Hakone

We went to Hakone for a couple of days at the end last month.

It rained almost the whole time, but at least the rain meant it wasn’t so hot.

Bacon Overload

I was in Sweden for a week and ate more bacon than I have in the last year in Japan.

100 Days of Sam

In Japan it’s traditional to eat a special meal celebrating a baby’s 100th day.

A few more picture here.

Edamame

Fresh Edamame bought at a local festival.

It took longer to cut them off the stalks and wash them than it did to eat them.

Unidentified Beastie

Found this little critter lurking in the stairway of my apartment building.

No idea what it is, but I’m glad I didn’t find it inside the apartment.

Ducks

Some ducks wandering around near my apartment.

Bank transfer fees

The only time I can transfer money without paying a fee is when the destination account is not only within the same bank, but also at the same branch.

How secure is Edy?

When I tried to pay for something with my Edy card earlier today it was declined because there was not enough money on it.

I thought that was a bit odd since I had loaded 5000 Yen onto it only last week, so I checked the transaction log with the card reader on my laptop.

Unfortunately it only shows the last 6 transactions, and only the amounts, no store or vendor name. I can account for 5 of the transactions, but I am 100% certain that I did not use it to buy something for 400 Yen at 23:29 on Tuesday evening. Nor did the card ever leave my possession.

So now I’m wondering how this has happened. Hopefully when I manage to contact the card issuer they’ll be able to give more detailed information.

Umbrellas

Discarded umbrellas collected and piled up outside Shin-Kawasaki train station.

Apparently people don’t like to carry an umbrella around all the time. If it rains they buy a cheap one and then throw it away.

Towel Day

Today is Towel Day.

On the 25th of May, as a tribute to the late author Douglas Adams, fans around the universe proudly carry a towel in his honour.

Yumemigasaki Zoo Park

Some photos from Yumemigasaki Zoo Park.

According to their webpage they have 400 animals. Not bad, considering the entrance is free.

And it’s only 20 minutes walk from our apartment, so quite nice when stuck for something to do on the weekend.

Twitter spam

I don’t use my Twitter account much, and the feed is set to private, so only my “followers” can see it.

Despite that, I still keep getting “follow requests” from random people, mostly spammers, but also recently like this.

Obviously I haven’t clicked on the link. It’s clearly going to be some kind of spam, or more likely it leads to a malicious website that’ll try to install spyware or a virus/trojan.

I wonder how many people just see the hot girl, the mention of “private pictures”, and click it anyway without thinking?

Twitter spam screenshots set on Flickr.

Shinjuku

I had a bit of a walk around in Shinjuku yesterday and took a few photos.

Is your wireless wavelength unstable?

Q7. Is it OK to run the learning session through Wireless LAN?
A7. It depends on the radio wavelength. Sometimes the Wireless LAN wavelength can be unstable so it is highly encouraged to go through learning sessions through the wired LAN.

I have adjusted my wireless LAN wavelength to make sure it is stable, thus ensuring an optimal learning experience.

Ginga Kougen Silver Bottle

Found the bottled version of Ginga Kougen in a couple of the local supermarkets. Most of the stock was the Star Bottle but a few were in this Silver Bottle. I’m wondering if was a special limited edition because I haven’t seem them again.

Both seem to taste nicer than the canned version, but I didn’t really notice any difference between the two.