Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Windstruck

I watched a Korean film, "Windstruck".
Its Japanese title is "Bokuno Kanojo wo Shokai Shimasu", and in English
that means "I'd like to introduce my girlfriend". The English title comes
from a beautiful scene in the film and I think the choice is also a good idea.
(Can anyone tell me what the original Korean title means?)

The heroine is a cute and veeeery daring policewoman. :o) You will see
a tragic incident in film, but the story is on the whole romantic and
a bit comical. I assure you that you can go home with happy
impressions.

BTW, the actress, Jeon Ji-Hyeon, is the same with "My Sassy Girl"
which made a hit about 3 years ago.

I think it's not just a coincidence that the character of the heroine
of "My Sassy Girl" is a bit similar to the one of "Windstruck". At
least in Japan, she is popular only through her films for now
different from other Asian countries, and thus she seems to have
acquired something strange impression like Audrey Tautou who played
"Amelie from Montmartre" and "He Loves Me... He Loves Me Not".
I hope she can get more good impressions like other Korean actresses in Japan.


Sunday, November 21, 2004

Dark Blue World

I have several DVDs I've not watched yet.

As I had no appointments in this week end, I wached "Dark Blue World".
It's a story of two fighter pilot and a woman during the second world
war, and in a sense, it's a sad story with a lot of air combat scenes.
Some people might feel it like "Perl Harbor" or "Top Gun", but the
film has a bit different atmosphere from them.

One thing interesting about this film is that in Japan it's
distributed by the studio GHIBLI which is well known as
Hayao Miyazaki's studio. Perhaps, it looks like strange that GHIBLI do
that, but it's well known that Miyazaki loves very much weapons and
stories about them specially the ones before WW2. In this sense, we
could say that Mamoru Oshii has a similarity with Mr. Miyazaki. :o)

I think it undoubted that both of them influcenced a lot of media
creators in the world like Wachowski brothers. But, I'm not sure if

they share the same preferences with Miyazaki and Oshii.

Perhaps, this can be one of the peculiar aspects of Japanese animation
creators. :o)

Saturday, November 20, 2004

psqlfs

I found an interesting project, psqlfs.

psqlfs uses an RDBMS, PostgreSQL, as its physical data storage.

To tell the truth, I'm not interested in psqlfs itself so much, but
its base feature, LUFS, is interesting. LUFS reminds me of former user
land filesystems such as UFO of UCSB.

When I saw lufs for the first time, an idea came to me in a flush, but
I'm going to write it after some hack. :)

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Onaji Sora no Shita

"Onaji Sora No Shita" is a short but very interesting TV program. :)

The title means "Under the same sky" in English, and it's a series of
short introductions of charming, adorable, intelligent and beautiful
women. I wish I could have a HDD recorder...
Perhaps, I should buy one right now!? :o)
In addition, its BGM is cool. :)

Recently in Japan, we often hear covers of a classic tune "Jupiter" by
Holst. For example, Ayaka Hirahara. Also, a CM film BGM of Nomura
Securites has been very popular. It's by Kirite Te Kanawa.

But this time, we have one more Jupiter by The Eccentric Opera. It's astral, and I like their Jupiter best. :)

Sunday, November 07, 2004

Mona


Yet another new OS topic, Mona.

Mona is a new multi-server model microkernel based operating system
written in C++. One thing interesting about this OS is that the
project began through a discussion in a really really big Japanese BBS
system, called '2ch'. Thus, the projects seems to be going on using an
ideal(?) bazaar model. :o)

Different from OSASK which I wrote about yesterday, now networking
supports seems to be one of hot topics of the Mona team. At least for
now, Nov. 3, 2004, only ARP and ICMP seem to work, but I'm expecting
TCP/IP works not so far future. :)

BTW, the project has several design documentations.
I found some sequence diagrams (of UML? possibly) among them and
a bit surprised. Sequence diagrams of OS! Amazing, isnt't it? :o)

One more thing is the following panic. :o)

Of course, I was kidding while trying a demo floppy. But, I think it's questinable that we can kill the 'idle' process. :o)

Apart from that, anyway GUI works and many OS geeks are joining to the
project. So, I expect they will make a good progress.


Saturday, November 06, 2004

OSASK

Today, I found some interesting OS development projects.

For example, OSASK.
(Unfortunatelly, the pages are written in only Japanese.)

