The wall

Graceland baby!

We just had to stop.

Graceland: home of elvis

Tennessee

Crossing the Mississippi river

Green trees

Welcome to Arkansas!

Into the Central Timezone

First off, kudos to Hyunjoo for handling the photo blogging you see below. Please keep in mind that the journey isn't really this visually exciting. We're posting mostly the highlights of the journey. Lots of grassland, cows are a distant second, cities/towns distant third. We're having a lot of fun still.

Thanks to the Super 8 Motel, we've got wireless this evening. It'll give me a chance to get caught up with my Electronic Village Online duties.

After over 17,000 ft. of ascent yesterday it was relatively flat-going today. We were able to make over 36 mpg averaged over 570 some miles. The fuel efficiency of the Honda Fit is a huge help. Been dreaming of a fuel-cell car, but that's off in la-la-land realistically. I keep forgetting to take a picture of the Fit loaded-up with all our stuff for my Uncle in Honolulu - sorry Uncle, it'll have to wait until tomorrow.

We got blasted with a shotgun of stones from an 18-wheeler that strayed into the shoulder of the road earlier. I'm going to have to get the chips in the windshield and hood fixed once we get into PA. Oh well, hazards of the trip. At least the roads have been relatively safe.

Thankfully, the weather has been on our side. Dad's suggestion that we stay on US 40 was a good one and it's been smooth sailing (knock on wood). Looks like the east coast has been getting some nasty rain, but I think we'll be west of all that weather as we drive up.

Back to you tomorrow for Day 3.

First traffic jam in Oklahoma City at the Jct of 44

Oklahoma

The leaning tower of water in Texas

OK, I know a lot of the other photos you see during our trip show signs and other objects that are "slanted" due to the way the iPhone takes pictures of high speed scenes, but this tower was really leaning the way it looks in the picture!

The largest cross in the western hemisphere

Texas!

Nothingness for 3 hours

End of Day 1

Well we left Nevada and drove straight through Arizona. Hyunjoo now
understands what I meant by a "whole lot of nothing".
:-)
Actually I thought it was beautiful in its own way.

So we drove about 570 something miles in a little over 8 hours. We
won't have to drive that far tomorrow. I'll be happy to make it to
Oklahoma City or maybe a little further.

Were having a great time so far. We're hoping for a little more
variety tomorrow, but I'll be happy with a safe journey.

To new Mexico

On the border- rocks

To Arizona

From nevada

Hoover dam 2

Hoover dam

Last supper

We just cam back from the KungFu Thai restaurant with family here. It
was our way to say thank you to everyone here for all their
hospitality. So, it's off to the east coast tomorrow at 8 am - bright
and early.

Last minute monkeying around

Nayoung & Ryan

At the petting zoo

Follow Our Road-Trip Eastward

Well, we've finished 95% of the packing. We're keeping our fingers crossed that it'll all fit into our Fit (no pun intended).

The cross-country trip will take about five days. We're headed straight for Princeton and will move our stuff in storage from there.

Keep an eye out for updates from the road. I'll be posting our progress here.

Penn State... Here we come!

After almost six months, I found a job. We waited to find something good and I think we've found it.

I applied for an Instructional Design position with the Continuing and Distance Education programs under Penn State's Outreach division.

I'll be running across different departments working on course design projects and working to improve the use of educational technology at those departments.

I'm extremely excited to say the least. This looks like the kind of work I'm really interested in for this next stage of my career.

I begin working March 1st which means we'll have to make arrangements to leave Las Vegas this weekend. Yikes.

I'd like to thank a lot of folks for helping me out. And I'll be doing that "in-person" in the next few days.

Getting Funky

Lil' dude digs my iPhone playing "Funkytown". And so begins his very
important music appreciation classes.

Pre-Superbowl

How Tom Brady is preparing...
:-)
(Actually this is from 2005)

Typical evening here

I'll probably get in trouble for posting this picture, but it's what
goes on here now that everyone is back home. Funny, I thought Ryan
just ate like an hour ago.

Hyunjoo driving

Hyunjoo has slowly been learning how to drive and so far so good. She's done really well considering I've never taught someone how to drive. I don't like teaching people how to drive. Too stressful.

Dinner time

The little guy is doing pretty well even after such a long flight. He
gives me a powerful reason to procrastinate, but I've got too much
preparation to do.

