Meeting Point

We meet at our office/garage in Akihabara. It is only a 3-minute walk from JR Akihabara train station. We will give you detailed directions after you book a tour. You can access Akihabara easily by JR Yamanote Line, Keihin-Tohoku Line, or Sobu Line. Akihabara is a world-famous district in central Tokyo with hundreds of electric and anime-goods shops - it is a good place to spend time after the tour finishes.

Directions to Our Office/Garage

Take the JR Line (Yamanote Line, Keihin-Tohoku Line, or Sobu Line) and get off at Akihabara. Follow directions for Central Gate (中央口).

Exit the station via the Central Gate. After going through a ticket gate, turn LEFT and exit the station building.

Once outside the building, turn RIGHT and cross the street towards Yodobashi-Akiba building. After crossing the street, turn LEFT (facing Yodobashi-Akiba building) and continue for about 120 meters.

At the first corner after an intersection with traffic lights, make a RIGHT turn onto a small street. On the corner, there is a construction site surrounded by white walls.

Turn LEFT at the first corner. There is a Japanese restaurant on the corner. Our office is about 60 meters ahead on your right-hand side. It is located on the first (ground) floor of a 12-storied red brick color apartment building. The closest land mark is the AKIHBARA BAY HOTEL which is located in the next building to ours.

Cycling Tours Tokyo

We planned our tours for years. However we experienced the big earthquake in 2011 and had to postpone the plan. Now we are very glad to introduce our tours to you.

Based on our guide experience, we chose a lot of nice places that you cannot visit on big group bus tours. Since we are local professional guides, we always give you updated information.

All our guides passed national guide test and hold the national guide certificate. We are acknowledged by Japan Tourism Agency and the quality of service is ensured by the government. Sadly, there are some illegal guides who try to prey on tourists. Please ask your guide to show their guide certificate every time you join a tour. Please check Japan Tourism Agency site for detail.

Post Post Crisis Era to Continue

We’ve talked about the post-post-crisis era as one that is neither risk-off (a period
like the financial crisis, when investors shun riskier assets) nor risk-on (a period like
the post-crisis period, which we define from March 2009 through November 2014,
when investors embrace riskier assets). In a post-post-crisis landscape, markets have
a mixed outlook, in which growth is uneven and interest rates remain low. Although
a lot has changed in politics with an incoming Republican president and Republicanmajority
Congress, we believe that the post-post-crisis framework remains relevant.
In this piece, we will analyze the catalysts for the yields moving higher recently
and provide information on why we continue to believe that bonds are a sound
investment.

The Taper Tantrum vs. the Recent Rise in Yields


In 2013, the “Taper Tantrum” occurred when the market learned that the US Federal
Reserve planned to wind down its quantitative easing program — signaling the end
of monetary policy easing and the beginning of a shift toward monetary policy
tightening. Consequently, Treasury yields rose 100 basis points over two months.
The move higher in yields seemed like a reasonable reaction to such signaling.

The recent move in interest rates also makes sense. The market is taking several
things into consideration:

1. Uncertainty about the leadership of the Fed. Janet Yellen’s term as chair is due to
end in February 2018. Given the Fed’s dovish policy during her tenure, the market
is fearful that Trump will appoint a more hawkish leader who is more eager to raise
interest rates and reset the tone.

2. Looser fiscal policy. Trump has championed both lower taxes and higher
infrastructure spending. These policies, if implemented, would likely boost gross
domestic product and increase the federal budget deficit.

3. Higher inflation prospects. Looser fiscal policy should be a tailwind for inflation.
In addition, any protectionist policies, such as amending the North American Free
Trade Agreement or implementing tariffs, could cause prices to move higher.

Bond Fundamentals Moving Forward

On one hand, lower taxes, fiscal stimulus and deregulation are all positive factors for
riskier assets like stocks (and by extension negative for safer assets like Treasuries).

But there are still many uncertainties and other factors that provide reasons to be
constructive on fixed income:

1. Uncertain geopolitical backdrop. China is currently growing at a reasonably
healthy pace, but that has been aided by a rapid expansion in credit.

2. Uncertain U.S. government policy. To paraphrase Aristotle, the market abhors a
vacuum. Following the election, many aspects of government policy are in flux,
from spending plans to foreign relations.

