Montreal: a sketch

I was recently playing around with Photoshop and sort of liked the way this photo of Montreal (taken from the window of the train) turned out:

Falling for Open Source

Open Source software - free to change, distribute and use - has been gaining momentum steadily over the last few years and now has a very strong following.

At the JALT conference last November I attended a few seminars and workshops that focused on why and how to use only Open Source software. Wanting to learn more about all this, at home at least, I've been using Open Office (a suite of programs that rivals Microsoft Office) since November, Mozilla Firefox (web browser- more secure that Explorer) since last year sometime, and Thunderbird (email program) since January, and other little programs when I find them. I'm also still running Ubuntu (now upgraded to 7.1 - Feisty Fawn!) , a completely open-source Linux operating system - it really give Windows Vista a run for its money.

There are many open source projects under development and the software is continually being improved by a community of developers. If you've got some time and would eventually like to move away from Microsoft, I recommend playing around with some open source software.

Useful Links:

Open Office - http://www.openoffice.org/
Firefox - http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
Thunderbird - http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/
Ubuntu - http://www.ubuntu.com/

Yamanaka -ko Road Race

Today I ran in a 13.6 km race around Lake Yamanaka, one of the Fuji Five Lakes. A few people from my company had signed up, and being there as a group made the event a lot more fun than the other two races in which I've participated. The weather was great, and the scenery enticing - further enhancing the enjoyment of the day.

Brian opted out today because being a spectator is a long, boring task made more unpleasant by the crowds; it was also a great day for him to hit the mountains and bask in some sunshine. And because I was actually running, I couldn't get any race photos, but here are a few pre-race shots:

Arrival:


Warming up:


Lake side:


My time wasn't great - about an hour and forty minutes - but I was there for the fun! And though we could have done without the two-hour traffic jam on the way out, we followed up by replenishing lost nourishment at the Gotemba Kogen Beer Hall!

Time Flies

The race against time, or at least the awareness of it, seems to cross generations and cultures and is a perennial friend (or threat). One of my favourite poems is "To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell, and the most famous line is, "...at my back I always hear/Time's wing'ed chariot hurrying near". Who hasn't felt that way - either when trying to reach a deadline, or trying to pack as much living into life as possible?

There is a Japanese idiom equivalent to "time flies" - "kouin ya no gotoshi" [ 光陰矢のごとし]; this literally means "time flies like an arrow".

Well - despite the relentless race against time, in my zen-inspired desire to embrace the present, I am spending this Friday evening sipping red wine and dining on fresh-ordered pizza pie... I think I'll consider this "carbo loading" for the 14km race I'm running on Sunday!

Birthday Dinner at Sangria

We really enjoyed our weekend in Izu, but we decided to go out for dinner on Monday anyway.

We went to Sangria, a Spanish restaurant in Numazu, that has good food and a delightful atmosphere. There we enjoyed a glass of white wine, an iwashi (sardine) salad, and a chorizo paella, followed by chocolate cake and coffee for dessert.

Brian also appreciates everybody's birthday wishes!

Photos from Izu

We got a mediumly early start yesterday for the Izu peninsula. Though not really far from us in distance, it's usually a long drive due to traffic and other road conditions. However, we made good timing straight through to Shimoda, then around the tip and up along the West coast a little, eventually into Matsuzaki. Though we checked out some official camp-grounds, we decided to forgo sitting in a parking lot aside a bunch of other people in favour of locating an isolated spot hidden away a little. So - we didn't exactly end up on the beach, but we spent the day and night happily in the mountains with a great view of the ocean, and no disturbances to speak of. A six-pack of cold brewskies and some sausages on the grill made for a perfect evening.

This morning, after a decent pot of percolated coffee, we set out from our little hide-away in search of a fine beach on which to lie for a few hours. Being in no real hurry, however, we enjoyed a slow, scenic drive along the Magret Line (Route 136).

View from Magret Line:


Twice on the isolated road we spotted some wild monkeys also out to enjoy the fine weather.



We finally found some breakfast and a sunny, quiet beach in Matsuzaki - a very small, quaint fishing village complete with fresh fish and more fabulous views:

A sunfish - called mambo (マンボ) in Japanese - lies dead and drying outside a famous Matsuzaki fish shop.


Some views from the rocks on Matsuzaki beach:




There was even a very small hiking trail:


We eventually wound our way home via Osawa Onsen, a small region nestled in a valley near Matsuzaki and mostly known for the Osawa Onsen Hotel. We were on a mission - in search of a bath! We saw signs for the Yama no Ie Rotenburo (山の家露天風呂）（Mountain House Outdoor Bath)) - a small, unassuming little structure with all attraction of a real Japanese bath.

Yama no Ie rotenbura seen from the road - just cross that little wooden bridge:

We got a good, hot bath for 500 yen each, and then enjoyed a cold Sapporo in the tatami room. The elderly ladies waiting on us were very friendly and even offered some "service" (i.e. free) tomatoes with our beer.



