• Moblog (archives)

    Kizu Sky

    I like the details and colors of this photo more on the screen of my keitai, a fact which has exactly zero value to you, dear reader.

  • Moblog (archives)

    The Road to Kizu

    Kizu is an area between Nara and Kyoto where Taro showed us the best junk/secondhand/recycle shops we have ever seen. Didn’t take any pictures inside because I was having too…

  • Exploits

    Brimful of Asha

    I once drank a pinchful of vibhuti, sacred ash, dissolved in a cup of water at the insistence of a crazy white guy I met in Japan who was a…

  • Web

    Japanese Troops in Iraq

    “We, the Japanese people, acting through our duly elected representatives in the National Diet, determined that we shall secure for ourselves and our posterity the fruits of peaceful cooperation with…

  • Web

    Shoutout to Korea Blogs

    A friend has asked me to point out some good Korea-related blogs in English. Cosmic Buddha is a fairly avid reader of Korea blogs. My interest stems from KAL stopovers…

  • Web

    Shopping Advice

    I wrote about the art of bargaining (never say “haggle”, it sounds like a scavenging sea bird with Barbara Streisand’s face) in Japan in this post last year, and I’ll…

  • Moblog (archives)

    Turmeric Coward

    A weird sidebar on the menu of a pretty lousy Italian chain restaurant in Japan, Saizeria. Turmeric, huh? Just how popular is the “equivalent of cubic zirconium for saffron” in…

  • Moblog (archives)

    Fresh Off da Boat

    NOW OPEN AT EXCLUSIVE NAMBA PARKS LOCATION – FOB COOP! Come partake in noisy group consumption of cheap, smelly food “from the homeland” in a less-than-completely hygienic setting…