Locally Famous?

There is nothing quite as wonderful as the feeling of being On Vacation. This is Day Two of On Vacation, and we are slowly packing for our trip to Bali. This afternoon Brian and I were out doing a few pre-departure errands such as purchasing train tickets to the Kansai International Airport. The weather was lovely - sunny and warm - which encouraged us to walk rather than drive. As a result, while walking toward home, we were approached by a young man who asked in very fluent English, "Don't you guys have a blog?".

"Why, yes," I said, "we do!" It seems that he stumbled upon our blog and reads it occasionally. How about that? I guess we're a little famous in Susono at least. Now we'll have to make sure to post more interesting tid bits!

But we will be away for about a week, soaking up some sunshine in Bali. Look for us then!

Staying Organized but Still Procrastinating

There are more websites about how to stay organized, and tools to stay organized, and how to ensure you make the most out of your time than anyone can possibly have time to use.

Do you need to set some goals for yourself? Need some motivation to achieve those elusive dreams? Or don't even know what you want to do? Visit 43 Things (http://www.43things.com) and join the masses. Check out other people's goals and achievements, and volunteer some of your own.

Or do you already have a mental list of things to do, but nowhere to keep track of them? Try some online tools like Remember the Milk (http://www.rememberthemilk.com) or Tada List (http://www.tadalist.com), both useful “to do” lists that you can maintain online to help keep you and your many things organized. For something a bit more simple but clear, log in to the Google Calendar (www.google.com/calendar) .

Are you having trouble keeping up with all the blogs and other news feeds that you like to read? Set up the feeds in a feed reader, such as Bloglines (http://www.bloglines.com) or Google Reader (http://reader.google.com) and have all your blogs and news feeds in one place, and know which ones have been recently updated.

Or perhaps you are simply disorganized overall? Don't know where to begin? Try adding Zen Habits (http://www.zenhabits.net) to your new Bloglines or Google Reader page to get a steady stream of healthy habits to keep you organized.

Personally I have yet to find the Holy Grail of staying organized. Really there is plenty of choice out there – too much choice, even. It brings to mind Barry Schwartz' excellent book, The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less. Um – actually, I'm saying that it's an excellent book because I'm sure it will be. However, it is still sitting on my bookshelf, reminding me that I have yet one more thing to do...

Onsen

Of all our ekai obligations I may have enjoyed this evening's the most - six of us when to Kirakubo onsen at the Gotemba Kogen where we soaked nakedly in the rotenburo, and wore our yukata to dinner before plunging back into the baths.

Last night we had a dinner part with people who work in our office. The food was lovely and the nihonshu delicate; it was a nice evening, though rather more formal as it entailed wearing clothes for the entirety:-)

Tomorrow I'm out of town for the day and will have dinner with a colleague after work before getting back on the highway and heading back home.

However - we are on holiday starting next week and, better yet, we've secured a flight to Bali. Woo hoo...

Password Protect Firefox

I love my Firefox 2.0 and now I'm anxiously awaiting version 3.0. I only occasionally use Internet Explorer 7 - which is better than version 6, and has better CSS compatibility – but still not as good as Firefox.

I also use Firefox Portable on my little USB drive. This is very useful – but I haven't password protected or encrypted my portable drive. Hence, if I were to lose it or leave it laying around carelessly, then prying eyes could surf my bookmarks and even pages where my login info was saved. Luckily, I've found a little Firefox extension that lets you add a password to your profile, which basically means nobody can launch Firefox without having that password. It's down-loadable here:

http://nic-nac-project.de/~kaosmos/index-en.html

Now, actually, this extension is not really heavy-duty, and there are plenty of warnings that people can still hack into your browser settings. Since I'm not really worried about hackers, though, this is just right for me.

Another toy I've incorporated onto my USB drive is TrueCrypt, which allows you to create protected and hidden volumes in which you can store sensitive data.

Two simple, portable workarounds for protecting your portable drives.

A Photo of Us

My "do nothing" sickness is passing (if slowly:-) and I'm back to blogging.

We had yet another enkai (party) on Friday night and, since we both wanted to imbibe a little, we got a hotel for the night in lovely Shimada city. Saturday was a beautiful day and we took some photos at the now-under-construction* Horai bashi.

I had brought my large Gorillapod SLR Zoom** tripod, so we actually got another photo that shows us together (so friends and family can now rest assured that Brian is not, in fact, my imaginary boyfriend!).

This photo was actually taken when we stopped during a drive through the mountains; it had some terrible lens flare, so I tweaked it in Photoshop Lightroom...




*Typhoon number 4, that caused the massive landslides around here, also knocked out the old Horai bridge; it looks like it should be crossable again soon, though.

**The Gorillapod for the SLR Zoom is super strong, and totally adaptable. This is my new favourite accessory. Oh and the 30mm lens we bought ourselves for Xmas!

