Hong Kong

For Obon I went to Hong Kong, although its part of China you dont need a visa to go there or neighboring Macau. Using my hotel points we got to stay in this super fancy hotel on the top floor with executive breakfast every morning. At the breakfast the people working at the hotel were very helpful with our plans for the day and told us about a bus route that was much faster than a cable car up to this giant Buddha.

Near the big Buddha was the trek of inspiration, which were these huge posts in the shape of the infinity sign, with some kind of inspirational quotes or words to live by (I think, it was all chinese so I couldnt read it).

I was kind of surprised how outdoorsy Hong Kong was, I had an image in my mind that it would be one huge city like New York, and although it was big and there were a lot of people it is surrounded by hills/mountains so it seems like there is some hiking to do, here is a trailhead with and awesome bird/rooster sculpture.

View of the ropeway on the way down.

The next day we went to check out the walk of stars, which is kinda like a hollywood for Hong Kong, unless you are interested in actors from Hong Kong I wouldnt really suggest it. There was one statue I recognized.

After the walk of stars we went to sneaker town where there are probably 100 or more sneaker stores all of which are basically the same, but it was the busy type of city i was expecting for Hong Kong.

In sneaker town we stopped to eat and there was this add for a drink.

This is literally how they serve a lot of drinks in Hong Kong, with half a lemon. Food was generally pretty cheap and delicions in Hong Kong. We tried Peking Duck on time, which I thought was supposed to be a delicious delicacy, but it definitely wasnt as good as some other duck I have had in the past.

There is a famous look out point, but there was a typhoon coming so we were worried we wouldnt be able to go up, but we did, and it was really windy, but still a good view.

The final day we went to Macau, which is supposedly like the Las Vegas of China, but there are also a lot of historical sites, so we went to one shrine and an old portuguese fort.

This picture kinda sums up Macau, old china, with some portuguese influence and this huge golden casino which you could see from everywhere.

While in Macau stopped off at this food stand for lunch and tried some Macau style gyoza.

Camping in Tochigi

Took the tent out for the first time to "practice" camping. On the way we stopped by the river side to eat some bbq fish. It was incredibly hot, and sitting by the BBQ was not the best idea but it was fun, delicious, and a nice view from the open restaurant of the river.

Usually the river is set up to where there is a platform and a sort of funnel to direct the fish up the platform, called yana in Japanese. You can basically then catch the fish by hand and cook them up yourself, but for whatever reason it wasnt set up. This is just a picture from the internet on what it was supposed to look like.

Campsite was pretty organized with concrete slabs for pitching the tent, 10 total but no one else was crazy enough to camp in the heat.

After getting the tent set up we hung out at the picnic tables and had a little snack to cool down. The campsite was equiped with the covered picnic table area with electrcity:

Then it started to poor rain and thunder and lightening. The tent held up fine with no leaks or issues. The power at the picnic tables actually went out due to the lightening at one point, but we were camping after all so it wasnt a big deal, and our nice neighbors lent us a gas lamp who were also using the picnic tables.
Here is Misato now with a river behind her from the rain.

During the thunderstorm we ate our dinner and drank beer/wine and our neighbors of about 10-15 guys with their 3 small daughters (same who lent us the lamp) who were having a big party gave us some of their bbq although i dont think we needed it after the huge burgers we ate.

Even though our neighbors seemed like they were going to be a loud group of drunk guys they turned out to be really kind and turned in about the same time we did so they didnt keep us up. I think they stayed in some of the bungalows near by like these.

There was also a bbq area next to the picnic tables for cooking, although we used a pan and a gas grill Misato had brought,

and sinks with plumbing, rags, sponges and dish soap. This all seemed to work well as the campsite was clean in the morning. You can also rent many things at the front office like a spatula, dishes, pan etc... they also gave us trash bags 1 for recyclables and 1 for all other garbage.

This particular campsite also had a stage just in case you want to have an event there.

There was also an onsen nearby so we were able to clean ourselves up before we slept. We were definitely roughing it!

Kanazawa Birthday weekend

Misato took me to Kanazawa for my 30th birthday to do some sake touring/tasting. We took the shinkansen from omiya to Echigoyuzawa, and then an express train to kanezawa, but the express train was a bit rocky and we both felt a little sea sick. First day we went to a distillery called Yachiya run by a cute grandpa guy. This is the owner talking about the pressing process in front of the big pressing machine. Of course it was all in Japanese and I could catch some parts, but not everything. I did catch that women arent allowed in this one room, where the rice is germinating with the koji in fermentation process, supposedly because of the chemicals in make up, but im pretty sure it just something reminiscent of male domination.

