For a few months now I’ve been taking a pannier with me to the grocery store, as using the store’s disposable plastic bags is extremely wasteful. At the checkout lane there are little cards that you put in your basket that say you’ll be using your own bag so that the checkout lady (yes, always [...]

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FYI, the title and content of this post will make more sense for people who’ve studied Japanese for at least a week.
The title of this post is the current advertising slogan for Calpis. Long ago I came to terms with the amusing connotation of the beverage’s name in English, however this new slogan made me [...]

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For the purposes of modern television sets, TV networks in Japan broadcast via four systems. Two are terrestrial (analog and digital), and two are via satellite (BS and CS, both digital). If you happen to be interested in how Japan’s ISDB standard differs from the North American digital standards of ATSC, there are the Wikipedia [...]

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Wow, after all of this writing about touring and stuff I suddenly go off and sell my bike.
Actually, I’ve been considering it for some time now, so for a few weeks ago I listed it up for sale on the prefectural JET website. A guy was interested, he stopped by today, gave it a test [...]

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One thing that surprised me when I first came to this country is how almost ALL of the students stay a couple hours after school everyday. In essence, the morning and early afternoon is for class, and the late afternoon and evening is for clubs. Even though I’ve never stayed that late, I’ve been told [...]

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Update on the T.M. Revolution concert.
Quick Summary: I didn’t go
Longer Not Summary:
After finding out about this, I went down to the conbini at 2:30 in the morning to see if I could buy tickets. It ends up that they don’t sell tickets on the day of the performance (I think they stop the day before).
Back [...]

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Update is at T.M. Revolution, continued

Original post:You have got to be kidding me.
I happened to be watching TV when a commerical for TM Revolution came on.
He’s playing in Fukushima.
Tomorrow afternoon.
Quite literally just down the street from my apartment.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s too late to buy advance tickets, so I’m going to show up tomorrow and see if there [...]

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My god, I’m so stoked right now.
For the past 15 months I’ve been trying off and on to figure out why my TV never displays subtitles for Japanese TV shows even though I’ve permanently set them to ‘on’.
I just happened to go into a menu I’ve never noticed before and saw that the reason I [...]

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I’ll post the entry for Day 7 of my bike trip tomorrow, but for now I’ll just say a little bit of what I’m starting.
Before I left for Japan I was 6′0″ and 145 pounds. That by itself is pretty skinny. Over a year later, I don’t really know how much my weight has changed [...]

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うつくしま　ふくしま
Just looking around on Yahoo Maps and happened to come across the Fukushima airport. I found it cool that they built the aforementioned slogan out of shrubbery.
詳しい地図で見る
Once again, EXPLANATION FOR THOSE WHO DON’T UNDERSTAND: うつくしま　ふくしま (utsukushima Fukushima) apparently is a common motto around here for the city (prefecture too?). It’s a play on words, [...]

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