japan - the good Category Archives
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Fuji-Q Highland

The problem with being Japan's most awesome roller coaster park is that in general, Fuji-Q is expensive and crowded. So you know, that kind of sucks. The thing about that though, is this is Japan. And people like to do things according to the "seasons." "Roller coaster season" is usually considered to be summer for some reason which means that if you're us</e...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the good, miscellaneous, photography, travel
Tagged as: amusement, bethann, blue skies, calvin, friends, fuji-q highlands, japan, mt. fuji, roller coasters, tami
01.31.10

Quiet streets

My mind ended up turning to thoughts about my blog, life and future these days (not necessarily in that order, mind you). It's been almost 7 years since I moved to Japan and I thought that by now I'd know what I want to do with my life. Sadly, this does not appear to be the case. I think the core issue is that I'm a fickle panda: this is a blessing in that I have...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the general, japan - the good, memories, miscellaneous, musings, photography
Tagged as: black and white, harajuku, musings, photography, tokyo, uraharajuku, urban
01.23.10

2008 Autumn Roadtrip - Part X

As the saying goes, "all good things must come to an end." This is true in many things in life, including road trips. And in this case, and in this road trip, "the end" meant a small sleepy backwater town in Fukui prefecture on the backside of Japan that up until a couple years was famous (and I use the term lightly) for little more than fishing and making cho...
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the good, ramblings, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: 2008 autumn road trip, friends, fukui, japan, obama, roadtrip, starbucks girl, yes we can
12.31.09

Nikko

I did manage to work in a quick trip to Nikko as a sort of consolation prize, which was nice. By the time we made it to Nikko (in the first week of December), most of the Autumn leaves had already fallen, which was kind of sad. Nikko is really beautiful in the Autumn, if you can survive the jaw dropping crowds, so I kind of regret that we didn't make it there during the prime...
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: autumn, autumn leaves, friends, japan, lanterns, nikko, shrines, starbucksgirl, temples, tochigi
12.14.09

2008 Autumn Roadtrip - Part IX

If you want to know more about Amanohashidate, you can feel freeto read about it online , which is something we probably should have done ourselves instead of just rolling up at 6 AM and being like "sooo... uhh, where and umm, how do we see it?" - without even a clear idea of what exactly it was (it's a long sand bar in a bay, by the way) let alone w...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the general, japan - the good, photography, travel
Tagged as: 2008 autumn road trip, 3 great sights, amanohashidate, autumn, bicycles, japan, kyoto, roadtrip, sightseeing, skies, starbucks girl
11.17.09

A few from Tuesday

It was gorgeous autumn weather out last Tuesday, and there are few better places to take advantage of it than the myriad of cafes lining the winding streets between Shibuya and Daikanyama. Thus my spiffy new $14 puffar vest and I headed over to see how much caffeine I could cram down my throat. I managed 8 cups of espresso in various forms over the cours...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the general, japan - the good, photography
Tagged as: black and white, buildings, daikanyama, harajuku, photography, shibuya, tokyo, urban
11.12.09

Ura-Harajuku Part I

But for now, something a little bit different. There are a lot of fun places to see in Tokyo (one of the reasons I like it so much) - some more familiar to Westerners than others. One of the neighborhoods that got a lot of attention back in the states a few years back (thanks to Gwen Steffani, I suppose) is Harajuku. I happen to like Harajuku quite a bit as it packs a ...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the good, photography
Tagged as: black and white, buildings, cityscapes, harajuku, photography, tokyo, uraharajuku, urban
11.01.09

2008 Autumn Roadtrip - Part VIII

So when I last left off (last month...), our fearless duo had just finished stuffing themselves full of momiji manju and grilled eel bentos and decided to head into Hiroshima city proper to do a little bit of sightseeing. Now, besides Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, the other two cities in Japan that probably most people in America have heard of are Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for obv...
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the general, japan - the good, photography, ramblings, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: 2008 autumn road trip, atomic dome, buildings, genbaku dome, hiroshima, peace memorial, peace park, roadtrip, ruins
10.17.09

2009 World Bicycle Messenger Championships

I'll be back with the next set of pictures from the Yokohama Birthday Bash and of course the next installment of the Great 2008 Cross Japan Autumn Roadtrip soon, but first I just wanted to post a few pictures from the 2009 World Bicycle Messenger Championships held in Odaiba, Tokyo last week. I had wanted to catch the track stand and skid competition...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the general, japan - the good, miscellaneous, photography, recentnews
Tagged as: 2009 bicycle messenger championship, bicycles, black and white, messengers, odaiba, photography, racing, tokyo
09.27.09

