is it spring yet?

eh...........

On my vacation, kid at school, wife at work, the sun behind wintery spring clouds. I stare at my S2000 sitting in the driveway, wishing winter would go away. Right now? 5 degrees Celsius, roughly 40F. Overnight low is -1C. A winter day in the beginning of spring, er no, a number of winter days. It's been cold.

With the road wet, I can still go and have a drive, but not as hard as I'd like.
With the rain coming down, I can't have the top down, which sucks.

It's hard to look at the paint job being so dull.
I eagerly wait until this last spurt of winter leaves my patch of roads.

VACATION UPDATE

The sun actually made an appearance after 2 days' absence. Warmed up the little rocket and went for an after-rain 12 noon drive. I've been living here in this part of Japan for more than 5 years so I know these country roads like the back of my hand. They are mostly empty except a couple of main arteries that run into the "busy" parts of town. The roads were just dry. Steam rising from the asphalt.

It leaves me only one question really. Should humans be given this much power on command by a flick of the wrist? And it's merely an S2000.

onsen and Twin Ring Motegi

Over the New Year's holiday, we spent some quiet recharge time in an onsen and at Twin Ring Motegi. Here are the pics.

Within Motegi premises, there are a number of facilities:
4 race tracks
a hotel
a Honda museum
a small amusement park (some cart racing for kids)

In the Honda Collection Hall
an S500 next to Japan's first Formula 1 car


S500, grandfather of S2000


An alpaca in Tochigi

2009 was...

It's never too late to conclude how 2009 went for me and my family.

I can see clearly where I was, where I am, and where I'm going to be. 2009 was a stepping stone that confirmed I am on the right track.

It was a year we saw excitement, mistakes, and eventually disappointment - there wasn't much change after all, Obama.

Personally and business-wise though, we did decent, more than decent. We achieved what we set out to do. We provided an excellent environment for Sara. We weren't too lenient nor were we too harsh. We were attentive and caring.

2010, a mere number, I wish for health. That is all.

Merry Xmas

2009! Wasn't partying-like-no-tomorrow new millennium year 2000 (I know I know it's actually 2001) just a while ago? Why, why? Father time where have you gone?

Wishing all a Happy Holiday! Fuck it, I think we should keep saying Merry Christmas so it can be diluted even further. That's right,

M E R R Y

C H R I S T M A S

to

A L L

If time and money permitted, I would have gotten my beloved S2000 a few upgrades.
1) a new ECU, bring on 8500 rpm
2) a muffler system, stuffy nose? What's that?
3) a few gauges, warm the hell up now
4) a front lip

Xmas radio

I'm sitting in my classroom listening to Internet Christmas radio. There are a few classics but most of them unknowns, including some Spanish songs.

A lot of my students are out tonight because it's Christmas eve, the most miserable day of the year for singles; the most demanding for lovers. At least that's what it is in Japan.

I'll go home to my family at 10 in the evening just like any other night. There isn't anything special really about Christmas, especially now our baby is small and we can't go out to eat in a restaurant like we did when we were dating.

I miss those silly years when I was miserable on Christmas eve/New Year's eve. There is no better place to be than the here and now.

Merry Christmas to you all!

If you're bored on Christmas, try these:

going home

Where you're in the world at this moment makes very little difference. You're either going to rush home (or to a getaway) for the holiday, or you've already been there.

Watching the Japanese desperately trying to make the trip got me strangely nostalgic. I have moved around the world a dozen times I don't know where to call home.

Rush-travel
Uploaded by japan4000

We'll be going to a couple of places of our own. I know I'm home, wherever my wife is.

Season Greetings

To quote the Japanese:
謹んで新春のお慶びを申し上げます

Having been lax on these posts, I wish you all a
Merry belated Xmas and a Happy New Year!


So, to conclude, 2007 has been:
a good year,
a committing year,
busy,
fruitful,
adventurous,
settling,
and, last but not least, great!

2008 should be:
a continuation of current conditions,
a hard-working year,
rid of procrastination.


This is the Christmas tree in our school.

gobble gobble

Hard to find a bird around here. Happy Gobble gobble...

Happy Halloween 07

Wishing all a Happy Halloween!



More respect to pumpkins and other vegetables, indeed!

decoration from our school

wedding photos!