Actually he just fell asleep. I think it's his nap time back in Korea.

They're home!

Unfortunately they had to wait a while in Immigration. Guess they're a
suspicious couple.

Waiting

We're just waiting for them at the baggage claim. I hope Ryan and his
mom had a good flight.

Cloudy day

Off to the airport to pick up Ryan and his mom.

Night time Nintendo

Must get to 98th level...
:-Z

Go Hyunjoo!

OGE crew in town

Click on slideshow to view a larger version or to download images.
Marc, Mike, Josh, and Audrey from The Outdoor Gear Exchange came into Las Vegas a couple days ago to climb at Red Rock Canyon before the Outdoor Retailer trade show in Salt Lake City. I joined them on their first day out climbing. We drove out to the first pullout: Calico 1 and hiked about 40 minutes to the Ultraman Wall at about 4100 ft.

It was a mostly cloudy day and the temps were in the high 30's. It was pretty cold standing around and I'm sure it got quite chilly on the longer routes. There are some long climbs there, well beyond the reach of a single 60M rope. It's good to bring extras with you in case you get too high to rap off the anchors.

It has been great to hang with the crew again. Lots of old and new stories to swap. Even though I'm not really climbing anymore, it's great to rekindle my past life.

We went out for a sushi buffet last night and they're off climbing again today. I don't know where they are today. I suppose I could drive around looking for their white Hyundai (?) they've rented, but I'd still have a considerable hike to find them. I guess we'll have to rely on more SMS texting.

At the library

We're at the library right now. I'm trying to get some work done. I left my laptop at home because I was planning to do all my work on the iPhone. Unfortunately Google Docs doesn't let the iPhone edit docs only view them. On well. Thankfully I have a lot of editing to do on paper.

We're meeting up with the guys from the OGE later for dinner. I think they were interested in some sushi over at Makino. It'll be good to catch up about their day of (cold) climbing.

New iPhone

Well, after getting the word from Steve Jobs that Apple wasn't coming out with a 16GB iPhone, I went with Hyunjoo to pick up my birthday present:



It does kick major butt! Sent from my iPhone

UPDATE: Looks like Blogger doesn't like images sent directly from my iPhone. I'll have to see if there's another photo system that'll accept emailed photos.

UPDATE: Found out that in order to post images directly from the iPhone, you have to have a GMail account and it must be set as the default email account in the iPhone's settings. Problem is that GMail isn't my default account, but at least I can still email directly from my Yahoo! account via the Mail app on the iPhone

A night to remember

This day has just cruised on by. I gotta get ready soon to head over to Winston's, Scott's brother, house. They only live a few minutes away. I already dropped Hyunjoo off around 3PM.

We're all headed over there to pay respects to Scott and Winston's mother. Koreans remember their deceased relatives on the anniversary of their deaths. Unfortunately their parents passed away at a very young age.

So, there'll be a ceremony of sorts this evening and then we'll have a traditional Korean meal there.

I've been pretty busy with my Electronic Village Online session for the year. I've returned to co-moderate the 2008 Teaching with PowerPoint session. Things haven't even really heated up yet, the session begins on the 14th.

I also just found out when my presentation will be at TESOL this year. I'll have to be in NYC around the start of April to give a quick series of presentations on our EVO session.

I was supposed to finish my cover letter for Penn State, but that might take another day. It's easy to get side tracked with seemingly important tasks, but I really need to prioritize.

They've finally started to build up the graded lots behind Scott's house. I fear his wonderful view of Red Rock Canyon will evaporate faster than I had originally imagined. With the poor housing situation every where, I'm surprised they're bothering to build new homes.

I'm still holding out on picking up an iPhone that "everyone" pitched in to get me. Thank you Mom & Dad, and Mom and Dad in Korea, Hyunjoo, Scott, Nayoung, Winston and Julia! Macworld in SF is next week and it would be extremely hasty to buy almost any Apple product right now.

Some folks speculate that Steve has so much to announce that he's getting some of the hardware upgrades out of the way now, like the Mac Pro. I'm not expecting the iPhone with 3G - I just want 16GB of storage (or more). So, I'm crossing my fingers.

I haven't really been watching much football, but I'll be keeping my eyes on the Patriots this Saturday after the wildcards are in. I can still remember the painful beating we took from "The Refrigerator" Perry back in the 80's.

Happy New Year!