Yokohama Birthday Bash - Part I

It was my birthday the other day, and slightly depressed over slowly inching towards "old old panda" status (not yet, but it's coming...), I decided to go to Yokohama with some friends to celebrate and take my mind off the ever-present press of time. As frequent readers of the pandablog may know, I love roller coasters with a passion. I've been to most of the...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the good, miscellaneous, photography, recentnews, sky worship, travel
Tagged as: amusement, bethann, blue skies, buildings, friends, kasie, minatomirai, roller coasters, sarah, summer, sunshine, terrapin, urban, yin, yokohama, zach
09.23.09

2008 Autumn Roadtrip - Part VII

Okay, I have been putting this off long enough, but seeing as how it's already the beginning of Autumn, 2009, I probably ought finish the Autumn 2008 road trip series ASAP. Part of the reason that I've been delaying this post for so long is that in this particular installment, nothing particularly shocking, funny or crazy happened. Oh well. I guess I can't end up floating...
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the general, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: 2008 autumn road trip, animals, autumn, bento, capybara, deer, eel, hiroshima, itsukushima, japan, miyajima, roadtrip, starbucks girl
09.02.09

Tanabata Matsuri

As somewhat of a consolation prize, I decided to pop over to a neighboring prefecture to catch a Tanabata festival in a smaller town. Continuing the streak of amazing summer weather we've been having recently, the skies were just a stellar mix of rich blue hues, interspersed with fantastic white clouds and the whole affair dramatically lit from up above by a sum...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the good, miscellaneous, photography, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: colorful, countryside, festivals, lanterns, summer, sunshine, tanabata, tanabata matsuri
08.09.09

570 Days of Summer - Sky Worship VII

The reason I even decided to calculate how many days of summer I've spent in these fair isles is that recently we've been having some absolutely kick ass summer weather in Tokyo (seriously, the skies have been ridiculously beautiful) and as I headed out the door to snap some pictures from the top of the Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills (one of my favourite photograph...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the good, photography, ramblings, recentnews, sky worship
Tagged as: cityscapes, japan, mori tower, photography, roppongi hills, skies, sky worship, summer, tokyo, urban
07.29.09

Summer Sunshine Redux

>Being half-panda, I'm not normally a huge fan of the sweltering summer heat (we have a tendency to melt into little quivering heaps on the floor). However, every once in a while I find myself venturing out despite the heat and usually when I do I'm rewarded with some great scenery, generally of Tokyo's gorgeous blue skies and concrete. This past week however, I thoug...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the good, miscellaneous, photography, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: bethann, countryside, friends, japan, ricefields, summer, sunshine, tambo
07.19.09

2008 Autumn Roadtrip - Part VI

My exertion - which flung my donut-lion modesty towel from my body and set it floating about in the current towards an old man near me who instinctively recoiled in shock (whether due to its ratty cuteness or the obvious result its loss had on my modesty at the moment of maximum floating panda-outstretchedness) - proved to be successful (thank god) and I managed to secure a b...
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the general, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: 2008 autumn road trip, autum, bathing, dogo onsen, funny, japan, matsuyama, mountains, nature, onsen, pon de lion, shikoku, starbucks girl, uchiko
07.01.09

Sunday Skies - Sky Worship VI

Speaking of taking more pictures, I happened to be out in Shinjuku last Sunday doing that whole "make the most out of my time in Japan" thing when I lucked into some of the most beautiful blue skies I have seen to date. I say "lucked into" because the weather forecast from the previous day said it was supposed to be gloomy and rainy all day - and it was anything bu...
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the good, pandas, photography, recentnews, sky worship
Tagged as: blue skies, buildings, lifestyle, photography, shinjuku, skies, sky worship, takadanobaba, tokyo
06.11.09

2008 Autumn Roadtrip - Part V

Japanese occasionally describe clean, fresh air by saying "空気が美味しい" (kuuki ga oishii) which literally means "the air is delicious." I never understood that, because you know, you want to eat delicious things, and who wants to eat air? Well. After driving up into the mountains for about an hour, it suddenly began to make sense. Because my friends, the air up there...
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: 2008 autumn road trip, autumn, iya valley, japan, mountains, nature, shikoku, starbucks girl, vine bridges
05.12.09

