Et oh ca va la France?

En suivant l'actualité française j'ai cru comprendre qu'il y avait un petit souci du cote du "moral des français". La ou je commence a me demander si le petit souci ne serait pas un gros problème, c'est quand Hertz m'envoie le mail publicitaire suivant:

Cher Monsieur
Vous êtes stressés et manquez d'enthousiasme en cette période de fin d'année ? Une pause après les fêtes de Noël pourrait vous faire le plus grand bien. Prévoyez donc dès maintenant un séjour reposant et relaxant pour démarrer l'année 2008 du bon pied.

Je vous épargne la suite. Comme quoi les podcasts france inter et lemonde.fr ça suffit pas toujours pour se tenir informe.

Last party in Hsinchu (before the next one)

Last party in Hsinchu to say goodbye to everyone. I will be back in France on Sunday and leave Taiwan forever (but I will be back on January). We had a lot of beer, a lot of Picon (so only Picon-Biere actually), a lot of fun and friends and as usual great music thanks to myself. Heureusement mon ipod a fidelement conserve la playlist Onthego que je vous restitue tel quel:

I Get Around (Midnight Juggernaut Mix) Dragonette
pitchfork mix AUGUST final Diplo
Escape (The Bloody Beetroots Remix) The Toxic Avenger
Gold Lion (Diplo Reggaeton Remix) Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Jump Around Vs In Da Club 50 cent
Lighter Up/Lil' Kim Bach Logic 4:13
Danse la poutine Omnikrom 4:54
London Calling The Clash 3:21
Mala Vida MANO NEGRA 2:52
HeartBreaker (Produced by Daft Punk) Teriyaki Boyz
P.I.M.P. 50 Cent 4:10 11 Get Rich or Die Tryin'
Ring The Alarm/Beyonce Bach Logic 2:42
Fix Up, Look Sharp Dizzee Rascal 3:45
Too Drunk to Fuck Nouvelle Vague 2:16
Boulbi Booba 4:03 5 of 16 Ouest side
Two Shouts IV My People Kool Shen 3:53
Thé à la menthe La Caution 3:44 11 of 17
We Are Your Friends Justice Vs Simian
Smells Like Teen Spirit Nirvana 4:59
Tostaky (le continent) Noir Desir 5:30
DVNO Justice
SexyBack (remix) Justin Timberlake feat Timbaland & The Clipse
Watch Out Now Beatnuts
Things Fannypack
Oh Yeah (f/ Spragga Benz) Foxy Brown
Through The Wire Kanye West
Fuck You 50 Cent
113 Fout La Merde 113 ft. Thomas Bangalter
Dans Le Club TTC
Dans le club (San Andreas remix feat. Stomy && Sté) Cuizinier
Pass pass le oinj NTM
La vie qui va avec (avec Kuamen de NCC) Sefyu
Upside Down Diana Ross
Shut Up & Dance Clones
Revolution 909 Daft Punk
Burnin' Daft Punk
The Bomb 2003 (White Label) The Bucketheads
travailler (Orgasmic remix) TTC
Girlfriend TTC
Truc de Ouf (feat. Doudou Mas 113
Banquet Bloc Party
I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor Arctic Monkeys
Amsterdam (Olympia 1964) Jacques Brel

I remember Dave asking me "Why you're not djing for clubs?". I guess the answer is up there...
Anyway, thanks to everyone and see you soon.

Flight record

Je suis en train de remplir les formulaires de demande de Visa pour le Japon (2008 sera l'année du Japon, et peut être même 2009, etc...). On me demande la liste de mes "Séjours antérieurs au Japon". Voila l'occasion de regarder dans mes passeports et de faire un petit bilan: 22 séjours au Japon en 3 ans. Mais aussi 9 en Corée (seulement?), 5 en Chine ou encore 3 aux US. En faisant le compte ça fait quand même 45 déplacement en dehors de Taïwan soit une moyenne de 2.7 vols par mois (quand je vous dis que je connais bien les aéroports...). Ça confirme aussi mon impression de pas avoir passe beaucoup de week-end chez moi (la plupart des voyages incluant un week-end sur place).
Sortez moi le listing complet!

