Joshua Zimmerman

How is the US Economy like Japan?

Posted by Joshua - 16/10/08 at 12:10:02 am

How is the US Economy like the Japanese Economy? For the answer speed ahead to about 3:30 on the below The Daily Show clip.

Yeah, its depressing, but at least my exchange rate is awesome right now.

Historic Kurashiki

Posted by Joshua - 15/10/08 at 11:10:32 pm

This past weekend I finally got around to visiting the historic city of Kurashiki in Okayama Prefecture. Something I’ve been avoiding for the past three years, even though its only a half hour away from me by train. I have no good reason for my aversion to the city except that I figured that there was no way for the city to live up to the hype.

There are two main reasons to go to Kurashiki; the old historic area and the theme park. I managed to see both during my afternoon there. The historic area is certainly worth seeing. Pretty and rather historic looking, in many ways it was more interesting and authentic than many historic areas of Kyoto.

One thing you’ll notice is how there are no ugly electrical wires hanging everywhere, something I think really distracts from the ‘historic’ nature of Kyoto. Bravo Kurashiki, bravo. The waterway is very scenic and you can even take little boat rides up and down it, though sadly they were all booked up for the day. If a boat ride isn’t your thing you could always walk into one of the many interesting museums, many of which are free.

The rest of the city was quite interesting. Around the historic area is a wealth of random shopping. Things I enjoyed seeing: the Australia Store and the Hello Kitty Store, though the latter was actually on the main drag of the historic area and in a historic building. Go figure. Special points of you understand why the samurai and the cowboys are hanging out together in that painting below.

If you were so inclined you could also go to the Tivoli theme park. What theme is that? Well its a Denmark theme. I know weird. It looks like Denmark, except its as Denmark would be if it had been taken over by Japanese people who were forced to pay for everything with expensive tickets. On the upside I bought some fun cheese there and ate a really nice hotdog.

As much as I mock the theme park it was randomly fun, and rather cheap as long as you didn’t go on any of the weird rides. Overall Kurashiki is a rather fun place to visit. I’d like to go back some weekend and try many of the fun look restaurants and bars that I saw. One tucked away wine bar looked like it had a lot of potential. But I’ll save that for another weekend.

How Japan Sees America

Posted by Joshua - 15/10/08 at 11:10:17 pm

Yes, I’ve come to believe this is very very true.

Though then again, thats probably how a lot of Americans view America, just with less katakana.

Diving Kashiwajima, Japan (again)

Posted by Joshua - 07/10/08 at 12:10:11 am

This past weekend I had the wonderful pleasure of going to Kashiwajima for a weekend full of diving. It had been nearly a full year since I last went to Kashiwajima, and I was looking forward to sharing the experience with several ALT buddies of mine from Fukuyama. Fellow ALTs Michelle and Huey who were finishing up their Open Water certification, and Crimson who was going diving for the first time in quite a few years. Together we piled into a car and drove for 6 hour to Kochi Prefecture with the team from Live Scene dive shop for a very interesting weekend.

(I’ve decided not to post the entire thing on the main page of my blog, as it is very log and very picture heavy. Click the link below to see everything.)

Continue reading Diving Kashiwajima, Japan (again)…

SCUBA Pool Dive

Posted by Joshua - 30/09/08 at 11:09:15 am

I’ve been really excited this year thanks to several English teachers in town showing great interest in diving. Two of them recently started doing their Open Water Diving class at my local Japanese dive shop, and another is starting diving again after a long break. Its been quite fun taking them to Live Scene Diving and having some other English speakers around.

(Click the link below to see all the pictures and video.)

Continue reading SCUBA Pool Dive…

Diving Shimane, Japan

Posted by Joshua - 25/09/08 at 12:09:18 am

Tuesday was a national holiday and I figured that this was prime time for me to do some SCUBA diving. So I woke up at 4 a.m. and took a 4 hour car ride with the fine folks at Live Scene dive shop. Our destination: Shimane Prefecture.

(Click the link below to check out all the photos and video.)

Continue reading Diving Shimane, Japan…

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