Nani mo shitakunai byo

Nanimoshitakunai byo; literally, this means “(I have the) I-don't- want-to-do-anything sickness”.

Though tough to translate the nuance, I would have to say that “malaise” comes pretty close. I first encountered this term when my nihongo sensei told me that she'd like to cancel my weekly lesson for two weeks. Upon re-starting our lessons, she explained that she'd been suffering from nanimoshitakunai-byo, but now she was feeling a bit better.

I bring this up because I don't think a little malaise is a bad thing. We as a society are always on the go, and simply always “on”. At the office we pass the day in a flurry of checking and responding to email, surfing for info to stay up to date on the newest theories and technologies relevant to work, being unfailingly nice to everyone we meet; then comes the “finally home” part, where we pass our time in a flurry of checking and responding to email, surfing various sites trying to stay up to date with the newest info and technologies relevant to personal interests and hobbies, and being relatively nice to everyone we meet. We are inundated by non-stop information in greater amounts than we can possibly handle, attacked by banner-ads, drawn into email adverts... How far can a person continue before something gives? Before some introspective part of you puts on the brakes and screeches, “enough”?

Lord Byron said that we are least alone in solitude. I get that. And sometimes putting the whole world at bay for just one day is not such an evil thing. Is it?

Exotic Kanagawa

While we live in Shizuoka Prefecture, we are actually at the very eastern edge, the border being along the rim of a collapsed volcano (Hakone). The neighboring prefecture is Kanagawa, which stretches to Tokyo. The limits of geography in such forbidding terrain limits access across the rim, but we know a narrow track that isn't on the maps, and we took it yesterday morning early to catch the morning light from "the far side".

The caldera of Hakone now contains a lake (Ashinoko); here is Tracy at the waterline:

















The inside rim on our side is still active, releasing steam, gases and hot sulfur-stinking water. There are trails here, but they are closed due to the dangerous concentration of emissions. We went as far as permissible:
















And looked back to see the visitor's center and cable car terminus. We live just on the other side of the right side distant visible ridge:


















One of the reasons for the trip was to test the new lens we went 'halvsies' on: a Sigma fixed 30mm f1.4 lens, with HSM (to auto-focus even with my D40x). It can practically shoot in the dark due to the light-gathering glass, and allows a crazy amount of DOF. It arrived by mail the night before the shoot, so it was truly untested. It stayed on my camera all day, but I promise next time will be Tracy's turn!

Here is the area as seen from space:

Wild Monkeys in Susono

We got a bit of a late start on this morning's bike ride, but being Saturday and chilly and cloudy, we weren't really in a hurry to get going. Turns out we had good timing, and, for a change, also had the camera handy for our most recent monkey encounter.

Probably about a kilometre or so from home, in the bushes alongside Rt. 246, we found ourselves surrounded by a pack of wild Japanese macaques. The locals warn never to make eye contact and basically to stay well away from the little buggers - but we couldn't resist getting at least one shot of this dominant male who seemed to be the leader and protector of the pack. Not long after, they fled into the protection of the trees.


I shot this with our little Lumix LZ1 (a small point-and-shoot camera), but Brian takes credit for cornering the beast!

Living in Darkness

Japan does not have Daylight Saving Time. While in the summer, when it would actually make the real difference by giving more daylight in the evenings, I don't miss or even really want Daylight Saving because I enjoy waking up at 4 or 4:30, and the rising sun facilitates that. However, I wouldn't mind a bit more daylight somewhere in the autumn and winter. Like now - I find we are sleeping in until 6 or even later these days because the sky is still dark and the apartment chilly; meanwhile, the evenings are given to lackluster laziness and a sense that it is too late to do anything because the sky has been dark since 4:45 p.m. No- in this case Daylight Saving Time really wouldn't make a difference - you can't actually increase the daylight.

Anyway- this "bla bla bla" was just to say that we're sleeping more and doing less:-) To combat this, I'll have to start setting the alarm for a change.

Quiet Time

We got home from the three-day conference in Tokyo on Sunday night. We had time to unpack our stuff and get some sleep before it was time to get up and go to work again. The conference was very informative and professionally inspiring, just as Tokyo itself was invigorating and pulsating...yet we are both looking forward to a bit of a quiet weekend. And we're already counting down the days (three) before Saturday brings us some much-needed rest, and hopefully some more interesting activities to blog about.

Back and Gone again

I got back from my little business trip last night at about 9:00 pm or so after having dinner at an okonomiyaki place in Hamakita. It was pretty good and I even got to cook my own okonomiyaki:



It was a longish drive back, but at least I got a good night's sleep in my own futon, because now we're both off again to Tokyo for the weekend (tonight through Sunday).