Korea: 27/03/2005 03/05/2005
Korea: 15/05/2005 22/05/2005
HK: 20/05/2005 27/05/2005
Malaysia: 13/07/2005 17/07/2005
Japan: 12/08/2005 28/08/2005
Japan: 28/10/2005 29/10/2005
Korea: 12/11/2005 20/11/2005
Japan: 26/11/2005 12/12/2005
Korea: ? 15/01/2006
Japan: 22/01/2006 18/02/2006
Japan: 27/02/2006 08/03/2006
Japan: 28/03/2006 01/04/2006
Japan: 21/04/2006 24/04/2006
Japan: 07/05/2006 21/05/2006
China: 22/05/2006 05/06/2006
Korea: 10/06/2006 24/06/2006
Japan: 04/08/2006 19/08/2006
USA: 24/08/2006 27/08/2006
Thailand: 31/08/2006 05/09/2006
Japan: 06/09/2006 09/09/2006
Korea: 18/09/2006 23/09/2006
Japan: 24/09/2006 02/10/2006
Bali: ? 15/10/2006
Japan: 14/11/2006 27/11/2006
Korea: 03/12/2006 10/12/2006
Japan: 20/01/2007 22/01/2007
China: 08/02/2007 13/02/2007
USA: 05/03/2007 ?
Japan: 23/03/2007 26/03/2007
Japan: 31/03/2007 03/04/2007
Japan: 14/04/2007 23/04/2007
Thailand: 30/04/2007 05/05/2007
Japan: 07/06/2007 12/06/2007
China: 19/06/2007 28/06/2007
Korea: 01/07/2007 05/07/2007
USA: 12/07/2007 ?
Canada: 26/07/2007 ?
Japan: 10/08/2007 19/08/2007
China: 27/08/2007 11/09/2007
Japan: 16/09/2007 21/09/2007
Korea: 07/10/2007 11/10/2007
Japan: 23/10/2007 29/10/2007
Japan: 16/11/2007 19/11/2007
China: 19/11/2007 23/11/2007
Japan: 23/11/2007 26/11/2007

Poudoudou!

I wonder who suggested the name of this Japanese clothes brand...
I guess they asked some drunken french expats to throw in some ideas. As they had to choose between "Ragnagna, trop la patate" and "Poudoudou, trop la peche" the second one sounded more cute. Something like that...
Please post your suggestions in comments.

Hsinchu

J'ai trouve cette video de Hsinchu (je devrais dire slide show) sur Youtube. La sélection de photos est un peu étrange (un chat dans un bar, oui?) mais ca a le mérite de montrer quelques endroits qui seront familiers a certains. Pour les autres, et bien c'est la que j'habite.

Jerry, I think there is the FBI waiting outside...

A strange event happened last week-end at the Light (a small bar in Hsinchu where Taiwanese friends are working/drinking). I was in Japan at that time, so I missed it.  This is how my friend related the event: "We were drinking wine and when my friend got out of the bar FBI jumped out of everywhere - maybe 10 agents - and arrested him". 

Ok, here is the explanation: 

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/2007/10/27/128326/Big-underground.htm

A drug factory in Hsinchu? I like this small detail in the article: "The chemical is [...] generating no odor or smell during the production process". Seriously, anyone who walked in Hsinchu before knows that you can produce any smelly product, it will always be covered by the smell of Stinky tofu!

Cognac Thé Vert

Juste un message rapide pour mettre en garde mes lecteurs résidant en Asie: le Cognac Thé Vert oui c'est bon, c'est la mode a Shanghai et c'est la mode de dire qu'on en a bu a Shanghai, mais faut pas se voiler la face: c'est tout de même pathétique de boire du Cognac au pichet.

Shanghai derniere (enfin on espere...)

