So one day I went for a walk...

At this point I am half way through my time here in Japan, and I am deeply embroiled in fighting a weapons-grade Japanese cold. As I have spent time with my host Mandy for nearly a week, she has certainly been exposed to my cold germs, but aside from a bit of a sniffle she has been unscathed.  The power of an immune system that is conditioned to the local germs is clearly on her side and not on mine. Yesterday was a holiday, so Mandy was free to go adventuring with me, as I was determined not to let my cold completely swamp my time in Nagoya.  On the docket; Mariocart VR at an arcade downtown. I love VR, as evidenced by the fact I own my own system back home.  What I enjoy most about VR is being able to expose people to it for their first time as well.  Short of having my own system with me, this seemed like the next best thing. It was an excellent experience, and both of us had a lot of fun racing through the Mariocart world. But after the VR session was ov...

Typhoon Hagibis passed through Japan causing significant damage to the southeastern coast, and sadly caused many fatalities. For me, I was lucky to be on the edge of the massive storm.  I look back now and realize how fortunate I was to be drawn into staying longer in Kyoto that I had originally planned. The initial idea was to spend one week in Kyoto, then live on the road as I moved towards Tokyo, making only short stops along the way.  However I fatefully decided to stay longer with my friends Noeli and Maca at the Hanakanzashi hostel, and in doing so unknowingly took myself out of the path of serious harm. Were I to have kept walking on the original schedule, I would have been two weeks further ahead, and dead center for the typhoon making landfall on the southern coast of Japan, at the mercy of an incredibly massive, powerful and indifferent storm. As it stood however I instead found myself staying north of Nagoya with an American Expat named Mandy, talking about ...