How big could a problem be to merit ending one’s own life? How weak could a person be to think there is no other solution? Yesterday, a person decided to end his life on the tracks of Tokyo’s Hibiya line. An hour later, the rails were cleaned. The trains resumed. Life moved on. Except for…
Blogging For Ten Years!
Ten years ago in 1999, I was reading a compilation of short writings by Jose Rizal when I realized how powerful the written word can be. One hundred years after his death, people could still take a peek at his thoughts and his ideas. He was immortalized through his writings. Suffering from a mild case…
Kailan Cover
My first attempt at translating a Filipino song to Japanese. Feel free to correct my translation. I will learn from it. I chose an Eraserheads song simply because they’re just my favorite musicians in the whole wide world. The song is called “Kailan” (“When” in English, “いつ” in Japanese) by the Eraserheads.
Flickr Yearender
According to Flickr, these are my most popular pics from the previous two years. I am not really sure about the criteria they use to determine this ranking but their explanation says “This is a view of your 75 most popular bits, ordered by interestingness. “ I just split them by years to make it…
Tennis Court Trader
That would be my new job description. I’ve mastered the art of getting tennis courts in Tokyo! My strategy is so successful I can almost get court reservations at will. I’ve been able to reserve courts for about 4 weekends now. Just for this weekend, I was able to reserve at least 15 hours! I…
Defending Japanese Companies
Being surrounded by a lot of people who’ve never worked for a Japanese company, I find myself in a weird situation when people around me start raising negative stereotypes about them. It’s true that compared to American companies, Japanese companies may appear rather undesirable. They’re known to have relatively low pay, relatively small desks, and…
Transmission vs BitTorrent
On my Mac, I’ve been using the BitTorrent client for a while and noticed every time I start downloading anything, my internet connection crawls to a halt. This is maybe the reason why I lost interest in torrents and thought they are not worth the effort. And then there was Transmission. It’s small, it’s simple…
When Great People Fall
Last weekend, I watched a boxing match pitting Oscar De La Hoya against Manny Pacquiao. Initially, I thought it was a mismatch against our shorter kababayan. Nothing could have prepared me for the outcome. Manny won. Convincingly in 8 rounds. While I celebrate with all my kababayans with this victory (Yehey!), there is this part…
Magic Mic Competition
Looks like Magic Mic is going to have some tough competition in the form of JoySound Wii due on December 18. I think the game comes with about a hundred pre-bundled Japanese songs but you can access 30,000 songs if you pay them a measly 300 yen for 24 hour unlimited access or up to…
Lead Me Lord
Even if I am not the religious type, I still love religious songs. Must be all that exposure I had when I was young listening to church music, joining church choirs, and well, my singing big brother. Here’s my big bro singing Lead me Lord at a Bukas Palad concert in Pampanga.
I Have A Dream
I have a dream that one day, when foreigners think about Metro Manila, they do not think of the slums that are forever the image shown by international TV, but of this beautiful skyline that is perhaps one of the best in the world. I have a dream.
My Second Car
When I was in Kagoshima, I got me a second hand Toyota Allion, which I reluctantly sold before moving to Tokyo. Just last month, I got me one of these. I need to save money.
Enrico in Tokyo 