2008 Autumn Roadtrip - Part IV

After was seemed an eternity of sitting in the unforgiving darkness, a disembodied voice floated out over the intercom, announcing the end of business hours and instructing anybody stupid enough to pay 500 yen to see these imaginary non-whirlpools to come to the front of the gate, or else face being locked in for the night and forced to ponder over their gullibili...
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the general, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: 2008 autumn road trip, autumn, awajishima, castles, himeji, japan, naruto uzushio, roadtrip, starbucks girl, whirlpools
04.25.09

Tiny Planets

Spring is slowly making its way to Japan (even though today was a freezing cold day), and I decided to take advantage of the nice weather last week to make some so-called "tiny planets" pictures. Most of these pictures were taken in the vast Showa Memorial Park in Tachikawa, out West of Tokyo. You might remember this...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, technology
Tagged as: blue skies, photography, showa no mori, tachikawa, technology, tiny planets, tokyo, tricks
03.25.09

2008 Autumn Roadtrip - Part III

...aaaand we're back. So when we last left our intrepid heros, exhausted from their desperate attempts to deflect police (well, postal) attention to our secret money transfers to support the North Korean nuclear program, they had fallen asleep early in their ryokan, dreaming the fitful dreams of the falsely accused....
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: 2008 autumn road trip, blue skies, fushimi inaritaishi, japan, kyoto, roadtrip, starbucks girl, tofukuji
02.15.09

2008 Autumn Road Trip - Part II

When I last left off, I had just covered the first day of our trip, spent merrily walking along the quiet streets of Kyoto at night. That night we retired to our ryokan and slept well, as we had a plan to wake up early the next morning and make it over to the Arashiyama area of Kyoto....
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: 2008 autumn road trip, arashiyama, autumn, blue skies, kyoto, roadtrip, ryokan, starbucks girl
01.18.09

2008 Autumn Road Trip - Part I

Okay, so I know it's been forever and a year since I updated but I have a reason - I've been hard at work on the site redesign I keep talking about - it's about 70% of the way done and I hope to have it live in the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned. But you're not here to hear about that - you're here to read about the great 2008 Autumn Road Trip, right? So...
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: 2008 autumn road trip, autumn, kyoto, nightshots, roadtrip, starbucks girl
12.28.08

2008 Autumn Roadtrip - Introduction

So I'm back from my road trip. It was an amazing and fun time. Seeing Japan in all its Autumnal splendor is really something. I have tons of pictures (like, thousands) to go through, so I'll be posting them little by little over the course of the next few weeks. But for now, alas, I have to go deal with my strangely musty-sm...
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: 2008 autumn road trip, autumn
12.01.08

Showa Memorial Park

It's Autumn! And on top of that, only 4 more days until I set off on the great Western-Japan Autumn Road Trip 2008! I guess I should probably start thinking about packing and stuff, huh? Until then, to tide you over, here are some pictures from a recent trip out to Showa Memorial Park just west of Tokyo. I love this park - it's so huge and you would...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: autumn, photography, showa memorial park, tachikawa, tokyo
11.16.08

The Hard Light Blowout and Nuno Napkin Extravaganza

You're probably wondering about the title of today's post. Well, I've been playing around with "hard lighting" in some of my photos to give them a darker, more atmospheric feeling. I've accumulated a few over the past couple of months, and decided to post them all in one big entry so I can clear the deck for new photos in future posts. Hence the "hard light blowout".</p...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the funny, japan - the good, main, photography, ramblings, recentnews
Tagged as: hard light, nuno napkin, photography, sanitary pad, tokyo, video blog
10.14.08

Shinjuku Birthday Panda ver. Blue Skies

Yeah, so I haven't updated in forever...! What else is new? So what has happened recently, you ask? Well, for one thing, I became another year older. Sadly, I am starting to run out of birthdays in which I can still refer to myself as a "20-something" year old. That's not so good. Adding to the glumness of it all, if my plans for next year still hold, it means ...
Category Info: current events, featured entry, general, japan - the good, photography, recentnews
Tagged as: birthday, blue skies, buildings, shinjuku, tokyo, upshots
09.21.08

Monorail Blue Skies (Sky Worship V)

Another summer day, another beautiful round of blue skies in Japan. There's a few pictures and a quick blurb about photography tricks in this post, but if you want some other content, I just posted another article talking about an upcoming road trip this autumn. Go check it out by click here, or else checki...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, sky worship, technology
Tagged as: blue skies, camera tricks, circular polariser, geekery, monorail, photography
09.02.08

