2007 Motegi MotoGP Race Day

Today was a rainy miserable day for the race. While the rain did stop about a 1/2 hour before the race, the track was wet and the damage was done. Our favorite riders starting together on the front row were only able to generate 1 top ten finish with Hayden getting 9th. Pedrosa crashed out right in front of us with a nasty highside and Rossi had issues with the tires on his 2nd bike forcing him from first place to 13th. Tony Elias did manage to put one Honda on the podium with a 3rd so all was not lost. Caparossi took 1st and Depuniet was 2nd, sure glad LCR Honda signed RDP for next year, Ive always said he was going to be a great one ;). With 2 races remaining the championship is over with Australian Casey Stoner winning the 2007 championship. Even with the crappy weather the Japanese fans turned out in droves and it was a pretty lively crowd cheering on several Japanese riders put on as wild card riders. We do hope the weather is a little nicer to us next year.

2007 Motegi MotoGP Saturday Qualifying

Heather and I are just back from yet another great day at the track. Qualifying brought a great front row for tomorrow, Pedrosa, Rossi, and Hayden. Couldn't have asked for better. Stoner struggled some and even my next years Honda hero Depuniet will start in front of him. I hope he doesnt plan to torpedo Nicky and Danny in the first turn again this week. Weather was even hotter today, but look out things change, and it will be cooler tomorrow with that lingering chance of rain. Not so many of my crappy bike action pictures today, putting up a few of the crowd and and other doings from the day. We were down front for Nicky and Danny's press conference, where I was able to afterwords get Nicky's attention and advise him to get the hole shot and don't look back after that, he thought that was good advice and gave us a thumbs up and smile of thanks for such wisdom, maybe it was the shock of hearing English. After, we went to a great Yaki Niku place with some friends, burnt some meat and drank a few cold ones, looking forward to more of the same tomorrow. Sorry Matt and Scott P., No Buckets this year, we are saving that for next year.

2007 Motegi MotoGP Friday Practice.

Great day to be at the track instead of work. Very hot(as you can tell by the pic of the 2 resting locals) but very nice just the same. The Top 5 in todays GP practice were 5) Stoner, 4)Hopkins, 3)Melandri, 2) Depuniet, 1) Pedrosa. Rossi huffed an engine about 20 minutes in and struggled through the remainder with his back up bike. Im sure he will dial it in tommorow. Stoner just seemd to be in cruise mode. Pedrosa and Melandri proved the Hondas can get it done so hopefully Hayden can pull it together tommorow with some good qualifying and get to the front row. Hell, even the perenial crasher Depuniet put in some decent laps. Sorry for the usual poor quality of my photos. We shall try harder tommorow. :)

大谷 Oya Stone Mines

Today Heather and I visited the Oya stone mines and museum also just a few minutes out of Utsunomiya. Oya stone itself has been used in construction for hundreds of years in Japan and it is a very familiar sight around many large buildings and homes. It is very soft and workable but maybe not as strong as other materials so seems to have been regulated to mainly decorative use and fencing materials in recent years. What makes the Oya Mines so interesting historically is that during WWII the large caverns were used by the Japanese military for the construction and storage of airplanes and other equipment as well. As the caverns are pretty large and deep its pretty easy to imagine large makeshift factories being conctructed inside. Whats hard to imagine is the 85Kg rectangular blocks of stone being sawed out with some of the old equpiment still on display there, and then being hauled out up flights of stairs on some guys back that probably weighed half that much.
Also in the area are several large and small statues made from the stone that are over a 1000 years old. Probably the most famous is the largest at (I think) 27M is called Oya Kannon which was created around 1950.
As always you can see a few more photos in the flickr folder.
I will also put a link below to another persons website with some really nice pictures of the inside of the caverns. It was very cool, wet, and actually foggy inside this morning, and as it was pretty dark also, the fog reflected in the flash ruining most of our cavern pictures. This gentleman obviously has better equipment and skills than us. http://www.yesicanusechopsticks.com/thesequel/Oya/

益子町 Mashiko-Machi

Friday I made a trip to Mashiko with some freinds. Mashiko is located just outside of Utsunomiya in Tochigi Prefecture. It is famous for its clay pottery dating back to 1853, however it wasn't until the 1930s when it gained national fame because of the work of a famous potter named Hamada who was named a Japan living national treasure.
There are many, many, shops and several other interesting sites in the area including the giant Tanuki statue.(aka the racoondog).
I was also able to get some nice shots of the original wood fire kilns that are not used so much anymore. The shops that still use them are very expensive.
This area is a must see for the ladies visiting Tochigi.
http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/tanuki.shtml
http://hometown.infocreate.co.jp/en/kanto/mashiko/mashik-e.html