Changed Tagline

Well, it took me long enough, but I finally changed our tagline.

The blog's tagline had been *A blog of two passions: mountain biking and Japan", but since we have adopted many other pastimes and passions, including running and motorbiking, I wanted to change the tagline to reflect that. So now, as you might notice, our tagline reads, "Our blog of Japan and other passions".

Any thoughts on this or advice for a better tagline appreciated!

Cambodia Photo Book

In case I haven't mentioned it before, I have a nerdy little secret: digital scrapbooking. Since we both take so many photos, I started trying to keep them organized and even arranging them nicely when I can.

We have already been back from our adventures in Cambodia for nearly two months, and I spent some of my leisure hours scrapping our photos and making a photo book. I made the photo book at Shutterfly, a service I've used before with good results, so I will probably have this book printed for us to keep as a hard copy set of memories of our holiday.

Here is the book at Shutterfly:

Click here to view this photo book.

Alternatively, click this link here:

http://community.shutterfly.com/gallery/post/start.sfly?postId=/gallery/1/post/GMGDJgybM2blowbibw613A

In Montreal

I am officially in Montreal. I typed the last post while en-route, but had no net connection until landing.

How to Spend Five Hours at Narita Airport

I am in the midst of an unplanned trip to Montreal. I left home this morning at 6:30, when Brian drove me to the Tomei Susono bus stop. I much prefer taking the bus to the train - not because it is cheaper (which it is!), but because it is a smooth, easy ride straight to the airport - no transfers or other mess-arounds.

The draw-back to taking the bus is that they are few and far between. So, if I wanted to take the bus (which I did), I had to arrive at the airport four hours early. Okay - I knew there were shops, and figured I could kill the time. However, the bus actually got me there five hours early. Oddly enough, that time passed quickly. I did an hour or so of window shopping in around the many airport shops (prior to check-in), and then spontaneously got my nails done at Nail Quick.

[caption id="attachment_1564" align="alignnone" width="270" caption="Nails - after taking off my boots..."][/caption]

Of course, going through security, my nails were destroyed when I had to roll up my jeans and take off my knee-high boots - but it was still a fun way to spend an hour.

After checking in and going through security, I grabbed some lunch, and even thought about a massage at Raffine, a chain massage parlour here, but they were fully booked up until my departure.

Anyway - if you're ever hanging around Narita airport, there is a fair amount to do!

[caption id="attachment_1565" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="Raffine Massage parlour at Narita airport"][/caption]

Uneventful Weekend

Again we did not really do much this weekend, but we did get our for a good 10km run on Saturday morning, then spent some time in the afternoon scouting for good photo opportunities. I realized that I really have not worked out my Nikon D90 since I bought it a year ago, so I hope to take more pics more often.

Here are two photos taken at a local temple, not too far from home (as you can see, no snow in sight anymore)!

[caption id="attachment_1559" align="alignnone" width="430" caption="Temple"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1560" align="alignnone" width="430" caption="Hishaku Ladle"][/caption]

Snow

Not much to write about today. It's Thursday, and we at least got to wake up to a pleasant surprise: snow. Back in Montreal I learned to loathe the snow, but here it is a rare treat.


[caption id="attachment_1555" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="The View from Our Balcony"][/caption]

Of course, it melted not long after the sun had risen, but it was a nice way to wake up.

Uneventful Weekend

We had a delightful if uneventful weekend. These chilly winter nights (and days!), combined with the recent rain.  have made the idea of motorbiking or camping or doing much of anything less than attractive.

This weekend we mostly stayed home, working on house tasks and personal fun-projects (me on digital scrapbook pages, Brian on beer-brewing and  digital book production). We took a break from staying indoors to go out for dinner at Tori-Ichi, our favourite local yakitori (grilled stuff on skewers) restaurant, and to go for a decent run this morning, but otherwise, it was a quiet, house-bound weekend.