To friends and family across the globe... Happy New Year!

Hyunjoo and I had a lovely evening last night. We were originally invited to a $400 inclusive package deal at a local country club with Scott, Nayoung, Winston and Julia, but we decide to explore the Strip on our own.

Hyunjoo really wanted to see the Stratosphere Tower on the Northern end of the Strip and I was excited since I've never been up close. We arrived around 7 and easily found parking. That's one thing great about Las Vegas. It's easy to find free parking in all the best locations. We walked around the casino and quickly decided to head down the Strip.

Our first stop was the "Worlds Largest Gift Shop". I doubt the moniker was true, but it was loaded with goodies only black-velvet art collectors could love. That's being a little harsh, but it was a scene to behold.

The cops had already blocked off the Strip to pedestrians only, and we were in a group of some of the first to walk down the middle of the road. It was kinda strange being the first ones. I kept looking around the usually busy street for some crazy car to some careening through, but of course nothing of the sort happened.

We walked on for about a mile in the brisk cold to the Fashion Show, across from the Wynn, and found a great place for dinner... the Capital Grille. We might not have had the view early reservations might have given us, but the setting was perfect and the food was delicious. 

Around 9:30, we headed back up the Strip to the Stratosphere. It was colder out then, but we survived. We milled around the slot machines for an hour or so and listened to some live music playing. A little before midnight we head up to the Pool deck for the count-down we had bought tickets to earlier. There were a bunch of folks up there listening to a DJ and at the stroke of midnight we saw one of the most interesting fireworks displays I'd ever seen. From on the top of the tower, we were almost sprayed with explosives almost 115 stories directly above us. It was an incredible sight.

So, I hope you had a wonderful celebration and may all your resolutions come true!

Messin' with Photoshop

Well, I thought a good way to break in Photoshop CS3 would be to make a collage of the day's events. It made sense at the time since my camera is busted and I can't add new pix. So, I logically thought that I'd take old ones and make an account of the day. Knowing this would take a little time, I gave myself an hour and whatever I was left with I would post. Well... I doubt I'll do this again. I didn't even finish.

Been too long... the big update

Well, things are going to look a little drab around here (the blog) for a little while. My Canon digicam kinda died on me a month ago or so. I had been having memory card errors and had attributed it to the less-than-optimal CompactFlash format that it uses. The camera is almost 5 years old and has seen extensive use. I shot about 5500 images with it and over 400 movie clips. Once I get a new job, house... life basically, I'll look into getting a new compact.

So, Happy Holidays!

We had a nice Christmas here in Vegas. We sent out presents and cards early, which was something new for me. It was well worth it. It made the holiday season much less stressful and we were able to sit back and enjoy.

Household update: sorry, "we" sometimes refers to Hyunjoo and I and other times it includes the entire household to include Scott (my brother-in-law) and Nayoung (Hyunjoo's younger sister). Hyunjoo's older sister, Hyunjung, and Kongkong (aka. Ryan, Scott and Hyunjung's baby son) are back in Seoul awaiting their immigration visas.

So, we (the household) went out for a nice Japanese meal Christmas Eve and Hyunjoo made up a wonderful Christmas dinner the next night.

I am currently working on more job applications and preparing for the next Electronic Village Online session. I'm a co-moderator again this year with the Teaching with PowerPoint 2008 session. I haven't been asked to a single interview yet and it's getting a little stressful. I'm working my "network" more and more. Something I should have been strong on from the start, well stronger perhaps.

I even have some info posted on another blog about the positions I'm currently pursuing, as a reference for folks I'm asking for help.

Hyunjoo has been knitting like a sweat-shop over here. She's made a lot of wonderful things for the holidays. I scored a beautiful new hat!

Overall, we're doing well. Best wishes and Happy New Year!

Happy Halloween!

Hyunjoo has never carved a pumpkin before and I haven't done one myself in at least 7 or 8 years so we decided to have some fun this year.
Click on the slideshow to see a larger version or to download.

We're not expecting a lot of trick-o-treaters this year. It's a gated community and we're kind of on the western edge of Vegas so I don't think we'll hand out a lot of candy, but I could be very wrong.

No costumes or parties this year. That might be a shame, maybe we'll catch a scary movie this evening! Who knows?

Horseback riding near Red Rocks

Please click on any of the pictures to view a larger version of this slideshow or to download.

