Minimalism - Online Income - ESL - Japan
Please excuse the crassness of this post, but I feel it is my duty to pass on my experience of taking a stool sample to other unfortunate foreigners in Japan who find themselves in the same position. “Behind” the scenes The other day I went for a health check. This was something I wanted to do since I hadn’t had a medical for such a long time, and I’m getting […]
I’ve been working behind the scenes with other members of JapanSoc to revive the old Japan Blog Matsuri. This is a monthly blog “carnival” where given a theme to write about, bloggers everywhere are invited to share their stories with everyone else. It’s a great opportunity to find new blogs and attract new readers to your own. Organization and Announcements The Japan Blog Matsuri Newsroom is where things are being […]
When a typical Japanese house reaches 30 years of age, it’s considered dangerous and likely to fall down. I think this is more of a myth than reality, but it’s a common belief that has led to a huge industry of “reform”. This holds particular interest for me because I live in one of those houses and there are only 12 years left before it supposedly implodes! Here, I count […]
It’s been a whole year since Mami was whisked off to hospital in an ambulance as Rikuto made a rather dramatic entrance into the world. Boy, they sure grow up fast! We took the little “Person of Continents” to our local shopping center to have a really cheapskate party in front of the birthday party goods in the toy section. He then went for a ride in a flashy, red […]
At universities across the UK, student clubs and societies are known as “socs”. Each of these socs is intended to bring together people with common interests, and nearly every campus has a Japan Soc. With its Japan-related news and stories, the website of the same name has done a good job of focusing on the “Japan”. Now, though, I’d like to give as much attention to the “Soc”, by sharing […]
For the first time in ages, I’ve decided to ditch my own homemade WordPress theme and use somebody else’s instead. I chose the Amazing Grace theme by Vladimir Prelovac, and spent most of the day customizing it. I think Vlad’s theme is one of the better free ones, and I chose it because it was WordPress 2.6 compatible, with support for widgets, gravatars and a few other features. Yes, Jason […]
In February, I asked whether 3 socs should be needed for an article on JapanSoc to be promoted from the “Upcoming” page to the “Top Stories” page. At that time, articles were averaging 2.9 votes each and users voted in favor of the 3-soc requirement. As JapanSoc continues to grow, the average number of socs per article has risen to 4.6. So, the question is, should 4 socs be needed […]
Earlier this year, Mike McKinlay and I went to to the Gifu Prefecture Regional Disaster Management Center to try out the earthquake simulator. Being the only visitors all day (and introducing ourselves as big-time Canadian bloggers), the staff treated us like royalty! We were given a personal tour of the facility and they even filmed us trembling like little girls on the simulator. A ground-shaking experience The earthquake simulator, which […]