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Eating Right, Excercise, and Japanese Sea Aliens: Keys to a Healthy Life in Japan

Jason Surguine — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:02:18 +0000

As my stress levels continue to rise from an unknown reason, I thought I’d jot down some ideas for how to live healthy in Japan.

Not really, I’m just sharing some more pictures of Japanese stuff, because it’s interesting Above alien thing is on the shelf at one of my favorite restaurants. Unfortunately, it’s not on the menu yet

Honestly, I eat relatively healthy, and here is proof:

It says J’s healthy on the menu!

From most of my food pics, you might imagine that I eat out all the time. This is simply not the case, I go to the market…

And buy stuff like pre-boiled potatoes all wrapped up and ready to eat quite often. When you think of it, why buy potatoes that aren’t already cooked for you? Cooking them is such a painful, waste of time

I also cook at home and do rad experiments like trying to do my own 焼き肉 yakiniku without burning my home down or setting off fire alarms. The key is to buy a platter of meat, such as above…

And use a simple hot pot (and open all the windows in the house, turn on any fans you have, and place it next to an exit)…

So you can have tasty, freshly cooked meat (and veggies in this case) ready to eat any time you want. Simple, effective, and tasty.

Of course, it’s not all meat and veggies and starch and stuff. You gotta treat yourself sometimes. And what better way to do so than…

Trying to make your own donuts with a donut hole cutter…? I always wondered how they made the hole in the donut, but surely they don’t just cut it out? Do they? With one of these?

And of course, one of the 20 food groups includes ice cream from Baskin Robbins. Besides, their 31 flavors matches my age. Speaking of which, I’m starting to notice some grays in that beard. Stress indeed. So I really need to take care of myself more by…

Using health care products which closely resemble a gun? I’m not sticking a gun to my face just to have スベスベ肌 smooth skin, sorry.

But I do exercise, honest. I take walks often.

Particulary around the 羽田 Haneda region and the river/ocean/whatever surrounds it. Because you can catch rare (and by rare, I mean completely normal) sea creatures doing interesting things.

Like this floating Jellyfish. Which amazingly looks like the bottom of a PET bottle. Seriously. If I didn’t know it were a jellyfish, I would think someone was littering and try to pick it up and end up with some immense pain in my hands. Be careful of those damn PET pottles, er jellyfish.

And this crab who was upset with everything in the world and decided to end his life by hanging himself. Seriously. Odd sea creatures, these Japanese types. And they all look so… alien. Hence why my friend refuses to eat seafood because they look like aliens. He even calls them sea aliens.

Another thing to keep your body healthy is to not smoke cigarettes.

I don’t smoke anymore, but if I did, and I smoked inside, and I smoked inside near my computer, this USB powered ashtray 灰皿 would be incredibly useful. It would also make quitting a heckuva lot harder because it looks so cool. What, just me?

While seemingly unrelated to health, but actually quite important, is organization. Keeping your stuff organized will eliminate stress, or so they say. So I decided to get this thing to put my clothes in:

No, not the Wii Fit in the background, the giant planks of wood on the ground. Which came with this instruction manual:

With clear, easy to follow instructions like: 側板にパイプ受けを取り付けます。

In any case, it looks like this and holds all my clothing and other stuff. A bit more organized than a suitcase, don’t you think?

But you can’t always focus on diet, exercise, and organization to get rid of your stress. You still have to find time for play.

And what better way to do that than wasting your coins and time at an arcade with the Crane Game.

Even better, a Crane Game which is a freezer on the inside and pulls out ice cream?

Yup, Japan’s got that too.

Alright, I’m off to kill more stress monsters. See you soon!

I Swallowed a Camera, Wanna See Inside My Stomach?

Jason Surguine — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 15:26:53 +0000

You can’t resist a title like that, can you? I had some capsule endoscopy action going on. Or as they say in the business, a stomach camera.

That’s right! I went to a doctor, numbed up my throat and they shoved a big tube down it. As far as the procedure goes, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone; you feel like you’re going to vomit and choke the entire time, and some things simply shouldn’t happen in your stomach at the touch of a button. But I would totally recommend doing it if you have the chance simply because it’s incredibly cool!