3. Risk that fiscal stimulus plans miss their target. The nonpartisan Tax Policy
Center’s analysis of Trump’s income tax plan finds that, while high-income
taxpayers would enjoy most of his proposed tax savings, middle-income families
would receive an average tax cut of $1,000.

4. Risk of a trade war harming growth. If Trump were to follow through on his
proposals to increase tariffs on foreign goods, his actions could spiral into a trade
war. This would be negative for U.S. GDP growth.

5. Risk of restrictions on immigration hurting economic growth. One little-known
fact is that the growth in GDP per capita has trailed total GDP growth by 40%
since the financial crisis.

6. Risk of a shock hitting the economy. External shocks are, by nature, difficult to
predict but can have wide-ranging effects.

7. Large number of buyers of U.S. government debt. U.S. and foreign pension funds
and insurers use Treasuries as an important component of their portfolios, and this
shows no sign of changing.

What This Means for Investors

Although it seems very likely to us that the Fed will raise rates gradually in years to
come, expected risk-adjusted returns for investing in bonds remain appealing.
Recent volatility in the municipal bond market is beginning to present more
opportunities for munis*, while healthier realized inflation makes us continue to be
supportive of Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities.

Five Keys to Investing in 2017

#1: Uncertainty Is a Sure Thing. Keep Calm and Carry On.

When it comes to shock and awe, 2016 delivered. The United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union, the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States, turmoil in China’s markets, challenges to globalization — clearly, the world remains an uncertain place.

Swift and dramatic change can inspire powerful emotions and lead to very human, but ultimately destructive, investment decisions. For investors confronted with confusion and uncertainty, the natural temptation is to retreat. “Keep calm and carry on” may be good advice, but for many investors it can be hard to follow.

#2: Diversification Still Matters, So Keep Your Balance.

In the 2008-2009 bear market, diversification didn’t matter. The Great Recession took a toll on nearly every asset class and portfolio. But in the 2000-2002 downturn, diversification worked. If you hadn’t piled into tech, you were spared a lot of pain when the dot-com bubble burst.

The debate over investment diversification is likely to go on and on, but today a strategic allocation in stocks and bonds around the world remains a hallmark of a portfolio that can help investors fulfill their objectives in the long run.

#3: Income is Scarce. Casting a Wide Net Can Pay Dividends.

There are nearly 50 million people over 65 in the United States, and many of them have one thing in common: They want their dividends. Millions of retiring baby boomers need income, but they may have to search far and wide for yield.

#4: Relax, It’s Not All Doom and Gloom.

Take a deep breath. Relax. In an age when doom and gloom seem to be all we read about or see on television, it just might be possible that things aren’t as bad as they seem. In fact, things may just be getting better — and not for the few, but for the many.

#5: Life Happens. Control What You Can With a Long-Range Plan.

Don’t get too high or too low. Try to maintain an even keel. Fight fear with facts.

All of those can be hard to do when the world’s markets and global economy are going through times that can be both exhilarating and frightening. The evidence shows that euphoric investors tend to buy high, and fearful investors sell low.

Hamilton Loomis to Lead Harmonica Workshop at Galveston College

Blues extraordinaire and island native Hamilton Loomis is returning home this spring to conduct a two-day blues harmonica workshop at Galveston College, and he wants you in on the action.

“It’s just for fun, there’s no red pens and you don’t get a grade,” Loomis said of the workshop on April 24-25 at the college, 4015 Ave. Q. “The great thing about the harmonica is that it’s user-friendly.''

“Ultimately, what I want them to get out of it is not only just picking up a new instrument, but to have an understanding of its context in pop music and blues in general, and the history of the instrument,” he said.

Indeed, Loomis’ love of The Blues has taken him on the ride of his life. At age 14, he was writing, arranging and performing his own music. He found himself in the sights of blues icons Bo Diddley, Johnny Copeland, Albert Collins and Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, who took him under their wing.

“Growing up in Galveston, I dreamed of playing The Balinese Room which was part of Galveston’s history,” he said.

