I got an iPhone today, and I hate it.

I've been longing for an iPhone since they were announced. They finally became available in Japan this summer, just prior to my trip to The States. Now that I'm back, I've finally procured one.

I'll admit that the geek in me is interested in all the fun things one can do with an iPhone, but the overriding reason for wanting one is that I want a phone whose features I can actually use. Lots of cell phones have lots of features, but they're always hidden behind a user interface designed for [...]
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45 minutes before our arrival at Kansai International on our 13+ hour fight to Japan, my GPS unit told me that we were passing by Mt. Fuji. It was supposed to be 30 miles away, straight out the window on the right-hand side of the plane (port? starboard? I dunno, I speak English and use "right" and "left". I also use "get off the plane" rather than "deplane").

We were flying at seven and a half miles up (about 40,000 ft), and so if the weather had cooperated, the view of a 30-mile-away Mt. Fuji would have been a glorious. [...]

My trip to Ohio for the summer has finally ended, and so it's time for the annual "Back in Kyoto" post (just like 2007, 2006, and 2005).

This year we took Northwest Airlines, which afforded us a mid-day departure from Akron-Canton airport for a short hop to Detroit, and then a Detroit-Kansai flight that cuts out the west coast. That makes for an overall savings of several hours compared the Cleveland/Chicago/San Francisco/Kansai flight I've done many times on United Airlines. The shorter trip is wonderful, but one unfortunate side effect is that the longest leg is now 14 hours instead [...]

Walking around the ritzy (relatively speaking) area of downtown Vancouver during our recent trip there, I came across a scene that I thought existed only in the world of late-show monologues: a street corner with two Starbucks Coffees.

I kid you not.

The photo above is horrible, of course, but all I have to show for the slightly-memorable event. You can sort of see the green Starbucks awnings on the building catty-corner across the street.

Despite some odd quirks (which I've written about), I like the coffee at Starbucks, but while in Vancouver, we sought out small, local cafes when [...]

Here's a nice little sequence of pictures....

We're all super excited for Natalie and Alan(!)

Perhaps surprisingly, I'll be posting "Congratulations on the New Baby" next week, but it won't quite be for Natalie and Alan. My sister Marci is scheduled to deliver baby #2, a girl, a week from today. (Marci and Marty's baby #1 is Anthony's cousin Josh.)

So, we're all super excited for Marci and Marty, too!

Babies everywhere....