The Great Western Japan Road Trip 2008 - Planning

Another year, another road trip. As I start winding down what my be my last year in Japan, I decided I very much wished to have one trip through the country in all its stunning, beautiful Autumnal glory (the only season to travel in Japan, my friends)....
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, technology, travel
Tagged as: 2008 autumn road trip, camera equipment, geekery, japan, photography, roadtrip
09.01.08

August Break

What has panda been up to the past couple of weeks since his last update? Well, it involves delicious chocolate cake, dodging baseballs to the face and power flexing in Starbucks. Interested? (umm, I hope so, or else this will be a boring entry! *laughs*) Let's get into it! ...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the good, miscellaneous, ramblings, recentnews
Tagged as: aoyama, architect cafe, baseball, friends, risa, starbucks, stephanie, tokyo, tokyo dome
08.22.08

Nighttime in the Hood

It's been a while since I've posted some nighttime shots, so here are a few I took whilst walking around The Hood over the weekend....
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the good, photography, recentnews
Tagged as: nightshots, photography, the hood
06.30.08

Tokyo Blue Skies II (Sky Worship IV)

Damn, that title could have used some work, huh? *laughs* At first I was going to call it something like "tokyo upshots" but decided against it because that might bring in exactly the wrong kind of intarnets traffic... (see, 'upshots'......
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the general, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, sky worship
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
06.01.08

Nighttime Sakura

Nighttime sakura on a rainy, drenched sunday evening in Tokyo. Can you believe this is the only shot of the cherry blossoms I got all weekend? The irony of it is, last weekend was the last opportunity to see the......
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the general, japan - the good, photography, recentnews
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
04.01.08

Mashiko

A bit out of chronological order, but a few weeks ago a friend and I went up to Mashiko in Tochigi prefecture on a day trip package offered through JR. Tochigi itself is famous for several things, not least of......
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the general, japan - the good, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
03.13.08

Snow Panda

Haha, in all the years I've kept this blog, I don't think I've posted as many photos of myself as I have in this entry (and the previous one). Is the panda blog turning into a venue for indulging my......
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the general, japan - the good, pandas, photography, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
03.09.08

Castles and Sunsets

I happened to have my camera with me as I was walking home yesterday, so I decided to snap a few pictures of that perfect time in day when the sky rapidly changes from the brightness of afternoon to the......
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the general, japan - the good, photography, recentnews
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
02.11.08

Blue Skies over Tokyo (Sky Worship III)

Blue skies over Tokyo Yesterday was a brilliant blue day in Tokyo so I went for a walk with a friend to Harajuku to attend to some Hatsumode-ing, about 2 weeks too late. After we were done praying for happiness,......
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, sky worship
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
01.15.08

Happy New Year 2008

Happy New Year 2008 everyone! It's the year of the Mouse, for whatever that's worth, so umm, I hope you all have a great mouse-themed year and don't get too sloshed with the bubbly tonight ;) I'm in a good......
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the good, main, miscellaneous, photography, recentnews
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
01.01.08

Farmlife

I actually have been slacking a little bit when it comes to posting, not because I have a dearth of things to write about (quite the opposite, actually) but because a) I had a big test to study for earlier......
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
12.26.07

Nekobukuro Kitty Kats

There have actually been some very disturbing things happening here in Japan land (not to me personally, but at the political/civil liberties level) that have put me in a severely depressed mood recently and are making me seriously - like,......
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the general, japan - the good, miscellaneous, photography, recentnews
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
11.04.07

Tatami Nap Panda

Mmmmm.... I could nap in this spot of sun forever. I'm going to Nekobukuro later on today for the hell of it, so I figured I might as well get my practice in cat-napping before I depart. What a beautiful......
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the good, miscellaneous, pandas, photography, recentnews
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
10.21.07

The Great Tohoku Road Trip - Part II

After our unsettling experience putzing around the smelly Gates of Hell, we cracked open the guide book and tried to figure out where to go next. "Hey panda, I've got an idea." piped up KC as we headed away from......
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the funny, japan - the general, japan - the good, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
09.02.07

That's why I jump...

