Scot is now in Japan.

How do I know? Well, because I have been here for 7 hours, and I have to hang out for a conference call that doesn't even START for another 4 hours. If our call and the meeting after it only go for 2 hours (hopeful estimate), then I will have spent 13 hours in the office. Eccch.

But tomorrow is a national holiday, and the day after that, I take off for a week, so it's hard to complain. Plus I keep getting peppered with questions about Taiwanese, Korean, and Mainland Chinese patent law. That's been weird enough to keep the day sort of interesting.

I went to go see a Japanese re-interpretation of Bertholt Brecht's "Threepenny Opera," staged in a large black tent on the grounds of a large Buddhist temple. During the intermission, a monk from the temple took the stage to explain why a Buddhist temple was allowing a dramatic production on its grounds, especially one with such...ahem..."secular" themes. As it turns out, the temple has a centuries-long association with Kabuki theatre, even boasting the graves of several famous actors. Who knew?

An enjoyable evening, all told.

The tumblers are tumbling... Soon the numbers will line up and I will be on vacation and my mom and sister will be here.

It's going to be a good time. I have been scouting restaurants, buying tickets, and getting ready to be a good guide. This is not their first time in Japan, but I think that I have a better level of preparation and knowledge this time around.

We bought tickets to go see Stereolab. This will be my second time seeing them. The last time was in New Orleans, and Mary Hansen was still alive. R.I.P.

I am also excited about seeing Cat Power in June, and The Pixies (!) reunited at Fuji Rock Festival in August. Holy crap. Never thought I would see that day come.

And I saw Kill Bill Vol. 2 yesterday. Stupid release schedule here is delayed. Tarantino referenced so many movies in the two volumes of KB, it's kind of freaky. I am sure if I was even more of an Asian cinema dork, I would have gotten more references. But as it was, I counted over twenty for each volume before I lost track! Which begs the question, are people who are not as obsessive about Japanese and Chinese movies as I am missing out when they see these films? Or is it all just gravy?

Still impressed with his faculty in putting together a soundtrack. Vol. 1 had the almost Tijuana horns of "Urami Bushi," with what are probably ACTUAL Tijuana horns in the Mexican tracks. Way to find synchronicity between Mexican and Japanese music... Really crazy and good.

And that's what's in the brainpan today.

on Saturday. They played a good show, doing most of the songs I wanted to hear.

The sound and lights were excellent. It had been ages since I saw a large arena rock concert (of the non-festival variety), so I sort of forgot how the production values scale up...

That's not true. I saw Guided by Voices in Key Arena, but they played it like it was a small club and they had no real funky, impressive light show to speak of.

But the venue for Radiohead was lame. It was the Makuhari Messe, a cavernous space whose sole advantage over a parking lot, as far as I could determine, was that it had a roof. That's all. The sound may actually have been better in a parking lot. I'm not sure.

But the venue was huge and flat, and the stage wasn't very high, which means short people in the back couldn't see a thing. I do just fine at concerts in Japan, however.

But I'll think twice about seeing another band at Makuhari Messe...

Because I went out and bought THE WAY BY SWANN'S, the first volume of Proust's big ole six volume opus, À la Recherche du Temps Perdu. I was reading HOW PROUST CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE, really enjoying it, and once I was halfway through, thought, "Ah, might as well read the damn thing." Seven novels, spanning about 3,200 pages and teeming with more than 2,000 characters. Wish me luck.

Also, I finally got put on a decent project at work, an appellate case for a biotech patent. Kind of lucky, really. The client is an American firm, and these kinds of cases don't actually roll along very often. Yet. I'm hoping for an upswing in the next ten years...

And, and...what else? Yeah, my mom and sister are coming to visit in 2 weeks. That's put me in a good mood.

Oh, and the announcement by Microsoft today that their security is wonky again. So maybe that's been the problem with my laptop all along, not the overheating that I thought was causing it to crash.

Sometimes a few random but happy events in quick succession can really perk a fellow up.

In which I went to Nikko and did some sight-seeing and took a dip in an onsen.

I also learned a new word, one that took me ages to figure out. Japanese traditional country houses have a sunken hearth in the middle of the room called irori.

Over the irori is a long pole suspended from the rafters that ends in a small wooden or metal hook. This hook is usually attached to an ornately carved fish. Why? I have no idea.

But I wanted to know what the whole thing was called. So I asked the person working in the restaurant where it was hanging. She didn't know. Then I asked someone in a traditional craft shop selling them what they were called. He didn't know either.

So when I got home, I looked it up on the internet. It's called jizai-gaki. So here I am, once again proud possessor of arcane knowledge about Japan that most Japanese people my age are oblivious to. I have to restrain myself sometimes from asking people questions like these as trivia while out drinking and such.

I am an unbearable Japan dork.

is officially over.

I spent the day working at the firm then shuffled off to a conference sponsored by NTT Docomo. My professor had asked me to interpret for the speaker, but when I got there, he ended up doing most of the interpreting anyway. I guess he just wanted a backup...

I thought about going to the gym, but I opted for taking a long bath and cleaning my room instead. Felt meditative.

Trying to figure it all out.

This may be the least certain I've ever felt about things in general for a long time, if not ever.

I've always paid lip service to uncertainty as a superior philosophical stance, but it's a bitch when you actually get there...

I was thirty. Thanks for all of the phone calls and e-mails.

On my birthday in:

1795 - France adopts the metre as the unit of length.
1927 - First long distance public television broadcast.
1943 - First synthesis of LSD, lysergic acid diethylamide, by Albert Hoffman.
1945 - World War II: The Japanese battleship Yamato is sunk 200 miles north of Okinawa while en route to a suicide mission.
1969 - The Internet's symbolic birth date: publication of RFC 1.
2000 - Mars Odyssey is launched.

I also share my birthday with some interesting people:

1506 - Saint Francis Xavier, founder of the Society of Jesus (d. 1552)
1770 - William Wordsworth, English poet (d. 1850)
1891 - Ole Kirk Christiansen, in Denmark, inventor of Lego
1908 - Percy Faith, composer, musician (d. 1976)
1915 - Billie Holiday, American jazz and Blues singer (d. 1959)
1920 - Ravi Shankar, musician
1939 - Francis Ford Coppola, American film director
1949 - John Oates, musician ("Hall and Oates")
1954 - Jackie Chan, actor

That's all for the statistics. Despite my advancing years, I'm at something of a loss for birthday wisdom to impart here.

Carry on.