Blogs from Japan, Asia - page 932

I know it has only been four days since the first edition, but things are going to happen fast and furiously for a while. I am sure that once I get into the steady routine of teaching five days a week, I will have less "new" experiences, but for now everything I do, even such things as opening a bank account, is completely new. For instance, whereas in the U.S., you would sign your name on an application, here they have the "inkan" or stamp. My inkan has my name which here has morphed in Frido. Instead of signing my name, I simply open up my inkan, dip into red ink and stamp it on the paper. It's amazing how many simple things are different. I am finally getting accustomed to using chopsticks, but I still ... read more

Our last big foreign trip was Japan in September of 2000. We went to Tokyo, Kamakura, Nara, Kyoto, and a side trip to little known Shiga prefecture. A friend is from there and we stayed with her family. I'm uploading some photos from that trip to go along with this post. It was a wonderful trip and we saw a lot there. Kyoto is particularly nice for its cultural history. My wife loved Tokyo for shopping.... read more

Japan was always one of my favourite countries to visit, not only as a major customer of QSL and a great country to tour around on its own merits, but also because it has some important family connections. Japan is a major raw sugar importer and currently imports just over half its requirements, with the balance supplied by Japanese farmers – about 80% from the sugar beet industry in the cold region of Hokkaido in the north and about 20% from sugarcane in the southern tropical regions of Okinawa and Kagoshima. The sugar refining industry is relatively fragmented with 11 sugar refining factories, of which ownership is complex, with many refineries having multiple shareholders – often the large Japanese Trading Houses. To enhance industry economies of scale, some factories are jointly operated by multiple sugar companies. ... read more

This was a stop we did on the way back from the Philippines in 1999. We had about 22 hours to wait, so we decided to take the train and visit Tokyo for the evening. It was an impromptu visit, but gladly, we had a japanese friend, Minako, to help us!! We gave her a gift: a good size bottle of maple syrup. She really enjoyed it!! We took the train from the airport. One thing I noticed is how clean and well organized the country is. Culture fields are well cut and clean. When we arrived in Tokyo, the city starts abruptly with lots of buildings. It's very different from North American cities, where the suburbs stretch very far from around the city, (and not always pretty). In the city we visited the video game ... read more

traveled with family... read more