Curiosity Killed the Cat

It's snowing!

As a native Californian, this is kind of a Big Thing for me.

If it sticks and is clear tomorrow morning, I will take pictures!

Google-tans
...it's like they know I work on Toolbar or something

In an effort to not post about Professor Layton, I watched Macross Frontier and I must say, Neo San Francisco looks very much like the real thing. Down to the green-and-gold circular adverts in downtown and the sea lions in the harbor! Well, perhaps not down to the sea lions, they shipped out a few months ago.
Also, I like how Neo Shibuya had a Shibuya-99 building instead of a Shibuya-109.

Seriously, I'm pretty sure that's Descole's Crowning Moment of Awesome. I mean, he's got this pipe organ, and then he pushes some buttons and controls pop out, and then half the building pulls away and becomes a giant walking robot intent on smashing stuff. Now that's some engineering. It makes the Professor's helicopter seem a bit, well, dinky.

I was mostly wondering how they would convey the puzzle-solving aspect of the gameplay in a linear movie. In fact, I think it was integrated pretty well, with Descole drawing everyone into his game, where they had to solve his riddles in order to progress towards the prize, the elixir of eternal life. The first two puzzles, which take place at the opera house, are even labeled "001" and "002", in lights, and the standard puzzle-solving music plays in the background.

The main characters from Specter's Flute are all present: Layton, Remi, Luke and Descole, along with Inspector Growski. You don't really have to have played the game to understand their characters as the first ten minutes or so is all setup and intro, but there are a few jokes that allude to the gameplay which are funnier if you have context. My coworker whose main knowledge of Layton was my five minute overview while we were walking to the theater enjoyed the movie a lot too.

Anyway, Eternal Diva was great fun. Over the top but well in line with the games. The expansive production values you would expect from a movie-length animation translate into lush scenery with intricate sets and vibrant colors, lovely music (Layton's and Descole's themes play prominently, as well as several of the puzzle melodies, as well as a bunch of new songs), in-your-face sound effects, etc. There were a few bits of really nice surround-sound effect where some dialogue or action happens behind the camera, and almost makes you turn. Definitely recommended to anyone who's played the games, even if you having gotten to Specter's Flute yet.

( Here be spoilers for story and all that )

Hm, maybe I will try to find the soundtrack this weekend. It was nice to hear a lot of the game music rendered by a full orchestra. Sure, you get a few "live" tracks on the game soundtracks, but even those are not as expansive as what you can get in a movie setting.

Three words: Pipe Organ Mecha.

More thoughts coming soon.

Going to see Professor Layton movie tomorrow! Woohoo!

I'm on the Google Japan Blog! Albeit not for anything special, they just were taking a bunch of photos when we were voting.

A few things I want to do this year:
- Continue enjoying life in Japan
- Blog more about life in Japan
- Learn more Japanese
- Visit the Sydney office
- Visit the Seoul, Beijing or Zurich office
- Hang out with KKD at AX
- Move back to CA
- Buy a place in SF (probably a condo in one of the newer developments South of Market)
- Start doing serious stock market investing

It's going to be a big year, I think.

Specter's Flute is done! A sweet and sappy ending. And we get to see how Luke joins up with Layton for further shenanigans. I can't wait to see what Descole has up his sleeve in Eternal Diva.
I managed to solve 156 puzzles so far. The rest are either hidden in some place I missed my first go round, or locked until I solve more puzzles in Secrets Mode. Not bad for lacking any Japanese fluency. The word puzzles were the hardest. Whenever I read "please input X hiragana for the answer" I just groaned, pulled out the dictionary on my iPod, and kept trying words.
I think my favorite puzzle type were the 'dropping things and bouncing them across the screen to a waiting basket' ones. I solved three so far; you basically have an object (first an apple, then a watermelon, then a bomb) dropped at the top left of the string. You're given a certain number of strings you can arrange on a grid so the object bounces to the right of the screen into a waiting basket. There are various horizontal and vertical blocks set up to make things more interesting. Perhaps I just like dropping apples. It gives me illusions of being Newton.
Time to start Diabolical Box! Oh! And the London Life RPG! All I've done in it so far is set up my character (in a Mii-like fashion, you can choose your gender/face/hair/clothes) and found an apartment. Tiny London is adorable, and I love seeing the tiny 8-bit styled sprites of characters from the games. There are folks from all the games, I think; I've run into a number of residents from St. Mystere and Mist Halely when looking for the apartment. Also, you arrive in Tiny London on the Molentary Express. So far my favorite bit of London Life is the warning when the game is loading, which warns you about tiny letters, tiny characters, tiny clothes and tiny life.

