Hakuba Iwatake snowboard trip

My first snowboard trip of the year was up to Nagano, the area they had the Olympics in.  There are countless ski areas up there and Hakuba is one of the most famous.  Its actually a bunch of ski places all next to each other and we chose Iwatake.  My friend Hatsumi found an amazing deal that included a rental car, two days lift ticket, and one night stay for I think around $100.  I went with her, Seth, Hiro, Ayumi, and Yukino.

I was in no condition to drive up there and Hiro was the only one willing to drive (come on other people!). 

I, along with everyone else, wished I had driven since I was the only one with experience driving in snow-

Birds and farewells

I forget the seasons they come but every now and then, SWARMS of birds inhabit the trees over the taxis and buses here around dusk. You can hear them coming a mile away and soon see them in a black swarm flying through the buildings. You would think they were locusts or ghosts. Even locals stop to watch them.

The same night I took this picture, I found another stairwell up a large building. A gate was impeding my progress but this was a Japanese sized gate that proved quite easy for my foreign frame to get over. The result was a beautiful picture taking opportunity-

While walking around the station a young Japanese college student approached me to persuade me to go to his school's English only festival. At first I passed but went back to get the info just in case. I ended up going by myself on my scooter to check out the facilities and maybe meet a college girl. I got the former but not the latter. Overall the festival was pretty lame but it was interesting to walk around the school.For some reason they had this on a door-

They had lots of food including hotdogs and soups. Also....this..

Aha!

Another anti cigarette campaign ad-

I think I found this ramen shop in Tokyo-

Found this down the road from Jesus ramen-

Back in Fujisawa I went for yakinuku with Mia. That's cow tongue.

We then went to a local bar where my friend was celebrating her leaving. Next door I stumbled into this AMAZING sanshin(okinawan guitar) player.

The farewell girl-

Later that week it was another farewell party. This time for my friend Rachel-

For some reason people insist on having parties at the local salsa dancing bar. I don't like that place and most people don't as well. Ugh. At least I got a good dance out of it-

Thank goodness Jack has moved on from this stage of his fashion life.

Heidi and Graham.

Around one week later, yet another farewell party. This time for California surfer Dylan-

So I ordered pizza today....

and I paid $34. 

Shizuoka Koyo

Koyo is Japanese for "autumn leaves."  Ah, so nice.

Kazumi and I took a drive out into the Southern Alps in the prefecture of Shizuoka.  As we were getting closer, it all started to look familiar.  Actually, I HAD traveled through that area previously on my last bike trip.  Bummer about that but I had not actually gone to the famous place we headed too that day so that was good.

We soon were sooo close to our destination according to the GPS BUT, there was traffic.  Lots of it.  I convinced her to turn around and drive some ways back to try a side road that would hopefully cut most of it off.  In traditional Japanese road customs,  the road off course was closed for the last fifth or so.  Ah, 45 minutes wasted.  Nice drive though.  Back to the traffic.  By then it had cleared pretty much but the road was so narrow in places that traffic in each direction took turns navigating the many crazy turns.

Oh, before I get too far ahead of myself, here are some pictures of the way there-

November 2009

Wow, am I really this far behind?  Yikes.  Ugh.

Anyway, only a few things happened in November.

There was at least once nice sunset that month-

Garlic Toast of the Cock Lever?!!

I met up with the crazy salaryman again and he took us out for more drinking.

First time to see such large quantities of premade cocktails.

We ended up at some seedy karaoke where we stole the girls from one room.  The guys accompanying them didn't like it but stayed to sing a few.

After this it got really crazy.  The salaryman invited me and Josh back to his house so of course I said yes.  Turns out, he lives in the same amazing apartment building as Kazumi's place.  A tad different since it was an actual families residence-

I loved it.  I sat outside and had a few drinks with a great view.  Albeit, a tad less impressive than Kazumi since it was only half way up the building rather than the top floor.  Josh thought the whole thing was lame and left.  I stayed on the floor of some room only to be woken up by his cute Japanese wife.  I reluctantly crawled out of whatever room I was in and was greeted by her cooking, and two little naked boys running around who eventually latched on to my leg.  All of this kind of blew my mind.  Takashi, the salaryman, looked ten times worse than I felt and went on to pressure me to eat rice ball and miso soup breakfast.

