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Mashiko Pottery Festival - November Edition
Blog: Budget Trouble - 7 November 2009
Version:1.0 Last Tuesday we had a public holiday, something that one of my charges so inventively described in Engrish as “bunka no day”. Gotta hand it to that 5 year old, did the best he could, which is a lot better than most adults could manage in this country. But, I’m not here to rant about English (or lack thereof) in Japan, because that’s something as obvious as the sun rising every day. So, instead, let’s talk about this mysterious “bunka no day”, which translated to proper English is simply “culture day.” For most people here it was just another...
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76-Second Travel Show: "Traveling with Beard & Darth Vader's REAL Mask"
Blog: REID ON TRAVEL - 3 November 2009
Episode #007F E A T U R I N G * 4 0 * B O N U S * S E C O N D S
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Tokyo’s Tsukiji Fish Market
Blog: Brilliant Tips Travel Blog - 29 October 2009
The Tsukiji Fish Market is a wholesale market that handles the distribution of fish, fruit, vegetables, meat and flowers for metropolitan Tokyo. The market is the largest fish and seafood wholesale market in the world handling over 3,000 tons of 450 different types of seafood each day. The vibrant atmosphere of buyers and sellers running around, scooters buzzing by and forklifts loading trucks attracts tourists from around the world and has turned the Tsukiji Fish Market into a major tourist attraction. The market is divided into two sections: one for wholesale ...
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Japanese foods, if you can figure out the menu
Blog: World Travel Blog - 29 October 2009
One of the great things of living in Japan is eating out, food here is great and there is a wide arrange of restaurants, fast foods, street snacks to cater all tastes. But, that’s if you can figure out how to order your food. Now, after an year of living here, I have the basics covered [...]
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Spooky Halloween around the world.
Blog: another pin on the map - 28 October 2009
Halloween traditions around the world.
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Mt. Tarumae (樽前山）
Blog: Hiking in Japan - 28 October 2009
Mt. Tarumae is an active volcano located on the shores of Lake Shikotsu in Western Hokkaido. In addition to the outstanding views of the lake below, the mountain offers a rare chance to view an unstable lava dome. The hike: There’s a toilet and a small hut at the trailhead, but no water to speak of, [...]
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Japanese cola ingredients and flavors
Blog: Nagoya Photography - Japan Photos 名古屋 写真 日本 - 27 October 2009
I'm really a cola freak and enjoy the fact that Japan comes out with some strange cola mixtures every once in awhile. Coca-Cola no calorie plus fiber, Pepsi Azuki - Red bean flavored, Coca-Cola no calorie plus catechin - Green Tea flavor, Pepsi White - Pepsi and Yogurt flavor
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Osu Kannon Temple and Shopping Mall – Spherical Pano
Blog: Nagoya Photography - Japan Photos 名古屋 写真 日本 - 25 October 2009
The Osu Kannon Temple and shopping mall located in central Nagoya has a classic Japanese pagoda style Buddhist temple that is a popular tourist spot. Osu Kannon first was established in 1612 but the current temple is a replica built in the 1970’s. The price of goods at this huge outdoor type shopping mall isn’t the [...]
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Wagunohama
Blog: Nagoya Photography - Japan Photos 名古屋 写真 日本 - 18 October 2009
I did a fishing trip with about 10 friends in Wagunohama and beach south of Nagoya in Mie prefecture, Japan. We must of caught fish off the pier every 2 minutes from 6am to 10am. It’s a great fishing spot and beach just located about 2 hours south of Nagoya by car. Official websites [...]
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Higashiyama Botanical Gardens – Spherical Panorama
Blog: Nagoya Photography - Japan Photos 名古屋 写真 日本 - 14 October 2009
Higashiyama Botanical Gardens is located along side the Higashiyama Zoo in Nagoya, Japan. Here I created a spherical panorama from the inside inside quicktime.
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Kanuma Buttsuke Autumn Festival part 1
Blog: Budget Trouble - 11 October 2009
This weekend we were supposed to go to Gunkanjima, but because somebody in this household had a hiss...
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Tokyo, Japan (Part Ni)
Blog: Patrick and Katrina do the Globe - 10 October 2009
We had decided to spend a last full day in Kyoto before taking the night bus back to Tokyo (which is less than half as many yen as the Shinkansen bullet train and would also save us on a hotel for the evening), but unfortunately moody Mother Nature got in the way. Typhoon Melor was about to make landfall in Kyoto, and our first taste was a gross, rainy day on which we quickly ran out of indoor activities. We cut the sightseeing short and went to the central station to buy our bus tickets and hunker down until the 10pm departure.
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The story I shouldn't tell, re: urine sample in Santiago. Medicine in Chile, always surprising.
Blog: Bearshapedsphere - 9 October 2009
In which I tell the story of my first urine sample in Santiago. Just so you know what you're getting into.
