Dang it, these USB thumb drives are too small, that’s the second one I’ve lost/misplaced! And the moment I buy a new one the old one will appear theory hasn’t worked….
(0)Author Archive for taro
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Damn auto warranty scammers got my cell phone #. Prob a recent internet order, one which has my suspicions up right now. My waranty on my 22 year old Corolla is going to expire? Or maybe its my 26 year old LandCruiser? Or maybe its my 30 year old one?
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After I’m not sure how many years, finally making it to Hokkaido Japan in quest for some true powder. Perhaps a little late in the season, but there’s as good a chance on this trip as any before. Anyway, packed the new enourmous travel duffel with gear, more than I usually take. This will be a test of my iPhone in Japan and how well it’ll work as a Net device. I’ll attempt to use it to post to the blog. Be leaving in about 45 mins!
Dang, these AT&T people are all on drugs. All I wanted was an international data plan for my iPhone 3G. Two calls to AT&T & one to the Apple iphone support (he did a google search, not exactly a good indication) and they said my phone won’t work in Japan. Finally got someone to add the plan to my phone today.
(0)As long as were talking cars, just saw news that the revived Ford Taurus name (Ford Five Hundred I guess didn’t generate enough sales) will be getting a SHO version that is going to sell for 37,900. Almost $40K for a Taurus?! Yes it’s twin turbo AWD, but still…. I don’t think STi’s will have to worry.
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There was a blurb in local paper the other day about ninja, in Hawaii. Damn those sneaky ninja, how’d they get in here? Probably JAL, or ANA. This was a group from Igaueno representing the Igaryu Museum. I’d kind of forgotten about this until Derek gave me a buzz. Hey, it’s ninja, we really should go check them out. Now how much of a tenuous connection these performers have to the actual Iga ninja of feudal times, we will never know, you know how sneaky these ninja are. The actual performance was entertaining, a bit of a circus show almost. Certainly the kids enjoyed it, I’m sure a good many were enthralled and will be going home to play ninja for the next few days. And I think the adults like me who grew up watching samurai TV series were smiling and chuckling as it brought back memories of watching those dramatized sword fights as the hero skillfully slashed his way through the disposable minions as they grimaced and quickly died of screen. It reminded me of how I grew up running around the house in a kimono/yukata, with my little bamboo sword/dagger. How cool was that? When I went back to Japan after a long time away, putting on the yukata to go to dinner, the onsen and wear in the hotel suddenly brought back a familiar feeling. Continue reading ‘Cute as a… Ninja?’
I just rediscovered the drawer full of sharp things. The good ones are knives that she brought back from my grandparents place. The couple junk ones you can barely see are the ones she got here that don’t get used anymore. But those Japanese knives look pretty nice, and I don’t even think they’re the real good ones. One of them I spotted a price tag of +5,000 yen, around $50 so not your dollar/yen shop variety, but the super good ones run into multiple hundreds. There was a couple of the veggie cutting blades, sorta cleaver shaped, broad squarish and pretty thin. Decided to bring one of them out and use it yesterday. It’s a three layer blade, apparently fairly common for the consumer grade Japanese kitchen knives. Side plates are a softer more ductile steel, in this case stainless, and the center the harder grade edge steel. I thought this one might also be stainless, but apprently hagane as labeled on packaging is normal carbon steel. The knife is nice. Cuts amazing! Made some paper thin cucmber slices. Continue reading ‘Heirloom Cutlery?’
This past Sunday was the final regular race of this season’s SCCA Solo II auto-cross. I’d missed the last couple events due to events, which I’m sure if you’re reading this blog you know about. Stewing in my brain the past weeks was the thought of racing Mom’s Yaris. I really wanted to do it as something of my tribute to her, so I made up my mind on saturday. I tried fitting my 13″ race compound tires, but the Yaris brakes are too big. Imagine that, this little subcompact weighing the same and smaller than my FX has bigger brakes. Anyway, instead of trying to swap the 15’s of the FX, I decided to go bone stock. So except for taking out spare wheel, tools, wheel covers, and running gas until almost empty (almost too empty!) the Yaris was exactly like off showroom floor. Continue reading ‘Yaris Power!’
On cover of Japanese mini tupperware like container, I didn’t notice until I was eating my lunch the other day. I can’t figure out if this was a mistake and they meant to have “KITCHENWARE” and it got by spell check since its valid words, or if they really meant “KITCHEN WAR”. You can never tell. Sounds like an anime show. Don’t laugh, a few seasons ago there was Library Wars. And yes, it really was about special forces librarians battling an evil purple oppressive nazi looking government faction. The military hardware and action was actually pretty detailed. Almost believable if it weren’t for the pretty silly premise. I don’t have a problem with the information controlling regime, I have a problem with that regime and these library forces are supposed to be both sanctioned government branches of the same country, and that aside from this conflict, the lifestyle of the populace seems quite normal. Anyway, the same country that presented Library Wars made this container, so look out oppresive mass produced prefabed food outlets, the forces of home cooked packed lunches are valiantly battling to uphold the virtues of cooking with freely grown local produce! No preformed chicken blob for me, homemade daikon, carrot, and kuuri amamsu sumono for me! (Yes, that’s what I had in my Kitchen War container)
