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| Japan it UP! |
| Adventures of a crazy American who visited Japan and decided to stay. See what it's like to travel around Japan as a foreigner that can't read or speak Japanese. A great resource for people wanting visit or expats making the move to Japan. |
| Language: English |
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Statistics |
| Unique Visitors: 86 |
| Total Unique Visitors: 164323 |
| Visitors Out: 1636 |
| Total Visitors Out: 1636 |
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| Valentine’s Day In Japan |
| 2008-02-17 18:53:23 |
In America we usually do a mutual exchange of gifts, etc. I give her something, she gives me something, I take her on a date, ah… love is in the air. But Valentine’s Day In Japan is something that’s quite different for me. This is my first time celebrating Valentine’s here and there are two [...]...
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| An Update and an Interview |
| 2008-02-15 09:09:05 |
Here’s an update on what’s goin’ on! I’ve been pretty busy lately with work and I’ve met some new people. You just have to live life as it happens, and with that said… thank goodness for power naps! Some good things regarding this site have been taking place as well.
First of all I have been [...]...
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| Japanese Commercial: McDonald’s Cheeseburger |
| 2008-02-07 21:41:55 |
I eat at McDonald’s every now and then here in Japan. I was really impressed with the quality of service and how the food looks when you eat you it. I was also shocked by the smallest soft drinks in the world. It’s probably an 8oz cup filled to the top with ice. What [...]...
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| Super Bowl Commercials |
| 2008-02-04 22:19:59 |
For those that might have missed the Bowl">Super Bowl and the commercials here’s a link a friend sent me. It shows each commercial quarter by quarter.
 Super Bowl Commercials...
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| Ishiyaki Imo Truck (baked sweet potato) |
| 2008-02-03 20:50:13 |
Every now and then I hear this guy singing a cool little tune at night. No music, just him singing a melody. I asked my fiancee what it is and she told me it’s a truck that sells ishiyaki imo (sweet potatoes). How awesome is that? I would never think “Hey, I could really go [...]...
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| Japanese Commercial: Leah Dizon Ninja Gaiden |
| 2008-01-31 21:12:12 |
Here’s another video game commercial I found on You Tube. This game looks pretty sweet and now I’m definitely going to have to get a PS3. A friend of mine recently got one and he loves it. At first it’s all cute until the end where you see Leah Dizon (supposedly) kicking some ass playing [...]...
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| Things I’ve never seen before |
| 2008-01-28 03:11:53 |
Today I’m going to share some pictures I’ve taken of things in Japan that I’ve never seen before in the U.S.
The picture above is a QR Code. I see them everywhere here, even at McDonalds. They’re on buildings, billboards, magazine ads, product packages, etc. You take a picture with your cell phone and [...]...
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| Japanese Commercial: Pizza LA |
| 2008-01-24 21:14:26 |
Pizza in Japan is usually quite a bit different from the American version. Here they put some crazy things on pizza like shrimp, squid, tuna, mayonnaise, sesame seeds, teriyaki chicken, corn, potatoes, and sometimes mustard. Oh yeah and sausage. Not the sausage you might be thinking, but more like the Super Bowl Sunday little smokies. [...]...
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| The $20,000 Japanese Coffee Maker |
| 2008-01-24 00:14:21 |
Out with the cheap coffee maker, in with the …. WHAT WHAT!? I just read this article at the New York Times website and had to share. The Japanese siphon coffee maker at the Blue Bottle Café in San Francisco was imported from Japan and cost more than $20,000 USD (That’s 2,130,399 Yen at the [...]...
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| Taking the Subway in Japan |
| 2008-01-22 23:51:58 |
Getting from point A to point Z using the subway is not that difficult. If you’re new to using a subway, or public transportation at all (like I was), my advice is to plan your route and stay calm no matter how busy the station gets. Carrying a small note pad and a pen is [...]...
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| Cost of Alcohol in Japan |
| 2008-01-20 20:54:22 |
A lot of people wonder about the cost of living in Japan. Sure there’s living expenses, transportation, food, etc., but last weekend I decided to do some research on the cost of alcohol so you can compare it to your local store. There’s a law in Japan that makes people list their prices with tax [...]...
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| Snowboarding Down Purgatory Mountain |
| 2008-01-20 00:32:35 |
I haven’t been snowboarding in Japan yet. I’ve almost made it a few times and had to cancel our latest reservation for our trip to Geihoku near Hiroshima. It’s all good because life happens and the mountains will always be there for us to throw ourselves down it at blazing speeds at any time.
