night note

Random Strangers Praticing English

11:40PM Brian Ashcraft | To: Crecente From: Ashcraft Whew! Back in Osaka. Just in time for dinner. And dinner was okonomiyaki and yakisoba. No kidding. True Osaka food. Damn, it’s good to be back. More »

“I Can Do This As A Friend. Are We Friends?”

11:30PM Brian Ashcraft | To: Crecente From: Ashcraft RE: Best Dentist Evar If Tristan has the best dentist evar, then I had the worst childhood dentist evar. Here’s the laundry list of things that happened: When I was five, I got my arm stuck in the chair and had to go to the hospital. The day after I got my wisdom teeth pulled out, the dentist gave me shots and then said to his assistant: “Oh. We pulled his wisdom teeth out yesterday.” He told me that I had cavities between every single one of my teeth. I went to another dentist, who said I had like three. Never went back to the evil dentist ever again! Though, when I was in high school, I saw him at the bookstore. In the adult section. Reading the adult books. What you missed last night Aussie sells Halo 3 Katamari on PS3 and Wii Is Microsoft showing this off tomorrow? Eternal Sonata for PS3? More »

Roach Burgers (Yum, Yum)

11:40PM Brian Ashcraft | To: Crecente From: Bashcraft RE: Travels… or Trevails I know whatcha mean about relaxing. Today consisted of going to immigration, taking the kid to the doctor, writing two magazine articles and calling Austria. Nothing like calling Austria. Fine place! So I got a few more prospective places for our TGS party. Very much looking forward to the meet up. While I was out today, I took the wife to eat hamburgers. We went to Freshness Burger. Freshness Burger is like MOS Burger, but not as good. Mrs. Bashcraft had never been to Freshness Burger, so we went. We both were famished and sat down to our Classic Burger and Classic Burger with cheese. Not bad. Not as good as MOS Burger, but w/e. So as we’re sitting there, gobbling down our burgers and my wife is talking about going to Universal Studios Japan with the kid, I see a large, black cockroach scurry across the floor. My wife is still going on about USJ as I check my food. No roaches. I glance over hers, which seems fine. I have two options: Tell my wife I saw a cockroach or don’t. Telling her would involve her getting freaked out and having to go to another restaurant. And besides! We had already eaten half our food. The rest of the lunch was spent chewing my food, choking it down and looking at the black, shiny roach inch its way up the wall. Mrs. Bashcraft said her Classic Burger was delicious. What you missed last night New Japanese Book Asks Why PS3 “Failed” Wii Zapper with Zelda? SCEE’s new marketing ploy Why all the BD hate? More »

Drink Less Booze, Drop Weight

11:40PM Brian Ashcraft | To: Crecente From: Ashcraft RE: BioShock Hang-Over Damn you and your BioShock. The Asian edition doesn’t come out until later this month. That, and my 360 is still getting fixed. Recent discovery: Drinking a half-bottle of sake everyday makes you fat. I love sake. Like love it. So, so, so much. I’ve visited a tonne of distilleries in Nara, and I’m fascinated by the drink, how it’s made, how delicate the flavour is, how it ages, blah, blah, blah. So! After I finish a 12 or 13 hour blog marathon, I would throw down half a bottle of the stuff. That makes you BIG and FAT. More »

A Very Important Question (About My Hair)

11:40PM Brian Ashcraft | To: Crecente From: Bashcraft RE: Austin Since January, I have been focused on one goal: My hair. Namely, growing it out. It’s gotten to the point where I have a rather nice rockstar mullet — close to something Ronnie Wood had in 1973. But! At the end of the day, it is still a mullet. This summer has been hot and sticky. Dealing with my ‘do has been a real drag. At home, I always have to put up my hair, and I’m getting somewhat tired of dealing with it. So. I ask you. Should I cut the mullet? That will kill it, you know. What you missed last night Molyneux loves that LIVE Little kids and BioShock Microsoft’s English is so good Japan gets new DS Lite Firmware detailed More »

Yes, I Actually Bought A PS3 Game. To Play.

