Japan

awesome video posted on gizmodo. it's of the Shinjuku cluster of skyscrapers.

http://vimeo.com/4014102

i see they finally finished that pineapple shaped building. that was pretty cool watching them build it.

A brief foray back to the pachinko discussion...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYkw-5htPw0

And we now return you to your regular programming...

cage is such a crappy actor

Just come back from another 2 weeks in Japan, again all work in the Tokyo area but did make a few trips at the weekend. Did Mt. Fuji and the Hakone - unfortunately it rained the whole day
Harajuku was very good on the Sunday - a lot of Rockers and Harajuku girls out..
Had dinner one night on the 52nd floor of the Sumitomo building in Shinjuku, what a great veiw of Tokyo - glad I wasn't paying the bill!

Yeah, there was a torrential downpour the second day we were in Hakone... That and the crazy-ass bus ride back down the mountain, after I had eaten a bit too much kamaboko and oden made that the worst part of the whole visit in Japan.

But this shot made up for it.

Chris

Did you eat any of the black '7 year' eggs?

I visited Miraikan n Sunday - this is the museum of science and innovation. Really worth a visit (the trip of the Rainbow bridge also is great - what a view..)

Lots of robots and they also have a VR cave (but it was closed when I visited)..

We did partake in the consumption of some of the kurotamago at Owakudani, yes. Not 7-year, though, they're basically hard-boiled eggs that just have been cooked in the sulphur spring.

(The picture's not the best; it's just a thumbnail-type pic. We're heading off to a cruise in the Bahamas in an hour, so I don't have time to clean it up...)

The 7 year is the life extension you have eating the egg, not the age of the egg.
I have seen 'thousand year' eggs in China - they smell rancid!

I thought it was your life expectancy after eating the egg ...


Yeah, every seven-eleven in town has buckets of the nasty things bubbling away in a witch'es cauldron. Even the dog won't eat those things.

after some of the food I've had in China - they are probably not that bad...
I had fried scorpions in Chengdu and some of the things in Shenzhen....

I think you can get fried fried over there

Oh, ok! I had no idea there was supposed to be some sort of lifespan extension after eating some of those.

Wonder if there's a loss of lifespan if you buy some and forget that you bought some? That's exactly what my sister did -- we bought a bunch, ate half of them while we were there, then she forgot that she put the rest in the fridge at the ryokan.

After a few eggs!

Hey - I am back over in Japan in January for FOE http://www.foe.jp/en/ - anyone around for that?

That's just a hop, skip, and a short ride in a Mitsubishi away from me ! Why don't you zoom on over for a visit ?

I spent 1 day in Shenzhen in October - it was enough time to realise why I don't like to be in China!