Tokyo Game Show

Thanks to Gamania.com I got to see the Tokyo Game Show. It was pretty interesting. Huge and lots of glittery displays. Sony's section was quite impressive. I was entertained by all the cosplay going on. Sadly I forgot my camera so I didn't take any pictures. The Wii looks like a lot of fun. I want to try the monkey darts game they have. They had girls dressed up to match the games they were demo-ing. The girls playing the sword game looked really bored, sadly. I think I'd have a lot more fun than they did. The two girls demonstrating the sports games were fun to watch though. One girl got the hang of the games a lot faster than the other girl.

There were a lot of fanboys taking pictures of the various booth girls. It was funny to see both the girls and the boys posing for pictures.

Have you seen any of these films?

Some of my favorite movies include:

Strictly Ballroom
Postmen in the Mountains （山の郵便配達）
Children of Heaven
Spirited Away (千と千尋の神隠し）

Other than Spirited Away, not that many people I know have seen any of the above films, so I'm wondering how popular they are in general. I don't think Children of Heaven was widely released in the U.S.; I believe I saw it at a local international film festival in Boston.

update on the local tai chi class

Very excited, I rush to the bus outside of the train station, and hurriedly check that it stops at the location specified on the map that I got from the website. Mostly elderly people fill the bus. The bus driver was occupied with killing mosquitoes with his white-gloved hands. My stop is only the second one on the bus route, so the ride was over before I knew it.

I get out of the bus, but nothing helps me orient myself with respect to the map, so after looking around for a while, I ask a nearby lady on a bicycle. After a moment of confusion she realizes what building I was looking for and points me in the direction in a very friendly manner. I thank her and rushed to cross the street. The building is just a minute away and I walk in and ask the receptionist about the tai chi lesson. He informs me that they'll be admitting people at 6:15 so I should wait until then. Then he asks me if I have "uwabaki" (上履き) with me. I don't know what "uwabaki" is, so ask him "What is uwabaki? (上履きは何ですか？)" This throws him for a loop and he is at a loss for how to respond. Then I explain that my Japanese is not too good and that seems to make everything clear to him. He says I'll have to wear socks inside, and I say that's fine. Personally, I think it would have been nice of him to explain what "uwabaki" means, but I guess he wasn't up to the challenge. Apparently you have to bring indoor-use only shoes with you; no street shoes allowed. One of the secret rituals!

Quite a few people eventually filled the gym for the class. There were two teachers who seemed quite nice. All the students were regulars; I was the only new person. I think only 3 or 4 people were under the age of 50 out of 26 or so. They play music to go along with class which was an interesting change. A voice counted numbers in Japanese over the music. They use the Chinese names for the various parts of the forms. I don't know what style of tai chi they teach, but it seems to be different from Chen style tai chi. At two hours long it seems like quite a lengthy class, but very cheap since it only costs 100 yen to attend. The teachers must be volunteers.

tai chi

I'm looking forward to visiting a tai chi class in a local gym. I hope the teaching style suits me. I will also be making a long overdue visit to the dentist.

Word of the day: 食通（しょくつう shokutsuu）:gourmet

If you're ever in Shimokitazawa, I recommend Pistol Pinoko as a friendly little bar/cafe.

I understood!

An entire song in Japanese. I was listening to the Kiroro CD I've had for probably 7 years now, and just realized that for the first time I could understand the lyrics! No straining either; I literally knew all the vocabulary. Exciting!

SCJP Exam for J2SE 5 prelim review

I'm studying for the Sun Java exam for Java 5.0, and using the book SCJP Exam for J2se 5 by Paul Sanghera. So far the writing is quite clear, but quite a few typos are showing up that are bothering me.

I think they could have put a little more effort into proofreading the book, considering it's not an inexpensive book.

So far:
* Some errors in the value ranges for primitive classes - the text is correct but the diagram is wrong.

* A few errors in the solutions for the chapter review questions

* Discrepancy between the text and the figure for the discusson on non-static nested classes (aka inner classes) and static nested classes. The discussion was a bit confusing so I looked up more detailed information (more here). I'll need to run the example figures and see if the code as specified in the book actually works.

I'm only halfway through chapter 3, so I'm wondering how good this book will be. On the plus side, it's a positive aspect that I'm able to actually catch these errors; it's a good way to get a more thorough understanding of Java 5.0.

Tamiyo Kusakari of Shall We Dance?

I just read a very interesting interview with Tamiyo Kusakari, who played the dance instructor in 1996's popular Japanese movie Shall We Dance?

I didn't realize that she was an actual ballerina; I had assumed that all the lead characters were played by actors.