Welcoming Party

A few students at our branch in Chino City were kind enough to throw me a welcome party last month. We had a great time at a small izakaya near Chino station with good food, good conversation, and all-u-can-drink alcohol!!!

From left to right: Tomomi, Me, Mie, Hirohiko, Mineko, Sayuri and Masakazu.

Thanks guys...I really appreciated it and had a super time. :D

August: Festival time in Japan

Yes, it's been a while but I have a lot to update. August is the month of summer festivals in Japan as well as the time when the O-bon holiday occurs. I was pretty busy having parties with students, going to festivals, watching fireworks, moving into my new apartment, B-B-Q's, etc. last month and put off updating until now. I will, however, be putting up a lot of videos (sorry for those with slow internet connections...Chelle) for all to enjoy as well as a few pics. All of them were taken on my phone so the quality isn't great, but pretty impressive considering. I'll be putting some things up after work tonight (hopefully) and tomorrow morning.

D

Farewell Party

One of the teachers here, Chris, just finished up a 2 1/2 year stint and headed back to Canada with his wife Michiko. I think they are heading to Europe to do a cycling tour for a month or so before settling back for good. Here are some pictures of his farewell party we had last Friday, as well as a short video.



and the vid.....

!&^&*%$))(&*^+

!#&#*(%^&# R%$^%*&#&) $&$T*_$()++($&*^& !^&E*^&)(GH& Y*(_!*Y&*TT&*
&*(!&*!( T&FDF!C!FCAGH()(*(A YU*Y! (*(!&^&%#^&RTSFTGS*&(S&*(
*()*&(&!*^SFYU*&!^&*S
(!&*(^S ^&!^&!*)&^)*^!&_&*()*&)_*_)(**()*_)~* GYGY~IU*YG:


****I have removed the video as I don't want to tarnish the person-in-questions reputation...
.......he can do that all on his own*****


If you have had trouble understanding this.....you now know exactly how I feel about an unnamed co-worker. Enjoy!! :D

I'mmmmm Baaaack!!

I made it back from my road trip without a hitch. It was a long trip with a lot of driving though, 6 hours there and about 5 1/2 back. It was good to be back in Fukui and the drive over there brought me through some really nice countryside which made it all the more bearable. Here is the happy couple:


I arrived on Saturday at noon and met up with Brad at his place. Later, when Mariko got home from work, we all went over to Hachiban Ramen for lunch. It was nice catching up with Brad and seeing what all has been going on since I visited last August. I told them I would treat them to dinner at a place of their choice as a "Wedding gift" and Mariko decided on a place called Saint Mark in Fukui city. We decided to check out some old friends of mine, The Katsuyama's, before dinner. Mr. Katsuyama sells Japanese swords and I had purchased from him back in 2002-2003 when I had a collection. It was a welcome experience to be back around some awesome swords and to be able to handle them. The one I'm holding here was selling for around $15,000....yikes!!




Dinner was excellent, good choice Mariko, and the bread was all-u-can-eat. I wouldn't mind checking it out again next time I'm in town.



It was a good day.

On Sunday, we met up at the movie theater to watch..........of all movies.............ummmm...........errrr................Ha.....Harry.......Po...Pot.....Potter....ok there I said it. It wasn't bad, wasn't great either. Brad and Mariko showing off their tickets.

Unfortunately, I didn't really take any photos of the drive over or back. There were lots of scenic things but the roads are so small, there's nowhere to stop and photo. I did, however, take some vids on the trip back...not too interesting but damn did the weather changes fast.

Hope you enjoy...till the next update.

The ROAD TRIP

I'm planning on taking a road trip starting tomorrow. I will be driving from Nagano to Fukui to visit BRAD-O (that's how the Japanese pronounce it) and his NEW wife Mariko. It's a drive that will take me through the mountains and I'm hoping my new car can handle the trip. If no one hears from me for a while....sent out the search party. You can see from the map how my route looks. As you can see, a lot of the trip is through the mountains up those steep and winding roads so it should be a lot of fun and I'll be sure to gets some good pictures. I'm guessing it will be a bout a 5 hour trip there but you never now.

CANYONING

Went up to the Hakuba area on Wednesday with my boss and three other co-workers to do some Canyoning. The guides took a lot of shots and my boss bought the CD, so i'll post pictures of the day trip when I get a copy of the disc. I won't go into too much detail about what it is, but you'll get a better idea once the pics go up. And, here they are:

Well...good morning to you,too

I lazily got up this morning at around 10:15am and was greeted about ten minutes later with an earthquake that lasted for a good minute or so of shaking. I ran out of my living room sliding doors and was the ONLY person outside. I could hear the cheers of students at what was probably a local baseball game. Earthquakes are so common in this country, people don't even notice them anymore.....well, except for me.


