w00kie’s ramblings

I'm back home, in Paris, for Christmas week. It's the 1st time I come home since I left for Japan 2 years ago (I had an 18 hour stopover once in early 2006 on my way to a business trip in Czech Republic but it doesn't really count).

It really feels strange to be back in the motherland. First there's the obvious culture shock: I wasn't even off the plane when the pilot announces over the PA system that there are abandoned luggage near our gate's conveyor and we'd have to wait 15-20min for the police to "secure the premises"...

So we were 35min early, no biggy still 20min ahead of schedule when this hurdle clears up. We're finally let off the plane, but then right before getting to immigration, a security gate blocks us for no obvious reasons. Again we wait, 15 minutes, no information from any airport staff, and when finally we're let through I check the time and it's exactly the time we were supposed to land. I guess it would've looked bad on the record to let people out early.

Anyways, enough with tales of the great efficiency of Paris' Charles de Gaulles international airport. Worse than that for me is walking on the streets of Paris or taking the Metro and listening to all the meaningless conversations around me. It irritates me to unfathomable levels.

I can't help it: living in Japan, you develop a superhuman capacity to spot your own language from great distances (kind of like Spiderman's danger detection spider-sense). But when I'm back home, this ability backlashes and I go into sensory-overload, unable to tune-out or ignore the dullest dribbles of conversations in my vicinity.

It's hell on earth, and I find myself seeking the soothing sound of Japanese tourists' high-pitched 「すてき！！！」 and other exclamations in front of Notre-Dame...

Still haven't decided if I'm going to get me a new GRD or not, my finances look bleak so it's probably going to be a no-no. But according to the sales ranking of cameras in Japan for the month of November, many people don't have the same qualms as me:

It shot straight to 1st rank right out of the drawing board. Impressive for such a special camera, definitely not aimed at the basic consumer. But as a friend of mine always tells me: "Don't under-estimate the power of the Japanese otaku..."

I was in Kagura Saturday for a my second day snowboard of the season. We left at 5:30AM to get there by 7AM, get dressed and catch the first ropeway car up the mountain. I was snowing big flakes the whole day, no wind. Deep powder everywhere, leg-deep out in the forest where we spent the whole day, almost Hokkaido-good.

The station reported 80cm of fresh snowfall over the weekend. It really looks like the start of a great season!

If you're in Japan and you want a free (or almost free) WiFi router, here's your chance.

One year after its introduction in Japan, the FON network gives away their Fonera routers for free this weekend only: Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th December. These cool little boxes let you share your connection safely with the public, and if you do you'll be granted free internet access through all the other boxes in the network: 208.000 access points around the world, 25.000 in Japan only.

I got one for free 1 year ago when they did the same campaign for the launch, it's a nice initiative.

I was just using Google as a calculator this morning as usual when I noticed something new, at least to me: if you type a simple operation in Firefox's Google Search box, the result will pop out as a suggestion without having to hit enter and going to the results page.

I love to stumble on those constant little UI and usability improvements that make you wonder if they were there yesterday. It's brilliant.

Sunday December 2nd is for many of us in Japan the dreaded day of 日本語能力試験 - also known as JLPT or Japanese Language Proficiency Test. But this weekend is also the start of what looks like the best ski season I've seen since I've come to Japan.

Trying out my new snowboard gear on 130cm of snow in Kagura or studying for the ２級. It's a tough call...