The R3dragon’s Blog

YEA! Another Food Related Post!!!
When it comes to beans they’re three realities…
1. Beans that come in a can that you can find at the grocery store sometimes aren’t as good as hand cooked beans…
2. Hand cooked beans are special, but beans that you can buy in a can are really convenient.
3. When all there is [...]

So about a week or two ago I decided to go to Sapporo city on the Northern Island of Hokkaido over the weekend to see the famed “Sapporo Snow Festival.”
If you’re unfamiliar with the festival it’s simply the biggest winter festival happening every year in Japan.  So famous that if you just said “yuki matsui” [...]

It’s a sunny day here in Mutsu for a chance… lately it’s done nothing but snow every single day with varying levels of intensity. It’s hard to describe sometimes… especially since I’ve never lived in such a place before.
When I used to live in the Northwest we used to joke at all the terms the [...]

(If you want to just know about how to use your Japanese Credit Card skip down to Using a Japanese Credit Card.)
I’m pretty excited to say that I purchased a new couch yesterday. Since back when I first arrived in Mutsu I’ve gotten these “stories” about the couch in my apartment. It’s an old beige [...]

Probably a good description of Mutsu is from any typical visitor that comes here. It really has nothing going on at all from the outside. In fact, if people didn’t have GPS’s equipped they might not even know they’re in Mutsu. Ok perhaps that’s a bit harsh to say about this place. However, for that [...]

The perfect time to walk in the door is 7:53 am. From 7:53 it takes 1-2 minutes to take off your snow boots and find the locker they go in. Then after puting on your “indoor shoes” it takes about another minute to get to the teacher’s room. When one enters that teacher’s room they’re [...]

Snow, sure I’ve seen it before… From where I’m from I see a little fall here and there occasionally around Thanksgiving or around Christmas. Some people even wonder each year whether or not it’ll be a white Christmas or not… and… if it is… well for us that’s a big deal.
The thing is, no matter [...]

And finally he sits down to write out the last witty thing before saying goodnight. His head is swarming with useless thoughts of whether he forgot this or that. Ahead of him lays a journey far, and in a way he doesn’t feel the excitement as some might.
For him, going somewhere means leaving something behind. [...]

A few weeks into 2009 I posted a listing of books (follow the link to read it) I’d try to read before 2009 was over… The result was that I read Bruce Feiler’s Learning to Bow (twice actually). I honestly felt The Great Wave By Christopher Benfey was very dry and hard to read so [...]

It’s finally a new year with much to look forward to and much to get done. I find it daunting also to take a step back and plan out what all I need to accomplish this year…
Generally, in regards to this blog, I feel that I didn’t write as much as I should have in [...]