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Meishi, or business cards, are very handy to have in Japan. Even if you don't work for a company.

Almost every Japanese adult I’ve met during my time here has 名詞 (めいし, or meishi), the equivalent of business cards. When I went to E3 back in 2007, I made sure to create some of my own to hand out, and it’s a good thing I did. Here in Japan, I’ve been without any my entire time. Until today.

Since arriving in Tokyo, printing up some cards has been a goal of mine. They’re great for various networking events, and to some people can even be impressive. Of course, with myself looking for work, this is a great way to tell people a little about myself. Much handier than carrying a resume with me all the time.

I think almost every single card I’ve received here has been two-sided. Many time, though not always, one side of the card will be composed in English while the other side is in Japanese. Mine follow this format. Some cards though have a logo or name on one side with pertinent job and contact info on the other side, such as the one for YMCK and Slate in the pic at the top of this post. Read the rest of this entry »

BBQ at Salt Lick in Round Rock, Texas

Everyone keeps telling me to post more pictures, so do so I shall. However, no one ever said the pictures had to be of my time in Japan, so here we’ll go back to some of my final weeks in Texas before I moved. The following pics and more can be seen here. Read the rest of this entry »

My cell phone: The N-01A

Japan is a country where having a cell phone is almost a necessity if you live here. Looking up train schedules, addresses and more are easier to do here with a phone. Many people don’t know this, but street addresses in Japan aren’t really sequential and coherent. Buildings are numbered, I’ve been told, based on the order in which they were built. Google Maps on a phone is a godsend. Read the rest of this entry »

Two months to the day after arriving here in Yamaguchi, I had my internet installed and set up. Not having a reliable connection at my house was a little tough for me, but I realized I can handle it. So what did I do during this time to keep myself occupied? Well, I watched some videos, and of course I went out to take pictures. Lots and lots of pictures.

Thanks to my speedy ~35Mbps downstream and upstream connection, I’ll be throwing lots of them up pretty soon. So to begin, let’s look at some of the pics I took back on March 13.

Ryokuchi Kouen is but a three minute walk from my apartment. It’s famous for the sakura (cherry blossom) trees pictured here, though this was before they bloomed. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m a fan of Japanese video, whether it be anime, cheesy Japanese dramas with overly melodramatic acting, or even movies (some of which also have melodrama). In the past, I’ve had to find dubious ways to watch some of these. Living here in Japan now, I can relinquish these actions to the past.

Several years ago there was a drama called Nodame Cantabile. I watched the series, loved it, watched the extra TV specials and enjoyed the series, which focuses on musical prodigies who play in orchestras. It turns out the second movie recently debuted in Japan, so I took it upon myself to see my first movie at a theater in Japan. Read the rest of this entry »

First off, this is not a bitchfest or a rant where I complain about life here. It’s merely me saying the following: People think Japan is hyper efficient and ultra technological. Why then, is it, that it takes about 6 – 7 weeks to have an internet connection installed to my house? From people I have talked to, this seems to be about par for the course.

In America, I don’t think I ever had to wait more than 3 weeks for a connection to be set up. OK, maybe 4, but that’s tops! So May 7 is the date of install, less it should change yet again.

In the past month I’ve taken tons of photos, which will be uploaded once I have a reliable internet connection; seen cherry blossoms for the first time; seen friends wasted drunk; missing videogames.

I have at least 300 pictures waiting to be uploaded. Sometime in May I will throw most of these up over at my SmugMug. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m living in Shunan-shi, Yamaguchi-ken, but just how did I get here? I took the shinkansen, or what many call the bullet train. But before that, I must go back a few days before that. Oh, by the way, the picture above is not from Shunan, but from some place I passed by on the train.

I arrived in Japan on Friday, Feb. 26, 2010. I took the Narita Express, an express train from Narita Airport to Shinjuku-ku, a ward of Tokyo. I then took a train from there to my friends’ apartment nearby. My friend and his wife have been great friends of mine for several years now. In fact, he was my first Japanese instructor I had when I lived in Houston. When you expand your horizons and try new things you can meet all sorts of interesting people. Read the rest of this entry »

Stephen F. Austin State University

I went to school in a small East Texas town. It was not what I expected, but then again, I suppose I didn’t know what to expect in college–I never researched them at all and figured that if one school had computer information systems, ALL of them had a program of equal level. Yeah, that was bad thinking. Read the rest of this entry »