Flying in a Cessna. Mt. St. Helen’s in the background.
While starting to write this post, I saw I have two drafts of other posts I have not made. I’ll get those up later, rather than post three at once.
In June/July this year, I made a trip to Washington State. My first since 1997. And it was amazing!
My father lived in Vancouver, Washington (across the river from Portland, Oregon) around 1994-97. I had very little memory of my visits there, except we often went to parks, mountains, and saw a lot of nature.
In 2024, I had two different sets of friends visit Japan. Matt and Hannah (living close to Vancouver) and Jesse and Taylor (living outside Seattle). They all told me if I had a chance to visit the Pacific Northwest that I had a place to state with them.
I meant to write this a few days ago, but got distracted. Here is the year’s, uh, yearly update before has now become the September 1 deadline.
In October 2023 I got my PADI Advanced Open Water license. I’m now certified to go down to 30 meters, or 100 feet. Found a place a few hours away that offers training in English, so I did that over three days. The area is Atami, which is about 45 minutes away from Tokyo Station by bullet train. I by now means consider myself advanced! It’s purely in title.
During the Japanese New Year break (お正月/年末年始) I took a trip to Oahu with my mom. During the summer between kindergarten and first grade, my mom, dad and I took a trip to Hawaii. I believe we visited the islands of Maui, Oahu and Kauai. I barely have any memory of the trip, and while I have been to Hawaii several times since then, it’s always been to the island of Maui.
March and April here were cherry blossom viewing season, or as it’s known in Japan, お花見. It’s an excuse for people around the country to relax, go to a nearby park, drink and be merry with friends and family. You don’t really need a reason to do that, but it’s a good reason if you’re always busy. You’re pretty much expected to go to at least one of these parties each year.
The sakura, or cherry blossoms, bloom at different times throughout the country depending on the weather and location. This year they bloomed earlier than had been originally predicted, thanks to some warmer than average weather.
I went to three parties this year:
The first was with some classmates. It was a small gathering that also served as someone’s going away party. We ate at a restaurant prior to going, so we ate some snacks and a few people had beer. It was held at Yoyogi Park in Tokyo.
The next party was with my host dad’s friend’s company. We were invited to tag along. Food included sushi, wraps, pizza and beer. This was at a park in Yokohama.
The third party was party was also held at Yoyogi Park. This one was a gathering of people in Japan who create YouTube videos. This one ended earlier due to rain, so it was moved to the Tobacco and Salt Museum… while we waited for a nearby pub to open up.
It’s always a fun experience, and I recommend everyone try to take part in one of these parties.
On Friday, March 1, everyone from my school (I think there were about 300 of us) went on a field trip to 箱根 (はこね, Hakone), Kanagawa-ken, Japan. It was about 1.5 – 2 hours by bus from Shibuya. So why did we go there? I mean, just what is Hakone known for?
Well, it’s probably most known for its 温泉 (おんせん, onsen), or hot springs. We didn’t actually go to any though, which is probably for the best. I didn’t really want to see my male classmates in the buff. However, 混浴 would be OK! ^_~
Hakone is also known for its 黒卵 (くろたまご, kurotamago), or hard-boiled black eggs. The story goes that if you eat one, you’ll have 7 years added to your life. I ate two. Continue reading Went on a day trip to Hakone→
Most people know that I’m not really an outdoors type of person. The only camping I’ve done was in Rainman’s backyard back in middle school one night… and later on we ended up going back inside. So, it’s a bit of a surprise both to myself and maybe others that I voted to go on a field trip to Japan’s Takaosan (高尾山).
This was my first time seeing Mt. Fuji in person. I’m glad we climbed 高尾山 and not Fuji.
Located about an hour away from Shibuya Station, on a clear day you can see Mt. Fuji from this mountain. And that’s just what we did. A selection of pictures follows, but for ALL of the pictures, visit my smugmug. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the white balance set correctly on my camera, so I had to correct in post. And I was lazy, so a lot of it still looks way too blue. Continue reading I hiked a mountain in class; what did you do today?→
