Last summer week?

Yesterday and today heavy rain has been falling over Tokyo. This might be a sign that hottest part of summer is over and we are approaching typhoon season before the autumn is coming. Last week was on the other hand very nice with temperature around 30 and a lot of fun with Jonas and Anna who came visiting from Stockholm.











Last weekend we found a street festival close to Yoyogi park where we could enjoy watching break dance battles and graffiti artists. Good fun, these guys were pretty good.











At the same street festival with cousin Jonas and his wife Anna, just hours after arriving in Tokyo.











One night at a festival in Azubadjuban we met this guy, Yohei, outside his store Hejsan. It turned out he spoke Swedish and the reason for that was because he went to an art school in Sweden. Far up north, outside Skellefteå town, in Solvik School just a couple of kilometers from were I grew up. What are the odds for that... I'm not even going to mention that saying about the size of the globe.



















One night at Maki's friends bar in the fantastic traditional bar area golden gai in Shinjuku (Shinjuku 3 chome).















Of course. Karaoke.











We also made an overnight trip to Hakone to see some nature and go to hot springs. This time we tried going with the famous pirate ship on the lake and it turned out to be an relaxing activity, and not as crowded as I've heard it can be.











We found a nice art gallery just off Harajuku street close to Ometesando. It was a fun place where the apartment building has been kept as it was (except for the repainting) and each of the small apartments in the 3 floor building contains a different exhibition. There is a small nice cafe as well if you are not that interested in art.











Cool painting on one of the walls of the art gallery.



















Print club. A good way to finish off the week. And gives you funny stickers as memory.

Chiba surfing

On the way to work with muscle pain in various parts of the body but with a fun weekend fresh in memory. We went to one of our friends house by the sea in Chiba again for surfing and relaxing on Saturday and Sunday. This was the second time trying to do surfing for me and I'm not sure it went any better than last year, but I would like to think so. Could catch the wave a few times and got up standing on my feet two times - for about a second or so. Not quite there yet as you can understand but good fun and some serious exercise!

Tokyo bay fireworks

Yesterday it was time for Tokyo bay fireworks again. We decided to go and to try to get there in time to get a seat close to the launching area. Together with many thousands of other people we squeezed in on an area close to the bay dedicated for watching the fireworks. It was a hassle to get in there and especially to get out, but it was well worth the effort. Again we could see an amazing light show and this time from close enough distance to feel the vibration in the body from the largest rockets exploding.

Some photos below and more in the webalbum, you can find a link from the right hand side column or here. All the photos are taken with a 50mm fixed lens (no zoom), so the photos of the fireworks with no background are not zoomed in, just too big to fit in in a photo with background without using a wide angle lens.

Tomorrow the one and a half week summer holiday is over and it's back to work again. Luckily there are some national holidays coming up again soon and still I have some 30 days holidays to use this year. It's so warm and humid now in Tokyo so the idea of spending the days in an air conditioned office is not so bad, just the work part of it...

Roadtrip in Kyushu

Maki did her last working day last wednesday and I've had a week and a half summer holiday off work so we made a trip to Kyushu where we haven't been much before. We flew to Nagasaki and took a rental car for six days and drove from west to east and back west again in the north part of Kyushu. We brought the tent and camping gear and pretty much made up the route as we went along. I love to go on road trips and think this is one of the best ways of exploring new places and it was great way of seeing north part of Kyushu with all its beautiful nature.

More photos can be seen in our webalbum:
http://picasaweb.google.com/pedroso.mobile/KyushuRoadtrip2009?feat=directlink















Trying to swim in a shallow and amazingly cold river!















We went to many great onsens (hot springs) and this is one of the best ones. We were alone at this place and could enjoy the onsen for ourselves. I went into the cold river to get really chilled down and then straight into the hot spring, fantastic! Just like coming in to the sauna again after rolling in the snow.















Nice breakfast in the camping. After two nights of camping we thought it would be nice to stay at a japanese hotel. In a way it was of course, but after that one night we agreed that camping was much more fun and by the fourth night we were back in the tent again.















And I guess one reason is that it's difficult to do things like this in a hotel!















In Yufuin we found a guy selling these interesting creatures. For 10.000 yen (800skr) you could bring one home as a pet.
















In Yufuin we also came across a place were you could try to stick your feet into a pool with doctor fishes. The small fishes will eat your old skin off while giving you a tickling feeling. Here Maki get a treatment.















Along the Yamanami highway, well known for the nice scenery it passes, we found a nice place for a brake in the grass.















We visited the museum of the atomic bomb in Nagasaki before returning to Tokyo. This is the fountain of peace in the peace park, dedicated to all the victims of the atomic bomb crying out for water.