Minimalism - Online Income - ESL - Japan
My general observations from living in Japan.
For the last few years, I’ve lived in Gifu Prefecture in central Japan. Gifu is mostly made up of the old provinces of Hida and Mino, and has historically been the center of swordmaking. More recently though, with the opening of Chubu International Airport and the completion of the Tokai Loop Expressway, a large number of companies have been establishing themselves in the prefecture. Gifu governor, Hajime Furuta says: The Seki Techno […]
Most of you know I believe that the World Trade Center was brought down by controlled demolition on September 11th, 2001. Major TV networks in the West seem to avoid this topic and simply label anyone who doesn’t agree with the official conspiracy theory (Osama Bin Laden, etc.) as kooks and nuts. Never did I expect that this would be the subject of Sekai Maru Mie, or “World Great TV”, a popular TV […]
Today is Blog Action Day, and this year over 14,000 bloggers are discussing environmental issues with a combined audience of over 12 million people. That’s a lot of people. Now, imagine all those people lining up to recycle their old analog TVs, and you’ve got the topic of my contribution to this Blog Action Day. What will happen to old TV sets? By 2011, Japan will have phased out terrestrial […]
I’m a skeptic. I never used to be, but the whole “war on terror” episode has made me very suspicious about what the media tells us. It’s a point that Jason brings up in his article When Will We Stop Being Scared? He gives a few examples of how we are encouraged, tricked or brainwashed into doing or believing something that is either wrong, unnecessary or exaggerated. Whether it is a disease like SARS, the threat of terrorism […]
I’ve been in Japan for over a decade and I’m still not used to Japanese bugs. Insects in England, perhaps with the exception of wasps, are pretty tame to what Japan has. Actually, Japanese mushi aren’t really dangerous, they are just different to what I grew up with, and that makes them an unknown quantity. Perhaps my Australian readers will laugh at these examples, but even the little guys in these […]
Out of the blue, I received an email from Wendy Nelson Tokunaga, the author of the novel Midori by Moonlight. While I had never heard of it before, the description in Wendy’s email made it sound like the reverse of this blog. Mine is a story of a handsome (!) young Englishman who followed his heart to the land of the rising sun in search of an asian bride and a […]
Japan, like most developed countries, has so many laws and rules to abide by that I find it all quite suffocating. I previously wrote about the ridiculous number of traffic lights in Japan, and since I’m driving for an hour and a half every day I can’t help but get frustrated, and a frustrated driver is not a safe driver. So let me get this straight. Traffic lights are there to prevent […]
Our son, Rikuto, spends most of his time flat on his back. At less than three months old, he can’t yet roll onto his sides, let alone crawl along the floor. However, by the time he’s 10 months old he might be competing in the Baby Derby, a crawling race with other Japanese babies, all gunning for the highly acclaimed Swarovski dumbells! Thanks to Japan Visitor for the video. Can’t […]