On the work side, I've had a lot of stuff to do recently. Some great things happening, but some not so great, too. I cannot currently say that I'm 100% happy with the situation.

I wish I had more trust and a bit more decisional power. If I were given more power, the first thing I'd do would be to give myself a raise 8) ..no, really !
Sounds lame but it's important. I think that my current position is potentially very formative (I consider that very important), so I would like to invest extra time on it, but at my age I have to start worrying about getting more money and if my day job doesn't provide enough, I'll have to start looking for alternatives, second jobs, different jobs, whatever.
Let's not even start talking about job mobility in Japan. Work places are very static, especially for a foreigner with limited Japanese language abilities working in the game business. But, I want to stay in Japan so, in a way or another I have to find a way to have fun, improve my career and my paycheck, too 8) ..not easy but I'm very confident I can achieve pretty much anything, if I focus in the right direction (where ? 8)

Recently, I've been given more and more responsibilities, which is exciting ! However the management side of things tends to distract me from the actual coding/research, which is still where I have to give my best. Then there is the business travels, the health checks, the PCs setup, tons of emails in Japanese to read, and my Japanese itself, with the reading skills which are possibly worsening... aaaaaaahhhhhhh !!!!!
Being able to collaborate and communicate is an essential skill, but as a seasoned developer, sometimes I feel I should just be trusted because I can't be a "PowerPoint-man", a "business-travel-man" and still being the lead coder in a "new" team.
As I said before, I try to stay off the trends as much as I can. Not getting my head into some mainstream trend in real-time 3D is very important. Creativity is what will set anyone apart, and trends kill creativity.. so, do worries at work.

..eventually everything will fall in place. But right now I'm paying the price: Sunday I spent my day in the office working practically alone. Not so much because there is no time in the long term, but more because I don't have everyone's confidence just yet, which frankly it sucks 8(

mooooooooooooo

* About the title

..same thing, again !!!!

又んだ！（ディジカメをなくした！）

Last month in San Diego. This today in a taxi in San Francisco.. but of course the receipts from taxis in San Francisco are pretty much useless. They give you some standard piece of paper that you have to fill yourself with things.

先月サンディエゴに。今回はサンフランシスコのタクシーに忘れたかもしれない。ここはタクシーのレシートが本当のレシートじゃなくて、名刺みたいの自由に記入される物だ。運転者などの情報がまったくないんだ。

In Japan instead you get an actual printed receipt and the taxi driver will remind you as you leave the taxi to check if you are leaving any items behind.

日本だたら、本当のレシートをもらってタクシーを出かけるとき、運転者さんが忘れ物がないことを確かめてくれる。

I am an idiot, but Japan is definitely a great country !

僕はバカですけど、日本もすばらしいな国だと思う！

I just want to go back home now ! (;_;)

もう帰りたい！ (;_;)

今日はTokyoClubbersの携帯版を紹介したいと思います(^o^)
携帯から、ただ→http://tokyoclubbers.comです
PCからだったら→http://tokyoclubbers.com/mobileになる

先週から、家で結構携帯TCのために働いた。今週末は特に努力したv(^o^;)

これはコーディング！
実は僕の世代によって、webコーディングは本当のコーディングじゃない…アセンブリ言語は本当のコーディングんですけど…ウェブだったら、他の人とつなげることはすごい簡単だ…それは大切なこと。
だから僕もウェブコーディングをやってる。人は基本的に変わらないけど、適合されるは大事だ！  read more »

First of all, I went to the fashion school near work at 5PM and I saw no catwalk rehearsal !
I have to say that because otherwise it seems I claimed that I live in a cool world, but in fact it's not all so easy.

A lot has been written recently, on my Japanese blog on Mixi. Mixi is great and tricky at the same time. It entices Japanese by being a closed system where everything is controller. People can only join if invited. I suppose it's a bit like MySpace where one is related to other people. But there is a lot less freedom on posting formats. Only recently some cute cell-phone icons became available. In fact, Mixi is probably mostly used by cellphone... Japanese net services ought to work well on cellphones, ehh !  read more »

Gamasutra has an article on foreign game developers working in Japan.
I didn't read all of it, but it seems reliable.