Flight Links

Mom-folks gave us these two links to a couple of great sites to check airfares. I highly recommend them!

• Kayak
• Farecompare

A late update

It's been such a long time since I've written. I guess I feel like there should be some big news to report on, but there isn't any as of yet. Of course I'm thinking of my next job, but more on that later.

Sadly, it feels like an empty home with only the three of us here. Hyunjoo and I only see Nayoung for a few hours of the day since she has classes in the mornings and often spends time with her friends in the afternoons and evenings. Scott, Hyunjung, and Kong kong (Ryan) are back in Korea. They left about a week ago and we've been missing Ryan. So, we're basically house sitting for them while they're gone. UPDATE: We just heard that their petitions were accepted and now they can go ahead with the police and medical checks and pick and interview date. They might be able to return before the New Year if things keep going well for them.

I am going to start working on another job application today. This one is for a local university. They've posted a position that sounds just like what I'm looking for. This is the second position I've applied for locally. The majority of them have been in PA with the rest scattered through out CO, VT, OR, and other places around the US. I still haven't heard back from anyone, except for a position that was canceled a few weeks ago. My Uncle said to beware that a number of these positions might have been posted out of formality with people in mind to fill those positions already in waiting. I can't say that my morale is very high right now. I'm thinking of looking for totally different work or perhaps something temporary just to get some money while we're waiting on these schools. I don't like the idea of compromising, but I can't wait forever.

Other news is that my Uncle and Aunt from Honolulu are visiting Vegas right now. They were here to spend time with friends. It was great seeing them. Even though we saw them last year, I didn't have much time to talk with them because of the wedding. We had a day out together yesterday. We went to Treasure Island to watch Mystére, a Cirque du Soleil show. I found front row tickets, but aside from one segment, it would have been better to sit further back. The majority of the performance is pretty high above the stage and my neck got pretty stiff. If you've never seen a show like this, it's well worth the time and money. There are incredible feats of balance, acrobatics, strength, and even a perfect amount of comedy thrown in to keep things going. Unfortunately we weren't able to take any pictures for obvious reasons, but you can find a lot of images online.

I also got an email from my brother, Lee. He and his fiancee have chosen a location for their upcoming wedding. Next year, they're planning on having the ceremony at the Essex Conference Center north of Boston. It looks like a beautiful place that offers some cool hiking options.

It must get pretty cool in the evenings around here because I'm "freezing" when I wake up in the mornings. I'm gonna have to fish out some sweaters very soon. I like the climate here though. I'll have to endure a full summer here before I can say that I'd be happy living here if it came to that.

Disco Fever

Hyunjoo and I went out last night with Nayoung and her two friends, Michelle and Young. We drove about 10 minutes away to the Red Rock Casino. We've been there a couple of times before to catch movies at the theater there. Last night was by far the busiest night, being a Friday and all.


They have an enormous bowling alley there and they feature a neon setting on the weekends. We each dropped $12.50 to play a couple of games in the most distracting environment conceivable. My game sucks in general, so I'm not trying to make any excuses here. I did about average for me: just under 100 a game or so. It was fun though. With neon balls and pins you get a wicked experience - perfect for Sin City.

Ryan Choi - my nephew

I can't believe I've forgotten to add some pix of my newest nephew. Since we've arrived here in Las Vegas, he's gotten really good at or learned how to:

• stand up and move around the perimeter of his play pen
• cruise around in his walker
• crawl with great speed for very short distances
  
• climb the stairs
• eat Cheerios on his own
• wear sunglasses
• demand that people pick him up
• ride on Uncle Kent's shoulders
• make a lot more noise
• stuff everything in sight into his mouth

That's no small list for such a little dude. I'm pretty impressed how quickly he learns things.

Lost in Limbo

Procrastinating on another resume. This one was bumped up because it is one of the first hits I've gotten closer to home (well, our temporary one). I just heard two days ago from one of the first positions I applied for. They said that the position was "canceled" so that's a dead-end. That was up at Portland Community College. They had the most rigorous application yet.

So, in my 15 min break, I played around with a new piece of software that let's me broadcast a webcam feed from my MacBook. Not that there's much happening of interest here right now. The port number will keep changing every time I reboot, so I doubt the link will stay active for long.

