Beneath the Peak

While I was in Japan a couple of weeks ago, I did something I always wanted to do when I lived there, but never got around to — a tour of the Tsukiji fish market.

I met my guide, Nakamura-san, at 4:00 AM — an ungodly hour especially when it’s pouring rain. But the early start was worthwhile, because I got to see the market before it filled with tourists as the morning wore on.

One of the first things that strikes you about the market is its size. It’s a huge warren of nooks and alleys that employs about 60,000 people, ranging from clerks…

…auctioneers and to stevedores.

It’s also incredibly busy, with people buying…

…inspecting…

…and butchering…

…every imaginable kind of seafood, from tiny minnows and fresh tuna to octopus…

…and ultra-expensive sea urchin.

And while the tuna…

…was one of the main attractions for buyers and visitors, there is also a thriving business in live…

…fresh…

…and dried specialty items, including whale.

It’s definitely worth a look, especially since there are controversial plans to move the market to a new location.

For more, see this Vanity Fair article.

I’ve blogged before about one of my pet peeves: doctors who don’t keep scheduled appointments. Last week, I encountered a new twist.

I booked the last appointment of the day with a specialist. A couple of hours before the appointment, the doctor’s receptionist called and asked if I could come in half an hour earlier. Thinking the doctor may have had a unexpectedly light schedule on a Friday afternoon (and having a couple of errands in the same neighborhood that were not particularly time sensitive), I agreed.

I showed up five minutes before the appointment, and waited. Ten minutes after the appointed time, I asked the receptionist how much longer the wait was going to be.

“It will be a little while,” she says, “there’s one more patient ahead of you.”

“Actually,” I replied, “I won’t be a little while, because I’m leaving.” And I turned around and walked out.

I try not to be unreasonable about these things. I know schedules can drift and emergencies happen. And I’m genuinely appreciative of a doctor who will to take a few extra minutes when that’s necessary or squeeze me into an already busy schedule.

But I’m self employed, which means a trip to the doctor isn’t an opportunity to skive off and avoid work for a while. It directly diminishes my ability to earn a living.

And unlike places (like my native Canada) with socialized medicine or HMO regimes, I’m paying for this out of my pocket.

I have a choice. And I will exercise that choice.

I wonder if there’d be any interest in an internet register of doctors who are regular timewasters?

The audiobook version of Landed has arrived from the duplicator. Click here for details.

If you’re having trouble preparing for an interview, here’s a tip that can break the mental logjam.

Try telling the reporter — and thus your audience — a story.

Our brains are hardwired to process and digest information presented as stories. Stories transcend culture and time, which is one reason why Aesop’s Fables have survived 2,500 years and in dozens of languages. If you’ve read Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s book The Black Swan, you know that we like stories so much that we’ll sometimes create them where they don’t exist, in something Taleb calls the narrative fallacy.

They also fit into the way that journalists see the world — they’re called news stories for a reason.

To paraphrase Nabokov, if I tell you, “The king died, and then the queen died,” that’s information. If I tell you, “The king died, and then the queen died of a broken heart,” that’s a story. One that engages us and our interest

What makes a credible story?

You need a structure: a beginning, middle and an end, or a problem, solution and resolution. Oddly enough, many of the reasons people find themselves in front of the media lend themselves naturally to this structure: We launched this product, hired this person or made this investment because…

Done right, stories are satisfying. They include familiar emotions, believable situations and human interaction. And they feature just enough of the small details — the color of your shirt, the scent of her perfume, the time of day — that add texture and credibility.

Best of all, you’ll know when a story gels. And so will your audience, especially if you’ve rehearsed and internalized the story until it’s second nature.

I had a little time while I was on a business trip to Japan this week, and visited the third rail of Japanese politics: Yasukuni Shrine.

My awareness of the shrine comes from the protests that erupt when a Japanese prime minister visits (or doesn’t visit) the shrine, which memorializes Japan’s war dead. Those protests are usually accompanied by a media frenzy, which features pictures of politicians at the main shrine.

What I didn’t realize is that there is a lot more to Yasukuni, including several beautiful tori and other buildings.

There are a number of memorials to the war dead…

…and to military heroes, like Vice-Minister of War Omura Masujiro.

There’s also a museum that features several artillery pieces, a locomotive as well as this aircraft.

I didn’t have time to see the whole museum. But it, and the shrine in general are definitely worth a look if you’re in Tokyo and are interested in modern Asian history.

If you’re hiring someone to deliver media training, you should check several things. Client references, pricing, confidentiality policies and the bio of the person delivering the training (not the one selling it) all spring to mind.

Here’s one more question for your trainer: “How many times have you been interviewed?”

