Canceling Utilities

Beaucoup de gens qui quittent le Japon ne semble pas avoir l'intention d'un jour y retourner. En tout cas, c'est ce qu'il m'a semble quand je fais des recherches sur internet a ce sujet. Comme j'ai l'intention de partir l'ame en paix, j'essaye de bien canceller et payer tous mes services avant mon depart. Pour certains trucs gouvernementaux plus compliquer par contre, je n'ai pas trouve d'information mais bon, au moins je pourrai dire que j'ai fait de mon mieux !

En fait, vous ne serez peut-etre pas surpris d'apprendre que beaucoup d'etranger, sachant qu'aucune compagnie n'a un bras international assez long, decide de prendre la file de l'air sans laisser de trace, laissant les factures impayer annoncer leur depart. C'est en fait un des pretextes majeures utilise par les proprietaire d'appartement pour refuser les etrangers.

De plus, comme en pratique je paye mes factures au debut du mois suivant, ca veut dire que si j'attend a la derniere minute pour tout canceller je risque d'avoir des problemes pour payer mes dernieres factures. Heureusement, apres un coup de fils aux compagnie importantes (eau, gaz, electricite) il semble que ce soit un probleme assez commun pour qu'il y ait une solution simple et rapide. Apres avoir prevenu et pris un rendez-vous, la compagnie va se faire un plaisir de me faire payer au moment ou ils viennent couper.

Par contre, j'avais mon doute sur mon service internet alors j'ai decide de canceller un mois d'avance. Il semble que j'ai fait le bon choix car quand j'ai telephoner aujourd'hui ce fut plutot complique pour aucune raison. Enfin, qu'est-ce qui est plus important ? internet ou electricite ? (je dirais internet en fait, mais comme j'ai besoin d'electricite pour utiliser internet...) Donc, au moment ou j'ecris ces lignes, il me reste moins de 30 minutes (techniquement) avant qu'il ne coupe mon service. Je ne sais pas a quel point ils sont precis, mais ils m'ont dit que ca serait couper a minuit ce soir. Finalement je vais avoir ma derniere facture au debut du mois d'avril et tout devrait etre regle.

A partir de demain je vais devoir emprunter l'internet ou je le trouverai, gratuit et flottant au gre du vent. Heureusement, ca ne devrait pas etre trop difficile a Tokyo. Je vais donc continuer de mettre a jour mon blog autant que faire ce peut et de raconter les preparatifs de mon depart. J'ai aussi un dernier voyage a Hokkaido de prevu la semaine prochain alors attendez vous a quelques photos et commentaire comme d'habitude.


A lot of people that leave Japan don't really think they'll ever come back. At least according to what I found on the internet. However, you could say I want to leave a good impression when I leave, which means I'm trying to do things the right way, like calling my landlord in advance and making sure all my bills are paid and my services canceled before I leave. Due to a severe lack of information about health, pension and other government related fees tough, I might miss a few things, at least I'll do my best !

You might not be surprised to hear that a lot of foreigners, since there is no way for a company to go after them in another country will just pack up and leave without a trace, letting the unpaid bill announce their departure. That's one of the (discriminating) reasons given by owners for not wanting to rent apartment to foreigners.

But since technically I pay the bill at the beginning of the next month, it means that if I keep my utilities until the very last minute I won't be able to pay the last bill. Hopefully, it seems like the utility companies are used to this kind of problem and will gladly allow me to pay my last bill on the spot as they come to cut off their respective utility.

However, I had my doubt about internet service, so I'm trying to cancel it before the end of this month. As I called today it seem like I was right, it's much more complicated and for no reason really, I mean, what is more important ? electricity or internet ? (I would argue internet, but I need electricity to power my laptop to use internet...) So I'm writing this with less than 30 minutes before (technically) they cut my internet. They said it would happen at midnight, but I don't know how precise they will be. I should get the last bill early August and then I'll be good.

From tomorrow I'll have to live by borrowing internet where it roams free in the air. Hopefully, in Tokyo that should be nearly ubiquitous. I'll try to post on my blog as I move along with the preparation for departure. I also have one last trip planned to Hokkaido next week, so expect a few pictures and updates.