Once again it is that time of year for the annual Japan Association of Language Teachers (JALT) conference. We'll be away for the full three days, absorbing the presentations by day, and catching up with colleagues in the evenings.

Should be an interesting and informative event, with experts in the field of linguistics and language teaching hopefully sharing their many insights. Also, it doesn't hurt that the conference this year is in Tokyo where bars and restaurants of any variety can be found. Tonight we're thinking about Mexican...

Murakami Haruki - After the Quake

I'm out of town again for a few days - this time in Hamamatsu proper. I'm holed up at one of my favourite business hotels - the Route Inn - and as a result have had time once again to actually read an entire book.

It is 10:49 p.m. and I have just finished After the Quake, a collection of six short stories by Haruki Murakami (he of Norwegian Wood fame). I don't sense sleep coming any time soon, and I can't really help blaming the stories for my current state of wakefulness - six stories with characters who are desperately deep and achingly empty, feeling the lack but not knowing what it is.

As with others of Murakami's writings, the stories in After the Quake are bordering on the surreal. There is an eerie sense throughout that something just isn't right, but you can never really figure out what that something is; yet the anticipation, anxiety created is tangible. In the first story, toward the end, after the the main character as delivered a mysterious box, he asks what was in the box? The woman replies that in the box was all that he had ever had in him, so now he's really empty. She then laughs and says that of course she's kidding - but one has to wonder.

The stories are all tied together by the 1995 Kobe quake; the characters are not in Kobe, and the stories are not realistic tales of the actual damage done, but rather uses the quake as a metaphor and starting point to reflect the damage in the lives of others in all parts of the country.

Next time I'm away spending the night alone in a hotel room, I think I'll opt for some lighter fare:-)

Gotemba Supremium Outlet Mall

Getting there: Take the train to JR Gotemba station, on the Gotemba line. If you're coming from Shinjuku, you may want to take the Odakyu Romance Car called The Asagiri, that stops in Gotemba only about 5 times per day but is very comfortable, easy and affordable. There is a free shuttle bus to the mall that leaves from Gotemba station every twenty minutes (10 past, half past and 10 till the hour). More info can be found at: http://www.premiumoutlets.co.jp/en/gotemba/access/index.php

Yesterday was spent mostly in front of the computer for me, and doing other projects for Brian. Today we greeted the day ready to go shopping at the Gotemba Supremium Outlet Mall. It was sort of a spontaneous decision; I've been feeling like shopping for a while, and Brian decided that he needed a jacket. So off we went.

Now, I know that everyone has been to an outlet mall before, but here I want to give you an idea of what this particular mall is like on a sunny Sunday afternoon. It's less than 20km from our apartment and I've been several times for a day of shopping over the years; it's easy to just decide on the spur of the moment to go shopping. But this mall is actually something of a tourist attraction and attracts people from as far away as Gunma, Nagano, Yamanashi, and Nagoya, just to name a few. These are families, and boyfriends and girlfriends, who plan one special weekend around a trip to this mall. And trust me - there were enough people there, with their dogs in tow, to keep all but the bravest from diving into the Nike store! I enjoy shopping Outlet Mall but seriously I can't figure out why it is so popular. I go there because it's fun - and close by. I would certainly not drive through three other prefectures just to get to it.

However - we really did enjoy our day walking around outside and going into all the stores. I suppose the 5.5 hours we spent shopping were more fun for me than Brian since I came away with a couple of jackets, blouses and perfume, while Brian wasn't able to find just the right jacket with just the right fit. Instead, he is going to place an order with My Suit Shop.com where he has always been satisfied! Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to trying out some of my new purchases...

Ubuntu 7.10 - a.k.a. Gutsy Gibbon

My "alone day"　on Saturday was very productive. Brian and I went for a vigorous ride in the chilly morning air; after that, I spent some time finally upgrading my Ubuntu OS from Feisty Fawn to Gutsy Gibbon (Ubuntu has cool animal names for all its versions - Edgy Eft, Feisty Fawn, Gutsy Gibbon...).

I've been playing with and enjoying Ubuntu for nearly a year now. Ubuntu, which bills itself as "Linux for Humans", is a completely free operating system, and I've been having fun poking around in it and customizing it.

Anyway - upgrading the version is super easy and for me, at least, it went off without a hitch. I first installed any security and/or software updates under System-Administration-Update manager; still in the update manager, I simply then went ahead and clicked the "Upgrade to Ubuntu 7.10" option. And now here I am, fully functional in Gutsy Gibbon. Here's a screenshot, just for fun:



Oh, and I also spent some time on Saturday re-doing our main Japan Rider site, making use of the power of CSS...though you can't actually see the CSS part:-)

Bonenkai Season

Year-end parties - called bonenkai in Japanese - are a very popular part of the business and social culture here. Bonenkai literally means "forget-the-year party", and marks a release from whatever evils this year had brought in preparation to move on, without burdens, into the new year.

