Since Last We Spoke

Its been a while since the last post and it has been a fantastic month and a half.... We had a nice party with friends and family from all over the world... it was great to see everyone and share some time - thanks to everyone for all of the efforts in making that a fun time.

It was great though really and without airplanes it would have been a really long boat ride.

Fujisan Sunrise Trip

Just got done sleeping off the effects of climbing Mt. Fuji... it was really a good climb and a lot of fun. My freind Jety and I pulled an all nighter - we started climbing around 9:15 PM and got to the halfway point pretty in about 2 hours - we ate and tried to get some rest there, but we had packed light and were freezing so we moved on from there at a slower rate.

We summited at about 2:30 AM and the wind was whipping ... the night pic above shows the cloudy mist that we were experiencing. There were hundreds of people already up there and all of the good sheltered spots were taken. We settled for a semi-sheltered spot on the edge of a small cliff and waited for the sun to come up. It was freezing. The sky started to turn pink out to the east and we went over to that side of the cone....

A sweet view of the sunrise combined with a delicious PBJ and some morning berry energy drink!! We then took the cone trail around the top of the mountain. It was a real popular day to climb and there were so many people up there it was ridiculous... I saw lots of people climbing in blue jeans and one guy who had bloody taped up feet because he thought it was a good idea to climb a volcanic gravel field in sandals!

It was a good time... Next mountain to check out is the #2 tallest in Japan called the Southern Alps.

Green Eggs and Ham

So there has been a lot of this going on lately......

Particularly I really like this page:

I think it is the expression on the dude's face.... he's like --"WHAT!!! - A GOAT!!!???" Yeah that Sam-I-Am is crazy. By the way you ever notice that the Dude's name is never revealed in the story? I mean Sam-I-Am is introduced right away - twice even, but you never find out what the dude's name is. My best guess is that he's somehow related to Goofy

Do you see the striking similarities? Same hat, same ears. Yeah, i'm pretty sure they're related. So i've been inserting "Hey Goofy" on every page where Sam-I-Am is talking and ir really makes the story read a lot smoothlier.

So that's all for now folks.... as Woody the Woodpecker says,

"DDDDD DDDDD DDDDDDD!!!"

Ninjas Everywhere!

So the ninja, yakuza and samurai warriors were all keeping me real busy the last couple of months, so I had to keep it way on the down low while I was dodgin shirikin and other crazy claw weapons all the time. But now I'm back! I finally got the Chinese Triads to intervene and the Yakuza were convinced to call a truce at least until after the Olympics are over....





So BJ Bigboy has been buggin me to announce his VP candidate for like a month now and I'm always tellin JB to chill out, wait till the timing is right and stuff... so now is the time.



That's right! The Colonel has joined up the JB for a real power ticket. The Colonel will bring a solid foundation to the ticket with his military experience and common vision to where the country needs to go. So take that McCain and Obama - the Colonel has been fully vetted and we know you were both trying to snatch him up for yourselves, but now it looks like Obama is gonna be stuck with Hillary. Sucker!

The Many Faces of Lillian

Here is a photo series of Lillian: I will return to our regularly scheduled programming shortly, but let me just show her off for a little longer...














"Please, I'm Just a Little Baby"












"Thinking about Breastmilk"









"Smilin' Cuz I Pooped"







"Deep Thinking"






"I Pity the Foo"

I know some people urge us to just say "NO!" to Faux Hawks, but what is wrong with this?

Long time We No Have No Blog Time ...

So it's been a while, but you know sometimes you feel like a blog, sometimes you don't. Right? Anyways, lots has happened on the Tokyo front. I started going to school a few weeks ago for Japanese and I am definately the dumb American in a class full of Koreans and Chinese. For some reason they just pick up the Japanese quicker than me. Huh...





The weather is getting pretty nice and I got out to enjoy it a few times and then - BLAM! - this baby pops out of Maya's uterus and all of a sudden there's all this stuff to do. Imagine that. I knew she had put on a few kilos, but then she's like, "I think we should go to the hospital after this episode of Prison Break." 13 hours later this 3320 gram baby comes shooting out of her uterus at 2:30AM and she's like hey you guys, whatsup?? We named her Lillian and brought her home a couple of days ago. Check her out:



Isn't she cute?

