I swear I haven't forgotten about you!

The last few months have been quite the blur, between winding down life in Japan, catching up with friends and family in Winnipeg and planning my next excursion.

I have something in the works, I just want to do it correctly.

Soon. Soon. :)

Fukaura: Sunny Solstice Edition

One final road trip across Aomori before I leave. I needed to complete this last destination goal of mine, as it's a much more affordable one than trying to get down to Okinawa at this point. Next time, Gadget, next time.

Now you're cooking... with KANJI!

What can I say, I'm on a roll. A combined effort of Google Translate (about time they added that 'draw' function. Jeebus.), Denshi Jisho and Weblio has unlocked all the information. Every appliance is different, so, I figger the more pages we get with this information for frustrated folks, the better.

Tuck in!

Rice Cooker (炊飯器)

Let's enjoy... heating and cooling!

Here's the remote for my "ルームエアコン" (ruumu eakon).

Bathing... Japan-style

Here is the control panel in my shower/tub room.

運転:Power

お湯はり保温: Fill with hot water

わかす保温: Fill with boiling water

呼出: Call button (HELP! MAYDAY! I forgot my rubber ducky~!)

浴室優先: Bathroom Priority (washing the dishes won't mess with your bath water)

あつめ: Hot

ぬるめ: Lukewarm

たっぷり: Fill

給湯:Water supply

ふろ:Bath

湯量: Amount of hot water

Spring is ON!

Needed a little spring, it wasn't coming up north quickly enough...

... so I went down to Tokyo.  The Fantastic Mr Flynn offered to put me up at his new Tokyo pad, but was at work during the day. I stowed my pack in a coin locker at one of the stations near his place and set off to amuse myself. My initial plan was to get my nerd-on in Akihabara. Buuuuuut the near constant deluge all day made this feel rather uninviting. I was having some trouble navigating the area anyway, possibly due to the lack of sleep from riding the highway bus down overnight. Yes. We'll blame that. :D