Me voila reparti pour Shanghai ce lundi. Shanghai c'etait mieux avant, vous avez du le voir au 20h ou ils montrent souvent les vieux quartiers qui disparaissent au profit de gros complexes immobiliers. Un film qui m'avait beaucoup marque a l'epoque sur le vieux Shanghai d'avant c'est Empire of the Sun. On peut y voir une reconstitution des vieilles concessions. En fait a l'epoque j'avais surtout aime a cause des avions, de la musique, des chinoises, voire Christian Bale prendre des baffes (apres il est devenu Batman, c'est devenu plus complique), les japonais sympa qui crient tres fort (et qui boivent du sake avant d'aller piloter, n'importe quoi les gars!), la bombe atomique, le blouson super cool d'aviateur de Jim (faut que j'en trouve un tiens pour cet hiver).
Je vais passer deux semaines Shanghai, en essayant de ramener quelques vidéos intéressantes.

On range, on trie, on nettoie!

J'ai du temps en ce moment. Vous l'aurez sans doute remarque vu la fréquence inhabituelle des mises a jour du blog. Je suis plus ou moins au chômage technique, plus de bureaux pendant 15 jours, les taïwanais aiment refaire la deco tous les deux ans. Mon erreur a été de ne pas prendre des vacances assez longues.
Aujourd'hui, j'ai donc: trie des pièces de monnaie, lave des baskets (a la quatrième paire j'ai abandonne, c'est crevant et en plus tout les lacets en même temps dans la machine c'est impossible après pour tout démêler), étudié les problèmes de Visa pour le Japon et parcouru beaucoup de blogs musicaux (entre autre fluokids, La New Shit, La boule a facettes).
Et puis allez voir le blog de mon pote Jan qui lui fait un vrai blog avec des posts vraiment intéressant et parfois drole (ou l'inverse). En plus il met même de la musique en ligne comme ca a l'air d'être la mode sur tous les blogs depuis que myspace est devenu un truc socialement dangereux et techniquement cradingue.
Moi, comme je sais pas comment faire et qu'en plus j'ai pas le courage de mettre un truc en disant "écoutez c'est ca le dernier truc qui tue!" (avec un commentaire de Jan du genre "Super Julien, bienvenu dans le mois dernier") mais que j'aime bien montrer que je connais des trucs super cool, j'ai sélectionne pour vous Camembert&Sushi.
Cette interprétation de Couleur Cafe est saisissante: "Kohiiii irooo, Koohi iroo ga suki!".
Me mettre sérieusement au Japonais, c'est a ca que je devrais occuper ce temps "libre".

Weekend a la montagne

Nous sommes allés passer un week-end a la montagne avec Miho.
Essentiel pour survivre a la chaleur moite de Tokyo (35C et 86%
d'humidité...). On a donc pris le Shinkansen tot vendredi matin pour
aller a Nagano. Bizarrement j'ai pas pris de photos du ZenKoji (Miho?
tu en as?). Ballade dans la montagne l'après midi. Le lendemain visite
de Matsumoto avec ballade a velo. J'ai rarement fait un week-end aussi
sain depuis que je suis en Asie.

Le château de Matsumoto. Un vrai château tout en bois qui a plus de 400 ans, il en reste plus beaucoup au Japon.

Vu d'en haut du château.

Une photo expérimentale de notre ballade a vélo. Prise depuis le porte baguage...

Une ferme a Wasabi, étonnant non?

Harajuku

Today a special post about a place in Tokyo I like: Harajuku. It's not about cosplay or Takeshita-dori. If you want information about this just look at the wikipedia article or type Harajuku in google. It's more about the jingumae area. It's not a shopping guide, just some pics of the different shops I like to visit when I go there.
For those of you who are visiting Tokyo and want to stop by: get out at Harajuku St. (Yamanote Line), go down Omotesando on the left side (stop at Choco-croissant if you are french). Pass Meiji dori (Laforet is behind you on the left). When you see Wendy's at the corner just turn left. You are in the fashion victim paradise.
The pictures of the store link to the website when I could find it. Have a look.

Neigborhood is a strange brand for me but the store is worth a look.

The Vestax Shop. I went to see a showcase of Q-Bert last friday in there. Here is a video of the show:




Bape nerds. Bape is a very succesfull japanese brand. The main store is down the hill near Omotesando station but there is another one in this street, just in front of the Vestax shop.



Recon is not a japanese brand but it's nice. graffiti.


On top of this AF1-only store, a rag shop. There are a lot of second hand clothing around. Vintage T-shirts with Hard-rock bands from the eighties are popular now. Buy the way I am looking for a white T-shirt with a BW picture of Axel Rose. He use to wear it during concerts I think. If someone can help, please leave a comment.

