Daycare sent us this snap of Maru the Shiba and his Shiba friends. 📷🐕

Three Shiba dogs in a park with fallen ginkgo leaves.

This grass along the river was a pretty orange, more saturated than you’d expect normally in the fall. 📷🌾

Orange grass along a riverbank in Yokohama Japan, autumn 2023.

Maru the Shiba of Awaji Island turns 3 today; happy birthday little buddy! He still doesn’t like his birthday hat & bib, but he loved the special meal K made! 🎉🐕3️⃣

Dog waiting on person handing him a special birthday meal on a yellow plate.

Dog licking his chops after having eaten some of his birthday meal.

Today 11/24 is the anniversary of the first opera performed in Japan, Faust, in 1894 (M27). 🎭🇯🇵

Our visit to Shirakawago a couple years ago was lovely. We missed the snow by a week. 📷🏔️🇯🇵

A-frame building with thatched roof in Japan.

Thatched roof houses across a field in an area of Japan that gets snow.

Thanking you for your labors since Labor Thanksgiving Day 勤労感謝の日 was established in Japan in 1948, cats everywhere say “now feed me”. 📷😅🎌

Cat with a grey, brown and black coat crouches on leaves in a park in Japan. You can see playground equipment in the background.

Yesterday I rode the scooter to the bank and it started really acting up, so I had the Honda shop check it. It needed an oil change and the front tire was pretty flat, but 4000 yen later it runs great. 📷🏍️

Salmon pink Vespa Scooter in front of ivy festooned restaurant in Tokyo.

K pointed out that this is “milk” not milk. I was tricked by the kana ミルク and the English. But it clearly says 乳飲料 “milk drink”. 📷🐄

Milk drink is not actual milk. A liter of milk drink in a paper container with green letters on a white background, next to a banana for no real reason.

Hello! It’s “world hello day” on 11/21, but it’s also our anniversary. Surely I’m better off and the more fortunate because of her. Here’s to many more hikes together! 🥰🥳

Woman in white and man in blue hold hiking poles and wear backpacks on a hiking trail.

I liked this scene, an inviting orange color to the light, the young worker my daughters’ age, maybe a part timer. Taken in Akihabara Tokyo with a Rollei film camera, 2016. 📷🥐

Young woman working a bread shop counter in the evening, with a customer in a grey-green hoodie making a purchase. The light is warm and inviting.

An anachronism holding out against the times. Ebihara Shoten building in Akihabara Tokyo, 2016. Taken with a Rollei film camera. 📷🗝️

Old building in Akihabara Tokyo, with “EBIHARA” sign in English along the top, and “Ebihara Shoten” in Japanese under the windows.

Japan’s Tetsudo Denka Kyokai marks Nov 19 as railway electrification day. In ‘56, the Tokaido was electrified & Tokyo-Osaka took 7.5 hr by “Tsubame”, then 3 hr by “Hikari” Shinkansen in ‘64. 🚅🇯🇵📷

The Shinkansen “Nozomi 700” model painted white with a blue stripe, stopped at the station.

I liked watching people come and go on the Modi stairs and platforms at night, from the JR Totsuka station plaza area. Taken with a Rollei film camera. 📷🛍️

Night view of the “Modi” shopping center building, showing ground and 2F levels, taken from the platform plaza outside Totsuka station.

Today 11/18 is Doboku no Hi or Public Works day here in Japan, after how the kanji for “do boku” 土木 are built. 土 from 10 and 1, and 木 from 10 and 8. 📷🏗️

Public works workers cutting a tree in a local park, using a small purple crane and ladders to reach.

“Beagle House” Honda Wing shop in Totsuka, taken with a Rollei film camera. Reminds me I need to get my scooter’s oil changed. 📷🛵

Honda Wing franchisee shop, with several scooters for sale displayed out front, and a sign that says “oil change”.

Almost 5am and it’s rain for Totsuka. You can hear it on the shutters and I can feel it in my joints. Glad we had such fair weather yesterday for hiking. ☔️

Nihonbashi “Nara Mahoroba-kan” mascot, taken on Rollei 35S film camera. 📷🦌

Fiberglass mascot outside Nara Antenna shop in Nihonbashi.

Hiked Hakone’s Mt Kintoki today with the wife and D1. Perfect weather for it and the view of Fuji was spectacular, but I’m spent. 🇯🇵🗻

View of Mt Fuji from Mt Kintoki.

Colorful laundry bags, not trash. 📷🧺

Colorful polyester laundry bags piled up on the side of a building in Totsuka Yokohama.

PMark Security Incident - JIPDEC announces investigation results into Privacy Mark breach

Japan’s “Privacy Mark” system had a serious security breach in Aug 2023, and its operator JIPDEC (Japan Information Technology and Social Promotion Association) announced the results of an investigation into the matter. 🕵🏻‍♂️ When companies implement P-Mark, there are a number of requirements to be met, similar to what organizations go through when trying for an ISO certification. Reviewers for JIPDEC are responsible for auditing the certification applications, and one such reviewer had saved review documents on an unsecured personal NAS.

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