They say that you should show personal stuff on your blog to appear more human. Since naked pictures of me would be rather boring, I figured the inside of my stomach might do the trick instead (hey, it still takes guts… hahaha, get it?! Guts! Oh, I crack me up). And I love playing House as much as anyone (no, not the kids game House, where you pretend you’re the daddy and mommy; the TV Show House) so let’s take a closer look at my stomach!

First off, this doesn’t look anything like a stomach, this looks more like the underside of a pig. But since I do eat pork, I guess it makes sense? The gooky stuff lining the walls is either saliva, mayonnaise, or used motor oil. Next.

Yeah! That looks more stomach-y! I like the wavy lines. Good job, stomach! The gangrene looking stuff near the top is nothing to worry about, according to the doctor, they’re simply supposed to be there, they’re aliens from a distant planet, or I drink far too much Green Tea. I’m going for the alien theory. Next!

While this could be a blob of pudding, yogurt, or cake mix, it’s actually a part of the gastrointestinal tract, uh… somewhere in there. That red spot with the white stuff is actual irritation from stomach acid. Nothing permanent, just think of it as a bruise. Next…

If you stare at it long enough, it starts to look like Jupiter or Mars. But this is really inside my tummy! I have Jupiter inside my tummy! Nah, just more stomach stuff. I’m guessing the red stuff is more irritation and the long hole is just more stomach.

Damn, I should’ve been a doctor. This stuff is too cool.

There were a bunch of other cool pictures too, like one where you could see the stomach acid dripping, and another where you could see the tube of the camera in my stomach, but the doctor wouldn’t give me everything (yeah, I’m one of those patients), just this much

In the end, there’s nothing seriously wrong with my stomach, just normal wrong. So, nothing to seriously worry about

What do you think? Any second opinions?

Like, you think it looks more like Venus? That’s an opinion too, I think.

Hope you enjoyed my stomach!

Ice Cream Caps, Razor Blades, and Scary Japanese Gum

Jason Surguine — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 15:29:59 +0000

With a headline like that, you must think I am a perfectly healthy, sane person.

Nah, I just wanted to post on a bunch of random things and thoughts in Japan I’ve come across. Like the Ice Cream Cap above.

Japan is hot. But image is everything. You can’t buy your ice-cream and have the top of it melt before you get home to brag to your little sister about how you got ice-cream and she didn’t. Hence, the ice cream cap was invented. It’s made from the same stuff as the cone, so you can safely eat it after you are done gloating.

And according to that picture, I need to shave, so time to go razor shopping!

Aww yeah, they have it here too! The Schick Quattro 4 Titanium Revolution (+Alpha!). For the ultimate lazy shavers like me, it includes a proper 4 bladed head up top, and a freaking electric shaver on the bottom. But…

They also have the Shick Quattro with One Piece on it! I can’t remember the last time I saw a cartoon character on a razor. But, but… it also includes a One Piece shaving mirror! And the characater ルフィ(Luffy in English?) does always looks so clean-shaven so…

I wasn’t weak and I didn’t buy the One Piece razor. I was strong and bought both.

But don’t get to thinking that Japanese is all about globalization and imported brands either, in fact… they’ve one-upped the competition with the Japanese brand…

That’s right, The Tetra Neo 5 frickin’ blades! Top that, Schickman! They even include shaving cream.

Oh?

Oh, it’s still only 4 blades, it just includes 5 extra replacements. I guess 5 blades is still beyond the highest technology in beard shaving.

Wasn’t Tetra the name of a Zelda character?

Speaking of videogame characters and Japanese products…

This is a brilliant take on the Dragon Quest slime character, combining it into a potion. For the record, fantasy potions apparently taste like mango juice. And lime. Non-carbonated too.

