iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Colin Doyle @nagaijin.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

27°C in the daytime in Osaka. Two more degrees down and all the Japanese men my age will be able to put their long johns on again.

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Reposted by Colin Doyle

Anonymous @youranoncentral.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Both birds are Canadian. USians poisoned and shot all the bald eagles down there and they had to be repopulated by Canada. So this is actually a picture of Canadians playing. 🍁🇨🇦 #cdnpoli

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Colin Doyle @nagaijin.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

A student of mine, a high school girl, told me she recently bought a 2nd hand iPhone 7 just to take photos with, to get a “nostalgic Heisei mood.” (Heisei Era: 1989-2019). Granted, she was probably born in 2009, but hearing that, I felt like even more of a relic than I usually do.

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Colin Doyle @nagaijin.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

#Short&Quick A now-obscure local hit from when I was a kid in Nova Scotia (1972). Just a well-put-together little tune, IMO. youtu.be/fd25wAdSK50?...

youtu.be

Pepper Tree - Love Is A Railroad

YouTube video by Clegg

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Colin Doyle @nagaijin.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

#Short&Quick A blink-and-you-miss-it, two-word protest song from They Might Be Giants: youtu.be/SRcRn_Xv7Ek?...

youtu.be

Minimum Wage

YouTube video by They Might Be Giants (For Kids) - Topic

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Colin Doyle @nagaijin.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

65 years ago today, on June 25th, 1961, Bill Evans recorded Waltz For Debby and, by pure coincidence, I just happened to put it on the record player on this rainy morning (and happened to read the liner notes).

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Colin Doyle @nagaijin.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Today I noticed that the local pachinko, which used to get more worshippers than Sumiyoshi Taisha down the road, has closed and signs have gone up looking for tenants. When a neighbourhood can’t keep a pachinko going, it’s an ominous sign, more fraught with meaning than the GDP.

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Colin Doyle @nagaijin.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

If you wanted to ransack the suburbs, today’s your chance because everyone in Osaka is downtown today

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Colin Doyle @nagaijin.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Canadian Conservatives furiously looking up Vaclav Havel on Wikipedia in order to better condemn Carney for quoting him.

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Colin Doyle @nagaijin.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Over at the Other Place, they’re having a meltdown over Carney‘s speech. Which confirms to me how good it was.

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Colin Doyle @nagaijin.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Just heard that today is the 75th anniversary of Rabbit of Seville, which introduced so many of us to opera without us realizing it (“Welcome to my shop/ Let me cut your mop”).

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Colin Doyle @nagaijin.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

Young guy in the corner of the last car on the subway (no, not me) noisily barfing his guts out. Bonenkai (Year-end party) season has officially begun in Osaka! 🎄

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Colin Doyle @nagaijin.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

I wonder how much good early 21st century writing has been lost due to defunct sites?

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Colin Doyle @nagaijin.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

Teatime at the hardware store.

Very old, very tiny hardware store in rural Osaka, crammed full of wares. The aged proprietor sips his late afternoon tea in the corner.

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Colin Doyle @nagaijin.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

Happy Culture Day, Japanfolk! Might celebrate simply this year, with yogurt on my cereal, then maybe a bit of cheese on my sandwich at lunchtime.

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Colin Doyle @nagaijin.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

Still no kinmokusei (flowering olive), my favourite autumn flower, in my neighbourhood. Usually a mid-October flower. I miss their lovely fragrance.

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Colin Doyle @nagaijin.bsky.social · 07/09/2025

It always fascinates me that men (mostly) will give up decades of their lives to campaign, sit through boring meetings, drink merrily with people they despise, on the off chance that, for a few months or a couple of years, they can be prime minister of Japan. Human cicadas.

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Colin Doyle @nagaijin.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

Why so many cops at the train stations (and even on the Midosuji Line train I’m on) these days? Is it to keep those nasty tourists in line? Not used to it.

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Colin Doyle @nagaijin.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

Spare a thought for George Orwell on his birthday. Poor bugger thought he was writing fiction.

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Colin Doyle @nagaijin.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

A new and exciting fleet of bots at the Other Place now, arguing that JD Vance is a better theologian than Pope Leo. Blessed are the petty.

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Colin Doyle @nagaijin.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

Japanese houses: ingeniously designed so that you’re never too hot in the winter or too cold in the summer.

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Colin Doyle @nagaijin.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

“Archive the Future,” says the cap worn by the woman across from me on the Sakaisuji Line.

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Colin Doyle @nagaijin.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

Election night post-mortem: The Panel really don’t want to be sitting next to Jason Kenney. And I don’t blame them.

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Colin Doyle @nagaijin.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

As the Canadian election enters the home stretch, and older Canadians are abandoning the Conservative Party in droves, the right-wing bots and trolls at the Other Place have replaced “pedo” with “boomer,” in their personal attacks, but basically are sticking to the same script.

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Colin Doyle @nagaijin.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

Interesting reading how so many people at the Other Place, who had never heard of Neil Young until today, when he endorsed Mark Carney, are saying they’re never going to listen to his music again.

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Colin Doyle @nagaijin.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

Instagram has been flooded with ads on how to renounce your US citizenship. I can’t imagine why, as their government seems to think everybody wants to be American.

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Reposted by Colin Doyle

Colin Doyle @nagaijin.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

Me in the national security group chat.

Two solemn Japanese OLs (office ladies, the actual Japanese term) at a reception desk, c.1970. One is standing next to an ikebana display, the other is answering the phone.

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Colin Doyle @nagaijin.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

Might as well be rain Be careful what you wish for Wet Osaka snow.

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Colin Doyle @nagaijin.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

Some of the deeply saddest toupees in the known universe reside in Japan.

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Colin Doyle @nagaijin.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

If Harris had won, I don’t think the pardon would have been necessary. But the old man knows the vindictiveness of the next regime and couldn’t put his son through it. The end.

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Colin Doyle @nagaijin.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

And then, suddenly, it was cold.