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.

Hanabi season started

Now the fireworks (hanabi) season has started in Japan and roughly every week in august fireworks will be arranged in some area around Tokyo. This weekend we went to see the fireworks in Sumidagawa, the biggest arrangement in Tokyo during the year where different companies are competing with each other to arrange the best fireworks.

It is really amazing fireworks going on for more than an hour straight and they launch the rockets from two different locations a few hundred meters apart along the river in the Asakusa area. We didn't go very close to the launch scene to avoid the massive crowds that gather for the hanabi but even on a distance enough people came to have picnic in the street to get the right feeling for the occasion, similar to how people gather in the spring for watching the cherry blossoms.











For all becoming fathers it might be worth to consider that the stroller you buy should be able to carry your own weight, so that you can always use it as a comfortable chair when watching fireworks. This little guy didn't seem to happy that his father occupied the stroller for him but it wasn't much he could do about it. Just wait a few more years.











On sunday we went to Yokohama bay area for a relaxing day. The temperature was some where over thirty degrees when I noticed this "Ice World" house keeping a temperature of just as many degrees below zero. I couldn't resist to try the sudden 60 degree drop in temperature even if it cost me 500 yen (40skr) and it was well worth the money. Mostly young kids were running through the house screaming "samui! samui!" (cold! cold!) when I took a break in there to try to get as cold as possible. It was really nice to come out cold as a block of ice into the burning hot sun. Even Maki appreciated a cold hug.

Kamakura beach

Today we finally got ourselves to a beach. It has been a few weeks with warm weather but it's like I just keep thinking how nice it would be to go to the sea but we never get to it. The last summer I kept complaining that the sad thing about Tokyo is that it's so far to go to a beach, and we only went once in the whole summer. Today I realised it's only 50 min by train from our house to the beach in Kamakura so it's not so bad after all. It was a fun day and I kept trying to body surf in the quite high waves. Until the next time I'm thinking about buying a body board, a lot of people using them today and looked like lots of fun.











The beach in Kamakura is quite long. Closest to the water the sand is i bit hard but further up it's pretty good. All along the beach there are bars and restaurants and even some small concert halls. Today we stumbled in to a Jamaican reggae concert by accident. Concidering that we were walking on a beach in the middle of the day it was a bit surprising - but fun.

Back home I noticed to no suprise that I'm just as red as always after the first day on the beach.

Wind charm festival

Yesterday we went to a wind charm festival in Kawasaki daishi, located in the middle between Tokyo and Yokohama.











The festival was arranged in the tempel area in Kawasaki daishi and on the open space in front of the tempel there was traditional dancing by a group of women.











All japanese tempels have the place for washing hands and mouth to prepare for entering the tempel.











The thing that has given this festival its name is the wind charm that is being sold in thousands of different models - made of glass, china or metal. Here is some models made of painted glass. We got one with us back made of metal so now there is a constant ping-ping(!) sound coming from the balcony.











All festivals include the typical fast food restaurants where you can get grilled chicken, pancakes or other traditional food.











And we got to meet the japanese "grännapojkarna" chopping up what would best be described as a kind of polkagrisar made of rice. Sounds awkward but was indeed very tasty candy.











To finish off the day we continued down to Yokohama with Eric and Caroline to meet up with Paul at a beer garden located on the roof of a 10 storage tall department building. Nice feeling to be outside in a garden located high up and surrounded by tall buildings.

Summer time and BBQ

Summer is approaching and now temperature is normally around tirty degrees and humidity around 75%. The warmest period is yet to come though.

With summer comes the traditional BBQ season in Japan and last weekend we had our first big BBQ party with the team from work. Despite alarming weather reports showing thunderstorms the days before it was a very nice day by the sea at Nojima park, approx. 30 mins south of Yokohama.














Some of the people in the happy group of around 20 people from the team with friends that joined the BBQ.











