Kyoto Visit 京都市

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Our friend Kindra and I spent two nights in Kyoto, where we stayed at The New Miyako Hotel. Our first stop was at Toji Higashi Monmae, and what a way to start off our trip as it was beautiful. The pagoda is 57 m high, is the tallest wooden tower in Japan and is surrounded by gardens. We also enjoyed seeing the Buddhas of Toji which are located in Kondo-Hall, I don't have any pictures since they are prohibited. The very large statues are very intricately carved and just unbelievably beautiful.
Day two was a busy one we took the local JR line to Inari and visited Fushimi Inari Shrine, it was a 6 minute train ride. Fushimi is surrounded by thousands of torii all lined up making a beautiful path through the wooded area. For our next stop we took a city bus to Kiyomizu Temple, and after they dropped us off we had quite a hike up a steep hill. This required a little break about 1/2 way up for a few cold Kirins! It was worth it, there were many school age kids there and many of them wandered over to speak a bit of English and asked us to join them for pictures. Kiyomizu was also a very beautiful spot. Our last stop of the day was Heian Shrine, this again was a very nice place to visit. We didn't spend allot of time here since they were doing some restoration work.
In my opinion, you really need to have more than two days in Kyoto, we didnt have enough time to see it all. Enjoy the pics and of course there are more in the flickr folders.
http://flickr.com/photos/8953511@N05/sets/72157605478483529/

Congratulations Abby!

This weekend the Hummels threw a high school graduation party/cookout for their daughter Abby.

She graduated Magna Cum Laude and will be attending Ohio Dominican upon their return to Ohio this summer.

We would like to wish her the best of luck in the future!

Cookin out with Nao and Miyoko

Last weekend friends Nao and Miyoko threw a nice cookout at their house. Even Flat Stanley flew in from Canada for the event. While towards the end some people were a bit "sleepy" and some a bit noisy, it was good friends, good weather, good food and drinks, which equaled a good time.

Home Leave 2008

Just returned from our home leave back in Ohio. Thanks to all of our family and friends who put us up and entertained us over the last 2 weeks, we really do appreciate it. Heres a few pics with a few more to be found in the Flickr folder.

R/C Crop Dusting

This morning on the way to work, Heather and I were sitting in traffic when we spotted a guy in the field next to us spraying a patch of winter rice with a remote control helicopter. The Japanese make good use of their limited tillable land and will grow crops in every nook and cranny. This field is right inside the city limits and next to the road. We had enough time to see him take it off and start his first pass. Not sure if he was fertilizing or spraying insecticide, but he definitely had an interesting method.

Tokyo Giants Vs. Yokohama Baystars

Last night a group of us went to the local baseball stadium to see the Tokyo Giants Vs. Yokohama Baystars. It was the first time the Gaints had played in this area for 50 years. It was sellout crowd, and I the believe the Kiyohara stadium holds about 30,000. The Giants won 6-1, It was colder than all hell after the sun dropped, and believe it or not the only food/refreshments sold, were beer, coca cola, and donuts(what more does the typical Japanese baseball fan need?). Kind of odd when the game started at 6pm. Needless to say attrition took its toll on our 15 people group and by the 7th inning Heather, I and our neighbors were the last to bail. Sorry, as there are not so many good pictures as I mainly focused on staying warm and sipping my dinner.

Pete Dye VIP G.C. in Imaichi, 今市市

Today some we all skipped work for a day and headed out to play the Pete Dye course in Imaichi. The weather was perfect, the course was challenging to say the least, and of course we all shot stellar scores, relatively speaking.

http://www.pacificgolf.co.jp/petedye/index.asp