I think we're all going out for Thai this evening. We go out for dinner about once a week. That's one thing Vegas has a lot of: restaurants. Unfortunately they've gotten more expensive since the last time I was here, but that was a long time ago and everything was more expensive.

The housing market is looking good for us. If only I could get a bite on one of my applications and get a job. I'm really excited to think about where we'll end up. It's nice being back in America.


View Larger Map

Went out for a little adventure yesterday with Scott, my brother-in-law. We checked out an area called Spring Mountain Recreation Area, about 30 miles from here. It's a multi-purpose national forest area and we saw some ATV'ers setting out. It was so beautiful, too bad I forgot to snap some pix. It's not too far that I couldn't head out there every now and then. I promise more pix next time.

Is it really the weekend?

I've sorta lost track of the days. The upside to being jobless. That's about it. I'm ready to get working again. Anyone wanna give me a job (that I'm looking for)?
:-)

Still working on getting more applications out. They're taking quite a long time. The current one requires me to write an essay addressing a number of points. It'll be good for eventual interviews, but it's a lot of work. Applying for positions over the internet isn't as straight forward as sending in a resume and cover letter. It's pretty cool actually to see what different schools are doing to hire folks. I just hope I start getting a few hits.


We put a deposit on a 2008 Honda Fit Sport as of yesterday morning. We'll have to wait for it to arrive. It could be up to a month! It didn't seem like too long at first, but it's starting to sink in. Hopefully it'll be much sooner and I was reassured that it might very well be. We'll just have to wait and see at this point.

We had a real nice evening over at Scott's (my brother-in-law) brother's house last night. They live only about a 5 min drive from here. They have a beautiful place right on one of the local golf courses. We had a fantastic Korean meal and eventually made plans to meet up again this evening. Us guys even decided that we'll look for tickets to the Ultimate Fighting Championship fight coming up soon. That is if we can even buy tickets.

Happy Labor Day!

I hope everyone is enjoying a great day off. I'm just resting up now that I'm back from Dallas.


Please click on slideshow for downloads and a larger version.
I flew up to Salt Lake City last week to help my sister, Lynn, move down to Dallas. I had a chance to spend two short days hanging out with Chase and Cole. They're very well. I got to see Chase's football practice and Cole's Cub Scout meeting. I was a pretty proud Uncle.

Last Thursday at 9:15 AM, Lynn and I took off with a 6'x12' U-Haul trailer on the back of Lynn's new Volvo XC90. Thankfully, driving forward and turning with the trailer is pretty easy. Reverse is another story. Lynn and I took turns driving 3-hour shifts covering a little over 1400 miles to get to Dallas. We drove through Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma before we arrived at Lynn's apartment two and a half days later.

Dallas wasn't anything like I expected. It was far more residential than I would have figured. There are some very nice areas to drive through only a few minutes outside the concrete high rises.

Best wishes to Lynn in her new beginning down in Dallas! Take care Lynn!

Here in Vegas

the flight... immigration... driving around vegas...

Goodbye Kanazawa... Japan

Only a few hours left on the countdown timer.

We've packed, shipped our stuff, and cleaned. We've said "goodbye" to many wonderful friends. But it's difficult to say "thank you" for all the good times, and for all the support in a way that really covers everything.

We'll soon be looking for a new home and a new life.

Back to you on the flipside.

Home strech

A few days ago the guys came to grab our furniture. Then the moving company came yesterday to grab our clothes and other personal effects. Today, we're waiting to meet the real estate folks to close up the apartment.

When we finish with that, we're doing small errands and finishing up business with school.

The exchange rate has been dropping, but that was after we had sent the bulk of our funds home - oh well.

We're left with saying goodbye to a lot of good folks here.

Casey asked about the future of this blog, and my first reaction was to just keep it going. I think I'll keep with that. It's just that my definition of "home" is going to radically change pretty soon.

Yukon HQ Sport Kite

Went out to CCZ again with Casey today to try out his Yukon. We were getting what felt like consistent winds, but it wasn't enough to fly the Yukon for longer than about 15 minutes or so.

I was impressed with the kite for a number of reasons:

1. it looks solid - carbon fiber/fiberglass construction
2. it flew well - very responsive lines
   
3. it packed up nicely - came with a nice carrying case
   

Testing Casey's Kite at CCZ

Casey, his friend Sean and I went to the beach yesterday. We took a quick trip to Kanazawa's CCZ to try out Casey's new kite, but unfortunately we didn't have much wind. We ended up body surfing and throwing the frisbee around instead which was fine by us.

