if you have voted already, props to you!  if you are currently standing in line, props to you!  if you are casting your vote as i post this right now, props to you!  if you are going to your local polling place during your lunch time, this afternoon, this evening, after work, props to you!  please be sure to check what time your polling place closes, and please remember that if you are standing in line when the polls close, you can still cast your vote.

please also remember this.

this election not only affects you for the next 4 years (or in some cases, semi-permanently as propositions and measures will change your life that way) but also your neighbors.  not just your american neighbors, but your neighbors around the world.

whether we like it or not, america is super power when it comes to international politics, affecting A LOT OF people around the world, and it affects when whether it is about the war, food shortage and starvation, employment, national security, economy, imports/exports, genocide, forests dying, animals dying, global warming, nature, resources, list goes on and on.

please also remember that all things are inter-related, and no small issues are too small to ignore.  decisions regarding corn farmers in midwest and what to do about the corn might seem like a domestic issue, but it can also affect 1) global warming, 2) natural resources, 3) taxation on our soil and nature, 4) where our meat comes from and what it contains, and even 5) whether that family in egypt can afford tonight’s dinner today.  it really does affect that much.

so please think through and cast your vote for someone who will be good for the United States of America and be good for this planet Earth and all things on this earth.

and be proud that you have the right to vote and be a part of decision making which will mean so much to all of us around the world.

america, today is truly one remarkable day, and today is inexplicably one of the most important days in our lives that we will remember for so long.  today IS one historic day.

i am so happy to see this day.

1. gari (pickled ginger that gets served with sushi or sashimi) and the reason why it’s served with sushi is because it cleanses the palate.  more info here. ginger also contains anti-microbial and anti-fungi properties so it helps you in not get sick from eating raw food. izu, we were walking around a town full of summer-time vacation homes which have been vacant (since summer is over), and the exterior and gardens and entry way of these homes were surrounded with LARGE (think big, like about 1-1.5 meter in width) spider webs and its dead center is a large spider. it’s body is about 2cm in length and if you include legs, some of them are as big as 3-4cm. the thing is HUGE!
and they looked like this or that

my parents and i did a bit of hiking in the mountain and occasionally i look up to find these spiders and their web RIGHT above my head and it was so creepy i couldn’t focus. i wondered if they’d jump out of their nest to attack me.

….speaking of jumping spiders, japan’s got one, and they’re known as “fly-eating-spiders” or “mosquito-eating-spiders”. it’s kind of amazing because japanese mosquitoes are about 5 times the size of mosquitoes commonly found here in CA.

oh and another huge insects in japan? roaches.

and speaking of roaches… ok.

== wild sheep chase ==
have you read haruki murakami’s wild sheep chase? it’s supposed to be either prequel or sequel to his another novel, “dance dance dance”. the book takes place in hokkaido. you should all read it when you get a chance.

after i finished posting my last blog, i headed out to capture some falling leaves around my parents’ house. it is absolutely beautiful around here. i started at a park nearby my parents’ house - the very park i used to go when i was little - and took some pictures.

i then started to head…i think west. but i’m not sure. there’s a huge boulevard called “hitsuji-ga-oka” which means “sheep hill”. so it’s not very surprising when you find something like this while walking around the street:

this made me think of “wild sheep chase” and i thought… i’m going to find some sheep.

so i walked and walked and walked, and after about 2 hours, i found a place called “hitsuji-ga-oka tenbohdai” (direct translation would be sheep hill vista point). i paid my 5 bucks to enter this place and finally found some sheep grazing.

sheep was introduced to hokkaido around meiji-era along with other western agricultural crops and concepts. hokkaido has its own cuisine called “Genghis khan” which is basically BBQ lamb and vegetable. you can enjoy this at many restaurants including sapporo bier garten.

around this time, a professor named william s. clark came to hokkaido from MA, USA, to teach agriculture at Hokkaido Agricultural College (now hokkaido university). during his stay, he left this famous speech, and he said, “boys, be ambitious”. Dr. clark is still remembered by students of hokkaido university as well as in the heart of sapporo residents and built his statue at this vista point:

unfortunately, introduction of farming brought the concept of killing any animals that endanger crop growth and farm animals. due to this, hokkaido wolf became extinct, and it is unfortunate to say that there’s no single animal alive anywhere in the world.

