As I mentioned before, I’m currently on a trip through Asia. The first stop on my trip was in Tokyo and having spent a few days there, I’ve come to realize one very important lesson that we can learn from Japan. Well, I don’t know if it it applies to Japan as a whole, because I spent the majority of my time in Tokyo, but I imagine this lesson comes from Japanese culture in general.

This lesson sounds obvious enough and on the surface, some people may scoff at its importance. They’ll say things like, “I already knew that. Why are you telling me this?” Realistically, reading the words that I am typing may not be enough for you to learn this lesson, no matter how well I attempt to express it. This lesson can only be learned by spending a few days surrounded by Japanese culture, picking up on their little mannerisms and innuendos.

The lesson that I am talking about is personal responsibility. The concept of personal responsibility permeates every aspect of Japanese culture, as far as I can tell, and it represents a certain mindset that could seriously improve the quality of life and the nature of our society. Let me provide you with a few examples.

Walking through the city of Tokyo, you’ll be hard-pressed to find any trash cans on the streets. I could walk around all day and only find one, maybe two garbage cans. With this kind of configuration, you would think that there would be litter everywhere. You would think that people would throw their gum wrappers every which place and random pieces of newspaper would flutter in the wind like tumbleweeds. This is not the case. Tokyo is substantially cleaner than most streets in Vancouver and definately cleaner than some other larger cities like Los Angeles and New York. No garbage cans, yet no garbage. How can this be?

It comes down to personal responsibility. If you have garbage to throw away, you throw it away in your own trash can (at home). You do not rely on public facilities and the garbage cans of others to get rid of all of your rubbish. Your garbage is your problem and no one else’s. Interestingly, you will find recycle bins for aluminum cans and plastic bottles. These are typically placed next to vending machines.

Another fascinating idea is that the Japanese love their children, but they do not coddle them. Kids learn from a very young age that they need to take care of themselves. As soon as they can walk, they do. You won’t find very many strollers, because a stroller shows that your child cannot walk. Passers by will assume that there is something wrong with your child if he or she is being pushed around in a stroller. They’ll ask why they can’t walk themselves.

Continuing with children, grandparents typically do not provide daycare for their grandchildren. Personal responsibility is the reason yet again. If a couple has a son or daughter, that child is the couple’s responsibility and not the responsibility of the grandparents or anyone else. Take care of yourself and take care of the things (or people) you produce and own.

We can all learn to be a little more responsible, whether it be responsible to the environment (recycle, reuse, minimize your trash, etc.) or responsible for your own needs and those of your family. Even in their old age, most Japanese men continue to work so that they can appear useful to society, to demonstrate that they are still contributing.

Personal responsibility. Take a moment to consider how you can be more responsible.

It’s no secret that I’m a big video game fan, having launched my own fighting games blog. I’m also known to fill my well-deserved breaks with a rousing session of Puzzle Fighter on my Nintendo DS. The latest game that has been occupying my time is Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock for the Nintendo Wii.

Also available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2, Guitar Hero III is pretty much the same as the first two games, complete with five fret buttons, a whammy bar, and a smattering of totally kick-ass rock songs. And it is way too much fun for its own good.

I got into the rhythm games genre several years ago when I was introduced to Dance Dance Revolution. This would have been around 2000 or 2001. I later migrated to Pump It Up, a Korean copycat of DDR. I also got involved, to a lesser extent, with the Bemani series of music games by Konami. From DrumMania to Guitar Freaks, they had a wide range of instruments you can could try. There was even KeyboardMania and some other game with a DJ turn-table. Better still, these machines could be linked together for a joint jam session… sounds a lot like EA’s Rock Band, doesn’t it?

You see, Guitar Hero III is far from being original or innovative. What they did, however, was bring the rhythm game genre into the North American mainstream. Instead of banging on some drums to the tune of a J-Pop song, you could rock out with Metallica or Sonic Youth. Being reintroduced to the genre today, I can’t believe I ever left. I’m not kidding when I say that Guitar Hero III is the most fun I’ve ever had on the Nintendo Wii. As in better than Wii Sports, better than Twilight Princess.

And I’m not alone in this sentiment. Guitar Hero III is basically sold out everywhere you go, regardless of which video game system you own. The exception to this appears to be the PS2, because I walked into a Target store some time back and saw no fewer than 50 Guitar Hero III boxes there, all for the PlayStation 2. Xbox 360? Nope. Wii? Not a chance. I asked countless stores in the Vancouver area and they all told me that they were completely sold out too. I eventually lucked out at a Best Buy in Bellingham where they had two copies of GH3 (Wii) for sale.

The Guitar Hero III songlist is an eclectic collection, ranging from “Paint It, Black” by the Rolling Stones to “Miss Murder” by AFI, from “The Metal” by Tenacious D to “Black Magic Woman” by Santana. And it’s great. If you buy just one game this holiday season, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock should be near the top of your list.

On a side note, will it blend?

I’ve watched more than my fair share of television, which also means that I’ve been bombarded by all sorts of television commercials. From Bell Mobility’s Frank and Gordon to the old school “Like Mike” Gatorade ads, I’ve seen it all. Some campaigns have been better than others, but no advertising campaign has ever come close to being as epic, as funny, as monumental as the Budweiser frogs.