Swagger, a new brand. Probably the hottest hiphop store in Harajuku this summer.


My favorite: the icecream store.


Bape Cafe. We stopped once with my girl friend and found Pharrell Williams seating in the next room... She still did not completly recover from this (Pharreeeelll Kakoiiii). Well...

X-large shop, not a japanese brand but cool, and very popular in TW too.


Stussy and Undefeated. Nothing Special about Stussy, just a big retail shop (ok, I dont like this brand that much). Undefeated has some very nice stuff, strange mix of streetwear and sportswear.


Beams is a very big chain of fashion store in Tokyo, they also have recored labels and this T-shirt only retail shop.


Nothing, I just find it funny.


If you want to find more, superfuture gives maps and information about the main shopping areas in Tokyo (others cities also listed).

Hakone on sunday

We visited Hakone on Sunday afternoon. Mountains, hot springs, black
eggs, trains, calbe car. The weather was great and it was good to
escape Tokyo for a few hours.

More info on Hakone: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5200.html

Perdu dans la traduction

Un peu de franponais amusant. Quelques enseignes qui m'ont fait rire
au Japon la semaine dernière.

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Party report

Some pictures from the party last friday. I found it on Mehdi's myspace webpage http://www.myspace.com/djmehdi
Thanks to Alex from KazuNoco for the pics, you can play at where's Waldo for those of you who know my face.
it was really a great party but Fafi did not sing :( I could not believe how many Justice songs where played in a single night, maybe there is a reason why they are compared to Daft Punk after all. Actually I heard those tunes on loudspeakers for the first time, believe me it's very different and a lot better than my ipod's earphones. If you can see them in concert this summer you are very lucky!!

L'institution

I am going to take some vacations after 3 weeks of hard work in US. My girlfriend was kind enough to invite me to a party on friday night with DJ Mehdi ("What? you did not know? But it's on my blog!"). As a 21st Century's couple we know communicate using our blogs, so here are the news darling: I will take BR2198 and arrive around 2pm, I will go directly to hotel to drop my stuff and meet you for dinner in a restaurant in Roppongi. I suggest l'Atelier de Joel Robuchon or Yoshinoya. Up to you.
Je t'embrasse et à très bientôt

Edit: I forgot to explain the title of this post, I guess you found an explanation in the picture

Visiting Vancouver Part 2

Taxi service.

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Visiting Vancouver Part 1

I visited a friend in Vancouver (Canada) last week-end. Really a great
city, I was very surprised actually. Remove the 2am limitation for
bars and clubs and I will think about moving there someday.

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I'm Lovin' it

No comment

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Full house

Back in SF this week end. We were lucky with the weather. Do you know
where you saw those houses before?

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Sufferin' Colorado

The bar in front of our hotel. We had a really good time chatting with
local people in this place before they suspected I was a terrorist (I
did not shave at that time, is it the reason?). Anyway, my coworker
and I managed to convince them we were only on a business trip.

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Miam

Great food in Colorado Springs. Hopefully I stayed only 5 days...

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The Motel and the car

Our Motel and Rental Car in Colorado Springs. We are not military or
AAA members so we did not get any discount.

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My Son is in the Software Industry

I am trying to find stickers like this one to put on my car back in
Tw. If someone can help me, I am interessted in "My mother is an
english teacher", "My oncle is a surgeon", "My brother is a phd
student". Also, for my girlfriend, I am looking for "My boyfriend is
french".

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It's all about California

My hotel on California Avenue (I am suprised they have the
hotelcalifornia.com domain name). There is a french bakery on the
first floor, and the street is full of french restaurants and bistro.
Obviously Palo Alto is not an "average" american City. Stanford is at
walking distance so the hotel is full of students (or exchange
students as it's summer vacation now).

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Back in California!

I arrived last week in San Francisco. I just stayed for the week en in
Palo Alto and moved on Sunday to Colorado Springs. Palo Alto is a nice
place, I will post a few pictures later. Reading news paper in here is
like reading slashdot.org: google and the iphone are the main topics
(Silicon valley is very near).