While we’re on this odd video game character product kick:

Super Mario bath… thing! Apparently, you drop this thing into hot bath water and…

One of your favorite Mario characters will pop out while releasing toxic gases, I mean bath salts. This is just some of the lovely stuff you can pick up from the 100 yen shops around Japan. More useful stuff include:

USB chargers for everything. From DS, PSP, Ipod, to your Cell phone. All at around $1 a pop. Now don’t you feel a bit silly for buying that $13 charger from the electronics store? I do.

In fact, the 100 ¥ shops around Japan have pretty much everything, including:

This amazing device. Which will play the soothing sound of water near your toilet. You know, for those times you don’t want to be heard. Or simply can’t go. Guys, you know… stage fright, it happens to all of us. Stop pretending.

In actuality, this device is for those who can’t afford those really expensive Japanese toilets which have an actual button for 水の音 water sounds. Japanese women apparently love the feature.

And Scary Story Gum, for those times that… wait, what?! Why…?

Yup, 100 ¥ shops even contain your favorite alcoholic beverages, like Salty Dog in a can and Ocean Blue Cocktail Partner. Notice they do have Yebisu, which is way more than 100¥. This is due to it being the best tasting beer on the planet, so it’s allowed to break the rules of the 100¥ shop.

Damn that gum really is scary. Can’t get it out of my mind.

Neither could this guy in the blue on the right.

The guy on the left, I have no idea what he is showing to that girl, but… they both look entertained.

This was during a 祭り a few weeks ago. Matsuri translates to festival, but it really is the same thing as any other country: an excuse to gather large crowds, get drunk, and act really silly in public (while blaming everything on the alcohol). Funny clothing was optional. Great food though.

Speaking of food, this is the price of fresh fish in Tokyo. Yes, those are sticker price labels. And yes, they stuck them directly on the fish… in the ice-water.

Not related to fish… or anything really, but I just noticed this map nearby my place a few days ago. Check the right side of the map, and you’ll see my good friend ‘RANDY’ is just around the block! I wish I knew that months ago, I should give him a call.

And um… food? Ah yes, everyone loves pictures of food!

Apparently, this is how you are supposed to serve real garlic bread. With sauce and scissors.

If that’s not how you are supposed to do it, I don’t care because it’s still fun. In fact, everything at this restaurant is fun. They even serve raw alligator meat.

No, I haven’t tried it yet.

Yes, I will someday.

Of course, I’ll post it on the blog. But in the meantime:

Some really tasty Thai dish. Forgot the name. Yes, Thai. I cheat on Japanese cuisine from time to time. Sorry.

The place was in Yokohama 横浜 and was reasonably affordable. Which is strange for Yokohama and Thai food, so it was a treat.

I can’t remember the name of the place, nor read, nor type Thai so:

There’s a picture of the restaurant for you

And–

That stupid gum! It’s still in my head! Why did I even post it?

To get our minds off it, I leave you with this picture of Sports Authority:

Which exists in Japan, albeit rare. But there is something amazingly odd with this picture. Zoom in and check the English board at the back. Just right of Our Promise.

Don’t they have this sign in the stores in the states? If so, does it have the same typo?

evetyday low prices.

We all make mistakes (hell, I’m famous for typos)… But perhaps before printing out a gigantic poster board, you might wanna do a quick spell-check.

See you sooner.

Trashy Novels, Buddha’s Boogers, and Japanese Fireworks

Jason Surguine — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 13:13:50 +0000

While most of this article is focusing on how Japan is incredibly beautiful even when it’s not trying to be, I can’t help but share my latest reading habits, like above.

Totally trashy novels. Yeah, that book is about hot chicks, Zombies, and chainsaws. You really can’t beat that. When I thought about it really hard, I didn’t learn English by reading literary masterpieces, they’re pretty damn boring and hard to read, so why torture myself while learning Japanese?

They go by a variety of names and a variety of publishers, and they usually look like this in a bookstore. Which reminds me of a good tip: While book stores in Japan generally wrap-up manga so you can’t open them up and browse inside, they don’t do that to books, even trashy ones like these

On to 鎌倉大仏 or the Great Buddha in KamaKura.