Kickin' it at Kenmin Pool

Yuko-san gave us directions to a great community pool not far from us. It's right on the ocean, although you can't actually see it from the poolside. Even though it was pretty busy, we had all the room we could need at the "adult" pool - an Olympic size pool right in front of us. Next time we'll have to try waiting in line for the water slides.

KIT's Electric Car to Race at Suzuka tomorrow

I am very proud of this project because one of my students, Tomonori, is responsible for the electric motors on the car. He built all of them! Let's wish them luck tomorrow.
Click on the pictures to view a larger slideshow.

Yamato (Black Cat) Movers

Mr. Yamada from Yamato Shipping came by this morning with Omi-san of KIT. We had an appointment to get an estimate from Yamato for all the stuff we want to take back with us. The pile of stuff measures about 1.6 x 1.5 x 1 square meters.

It's mostly clothes, books, electronics with a few larger things like my snowboard and a rack we've been using to cart around my projector.

We've been trying to whittle down all the stuff we're bringing home for obvious reasons. Having finished my contract, I can ship home ¥300,000 worth of stuff to America. Unfortunately, even though Hyunjoo is working under the same contract, we won't get an additional ¥300,000 since she's technically breaking her contract.

We made arrangements to have the stuff sent to Hyunjoo's sister's house in Las Vegas. Sending the stuff to the West coast is cheaper than the East coast so we should be able to bring more with us for the same amount of money.

I figured we'd be a little over the shipping allowance, but as it turns out, we're way under. Omi-san said it was the least amount of stuff she's seen in about the past 10 years! Hyunjoo and I were so relieved to hear that.

Back from Korea

We just returned from a quick - five day - trip to Seoul. It was really nice to see Hyunjoo's parents, and her younger sister again. Nayoung is headed to Las Vegas to study for a year beginning this fall. She seemed really excited to be going. She is also excited to spend time with her nephew, Ryan, who's already in Las Vegas.

Unfortunately I was possessed by a stomach demon who had its way with my digestive system for a couple of days. I was outta the picture for a while recovering. I'm basically back to normal, but it was a pretty nasty part of the trip.

Tsurugi Insect Museum

This place is always a great time.
Click on the sliding banner for a larger slideshow.

Kickin' it in Kanazawa

Here are some pix from Lee and Elise's stay in Kanazawa.
Click on the scrolling banner to see a larger version of the slideshow. I highly recommend it!

Hanging around Mt. Fuji after the hike

We spend a few days at an awesome hostel in after we hiked Mt. Fuji. It was a great time to relax, if even for a couple of days.
Click on the sliding banner to view a larger version of the slideshow.

Finished Fuji

Click on the pictures to view a larger version of the slideshow.

We just woke up from our post-hike nap. Yikes it's midnight and we haven't even eaten yet.

So, we went up together and we returned together and had a great experience. It was a fantastic trip and well worth the effort.

We hiked the mountain within a 24 hour period from the "regular" Kawaguchiko 5th station trail-head and back. It was mostly cloudy and misty and we barely managed to miss the most recent "Number 4" typhoon.

It was a blast. I'll update the entry later with better details.

Takin Tokyo by storm

Today is my brother's (and mother) birthday... Happy Birthday!

Lee and Elise landed in Tokyo without a hitch a couple of days ago and we've been having a great time kicking around.

Click on the sliding banner for a larger slideshow.

This morning we went to the Tsukiji Fish Market for a killer breakfast. We've never had such a fanastic morning meal (besides all the home cooked ones from mom).

We'll be heading out for a special dinner for Lee in a little while.

Tomorrow, we head off for Mt. Fuji. Keep your fingers crossed fo us. A typhoon just swept through here and the weather is still a bit cloudy. We're hoping the rains stay clear for our summit attempt.

The plan is that we'll hike tomorrow to the 8th station and then sleep for a few hours before hitting the summit early on the 18th of July.

Wish us luck!

Vader calls Palpatine

Another good video recommendation from Martin...

Hangin' with Martin

I had a chance to hang out with my old friend Martin from High School. We checked out the new Midtown complex near Roppongi.

Vermont Sledding

It's a little out of season, but a little something for those with the endless winter at heart. Brought to you from my friend Phil.

Immigration Interview

We just finished at the American Embassy.

