japan

  • Snowboarding and Snow Monkey Beer in Shiga Kogen, Japan

    Snowboarding and Snow Monkey Beer in Shiga Kogen, Japan

    My final stop on this lap through Japan was in at Shiga Kogen, Japan’s highest, largest ski resort. I joined a local Tokyo-based winter adventure club appropriately called “Tokyo Gaijins” on their Snow Monkey Beer Live trip to Shiga Kogen. The trip provided both awesome winter sports, as well as access to the “Snow Monkey…

  • Zenkoji Temple, Nagano, Japan

    Zenkoji Temple, Nagano, Japan

    During my most recent lap through Japan, I had the opportunity to spend a day at Nagano’s mystical buddhist Zenkoji Temple. I’m blaming my lack of sleep the night before for the absence of shots, but here’s a few from the time I spent there. In Nagano, I stayed at the 1166 Backpackers Hostel, which…

  • Shibu Onsen Snow Monkeys

    Shibu Onsen Snow Monkeys

    High in the mountains of central Japan, there’s a hotsprings “onsen” where Macaque snow monkeys bathe. Saori and I took an amazing trip to visit them, and soak in a few onsens ourselves.

  • Running the Tokyo Marathon

    Running the Tokyo Marathon

    My first stop in Japan was Tokyo, to run the 2015 Tokyo Marathon. Miho and I had originally entered the marathon registration lottery months before, however unfortunately, only I won an entry. I still had a good run without her – although not nearly as much fun or motivation to kick ass! Running through the…

  • Kyoto, Japan

    Kyoto, Japan

    Kyoto, Japan – the final stop on my journey through Asia, and certainly a beautiful one. I had just spent 5 days in Tokyo with friends, and although I really really really loved Tokyo, I wanted to experience riding on the bullet train, and wanted to see the Japanese cultural capital of Kyoto. Although Kyoto…

  • Roadtripping from Tokyo to Yokohama

    Roadtripping from Tokyo to Yokohama

    My friend Taeko was nice enough to come meet me in Tokyo, and after spending a few days there, her and I met up with another friend and the three of us set off by car down to Yokohama. More vending machines for ordering at fast food joints! Chinatown in Yokohama My favourite drink! Our…

  • Pre-Dawn at the Tsujiki Fish Market, Tokyo

    Pre-Dawn at the Tsujiki Fish Market, Tokyo

    A quintissential activity for any traveler visiting Tokyo for the first time is a pre-dawn visit to the tuna auction at the Tsujiki Fish Market – and I did just that. About 4 in the morning, trucks full of flash frozen tuna start arriving and offloading the fish into the auction house. Small forklifts zip…

  • Tokyo, Japan

    Tokyo, Japan

    Japan, at long last. It was the #1 country on my to-do list for many years, and I was glad to finally make it there. Although Japan is obviously not part of the traditional Southeast Asia travelers route, I was able to get a 10 day stopover there as part of my USAP return ticket,…

  • Tiny Living: My Top 5 Super Small Japanese Living Arrangements

    Tiny Living: My Top 5 Super Small Japanese Living Arrangements

    After living in NYC for about 7 years, I thought I was fairly well accustomed to living in small quarters – studio apartment, storage everywhere, continuously optimizing my use of space. But of course, the Japanese have us New Yorkers beat when it comes to efficiently using space. After a bit of digging around on the…

  • Video: 9 hours Capsule Hotel – A Monocle Report

    Quick video today – Monocle Magazine just posted an interesting video on a new Capsule Hotel in Japan. I’d love to stay at a place like this someday! From Monocle: The 9 Hours is the brand new capsule hotel unveiled in December 2009 by Tokyo-based Cubic Corp. Designed in a collaboration with designer Fumie Shibata…

  • SXSW Panel – Japanese Mobile Leaders Forum

    SXSW Panel – Japanese Mobile Leaders Forum

    Panel – Japanese Mobile Leaders Forum Summary: “Japan” “Mobile” “Social Media” – what do you see when you have these words together? Cyber utopia? Shrinking Galapagos? Ninjas with high-tech swords? It’s about time we know what the real scenes are in Japan. With the leaders of the mobile social media in Japan, we will discuss…

  • SXSW Panel – Big in Japan: Outreaching to a Unique Market

    SXSW Panel – Big in Japan: Outreaching to a Unique Market

    Panel – Big in Japan: Outreaching to a Unique Market Japan has ubiquitous high-speed coverage and a voracious appetite for tech gadgets, however, their tools have developed with entirely different features than other countries. For example: Japan’s “”Galapo-phones”” commonly include streaming TV and multi-character sets, Mixii and Gree each have more than 30 million users…

  • Lonely Planet: Japan

    Lonely Planet: Japan

    My favorite types of books to to buy are travel guides, because that means I’m going somewhere. Today I bought the Lonely Planet Guide to Japan. Cheers! (posted from the WordPress iPhone app.. which gets 2 out of 5 stars.)

  • Stunning new HD video from the Canon EOS 5D Mark II

    Stunning new HD video from the Canon EOS 5D Mark II

    The yet to be released Canon EOS 5DmkII, in addition to 21 Megapixel stills, also takes full 1080P 30FPS video, Akihabara News just posted another stunning, unofficial Canon EOS 5DmkII HD video, taken with presumably a pre-production sample of the camera. It goes on sale at the end of the month, at which point expect…