Monthly Archives: May 2009

Tweaks & Tech

Wolfram|Alpha

A new kind of search engine just launched today.  Dubbed a “computational knowledge engine”, it leverages Mathematica, an extremely powerful technical computing software.  I played around with Mathematica very briefly while in university, but math has always been beyond my ken and my experience with the software was very akin to that of someone gingerly prodding a mysterious and somewhat frightening object with a stick.  It didn’t bite back, but I knew to leave well enough alone.  I did realise that it was capable of much more than I could ever hope to understand though, and the thought left me somewhat wistful even as I bid it adieu.

Now it’s back, and in a much more accessible form dubbed Wolfram|Alpha.  Aside from what I think is a very cool name, it makes complex mathematical calculations possible even by people who are as mathematically dense as myself.  Beyond that though, it presents information in all sorts of fascinating ways as you can see below.

The first query was of my company’s name, and the second was of a random math formula that I ripped off Wikipedia (heavens, don’t even think I would claim to have the slightest inkling of what that formula is looking for – all mathematical formulas make me go cross-eyed >_<)

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You can even do a search for “mongolia weather” or (this is very cool) “International Space Station 4/6/09 at 7:45pm

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Wolfram|Alpha is no Google killer, at least not yet.  The vast majority of internet surfers are not going to change over anytime soon, not when Google finds relevant information so quickly, and so accurately on such a wide range of queries such as telephone numbers to that bakery store down the street, addresses/directions to Yokohama, images of lolcats, reviews of the new Star Trek movie, links to downloads, walkthroughs on gamefaqs… heck, the everyday questions one comes up with.   Wolfram|Alph DOES shine when it comes to more scientific/professional usage, and I can see it becoming a big hit with that community.

It’s still in it’s early stages though.  Google didn’t get to where it is now overnight, and I have a feeling that as time goes by, Wolfram|Alpha will definitely improve and become more accessible.  At the very least it will serve as competition to Google and give users another way to access the constantly expanding amount of data that’s out there.

Experiences Sights & Sounds

Family experiences – A visit to Tsukiji Fish Market

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Another little adventure I had with my family during their time here was a visit to the Tsukiji Fish Market.  It’s  someplace I’d always heard about during my 7+ years in Japan but never visited.  Like Kobe, Kyoto, Nikko, Osaka, etc., it’s one of those kind of places that all tourists seem to know about and make it a point to visit when they come to Japan.  I however, much like my embarrassing lack of Japanese, don’t know much about them. 🙁

At least I can now scratch off Tsukiji Fish Market off my list of places to see!  (still have a lot more places on that list though…)

You might wonder why a fish market, of all places, is such a popular tourist attraction.  Who would want to come to Japan just to go visit a smelly old fish market?  Not only that, but most people choose to wake up early (think 0500 in the morning) to come here!  You might think that only die hard fish aficionados make this trip – but you’d be wrong.  When we came (we also got up at the crack of dawn to make it to the market by 0600) there were all sorts of people there, including a couple of tourists who were even lugging their suitcases along with them (BAD idea by the way – you do NOT want to be bringing suitcases into the craziness that is the Tsukiji fish market).

The Tsukiji fish market is actually quite unique in its own way.  It happens to be the largest fish/seafood market in the world and Tsukiji alone (there are other, smaller, fish markets in Japan) handles upwards of 2000 metric tons of seafood PER DAY.  Aside from the huge seafood market, there’s also the auction that takes place in the wee hours of the morning – an auction that handles sales of fish that, individually, sell for tens of thousands of dollars.  Again, this is for ONE fish!  Early this year, one tuna weighing in at 128kg (basically that fish weighed about twice as much as I do) sold for a whopping 9+ million yen (so.. just under 100,000 US dollars?).

Tsukiji is quite a sight.  As previously mentioned, we got up early in order to make it to the market by 0600 (much of the activity in the market takes place even earlier simply because stores and restaurants need to buy their fish while it’s still fresh).  There were quite a number of other tourists, all of us with cameras snapping away at bins and tables groaning under the weight of so much seafood.

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The market is laid out such that one first passes the parking/loading area for the trucks of the restaurants and food delivery services.  Next one goes through a small area that sells various utensils and condiments (think knives, pots and pans, wasabi roots, etc.).  Emerging from that brings up the (very big) area where seafood of ALL kinds are sold.  Vendors are clustered so tightly together that it’s hard to navigate between the narrow little spaces available for walking through.

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You’ve got bins of shrimp, shellfish, slug-type creatures (extremely gross IMHO), eels, octopus, and all kinds of fish that I can’t even begin to identify.  You name the seafood, and you can probably find it at Tsukiji.  Finally beyond all that one comes to the auction warehouses.  Tourists are no longer allowed inside the actual auction areas, but you can still stand outside looking in and take pictures of the rows and rows of massive tuna.

