Shots #22 百足

百足 or mukade is japanese for 100 legs of DOOM!!!!! or centipede.

I am freaked out by them but still like them… if they don’t get too close.

Shots #21 HOLY SHIT!

I may have said this many many times… but Its only because its true.

Shibukawa has some impressive skies.

Suma-Kobe-Hyogo (I can’t find an appropriate song title for this one)

 
Hung over after a rather epic night at Club Giraffe in Osaka. Takeyasu picked us up in his little yellow plate and took us for a ride. We first secured ourselves some accommodation for later that night. Deposited the luggage and went on little trip.

Through the highways and byways between the two cities, we made our way to the sea. Vast, wide and salty. One forgets Japan is a tiny ass little Island because when you live in landlocked Gunma.
  

It was long overdue.

There was this bizarre fishing pier jutting into the bay. which let us get a pretty nifty view of the surroundings… Yeah. What surroundings? but it was pretty damn awesome nonetheless.

We spotted Suma beach from the pier and we decided to head over there.

“Strand has bigger waves… but the local birdage made up for it”

Suma is a Japanese anomaly. The Sand (though a little coarse) is sand colour as opposed to the dodgy black volcanic sand that seems to be standard here. It is sealed off and enclosed by piers and break waters so you can’t go too far out and get yourself in real trouble. There were no real waves. not by South African standards anyway. Hell, even Strand has bigger waves than Suma, but the local birdage made up for it.

Capped it off with sundowners before heading back into Osaka that night for one last sleep in Kansai.
It was the perfect end to a perfect holiday in the most awesome place on earth.

I love Kansai and I cannot leave Japan till I have tried to live there for a little. It has given me a goal to push for… Now I just need to decide how much longer to ride the JET gravy train before I jump off.

EARTHQUAKE!!!!!!! training.

The Shibukawa FD came to Kanashima Primary school. They brought an Earthquake simulator. After the evacuation drill we got to experience what being in a REAL quake would feel like.

It was terrifying. I can only imagine how terrifying feeling that on a real scale.

WOW


-- Blogged in the field.

edit~ pic fixed
ps~ It was really scary.

Blue Goo

What do you doo
They take 200 from yoo
Hand you chopsticks with goo
The colour of bloo
Too sticky to choo
Too tasty to be troo
Can't be good for yoo
Could possibly colour your poo
At least it won't give you the floo
I think.

-- Blogged in the field.

 

*edit~ pic fixed!

Kanasho Undoukai

Wow. Really. Just wow. It's a pity I left the big cam at home today. It's one of if not the most beautiful views I have seen at Kanashima Primary School (and beautiful views are no rarity here). The weather is perfect. And the atmosphere at the sports day is electric!



-- Blogged in the field.

*edit ~ pic fixed!

Shots #20 Show and tell.

My students had to draw a pic or take a photo of an object they wanted to introduce… A few chose their best friends… This was the best picture of the bunch (it is scarily accurate). She also dragged her friend to the front of the class for the presentation. She got extra stamps for that one :D

S14 シルビア前期

Finally. Decent pics of my new ride. I am still amazed how clean it is compared to my Kouki. Whats even more amazing is I am actually liking the rounded lines of the Zenki. Its classic.  

So far I have only swapped out the Turbo Timer, Centre console fairing, Head unit, gear knob and steering wheel but the rest will come. Each new day makes it a little bit more my car :D

I love my students

They are the best part of the Job and the reason I look forward to each new day regardless of how tired I know I am going to be at the end of it. I work too hard as an ALT which is pretty impressive since it is an un believably easy job. It helps that I have great teachers who like to team teach, and who like me. And it helps that my Board of Education is pretty damn good about… well EVERYTHING. but yeah. The kids are the most important.

 

Yes I know you can’t see their faces.

Shots #19 Rad Motor

 

Some German engineering for a change. BMW’s new S1000 RR Motorrad. It looks like sex and according to peeps who know crotch rockets, it rides like sex too.

Osaka Koi no Uta

 
The Kansai trip continued…
After a short night in a capsule hotel In America-mura we kick-started our Osaka (s)troll day. We basically hoofed it around the famous parts of the town. Being the (forced by checkout) early birds, Jacqueline and I decided to take a stroll to see what we could see… it was a rather long trek that took us from the top of Shinsaibashi, Over Dotonbori, to the bottom on Namba… and then all the way back :p
We didn’t buy anything, we didn’t really do anything. Just looked at stuff. It was good.
Take and Keiko joined us after they had gotten up :p lazy buggers… We then did it all again! No shit we basically walked everywhere again. No shits… I walked more than I had in a long time that day.

This time however due to the fact that our capsule accommodation was un-available that night we had a bit of a goal. to find somewhere to sleep and stash our stuff before we went out to the club.
The trip took us through the side alleys and backstreets of Namba and the surrounding area up a hill with some of the most amazing and bizarre (and expensive) love hotels I have ever seen!

Without finding any accommodation to our satisfaction we had okonomiyaki for dinner again and chilled out before finding another cheap ass love hotel in the cheaper district down the hill from the other place. That night was spent at a club called Giraffe where I got to see how Osaka likes to party… and Jesus H Motorboating Christ does Osaka know how to party. Yeah its no Jozi debauchery but unlike Tokyo where peeps got to clubs to be seen, In Osaka they are actually there to have a good time! I can’t wait to dig up MY people down there. If the trendy group are any yardstick, those Osakans who party to actual music (as opposed to that stammering, stuttering down syndrome hip hop crap) will be batshit insane.

ONE MORE THING!!!! THEY HAVE TAKOYAKI RAMEN IN OSAKA!!!!!

Not that I actually care about octopus balls but I took the picture of the sign for those of you who do… really… ;)

My Silvia

No…

you are not reading wrong… I upgraded… Kinda

Its in better nick than mine was when I got it but its pretty much stock. Gonna swap everything into this one.

 

Its clean and quick and rolls around like a barge.

with a little work it is going to be more of a beast than the kouki. doesn’t look as mean though.

Big moon

One train transfer away from Kofu and hopefully a new car. I had 30 mins in a nice little town called Ootsuki. I want to come back here as some of the mountains of in the distance look rather spectacular.

-- Blogged in the field.

Location:２丁目,Ōtsuki City,Japan

Lazy summer

Popped by Auto Flow on the way home today. as you can see they were hard at work living up to their slogan. "number 1 cruising shop."

I love these Guys.

-- Blogged in the field.

Location:Shibukawa City,Japan