A 2 year stay now approaches 20!

There are almost as many blogs about Japan as their are foreigners with computers. I have 2 other photo blogs that are devoted to Japanese food and the many wonderful restaurants in this country. No tipping please! Good service is a mark of personal commitment to the customer.

This blog will be the ramblings of a "ganko"(hard headed) "jiji"(rough Japanese for geezer"). Postings will cover many passions and peeves which accumulate with the years. They will be highly opinionated and sometimes insensitive; that's the nature of ganko jijis. If you are easily offended I suggest developing a thicker skin; mine comes in very handy. Your comments are welcome at the end of each post!

I started living abroad when I was 3 in Alaska which was not a state at the time. When asked where I grew up I always say, "... in the back of a '49 Ford".

My family and I live in rural Japan which I am slowly getting used to as I approach "retirement". Fortunately we can reach central Tokyo on a bus when being surrounded by others of my ilk gets to be too much. I love Tokyo and would move there if circumstances permitted, but the rent we pay here is just too sweet.

That's enough about me as I see a twitchy index finger hovering over a mouse ready to move on to another blog.

In future posts I hope to inform you a little and when possible make you at least smirk if not guffaw loudly attracting curious stares from fellow slackers drinking coffee at Starbucks. Not that you are a slacker! What did I just say about "thicker skin"?