There is a small but growing Python community in Japan. Many people, even some of those Python enthusiasts who living in Japan, are unaware of this and don't know who any of these people are. There are a lot of reasons for this but the number one reason is probably the large language barrier between Japanese speakers and non-Japanese speakers. Currently it can be kind of hard to know who's in[...]

Recently I've been writing a lot of blog posts about programming topics and I haven't really talked about much of the many things that have happened recently. Two big things and many many small things have happened recently. I'll start with the big things and perhaps blog about some of the smaller things at a later time. ### Big thing #1: I got a new job. I had been looking for a new job fo[...]

Today a man drove into a crowded group of people in Akihabara and then got out of his car and started stabbing and slashing people with a knife. 7 people were killed and 11 people injured/wounded. Akihabara is the electronics shopping district in Tokyo and was closed to cars today so the road was full of pedestrians. From what I gather from the news is that the man drove his car into a pedest[...]

Living in Japan there are a few things that you might have the unfortunate chance to experience. Today, a person who lives in my building commited suicide. The building where I live is small so the person lived just 6 doors down from me. The night started when a police officer knocked on my door. A strong odor was coming from someone's room and everyone in the surrounding buildings was forc[...]

I know it doesn't look like much but it's the first snow since I came to Japan. I took the photo above on my way to work but it snowed more during the day. I guess it really is about once every two years or so you get a snowfall in Tokyo. It was also a first for my colleague from Okinawa and another from the Phillipines who have never seen snow in their whole lives. They were asking all kinds[...]

Recently I read an article on gyaku that says that Japan is pushing forward with passing laws to regulate open communications. It seems to be targeted at protecting young people from public online sites and mobile content but the nature of the law means that the regulations will extend to blogging and to online sites such as 2channel. This looks like something me and my fellow bloggers in Jap[...]

Starting two days ago, Japan will be fingerprinting any foreigner that enters Japan. You can check out some of the media response in my shared news items. Japan becomes the second nation in the world to start finger printing foreigners entering the country. However, unlike the U.S. even foreign residents, not just visitors, will be fingerprinted. Of course SOFA members are exempt, as they ex[...]

The pilot of the Enola Gay that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, Paul Tibbets, has died. He was a staunch defender of the plan to drop the bomb on Hiroshima, saying it saved lives when compared to the prospect of a full scale invasion of Japan. A point of view that is very controversial in Japan. Somewhat recently the Defence Minister of Japan, Fumio Kyuma, was forced to resign because of state[...]

It's been a little while but I'm back with the comings and goings of day 2 of our trip to Hakone. So without further ado lets get started! Reiko and I woke up early at our Ryokan, and went for an early morning walk down to Lake Ashi to see if we could see Mt. Fuji. Unfortunately that objective was doomed from the start but we had a nice walk, enjoying the crisp morning air, and brilliant sun[...]

Yesterday, Reiko and I got back from Hakone. Reiko planned a nice trip for my birthday. We left on Saturday and came back the next day. Hakone is about two hours away on the Odakyuu train line. We went to Hakone for the nature scenery, but most people go there for the Onsens (hot springs/hot baths), and health spas, since they are all over the place. It seems every other bus stop is named 'so[...]