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Back in the UK in 8 weeks and counting.

Saw this on Tonari no Shibafu’s blog and thought I’d put mine up.

This should be funny for anyone who has seen the British version of The Office. I’m applying for jobs in England from Japan which is pretty frustrating. So I was pretty happy when I saw this message urging me not to apply for a job in Slough.

Job Related: Would you put your blog in your resume for "onliney" kinds of jobs as relevant experience?

(photo by will hybrid

Found a group on Flickr doing only HDR photography of Japan. It’s worth a look.

Via Del.icio.us popular

The newest building on the block in Osaka is Namba Hips. This is an amusement arcade centre with restaurants and pachinko. What makes it stand out apart from its unique shape is the freefall ride starting at 74 metres above ground level.

One ride costs 1000 yen or about 5 dollars. Below is a TV excerpt about it.

Updated flickr to pro. All of my 2000+ photos of Japan are visible again at http://flickr.com/photos/quaisi/

Hello and a Happy 2008 to you all. I’m back from an extended holiday in Oita in Kyushu. We were supposed to stay in a cottage in the middle of nowhere but got caught in a snowstorm with balding city tyres on our car and called out JAF (the Japanese Automobile Federation) to put chains on our tyres to save us.

Instead of that, we stayed at an onsen hotel. The hot spring water was excellent and we had a great time in the snow.

On New Years Eve we went to a local shrine at midnight where we ate zenzai which is a kind of Japanese sweet dish. After that I helped make mochi by pounding rice with a large hammer. The speed kept on increasing and as I was a little drunk by then it got very difficult to do. Here is a video of people making mochi. Wait until the end where it gets really dangerous.

It was great to do all of that. I had wanted to go to a shrine on New Year’s Eve every year I’ve been here but was never able to until now. I’m happy I could do it on my last chance.

The hosting went down on my site. My credit card expired whilst I was in the middle of nowhere unable to do anything about it.

Happy New Year from Japan!