11:40PM Brian Ashcraft | To: Crecente From: Ashcraft RE: TGS Kotaku Party? Yup, I did it. Yesterday, I actually bought a game for my PS3. I had previously been using my console to watch movies and look at pictures. That’s it! The selection of PS3 games out in Japan is lacking at best. And with my Xbox 360 still in the shop, I didn’t really have much of a choice! Wonder if Microsoft’s reliability issues will come back to bite them in the arse when the PS3 has more stuff to play. I picked up Rainbow Six Vegas, which is good fun. Thing that I’m curious about: There’s all that extra space on Blu-ray, why not throw extra audio language tracks on the game? Rainbow Six Vegas was originally recorded in English and probably sounds better in English — the same’s true of Japanese games. Seems like it should be a normal feature for PS3 games! What you missed last night Sony’s TGS PS3 list TGS booth plan Wii still winning New firmware More »

I Think The Computer Is Melting My Eyes (Yours Okay?)

11:40PM Brian Ashcraft | To: Crecente From: Bashcraft Like you, I sit in front of the computer for hours on end. Let’s say I get on the computer at 9am. By the time I finish blogging or w/e by 9 or 10pm, my eyes are a mess. Blurry vision and dry, dry eye balls. Do you experience this? Should I use eye drops? I think it might be because I wear contacts, and I probably should get glasses for when I’m blogging (to let the ol’ eyes breathe). I don’t really get headaches or whatnot, but man, my eyes get really really tired… What you missed last night Kaz Says The Best Is Yet To Come SEGA game will wreck your relationship Luke has an Elite Giant Jeff Bell talks MGS and FF Blame Sonic More »

Yes, Some Japanese People Are Too Polite

11:40PM Brian Ashcraft | To: Crecente From: Ashcraft It’s a vicious cycle of sorts. I’m working on a magazine article, and I’ve been dealing with one particular person at a particular company for over a month or so while I write this article. There’s a fairly standard format for business email writing in Japanese. Here’s what it looks like in English: Mr. PERSON’S LAST NAME I am indebted. This is YOUR LAST name from COMPANY NAME. And then you launch into whatever you are talking about. Pretty basic stuff. There are various ways of addressing people in Japanese and some are more polite than others. Often in writing, you’d use “sama” instead of “san.” So, if I was sending you and email, I’d write “Crecente-sama.” It’s more polite than “san.” Of course, one should never refer to oneself as “sama” or “san,” but rather by your last name only. Doing so is very arrogant. That is, unless you are an arrogant crazed anime character out to take over the world, then by all means refer to yourself as “sama” or “san.” (Oddly enough! Whenever Madonna is on Japanese TV, she refers to herself as “Madonna-san.” Nobody has the guts to tell her, I think.) Anyway! Once a general rapport is established, it might feel more comfortable to use the slightly less formal “san” in email writing — though not always! More »

“I Wanna Touch that Woman’s Butt”

11:40PM Brian Ashcraft | To: Crecente From: Ashcraft Last night we were watching the World Championship in Athletics, which is being held here in Osaka. Actually! I wasn’t really watching (I was blogging!), but Mrs. Bashcraft and Mini-Bash were. Sometime during the pole vaulting, Mini-Bash goes: I wanna touch that lady’s butt. (あの女のお尻触りたいな…) “Bwah?” His face got red. Mrs. Bashcraft asked him to repeat it so I could hear it (and could make fun of him). Face redder, bright radish red, but he repeated. For the next ten or fifteen minutes, Mrs. Bashcraft told the kid why he can never say anything like that outside of the house and that he can never touch some random female’s bottom. It’s inappropriate. And! If he did, he would be locked up in jail. For a long time. Alone. What you missed last night Some awesome rumours Most exciting thing at X07? Elite craps out Home beans spilled! Jessica Alba uses the Wii? More »