hiidenkonttibeta

We had 日本語の follow-up course’s Autumn period’s final test today. むずかしかったです, I hope I’ll pass. In the university’s main lobby there was some gingerbread houses on display. Among them there was this lattice structure, which had won a honorary award:

Apparently the gingerbread competition wasn’t just for houses.

First weekend of December in Helsinki. Christmas lights in trees and hanging over some streets – I thought some of them looked like bats, but there were different opinions (not bats). See for yourself:

If those aren’t bat-like lights, then what are they?

Some foreign guy was selling roast chestnuts and glögi by the Kolmen sepän patsas. I bought a small bag of chestnuts. They taste a bit like sweet baked potatoes.

Why my fingers look so thick in that photo?

What a wonderful Decemberlike weather it was. Wet ice everywhere, raining a little.

Also visited Keltainen Jäänsärkijä, bought two CD’s: Caravan’s For Girls Who Grow Plum in the Night (I’ve been looking for that one for a long time) and Rasputina’s first album, Thanks for the Ether (I’ve only recently listened to Rasputina a little bit so this was quite randomly selected).

Christmas, the traditional holiday and celebration of Holy Commercialism, is getting closer.

On Saturday there was “Naisten joulumessut” in sports center Hukka (iaido lessons are also there). There was a good view to the area from upstairs:

There seemed to be a lot of decorations and stuff that is designed to be used as “gifts”.

On Rotuaari they had Tiernapoika-contest during the weekend:

The first group is traditional, the second one is a flamenco version. They did olé! olé! a lot.

On Monday I quickly visited a big supermarket (had to get out of there, the constant christmas carols were too much) and spotted this educational toy:

A brain surgeon game for 4 years olds? It is disturbing somehow…

This is one of the weirdest “games consoles” in existence. I was able to get it for a few €uros so I just couldn’t refuse obtaining this curiosity. The device is called “Barcode Battler”, and that’s what it’s all about. Battling with barcodes. Here’s a photo of the thing with two barcode cards that came with it:

Two players (there’s also one-player game) load their characters (wizards and warriors) into to device, possibly adding also some powers or accessories, by wiping a barcode in the built-in barcode reader. Then their characters fight against each other – this is visualized only by numbers representing enery (hit points), attack and defence.

The device comes with a bunch of barcode cards in the box (mine doesn’t have all of the original cards), but the main point of the game is using whatever barcodes are available. A powerful warrior or wizard may be hiding in the barcode of your cereal box! Not all barcodes contain anything, but somewhere there is hiding the ultimate fighter.

The story tells that kids who were really into this thing became such experts that they could recognize the powerful barcodes just by looking at them, and so they browsed through random shops looking for the Ultimate Barcode. In Japan, a can of tuna or something had a powerful barcode, and it was immediately sold out nationwide when the word got around.

I cut out a few barcodes to see how this works. Most of them couldn’t be read, but a few worked. Curiously, the barcode from a pack of AAA-batteries has a lot of energy, but Shepherd Neame 2004 Limited Vintage Christmas Ale has such a high attack that it usually beats the batteries in two rounds.

Another video watching evening. Tokyo Godfathers (Satoshi Kon, 2003) is a good movie. Three homeless bums (a runaway teenage girl, a middle-aged alcoholic, and a gay transvestite) find a baby among the trash and the transvestite wants to play mother for it. A lot of things happen when they look for the baby’s parents. The movie alternates between serious and comedy.

This guy was glooming at Kaijonharjun nuorisotalo, but doesn’t have anything else to do with this entry:

Yesterday they finally ended the bus strike, but the buses started really running 今朝. They were on strike for about 10 days, but some of the drivers got back to work on Friday. I was in the bus on Friday morning, and when it stopped in Tuira. There was a bunch of drivers on the bus stop, yelling “Your driver is a scab (lakkorikkuri), better think if it’s a good idea to sit in that bus”, and throwing in some papers (“Here’s the list”).

Well, the strike was illegal. The union was fined quite heavily for it. So, it was a bunch of criminal scum picking on their law-abiding co-worker. Guess who got the sympathy of the passengers? Nobody left the bus to freezing winter morning to support their idiotic strike – instead, people ascertained that they’ll “never say ‘good morning’ to those drivers again”. Congratulations for bus drivers, it was a very well thought out move.