Multitasking and GUI seem to have worked already, but I couldn't
find any networking support for now. :(

According to literatures among the web site written in Japanese, this
guy seems to have studied physics, not computer science. (The
background situation is the same with me by occasion!) It's amazing
that it looks like he's gotten inspirations independently about
concept now widely exploited by many commercial and free operating
systems. I think all he needs to do is to make time and study more
about operating systems and possibly writing in English. :o)


Friday, November 05, 2004

TOEIC

I received the result of TOEIC test which I had about a month ago today.
As I've been good at *paper tests* of English, I tend to get higher
scores than my actual English communication ability, I think.

Since this April, I'm going to an English conversation school
about two or three days a week and thus expected that I might get
my new peak score this time.
Actually, I got the one. But, the score I got was a very spacey one.
So, I decided not to believe in TOEIC test results anymore. :(

As I lost one criteria of my English, the only one rest for me now is
CAT Level certification. But, there is a long long way to the next level. :(

The Step Test?
I like a world wide certification. :(

UNATE?
It could be a good idea, but I'm not interested in UN. :(

TOEFL?
Currently, I have no plan to go abroad to study. In addition,
TOEFL is operated by the same organization of TOEIC, and I'm not sure
if I can know actual level of my English by TOEFL. :(

Does anyone have any other idea?

Saturday, October 30, 2004

New HDD for ThinkPad X31

My note PC is a customized model of ThinkPad X31.
When I bought it, I thought 30GB(default) was enough, but soon
I regretted. My mail box is now about 3GB, photo folder is
about 1.5GB, and VMWare disk are huge. :(
Thus, I bought an 80GB Hitachi Travelstar 5K80(HTS548080M9AT00) today.

It's easy to migrate the whole data using RRRR (Rescue and Recovery - Rapid Restore). But, in case of ThinkPad X31 the recovery data is stored in a hidden area called HPA, and it took time retrieve that
from the old HDD. My problem was that after taking a system backup
using RRRR, I couldn't run the pre-boot recovery program by pressing
the "Access IBM" blue button which is needed to access the HPA area.
After struggling some time, I succeeded to retrieve the HPA data like
the following:

1) Create a bootable CD of RRRR.
2) Install the old HDD again.
3) Ask to restore the system to the initial shipped status.
4) Interrupt the system restoration process by pressing F4.
5) Format C: so that I can save content of the HPA area
about 3.5GB.
6) Use 'FWRESTORE' stored in a:\recovery like,
fwrestore -file imgset c:

Here, ThinkPad X31 uses a utility called FirstWare by
Phoenix, and the HPA area is hidden by the Phoenix BIOS.
That means the area doesn't have a partition table entry.

I can understand the choice of IBM engineers, but I don't like it. :(



Saturday, October 23, 2004

Oops...

My car's Battery died.
What is worse, I had to return to my home town today. :(
I didn't imagine that I got on Shinkansen this week too
in addition to the last week. :(
But, anyway it'd be better to consider buying a new car
cause it's almost 7 years old.

Wednesday, October 06, 2004

Nobel Prize, 2004

I studied quark confinement mechanism when I was a graduate student.
The phenomenon is described by a theory of physics called QCD:
Quantum Chromo Dynamics. Chromo comes from the central idea of QCD that
quarks have a property similar to color, RGB, and they can be observed
only in a conbination state in 'white'. This means only conbinations
of three colors, blue, green and red, or two complimentary colors
can be observed.

Three scientist who founded QCD received the Nobel Prize this year,
and I was deeply concerned with their beeing awarded the prize.


Tuesday, October 05, 2004

Connecting two VMware guests

October 05, 2004

I didn't know that two VMware guests can be connected by virtual serial line connection on top of Windows named pipe.
Foremerly, I tried to debug a 2.6 kernel using kgdb over ethernet connection, but failed. I should have read the manual carefully. :(

Now, I'm re-building the kernel looking forward to kernel debugging
that on my note-pc. :)

I'm feeling Lucky! :o)

Sunday, October 03, 2004

JAL Oto Butai

Tonight JAL Oto Butai was an impressive TV program.
(Sorry, the URL seems to be available only in Japanese.)
Here, JAL is Japan Air Lines, just its sponsor. "Oto" means "Sound" and "Butai" is "Theater" in Japanese.

