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ok...Ok guys, I admit, I haven't updated my blog for almost 2 months...Tokyo's life is just too busy, and I'm about to finish my internship here.
In a week to be precise..my plans have changed and for the people who know me well, they know the reason why I'm not going back to Sapporo as planned...
I'm staying in Tokyo.
I'm quite at a crossroad of my life again, and I have soon many decisions to take... I planned to stay a few more years in Japan. I guess 2 or 3 should be
fine. I like Japan, I think it's a great place, the food is amazing, landscapes and nature are beautiful. However, as for now I don't see myself living here forever,
After living all my life in Europe, it's hard to avoid acting as a foreigner in all situations. Sometimes it's as if I could feel the untold rules of the Japanese society,
I don't feel free as I used to, and I guess for a stubborn person like me, it's just not what I want...
During these 2 months:
I've been partying, meeting people, having fun, drinking, dancing, halloweeing, taking pictures, filming, acting, buying, PSPing, learning, improving, chilling,
hotbathing, westcoasting (ok maybe not that one..) and being lazy updating my blog.
After all that, how do I feel..I guess sometimes I miss my family, my friends from Nyon, poker, Swiss cheese and my bed.
Anyway don't worry I'll come home next year, I guess around summer..
Well it's not my most optimistic post, must be a blue day.
But let me post some funny pictures about these 2 months
see you friends
Nhatsu Edo MuseumI'm living next to this museum which is quite something, it's a museum with real size houses of the Edo era, where you can more or less imagine how was the life back in the dayz in Tokyo. Edo was the name of the present Tokyo. I went there alone, it was not easy to understand everything but definitly worth seeing if you like museums. Ami's Birthdays party. (lady in red) Great night in a bar around Ikebukuro with my man Jef, invited to this birthday party by my Japanese friend Takuya, we ended up with random people, mostly Japanese, having a good time and getting tipsy (or more for some..). After the bar we went to another one, where sexual discrimation is a fact. Entrance free for women and stuff.. where is that sexual equality when you need it !
Definitely a night I won't forget soon. Bottonless drinks is quite something... September 13 sumo<object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/N2N5UzJt8SI"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/N2N5UzJt8SI" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"> </embed> </object> September 04 weekend in GunmaWell a little relaxing weekend in the mountains of Gunman prefecture with my french speaking friends, a lot of green mountains, really nice landscape, very comparable to Switzerland..
I put a few picture of the house where we've been staying and some of a natural hot bath ! Very nice place to be ! Busy busyHi party people !
how is going ?!
Well you noticed I really have trouble updating my blog, I got a lot of pictures so I'm just gonna put some randomly.
I'll try to put some comments. August 06 first month in Tokyo !Hey people from all around the world ! I got a lot of stories to tell, I hope you have some spare time ! how is it banging? Well I've just spent my first month in Tokyo. It's just so incredible!! I mean imagine having all the Swiss people in one huge city. Restaurants in every steets, sushis, yakitori, raamen shop... a Pachinko slot in every corner, game centers of 3 floors at last, people dressed like in a cartoon, (this is called cosplay for costume play), karaoke bars..It's seems like it would take pages to enumerate everything... Many incredibles things happened during this month..but let me start with the internship which is the reason why I came to Tokyo.
The company :
It’s called Syngenta as some may know, they are mostly selling products for farmers like pesticides, fungicides and insecticides, well I'm not going to talk about the moral issues here but..let's just say this field is not my favourite...the good news is that I'm in the marketing department and the people are quite nice. Luckily for the first month I've been working with a French girl call Pia, she's really nice, she likes to party (usually until the morning) and drink (more that a lot)... Thanks to her the working time passes quite quickly. You'll see her in the photos section called (The longest night in Color Studio). Except her and my boss, all my other colleagues are Japanese, they all speak more or less English, sometimes I try to speak to them in Japanese but... I still need some practice though.. Another good is news it that the working ambiance is quite cool, I mean I hardly work overtime, It happened twice in a month and it was exceptional so really.. I felt really relieved not having to work like a Japanese. :)
My flat :
Well I think flat is a big word..let's call it a studio, all that I can is that say it's pretty small, 20m2, all furnished, I mean there were even a microwave, a vacuum cleaner, an iron, almost everything except the kitchen stuff. The latter was not a problem thanks to the 100yen. (shop where you can get basics stuff for 1chf an item..from fork, umbrellas, shampoo, plates, pens..I list is long..) Hum oh yeah ..I got a washing machine, an air conditioner which is extremely useful in Tokyo, a balcony that I almost never enjoy, let me explain why... and that's the major problem of this flat. I'm living very close to a train station which is indeed very useful when I need to go around Tokyo but I'm leaving very close from the railways so it's quite noisy. I was quite shocked at the beginning but now I'm used to it. I can't really complain since I'm not paying the rent which is paid by the company. I'm living 30 minutes door to door from home to the office which is almost a luxury in Tokyo, some colleagues have to travel 2 hours to go to the office !! I mean... that's just crazy..imagine spending 4 hours a day in packed trains..that's not a life...