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Local (x)news

On continue avec les news locales. On trouve quelques quotidiens en langue anglaise a Taiwan, pas forcement passionnant quant aux pages internationales mais pour le local c'est souvent tres bon. Hier matin je lisais cet article du Taipei Times qui nous racontait l'histoire du "Black beauty night club". Le plus ancien club de Taipei a 70 ans et vient d'accéder au statut de monument historique. Extrait de l'article: "The building's cultural significance lies in it having witnessed the development of the city's sex industry [...]". Je vous laisse méditer sur cette forme d'ouverture d'esprit qu'on imagine difficilement chez nous (en Hollande?).
Une bonne nouvelle pour les libertés individuelles ici, la police vient de perdre la charge des inspections des ménages... Lisez l'article et dites moi ce que vous comprenez:
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2007/06/06/2003364020
Imaginez la police débarquer chez vous: "Et la vaisselle bordel!"

(L'article sur le Black Beauty night club: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2007/06/06/2003364021 )

Mal a la tete (Welcome back)

Did not post for a while. I've been on vacation in May, then back to France for 3 weeks and just arrived in Taiwan this week end. Woke up at 9am on Saturday because of the workers in the apartment under mine. Nine in the morning on a Saturday, they were breaking walls... I managed to make them stop but it was not really easy, none of them quite understood what was wrong. Later that day I discussed with a friend's Taiwanese wife.
"Except if it's 6am in Taiwan you can not complain if people are working". Well, I did not complain about their work actually, but more about the noise....

A few changes in Taiwan recently. Mister Donuts shops are spreading but that's not so significant (it still opens at 11am, Donuts for lunch??). The Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial hall finally changed name. It was named after the dictator who ruled Taiwan after WWII. For sure some Taiwanese people don't like to remember this man as a great figure. But the move probably comes from the pressure of China's government. The building's English name is now something like "Taiwan democracy memorial hall". I don't know what they will do with the huge statue of the dictator and his collection of Cadillac limos visitors can find in the building. Someone may eventually point out the mismatch with the "democracy memorial hall".
You can find details here: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2007/05/10/2003360233

No Logo

Les taiwanais sont assez nuls pour trouver des noms de marque (BenQ, Asus, Tatung, Sampo, Acer s'en sort pas mal). Jusque la c'était Etron Technology qui me faisait le plus rire: http://etron.com/etrobn.htm
En arrivant a l'aéroport samedi je suis tombe sur le nouveau concurrent de Ritek: Super-Chien! http://www.super-chien.com.tw/

Merde j'ai pas vote

Réveille difficile lundi matin. Avec le décalage il aurait fallu me lever a 3h du mat pour voir les résultats. En fait j'allume la télé de l'hôtel vers 6h30 pour voir la NHK parler de "Saroukodzi" et "Segouren Rouayre". La homepage du monde.fr m'éclaire davantage.
Au bureau un collègue me demande si je suis en congé (parce que je lis les news). Je lui explique l'histoire des élections en France. Il fait un jeu de mot avec le mot "élection" (le "r" et le "l" se confondent en japonais). Je lui dis que c'est pas drôle et que Saloukozy will be president. Il me répond que c'est pas bon pour le Japon ça (Sarkozy en voyage a HK avait déclaré que le sumo était un sport de simplets obèses et que Kyoto était une ville sinistre). Chirac avait attendu d'être élu pour être détesté par la terre entière (surtout du cote du pacifique justement), Sarkozy a de l'avance. Si ça inquiète même les salarymen japonais, je me demande comment en France on fait pour pas s'inquiéter davantage. Tenez, et même ma tante m'envoie un mail (c'est que vraiment la situation doit être critique):

CHAINE DE L'ESPOIR.

Ceci n'est pas un spam, si cette lettre t'arrive, ce n'est pas

par hasard, rien n'est du au hasard.

Marie P. a vote UMP en 2002, deux jours plus

tard, sa maison a brule et tous ses enfants sont morts de combustion

spontanée.

Pierre F. a vote UMP lui aussi : il s'est noyé

dans la mare aux canards de sa ferme, on n'a jamais retrouve son corps.

