Tag: work

When things go tits-up

It’s a shame when one can’t be as effective as one would like to be. I was giving a presentation today for one of committees of the American Chambers of Commerce, looking at ustream & using it for business. Unfortunately my MacBook pro suffered a stroke as I began – no video output to the […]

1 week until a change of occupation

Howdy punks. I headed on down to the Make: Tokyo Meeting 04 yesterday, held at Tokyo Institute of Technology. It’s a kind of interactive DIY tech fare. I shot a short video (embedded below) – and wrote a little more about it (with links) over at www.japantechshow.com. The frog above was one of a collection […]

Luck is when preparedness meets opportunity

Yikes. 1.34am again. It was yesterday too. I’ve been wanting to write for a few days now, but, well, it’s not going to happen, I mean, not in the way that i would like. So rather than it not happen at all it’ll happen like this. It’s turned out that Pepe (pictured above) is heavily […]

End of week thinkings

(Today’s photo was taken on our trip to Yamaki Organic Soy farm last month) Morning. You find me on the train to work. It’s a Saturday. About 8am. Not too crowded. I got a seat. It’s 30 minutes to my stop from here, no changes. It’s been a challenging week. It started with my working […]

Japan Podshow: Kanda Matsuri – musings of a producer

Video: Kanda Matsuri Wow. Second podcast out in 24 hours. I really like this episode, even if I do say so myself. It’s the traditional Japanese music that does it for me, recorded live at the Kanda Matsuri, a huge street festival that takes place once every two years. We hadn’t actually planned to record […]

Being more than just a (very well-trained) monkey

Sometimes I feel almost overwhelmed by the number and variety of possibilities that are open to me (and to anyone) here in Tokyo (read ‘on planet Earth’). Having made a decision a couple of months back to reach out into the community and connect with others, I have been almost dumbstruck by the things I […]

The company’s 30th Anniversary Celebration

Mad day today. Started off with my spotting a Tweet (on Twitter) by Kamasami Kong of Tokyo Metropolis Podcast Looking for someone who went to Eric Clapton’s concert in Tokyo. Did any of you go? I need a report for the MetPod. Thanks! I replied to his message via Twitter, and shot him an email […]

Out now on DVD – Joseph Tame in Fuji TV’s ‘Bizan’ with Tokiwa Takako

18 months after the filming, I’ve finally got around to locating my scene in the Fuji TV production of Bizan, starring Tokiwa Takako, and that guy. And me. For some reason I was under the impression that it had yet to be released, thus didn’t realise that the copy of ‘Bizan’ I’d rented from Tsutaya […]

Phase 1 complete

Tremendous feeling of satisfaction tonight as, at the end of a long day at the office (8 hours + 7.5 hours overtime) I finally completed phase one of my project to digitise / automate as much of the teaching jobs admin process as possible. For the past two months or so I’ve been working on […]

Chasing Bubbles all weekend

It’s been a great weekend. A bit manic at times, but thoroughly enjoyable, and productive too. I’ve had two private lessons, spent a couple of hours taking over 300 photos in Yoyogi park (the vast majority of which I’ve yet to develop – will save that treat for later in the week – photos in […]

It’s a small, small world

Photographic entertainment is provided by yesterday’s Office Halloween party (sorry for the repetition to those of you who have already seen them in my site feed). For the past two weeks I’ve been looking for someone to do tandem learning with. That is, someone who will teach me Japanese in exchange for me teaching them […]

It’s only getting better

As of this week, I’m pretty much working seven days a week. It’s part of the self-imposed six month debt-repayment and moving-house program, which is due for completion on the 5th of March 2009. It’s step one of many steps in our Grand Masterplan, some goals of which include the paying off of all family […]

Refuge

It’s early Saturday evening, and I’ve just finished work. It’s been a productive day. In between today’s phone calls from students located all over Japan (the majority of whom were training as maritime navigational officers) I’ve been plodding on with the Access database – it’s coming along nicely, and makes for satisfying work. Hopefully I […]

My new job

Starting a full-time job has been a funny experience. The first couple of days left me feeling somewhat stunned. The commute to work is not exactly relaxing. The train gets so full you have those white-gloved station staff pushing you on. Wedged in by salary men, nose pressed up against the glass. I’ve sorted out […]