a Nick in Time

Author: nicknarigon

  • Mount Tsukuba (pronounced ‘scuba’)

    Mount Tsukuba is shrouded in myth, and the day we hiked to the summit, the valley below was shrouded in mist. Peaking at 877 meters (2,877 feet), Tsukuba is an hour and a half  north of Tokyo. Just take the Tsukuba Express from Akihabara Station for about 45 minutes (cost=1,150 yen) and then hop on…

  • Pinching yourself with battery cables or The day I spent at the immigration office

    Editor’s note: The following is a personal account of my experience renewing my spousal visa in Japan. Everybody’s situation is a little different, so if you are seeking advice, here are the websites that helped me the most: Blog it Japan, GaijinPot and here is a link to download the application and guarantor documents. My friend…

  • Tokyo Spring revisited

    Editor’s note: The following is an updated version of the last blog post. This new version will be published as a column in the Tampa Bay Current. If you want to skip past all of the words, brand new photos from Shinjuku Park, along with snappy captions, are at the bottom of the page. The…

  • Tokyo Spring

    Spring has sprung in Tokyo, Japan. It started about two weeks ago with allergy season. I won’t describe my own symptoms, because that will end everything for everyone before we even get started. But for two days, it was bad. And then it was over. For others, hay fever season ran for over a week.…

  • Taxes success!

    [Gross generalization alert] There are three things the Japanese excel at: paperwork, meetings and forming lines. Japanese children are taught from a very young age how to stand in line. Lisa tells me how when she was in kindergarten her teachers taught the children to touch their fingers to the shoulders of the person standing…