Surfing YouTube as a Family

As I mentioned earlier, the lack of HD content on iTunes for the Apple TV has been disappointing. We have enjoyed some HD podcasts, but there are no TV shows or movies in HD.

It turns out that the Apple TV is fabulous for surfing YouTube as a family. On the weekends especially, Maki and CJ take turns watching YouTube videos that interest them. It goes something like this. Maki will watch a video on glass blowing or how to make speakers. Then CJ will ask for a Thomas video. Maki will then search for videos on Stonehenge or soldering. Then CJ will ask for a Thomas video. It's hilarious. Best of all, we get to watch these crazy videos in our TV room, on our comfy purple couch, on the big screen. Some of the videos look better than others on the big screen, but it almost doesn't matter.

The Apple TV Arrived!

Our Apple TV arrived tonight. Apple TV is a small appliance that lets you watch content from your iTunes on your TV. You can stream or sync music, podcasts, tv shows and movies.

So Maki set it up as soon as we got home. It was easy to set-up, get hooked up to my Mac, and register the device.

We viewed a couple of trailers, but were disappointed that they weren't in HD. Apple TV supports HD, and I was looking forward to purchasing HD shows from iTunes and watching them on our big screen TV.

I guess we're being early adopters once again because it turns out there is still very little HD content available through iTunes. The first HD content became available back in April and we were sure more HD content would be available by now. Alas, most of the HD shows are podcasts, not TV shoes or movies.

We were able to subscribe to several HD podcasts and they were free to boot. We are now subscribed to Feng Shui Living, Beautiful Places and At Large in Asia. Those of you know who me won't be surprised that I subscribed to a Feng Shui show. :-) The HD shows are pretty terrific and it was easy to download them from iTunes and watch on TV since the Apple TV automatically syncs the unwatched content.

It's also fun to surf YouTube and watch the videos (even though they are fuzzy) on the TV. This way, the whole family can watch the Rubik's cube how-to-video or the crazy Christmas satire.

I'm waiting for Heroes to become available on iTunes in HD.

Live vs. Fake Trees

Last Sunday, our Christmas tree went up. We have a fake tree, courtesy of Target, from four years ago and each year, Maki and I have a discussion about the merits of real vs. fake trees.

We got our artificial tree several years ago as an emergency decorating measure, because we were throwing a dinner for friends who had just gotten engaged. The house looked so plain, so I made a trip to Target and made an impulse buy.

My sisters are hard-core real tree believers. They love the scent of pine, and picking a tree is party of their holiday traditions.

But Maki and I think it's better for the environment to have an artificial tree (we're not sure of this in the short-run, but in the long run, we are convinced of it), and, let's face it, it's super easy to pull the tree out of the garage and have it up in matter of minutes. Our tree even comes with built-in lights. We also have a cat, and I used to worry about poisoning the poor creature. Finally, a real tree is so much work; you have to keep it watered and sweep up the pine needles every few days.

I grew up with a fake, silver, aluminum tree and if they were available at Target at the time of my purchase, we would have an aluminum tree today. There is something so retro and so obvioiusly fake about aluminum trees; I love them!

How about you? Are you a real or artificial person?

Photos in the Blog

I did it! I figured out how to upload photos and insert them into my posts! I knew it was possible, but just hadn't taken the time to figure it out.

So, I've gone back and added some small images to previous posts. Take a peek. I especially like the photos from our visit to Kyoto, and the images of US celebs hawking Japanese products.

http://jpmkadventures.blogspot.com/2007/11/kyoto-and-ieyasu-tokugawa.html

http://jpmkadventures.blogspot.com/2007/12/big-in-japan.html

Hope you like the additions to the blog!

Big in Japan

When we arrived at Narita Airport and went to the SoftBank counter to pick up our rental cell phone, we were greeted by a big advertisement for SoftBank, featuring Brad Pitt. During our last visit to Japan (in 2004), I remember seeing Brad Pitt on vending machines; back then, he was pitching soda or beer.

We saw other US movie stars on vending machines and advertising signs. We saw Meg Ryan pitching coffee, Cameron Diaz pitching SoftBank, Tommy Lee Jones pitching beer, and Orlando Bloom something I could not determine.

It seems that US movie stars who never endorse products in advertising here in the US, routinely help market products in Japan.

This practice is evidently so widespread that there is even a Wikipedia posting about "foreign celebrity advertising."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_celebrity_advertising

My guess is that Brad Pitt gets a lot of money for his ads, but he doesn't tarnish his superstar image in the US by being seeing as hawking a common product (or at least that's what his agent says).

Slippers

If you come to my house in VA, you have to take off your shoes at the front door landing before coming into the rest of the house. Why? It's an Asian thing and you'll find the practice common in Japan, Korea and the Philippines (probably other parts of Asia, as well).

In Japan, there is always is always a little landing right inside the front door of homes, where family and visitors leave their shoes and put on slippers. Traditional restaurants, especially those with tatami rooms, ask patrons to remove their shoes and put on slippers (or stay in socks) before entering a tatami room.

In traditional Japanese restaurants and hotels (ryokan), you may also find that a different pair of slippers is worn to use the bathroom.

Finally, when trying on clothes at a Japanese boutique, I was asked to remove my shoes before stepping into the dressing room.

Personally, I find the practice rather civilized. I'm sure it keeps homes and restaurants cleaner; in fact, when my son was born, one of my parents' magazines recommended a "no shoes" policy in the house to keep the floor cleaner (what with the little one crawling around and putting everything in his mouth). I also find that the cat and CJ are less likely to get stepped on as they run around underfoot, and if they do, it's not with a hard shoe or boot.

So, if you ever travel to Japan, be sure to wear nice socks you don't mind showing off. ;-)