Goodbye Japan

Bien que l'information ait circule de plusieurs facons deja, je me suis dit qu'il fallait bien que je l'annonce officiellement sur ce blog. Comme le titre l'indique, j'ai decide cette annee qu'il etait temps de plier bagage et de revenir dans cette bonne vieille province du Quebec.

Ma vie est pleine d'aventures depuis que je suis au Japon. Tout les jours j'ai l'impression que quelque chose de nouveau arrive; j'apprend un nouveau mot en japonais, je visite un nouveau recoins a Tokyo ou je mange quelque chose d'inconnu. Quand je suis parti pour travailler au Japon, j'avais en tete d'y passer deux ou trois ans, j'en suis a ma troisieme annee et je dois dire que j'ai bien faillit y rester plus longtemps. J'adore la vie ici, tout est a porter de la main, le service est impecable, les toilettes publiques sont plus propre que chez nous (et ont plus de boutons...) et que dire d'Akihabara, le reve du geek, a quelques minutes de chez nous, par n'importe quel moyen de transport. Sans compter la facilite de visiter le reste de l'Asie sans avoir a payer une fortune. L'Australie, Taiwan et j'aurais bien aime avoir le temps pour la Chine et les autres comme la Coree, Cambodge, etc.

Bien sur, il m'a fallut balancer entre tourisme et travail. Le travail prend tout mon temps, mais en meme temps me donne l'argent necessaire pour voyager. Au bout de la ligne c'est le travail qui m'a decide a revenir au Quebec. Apres presque trois ans chez Ubit, j'ai commence a sentir le besoin de migrer vers d'autres interets. Ceci m'a amene a realiser plusieurs problemes avec ma situation actuelle.

D'abord je suis un etranger, ce qui complique les procedures. Mon niveau de japonnais, bien que maintenant suffisant pour une conversation simple est encore a un niveau beaucoup trop inferieur pour me permettre de travailler effectivement dans une entreprise completement japonaise. Beaucoup de pays ont etablis des programmes incensitif dans le but d'encourager les compagnies a engager des etrangers. En autant que je le sache, ce n'est pas le cas au Japon. Je suis en competitions avec tous ces japonais qui ont une bien meilleure comprehension de la culture et de la langue du pays. Evidement, il reste les compagnies a vocation internationnale qui, bien au contraire, recherche desesperement l'aide des etrangers, le japonais moyen ayant un anglais somme toute assez mediocre. Bref, en tout et pour tout, il est evident que j'aurais pu me trouver un nouvel emploi au Japon, mais s'aurait ete plus difficile qu'au Quebec. Surtout, maintenant que j'ai un peu d'experience internationale et que je peux parler (a un niveau intermediaire) le Japonais, ma valeur au Quebec est nettement plus eleve.

D'autres facteurs jouent egalement, la situation econnomique du Japon versus celle du Canada par example. Le Canada a bien sur soufert de la crise americaine mais semble avoir reussit a garder les renes. Ce n'est pas autant le cas pour le Japon qui etait deja pris dans un marasse econnomique et la crise n'a definitivement pas aider. Je ne sais pas si c'est relie a tout cela, mais bien que je n'ai aucun probleme a accepter beaucoup des ambiguites les plus etranges du Japon, mes plus dur chocs culturels semblent souvent etre relies au monde du travail et a la culture corporative Japonaise. J'ai entendu parler de toutes sortes de choses plutot etrange: forcer les employes a laver les toilettes pour encourager la communication, ecoeurer un employe jusqu'a ce qu'il quitte plutot que de le mettre a la porte, encourager les heures supplementaires non-remunere malgre le fait que c'est illegal, retenu du salaire si un employe refuse de signer un papier sans discussion (encore une fois, meme si c'est illegal), etc.

Ajouter a cela que je vais passer presque le tier de ma vie a travailler dans un bureau, j'aimerais autant que ce soit dans des conditions agreables et j'ai l'impression que les conditions sont beaucoup plus agreables au Quebec. Peut-etre que ce sont les greves que je croyais stupides mais qui au bout de la ligne ont bel et bien un effet positif sur les conditions de travail. Peut-etre que la situation econnomique du Japon rend les travailleurs japonais plus docile ou c'est peut-etre la personnalite anti-confrontation des japonais. Certainement, c'est un melange de plusieurs de ces facteurs qui au bout de la ligne m'ont decide a revenir.

