Living the Sci Fi Dream

Flash back to 1989: Back to the Future Part II. Being only 9, I was amazed at the flying cars that run on garbage, hoverboards, hologram "Jaws", and fully automated gasoline stands. Although the year 2015 seemed like a long way off, I couldn't fathom any of these technologies coming to be.

It seems as though we are stepping into the future.


Instead of Mr. Fusion to run our cars, we will soon see an influx of Hydrogen Fuel Cell cars. Unlike electric hybrids, these cars will have full-out racing performance potential. Mazda has recently showcased their RX-8 Hydrogen edition at the Tokyo Motor Show. When running on hydrogen, these cars will give off little more than water vapor. Unfortunately, the dirty little secret of hydrogen is where the hydrogen comes from. Oil companies are clamoring to make the switch; burning fossil fuels to make hydrogen, instead of just putting it right in your car. Many of those in the Blogosphere (that's right, I said it), believe that this switch could prove fruitless, unless we are using renewable resources to make the Hydrogen. Things like solar and wind power are best bets. Right now it looks like 90% of Hydrogen will be made through the burning of fossil fuels, 10% through nuclear power and 0% through renewable resources. I guess those oil tycoons just aren't ready to throw in the towel.



Instead of flying cars, we will have cars that drive themselves. Stanford Racing Team's "Stanley" won the DARPA Challenge recently, collecting $2 million in prize money. The challenge, issued by the US military, was to have a car navigate a 190 mile stretch in the Mojave Desert. The catch was that the car had to be unmanned, nor driven remotely. In order to collect the prize, teams had to finish the course in under 10 hours. The fastest car, of course is the winner. This years race was quite an improvement on 2004's. Last year most cars only got 10-15 miles, and some as little as 5. The practical applications for this kind of technology are quite vast. The military can use these kind of dummy cars to follow other soldiers, or use them on their own for reconnaissance work. Cars can be equipped with sensors that let the driver know if they are erratically changing lanes, or even correct their steering to prevent accidents. I don't know if we'll ever get to the point of starting the car and taking a nap while the car drives (the cars in the tournament went an average of 20 mph), but we may soon see this in even the most mundane of cars. Remember, for a long time seatbelts and windsheild wipers weren't manditory on cars.

You can read more about the race and see pictures here: http://news.com.com/2300-11394_3-5892103-2.html

I don't know if we'll see a hoverboard any time soon, but we may be seeing holograms. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the prize to Americans Roy Glauber and John Hall, and to Germany's Theodor Haensch, for studying light and harnessing lasers to create a "measuring stick" to gauge frequencies with extreme precision. Basically what this means is we can now measure frequencies within an accuracy of 15 digits. This also means extreme control over light and light frequencies. Can anyone say hologram TV? Even one of the prize winning scientists think its possible. I wouldn't throw out that High Def TV yet, though. This technology is far in the future.

On a bit more of a distopian note, Nippon Telegraph & Telephone company has developed a headset that is a mild form of mind control. It was developed to make video games more "realistic", and involves an electrical current "messing with the delicate nerves inside the ear that help maintain balance." It is said to have a similar feeling to being drunk, or melting into unconsciousness when under anesthesia, except its more definitive and really feels like someone is reaching out to your brain to control you. Scary! "Nippon Telegraph & Telephone" is the top telephone company in (you guessed it) Japan.


Finally, have you heard what NASA is up to? They're having an open contest to see who can build a self powered robot that can climb an elevator of galactic proportions. NASA is toying with the idea of making a "Space Elevator" in which a ribbon would extend from the ground, and reach up to space. Made from carbon-chain nanotubes, the 8" ribbon would be stronger than steel, allowing robots to ascend to the space station carrying supplies... Are you kidding me? Not that I don't want it to happen, but this idea not only seems quite "out there" but very impractical. It reminds me of reading "Battle Angle Alita" growing up. In this fictional future world, there was a fabled "floating city" that was suspended above the earth by a large shaft cutting through the atmosphere and counterbalance in orbit. Sound confusing? Well, its almost the same as what NASA is trying to do.

I guess that's it. I just wanted to talk a little bit about some of these things. It seems like a lot more breakthroughs are happening these days.

Ton Ten Ton

There is a famous festival in Imari every year called Ton-Ten-Ton. On the surface, it looks like any other festival in Japan: Lots of street vendors selling food and tickets to games of chance, tons of tough looking High Schoolers with shaved eyebrows, and High School girls wearing their school uniforms even though its the weekend (with their skirts hiked up, I might add).