Operated by Sicilian immigrant barbers-turned-bootleggers Sam and Rosario Maceo, the Balinese Room was an elite spot in the 1940s and 1950s (Galveston's open era), featuring entertainment by Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Peggy Lee and The Marx Brothers.

The venue, which extended over the Gulf of Mexico at 2107 Seawall Blvd., was destroyed by Hurricane Ike on Sept. 13, 2008. Indeed, The Balinese Room was a pop culture icon; ZZ Top even wrote and performed a song about the club called, “Balinese.”

Loomis said that one of the highlights of his career was performing at the historic nightclub. In fact, he played there almost a dozen times before its demise.

“Growing up in Galveston as a young musician you dream of playing there, and when it becomes a reality it’s so satisfying, and at the same time very humbling and gratifying,” Loomis said. “I feel totally honored to have been able to a part of that history and to share that history.”

Loomis is doing his part to keep The Blues going strong, and the harmonica workshop at Galveston College is a big step in that direction. It’s a great chance for music lovers 12 and up to get some hands-on training from one of the best.

History of Galveston, Texas

The History of Galveston, Texas, begins with the archaeological record of Native Americans who used the island. The first European settlements on the island were constructed around 1816. The Port of Galveston was established in 1825 by the Congress of Mexico following its successful revolution from Spain. The city served as the main port for the Texas Navy during the Texas Revolution. Galveston was founded in 1836 by Matthew Sabo and served as the capital of the Republic of Texas. The Battle of Galveston was fought in Galveston Bay during the American Civil War when Confederate forces under Major General John B. Magruder attacked and expelled occupying Union troops from the city.

Exploration and settlement

Galveston Island was originally inhabited by members of the Karankawa and Akokisa tribes who used the name "Auia" for the island. In 1519, the Alonso Álvarez de Pineda expedition sailed past Galveston Island en route from the Florida peninsula to the Pánuco River. Pineda may or may not have actually seen the island, however, Spain lay claim to the entire Gulf Coast, including Galveston Island, based on the 1519 Pineda expedition. Soon afterward, Cabeza de Vaca and his crew were shipwrecked on the island (or nearby) in November 1528, calling it "Isla de Malhado" ("Isle of Doom"), and from there began his famous trek to Mexico. Various Spanish explorers charting the region referred to the island as "Isla Blanca" ("White Island") and later "Isla de Aranjuez" ("Aranjuez Island"). In 1685 French explorer La Salle named the island "San Louis" ("Saint Louis") and the name became fixed for some time.

Golden era

At the end of the 19th century, the city of Galveston was a booming metropolis with a population of 37,000. Its position on the natural harbor of Galveston Bay along the Gulf of Mexico made it the center of trade in Texas, and one of the largest cotton ports in the nation, in competition with New Orleans. Between 1838 and 1842, 18 newspapers were started to serve the island's rapidly growing population (The Galveston County Daily News is the sole survivor). A causeway linking the island with the mainland was finished in 1860, which paved the way for railroad expansion.

Storm of 1900

In 1900, the island was struck by a devastating hurricane. Even post-Hurricane Katrina, this event holds the record as the United States' deadliest natural disaster. In the early morning of September 8, high surf, despite prevailing winds out of the north, heralded the oncoming storm. By noon, low-lying areas near the Gulf and the Bay side of the city were flooding and the winds increased. Near 4 p.m. a storm surge approximately 15 feet (5 m) high slammed into the coast. Wind speeds reached approximately 125 miles per hour (201 km/h) (an estimate, since the anemometer was blown off the U.S. Weather Bureau building). Isaac Cline was the bureau's chief meteorologist.

Rebuilding and the "Open era"

Despite attempts to draw new investment to the city after the hurricane, Galveston has never fully returned to its previous levels of national importance or prosperity. Development was also hindered by the construction of the Houston Ship Channel, which brought the Port of Houston into direct competition with the natural harbor of the Port of Galveston for sea traffic. To further her recovery, and rebuild her population, Galveston actively solicited immigration. Through the efforts of Rabbi Henry Cohen and Congregation B'nai Israel, Galveston became the focus of an immigration plan called the Galveston Movement that, between 1907 and 1914, diverted roughly 10,000 Eastern European, Jewish immigrants from the crowded cities of the Northeastern United States. Additionally numerous other immigrant groups, including Greeks, Italians and Russian Jews came to the city during this period. This immigration trend substantially altered the ethnic makeup of the island, as well as many other areas of Texas and the western U.S.

