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.

Misatos Birthday Enoshima, Yokohama, China Town and Kamakura

Went down to Yokohama for Misatos Birthday, there is a famous china town there, and Kamakura the home to the largest buddha, and Enoshima a popular beach town are near by. First we headed to Enoshima and had some local tiny fish on rice and Enoshima beer.

Below is a Enoshima original Takosenbei (octopus cracker), little octopus battered and then stuffed into a press to make a cracker, literally a flattened octopus cracker and you can hear it squealing as it dies, but pretty tasty.

Next we went to Kamakura to see the Big Buddha, I think this is one of the bigger ones in Japan, maybe the biggest sitting one?

We also happened to go by an old chateau type place that once belonged to some kind of weathly Japanese dude, but it had a beautiful rose garden so that was our main purpose since Misato loves roses and it was her birthday and all.

Below is local transportation carrying the surfboards on the sides of bikes. I dont think people in the US appreciate how convenient bikes are over cars sometimes and the multifunction that actually have opportunity for. Misato and I actually rented bikes for this day trip around Kamakura, great way to see the town and get exercise and not be trapped in a car stuck in traffic.

Next we went Hokokuji shrine that has a tea house and a really beautiful huge bamboo garden.

THe next morning we ate some breakfast buns filled with meat at the Yokohama China town.

Throughout Yokohama there were a bunch of other rose gardens so we mostly did that throughout the day and for some reason sketching seems to be a very popular hobby for elderly people here, we saw them everywhere. We then stumbled upon the cup noodle museum, which seems like a great place for kids. Kids running everywhere, and you can create your own unique cup noodle flavor and added ingredients, or you can even go through the whole manufacturing process and make the raw noodles. We just took the self guided tour. Kids are free, adults are cheap enough that we figured the price was worth it for a 30 min quick visit.

Then we were back to China Town. This is the main gate.

Misato did a some research before and found this restaurant with delicious chinese style yakisoba, and they had tsingtao beer, definitely easy to drink a couple of those after touristing all day.

Moto Day Trip

Took a little motorcycle ride this weekend up to a spot my friend Hiroi san had pointed out previously. Nice ride through a windy road in Tochigi starting around Nikko and then up through routes 169 to 245 up around 249 to Yunishigawa.

I took the same picture above in the winter in front of Yunishigawa.
Here it is for a compairson.

Moto Trip to the Flower Park

Updating a few older posts:
My coworker and new friend Hiroi san and I took a moto ride around Tochigi and ended up in Ashikaga not too far from Utsunomiya.

There is a huge flower park there. When Hiroi san first told me about it I thought it was just a park with flowers, but this thing is the real deal.

This season happens to be the Fuji flowers, basically a tree but all the hanging flowers come from one tree as you can see in one of the photos below.

We also saw a nice little shrine along the way.

.

Hiroshima (広島）

Headed down to Hiroshima for golden week. Only an hour flight from Tokyo, but then another hour by bus to the downtown train station. Saw my first real life 787 although not what we flew.

Of course we had Okonomiyaki (お好み焼き）since this is the famous food of Hiroshima, which in this case usually contains noodles, but its really more like yakisoba in Utsunomiya.


Hiroshima has the tragic history of the first A-bomb, but has now been restored to a very beautiful city. Here was our first view of the A-bomb dome and the memorial park, had to walk around to work off all the Okonomiyaki.

The next day we rode bicycles from Onomichi (尾道）to a few islands that are adjoined by bridges. If anyone comes across this blog for fun or looking for the bicycle tour, use the ferry to cross over the start of the recommended bike route, the first bridge is a little bit dangerous and I dont think it is meant to be used by bicycles.

Bicycles can be rented from the parking structure next to the green hotel across from the train station, there are a variety of bikes, mountain bikes, the little ones you see in the picture and momma cherry's. We ended up biking about 30 kilometers on these little bikes. There are a lot of nice scenic places to stop and this gelato shop.

Which was delicious. The course is a little more than 70km one way but there are a few places were boats will take passengers and bicycles back to Onomichi station.

After all the bicycle riding we needed more Okonomiyaki, this time topped with Oysters, another specialty of Hiroshima.

The next day we spent most of the morning in the memorial mesuem,

but then headed to Miyajima (宮島). Unfortunately the main gate is under construction, as you can see in the first picture above, but the shrine and the island itself is very beautiful place, we'll just have to make another trip to see the gate without scaffolding.

Hanami Party 2012

Misato and I rode our bicycles out to this road that has 600 cherry blossom trees lining the road near the Honda Engineering facilities. It was really nice seeing all the trees, and there is a park with food vendors of course. I prefer the Hachimanyama park in Utsunomiya though, more food vendors, and more peaceful with no traffic.

The next weekend I took a nice motorcycle ride to Mt. Tsukuba, if anyone lives nearby or happens to read this that is looking for motorcycle routes I highly recommend this. Beautiful windy road and as I was riding through the cherry blossoms were still out and falling pedals surrounding me when I was cruising through. Really nice peaceful ride. There are a lot of other people other doing the same thing, with motorcycles or rally cars cruising through the curves.

This photo doesnt really do the ride justice.