w00kie's ramblings

my head

Hi 👋, I’m François

I’m a French engineer who moved to Japan after my studies and will soon hit half of my life spent in Tokyo.

  • Preparing for snowboard season

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    w00kie
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    Last week I took a day off work to go apply for my visa renewal in Shinagawa (hoping for 3 years this time). I love spending, every year, 2 1/2 hours listening to kids shout and cry, waiting for my number to come up, and 5 minutes of effective work with the immigration officer. After…

  • I signed!

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    w00kie
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    This morning, after almost 2 weeks of negociations between HR, my boss and I, I signed my employment contract at Valeo Thermal Systems Japan. I’m hired for 3 years in a position slightly higher than I had before. I’m staying on the same project and on the same team but I’ll drop all the basely…

  • Japanese standups

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    Here’s this month’s Japanese TV comedy craze. I see him on TV almost every night. I have to admit it, I laughed my ass off the first time.

  • Best 24 commercial ever!

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    w00kie
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    Shamelessly stolen from Japanprobe, I present you the latest hit on Japanese television, the commercials for the DVD release of 24 Season 6. It’s stuck in my head since last weekend, I love it! Check out the Japanprobe link for a translation of the lyrics.

  • Watching the fireworks from the roof

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    Last weekend I went to 熊谷, the bigger town close to where I live, to watch the city’s 花火大会 from my friend’s roof. Firework shows in Japan last very very long compared to anything I knew in France, over 2 hours. That’s because in between every 2 minutes sets they make a 3 minutes break.…

  • I rode a Pokemon plane

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    On my way to Hiroshima, I flew on one of ANA’s Pokemon colored 747. I didn’t get any toys though, I guess they don’t give them out to bearded gaijins…

  • Shimane beach report

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    w00kie
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    Simply beautiful… The weather was incredible, even with +50 SPF sun cream carefully spead by my girlfriend all over my body, I managed to catch a few sunburns. The beach was very quiet, just a couple dozen people enjoying the sea. For a comparison, I would say the place looks like a beach on the…

  • Little beach trip before Obon

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    w00kie
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    Next trip of the summer will be 2 days in the Shimane prefecture, enjoying the beach on the Sea of Japan and a nice ryokan in an onsen town. Once again, the schedule will be very tight: I’ll leave Tokyo Monday evening, meet my girlfriend as she leaves from work and spend the night in…

  • What’s in my brain?

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    Today, a colleague of mine introduced me to the latest viral website to hit japan: 脳内. It’s a simple form in which you type your name and through a certain algorithm, it gives you a sliced-up image of your head with words inside. Here is mine: And for those no familiar with the Japanese language,…

  • You broke my watch!

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    Yesterday I went to Tokyo to buy back the sunglasses I had lost on a snowboarding trip some time back. On the way to Omotesando, I dropped by the Swatch store in Shibuya to get my watch bracelet widened – something about drinking too much beer and putting on weight… So I show my watch…

  • Touring the ponds of hell

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    The second day of my trip to Beppu was spent on the 地獄巡り, literally touring the hells. What they call hells are 8 remarkable hotsprings around the city, spouting 99°C water and throwing huge plumes of steam in the air. Some of them have cobalt blue water, another called 血の池地獄 is as red as a…

  • Big earthquake this morning

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    w00kie
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    20 minutes ago we felt a big earthquake at work. The shook for a good 20-30 seconds and the building rocked a good deal. I checked out the earthquake report and it was a magnitude 6.6 quake in 新潟県, some 200km from here. It was a 6 Low on the Japanese scale, which is the…

  • Hotel Seikai in Beppu

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    I came back yesterday afternoon from Hiroshima, barely escaping the closing of the airport for cause of typhoon closing in. The trip was short, but well-packed with fun and relaxation. I will split the story of the trip in several post to keep the not so photo intensive, and I’ll start with the hotel. As…

  • Short Kyushu escapade

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    Still jetlagged from the US, I’m already back on a plane: I just bought my tickets to Hiroshima for next week. My girlfriend has 2 days off Wednesday and Thursday so I’m taking the opportunity for a little R&R. And since I’ve pretty much seen all there is to see around 広島, we decided to…

  • Cursed business trip

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    I’m in Detroit Metro airport waiting or my flight back to Tokyo from my 1 week business trip to the US and I hope my troubles are over. Here’s a quick list of the problems so far: In NYC on the first night, my friend got strangled by a crazy drunk jock as we were…