I renewed my visa today, so I'm allowed to live in Japan for another three years. I'd applied for the renewal three weeks ago, and about a week or so ago, got the "come in and pick it up" postcard. I went today, bought 10,000 yen (US$85) worth of revenue stamps at the little shop around the corner, submitted the stamps, the postcard, and my passport (and with a bit of help from the kind, helpful man at the counter, the application for a multiple re-entry permit), and sat down to wait.

Unfortunately, it was ready soon and I [...]
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Yesterday when Anthony got home from preschool, he runs in and says "Daddy, Daddy, I want to build a computer." Now, I don't know where he got this idea about building a computer, but when Anthony says "I want to build...," it really means "I want you to build for me..." He's fully capable of building things by himself, as evidenced by the highway construction project from the other day, but when he actually pre-announces that he wants to build something, he's really telling me to do it.

I sort of thought the request was a bit odd, since he [...]

The Japanese school year begins in April, and today was the first day for some of the new first-year kids at Anthony's preschool to have their first bento. (It's a big day for them -- see "It's All About The Bento" for the story about Anthony's first bento back when he was a new student last year, and "First Bento of the New Semester" for a mid-term update.)

Anthony's mid-year class started having bentos last week, but on the occasion of the big day for his new schoolmates, I thought I'd post today's bento. It seems Fumie was inspired by [...]

When I write for public consumption (book, magazine article, blog post....), I try to be a bit careful with how I present myself. I have the most difficult time with misspellings because they could bite me on the nose and I still wouldn't sense them. I tend to be okay with grammar, and I pick up most typos because usually I read and reread many times before publishing. Some often sneak through anyway.

Part of this carefulness is evident in the first example I give in my book on regular expressions. On the first page (First edition, Chapter 1, Page [...]

We went for a short drive up to Kibune yesterday, a little area of restaurants and inns nestled in a long, narrow river valley that's been populated for at least 1,300 years. Although I bothered learning the name only yesterday, we've been up that way a number of times lately, with the first few pictures from this blossom & buds post from that area, also passing through on the trip with Kyoto's bridge to nowhere, and not even a month ago, snow and funky icicles.

The snow's all gone, of course, and soon their cherry blossoms will be as well, [...]