So, yes, on the surface, it may seem like an everyday run-of-the-mill festival. But look a little closer and you will see something quite different. Ton-Ten-Ton's roots are based around the feudal struggle between the commoners and nobility. It culminates in the smashing of two shrines together (each one representing their class), and seeing which one falls into the river. The smashing begins with a lot of trash talking between the two sides. Most of what they were saying was completely unintelligible to me because everyone was so drunk. Basically, some guy would get on top of one of the shrines, yell some stuff, and then a bunch of guys would go jump in the freezing river for fun. After their friends drag them out, they lift up the shrines and run into each other; trying to flip the other's into the river. This actually goes on for many hours, since the shrines do not flip into the river right away. If the peasants shrine gets flipped in, then the nobility will have a good harvest. If its the other way around, the peasants will catch lots of fish. The name Ton-Ten-Ton is derived from the sound that the drummer makes as the shrine align each other to commence flipping. Very dramatic.

It made me cold to see those guys jump in the river, but I gotta admit, it was fun as hell watch.

Enjoy the pics! (Also, I apologize in advance for the crappyness of the pictures. Most of them are stills from my digicams video function.

The calm before the storm.


Parading around. This part was very much like a WWF match.



Some trash talking in action


They start to crash together.




A view from the bridge.


Starting to tip in.






Dragging the shrines out.

Ikitsuki

Last Saturday, Jill CJ and I all went to the island that CJ lives on for a bit of a tour. Earlier that day, CJ and I had checked out an abandoned factory and it ended up being perfect weather for sight seeing.

Ikitsuki's name is composed of two kanji: Iki or 生 which means life , and tsuki or 月 which means moon. Put them together and Ikitsuki's name figuratively means "Breath of the Moon". I think that is one of the coolest meanings for the name of a place. Incidentally, Fukushima means: Fuku or 福, and Shima 島 or -Hence "Good Luck Island".

Because Ikitsuki is pretty much on the other side of the world, we didn't actually get into Ikitsuki until about 2:30 or so. I can't imagine how CJ managed to get out to Imari so early in the morning. When we got there, we immediately headed out for the west shore. Now, growing up in NC, I was used to fairly big waves. When I got to Japan, I was actually quite surprised how calm the water was. I guess this is mostly because there are a lot of barriers (man-made and natural) which keep things pretty calm. Well this day on Ikitsuki was like being back home. The west side is right on the ocean, so the waves were very big, (good enough for surfing I'd reckon). It seems like every island in Japan is slightly different. Even ones in the same prefecture like Fukushima and Ikitsuki. Whereas Fukushima is very forested and mountainous, Ikitsuki seems to have a lot more open fields and shrubbery. It is also known for its cliffs which run along the western shore. Sadly, these cliffs become a very attractive place for people to come from all over Japan to commit suicide.

Unfortunately we only got about 3 hours of exploring in before the sun went down. Once it did, we headed over to Allee's in Himosahi for "martinis and gangster films". Neither of these things really happened, though. The girls decided to organize the party with the theme, but after actually trying a martini and watching the first 20 minutes of Scarface, they turned things over to more delicious and lighter material (burgers and Aqua Teen Hunger Force).

Enjoy the pics!

My Friend John

This is kind of a side note, but I have a very hilarious friend here in Japan named John. I hope you can appreciate these pictures.






I wanted to make sure that I gave Jill credit for some of these (since she always gets on me about it), so Jill took both of the ones with John in the wheelchair.

Imari Factory

My, its been a while.

Of course, this is due an excess of pictures and info that I need to post.

This past weekend I did quite a bit. It all started out with CJ (an ALT who lives on Ikitsuki) calling me up at 4:30am on a Saturday morning. We had decided that we would go check out an abandoned factory on the Imari-Matsuura border. We met up a little after 5:00 at the Family Mart, ate some breakfast, and heading out of the building.

I won't lie. We decided to go early so we would have the cover of darkness. We weren't sure if it was illegal to be poking around, but we didn't want to take any chances. Once on the grounds, the sun would come up, and we would be able to investigate our surroundings more thoroughly.

After a quick slip under some haphazard barbed wire, we headed into the main warehouse area. The building was old and had been abandoned for some time, because most of the ceiling was gone and you could see up to the second floor. We were comforted by the fact that it was hard ground beneath out feet and not some creaky floor. As big as the place looked from the outside, there was only a very small portion that was walkable. The rest was completely overgrown with trees and vines. After wandering around the inside and the perimeter a bit,the sun began to rise, and I began to take pictures. I brought a small backpacking tripod and a shutter release cable, knowing that most shots would be low light, and require as such.

After closer inspection of the place, we decided that the building probably had frequent visitors due to the worn pathways through the foliage. We also found a much easier way to get in which involved us simply walking through an opening in the fence. I'm guessing that the building was built sometime in the 1930's (if Japanese industrial architecture is anything like American architecture). I have no idea when it was deserted, though. By the amount of growth in the place I would have to say at least 20 years, although I feel like I'm pretty bad at that kind of guesswork.