Going out in Tokyo
Definitely Tokyo is the place to be when it comes to clubs, like in London you can go out every day of the week. There are sooo many clubs, it’s just impossible to visit all of them, fortunately I found a webpage that gathered information about the most popular ones and I’m focusing on them J. So far I’ve been to Roppongi, it’s quite famous among the foreigners since there are so many of them..it’s not my favorite place, but there are many clubs, bars and people in the streets. There’s a big concentration of African people, mostly coming from Nigeria, I don’t really know the reason but I heard that lately the majority of the clubs in Roppongi are owned buy them. The other place I’ve been is called Shibuya, now it’s a lot better, first of all there are not so many foreigners and there are a lot of hiphop clubs ! I’ve been to a place called Harlem and I got rejected the first time L cause I didn’t know I had to come with a girl..(this is the only club where this rule exists..) but as I heard It was really good I went back the week after with some friends (including girls) and that time we entered without any trouble.. it’s not a cool rule, but at least you can expect to see more girls than in other similar clubs. The music was good, it was not packed so I was able to show them how people dance in Switzerland… (sorry to represent you guys haha) So far I’ve been out every weekend and it’s gonna go on and on…
Incredibles meetings
I have to tell this story cause it’s quite something unique. Thanks to facebook.com (for those who doesn’t know this website, let’s say it allows you to connect with you friends even forgotten ones by navigating though your friend’s friend lists.) I met my man called Jean Francois Huertas, we were studying together when we were around 11. He’s gonna work in Tokyo for a year. So one day he told me a little about his different trips and stories. One was that he was victim of an accident in Tokyo and “thanks to it” received a lot of money from the guilty driver. With that money he took the train from China to Switzerland, it was a 7 months trip (lucky boy). Now get ready cause when I talked about this story to Pia, my French collegue. She told me she heard about it ! The reason was that both had gone to Kyoto for a university exchange and had a friend in common… I think it’s when you have to say..this world is little..
Not finished, for the Swiss national day, Jef (Jean Francois) and I went to the Swiss embassy, which happens to be 300 metres away from Jef’s apartment in Roppongi, we were quite surprised to meet so many Swiss people, we were talking to some Swiss from the French part, when suddenly I saw a guy who seemed really familiar… I couldn’t say from where I knew him..so I went to talk to him and I told him “hey I think I know you, I’m Nhat” “Nhat?!” Yeah it’s me” “we were studying together with Jef”, he was right I totally forgot about it. My excuse is that it had been 16 years since the last time I met him.. once again destiny or whatever it is brought us together ! I wonder who I’m gonna meet next that’s just so crazy..
Ok I’m gonna stop for today, it’s getting late. I just want to say I’m really happy to be here and I hope you’re all doing fine wherever you are. If someone wants to visit me in Tokyo, just send me an email and will talk about it ! Peace! June 27 4 Days in SeoulHee long time no see !
I'm just coming back from Seoul. I went there to meet my ex flatmate of Chile. Some of you know her, yeah it's Si Yeong ! I was happy to see her again, it has been almost 2 years since I left Santiago..ah Santiago..ok I was lucky cause she had time to show me around the big city, and explained me a few things about their culture and history. You wouldn't guess but they are pretty different from Japanese people. For exemple, you notice right away that the people tend to have more physical contacts with others. So it's normal to see 2 friends (guys) walking around arms around their neck (I'm not sure if you say it like this but anyway I hope you get the picture). The food is as well was pretty different, they eat quite spicy food, and mix with a lot of vegetables, good for health for sure. The price of the fruits is pretty low compared to Japan, so they can eat more often. Thanks to my friend I ate some tipical dishes from Corea (which is the country of the calm mornings by the way, actually..I wouldn't say so but..) I don't remember any of the names..but you'll see the pictures. Ok I'll comment the pictures..one day..I'm a little busy now..I'm going soon to Tokyo..and I need to prepare my stuff.
