Lott Sheen

I dont think digital sets will EVER get the same authentic feel of actual sets, actually I have noticed that SFX heavy film makers have been going back to solid sets and large scale models ever since Star Wars episode III (completely digital backgrounds and sets, completely fake atmosphere to the whole movie). Just two examples of the backlash against full CGI are the new Star Trek and the latest Robin Hood.

Yep, the way you can tell when your Japanese is actually good is when Japanese people stop constantly complementing you, that`s the turning point. I have seriously met so many people and said `watashi wa Lott Sheen desu` or `konnichiwa` and had Japanese people automatically snap back `NIHONGO JOUZU!! SUGOI!!!` which means something like `Your Japanese is awesome! Wow!`

pfff, 3D already came to peoples living rooms (broadcast AND home video) in the early `80s.

haha, what about the guy that sold a kidney or borrowed money from the mob to get the prototype? Well I doubt any mass production version will be build out of the hi grade polymers that the prototype was made out of anyway so first adopters could still be `elite` in any mass production scenario.

I disagree. COD MW obviously mirrored current conflicts America is involved in and was much more controversial than a game about a conflict 40 years old.

Well if controversy was a problem then why the hell was half of COD MW set in an analogue of Iraq??? I liked Battlefield Vietnam

1. it is possible to bail out of an SR-71 at 85K feet using a pressurised suit 2. I`m not suggesting that the PILOT bail out, I`m suggesting the character hitches a ride in the landing gear or a specially modified pod 3. Why would it have to be travelling at Mach 3? Just because it can? 4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Excelsior

Why? Can you think of a better way to insert an operative anywhere on earth undetected? At 85,000 feet an SR-71 would be nigh undetectable and free falling most of the way would give you a good chance of not being noticed. Why? Vietnam would be awesome.

We can still hope for a VietCong Zombies level though...

The JSDF pilots only use English when flying I heard.

I`m guessing on one mission you might even bail out of an SR-71 at 85,000 feet or something cool like that to insert your black ops self.

Finally! I had predicted for a while that the only place left to go for the COD franchise was Vietnam. Looks like they are going to do it in an interesting way though. SR-71 was a key plane during the cold war, and operational for most of the Vietnam war. But remember, this isn`t JUST Vietnam.

I`m Million__Star on PSN

No, not really, you can`t spend your time in Japan lecturing to and explaining to everybody on why they`re wrong everytime someone offends you (which happened almost every day to me), you`re never going to convert half the country, it`s better to just have a one liner or a quick comeback to confuse them, make them think twice about bugging another gaijin and just make them leave you alone. In the case of the chuugokujin da! comments if I was lucky an adult may understand the irony of me being called a `gaijin` where I could well be naturalised Japanese for all they know and then me Chinese because they look asian and the wrongness of generalising.

Great post Renato, I agree with everything you said. haha, this happened to me so much, I used to always point at them and snap back `chuugokujin da!` (It`s a Chinese!), shoulda seen the look on their faces haha.

Thats the thing, people who use it often seem kind but unless you understand Japanese well you won`t understand that they are often very condescending, and use it as if to refer to a pet or animal. The version I hate most is `gaijin san`, its like the equivalent of `colored people` and is very old fashioned and patronising. A lot of people do say Japan is like America in the `50s tho. I got on JET and I`m a moron, like honestly never held down a job before JET, and JET was the easiest job I ever had, almost impossible to get fired and decent salary with low expenses (in my case I had free rent and car, but its case by case), Keep reapplying, i got rejected one year before I got accepted the next.

Haven`t you heard? Japan is facing a population crisis, there are less kids than ever before and that trend is downward, less kids watching anime means less ratings means less advertising revenue aimed from that market, means less funding for new mainstream anime. Every kid in Japan already has a DS so I dont think their DS time is going to much affect their anime watchin time or vice a versa. but the market has changed, people spend money on different things now, modern Japanese like bargains and cheap stuff, not luxury items like their parents who paid tens of thousands of dollars for things like MUSE Hi Vision LD players, todays anime fan watches their favorite show on a monitor in an internet cafe booth. No. Times have changed.

