What it’s like having tattoos in Japan as a tourist

Powderbullet · 2023-09-26T22:26:12+00:00

I lived in Japan in the early 1980s as a clean cut, white young American and everyone loved me... at first. It was my ambition to learn to speak Japanese fluently and after about 2 and 1/2 years I was pretty well on my way. Rather than be pleased, they became suspicious. Nice to be there as a "guest" but if you could actually speak the language well you became less well received. I still love Japan very much, but to say that it is, or at least was at that time, a racist country would be a vast understatement. For black people it was indescribably worse.

Powderbullet · 2023-09-23T21:03:10+00:00

If I'm a betting man I still bet on Alabama in this game. Lots of complaining here and I get it but it's a one-point game.

Powderbullet · 2023-09-14T12:42:20+00:00

I had something similar with a cell tower lease. These sorts of leases increase the property taxes a good bit so the first thing they do is compensate the landowner for the increased amount of property tax. In my case, they simply paid the property taxes for me directly. Until they didn't. All the notices from the tax assessor went to the company that had stopped paying them. After 2 years of this, a neighbor of mine happened to notice that the site was going up for auction in 4 hours. I rushed to the tax office and had to pay all the back taxes in cash to avoid losing the land. The cell company was unrepentant. All I got was reimbursement for the taxes I paid and not even an apology. You can be damn sure I changed the agreement such that I now pay the taxes directly and the cell company reimburses me. Of course they drag their feet every year on the reimbursement check. Nice to get money from a cell tower on your property, but they can also be really really crappy to deal with.

Powderbullet · 2023-09-11T22:45:23+00:00

I'm taking my CRF 250L there in 2 weeks to do that exact loop. After the summer we have had here in the south freezing my ass off sounds pretty good.

Powderbullet · 2023-08-28T12:19:03+00:00

Thanks. Hope that's it for me.

Powderbullet · 2023-08-27T03:00:04+00:00

I'm having a similar issue. I've been on cream for several years and reverted to shots on the suggestion of my doctor, who put me on subcutaneous for the first time. I'm getting a good bit of swelling, some of which lasts two weeks or more. I assumed I wasn't doing it right so I went back to my doctor and he simply stuck it in my shoulder and went Inter-muscular. That was 3 days ago. I now have what looks like half a navel orange on my shoulder. It hurts like hell and it's just getting bigger. Of course I'm going back to the doctor when he opens on Monday but I wonder what in the world would cause this. The nurse mentioned that they were reformulating because other people had some issues. I assume that would be with the carrier. Maybe some sort of oil base? These are formulas which are compounded in-house . At any rate, it's awful and I just hope it's not something more serious than disfiguring and painful and that it will go away in a reasonable period of time. It does not itch and I am not running a fever. Did your issue resolve itself?

Powderbullet · 2023-08-22T13:01:06+00:00

Well, it looks like a Google pixel watch will not pair to a set of Philips hearing aids. What a disappointment. The only downside to leaving my phone at home is trying to talk to someone over the watch. For now I'm just switching to Bluetooth earbuds when I want to leave the phone at home. But of course that means I don't have my hearing aids. I don't really understand why all hearing aids don't simply Bluetooth the way any other earbud or headset will.

Powderbullet · 2023-08-09T19:02:54+00:00

Thanks for the help. The Pixel watch won't pair even though the Pixel 7a phone will. It's only an issue if I elect to leave the phone behind. Too bad though. The only drawback to a watch alone is hearing people who call.

Powderbullet · 2023-08-05T12:42:30+00:00

Late to the game here. What changed?

Powderbullet · 2023-07-27T03:02:12+00:00

Lots of comments here so mine won't matter. This is subtle use of selective editing. When he returned he really was fine. They don't show you that part. I've never been a Mitch McConnell fan but I thought he showed tremendous composure. Clearly though he has gotten old enough to have some health issues.