== tofu restaurant ==

after the long walk there and back, my mom and i went to shopping for some present for my grandmother in downtown sapporo, then my mom introduced me to a place called “ume no hana” (plum flower) which is originally from kyoto and provides courses full of small plates containing tofu or tofu-related food. so so so yummy!

though each dish was very small, by the time we left the restaurant we felt very full.
(you might be wondering where my dad was… he had work-related drinking event to attend to, which he really doesn’t mind attending.)

== friends from high school ==

the next day, i had a plan to meet bunch of friends from high school. some, i hadn’t seen since high school graduation! it was pretty weird to see that about half of them are married and with kids. though i personally don’t think of having kids myself, it was still very fun to be around them.

== engrish ==

while taking a shower this morning, i noticed the writing on the bottle of conditioner in the bathroom.
it had some writing about rain, clouds, the sun, and rainbow. they are each pretty funny, but i thought the sun one was the best (and the rain 2nd best):

i am still jet lagged. and i’m pretty tired after these long two days. hopefully i get to rest a bit…

i think i’m totally jet lagged unfortunately. i somehow kept waking up and finally gave up on sleeping at 5am.

my mom and i decided to venture out of the house in search of uniqlo since sapporo was a little colder than i had expected and i was in dire need to have some warmer clothing items in the morning. after a little shopping, it was near lunch time, and my mom suggested we go have some ramen noodle for lunch.

if you are ever in japan, and if you are ever in hokkaido, you should try ramen noodles here. people don’t take ramen lightly and some travel miles to find “hidden ramen shop” that they hear from friends and family. today, we decided to try this place my mom’s friend told her about, which, funny thing, was within 300 feet from an old apartment building i had spent when i was 2-5.

we got lost a little (japan doesn’t have street names much so its much harder to find a place than in the US) but eventually found it and arrived well before lunch time - 11:30am.
but unfortunately, the place already had a line out the door, and let me remind you that this is under pouring rain. i take that as a good sign. who would wait 20 minutes outside when it’s cold and wet out?

the place had very simple menu - salt flavor, soy flavor, or miso flavor soup and 100-yen (slightly under a buck thanks to horrid US economy) extra would get you some extra soup and noodle, and you can pay 300-yen more for additional “cha-shu” which is originated from chinese char siu.

standing in line among families and business people, we got seated quicker than expected thanks to their “get your food, eat, and get the hell out” policy. within a few minutes our noodle arrived. i ordered salt flavor, my mom, miso.

it was a very simple noodle soup. shredded bamboo, lot of green onions, and a slice of cha-shu. but noodle was plump and tasty, and soup was just amazingly rich. i personally regret getting salt flavor - not that it was bad, but after trying my mom’s miso, i definitely thought it was their best menu item, and when outside is cold, miso warms you from inside the bone.

the rain prevented us from venturing out further and we called it a day after. i watched some japanese television, which was mostly talking about novel prize winners (some japanese people won this year for physics and chemistry sections) and economy. i decided to make some milk tea since it got cold. holding a warm cup, i stared at the container in which my mom keeps bags of tea, i realized, and let out some laugh. my mom doesn’t get this. and personally i don’t think it’s that funny, but when it’s rainy and cold out, anything helps.

woke up again at 5am today - rain had stopped and i realized leaves had turned much much oranger than yesterday. the fall has arrived in hokkaido. and yet, weather channel talked of snow sticking to the mountain top nearby my parents house. autumn doesn’t last long here. maybe 3-4 weeks at most, and winter makes its presence known by blowing snow and frigid air. in a way, in some mountains in hokkaido, winter has already started.