This show began in 1989, and it's 17th show since then.
It's a collaboration of eastern and western culture, especially music and play. Usually each show has some particular theme as a feature.
Also its "theater" is unique. Every year another temple is chosen, and
the theater of this year was "Yakushi-ji".

The theme of this time was a story of a chinese monk who went to India in order to get Buddhist scriptures. (if you are a Japanese, it's "Sai Yu Ki").
Thus, it makes sense that "12 Girls Band" was choosen as one of the featured artists.
Their peformance reminded me of their "Reel Around the Sun" and
River Dance company's one night special show at Sengaku-ji temple.
Actually, I was wondering about a collaboration of 12 Girls Band and
River Dance company at a Japanese temple. It must be incredible. :)


Monday, September 27, 2004

Birthday present


I don't want to talk about how old I am. :(
But, I got a surprising birthday present from my uncle this year.
You can understand why if you see the picture. :o)


Friday, September 24, 2004

PearPC


September 24, 2004

Recently, I attended at a lecture on coLinux,
Cooperative Linux, by Dan Aloni in Tokyo.
It's a really interesting lecture.

But, strange to say, I developed a passion for emulators those of
Bochs, QEMU and PearPC since then.

The first two emulator are mainly intended for x86 architecture, but
PearPC emulates PowerPC platform. Formerly, I tried to run MacOS on a
680x0 emulator and failed. Furthermore, there was no PowerPC emulator
in those days. Today, I succeeded to install OpenDarwin 7.2.1/PowerPC
on PearPC on my ThinkPad. Another microkernel on my note-pc. :o)

I'm going to look into its debugging
facility, and I might work on that if needed. :o)


Thursday, April 29, 2004

Golden Week

In this season, from April 29 to May 5, we have successive holidays,
and it's called "Golden Week." :) I heard that in China they also have
similar big holiday season.

This year, I have 12 days holiday, and my golden week have just
begun. So, I'm very happy. :)


Girl with a Pearl Earring

Today, I saw "Girl with a Pearl Earring."

What the heroine, Griet, the model of the painting said when she saw
her master's work for the first time, "You looked inside me."
represents the relationship between Vermeer and Griet fully.

Their subdued passion didn't lead them to physical affairs, but
therefore Vermeer could all his strength to the painting.

I think the film could be one of the best love stories of the twenty
first century. I strongly recommend that you would see it. :)


Wednesday, April 28, 2004

The Footprints of God, and Digital Fortress

Recently, I read two novels on super computers and cryptgraphy.

One is "The Footprints of God" by Greg Iles, and the other is "Digital Fortress" by Dan Brown.

Iles' one is about a next generation super computer that can break any codes. On the contrary, Brown's one is about an ultimate code that cannot be broken by the most powerful computer in the world.

As a lover of Sci-Fi novels and software engineer, I have to admit that I would prefer Iles' book to Brown's because the super computer is also described as the world first successfully build Artificial Intelligence.
I felt that Iles' book is, in a sense, like "Childhood's End" by Arthur C Clerk. His perspective of
A.I. evolution is interesting because it includes various aspects of humanity such as phychogy, gender or so.

So far as the Brown's book, technology and science are just gadgets.
Brown is one of the best story tellers, and the story is thrilling very much. In addition, IMHO, he is implicitly pointing out a problem that USA is now facing, "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes." It's "Who will gurds the gurd?" in English. Thus, I guess the book could be one of best sellers.

Meanwhile, one thing by which I was turned off is that proper nouns such as the creator's name, Tankado, and adages used in the book sound strange. I wish Brown could have asked native Japanese speaking people if they are really natural Japanese phrases. I guess when the book is translated into Japanese the translator would ask Brown what Brown really means. :(

One more thing.
I broke the second last code of the Brown's novel in 10 seconds. I guess even a junior high school student would do so, and what other readers would feel about that. :o)



Sunday, April 25, 2004

Spanish Apartment

I watched "Spanish Apartment" on Saturday.

I have to admit that I went there because I wanted to see Audrey
Tautou
of Amelie again, and that's all at first. It turned out that
Tautou was a supporting role, but the movie still is worth
watching. :)

The protagonist of the film is a french graduate student who goes to
Barcelona to study Spanish Economics leaving his girl friend in
Paris. (Tautou played the girl.) There in Spain he shared a room with
6 student come from various countries including Germany, UK, Italy and
Belgium or so.