On the way out of the hospital she got in her first traffic jam. Tokyo sure is busy.

Random Japanese 3

Would you, punk? I didn't think so, so just put that can in the recycling bin and get out of here before I make you!

I just don't know.... stuff? Is this a trick question? I choose "C" that's usually the answer....

Well I'm off to the find the Ladybugs then -

Equal Rights and Justice

So excuse me very much - I have had a lot of complaints filed that I don't have enough footage of Maya on the blog -- where is Maya hula hooping? Why isn't Maya supporting Big Boy? Where is Maya on the ski cam?? So many questions, but I assure you that Maya is alive and well. Here is a picture or two to prove it ... enjoy! Try to guess how much the fetus weighs at it's next check in... the closest without going over is our next cotestant on the Price is Right!!! All entries must be in grams, we use the metric system here people.

Here is a closeup picture to help with your bid --

The rat - looking creature in the closeup view is the family "Dog" called "Bebe" - we are hoping that she doesn't bear any semblance to the real baby when she comes... An italian greyhound - the rat looking breed that she represents has won the ugliest dog in America two years running, but "Bebe" doesn't want to hear it -

Besides being completely beautiful and still having most of her teeth, "Bebe" enjoys an all natural organic meat diet with a scientifically advanced vegetable mix that makes her sleek and trim. If she were still young enough to race she would surely beat any greyhound out there, but of course the temperature conditions have to be just right. Having no real fur to speak of, most of her walks end up like this...

Sometimes she does demonstrate her great speed though as captured in this rare footage ....

Real Trains Don't Have Faces

That's right. Here's a little something for all you train fans out there - you know who you are.

Bigboy for President!

JB Bigboy is the man that the USA, nay the world, needs to unite us and get us back on track.

JB is a guy you can trust and I know this for a fact. First of all, just look at him; big clear eyes and checkered overalls - he sure is handsome and he doesn't change his clothes to pander to this or that audience. JB would never do anything to purposely offend, plus with that nicely manicured doo you know he puts time into his personal appearance. Next, JB will never challenge you to "supersize" your meal like other restaurants might he'll just make it real nice and big for you without any hype. JB wants to feed the world. Maybe it's because of his decades of success that some people want to hurt Bigboy because they don't think he deserves it.... they think, "back in the 1930s anyone could have started a successful chain restaurant, but now all the ideas are used up. Besides it's obvious that JB ripped off the Bigboy sandwich from the BigMac." Well, this type of mudslinging politics won't solve anything and Bigboy will not lower himself to the debate. JB stands solidly on a platform of downhome country values and he will take the time to listen to all of his constituents concerns, hell you can even take a picture with him and he doesn't hide behind secret service agents for protection or anything.

BigBoy for president 2008! It's not too late for REAL change.

Hoop Dreams

That's right. I want to thank Hank and Erica for the guidance in creating SupaHupa ... I am pretty sure this is going to be the biggest thing in Japan since Pokemon. You can notice in the background the beautiful garden wall that I set up ... someday the vines will be real nice. The next time you find yourself in a funk, remember don't let the funk get you down, funk it up!

WARNING: the following video contains images that are too funky for "unfunky" viewers....

Tokyo Drift

Well I've uncovered a serious alien conspiracy here in NishiTokyo - right at the local government office! Roswell should consider using this strategy - white tape. Look closely at the picture here and you will detect an obvious coverup going on.

So I am an official member of Japan now... got my government funded healthcare and everything! So now it's time to plan the Mt. Fuji decent by mountain bike. Who's in?

A Visit to Nagano

We took a trip to Nagano -home of the 1998 Winter Olympics This temple is called Zenkoji Temple - inside we went through a very dark passage and could touch the sacred key - 500 yen of mystical craziness!.... can you guess who the statue is of?

