2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Spotted on Failaka.

Photo by q8tifarmer

[YouTube]

This video has been circulating the web for the past 2 days (warning it’s graphic) but I was wondering if anyone else thinks it could be a fake? For some reason this feels like a Saudi awareness campaign to try and show the guys who street drift like this what could happen. The car rollover effects also kinda reminds me of [This]

Update: Frankom just shared with me some more videos of this incident in the comments below and I’m not starting to think it’s real.

The number of Indians living in in Kuwait has quadrupled in the past decade to an estimated 650,000 – making them the country’s largest foreign population. For a long time seen as blue collar workers – now a new generation of Indian businessmen are changing the perception of their community by being partners in some of Kuwait’s top firms. Howard Johnson has been to Kuwait to explore the secret of the Indian community’s success. [YouTube]

Note to self: I need to try Amman Bhelpuri.

I was recently in Japan and Mark thought it would be interesting if I posted about it. Growing up in the late 80’s and the 90’s in Kuwait I was exposed to a lot of Japanese culture from Super Mario, Zelda & Metroid (Nintendo in general), to watching Captain Majid, Voltron and Grendizer on television. So, it was only natural for me to be fascinated with everything Japanese and thats why I decided to take a two week trip to Japan. The plan was to stay in Kyoto over at a friends place for about 10 days and from there I would visit neighboring cities by train including Tokyo where I wanted to spend at least 3 days. Now that I’m back I have to say Japan was a brilliant place to visit, Kyoto is a great city and for the most part the Japanese people were pretty friendly and enjoyable to be around.

One of the things you’ll probably use a lot if you ever go to Japan is the subway. I used it a lot while in Japan and it was super crammed most of the time. It’s ridiculous how many people can fit into a subway train and it’s also incredibly uncomfortable especially after a whole day of walking around and feeling like your legs are about to give out to be then squeezed inside the train. There is actually a guy that stands on the subway platform during rush hour to help push and squeeze people inside the train. One really cool thing I noticed is that the Japanese sleep (or nap) a lot on the train. That’s normal except I saw guys sleeping while sitting, crouching and even while standing. Basically, they can take naps in any position! They also have a great sense of balance while riding the subway, I saw one guy playing on his Sony PSP without holding onto anything while I was standing grabbing onto a rail and swaying around left and right. Some rules that you should follow while riding the subway and trains in Japan is that you should always put your phone on silent, don’t make or answer calls and don’t eat while riding the train (drinking is okay).

Another interesting thing I noticed is that in the Kansai area (Kyoto, Osaka) when people ride escalators they stand on the right side while the left is for people who want to walk up or down the escalators (like in London). On the other hand in the Kanto area (where Tokyo is) people stand on the left side while the right is for walking up and down. Now the reason I was given for this is that there’s an on-going rivalry between the two areas because Kyoto used to be the capital of Japan before Tokyo so they try to do everything the opposite. But, I’m not sure anyone really knows the reason behind this because if you do a quick Google search you’ll find other reasons to why they do things differently. One reason that I particularly liked is that back in the old days the Kanto region were known for their samurai’s who prefer to stay on the left so they could draw their swords easily. On the other hand the Kansai region were known for their rich merchants who prefer staying on the right to protect their belongings that they hold in their right hands. Standing on the right or left is such a minor thing but even that has an interesting story behind it.

I liked a lot of things in Japan but one of the things that fascinated me the most were their plastic food models. Restaurants, pastry shops and places that sell bento boxes all have extremely detailed plastic models of the food they serve on display. The models look very realistic and the first time I saw one I thought it was real and was wondering how they got the food to stick to the plate that was displayed at an angle. And yes the food in Japan is brilliant. I tried a whole bunch of things including Indian food, a falafel place, a Korean burger joint and more while there and didn’t have one bad meal. McDonalds was pretty great there and even their shawerma’s which they call “kebabs” are also really good. Of course I also had a lot of Japanese food and even got to try whale meat (I didn’t want to but my friends insisted). Another thing I liked about Japan is how everything is (as my friend put it) “cartoonated”. You’d have a poster warning you of danger or risk of death but they’d be illustrated and look very cute even though they’re meant to be very serious. Video game fans should also definitely visit a video game themed cafe while there. I went to a place in Osaka called Space Station that has literally every console released that you could play on while enjoying a drink.

I also love their vending machines. There was one I tried while in Tokyo that had a camera built into it. You stand in front of the vending machine and the camera would scan your face and body posture and then analyze the information and suggest what you should drink. Which brings me to the subject of coins… Buy a coin purse if you plan on going to Japan since they use a lot of coins. If you own a Nintendo 3DS, make sure to carry it around everywhere in Japan in you want to blend in. I saw a lot of 3DS’s more than any other piece of tech (except for smartphones).

Things to see? Well in Kyoto there’s the Fushimi Inari shrine, the Manga Museum, Kinkaku-Ji (also known as the Golden Pavilion), Pontocho (which are old streets you can walk through), Teramatchi (a long street that’s just a massive marketplace), the Botanical Gardens, Kiyomizu Dera (another shrine). Then a little bit outside of Kyoto there’s a small city called Nara that has a beautiful shrine called Tōdai-ji that you can visit. Right outside the shrine there are deers that roam around freely and you could feed them if you want.

