more on this and everything else later, just wanted to get the 411 out there,b
Sunday, July 26, 2009
all the news that's fit to print so far...
As noted before, I've been pretty busy this month, moving and whatnot. But, what some may or may not know, is that another reason that I was busy was because I got married. Yup, how about that!? Things are good so far, actually not really any different as far as day to day operations from the past year or so. weirrrd. What's weirder is saying "my wife." I feel pretentious. I'm sure that will pass in time, but I think that the reason for it is that I've never been one much for fuss. The "congratulations" that accompany birthdays and the "condolances" that accompany deaths. That's been the one main reason I've held back on saying much about it, or hesitating, deciding what word to use when speaking of "my lady" to students. Anyway, it's all good. In fact it's pretty great so far! For the record, the deed was done on July 9th, easy for me to remember! Here's a picture we took after the visit to the ward office to ink the deal
more on this and everything else later, just wanted to get the 411 out there,
b
more on this and everything else later, just wanted to get the 411 out there,b
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Hokkai-go! day 5/6
Here we go, about a month and a half after the fact... there will be some new stuff coming soon though, look out!
June 6th.
off to Takikawa! we had breakfast (まあまあ) at the station and the boarded the スーパーカムイ train to Takikawa (滝川). スーパーカムイ is a combination of English/Japanese/Ainu languages that means 'super god!' but is just your average express train. we arrived in Takikawa with little fanfare and fewer people! around the station were old boarded up and broken down buildings and empty streets...
like a ghost town. eerie. we dropped our bags off at the hotel and walked a different way back to the station to try and find life or a convenience store but neither were found... i did find an ATM so could get some money but that was about it. i sent a mail to tigger and he headed over to pick us up around 3 and took us over to the cabin he had rented for the wedding party. again, i didn't feel so good, so little drinking for me but it was a nice get together and it was nice to meet tigger and his lady's parents. as for Takikawa...
probably the last time for me, lovely scenery, but not much happening...
June 7th.
got up early for the last time and jumped back on the スーパーカムイ headed to Asahikawa (旭川). we had lunch at the station and then went off to the city museum (旭川市博物館) to learn a bit about the native Ainu (アイヌ) folk. pretty interesting, love the designs! and that was about it. we went out to the airport super early, bought some souvenirs and just wasted time until our flight.
all-in-all Hokkaido was a good time. beautiful scenery, open spaces, clean air, clean water, lots of stuff to see and do. just sucked that i felt crappy most of the time, and the weather was pretty crappy most of the time. it was good though. i highly recommend Sapporo but i think we tapped it out so next time Hokkaido is gone to, I'm thinking somewhere else will be on the itinerary.
June 6th.
off to Takikawa! we had breakfast (まあまあ) at the station and the boarded the スーパーカムイ train to Takikawa (滝川). スーパーカムイ is a combination of English/Japanese/Ainu languages that means 'super god!' but is just your average express train. we arrived in Takikawa with little fanfare and fewer people! around the station were old boarded up and broken down buildings and empty streets...
like a ghost town. eerie. we dropped our bags off at the hotel and walked a different way back to the station to try and find life or a convenience store but neither were found... i did find an ATM so could get some money but that was about it. i sent a mail to tigger and he headed over to pick us up around 3 and took us over to the cabin he had rented for the wedding party. again, i didn't feel so good, so little drinking for me but it was a nice get together and it was nice to meet tigger and his lady's parents. as for Takikawa...
probably the last time for me, lovely scenery, but not much happening...June 7th.
got up early for the last time and jumped back on the スーパーカムイ headed to Asahikawa (旭川). we had lunch at the station and then went off to the city museum (旭川市博物館) to learn a bit about the native Ainu (アイヌ) folk. pretty interesting, love the designs! and that was about it. we went out to the airport super early, bought some souvenirs and just wasted time until our flight.
all-in-all Hokkaido was a good time. beautiful scenery, open spaces, clean air, clean water, lots of stuff to see and do. just sucked that i felt crappy most of the time, and the weather was pretty crappy most of the time. it was good though. i highly recommend Sapporo but i think we tapped it out so next time Hokkaido is gone to, I'm thinking somewhere else will be on the itinerary.
Monday, July 13, 2009
2 days and counting...
2 days until NCAA 10 comes out! Why not a look at one of my favorite plays from last year's edition?
Sunday, July 12, 2009
My favorite video of all time?
I loooooooove this video, just watch it all the way through, no skipping!
