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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
To: Crecente From: Bashcraft RE: Con-ed Out
In answer to your question: Yes, yes, good man, yes we should totally have a Tokyo Kotaku shindig! Our last get together in New York earlier this year was good fun, and it was a blast to meet readers, industry types and drunk hangers-on. Since we’ll be staying at a big fancy hotel in Shibuya, I imagine that we’ll want a bar near our hotel so we can stumble back drunk and pass out. Throwing up on the JR line is so embarrassing! That is ideal, but I’m not sure how realistic… I know a few places, but none in Shibuya that are big enough to handle a nerd gathering. So! Reader people who know Tokyo fairly well, feel free to chime in with possible place for us to get shitfaced at.
Also, the Night Crew has morphed into the Labor Day Crew, so posts will be going up all day. Enjoy your day off! More »
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 »
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 »
