35 years and a new career
August 26, 2009
It is rather uncanny how my 35th birthday and my first real job occurred on almost the same day. How can one avoid having a real job for 35 years and still travel the world and own more electronics at once than most people have their entire lives? Well, a person in the above photo has commented on more than one occasion I should write a book about that. My average waking time for my adult life I would estimate at 10:15am. My average bedtime I would estimate at 1:45am. All this has suddenly changed.
Foote Family Christmas Party Japan 2008
January 4, 2009
Once again the Foote Family opened its doors wide to entertain 30+ people for a post-Christmas, Christmas party. This was also a white elephant gift exchange party, which proved to be a huge success. There were about four highly coveted presents that exchanged hands many, many times. The most popular of these was a Cocoa Latte machine. It was swapped at least a dozen times. I ended up with a nice, wooden hand massager turtle. Aya got a glove hand massager, another win for me!
Daily Photo: Aya in Ginza on Christmas Day 2008
December 25, 2008
Aya and I spent Christmas afternoon leisurely walking around Ginza, Tokyo because, for some reason, I feel that area of Tokyo has the most Christmas spirit kind of feeling. Maybe it’s just all the shopping done in the city, or how clean and open it is compared to other wards of Tokyo. Regardless, it was a nice place to spend this Christmas afternoon. The glass building on the immediate left houses Hermes.
Iwaidou hidden Buddhist Temple of Chichibu Japan
November 30, 2008
I came to call it, “Iwaidou, the hidden Buddhist temple of Chichibu forest,” for hiking through the forest toward it, the temple appears all of a sudden, and appears before one’s eyes to have been dropped in from the heavens, rather than built by the hands of simple men. Iwaidou is preceded by an equally startling “treehouse prayer wheel temple,” as I named it. On this late November afternoon, Aya and I had all of this pretty much to ourselves, which made for a very tranquil, escapist pilgrimage in an autumn forest.
Autumn Scenes from Shinjuku Gyoen
November 16, 2008
This past Saturday was supposed to be my 7th summiting of Takigo-yama, but unfortunate events with the Chuo Line lead to the nixing of that, but on the positive side led to a very good autumn afternoon in Shinjuku Gyoen. It was unbelievably Aya’s first ever time to this famous Tokyo park! I of course have been 20+ times as it’s within walking distance to my apartment.
Senjogahara Moor in Tochigi Prefecture Japan
November 9, 2008
As Aya and I drove along a country road after leaving Nikko, to my left a vast expanse opened up, and from very first sight I was dazzled and drawn to Senjogahara Moor in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. This moor was not a scheduled stop on our trip, but thankfully I pulled over so we could pause and get a better look at this most unusual landscape for Japan.
CYCLE MODE international 2008 Tokyo, Japan
November 9, 2008
Thanks to a tip from a student semi-interested in cycling, Aya and I were able to spend a very exciting Saturday afternoon surrounded by all things bikes at CYCLE MODE international 2008 at the expansive Makuhari Messe exhibit space. This even was better than I expected, and I ended up feeling totally stoked after having demo-ridden three very expensive bikes on the road and mountain biking mini-tracks the event organizers had setup.
Down on the farm in Yamanashi Japan
October 24, 2008
After a hard day of hiking up Akadake, Aya and I spent a very beautiful day at a public/university run farm in Yamanashi Prefecture. It was recommended to us by the staff of the mountain hut we stayed at the night before and the farm was far better than we could have imagined. I’ve never been to any place like it in Japan before. Aya immediately said it felt like New Zealand, and I agreed, as this place had rolling green hills surrounded by mountains and sheep in the pasture.
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