Lancia Delta, some rare Subarus and more…

Documenting the process of getting a MT driver’s license in Kagoshima Prefecture.

I had an opportunity to visit this family run brewery located in Tarumizu last weekend. I was given a private tour of the facility with one of my teachers who lives nearby. Originally, I was told the name was Yagi Shuzou, but apparently it changed to Yachiyoden one or two years ago. In any case, […]

This is the first in what I expect to be an ongoing collection of snapshots. There are plenty of incredibly high-performance (and, reciprocally, incredibly low-performance) cars roaming the streets. If only their existence here wasn’t pure irony, with standard 50km/h speed limits and 100km/h max on the expressway. If you are caught at over 120km/h […]

Two quick snaps from my cell phone camera: Ash fall in Kanoya which looks deceptively like snow in the sodium-vapor parking light Joyfull with yellow ash bags on the curb waiting for collection.

So, it has been a busy couple of weeks between work, weekend trips, and attempting to recover from a mysterious knee injury. All is well now, work has slowed down a bit while students take term exams and my knee is almost fully healed (just in time for this weekend’s 10K race at Sakurajima). With […]

A particularly large amount of ash flew over the Osumi peninsula this morning. The cloud followed me from Kanoya to my school in Nejime, leaving my car nicely coated in gray. Slowly creeping over the apartment. Looking south. Mos Burger’s bright red a-frame roof, soon to be less bright red. A JSDF plane flies into […]

Despite not having classes, today ended up being quite busy. The morning started out with three letters in my mailbox at school: In case you are curious, the numbers on the outside are chosen by students (and teachers!) so they do not have to put their name. When I reply, I write their number on […]

Sakurajima erupting under the waxing gibbous moonlight. We were greeted with the same hail-stone pelting of ash to and from the Sakurajima Ferry yesterday. Driving through it was quite an experience. The cloud blocked out both Sun and Moon, swirling around passing cars and headlights. The Black God continues breathing.

Menko, めんこ, is a game very similar to Pogs (admit it, you owned some pogs). The cards (also called Menko) are made from thick cardboard and were originally found inside packs of cigarettes and candy. The objective of the game is to flip your opponent’s card over by tossing down one of your own. If […]

This morning I woke up to see around 6cm of snow outside my kitchen window. I couldn’t believe it actually snowed here. Sure enough, there it was covering the base of Mt. Ontake right outside my kitchen window. Finally, wiping snow off of my car instead of ash. A nice change of pace… it almost […]