This holiday season I have basically been:
- napping
- doing family holiday stuff
- shopping
- playing Professor Layton and the Specter's Flute

I have bought Prof Layton and the Diabolical Box but am not going to start on that until I finish Specter's Flute. I'm up to puzzle 100'ish of what appear to be about 150'ish story puzzles, so I am already 2/3rds through the game. The plot is moving along nicely, and I can't wait to finish and watch the Eternal Diva movie!
For what it's worth, Remi is simply full of win. She kicks ass. Literally. She knows martial arts. She has been labeled "the explosive woman" for her rather hot temper (although she's not violent unless provoked, and the other party really, really deserves it.) I will miss her presence in Diabolical Box, I'm sure.

Otherwise I'm just hanging out, taking it easy, meeting up with friends, etc. We're going to see Avatar later today. Should be pretty.

Walking home from Nakameguro station is bad for me. Yesterday we had our holiday party at Roppongi Hills, so I took the Hibiya line back home. Only a minute's walk from the station is the Nakameguro branch of Book-Off (they in fact have an ad in the station itself saying "Book-Off: Just a one minute walk in this direction -->") So I went in and got me a copy of Professor Layton and the Specter's Flute. When I got home I realized I got an extra bonus - a Layton hint coin charm! ♥ (While I was at it I also finally picked up Ouendan 1+2. READY STEADY NEVER LOOK BACK~) I figured Specter's Flute would help improve my Japanese comprehension and prepare me for the Eternal Diva movie. I already convinced one coworker (who's never played the game) to go see it with me.
So far I've really been enjoying the game (although I am only an hour and 8 puzzles in.) The animation is really gorgeous (and has been eagerly anticipating Eternal Diva), although I miss Layton's British accent (but am glad not to listen to Luke's cockney).
Anyway, I was actually doing okay in the game until puzzle 7, a wacky logic puzzle which had me scratching my head and wondering whether it was my incomprehension or lack of logical reasoning that lead to being unable to solve the puzzle. So I typed in the puzzle directions and sent it through Google Translate (which helped, but it still required a leap in logic I did not get until I "solved" the question by moving forwards and backwards form my original answer.)
I figured it would be a lot faster to type in the puzzles and send them through Google Translate for at least a first past at comprehension. And if I was going to do that I might as well put them up for viewing. So I started a Specter's Flute gameblog. I'm also adding notes on my impressions of the game as I play through. Hope you Layton fans out there find it useful!

Holy crap, there's going to be a Professor Layton movie coming out next year?
Just saw an ad for it on the train. "Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva"... definitely want to go check it out when it's released :3 Guess I should get the Specter's Flute game in Japanese if it's going to be a continuation. Argh, I still have to get Diabolical Box in English... trying to solve brainteasers in Japanese will be a lot more challenging!
Ooh, wikipedia is great. There are Layton soundtracks I need to go out and find now!

Last Friday as I was heading home, I stopped by the convenience store. I was thinking of picking up some fruit juice as I've gotten a mild cold lately, but ended up buying a bottle of Azuki [red bean] Pepsi. As you might imagine, this was really a Bad Idea. I blame the Beaujolais I had at TGIF.
Now, azuki bean is used in all sorts of sweets and desserts so surely this couldn't be as strange as Shiso Pepsi? (Dunno, I never tasted Shiso Pepsi.) Unfortunately, it is way too sweet. In fact it's almost medicinally sweet. But, if you pretend you're drinking a sparkling cordial, it's just about bearable. It sort of tastes like cordial (with some red-bean notes in it).
Let's just say the next time I am thinking of buying juice, I'd better damn well buy some juice.

