Shots #51 - 31 with gun!

Three Valliant Knights storm a Red Castle

When I came to Japan there was an ALT here who essentially showed me everything and helped me sort out my life, car and well, just about everything here. 3 years later and he is on his way back to his homeland. We went for one last cruise. Sadly for him he had already sold his beast and was in his wife’s rinkydink. no matter we had a good drive on Mt. Akagi.

The two of us in arrived at the predetermined spot and waited… and talked about cars… and waited. Then we rolled up the Touge to find a windswept frozen wasteland. Still very much in the grip of winter despite spring having arrived elsewhere.

We headed to the shrine on the lake to kill some time and we discovered that the little rinkydink had beaten us to the top. How about that.

We then went up to a parking lot I know to do a couple of runs before heading down a very narrow and winding touge that comes out at the Akagi Onsen… Yes. There is an Akagi Onsen.  I was surprised to discover this too!

For some reason, I have the urge to visit the hotel there sometime. I should look into it.

Back down the hill and along another rather fun road before heading down into Ogo for a beef bowl. Where we sat and talked shit for a good hour before having to part with the Evo. He had to go in another direction.

We then headed back to Shibs to watch a movie and were only slightly distracted by the amazing sunset… By slightly distracted I mean I was struggling to keep the car in my lane while shooting out of my sunroof.

Total Distance driven:

about 82km

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Recruitment Posters (slideshow)

Every year the clubs at school need to recruit new members from the new 1st years. These are the best ones:

Walking Home

Spring is the perfect time of the year for walks. you don’t freeze or sweat you balls off. The Sakura are out (for a short time at least). You have winter blue skies and summer long sunsets. Basically. Its a great way to wind down after long day at work (Ok so I just have fun all day… but they pay me to do it so I don’t complain)

If I time my walk well, I get the sunset to last most almost my entire walk home from the school field, right till I reach my road. As the walk progresses, the sunset gets quite a bit more spectacular.

In winter every little thing becomes a massive obstacle that you need to gaijin smash through. The little curiosities of the Japanese way of life becomes backward stubborn stupidity and the system that keeps the country running looks like an oppressive brainwashing factory that dumbs the masses into obedient bleeting sheep.

While in truth All those things don’t actually change. It does not matter as much when the weather is fine and the skies are aflame. Spring is a new beginning. A chance to repair your frayed nerves and warm your frozen bones.

And there is just somethng about sunsets in General that are just so powerful. Yes, You will say that this has nothing on back home. It is true. African sunsets are mindblowing. But any sunset. Is such an awe inspiring thing. Regardless of where we see it.

Think about it. We are on  a rock hurtling through space at breakneck speeds around a nuclear chain reaction. All the things that have happened on an atomic scale for billions of years to give us the chance to just enjoy the view.

Yet how many of these magnificent sunsets do we actually see? How often do we ignore these little yet spectacular events because our lives demand it. People forget to take in the fact that our lives mean nothing if we don’t truly live them.

We are told that fun is something to be done after work. Slaving away so the fatcats can have our pay. They don’t own the skies. and they can’t tax our eyes. The next time the skies go red. LOOK UP!

Mirror Mirror ~5 hit combo~

Initial D Tourism

A friend of mine from SA (Currently living in Tokyo) came to Gunma for the first time. I took him to school and let the Kids grill him for a day. They were well pleased with the distraction.

Shots #50 Tower of Power

Hanami Part 2… More pretty flowers

on the way back home from Shikishima Park last week, I decided to take the long way home in an effort to avoid traffic. We came into Shibs on the 34. At the Hydro electric plant on the dge of the city, The flowers were in bloom too. We stopped for a bit.

Hanami Part 1… Looking at the pretty flowers

In Japan, The end of winter is heralded in with a spectacular  transformation. The brown, barren branches erupt into a flurry of pink as the temperatures start to rise. Spring is upon us!

Last week, we went to Shikishima Park to take a look at them.

Many Colourful Dots

There have been over 1100 earthquakes since the 東北地方太平洋沖地震 (North Eastern Japan and Pacific Ocean Big earthquake) at the point of writing this. (It may be up to 1106 or 7 by now) or more. Here are all the ones that were over 6.0 (44 in total).

Portraits #04

Portraits #03

Over the hills and far away…

Long drive 2 of this year. It was mind-blowingly good. Intense and Hectic, But good. We started up Mt.Haruna and were greeted by the perfect driving weather, clear blue skies and warm sun (while the windows were closed anyway) and perfect visibility. We stopped off at the primary lookout point on the main touge and were stupefied at Just how far we could see. I have never been up there during the day when it was that clear… And I have been up there many many times.

Shots #49 CRRRRRRRUNCH!

More info coming soon