I got a new cell phone
that has a built in digital camera. These kind of phones
are very popular in Japan now. You can see
what my phone looks like
from this image I "borrowed" from the Casio website. Hey, it's free
advertising for them, right? The camera is not as great as a regular
digital camera, because it only has 350,000 pixels as opposed to 2 or 3 million
for the most popular cameras. But this shortcoming is outweighed by the fact
that I almost always have my cell-phone with me. I can take two kinds of pictures,
smaller 120x160 and larger 640x480. You can see the larger pictures below by clicking
on them. (These pictures date from 2002 to 2004. This page will not be updated.)
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This is the first picture I took. Notice the annoying date mark. I had not figured out how to turn that off yet. After buying the phone I took the train to Kyoto. I don't know who this sleeping man is, but he seems kind of like the Buddha. |
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The first 640x480 large size photo. You can click on the photo or text link to see the larger version. This picture shows the Kyoto branch of the English school I used to teach for called AEON. The blue sign says "English conversation school and study abroad / iion". "iion" or "i-on" is the Japanese phonetic representation of "aeon". My Canadian friend Chris teaches there now. He was the first Go player I met in Japan (ironically none of my Japanese students knew how to play when I asked them at the time.) |
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Crazy English on the box my cell-phone came in. There is crazy English like this all over Japan. Some of it is really funny. You can see more stuff like this at Engrish.com |
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Ah, delicious "omu-raisu". That would be "omelet rice" in English I guess. A rice stuffed omelet splattered with ketchup. It's hard to read, but I think this example is 800 yen. A bit pricey. Of course this is not the actual dish, but a plastic model in a display case outside a restaurant. There are many varieties of omu-raisu with various sauces or toppings, but the ketchup version is standard. |
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The Village of the Damned? My English class? No, just some creepy mannequins at a store in Osaka. |
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Is your life tasty? |
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Human... what? |
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The famous "Anpan-man", or "Sweet bean paste bread man" in inflatable form. That name becomes way too long in English. A popular cartoon character in Japan. His head is edible. Sometimes Anpan-man lets a starving person eat part of his head. Peeking from behind him is "Baikin-man" or "Germ-man". No, not German. |
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The ugliest statue I have ever seen. This thing is in Banpaku Memorial Park in Osaka. There are three faces on it symbolizing the past, present and future. I am sure there is a bunch of other symbolic features, but that does not stop it from being very ugly, and very big. You can find more pictures through the Google image search. |
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A warning sign from the park with the ugliest statue (see above). The Japanese is hard to read, but it says: "Excuse me, but your dog is swallowing my ass!" |
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Wow! The Statue of Liberty in Japan. A bit smaller than the original but still apparently useful in the promotion of the pachinko parlor below it. Pachinko is a gambling game popular in Japan. Nicolas Cage did a few commercials here for a Pachinko machine maker so he must be a fan too. |
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A strange statue. |
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The famous robot cat from the future tells us where to put our garbage. This is probably unauthorized use of Doraemon's image by the city of Ashiya. Reading Doraemon comics helped me pass level 2 of the Japanese proficiency test. By the way, it is pronounced "Doh-RAH-eh-mone". |
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I met three dachshunds the other day. The only thing that makes me homesick in Japan is seeing dachshunds, and they are all over the place here, but usually of the unattractive long-hair type. These black and tan smooth coat ones look just like my dog back home. |
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One of the heavily customized cars you see in Japan popular with the "yanki". (Not yankees, but derived from that word, meaning "young punk".) Usually they are some kind of white mini-van. God knows how white became the color of cool over here. This car had a perfect mirror finish all over, but I only caught the end of it as it went by. |
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This anatomically correct fat dancer is one of the many statues lining Midosuji street in Osaka. They are not all as attractive as this one. |
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If you are in Japan and see two foreign thugs like these looking at you, you should move to another car. Foreigners are dangerous! |
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Before Christmas in one of the Kyoto branches of Starbucks the "partners" had a musical performance using bells. The leader here is dressed up as Rudolph in a modified horse costume. |
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The infamous Yoshinoya beef bowl with red ginger and topped with a soft boiled egg. Yum! I hear the Japanese Yoshinoya is much tastier than the version in America. |
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A typical scene on the train. Another hard working Japanese "salary-man" is passed out from over-work or more possibly due to the continuing recession, no work and too much sake. |
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A toilet with a view. It is common in Japan for public toilets to have strategically placed windows so that you can enjoy the view while you do your business. The people outside might also be enjoying another kind of view. |
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Yes, this is a spaghetti sandwich! Including corn. Now, I love spaghetti, but not in sandwich form. |
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This interesting wooden sculpture is one of several in Osaka's Kitashinchi train station. It is about 6 feet high. It is also surrounded by many homeless people which you can't see in the picture. |
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Well trained dogs can bag it themselves. I hope the boy owns that dog. |
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Another sign urging people to clean up after their dogs. This one shows how embarrassing it is for the dogs to have their poop cleaned up for them. I guess this dog is not well trained. "Poop" in Japanese is "fun". (Actually more accurately pronounced "hun".) |
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A spam sandwich. Please click on the picture to see the larger and right-side-up version. Did you know spam went "boing"? |
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Not just gross, SUPER gross! A classic example of the L/R inversion common in Japan. I assume they got the "glow" part correct, unless it has some minoxidil in it. Almost as funny as the sign someone made in Japan during Clinton's campaign that should have read, "We support Clinton's election!" |