It started with the original TV commercial where three frogs each said one syllable. It started with Bud, continued with Weis, and ended with Er. The Budweiser frogs seemed so nonsensical, because we didn’t know that the amphibians had anything to do with the beer. The final message came out of left field, right at the end, and it stuck. They quickly introduced the Budweiser lizards (Louie the Lizard is absolutely priceless), before adding the ferret to the mix as well. I can’t think of a single advertising campaign that has stuck with me for so long. Each commercial added to the one that preceded it, almost like a soap opera or a serial drama. We could not wait until the next installment.

Budweiser clearly did their job and they did it well. Surfing through YouTube, I came across this incredible compilation, consisting of no fewer than 18 Budweiser critter commercials. My personal favorite starts at the 5:33 mark.

Are there any other ads (or ad campaigns) that you feel were particularly effective, especially with long-lasting value like the Budweiser frogs? I think not. Not even McDonald’s or Apple can top Budweiser.

As I mentioned some time back, I’m currently on vacation overseas in Asia, but before leaving, I prepared by time-stamping some posts on this blog, ensuring that there won’t be any dead air in my absence. That said, seeing how I have Internet access in my Tokyo hotel room, I figured that I share some of the highlights from my trip with all of you.

Naturally, holidays are great when you visit exotic locations that you’ve never seen before, soaking in new cultures and trying to overcome intriguing language barriers — negotiating in Japanese isn’t exactly a strong point for me — but before making it over to the land of the rising sun, I had to endure a 10 hour trans-Pacific flight with Japan Airlines. I thought that it was going to be pretty brutal, having experienced a flight to Hong Kong once before. I prepared by bringing a couple books and my laptop, but it turns out that JAL has you covered for entertainment. They’ve certainly gone a lot further than other flights that I have taken, but this is my first overseas flight in over 10 years… I wonder if other planes do this.

In the video below, you’ll see a brief overview of the on-board entertainment system with JAL. Surprisingly, the somewhat dated video games included with every seat on the plane were enough to temporarily displace my Nintendo DS. Outside of a mock Tetris, a cloned Breakout, and a strangely-designed version of Mahjong and Shanghai, you’ll also find a number of movies, a variety of music channels, a pair of cameras pointing out the front and bottom of the plane, and real-time flight information.

Look for more “ethnic” or “foreign” videos in the coming days.

I’ve said before that part of the appeal of having freelance writing as a career is the flexibility that it offers over a conventional 9-to-5 kind of job. It’s not like I have total flexibility over my schedule, but if I plan appropriately, I can pretty much take a vacation whenever I want to. And this is exactly the root of the problem. Without a “boss” breathing down my neck, it becomes far too easy to “go with the flow”, lacking any sort of real direction, schedule, or organization.

Freelance writers need to stay organized, just as people in sales need to organize their leads. In fact, because I am self-employed, I arguably have to stay even more organized than if I was doing the same line of work in a more conventional work setting.

Say, for example, that I work full-time for a print magazine and I am assigned a certain number of projects for the month. I’ll need to organize the information surrounding these writing projects, how I’m going to frame the article, and so forth. As a freelance writer, organization becomes even more important, because now I have to deal with keeping in contact with the client, sending out the invoice at the right time, and following up on payment if need be. I also need to follow-up with the client after the project is completed to see if they have any more projects for me: repeat business is my bread and butter.

Without staying organized, freelance writers can easily lose track of their clients and the associated deadlines. This wasn’t really an issue for me in the beginning when I had just a single client, but as you gain more customers, the need for proper organization and information management becomes perpetually more pressing. Speaking for myself, I do several things to try to keep all of my customers organized and many of these are redundant. They’re redundant for a reason! Constant reminders ensure that I stay on track and I meet every deadline. Over the course of my career thus far, I have yet to miss a single deadline. This is a point of pride.

My four-pronged strategy consists of:

• A standard day-timer (organizer) that I use to note what I do each day, as well as any specific goals I have for the week
• An ongoing to-do list written on a pad of paper next to my computer
• A “To Do” gadget in my iGoogle personalized homepage
• The Tasks list and Calendar function in my Windows Mobile smartphone

Whether you are a pro blogger or a master reviewer, it’s important to keep those projects organized. That day-timer may be the best $10 you’ve ever spent.

Michael Moore is an interesting fellow. Whether you agree with his political views or not is one matter, but you have to admit that he is an expert documentary maker. In SiCKO, he attacks the American health care system, comparing to the health care systems in place in other countries like England, France, and Canada, pointing out that they are all superior to the health care provided in the United States.

There was one section that got cut, however, because it featured “a place so scary, I couldn’t put it in this film.” And we’re not talking scary like a vampire; we’re talking scary as in it seemed far too good. Like it was out of a cartoon. There’s no way that Norway could be this good, could it? Well, in the SiCKO deleted scene above, you’ll see some of the things that mark Norway so special. Can you believe it?

 
Here are a few highlights for people who don’t want to watch the seven and a half minute clip:

• You get one full year of paid maternity leave.
• The government will buy you a car if you have trouble using public transportation.
• There is no life sentence nor is there is a death sentence in Norway.
• The conservative party in Norway is probably closer to the Democrats in the States.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Can Norway really be this unbelievable utopia where everyone loves everyone? You really should watch the latter section of the clip, because it shows what the Norwegian prison system looks like. Can you imagine murderers, rapists, and con artists spending a few years on an island paradise?