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Bright Lights And Big Bangs
After Mum departs, I head out to watch more fireworks.
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X-Position Expose
An outing to the Japanese Expo, taking in some of the major pavilions.
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Kyoto Revisited
My second visit to Kyoto, this time with Mum, taking in the Golden Temple and Gion.
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Arrival In Megacity
Arriving in Tokyo to meet Mum and Jan, I was happy to find they’d brought British food!
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Family Ties
Preparations for Mum’s arrival in Japan.
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Big Babies
A gaijin day out to the Nagoya Sumo Tournament, where we see large men with better acceleration than me slap each other silly.
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Not Dead
An interruption of service to the Internet necessitates some explanation.
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Ghost Town
A bike ride out of town goes further than planned and takes us to an almost-abandoned theme park.
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Meeting With The Mob
In which we meet a gentle old man in a park who turns out to be a retired mafioso.
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Castle Day
A day trip with Jo-Anne to see what castles we could see.
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Beer On Sticks
The regular Sunday sojourn to Ogiya for beer and yakitori with Nova teachers.
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Evangelism And Equestrianism
Another religious encounter, though again a lack of hard-sell. And the strangest pamphlet ever.
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Self-Congratulations
In which I am able to find my keys using only the power of Japanese, but then fail to order dinner in the same tongue.
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Two Certainties In Life
In which I am hit up for taxes, and lose yet another set of keys. Sigh.
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Great Balls Of Fire
Cormorant fishing is a tradition in Gifu, so a bunch of Gaijin headed out to see what it was like.
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One Year Older, Still An Idiot
In which I celebrate a birthday in Japan by failing to have the correct change for public transport.
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Italian Whine (And Port)
Nagoya Port and Italia Mura, a mildly amusing diversion for the day.
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Swings And Roundabout Routes
A day gone wrong turns out alright.
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Floats And Stalls
As festival season draws to a close, I take a look at the largest and most local one, Ogaki, right outside my branch.
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Biwako And Hikonejou
A day trip out to Biwa Lake and Hikone Castle.
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Fuji, Queues, Running, Scared
I can’t get enough of themeparks, and this one even has a view of Mt. Fuji. On a clear day.
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X-Valid 0.98
Another point release for X-Valid.
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Moveable Priests
Festival time again in Japan and we head out to see a local town festival.
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Flower Power
A flower festival in Gifu, with the simultaneously least blue and most blue blue rose I’ve ever seen.
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Not Addicted
A misspent day, spent misspending hard earned coins on pointless gaming. Fun though.
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Forward Planning, Sitting Pretty
Getting the best spot for a cherry blossom party involves some serious forward planning.
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Sakura
The return of cherry blossoms signals the return of cherry blossom parties.
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Strike Night
Keen to get out of the apartment, a bunch of us go bowling.
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It’s Not All Work, Work, Work, But…
Now that the novelty has for the most part worn off, life here during weekdays is often similar to life elsewhere.
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Photos
Some photos have been posted by friends of university life.
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Hard Rockin’
Another birthday/leaving party in Nagoya.
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Sliding Doors
In which I celebrate a year in Japan by forgetting how to open a door
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Snow Cycles
Another snow day in Gifu – this is becoming something of an obsession…
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X-Valid 0.96
A minor update to X-Valid necessitates another release post.
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Visa Vie Sushi
In which I obtain an extended visa and learn that the Japanese don’t really eat sushi that much.
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Flight Plan
The opening of a new airport has created a new tourist destination for the locals.
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Nothing To Sneeze At
Another national holiday for the Japanese, which they use to purchase handkerchiefs to cope with their allergies.
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Passive Aggressive Nihilism
Being nice to your employees is not a requisite characteristic in a Japanese manager.
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Make Sure You Tick The Right Box
I have to get the visa form right, else I might be corralled into a very different and somewhat older profession.
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Festival Fever
Another town festival, this one in Ibigawa.
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Bootstrapping A Dictionary
Learning to read Japanese is really really ridiculously hard. So hard that you have to use a dictionary in order to use a dictionary.
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Taking The High Rood
A farewell to Cheyne, my housemate who returns back to America this week.
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Congrats
Grant and Tracey are engaged! Congratulations!
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Pass Master
In which I discover the results of my JNLP Level 3 results.
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Been To The Snow
Another snowboarding excursion. Living in a snow-capped prefecture is awesome!
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Gaijin Snow Day
Another snow day, this time with just about every Nova Teacher we could muster in the area.
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X-Valid 0.95
Another version of X-Valid which fixed up a couple of issues, added compatibility and one-click installation.
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Penned Name
I try my hand at calligraphy and find it far too unsteady to write even my own name!
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The Grudge
A true horror movie, Juon freaked me out good and proper.
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Every Day The 14th
Valentine’s Day in Japan is an all-male affair, with women expected to buy their partners expensive gifts. Reciprocity comes later.
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Howdy!
Technology and travel stories from a global roaming, kangaroo loving, sake drinking gaijin pom.
Check out my projects and my resume, take a look at some code on Github and feel free to contact me.