Many trainers are former (or current) journalists. That experience provides useful insights into the workings of the media and the mechanics of the interview process.

But if your trainer has never answered questions in an unfolding crisis with incomplete information; defended a corporate decision they didn’t agree with; or deflected a hostile question when they knew the (damaging) answer, they’ll have trouble empathizing with and addressing the concerns of a new spokesperson.

If that wasn’t reason enough, watching the video footage and reading their clips is a good way to see if the trainer can walk the talk.

For more information on planning a media training session, click here.

Aside from filtering, there’s not much you can do about spam from shadowy people and businesses selling junk and counterfeit products via email.

But what about “legitimate” businesses that use spam to sell seemingly legitimate products?

There’s one company here in Hong Kong that’s been spamming us for over a year. They send large jpg and gif files (some over 1mb), which can be a major pain when you’re traveling in developing countries and not using webmail. And they constantly change their email address, making it difficult to filter their messages on that basis.

Despite an opt-out clause (as well as a phone number and office address) in their emails, they’ve ignored our faxes, letters and phone calls requesting that we be removed from their spam list. And Hong Kong’s weak and poorly enforced anti-spam legislation means the spammers have few incentives to stop.

Recently, I had an idea that might stem the flow of the spam.

The spammers are selling products from well-known multinational companies, the kind that take their reputations seriously.

So, as an experiment, I wrote the multinationals. I sent snail-mail letters to each corporation’s general counsel (two effective ways to get a corporation’s attention), and told them that one of their dealers was breaking the law and using their logo and name in the process.

I also advised the companies that we had recently spent several thousand dollars on products that they make, but didn’t buy their products because of the spam we continue to receive.

That was a couple of days ago. I’ll update this post when I get a response to the letters.

Technorati Tags: spam, consumer activism,

Google is going to make searchable, digital copies of old newspapers available online.

What a great idea.

This is going to make a world of information available to researchers, authors and historians.

It’s also going to make it even harder for news organizations to charge for content.

Recently, I landed a series of media training assignments here in Hong Kong and around the region. That was a good excuse for an equipment upgrade. I started with a new Samsonite video bag, which is small but (if you’ll pardon the expression) intelligently designed.

The bag comes in two parts — an outer case made of tough nylon and an insert. The outer case is loaded with pockets and pouches, and features a slot on the back that lets you attach it to your belt.

The insert is made of rigid foam covered with soft fabric to keep your gear from getting scratched. The interior of the insert is lined with Velcro, which lets you customize the layout and fit a lot of equipment into a small space. You can also use the insert without the outside case, which is handy.

Here’s the insert fully loaded with a Canon HF10 camcorder (hidden), remote control, power supply, AV cables, spare battery and manual; two Shure SM11 microphones; a Slik desk tripod; and a SignVideo XLR-PRO adapter (bottom right).

The HF10 is an impressive piece of engineering. It records high definition video onto an internal flash memory or a removable memory card, eliminating the need for tapes and a lot of moving parts. It’s small, lightweight and has a full complement of features, many of which are adjustable.

The SignVideo XLR-PRO, shown here attached to the HF10, lets you use professional, balanced microphones with a consumer or “prosumer” camcorder. It also accepts line level sources, like the output of a wireless mic. The XLR-PRO is a passive device that works well with the Shure SM11s, but it might work better with electret condenser mics, which have higher output levels.

The final piece of the puzzle was Ulead’s Video Studio 11, which is far more powerful than the editing software that Canon bundles with the HF10. Using Video Studio 11, we edit the interview simulations onto DVDs for a professional touch.

Taken together, its a media training solution in a 5″ X 8″ X 10″ package. And it’s a long way from the days when we had to hire a cameraman to shoot the simulations on VHS.

I spent a couple of hours using Google’s new browser, Chrome, this afternoon.

That’s far from an exhaustive test, but my initial impressions were favorable. Chrome worked quickly over a shared wireless connection and it was intuitive to use — I read the comic book but didn’t read anything else. And don’t forget it’s a beta, and no add-ins are available yet.

Downsides? Like many people, i have concerns about giving Google any more access (or insights) into my buying, browsing or search habits. And it’s going to be interesting to see how well Chrome withstands the tsunami of hacking attempts that are sure to materialize over the next couple of days.

That said, FireFox — which I love — suddenly has some serious competition*. And the nice people in Redmond are about to get a taste of the medicine they administered to AOL when they made Internet Explorer a free competitor to Netscape.

Ultimately we all win…

* No disrespect intended to users of Opera, Safari, Konquerer, etc. I haven’t used any of these browsers enough to make an informed comparison.