Chris K. Taylor

I’ve always said that despite making life easier to a certain extent, I have never been a huge fan of mobile phones. Recently though I have come to the realisation that it is not the phones themselves, but a reasonably large percentage of the people using them that wind me up. And yes, I use one. I became aware of this distinction since I took on a new job about an hour from home, by bus.
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Either I’m just suspicious by nature but something doesn’t seem right…

From an email that landed in my inbox from PayPal<service@peypel.com> entitled “Update Your Account Information”

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Security Center

Military Grade Encryption is Only the Start

At PayPal, we want to increase your security and comfort level with every transaction. From our Buyer and Seller Protection Policies to our Verification and Reputation systems, we’ll help to keep you safe.

PayPal is committed to maintaining a safe environment for its community of buyers and sellers. To protect the security of your account, PayPal employs some of the most advanced security systems in the world and our anti-fraud teams regularly screen the PayPal system for unusual activity.

Recently, our Account Review Team identified some unusual activity in your account. In accordance with PayPal’s User Agreement access to your account will be limited. This is a fraud prevention measure meant to ensure that your account is not compromised.

In order to secure your account we may require some specific information from you. We encourage you to log in by clicking on the link below and complete the requested form as soon as possible.

[Link snipped for safety]

Ignoring our request, for an extended period of time, may result in account limitations or may result in eventual account closure.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please understand that this is
a security measure meant to help protect you and your account.
We apologize for any inconvenience.

Sincerely,
PayPal Account Review Department

PayPal Email ID PP522

*Please do not respond to this e-mail as your reply will not be received.

—

No typos other than the obvious one, which seems strange as the link was to (I assume from the domain, I didn’t bother clicking) an academic site’s blog.

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I’ve modified the title of the category for my trip to Japan, it has been named from Kyoto 2008 to Japan 2008 to include the time spent in Ohara and Osaka.

Sorry, poor planning on my part there, live and learn.

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OK so 4 posts a week was a little ambitious, maybe 4 posts a month at this rate. I’ve uploaded some more photos and I’m going to try (I think a little of the old ‘planning ahead’ is needed for this) to get more up this week.

The first three are from Kyoto and the rest were taken in Ohara - Musashi Village (Okayama)

While we didn’t get to see as much of Kyoto as I wanted (a tendon injury meant that I was in the hotel room for the whole day on our free morning) we were able to return for a few hours after visiting Ohara where Mark managed to get some photos of the Heian Shrine - my camera batteries were dead. We did manage to spend some time around the Musashi Dojo where we trained and spent the night (Many thanks to Hanshi for arranging this and the sensei who gave thir time to watch and instruct) before heading to Kyoto to pick up the bags and head for Izumisano, near Kansai Airport in Osaka. The countryside was a nice change. As much as I enjoyed Kyoto, it was so much more peaceful.

I’ll upload some more pictures from Ohara this week, as I said before. I also have a disposable camera that needs developing, when I get around to using the last of the film.

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We had been waiting for for over 2 years to travel to Kyoto to attend the World Butoku Sai. Looking back we had so little time for sightseeing as a lot of our time was spent at the events and formal dinners, but I wouldn’t change that for the world. The event was amazing; participants from the Honbu and Internation Division of Dai Nippon Butoku Kai attended to demonstrate their skill, a humbling experience to say the least.

I, and those I travelled with, managed to get some great photos though so I’ll be posting these over the next week. There are a lot of them to sort through but I should hit my target of at least 4 posts per week. I proabably won’t be writing as much as I had hoped to but I will try to get at least some commentry. For now, here are some of the early pictures from Kyoto. I think all of these were taken on the first day of the event (the day after we arrived).

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We’ve just arrived in Osaka after being in Kyoto for over a week so this is the first time I’ve had internet access since landing in Japan. I have therefore decided to start updating the site when I get home on the 5th May.

I didn’t get much sightseeing done because of the training, which was long and hard, but overall I’ve had a great time. Most of my photos are in the area around the Heian Shrine in Kyoto, the Musashi Dojo in Ohara and today, Osaka. I’ll get them up as soon as possible.

Here’s hoping for a smooth journey back.

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That’s it, if anything is missing I’m buying it in Japan; my bags are just within the weight alloted to me so I can’t fit anything else in them if I needed to. I think I have everything bar that one item I forgot (spare pair of glasses or some contacts - yes, I remembered) so I’m not too worried. The last few days have been so hectic that there has barely been time for me to get excited and tomorrow I’ll probably be too tired.
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Whenever a potential Iaido student visits the Dojo where I study, I always wonder just how much they have looked into the art. Despite their enthusiasm once they have seen what we do, I always feel that they are expecting us to be hurling ourselves at each other with swords clashing left right and centre. The same can be said when people have asked me what Iaido is, especially when you take the easy option of saying ‘it’s a Japanese sword art’. As we’ll be studying and demonstrating Iaido in Kyoto I thought it might be a good idea to try to explain what we do.
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I have more or less one week to go now and still no theme/template for this site. After toying with the idea of bodging something together and promptly deciding against it, I now have two options: use a template designed and offered for download by someone else or leave the default template in place.
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Today I’ve been running through everything I need to take with me to Kyoto. After realising that I had forgotten the power adaptors, voltage convertor and new bag for the laptop among other things (yes, pretty much all stuff for the laptop) I set out to the shops hit Google looking for the best prices. Three hours later and I’m done, I think.
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