Park Side Hotel Hamamatsu

It's been one day and already 10 hits...I'm flattered. For you anonymous, non-commenting folks, you'll be happy to note that this website has now innovated anonymous commenting.
That means, those who have hitherto been too shy, or too lazy, to get an account and leave their trace-able 2-cents...wait no longer!

Enough of that. The purpose of this blog was to rouse my lazy ass to posting my latest photos. I've got about a month of photos to go through, but I think I will reserve ...

... at the location we were to run in.

The location was next to be in Toyota-city, in Northern-western Aichi, in a park the held the International Expo in 2005, a huge environment-boasting event, showcasing everything from robots to new mass-transporation vehicles that ran on electricity and water. Wish I could have attended it, but part of the deal was that they'd return the park to its original state, keeping just a few sports facilities in the park. I didn't look like they ...

... before last week, that I went to Karate, was the night before the Typhoon. I don't know why I went. It was dangerous, no one showed up, it was raining cats and dogs (never used that before, but '*******' just wouldn't have cut it), and I showed up. Even the main sensei, whom I was expecting his own Karate-gi from, didn't show.
Anyhow, it was a wonderful experience. Before and after the session, there is always about 30 seconds of meditation ...

... the most tense part.

In onsens, you wear nothing. They don't want you contaminating the pool with your germs, or the germs on your clothes; the whole idea of onsens is that it's natural. So, au-naturel I went. When I sat down next to these two older guys, I struggled to keep my bandage on. It was already coming off within seconds of contact with water. Damn lying labels (or maybe I just couldn't read it properly).

Holding it to my chest, I ...

... Now just to make it harder, I'm going to stick rivers, mountains, trees, and piles of dirt between you and the hole. OH, and did I mention, that you'll have to wack at this wee ball with a wee stick? Har har har" and all that jazz. The point is, it's fun because it's a pointless challenge. Back in the days before telegrams or camel-riding, some poor sucker who was quicker on his feet than others had to deliver messages, well ...

... were as ridiculous and as fun as you can imagine. The first of these (one that they volunteered me to do) was Mukade (translation: by way of 1000 legs). We had a total of 6 legs, where 3 guys (myself included) slipped our feet into two wooden planks that we shared to complete this Mukade race. It was hilarious. I think we fell over thirty times, as the video of us competing demonstrates how well practiced at falling we are.

There was also a 'various ball ...

Taguchi Festival. October 10th.

You know, we had a hard time deciding which Festival we were going to check out, and it's a very long and somewhat unfortunate story as to how we ended up in Taguchi, but boy was I glad we went.

Every town will have its own flavor, its own specialty, that it will boast freely about and advertise. This can be partly attributed to a governmental push in (no idea what year, but possible in the early 20th century) to promote, advertise and ...

... silent-shell all too quickly) 2 year old boy, named Kenta. What a joy it was to toss this kid around on their family living room floor. Their neighbors came by too, and their super-powered four-year old was no match for my armlock--it was only when they teamed up that I ran into some serious trouble.

The next morning, I followed my co-worker to the Undoukai meeting place in Toei-town, where several schools in the district participated: the two I work at, Tomiyama and ...

... in New Zealand! We followed this up with a trip to the Mt Fuji Museum which was a little overpriced, and of far more interest to me was the nearby theme park...the rollercoasters looked amazing! I`m not sure how much of an adrenalin junkie Yumi actually is, but probably out of politeness she went with it, and so we spent the afternoon at the Fuji-Q Highland Theme Park. First up was the highest and longest rollercoaster in the world, Fujiyama, and after a 45 minute wait it ...

... superstitious. Heck, if they buy prayers that help you with school exams, driving in traffic, and health, maybe they believe smudges in camera lenses ARE souls.. I don't think the girls really believed that, but it was funny to hear them trying to convince each other one way or the other. Anyways, I'm not sure i"d be too comfortable with having those little dolls in my bedroom. I'm not really superstitious, but man, I've seen enough horror movies to freak me ...