Enjoy the pictures. June 20 Matsuri FestivalHey there,
well there was a little religious festival the other day and there were funny things going on in Sapporo, like people with old traditional clothes walking down the streets while playing instruments. I really like the mix between old traditions and modernity. Have a look ! June 11 OkonomiakiOk for those who used to watch Ranma (a Japanese anime) you may recognize the food you're about to see. It's a kind of crepe but with vegetables and meat. When fried enough you add some mayonnaise and a special brown sauce. It's really good ! I like the fact that you have to cook it yourself, even though I'm not very skilled I managed to do something eatable :) June 10 At last a Party !Hey I'm happy to annouce I went to a party...I remember my life in Chile and when I think about it, it was the opposite..anyway the party was organized by some Japanese students that want to teach Japanese. So went went to a place called "Anti" and had some food, which was not bad, not really traditonal food, more junk one actually. At the beginning we were among foreigners and then some Japanese people started to join us, which was good for praticing Japanese. I'm sure some of you already experienced that when you're drunk you have the impression that you speak better a foreign language. After a couple of Vodka shots with my russian friend, I was thinking my Japanese was really good :) (I might not be true). So the party started at 6pm and ended around 11pm then we went to another bar, then the whole group went to Karaoke, at that point I was really drunk and I somehow managed to get stucked with some locals. I don't really remember what we were talking about I have some flashes where I see myself showing them where Switzerland was...I finally took the subway and walked home, it took me the double of the usual time since I was not walking straight... I wake up this morning quite alright, I had the reflex to drink 6 glasses of water before going to bed I think that might saved my day.. Yosakoi Dance Festival of SapporoIt finally arrived, If you're following my blog since the begining you might remember I would have to dance with other students in a festival, well...it's done. Unfortunately I don't have any videos of us dance.. They are so many dancers, even coming from other cities doing shows in the streets. They are all dressed in a funny way ! We just had blue T-shirts with "no border" written on them, that's the name of the group. June 05 What do you know about the Bilderberg group?Never heard about The Bilderberg Group? it's not a suprise...
you might want to read that first http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilderberg_Group
Article from http://www.bilderberg.org/index.htm :
When such rich and powerful people meet up in secret, with military intelligence managing their security, with hardly a whisper escaping of what goes on inside, people are right to be suspicious. But the true power of Bilderberg comes from the fact that participants are in a bubble, sealed off from reality and the devastating implications on the ground of the black-science economic solutions on the table.
No, it's not a 'conspiracy'. The world's leading financiers and foreign policy strategists don't get together at Bilderberg to draw up their 'secret plans for the future'. It's subtler than that. These meetings create an artificial 'consensus' in an attempt to spellbind visiting politicians and and other men of influence. Blair has fallen for this hook, line and sinker. It's about reinforcing - often to the very people who are on the edge of condemning Globalisation - the illusion that Globalisation is 'good', 'popular' and that it's inevitable.
Bilderberg is an extremely influential lobbying group. That's not to say though that the organisers don't have a hidden agenda, they do, namely accumulation of wealth and power into their own hands whilst explaining to the participants that globalisation is for the good of all. It is also a very good forum for 'interviewing' potential future political figures such as Clinton (1991) and Blair (1993). [see above for more on this]
The ideology put forward at the Bilderberg conferences is that what's good for banking and big business is good for the mere mortals of the world. Silently banished are the critical voices, those that might point out that debt is spiralling out of control, that wealth is being sucked away from ordinary people and into the hands of the faceless corporate institutions, that millions are dying as a direct result of the global heavyweight Rockefeller/Rothschild economic strategies.
When looking at one of the (partially reliable) participant lists it should be remembered that quite a number of participants are invited in an attempt to get them on-board the globalisation project. These are carefully selected people of influence, who have been openly critical of globalisation. Examples are Jonathan Porritt (Bilderberg 1999) and Will Hutton (Bilderberg 1997) but there are many others. Most of these kinds of participants are happy to speak about the conference afterwards, and may even be refreshingly critical.
