I didn’t intend for it to be so, but my scramble through Tokyo to buy souvenirs and Christmas presents resembled a highlights show for the last two years. Every area I searched had a little bit of personal history to it, as did many of the places I whizzed past. Some were made in the [...]

I guess I really haven’t addressed that yet. Now that I’ve got all the philosophical musings out of the way (for now!) I’ll briefly cover what I’m actually doing over here and how things have been. The majority of my weekdays are spent at work. We have a pretty flexible working schedule and can choose [...]

Background music in Japanese restaurants come in one of two flavors: modern or American. Never both. I’ve frankly not known what “the kids” have been listening to since my iPod liberated me from the radio in high school, so I’m fine with the musical selection lagging behind a few years. In fact, I can think [...]

To the crowd of Japanese youth making their way through the busiest train station in the world, the foreigner wearing two backpacks and peering over the top of a large cardboard box in his arms was just another obstacle. After steering clear of him and being herded past signs and advertisements and gates, the train [...]