Needed a little spring, it wasn't coming up north quickly enough...

... so I went down to Tokyo.  The Fantastic Mr Flynn offered to put me up at his new Tokyo pad, but was at work during the day. I stowed my pack in a coin locker at one of the stations near his place and set off to amuse myself. My initial plan was to get my nerd-on in Akihabara. Buuuuuut the near constant deluge all day made this feel rather uninviting. I was having some trouble navigating the area anyway, possibly due to the lack of sleep from riding the highway bus down overnight. Yes. We'll blame that. :D

April Adventures Across Japan Phase 3: Profit!

Aomori Day 3: Hirosaki Hijinx!

'another early morning, but that meant we had lots of time to explore Hirosaki. I really love this city, although I have yet to drive around in it. Perhaps that's why I still love it. Haha. I've been driven around it, but I always take the train out here when I visit. Saves me having to find parking and navigate the helluv narrow streets and lanes that make it up. Some of my favorite JETs live out here, and it's great to hang out with them... but they were all at work, so we were left to our own devices.

Lake Towada

Sunday afternoon road trip to Lake Towada resulted in some pretty pictures...

We stepped outside after lunch and were treated to a sun shower...

Birthday Weekend~!

My coworkers surprised me... several times... with cakes!!! :D Yaaaaay cake! Friday cakes are great, but Friday *Birthday* cakes are best. Didn't have anything really planned except for getting together with Mel (who I haven't seen in years... since she ran away and joined the JET programme) on Saturday.

Guts shoooooow! (Doo good?)

Monday of the long-weekend was Sports Day in Japan and Thanksgiving in Canada. So I decided to go and support a fellow JET in his MMA fighting debut. I made the drive out alone and managed to not get lost (yippie!). Made my way towards the 八戸市　公会堂 after Skyping with my family who were just finishing a Sunday evening Turkey dinner. It was super nice to see everyone who made it out to my parents for the meal.

O.o Y U No let us proof read?

Beef and Garlic adventures!

Greetings and salutations! Tim, Katie, Juliann and I set off for the wilds of Takko for the Beef and Garlic festival last Sunday. Here's the deal: you bring some food & cooking utensils (we picked up some 'shrooms and yakisoba) then head down to Takko-machi. Grab a grill, buy some of the beef and garlic available and toss it on.

You can tell they were expecting a good turn out from the base... heh heh heh

Mt Fuji

What have I gotten myself into... 

Okay, cats and kittens, now, some of ya'll know I dig the outdoors. I've been off on overnight canoe trips many times and have done a little backwoods camping. I love proving to myself that I can do something that other folks say they can't (or tell me I'm crazy for trying). I also like adventures, exploring and just getting out and doing something. So when Chelsea mentioned she was going to climb Mt Fuji during the long weekend with some other folks, and asked if I wanted to join, I jumped on it. JR railline had this wonderful Three Day Pass which saved us so much coin on train fare, it was amazing. Still, though, it was a crazy long day which began at 5 am Saturday September 15th. I walked down to the Shichinohe-Towada Bullet Train station to catch my ride down to Tokyo.

It's almost go time...

WTF

It's about time for me to start a collection of Engrish and or just plain weird stuff I find... Or just what tickles my fancy.

Kindness Parking located at the Kappa Sushi restaurant just outside Aomori City.