Il n'y a pas de hargne ou de haine ou quoique se soit. Je ne quitte pas le Japon ou mon travail actuel a cause des raisons mentionnees plus haut. Je quitte et reviens au Quebec simplement parce que je crois que c'est la meilleure facon pour moi d'avancer et de vivre de nouvelles aventures ! Dans les defis qui m'attendent; trouver un nouvel emploi, revoir des amis que je n'ai pas vu depuis des siecles, entretenir un appartement au Quebec et prendre soins de ma copine qui va revenir avec moi. Ce ne sera pas de la tarte!


Many people who are likely to read this blog will have learned this from somewhere else but I felt like I needed to give some kind of official announcement here on this blog. Like the ominous title suggest, I will be going back to my good old province of Quebec soon.

My life in Japan has been full of wondrous adventures since I started work there. Everyday I feel like something new is hapenning; I learn a new word of japanese, I discover a new corner of Tokyo sprawl or I eat some strange new food. When I left to work in Japan I was already planning to stay there only two or three years and I have to admit, now on my third year I very nearly decided to keep going for a few more. I really like the life here, everything is so close, service is always perfect, public toilets are cleaner than mine (and have more buttons...) and let's not forget the dreamland that is Akihabara, reachable from my place in a few minutes by any mean of transportation. There's also the unique chance I have to visit all those neighboring countries which would be so costly from Quebec but a cheap weekend vacation from Japan. I'm talking about my trips to Australia and Taiwan but also the places I wish I had had time to explore like China, Korea, Cambodgia, and so on.

Of course, I had to balance tourism and work. Work takes a lot of my time but also give me the ressources I need to travel. In the end, it's because of work that I decided it was time for me to come back to Quebec. After nearly three year working for Ubit I felt like it was time for me to try new things and migrate toward new interests. This is what initially made me realize a few problems with my current situation.

First of all, I'm a foreigner which makes a lot of things a bit more complicated (like visa, apartment hunting, etc.) Also, my level of Japanese is now such that I can hold a simple conversation without too much trouble but it is not yet enough to envision working for a Japanese only company. I think a lot of countries have programs to encourage companies to hire foreigners and facilitate their integration. I don't think this is the case with Japan. This means I'm in direct competition with other Japanese work force that have a much better understanding of Japanese culture and language. Of course, there are always those big international companies that are always seeking good foreign employees since the average Japanese's english is passable at best. So what I'm saying is, had I wished too, I'm sure I could have found something in Japan but it would have been much more difficult than in Quebec. Especially since in Quebec my experience in foreign lands and my third language (albeit at intermediary level) are a big plus and significantly increase my value as an employee.

Other factors also influenced my decision in the end. For example, the economic situation in Japan and Canada. Canada was of course affected by the American mortgage issue but it sounds like we still managed to keep things under control. In Japan, the situation was already pretty bleak and this crisis didn't do anything to help. This might be linked with some other things I've noticed before. In a way, I have had very little problems getting used to the occasional strange and weird Japan but some of the biggest cultural shocks I've had in the past all seems somehow liked to the corporate world. I heard many strange things about some supposedly common occurrence in japan: Forcing employees to clean up the toilets to foster better communication, annoying an employee until he leaves instead of firing him, encouraging unpaid overtime even tough it is illegal or keeping an employee's salary because he refuses to sign some papers (once again, illegal) and so on.

Add to that the fact that I will spend a good third of my life working and I would really like to do it in the best possible conditions. I have the feeling that working conditions in Quebec are quite better than in Japan. I'm sure Canada has it's quirk and strangeness but maybe the everlasting strikes did help improve the situation after all. It could be that the difficult economy in Japan prevents employees from trying to get better jobs or work conditions. It might also have to do with the typical non-confrontational personality of most Japanese, I don't know. Most certainly it's a mix of all this that in the end, made me choose to come back to Quebec.

There is no hate, or displeasure or anything like that. I've loved my job and Japan very much since the day I set foot in Japan and I'm not leaving because of the things mentionned above. I've simply decided that for now the best way to move forward and experience new things would be for me to come back to Quebec. A lot of challenging tasks await me: finding a new job, get back in touch with friends, taking care of an apartment in Longueuil and the last but not the least, taking care of my girlfriend who decided to accompany me in this adventure !