I miss [...]...
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| Homemade Japanese Bento |
| 2008-01-18 21:07:58 |
Why do I love my fiancee? There are over a million reasons of course, but one of those million reasons is Bento! Here’s a recent photo of the bento box lunch she made for me during a surprise picnic. She does this on every snowboarding trip too. So many delicious items perfectly placed in their [...]...
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| Sleeping Chihuahua |
| 2008-01-16 21:07:01 |
I think our chihuahua is a perfect fit for the family. I was able to snap this picture of her taking a power nap next to me today. Except when I woke up she didn’t move. I guess she felt she needed more beauty sleep....
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| Care Package from the U.S. |
| 2008-01-15 21:06:59 |
Have you ever craved something so bad you almost couldn’t stand it? I’m sure everybody has at one point or another. Chocolate, steak and potatoes, ice cream ramen… and recently we (as in me) have been craving some Skittles. Our friend Yumi pulled through with flying colors by sending not only a ton of Skittles [...]...
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| My girls were sleeping during a movie! |
| 2008-01-14 21:06:57 |
We were watching a movie the other day and my fiancee and our chihuahua LuLu fell asleep! I don’t know about you but when we say “No more late night movies!” it ends up like when we said in the U.S. “Next time no appetizers!” Yeah, movies and appetizers are always in the future. I [...]...
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| Bought my baby a Baby G |
| 2008-01-13 21:57:25 |
My sweet baby needed a watch because of a misplaced older one. At first she bought an inexpensive watch that looked nice but I knew wouldn’t last. So we searched around for a few weeks at different watch shops and finally at The Loft we saw a sweet looking Casio Baby G with a unique [...]...
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| Detox And Lose Weight At Bathtime! |
| 2008-01-12 18:43:54 |
So… I was watching one of my favorite channels - Shop Channel (It’s like QVC [they have it in Japan too] or Home Shopping Network in the U.S.). People are always working hard and I’ve seen quite a few awkward moments, it’s awesome, I kid you not! What’s the difference of Shop Channel and [...]...
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| Recent Japan News |
| 2008-01-10 19:42:37 |
I was reading the news today and came across a few articles I thought were worth mentioning.
Reuters reports how Golf-Japan’s ‘Tiger’ Ishikawa turns professional at 16 - Just turned 16 and he’s worth over $10 Million USD over the next 5 years. That’s pretty cool!
Google/AFP reports Japan police receive 400th secret pledge to poor [...]...
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| Gran Turismo 5 in Japan & other stuff |
| 2007-12-12 09:40:53 |
Here’s a recent update about me since my last post:
One day I was sick. I blame the dust mite demons, but I had flu like symptoms. One morning I work up feeling like I was going to die. I slept for about 48 hours. I woke up at 100% health. Nice!
I read every post on [...]...
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| Command Prompt Disappears |
| 2007-12-02 21:51:49 |
Here’s a solution to the problem of the command prompt disappearing. I use the command prompt to ping things etc and one day it just started to disappear when I went to start > run > cmd. Out of no where it just started to go away leaving me with a “WTF?” look on my [...]...
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| Etiquette 101 in Japan |
| 2007-11-28 00:41:17 |
I read an interesting article today. It touches base on how to properly eat sushi in Japan, how not to handle your chopsticks, tips on business meetings, the art of bowing, how to give a gift, and a few other topics.
Click here to check out the article.
Here are a few that really stood out to [...]...
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| iTunes Skipping while playing Songs |
| 2007-11-25 21:49:59 |
iTunes is a great piece of software in my opinion but it does have some disadvantages and some problems on occasion. One of the worst problems I’ve had with iTunes is after an upgrade it started skipping songs… what I mean is a song plays fine for a while and then gets all messed up [...]...
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| Tiny Japanese Coca Cola |
| 2007-11-25 00:57:27 |
I’ve seen some amazing and interesting things here in Japan so far and here are some photos of the smallest Coke I’ve ever seen in my life. Can you imagine drinking this with a Mega Mac? It’s 160ml (or 5.4 ounces), it cost 53 Yen, and it came in a heavy duty can. Speaking of [...]...
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| Japan has awesome butter! |
| 2007-11-24 00:57:17 |
Why is Japan awesome? There are many reasons and here’s another one to add to the list. Already sliced butter! Who thinks of this stuff, seriously? They should give it it’s own name. I’d name it Awesome Butter. Pre-sliced butter has changed my life....
