Blogs from Japan, Asia - page 801

Tokyo...impossible to describe in one word! Exciting, bustling, bright, loud, serene, traditional...12.2 million people! It is described as city that everyone must see once in their lifetime. I agree! Those of you who know me well, generally know that I'm not a big fan of large cities. I find them intimidating and overwhelming, an assault on your senses and peace of mind. However, I had a fair idea of what I was in for before I visited Tokyo. When I first arrived in Japan last August, I spent three days in one of the busiest areas of Tokyo, Shinjuku, in a fancy hotel, attending seminars for my new job of teaching English as a Foreign Language to high school students. Really, the only glimpses of the city I saw were when I went out for dinner ... read more

The past couple of weekends have been so busy - so busy in fact I'm separating our shenanigans into two blog entries. The start of June was very quiet. Quiet in the sense we didn't get up to much, but not quiet at home because we both came down with a horrible chest infection and the flu. There was nothing but coughing, sneezing and wheezing coming from our house for about 3 weeks. But we are pleased to announce that we are finally better and hope to stay that way for long time. (Note to future travellers to Japan - medication here is a LOT weaker than at home, so come prepared!) Our friend Matt from Australia has been out in Japan with his Japanese wife, Mie for the past couple of weeks. He came out ... read more

Last night out with the Oxford boys Had a close call with some Yakuza too!... read more

I had such a good day today I wanted to write about it before too many details escape me. I recently read about some rural Japanese towns not far from Kobe which are famous for the pottery that is produced in small studios by local craftspeople. So after consulting 3 different sources and getting 3 different sets of directs I decided to visit one of the commmuities, Aino. To tell you the truth I´m not sure if the towns named Aino or just the local train station that I got off at, but nevertheless they make pottery there so I know I was in the right place. A scenic 1.5 train ride from Kobe, I found myself literally in the middlle of nowhere, with just fice fields as far as the eye could see, but I ... read more

I have a few hours to kill, now, so I thought I’d do a post. Before I left Stanford, a lovely and brilliant lady by the name of Killeen Hanson mentioned that I should occasionally post some of the content in my temp file. This file, as I have mentioned to some of you, acts more as a semi-permanent repository for clipboard data than anything else, but often records my life to some extent. I was browsing through it the other day, and rediscovered a half-finished poem I had written when I finally could throw out my HATEFUL old Gateway computer. If you know me, you've probably heard me rant about this computer or seen the demonic rituals I was forced to engage in to convince the Dark Spirits to allow a boot-up. Entitled "Extempore Effusion ... read more