daigo.org

[Note: obviously, it is quite outdated now but was written March 19, 2008]

I was mad when I first fund this out. And I still am. And rumbling in anger on my way to Tokyo on the Shinkansen (a bullet train).

OK, I see the players arguments. I have to admit that I have not read every articles written about it (spotty internet connections and not enough time), but it makes sense. I agree that the coaches and trainers etc. should be fairly compensated for some “extra” work. But isn’t the whole trip an all-expense-paid trip? If what I read online is half true, I think Smoking Gun had hotel receipt of past Yankees road trip, and they weren’t quite nickeled-and-dimed business trips, either. Did the coaches on China trip compensated? How about previous Japan Trips, like 2001, 2004 etc. Why should they and not others.

I also feel almost insulted, to see that this trip is viewed by the players like an great burden. They delayed announcement, because of “objection” by players. They complained about the schedule and have MLB change it. And now this. Japan has so much to offer, you know. It is a beautiful country and this time of the year is probably the best time to be here. I would love to have taken my family here with me this trip. I heard the report that the first blossom of the cherry trees will be March 23rd in Tokyo. How perfect! I know the dollar is all time low and those of us who make living earning dollars, it is financially worst time to visit, but still. The food, the city, the people… I know many people who would love to get an opportunity to visit Japan on the company money, but can’t (I was one of them before this trip… well I am paying a lot of the trip myself though, because it is half business/half vacation on my count - without expenses. And it is still well-worth it.) And the players complain about the jet lag. Please. They have almost a week to get back into the groove, unlike me who is here till Thursday morning and travel all day to go back to work on Friday and Saturday. And not like they have to travel in the economy class cabins like most of us. And the fans.

Let me tell you about the Japanese fans. They love baseball - well, they are CRAZY about baseball. They are like Boston fans. They know the game and respect and love the players who play the game. The Red Sox players (and perhaps to a little lesser extent Athletics players) will be loved, admired, hailed, and heralded like kings. They are going to treat the players like rock stars and royalties and saints combined. It is good for the healthy ego for those players. And to see what the “kids-game” they play is considered in the other side of earth. I bet you, every players will like it. I bet you, even the most loud complainer I heard on 2004 Yankees squad, Mike Mussina, had to have liked it some. He just must have.

This whole boycott talks make the Red Sox - the whole thing, players, AND the ownership - just bunch of spoiled greedy jerks. I am beginning to think, and I am not the only one I am sure, that the team is taking way too much advantage of the loyal fans. And as one of the paying loyal fans, I feel exploited. They raised the ticket price for more than 10%, and partnered with secondary market ticket agency, (isn’t there some monopoly law that say they can’t do that?); Virtual waiting room is impossible to get ticket (I spent over 10 hours in two days and come away with NONE!); Charging $10 to be the “Citizen of the Nation.”; Beer price in the park is astronomical; Merchandizing is a monopoly in the name of licensing (see Cape Cod League); etc. etc. Where is the line between “smart marketing” and shaking lunch money out of a fan’s pocket while grabbing him by the neck?

Please remember that most of us are barely trying to pay off less than third a million dollar mortgage (if you are lucky) in 30 years or paying off bills for higher education. Those players, who inks multi-million dollar multi-year contract, should know that those people are the ones thats putting money on their pockets.

OK, now that I vented my nonsense, I feel better. Now just get out on the Tokyo Dome playing field and “play ball.” Go Sox. Beat the A’s and go get another WS ring!