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| The Chihuahua Model Lulu |
| 2007-11-23 00:56:44 |
It’s getting cold so it’s sweater time for Lulu. Here she is modeling her new threads. She’s a ball of energy so I was lucky to snap these photos....
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| Thanksgiving in Japan? |
| 2007-11-22 00:56:43 |
This is my first year missing a Thanksgiving feast in the U.S. Do I care? Not so much. It’s always been a nice extended vacation from work or school and a chance to get drunk with friends and family while eating dry turkey… and then left over dry turkey for another week, bleh. That reminds [...]...
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| Japanese Instant Coffee |
| 2007-11-20 00:56:42 |
Running low on my regular coffee I decided to give some instant Japanese coffee a try. I didn’t have much hope because instant Folders coffee in the U.S. tastes like ass but my choices were slim so I went for it. The result: Pretty OK. Yep, it’s not terrible like the instant coffee I remember [...]...
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| Microsoft Outlook Interface not registered error |
| 2007-11-18 21:48:47 |
When I click on Send and Receive in Microsoft Outlook I started getting the error Interface Not Registered. This error started to appear after I installed some video editing software and also ran some updates to the software. I searched around the Internet and found this solution from Microsoft which fixed my problem.
You receive the [...]...
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| Basho The Sumo Wrestler Table |
| 2007-11-18 01:25:32 |
I’ve read the SkyMall magazine over and over while waiting for a plane to take off and I’m sure I’m not alone! I’ve never bought anything from the magazine but I did see something that made me go ‘wtf’ the other day when checking out their site… for just $225 you can have your very [...]...
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| Back up your computer! |
| 2007-11-16 23:32:31 |
When is the last time you backed up your computer? I’ve had friends that lost a ton of info including those prized digital family pictures. I’ve lost some email in the past. Today I’m backing up my computer. You might consider doing this when you have a free moment. Here are some backup related links:
How [...]...
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| Missing America |
| 2007-11-16 03:36:33 |
Today I’m going to talk about being home sick and one of the ultimate things Japan has to offer for foreigners. At times in your life when you’re on an extended vacation or living in another country there will be times when you’ll miss ‘back home.’ You’ll miss your friends and family, but on the [...]...
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| Dell Warranty for my Inspiron Laptop |
| 2007-11-15 02:06:53 |
When I first purchased my laptop from Dell back in 2005 I decided to buy the complete care package warranty because my laptop was basically going to be my office. Today as I sit here in Japan I’m glad that I did! My headphone jack is failing, only the right headphone/speaker is working, and that’s [...]...
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| Winter is coming! |
| 2007-11-14 23:16:18 |
It’s getting cold outside and that leaves me with two options. Option 1 is heading to the store to buy a heater for the apartment. Option 2 is…...
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| Blog Ideas |
| 2007-11-14 04:33:52 |
When I started this site I figured I’d post some random stuff for a while and then when I had more time I’d talk about things I found hard to get information on. I’m going to do a little brainstorming and soon I hope to have some type of format for posting. Some sort of [...]...
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| Heart Touching Japanese English |
| 2007-11-13 19:56:27 |
The other day I bought this at the hyaku yen store (it’s basically like the Dollar Store or Dollar Tree in the U.S. but way more awesome). The quality of this 100 Yen notebook is great and I could see somebody paying 200-250 for it. The battery is dead in my camera so I [...]...
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| Japanese Capsule Hotel |
| 2007-11-12 22:18:17 |
Akihabara = Otaku paradise… and now you can take a 4 minute walk from Akihabara for a good night sleep before hitting up the Maid Cafe in the morning. Nice!
For just 4,000 Yen per night you can sleep in a capsule which looks like the size of a coffin. A coffin with a shit load [...]...
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| How to check free disk space on a linux server |
| 2007-11-11 21:46:23 |
Question: How do I check the amount of free disk space on a FreeBSD server?
Answer: The best way to check how much free disk space your FreeBSD server has available is by using the df command. This works on linux/unix servers, not just FreeBSD. After you SSH into your server you can either type [...]...
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| Make it happen! |
| 2007-11-11 20:26:36 |
I found this cool picture today while doing some research online. If you want to get a job some place, own your own business, if you’re in college, etc. this might be motivational for you.
“Some people dream of success, others make it happen”
Cowgate, Edinburgh, 2005
Source: Street Photography...
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