I realized today it’s been a little more than a year since I started to use WordPress blogging software. My first post was on January 7, 2009. I’ve grown used to it and think it’s probably better overall and easier for me than the HTML / CSS hand coding coding method I used to use. Not that it’s not good to learn HTML and CSS. Because I know these technologies, … Continue reading →
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1Kevin and Yuriko Jan. 10: I had to make an emergency trip to Oyama city in Tochigi prefecture to fix a PC. Oyama city is a good 270 kilometers from home. It was snowing this morning, not a particularly good day to hitchhike! In order to save time and avoid hitchhiking during the snowfall, I took a train to a station about 30 kilometers away from where I hoped to … Continue reading →
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1The red line shows my trip. From November 30th to December 5th, I circled central Japan and reached my year-end goal of 90,000 kilometers distance hitchhiked from August 2003. In 16 vehicles I covered 1420 kilometers passing through Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto and Osaka. This trip also broke my previous record of 2005 of kilometers traveled in one year. An interesting person I met on the way to Tokyo was a … Continue reading →
University professor Dr. A. Kusumi who took me to Niigata from Hirosaki city in Aomori Prefecture Again I went to Aomori city and back, 1060 kilometers, this time in 12 vehicles which includes two trucks. The highlight of the trip was to meet A. Kusumi, a professor who teaches environmental research at a university in Nagoya. I met him at the entrance of the Tohoku Expressway near Hirosaki. His car … Continue reading →
November 29, 2009: While hitchhiking to town I noticed a lady walking toward me from a distance with what appeared to be her car parked by the side of the road behind her. I correctly assumed she was going to offer me a ride. She had another lady friend with her who was the driver. They seemed a bit overly impressed to meet me which caused me to become suspicious. … Continue reading →
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1A man who took me to Murakami City in Niigata Prefecture October 30, 2009: I needed to be in Odate City in Akita Prefecture on November 1st for an appointment at 9:00 AM. Odate is the birthplace of Hachiko, the faithful dog that would come to meet his master at Shibuya Station in Tokyo when he arrived returning from work. Hachiko continued to do this every evening — even after … Continue reading →
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2November 2: Fedora Linux version 12 is due to come out on November 18, but I couldn’t wait to try it out and installed the yet beta version. Improvements from Fedora 11 that I’ve noticed: The default video driver recognized my dual monitor setup and automatically gave me the correct screen resolution and spanning monitors. Gnome seems to run faster. Terminal now comes up instantaneously. Many of the applications appear … Continue reading →
My friend Daniel sent me this photo of him with Gary Sinise, the actor who played Lt. Dan in the film “Forest Gump”! He seems to be a really nice guy to pose for a photo with one of his fans. I learned that Gary was born in Blue Island Illinois which is only 9 kilometers (5.6 miles) from where I was raised in Hegewisch, a neighborhood of Chicago. Download … Continue reading →
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1Asari Toru who drove me a distance of 200 kilometers October 25: I’m in Aomori city and on the way back home to Niigata. Rather than go back the way I came along National Route #7, I decided to try the Tohoku expressway that runs through Sendai. The first driver was on his way back home to Akita City after attending a Rugby match in Aomori. He offered to take … Continue reading →
The good Lord blessed my efforts and a man driving a truck, Mr. Kawamoto, picked me up after only a few minutes and took me all the way to the door of my destination! At first Mr. Kawamoto said he would take me to Hirosaki, about 3/4 of the way to Aomori City, but then he said if I wasn’t in a hurry, he would take me to Aomori city … Continue reading →
Route 49 by Lake Inawashiro, Fukushima Prefecture October 14, 2009: Today I went to Sendai via the same route I took on my adventure to Aomori via Fukushima on Sept. 17, 2009. I thought it would be a piece of cake considering that Sendai is only 290 kilometers or a bit less than half the distance to Aomori. This time, however, I got stuck at Aizuwakamatsu City in Fukushima for … Continue reading →