So, KKD, which con should I attend next year?
1) AOD
Pros
- San Francisco
- Small, intimate setting
- We run it, so we take good care of ourselves
Cons
- Short duration
- Not everyone staffs
- Timing (I will be in SF end of December, so to go back end of January is a bit much)
2) AX
Pros
- Long duration
- Everyone and their dog shows up
- Gong Show
Cons
- Los Angeles
- People tend to be more stressed out with staffing

Regardless, I'll get a hotel room and be an attendee, although I expect a comp badge from one of you folks.

Designers! I have 5 invites for Typekit. Typekit is a service that provides web-embeddable fonts to your site. No more Verdana and Georgia for you! You can learn more about them on their site or their blog.
Drop a note if you want an invite. I'll need to know which email you want the invite sent to.

So if Windows 7 gets a Whopper, what might other OS burgers look like?
A Vista burger would probably come with all sorts of warnings on its wrapper asking if you REALLY want to eat the burger, and then there would be an extra warning underneath the wrapper, just in case you weren't sure the first time.
An Apple OSX burger would probably be something exquisitely crafted, with every sesame seed on its bun perfectly arranged for harmony (visually and taste-wise.) It would also probably cost three times as much as a regular burger.
An Ubuntu burger would be very simple, just a burger and a bun. Then on the side you'd had to add all your own fixings. You'd probably get something you'd really like, though, since you put it together yourself.
Having only seen fleeting impressions of Chrome OS on other people's laptops, I'm not sure what a Chrome OS burger would be like yet. But it would probably be low calorie and light weight.
These musings brought to you by the lunch I had today. All 7 patties of it.

So I found that there is, in fact, a place on my Android phone for phone charms. However, I picked up a charm from Asakusa so Hatsune Miku is still on my keys and getting leekspin stuck in my head.
Incidentally when we went to Yodobashi in Akihabara, I briefly walked into the figures section and saw the full complement of Hatsune Miku leekspin cell phone charms (sans Chrome logo). They came in a box set. I'm not sure what you'd actually do with 7 phone charms?
More in the Japanese-Think-Of-Everything department, Kitchen Edition II -- my stove has a 'rice cooker' option. It's great, you just tell it how many cups of rice you have. Which is good, because rice cookers here are complicated and expensive and have way too many buttons, and I'm glad not to have to buy one.

Now I can get Leva's Polka stuck in my head every time I enter/leave the apartment! Brilliant!
It's actually a Chrome phone charm that Good Smile Company made for us to celebrate the Hatsune Miku and GSC themes they made for Google Chrome. Except my phone doesn't have a place to hang a charm, so I stuck it on my keys.

Also in the Japanese-Think-of-Everything department, my microwave has a sake button on it. I especially like how it's combined with the milk button.

But it sure looks pretty.
From the Google Chrome 1st Birthday Party I went to last night. It celebrated both the first birthday of Chrome and the launch of Artist Themes. A number of artists who did themes for Japan turned out, which was nice. I was rather tired after running around most of the day taking care of paperwork, so I left early, and did not have a chance to sample the cake.

I took two days off (I worked during Silver Week to prepare for a Toolbar launch, so I figured I deserved it.) I had fun wandering the neighborhood today; I figured I should get that done today before the big storm of doom hits tomorrow. Found several nice grocery stores just a few minutes away, very handy. I also wandered down towards Sangenjaya area and ran into a Book-Off. I now finally own Ego-Wrappin's early maxi singles Swing for Joy and His Choice of Shoes is Ill. A happy Tama is me. Oh, and I found a random Katteni Shiyagare album too. Woohoo.
Tomorrow I am going to take care of paperwork like getting a multiple re-entry stamp on my passport, setting up a bank account, etc and so forth. I also will be going to a Chrome 1st Birthday celebration in the evening. I hope the storm doesn't mess up the subway system, because otherwise it's a long walk!