Below are the fruits of my labor. We scooted out around 8:30am, and took a drive around the countryside at early morning (which was beautiful) and then headed over to Jill's house which was nearby. (We planned on taking a nap because we were all going to CJ's island that night, but we just ended up watching "The Thomas Crowne Affair" and eating chocolate chip pancakes).

Look Who's Talking Also

Last Friday I was extremely tired. I got home from work at 5:00pm and decided to take a nap. When I woke up it was 7:00. I couldn't figure out why it was still light out. I checked the clock again... It was 7:00am. During that time, I had a roller-coaster of dreams, but I could only remember one vividly.

This dream was an extended preview for the next sequel in the "Look Who's Talking" franchise. This one was called "Look Who's Talking Also." It starred Ed O'Neill (Al Bundy from Married With Children) and Mary-Kate Olsen. This time they tried to up the ante by digitally placing the actors' heads on babies' bodies. Watching it was like watching a "Mini-me" version of Ed and Mary-Kate run around getting in mediocre exploits. The tag line for the film was "The movie we never should have made!" and was directed by the director of "Son of the Mask." Incidentally, "Son of the Mask" got something like 2.8 stars out of 10 on IMDB.

Most of the dream was a drawn-out preview of the movie showing the weird adult-head babies doing something cute and then a *ding* sounding after they smile (a la "Because of Winn-Dixie"). Other parts were interviews with the director talking about the movie and really playing up how terrible it was. He seemed to have no qualms about telling everyone not to come see it.

I have to admit, if someone honestly said that the current movie they were in sucked-ass and isn't worth seeing, I actually might go check it out. (I mean, I saw "Torque" in the theater).

Well, over the past couple of days, this dream kept getting into my head, and so I thought that I would be proactive and do something about it. I made a poster for the movie. I've included the posters for the first three legitimate "Look Who's Talking" movies to give you an idea of the flavor. My poster is completely hand drawn (not that I really wanted to do it that way, but all the pics on the internet weren't high enough resolution). Hope you enjoy it. As always, you can click on the picture to get a bigger version. Cheers!

Gunkanjima 軍艦島

Could this be the next BIG adventure for the "Hokusho Pirates"?


(Hokusho Pirates is a tentative name...what do you think?)

Hashima, aka Gunkanjima, was once the site of Japan's most densely populated city. Built on top of what used to be a small reef, the island was used to get to underwater coal mining areas from after WWII-1974. In 1974, Japan switched from coal to cleaner burning natural gas. People got everything they could pack on their backs, and took off. The island has been deserted for over 30 years now...

What we are talking about here is a veritable motherload of adventure. A ghost island. I mean this is any pirates dream. Where is it located you may ask? Off the coast of the Nagasaki Peninsula, right in my back yard...

See its exact location here: http://www14.big.or.jp/~kawamura/m-city/english_about_g.html

This illicit island has apparently been the source of legend in Japan, a salaryman's secret daydream fantasy. Because its so close, I don't think I'd ever forgive myself if I didn't try to get out there. People that have been out there report back that it is "like a time-capsule preserving a plethora of appliances, personal items, and architecture from the 60's and 70's." There was everything anyone needed or wanted on the island: movie theater, hospital, barbershop, apartments for everyone, schools, etc. Take all these things plus 5,000 people, pack them tightly around coal mining equipment in a space little more than five football fields long, and two football fields wide, and you've got Gunkanjima. The actual name of the island is Hashima, but it got its nickname "Gunkanjima" because its silhouette looks like a great battleship on the seas. In fact, during WWII, American forces actually fired on the island, thinking it was indeed a battleship blocking their path.

I'm not sure on the specifics, and most people seem to be very secretive about how to get out there, but I am going to do my best to make a trip. You, the viewer, will of course be showered with photographs.



For more information on Gunkanjima, follow the links below. I realize I ripped off these pictures from peoples web sites, and I am truly sorry. I did it just to prove my point about how much it looks like this island rocks. Once I have my own pictures, of course, this will be of no consequence.

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/saiga/yuji/index.html
http://www.uwosh.edu/home_pages/faculty_staff/earns/hashima.html
http://www.nagayo-net.com/~gunkanjima/
http://unya.raindrop.jp/gunkanzima/welcome.html
http://www14.big.or.jp/~kawamura/m-city/english_photo_gallery.html
http://home.f01.itscom.net/spiral/hashima/hashima001.html

Some of these sites are in Japanese. Some of you may not know Japanese, or your computer might not be able to read Japanese characters. For this I suggest google translator:

http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en

If that doesn't work, clicking wildly is always a best bet.

Murphy Brown

Anyone born before or in 1990 will probably remember the TV show Murphy Brown. It ran from 1988-1998, making it a fairly venerable sitcom for my generation. I happened to be watching an old tape of some episodes that where (graciously?) left by a previous JET participant that used to live in my apartment. So far from the collection they left behind, I've gathered that they like: The Simpsons (good choice), Danny DeVito, Aikido (many home-made Aikido tapes), Kevin Klein, and Montana (the state, not the football player). Of course, Murphy Brown goes without saying.