A small town in Hokkaido for a year and a bit and in Saitama for a while. yeah I agree, but dont think just because you`re in Japan there is a higher bar of politeness towards strangers in public. There is definately a lower bar when dealing with service staff. I`ve never seen a Japanese be polite to service staff or ask permission to take a picture of someone, so why should you? When in Rome...

Oh don`t be sorry, Japan is a wonderful place for many reasons (Women, pervasiveness of specialty stores, individual freedoms, low prices, super fast internet and tons of free wifi) but not where I want to be long term for other reason. I had some great times there, I just think its naiive to assume Japanese are some kind of super polite culture based on the stereotype that seems to be perpetuated by Japanophiles who have little actual experience in Japan or who don`t speak Japanese.

I lived there from 2005-2009, mostly in Tokyo and I came back to my country (Australia) last year. One of the reasons I decided I couldnt make a life there was that people were so cold, selfish and insular. As a gaijin (I think using gaijin to describe yourself is like a black man using the n word to describe himself and completely acceptable, I dont like when Japanese use it either) I came to realise that no matter how fluent I was in Japanese, no matter how much I lived like my neighbors and followed their customs I was ALWAYS gaijin because of my skin color and face. In Australia if you walk like an Australian and talk like an Australian it doesnt matter what you look like I believe you will be treated the same, if you dont speak English or isolate yourself from Australian life then I think you will be treated differently by most Australians. Sometimes in Japan as a gaijin I was treated better and patronised to, sometimes worse but never the SAME. Equality means a lot to me I guess. The Japanese notion of `you gaijin we Japanese` is so strong that the other day I overheard a conversation between a Japanese couple at a restaurant in my city (in Australia). They were talking in Japanese about all the funny gaijin in my city, `that gaijin this..` `the other gaijin that..` they were saying. Anyway I leaned over and interjected in Japanese: `The only two gaijin I see here are you,` smiled and continued on with my meal. You should have seen the smoke coming out of their ears, it was like I broke their CPUs..haha So? Shouldnt the rule be less strict for gothic lolita chicks/maids etc since they obviously want to stand out and for people to look at them? When Japanese used to take pictures of me without asking I was just walking down the street in normal clothes. Why not just have a general FAQ? Most here dont live in Japan and could use the expertise of long termers like you or me. Well most visitors dont understand Japanese so for the visitors purpose jorudan is fine, it gives you 3 or 4 options ranging from cheapest to fastest and I have found it 100% accurate, except on some of the Seibu lines which often ran late.

Great post! However on taking pictures Japanese won`t hesitate to take pictures of gaijin they think are funny or interesting without asking, actually Japanese are some of the rudist and most selfish people I have ever met, so snap away I say! every man for themselves, its the Tokyo way! Can the mods turn this into a Japan FAQ thread? btw Tokyo has wifi everywhere and a good link for your wifi enabled devices is a train route finder, I mostly used jorudan when I lived there, invaluable: http://www.jorudan.co.jp/english/norikae/

thankyou for the information. You will be mine.

It depends which canon you subscribe to. I personally think SK hijacked Macross and ruined it from Macross 7 onwards and believe the only true Macross is MII and everything that came before, including DYRL? FB2012 and the PC Engine games. Kawamori works best as a controlled force, not as the boss.

Loving Final Fight and Afterburner Climax! Just need a good arcade stick or two, any recommendations?

I like my PSP-2000, custom firmware and I just downloaded the MAF .iso from bitorrent. rock the biggest memory stick Sony make so I can carry around 20 .isos at once aswell as music and video. when I lived in Japan I didnt have a digital TV in my apartment and analogue reception was garbage so I used the PSP 1seg tuner attachment to watch TV. Now in Australia I can even access the recorded shows on my PS3 I made with PlayTV with my PSP from anywhere with wireless. I love all Sonys bells and whistles, I just wish they`d allow more video codecs on XMB so my Sony rig could truly do everything - I have to use PS3 Media server from my Vaio to watch all my files now, which is annoying because I already have to have too much sh*t turned on to watch a show.