The cherry blossom season holds a lot of importance in Japan. It’s a sign of beauty and life, but it’s also a social occasion across the country. I did a bit more hanami, or flower viewing, this year than I was able to last year, and had an excellent experience at the famous castles of Osaka and Himeji.
I gave a keynote speech at the 2009 annual conference of the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) in Kyoto, Japan, that talked about my observations of Japanese business operations, highlighting the differences that become barriers to communication. This morning, I had the privilege of seeing a write-up of the talk in IT [...]
Living in Japan for the past year, I’ve had an unparalleled opportunity to see the daily life of the citizenry as they go about their daily lives. It’s an aging population, to be sure, but that’s not to say that there isn’t an ever present throng of young people going to-and-fro, usually sporting a school [...]
Earlier today, just as the sun was setting, my brother and I set out to explore the Osaka Castle Park. I’d visited the park on several occasions before, but forgot how massive the park is—over 1.07 million square meters—and how majestic the castle appears, particularly when seen under a clear night sky. The best view [...]
Just before the end of the year, I took my brother to a famous Japanese hot spring for his first onsen experience. I chose for us to stay at the Kamigoten Ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) in Wakayama Prefecture, south of Osaka. What a treat it was! Getting to the Ryūjin spa town was half of [...]
Homeward bound. I’m on my way from Japan to visit my family in Oklahoma for the holidays. Even though I usually avoid traveling on major holidays like the plague, this year I decided to forgo my usual concerns and make a surprise trip. I was able to travel in real lux this time around, as [...]