i’m going to take a walk this morning in search of some red leaves.

my JAL 001 flight was delayed a little (about 20 minutes).  we added additional 30 minutes or so while in air due to turbulent air.  here’s what sucked - i was literally surrounded by little kids aged between 0-2 years old.  and you know what kids do in 11-hour flight?  they get tired and start whining a lot toward the end of the flight.  you know what they do in 11-hour turbulent flight?  they cry and whine the whole time, and it’s kind of infecting, because one kid starts crying and next thing all of them are crying.

so i basically didn’t sleep at all, arrived at narita completely groggy and having about an hour to catch my flight to sapporo/chitose, and here it goes - the flight delays again. luckily it was only about 15-minute delay and despite their warning that flight was going to be rough again, i passed out hard in this flight that i didn’t notice a thing about turbulence.

an hour and 20 minutes later, i see this:

unlike still humid tokyo, sapporo is nice. a little cool, but definitely dryer. my parents picked me up, and by the time i got to their house it was about 10pm (about 3am PST i think?). had some beers and snacks and by the time i went to bed, i had been basically up for 24 hours. this was around midnight in japan time.

for some reason, i didn’t sleep well and woke up at 5:30am with my parents. after breakfast, my dad suggested i make bath - you know what i love about japan? taking a bath is shit here, and i mean good shit. the tub is deep and you can splash water around without worrying about flooding your hallway.

after i got out of the bath, i headed to the kitchen to score me some water and here i find this:

this wasn’t the first engrish of my visit to japan this time - the first one was actually a t-shirt a very young girl was wearing and it said something about double ice cream and how it was yummy that girls should make love to. i totally wish i took a picture of that.

anyway, it’s raining here, and i’m chilling with my mom.
will write more, and definitely will post more engrish.

one of such is his visit to seattle to attend conference about space elevator. he and some other people are working on a documentary to capture this discussion.

my initial reaction to this is, “wow, it’s kind of crazy that bunch of science heads are talking about…ahem, *SPACE* elevator”. given the fact that i 1)absolutely suck at physics, and 2)have difficulty visually understanding some sort of uber long rod stuck in the earth soil and can somehow stay straight despite its length and from influences such as bad weather, and 3) (i may be wrong about this but) having an elevator that goes nowhere (i mean…whats the destination? the moon?) just sounds absolutely ridiculous to me, i was thinking “this is crazy talk”.

well, turns out that this crazy talk is not just limited to nerdy science heads but our nerdy folks in japan land. i was browsing through Japanese newspaper online (particularly, asahi.com) and came across this article. i sent the link to josko though it’s in japanese, and i don’t believe josko reads japanese (though it wouldn’t surprise me if he did), and he replied back saying how there’s going to be another round of space elevator conference, this time, in japan, and how he and his partners are looking for sponsors so they can also go to japan to document this event.
(if anyone is interested in helping them out, let me know)

then, next thing, engadget is talking about it.

so, at this point, i’m thinking, “it’s real, we’re gonna have a space elevator”, though my questions above are still unanswered (seriously, are we going to the moon?), and now having even more additional questions like how long will it take and will the elevator have important things like bathroom (i mean, who likes to be stuck in an elevator for 2 days w/out being able to go?) and will it have elevator girls and you say “to the moon” and she pushes “the moon” button, i am hoping that i get to live to see this space elevator (and maybe even get to ride in one one day).

(information within brackets is work-sensitive and has been edited)

