Information on Japan

Kiraku Ramen Shop

Jun

2009

I don’t know how many ramen shops there are in Japan. It must be in the thousands. In the small town called Torisawa which is in Otsuki City in Yamanashi where my wife’s mother still lives there is a small ramen shop called Kiraku. It is famous for the incredibly tasty chashu pork. Here are some ...

Amazing Stair Climbing Dolly 1

Jun

2009

I was outside of Otsuki Station and saw one of the most interesting carrying devices I’ve ever seen anywhere. This dolly can climb up and down stairs with large amounts of payload. It certainly beats the heck out of hauling these boxes up and down stairs the old-fashioned way.

2009 Hakata Trip

Jun

2009

I went to Hakata to get some Ramen and took these pictures of the station and the Yodobashi Camera store. Unforunately, they wouldn’t let me take pictures inside of the store.

Mt. Fuji Pictures at 270 km/h

Jun

2009

I was heading to Osaka in January 2009 on a beautiful clear day and took these pictures of Mt. Fuji. It was truly fortunate to be traveling on such a clear day.

300 km/h Shinkansen Ride

Jun

2009

I shot a picture of my GPS while going from Hiroshima to Tokyo. But, looking closer zoomed in, check out the maximum speed of 300 km/h.

Fukushima Ekiben

Jun

2009

I was returning from Aizu-Wakamatsu and picked up an ekiben meal on my way back to Tokyo. There were quite a few choices but this one caught my fancy because of the salmon flakes on the rice.

Takkyubin (Door-to-Door Courier Service) 2

Jun

2009

Everyone talks about using takkyubin and luggage forwarding. It’s pretty straightforward to do this at the airport counter or from a hotel when the bell desk takes care of it for you, but most non-Japanese speaking people are probably intimidated by walking into a Yamato (Kuro-Neko/Black-Cat) depot with suitcases to be forwarded to your next ...

Yukichi Honten Sushiya in Yokohama 2

Jun

2009

This is my favorite sushiya in all of Japan. The quality and choice of fish is top tier. The wikimapia entry shows the location out in the Konandai area of Yokohama.

Canon Gear List 1

Jun

2009

A friend of mine asked me the other night what kind of photography gear I have. I told him Canon with a bunch of model numbers but he was confounded and overwhelmed. I told him I made the difficult (and expensive) decision last year to switch and upgrade from Nikon to Canon because of the ...

2009 Kitajima Shoten Visit

Jun

2009

I visited 4-time Olympic gold medal winner Kitajima Kousuke’s family shop in Nishi-Nippori one rainy day in January 2009 to try the now famous menchi-katsu. I met his father and mother at the shop. They were very gracious in allowing me to take pictures of them and their shop and were really impressed that I ...