Sakura - Nikko Pics

It was a weekend full of cherry blossoms, eating, nature, Nikko, and eating some more. Here is a peak into my weekend -



The cherry blossoms are in full bloom now.




Even Don-don is getting into the sakura action.




This is just one of thousands of Sakura filled streets in the area. Actually the sakura on this street is not as abundant as others.




This is one of the first times I ever saw and ice cream truck in Japan. As my co-worker would say "It takes a real man to wear pink"




Time to relax and just chill to a nice cup of ice chocolate, tea, and strawberry parfait. Yummy!


NIKKO -

Took a day trip to Nikko. Nikko has tons of Cherry Blossoms, unfortunately, when we got there, it was cold, even winter like and no Cherry Blossoms could be found. Regardless, it was beautiful place and had lots of historical sites.



For the day being wet and cold, there were tons of people there. I bet they were looking for sakura as well.




This brought me memories of when I was in Kyoto back in 2004.




Nice and serene. I spotted a huge blue koi fish. Unfortunately, it was not active, so I could not distinguish whether it was sleeping or dead. Hopefully it was not the latter.




LOL. I just realized, I was taking a picture of the temple entrance, but it looks like I was taking a picture of that group.

I'm dead tired now and the weather is miserable. Its rainy and does not feel like spring anymore. Its going to be a fun walk to the office. =P I hope the cherry blossoms will last through this weekend so my great aunt and uncle will be able to experience it for their trip to Japan.

Pre sakura

Sunday was a great day to go to the park and check out to see if the Cherry Blossoms (桜） were out. Their expected peak is either this coming weekend or the weekend after that. needless to say, I didn't see too many Cherry Blossoms but I did see tons of people at Inokashira Park near Kichijouji.



Click on the above picture for a summary of the park.






Inokashira park also has a lake with paddle boats which gave me a reminiscent feeling of Washington D.C.'s Potomac river scene, especially during this time of year.



I've seen tons of advertisements for the many upcoming Cherry Blossom festivals (桜まつり）in my area. I really can't wait to experience having a picnic under the Cherry Blossom trees and enjoying beautiful sights and sounds that usually come with the festivals. I love Spring time in Japan.

School'd

As predicted, I got completed schooled by the kids at the gym yesterday. I have no idea if they got faster or I got way slower, but this one kid seemed like he was going on fast forward the whole time. I mean, its one thing to go fast forward for a few plays, but he did it the whole game. This was not the first time I seen him play, back in the day, when I was in decent shape, I played him and he was not that fast to me. I wonder if he is taking 'roids or something. Another kid who I played 1 on 1 completed dominated me. I beat him before, but this time, he was breaking my ankles and was able to do anything on me. We played up to 11, where every basket is 1 point, and he beat me while I only scored 4 on him. Yeah, I did my bike ride of shame on the way home. Anyways, I'm really sore right now. I can barely move my body. I got to get in better shape. I know I say this all the time especially during this time of year, but seeing how I played yesterday.. it was really pathetic. Also I cannot wait to start playing soccer again. Hopefully our team can get ready to enter the next tournament sometime in April.

So much for hoping for the upset...

Oh well, GMU choked big time against Notre Dame. The game was not even close and the Patriots kept missing lay ups while the fighting Irish were raining 3's. On a positive note, there is still a local team left in the tourney, so I'll be pulling for G'town the rest of the way. All this basketball talk is motivating me to ball today. Due to work, traveling, and inclement weather reasons the last time I played was in January. Today, I don't have any work and its a sunny day outside. I know I will be rusty and expect the kids to break my ankles for this session, but it will just be a matter of time until I can put them 14 year olds back in their place..... umm.. yeah...

March Madness

The brackets have just been released. One of the best times of the year, March Madness/NCAA tourney has begun. Its times like this where I wish I was still in the U.S. to watch all the games real time and in HD quality picture. I'm going to be pulling for #12 GMU to pull an upset on #5 Notre Dame. If this year's tourney is anything like what has happened between the Indiana/Minnesota game below.. its going to be KRAZZZZYY!

Weakening dollar

Wow.. I couldn't believe that the dollar dipped below 100 JPY, to ~99 JPY for the first time since 1995. 1995!!! That was the year when my high school was going for their back to back football championship run and I was discovering baggy jeans. Actually ever since I kept track of Japan, I've never seen it dip below 105 JPY per USD. So this is history for me.

Anyways, living in the biggest city in Japan, I've ran into a few film crews filming anything from commercials, variety programs, and Japanese dramas. I haven't seen anyone famous that I know of yet, but I think its pretty interesting. I never over-react when I see a film crew working but I must admit that sometimes I intentionally walk into the camera's view so I can be caught in their take. I know... kind of weak but.. hey, it would be cool to see myself on TV one day. Here is a recent run in with a film crew on my way home from work -

M and C's Tokyo adventure

It was a crazy weekend. M and C came to Tokyo and I got the opportunity to hang out with them for most of the weekend. There was a LOT of walking around, eating tons of food, occasional dancing and jumping, and of course karaoke.

Here a couple of pictures and a video of the weekend -



We went to the Yoyogi park side of Harajuku on Sunday afternoon. I actually have not been here in years, however my vision of the place back then did not change. I knew the rock and roll guys would not disappoint me and from the picture above, them old guys can move!




As I mentioned earlier, we did a lot of eating. Here is a picture of a banana maple waffle set at Bape Cafe?!. We all wanted to go to Bape cafe to see the interior decorating and because it was pet friendly and Dondon was with us, but we honestly didn't expect the food to be pretty good.




We went to Ninja Akasaka on Friday night. This is a themed restaurant which I had always wanted to go to but hesitated from the mixed reviews. Since this was M and C's first trip to Japan, we decided to take the jump and go to the restaurant. I was very surprised on how good it was. The decor was awesome and magic tricks they perform throughout the dinner were surprisingly good. This video clip is us having a ninja surprise when we were leaving the restaurant. My friend who has been there told us to pay attention to them when we were leaving, which is why the girl tried to hide from us and wouldn't come out until we started walking away. It was really hilarious and I still laugh about it when I watch this clip.

I'll post more pictures and possible video clips later as I get more of them from M and C. I really need to buy my own camera!

It's been a while

Its been a few weeks since I last updated. Up until now, I've spent my time laughing at old times, found out that things have not really changed, and tried to figure out how to make the ones I care about happy again. After re-living my flashbacks, its time to focus back on my reality. Some good news is that my director has picked me up for another project indefinitely once my original contract ends this summer. This will guarantee some cash flow at least for another year. On a final note to this post, a couple of my good friends from VA are coming to Tokyo this week, so I'll be looking forward to having a good time with them here.