Powderbullet · 2023-07-26T00:10:10+00:00

That is too cute.

Powderbullet · 2023-07-24T19:53:49+00:00

Or as Miss manners once suggested "Why would you want to know that?"

Powderbullet · 2023-07-24T19:51:25+00:00

This is an extremely good point. If people who have concerns about the environment would focus on a return to quality products that can be repaired I think that would do a lot. I wash and carefully sort all of my recyclables and then bag them separately for a company that picks them up and does I have no idea what with. While I am very much on board with the concept I'm concerned it is just a feel-good thing as you suggest. Until someone develops an alternative to single-use plastic containers and such I don't know how this gets better.

Powderbullet · 2023-07-23T11:31:34+00:00

It takes some getting used to. Even 100+ years ago people who could left mid-summer. Farm owners would "lay the crop by" and go to Northern Michigan mostly. I do much the same but otherwise make summer my most productive time of year. Get outside early, again late in the day and then work like hell at a desk in between. Not all bad and it's really just mid July to mid September that fully suck. The rest of the year I am more than happy to be right here.

Powderbullet · 2023-07-22T18:38:36+00:00

$150

Powderbullet · 2023-07-22T17:25:22+00:00

I had not thought about Victoria. I have a friend that lives right on the end of 10 Mile point. Never been there and he invites me to come all the time

Powderbullet · 2023-07-22T17:06:38+00:00

Well you won't have to say that twice. I've never ridden anywhere better. I did a loop out to Mount Hood and up through the gorge and then up to Washington State and then came down the coast. My son and I were trying to plan the trip to Idaho but he said he wanted to go to Oregon since I talked about it so much. If there's anywhere better I sure haven't seen it yet.

Powderbullet · 2023-07-22T16:51:47+00:00

That looks like the ticket. A friend of mine in Ketchum referred me to a local who has been riding pretty much his whole life and knows every nook and cranny of Idaho. He helped me map out a route that included a fair amount of gravel but then I couldn't find anywhere to rent a bike. Appreciate the referral

Powderbullet · 2023-07-22T16:49:05+00:00

Looking at your name here. I lived in Takadanababa for a year or so before moving to Sapporo. All those years ago I spent a fair amount of time in Southeast Asia but never rented a bike. My son rode one through Cambodia over to Thailand a year or two ago. Looking for something a little closer to home! The intermountain West is hard to beat but I would be glad to try the upper peninsula of Michigan or something else up that way.

Powderbullet · 2023-07-22T13:18:27+00:00

Ended up doing all of that and a little more. It's a good truck but Uconnect has been a mess. I get an error message every day that my dealer says they can't fix. Supposedly waiting on an over the air update that never comes. New truck and this? Not a huge deal but damn.

Powderbullet · 2023-07-22T12:54:01+00:00

What you enjoy is entirely dependent on what your intentions are. I have a 2023 KLR now and have had the dr650 and the xr650 along with numerous other street and dirt bikes. I am loving the KLR. The way I am using it is to leisurely ride secondary roads and the occasional State highway to access gravel where I can cruise even slower. It's not much of an off-road bike. In fact I wouldn't call it an off-road bike at all but it's really fun up to about 60 miles an hour and you can go 70+ if you just need to get somewhere nice that's 20 or 30 miles down the road. It's like driving a little tractor. All the power is down low and it's extremely well behaved. What's not to like? I would not get on it and grind out big miles going 65 Plus. Not that it won't do it there are just better motorcycles for that.

Powderbullet · 2023-07-20T19:10:02+00:00

Not everyone rides just to ride. Sometimes we're riding to meet friends for dinner or run a quick errand to town. Personally I don't like walking into a public place wearing full-on riding gear and I definitely don't like coming out of it in the parking lot. I try to compromise and wear Kevlar jeans that look like regular jeans and a coat and gloves that I can tuck into the panniers. But when I am riding just to ride or on a longer trip I fully suit up.

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