This is the best of the batch, and covers our trip through Tokyo, the Hakone area, and Kyoto. Photographs of individuals are absent to protect the innocent from embarrassment. But there’s a lot of good scenic eye candy to chew on.

You may prefer the Flickr version of these same photographs.

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Google recently added a new feature to the already outstanding Google Maps: My Maps. I spent some time playing around with it for purely self-serving reasons: to note exactly where the heck we went on our Japan trip, before I forget.

Here’s the map we’re putting together: Webomatica’s Japan Trip

Anyhow, if you’ve played around with Google Maps, adding your own markers is just another layer of interaction. Using the some simple drawing tools, you can add markers, lines, shapes, and descriptions including pictures and links using standard HTML.

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I was originally planning to write a series of posts with travel tips for Japan, but in the interest of sticking to what this blog is supposed to be about, I decided on one super-mega-post. I hope these tips help others who are going to Japan for the first time, as we just did. I’m no Japan expert; just a confused tourist. A more general post with photographs of our trip highlights will follow shortly.

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In a sense, this is the second half of my earlier, Blogging Is Bizarre post.

About two weeks ago, about to go on vacation, I wasn’t sure if I’d have Internet access abroad, and even if so (turned out I did) I didn’t know how motivated I’d be to write (turned out not much), so I put out a call for “guest bloggers” to fill in while away.

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Apreal Fuelz by De Katz!!!!!

Hi wez iz stil watin fur our parentz to come hom

we likin dat derz nobody buggin uz wayl wi sleepz on di bedz

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This final guest post is by Jennifer LeBlanc. Her blog is MissPenName, where she writes about literature, journalism, and feminism with a dash of humor.

A mutual editor/friend got Jason and I in touch with each other. He wants a vacation; I want to be his guest blogger for a day. And we each think the other’s blog is just swell. But would it work? He’s a Mac, I’m a PC. He blogs solely about technology and entertainment. I mainly blog about politics and society. But we have one thing in common that trumps all other differences: we are both cat people.

Just in case you didn’t know, cats rule the blogosphere. Yes, they are utter snobs and they lick themselves, and we cannot get enough of them.

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This guest post is written by Greg Gadwood, a co-worker of mine. He’s an interesting guy, who watches Battlestar Galactica and lent me his DVDs of The Prisoner.

For most people in their 20’s and 30’s, we have been surrounded by video games most of our lives. It all started in 1972 with a game called “Pong” — and this popular form of entertainment has been going like gangbusters ever since. While many in this demographic moved on to other interests and hobbies as they reached adulthood, there are still many who continue to play.

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This guest post is by MG Siegler of Paris Lemon. It’s a blog I read regularly, as he’s a Battlestar Galactica and Apple fan. However, I must say, I didn’t read this post at all as I still haven’t seen the season finale! I’m sure it’s great, however.

[WARNING: SPOILER ALERT IF YOU ARE NOT CAUGHT UP ON BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, DO NOT READ ON]

While the season 3 finale of Battlestar Galactica was certainly one of those love-it or hate-it episodes, it’s time to start looking past it and onward to season 4.

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I’m still on vacation, so here are some helpful links, more directed towards other bloggers out there, all culled from my ever-growing Google Reader.

News Sources

Techmeme, Megite, Tailrank, Digg, CNN, The New York Times, Slashdot, SFGate, WeSmirch

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This guest post is by Harlan over at Greener Magazine. I must say the issue of climate change is especially appropriate as right now, I’m in Kyoto - the city whose name is used for the Kyoto Protocol.

A new global warming study predicts that many current climate zones will vanish entirely by the year 2100, replaced by climates unknown in today’s world.

Global climate models for the next century forecast the complete disappearance of several existing climates currently found in tropical highlands and regions near the poles, while large swaths of the tropics and subtropics may develop new climates unlike anything seen today. Driven by worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, the climate modeling study uses average summer and winter temperatures and precipitation levels to map the differences between climate zones today and in the year 2100 and anticipates large climate changes worldwide.

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