Neil Duckett

I'm back from a great 10 days over in Ireland. It was the first time in a long time i've travelled without the want or need to take a laptop and i have to say, i loved it.

Ireland as a place was pretty much as i expected it and no great surprises, more of a surprise for me was finding out exactly how much i miss the more "outdoorsy life" you don't get so much in Japan.

The days and nights were full of socialising with Friends and i managed to see more of Ireland than i'd first planned due to a trip to Dublin by train and then a return to Adare around the coast by car.

I took a few photos while abroad but also missed out on a few occasions due forgetting my camera or being a little too inhebriated to use it. I've narrowed them down to a selection of shots and will put them all up at once. There may be some more coming when a few Friends arrive back in Australia.

Unfortunately there's very few high rise hotels in Adare, so it was B&B Accomodation. I was out the back in the converted stable. 

The Main Street of Adare. Saturday was extremely busy due to a Bank Holiday on the Monday and lots of people heading off for a long weekend.

Since first wondering back in January about the iPhone it’s recently been announced Softbank has been chosen as provider upsetting NTT Docomo in the process.

Today marked another milestone in the long awaited arrival of the iPhone in Japan. As expected, Apple CEO Steve Jobs once again kicked off the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) being held June 9-13 in San Francisco, California. The keynote took place at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, June 9 at Moscone West … which means about 2am Tuesday morning Japan time.

It’s official, the 3G iPhone will be released in “70 countries this year. We’re going to start with 22 of the biggest, rolling out the iPhone 3G at the same time in all of these countries. July 11.” … i’m assuming Japan falls into one of these countries and the slide show certainly highlights Japan.

Update - Here’s the Softbank iPhone Plan available in Japan

Bring on July 11 and i’ll have an iPhone with the works please!

Images from Engadget … there’s a few more over there too.

Update - Confirmed “Available on July 11th in: Australia, Austria, Belgium (French), Belgium (Dutch), Canada (English), Canada (French), Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland (French), Switzerland (German), UK, USA” - Engadget

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It never ceases to amaze me what how there's not a lot of wasted space in Japan.

On my morning walk to the station i'm forever looking around to see what i can see, take this small Shrine for example … tucked inbetween 2 buildings and  in front of an elevator.

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Keeping with my latest fixation on Japanese Transport here's a few pics of 2 bikes that are functionallythe same …. but worlds apart in appearance.

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I've always loved this sort of thing and it's a great way to illustrate the size of a city.

When you travel into Tokyo from Narita, on the Narita Express, you start to get a taste for it and if it's the first time you've been to Tokyo then your enthusiasm levels should have well and truly risen by now.

I used to get this sort of excitement when i'd first arrive into Sydney, then after a few trips to New York and Japan it takes a bit more to get me going now. It's amazing how initial impression of something subsides and becomes the norm over a period of time.

I've had this with "humid weather" when i first moved to Brisbane and "big cities" after having lived here for the last few years.

It's amazing how small Melbourne feels when i get back there now …. let alone Adelaide. Here's a few samples from a great selection by Ken Ohyama

You can check out a whole lot more of Ken's photos appropriately titled Interchange from flickr. There's about 80 all up so well worth checking out.

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