I'm in Nagano right now. Last night we stayed at the Jigokudani Onsen, and this morning we visited the Hell Valley Monkey Park. Through some strange coincidence (and without any prior knowledge or coordination) peglegpete happened to be watching the live monkey cam at the same moment and grabbed these two shots:


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No tongodeon air travel adventure is complete without a fiasco and today is no exception. I have just discovered that the first BART train comes through my neighborhood at 8:40. I'm supposed to be arriving at SFO no later than 8:50 which means BART is just slightly too late for me. I've taken BART on many early departures, but I've never departed from my ( Read more... )

In the past several years over christmas break I've headed to Japan for Santarchy Tokyo. As with the original This year a few things are different, both logistically and with regard to the overall plan:

• Santa Burstein has graduated law school and is working for an NGO in Cambodia.
  
• Friends of Santa Sneery have opened an office in Bangkok, ( Read more... )

Every year of the Heisei Era, two days before Christmas, Tokyo fills with the sounds of the Uyoku. Right-wing nationalist groups drive through the city or park on busy street corners with bullhorns to make loud nationalistic statements. Mainstream Japanese are embarrassed and try to ignore them. Uyoku are loud obnoxious conservatives like the ( Read more... )