They call me the Hurricane

That's what they call me when I'm boarding down the mountain. A behemoth of man hurtling at speeds and with a force no man has seen or even heard of before. Yesterday was my second attempt at snowboarding. and when I say attempt, I really mean supreme victory over the mountain.

Here's my new board. It's 162cm and extra wide. And sweet.

That's a picture of a hurricane on the board. That's kind of what the slopes look like, just with no ships and palm trees. But wreckage nonetheless.

There's Roy in the blue. That's Lake Iwanashiro behind him. It was a pretty spectacular day to go snowboarding.

Me and Webbosan before we made (one of) our triumphant decent(s) down the slope.
Webbo taking a break

Roy

Roy and Webbo
A parting shot, at day's end.

Russian Takuyaki

Takuyaki is a small fried ball of bread and octopus. Russian takuyaki is a whole new world altogether. You order 6 at a time, and one of them contains not octopus, but a near-lethal dose of peppers,wasabi, or some sort of ghastly hotness. You go around the table and everyone eats one, hoping he or she doesn't pick the hottie.


Roy was the first unlucky soul. Poor guy looks miserable.
Tim probably had it the worst. He picked his up and accidentally broke it open, allowing him to see the fire within.
Of course, there was no backing down, so with great anticipation on our parts and even greater dismay on his, we watched as he amassed the courage to ingest the intestinal torturer.

Despite my insane hopes, there was no burning in store for me this night. Maybe next time.

Dave's Wedding

Here's a few pics from from the rehearsal dinner, wedding and reception.

Justin Bland

Zack and Mel

Anna and Aaron

Aaron, Aaron, Aaron

Just before the wedding.

Just before everyone else recieved the Bride and Groom. I got to be the first. What a beautiful bride...and a handsome groom.
Inside the Reception. Dan, Beth, and Aaron Hendersons
Mesh.
Aaron having a chat with my mom.
Aaron and Blakers
Me and Dan
Nahsville's star songwriter, teamed up with the hottest J-Pop sensation. A virtual marriage of East and West. How apt.

Tokyo, continued

Here are several shots we took in Ginza, the really upscale shopping district.



January 2nd is the Japanese shopping equivalent to the day after Thanksgiving, and shopping in Tokyo is the equivalent to absolute craziness, so combine the two and you've got a level of shopping and dropping that I never dreamed was possible. That's me in a store, taken by Tim.

That's Tim, in the same store, taken by me.
You can see in the pictures people packed in wall to wall, but what you can't see is outside people lining up to get in the store, waiting for someone to leave so there's now room for one more.


January 2nd is also one of two days in the year where people can go up to the Imperial Palace.

They handed us Japanese flags, and then ushered us through three security check points. Then we followed the masses of people walking up the hill toward the palace.




We wound our way through the gate, over the bridge, and then into this huge plaza.


When the place was just about full, the Imperial family came out, made a short speech and then waved for five minutes. The Emperor is the second from the left.

I know he saw me. How could he not've?

We went to a diner for breakfast the next morning. This dude was sitting next to us. He had these Gundam toys and a toy gun, and he kept talking to himself with the gun in his hand, and occasionally firing. I didn't know if I should be disturbed or amused. As it was, we had a difficult time not erupting in laughter.

Little girl on the train with her mother. Amazingly cute, and so, so tiny.

Tokyo

Over the new year holiday, Roy and I went down to Tokyo. Here's a few of the highlights.

These are a couple of shots of Shibuya. It's a huge area for shopping and eating/drinking. In these first 4 pictures you can see the largest pedestrian interchange in the world. This mob of people amazingly fill and vacate the streets every time the lights change. It's quite a sight to see.


On the first two floors of the building saying "QFront," you can see the world's largest Starbucks. I didn't go there. Sorry, Cari. Maybe next time.




This is Roy back in Shinkjuku. Shinjuku is also good for shopping and neon lights.

That's me in Shinjuku. This symbol "カラオケ" means karaoke. See how many times you can find it on the buildings behind me.

Gas Mask, No More Gun, and Pepper Spray. Three amazing night clubs all in one building. How did we resist the urge to go in...?

This is the Park Hyatt Hotel, where they filmed Lost in Translation.
Here, it's the three tiered building behind the BMW building. We wanted to stay there, but I didn't want to spend my entire month's paycheck on three nights, so we settled for gawking around like a couple tourists. That's cool.

A shot of Tokyo, taken from the top of the shortest tower.

Fujisan, over Tokyo.

This lobby made several appearances in the film


A really posh wine cellar/bar.

Surprise! In the elevator.

You had to take one elevator up, then get off, walk through the hotel and then take another one up to the bar where Bill Murray and Scarlett Johanson meet in the movie. It's at the very top of either the second or third tier. Unfortuantely, when we got there, it was roped off while they redecorated for a New Year party. We peaked around the corner, but didn't get to take any pictures, or even really walk around and see the place.

Then we stopped off at Roppongi Hills, a really up-scale shopping area in Roppongi. This massive spider is out front. That's Tokyo Tower behind it.

Inside Roppongi Hills.

The bottom 5 or 6 floors were all shops and restaurants, but the top 20 or so were, I think, offices and condos owned by super rich people and celebrities alike.

Although it was his restaurant, Roy thought that his presence inside would put people on edge, trying to please him and make sure they always looked busy and whatnot. So we ate at a cafe downstairs.

The sun setting behind Fujisan.