We'll get back to the Great Tohoku Road Trip 2007 in just a second, but first a brief interlude of some jumping pictures from Bart-in-Japan's final hurrah in, errr, Japan. Click to embiggen. Hey, what about trying it front-lit? Click......
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the good, photography, recentnews
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
08.20.07

The Great Tohoku Road Trip - Part I

If there is one thing that KC and I have learned from our past adventures, it's that neither of us are much of "planners" when it comes to travel. Our general philosophy is to tack down the intended time of......
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, travel
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08.15.07

Public Drunkenness at 50mm f1.8

Whatever I thought it would be like, I'm pretty sure I didn't think it would turn out like it did - my mind going over the laundry list of things I had to do to get ready for work tomorrow, my heart heavy with the thought of having to walk to work in a wool suit in the hot sweaty mugginess of the Japanese rainy season, my eyes just moments prior flicking over train schedules to find the fastest route home after getting off at Tokyo so as to avoid time consuming transfers and giving myself a c...
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the good, memories, musings, photography, recentnews
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
07.02.07

Hakone

So the weather here in Kanto has been slowly sputtering and lurching towards balmier conditions week by week. The fact that it has been an unusually warm winter - it didn't snow even once! - means that we can enjoy......
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
03.24.07

Setsubun - the face smashing festival

Are you imagining that phrase? Now while keeping that image in your head, slowly replace those words until it becomes "like hurling heavy beanbags at immobile foreigners trapped in a crowd about 25 feet away from you from an elevated wooden platform." And then add "oh and you're a gigantic muscular sumo wrestler." It was, as they say, all fun and games until someone got hurt, and that someone would have been the random old lady who took one to the dome with a rather sharp and alarming plas...
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the funny, japan - the good, photography, recentnews
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02.11.07

Narita-san Temple

Wow, so the first post of 2007, huh? I suppose it's a bit cheap that it's gonna be primarily a photo entry, but as previously mentioned I'm heading off to Paris this Thursday - Thursday people - and I've not......
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
01.02.07

Christmas Eve, 2006

Ahhh, is it really Christmas Eve? I'll tell you what, Christmas in Tokyo just isn't the quite same as I remember it back in Wisconsin... the glass skyscrapers, endless stretches of twinkling concrete draped urban jungle... the amazing lack of......
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the good, recentnews
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
12.25.06

Kamakura

We finally stopped to ask a kindly mechanic who looked quite busy doing some sort of power drilling/water cooled saw-milling thing which in retrospect we probably shouldn't have interrupted. He looked at our map for a second, then put to light all our confusion with one simple phrase: mechanic: "You're on the completely opposite side of this map" me: "Now by 'completely opposite side' you mean…?" mechanic: (pointing the way we just...
Category Info: japan - the good, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
10.17.06

Delphinium Days (Skyworship II)

I imagine he may have been thinking of days like this past weekend, when it seems like all you can see when you look up are endless expanses of blue - blue for which there are no boundaries - seas of soaring topaz, vast swaths of azure splashed with milk clouds, indigo pigments ground up and soaking into the parchment of the sky. Such blue skies are like a perfect backdrop for the sharp intercut of the earthy relief of jagged man made constructs daring to jab upwards into the heavens...
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the good, photography, sky worship
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10.09.06

Sky Worship

People sometimes ask why I like tall buildings. This picture from the Mori Tower pretty much sums it all up. More sky worship after the jump......
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, sky worship
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10.01.06

Sky Monkah!

Monkah and I scope out the view from the top of the mountain. Look at all that beautiful sunlight pouring down! It might not seem like much at first, but three weeks into the rainy season with nothing but gray skies and thunderstorms night and day, it's quite possibly one of the most beautiful things you'll ever see....
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the good, photography
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
07.07.06

Sunny Road Trip!

On the way back we passed by this random 35 foot tall statue of a Tyrannosaurs Rex growling fearsomely at a curve in the road, apparently as an enticement to come visit the nearby dinosaur museum. What is mildly amusing about this picture is the sign beneath the T-Rex's feet. It reads: "Are you driving safely?" And all I could think was "No, man, a goddamn dinosaur that just scared the shit out of me when I rounded the blind curve here! What do you expect!!?"...
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the good, photography, technology, travel
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
05.06.06

Yokohama Chinatown

....until I saw these. Oh my god!! This was the first of what would soon spin into an incredibly propitious string of Yokohama Chinatown panda spottings! These are steamed dumplings with are stamped in the shape of cute little panda faces! I squealed like a school girl when I saw them and ran over to purchase one. They were pretty steep (like $3USD each) but I was all set to plop down for them, when I saw to my disappointment that they were filled with chocolate and bean paste instead of...
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the good, pandas, photography, travel
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
04.10.06

