hey all,
So this is only slightly related to being in Japan. Because I have so much free time at work, I've been spending a lot of time reading books (and not studying Japanese like I should be), and I read a really amazing sci-fi series by Dan Simmons consisting of Illium and Olympos. It starts as a futuristic re-telling of The Illiad, featuring post-humans, sentient robots, advanced nanotechnology, and several other sci-fi staples, but then turns into this amazing adventure as the plot starts to diverge wildly away from Homer's classic. If it sounds trite or overdone, it isn't. The tone is spot on, sombre, ironic, touching, and uproarious at all the right moments.
I've also been re-reading George R.R. Martin's The Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series, and I remember why I love it so much: it is the most adult fantasy series I've ever read. By that I mean many things: that the characters are not simple; each one is complicated enough to be featured as the main character in his/her own book, but the cast starts with about 10, and you slowly gain more characters as you go. I also mean that it features violence and, yes, sexuality: things for adults. Another thing is that no one is safe: by the end of the 4th book, about 5 of the characters you started with in book 1 have been killed. Each one of these deaths tears at you: the character might not have been your favorite, but you were in his/her head for several thousand pages, and it hurts to lose that presence. The only downside to this series is that it is not complete: the 5th book will be published later this year, but there are 2 books projected after that. Between the 3rd and 4th book, there was a wait of 5 years, and between the 4th and 5th book, about 4 years. So the end of this story is still a good decade away.
I've been tempted to return to the Wheel of Time series, but now it looks like the final book is still several years from being published in its entirity. The author, Robert Jordan, died of cancer several years ago while working on the last book, and now they have asked another author to finish it, but now the final book is being split into 3 volumes to be published over 3 years, starting in 2010. Oh how they love to keep us waiting! Fans of this series have already been waiting 20 years and almost 10,000 pages (11 published volumes clocking in at around 700-1000 pages each, depending on edition) for a conclusion.
Since I finally got my PS3 working several weeks ago, I've also been looking at what games are coming out. The sequels are looking the most exciting: Red Faction Guerilla, Bad Company 2, Assassin's Creed 2, and Bioshock 2. Red Faction and Bad Company will both feature destructible environments. In the old days, this used to mean you could break boxes, tables, chairs, and bottles, etc, but these games allow you to deform the terrian and put really big wholes in walls, roofs, trees, and doors, which takes away cover and hiding places from enemies. To be honest, not that much is out there about Assassin's Creed 2, but I'm really stoked about the game nonetheless.
I've finally completed the prologue chapters of Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzen!, the game which features Miyamoto Musashi, and I've been making a little progress in KillZone 2, but I only have about 5 hours free after work each day, and most of that time goes to grocery shopping, eating, researching future trips, recovering from past trips, and coordinating with other ALTs. Even my weekends are usually much too busy to squeeze in more than an hour or two in a row. Which is really a good thing, because I'm enjoying the sights, smells, tastes, and sometimes the people of Japan.
Cheers