The area around here is historically known for high quality ninjas! Also the Soba (buckwheat pasta) noodles here are the best in Japan, possibly the world. I suspect that in the daytime, ninjas could hone their knife skills while preparing Soba noodles without raising too much suspicion from the Shogun....

I was lucky enough to go skiing one day while we were there. Rockin the rental gear for all it was worth. Lots of snow, no lines and it dumped all day.... check out the old school lift they were running just for me -

And while I'm at it let's take a run. .. . feel the wind in your hair, maybe a York peppermint patty will help....

Maya Stays Happy

So we stopped by to visit the Mt. Fuji goddess' temple because she is the guardian of pregnant mothers and women in general. By visiting the temple during pregnancy Maya will have a healthy baby, she won't be grumpy during pregnancy, and will be more beautiful than ever after the baby is born. What will they think of next! This dragon fountain is where you cleanse before going to see the temple. The snow count is up to three snowstorms for those of you who are wondering... perhaps another chance to build snowmen tomorrow?

Random Japanese English 2

That's right Home Boys!

Mt. Fuji Hotsprings

We all took a trip to see Maya's Obachan (grandma) for her 84th birthday party - here are some of the highlights.....

The hotel was real nice, the hot tubs and rooms had excellent views of Fujisan and Maya, Cousin Mayu and I brought the average age down a few years... the hotel gardens are managed by the owner and they are beautiful - koi ponds and garden paths all around and nice lights at night. The taiko drum squad are also workers at the hotel and they jam pretty good.

This is the nicest moiontain scenery so far... not bad except for the high voltage powerline going through the valley .. this was from the top of the hill that i reached on the mountain bike ride...

Random Japanese English 1

Here is the first in a series of random Japanese English stuff.... we found this mug when we went out for dinner the other night.

Snowy Single Track

It was a nice chilly and dark day for an eerie ride outside the city ... there were wild dogs? or maybe mountain howler monkeys that kept up a nice spooky chorus all day. I rode for about 6 km of solid uphill climbing over progressively snowier trail. I turned back after the snow and ice got too sketchy, but am looking forward to finding out how far it goes. The trail had changed over to real dirt / hiking trail single track and looks real good. The mountains here are riduculously steep and densely forested!

The WagonR

So here is the TokyoMobile - it is 650cc of city driving power!! This van is real fun to drive and fits through very small spaces which is an important thing here... we'll have to put some ground effect lighting on it with some low pros so that it can drift. Today I took an adventure with the mountain bike and found some decent single track about 18 miles from the house....

Snowkyo

It was snowing today - it had mostly turned to rain in the video though. It only is suppsed to snow like this a couple of times a year here, so i'll keep count. Anyways, we made it to the embassy today to do some visa stuff and crossed this big intersection...

Can you find me?

We made it to Japan

Hello from Tokyo - time has been flying by here in the new place. Maya and I are doing well and adjusting to non-Colorado life. We are looking forward to a bed to sleep on since we've been sleeping on the floor/futon since we sold our bed on craigslist on 12/27? or so. Anyway, I have registered as an official gaijin and will get my ID card to prove it on Friday. I've been spending several mornings on bike ride adventures around the city and getting lost a couple of times. I learned that you don't always need sunglasses here the hard way - I crashed hard while squinting through a rainy cloudy day and tested out my skeletal integrity... which is good by the way. Maya's tummy is getting nice and round and the baby is up to 700 grams as of the last check. The afternoons have been spent setting up house keeping stuff and trying to master the public transportation system.... buses and trains surrounded by rushing people who seem to know where they're going while we are looking at signs and sorting it out. Pretty funny really.

We have had a pretty crazy and amazing last month getting rid of everything except for 5 boxes, 2 suitcases and our bikes and are going through setting up house again... it's a tough but healthful and mind clearing process. I reccomend throwing something "important" away to everyone or giving it away as a gift just to get a taster. Thanks to everyone who came to the party and everyone who came by to get some stuff.... hopefully you all will get some good use from them!

This is my first sighting of Mt. Fujisan on one of my rides.... hope to get some more naturetastic pix of it later, but seems appropriate from Tokyo