*update* just had another tremor hit here at about 3:39pm (3 minutes ago). Not too big, though I still ran outside. :D

New Ride

Perhaps you remember me mentioning that I was able to talk down the price of a used car with help from an unlikely source....and here's...the rest of the story.

As I'm situated in the countryside and required to drive to work three days a week, the company provides a car for teachers to use. We can also use it for personal use, charged at a rate of Y20/km. BUT...I much prefer to have a car of my own to be used when, where, and how I please. I actually brought over an extra $1000 just for the purpose of getting a car, so it was something I had planned to do. Soooo..I have been looking for a decent used kei car since I arrived. Pickings have been pretty slim and the cars were either butt ugly, had to many km, or were just too expensive. So last Friday I mentioned the fact that I'm looking for a car to my student Kenji and he told me a tenant in one of his buildings was selling a couple of cars. Long story short, I decided to go check them out the next day and later meet with the guy.

I made plans to check out the car first, then would go to Matsumoto to check out the castle there. I arrived around noon, and liked what I saw. It was small, but it was what I was looking for. Kei cars have a much cheaper cost of operation than standard size cars. After I gave it a good looking-over, I went to take a look at the inside and was a bit taken back (to say the least) when I opened the door and was greeted by a snake coiled up in the door well!!! Needless to say, I shut the door and took a few steps back. I called Kenji and asked him to let the seller know I was here. After the seller arrived, I explained there was a snake in the car, which he didn't believe at first. When I opened the door to show him, the little bugger looked at us, then took off towards the engine compartment and out of sight. Greeeat...what do whe do now? We know there's a snake...but don't know exactly where it is....and btw, it was of a posionous variety!

Long story short---er, we couldn't find the snake and the dealer offered it to me (with the snake) for a substantial discount. I eventually accepted, and we shook on it. THEN... in a great turn of events, as he closed the hood (it closed with a loud BANG!), the snake jumped down from the engine compartment and started to slither away at which time he jumped in the car and ran over it. Yep, thanks to that poor little guy, I got a great deal!! I'll be picking up the car on Friday.

Pics:

Notice the sporty fin on top....dual wind guards....turbo with intercooler....and...it's a convertible.... Muhahahahahahahahaha!!

Harumiya (Spring temple)

Yesterday before work I stopped by the other temple I mentioned before...Harumiya. Both of these temples are involved in a festival (Onbasira) that takes plce every six years where huge trees are cut, brought to the top of a mountain, and then pulled and riden down by guys with either a really big sack, or very little common sense. Check out this youtube vid for an idea.

Here are some of the pics I took at Harumiya:

Akimiya (Autumn Temple)

There are two nice temples just a few minutes from my house. One is called Harumiya (spring temple) and the other one is Akimiya (autumn temple). Yesterday I decided to go check out the Akimiya temple to take a few shots before it got too dark (it was nearly dusk). Here are some pics from the trip.

Akimiya temple

Saturday and Matsumoto Castle

Yesterday I decided to borrow the company car and drive over to Matsumoto, a city about 33km away, to check out the famous castle there. From what I have read, it is the oldest original castle left in Japan and is designated a National Treasure (follow link for more info). I also wanted a chance to get out on the road and get a feel for the surrounding cities. It was a pretty nice drive and I only had to stop once for directions. I took a crapload of pictures and will spare everyone looking at them all.

having technical difficulties uploading pics...will get to it tomorrow perhaps along with the story of how I talked a used car saleman down from Y100,000 ($811.82) to Y70,000 ($568.27), with some help from an unlikely source.

Matsumoto pics:

Welcoming Party!!

So last Saturday was my official welcoming party to Global Village. We headed to a little place called YUKI after work to throw back a few and shoot da shit. We stayed til midnight, which I believe was the closing time there, then headed over to the owners house to continue. Me and a few of the teachers were playing poker and blackjack while the Japanese were playing Mah-jong, a Chinese type of chess.....I think. Things started getting weird when one of the teachers, apparently over his limit, got real noisy and started pissing people off (basically a very bad drunk). Unfortunately I don't have any pics or movies of the night (I'm sure they would have been quite enjoyable). By the time I walked home...it was past 4:00 am and the sun was starting to come up so I grabbed my camera and walked over the Mc D's for some Mc Muffins and OJ. I did snap a few pics while walking around by the lake, which I will post here, before heading back home and crashing at around 8:00.

this pic came out awesome...looks like a B&W on the left and color on the right...but actually its just early morning fog. (this is a stitch of 4 photos unedited)
my house is just to the left of this photo (stitch of 3 pics unedited)

somehow caught the bird flyin through