I am in slump, I am in the rut. Can’t get up and keep me going, for some reason. I should be happy and I ultimately am, but I just feel that I should be better, nicer, more productive, more thoughtful… i am frustrated and stressed out about my stress levels lately.. I need to rant and vent and whine, so here I go, this blog is like a therapy for me because when you go to shrink that’s what you do, you speak and find an answer in your own words…. So why the hell am I so unhappy? It’s the little things, really. I think it all started when I lost my appointment book, um, a few weeks ago, I couldn’t tell when because I don’t have my appointment book which I have written in all the Red Sox Spring training schedule and which game is televised… and every regular season games by hand. Now I have to dig that info out everyday to see if they are playing/is on the TV. And I am getting ready for a big trip to Japan, which I am very excited about, but also nervous that I may not enjoy it as much - as much as “I should”… And a lot of my pre-planned things were on that frigging appointment book! I’ve copied over all my important contacts etc… And then there is other little things like my computer mouse not working and iPod acting strange and I have to reset it once in a while, and can’t figure out how to turn on the screen power savers and everytime I start the computer the Skype launches… My key chain is broken and need a little screw. I need to get my copy of wife’s car’s key… I know, I know if I spend some time looking into those problems I can probably solve it, but I am lazy and spend my time typing this meaning less post on my blog that never gets updated. Let’s see what else is bothering me, I broke my wash machine, and even though we got a nice new one but it is not correctly hooked up and I got a $220 speeding tickets on the Storrow Drive that was totally out of line and I am appealing it… I still can’t believe it.. I had no idea why he stopped me in the first place. It must have been a mistake… I feel unproductive at work, I have worked on this one project for like two weeks and still not done, and I am not happy the way it is turning out. I feel that I am going to spend too much money in Japan, everything is so expensive in Japan and dollar is so week.. 1 dollar is only 102 yen right now. Holy cow. I remember when it was 360 yen a dollar. I will vote for which ever candidate that can strengthen the dollar… no, I can’t. I am not citizen yet. Why? Because I am too lazy to file for my citizenship. Doh. Speaking of Too lazy, I haven’t done our taxes… What else… My desk at work is messy. My desk at home is messy. I don’t want my son to grow up messy but I am a horrible example in that department. This lent, I am really not doing anything to strengthen my faith. I’m not reading, praying… I feel like an failure. I am not as much on top of the news as I should be. I am not as good of a writer that I aspired to be… in English and Japanese. I am not playing my music lately at all. I am out of practice. I need to swing the bat. I can’t even make it to Gym twice a week, that was my goal when I joined. Goal that is achievable. I am not even doing that. I am too lazy. My cell phne is not charged, my gas tank was empty and it cost $50 to fill up, economy is turning south, my computer’s Japanese-Henkan sucks, and a lot of times I am typing Japanese when I want to type in English. Some of the website that I use is down. God, I am annoying. Geez, man I gotta lighten up. All the problem that I listed here is so lame. It isn’t considered problem for some people. So maybe this ranting venting whining therapy worked. I feel a little better. I think all i need is to get over that appointment book and move on. and enjoy life. I am happy. I have great family and friends and job that I like and I should be thankful for that. Now get to work.

It took me a while to figure it out, so just a memo…
I got 5th generation iPod with video capability, but I always felt that I am not using it to its capacity.

Since there are many video websites online, and sometimes I wish I had a local copy so I could put it on my iPod. There are tons of info on how to do this on PC using IE’s cache, but not much info on Mac. There is a pretty simple way to do this on a Mac using Firefox. Firefox has a temporary cache folder hidden. To get to it, you select Go to Folder from the Go menu, and enter /private/var/tmp/folders.501/TemporaryItems/ (if you are the only user on your mac… if not, you need to change the 501 to 502, 503 etc…) File is called flashtmp0 and as long as you have the video completely loaded in the browser, only thing you need to do is to copy that file and rename it into something.flv.

Then I use this software called iSquint to convert the .flv file into .mp4 format (that iPod can read). The software will even add it to you iTunes. Besides it asking to upgrade it to their newest and greatest software, it works awesome. It took me a little while to figure it out but I am pretty happy with it. Also found HandBrake which can convert the DVD into mp4 format. Awesome.