The Bilderberg organisers are accepted by those 'in the know' as the prophets of Capitalism. Will Hutton, deputy Editor of The Observer newspaper in London and left-leaning Economist, described private clubs of the elite as masterminded by 'The High Priests of Globalisation'. The ecclesiastical allusion is not accidental. The Bilderberg high-priests are a force against good, out to wipe morality from the earth. For the organisers Bilderberg Conferences are an annual ideological assault by the world's most power-hungry people. Not content with owning unimaginable amounts of money and property they want to use that wealth to acquire even more power for themselves. Power is the most dangerous and addictive drugs known to man. Will the craving be satisfied when a handful of men own and control everything on earth?
And just like the Nazi party in the 1930's the global Capitalist Elite are rising in power by peaceful means. There are some very uncomfortable and unexplained connections between Bilderberg and the Nazis through the Conference's founder Prince Bernhard.
These crown princes of capital use violence at the sharp end - the destruction of dissent - the repossession of homes men and women have worked a lifetime for - needless deaths from starvation and geopolitical machinations - this violence is notable by its absence from the annual meetings.
One can't help but wonder, when the Bilderberg organisers, Rothschild, Rockefeller, Kissinger and the rest have completed their project of enclosing all global goods and services into their own hands, enclosing too the media to stop people freely discussing what they are up to. What then?? What happens when the men who would be gods turn out to be the global devils?
List of the participants of 2007 :
George Alogoskoufis, Minister of Economy and Finance (Greece);
Ali Babacan, Minister of Economic Affairs (Turkey);
Edward Balls, Economic Secretary to the Treasury (UK);
Francisco Pinto Balsemão, Chairman and CEO, IMPRESA, S.G.P.S.; Former Prime Minister (Portugal);
José M. Durão Barroso, President, European Commission (Portugal/International);
Franco Bernabé, Vice Chariman, Rothschild Europe (Italy);
Nicolas Beytout, Editor-in-Chief, Le Figaro (France);
Carl Bildt, Former Prime Minister (Sweden);
Hubert Burda, Publisher and CEO, Hubert Burda Media Holding (Belgium);
Philippe Camus, CEO, EADS (France);
Henri de Castries, Chairman of the Management Board and CEO, AXA (France);
Juan Luis Cebrian, Grupo PRISA media group (Spain);
Kenneth Clark, Member of Parliament (UK);
Timothy C. Collins, Senior Managing Director and CEO, Ripplewood Holdings, LLC (USA);
Bertrand Collomb, Chairman, Lafarge (France);
George A. David, Chairman, Coca-Cola H.B.C. S.A. (USA);
Kemal Dervis, Administrator, UNDP (Turkey);
Anders Eldrup, President, DONG A/S (Denmark);
John Elkann, Vice Chairman, Fiat S.p.A (Italy);
Martin S. Feldstein, President and CEO, National Bureau of Economic Research (USA);
Timothy F. Geithner, President and CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of New York (USA);
Paul A. Gigot, Editor of the Editorial Page, The Wall Street Journal (USA);
Dermot Gleeson, Chairman, AIB Group (Ireland);
Donald E. Graham, Chairman and CEO, The Washington Post Company (USA);
Victor Halberstadt, Professor of Economics, Leiden University; Former Honorary Secretary General of Bilderberg Meetings (the Netherlands);
Jean-Pierre Hansen, CEO, Suez-Tractebel S.A. (Belgium);
Richard N. Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations (USA);
Richard C. Holbrooke, Vice Chairman, Perseus, LLC (USA);
Jaap G. Hoop de Scheffer, Secretary General, NATO (the Netherlands/International);
Allan B. Hubbard, Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, Director National Economic Council (USA);
Josef Joffe, Publisher-Editor, Die Zeit (Germany);
James A. Johnson, Vice Chairman, Perseus, LLC (USA);
Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Senior Managing Director, Lazard Frères & Co. LLC (USA);
Anatole Kaletsky, Editor at Large, The Times (UK);
John Kerr of Kinlochard, Deputy Chairman, Royal Dutch Shell plc (the Netherlands);
Henry A. Kissinger, Chairman, Kissinger Associates (USA);
Mustafa V. Koç, Chariman, Koç Holding A.S. (Turkey);
Fehmi Koru, Senior Writer, Yeni Safek (Turkey);
Bernard Kouchner, Minister of Foreign Affairs (France);
