ixday - Two years in Japan

Where I am working…

Alex — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:55:00 +0000

I didn’t think the internship would take me so much time, but after a couple of 無礼講　(bureikou, some kind of time where managers put aside their title, and have fun with employees), meeting with other interns, etc. , in the end I just went to bed after showering every night. So where am I working?

Well, first, it’s in Ebisu, a rather famous part of the Shibuya-ku. Then it’s a big building right next to the Ebisu station:

The Yebisu Garden Place building

The big one

YGP By Night

At the bottom of the building, there is the “Garden Place”. Placement of benchs and fountains are a bit different but you get the idea:

Now there are some kind of windmills all around the place

And there’s also what looks to me as a French castle:

Looks nice

Click here to see the video.

See after 2:00, looks like that now. Don’t know why but there’s always wind blowing under the ark and feels nice and fresh. Maybe there’s some kind of ventilation system, I don’t know…

I’ll probably put photos of the inside of the building soon, basically it’s open space, with like 200 people in the same office sitting face-to-face.

IUJ Open Day Performances

Alex — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 16:16:15 +0000

I am currently in the middle of packing since I am leaving for Tokyo tomorrow (I mean today) and I have to check out from my room in IUJ. The Open Day DVD was out two weeks ago, and I spent a couple of days ripping it and uploading it. Some performances are really worth seeing:

Click here to see the video.

The European performance. French guys will have immediately recognized the Claude Francois’s classic, Alexandrie Alexandra. Second part is some german/russian song, but don’t ask me what the title is.

Click here to see the video.

In Open Days, Team America’s performance is always something you should not miss. This year, even though the quality was a bit behind last year remake of Evolution dance, it was still the case.

Click here to see the video.

Japanese locals performance: aerobic dance? That’s kind of impressive. Is that the Japanese parent of jumpstyle?

Click here to see the video.

Notice the creativity of Japanese students… Plus they don’t hesitate to dress as women for the show, the GSO-EC president (student organization) is dressed as a girl in the middle at the beginning. And they finish with Run to you (DJ doc) or its Japanese version DJ ozma. Visualy it’s great, and I think it will stay in memories as the best performance of this Open Day, setting high standards for next year Open Day…

You can check out other performances here: GSO-EC youtube channel

Ok, back to packing!

Pimp my ride

Alex — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 19:26:33 +0000

Because videos are always better than long posts, check out this video:

Click here to see the video.

Maybe it’s time to call Pimp my ride Japan?

Supa-busy times…

Alex — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 09:23:46 +0000

You could say it is just as usual. And you would probably be right. This week is the last week of the term, meaning exams + term papers & group presentations. Time flies, it’s already been a year in IUJ… Many things have happened in the recent weeks (e.g. IUJ Olympics), but I keep that to have something to talk about in the coming weeks. Unless you’re very close family, you might not now what I will be doing for the next two months. Easy to guess, it is an internship. 2 months in Tokyo working in Ebisu, living in Takaido, close to Shinjuku and Shibuya. I’ll be working for a japanese company. I don’t know about writing the name of the company on this blog, I7m still wondering if it is a good idea or not. We are 3 students from my university to intern in this company. Internship is about Marketing / Business development. Honestly it sounds very interesting and I consider myself lucky to have found such an opportunity. It looks nice, seems to be in the hands of very nice people, they have organised activities for the interns. And most of all we will be actually working/learning, not making photocopies/coffee.

23rd of June ==> 24th of August. Uni starts end of September, therefore I still have one month where I have yet no idea of what I am going to do.

I think this summer is going to be a great one…

French cars in the Japanese countryside

Alex — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 09:17:31 +0000

I find that always amazing to see Japanese driving French cars, especially in the countryside. In Tokyo, I’ve seen a couple a 206 (Peugeot), one Renault Kangoo, one or two 2CV by Citroen. Of course in Tokyo you see far less french cars than German or American cars… In the countryside (well at least in the area where I am living), I’ve seen more than in Tokyo. And people have less german cars, because of the lack of money I guess.

Again I’ve seen a couple of 206, 306 and 307. Only Peugeot. But I was even more surprised when I saw this car on the parking lot of the local hospital:

That’s right, a 406 Coupe with custom wheels. Maybe in Tokyo I would have been less surprised, but in Minamiuonuma, it was kind of a shock…

Notice the Peugeot Japan sticker, and the “Musketier” series.

And then Fanta saved the world!

Alex — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 08:13:31 +0000

Thanks to Fanta, now Japan knows what we really like to drink, Muscat Fanta. Not to mention they already have Fanta Grape in Japan. Didn’t try Fanta France, but I am not a huge fan of Fanta Grape…

IUJ Open Day 2009

Alex — Mon, 25 May 2009 09:05:57 +0000

IUJ (my university) Open Day 2009 was held last Saturday. As a member of the students association and of the European team, I was a bit busy, but it was really nice. But what is Open Day? It’s an event where cultural groups within the university (such as people from India, people from Vietname, …) and some groups from the local community present something to the locals. It can be a performance, cooking or both. European team was doing both although I did not perform. It is a very good chance to taste various cooking styles from all over the world. For Europe, we chose to make Crepes and French toasts, quite a success since our booth sales were the second biggest after Americas team (grr!! ). We were afraid that it might rain but in the end weather was just fine.

Let’s start with two videos I shot, kind of quick tour of Open day:

Click here to see the video. Click here to see the video.

You can find more pictures by clicking here: Photos (select the open day album).

Finally, the only performance video I have (and only part of it) is Japanese taiko (drums):

Click here to see the video.

I will try to find videos of the other performances, some were really awesome (Japan!).

日本の音楽

Alex — Tue, 19 May 2009 19:22:40 +0000

These are two songs that have been for a while in my winamp playlist. Not that amazing, but that sticks in your head and soon you become obsessed…

Click here to see the video.

It quickly becomes annoying.

Click here to see the video.

My favorite.

Click here to see the video.

Remix is far better than original, but that’s not the true reason why you listen to the music. You listen to this because you have watched the clip at least once.

Click here to see the video.

Apparently a big hit in 2008, I am listening a lot to this one atm… Wait Universal disactivated embedding for this videoclip…　Ok found another one. Wait it seems it’s from a drama, Rookies (and a manga I think). Looks cool, maybe I should give it a go.

????x%$&@!???

Alex — Tue, 19 May 2009 07:51:31 +0000

I just want to tease you:

So… Any idea of what this is?

IUJ T-shirt Design competition

Alex — Sun, 17 May 2009 19:02:04 +0000

4:00AM, Just finished a design for an internal competition in my university for the next t-shirt available for all-students. Rules were: 2 inks maximum, which does not help obviously. But since I had a very busy week end (week (month)), no choice but to produce something in an hour to meet the deadline. I am not very satisfied, it just looks like it might have been done with Paint… Anyway I guess I will do better in another life. Was wondering if I should go and check Rockets vs Lakers, game 7 full of promises (and surprises?), but it is kind of late.　And I don’t like waiting 3 hours, half being the game and the other half ads. And Marseille is playing against Lyon in the french Football Championship, a game that could be the title decider for Bordeaux… What time was it again? Whatever…