Posts by linger
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*nods* I avoid Roppongi for other reasons (too far out of my way, and too crowded: I found out about the NZ Travel Cafe on my last excursion out there for the NZ Trade Expo, over 3 years ago) - but you're right. If you want to market more directly to locals you'd probably be better off starting somewhere else - though if starting with only one outlet, probably somewhere on the Yamanote line to maximise traffic: perhaps Ikebukuro (not quite as expensive to set up shop as in Shinjuku).
On the other hand, there is a sizeable foreign market potential in some parts of central Tokyo such as Roppongi: possibly large enough to allow a test store to be profitable while simultaneously allowing importers enough evidence from local purchase data to refine the mix of product offerings for local tastes.
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I would note that it is already possible to get some NZ beers (Monteiths, Tui) at the New Zealand Travel Cafe in Roppongi – which seems to be trying to be the sort of NZ-specialist outlet you discuss a need for in your interview (& is clearly DB-affiliated).
More generally, there are import chains such as Yamaya (which stock manuka honey blends); Vegemite and higher grades of manuka honey can be tracked down at import boutique stores.
The occasional NZ wine has been making it onto the shelves of my local supermarkets, though usually at prices that ensure there are cheaper, better alternatives available. Marlborough sav blancs are the most obvious specialist area that NZ could compete in, and the following are currently available in my small city [*]: Cloudy Bay at Belc for around JPY3500 [~NZD60]; Te Matua at Ito Yokado for JPY2300 [~NZD40]; Overstone at Seiyu for JPY1100 [~NZD20]; Monkey Bay at Yamaya for JPY980; and a rather grassy Satellite at Seiyu for JPY880 [~NZD15]. These marketing avenues are really only open to big players (because of the number of outlets and the area covered, large volumes need to be supplied) – and in most cases the quality doesn’t justify the price premium. (You can pretty much always get a fairly decent bottle of wine here for under JPY800.) Of the wines just listed, I’d judge only the Overstone as being actually good enough to compete on quality alone at that price point. (All respect to Cloudy Bay, their product is the best of these, but not enough to justify $60/bottle; OTOH they do have brand recognition on their side here, and I hope they are selling well to the intended [Japanese, connoisseur] market.)
[*] I should clarify: I’m writing this in Tokyo (that’s where my office is); but I live (and more importantly, shop) about an hour by train out of central Tokyo.
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Since moving to Japan I’ve been called up for jury service three times. For some reason, nobody ever notices anything odd about the postal address. (I’d be perfectly happy to serve if they paid the airfare!)
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Going all the way down south, then!
This has appeared on Pubic Address before, but: -
One other female SF writer deserving a mention would be Pat Cadigan.
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Hard News: The Engagement, in reply to Rich Lock,
Given such wonderful stimulus material, there should be no difficulty getting projectile vomiting accepted into the next Olympics. (Though possibly only as a demonstration competition at first.)
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Although, why is 'Amethyst' awful and 'Ruby' acceptable?
Indeed. "Amethyst", as merely a coloured variety of quartz, is less precious - but that can't be it, otherwise "Jade" would be a more problematic name than "Diamond" (on which, see the Boomtown Rats song).
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What you shouldn’t do is have male friends, and be the sort of person who feels more comfortable around men than women
Which, if used as definition, merely proves that many men are sluts?
Trivial point: yes, according to stereotype, and …so what?
Serious point: “slut” is a gender-biassed term, and any normative use should be dismissed on grounds of sexism. Official normative use, such as by teachers, therefore goes against workplace regulations. (See blog title.) -
a good life, a quick death and a meal for me
Um, we should all aspire to end that way?
("... with a nice Chianti and fava beans") -
There’s a few things I don’t like about the new site:
(i) it doesn’t work under Netscape 6.2 (the most recent posts are inaccessible as the slideshow doesn’t work; the headings and boxes are positioned over text; discussion turns are indented in stepwise fashion; and discussion text doesn’t display at all). Probably not a serious problem, as I must be the last person left using that browser (or indeed, Mac OS 9). But still – one of the great things about the previous site was that it was pretty much a universal experience across all browsers.
(ii) As a few others have noticed, the archives of formerly active blogs seem to have been lost (with the sole exception of Heat).
(iii) there are several small errors in the headings and attributions of earlier posts (2003-2005) in the archives (where part of the author name is missing, or the name is amalgamated with the post date).
(iv) the apparently random numbers attached to multi-author series, e.g. “Foreign Field/ Foreign Field 1/ Foreign Field 2…” don’t help.