Two Adventures through Northeast Japan
Having fun hitchhiking in northern Japan, making new friends, and saving a bucket of cash.
Continue reading →The size of Lake Michigan compared to Northern Japan
Most of the Tohoku (northeast) region of Honshu Japan could fit in Lake Michigan.
Continue reading →Restoring a large WordPress Database
This article applies not only to people who use WordPress technology for their websites or blogs, but to anybody who uses any kind of CMS, for example, Joomla and Drupal, which uses a MySql database . However it may not apply to bloggers who use blogging software on third party servers such as wordpress.com or Blogger. If you have a blog or website on your own server that uses a … Continue reading →
Treated to an Oyster snack
Getting treated to an oyster snack on my 400-mile hitchhike adventure in Northern Japan.
Continue reading →Jeff Rense Fukushima disinfo exposed
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Jeff Rense, 66, riding a $30,000 Harley Trike, one of a collection of motorcycles, a lifestyle partly supported by donations from his readers. I live in Niigata Prefecture which is the neighbor of Fukushima just to the west. Since the March 11, 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster, I’ve been to Fukushima several times. Once I came as close as 20 kilometers to the damaged nuclear reactors. Nobody I know … Continue reading →
Rescued by two Muslim men from Pakistan on a rainy day
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July 16, 2012: The previous day I sprained my back while on the road in Hirosaki City, Aomori Prefecture. This morning when rising at 5:20 a.m. from the bed in the capsule hotel where I spent the night, an excruciating lower back pain greeted me. It was difficult to stand up and walk. To make matters worse, though I expected the weather to be fair and sunny, a low pressure … Continue reading →
Last week of June adventure to Hirosaki and back
June 29 – July 1, 2012: This weekend I went to Hirosaki and back in only 12 cars traveling 768 kilometers. The trip to Hirosaki was the fastest ever! It took only 4 cars with an average waiting time of only 9 minutes.wait between cars. I arrived at 3:00pm. On the return trip, a man took me from Noshiro city to Honjo. Rather than take me to Route 7, he … Continue reading →
Third June Hitchhike Adventure to Hirosaki
It’s now my 4rd trip to Hirosaki this month! The first one was with a friend who drove all the way, the rest by hitchhiking. I still have one more trip on the 29th of the month! Today was supposed to rain but it turned out sunny. The train to Majima was 25 minutes late which meant I started hitchhiking at 8 a.m. Rather than walk up Route 7 as … Continue reading →
Japanese musical instruments: The Koto and the Shakuhachi
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 →
June 16th Adventure from Hirosaki back Home
I began my journey home later than usual, first a train from Hirosaki station at 11:25 a.m to Nagamine, 3 stops out of town, arriving 10 minutes later. This puts me right on Route 7, a good place to hitchhike. After a relatively short wait of 19 minutes, a car with two 18 year old girls stopped and offered to take me to Odate City. Their names are Mari, and … Continue reading →
June 15 Adventure from Niigata to Hirosaki
June 15, 2012: The day is bright and sunny with thin and wispy cirrus clouds. Again as I did the previous week, I started off from Majima station on Route 345 at 7:35 AM. This time I didn’t catch the first ride till 8:25, about 50 minutes later. The driver was a cook on his way to work at a restaurant in Sasagarenagare, a spa and resort area in northern … Continue reading →
June 10 Adventure Hitchhiking from Hirosaki to Niigata
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 →
Summer Adventure Hitchhiking to Aomori City
On June 8, 2012: I hitchhiked 402 kilometers from Majima Station in Murakami, Niigata Prefecture, to Aomori City. The drivers consisted of one elderly couple, two recently married young men, a man about my age driving a large truck carrying tons of rice, a car with 3 ladies and a man, and finally, a middle age lady who took me to the very door of my destination. Hitchhiking from Niigata … Continue reading →
Repairing a Notebook PC
Toshiba Satellite J40. Broken CPU fan on the bottom right A local company gave me the laptop PC you see in the photo. They often give me older PCs because I’m actually doing them a favor to take away their junk! It costs money in Japan to dispose of materials. I was interested in this particular laptop PC because the keyboard looked so clean. It was as if it had … Continue reading →
Hitchhike Adventure from Hamamatsu City back to Niigata
Sunday, May 20, 2012: Today was the last day of my trip and my return to home. The challenge was to hitchhike 600 kilometers (about 400 miles), the same distance I traveled on day one of my journey, but this time I would be crossing Tokyo. It’s not easy to cross Tokyo by hitchhiking, I usually take the train. Today I was successful. After waiting a whole hour at Mikatahara … Continue reading →