Though we are not exactly in bonenkai season yet, the time is getting close, and tonight we went to two separate parties- one, a bonenkai; and the other, a welcome party for two of our newest employees.

I was the designated driver and refrained from overimbibing - for which I'm sure I'll be thankful tomorrow!

Party One was a fun chance to catch up with some old students/friends:




Party number two saw the introduction of bottle of Fireball...


Over the next couple of weeks we will be increasingly busy socializing and working and going to conferences, and more.

Tomorrow, though, is mine. My day to bask in solitude and shut out the world for just a few precious hours...

Shinjuku and Shibuya: The Most Exciting Show on Earth?

On Saturday, we ventured into the Big Toe for some fine dining and general "big city" fun before heading to the Motor Show on Sunday. We also had arranged to meet a friend of Brian's in town just for a very limited amount of time on business. It was her first trip to Japan and we had a great time taking her around Shinjuku and Shibuya - two of the busiest areas of Tokyo. In fact, rumor has it that Shinjuku station is the busiest station in the world, and I have to say that I can well believe it. I used my cell phone to take the video below on exiting Shinjuku station at about 1 p.m. - NOT a busy time of day (it's not a great video - I have to get some practice, but I do think it shows Shinjuku station a bit, and I also wanted to try out Blogger's new "upload video" feature):


After lunch and window shopping around the east side of Shinjuku station, we went to the west (businessy and non-trendy) side where we checked into our hotel and then met Natalie. From there, we went to Shibuya - another very lively part of town. Here's a photo of Brian and Natalie standing outside at the Hachiko exit of Shibuya station at the most famous intersection in Japan:




Something Natalie said while going from shop to shop in Shibuya summed everything up: Sensory Overload...

EDIT: The Blogger video feature is great, but it seems to have compressed my video and reduced the quality a bit. I'm not complaining, though - I did take the video on my cell phone after all!

Tokyo Motor Show Favourites

The Tokyo Motor Show provided a great day of visual delights - sweet motorbikes and cars, and, of course, yes, good looking models!

This is Brian's favorite - a Yamaha Sakura (taken by Brian with a Nikon D40x).



This is the Kawasaki Ninja (yes, the model's pretty nice, too!).



Toyota Lexus:


Mitsuoka Orochi - a car that was voted "the ugliest super car ever" by Jalopnik (click here for the article). Frankly, I kinda like it. . .


So those are a few of our top pics from the Motor Show; we also, of course, spend some fun time around Shinjuku and Shibuya - those pics coming tomorrow!

Weekend plans

Last night we breathed a sigh of relief as we settled in for a Friday night pizza and looked forward to our weekend.

Today we're taking the 10:40 Asagiri "Romance Car" to Shinjuku in Tokyo. The Romance Car is an Odakyu express train that is super nice and comfortable with reserved seats and scenic views. It's not nearly as fast as the Shinkansen (Bullet Train), but it has the superior advantage of leaving straight from our very own little train station, saving us the hassle (and expense) of getting to the Mishima Shinkansen station.

In Shinjuku we plan to shop a little and have an exotic lunch before meeting a friend of Brian's for dinner.

We're going to spend the night in Tokyo and make our way to the Tokyo Motor Show tomorrow, which is a shortish train ride from central Tokyo. It's the final day for the Motor Show, so we're expecting to be overcome by the sweltering crowds...but still hope to get a look at the new cars!

Remembering to See

A long time ago I saw a movie where some prisoners planned an escape from a Siberian prison camp. They escaped by loading planks of wood onto a box-car they had to stock and building a false wall. How did they get the wood onto the box-car without the guards seeing? As one of the characters said, "Let them see. Let them get used to seeing." So the prisoners made carrying the wood part of their daily routine, and sure enough, the guards simply stopped seeing the wooden planks for what they were.

This little snippet holds true for so much of life, too. We get so used to doing the same things, seeing the same things, that really we just don't see anymore. Every now and then I remind myself to be aware; I ask myself what sounds I am hearing at a given moment, what textures I can feel against my skin, what am I feeling on the ground beneath my feet. And then I look around, and make a mental note of things - vending machines with Pokari Sweat (a sports drink), and Depresso iced coffee (best thing in a can!).

Sometimes we need a little reminder; tonight we welcomed a new comer to Japan and again, I find myself seeing things again, and enjoying the newness.

Biking around Motosuko, 2007

We have to apologise for the brief hiatus from Blogging - life was busy either being too hectic to blog, or too mundane to be worth blogging... However several emails, text messages and phone calls from my mother has prompted me to get back on track and post. Everybody has a muse, I suppose! Thankfully, we now report on our weekend of camping and biking around Motosuko, one of the Fuji Five Lakes.

