Withoutsails Blog

So I just realized that I hadn’t blogged in over 4 months. Wow! I suppose that’s better than the one Christmas card per year thing though.

Life in Japan is great! Aside from the earthquakes and typhoons over the past few days, the weather has been great. Hot and muggy, but great. A friend complained that I didn’t have air conditioning the other day and that prompted me to purchase a unit for my living room. I have to admit that it is a lot nicer now. I’m not a big fan of the A/C but it has a de-humidifier setting that I am getting used to.

I am still playing vollyball.

Last month I made a trip to Korea. We have an office in Seoul and I visited it and did a tiny bit of shopping. I was surprised to see that pastel ties decorated with rhinestones seem to be in fashion in Korea right now. Kinda funny. The food was nice in Korea. A coworker took my party to Todai (an Asian buffet they have in Las Vegas too) which was really nice. The yen is very strong against the won right now as well so that made things all the nicer.

If anyone is every going to Seoul, I suggest staying at the Seoul Residence located near Samsung station and COEX. For 70 bucks/night you get a huge room with a kitchenette, washing machine (free), big bathroom, and lots of closet space to hang up clothes.

This week also marks the start of the O-bon holiday in Japan- a Buddhist holiday. A lot of my clients are closed, but we are all busy at the office. I am taking Monday off though and have lots of plans with friends over the weekend.

So things are good.

If anyone else has had an adventure this summer it sure would be good to hear from you!

Cheers!
Captain Adam

Tags: Fun, Japan // 588 Comments »

I went to Taiwan for on Monday and flew back to Japan Wednesday morning. It was a pretty crazy trip- really fast and no time to do any sight-seeing. I attended the LISA Asia Forum 2009, a localization industry standards conference. My impression of Taiwan was split. On one hand it was fun to see another country, but on the other hand, I was thankful to be living in Japan. Taiwan still has a long way to come in terms of cleanliness and quality of service.
Now, it’s back to the daily grind of surviving the spending freeze that most of our clients have implemented to weather out the slowdown that is affecting the world.

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It’s getting to be that time of the year again over here in Japan. The cherry blossom are starting to bloom. It also marks the end of the allergy season (Feb.-Mar.). That means that people will stop wearing those masks all the time.
It has warmed up significantly though. We are pretty much in the high teens (celcius, mind you) which means no more down jackets and heavy wool socks! Yay!
Next month I head to Taiwan for work. While just a 2-day trip (it’s nice to be based in Japan) I am hoping to see a site or two and have some nice food. We’ll see how that turns out though. Other than that, I’m thinking that it is time to plan another adventure in Asia. Any suggestions on where I should go? Since it is getting warm, I’ll probably avoid Thailand and those countries. Maybe somewhere more northern would be nice…
At any rate, things continue to run smoothly. Here’s to clear waters ahead!

Cheers,
Captain Adam

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After a hectic week of work in the US, I am finally back in Yokohama.
It has definitely taken awhile, but I think that Yokohama is “home” now. How long I’ll be here is still up in the air, but for now, I’m pretty comfortable. I have a good life, some good friends and who knows, things may even get better!
This time, I spent a week in Provo at the home office and then a couple days in Oregon before coming back. I thought to keep my swimming going while over there and brought my gear and everything… only to be greeted be the dirtiest pool I’ve ever seen at Gold’s Gym in Provo. Seriously, this pool didn’t even have a filter. It was just a concrete hole with water in it. Too make things worse, there were people in the pool with clothes on. Pretty nasty.
Needless to say, my throat started hurting that night and the vigorous schedule didn’t really allow me for any real rest time. So here I am today, back in Japan, fighting a cold I picked up in the slime pits of Provo. Bleh.

Other than that, things are smashing. I bought some new networking equipment while in the US and after hooking it up was pleasantly surprised with increased range and speed.

Cheers!
Captain Adam

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Well, the year is coming to a close. Though I didn’t make it back home for Christmas, I was able to get a little bit of that Christmas feeling here in the land of the rising sun. The picture below is of my employees and me at a mall near my office.

ML Japan staff in Queens Mall

Most of Japan celebrates Christmas like we do Valentine’s Day. It’s a big date night and lots of people propose. The big holiday of course is the New Year. Most of Japan shuts down for a few days on either side of the 1st (this year from Dec. 29-Jan. 4) and heads back home to spend time with family and friends. Quite a bit of sake, beer, wine, and anything else that will get one plastered beyond silliness  is consumed and good food is enjoyed.

Also, there is a tradition of doing a deep cleaning of one’s home and workplace. You know, cleaning all those things that you have put off all year long!

One thing we don’t have is snow. The mountains get it, but down here on the coast it just gets really cold. I suppose that is a blessing considering the incredible amount that the Northwest got this year. Have fun shoveling all that!

At any rate, I wish everyone the happiest and safest of holiday seasons!

Cheers,
Captain Adam

Tags: Fun, Japan // 940 Comments »

This year, I was in the US for Thanksgiving. While normally I try to get home from Christmas, it seemed like that wasn’t going to happen this year, so I decided to make a short trip for the Turkey-day holiday instead. All in all it was good. My older brother insisted on goading his younger, more impressionable cousin into a sort of eating contest with all the food mom had spent all day making- the bastard, but other than that, the dinner was good. Lots of turkey, mashed potatoes, yams, the whole works. 

I skipped out on the craziness of Black Friday shopping, even though jet lag had me awake and out of bed by 4AM. I did go out shopping later, after the rush, but managed to avoid any long lines. On the news, they were talking about how at a Walmart somewhere, an employee was trampled to death by 2000 moronic customers as they pushed their way into a store. Seriously, if these people actually went to work instead of waiting in line for 4-5 hours to save a few bucks, they would be able to shop at a nicer store. 

Well, a couple more hours here in the US and then I get back to Japan and work. 

Cheers!
Captain Adam

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