Shimoda Izu Birthday Trip 2008 with Aya
September 8, 2008
Largely by accident, going to Shimoda, Izu in Shizouka Prefecture, Japan has become an annual summer ritual. It started two summers ago with the Can, which was the best road trip I’ve ever taken in Japan. The tradition continued this summer, and it was my third birthday in a row spent on Tatadohama Beach, but my first ever with Aya. We drove her dad’s car down my favorite strip of road in Japan, Rd. 135 along the coast all the way down to the very tip of the Izu Peninsula where Shimoda dwells, seemingly forgotten by Japan at large, but gladly adopted by me as my summer getaway from the madness of Tokyo.
Futako-Tamagawa Fireworks Hanabi 2008
August 18, 2008
I attended my second fireworks display, hanabi, of the summer this past Saturday along the banks of the Tama River near Futako-Tamagawa station. If you can believe it, I am still so naive that even after 5+ years of living in Japan, I wasn’t expecting to have to fight through huge crowds! Of course Futako-Tamagawa station was jammed with people exiting trains to head to the river for the fireworks. However, once out of the fray, there was plenty of space even for late arrivers to find a nice spot upon which to gaze upwards for the hour-long fireworks display.
Skimboarding 2008 - Session #06 - Chigasaki
August 13, 2008
I wanted to return to skimboarding at Chigasaki beach this past Saturday for various reasons. It is the beach I have skimboarded on the most in Japan, by far, and is actually the 3rd most skimmed beach of any in my 21 years of skimboarding. The other reason was Aya. I wanted to propose to her, and I wanted to do it at the most familiar, most special place to me in the Tokyo area. Even though Chigasaki beach is little more than an ash tray next to the ocean, it is still special to me and it is still capable of producing some magic, and it did not fail me this Saturday evening.
Amazing Shinjuku Sunset [video]
August 9, 2008
I was sitting at my desk, procrastinating on proofreading work, when I saw out the sliding glass doors this sight—a column of feathery clouds being bisected by a fiery sun on its way toward the horizon. Every since I first got my Sanyo Xacti HD700 in February of this year, I have been filming sunsets from my balcony here in Shinjuku. I believe the sunset I witnessed today to be the best one yet. There is no need for me to describe it further, as you can behold it for thyself in the above HD video.
Gundam statue rises at Kami-Igusa station!
August 7, 2008
I cycled out with UK Mike (his post) to the Seibu-Shinjuku line station of Kami-Igusa to check out the newly erected (March 2008) statue of Gundam. It stands about 190cm tall (6 feet). It must be rather strange for people coming out of a train station and the first thing they see is Gundam! I wonder if the police in the koban behind the statue like their new view as well?
VIDEO:
Gunma Japan Haikyo Urban Exploring!
August 1, 2008
I went on my first ever haikyo, or urban exploring as it’s called outside of Japan, with the Mikes in January 2008. We rented a Nissan X-trail, which was a pleasure to drive by the way, and headed up deep into Gunma Prefecture, Japan. Snow was everywhere and we were all very excited to be out of Tokyo and on our first adventure in a long time. We went out seeking an abandoned theme park, volcano museum and schoolhouse. We found them all, with varying degrees of difficulty. [Read more]
Pigeon and Blimp on my Tokyo Balcony [video]
July 31, 2008
I was sitting at my desk when I notice a blimp not so slowly blimping on by. I hopped up and grabbed my Xacti HD700 and quickly shot some footage of the blimp before it passed too close to the sun and then out of sight.
To my surprise while I was filming the blimp, a pair of pigeons flew right in front of me (but below camera) with one of them landing right on my neighbor’s balcony. This gave me a bit of a start, but fortunately held firm onto the Xacti the whole time (I don’t use a wrist tether). So I took the pigeon’s close landing to mean she/he was ready for her/his closeup! I obliged and put this video up for anyone needing to cast a very photogenic pigeon for their next shoot!
VIDEO:
Star Wars Celebration Japan 2008!!
July 30, 2008
Like for many people of my generation, STAR WARS is the greatest genre series of my life. In fact, the whole past decade of my life has been based on, and around, STAR WARS. I have literally flown to other countries to be able to see the release of the prequels on time. And also like many other STAR WARS fans, Episode III brought a significant close to the STAR WARS chapter of my life (read my Episode III journal). Since 2005, STAR WARS has greatly waned in my consciousness. Thus, I only found out about Star Wars Celebration Japan 2008 at the last minute.
And lucky that I did! For a mini-revival in STAR WARS is about to begin with the release of the CG animated CLONE WARS movie in August 2008 and the related TV series soon after. I write this post now while listening to the Episode III soundtrack. Thusly I went to Makuhari-Messe in Chiba, Japan with UK Mike caught in surprise at this sudden burst of STAR WARS energy. [Read more]
Skimboarding 2008 - Session #03 - Hiratsuka
July 23, 2008
The waves were significantly bigger this time at Hiratsuka, which always makes for more fun for the skimboarder, as well as the chance for bigger wipeouts! But here’s a secret—big wipeouts are fun. They may look like they hurt, but most of the time you are falling into deep water so it’s just a matter of keeping your mouth closed so as not to drink in any water.
Besides the larger waves, the biggest conditions difference was that the sand was a bit softer, no doubt because of the larger waves crashing on the shore and carrying sand all over the place. This meant I ran a step slower than in the previous week’s session. It also meant that my ears ended up being full of black sand! Usually I get a little, but this time the amount of sand coming out was a bit disconcerting. Aya hadn’t experienced this before, so I had to reassure that this was normal for skimboarding Shonan area beaches.
Yokohama Fireworks Hanabi 2008!
July 22, 2008
Hanabi is a Japanese word that means fireworks display viewing. Donning a yukata for the first time, I went to Yamashita Park in Yokohama, Japan with Aya for some mid-summer hanabi action. Back on Friday, Aya helped me go yukata shopping, selecting a nice navy blue one. She donned a deep purple yukata hand-sewn by her mother for her. It is traditional to wear yukata to hanabi and other Japanese summer festivals. How does it feel to wear a yukata? A little restricting and a bit hot, but it felt good to have my attire contribute to the overall festive atmosphere.
Getting a choice spot for hanabi would have required arriving at iPhone waiting type times, so all things considered, we thought we had found ourselves a pretty good spot to spread the Big Agnes Seedhouse footprint. Then we realized a large tree would be obstructing a good part, if not all, of our view. It turned out to be only a partial obstruction, with low fireworks totally visible.
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