Which is a great, big statue of Buddha in the middle of nowhere, I mean the KamaKura region. While monks of ages past generally chose spots out of the way so no one would bother them while they’re humming to themselves, once big-ass statues are erected, they seem to draw crowds. Like these people:

Whipping out their cameras and cell phones to take a picture of the thing, just so they can say they were there. I’m obviously totally above that.

But I’m not above checking to see if they crafted some meticulous boogers from bronze.

This was pretty much the closest I could get without setting off proximity alarms. From what I could tell though… no boogers in Buddha

But they did drill two giant holes, err windows, in Buddha’s back. You may wonder why. I did too.

Apparently, you can pay 20¥ to go inside the Buddha and check out his insides. I thought that was a rip-off, or sacrilegious or something similar, so I passed.

But even way more fun around the KamaKura area is just walking around and checking out the other temples and the massive amount of green.

Yeah, that kind of green. Even surrounding massive temples like this:

We’ll call this some temple, because I forgot the name and it’s way past my bed-time. But notice how the trees and stuff look like they’re staging a coup. It’s literally everywhere. And I don’t use literally lightly. But it was figuratively everywhere too.

I was lucky enough to catch a traditional Japanese Wedding ceremony there too.

And some amazing views:

And the fun thing about the temples in this area, is that there are mini-temples inside of them:

Like this one, which leads back into a tiny, scary, almost pitch-black cave… which has scary little dolls inside lined up like this:

I forget what they’re called already. But I know I don’t want to crawl through that cave again to get to them. Back to the green!

It really is everywhere. I guess it’s no surprise that the Japanese invented 緑茶 Green Tea. It’s even in the…

花火！ Fireworks! Okay, okay everyone has green fireworks, but you have to admit, it was a great transition. But what everyone doesn’t have is:

Pink, heart-shaped Fireworks. This was during the 花火大会 Fireworks show in 浅草 Asakusa. Which is one of the largest, busiest, most-packed fireworks displays in the country. In fact, here’s how most people see it:

If you zoom in and look at those ants below, you’ll see those are actual people fighting for a view between the tall buildings to catch a ray or two of the fireworks.

Luckily, I had a super-rich friend who took pity on me and invited me to his roof-top which was dangerously close to the fireworks.

And I do mean dangerously close. See all that smoke? Now, I’m not going to scare you about Fireworks being bad for the environment. Because cows are too, and I love hamburgers. But I will say that there were several times I had to wipe ash off my face throughout the show.

Besides, they’re so pretty.

Alright, I’m off. Doctors say I gotta go find a way to relax.

I tried staring at the wall and drinking tea, but that didn’t seem to work. I’m up for suggestions

It’s not that I like hospitals… but I wish they stayed open…

Jason Surguine — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 16:00:48 +0000

It’s not that I like hospitals… nor ambulances, but I went to one, by one, last night. When I called for an ambulance, the lady on the phone was kinda nasty (my fault, I switched to English as I was in a panic… big mistake, her English was way worse than my Japanese), the ambulance took like 15 minutes to arrive, then I hung out in the ambulance for like 30 minutes while they tried to find a hospital which was still open at nighttime.

While my blood pressure and heart-rate were quite high, I was still capable of realizing how odd this was. Or not? Even in Budapest most hospitals were open quite late, some even 24 hours (and that’s Eastern Europe, keep in mind). And we’re not talking late-late, it was like 11:00pm. In Phoenix, all hospitals (that I know of) have 24hr Emergency Rooms. Then it took another 15 minutes to drive to the hospital. Imagine if this were an actual emergency, emergency. Luckily, it wasn’t.

In any case, I had some nice conversation practice with the Ambulance dudes. Then the doctor, his assistant, and the hospital’s receptionists. All in Japanese. Only a few stumbling points, none of which had to do with words or grammar (okay, I didn’t quite understand what EKG was the first two times (心電図 or 心電計), but cultural quirks like when a Japanese person sounds like they’re asking a question… but they’re not, they just want you to nod your head and say ‘gotcha.’ (はい、分かりました。)

By the time they gave me a bunch of tests and whatnot, they decided there isn’t anything major wrong with me and boiled everything down to stress. Which is… whatever, an imaginary ghost which lives inside your body and makes you feel all sorts of aches and pains based on how messed up your life is, I guess. Oh, and it raises your blood pressure, body temperature, and heart rate to really high levels for no reason whatsoever.

