I really like the ideas of artificial intelligence, what exactly constitutes sentience and sapience, and what makes us human. I just finished watching Ghost in the Shell:Stand Alone Complex (for the third time) and it digs into those concepts quite a bit with the Tachikomas. Since then, I’ve been seeing stories crop up about mind-reading via MRI scans,  neural interfaces for computers, and tons of other cyberpunkish bits here and there.

This is my favorite one, though. A Japanese blogger’s two closest friends on Twitter turn out to be bots.

Did you read it? Well go read it! It’s so awesome! Although, I must admit, I feel kind of sorry for coconutsfine. I’m hoping he continues to talk to the bots. I’m hoping somebody I follow is really a bot.  Skynet, srsly.

Here’s a cool chatterbot directory, chatbots.org. There’s also tons of info about bots and AI over at Wikipedia.

I loved the Azumanga Daioh anime, so I searched around for more like it. I found out that the author of the manga wrote one called Yotsuba& as well. As it hadn’t been turned into an anime yet, I picked up the manga, and was instantly hooked. Each issue follows Yotsuba, a young girl, as she hilariously and bravely tries to understand the world through a series of seemingly mundane experiences. From learning how to swing on a swingset to fishing in a stream, catching cicadas to battling global warming, Yotsuba (mostly)fearlessly marches through life. It is innocent and awesome. Naturally, I searched around for more slice-of-life manga.

I don’t really get into the magical girl, mecha, space opera stuff. I don’t really like violence. I like reading about people living in Japan. I like seeing the manga-ka draw tables of traditional Japanese food, shelves of bentos at 7-11, market stalls full of vegetables, rice paddies, Tokyo… In addition, being a foodie and all, I love manga that deals with cooking, notably Yakitate Japan. Yakitate Japan is about a boy who is born with “Hands of the Sun”, the perfect temperature for kneading bread. He sets out to create a bread that will replace rice in the hearts and minds of the Japanese. There’s another cooking/romantic comedy manga called Mixed Vegetables which I really like. Mixed Vegetables doesn’t have nearly the depth of the others. It is about the daughter of a famous baker who wants to be a sushi chef and the sun of a famous sushi chef who wants to be a baker. Naturally, they want to hook up based on ulterior motives but I imagine, eventually, they will fall in love like everyone wants. Romantic comedy ensues, I assure you!

I started reading more romantic comedy/teen drama/high-school drama stuff. I absorbed Genshiken, a story about a bunch of otaku and general otaku culture. The artwork and story is fantastic, the characters are well rounded and evolve with the series, the end is satisfying, and I never once felt like I was reading ‘filler’. I would say Genshiken and Yotsuba& are currently tied as my favorites, but Genshiken has already ended after 9 issues and Yotsuba& is still going, so we shall see.

I have recently picked up Marmalade Boy again and I love it even more now. I’m also reading Strawberry Marshmallow, Sunshine Sketch, Yotsuba&, Train Man and Kujibiki Unbalance. There are a few classic manga titles that I want to read as well, like Nausicaa and Maison Ikkoku, but this is an expensive hobby, and I have enough to keep up with as it is.

Well, I really wanted to see it. Actually, I thought I was downloading just the soundtrack and trailer, and it turned out to be the entire film. It was filmed in a theater screening via digital camcorder, and someone gets up to use the bathroom or something in one part, partially blocking the awesomeness of the film for like four seconds. The sound is scratchy and crappy and the video quality is terrible. There are no English subtitles but I could pick up most of the Japanese. That said, it is an amazing film. It is all hand animated, flows beautifully and is incredibly complex. The soundtrack is adorable. The characters are adorable. It has quickly become one of my favorite movies. I intend on purchasing it as soon as I am able.

If you recall my earlier post about Uwajimaya’s 80th anniversary, you will also recall my mentioning something called ‘satsumage’. A bit of searching around revealed thet this is simply a deep fried fishcake. A DELICIOUS deep-fried fishcake, that is! I bought four of them (they were only 25 cents a piece!) and I should have bought more. Uwajimaya was crazy-insane packed with people, but we spent money and got 10% off, a free bag and some fishcakes, so it was a great sucess.

Finally, last but not least… coffee jelly is my new favorite dessert. I buy them in a 3-pack at Uwajimaya, and you also get 3 little coffee creamers to pour on top, but they are incredibly easy to make at home. This stuff is really big in Japan right now, or was a few months ago. It’s basically chilled, sweetened coffee jelly with cream on top. So good!

Here’s a quick recipe>>

And here’s an uncanny picture I took of it…