Let the Sunshine In: Software support engineer in Tokyo

"Monster parent" is a Japanese word (thus, pronounced like 'mawn star pay ah lento') which means parents who demands outrageous treatment to their kids. So, I think it's an "advanced form" of 'helicopter parents'.

Helicopter parent - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The same named TV drama is currently showing in Japan.

2008 Japanese television dramas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I watched it once because I heard the drama was shoot at my kid's school. And I could see my kid's real teachers appearing in the drama.

Anyway, I thought this social phenomenon is not totally irrelevant to my day-to-day job, which is to support customers. I have heard many stories where customer demands outrageous thing from service providers. A new Japanese word "Monster customers" is coined already.

モンスターカスタマーとは - はてなキーワード

I'm just happy that customers I support are all nice business persons/orgs.

Over the weekend, I saw him sing twice on TV. His name is Jero and speaks Japanese fluently and sings Japanese song really well.

Particulary interesting is that the genre he sings is called 'Enka'. Japenese equivalent of country music. Here is Wikipedia definition. Enka - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

His grandmother is actually Japanese and  'Enka' was the music she liked. I read somewhere that she was a "war bride". Here is a Wikipedia definition of "war bride". War bride - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I was reminded of watching a documentary on Japan national TV channel titled War brides: 30 years after WWII There was one Japanese woman in the documentary who married to an African American in still segregated south. She said she was quite happy.

Jero's grandmother died 3 years ago. Apparently, she lived a happy life as well. After all, she gave a great influence to one of her grandson and he came back to her motherland and he sings a song which reaches many Japanese listeners' heart.

アウトドアバイクデモ2008[ブランド自転車野外試乗会]に行ってきました。中級、上級者コースは写っている山に作ってありました。下りはかなり怖いです。私はGiantとAnchorに試乗させてもらいました。最近2輪駆動で階段も登れるMTBもあるらしいのですがそれは残念ながらなかったようです。どこかでレンタルしていないでしょうか？

e-Tax  やっと終わりました。最後まで迷ったのがこの”平成19年分の申告書等送信票（兼送付書）” というやつです。これは以下のようにPDF版とHTML版の2種類が存在し内容が中途半端に違うのです。同じ名前の帳票を同じシステムに作るでしょうか？開発にかかわったSIerが2社以上あり、そこで意地の張り合いでもあったのかと勘ぐってしまいます。PDFの方に電子手続きの場合この送信票をかならずしも郵送する必要はないとあったのでどちらも何もしないことにしました。税務署から電話がかかってきませんように。ともかくe-Taxにより、何も郵送せず銀行にも行かず全て終えられたのでe-Taxにした価値はあったと思います。

Tokyo Marathon 2008 is going to be held on February, 17th. 150,000 people applied and only 30,000 get to run. Those lucky 30000 are decided by drawing lot. As with other major marathons in the world(maybe Boston is an exception), there are many foreign residents seats pre-allocated so I think most of(or all) who applied with foreign address gets to run on 17th.

Being the most populous city in the world, there's no shortage of people cheering you from roadside. Air is relatively clean. Long 7 hour time limits. Running water-front, Ginza, historical Asakusa area, high rise business center and imperial palace won't tire you. Oh yes, there are many shops along the way when you need a rest or food. So, do come by next year.