The free (?) WiFi here in the Mumbai (Bombay) airport waiting lounge seems to work well if a bit sluggishly. To get access I had to enter my keitai number into a form and then they sent the login details by SMS email. I’m on my way down to Trivandrum in Kerala to meet with [...]
Funny how age can creep up on you. There I was, minding my own business as a thirtysomething, when suddenly the 16th rolled around and forty-fied me. WTF? Had I been paying more attention I might have ducked or something, but along with the typical surprise and alarm, advancing age also brings with it an [...]
I made my first trip to the Pacific Coast in Chiba Prefecture just east of Tokyo. The chosen destination was the semi-remote town of Onjuku, home to Onjuku Beach. (Listed here in group 3, or you can click on the approrpiate block in this map for a close-up of the beach area..) I had been [...]
We reclined on the roof of the Keio department store in Shinjuku, quaffing massive mugs of dark beer and shouting over the drums and singing of a ten-person taiko drum troupe providing that evening’s entertainment. I’d never seen taiko drummers perform there before, and I figured it had to be some O-bon related thing. It [...]