Sadly not everything went as smoothly as I had hoped. It was due to some mis-communication. Asahi.net do take credit cards, but I had mistakenly assumed that this was for everything. It turns out that they only charge for THEIR services as an ISP. Whereas the phone bill actually comes from NTT. NTT also (supposedly, we shall see) lets you pay with credit card. But, the problem I ran into was that I needed my NTT customer number. Asahinet don’t … Continue reading
Now that the house is functional, obviously the goal is to spend as much time here as the Gods of Immigration will allow a mere mortal such as myself. One essential in the modern world is the internet. Previously, I had been renting a Wifi device from Global Advanced Communications (whom I strongly recommend for their AWESOME iPhone rental service!). But, at ¥17,100/month it gets a bit steep if you are spending a lot of time here. So, I started to … Continue reading
Today I did a little site-seeing. There are so many things to see in Kyoto that every once in a while it’s nice to pick a place and take a look. Today I decided to go to Sanjūsangen-dō. It is supposedly one of the ‘must see’ temples in Kyoto (though I’ve been coming here for 6 years and never seen it!). It is right across the street from the National Museum, making it easy to combine as a two-fer. The hilight … Continue reading
One day last month my friend Kazu and I went recycle shopping. In theory we were looking for a gas stovetop for my house. But, Kazu and I share a love of Recycle shops because of the hidden treasures! Kazu (with our wives in tow) drove me all over the Fushimi area outskirts of Kyoto, where we went to and endless series of shops. Man there is some good stuff in these shops! I discovered the lobby book for one … Continue reading
This year I am lucky enough to be in Kyoto in November, perfect timing to see ‘Koyo’, the autumn leaves changing colour. Much like cherry blossom (sakura) time in April, in November thousands of people flock to the mountains and temples near Kyoto to look at the colours. Today was my turn! I went up to one of my favourite places in this area – Mount Kurama. Kurama is just north of Kyoto. I strongly recommend it at any time … Continue reading
I was in Osaka a couple months ago and saw this great band playing in the Namba area… if you know who they are please leave a comment on YouTube! Tweet
I recently did an interview with Chris Christensen for his excellent (and not just because I was on it) podcast The Amateur Traveler. While I strongly recommend you subscribe to the show as he does a great show every week, if you just want to listen to the one about Kyoto then you can do so here: Amateur Traveler Episode 297 – Travel to Kyoto, Japan Tweet
I recently discovered some great books about Kyoto. It guides you through a nice collection of walks in all areas of the city and surrounding area. This one covers a lot of cool old places in Kyoto that you won’t find in the Rough Guide or books like that! I’ve got them both and I strongly recommend them! Tweet
One of the things you have to do, obviously, for the house is pay utilities. Now, I was fortunate enough that the guy who went in and cleaned and assessed the house after I bought it also arranged for the the utilities – gas, water, electricity – to be activated. So unfortunately I don’t have any info on that. If anyone does I’d appreciate you putting a comment here. Anyway, I of course needed to pay for these things. There … Continue reading
I’ve finally gotten around to editing together the video of the first day we went to the house. I’ve uploaded it to our kyoto experiment youtube channel Here it is! Comments and questions welcomed. Tweet
