User:Nihonjoe/Intro

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I was an expat during the time I lived in Japan. I spent a lot of time visiting cool places such as Itsukushima Shrine, Hondōri, Etajima, Matsue in Shimane Prefecture, the Kurobe Gorge, Shōbara, Miyoshi, Mihara, Kure, and Tokyo. Hiroshima has some amazing things to see, including the Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum (where I saw the original The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali) and Shukkei-en (an amazing and peaceful garden which is right next door to the museum).

I also highly recommend that anyone who can get there should visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum located within the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. The park also contains the Hiroshima Peace Memorial (or "Atomic Bomb Dome"), the Children's Peace Monument (which is often draped with origami cranes), and a statue in honor of Sadako Sasaki (also often draped with origami cranes). You can also visit the Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims there. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony is held in the park every year on August 6, the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

I rode trains regularly on several different lines, including the Geibi Line, the Kisuki Line, the Fukuen Line, the Hiroden Main Line (the main street car line in Hiroshima), and the San'yō Main Line. I created and expanded many of the articles on the stations of the Geibi Line (as well as the article on the line itself). There was (don't know if it's still there) an awesome homemade ice cream shop about 20-30 minutes' walk from Bingo-Ochiai Station. I love manjū (especially Momiji manjū), Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki (the best kind!), and most kinds of sushi.

After absorbing all I could of the culture during my stay, I returned to the untamed wilderness of the wild, wild west. I currently enjoy almost anything about Japan, including anime, manga, most Japanese food, and trains. In fact, I like Japan so much, I made a WikiProject for it.

I also enjoy working on an eclectic mix of other topics, including artists William Bliss Baker, Arnold Friberg, Adalbert J. Volck, Kevin Wasden, Howard Tayler, and Stephan Martinière, poet and author Michael R. Collings, critic and author Gilles Poitras, author Toren Smith, and cultural anthropologist Rachel Thorn. I regularly read Leading Edge magazine, I think Agnes Lum was the perfect first Clarion Girl, and I love the styling of Karatsu and Kutani ware.

One of my biggest achievements here is bringing Portal:Speculative fiction to featured portal status. It took many months of a lot of work, most of it done by myself (though I greatly appreciate the help of those few who assisted in some way). I greatly improved the Boshin War and Manzanar articles so that they could retain their featured status. I also enjoy reading and watching science fiction and fantasy, listening to all kinds of music (really, almost every kind out there), and reading in general. I have a strange fondness for Hinamatsuri.

I especially enjoy technical writing and editing online material in order to make it better. I also enjoy graphic design and taking pictures and making images for Wikipedia. I like user boxes. I even made a couple of them myself. Feel free to use any of the ones I created, or go to the user boxes page and see what's already there.

Stuff I helped with: Featured articles: Japan (April 2007), Boshin War (FAR, September 2020), Manzanar (FARC, September 2020) Featured portals: Japan (September 2008), Speculative fiction (September 2010) Good articles: Cross Game (August 2009), William Bliss Baker (February 2018), Hachijō-jima (March 2018), Brandon Sanderson (April 2022)