He he, this is the moment when I start to (kind of) "root for" one, the Right Honourable Sir Keir Rodney Starmer, Prime Minister (of the U.K.), and offer him some rich Machiavellian advice. Actually,

Just to be clear, whatever you might be thinking, "fuku fuku" (ふくふく) is a Japanese onomatopoeic expression meaning something like "soft and plump," or "well fed," and is

An Index of all my Satsman-related content

I received an email from Satsman earlier this week telling me that my login streak hit the 60-day mark. Yes, I have logged in every single day for the past 60 days and completed the three daily missions

It does snow sometimes in winter in Hiroshima city, but the snow seldom lays and quickly melts away when the sun comes out. When it does lay, it seldom gets more than an inch deep, so today was really

Today I recorded a quick live test of my first ever attempt to withdraw Bitcoin from my Satsman account using the Lightning Network. When I logged in, my account showed a total balance of 43,000 satoshis,

From time to time, I receive emails from subscribers asking if I’ll “pay it forward” and cover their first month in a subscription-based affiliate program. Most recently, this question came up in relation

For a long time, Japanese mahjong was a regular part of my life in Hiroshima. Back in the day, I played a lot of mahjong in the old-style mahjong parlors (many of which have disappeared in the post-bubble

I was walking back to my hotel in Gero Onsen when I passed a vending machine selling frozen raw beef and stopped to take a photo. Okay, so Japan isn’t the only place where meat is sold from vending machines.

I was up bright and early on New Year's Day at Gero Hot Springs and stopped on my way to the open air baths to check out the scenery from the rooftop of the hotel. The air was crisp and clean, cold but

I saw in the New Year at Onsenji Temple in Gero Onsen, deep in the countryside of Gifu Prefecture and one of Japan’s most famous hot spring towns. The video accompanying this post captures the minutes

He he, who doesn't love a good mixed metaphor on New Year's Eve? Perhaps it would have been better to title this post "HBD - Back from the Brink of a Hot Bath" because I'm seeing in the New Year

I checked my hive stats for 2025 using the new hive-wrapped tool by @emrebeyler

Christmas Day in Japan. Just another working day. Not too bad for me, though, as I only had one class from 10am, just down the tram line from where I live. Nice and easy! This class takes place in a public

Thoughts arising from my visit to Malaysia's National Museum

We are well into the Japanese "bounenkai" drinking party season. Today, I'm spending a quiet day "home alone" after two consecutive nights of "bonenkai" parties... The literal

The ultimate traffic-exchange users guide for 2026

I was scrolling through the trending Hive blog posts when I came across this report by @louis88 who informs us that he has created a new version of the old "comment rewarder": He built the new

Layers of Time at Batu Caves On the third day of the Hive Fest in Kuala Lumpur in October, we hopped onto a coach and visited the Batu Caves. The Batu Caves are a limestone "mogote" (according

I can't remember when this "tradition" started, but every winter Peace Boulevard in Hiroshima is lit up with an ever increasing number of illuminations that draws in the crowds. Most of the