America”).

On the other hand, this lack in the whole irony concept, puts some of the clothing commonly spotted through the streets of Japan in a radically new, slightly scary, perspective…

The cicadas outside my window have started singing.

Summer is officially here.

Dear local Kyoto-fu LDP candidate for the upcoming upper-house election:

True: I cannot cast a vote in this election and sway your chances either direction.

But let me assure you that, if you keep insisting on circling my block multiple times, every morning between 8 and 8:30, inane election slogans blaring from your van’s speakers at top volume, I will be more than happy to contribute to your historical legacy by setting post at the closest grassy knoll with whatever long-range weapon I can get my hands on.

Thanks.

Really, Hawaiian… it’s just Japanese pronounced with a thick US accent, right?

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.
John Rogers

No particular reason, just felt in a Rand-bashing mood tonight.

… There is a young guy applying strokes to an oil painting while frenetically dancing to tribal trance music…

Pros and cons of attempting to survive on maximum recommended dosage of Japanese cold medicine on a workday:

Pros: Finally answering the old nagging question of whether Vapnik–Chervonenkis dimension makes more sense on mushrooms (or any satisfyingly close approximation thereof).

Cons: The answer is: no, it definitely doesn’t.

You know you are in Japan when…
you show up to renew your Kyodai ID and a staff you’ve never met before immediately pulls it out of a stack of 300 identical cards, before you had a chance to give your name.

Yea: not a lot of whities in my faculty.

Today is the 29th of March, sakuras are in full bloom and i am walking home under snow falling.
FML.

Just when I was starting to get the hang of that German language thing, I am back in Japan.

Which means I will probably spend the next few weeks, answering any question in Japanese with: “Genau” or “Na, klar“…

Let’s see if that confuses Japanese combini clerks as much as their German counterparts.

Berlin, 7am.
I have more ink on my wrist than… a… erm…

Too soon?

You know it’s time to visit a hairdresser when:

1. You get shocked, touching your own desk.
2. You get shocked, touching the metal doorknob to your office.
3. You get shocked, washing your hands (not touching the faucet, mind you).
4. All of the above.
5. All of the above, over a 20 minute timespan.

Lab sysadmin recently announced that, due to excessive use and lack of server space, individual user directories were now capped…

… at 4 terabytes…

… per user.

On the program for this month, we have so far: two operas, three official Berlinale screenings, two music recitals and a couple exhibits.

Sometimes I do work too.

Now you know why updates are scarce around here…