Japan

Now that I am leaving Japan, I have started taking notice of the more esoteric items that I will miss. One is programming in Ruby on a Japanese keyboard.

At work I use the Japanese version of the Apple Pro Keyboard, which makes a few deviations from the standard JIS keyboard. Japanese keyboards are qwerty, so [...]

It’s nice when you walk into a shop and the proprietress knows exactly what you want: in my case, 200g of coffee grounds. This shop, permeated by that dark, enchanting, lively redolence, only sells coffee beans. A large green copper roaster sits in the middle of the floor between the paper-strewn desk and the large [...]

August 17, 08:25

We were taking instructions on observing macaques along a road following the western coast of the island. I wonder if they enjoy the view? or if they can even see it? The macaques sit on the last rocky outcroppings before the forest plunges into the sea. Perhaps they were just drying off from [...]

Yakushima is drop-dead gorgeous. Hidden beaches, tucked into rocky corners; mountains lush with cedar; water as delicious as anything out of a bottle, and drinkable without treatment.

I chanced to see all of three monkeys while in the field (although I saw scores more on the way up to and down from the mountains).

I’m convinced now [...]

Tomorrow I’m off to Yakushima, an island south of Kyushu, with the Yakushima Macaque Research Group to take census of the monkeys that inhabit the island. My day will consist of sitting in a tree for hours on end, waiting for a macaque to wander by. Quick: is it male or female? young or old? [...]

There is a detailed map of each town and city in Japan. Each map is a tome that runs around ¥20,000.  The shape and orientation of every building and house is shown, and there is even a family or business name attached. So how to they collect all the necessary information?

Why, door-to-door of course.

A man [...]

Agriculture

They’ve started flooding and plowing the rice field across the street. A flooded field is visually stimulating, abuting the street and the surrounding houses.

Architecture

Last weekend we went to Ise, a shrine about 2 hours away. There are two lots for each structure within the shrine grounds. Every twenty years each shrine is taken down and [...]

We were at the department store today and I picked up a catalog for women’s hakama rental (I could only get this site to work in the quite dated Internet Explorer, so those with other browsers follow along with the excerpts sub.)

Hakama are a sort of pleated skirt worn by men and by women over [...]

Pretty much the only reason to pay attention to domestic Japanese politics is if something dramatic happens, so I tend to root for politicians and outcomes that make for exciting television.

This year’s maverick is Horie Takafumi, CEO of internet startup livedoor, is pulling a Schwarzenegger and running as an independent in the Hiroshima #6 district. [...]