BURA TORA

Bahamas Bound

March 15, 2020, Posted by : James

It's been a while since I updated this blog. I've been getting used to my new boat, and trying to figure out how to sail it.

A couple days ago, i made the voyage across the gulf stream to the Bahamas. We left from West Palm Beach, Florida and headed over to West End, on our way to the Abacos, which were destroyed by the hurricane a while back and still haven't fully recovered. ...

Boat time

December 08, 2019, Posted by : James

After 9 years living in Tokyo, i've decided to move on to the next phase of my life. The decision was between settling down in one place and buying a house or condo, or sticking with my traveling philosophy and buying a boat.

The boat idea won.

Last week I bought a very used Beneteau 390 Oceanis in Florida, and the new plan is to fix it up a bit and sail around the Bahamas ...

Onsen Time / Announcements

October 11, 2019, Posted by : James

It's starting to cool down a bit in Tokyo, and when the beads of sweat normally dripping down our faces from the Tokyo summer humidity start to wane, we're surprisingly drawn back to the mountain hot springs, to sweat out the stress in the onsen waters.

For those who don't know, an onsen is a natural hot spring with mineral-rich water that Japanese have been using as baths for ...

Spreading Japanese Love

October 03, 2019, Posted by : James

I just spent a week in Michigan attending a friend's wedding. I had a good time until an unfortunate fight at the end of the night, but the unnecessarily expensive, symbolic, legally binding contract of marriage remains one of the only reasons I will buy a ticket back to the States for anything other than Christmas.

I brought my niece a pretty nice yukata and enjoyed being able ...

The Japanese Garden in Michigan

September 24, 2019, Posted by : James

I made a pilgrimage back to my home state to participate in a friend's wedding the other day. After the festivities ended and I made my way back to Grand Rapids, I headed to the Frederik Meijer Gardens to finally check out the "Japanese garden" designed by some Japanese guy - I know he's Japanese because his picture was on a haughty ...