Every Wednesday at 1 o’clock I take Japanese lessons. Every Tuesday at 10 pm I talk on skype with Lisa’s brother Yuichi for one hour. I help him with English, he helps me learn Japanese. Am I fluent? Hello no. But my confidence in speaking out in public places has been growing. The other day…

My life has become dependent on a little blue dot. This little blue dot I am referring to is the directional decoder on the google maps app on my iPhone 4S. Of course the iPhone 5 can now be ordered, and has reportedly ditched google maps for its own GPS service, but I will more…

In my last two posts I spent an inordinate amount of time bitching about Tokyo. Sorry ’bout that. Apparently I was in a bad place. And the sweltering weather (4th hottest summer in Tokyo) was causing a bad case of crankiness. Well, today I have taken some of nature’s prozac (beer) and am feeling much…

Nothing much good happens in a karaoke bar after midnight. Song selections gets sloppy. Voices that started out at a 6 become a 3, only at a much higher volume. And good taste joins Ruby Rhod in the guest cabin. This is the point we reached last Saturday night. And these are things that were…