Recent history

The economy of the island entered a long, stagnant period. Many businesses relocated off of the island. By 1959, the city of Houston had long out-paced Galveston in population and economic growth. Recognizing this, the Reverend Wendelin J. Nold, fifth bishop of the Galveston Diocese, was permitted by the Vatican to erect a Cathedral of convenience in Houston, naming Sacred Heart Church as co-cathedral. The diocese was then re-designated the Diocese of Galveston-Houston. Galveston and St. Mary's Cathedral Basilica still remained the home of the diocese, but now the bishop could more easily access the rapidly growing Roman Catholic population in Houston.

Online Info Blog: Internet security company springs big data leak

People aren’t actually saying that every cloud has an unencrypted lining but they are saying that every website protected by the online security service Cloudflare has been leaking encrypted session and user data—including credit card numbers and passwords—for months now and that millions of affected website users should promptly change their passwords!

Cloudflare, which provides million of online servers/websites with firewall-like traffic-filtering to protect against malicious hacking exploits, such as distributed denial of service attacks, announced on February 23 that it had a long-standing internal memory leak flaw. Cloudflare called it a “parser bug”, while the Internet security community-at-large dubbed it “cloudbleed” for its similarity to the Heartbleed memory overflow bug of three years ago.

It’s comforting how everyone pays lip service to security

The memory leak flaw was brought to Cloudflare’s attention on February 17 by Tavis Ormandy from Google’s Project Zero, which is tasked with finding such hidden code flaws.

World’s platform for change asks you to change your password

Change.org, which hosts millions of online petitions and is one of Cloudflare’s clients, sent out the following vaguely worded email on Saturday (February 25) to all registered users (including myself) recommending that we all change our passwords immediately:

We want you to feel safe when using our services and we have been monitoring this situation closely to ensure it does not affect our users. If you are ever in doubt about the security of your accounts with us, feel free to contact Change·org directly through our Help Center.

In fact, no one is suggesting that there is any evidence that any of these potential memory leaks from hundreds of millions (if not billions) of encrypted web sessions have been exploited by anyone. But it’s a good idea to “refresh” your passwords every so often, regardless of external evidence.
You can cry “Heartbleed”, or “Wolf”, only so many times!

Three things can be assumed to happen as a result of this latest Internet security bug. Firstly, all website users affected will receive a direct notification advising them of the fact and recommending that they change their passwords.

Secondly, the memory leak bug will be fixed.

And thirdly, most Internet users will conclude that this latest dire warning of an Internet security flaw affecting millions and millions of users is much ado about nothing—just like every similar warning of the last few years (not to mention that “world-ending” Y2K bug of  the year 2000).

After all, unlike a few of the malicious Microsoft Windows viruses and worms of yesteryear, which visibly destroyed data and took down bazillions of Windows computers, the high-profile software bugs of recent years have appeared to be mostly hype as far as end users are concerned.

The marketing of Internet flaws—but at whom?

Not to say that security flaws are not exploited by malicious coders. And yes, there is online identity theft and online credit card fraud aimed at individuals but the later two categories are very fuzzily documented—with no reliable numbers of actual consumer losses to online fraud.

Online Info Blog: Cloudflare Bug Spills Private Data Online

The source of the problem – which was discovered accidentally by Google Project Zero bod, Tavis Ormandy – was a memory leak caused by a broken HTML parser chain.

However, it was compounded by the fact that leaked data was then cached by search engines.

The leaked data included “private information such as HTTP cookies, authentication tokens, HTTP POST bodies, and other sensitive data,” Cloudflare CTO, John Graham-Cumming explained in a lengthy blog post.

“We quickly identified the problem and turned off three minor Cloudflare features (email obfuscation, Server-side Excludes and Automatic HTTPS Rewrites) that were all using the same HTML parser chain that was causing the leakage. At that point it was no longer possible for memory to be returned in an HTTP response,” he added.

Although Graham-Cumming claimed the bug was fixed globally in under seven hours, it may have been leaking highly sensitive data for months.

