- - - 3/28/2010 - - -

No Posts in March?

Filed under: — Andy @ 4:31 am

The beginning of the month I was pretty busy. Then around the middle of the month my computer broke, again. For some strange reason, it refused to start up. With work and other activities, I didn’t have much time to fix it. Anyway, now that my computer is fixed and I finally have some free time, I shall post March’s activities.

- - - 3/20/2010 - - -

Okinawa Whale Watching

Filed under: — Andy @ 5:42 am

It was the spring equinox and a three day weekend in Japan, what better time to go visit Okinawa again. Also, as I didnt get to see them when I lived in Okinawa, it was maybe my last opportunity to go whale watching before the whales left the Okinawa area again for the year. To go see the whales my friend and I went on a trip to some of the outer islands of Okinawa, Zamami and Akajima. The plan was to go to Zamami and take the whale watching boat out, then come back and go to Akajima for the afternoon and night. The following day was for snorkeling and free diving around Akajima…


On the boat searching for the whales. It was a very windy day and the sea was pretty rough.


Whale watching is a popular activity as there were many other boats out following the whales around wherever they went.


I was more interested in watching the whales then trying to take pictures of them from a swaying boat.

It was fun searching the horizon for whale blows, then yelling "over there!” as the boat driver sped over to get as close the to whales as possible. However after about an hour, I looked around and wondered where everyone went. Although I was fine, the wind and waves were so bad that out of the around 10 people on the boat about 7 of them got sea sick with half of those people trowing up on the boat. Unfortunately, my fun whale watching trip was cut a bit short.


After whale watching we went to Akajima. This is the view from the Lookout point. The outer islands of Okinawa have a much more beautiful ocean and scenery.

(more…)

- - - 3/13/2010 - - -

Lemon Muffin

Filed under: — Andy @ 4:46 am

Delicious as always… The sweets at my friends cafe, 9chair.

- - - 3/7/2010 - - -

New Green Phone

Filed under: — Andy @ 4:38 am

After 5 and a half years of using the same phone, I was finally forced
to get a new one. The reason being that Japan is moving to a completely
3G phone network, and phasing out the old analog one. Quite interesting
noting the fact that the US still has minimal 3G service in most places.

My new, green, phone has a lot of new features and gizmos. There is of
course mail, games, a 3.2 mega pixel camera, a video recorder, MP3
player and Video player(using a micro SD card), bar code/business card
reader, calender, schedule, alarms, and all the other basic features,
but there is also a built in TV (Absolutely free to watch) with built in
programming guide. There is also a Japanese-English / English-Japanese /
Japanese-Japanese dictionary that is pretty handy. Browsing the internet
is also very fast, and I still havent used the IM or blogging features.
All that is really missing is a GPS, but it finds my general location
anyway (within a few Kilometers). There are other features, but I think
most I will never use.

Anyway, its still not quite comparable to an iPhone, but it was free so
I really dont care. Also, my monthly fee is only about $30. I still like
my old phone, but I think I can get used to this new one pretty soon.