w00kie's ramblings

Tag: saitama

  • On my way to work

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    w00kie
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    Japan is not only Tokyo with its crowded street crossings and neon lights. It’s also the old countryside, small traditional (and not so traditional) houses with rice paddies or vegetable farm in the backyard. I live in Tokyo (technically not but almost in the city limit) but I work in a factory way out in…

  • Train accident on my way to work

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    w00kie
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    This morning, on my way to work, my train stopped one express station after mine. Some accident had happened on the line and the traffic was stopped for 2-3 hours. No way I could get to work, and once the train would start running again there’d be no bus left to bring me from the…

  • Sand storm

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    w00kie
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    Last Saturday in the early afternoon, we had a huge dust storm all over the 関東 area. It started out as a very nice day, sunny 15°C, I went for grocery shopping in just a light sweater. Then around 2PM, the sky suddenly became dark, great gusts of wind started whistling around the corners of…

  • Address Power

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    w00kie
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    Last July I wrote about a popular Japanese webservice that built an image of your brain out of your name. Everyone at work and on TV was talking about it. The concept was even copied overseas (replacing the kanjis with emoticons). This weekend I saw on TV another of those websites that you know everyone…

  • Matsuri Food

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    w00kie
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    This weekend I went to the Kawagoe Matsuri, one of the biggest in this part of Saitama, and I ate 鮎塩焼き. They are little fresh-water fish, stuck on a skewer, dipped in salt and fried around a fire. You eat the whole thing, except the head, bones and scales included.

  • I found an apartment

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    w00kie
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    After waiting a week for an answer from the owner to the real-estate agent, we finally called him up yesterday and were told the apartment was ours. Now all I’ve got to do is have my company sign all the papers and we can set a date to move-in, hopefully by the beginning of November.…

  • S-Air summer ski jump

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    w00kie
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    What to do when you really want to snowboard in summer and you like stupid crazy activities? You find a place where they built a big-air jump on a hill with a pool under it. The place is called S-Air and is located in 所沢 in southern Saitama. You can get there from Tokyo in…

  • Bed town

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    w00kie
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    This Saturday, my girlfriend arrived in Tokyo to look for a job, pass some interviews, etc. She’ll be staying at my place for 2 weeks or so, hopefully enough to get a good feel of the current job market. So this Sunday, we went to Kawagoe to scout out the place and see what kind…

  • Watching the fireworks from the roof

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    w00kie
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    Last weekend I went to 熊谷, the bigger town close to where I live, to watch the city’s 花火大会 from my friend’s roof. Firework shows in Japan last very very long compared to anything I knew in France, over 2 hours. That’s because in between every 2 minutes sets they make a 3 minutes break.…