Motegi MotoGP 08

This weekend brought MotoGP to town and a couple of friends from back home made the journey to Japan to join us for the race. It was a great 5 days with a little sightseeing around Tochigi, the track Friday Saturday, and Sunday, and of course plenty of beer drinking and BS'ing through it all. As far as the race goes we were happy that we were able to witness Rossi clenching the championship as he pretty much dominated from the get go. We would have like to have seen our man Nicky Hayden hit the podium but 5th was the best he could muster. Not a bad result considering the rest of his season and all of the drama surrounding his "team" and HRC.
We really had a great time visiting with Matt and Scott(yes, those would be original KFC buckets), and I believe it made us realize for a few days just how far away home really is.
Hopefully we were able to make their Japan experience a good one, as for most people the cultural difference can seem a bit strange at times.
Here are as always a few more pics in the Flickr folder, with full credit going to my man Yujii Ishihara for the bike action photos: Click for more Pics

Sayonara John and Kindra

This week brought yet another sayonara party for good friends we have made during our stay in Utsunomiya. John and Kindra our resident Texans will be moving on to Germany in October after living in Utsunomiya for over 2 years. As you can see in the photos they have made many many Friends here in Utsunomiya and I am sure because of their friendly outgoing personalities they will make many more wherever their future travels take them. Good luck and hope to see you again soon.
More Party Pictures: John and Kindras Party Pics

Heather's friends from MiyaKids

Here's a recent shot of Heather and her group of friends from the local library known as MiyaKids. She has made many good friends through the group and feels it has been one of the most rewarding parts of her stay in Japan.

It's Homo Sausage! ホモソーセージです！

Occasionally we like to showcase some of the unique food products and other items we find around Japan.
Today at our local grocery in the snack section we spotted this little treat called Homo Sausage. With a name like Homo we knew it could be a risky purchase. Checking the Kanji on the label indicated its main ingredient was some form of a fish byproduct. We bought a sample anyway and brought it home.
After having a sufficient qty. of drinks to get the nerve up to actually open the package and give it a try, we broke it open and sliced some up. It had a very benign appearance and in fact looked a bit like a little bologna roll. But, let me tell you what Oscar Meyer it was not. The stench of rotted fish goo(think Tsujiki fish auction on a 95 degree day) was so incredible we couldn't bring ourselves to ingest even a small piece for the benefit of our readers. As you can see in the final photo it was abruptly shoved into a Ziploc and put in the trash. I think with a name like Homo Sausage its safe to say you wont see this product marketed in any western countries anytime soon. As i type this a half hour later the shitty stank from that sausage is still deeply entrenched in our nostrils. If you visit Japan and have the hankering for a snack to go along with your cold beer, we suggest you avoid this product at all cost.