Blog Posts
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Prevent Roller Shutter Garage Doors from Freezing Shut
We have an attached garage with a roller shutter door made by Bunka Shutter (文化シャッター). In the winter, the ice that melts off the car puddles up on the garage floor and the radiant heat from our home creates condensation on the inside of the garage door. This then freezes and the door (and where…
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Home Build Time-Lapse 2024-08
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Direct-to-Garment T-shirt Printing in 2021
Note: Originally written in 2021 on another platform but never published. I’m somewhat of a t-shirt geek so I’ve been curious for some time to see how the direct-to-garment (DTG) printing process had progressed in the last few years. (The last time I seriously looked into digitally printed t-shirts, I had to buy iron-on sheets,…
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Hakoworks (ハコワークス) Coworking Space
I work remotely from home Tuesday through Saturday, 5:00am – 2:00pm Japan Time (to overlap a few hours a day with my coworkers on the West Coast of the US). While I’m grateful for this luxury, I sometimes like to get out of the home to clear my head with a walk/commute, and to encourage…
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No Taurine in Japanese Red Bull
There was a recent headline, “Taurine may extend life and health,” that gave me the excuse I needed to stock up on Sugar Free Red Bull. While at MEGA Don Quijote, I was looking for taurine (タウリン) in the ingredient list on the Japanese version of Red Bull and was puzzled when I couldn’t find…
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Room and Land Sizes in Japan
Today I learned that the character for “jo” is “畳” (also the character for “tatami”) when used to measure room areas that are Japanese-style. For western-style rooms, the “帖” character is used but the pronunciation is the same. One jo is around 1.62m2 – 1.65m2 depending on where in Japan you happen to be, but…
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Honda Freed + Gathers + Apple CarPlay
I recently bought a used 2019 Honda Freed (ホンダ フリード) Hybrid 4WD (GB8). I also have an iPhone. I was initially happy to find that my car’s stereo head unit made by Gathers (ギャザズ), Honda’s own car navigation brand, supports CarPlay. After Googling a bit, though, I discovered that while the head unit does support…