The Rugby World Cup will be held in Japan for the first time later this fall, an event of much pride and excitement for the Japanese rugby enthusiast. One of the biggest such enthusiasts is a friend who as a side job sometimes does play-by-play commentary for national television, but whose main job is as an alcoholic-beverage wholesaler here in Kyoto.

The two spheres of his life combine to create a pair of commemorative saké (Japanese rice wine) products. I and some friends helped him with the English on the label.

Besides helping to make the English natural, we had [...]

The scene above is the entrance to a new large hotel nearing completion of construction. The workers putting the finishing touches on the interior have left their shoes at the entrance, and are presumably walking in socks or slippers. This mimics what one does at a Japanese home.

When the hotel opens, people will walk in this public area with shoes like any other business, but until the construction company turns it over to the owner, they treat it with great care, so that it's turned over in pristine condition.

I doubt that this would ever happen in America. When [...]

I've been testing a new cycling computer, a Bryton Rider 450. I was shocked to find out some information about its satellite-positioning features that isn't covered in the manual, so I'm sharing that info here.

As a bit of background, folks often use the "GPS" as a generic term for "satellite positioning system", but in reality, GPS is the specific satellite positioning system built and deployed (and offered as a gift to the world) by the United States of America. It used to be the only one, but now there are several. Russia has its unrelated GLONASS system, the European [...]

Last night we a short but intense snow flurry that dropped about 2" of snow in 15 minutes, leaving the mountains this morning with a nice frosting.

The building seen above is at Shogunzuka, covered in "Inside the “New” Temple Building at Shogunzuka Overlooking Kyoto" and, more widely, a bit earlier in "New Views of Kyoto from Shogunzuka’s New Observation Deck".

A bit farther north, hikers were enjoying the clearing on Mt. Daimonji:

The clearing is where the fires are lit during the Daimonji Festival each August, as covered in "Daimonji: Kyoto’s Least-Photogenic Festival", and in its photographic rebuttal "Daimonji [...]

The previous post, "Another Visit to the Shugakuin Imperial Villa in Northeastern Kyoto", ended with the photo of an old tea house. To give a better sense of its common, simple architecture, here's wigglegram of the room: