Still no replacement laptop of my own, but I'm working on it ( Read more... )

Since returning from Japan, I've added sketches from Juuni Kokki (Taiki) and Gundam Wing (Wufei, Trowa) to my collection. (Also more anime and manga, as usual ( Read more... )

I stayed healthy through grueling days of travel across the Pacific and an amazing month in Japan... but was not back for long before I was felled by the valley's spring mix of nasty bugs ( Read more... )

The land on the way to Aso-san, a live volcano, is old, harshly used, and dry. Perhaps it was once forested -- there are a few trees -- but now it's empty, sere, brown grassland, heavily eroded and badly overgrazed. Cow country. Here be Japan's cowboys. Here people eat meat, heavy sauces intriguingly influenced by Italian cooking, corn (you can ( Read more... )

Got up at 4:00 AM to visit the Tokyo Fish Market, and discovered the subway doesn't open until 5:00 AM.

Found a 24 hour soba place, and embarrassed myself in front of an amused family by trying to shut the door. Even the smallest shops in Tokyo have automatic doors.
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How to buy breakfast: Stroll down the street looking at all the pictures of food in front of the restaurants until you get to the ￥350 breakfast place recommended by the ryokan host ( Read more... )

Flying from rainy PDX to sunny Narita was long, long, long ( Read more... )

Quos has been helping me figure out his Japanese phone, and in the process showed me how to get the kana working on my iBook. I've asked so many people how to do it...

This is awesome! カっこいい！ ス後胃！ (I type Romanji and the computer translates; I wonder what strange mistakes it makes that I'll never know...)

I had the idea that my trip would be some kind of Zen pilgrimage. I haven't figured out how to integrate Zen meditation and technology. Can it be done?
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