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So where were we? Oh, yes, Tampa Bay Comic Con!
For the last few months, it’s been increasingly more difficult to find the words for the little blank box of blogdom. The painful truth is that this blog has always been primarily a travel blog, and...
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Minneapolis is not Japan.
I know y’all are waiting for my Japan posts, and I promise they’re coming. I have some other stuff that needs to be posted, though, so I’m going to alternate between Japan and not-Japan for a bit....
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Arrival In Japan
From May 10th until June 13th of this year, I was in Japan. In those five weeks, I took nearly 2500 photographs. I have since parsed them down to 489 that are going to show up in this blog. I’m...
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Sleeping and Eating In Kanda
My base of operations while I was in Japan was a MyStays hotel near Kanda station. My room was thirteen square meters, with a very basic kitchenette. I had a tiny refrigerator, some cookware, a...
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Around the office, Tokyo Edition
Longtime readers of my blog know that I don’t really talk about my employment here. However, my primary reason for being in Japan was to work in the Tokyo office for five weeks. As a result, I spent...
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A brief aside regarding Japanese toilets.
vs. When I wrote the last few posts, I had originally intended to include a lot more commentary about the toilets in Japan. Homer Simpson put it best: They’re years ahead of us! Rather than discuss...
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The Tokyo Robot Evening Cabaret Show
Perhaps one of the single most touristy things that I did in Japan was to go to the Tokyo Robot Evening Cabaret Show in the Kabukicho entertainment district of Shinjuku. This was the single most...
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The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis
I thought it might be nice to take a quick break from Japan to show you art in Minnesota. While I was in Minneapolis, I took some time to visit the Walker Art Center. I particularly liked the...
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Visions Of Star Wars
Just before I went to Japan, I started looking into shows and events and interesting things to see in Tokyo. One of the first things I learned was that there was a Star Wars: Visions exhibit in...
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Tokyo’s Tallest, or Getting High In Japan
Given my well established love of very tall places, it is probably no surprise to anyone that I pointed out the view from Mori Tower in my Star Wars Visions post and the view from Granpark. Mori Tower...
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Zojo-ji and the East Imperial Garden
On the day that I visited Tokyo Tower, I also took a short walk from there to visit Zojo-ji. This Buddhist temple, founded in 1393, is the main temple of the Chinzei branch of Jōdo-shū Buddhism. The...
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Sanja Matsuri at Senso-ji
On the 16th of May, the first full Saturday after my arrival to Japan, I traveled to Asakusa to see the famed temple Senso-ji. Founded in the year 645, Senso-ji is Tokyo’s oldest Buddhist temple. I...
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Rail Travel And A Giant Gundam!
Two of my favorite things about Japan are amazing rail travel and giant robots. Naturally, I went out of my way to see both. This is the Marunouchi entrance of Tokyo Station, the main intercity rail...
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Throwback Thursday: Repatriation day plus one year.
A lot of my friends do this thing on Facebook called Throwback Thursday, where you post a really old photograph of yourself, but I realized a few days ago that this Thursday would be the first of...
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Akihabara and a Cat Cafe
Meanwhile, back in Japan… Akihabara’s Electric City is an amazing place. It is home to thousands of shops selling electronic gadgets, video games, anime and manga stuff, and more. When I first day in...
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Hiroshima
On my second full weekend in Japan, I bought a ticket for a Shinkansen ride to Hiroshima. By high speed rail, the trip takes a smidge over four hours. My plan for this weekend was aggressive and...
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Osaka
In the second weekend of my time in Japan, I did some very intensive travel. I started in Hiroshima, and on Saturday afternoon, I hopped over to Osaka. I took the rail directly into the center of...
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Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan
Before I left Osaka, I took a quick detour to the Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan. Between the rail stop and the aquarium entrance, there were themed paintings on flower boxes and the like. The aquarium...
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2015 Morikami Lantern Festival: In The Spirit of Obon
Allow me to step away from my neverending flurry of Japan posts to talk about… Japanese culture in South Florida! This weekend was the 2015 Morikami Lantern Festival: In The Spirit Of Obon. First, a...
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A Few Hours In Kyoto: Kinkaku-ji and Ryoan-ji
On Sunday morning, after I was done at the Osaka Aquarium, I took the JR West Special Rapid train, which takes just under half an hour to go from Osaka to Kyoto. From there, a short ride on the Kyoto...
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