Now, at this point, I bet you wonder where I'm going with all this. "Yes," you may say, "Murphy Brown was a good/okay show, but so what?" Well lets just get right down to brass tacks.

I was watching the season premier from 1996, and I got to wondering, "What were all those actors doing now?" The show ended in '98, so I thought that I'd peep in on IMDB.com (Internet Movie Database) and see what our fave cast was doing.

First off, Joe Regalbuto (the guy who played Frank) is looking pretty busted...



Secondly, if you haven't seen it already and don't know, Candace Bergen played a fairly large role in the 2000 "smash hit" Miss Congeniality (actually a "pretty O.K." movie). More recently she's been in Sweet Home Alabama and A View From the Top.



But lastly, I wanted to talk a little bit about Faith Ford, the woman who played Corky Sherwood. I was surprised to find out that she was in The Pacifier recently (no I haven't seen it). I saw a few pics of her on set, but I thought there might be some better ones elsewhere, so I "googled" her... Look, I don't know what kind of people have the time, or even the desire to put together these kinds of websites, but they exist.

http://www.hard-to-find-actresses.com/misc4.html

I felt like an absolute stalker glancing through the site. Someone sat down and took still frames of her on Murphy Brown and various other miscellaneous movies and TV shows and set up a gallery of her. That by itself is not too suprising, but it was the captions that got to me. Comments like "showing some leg", and "I like her in glasses". I slowly started to realize that whomever had put together the page was writing a "stalker-esque" type inner monologue. There are probably about 30 pictures of her in a night-gown from an episode of Murphy Brown. Lots of comments on these like "looking sexy on the bed", "a clear shot of her panties", and "a collage of that wonderful scene." I was pretty floored. Not so much that someone would make those comments, but to make them over practically nothing. You can see the link here:

http://www.hard-to-find-actresses.com/murphy.html

I really don't get it. I mean, sure, Faith Ford was (and is) an attractive woman, but she never even hinted to a bit of sexuality on Murphy Brown. This last one is my absolute favorite. It's from some old movie she did when she was younger. This caption goes with the picture below it:

"If you look closely, you can make out her breast and a nipple in silhouette as she bends over."



WHO SITS AROUND AND PUTS THIS STUFF ON THE WEB!?!?!?!
Alright, I've said my peace...

Mukade Strikes!

I can deal with most bugs. Sure they're not pleasant, but I can deal with roaches, crickets, and beetles. I've even grown fairly tolerant of spiders recently (due to the frequency of their visiting my home). I still stand firm in the fact that my number one most feared creatures are scorpions, but I think I just found a close second. In Japan their name is "Mukade", and they are centipedes. As I write this, I have just now finished dealing with one of these horrifying creatures. You may ask where I found her? Well, only in the place where one is most vulnerable, the shower.

Now, since I've moved in, the light in my shower hasn't really worked. You can turn it on, but its a fluorescent bulb on the fritz and flickers. So, unless I feel like having "dance party Japan" when I take a shower, I usually leave it off. Now, there is a little light that comes through my shower door from the next room and usually this is enough for me to find soap, shampoo, etc. It is not, however sufficient for the systematic hunting and killing of centipedes. I got in the shower, just like normal, and out of the corner of my eye saw what looked to be a very fast slithering shadow. I thought perhaps my eyes were playing tricks on me, or I was merely casting a shadow on myself inadvertently. But, sure enough, I saw it move again. I immediately hopped out of the shower and went and got my headlamp flashlight. There, on the floor of my shower was about a 5" long centipede. I think it was very confused why it was all wet in there all of a sudden. I probably went through 4 or 5 objects in my house before I settled on the end of a mop handle to try to kill it. For a brief minute, I actually considered taking it captive and pitting it against the hunter spider I've captured (more on this at another time). But, I then came to my senses knowing that I could never fall asleep if I knew it was alive somewhere albeit under some kind of Tupperware container.

So I killed the sucker. Well, I'm assuming its dead. Its head was still wiggling back and forth when I flushed her. The reason I know it was a her is because when I started stabbing at it with the mop handle, eggs come oozing out of it. I know there's really no way to determine it, but it was probably the grossest thing ever. As far as dangerosity goes, they are poisonous. You won't die, but they have a nasty bite. Plus there's the Japanese rumor that they can kill babies.

But it's dead now, and first thing tomorrow I'm going to get a light for the shower. I've included a picture for everyone's vicarious viewing pleasures. I didn't have the presence of mind, nor the patience to take a picture myself, so what I've included is a stock photo approximating its appearance. Hope you enjoy it. I'm off to bed now!