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. Continue reading Texas memories
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. Continue reading Are cell phones really that great in Japan?
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. Continue reading Internet has arrived
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. Continue reading A movie abroad
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. Continue reading Japan… efficient?
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. Continue reading From Tokyo to Yamaguchi