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Kyoto, Japan
Blog: Patrick and Katrina do the Globe - 8 October 2009
Temples, shrines, and more temples. Kyoto, with the reputation of being Japan's cultural center, is absolutely brimming with them. We stayed a whole six nights in the same city--a record for us on this trip--to take in as much as possible.
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Nagoya Festival 2009
Blog: Nagoya Photography - Japan Photos 名古屋 写真 日本 - 6 October 2009
The Nagoya Festival is Nagoya’s largest annual autumn festival which took place this year on October 3 (Sat) & October 4 (Sun), 2009.
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yabu-something or the other
Blog: Budget Trouble - 3 October 2009
In recent days “Budget Trouble” has been experiencing some serious, heavy-duty budget trouble, becau...
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Tokyo, Japan
Blog: Patrick and Katrina do the Globe - 3 October 2009
Our trip to Japan certainly started out on the right foot. When we arrived at the Sydney Airport to check in for our flight we found out that Japan Airlines had overbooked economy class and they had no choice but to upgrade us to first class. We gleefully joined the Japanese businessmen in black suits at the luxurious front of the plane where we must have stuck out like throbbing thumbs in track pants and flip flops. That and the fact that a curious Katrina put her seat in the full 180 bed position as soon as the fasten seatbelt sign went off.
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Hikone Castle
Blog: Nagoya Photography - Japan Photos 名古屋 写真 日本 - 29 September 2009
Hikone Castle has to be one of my favorites castles I’ve visited in Japan. It’s certainly one of the most popular castles to the Japanese people, a 2 hour line to see the inside proved that. It sits above the town of Hikone overlooking the largest lake in Japan called Lake Biwa. A museum with [...]
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Atsuta Jingu Shrine – spherical panorama
Blog: Nagoya Photography - Japan Photos 名古屋 写真 日本 - 27 September 2009
Atsuta Jingu is one of the top places to see in Nagoya, Japan. It’s located in a huge park with many old trees and buildings. It’s said to house the famous sacred sword Kusanagi-no-tsurugi, one of the three sacred treasures that symbolize the Imperial throne. They also have nice museum with many old items [...]
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Nagoya Castle spherical panorama
Blog: Nagoya Photography - Japan Photos 名古屋 写真 日本 - 24 September 2009
I’ve been practicing my spherical panoramas lately and thought it was a nice day for a Nagoya Castle shoot. I really like the way these look and so I started to make them of my favorite places. Just click the flash window below and move the mouse around in 360 degrees and mouse wheel to zoom in. [...]
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Japanese Cemeteries
Blog: Budget Trouble - 23 September 2009
During certain times of the year (beginning of spring, Obon in August, beginning of fall) every self-respecting Japanese makes a trip to a cemetery to pay respects to his/her ancestors. Now, I’m not a fan of cemeteries. I can think of a bazillion other, more important things that can occupy my time instead of cleaning graves, shearing bushes and pulling weeds. Like staying home and watching TV, for example. But familial duties are familial duties, and since my family is mostly Japanese these days, I didn’t have much choice this morning. Armed with a set of shears and a camera,...
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Shirakawa-go – Interesting ice cream flavors
Blog: Nagoya Photography - Japan Photos 名古屋 写真 日本 - 22 September 2009
Today I went to Shirakawa-go (soon I’ll be making a huge post about my trip and the many other places I went this holiday week in Japan) and wanted to make a quick post about the ice cream I saw. Ice Cream – unrefined sake, mugmort, millet, buck wheat flavors…. Surprisingly all tastes good.
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SL Trains on the Moka Line
Blog: Budget Trouble - 21 September 2009
Yeah, trains… Everybody loves them, at least as long as they’re on time, right? And when it comes to trains, Japan must be a train lover’s wet dream. Or pretty close to it. We have everything here, slow local ones, super-fast bullet trains, formerly national, private, electric, diesel and everything in between. And yes, even old-fashioned steam choo-choo trains. I’m not a train freak, I just occasionally ride them when I can’t get to where I’m going by car. But riding a train for fun and pleasure was a totally foreign concept to me. Until I met the SL in...
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The Firest Staff
Blog: Budget Trouble - 16 September 2009
There are many joys of living in (or visiting) Japan - the food, the people, the technology, the culture, the convenience, the fashion, and the list goes on. And Engrish. Oh yes, Engrish. Sometimes it can be downright embarrassing, as in "Have they ever heard of a spell-checker?": Sometimes, you're just not sure: And sometimes, you simply have to scratch your head and go "WTF?": But most of the time, it's really subtle. So subtle that if you've been here for a while, you don't even pay any attention anymore. It takes your freshly arrived friend to say, "Hmmm... I'm...
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Himakajima island
Blog: Nagoya Photography - Japan Photos 名古屋 写真 日本 - 14 September 2009
Himakajima is a small island off the Chita Peninsula, south of Nagoya city. The island is known for it’s fresh octopus and blowfish along with vacation hotels. It took us about 90 min to walk around the whole island. During our walk we ate fresh octopus, saw a live Taiko band, saw the locals fishing, [...]