Hyunjoo's immigration interview is finished at last and all's well so far. If things continue to go well, we'll have her passport back when we return to Kanazawa on the 20th. There should be a shiny new visa for her in the passport and we'll be that much closer to getting her permanent residency status.

I'm not exactly sure what steps we'll have to go through once we arrive in the states. More bureau-crazy I'm sure. The guy at the Embassy wasn't even sure. He slid outta that one gracefully with a "well, that a different government agency..."

We started this process back in November and over $2000 later, we're finally wrapping things up. It makes me appreciate that the Immigration Bill didn't get passed a few weeks ago. We're going through all of these steps and everyone else should have to as well.

Too bad

I was talking with an old friend last week who lives in Kyoto. He's been there for about 10 years. Some might call him an expat, though he might take offense to the label as a few others have. I'm not exactly sure why. I'm pretty neutral on the term myself. That's another story however.

We were comparing life here in Japan with back home in America and he said that he was happy enough to live here because things like the troubling side of the Immigration Bill and the lack of the American Government's effectiveness in Iraq and at home just made the idea of living in America unpleasant by comparison.

I had to bite my lip, because I would probably just say something that would just damage our pleasant, but "convenient" friendship. I think part of getting older means developing a pretty "rough lip" - at least in my case.

I don't want to step on toes here. Everyone has very different experiences and reasons for living abroad, whether temporarily or indefinitely. Nor do I mean to reduce someone's reasons for living abroad, because these situations are usually based on very complicated decisions.

I suppose I felt like he gave a poor reason to live here in Japan, but perhaps no better than the one I had for coming here in the first place. I also know that I felt defensive to his remarks as he knows that I'm headed back to America. I'm looking for an opportunity, he's only commenting on the negative media-driven image of America that's fueled by daily internet bytes and an annual two-week trip back home to oblige his family.

I realize that it's part of the "survival package" of living as an expat. And perhaps I even wore that mask myself before my decision to return to America. And perhaps that's a part of exactly why I'm returning to America now with Hyunjoo.

Goodbye

The KIT and KTC staff threw Yasuko, Hyunjoo, and I a farewell party since we'll all be leaving before the next term begins. It was a really cool gathering since both entire-staffs rarely get together.
Click on the pictures to see a larger version of the slideshow.

Live manta birth in Okinawa

My third YouTube contribution! It took me awhile to find this one...

The check list...

This is just a rough list of what we gotta remember to take care of on our way outta here.

• selling the car
• reservations for Mt. Fuji
• arrangements for Alicia's visit
• reservations for Lee folks once they leave Kanazawa
• sell / throw out everything we're not packing up
• buy tickets to Seoul
• job hunt!
• Las Vegas vs. Salt Lake City
• garbage runs
• sign out of the apartment
• wire money to America
• shut off utilities
• hike Hakusan
• clean the apartment
• luggage service to the airport
• fly outta here
  

Phone home... not!

Oh no! We've been trying to call America this morning and we're getting some kind of error message in Japanese and English from YahooBB (maybe) saying that we don't have (our) number registered to make these kinds of calls. I don't get it. They get paid from my bank account automatically every month. Wassup? Thankfully we're still able to make local calls through our landline and access the internet, but we're gonna have to get this fixed tomorrow.

Funny Bunnies

If you're looking for some giggles and would like to see some movies, very fast! Then, check out these bunnies!

Warning: Cultural Rant

The more you try to ignore something that bothers you...
It's widely known that it's perfectly polite to loudly slurp your noodles here in Japan. Yakisoba is a favorite, perhaps as common as a peanut butter sandwich in America (at least when I was growing up). They're noodles that are gently fried in a heavy sauce that is perhaps based on soy sauce. It's a strong smell and is often accentuated with pickled ginger, and other garnishes. Now, I love yakisoba when I'm in the mood for it.

Part two of this story is that about 16 teachers share an office about 30 feet by 40 feet. So there's a teacher ever 7.5 x 10 feet in this room. We live with all kinds of intrusions into personal space. It's one of the most difficult daily challenges we have to learn to live with here.

Today, I wanna scream. The slurping and heavy lingering odor of those noodles is about to make me walk over and throw those noodles out the window. I wonder what that Japanese teacher would do?