At the end of the tour we had a vast selection of free samples.

After all the sake touring/tasting/buying we took the bus back to the station which has a huge Tori (gate usually for shrines) in front.

Then we went out to the historic part of town where there is a lot of remade tea houses and a 1 or 2 originals still standing after 200 years or so.

There was also a gold leaf wall house in the middle of this historic area.

We then found our way to this park outside of the castle with many statues.

Finally we made it to the castle which is a rebuilt wall of the original castle, but the front is a huge beautiful park.

After the castle we went back to the hotel for a little relaxing time and to watch the sumo tournament currently going on in Nagoya. Then Misato had made reservations for a nice full sake menu dinner, Japanese style with many dishes and a HUGE desert plate.

The next day we went to another sake distillery where there was a DVD with english subtitles so I could understand more of the process. This distillery allowed women into the fermentation room, as long as they werent wearing make up, more equal rights here at Sakagura. Apparently there is no sake being made in the summer because it is really hot and the rice isnt fresh off the rice paddy. The prime sake making time in January to April. We were allowed to taste 3 types of summer sake and eat a few treats. 1 of the treats was Fugu eggs which are apparently poisonus(like fugu fish) unless you pickle them for 3 years. Pretty tasty for fish eggs that were pickled for 3 years.

After the sake tasting we went to a famous park Kenryokuen, a former samurai house with a nice Japanese garden (in the picture) and the part of town called shrine/temple city, where there we went to a shrine that was for everything. Some shrines are specific for example cancer or if you want a child. We got a little private tour for 500 yen each and got to walk around the garden at the end. The samurai house was just a normal house, where a samurai lived, I was expecting something fancy because he was a samurai.

On the way home I bought a kanazawa local beer and the most delicious Ice Cream, as you can see its super premium.

On the way home Misato noticed the shinkansen was turning 30 too!

Hiking Nantaisan

Misato and I are planning on climbing mount Fuji this summer so we thought we would practice by climbing the highest peak in Tochigi, which turned out to be a lot harder than we thought. It was really steep and took us about 8.5hrs total including a 40min break at the top for lunch.

The next day we were really sore but walked around lake Chuzenjiko a bit, saw the famous Kegon Falls, water falls.

Then we saw a demonstration of a katana sword by an actual katana swordsmith. This is the raw materials to finished product, the big block is the only part of the sword in the end. The rest is a handle to use while shaping the sword.

The process is about 12-15 times of putting the metal in the fire then hitting it with the hammer each which takes like 20min so we only watched a couple of the first few.

Ishigakijima Okinawa

Misato and I took a long weekend trip to Ishigakijima a small island near Taiwan, part of Okinawa. Friday we took an all day snorkeling trip. First they took us to an Island that was all beach, really small, just to practice snorkeling in a shallow place.

Misato and I got a close up shot with the "photographer", the company that took us had 2 people taking pictures with waterproof digital cameras.

At lunch we had a chance to win a free day by rock, scissors, paper and Misato won so we got a 2 for 1 deal.

Some really beautiful coral and fishes all around Ishigaki, seems like most of the small islands around are connect by coral, so everywhere we went there was good views.

The last night our hotel got double booked so we got to move to a nice resort for the same price. Misato at the resort by one of the flower arches.

This nice boardwalk had a nice view.

We hung out on the beach and drank some local beer.

Then we headed to a yearly concert that happened to be that same weekend, probably the reason our original hotel was booked and we got to move to the nice resort. At the concert we ate a lot from the food stands and drank a few beers, but there were not cameras allowed. It was an outdoor concert at a park overlooking the ocean which was really nice. Concert was basically the same as the outdoor concerts in the US, just hanging out on the grass with a few people drinking. One of the best things about Japan is that there is no "beer garden" like the US where you are encaged if you want to drink beer. You can just drink out in the park with everyone else and kids are allowed to run around free as well.
After we returned to the resort we had some drinks at the outdoor bar and watched a little performance before sunset. Beautiful views。Fuseki resort village is the name of the place.

Hiking and Moto

Took a nice hike in northern tochigi/fukushima to Tashirosan and the nearby marsh, generally with the hiking club we dont just summit one mountain so we did a couple peaks, that you can see labeled on the post, Tashirosan and Taishakusan, the post is at Taishakusan.

The main purpose was this field in the clearing.

The next weekend Hiroi san and I went on another motorcycle ride in Tochigi up route 15 from Kanuma towards Ashio then back through route 58, both towards the top are not that great riding I suggest only riding route 58.