Thanksgiving 2007

We managed to find a 16 lb Frozen Tyson Turkey and had it shipped to our apartment where Heather put together a little Thanksgiving feast for ourselves and a couple of the guys from work. Very tasty indeed. Yes, those are my now world famous homemade noodles, bet ya missed those this year huh? Typical Thanksgiving day except we had to work before dinner. We still manged to throw back quite a few cold ones and play a few hands of Euchre before calling it a night. It wasn't so nice not having the day of recovery afterwards and having to roll out of bed and go into the office this morning.
The pictures of the tykes having some Thanksgiving fun are some of Heathers friends from the local library, Kawaii Ne!!!

Asakusa 浅草

This Sunday we were looking to get out of Utsunomiya for the day and took a little Shinkansen ride to Tokyo where we visited Asakusa.
Below are pictures are of the Kaminari-mon which translates to gate of thunder. This leads to one of Tokyos oldest and most prominent Buddhist shrines called Senso-ji also pictured. There is also a 5 story pagoda called Bosatsu among others.
It was the usual gaijin laiden trinket shopping and shrine viewing activity with lots of pushy foreigners, food and beer tents, etc. If you were to take a guided tour of Tokyo you would definitely land here. We would not recommend it on a Sunday afternoon unless you really like people. Of course we didn't last long with all of that and retired to the Ueno Hard Rock for some cold pitchers of Kirin and a cheese burger, which was probably actually what was on our minds when we left the house that morning.

Rainy Day Golf at Sun Lake Country Club

After several years of coming to Japan I finally took the opportunity to play some golf. Seemed like a good idea until i woke up today to a heavy downpour. I went ahead and made my way to the course in hopes of a cancellation. Ummm,no. In Japan if you have a Tee-Time, you play golf, rain or shine. We briefly discussed not playing with the course manager and our host, and this was unheard of. Not wanting to disappoint any of hosts, we bucked up and played. It was a heavy downpour through the first 5 holes, then stopped until we hit 16-18 where it picked up again to give us a final soaking. Unbelievable was amount of people still playing in this nasty weather. Not drinking and playing, just playing as the drinking is reserved for after the golf is finished. I must say that despite the shitty weather, we had an enjoyable day, as the course and facility were fantastic. I can also report that the 11 month layoff in play had little to no effect on my game as it still sucked immensely. Anyhow maybe we will try again in the spring after some work at the driving range, which i must say is another great story in itself.

Graphics Halloween Party 2007

Pictures from Friday nights Halloween Party at Graphics.
The rest of the photos are linked here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8953511@N05/sets/72157602728180794

The Nikko IceBucks

This weekend we went with Friends to see the local professional hockey team, The Nikko IceBucks play a home game. They are in the Asian hockey league which has teams mainly from Japan, but also South Korea, and a few other Asian countries. This weekend they were playing A team from South Korea called Halla. Unfortunately the Bucks lost 2-1 but it was actually pretty entertaining as the fans, as with all sports here really get into it. They are still learning to be hockey fans though and In the future we plan to introduce them to the idea of drinking some beer during the game, and heckling the refs and opposing players in the penalty box, as they were a little weak in these area's. Another reason the team/game is interesting for us is because during our stay in Utsunomiya we were introduced to the head coach and a former player who is a great guy and also happens to own one of our favorite drinking spots here in town. Here's a few fotos of the rink and the game.