We got not-so-early start on Saturday morning, leaving Susono at about 7:45 a.m.; we took the scenic route (along the 469 via Jurigi and Fujinomiya) in Brian's Pajero, and got to the "Lake" area around maybe 9:30 or so. We spent a few hours scoping out appropriate camp grounds and/or camp-able places, starting with Lake Saiko, then Lake Shojiko, and finally back to Motosuko. Despite the fact that Motosuko is actually a larger lake than the other two, it is less frequented simply because there are no motor boats allowed and, I think, even fishing is regulated. Also, on Saturday, there was some highschool marathon being held at Shojiko, and campers were everywhere.

Motosuko however was delightful, and Brian remembered a place he'd camped there a year or two ago - not an official campground, just a secluded spot in the woods, just 400 meters or so from the lake. So there was set up camp, and then got out our bikes and hit the road and trails.

The Tokai Shizen Hodo hiking trail is the most amazing off-road cross-country trail for mountain biking and seems absolutely made for single speeding with its mostly-gentle rolling hills. There were very few hikers (we saw 4 hikers in total in about 20 km of riding). We really wanted to get some photos of the trails, but were having too much fun riding to stop!

However, we did take some time to get photos of the lake and Mt. Fuji on Saturday and Sunday.

Halloween Demons and Canadians....

We went to the Halloween Party tonight with many of our co-workers/friends. This was a really good party - and, having decided to drive there, all I drank was club soda. Luckily it was pretty easy to convince everyone that I was actually drinking shochu and soda - with made them much happier to chat with me!

As you can see from the photo, Brian was a suave vampire, and I was a devil! (I used Photoshop to eliminate as much as possible the messy, distracting party background):



This one I merely cropped a little (and don't worry - Brian's wearing a mask):



Here I am with our friend, Larry - he is, of course, dressed up as a Canadian. Considering that he is B.C. born and bred....not much of a stretch. Unless you know his very anti-Canadian sympathies! Gotta love Lar:



It was a lot of fun - and now I'm home and indulging in a post-party alcoholic beverage while Brian (who was not driving!) snores beside me...

On another sobering note - tomorrow I'm off to run a short 6.7 km race. It will be good to not be hungover when I run:-)

Woo Hoo - Friday!

Friday evenings have got to be my favourite - a few hours to wind down after the week, and looking forward to the weekend.

Tonight it's raining hard, and being home it's nice to hear the rain's rhythmic pounding on the pavement is one of the most relaxing sounds I know.

I'm also enjoying some sweet tunes from Pandora.com thanks to Tor and Brian's ingenious ability to properly configure it!

Naturally I'm not feeling very Zen today because I'm totally multitasking, which is very anti-Zen. But at least I'm getting things done - rocking out to Pandora, listening to the rain, cooking curry, blogging, updating Facebook and sipping red wine - all at the same time!

And as I utter these words proudly, I realize that my Fridays are slightly tamer than they were a decade ago, which then brings me to various existential questions, which I really don't have time to ponder just now:-)

On a more exciting note - Brian and I are going to a Halloween party tomorrow; I'm totally looking forward to getting dressed up and will post photos of both of us in costume ASAP.

Japanese Wild Monkeys

The week is passing incredibly quickly, and the later-rising sun means slightly increased laziness for Brian and me. Where we had been getting up at 4:30 or so, we now frequently sleep past 5:30; this, of course, means reduced quality time spent with our Single Speeds.

However – we did manage to get motivated yesterday morning, and hit the road then the trails at around 6:30 in the morning. We did one of our old favourites – a short but invigorating ride that took us into the mountains, through some fields, over some obstacles and back down into town.

During our rapid decent through a particularly overgrown part of the trail, I heard a squawk, which I thought might have been a boar, and not worth calling to Brian to stop, since the boar would surely have been gone in a flash. However – about a hundred metres later – Brian had to come to an abrupt halt in order to pull a large spiderweb (and its resident “very large spider”), off of his face. While stopped, I heard the squawk again, and some large animal movement in the forest around us. As Brian freed himself from his spider mate, I looked around and spotted a large monkey in a tree only about 10 feet away from us. I pointed him out to Brian, who then quickly saw that we were in fact surrounded! There were three more monkeys in a tree just two feet or so to our left, and more monkeys higher up in the tree tops.

Here in Susono city we've seen monkeys several times, but each time is just as thrilling as the last – I mean, how often have you seen wild monkeys? However, they can be dangerous (I've heard), so as soon as we felt we'd enjoyed the wild life enough (no camera of course!), we continued our rapid descent and left the monkeys behind us.

