Color I

Here are some pictures from my first photography class.  Click for more.

Sumo

After 7 years in Japan, finally went to see sumo!

The match only starts once each side has put both his fists to the ground. They throw rice into the ring as a blessing and get into position, but if one side is not ready, they don't start the match. The crowd laughs at this one sumo because he is known for psyching himself up in non-typical unreserved fashion.

FujiQ

Here are some videos I found on youtube of the rides we rode! I can't believe these people got away with filming these...

First one of the day, we rode together - Dodonpa - goes from 0 to 107.5 mph!

2nd one - Takabisha - with that crazy inverted drop - and this guy isn't even yelling.

3rd one - Eejanaika - you go up slowly first backwards and then down this huge drop facing forward and immediately into a loop! This one scared me the most.

4rd one - Fujiyama - received the Guinness book of world record in 1997 for highest and fastest (since broken). Really awesome actually and could have ridden it again if we had time.

San Francisco & Hanami

Kusatsu Onsen

Here are pics from a trip we took to Kusatsu Onsen in Japan, known for its natural hot springs. It was so relaxing! We stayed at a super nice ryokan, definitely one of the nicest I've seen in my 7 years here.

Okinawa

Hope everyone is well.  Everything is pretty much back to normal in Tokyo post earthquake and tsunami, but the areas up north are still devastated.  My company is making volunteer trips to the effected areas but they are poorly organized, most of us find out about them after they've completed.  Apparently, Tepco lied and three times the previously disclosed amount of radiation was dumped into the sea.  Anyway, we are still buying water bottles in bulk from Amazon just to be safe, although there is probably little health risk now.

We took a long weekend trip to Okinawa recently.  The weather was great while we were there, but a typhoon arrived just as we were leaving.  Lots of military bases around there and fighter jets flying through the air, very interesting and lovely place.

Trekking in Yamanashi

We went on a family trekking trip to Yamanashi prefecture this past Friday and Saturday.  The weather was perfect and the ryokan was very relaxing.  We were lucky also to have some live jazz music played at our ryokan at night after dinner.

Photos by Andy at agitatedlight.com

Here are some photos by my friend Andy, at agitatedlight.com, who put together a photo book of friends in Tokyo, plus some from a studio that we rented for his birthday last May.

Happy New Year everyone!

John Lennon Museum & Tama Zoo

John Lennon Museum

 

Tama Zoo

Married

Well, we finally did it. We had a great time in Hawaii with everyone, thanks so much to all our family and friends for joining us. After all the stress and rigmarole, everything seemed to have come together without a hitch, except for the hitching of Meg and me.

It was fun seeing all of our friends from different locations and different times meet each other and get along so well. We only wish we had more time to spend with everyone, without the business of getting married and all. Hanging out at Turtle Bay and Kailua was a good time. Got a little surfing in at Waikiki and Turtle Bay, too. The wedding party house in Kailua was right on the beach, what a great way to wake up every morning, taking a little dip with the boogie boards before your morning shower. And thanks to our families for hosting a couple dinners for everyone to get acquainted. It was so funny seeing my family meet Meg's for the first time, East meets Texas. By the end of the visit, everyone was hanging out and sharing stories, albeit with a lot of hand motions and some translation help.

One of the things I stressed about the most was messing up during the ceremony like forgetting my personal vows due to brain freeze or messing up the Japanese part of my speech. But guess that I practiced so much internally that it flowed out with no problem. I think because I focused so much on that part that I spaced out on a couple other things that I wanted to say, I've done that before. Better late than never, so here goes now.

The second time I met Meg, at her birthday dinner, when she didn't remember me, I was sitting right next to Tom and Naho. Looking back on that, it's funny to think that they would one day both be at our wedding and Naho would be Meg's matron of honor. This was literally six weeks after I first arrived to Tokyo four and half years ago! Our fate was already decided and we had no idea.

Our first trip together was to Bali and the locals kept asking if we were on our honeymoon. I like reading into things from a different perspective and I think that's when the wheels starting turning in my head. Meg later pointed out that it was probably because they are a Hindu island and non-married couples going on trips together is probably not very common. Haha, good point Meg.

Finally, when did I know when to propose to Meg. I didn't know, really. I always heard before from people that sometimes you just feel it. As boloney as it may sound, that's basically how it happened. The timing was right, my company went bankrupt and there was a lot of uncertainty in the air. I wanted to make certain that our wonderful relationship would remain certain. One night, during the time when I was still mulling this over and speaking with my Aunt Paula about finding a ring, Meg and I were out with friends in Nakameguro in Tokyo. After we left, were walking down a quiet little side street to get to the main road to catch a cab, we were looking up and gazing at the few stars that you can see in Tokyo and then...boom, we saw a shooting star. In light-polluted Tokyo of all places. We were both like oh wow cool did you see that and as corny and packaged-Hollywood as it felt at the time, I kind of laughed to myself and said, ok thanks I'll take that as my sign. I wanna make this lovely lady my wife.

There you go.

The venue my folks found for the welcome dinner was very nice and had great food, I think it was perfect size for our group, and the owner was very accommodating. Meg looked so smashing in her beautiful kimomo. Thanks to Yuka and Linsey for helping her put that together. Then the wedding day, we were so lucky to have great weather, even though the clouds seemed to part right at the beginning of the ceremony, making it just a tad sunny and warm.  In case anyone was wondering, the tables were named differently to personalize it for us. First, there were the more obvious Texas and Japan, then Bering which is my parents' church, Isshiki which is a beach near Tokyo that we frequent, Tama which is the area of Tokyo where Meg grew up, Rockin' Robin which was the music store in Houston where I learned to play guitar, 1122 which was the number of days we had been dating until the wedding day, and finally our table was Ku'uipo which means sweetheart in Hawaiian and was also the song playing as Meg walked down the aisle.

Everyone began returning home on Tuesday and Wednesday after the wedding. Wednesday the 23rd was Tom and Naho's anniversary, we later found out. Happy anniversary guys!  Meg and I flew to Kauai for a few days. That island is so gorgeous, definitely want to go there again. We took a zodiac tour along the Na Pali Coast and saw tons of dolphins everywhere and they came right up to our boat like 3 feet away from us. Most of them were spinner dolphins, the ones that jump in the air and spin like tops, they're so genki. The winter swell was starting to come in so we couldn't go into the caves unfortunately but it was a really fun ride. Coincidentally the two other couples on our tour were both newlyweds, from Idaho and Seattle. Afterward, we went to Waimea Canyon, the second largest canyon in the US after the Grand Canyon. I missed it the last time I was in Kauai with my family 20 years ago because I got sick. We ran into John and Gina there, too, my parents' friends who were also at our wedding. The rest of the time we just drove around and visited the little towns around the island, laid by the pool at the hotel, and watched the big waves coming in along the north shore. We easily could have stayed another month.

Thanks again to all our family and friends for being so supportive.

Chris & Megumi

P.S. Happy birthday, Mom!