The grill was constantly loaded with good stuff like chicken, lamb, shrimp, squid, veggies etc. After using up all 10kg of char coal we had to go get more to be able to finish all food!

The group that stayed till the end.

Back in Tokyo

I'm very happy for the adjustable bed from Tempure that we bought when moving here :)
Together with ice packs around the most damages places of the legs life is not so bad after all. I've had a bit of fever after the race but now on the second morning after the race temperature is almost back to normal. I wish I could stay home from work and spend more time in the bed reading but unfortunately I can't do that. It will be a slow robot-like walk to the office today...

Was it worth it? Yes, I think so. It was a fun trip with a great group of people and of course it was an interesting challenge to see if I could make it. I didn't expect it to be this tough on the body but I think this is partly due to the condition I was in last week. It will be a great memory.

Will I do it again? Before the race I thought so, but now I just don't know...

Finish

After a lot of struggle I crossed the finish line of 100km ultra marathon, only 30mins before the time limit 13h. It's been a race with no energy and hurting knees. Anyway, you tend to forget the bad sides shortly, instead I can remember the fantastic scenery this race went throug. That's better to remember instead of all the pain :)

The first full marathon

and it hurts already...

Start

Back at the start but this time we are running. It will be very interesting to see how this will go...

Saroma Lake

And this is the big lake we will go around tomorrow, Saromako. The fact that it is not possible to see across to the other side makes it a bit scary!

Hokkaido

I've now arrived in Hokkaido and been to the starting point of the race to register and pick up the race number. The scenery in Hokkaido is very nice with open landscape and a lot of green nature, I look forward to run here tomorrow. It's less than 12h left to the start (05.00) and I begin to feel a bit nervous. Except for an annoying headache most of the cold I've had during the week is gone, so it should hopefully be ok tomorrow. It's so beautiful up here so it would be sad not to be able to run. Anyway, we'll soon see.

Test new phone

Just testing to use a new phone that I will bring for running in Hokkaido this weekend, if I don't get more sick and have to stay home that is. Been having slight fever this week and been home from work a few days. Still don't feel like running a marathon on Sunday.

If this would have been a gas oven I would have been scared when I came home to see this. Now it was an electrical oven and Maki was using it to heat up the cold kitchen, not to spread deadly gas... Innovative as usual my wife.

Stockholm days

Our few days holiday in Stockholm last week was quite hectic, we didn't even remember to post any pictures to the blog!











This is not from Stockholm! But before going to Stockholm we had a few days up north to visit my family. I don't know why but I usually get to mow the lawn when I come home. Not a very painful work to do though. The small house in the background is the guest house that we've built from an old hay barn, Maki and I usually stay here when we come home.



















Most of the time in Stockholm we spent fixing the appartment. Here Maki with a new technique to oil the floors without getting soar back or dirty hands. After oiling and painting it is now hopefully in a condition good enough for finding a buyer, we'll see next week when the agency will try to sell it.











But we also had to see Skylar (the boat) and take her from winter storage place in Bromma to Kungsholmen where we live and have the summer place. This gave us a short opportunity to go out for a spin around the city, here in the canal between Kungsholmen and Norrmalm. It was really nice to go out for a ride with the boat, this is one of the things I miss the most in Tokyo.











To see Stockholm from the water is fantastic. Here's the view from just outside the city hall.

Now we are back in a rainy Tokyo. In a few weeks the summer will start and it will be hot and humid. Too bad we don't have a boat here :)

On Saturday I will go up to Saroma in Hokkaido for the 100km race starting early Sunday morning. I'll let you know how it goes...

Low standards living

In stockholm we thought we would stay in our apartment one last time before we sell it. It's completely empty so many things are missing that you would be used to have around you in a home. When getting ready for the wedding today Maki realised she didn't have a hairdryer. No worries though, the hot air oven turned out to be a good substitute.