Catherine K. a vote UMP aux derničres législatives : une semaine

plus tard, elle a du se faire poser un anus artificiel.

Joseph D. a pense a voter Sarkozy. Depuis, il purge une peine a

vie dans les prisons turques. Le pire, c'est qu'il avait

pris un billet d'avion pour Namur, il a ete victime d'une erreur a

l'embarquement.

Patrick B. a touche un bulletin Sarkosy dans l'isoloir aux

derničres législatives, depuis il ne cesse d'emettre des

pets malodorants et dégage une haleine pestilentielle qui a fait fuir sa

femme et son chien.

Ne VOTE PAS SARKOZY, ou tu finiras comme eux.

Forwarde ce message a 10 personnes que tu aimes ou

tes dents tomberont.

Si tu ne votes pas Sarkozy, tout ira bien, tout le monde te

trouvera sexuellement desirable, tu n'auras jamais de

cancer du foie ou des poumons et tu gagneras plein d'argent.

Chinese New Year

My first chinese new year in Taiwan (I was in Japan last year at that time). On Friday at midnight the fireworks started and did not stop until tonight. I am at the airport in Taipei now, leaving to France. Back in something like 10 days. Did not take any picture in Taiwan so here is a song with some kind of relationship with the title of this post.

Spent a great weekend 10 days ago with Miho in Shanghai, will post photos soon if she gives me her agreement (you're never to prudent concerning copyrights nowadays).

Taipeiscope

Finally I have some free time to visit Taipei. Why finally? How to explain I did not find at least a couple of days before to walk around, visit places during two years (already!)? Well, I visited touristic places for sure.
But when it comes to live a 'normal' life in this city like I usually do in Tokyo (going to restaurant/shopping/exibition/theater...) I dont know much.


When I came back to Paris during Christmass I realized how much I missed going to see a movie in a theater. Last week-end I've been to Tokyo and I found that actually I missed cultural activities in general (actually I've been to Tokyo in a first place because I missed Mih0 but that's another story).

So this week-end I decided to play it the parisian-way in Taipei. First of all, the weather was perfect: it was cold and cloudy, a little raining but not too much. Second condition: I had to take the train to reach my destination. Train is good because it lets you focus about the environment and not about things like: Is it Zhongshan road or Chongxiang road? Is it really forbidden to park on yellow lines (in this case why red lines exist)? I took this picture near the central station, and I think it tells you exactly why you should prefer train or subway in Taipei.

First destination was the moca (http://www.mocataipei.org.tw/) , the museum of contemporary art of taipei. I let you check the website if you're interested. First good point compared to the equivalent in Paris: it's one euro and there is no queue to get in. The place is big (the building was made during Japanese occupation, a school I think). There were concerts near the front door all day and the staff gives you pen if you want to draw on the sidewalk. Exhibition itself was partially interesting but I was surprised to see that actually Taiwanese artists are very active, and supported by government organizations and private companies.
Check this one: http://www.ykon.org/ recognition of Taiwan by micronations. If you never heard about micronations like sealand (http://www.sealandgov.org/), it's time to waste one hour before the lunch break to learn about this very unrelevant fact that there are micronations in the world and that you could maybe create your own.
Rest of the day was about walking around to see how fast I would get lost in Taipei (about 2 minutes, time to get out of the subway station). I finally found a theater which plays independant movies, does not sell popcorns, has poor seats and small screen for the same price as a multiplex (or cinecon for Japanese readers :P). I almost felt like I was in mk2 Beaubourg when the movie began with the "Un film RadioFrance" trademark (the story of an old lesbian pianist who fall in love with her assistant, unhappy-ending, great actors but no scenario, fullfils pseudo-independant french production requirements).

Some will say I am trying to reproduce my french way of life in Taiwan now, may be true. Still, places I have been to were crowded and not so many foreigners. So I actually believe I can find some good oportunities to meet different people. I'll keep digging.

The father of instant ramen is dead

An important news for all poor students and programmers who survived thanks too instant noodles (and Coca-cola): Momofuku Ando, the father of instant ramen died on friday. He was 96.
I invite everyone to read this article about the life of the great man who was born in Taiwan:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070107a2.html