帰国
Thanks to everyone who wished me a good trip. The flight was uneventful, and here I am in New York.
Jet lag. Luckily for me, Atsushi's going-away present was two sets of DVDs--the first and last series of「古畑任三郎」, the Japanese detective show modeled on Columbo that we used to watch together. I'm through six episodes already!
[Added on 29 April: Since I was talking about product design in the next post, I might mention that 「古畑任三郎」has some of the coolest titles I've ever seen. The Japanese are known for their sleek design, but to a degree that's because what we see in the West is selected by other Western visitors, who bring back the most striking artifacts. Lots of graphic and industrial design in Japan is as clunky and unprepossessing as it is anywhere else. That's especially true where words are concerned. Print media, web pages, and movie credits often have cutesy visual themes and are crammed with text. For a culture so renowned for maximizing the impact of spare design, Japan goes in for the clutter an awful lot.
Fuji TV doesn't seem to have streaming video of the opening credit sequence up on its page, which is a shame because the music is pretty cool, too. You can still can get a sense of the way it flows by clicking on some of the links:
If you click around on the site, actually, you may see what I mean by clutter. Even if you can read the Japanese, the page is hard to navigate.]
Speaking of jet lag, a word to American Airlines: When your flight is landing at JFK at 6 p.m., it's flat-out cruel to keep the cabin lights off and serve breakfast an hour before beginning descent. I mean, seriously? As if my sense of time weren't already screwed up enough.
Jet lag. Luckily for me, Atsushi's going-away present was two sets of DVDs--the first and last series of「古畑任三郎」, the Japanese detective show modeled on Columbo that we used to watch together. I'm through six episodes already!
[Added on 29 April: Since I was talking about product design in the next post, I might mention that 「古畑任三郎」has some of the coolest titles I've ever seen. The Japanese are known for their sleek design, but to a degree that's because what we see in the West is selected by other Western visitors, who bring back the most striking artifacts. Lots of graphic and industrial design in Japan is as clunky and unprepossessing as it is anywhere else. That's especially true where words are concerned. Print media, web pages, and movie credits often have cutesy visual themes and are crammed with text. For a culture so renowned for maximizing the impact of spare design, Japan goes in for the clutter an awful lot.
Fuji TV doesn't seem to have streaming video of the opening credit sequence up on its page, which is a shame because the music is pretty cool, too. You can still can get a sense of the way it flows by clicking on some of the links:
If you click around on the site, actually, you may see what I mean by clutter. Even if you can read the Japanese, the page is hard to navigate.]
Speaking of jet lag, a word to American Airlines: When your flight is landing at JFK at 6 p.m., it's flat-out cruel to keep the cabin lights off and serve breakfast an hour before beginning descent. I mean, seriously? As if my sense of time weren't already screwed up enough.
Posted by Sean on
2008-04-23 04:49:03
M