When he set for his one year stay in Spain, he was a bit
faceless. But, after his various experiences with his room mates in
Spain, he remembered his dream, what we wanted to be, from his
childhood, and he broke out of his shell.

His colleagues are also nice and funny. :)
In a sense, there is Europe.
Sometimes quarreling, sometimes having parties.

I wish in Asia we could have such good international friendly
relationship. (Perhaps, Japan is the only exception in Asia? :o)


Wednesday, April 21, 2004

The Da Vinci Code again

Today, I found an interesting article about "The Da Vinci Code" in San
Francisco Chronicles.

There seems to be a book very similar to "The Da Vinci Code" published
20 years earlier than that, and the author, Lewis Perdue, seems to be
going to sue Dan Brown.

Although I'm not sure if Dan Brown really helped himself to books of
Perdue because I haven't read his books, there seems to be a lot of
books based on similar theme and plot. After reading the article, I
began to think that the story might have been typical and not so
unique one. I was a bit turned off by the controversy. :(

But anyway, now I'm working on another book, "The footprints of God"
by Greg Iles and enjoying that, and I'm feeling happy. :)


Monday, April 19, 2004

OYSTER BAR

On Sunday, I had a dinner at Grand Central Oyster Bar & Restaurant,
Tokyo
in Shinagawa. :)

As you can see among general web pages and magagines, it's been
extremely crowded in the dinner time of weekend days. Today,
fortunately I had a reservation, but I heard that some people are
saying "Oh my god! Two hours wait!" Anyway, it seems to be better to
have a reservation. :)

Today, I tried raw "Steller Bay" Oyster from British Columbia,
Canada. Compared to Japanese oysters, I felt it a bit bland. But,
there were some more kinds of oysters and they are apparently imported
ones. I'd be better to try them in New York, and I will do so
someday. :o)

As for other dishes, I like NY style fried oysters and oyster stew.

Meanwhile, it's often said that there is a great difference in amount
of foods for one person. I realized again that when I had a dessert,
raspberry sorbet. :o)




Sunday, April 11, 2004

Guin Saga 94, FLIGHT TO FOEVER

I bought the 94th book of Guin Saga today. :)

I began to read the series when I was a high school student and keep reading more than 15 years. The series consists of 100 books, and the story is now getting closer to the climax finally.

Originally, Guin Saga started as a sword and soucery style heroic fantasy, but as the author created a tremendous scale of imaginary world extending the universe, the author needed to tell the story as a Sci-Fi.
There seems to be not a small number of Guin Saga readers who don't like the change. I guess they like classical heroic fantasies such as Conan. But, it's predestinate because of the nature of this story.

Different from such accusing readers, I'm enjoying the story's convergence after over twenty years history as is. Meanwhile, it's amazing that in the story only 6 years have passed against the nearly quarter century of publication history, isn't it? :o)

FYI.
Some earlier books are available in also English here.

Saturday, April 10, 2004

Do you like beautiful women?

In Japanese, I want to say "Kirei na Oneesan ha suki desuka?" Here,
Oneesan means primarily a elder sister, but in casual Japanese
conversation, it's often used to mean just a woman.

There is a famous TV CM film series of Panasonic using the phrase
above, and nowadays it's a well-known phrase.

Meanwhile, there is a facility of ANA, All Nippon Airways, mainly
intended for education close to my room, and it's also used for their
enployment examination. My point is that the target of the
examination includes flight attendants. :) Since the beginning of
April, season of the exam has begun, and there are so many beatiful
girl students challanging for the exam and walking along streets
around my room. :o)

I've lived in this town about 4 years.

In the first year, I enjoyed the atomosphere, but nowadays my
fascinations had gone because their dressings are almost the same.
Thousands of beautiful girls made me feel so.

But, I still like cute and unique girls. :o)

Wednesday, April 07, 2004

Cut off baby's ....?

TV Asahi says a mother lives in Osaka cut off her 4 months months old boy's .... penis in the beginning of of March. :(

According to testimonies of her neighbors, she seems to have wanted a girl. I can understand it's extremely hard to bring up a baby and presumably she was under strongly
stressed state, but still it's shocking. :(

This news is available in also Asahi News Paper (So far as I know, Japanese page only), but they don't say which part of the boy's body his mother hurt.

Humm....
I'm wondering if there are this kind of incidents also outside Japan.

