JH: That belongs in the quote thread

I like Boa better
Bring us teh pictures! There is no other options!

Oh, could you get me Miyazaki Hayao's autograph?

Forget that j-pop crap jhuuskon, here are some good japanese bands:

B'z
Dir en grey
L' arc en ciel
Do as infinity
Rize
Tokyo ska paradise orchestra

Hi, seems like a great time for my first A.CC post, I've been lurking, on and off, for long enough.

I'm also going to be in Japan on exactly the same dates! Although I won't be around the Tokyo area as I work for a Shizuoka based company. I'm really hoping to visit Kyoto this time and, apparently, there is a huge Worlds Fair going during that time which I'll be visiting. I'll find out more details and post them here, I'm told that it will be a very spectacular event with all of the big companies showing off their latest robotics.

Luckily I get to travel to Japan a lot with my job (8 weeks over five trips in the last 6 months) and I really love the place, but I still haven't had the chance to see much of it. Something always goes wrong, last time there was too much snow for the Shinkansen to run, before that we had to unexpectedly fly to Seattle at the weekend, always something. The people are great, the cities safe and friendly, the food is really amazing and I love sake.

My tip is to make sure that you plan your trip in the first day or two, if you are on a budget and are planing to venture outside Tokyo. The only real way to get around Japan is by the Shinkansen bullet trains and they get pretty expensive, although they are amazingly fast and efficient (especially for me, used to UK trains - amazingly slow and inefficient yet still expensive).

Next time I'm climbing Fuji

I hope you have a great trip!

I couldn't make out what the nightvision picture was. Here is what I thought they were (while using my imagination) - goblins.

The spooky thing is your name seems familiar to me
Any chance I can have seen you post elsewhere? Otherwise, there's probably someone else with a name that is somehow similar to yours.

And here I was thinking that if you went somewhere it would have been Estonia.

Hey, welcome to Japan! I'm sure you'll like it, there is nice season now, the cherry blossom is just starting to bloom here (it was a cold spring, so it's a bit late). It's easy to find ways in Tokyo, stations have lot of helpful signs and everyone is very friendly. If you just stand there and open map and look troubled, some stranger will commonly appear and offer help. So, first of all get some map. Visit some big city like Shibuya or Shinjuku at the evening. Actually, will you have someone to take care of you? I live about 200 km from Tokyo, but I should go to Tokyo several times in April, so perhaps we can have a mini Allegro convention.

Do you live in Japan? I'm in Shizuoka-ken too! In the eastern part, in small town Mishima. (almost south from mt.Fuji).

Next Autumn I hope to climb it again, perhaps we could team up together! Take Allegro.cc flag or something. Japanese mountains are very beautiful, they are young and steep, although not too high. There are many nice hiking or light climbing courses around here, so you could come and join for one day hiking if you like it. (I usually go by myself in weekend).

You're thinking of Lawrence (Llewelyn B)owen, I suppose.

Pete

Nope.
Maybe it's two people I'm conusing you with, one called Lawrence and the other Owen.

Well, no matter. Welcome anyway.

Ducks rule!!

Thanks everyone, especially Lawrence and Kirr - Kirr and I are going to meet up on Sunday the 17th and go mountain hiking, and we might all coordinate on climbing Fuji-san in autumn (although I might leave it till next year).

I'm now listening to mountain.s3m apparently. How appropriate

Accommodation is arranged; I'll be staying with a friend in Kawasaki until Saturday the 16th and at a nice cheap ryokan in Asakusa after that. And I have not one, but two friends I met in Cambridge to meet up with over there. Should be good

Omiyage eh? But if I bring you one, I have to bring everyone one ... tell ya what, I'll post some more Japanese on allegro.cc when I get back, so you can enjoy looking at the pwetty whiting and the excessively cute eye-popping over there.

And Rash, given that I started working on a pretty good salary last August and the company have taken me on two international trips already with a third being planned, I'm sure Estonia will come sooner or later. Let's meet up there.

Have a really great trip!
If you happen to be arriving in Narita Terminal 1 around Midday on Sunday 10th and see an ugly english bloke pulling a large, bright red case on wheels then shout out "Oi Lozza!" or something and I'll buy you a drink

That's the problem with working in the US, it's so big and self contained. I'm really lucky at the moment as I work in the UK office which handles sales into Europe, Africa and the Middle East for a Japanese company. The UK is so small that, if I have to visit a customer then it's almost never in this country.
I've managed to spend quite a lot of time in Paris, Hanover (for Cebit every year), Dubai, Athens, Shizuoka (Japan), New York. and I even got to spend a week at Microsoft in Seattle last year working directly with some of their developers. I really love my job right now
It's also very common to have to make short one or two day trips into Europe.

We have a U.S. office too, based in New Jersey, those guys have to travel a lot but, like you, never get to leave their country.