A night out with friends at Watami

We spent Sunday evening with Chiho and Chicaco and their husbands. I am helping them both with English and in the process have made some very good friends!

The Motegi 300

Yesterday we went to the Motegi 300 Indy car race. This was my 4th IRL race and I have concluded that the IRL has to be some of the least exciting racing I have ever been too in my life. Of course we cheered for the Ohio driver Sarah Fisher who finished a dismal 14th, though she did fare better than the only Japanese driver Kosuke, who banzaied it into the wall on the first turn of the first lap. While the race was a bit of a yawner, the weather was great, and the Motegi Circuit is always a great place to visit located in the mountains right outside of town. Probably the highlight of the day was a pre-race show put on by the Japanese version of the Blue Angels.

Nicoles sayonara party

I went to Nicoles going away party Saturday night. Graphics for dinner and drinks and then off to karaoke. We will miss you, good luck on your return to Ohio!

The 2007 Jspec XR250 has arrived!

Picked up the new machine today. I must say that it’s not a bad looking ride in the Japan only black and gold rim trim. As expected the engine is a tad on the anemic side but we can live with that. Unlike the US XRs it does have electric start and just like all XRs it is also super lightweight(not)and you can see Heather throwing it all around in these pics. :)
It is nice to have a bike again and I got out for a little break-in trip towards the mountains north of town. It took me about 20 minutes to figure out there is no better mode of personal transportation available than the motorcycle for this country.
A manager at the Dream Honda shop was nice enough to break out a map for me and detail several hundred miles of offroad trails between here and the Nikko mountain area. I'll have to wait another month or so to explore those, as they are still snow and ice covered in some sections. In the meantime I plan to use it for the daily commute as weather permits and will maybe hit the Kinugawa river bed a little for fun.

The Pleasures of Propaganda Loudspeaker Vans.

Election time brings out the mini-vans decked out with insanely loud loudspeakers that roam the streets, announcing which political candidate you should vote for. It seems like as election time draws near, each candidate has a van or 2 running around town with people screaming almost incoherently at the top of their lungs. Heather and I were lucky enough to have a candidates headquarters right across from our apartment, so we got to hear the blasting rhetoric virtually every morning as the vans set off for their daily run. We thought it was over with the election going off early in the week but hey there was more. Sunday, at 7am we awoke to the sounds of a van parked at a victory rally in the parking lot across the street, and another day filled with even more vans driving around town thanking us for not killing their crazy asses during the pre-election campaign. We enjoyed it so much this morning, they blessed us with a repeat performance at 6pm when we were eating dinner. Good times!

Hanami at Hachimanyama Koen

Throughout Japan, "Hanami" is one of the most popular events of Spring. It's literal meaning is flower veiwing. Every year the weather forecast on the news include a daily Hanami forecast and you can see as the country warms and the parties and festivals slowly move north. Most parks and many roadways are lined with Ume (plum) or Sakura (cherry) trees. Hachimanyama park in paticular is home to about 700 cherry trees. Crowds of people - families, groups of friends, and groups from companies sit under the fully open cherry blossoms, usually on plastic tarps, and have a picnic. There is always a lot of foods, sake, and other beverages. Today we finally had a break in the weather and were able to get out and enjoy the park with several of the UEC Japanese Sensei's and thier families, some co-workers and other gaijin (foreigners) from around town. It was really a nice day, and tyhe park was packed. As usual by the end of the day there were some drinking casualties laying around the park, hopefully the evenings rain woke them up or their friends were kind enough to drag them home. More of the days and evenings photos are posted in the yahoo folder for your perusal, just follow the link in the left column.

Myka Playing Lacrosse at UT

Heres the lucky #13 Myka with the UT Lacrosse Team at a tournament in Chicago last weekend where they won 2 out of 3 games. We miss you chick!

Another evening at Graphics

Our friend from Graphics, "Kinue" (orange scarf) invited us to join her and her freinds to help celebrate her birthday on Sunday night.

The Fit.

Here's Heather pulling our sweet looking 2006 Bright Blue Honda Fit 1.3S out of the "garage".

Obviously, I wasnt offered a lot of choices in color. So I took Blue over Pink, and Copper. In a country where 90 percent of the cars on the road are black, white, or silver, this one is easy to find in the parking lot, and moderately visible to the nutcase drivers here who will pull out in front of you on a daily basis. One note on the "garage", is that we really have underground parking, meaning we have to raise one of these car racks/elevators up and down to get our car out from under the one on top each time we come and go. Very inconvenient for the person underneath as you have to do all the raising and lowering. Currently we are "borrowing" one topside from an empty apartment while we wait on one to hopefully become permanently available.

Sunday afternoon Misc.

Just a quick update to let you know that we worked to fix the pictures link today, moving it from snapfish to Yahoo photos, which should work for everyone. Maybe there is no need for registration unless you want to sign in and download some of the pics. Just click the link over in the left column. Sorry for the earlier trouble.
Heather had a Dr. visit on Saturday and he gave her wrist a thumbs up and told her just to take it easy for the next week or 2. Good news indeed.
After screwing up and missing the time on the OSU vs. Tenn. game, I managed to get out of bed this am to catch the second half of the Memphis game. Had a phone chat with Matt, Drew and others who were enjoying it at the Bogey. I must say I liked the outcome. Go Bucks!
Japan did have another jishin (earthquake) today that was a 6.7. Second one this week. It was cenetered and caused a bit of damage out on the west coast. No damage in this area, but it did roll the apartment back and forth pretty good.

Speaking of Pizza

Im sure that it's obvious from the pictures we are posting, no ones going hungry here in Utsunomiya. While we already dearly miss our Columbus pizza favorites Enricos, Emilios, and the Bogey, we have managed to find some, I guess you would call it reasonable pie here. With pizza names like "Ocean Cream", "Garlic Punch", "Potato Country", "Chiki-Teri", "The New Funky", and "Ebi-Mayo Bingo", how could you possibly go wrong? Ahhh, and we cant forget Heathers favorite, "Casual Sausage" :). Believe it or not the Domino's here is actually pretty good. We generally wouldnt touch "Doms" in the States, but like most American chains you find here in Japan, it is actually better than at home. Its usually pricey, but it arrives to you looking like it does in the pictures, and the taste is pretty good(Not like the box it arrived in). Of course looking at the menu's below you have to notice pizzas like the "Tuna Mayoler", the locals can put some pretty whacky things on their pie. Ordering by phone is quite the challenge and unless you like, seafood, corn, mayonaise or other odds and ends, you must order your "American Special" with care.
http://www.chicago-pizza.com/menu/index.html
http://www.dominos.jp/items/combinations.html
http://www.pizza-la.co.jp/menu_e/menu110_pub.html

A few friends drop bye on a Thursday for Pizza and Beverages

Rick , Mark, Shawn, and Takahira drop bye for dinner.

Rick B. and family will also depart back to the US next week.

A few pics of our apartment: