Otaku Matsuri Part 2

Posted on 2006/07/24 15:24:12 (July 2006).

[Sunday 23rd July]
Chie had to go into work today to make up her quota, so for me another festival of nerdiness ensued. I think I have written more software in this weekend than I have done in the last month of my day job. This is the reality of "real world" software engineering though - most of it is about maintenance (i.e. bug fixing) rather than actually doing anything new. The overheads involved mean that it is typically 50% about finding out why something or other doesn't work, 45% going through all the process nonsense associated with making a change in a high profile commercial product, and only 5% (if you're lucky) actually typing in new lines of code.

Recently I have realised I am turning into something of a recluse - generally speaking I don't much like Tokyo - it's an ugly city filled with far too many people who generally speaking don't have particularly good manners. So I'm much happier when I just stay in - my flat is a little vaccuum which could be anywhere in the world, and when I have something engaging to do, it is easy to forget where I am.

Despite this though, I didn't confine myself to the great indoors all day. As poor old Chie had to go to work, I thought the least I could do was to go and meet her for lunch in an attempt to break up the monotony of her day. So I headed over to Roppongi, and had lunch there with Chie and her friend from the office, who I met for the first time. The three of us had burgers at a place which (being in Roppongi - gaijin central) pleasingly had some kind of vegetarian burger on the menu. Then after that Chie and I went on to a little cafe for a quick drink and dessert, before Chie headed back to the office and I headed back home.

When Chie returned home from work in the evening I made Mexican food for dinner, and hit upon what I thought was a simple but great new idea to add atmosphere to a meal when eating foreign food - internet radio. There are all sorts of weird and wonderful internet radio stations available - I was using iTunes on the Mac Mini, but there are plenty of other ways to find these. Anyway, it occurred to me what a wonderful (albeit deeply cheesy) idea it would be to play music from the country associated with whatever meal we were eating. Whilst I couldn't find a specifically Mexican radio station, there were a couple of Latino / South American stations, which, given my general ignorance of that part of the world, seemed as near as dammit. So in the future we'll have Italian / Chinese / Japanese / Middle Eastern / Indian music as appropriate. Yes, it is tremendously cheesy, but that's all part of the appeal, and anyway, it makes me happy, OK?

I find it quite nice on the contrary, it adds to the atmosphere!!! Good lad!

Posted by Lox at 2006/07/24 16:36:25.

Good idea! (Cheesy radio) Afterall, when you go into any specific type restaurant they are usually playing their own country's music in the background! Adds to the atmosphere!

Posted by Nigel at 2006/07/24 20:13:29.

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