Welcome to my blog. I document my adventures in travel, style, and food. Hope you have a nice stay!
It was time to leave busy, urban Tokyo for quiet, rural Hakone. Sounds simple, but we took subways, a bullet train, local trains, a funicular, a gondola, a pirate ship, and a bus. We sometimes opt for as many different transit methods as we can get.
Kids these days. We got to see a lot of Japanese youth hanging out in Harajuku, then went upscale walking through Aoyama. Then stayed upscale by dining in Ginza. It's probably stereotypical Tokyo, but still a fun experience.
It may sound like we've already been to a lot of temples and shrines, but we took quick peeks at more of them today. But first was a visit to Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, both the grounds and its greenhouse.
We spent most of the day out of Tokyo, going to Nikko to visit Nikko National Park, which houses several prominent shrines and temples. We went to Toshogu Shrine and Taiyuinbyo.
On this day we a more successful shot at seeing the Tsukiji market, looked through some of the Tokyo National Museum, went through a lot of Ueno Park, and not much else after that.
We decided to not do too much on our first full day in Tokyo, so we started at the Hamarikyu Gardens, took a ferry up to Asakusa, wandered around the Sensoji temple area, then walked around Asakusa. The evening's excursion was to Tokyo Tower.
Just as Monday was a short day, so was Tuesday. We landed at Narita International Airport around 3pm, and it took us almost a couple hours before we were on the train to the city.
We're setting out today on a month-long trip to Japan. This day will be quite short for us; our trans-Pacific flight took off at about 1:30pm, so we set our watches ahead to 5:30am Tuesday. It's like living in the future.
The end of September is the three-quarters mark of the year. This month's photos included more photos which I would consider abstract, especially concentrating on small parts of a larger thing. All of the month's shots are on the September page.
We made a quick trip to Vancouver to go in for interviews for the Nexus program. Deciding to make a weekend out of it, we spent a couple nights and took the opportunity to hike at Grouse Mountain.
Sweet Week has come and gone again, and Melody and I were able to visit several places, many which were new to us. Each place we visited seemed to be doing brisk sales of their specials, and a couple had even run out by the time we got there.
August is complete, and with Labor Day coming up, we're quickly approaching autumn. This month's photos covered a lot of travel (a trip to Los Angeles and another one to Bellingham).
My cousin Paul got married this weekend, and unlike the last two family events, this one was in Bellingham (less than 90 minutes north of our home), not Southern California. That meant other family members made the trip to Washington, including my parents.
It was just a couple weeks ago that we were in the Los Angeles heat for our family reunion. I flew down again to help celebrate my Aunt Aiko's 88th birthday.
July was a busy month, and there were several opportunities for photos. Here are my favorites for the month; the rest are on the July page.
My dad’s family has been getting together about every five years for a reunion, the latest being this past weekend. We had a great time, talking with people we hadn’t seen in years. Unlike Melody’s reunion which was a relatively unstructured weekend at an Indiana state park, this one centered around a luncheon with several activities happening around the meal, and a few before and after.
Fame is both fleeting and fickle. It's some sort of combination of hard work and luck, the exact combination being different for everyone. One's rise can be slow or meteoric. And you only have a little control over how long you stay (or how many times you rise). Knowing all that, it's still exciting to see people get their chance.
The year is about half over, but I still ended up with quite a few flowers in the June pictures. Trees are making more of an appearance (especially the birches which we had cut down).
After over a quarter decade, my parents and aunt retired from the art supply business this week. It's hard to imagine them not going to the store full time, but at ages 80, 84, and 89, it seems amazing that this was their encore careers.
We found out last month that the two birch trees in our back yard were infested with the bronze birch borer, so we had to decide what to do about them. They came down today, and it's surprising how much that changes our yard.
