Life in Japan - How to Find English Keyboards
- Details
You're a foreigner living in Japan, and you're in the market for a computer with an English keyboard. To your chagrin perhaps finding that laptop with an English keyboard proves rather taxing. Or maybe you're forever stalking the elusive desktop English keyboard. Some find luck wandering the snaking streets of Akihabara, seeking that rare shop selling overseas laptop models. Japan is mostly Japanese people, so I guess it makes sense that most computers come with Japanese keyboards. Fair enough. Here are my suggestions for relieving the arduousness of this task. When it comes to this hunt, I personally don't bother with brick-and-mortar shops, so you'll notice that most all my solutions below involve online shopping.
SIM-Only Mobile Providers in Japan
- Details
Most often referred to in Japan as an MVNO, which stands for "mobile virtual network operator," the following is a potentially-growing list of SIM-only mobile providers that resell services on one of the major Japanese mobile networks: NTT Docomo, Au by KDDI, or Softbank. While the big three Japanese providers will usually force you into an over-priced 2-year auto-renewing service contract inseparable from the bundled phone, MVNOs can and will sell you just the SIM card and service. Most resell NTT Docomo, and I have yet to see one that resells Softbank; however anything is possible as Japan looks as if it is finally embracing SIM-only solutions.
Life in Japan - Beating Mosquitoes and Biting Midges
- Details
I live on the second floor of a central Tokyo apartment building. The advantage of this? I enjoy a brief daily elevator ride (or welcome stair climb) and can escape the building quickly in case of an emergency--I can literally jump off my balcony if necessary. The disadvantage of this? Mosquitoes and biting midges host wild vampire parties at my place during the scorching Japan summer months. Despite my fine-meshed screens and personal policy of only opening the windows when absolutely necessary, they still get in. Dammit. Given how aggressively I'm targeted, my American blood must be the finest, first-class epicurean indulgence for a suckling mosquito muzzle. Here is my series of mitigating measures for dealing with Japan's biting pests.
Read more: Life in Japan - Beating Mosquitoes and Biting Midges
The Hunt for the Ultimate Folding Bicycle
- Details
Despite its plethora of hills, oceans of smartphone zombie pedestrians, seas of taxis, and rivers of bulky buses, Tokyo is a fairly convenient city to cycle in because it's both compact and brimming with transportation options. Hacking through some pithy calculations, I determined that I could likely cycle to work daily, thus building a daily calorie-burning workout into my lifestyle routine. I'm a huge fan of such natural exercise because I don't have to think about it nor remember to schedule it. Next was to find the ultimate two-wheeled solution for my daily commute conundrum. Perhaps this is Japan's influence on me, or perhaps this is my own obsessive personality connecting with Japan's, but this is what I love--researching the ultimate solution to a life project.
Page 10 of 17