Havin' a Tachi

House party

Komagome and Kintoki-yama

Day trip to Komagome koen in north Tokyo.

Lunchtime at Kintoki-yama (golden time mountain) near Hakone, after hiking up 90 minutes or so.

 

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.