[caption id="attachment_1547" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="Outside Tori-Ichi"][/caption]

Passing Through Fuji City

For last week's business trip, I took the shinkansen (bullet train) which passes through Fuji city, an industrial town known for its paper mill. As the train slowed to make its stop at Shin-Fuji station, I shot a couple of photos of the city's industry, with the beautiful Mt. Fuji in the background.

I sepia toned and adjusted this shot in Lightroom:

[caption id="attachment_1542" align="alignnone" width="491" caption="Industry and Mt. Fuji"][/caption]

(Made with Nikon S640)

Another Thing I Love About Japan

Minshuku!

I'm away on business again this week, and this time far far from any big city. I'm in the small town of Daito, not even on a train line, and I love it.

Rather than big, chain business hotels, I am staying in a small, local minshuku called Fukuda. Minshuku are Japanese Bed and Breakfast type hotels - very cozy and comfortable, with great dinners and breakfasts on offer - and the Fukuda is especially nice:

[caption id="attachment_1537" align="alignnone" width="430" caption="My Tatami Room"][/caption]

Dinner was also amazing:

[caption id="attachment_1538" align="alignnone" width="422" caption="Squid, tuna and more fish"][/caption]

Fukuda Minshuku - 0537-72-https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8641912/uploads

Cambodia Touring Video

This took a while to get together finally upload, but here is a short (8 minute) video of the riding through Cambodia... The camera was a gift (Thanks dad and Eileen!), but I was too worried about its durability during the early more rugged portions of the journey, so my footage was on the smoother later sections. Most of the roads we took were really hellish, but exhilarating. It turns out that the camera held on to my helmet and worked fine in every condition, so I missed catching a lot of the journey. I hope to try again someday!

Saturday Shopping

It was a sunny but chilly day, with the high being about 7 Celsius. However, not wanting to hibernate for another weekend, we went for a 10km morning jog, then spent the afternoon shopping at the Gotemba Supremium Outlet Mall.

I've mentioned this mall before - a large, sprawling outlet nestled at the foot of Mt. Fuji, about 30 minutes from home, it is rather a tourist attraction and people come from Tokyo and further to shop there, yet we mostly take it for granted. However, Brian's need for shoes, and my enjoyment of even just window shopping, decided that we'd spend our day in the chilly air of Gotemba.

We shopped for about four hours, including a late-lunch break, and came out with four pairs of shoes (three for Brian, one for me), two large bags of Salt and Vinegar chips (for me), a few little impulse purchases, and a couple of photos of my favourite mountain.

[caption id="attachment_1531" align="alignnone" width="518" caption="Early Evening at the Outlet Mall"][/caption]

By the time we got back to the car, it had been dark for over an hour  and dinner time had come, so we stopped at a new izakaya on the way home. Good food, friendly service - we'd go there again!

Setsubun

As today is Setusbun, we had a little fun at lunch time at the office throwing beans at the demons.

Always falling on February 3rd (or occasionally 4th), marking the day before spring, Setsubun is not a holiday, but is just a day when kids and even adults do mame-maki - bean throwing ceremony. While throwing the beans, we shout, *oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi*, which means *demons out, happiness in!".

I, who have been chasing away my demons for ages, was only too happy to grab some beans and fling them at the symbolic devils (embodied by some co-workers).

We also ate some makizushi while facing the 'good luck' direction, which is west-south-west this year.

[caption id="attachment_1523" align="alignnone" width="482" caption="Devils Attacking"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1524" align="alignnone" width="614" caption="Sushi"][/caption]

Fugokaku (Fail)

We received the results of our Nihongo Shiken - the test we wrote in December. And, as we had pretty much expected, neither of us passed.

We are not crushed by any means - we are merely resolved to actually study for the next test, which will be in July.

The JLPT is actually changing a little in July as a new level will be added, called N3. Previously (as when we wrote the test in December), there were four levels - 1 through 4, with four being the easiest and one the toughest. However, there is a large gap between levels three and two, so in this new structure, the N3 is meant to bridge that gap.

Now we have to decide whether to write N3 or N2...