Earthquakes in Tokyo

Recently, we often have earthquakes in Tokyo.
So far as I remember, on the last Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

It's been about 80 years since Tokyo had an enourmous inland earthquake last time. It was with the magnitude of 7.9 and made tremendous number of victims in those days.
Scientists say there is no wonder if it comes today, right now.

I live in southern part of Tokyo that's said to be the most dangerous area. In addition, I go to my office using subways every day. :(

In recent years in Tokyo, there are many newly built condos, and I'm wondering what the owner habitants will do if their brandnew condominiums collapse. :o)



Sunday, April 04, 2004

Fish and Chips

Today, I went to the Dubliners' Irish Pub in Shinjuku, Tokyo, and experienced Fish and Chips for the first time. :o)

In Japan, it's often said that English meals are not so good. A coleague of mine who worked in England about an year also told me so. But, I have not been sure if it's really so since now.

Unfortunately, the Fish and Chips was not so good for me. The fried fish was too well-done and the vinegar with the dish was a little bit strange for me.

But even so, I'm looking forwared to enjoy genuine Fish and Chips in UK or Ireland, and
my quest for Fish and Chips will be going on. :o)

Meanwhile, I like 'Jameson' very much. :)


New Fridge

Today, I bought a new refrigerator at Shinjuku Yodobashi Camera. :o)

My refrigerator have been out of order for these two years, and I could not chill cans of beer nor bottles of wine. Actually, there was no problem because there are several convenience stores around my room and they are selling beers since now.

But, recently I began to enjoy Belgian Beers and I was feeling difficulty when I want to buy them at department stores or so.
Thus, I decided to have a new one, and I'm looking forward to its beeing delivered to my room on this Saturday.

It's a Beer driven decision. :o)

One thing that reminded me a poor Japanese law is that nowadays we have to pay quite a few money to throw away 4 kinds of electric home appliances including refrigerators, TVs, laundry machines and air conditioners.
I had to pay about 5,000- yens this time. :(


Thursday, April 01, 2004

12 Girls Band

On the last Saturday, I bought 2 CDs of "12 Girls Band".

One is a CD and DVD combo package of a live concert in Tokyo, and its title is
Shining Energy.

http://global.yesasia.com/en/artIdxDept.aspx/aid-523537/code-j/section-music/

Recently, they are very popular not only in Japan but also eastern asian countries. All of them have established techniques of Chinese traditional musical instruments, and in addition they are slender and cute. :o)

Aside from that, I was surprised because the album contains their performance
of a tune from Irish dance music, "Reel Around The Sun",
famous for River Dance show.

Since I watched the River Dance show last year, I really love Irish dance
and music very much. And I love also folkloric music.
Thus, The 12 Girls Band version of "Reel Around The Sun" grabbed my heart
in two senses. But, what comes at the true reason might be that both of them,
I mean River Dance and 12 Girls Band, appeal to our primitive feeling
in common.

Note that both the CD and the DVD contain "Reel Around The Sun", and
my recommendation is definitely DVD. :)

I hope their world wide success.

Monday, March 29, 2004

Irish Shock

Ireland bans smoking in workplaces from today. :o)

Although I am a smoker, I agree to make such bills.
In also Japan, some local governments began to ban smoking on the street
such as Akihabara or so.
But I was shocked when I heard that the workplaces above include pubs.
I heard also that Irish people really love smoking not only cigarettes
but also pipes especially at pubs, I'm afraid that there might be a log
of outbreaks of anger of tobacco lovers. :o)

Meanwhile, today a coleague of mine from Spain told me that Spanish young
people like weeds. :o) According to his story, in Europe the more southern
we go the more smokers we will see. I'm wondering why southern European
people like smoking.

Sunday, March 28, 2004

Orkut and Mixi

Recently, I was finally invited to join to Orkut and Mixi.
Mixi is, in a sense, Japanese version of Orkut.
There are at least two major differences between them.
One is that Orkut has "Community" but Mixi does not.
The other is that Mixi is rather "diary centric" design.
Of course, a user can put a URL in own profile page at Orkut, but Mixi asks what kinds of blog or diary system members use and checks their update by RSS!
Presumerbly, it's because Japanese people love making their diary be public and reading others so much.
Here, please don't ask me why Japanese do. :o)
In general, Japanese people tend to surpress to express their own opinion or thoughts.
In this sense, you might feel it's strange.
Here, I belive that they don't want to be silent but they just don't want to
ehave differently from others in company. This comes from cultural background
of Japan. As you can easily understand my point now, we can behave anonymously
in the Internet and that's why so much of Japanese love to express themselves
there."Community" of Orkut meanwhile doesn't seem to be functioning
as good as expected for me.
I think it has two aspects. That is, both encouraging participants to make
new friends and talk about partcular topics to their heart's content.
My point is that not so many communities are active, and I'm wondering
why they don't exploit that.
Do you have any idea?