Stress.

Gotcha.

Strangely enough, I walked home from the Hospital (with a map and some vague directions with arrows pointing off the edges of the map) and it took less time than it did by ambulance. Then I passed out on my couch.

So I should really-really start taking things a bit easier.

But the next Arvale is looking sweet.

Arvale: Treasure of Memories Wallpaper

Jason Surguine — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 13:27:57 +0000

Click on that picture to see it in all its full beauty. Then be smart and Right-click, Save-As and set it as the most exciting desktop wallpaper you’ve used in months!

I received this full screen, beautiful artwork from my artist… honestly, as a personal request (because I still had up the wallpaper he made for Episode II on my desktop).

Anyway, it’s awesome, and it’s 1280×960 so it should look good on pretty much all computers. Even if you don’t want to use it as a desktop, you really should check out its full size; as compared to the in-game titlescreen of Episode III, this has tons of little details that make the picture really come alive (including the colosseum in the background, the flowers, and the axes, and the little trimmings on the, oh you get the idea!).

In any case, enjoy!

Arvale: Treasure of Memories, Episode III RELEASED!

Jason Surguine — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 17:15:49 +0000

I figure I damn big picture is worth a big damn thousand words.

That’s right, Arvale: Treasure of Memories, Episode III is released! Click on the above pic, or that last link for all the juicy info.

You can start a topic in the Forums and post your thoughts on the game, or if you get stuck… you know, forum-y things if you feel so inclined Like… about how awesome the new mouse controls are.

In any case, I’m super happy the game is released I sincerely hope everyone enjoys playing it as much as I enjoyed making it!

It will soon be available on the wonderful Amaranthia, Aldorlea, and OverCloud9 sites as well. So be on the lookout for them!

And have a wonderful Saturday!

Good News and Bad News, Arvale III

Jason Surguine — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 02:24:20 +0000

The Good News is, the game is freaking awesome!

The Bad News is, I need one more day. So you’ll get it on Saturday (in the Western world). I promise. Even if I have to use Hawaiian Time Zone to do it.

To hold you over until the release, here is a picture of a kitten wearing a hoodie:

Arvale III Release Date Soon-ish

Jason Surguine — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 07:35:58 +0000

Honestly, Episode III of Arvale: Treasure of Memories is pretty much done.

It’s playable, it’s beautiful, and it’s fun. But it currently looks a bit like this title art:

While you can see everything that’s going on, it still looks great, and it’s fully functional, it seems to be missing a few things around the edges. Fine details and such. So I’ve got a few things to fill in before the game gets released.

I’ve also realized that stress is a real thing, not a myth. And I seem to have noticed an interesting pattern. Remember what happened just before I released Episode II? This happened.

While this time I didn’t end up going to a hospital, perhaps I should have. Not nearly as serious in the short-term as kidney stones, but stress tends to screw up all sorts of things in your body. So… take care of yourself so you don’t end up like me.

That being said, gimme one more week. Let’s release Arvale:TM, Episode III on August 6th.

Arvale III New-Old Character, Brodyn

Jason Surguine — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 05:25:26 +0000

Here is rough sketch of another new character who will appear in Arvale: Treasure of Memories, Episode III. His name is Brodyn.

If you’ve played the original Arvale: Journey of Illusion (I highly recommend it, as it’s free!); then you may have encountered this character before

Brodyn is the Elven Prince of Kytar. He joined up with Duncan in his very first quest as part of the underground movement, Veritaes. During that time, he had run away from his duties as next in line to be a prince (for various reasons). Since Journey of Illusion, he has returned to being a prince and will be coronated as the next King soon. No extra information to spill, except that he’s recently been betrothed and is not enjoying being cooped up in a castle all the time.

Oh, and he joins Duncan’s party while they are on the second continent of this episode. And… he fights with a spear. And he is very interested in— Oh no, I’ve said too much!

More soon!