In Tokyo you have the Mori Art Museum (which is a great art gallery), Studio Ghibli, Akihabara (for the Geeks) and Harajuku (for the fashion obsessed).

Japan was really an incredible place as you can imagine and it would be a super long post if I were to write about everything I did and even then I don’t think it would do Japan any justice. But I did take plenty of photos some of which I’ve shared in this post. If you’d like to see a lot more photos I took while in Japan then check out my Flickr page [Here] or my Instagram account [Here]

Posted by Patrick.

[YouTube]

Looks like it’s a new restaurant(?) that opened up in Jabriya. The video wall looks pretty cool. Blogger HeshoQ8 has a review of it over [Here]

Partnerships Technical Bureau (PTB) has stated it expects the Metro to begin operating by 2020, and that the first phase of the development will extend more than 54km and be serviced by 28 stations, nine of which will be underground.

We finally got a date! [Source]

While at the Avenues I spotted the Kindle Fire at Office Depot. They’re selling it for KD85 which is around KD25 more expensive than Amazon (without tax and shipping). They also had a few accessories for the Kindle Fire but didn’t spot any of the regular Kindle’s there.

[YouTube]

Ajarco Services & Equipment are planning to do a cleanup of Kubbar Island tomorrow, the details are below:

We would also like to take this opportunity to announce our Second KUBBAR Island cleaning campaign that is scheduled for coming Saturday 26th of May 2012 to clean up the remaining debris and other litter.

During this event you can test drive our New 2012 model ARGO HDi Special Edition amphibious ATV (www.argoatv.com).

All are welcome to volunteer for this event (up to 10 persons, first come basis), and those people who would like to join us with their boats can team up with us at the Island.

All arrangements for food and beverages will be made by us only thing which volunteers are requested to bring is their backpacks.

All this will depend upon the weather condition so please check our facebook page (fb/ajarco) for timely updates.

If weather permits we will be leaving the docking harbor at Fintas behind coast guard building around 11 am and all are requested to reach there before 11.

Please let us know if any further assistance is required.

The amphibious ATV sounds like fun. Check out the video above of their last cleanup and visit their Facebook if you’re interested [Link]

In my “WiMD Internet – 3 Months Later” post I noted on how my connection’s overall speed had decreased. Turns out the issue was with the wireless connection from my building to their tower since after running tests with their server I noticed I was only getting around 5Mbps instead of 10. The problem has now been fixed and I reran the speedtest and here are the updated results:

I was satisfied with my connection when it wasn’t performing at it’s best since I hadn’t really noticed a drop but now that it’s back to normal I’m even more confident I made the right choice going with WiMD.

Last September I got a tip saying that Prada was coming to Kuwait and opening up at 360 Mall but according to a recent interview with the CEO he stated the following:

“We are expanding in Morocco, Istanbul, Beirut, Dubai and Qatar” [Source]

What about Kuwait? I guess it could be the CEO just forgot to mention Kuwait…

With a massive dust storm still clearing up 965 Crew’s Doss felt the need to head down to Marina Waves and dance on the Edge Of Kuwait Kuwait’s Shoreline. He did two completely different dances in one take for each. They were both so good I had to use them the first is snappier while the second is smoother. You decide which you like.

Nice track. [YouTube]

The Historical, Vintage & Classic Car Museum is holding their 2nd ever Automotive Photography Contest starting from now till June 2nd which will be the last day you can submit your shots.

The following are the categories of the contest:
Best Photo of a car
Micro Photo of the Car
Black and White
People’s Choice (voted on by the museum visitors)

The prizes for first place are KD500, second place 300 and third 200. Each of the top 50 will also get KD50. The overall winners will also get KD1,000 for first, 750 for second and 500 for third. So there is a substantial amount of money to be won here.

I went through the rules, everything seems ok, the only issue I had was with the following statement:

– When you participate in the competition you will grant the Museum ALL copyright of the images submitted, and you may not reclaim any rights.

At first I thought they meant that they will basically own the photos after you submit them but turns out they just mean they will have the right to use and reprint the images for calendars, posters etc.. without requiring your permission which is fine by me.

I’ll most likely be taking part with my McLaren and Fiat 500 shots if I can figure out where to get my photos printed and boarded. If you’re also interested to participate then download the PDF with the full details of the competition from [Here]

Spotted by a friend at Mubarek Hospital. [Link]

Note: For non-Arabic speakers, it says “ward 10” in Arabic

UFC legend and hall of famer Royce Gracie is going to be back in Kuwait again next month for another Jiu-Jitsu seminar. It’s for men and women and will be held on June 25 and 26. For more information visit the Sidekick Academy Facebook page [Here]

I found out about Instajelly from a Forum user and after trying it out I think it’s the best web Instagram viewer out there. I like the way it displays all my images in a nice clean format and I also like the fact you could read the comments and then comment on photos all from within the website.

I think I’ve kinda slowly slowly been moving away from Twitter towards Instagram. Pictures are always a lot more interesting than words. Anyway you can check out my Instagram account using Instajelly right over [Here]