Monday, July 06, 2009
ya-ha-!
so it's been a good, nearly 4 days since i moved and i haven't gotten to finishing the Hokkaido posts, sorry but i wrote them all at the same time, just gotta sort out the pictures. I've been busy. the new place is super awesome! i f'n love it! it's nice and cool, convenient, and surrounded by nature. there's tons of insects in my 'garden' and last night, i saw a HUGE toad in the front. other than moving, been working, getting stuff for the new place, playing fight night round 4 and call of juarez, celebrating the 4th of July and watching my Frontale come away with a disappointing tie last night... the Hokkaido posts will be coming soon, but I'm still gonna be pretty busy for the next couple weeks (more on that later) and pretty much for the rest of the month. for now, adieu!
Sunday, June 28, 2009
delays...
Sorry about not getting these posts up earlier, just been real busy lately. Work has been busy and home has been busy as mornin and I were looking for a new place and are now getting ready to move... also MJ's death took a toll on me... not sure if I'll be able to put up the last 2 days of the Hokkaido vacation before I move, but I might. If not, they'll be up sometime shortly after moving day, July 2nd! More info on the move after i finish the Hokkaido posts. later,b
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Hokkai-go! day 4
June 5th. the last day in Sapporo was jam packed with action. we (again) got up early and headed to Maruyama Zoo (円山動物園).
it was fairly fun, the walk from the station was nice, the zoo itself was fine, a little sad... a lot of solo animals and all the elephants had died. i did see my 1st タヌキ (raccoon dog)
and some other stuff.
bad combo...
after zooing out, we grabbed a cab (because it was raining) and went over to the white lover factory (白い恋人).
Shiroi koibito is a very famous treat from Hokkaido and it's basically a little sandwich cookie with white (or milk) chocolate. pretty decent, but the factory is set up a bit like a little theme park,
no rides, but a kind of animated display about the process of making chocolate and (for some reason) a toy museum with pictures of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa...
after the little self guided tour of the factory we went over to the office to have our picture taken for our own box of white lovers 
(gotta be one of the all time top 10 worst pics of me) and while we waited the 40mins it takes to personalize the tin, we went across the street to a place called Owl's. (click the pic to see it better)
Owl's is rad! i highly recommend it if you go to Sapporo. it's named so because the J league team that reps Sapporo (コンサドーレ札幌) has an owl on its team crest. the reason that's important is that the restaurant looks out over Consadole's practice field, kinda where you would expect a press box to be. it's really, really cool! although the team wasn't practicing that day, and the food was just a'ight (i had teriyaki tacos) the location is off the charts! I'd freakin love it if Frontale had something like that!after lunch, we went back to the factory in an absolute downpour! got our tin of cookies and then bellied up to a cake buffet that mornin was all about!
pretty good i must sayafter we had our cake and ate it too, the weather had turned beautiful so we took a couple shots amongst the flowers:
we stopped off at the little clock tower (時計台) in town. fairly unimpressive, but historical i guess.
to round out Sapporo, for dinner, we dined at the Kirin beer garden near our hotel where i had crabs!
actually, just parts of one crab... also, feeling pretty bad, i could only muster up about 4 beers :(
Hokkai-go! day 3
June 4th.
got up early again and headed to sheep hill observatory (羊ヶ丘展望台) to see some sheep, 
and then eat them...
also saw the famous statue of professor Clark, famous for the quote 'boys be ambitious'.
once we made it back to Sapporo we took a look at the TV tower (テレビ塔)
took some print club (プリクラ) pictures, went all up in it,
and then strolled through Odori park (大通公園), took a ride on the Ferris wheel (観覧車)
and had a cheese packed dinner at Cheese Cheese. 
we could draw on the table!
got up early again and headed to sheep hill observatory (羊ヶ丘展望台) to see some sheep, 
and then eat them...
also saw the famous statue of professor Clark, famous for the quote 'boys be ambitious'.
once we made it back to Sapporo we took a look at the TV tower (テレビ塔)
took some print club (プリクラ) pictures, went all up in it,
and then strolled through Odori park (大通公園), took a ride on the Ferris wheel (観覧車)
and had a cheese packed dinner at Cheese Cheese. 
we could draw on the table!
Hokkai-go! day 2
June 3rd.
i guess i should mention that the whole trip, i was sick. i had a pretty high fever and a terrible cough. now, nearly 2 weeks later, the fever is long since gone but the cough is still hanging on... but, my spirits weren't dampened! for day 1 in Sapporo we got up early and went over to the Sapporo beer garden (札幌ビール園) to have a delicious lunch and i had some beer! because i didn't feel so well i only put down about 3 or 4 beers (very sub-par for the locale).
one of them is only available in Hokkaido, and one of them was only available at the beer garden, the were both pretty good. they also have a museum that was pretty cool and informative, but the cool part was the old style red brick buildings, signature of the frontier days of Hokkaido.
after the beer garden we made our way to the Sapporo dome (札幌ドーム) super early to check out the place and get in line.
we ended up with pretty good seats (2nd row) and Sapporo dome was pretty decent, wide aisles! but the selection of Carp goods was limited... i couldn't get the road jersey i wanted :( probably gonna have to wait until September.
