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.

  • Frivole et Cocue

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    w00kie
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    Just a photo of a shop I found in Omotesando station with a stupid french name. Cocue actually means “a cheated wife”…

  • Off to Hiroshima

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    w00kie
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    In a couple of hours I’ll be leaving for 広島 by plane to see my girlfriend for a week. We’re planning to go to 宮島 to see the famous torii in the sea and a little one-night trip to 九州 at an onsen. Wish me good luck meeting the parents…

  • Valentine brownie

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    w00kie
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    Wednesday, my girlfriend told me to be home at 8PM for a Valentine Day surprise. And here what I received by special delivery: A hand-made, heart-shaped Valentine brownie. Isn’t she a sweetheart? 愛ちゃん、ありがとう！愛してるよ。

  • Wedding party

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    w00kie
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    I went to a friend’s wedding party this weekend. Nothing fancy, just a nice meal at a french restaurant with everyone dressed out for the occasion. They got married in December but the party was only now. We ate good food, talked a lot and of course all got pissed drunk. Fun was had by…

  • Ségolène wants my money

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    w00kie
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    I read via Thomas’ blog that Segolene Royal, the leftist candidate to the french presidential election in April, plans to tax French citizens living abroad. Retrouver une citoyenneté fiscale Il n’est plus acceptable que des citoyens français parviennent à échapper à l’impôt en s’installant hors de France. Nous proposons de définir une contribution citoyenne qui…

  • Sparkling Café

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    w00kie
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    ¥50 at my company’s コンビニ. Tastes like diet coke with a strong and foul coffee aftertaste… I can’t believe Nescafé makes this crap, and the best part is the slogan: You can enjoy authentic coffee taste and refreshment. The guy at the shop told me some guy on the 現場 bought a whole 24-can box…

  • JLPT results

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    w00kie
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    I received my 日本語能力試験 (otherwise known as JLPT or Japanese Language Proficiency Test) results today after more than 2 months. No surprises, I passed. Actually I got a nice 87% but it was only level 3 which is not that hard. I probably could have made level 2 with a lot of work and dedication,…

  • Office move

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    w00kie
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    Yes, it’s been planned for 6 months. On February 13th my office will not be in small town of Kohnan-machi anymore but in the much bigger city of Kumagaya. Actually, my office isn’t moving to the city, it’s more of the city that’s moving to my office. As of 02/13/2007, Kumagaya will officially expand and…

  • Racist magazine – 外人犯罪

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    w00kie
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    After seeing a blog post about this magazine: 外人犯罪, I knew I had to buy it before it goes out of print. So yesterday after work, I went straight to the Familymart 30 meters away from my home and purchased a copy to keep as a collector’s item. It’s a special edition magazine about foreigners…

  • I can barely move

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    This saturday I went to Naeba in Niigata-ken for my second snowboarding trip of the season and I had a horrible day. Through a combination of sleep deprivation, bad physical condition and poor equipment, I could barely make a turn 3 hours in the session. That and I went there with two of my friends…

  • Got me a new TV

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    w00kie
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    Tonight, most of my favorite shows come out of christmas recess: 24 (after the first 4 episodes were shown 2 weeks ago 2 days in a row) Prison Break Heroes And this makes me happy. Why? Because last week I bought a new TV, being fed up of playing the Wii’s Zelda on the old…

  • Cerulean Tower – 34th floor

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    w00kie
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    Last week, since my girlfriend was moving, we had no place to stay in Tokyo for her last night (after the movers took everything and we gave back the keys). So since she didn’t exactly looked forward to the idea of staying at my place, Saitama being far from romantic, we looked for a hotel.…

  • New year hiatus

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    w00kie
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    Sorry for the lack of updates. I was at my girlfriend’s in Tokyo for over 2 weeks (without internet) to help her move out. She quit her job that was going nowhere and went back to her parent’s in Hiroshima. It’s going to be hard, changing from a mid-distance relationship (we saw each other only…

  • New blog headers

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    w00kie
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    I updated my blog template so that the header displays a random photo selected from my Tokyo by night set. I’m not sure yet if I like it, so I’ll leave it on for the next few days and then decide if it stays or it goes. If you have any suggestions, I’ll be glad…

  • The token engrish post

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    w00kie
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    Every blog about Japan has to have a token post about stupid engrish in t-shirts or signs: here is mine. That’s a nice specimen I’ve spotted in a diner/bar at a 忘年会 we did last week.