Soooo close!!!

Watching the world cup games late at night during the work week was awesome, at least that is how I felt before struggling to wake up for work a few hours later. The tournament is far from over, but my world cup dreams were shattered when Japan barely lost to Paraguay last night. The feeling was worse than when the US team lost to Ghana in overtime. The Japanese had it in their grasp and it all came down to penalty shots. I knew from the way both teams were playing that as long as the Japanese players didn't go fancy with their penalty shots they had a very good chance to make all of them. However, Komano totally choked and decided to take that extra risk to shoot the ball so it would go right under the crossbar, instead it hit the cross bar and the goalie didn't have to do anything to get the miss. From that point, everyone knew it was over for Japan. I feel bad for the guy, but really, I felt worst for the other players like Tulio who gave their heart and soul to try to advance to the elite 8. Its a good thing Japan has banned guns in the country, because I'm pretty sure even though Japanese people won't outright admit it, they must be fuming pissed at Komano. I know I was. Oh well, this emotional roller coaster is what the World Cup is all about. It was really fun while it lasted and I will definitely miss going "Blue Samurai" crazy in Tokyo.

Thoughts on the new toy

So I have had a couple of days to play around with my new iPhone and as Hyun suggested, here are my initial thoughts.

What I liked:

- The phone itself is definitely solid and has a nice finish.
- GPS is awesome. Much better functionality than my Blackberry Bold.
- OS is fast and smooth. I was seriously debating getting the Xperia X10 back in April, but when I was testing it at the Docomo store, the UI was slow and lagged.
- Like my iPod touch, downloading and installing apps are fast and easy.

What I didn't like:

- Taking photos need to have a steady hand. If I don't take my time an really focus, the images are blurry. I wish they had an anti shake mechanism of some kind to neutralize blurry pictures like most Japanese phones here have.
- Can't organize pictures on the iPhone, at least from what I have experienced. I need to get the pictures from the "camera roll" and import them into iPhoto, then create albums and from there, sync it back with the iPhone to have the albums show up.
- Again, with the photos, I noticed when viewing photos with the iPhone, if I rotate the phone, the pictures do not rotate to landscape or portrait view. The functionality works in everything else, i.e. calculator, safari, etc. I wonder why it doesn't work with my photos. I'm debating if I should visit an Apple shop to find out if it is supposed to be like this or do I have a defect on my phone. Unfortunately, I don't pass an Apple store during my daily commute.
- Got a 1,500 yen iTunes gift card but because my account is "U.S. based" I am unable to use it.
- Most likely due to my slow minded ways and not the iPhone's fault but I had a hard time distinguishing which softbank address did what. From what I can tell, @softbank.ne.jp is the equivalent of a mobile to mobile address and @i.softbank.ne.jp is like a PC mail address. I'm still trying to figure out how to send C-mail (AU's short message) type of messages.


Things I need to get used to:

- I really need to get used to the touch screen keyboard. Typing on my Blackberry has been a pleasure, but I seem to make a lot of mistakes on the iPhone. Typing in Japanese though looks to have potential in being more efficient than regular phones. The intuitiveness of predicting what you will type in Japanese is much better on the regular phones than on the iPhone though.


As you can see I did not mention about videos or music because I didn't upload anything to my iPhone yet. Still busy studying for my exam tomorrow. I can't wait until that is done. Overall, I am satisfied with the iPhone. I am not completely head over heels for it because of the perceived shortcomings I listed, but I've been on the market for a new phone for about a year now and this has been the best choice out there for me thus far.

In other news, the nation is counting down to Tuesday night's world cup game with Japan against Paraguay. So far in the round of 16, the obvious teams won, so I hope this game will be the first real upset and Japan celebrates once more on Wednesday morning.

Chou Atsuiiiiiiiii!!

Man, Its been really hot in Tokyo the past few days. Like last year, I was trying to hold out in using the AC for as long as I could, but this past weekend, I finally gave in and can expect my electric bill to sky rocket from leaving my multiple AC units on all day/night.

In other news, this past weekend was good. I was able to hang out with an old friend for the last time before he made his way back to BP country. I have also been studying a lot for my upcoming exam next week. I totally cannot wait until its over. Other than that, the only potential highlight for this week may be me finally getting the iPhone. I successfully pre-ordered the iPhone 4 last week before Softbank stopped taking orders. I just hope I am lucky enough to get it on the 24th instead of sometime in July like the website is saying.

Last thought. I can't believe Portugal creamed North Korea 7 - 0. I watched the game last night and after 4 - 0 near the end of the second half, I thought the massacre was over and switched channels. Looking at the news this morning, I was in shock that they managed to score 3 more times.. man I wished I stuck around to see the whole game. I can't imagine what the North Koreans are thinking after a demoralizing defeat like that.

Finally took the plunge and ...

decided to leave my current carrier AU for the more erratic Softbank so I can use the new iPhone 4. I reserved it yesterday and will likely receive the phone on launch date, the 24th. So after 3 years, I will finally be able to say that I am part elite in-crowd that owns a version of the iPhone. Umm.... yeah.... anyways, I will miss using my Toshiba phone, for sentimental reasons as I used it to take almost all the pictures I posted here in this blog. I can't wait to share higher quality pictures and maybe even some videos once I get hold of my new toy!

World Cup

Wow.. can you imagine, the first time I ever went to Japan was during the 2002 World cup. I can still remember when Japan defeated Russia and how crazy the streets were in Shibuya. I also remember singing the Cup of Life countless times in Karaoke. Fast forward 8 years to present day, I am back in Japan during another World Cup. This time though I must admit that Japanese soccer fans seem to be pessimistic on their team and the hype isn't as great as it should be, at least from what I've been seeing in the media and my friends. Anyways, I guess we will see what will happen, you'll never know if the Japanese national team is able to pull off some upsets and advance in their group. Like what American Football says "This is why they play the game". For this tournament I'll be pulling for the same 3 teams. My two home teams, USA and France and of course the Japanese Blue Samurais. Go USA! Les Bleus!! Ganbare Nippon!