The rest/waiting area of the little rotenburo was just as rustic and welcoming as the outdoor baths were:


After our little refresher, we then wound our way along "highway" 115, which, after several warning signs, became a narrow dirt road that skirted the edge of the steep mountain cliffs. Beautiful, and not much of a challenge for Brian's Mitsubishi Pajero (called the Montero in North America). We hit traffic finally when we got to Mishima city, but managed to arrive home before sunset.

Camping in Izu

Monday is Brian's birthday, and generally we celebrate birthdays by either going out for a nice dinner or staying in a ryokan (nice Japanese hotel) for a night or two. But this year, we're going to near-by Izu and planning to camp somewhere on or near one of the lovely beaches.

Does the internet destroy intelligence?

Probably in the grand scheme of things, the answer is "No"; how could such a well of information that can be had at our fingertips be a threat to intelligence? However, I'm posing the question because I find that the more hours I spend mindlessly browsing and Digging articles and checking out my feeds in Bloglines, the less I can pay focused attention to anything of substance. This includes the inability to read an entire novel or even sit through a two-hour movie...

I just started to wonder whether it was the Internet and its short, transitory nature that was to blame for my continually shrinking attention span...?

BBQ Party

Another weekend come and gone - and this one is now something of a blur!

Saturday we went to a BBQ party at our neighbor's place - lots of good food and plenty of daiquiris helped ensure the party's success, as well as the destruction of a productive Sunday!

In the end, a good time was had by all:

Cool Video of Susono and Shinjuku

A co-worker has made a very skillful video (using iMovie on his Mac), and uploaded it to You Tube. The video, put together of entirely still images (i.e. photos), captures a lot of popular culture of Tokyo, while the opening scene shows our very own Susono station!

The video is called Tokyo in Motion, and can be viewed by clicking here.

Magic Nail Polish

Over the last few months, I've noticed that I've started being irrevocably drawn to the colour orange. Strange, since I've never really had any regard whatsoever for the colour orange. On our girls' day out shopping on Friday, I picked up a bottle of Estee Lauder's "Amazing Mango" nail polish. It is a vibrant yet mature orange and a great departure from one of my typical dark grey or deep maroon blends. And it feels fantastic! Just wearing this electric colour, seeing it each time I glance down at my fingers tapping away on the keyboard, makes me feel ...light and enthusiastic.It's not exactly magic, I suppose, but I think I'll be incorporating orange into my wardrobe a bit more!

Losing Pandora

One of my favourite music websites, Pandora (www.pandora.com), is now lost to us. I tried to tune in Friday last week, only to find that the site is now blocked to users outside of the U.S. (apparently, the site is still functional in Canada and the U.K,).

Access to many other things are denied to we poor ex-pats as well (can't get movies from iTunes, can't buy many video games, etc...).

I've found work-arounds for most things, and as for music, for now I'll just use the less-effective Last-FM.

Girls Day Out

There are fewer women "ex-pats" in Japan than there are male ex-pats - that's just the way it is. And sometimes it's nice to get together with fellow foreign-women and do something particularly female; that's what I did yesterday. With three of my co-workers I planned a day out shopping at the Gotemba Premium Outlet Mall, followed by dinner at the buffet restaurant at the Gotemba Kogen Beer Hall. People come from all over Japan just to go to these places - we saw cars from Osaka, Niigata and Matsumoto just to name a few. This is still Golden Week, and naturally everything was crowded!

However, although I've been to the mall several times and the Kogen many (many!) times, this was a special outing for my friends who don't actually live close by like I do and they had to trek in by train for more than an hour just to get to my place.

We shopped for frivolous things and had a frivolous time - a great way to finish off our holiday.

The Pain of Single-Speeding

We put our single-speed 29ers into our respective cars and drove back to the trail we'd found and hiked the other day. While we enjoyed the hike, we kept thinking how fun it would be on our bikes.

It was a good, hilly ride starting in Gotemba near route 138. We didn't know where our road would take us, but when we broke through the trees at the other end of the rocky road, we found ourselves at the Ashigara pass.

We enjoyed the view, saw some Alphorn players practicing in the park, then headed back. It was a great ride, but painful. I found myself briefly wishing for gears, and after we got back home I crashed out for a well-earned afternoon nap.

Alphorn players:



My Gary Fisher Rig:


Brian's custom Clockwork:



Brian - a morning "energy drink" on the trail:

Thailand Photos - Finally!

We recovered from yesterday's hike very well, cooked some good curry for dinner, and then got up and went for another hike today. This time we went along an unmarked trail in the same general area - much quieter and just as lovely. Though the weather didn't hold for a third day and we got a little wet, still a good hike.

And with all this time off and no social obligations, we've had time to put up a web album of our trip to Thailand.

Check it out here: http://www.japanrider.com/galleries/Thailand_gallery/index.html