Today was cloudy when I started out on my journey to Aomori city, 470 kilometers from home. I wore for the first time this season a warm overcoat. I heard it had been snowing in Aomori, the northernmost prefecture of Honshu. At 8:05 a.m. after walking 25 minutes on Route 345 from Majime station, the first car of the day stopped for me. It was again Mr. Toki, a cook … Continue reading →
During my cycling trip to the summit of Mt. Yahiko in Niigata Prefecture, I stopped at the Yahiko Shrine which was on the way. I didn’t know it before hand, but it was the time of the annual chrysanthemum festival. There were lots of visitors, probably more than usual.
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3November 19, 2012: It was a bright sunny day and I didn’t want to spend it indoors in front of a PC screen. Instead I rode my bicycle to a village at the foothills of Mt. Yahiko, about 33 kilometers from home, and walked to the top, the very summit of Yahiko Mountain which is 634 meters above sea level. It took me 2 hours to ride to Yahiko Village … Continue reading →
Having fun hitchhiking in northern Japan, making new friends, and saving a bucket of cash.
Continue reading →Most of the Tohoku (northeast) region of Honshu Japan could fit in Lake Michigan.
Continue reading →Getting treated to an oyster snack on my 400-mile hitchhike adventure in Northern Japan.
Continue reading →Mr. Murata playing his handmade shakuhachi On June 22, 2012, Mr. and Mrs. Murata picked me up from Nikaho, Akita Prefecture, and invited me to drink tea with them in their home in Akita city. Mr. Murata’s hobby is making and playing a musical instrument made from bamboo which is called Shakuhachi. Mrs. Murata plays the Koto, a stringed instrument. I was honored to be their guest and hear them … Continue reading →
Mr. and Mrs. Sakura in their living room Sunday, June 10, 2012: I hitchhiked 404 kilometers (253 miles) from Aomori Prefecture to Niigata City in 9 cars. They consisted of 4 married couples, two small children, 4 single men, 2 ladies and one single couple. A highlight of this trip was visiting Mr. and Mrs. Sakurada’s home in Noshiro. They picked me up when hitchhiking exactly one month before on … Continue reading →
I recently visited a good friend who is an artist, William Henry. He is offering high resolution DVDs of his artwork for $99 US. Anybody interested? The below is a couple low resolution samples of some of the artwork.
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5A dear lady friend in the USA urged me to listen to hours 2 and 3 of the March 27, 2012 Power Hour radio show broadcast hosted by Joyce Riley. She was afraid that I and my family were in extreme and imminent danger due to nuclear radiation contamination. She knows I live in an area that is neighbor to Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. After listening to what Joyce Riley and … Continue reading →
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6Just take a very close look at the figure and describe what you see! Click it to see an enlargement. Clicking the enlargement will make it yet larger to see more detail. The figure is courtesy of Dr. Nakasato from Nagoya. I was introduced to him through my friend, Yoko Ishikawa of Tokyo. As you can see, major features of Japan are relatively close in position to those features of … Continue reading →
One of my jobs is doing text translations on PC from Japanese to English. I use Google translate in the process, but only as a double check to make sure I didn’t miss any phrases or words. I found Google does a fairly decent job translating Indo-European languages. I studied Russian and discovered that Google is OK to translate texts such as emails in Russian. An example from Bible text … Continue reading →
I had three books I wished to present as a gift to a VIP Japanese friend. I intended to give them as is without any formal wrapping paper to cover them, but my Japanese secretary suggested that they be wrapped together in a bundle with decorative wrapping paper. The secretary had only a couple minutes for the job and it looked rather haphazardly done. “Just tell her you did it!” … Continue reading →
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. — Genesis 1:1 What a profound statement the Holy Bible makes in the authorized version of the Holy Bible (King James Version of 1611) in its very first verse! The Creator not only made matter (atoms and molecules), He not only made space between them (heaven) but He also created TIME! — (in the beginning). I consider it a universal … Continue reading →
