Ha! Well, what can I say? It’s not quite how I remember it…though it is a good translation into Japanese….

But they aren’t at Shinagawa Station. But check out who is…

Rudolph!

Once, many years ago in Seattle, my feathered friend and I were having dinner with some guys who had studied martial arts in Japan. One of them told us, “Make sure you have a purpose when you go to Japan.” At the time, I thought it was good advice, but I didn’t realize how very true it was. It is easy enough to get lost in a jungle of unrealized potential and forgotten dreams in your own country, but when you move somewhere like Japan, things get really nuts.

In the time I have been in Japan, I have changed a lot. But I am also still the same person, at heart. But I can honestly say I haven’t always put my best foot forward. I have often let myself get discouraged. The truth is, I thought I would be doing a lot more impressive things by now. But at the same time, I can be proud of the fact that I have not given up, and I have made slow, steady improvements.

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I have been thinking for a while about doing more posts about food. The food in Japan rules–it is one of the best things about being here. I want to do more posts about food that I buy when I eat out, as well as food I make at home. I have taken some pictures, so I will be sharing them from time to time in the future.

Right now, I am entering one of the busiest times of the year for me, and my computer also is out of commission, so the frequency of my posts might not be as much as I would like, but I will try to at least put up some photos.

Here is a photo I took at my high school on Thursday. This is a bento (???which is a Japanese style set lunch box. This is actually a very simple and cheap one from my high school. Convenience stores, like 7-11 have good ones, and you can also buy them from stations and even on long-distance trains. You can get much better ones than this, of course. But even though this was was simple, it was good.

Here is the high school where I teach on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It is a private school (this is Takushoku High School. It is affiliated with Takushoku University, which is a famous university in Tokyo.).

I took this just a few minutes ago, from Tamagawajosui Station. I am here right now.

Well, last week came and went, and somehow, I survived. It was just one of those weeks. But I did have a few good experiences. I walked around an area of Tokyo that I had never seen before, and the leaves were changing. I even found a park. I took many more pics, but for now, here is an example.

This was not too far from Mitaka Station.

The last couple days have been…pretty nuts. Whatever could go wrong, has. Don’t worry, I am ok, just really busy. I really want to write more and share more pictures, but right now I have too much going on in the “real world.” So I will take a few days off from worrying about not posting. In the meantime, if you’re looking for something to good read, check out my friend’s blog.

See you again this weekend.

This is a really beautiful park, not too far from where I live. A couple weeks ago, my morning classes were cancelled, so I took a walk through Inogashira Park, which is near Kichijoji Station (just a couple stations west of where I live.)

Unfortunately, I don’t go here very often. But looking at these pictures, I realize I need to go more. Enjoy.

You can see the SmugMug gallery here or the Flickr Gallery here.
(They are the same. And they both feature fullscreen slideshows.)

Monorails are not toys. They are a very effective form of transportation. Too bad more cities don’t build them. This is the Tama Monorail. I took this at Tamagawajosui Station (?????), near the high school where I teach a couple days a week.

By the way, I have Part Two of my SmugMug vs. Flickr series just about done, but I want to add a couple things. In the meantime, let’s do a little comparison. This is the same picture, embedded from Flickr (Top), and Smugmug (bottom). The galleries they are in are identical. It’s the same picture, but it looks like the SmugMug version is a bit brighter, at least on my monitor.. At any rate, you can click on either picture to go the gallery. Which do you like better?

Flickr Version

SmugMug Version

One of the many things that makes Gmail such an incredibly powerful and useful email solution is its use of keyboard shortcuts. (Yahoo Mail also has shortcuts, as does Windows Live Hotmail (see this list)

But there is a problem. Recently, I have been on other sites, like the Administration page of this blog or other websites, and I have hit “g” then “i” which on Gmail means “Go to Inbox.” If you’re in Gmail, that will refresh the page and load any new email. But lately, I’ve been doing that on all kinds of sites, and of course, nothing happens.

I don’t know. It struck me as kinda funny.

Keyboard Shortcuts for popular Webmail Services

• Gmail Keyboard Shortcuts
• Yahoo Mail Keyboard Shortcuts
• Windows Live Hotmail Keyboard Shortcuts

Between Gmail shortcuts for my email, and Quicksilver on my Mac, I don’t take my fingers off the keyboard too much anymore. How about you? Do you enjoy using keyboard shortcuts or do you prefer using your mouse?