This is a photo of a Japanese macaque like the ones we saw, but since we'd left the apartment without a camera (which is really the only guarantee that we'll see something interesting), I just got this image from a web search:

Mt. Fuji - First Snow (初冠雪)

This Saturday morning, apart from dawning crisp and clear, also brought the first snow to the peak of Mt. Fuji. In Japanese, this is called hatsukansetsu （はつかんせつ）, which literally translated means "first snow-capped peak".

We got a couple of photos of this year's first snow-capped peak from our balcony here in Susono city:

Gotemba Riding

I always do enjoy business trips - it's a little variety, and it's nice not having to cook. Seriously, even my cockroach encounter was not what I'd term "bad", since I did get to chat with a couple of locals anyway.

However, much as I enjoyed staying in a hotel and not having to do laundry, it was very nice to come back home. And luckily, the weekend weather was nearly perfect、and we spent both days riding and enjoying the fine weather.

Saturday took us winding through the fields of Susono and Gotemba, where the rice was ripe and ready for picking.



Rice, close up:



We also stumbled upon a little horse in a yard of sorts; this was very unusual as people around here simply do not have horses. In fact, this was the first time I've seen a horse anywhere on this side of the country.


Of course, we also made a pit-stop at our favourite beer vendor and savoured a pint while soaking up some of the sun's warming rays.

Convenience Stores...

The town I'm staying in is not big, but it has a few conveniences - one of which is a convenience store. Conbini's (as they're called here) carry just about anything you might need - from katsu-don bentos to boxers and panties (I'm not kidding). Lucky for me, they also carry portable cell phone chargers.

After four days away and lots of playing with my cell phone, my battery began to fade. So I went to the Sunkus conbini and picked up a USB powered charger (figured it was better than the battery powered one, since I actually did have my computer with me). My phone is now charged up and ready for another day of use. As a bonus, the USB charger has a "double" fitting - one fits my (and Brian's) Softbank phone, and the other would fit Brian's AU work phone, so I think the charger will remain useful.

(I took this photo with my cell phone):

Kuretake Inn's Ganbanyoku

The hotel I'm in - Kuretake Inn Hamanako - is a fairly new hotel that had to close of "renovations" almost immediately after it's initial opening due to some construction scandal. Now the renovations are done and the recently reopened hotel now boasts a "gan ban yoku", or "stone bath". I mentioned the ganbanyoku a while ago - these very popular hot stone "beds" that warm you from the inside out.

Last night, after my ill-fated kara-age (of which my stomach constantly reminded me today!), I went to try the Inn's ganbanyoku. My verdict: it was ok. Just ok. It's really just a hotel room converted to have two stone beds, and while the beds were comfortable and hot, I sadly missed having a nice hot bath or even a shower to complement it.

Ganbanyoku at Kuretake Inn:

Honto no Izakaya

I'm away on business all this week. Being alone is great for catching up on some reading, but makes for some solitary eating experiences.

The hotel I'm staying in - the Kuretake Inn, which is part of a chain - is a nice, simple business hotel straight across from little Washizu station, and they provided a "meal map" of the area to let customers know where to find, well, meals. I followed that map last night to a local izakaya, which labeled itself on the map as a "honto no izakaya" (real izakaya). I figured I may as well enjoy some of the local flavours - but got a little more (and less) than I bargained for.

I had a kara-age and beer. The beer was good - cold and refreshing. The kara-age however was kind of...not so good. Too greasy, too fatty...and, of course, I had to eat it while a particularly persistent cockroach kept nibbling at my shibori (hot hand towel). By the time the third cockroach arrived on the table, I figured I'd better make my escape!

I took this pic with my cell phone - one roach who just wouldn't get away from my shibori...


I like local places, but sometimes, you just gotta know when to say "when"!

Reading

I'm working out of town this week with four nights alone in a hotel - this translates into plenty of time to catch up on my reading. I intend to finish "Tariki: Embracing Despair, Discovering Peace" by Hiroyuki Itsuki which provides insight into Shin Buddhism. So far it's very interesting and informative, but I think I'll stick with Zen for myself...

I'll also be able to keep up with my net-surfing, since the hotel here has, of course, high speed access in the rooms, which is something that a few years ago would have been unheard of. I'm not going to criticize progress...

Liver Sashi with a little Raw Horse on the side...

I and two friends indulged last night in another bit of a "girls night", this time just at a local izakaya to unwind and have a relaxing chat. Our favourite izakaya - Ryoba- was closed, so we sauntered over to a true local place. Yuzu (the izakaya) is also in Susono and only about a five minute walk from home, but it is not part of a chain (like Ryoba), so it really did have more character. They're also less accustomed to gaijin guests, and when we three women walked under the noren and into the bar, the only customers at that hour, three older men, gaped openly and began chatting in Japanese about how interesting it was that some gaijin women were there. They continued to talk when we started drinking shochu and nihonshu, and then, noting our gentle laughter, they figured out that we understood what they were saying! They were very pleasant, chatted with us a bit and really, that's something I really love about going out to the local places - meeting the locals!