Great Takayama Road Trip Part I

It's spring break! With no big plans in the works, my ever faithful travel companion and I decided that a quickie road trip up to Takayama in nearby Gifu Prefecture would be the perfect way to spend a Saturday. What's......
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, travel
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04.03.06

Kyoto Road Trip

This picture was taken atop the mountain at Iwatayama Monkey Park (see below) by a man carrying a broom and a slingshot. We were actually just looking at the monkeys when he snatched the camera from our hands and shoved us over towards the couple of fanged screaming simians you see on the branch behind us. "You stand there. I take picture." "...b...but, those monkeys have fangs...!" we pro...
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, travel
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02.28.06

Autumn Thursday

It was a beautiful autumn Thursday yesterday and due to a fortuitous coincidence in my schedule, I happened to be free for most of it. Somewhat on the road to recovering from the horrible cold that laid me out......
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the good, photography, recentnews
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
11.11.05

Chayamachi II

A "farewell" party for a retiring co-worker took up most of my friday night yesterday, leaving me rather tired and exhausted this morning (well, okay, maybe that had more to do with the little "after party" pub crawl I......
Category Info: japan - the good
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03.19.05

Ocha Panda

A panda spied at the local museum. The sign reads "Tea is available. 50 yen for a cup or 150 yen for a pet (plastic) bottle. Ask the staff if you're interested". Starbucks girl approves and heads off towards......
Category Info: japan - the good
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03.08.05

Some time...

It's been forever since I've last updated. I apologize for the delay - the demands of real life caught up with me for a bit, and I just haven't had time to tend to the pandablog. Not this one, at......
Category Info: japan - the good
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01.15.05

Busy August

The Osaka language seminar was a lot of fun. The actual classes weren't so challenging, but there were a lot of interesting JETs from all over the country, which made things much more enjoyable. Group circle shot... If July was......
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08.07.04

Party People

So not much has been happening recently, despite the fact that this is a very busy time of the year. Lots of seminars and presentations to prepare for, business trips to take, formalities to attend to (I'm switching schools, which......
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07.12.04

Summer Sunshine

While it may seem a little ridiculous, considering how much I whined and moaned just a few months about about how ungodly cold and snowy it was here in my little corner of Japan, I now find myself doing the......
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07.06.04

Panda no baribari baryu...

This week is exam week at the school, which means that last week I was really busy trying to prepare the students for the upcoming tests. Unfortunately, in my school, the students are somewhat less than concerned about even......
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05.25.04

After Golden Week

What is Golden Week, you ask? Since I'm too lethargic right now to actually do any in-depth explanation, let me steal the following description from the Japan-guide: "The Golden Week is a collection of four national holidays within seven days.......
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05.07.04

Cherry Blossoms

Friday, April 09, 2004 One of the ways you know it's spring is when the cherry blossoms start to bloom. For a period of about 2 weeks in late march and early april (depending on where you live) the entirety......
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04.09.04

Chocolate

it's so weird. sometimes the smallest choices, made almost without thinking, can have the most unexpected consequences. There's a term used in the common language for this sort of phenomenon: The Butterfly Effect. Giving thanks at the shrine. Now the......
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02.17.04

Life goes on

I was visiting my friend's house earlier today and while we were cooking in her kitchen, I began to realize that it's the little things about this country that I love so very much. I think I understand now what......
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02.04.04

Pandabread

This being winterbreak, naturally my sleep cycle has become totally disrupted. The first day of my break I made the mistake of staying awake until 4am, then waking up at 3pm the next day. This has led to an increasingly......
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12.30.03

Suubun no hi (special megamix)

Tommorrow is the Autumnal Equinox Day - time for Japanese to honor their ancestors and the deceased, and time for me to catch up on my sleep / lesson preparations. The weather has been slowly turning more and more autum-like,......
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09.22.03

All your bandwidth is mine.

Driving along the ocean... [Just as a note: this entry is going to take forever to load. Sorry. :) ] In the entirety of the noto peninsula, there really exists no town, place or destination that could in all......
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09.16.03

Maintaining

wow... back from the deep inaka after several days. And only a few bruises to show for it ;) Spent the weekend (and significant portions of the week, hmm...) up in anamizu, for a matsuri, super sneaky surprise birthday......
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09.15.03

Just an ordinary day...

fuuuuhhh.... just another day. My first official "real" paycheck is on Thursday. Whoo-hoo!! I am thinking about taking a trip somewhere just to celebrate, especially since I have cultural furlough all this week. I`ve come to the conclusion that the......
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08.18.03

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