Climbing to the top of Mount Fuji is easily one of the highlights of my time living in Japan. I get a lot of questions about the climb and wanted to do this post to point people...

A “geekgasm” can be best described as a fit of intense geek joy; the play on the word orgasm is obvious. The geeks have truly inherited the earth but what are the greatest causes...

Are you a huge fan of Gundam? Have you not seen the Giant Unicorn Gundam currently on display in Tokyo? Shame on you! Save every penny you have for as long as you can until you...

All great sci-fi franchises set in space feature memorable ships that are often adored like they are living breathing characters in the universe. The Mandalorian is an awesome...

Japanese people are usually not fond of spicy food. Japanese food is generally not the type that will make your taste buds jump up and down in excitement. I wouldn’t say its bland...

For such a powerful and well-known guy, Goku is quite nice, don't you think so? He was kind enough to take a picture with me!

On July 22nd on the Tokaido Shinkansen, services were suspended between Hamamatsu and Nagoya stations due to a derailment involving two maintenance trains. As my “luck” would have...

On the last Sunday of October I went on another monthly trip with my friends in the One Love photography group on Flickr. The last trip was at the end of July when we went to...

Mount Fuji is a huge draw for tourists and so on all kinds of the mountain, there are various attractions competing for their attention. Going to Mount Fuji just to climb the...

Late last year I was invited to be part of a short film project. It was about Japanese Emperor Gotoba, who was exiled to Oki Islands after the Jōkyū Disturbance in 1221. The...

My L nendoroid was acquired over a year ago and due to my clumsiness and fiddling I have managed to break or lose all the neck joins that came with the figure (4 of them I...

The never-ending quest to improve my Japanese continues. After plateauing again because much of my brain power was focused on completing grad school, I am back on the Japanese studying train with Japanese Folktales for Language Learners. Reading interesting books in Japanese, like Unko Kanji Drill, The Boring Book, I Have a Complaint and others were useful exercises in my language journey and with that success in mind I have picked up this new book.

Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on what we have to be grateful for. The list often includes the loved ones, food and shelter that may surround us during the holidays.

If you somehow didn’t know from my numerous blog posts about trains in Japan and my chatter on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube etc., I am crazy about the Japanese train system, the...

Pope Leo XIV told students not to use artificial intelligence for homework, saying that AI ‘won’t stand in authentic wonder before the beauty of God’s creation.’

Nijo Castle is a massive complex in Kyoto Japan built in the early 1600’s as the home of the first Shogun of the Edo Period Tokugawa Ieyasu. The entire Nijo Castle grounds include...

My calico cat Polar was a beautiful cat, a very vocal cat with a personality that took me months to decipher, understand and adapt to. She was obedient one day and a rampaging,...

The story of Jimmy Cliff, who has died at age 81, is in part the story of reggae itself. He moved to Kingston in the early 1960s and joined a rising musical movement that would help give voice to the country's independence from Great Britain.

Every major tourist area has its main stop, that must see attraction all visitors must go to or their time in that particular area, town, city or country would be incomplete. Good...