The highlight of the evening came when we finally decided that we ought to order some food, so we opted for a variety of sashi (raw) food - tuna sashimi, basashi (raw horse meat) and reba sashi (raw liver); this of course was not exactly keeping a low profile and lead to more conversation and really, in the end, a good time was had by all.

As for those who are wondering what raw liver tastes like, I can say that I genuinely enjoyed it -dipped in a lovely sesame sauce, it was cool, refreshing and perfectly complemented by the imojochu I was drinking. It's also worth noting that I detest cooked liver - the smell alone is enough to drive to the the porcelain throne, but raw liver, now that I can eat every day!

Autumn Rice and the Gotemba Sen

Our staff meeting on Friday went very well; we all gathered at the exquisite Kanaya Ryokan in Izu, which is rightly famous for its huge (mixed gender) bath and delicate Japanese meals. The meeting was stimulating, and the after-meeting socializing equally so. Although, I have to admit, we had a bit of lubrication! Brian and I there fore spent yesterday (Saturday) driving home and recovering from the previous day.

Today dawned sunny and glorious, and knowing that tomorrow was going to bring rain, we took advantage of the morning and took out our single-speeds for some excellent riding. As we were winding up our ride, we stopped to get some photos of the harvested rice, mount Fuji and, luckily enough, our infrequent train on the Gotemba line.

Not much

Sad to say it, I hate to say it...we haven't had much to say recently.

We've been busy at work for tomorrow's overnight staff meeting - at least that should give me something to blog about.

Why RAW?

Taking advantage of possibly the last really hot sunny day for the forecastable future, I went out yesterday to shoot the elusive 'fields of gold'. The ripening and ripened rice crops make the once entirely green valleys shimmer with golden contrast; while beautiful it is brief, as the harvest quickly follows.

In fact, much of the rice around our apartment has been mowed and bagged, so I headed up to Gotemba, with the climb in altitude simultaneously winding back the season's progress. The challenge was great, with my goal being a fantastic photograph of an expanse of ripened crop, with composite features including blue sky, white clouds, lush green surroundings, and a complete lack of powerlines. Mt. Fuji in the background was to be a bonus.

Unfortunately I underestimated a further crucial factor: The Formula One racing being held at the Fuji Speedway (in Gotemba). While I was able to catch promising vistas from the car, the usually desolate roads were filled with buses, and the usually welcoming fallow fields had been pressed into service as endless parking lots for the fans. I couldn't slow to assess views, and pulling over out of the question.

I continued further and higher to escape the madness, but the F1 effect was spread beyond the rice cultivation zone and into the wild tall grasses. Another harbinger of autumn, the susuki is beautiful too, just not as golden, and without the associated promise of full bellies for another year.

Finally, I turned around and gave up... the sun was to high by now to really be good, and I would have to try another area on another day. Where I turned, I snapped a few pictures of my Pajero (which is now 15 years old, by the way).

The lens was a wide angle Tokina, 12-24mm. This is actually Tracy's lens, and it doesn't autofocus on my camera (the D40x, to be so small of figure, doesn't have a focus motor in the body. To autofocus, newer lenses with built-in focusing motors are required). It is an awesome lens, though, and I brought only that one on this outing.

My camera can capture the pictures in jpeg, or in RAW format, or both. I usually use RAW when I consider making the scene HDR (High Dynamic Range), but that wasn't my intention this time... I really wanted to capture the image with both, and then see what the difference would / could be. Here are the results:

If I set the camera to jpeg, the yield is this:
















The same picture saved in RAW and opened with Adobe Camera RAW 4.1 is this:
















Finally, just for fun, I converted the RAW into a single-exposure HDR image:
















There are a few more steps in opening a RAW file and saving it as a jpeg as I did above, but I can really see how it is worth the effort. I might not shoot just jpeg again!

The HDR I'll continue, but just for fun. To do it right, several exposures of the same scene are needed, requiring a tripod and a total lack of wind, waves, or walking/swaying/flying subjects. Also, my camera doesn't have an autobracketing function, which would greatly assist the process.

The predicted rains have set in, so this weekend's plans are currently under review. I hope to post again soon, no matter what we get up to!

Shouchu

A bit earlier, I mentioned that I had finally tried some shouchu. Shouchu (焼酎) is a "hard" liquor, spirits if you will, which can be made from a variety of grains - rice, wheat, and actually even potatoes. When I first came to Japan, shouchu was the "rough" drink of those who simply wanted to be drunk without spending much money. Apparently, when I wasn't looking, shouchou became de riguer. About two years ago, while out drinking with some Japanese friends, I noticed that a woman friend who (unusually for a Japanese) could really hold her liquor was constantly ordering a variety of imo-jouchu shots. Imo-jouchu is shouchu made with sweet potatoes. She and a few of the others regaled me with the benefits of shouchu in general, and they seemed to be really aware of the different "brews" of the imo-jouchu they were ordering, comparing the subtleties of taste much as we would do for wine or fine sake. I remembered this, but, not being much of a "spirit" drinker, I never bothered to further look into it.

