I Went to Japan Twice (Part 1 – 2005)
When I was in high school, I studied Spanish like most folks in California. It comes in handy often in daily life, so it was a good choice. However, for my senior year, I decided to switch to Japanese. That choice changed my life.
Okayama City (岡山市) in Okayama Prefecture (岡山県) is a “sister city” of my hometown: San Jose, California. My high school had a homestay program with a high school in Okayama that would give their students a week in California and a visit to our school, and we would visit Japan for a week and visit their school. Not only is this already an incredible experience that everyone should have, a few of my good friends were also studying Japanese and we would all go together.
Most young people have no idea what they want to do with their life, and of course I was no different. When I boarded the plane for this trip just after my 18th birthday in March 2005, I didn’t even know what my college major would be. After going on this trip, I decided to major in Japanese. I still didn’t know what I wanted to do, but that amazing country had made such an impression that I knew I had to be involved with it somehow.
Unfortunately, it took graduating in 2009 during a terrible economic recession to realize there was no future down the path I had chosen. I didn’t get into the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) Program and all of my career prospects were underwhelming. I abandoned the Japanese dream and focused on my other love: cars. I’ve had a great career doing all kinds of car-related things, but I’ve never forgotten about Japan.
In the years since that initial trip, despite–or perhaps due to?–having traveled through most of the United States, plus Canada, England, and even Korea for work purposes, I never made it back to Japan. Every year I was either too poor, or didn’t have the time, or I didn’t have anyone to go with, or some other stupid excuse.
Well, I am proud to report that I finally did it. This post comes one day after I have returned from my latest trip to Japan, 21 years after that first trip. Before I talk about the trip I’m still jet-lagged from, I’d like to share photos from my first trip to give some context. The 2026 trip made me remember why I fell in love with Japan in the first place. So before I share that story, I would like to recall why I fell in love with it back in 2005.
I went to Japan so long ago you could play SNES on the plane.
(more…)Every PS1 Game – Agile Warrior F-111X
I know a few people who play Digital Combat Simulator, which is a simulation in the truest sense of the word: it makes the self-proclaimed “Real Driving Simulator” Gran Turismo look like Ridge Racer. For example, it can take 20 minutes just to turn on your plane, and then another half hour to fly from your base to the front line. Oh you just got shot down? Okay, we’ll see you in an hour. For the guys who strap into this sim, realism is the point; for me, it’s a burden.
I just want to fly around and blow stuff up. Luckily the PS1 has quite a few flight sims to choose from, even if you just look at the first year of its release. This is where Agile Warrior F-111X comes in. This game was released on November 2nd, 1995 in the USA and Europe; the Playstation itself was released in September 1995 in North America and Europe (but had been out since December 1994 in Japan), so keep that in mind when we’re looking at the technological limitations of this “combat simulator”.
(more…)From the Archives: Sonoma Autocross and Track Day 2022/02/06
For a five year period, I completely neglected this website. Of course, during that time I was still doing the usual sort of car things; I just didn’t post about them on this site. Today is February 6th, and on this date four years ago I visited Sonoma Raceway. It was a Sunday, and the track was buzzing with two events: an autocross and a full track day. I went to hang with Chris and his orange FR-S, and to see some cool cars going fast.
If you want to see the coolest modded cars, head to the track. Of course it was the more extreme machines that caught my eye first, but there were much more humble machines out there as well.
(more…)Every PS1 Game – Spyro the Dragon
I love free demos. The best one recently was Metaphor: ReFantazio. Released a few weeks before the retail game, it was the full intro to the game and more: it took me seven hours to beat. Back in ancient times, retail stores would have kiosks with a console, TV, two controllers, and a game (in the cartridge era) or demo disc (in the CD era). Like an arcade, but free! They were especially exciting for me as a kid during the 90’s, allowing my penniless adolescent self to try a variety of games that I wouldn’t normally get to play. I have crystal clear memories of being blown away by the graphics of Star Fox at Toys R Us. When I went to Sears with my mom, I always made a beeline straight for the demo kiosk to play a round of Rally Cross on Playstation or Nights into Dreams on Saturn. And when I got my Playstation in 1999, unlike any of my Nintendo consoles, it came with a demo disc. On that demo disc was an extremely popular game from 1998 called Spyro the Dragon.
However, I found that Spyro demo to be unconvincing. Compared to the brand new Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on N64, or even the three-year-old Super Mario 64, this game felt sluggish as you tediously trudged through the bland demo world. The point of the game seemed to be just walking around and finding dragon statues. Yawn. But that wouldn’t be the end of my Spyro story.
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Star Road 