Thankfully, in the time it took for me to red-line and then script out this poorly written narrative, the offender has finished his noodles that prove to be the "gift-that-keeps-on-givin'". In another hour or so, the smell should dissipate.

Triumph and the Weather

Martin sent me this one. Watch out Hawaii!


Triumph Weather Dog - video powered by Metacafe

Governmentium

Researchers recently announced discovery of the heaviest chemical element now known to science. It was named Governmentium. It has 1 neutron, 12 assistant neutrons, 75 deputy neutrons, and 224 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312. The 312 particles are held together by forces of morons, which are surrounded by vast numbers of weak particles called peons.

Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert. However, it can be detected as it impedes every reaction which it contacts. A minute amount of Governmentium delayed one reaction for 4 days when it would normally take 3 milliseconds.

Governmentium has a half-life of three years, but it does not decay. Instead, it undergoes a reorganization in which a percentage of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places. In fact, Governmentium' s mass actually increases over time, since each reorganization also causes some morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes.

The characteristic of moron-promotion leads scientists to speculate that Governmentium is formed whenever masses of morons concentrate around water-coolers. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as Critical Morass.

sorry, source unknown

Man rides kite into the air

I believe this one is in the Guiness Book of World Records.

Niigata Dolphin Show

A-Bike

Looks like a great idea for keeping in the car or for around town. They're priced at around $300. I just wonder how long the tires last. There's even a folding helmet to go along!

Guy who can catch sunglasses with his face

This is one of the funniest / coolest videos I've seen this month!

Scouting trip up Hakusan

(click on slide show for additional viewing options and to download the pictures)
On my quest to hike the three sacred peaks of Japan, I made a scouting trip to number two on my list yesterday, Hakusan. I hiked Tateyama with Adam and Katya last year on a spectacular day and hope to duplicate that experience with Hakusan.

I drove out by myself to the furthest point possible, 市ノ瀬 Ichinose parking lot. I had to hike up the road to the 別当出合 Bettoudeai trailhead which took me about 75 minutes, maybe three miles. Along the way I spotted folks coming down from the mountain. Some were day hiking like myself, others were camping and some had passed me on mountain bikes with skiing gear on their backs!

The trail was pretty steep, but could be hiked with my old day-hiking shoes. I'm not so confident about a full push for the summit, but I'll make do with taping my ankles and using a hiking staff. I have a feeling that I'll also need to support my knees as well. I made it up to the 中飯場 Nakahanba waypoint about 4.5km from the summit before the snow was too thick to hike on with my gear. I hit my return-time anyhow so I headed back down, but not before the enjoying the scenery. It was fantastic and I was even blessed with a wonderful view of two amazing waterfalls not far from one of the ridges. I can't wait to return!

Uchinada Kite Festival

(click on slide show for additional viewing options and to download the pictures)
Hyunjoo, Katya, Sheryl and I took off for Uchinada around 10:30 to check out the annual kite festival along the beach near Kanazawa. We were immediately impressed with over 10 massive octopus "kites" flying low over the beach. They were brought by a team that flew out from Berkeley, California. Unfortunately only a few traditional large Japanese kites were flying. And my favorites, the bug kites, were rarely seen that day as well. After getting pumped watching the team sport kite competition, we decided to try it out for ourselves. There were instructors that let you fly a sport kite for yourself. It was a rather difficult design to fly since it wobbled a high speeds and it gave a wicked pull in those winds. We soon switched to my own sport kite and continued having fun taking turns flying it until the winds died down at three. You can find Katya's video from this link.

Shirone Kite Museum

Hyunjoo and I just returned from a short trip to Niigata city. On our way up, we stopped by a fantastic kite museum. They even have facilities for children to make their own kites and test them in an indoor wind tunnel! The vast majority of kites were hand made, even the gargantuan kites in the atrium.

Hotel Riddle

Three guys went to a hotel manager for a room. The manager said a room would be $30. They all paid $10. The bellman took their luggage up to their room, but when he came back down the manager told him that he charged $5 extra for the room and to bring the $5 back. The bellman was mad though because the guys didn't tip him so he took $2 and gave the men $3 back. So each man ended up paying $9 for the room. 3 people x $9 = $27 but $27+$2 = $29
Where did the extra dollar go?
Answer

School Dinners

Here are some pix from the last couple of school functions we've had.

Holy Crap!

This is a good one from Google. I took screen captures in case they take down their April Fool's Website.