Losing your language
On April 20, 2006, a long-lost former Japanese army soldier who was stationed on Russia’s Sakhalin island when World War II ended, finally visited his native Iwate Prefecture and was…
TV cell phones
April 1, 2006 in Japan saw the official start of the so-called “one-seg” (one segment) wireless transmission of TV channels on the cell phone. With a compatible cell phone, we…
World Baseball Classic 2006
Wow, what an unexpected surprise the WBC turned out to be, especially for Japan. After Mexico beat the US to enable Japan to advance to the semi-finals against Korea, interest…
NHK Taiga Drama
I’m currently watching and enjoying NHK’s Taiga Drama called “Komyo ga Tsuji,” (功名が辻) a year-long period drama set during the turn of the 17th century. It features a footsoldier samurai…
Japan’s Gold at Torino
We in Japan finally got something to get excited about at the Torino Winter Olympics. After a long medal drought, Japan finally won a gold medal. Needless to say, it…
Torino Winter Olympics
Japan is having a dry spell at Turin. No medals as of this writing. So far, the most media attention in Japan seems to be focusing on someone who is…
Memoirs of a Geisha, the movie
I can summarize my thoughts about this movie in three words: It’s not real. I haven’t read the best-selling novel, so I don’t know how the movie compares with the…
Introducing PHOTOGUIDE.JP
2006 is looking to be another busy year for me with new major projects, both offline and online. Let me just talk about my online plans here. I’m quietly observing…
Portal for Shiga Prefecture
I have created an portal page for Shiga Prefecture (next to Kyoto). As of this writing, I have over 2,000 photos of almost all cities, towns, and villages in Shiga.…
Expanding Japan Photos
To make this site a true photo guide to Japan, I have begun to upload my photos of Japan. There are about 1,000 images so far, and this number will…