Those fish are no lightweights.  They weight at least as much as I do (more often twice that!), and many are as big around as a full grown human.  It takes at least 2 men to roll a fish onto the carts.

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Speaking of carts, one has to keep on their toes when walking around Tsukiji because there are dozens of motor carts zipping from one place to the other, and the drivers aren’t patient!  I guess it’s understandable because they’re just trying to do their work and have to deal with nosy tourists standing around trying to get the perfect picture.  In fact, these tourists (some who do much worse than just taking too many pictures) are the reason the Tsukiji auction was closed off to the public temporarily last year.

From what I’ve read, it sounds like Tsukiji will be “revamped” and possibly relocated within the next few years.  It’s a shame really.  The Tsukiji fish market has been in its current location, operating much the same way now as it has for the past 75 years.  I’m just glad I got a chance to see it before it succumbs to “progress”.

I’m going to wrap this with pictures I took during our visit.  Apologies for any blurryness – I tried not to be too intrusive with my picture taking!  Also, we concluded our visit with a breakfast of awesome sushi…but I forgot to take any pictures. 🙁 So I included some pictures of a recent lunch I had with Tet at what I think is one of the best kaitenzushi (conveyor belt sushi) in Tokyo! (and it’s in Tsukiji of course!)

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Humor

Japanese Spiderman

Spiderman has always been one of my favorite superheroes, even more so than Superman, Captain America, any of the X-Men, etc.  However… I’m not sure if I would still have considered Spiderman “cool” if THIS had happened to be my first exposure to the character!  Right now though, I just find it hilarious. 🙂

 

Humor

More Cadbury cuteness

I don’t really see what the gorilla has to do with chocolate, but I like the music~

Experiences Sights & Sounds

Family experiences – A visit to Togo Shrine

 

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One of the things mom particularly enjoys is visiting shrine sales, and thus a trip to AT LEAST one shrine during my family’s visit here was a must. 😉

I admit that shrine sales can be fun; the variety of items being sold is amazing.  Anything from old swords, pottery, furniture, kimonos, paintings, ancient cameras, lighters… you can probably find pretty much anything and everything there at some point, though the value of some of the knick-knacks there is debatable (in fact, many would just label it “junk” (^_^;  The phrase “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” is very applicable in the flea market/shrine sale environment.

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As I said, shrine sales can be alot of fun just because you never know what you’ll come across.  In my case though, visiting a shrine sale always involves a battle with my inherent laziness just because you need to wake up pretty early if you want to get the best deals.  Vendors usually start setting up their displays around dawn so if you want make sure that you get the best of what they have to offer, you typically need to make it there around… say 0700 or 0800 at latest.  

We decided to visit the Togo Shrine since it’s a place that mom has been to before.  Also, it’s not too far from where the family was staying (though only dad, mom, and I actually went), and most importantly – it was open (Togo shrine is only open on the first and fourth Sunday of the month).  We compromised a little on the early wake-up bit and didn’t actually get there till 0900 (^^;

The flea market at Togo shrine seems to have diminished in size from previous years (I’d been there once before, and of course mom has been there quite a few times while my family was still living in Japan).  However, there was still a reasonable number of tables set up and mom ended up getting a nice little… wooden “bucket”(?) that I think was used for holding ikebana flowers before.  I totally forgot to take a picture of it though. 🙁 

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It turned out to be an exceptionally lovely day!  We even had the good fortune to watch a wedding procession that passed us and also came across a photo shoot for a second wedding that was taking place.  The latter was quite a little production with a small camera crew shooting/filming from multiple angles and attendants going back and forth to make the smallest adjustments to the clothes of the bride and groom.  I think the groom in particular was started to get a little irritable, but in the end I’m sure that the camera folks got some excellent pictures of them. 🙂

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Humor

The eyebrows, they live!

I wish I could have seen my own face when I first watched this – probably some mix of horror, bemusement, and finally laughter all rolled into one.   It is funny! 🙂

News

A work of heart

Came across this in the news today and thought it was cool enough to put up: 

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Here’s the link to the story from Asahi

Thoughts

Happy Mother’s Day!

This post is for my mom, knowing her love of flowers.  Happy Mother’s Day and love ya mom! 🙂

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Humor

The Happy Head Trip!

When I went to Tokyu Hands in Shinjuku with S a couple of days ago to look at what they had in the way of things I might need when moving, I saw this and just had to take a picture of it.  Apparently it’s a “Head Trip” and it belongs to Happy!

It’s nothing more than a… multi-pronged copper…head scratcher?  I tried it myself and to be honest, it’s not all that comfortable – the metal is cold, and even though I have thick enough hair, it was still more “painful” scratchy than “comfy” scratchy (so this is most certainly nothing a bald person would want to try).   I would have bought it just for the novelty, but at 2,000+ yen, I passed.  It’s an interesting doodad, but… more chuckle-worthy than practical I think. 😛

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