What a day and what a ride it has been. I finally get to use my passport for more than just a pretty picture, today is the trip to South Korea! I wanted to tour parts of Asia since it seems like a smart thing to do since I am already in Japan. The trip is not long, about 5 days, but Kaori and I will make the most of it. Our first mission was getting to the plane. The morning tram ride was as usual and the boarding was nothing out of the ordinary. While passing through the airport to leave to South Korea it seems much more down to earth and less complicated that anything I have done in America. The flight was smooth and the arrival through the gate was satisfying. The ... read more

To start off I had no idea that I was required to get a Chinese Visa in order to visit China’s mainland. Today was all about getting that visa since yesterday was picture and application time! I found out that even though I am in Japan I can get my visa at the Embassy of the Chinese people Republic in Osaka. Kaori was very kind with helping me track down the location and find the destination after the train ride to Kita Osaka. We had to walk for about 20minutes or so, but made it just in time to apply for the visa, the open hours are from 9:00 – 12:00. Kaori knew we were getting close after seeing 10 police or so patrolling the area. The wait was about 10 minutes and the application ... read more

I woke up today feeling as thought I was in a rut or something. Japan is amazing and there are so many placing and things I want to go and visit but I haven’t. Today I had no plans what so ever but I wanted to at least bike around the neighborhood to check out life outside the house. About a week or so ago Kaori showed me a shrine close to the home so I biked over to see what it was all about. Upon arrival at the shrine, I was instantly happier with my day and with my attitude. It is tough to try to soak up everything at once, but while walking through I was able to pause and look at the shrine in more detail and take my time with investigating what ... read more

Today was getting ready for Bastu game or “gaki-no-tsukai” New Years day and ordering pizza for dinner. For those of you who may not know what Batsu game type it into YouTube and check out some of the links, basically it a game that has a group of contestants play a specific type of character like Spy, students, or a nurse and throughout the day they are made to laugh. When a person laughs they get hit in the butt with a stick as punishment for laughing. Anyways I wanted to get something for all of us and get something for Mr. Nakajima for being such a gracious host. I went ahead and grabbed some chips and ice cream at the local food store and made my way to Daiei for the sake present for Mr. ... read more

I finally got a cell phone! It’s a Sony Ericson called Urbano Barone that is from the cell phone company au by KDDI and to be honest I am very excited. As you may have already guessed the phone is in Japanese and of course I already am having trouble using it. However, there is an English setting and it is not to difficult to use after a few minutes of tinkering around with it. It is quite amazing with all the features you get such as TV., radio, email, web, and you can use it as a credit card to pay for things in vending machines and at stores. Now I have never had a phone with internet, nor have I had a phone do more than text and call other phones. So when I ... read more