How ironic the name: Shadow. I am talking about T-Mobile Shadow that I just got. It is almost like iPhone but I had about three hundred reason why I got the phone: it is about 300 dollars cheaper than iPhone. Even though it runs Windows Mobile (yikes), I still like it. I may even say I love it. It is much smaller than expected and as slick looking as how it was described. There is an active and growing Shadow-users community at allshadow.com. It is pretty cool that it has wi-fi capability. It connected to my home network without any problem. And there are cool apps like viigo (a very fast rss reader) or Micorsoft’s Live Search Mobile (which speech recognition tool that understand me with my Japanese accent!), it is way cool. Two things, so far, is not cool: there is no sync tool readyly available for Mac (I guess Missing Sync can do the trick but it is whopping $40…) and the web browser does not display Japanese characters.
But since the Shadow is running Windows Mobile, it also means that there are few hacks available to display Japanese/Asian characters on the phone. Like CS-Star ($25 though) and Lets Japan by Askal. And through a link from aforementioned allshadows.com’s forum, I found this post:

… I’m not sure about Chinese input on smartphones, but here is how to view chinese/asian characters:
1. Find your favorite Chinese truetype font and copy it to \windows\. I use mUniFontM and will use it in my examples.
2. Add the following registry string values:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\FontPath\FontPath=\Windows
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\FontLink\SystemLink\Segoe Condensed=\Windows\mUniFontM.ttf,mUniFontM
3. Restart.

Sounds like if I can find a good Japanese ttf fonts, it maybe pretty simple. However, as I stated earlier, I am a Mac user. So there is no Windows Mobile Registry Editor available. Doh!

I am now reading my favorite author, Haruki Murakami’s “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman” in English language. The translation is very good, and it is always fascinating to think about how publisher’s decide which Japanese book to be published in US, and which US books to go to Japan. I did a very quick search on Amazon.co.jp site, just out of curiosity . Here are couple of books by Obama that went over to Japan: Dreams from My Father and Audacity of Hope. Hillary has Living History translated in Japanese. But interestingly, nothing show up when I type in Romney, McCain or Huckabee. Here is one by Giuliani: Leadership . He also has one about him: Rudy. More interesting, I found a book by Dennis Kucinich. Very interesting.

My better half heard about this CBS special called In God’s Name and wanted to see it the other day. So we did. I had no idea what was going to be about, but it was fascinating. The show verified a lot of stuff for me, but I also realized how little I know about some stuff. I was baptized at Our Lady Help of Christians Parish in Newton by Fr. Walter Cuenin as a catholic in 2003. It really was not a conversion, since I really had no religion at all growing up probably because my dad’s side is Shinto and my mom’s side is Buddhism. So, it was very interesting to learn about a Shinto high priest, Michihisa Kitashirakawa, Jingu Daiguji (high priest) of Grand Shrine of Ise, who has worked as a successful business man at Toshiba Corp. and he is a great grandson of the Meiji Emperor. Shinto brief is still a very mysterious to me. It is also very interesting to learn about how complex and how many and many different denominations of Christianity there are. Here is a example of major denominational families of Christianity breaks down the branches by numbers, and here is another good answer as to how those break down (i.e. Methodist is part of Lutheran, which is part of Protestant etc…) As a person who was baptized at age 30, I feel like I understand Anabaptists, who think infant baptism is not valid, because a child cannot commit to a religious faith, and they instead support what is called believer’s baptism… Anyway, that is besides the point. I thought one very interesting point that those filmmakers made was that the all of the religions don’t believe in violence (though some believe in retaliation, which made me cringe), and all wants peace. I believe that people’s faith can bring peace on earth. It was a good show and if I have chance I would like to see it again since there were a lot going on and I think I missed a lot of stuff in it.

It took me one whole week till I can laugh about this. Well, I am still not really laughing about it. I was fumed. Still makes me mad thinking about it.