The game was really good, a little back and forth action leading to a 2-2 tie until Brown decided to take Lewis out of the game and our reliever promptly let up 5 runs in the 8th...
i guess i should mention that the whole trip, i was sick. i had a pretty high fever and a terrible cough. now, nearly 2 weeks later, the fever is long since gone but the cough is still hanging on... but, my spirits weren't dampened! for day 1 in Sapporo we got up early and went over to the Sapporo beer garden (札幌ビール園) to have a delicious lunch and i had some beer! because i didn't feel so well i only put down about 3 or 4 beers (very sub-par for the locale).
one of them is only available in Hokkaido, and one of them was only available at the beer garden, the were both pretty good. they also have a museum that was pretty cool and informative, but the cool part was the old style red brick buildings, signature of the frontier days of Hokkaido.
after the beer garden we made our way to the Sapporo dome (札幌ドーム) super early to check out the place and get in line.
we ended up with pretty good seats (2nd row) and Sapporo dome was pretty decent, wide aisles! but the selection of Carp goods was limited... i couldn't get the road jersey i wanted :( probably gonna have to wait until September.
The game was really good, a little back and forth action leading to a 2-2 tie until Brown decided to take Lewis out of the game and our reliever promptly let up 5 runs in the 8th...
Hokkai-go! day 1
how they swangin ya'll? it's been awhile i know, but I've been busy. 
since i got back from Hokkaido (北海道) first, i bought a PS3 and some games; killzone 2, Afrika, みんなのGOLF5, and ボクの夏休み3. those have taken up some of my time, but the updates and downloads have taken up more (it took around 4.5 hours to download the online golf updates!), PSN sucks! also mornin and i have been looking for an apartment, it's time to move. melvis is apparently looking to move too. enough about that, lets get to why we are here, the Hokkaido trip!
June 2nd.
mornin had to give her graduate thesis presentation (one of them at least) in the morning so sometime in the early afternoon we hopped on the train headed to Haneda 'international' airport (羽田国際空港). i use ''air' quotes' because it's 'barely' international (however it is expanding). to get to the airport we used the monorail, which always reminds me of Seattle, even though I've only used it like twice. we got to Haneda waaay early so we poked around and had a pretty decent lunch, i had a ham and cheese!
we had time to get a massage before our flight too!
10min for 200円! not bad.
the flight from Tokyo to Sapporo (札幌) was only about an hour and a half and i actually slept a bit!
when you arrive in Sapporo at new Chitose airport (新千歳空港) you realize that you are far from Sapporo! gotta take a train into town and by the time we made it to our hotel near Nakajima park station (中島公園駅) it was nearly 11pm. there were no eateries available around the hotel so we hoofed it to one of Sapporo's most famous districts, Susukino (すすき野). basically the Ginza or Shinjuku of Sapporo. we ended up on a ramen street (ラーメンの横丁) and had to wait a bit to get inside a place called toraya (とらや). it was bitchin!
that was about it for the day.
since i got back from Hokkaido (北海道) first, i bought a PS3 and some games; killzone 2, Afrika, みんなのGOLF5, and ボクの夏休み3. those have taken up some of my time, but the updates and downloads have taken up more (it took around 4.5 hours to download the online golf updates!), PSN sucks! also mornin and i have been looking for an apartment, it's time to move. melvis is apparently looking to move too. enough about that, lets get to why we are here, the Hokkaido trip!June 2nd.
mornin had to give her graduate thesis presentation (one of them at least) in the morning so sometime in the early afternoon we hopped on the train headed to Haneda 'international' airport (羽田国際空港). i use ''air' quotes' because it's 'barely' international (however it is expanding). to get to the airport we used the monorail, which always reminds me of Seattle, even though I've only used it like twice. we got to Haneda waaay early so we poked around and had a pretty decent lunch, i had a ham and cheese!
we had time to get a massage before our flight too!
10min for 200円! not bad.the flight from Tokyo to Sapporo (札幌) was only about an hour and a half and i actually slept a bit!
when you arrive in Sapporo at new Chitose airport (新千歳空港) you realize that you are far from Sapporo! gotta take a train into town and by the time we made it to our hotel near Nakajima park station (中島公園駅) it was nearly 11pm. there were no eateries available around the hotel so we hoofed it to one of Sapporo's most famous districts, Susukino (すすき野). basically the Ginza or Shinjuku of Sapporo. we ended up on a ramen street (ラーメンの横丁) and had to wait a bit to get inside a place called toraya (とらや). it was bitchin!
that was about it for the day.
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