I have a few extra opinions though:
Working hours can be bad, but it depends on the company and the job that one is doing. When it happens in Japan one tends to think "in Japan is like this" without thinking that outside can be the same.. game development notoriously involves working long hours pretty much anywhere.

About developers having to open to western development technology: not being able to speak English well is certainly an handicap, however that also helps avoid to jump early into bullshit methodologies or technologies, "solutions", etc etc.
Foreign game dev is more about technology, so foreign developers tend to over-engineer things.

Japanese should learn from outside, but also the opposite is true.

I finally managed to get my commute pass on my Pasmo. I had to select a new commuter pass and insert the existing Pasmo card at the right time. It wasn't that easy to figure out.. !
Pasmo is based on FeliCa RFID technology which can be used also as a digital wallet. My Vaio even has a FeliCa port by which I suppose that I could buy stuff online.. although I doubt I'll ever charge it more than it's worth for buying train trips and a few groceries.  read more »

As Mr.Duddie noticed, I've scanned a few pages from the April edition of Woman magazine !
I obviously don't buy those magazines, but so it happens that I had that magazine laying around my apartment.

It's interesting how the magazine gives hints on how to dress, how to bow, where to look at, how to answer, even how to smile !

It may seem weird, but I somewhat agree with the concept of getting hints on how to behave. Everyone at one time or another doesn't realize how he or she is making a mistake. Some people stink, some have bad breath, some people have bad habits but don't realize that.  read more »

I don't normally read kotaku.com, but I visit sites that link its feed. One thing that Kotaku was reporting recently is a Japanese DS software to train to walk beautifully ... that's right, a game to learn how to walk properly !
The person behind it is apparently a retired male model that has now a career in teaching women how to walk "beautifully".
Japan is definitely a country obsessed with training, and also a country where women aren't famous for their straight legs and their walking style.

There are three different type of legs in Japan: X legs, O legs and straight legs.
"X" type is seen as cute (when it's not too chronic), "O" type is the most diffused and can go from negligible to not-so-pretty (to put it nicely). Straight legs are instead pretty rare.  read more »

On my way to San Francisco I managed to lose my cellphone ! I think it happened on the airplane. I didn't react quickly.. I waited until I got back to Japan to ask to the SF airport for my phone. Now I'm stuck, with my girlfriend wanting me to switch to Softbank (ex Vodafone) because it makes it cheap if two people both use it. I've been using DoCoMo until now, changing to Softbank is a pain in the ass. I went this weekend to a Softbank shop with my freaking stamp (in Japan signature is done with a stamp !) because last time I tried a few month ago they asked me for that and my ban account. This time they also asked me for my passport.. geezzz !!

Another thing I lost recently is my commuter pass. A pass for a fixed route, it's quite expensive (about $80 for one month in my case) but with that, any train route within the selected one (usually the one to and from work) is automatically covered for the fixed one month's cost.
I asked for help to the train station employees, but the pass didn't seem to have been found. Of course if it has been found, the train company probably called my cellphone to alert me.. emmm fack !!!  read more »

Yesterday my round of group discussions closed down. It was an interesting experience. I participated in four sessions with groups formed by 5 to 8 people. Most men but also surprisingly 4 women ! Women did very good on average and were also quite good looking !! Of course that didn't get in the way of the judgment, but I was surprised to see so many of them. Also, two were pretty determined and actually took leading roles in the discussions.
I think it would have been interesting to see them in the same group, to see how they would have handled each-other 8)

There are quite a few females in my company (business company 8( ) if compared to other game companies.. the size of the company makes a difference as bigger companies handle more paperwork and more art assets, and women tend to fill those spots, but also I think that there is a specific interest in hiring females.  read more »