Henry R. Kravis, Founding Partner, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (USA);
Marie-Josée Kravis, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute, Inc. (USA);
Neelie Kroes, Commissioner, European Commission (the Netherlands/International);
Ed Kronenburg, Director of the Private Office, NATO Headquarters (International);
William J. Luti, Special Assistant to the President for Defense Policy and Strategy, National Security Council (USA);
Jessica T. Mathews, President, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (USA);
Frank McKenna, Ambassador to the US, member Carlyle Group (Canada);
Thierry de Montbrial, President, French Institute for International Relations (France);
Mario Monti, President, Universita Commerciale Luigi Bocconi (Italy);
Craig J. Mundie, Chief Technical Officer Advanced Strategies and Policy, Microsoft Corporation (USA);
Egil Myklebust, Chairman of the Board of Directors SAS, Norsk Hydro ASA (Norway);
Matthias Nass, Deputy Editor, Die Zeit (Germany);
Adnrzej Olechowski, Leader Civic Platform (Poland);
Jorma Ollila, Chairman, Royal Dutch Shell plc/Nokia (Finland);
George Osborne, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer (UK);
Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, Minister of Finance (Italy);
Richard N. Perle, Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (USA);
Heather Reisman, Chair and CEO, Indigo Books & Music Inc. (Canada);
David Rockefeller (USA);
Matías Rodriguez Inciarte, Executive Vice Chairman, Grupo Santander Bank, (Spain);
Dennis B. Ross, Director, Washington Institute for Near East Policy (USA);
Otto Schily, Former Minister of Interior Affairs; Member of Parliament; Member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs (Germany);
Jürgen E. Schrempp, Former Chairman of the Board of Management, DaimlerChrysler AG (Germany);
Tøger Seidenfaden, Executive Editor-in-Chief, Politiken (Denmark);
Peter D. Sutherland, Chairman, BP plc and Chairman, Goldman Sachs International (Ireland);
Giulio Tremonti, Vice President of the Chamber of Deputies (Italy);
Jean-Claude Trichet, Governor, European Central Bank (France/International);
John Vinocur, Senior Correspondent, International Herald Tribune (USA);
Jacob Wallenberg, Chairman, Investor AB (Sweden);
Martin H. Wolf, Associate Editor and Economics Commentator, The Financial Times (UK);
James D. Wolfensohn, Special Envoy for the Gaza Disengagement (USA);
Robert B. Zoellick, Deputy Secretary of State (USA);
Klaus Zumwinkel, Chairman of the Board of Management, Deutsche Post AG (USA);
Adrian D. Wooldridge, Foreign Correspondent, The Economist. For all the People that drink Diet Coke.My thought about diet coke : if you don't want to get fat don't drink sodas, why don't you try to drink fresh fruit juice? Drinking diet coke is just to clean your conscience, it's a marketing product for people who want to believe that it's "not that bad" cause "hey, it's written DIET or (LIGHT in other countries)don't you see? in red there !"
sample of an article about Diet Coke:(link to the full at the bottom)
Aggressive marketing like the FIFA sponsorship and clever jingles like ‘Always Coca-Cola’ keep Coke in our consciousness, but before you ‘grab a Coke and a smile’ at this year’s main event, consider just what you are putting into your body. Although Diet Coke has a strong association with sport and health, it is actually a worrying mixture of neurotoxic and potentially carcinogenic high intensity sweeteners (aspartame and acesulfame K), tooth and bone destroying acids (phosphoric acid) and DNA damaging colourings (sulphite ammonia caramel), as well as psychoaddictive caffeine and other undisclosed ‘fl avourings’.
It also contains sodium benzoate, which can be broken down into the listed carcinogen benzene in the presence of strong acids, such as the citric acid found in this product.
Soda manufacturers have been aware of this synergistic possibility since the 1990s, but without pressure from regulatory authorities to change their formula to prevent the formation of benzene, have continued to mix benzoates and acids.
Ironically, the high fructose syrups used in regular drinks seem to slow this reaction down, and the formation of benzene appears to be most problematic in diet drinks...
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