Home brew

After visiting Maki's relatives in Wakasa (west coast) a number of times and always asking to buy some of their stock of well tasting home made plum wine (umeshu, technically not a wine but more like a liqueur) they today sent us a box of around 20kg of japanese plum so that we could try our home brew skills ourselves. So now we have three 8.0L large glass jars filled with about 4.5 kg plum each, lots of sugar and in this case 2 cans of honey and then topped up with white liquor. In 6 to 12 months they should hopefully contain some really nice umeshu. The longer you keep them to mature the better the umeshu will taste. However if you have waited for a year and it taste good I think it will be difficult to wait any longer.

Now it's well past midnight when we've finished and tomorrow morning we will get on the flight to Sweden. We'll have a compact mini vacation up north with my parents, attend our friends wedding in Stockholm and I will go to a training in the south before we will return to Tokyo in a bit more than a week.

Coolest jacket in Japan

Finally today in Tokyo Hands, the store that has it all, I found it, the coolest jacket ever! Maybe not fashion wise though. The jacket I'm talking about has two fairly powerful fans built in to the lower part of the back.















When running on the high power mode the jacket gets filled with air and it's streaming out by the neck. It gives you a nice tickling feeling when it cools you down and as part of it it makes you look like that Michelin guy. I've wanted to try this ever since I saw it on japanese TV last summer. This is a must have.

Good friends and hot onsen

This week we have had friends over from Sweden. Niklas, old friend from university, and his wife Celina have visited us for a week. As a "bonus" another university friend, Johan Nilsson, was in town last friday so it was a fun reunion at friday dinner (Johan is behind the camera though).












Karaoke is mandatory when visiting Tokyo and luckily enough we found a good place close to our home! We had a nice mix of '80s pop music and '90s punk/rock music.












During the weekend we took a tour to the Hakone mountains for some black eggs and "fresh" air (air surrounding these hot springs are partly toxic due to the sulfa gases coming up from the mountain, at least they say. It smells bad anyway).












More of the relaxing activity to soak in the hot springs. Here Sunday morning at the hotel and later in the day also in the favourite onsen Ikkyu in Tenzan area in Hakone.

Pad thai & Singha

This weekend we met up with Nigel, a friend now living in Edinburgh who is in Tokyo for a business trip, and went to a thai festival in Yoyogi park. Maki was at the same festival last year and enjoyed very much and wanted to go back. After our nice holiday in Thailand in february I didn't mind to go for some spicy food and singha. It was a very nice festival with plenty of various thai food including fresh fruits typical for Thailand. The downside is that you are far from the only person in tokyo who thought of the idea of going to the festival, crowded was the word. It seems this festival is getting more and more popular every year and the area used for the festival does not grow quite as much as the number of visitors.

Summer festivals

Summer has come (or technically I think it's still spring but for me this warm weather is summer!) and many festivals are arranged around in Tokyo. I would think there is at least one festival every weekend somewhere in Tokyo during this warmer part of the year. Today we went to Kanda (close to Akihabara) for the Kanda Matsuri where they carry portable shrines, Mikoshi, to the Kanda temple. It was a hot day today, 28 degree and clear blue sky, so it was perfect conditions to see other people carrying heavy things!

Finally we came around to buy bicycles this weekend. Yesterday we ordered a couple of 20" foldable Dahon bikes. Amazing that it took us 16 months to manage to arrange that after moving to Japan.

It's now been two weeks now since the 72km race in Fuji goko. My legs are finally back to a state when I can start running again. Still I can't do any longer distances but the training has started for the challenge of the year, 100km race in Saroma up in Hokkaido at the end of June.

Photos from today.











Big streets around Akihabara were closed for traffic and filled with groups of people carrying the portable shrines, Mikoshi.











Many groups looked exhausted in the warm weather. This group was still full of energy though.











Kids was riding on some of the shrines.











I got to try to carry the shrine that one of our friends, Chie-san, group was responsible for. After 5 minutes I had had enough in the heat. They kept on going for hours...











The goal was to carry the Mikoshi to the temple where there was a ceremony to finish off the festival.