Welcome to Ehbygum’s Pages

Ehbygum’s alter ego is Buta.

The old and outdated Buta pages are Here.

A Lad with Two Views.

Ehbygum is a commuter between Arakawa in Tokyo and Haworth, a village in the hills of Yorkshire. In Tokyo he looks out over the Endless City from his fourteenth floor balconies. In Haworth, the prospect is the green of the Worth Valley. There’s something about both of these places in these pages, as well as a word or two about the joys and trials of travelling between them.

Ehbygum also has a word or two to say about his other interests, Cars and Four-by-Fours, Ancient and Modern, Trams and Trains, and Pigs.

Welcome, Come Inside.

Please do come inside and have a look around. A good place to start are the links at bottom of this page. And please do come back again next time you’re in the neighbourhood, because Ehbygum plans to update these pages now and again.

Ehbygum’s News Dateline October 2010.

Times have changed. The little school of English that Ehbygum ran in the cheaper end of Tokyo was closed after twenty years in the spring of 2009. Ehbygum and his erstwhile business partner are still teaching though. Two of the rooms in Ehbygum’s flat, in the same building that used to house the school, now serve as classrooms. Ehbygum still enjoys being in the classroom with students, especially the very little people.

Motor News: the Honda Stepwagon is now a venerable vehicle, and Ehbygum continues to enjoy piloting this comfortable little van-cum-camper along the highways and byways of Greater Tokyo, as well as forays into the mountains of nearby Tochigi Prefecture. Now out of guarantee, the van is serviced by a very friendly local garage rather than the more expensive Honda dealer. This garage is a father and son operation. Father is a natural mechanic, and has the experience to service proper cars as well as the more modern variety. And he has a penchant for classic British sports cars. Anyone in Tokyo needed a mechanic for a proper motor car is invited to contact Ehbygum for more information. There’s more about Stepwagons here. In Britain the Morgan continues to be an occasional source of Deep Joy, but is now due for a new timing belt. Hardly done any mileage, but apparently the belts perish over time. It seems strange to Ehbygum that in the twenty-first century engineers haven’t got past putting rubber bands in engines. The Land-Rover now only goes out for its annual MoT. Ehbygum really likes the old beast, but would be glad to find a new loving owner for it.

Flying: Ehbygum tried out a new airline for his return to the Orient this summer. Emirates. The best economy class he’s ever had the pleasure of using, but a rather long way round from Manchester to Tokyo. Also an excellent mileage programme. His long relationship with KLM/Air France was severed, despite the convenience of their many flights between Japan and Europe and the reasonable level of service. Their Flying Blue loyalty mileage programme was changed so that Ehbygum, despite making three or more round trips between Northern England and Japan each year could no longer maintain the minimum level of membership that would give him access to lounges and the other benefits that took the edge off frequent flying. Their loss. Ehbygum is often accompanied by Japanese friends and clients when he flies, so that Air France/KLM have lost seven to twelve long haul customers each year.

Radio and Internet: BBC Radio really is a world service with the advent of the internet, and very accessible in Tokyo courtesy of very low cost very high speed internet connections offered by a bunch of very actively competing providers. Ehbygum has recently switched to Asahi Net as his internet provider in Tokyo. Really fast (up to 75 mbs) using an NTT fibre optic and local VDSL connection, and really cheap with service in English. Recommended.

Rant: Isn’t it time that violent malefactors were locked up for serious lengths of time? The time has come for Britain to build enough prisons to house its sociopaths, and to house them in circumstances that make them sincerely wish not to return once they are finally released. Shame on the British government. The key to this is lower cost detention, and maybe using the social payments that often support villains when they are outside to finance their sojourns inside.

Rant2: Why is Britain devoting so many of its very limited resources to an extraordinarily expensive Higher Education for kids who have little to benefit from it except for acquiring huge debts which they could very well do without? Diverting these largely wasted resources to early years education would produce a very much better educational return. Ehbygum can’t see the point in spending lots to generate semi-literate graduates. With more enlightened educational policies we might even get a mostly literate Britain sometime down the line.

On other pages.

New! The Storey. Ehbygum’s Tokyo Page. Ehbygum’s Yorkshire Page.

Ehbygum’s Motor Page. Ehbygum’s Pigs Page.

Ehbygum’s Flying Page. Ehbygum’s Radio Page Ehbygum’s Train Page.

Ehbygum’s Links. Email Ehbygum. Ehbygum’s Sitemap.

For More Information about this site, please click here.

Ehbygum’s Site is still under construction, some of the pages more so than others.

These pages are very definitely better viewed using MS Internet Explorer,

version 5 or newer, with Text Size set to Medium.

Tokyo Time is

Haworth Time is