Exactly one week ago today, on December 8th, 2007, I sat in front of my work computer at 9:45 am. The Boston Red Sox Christmas at Fenway event was on, and that also meant that the online ticket sales was about start at 10 am. I had to start working at 1 pm, figured in three hours, I can get tickets and then start working. As I have done the last three or four years, (or more? I am not sure…) I had my credit card out, and accessed redsox.com and opened up few windows like this (click to enlarge):

I was listening to my iPod. I might as well listen to Fugazi’s “13 songs” album… You know, the one that goes…

I am a patient boy
I wait, I wait, I wait, I wait
My time, the water down a drain …more…

Anyway, one hour passes. One and half hour passes, and I start to think, ” Mmmm, I was able to get in by now last year…” Then two hour passes, I’m nervous that I won’t get any tickets, and three hours passes and I had to go to a work meeting. I just sat in front of computer for three pathetic hours, even had my credit card ready to spend like $1,000, Welcome to virtual waiting room hell. What other business would do that? This is crazy, and it is really bad business practice. I finally gave up. I had to start working.

And what do I get as I close my window? The following message is what I got.

Fine, Boston Red Sox. I will keep my $1,000 to myself.

This is just too absolutely interesting… and too strange!

Are the Japanese actually Jewish? Nippon TV’s “Mino Monta’s Japanese Mystery” show had this very interesting (aside from the sensationalism) theory that the “Japan’s roots may be in the lost Israeli clan and the lost ark of the Covenant, that once held the 10 Commandments, (of Indiana Jones 1981 film) may be in Japan (Tokushima, to be exact). They also have some strange, but somewhat convincing facts that (well, sort of) backs the theory.

• One of the Ten lost tribes from ancient Israel has not discovered where they went. They may have traveled through the silk road and ended up in Japan. Timeline is a bit confusing, the Kingdom of Israel was conquered sometimes in 720s BC, but Hata clan (clan believed to be those Israelites) who “migrated from foreign lands” in Yamato period, 250–710. Mysterious.
• Similarity between Hebrew characters and Japanese Katakana and Hiragana (the sound, too).
• Some words sounds the same, and means almost the same thing in Japanese and Hebrew. Example: Kaku (to write), Toru (to pick something up), Hakushu (clap). They say there about 500 words like it.
• Similarity between Kyoto’s month long Gion Festival and celebration of Zion: Japanese carry Mikoshi which looks sort of like the lost ark; July 17th date, the peak of the festival, has old testament significance (the day that Noah’s ark arrived at mount Ararat?);p arading of decorated floats depicts the sight of pyramids, camel and Istanbul, reminiscent of the silk roads. etc. etc…
• Even the Japanese Shinto Mythology, Ninigi no Mikoto (pronounced nee-nee-gee), and the Biblical Genealogy, Jacob in the Hebrew Bible, has a remarkable similarity (scrol down) between them.

It’s so interesting you should see the videos. Maybe National Geographics’ Geno Project can get some genes from those Hada people…

Japan and Jewish does have some interesting past… like Chiune Sugihara who issued more than 2000 transit visas for Jewish refugees in Lithuania (there is a statue of him in LA’s Japan town).

But then again, there is Gabe Kapler, who is Jewish and absolutely shlacked with Yomiuri Giants in Japan (hit only .153 in 120 AB, 38 games). See, my blog posting would have had perfect ending if he had star success then I could have said “Now, that’s the reason for Kapler’s success!” I wonder Daniel Kobayashi from Jose Melendez Keys to the Game blog knows about this. I believe he is part Japanese and part Jewish…

So, big news is that Kosuke Fukudome, a stud outfielder/slugger of Chunichi Dragons -my home town team- just filed for free agency. Losing star player is a sad news for my home town team. He has said to be hired San Diego-based Octagon Baseball as his agent and looking to come across the Pacific to play in the US next season. He will also be heavily recruited by Yomiuri Giants and Hanshin Tigers (I hope he doesn’t go to the Giants… not the GIANTS!!!). But I was browsing on the web, and noticed wrong photo was being used for Fukudome. In this Sports Illustrated page, the photo is Softbank Hawks’ first baseman Nobuhiko Matsunaka. (For your reference, Fukudome wore number 17 in the WBC. Devil Rays - excuse me, the Rays I mean- Akinori Iwamura took number 1.) This has happened before. last year, the photo of Imae was circulated in US media as Iwamura. Some people were confused about Hiroyuki Kobayashi (at least couple years away from free agency) and Masahide Kobayashi (who is a free agent, and picked SFX as his agent to negotiate with major league clubs for next year). At least nobody mistook them for Takeru Kobayashi. Oh, well, what are you going to do, just do the test on alllooksame.com and laugh about it.