I haven't seen him since.  He would email every Friday for a few months and even call me even though we couldn't really talk to each other.  I finally had time to meet him but by then he said he couldn't drink anymore.  Hmm. 

A view while walking back from his house-

The only other interesting part of this month was around Halloween.  And even that wasn't particularly interesting.  My friends had a party the weekend before and this was the first time in a million years I didn't have a costume.

The view from their front door.  Free eggplants for life!

Yamanaka Lake Haikyos

A friend who left this year, Tom, is much more interested in Haikyos than I am.  Or at least more motivated and knowledgeable about them.  Yamanaka Lake is one I have been to many times before and wrote about on here a few times.  At the time, there was a famous hotel haikyo on the lake and Tom, Kazumi, Satoko and I set out to find it.

After driving around the lake for a while I suggested we walk up a road to have a look.  We found it on the side of the road but unfortunately, it was being repaired.  Haikyo no more.  We kept walking up the little road and did find an abandoned house that only I was brave enough to enter.  The only picture taken-

Out and about in nearby places

Hmmm.  I am now updating about things that happened so long ago that I cannot remember all the details.  For some, I have comments and background info.  Some, not so much.

This is probably the last photo taken of me working at the restaurant.  Some friends dropped in and took this masterpiece of a photo-

I have great luck with coming across local festivals by surprise.  On this day there was one and this cute girl was having a ball going up and down the ramp thingy-

Ayumi's birthday!

Seen in front of the train station. 

It's a grocery store-

On the way to work I would pass this massive construction site.  I went back during the day and rode to the highest nearby point I could find to take this picture-

Is this right?

Japanese know how to customize and American truck-

We had a typhoon that made the ocean pissed ooofffff.  It was insane to see.  The whole ocean, as far as the eye could see, was a giant white, wavy mess-

At my friend's bar, Shimo dancing-

I like to make silly faces-

Went to Yokohama with some friends-

There is a pet store near me that sells strange animals like $4000 giant turtles and monkeys like this one-

I met up with my friends Josh and Carl in Yokohama for some after work drinking.  I didn't know I would find them at a closet sized bar loaded with crazy people.  This places sits 5 or so people.  This guy gave me his seat-

He had this voice like a beaten vacuum cleaner.  I think he was speaking Japanese or maybe trying English.  I had no idea.  He kept getting frustrated and poking me in the side with his other arm around my shoulder.  A little uncomfortable but still strange enough to appreciate. 

The mama-san owner was a cranky old lady with a ninety degree bend in her back and a big stick up her bum.  Kept yelling at me but still was happy to take my money.  The other patrons were all friendly.

We decided to step it up a notch and blast our foreign voices so loud the next door shop had to tell us to be quiet-

Carl's "friend," Takeshi, was there.  He is salaryman that Carl met somewhere and took him to this place.   Super nice guy that claims he is learning English yet knows not one word.  He payed for everything, took us to karaoke, and accompanied us for most of our crazy night. 

We ended up going to Yurakucho by last train to try to find a club or something.  There wasn't anything.  Ran into a person I knew that showed us a strange bar or two.  Takeshi and Josh managed to get home.  Probably by a very expensive taxi.  Carl and I stuck it out all night ending up at an izakaya late in the night.  I woke up IN the izakaya restaurant, by myself at eight in the morning.  How a person can do that, I do not know.  I didn't know they stayed open all night.  Did they close with me sleeping there?  The bill was payed, I guess.  In a daze, I walk out and realize I have no idea where I am.  Get offered services by pushy Chinese prostitutes and I just angrily wave them off.  I am greeted by this before I find my way home.