I'd like a promotion!

Funny story.

The other day at work, an e-mail was sent out company wide regarding promotion exams.
In Japan, before you can be promoted you have to take a test to see if your qualified for a promotion.

Anyway, so the General Manager of my division sends out an e-mail saying (translated) "If you want a promotion, raise your hand".

So I look over at his desk and raise my hand. He looks at me for a minute, and then he and everyone in my group starts laughing.
Then my boss asks if I want to take the test for fun... haha. As if I like taking tests in english.
I could use a raise though!

Good times.

Yunomaru Plateau

Yunomaru Plateau

Last Saturday, I went to the Yunomaru Plateau near Ueda for the Tsutsuji Flower bloom festival!
It was really neat.

I went with a photo group, so naturally I took lots of pictures! Click on the picture on the right to check out all the photos!

Also, we climbed Mt. Yunomaru, and that was fun. It was a lot easier compared to Mt. Misen in hiroshima. haha.

Anyway, enjoy!
Edit: Sorry for the bad english. haha

Woo! Finished!

That's right. Two months later and all my Golden Week photos are finally uploaded (I'm slow).

A quick link to my sets!

All of Golden Week
Hiroshima
Miyajima
Himeji Castle
Kobe
Osaka

Enjoy!

Also, I went to Yunomaru Plateau this weekend, which I'll blog more about tomorrow... because I'm tired now.
Anyway, I'm gonna be uploading this photos soon as well... and I'll blog about the trip later!
Enjoy the photos!

Windows Vista

So I got my hands on Windows Vista yesterday (wooo!) at work.
Downloaded, installed, and resolved all issues within three hours. That's impressive considering th 3Gig file normally takes 4.5 hours to download ;)
Overall, very impressed with the speed, ease, and the beauty of Windows Vista!

And since its the weekend, I decided to install vista on my machine at home! (Not my mac, my pc).
Ripping the DVD (3Gigs) to my mac, converting it to an iso file from a dmg, copying it to my pc over the network, installation, and resolving all issues took 1.5 hours.
Now THAT's impressive. And glass worked right out of the box on my machine :P (It took me a while to find the right driver for my laptop at work).

My impression so far... Amazing. And this coming from a Mac guy who isn't fond of Microsoft!

Even though this is a beta, it still runs looks great. Congratulations on getting it right this time, Microsoft!
I'm looking forward to the final version!
I'll post more (and screenshots) later!

Canadian Dollar vs. Japanese Yen

A little off topic, but the Windows Vista Beta is finally out and I’m totally excited!

So I went onto Microsoft’s website to download the beta, but due to “overwhelming demand” I can’t access the download.

Anyway, so I look at DVD shipment fees. First I look at Japanese fees, and I see that shipping the DVDs to any address in Japan will cost approx. 1180JPY, which is about $11.80 Canadian. I go in my head “not too bad… seems like a fair price”.

And then I look at the Canadian shipping fee… when I see that it costs $7, I think “wow! That’s so expensive… wait a second”.

For some reason or another, I think 1000yen is fair, but when I see numbers in terms of dollars its completely different. I guess this explains why I find it so easy to hand over a 10,000JPY ($100CDN) bill to a convenience store clerk for a 100yen ($1CDN) drink. It’s just so much easier to spend when you see prices in Yen!

In other news, I think I won a stuffed team japan panda from a contest! Wooo.

Lost in Translation?

Hah. So I finally watched that movie, Lost in Translation.

By far one of the funniest movies I have ever watched.
I liked it best when the elderly person was trying to ask the foreign guy what he was doing in Japan, and you have the ladies in the back trying to keep from having a seizure from laughing.

But really, the best parts when the main character was being talked to in Japanese and him not knowing what is going on.



I think it makes more sense if you understand what the Japanese people were saying :P
I know I couldn't stop laughing.

Business trip get!・出張お得！

Wooo free travel to Tokyo!
I am win.

出張お得！交通費がない！
勝った！