Friday, March 26, 2004

The Da Vinci Code


We had three succesesive rainy days in Tokyo.
I don't like a rainy day because I'm discoraged and often cancel plans to go
out somewhere or to do something outside. :(
On such a day, it's a good idea to spend time reading books.
In these days, I'm working on a mystery novelby Dan Brown,
The Da Vinci Code.

I'm a buddist ;o) as is common in Japan and not familiar with Christianity.
ut, this novel is interesting because it focuses on the hidden history of
the Christianity. This book has more than 100 chapters and about 500 pages,
but it took me only two weeks to have done about two third of the book.
For my case, this is as fast as the case of Harry Potter, and I'm going to
study the history of western Christian world again after finighing this book.
There seems to be a lot of communities on such topics including
the Holy Grail or ancient secret society in Europe.

Meanwhile, Dan Bowns plain English helped me as opposed to J.R.R. Tolkien
case (except many French proper nouns). :o)


Wednesday, March 24, 2004

Belgian Beer

Last year, I had two things burnt with passion. :o)
One is River Dance, and the other is Belgian Beer.

My favorite beers are Timmermans Casis, La Guillotine, Pawel Kwak, Chimay Blue, Hoegaarden White, and many. :)
Especially, Lamvick beers are fruity and not so strong (but some beers are
extremely sour), so they are good for girls too.
Meanwhile, some girl friends of mine are heavy drinkers, and they expressed
little interest in Lamvick. :(

FYI.
Here is a brief list of bars we can enjoy Belgian beers in Tokyo. :)

+FRIGO (Shinjuku)
+BELGO (Shibuya)
+FAVORI (Ginza)
+Brussels
(Kanda, Kagurazaka, Harajuku, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Omote-Sando, Kamiya-cho)
+Champ de Soleil (Kanda)

+AGLIO(Shimotakaido)
+Billy Barew's Beer Bar(Ebisu etc.)

Monday, March 22, 2004

INNOCENCE

I watched "INNOCENCE" by Mamoru Oshii yesterday.
I'm not sure if there are readers of this blog, but
still I'd like to ask reader's impression of the film.

Its visual effect is really really fascinating. In this
sense, the film is great. Better than even compared
to "LAST EXILE" which was available recently
in Japan.

But what about the story?
Is it a love story?
Or, a speculative story about near future society? Presumably both.

But from the latter point of view, I'm not satisfied by
the plot and conclusion. Although I cannot disclose
the conclusion, but if you watched the seventh
story of S.A.C. at least, we might share the same idea about the difference
between a human and a machine. I'm still feeling
there might have been another kind of truth about
the murder by a doll in the prolog of the movie.

Meanwhile, there were many empty seats around
me. I wonder "INNOCENCE" also might be accepted
better in USA than in Japan like "Ghost in the Shell".

Tuesday, March 02, 2004

Title of this Blog




In Japanese, the title of this blog reads "Gin no Saji ha Nagerareta".
The title line of this page is not garbled :o), and it's written in Japanese Kanji and Hiragana characters.

It's a little bit difficult to explain the sense of the wording for non-Japanese speaking people, but
it's a compound phrase consists of the following.

(1) A famous book titled, "Gin no Saji" in Japanese by Kansuke Naka (1885-1965).
An English translation is available, and its English title is "The Silver Spoon."

(2) A famous words of Julius Caesar, "The dice is cast". In Japanese, we say
"Sai ha nagerareta", and "Sai" means "a dice".
Now, I believe it's obvious there is resemblance in sound.

(3) A Japanese phrase "Saji wo nageru".
Accurately speaking, the proper sense of the phrase is
"give up as hopless". I mean, relatively serious sense.
But, nowadays it's often used more light weight situation such that
one has a friend who is always acting up and the only resolution
is to accept the friend's behavior as is.

When the title came up with me years ago,
actually I was under complicated situation, and
the phrase expresses my feeling of those days well.