I have literally a billion pictures that need to be sorted out. Here are some of those I could post while it's underway. We had the time of our lives. It was a pretty luxurious wedding. I'm still drunk from the champaign on that day. I'm very grateful to everyone, especially Kazumi's and my families!


Welcome board made with cookies (Kazumi made it) a little larger than my laptop computer.

the front door of the wedding hall; picture with our parents

Kazumi and I made our first official appearance in the banquet hall; beautiful looking guests

our traditional Japanese Shinto ceremony; us looking thrilled and photo perfect ^_^

guests making their way into the wedding ceremony shrine; "It's rainnnnnnnnn on your wedding day"

us happily signing our freedom away; the atmosphere is serious and formal

the mothers; my family

equivalent to walking down the aisle; damn good looking couple

still making our way to the stage; and already they can't stop snapping a few

brother-in-law (cameraman of the day); and his wife and cute kids (our flower girls)

guests came a long way to celebrate us


sisters snap-happy (great pictures)

wedding report

We had a pretty spectacular wedding!

Here is what happened chronologically:

7am wake up
8 leave house
9 arrive at our guests' hotel
hand over their lunch
10 arrive at Espoir (wedding reception hall)
11 make-up, dress up in traditional wedding kimono
12pm en route to the shrine
1 wedding portrait, family photo, w/ friends
2 Shinto's wedding briefing
3 Shinto ceremony (unforgettable, serious, special)
4 a little late for our scheduled return to Espoir
5 greetings, cake cutting (in gown and tux)
6 banquet, speeches (in kimono)
7 finale, I propose to her again, surprise black diamond ring
8 return to hotel, drink w/ friends til 12am

Mt. Haruna

For the summer holiday (I took three days off being the boss), we visited Mt Haruna (榛名山) and its mystical mountaintop lake (榛名湖). It's located in the middle of Gunma prefecture (群馬県), and a well-known place for illegal downhill races (no longer tolerated) thanks to Initial D's fame. In the anime the name is mysteriously changed to Mt. Akina (秋名山).

So I took my Mazda Roadster for a moderate downhill run (by run, I mean stroll) with lots of precaution since it'd been raining pretty hard, and my wife feeling car sick.

Here are some pictures of the beautiful lake.

Ikaho onsen (伊香保温泉) at the foothill; foggy


morning; from the submit (榛名富士), a stratovolcano

The lake view from our room's balcony. The entire hotel is inches from the lake and all the rooms face the lake. We saw a large fish (near human size) swimming by in the early morning.

met up with an old friend in NYC

Look who it is:


Charlie, Megan, Kazumi, and I being the tourists that we are, stood in line for over three hours to finally arrive on the top (technically not the top) observatory deck on Empire State Building.

I look forward to the day we Niihamans can reunite under one roof (in Ohio, it's pronounced ruff)!

Thanks Charlie again for driving all the way from the red state to our blue state. ^_^

NYC + KW pics

We were down in Key West for four days. It is located at theat the tip of Florida, the southernmost point of continental USA, 90 miles above Cuba, 1000+ miles to the north is New York. My friends and I once did a road trip between NYC and Key West raking up 5000 miles in a single week.


The temperature was perfect right around 70-78F (21-26C). The ocean glittered under the tropic sun. We got a free upgrade from Hawk's Cay where we stayed at. You'd wonder if they ever read your special request and I know for a fact this time they did. We mentioned it was our honeymoon and we got a villa, worth $519 to $1400 per day during high season!
hawkscay.com

Ours is the one to the far left, with the best view!

From here on these are our own pictures:

views from our villa


from the second floor; one of Hemingway's house cats


tropical fruit "horned melon" we'd never had before, tastes sour; boat sailing by our back yard


dolphin experience with a price right at the resort; ordering catch-of-the-day lunch


complementary champagne; master bedroom


sunrise sunset we were too excited to sleep; key west in a dish right inside the villa


a sailboat going to an exclusive island cocktail party I imagine; Hemingway's bed


the resort's lagoon; golf cart the preferred means of transportation


another view; sunrise


From here on are pictures taken in NYC:

cherry blossom in central park; the world's largest blue sapphire: link


the big tree in my sister's yard. it's BIG(!); view from top of Empire State Building; it took THREE(3) hours to get up there, the line was loooooooooong, or was it 4?


Kazumi (the wife) punching a boxing ball in the garage; my old work place


R2D2 post box invding NYC