was a tad embarassed to be openly solving the grids while I flew to Tokyo. That's like being the guy who reads Natsume Soseki's Kokoro on the plane to "get into the spirit."

Hey, Soseki over Sudoku any day! Reading over gridding! Humanistic sympathy over "logical reasoning and the ability to count from 1 to 9"!

I'd say playing Sudoku is the moral, intellectual equivalent playing Tetris. Or pachinko.

Yeah Black Black is addictive, I missed it when I lived in NYC and was always requesting people to send it to me till I found a small place downtown that did sell it.

Also this whole thing reads like you are somehow embarrased to have enjoyed playing sudoku.

(And you have read the reports that link Sudoku to yakuza networks worldwide, haven't you?)

I tried it once. It took some time, but not much mental effort. I thought it was a waste of time.

Are you sure that Sodoku was invented in Japan? I remember reading that it was taken up by the Japanese but actually had its roots elsewhere.

it's very popular among parisians too - you can see people play everywhere in the metro. yet it's not a japanese game indeed, it was inspired by an old medieval european game called "carre latin" (latin square).

"I'd say playing Sudoku is the moral, intellectual equivalent playing Tetris."

Is that supposed to be an insult of some kind? Tetris kicks ass, man.

Sudoku was supposedly created by European mathematicians. Add sudoku to the long list of things we like about Japan that are actually European.

Reading over gridding!

Hey, one's passive, one's active. This is a pretty silly argument to get into. I've read Kokoro AND I've done sudoku. Neither/Nor

You set up the faux-quivalence, man!

"solving the grids [is as embarrassing as]... being the guy who reads Natsume Soseki"

Marxy: =_embarassement
Momus: <_moral-worth
x <_moral-worth y => y <_embarassement x ?

>>Reading over gridding!

>>Hey, one's passive, one's active. This is a pretty silly argument to get into. I've read Kokoro AND I've done sudoku. Neither/Nor

Actually, my one time trial of Sodoku felt very passive. When I figured out what needed to be done, it felt like my brain just shut off until the puzzle was done, like nothing was happening. Pretty borring. Kind of like the time the dentist gave me the heroine mixture when he took out my wisdom teeth. It was a very empty experience.

Once you figure out how to do one there's absolutely no reason to do another. The logic's the same behind them all. So unless you enjoy that kind of escape, (turning off the world) then there's no point in doing it again. It felt very negating, and I felt as if my whole subjective self was absent while I finished the puzzle. A pretty miserable game, boring.

So in my interpretation you mean that reading is active...

And I wouldn't include it under one of the things I like about Japan.

Anyone here ever played pachinko? I'm surprised Marxy hasn't blogged it yet as the ultimate combination of vacuity and yakuza-control.

he, he...from the looks of this entry, it seems that more than anyone else, nick was waiting with much anticipation at the 玄関 in order to welcome david home with a sweet-sour 「お帰りなさい」.

Pachinko shows how much the Japanese love "me time."

never actually played it and wouldn't want to, but I tried filming it. I kept getting thown out of every pachinko parlor. However, I got enough footage in the end when one of the owners happaned to be there and asked me why I wanted to film.

the ultimate combination of vacuity and yakuza-control.

Actually, it's Koreans and cops. The Police Retiree Association or whatever they're called runs the pachinko business. Japan is odd in the fact that the cops run the gambling, and the ruling party gets direct payments from organized crime. But hey, as long as the girls dress purty...!

To come back to the other point of the original post... When I was in NYC a couple of months ago, it really surprised me to see Japanese restaurants (of all levels, including Yoshinoya-style fast food ones) and hairdressers and whatnots all over the place downtown. I'm relatively sure that wasn't the case the previous time I was there, which was only two years ago -- but then again, it might be a case of a Recency Illusion (if you've noticed something only recently, you believe that it in fact originated recently). What was your impression?

And if I can start buying Black Black at a corner deli on Delancey St., I'll know that physical location is no longer a restraining factor for lifestyle.

I'm sure you can get them at the Japanese supermarket at St. Marks, but that probably doesn't quite count yet.

der: I used to buy Black Black at Sunshine Mart, I was really happy when they started selling it.

Momus: I've played pachinko. It wasnt much fun for me even though I came out a little ahead overall. It just felt like doing nothing.

Marxy: Lets not forget that a share of the pachinko funds find their way into Lil' Kimmy's coffers.

tomek: were you at all surprised when you got kicked out? Have you tried filming in any gambling places elsewhere? What were the results?

I forget the story, but yes, pro-NK Koreans run pachinko.

By the way, they are opening an authentic Gyukaku yakiniku restaurant next to the Village Voice. The East Village is now officially Japan Town.

officially? that took long enough, it was looking like that back in 96 or so. even back then there was a little hole in the wall on E7th that served "curry rice"

where have you been? :)
the east village has been japan town for at least 3 years. its the only place i've ever seen an okonomiyaki stand in the states. (outside of some temporary matsuri-like event)

also, I tried pachinko once. it was the most mentally boring and aurally obnoxious mugging i've ever experienced.

i wasn't surprised that they kicked me out. but i simply had to film the stuff.

According to wikipedia, Sudoku was invented by a guy named Howard Garnes in 1979, NYC. Then it became popular in Japan, shortened it's name (from 数字は独身に限る), it then went on to lose popularity... and so the story goes.

The only person in Japan that's caught me playing and has known what it is was an Oji-san, so it's not hip in any way. Which means it's cool, right?

Thanks for the history recap. Makes sense that it's lost its popularity, although I've definitely seen it done in trains by middle-aged people. I'm not sure sudoku are cool by any stretch of the imagination, but "cool" and "fun" are unrelated concepts.

Three Dog Night is fun but totally uncool:

"One is 独-est 数 that you'll ever do… Two can be as bad as one, it's the 独-est 数 since the 数 one!"

LOOK, THE REALLY EGREGIOUS THING ABOUT TIS POST IS THE GOO GOO DOLLS REFERENCE IN THE TITLE. Caps lock off now, but still, end of story, smartypantses.

goo goo dolls? I thought it was a Johnny Cash reference...

I actually was at tsutaya yesterday, and after marxy's entry, I figured I'd check if they had any sudoku books. not a one.

You all have seen the pachinko and slots in arcades (game centers), right? I've seen tons and tons of my students including elementary school kids mindlessly chugging away at these machines... which in many cases don't even have a slot to pay off. You buy credits and play until the credits are out... no cashout system or anything. They seem to be a lot more popular out here than the few remaining skill based games in the arcades (excluding the evergreen rythym games).

You'll all know when I really reference the Goo Goo Dolls.

I've loved these puzzles since I was a little girl. (Yes, I was a strange little girl. I was on the math team, that should explain it all.) And I'm from New York. O, Japan.

NYC a couple of months ago, it really surprised me to see Japanese restaurants (of all levels, including Yoshinoya-style fast food ones)

also japanese restaurants that sell food we like about japan but is actually european like 'italian tomato'.

//wikipedia: Legend has it that Marco Polo introduced to Italy some products from China, including ice cream, the piñata and pasta, especially spaghetti. However, these legends are highly dubious — for instance, there is evidence that pasta was known in Italy since antiquity.//