“The greatest period of impact was from February 13 and February 18 with around one in every 3,300,000 HTTP requests through Cloudflare potentially resulting in memory leakage (that’s about 0.00003% of requests),” he added.

In fact, given the extent of the info cached by search engines, Cloudflare clients will now be under pressure to inform their own customers of the extent of the privacy snafu.

“The examples we're finding are so bad, I cancelled some weekend plans to go into the office on Sunday to help build some tools to cleanup. I've informed Cloudflare what I'm working on,” said Ormandy.

“I'm finding private messages from major dating sites, full messages from a well-known chat service, online password manager data, frames from adult video sites, hotel bookings. We're talking full https requests, client IP addresses, full responses, cookies, passwords, keys, data, everything.”

Although he praised Cloudflare for its response to the issue, it’s also true the firm’s bug bounty offers little in the way of rewards for white hat researchers – free t-shirts, rather than money.

Former Google click fraud boss and current Shape Security CTO, Shuman Ghosemajumder, argued that it is “one of the widest exposures of confidential and sensitive consumer data ever observed.”

“This incident has many people suggesting that everyone in the world should change all of their passwords immediately,” he said.

“The total exposure is likely not that large – i.e., not all of your passwords have been compromised – but the problem is that almost any one of your passwords on over four million websites could have been compromised, so the safest course of action is to act as though all of your passwords were compromised.”

Kaushik Narayan, CTO at Skyhigh Networks, analyzed over 30 million enterprise users worldwide and found 99.7% of companies have at least one employee that used a Cloudbleed vulnerable cloud application.

“This means hackers could have stolen user passwords for these cloud applications – and may even have access to session keys exposed, while a session is live. But this user-data also revealed another surprise – out of 128 enterprise-ready applications that could have been compromised, only four were vulnerable,” he added.

“Cloudbleed is the latest in a string of vulnerabilities that should be of concern to enterprise IT security and a reminder us of the problems caused by user password reuse across corporate services and personal web sites and cloud services.”

Online Info Blog: Avoid scams

The web can be a great place, but not everyone online has good intentions. Here are three simple ways to avoid scammers and stay safe on the web:

Beware of strangers bearing gifts

A message is probably up to no good if it congratulates you for being a website’s millionth visitor, offers a tablet computer or other prize in exchange for completing a survey or promotes quick and easy ways to make money or get a job (“get rich quick working from your home for just two hours a day!”). If someone tells you that you’re a winner and asks you to fill out a form with your personal information don’t be tempted to start filling it out. Even if you don’t hit the “submit” button, you might still be sending your information to scammers if you start putting your data into their forms.

If you see a message from someone that you know that doesn’t seem like them, their account may have been compromised by a cyber criminal who is trying to get money or information from you – so be careful how you respond. Common tactics include asking you to urgently send them money, claiming to be stranded in another country or saying that their phone has been stolen so that they cannot be called. The message may also tell you to click on a link to see a picture, article or video, which actually leads you to a site that might steal your information – so think before you click!

Do your research

When shopping online, research the seller and be wary of suspiciously low prices just like you would if you were buying something at a local shop. Scrutinise online deals that seem too good to be true. No one wants to get tricked into buying fake goods. People who promise normally non-discounted expensive products or services for free or at 90% off probably have malicious intent. If you use Gmail, you may see a warning across the top of your screen if you’re looking at an email that our system says might be a scam – if you see this warning, think twice before responding to that email.

Watch out for scams using the Google brand. Google does not run a lottery. We do not charge training fees for new employees – if you receive an email saying that you have been hired by Google but have to pay a training fee before you can start, it is a scam. Watch out for people claiming to sell cars using Google Wallet. Find out more about various scams using the Google brand.

When in doubt, play it safe

Do you just have a bad feeling about an ad or an offer? Trust your gut! Only click on ads or buy products from sites that are safe, reviewed and trusted.

Many online shopping platforms have trusted merchants/sellers programs. These sellers typically have a visible stamp of approval on their profiles. Make sure that the stamp or certificate is legitimate by reviewing the shopping platforms’ guidelines. If the platform doesn’t offer a similar program, take a look at the number of reviews and the quality of reviews on the seller.