12:07 PM me: i’m seeing some timing issues
12:07 PM me: on (technology) when you’re (tool)-eligible
12:07 PM dev: oh?
12:08 PM me: not 100% reproducible but on slower connection, when you go to (url)
12:08 PM me: first it loads a page w/out (tool) offer
12:08 PM me: then the page expands and shows (tool) offer
12:08 PM me: (technology) records 2 stats on landing page
12:08 PM me: one saying offer-ineligible
12:08 PM me: and as soon as page completely loads gets another stats showing offer-eligible
12:09 PM dev: ah, dang
12:09 PM me: i didn’t see it on (server 1) but somehow seeing it more often on (server 2)
12:09 PM dev: that’s not good
12:09 PM me: no
12:09 PM me: i’ll add the charles session on the bug
12:09 PM dev: I’m getting JS errors
12:09 PM me: (bug #)
12:09 PM me: on (server 2)?
12:10 PM dev: yeah
12:10 PM me: IE6 or 7
12:10 PM dev: IE7
12:10 PM dev: a somewhat screwed up IE7
12:10 PM dev: let me look into the timing issue
12:10 PM me: ok
12:12 PM me: the error seems to be IE7 only
12:12 PM dev: looks like there are more files we need to push
12:12 PM dev: (file)
12:12 PM me: ok will push that file
12:13 PM dev: this one too:
12:13 PM dev: (file)
12:13 PM dev: I think that should do it though
12:13 PM me: ok
12:17 PM me: now i’m getting different script error
12:17 PM me: object expected
12:23 PM dev: hmm, I can’t repro on (server 1) which suggests there are still files that are out of sync
12:23 PM me: hmm
12:24 PM dev: let me take a closer look
12:24 PM me: ok
12:24 PM dev: ah, I see
12:24 PM dev: (server 2) is using a cached version of (js file)
12:27 PM dev: alright, I submitted the URL via the purge tool
12:27 PM me: ok
12:29 PM me: cache cleared…still an error
12:31 PM dev: huh, it’s a timing issue after all.
12:31 PM dev: sorry this has been such a PITA
12:32 PM dev: i’ll work on a fix
12:32 PM me: …bread?
12:32 PM dev: http://www.google.com/search?q=define%3A+PITA
12:32 PM dev: last definition
12:33 PM me: nice

i can’t find youtube (or google) video of the commercial, but have you seen the animated version of fry’s electronics commercial? the one with pyramid and this…yellow rectangular character.

so, i’ve always wondered what that character was. its shape is a little odd for french fries and why would they use yellow sponge as a character for an electronics store?

so, yesterday, i was hanging out with bunch of friends, one of them being none other than bay-area native, alex mouton, and i kind of wondered if he might have an answer to this. turns out, he did. and he gave me pretty detailed history of frys electronics (including how they use to sell 25-cent hot dogs and coke on store site) and told me that the character is a golden chip of some sort.

i tried to verify this information on google, but alas, noone really has information on it on the web (including fry’s website itself), but i believe my good source. see, i learn something new everyday.

in another news, it appears that this is how people pick cucumbers in belarus:

don’t ask me how effective that is, but if you want to know more about it, click here.

before getting into this recipe business, i have found a really great website for recipes, and it’s called cookeatshare.com.  what distinguishes this site from other user-contributed recipe site is that they also get recipe from chefs/cooks working at local restaurants.  so you go to your favorite restaurant and wondering, “how can i make this at home” and this is the website you should go.

anyways…the recipe, “tuna conserva with tomatoes, cucumbers, capers, and bread recipe” was contributed by nate appleman of SPQR and you can find the recipe here.

i’m not going to re-write the recipe because you can find it in the link above, but here is some useful info.

1. you probably won’t find tuna conserva at safeway.  maybe whole foods.  i found mine at the health food store on church, across from safeway.  i’m most certain those italian groceries in north beach and on valencia have them.  they’re a bit more expensive than regular tuna in a can - about 4-7 bucks per can (and it can be more expensive for really high grade one), but they’re worth the investment.  the can i bought was luckily at 5 bucks per can, and i was glad i used it instead of cheapo tuna in oil for 2 dollars.

2. the recipe asks you to get italian country bread - i couldn’t find classic italian country bread that day, so i used country bread with rosemary and potato and it was very delicious.

3. this is a meal.  it may not sound like it, but it is a meal on its own.  and it is great on a hot warm day with your favorite glass of wine.  i personally think it is good with somewhat fruity white wine (but not too sweet).

bon apetit!