Blizzardboy | A Kiwi in Japan

It is that time of year again. Hope everyone is well and enjoying the holiday season.

2008 was a busy year. Not quite as much travelling as the year before, but alongside getting settled back into life in Tokyo, we made it to a few places. Highlights being a trip to Wakayama and Hiroshima on the Seishin-18-Kippu – Japan’s version of the student rail pass. I got to see Pierre’s master Kiyota Jirokunetsu at work in his forge which was quite a pleasure, then down to Hiroshima to do all the touristy things. Hiroshima was lovely, especially the near-by island of Miyakojima with its’ frisky deer and monkeys. Then a mammoth trip back to Tokyo leaving Hiroshima before 6 in the morning and getting in to Meguro around 8 in the evening.

Another couple of highlights were visiting the Shimokita Peninsula at the tip of Japan’s main island of Honshuu in Aomori Prefecture. Some spectacular views and hot springs up there. Tokyo’s Hachijojima was another special trip. Despite being officially under the administrative cloud of the earwigs in Shinjuku – Hachijojima was wonderfully relaxed and is a great little getaway from the big smoke. One of these days I may just put up some photos of those places.

Work also saw some large changes. In August I changed career paths, and am now working for a company called Denphone. From its’ name one might be able to ken the scope of what we do – phone systems! Well there is a bit more to it than that of course, but mostly we implement office phone system solutions. For me it was a welcome move – while I enjoy teaching I had come to the limit of what I could do in that field, and so when offered a job that allowed me to work with open source software, and use Linux on a regular basis I was thrilled. The new job has given me the opportunity to learn a whole range of new things – mostly quite geeky things:) I passed both the CCENT and CCNA exams this year for example.

Here is a little Christmas video celebrating the season Japanese style. Enjoy:

Anyway, enough rambling! I know some of you want to go out and enjoy the season!