Games of my life

I was reading two very interesting blog posts earlier today about Video Games (because I'm a video game dork to begin with). I was surprised to see how different each person's list of most memorable games was so I started thinking about my own list. Like the others, I wanted to see what kind of relations I could find that could potentially connect all the games that really marked my life.

Of course, there's always the possibility I forgot something and it'll come back to me later like : "Oh my god, how could I forget !?!". But I think these are the 10 games that really made an impression for me :

• Disgaea : Hours of darkness
• DDR (Dance Dance Revolution)
• Diablo 1
• Wolfenstein 3D
• Dungeon Siege 1
• Thief : The Dark Project
• Warhammer : Dawn of War
• Duke Nukem 3D
• Soul Reaver
• Chrono Trigger

These are the games I remember playing like crazy for some reason or another. I really didn't try to follow any logic here. There are plenty other games which were awesome (Gran Theft Auto, Fallout, etc.) But these are the ones that for some reason I always end up thinking about all the time.

So first, in chronological order :

• 2005 - DDR
• 2004 - Warhammer
• 2003 - Disgaea
• 2002 - Dungeon Siege
• 1999 - Soul Reaver
• 1998 - Thief
• 1996 - Duke Nukem 3D
• 1996 - Diablo
• 1995 - Chrono Trigger
• 1992 - Wolfenstein 3D

I was sorta surprised, I always though my most memorable games were all "oldies", but actually I can see a fairly linear progression with an average of 1.4 years between incredible games. A lot of people complains that games are becoming more and more boring with big title only being remake of old famous titles. This might explain why after 2005 I can't think of any game that really really impressed me. There were good games, just not amazing ones in my opinion.

Next, the website metacritic which provides an average rating based on multiple rating websites (ratings are from 0 to 100) :

• Diablo : 94
• Thief : 92
• Chrono Trigger : 92
• Soul Reaver : 91
• Duke Nukem 3D : 89
• Dungeon Siege : 86
• Warhammer : 86
• Disgaea : 84
• DDR : 80

Like the other blogs, I seem to like really famous titles (Wolfenstein was too old to get a metacritic I guess). The average is somewhere around 88.2. I used the highest rating for DDR but I actually mean StepMania, the open-source emulator.

Now based on style and demographic :

• DDR : rythm game
• Warhammer : military science fiction real-time strategy
• Disgaea : tactical role-playing
• Dungeon Siege : action role-playing
• Thief : stealth-based first-person shooter
• Duke Nukem 3D : first-person shooter
• Diablo : action role-playing game
• Soul Reaver : third-person action-adventure
• Chrono Trigger : console role-playing game
• Wolfenstein 3D : first person shooter

And more generally :

• 1 Rhythm Game
• 3 Shooters
• 4 Role-playing Games
• 7 Games rely heavily on reflex and speed
• 4 Games with strong story elements
• 3 Japanese Games
• 7 American Games
• 6 Games are made with compelling reasons to re-play through
• 4 Games lose a substantial amount of (if not all) impact after the first play-through
• All games became a series
• 7 games kicked off the series
• 1 Arcade game
• 6 Games I played on PC
• 3 Games I played on Console
• 4 Games were 2D
• 3 Games used a 3rd person view
• 6 Games were 3D (counting duke nukem and wolfenstein)
• 3 Games with Multiplayer (I'm not counting DDR)

Dead ?

Je suis sur que j'ai maintenant officiellement perdu tous mes lecteurs et je m'en excuse. Aucun nouveau poste en plus d'un mois c'est terrible ! Force m'est d'avouer que pour l'instant je n'ai pas grand chose a raconter.

Quelques grosses nouvelles s'en viennent mais tout n'est pas encore en place alors en attendant voici une publicite recente qui passe a la tele japonaise. La musique penetre le cerveau comme de l'eau une eponge... une eponge impossible a tordre !


I'm pretty sure that I have now lost my last reader and I'm very sorry. Nothing new for more than a month is terrible ! The sad truth is that I don't really have anything to say. Just the usual everyday boring life.

Also, I'm quite busy preparing some big stuff. I'll talk about it later when I'm less busy and things are more finalized. For now, why not enjoy a bit of advertising that's been showing on japanese tv recently. To put it like some other blogger, it laid eggs in my head !