The Chunichi Dragons closer Hitoki Iwase gets Nippon-Ham Fighters’ (It’s “Fighters”, not “Ham Fighters” people! Company “Nippon-Ham” owns the team…) pinch-hitter, Eiichi Koyano into ground out at second, and something that had not happened in the last 53 years happened. Chucnichi Dragons won the Japan Series! Last time they won the Series was in 1954, and it was their only other time. Unbelievable. For me, this makes two home town championship within a week. I’ve lived in outskirts of Nagoya (home of the Dragons) for first 17 years of my life, then this is my 17th year since moved here in Boston area (or state of Massachusetts, anyway).

Another twist to this story was that the starting pitcher Daisuke Yamai pitched 8-innings of perfect game, but the manager Hiromitsu Ochiai, the only player to hit for triple crown for three seasons in Japan (second is two by Sadaharu Oh) pulled him at beginning of top 9th preventing the would-be history Japan Series perfect game. Closer Iwase came on to pitch perfect relief and accomplished the combined perfect game but there were many criticism on the managerial move. Ochiai, who’s managing style is to not reveal inside the club information (a la Bill Belichik), did reveal later that starter Yamai had blister in his finger that prevented him from throwing, and Yamai was asked if he can go and the pitcher allegedly replied “No”. The opposing pitcher, Nippon Ham’s ace Yu Darvish was pitching four-hit one-run game, so many feels that the move was justifiable. On the side note, Darvish also pitched another one-run complete game to win the first game of the series. Throwing 12 complete games this season, he won the Sawamura Award which is Japan’s own Cy Young this year, and is becoming one of the finest young pitcher in Japan (last pitcher to throw double digit complete game was Matsuzaka in 2001). Considering Nippon Ham will not likely to post him, he will be eligible for Free Agency after 2013 season, at age 27. He could be the next Daisuke Matsuzaka. I’ve often said there will be no “next Daisuke” in the near future but I stand corrected. Speaking of a future major league player, in the fore-mentioned game one, Chunichi ace Kenshin Kawakami also pitcher two-hit complete game, but one of the hit was three run home run to be the losing pitcher. He is eligible for FA. (More on this later)

People back at home are going nuts, as this English teacher in Nagoya posts clips on YouTube (clip 1, clip 2). Obviously I have never experienced that in Japan and my dad, who has been Dragons fan all his life, was a only toddler when this happened before. It is amazing. I wore my official Dragons jersey to work last Thursday, and after explaining to people what that was, received many congratulations. Omedeto, Dragons!

OF course the interesting thing is that three of Chunichi’s major players Iwase, Kawakami, and slugger Kosuke Fukudome, are all eligible to become free agency and all at some point or another have hinted that they were interested to come across the Pacific to join a major league club. So far there are at least 5 pitchers (Hiroki Kuroda, Yukinaga Maeda, Masahide Kobayashi, Kazuo Fukumori, and Yasuhiko Yabuta) and a hitter (IF Kazuya Fukuura), who expressed a interest in coming to US. Those does not even include the three Dragons stars. This could be the record year for the Japanese players, as last year was the current record with 5 rookies (Matsuzaka, Okajima, Igawa, Iwamura, and Kuwata). 2002 and 2004 was second with 4 rookies (02: Ishii, Komiyama, Nomura, and Taguchi. 2004 Otsuka, Takatsu, Tadano and Kazuo Matsui). Busy off season ahead for my website japaneseballplayers.com.