However, since my recent womens' night out when I drank a few glasses of shouchu mizu-wari, I've become more interested in this drink. I bought myself a bottle of imojouchu which seems good. I put some of this into a glass with water - about 40/60 shouchu/water - and it's turned out to be a really nice, low calorie drink. Yes - one of the many purported benefits of shouchu (even imojouchu) is that it is fairly low-calorie at only about 50 calories per shot. Mix that with a glass of water et voila...a new fave is born!

Tokina 100 mm Macro in Yamashi

We're fairly lucky here with the number of national holidays and all the time off we get. This weekend was yet another long weekend (September 23rd was Shunbun no Hi - Autumnal Equinox day; since it fell on a Sunday, we're blessed with Monday off). Taking advantage of the long weekend, on Sunday morning Brian and I headed off the beaten track and into the mountains in Brian's Mitsubishi Pajero - a fully capably SUV. We bought beer and chu-hi, found an especially isolated location, took some photos and camped for the night.

Unfortunately, the weather didn't co-operate with us, but we still enjoyed our time in the rainy wilderness.

Most of these photos were taken with my Tokina 100mm Macro lens:

Grass with rain drops:




What's camping without a brewskie?


Japanese susuki:


Dirt in a tractor tire, saturation significantly reduced in Photoshop:


Flowers and spiderwebs in the rain:



Frog (or toad?) up close and personal:




We got back home today at about 2:00 p.m. or so. I'll eventually post a map of our travels!

Bike rides

For once we had an excellent sunny Saturday yesterday, so we got out on our Single Speeds for a bike ride followed by a few beers at our favourite beer hall/garden.

First, we checked out the progress made on the typhoon damage:


Then we stopped at the Gotemba Kogen for a beer, and took pics of our bikes. This is my Gary Fisher Rig:


Finally, still hot and sweaty from some hard riding, we re-visited this usually dry river bed only to find it swollen with clear fresh water. Of course, we couldn't resist a swim:

Spoiled by High-Speed Access

When I first came to Japan years ago, not many normal people had internet access. Dial up connections were expensive, and not to mention that even local phone calls were charged by the minute. At that time, Canada was definitely ahead of the game and people I knew (including me) even had dedicated phone lines for their net connection.

Well, times have changed. With 3G cell phones and hotspots even in my small city, internet connectivity is pretty rampant generally lightening-fast. According to this article from the Washington Post titled “Japan's Warp-Speed to the Internet Future”, the “broadband service here is eight to 30 times as fast as in the United States”. Huh. Who knew?

We really love our internet access and were curious about the speeds. So, after reading this article, Brian cruised over to Speedtest.net and tested his internet speed which was, in fact, rather fast. Here are the results

Not bad, really, especially as it was wireless.

Wild Women's Night Out

The weekend is well over, but we had a great time. Well, I did, anyway, since I got together with a few of "chicks" in my company and we had a day and a night out in the exotic city of Hamamatsu. Though situated in conservative Shizuoka Prefecture, Hamamatsu is actually a pretty robust city full of life - and the spice of life, too, as it has a high foreign (non-Japanese) population.

There was a Brazilian/ Samba festival going on that day, and we wanted to see some of the dancers. The general meeting time was 5 p.m, but three of us decided to go early for a little window shopping -which, actually, turned into a few hours of drinking shouchu-mizu-wari at a local bar. Shochu is a Japanese alcohol; shochu-mizu-wari （焼酎水割り)　is shochu with water. Kind of like vodka and water...I'll post later about the benefits of shochu! Anyway, a 2 p.m. start to the shochu drinking made for an interesting night!

After becoming mildly inebriated, we then met the rest of the gang for Samba, dinner and karaoke in the biggish city. Here are a few photos from our night out:

Hamamatsu folks are more appreciative of the fine art of tatoos. This guy liked my dragon, and we ended up comparing tats. He won!



The Samba girls were fabulous - really engaging, and even the older Japanese folks around were delighted:


We made it to the karaoke box (2 hour nomihodai (all you can drink)) and the karaoke fiends among us stole the show:


Not to be outdone, though, I did screech out my version of Def Leppard's Animal (much to everyone's chagrin...):



Following such tiring activity, we retired to Baden Baden, (named after the famous German town, of course) a 24 hour onsen / minshuku in Hamamatsu.

A good time was had by all....