I have a bit of a fascination with misleading internet ads.  It's interesting to see what kinds of things they do to manipulate people.  It's pretty blatant to anyone with any ounce of skepticism about the internet, but I imagine all of the stuff must reach some level of success, or else they wouldn't be doing it.  I often find myself clicking recklessly deep into scammy-looking sites, just to see where it leads; where do these guys finally get your money, and how bad does it get?

One of the most interesting trends I've noticed is a type of ad that attempts to take advantage of the popularity of mommy bloggers (I didn't know this was a term until I looked it up).  They claim that a mom has discovered the secret to solving a common self-image problem (prevalent among middle aged mothers, I assume—the two I have seen so far are fat loss and teeth whitening).  A click brings you to a site that looks *sorta* like a blog; it's in article format, but there is only the one article, and it is essentially a promotion of a product, with links to more sleazy looking sites offering free trials.  It even looks like the blogger got some rave comments—but of course, any further comments are disabled.  It makes me sad to imagine real mothers reading the page and clicking the link to sign up for the "free" product trials, only to find themselves enrolled in a monthly subscription of $90 for some bogus product.

Links:
A MOM'S TRICK TO WHITER TEETH!
Where I see these ads the most

Guy Cars vs. Gal's Cars

Back from my trip to Asia.  At first I tried to blog, resulting into the following two entries about Japan.  However, after that I just gave up.  Too many things happened for me to write it all out.  Maybe that's how life is supposed to be: packed with enough new experiences that I don't need to air rerun episodes.  Still, I'm trying to add descriptions to my photos to make a sort of picture story, and am planning to upload most of them to share.

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Kamakura day:
This was our day to get away from Tokyo and see facets of more traditional Japan.  After getting lunch at a Chinese raumen/gyoza shop, we took a train down toward Kamakura.  Annika's guidebook suggested that bikes could be an interesting mode of transportation for touring Kamakura, so our first stop was a little bike rental place.  Although Eric hasn't had much practice with bikes, he was a good sport.  They were out of the cheapest option, a single-speed bike, so we each rented a three-speed and took off.

First, we headed toward the highly publicized big Buddha statue, or Daibutsu.  We didn't realize how heavily it catered to tourists (both Japanese and foreign) until we arrived.  The gate opened to the statue, surrounded by a number of souvenir shops.  We got bored easily and left.  Our next target was a different temple, famed for a bamboo forest.  The path included some very narrow pedestrian walkways—Eric faced death a number of times, but fortunately he wobbled his way tensely to victory.  Unfortunately, when we arrived we found the temple had just closed, so we made our way to the next highlight.  This temple was beautiful and very peaceful, and a refreshing change.  We hit up a final temple where we got some omikuji—Eric got slightly good luck, I had medium good luck, and Annika had straight good luck.  We pondered the significance of these omens and then left to return our bikes and find some okonomiyaki.  Thankfully I had done a little bit of searching online, so we were able to ask around for "horetaro."  A nice man asked around and even guided us there, which was good because it was hard to find and hard to identify.

The okonomiyaki was great, and I think everyone had a good time.  I'm glad I made the push to get it.


Last day in Japan, 10:30 AM.
Currently riding the Narita Express back to the airport.  The others are sleeping.  Weak.  Actually, I am nearly falling asleep myself, but hey.  I need to record some memories while they are fresh.

Phew...this has been one hectic trip!  Our feet are sore, and we are exhausted, but we got to experience so much in just a few days.  Thanks to Shu-Bee's precision planning, we were able to navigate Japan without any major slipups.  I nearly fulfilled all of my expectations of Japan and more; we tried a lot of the famed Japan foods (raumen, soba, takoyaki, taiyaki, dango, mochi, sashimi, MOS burger (meh. Maybe we got the wrong burger.), tonkatsu, chicken karaage, okonomiyaki...) and saw some unique Japanese sights  (high-class shopping and dining, a maid cafe, temples, pachinko, red-light district activity, crowded train).  My only real regret is not having the time to do much gift shopping.  I'm leaving almost empty-handed, save for a few shirts for myself and a few postcards.  It would have been nice to have an extra day to check out Isetan or another big department store.  I guess I will have to do my best at the duty-free shops.

One of the main highlights for me was finally getting to really put my Japanese language capabilities to the test.  Occasionally they resulted in blank stares or amusing misunderstandings, but overall they were surprisingly sufficient to get us by.  In the time I've been here, I've become infinitely more comfortable with speaking in Japanese despite my limited understanding.  It's an odd feeling—something like, "wow, this stuff I learned in school actually works in real life!"  Go figure.  Shu Bee suggested that if I were to take an internship here, I could quickly become proficient in the language.  I'm not sure how overly generous that is, but I can certainly feel the power of cultural immersion.  I'm inspired again to learn Japanese.

Not falling asleep when writing this is pretty difficult.  Today we woke up at the heinous hour of 2:30 AM, got a taxi at 3 AM, and took an insider's tour of Tsukiji fish market starting at 4 AM.  It was several hours earlier than other tours of Tsukiji, but that was because our tour guide was bold and willing to take us to auctions nominally off-limits to tourists.  Having worked in the business for a long time, he was very familiar with the market and its people, making for a very interesting and informative tour.  We even got to have some sushi in the outer market, which tasted as fresh as we expected.  It even lived up to Eric's standards for freshness.  Annika has a hard time with the texture of sushi, but she was a good girl and ate it all properly.

Eventually we made our way back to the hotel for our bags, and now we're heading toward the airport.  I will miss Japan.