Please remain calm and seated, as our technicians work out some technical difficulties. One dead hard drive, has turned my Apple laptop into the world’s most expensive iPaperweight. I promise once we get ye ol’hard drive moving/out of surgery (cross your fingers), this website will arise out of its sleep and continue on this facsinating journey.. Thank your for your patience and understanding.

Let me pass along a very well done video travelogue that’s up for a Webbie Award: Lost Bags, Lost Souls: Kang Yatse: A Skiing Misadventure. The story of two Americans who set off to climb and then ski down Kang Yatse at 21,000 ft mountain in the Indian Himalayas. Things don’t quite go according to plan. Its a very well written, well edited set of videos, and probably the future of web based TV. Much props to the creators.

A guest traveler profile on Dave Stackany, who drove around the US for a year, writing a song a day and posting to his website, all for free.

There are many surprising and fascinating things about Japan that I was not expecting upon arrival. One of the things I had the most fun with was the vending machines. The Japanese Vending Machine Manufactures Association (I am not making that up) reports that there is somewhere in the realm of 5.5 million vending machines in all of Japan, roughly 1 per 23 citizens of Japan–or that means 1 roughly every 2 feet in Tokyo.

In each country I’ve traveled, I always try to read a book or two in addition to a guidebook about the country in which I am exploring. My favorite read in Japan was a travel book entitled Hitching Rides With Buddha (previously titled Hokkaido Highway Blues). Written by Canadian, Will Ferguson who hitchhiked his way from the southern tip to the northern tip of Japan following the blossuming of the Sakura (cherry blossoms) after teaching English through the JET Program.

Travel constantly reminds me that we must always have a sense of humor. To help provide you a few laughs, may I present the first of an ongoing series, called “Things That Make Me Laugh.” Here is Part I of the Japan edition.

In traveling, sometimes the simplest things offer a window of insight into the way a culture thinks and can offer some reflection on one’s own culture. In the case of Japan, they don’t have public trashcans.