|
Prague
I spent 6 days in Prague, Czech Republic, in this hostel which wasn't too bad, except that it wasn't in a downtown location, and the area it was in was ghetto-ish. They did give me a complimentary beer as I checked in, and it's true what they say that the beer in Czech Rep. is both cheap AND great-tasting. It's very frothy, so usually pours from ... cont. reading
|
|
Germany: Berlin / Dresden
Continuing on with my European photo journal; from Dortmund I travelled to Berlin, which is about 5 hours east by car. I didn't take a train or bus to get there, instead I did what the Germans do by using the ... cont. reading
|
|
Germany: Bochum / Dortmund
After my 2 days in Amsterdam, I was ready to go to Germany and see some of the World Cup craziness first-hand. I took a 5 hour Eurolines bus into Dortmund which was much cheaper than taking a train, which wouldn't have been much faster ... cont. reading
|
|
Amsterdaaaam!
I've processed the first batch of photos for you from my trip to Europe, starting with this first album from the two days I spent in Amsterdam. Or should I say Amsterdaaaaam!!! This is indeed Europe's Sin City, with marajuana ... cont. reading
|
|
The Colorado Trip '06
Some photos from my 8-day long snowboarding trip to Vail, Colorado. It was a great trip, thanks goes all to Mitch for letting me stay at his apartment, letting me drive his 20 year old pick-up truck all over the place, and showing me how the locals live it up in Vail.
|
|
July-August 2005: Natsukashii
This is an (almost) entirely black and white photo album containing shots from my last month and 1/2 in Japan. All pics were taken during my school's culture festival, a triathalon in Ajigasawa, Japanese town festivals, and many, many drinking parties.
|
|
June-July 2005: Socials
Beer gardens, karaoke, bbq, minigolf, fireworks, shamisen, box wine, poker, dressing up, tsugaru-ben, birthdays, indian poker, and a whole lot more!
|
|
June 2005: Let's Go To School '05
From Kashiwagi's rice planting competition, Onoe volunteer work, Lake Towada field trip, and Onoe sports taikai.
|
|
GW 2005: Hida Takayama, Ise
The last segment of our GW trip was spent in Takayama, which is known for its traditional mountain clan the Hida. It's a beautiful region, with the Japan alps as a backdrop, there's never an ugly view anywhere. We stayed with generous host families who showed us around and were nothing but kind and friendly while we stayed with them for 2 nights. The last full day of the trip was spent in Ise-shi, known for its two very large shinto shrines, Ge-ku and Nai-ku. That's the end of the trip!
|
|
GW 2005: Izu Peninsula
We spent 1 and 1/2 days in Izu, Shizuoka prefecture, and had a nice, peaceful couple of nights onsening and sightseeing.
|
|
GW 2005: Nagoya-jo, Aquarium, Zoo
Me and Steph continue our Golden Week trip to the castle park, the huge aquarium and zoo in Nagoya city.
|
|
GW 2005: Arrival in Nagoya, Aichi Expo
Photos from the first 2 days in Nagoya just before the start of Golden Week. With my travel partner Stephanie, we flew to Nagoya in the afternoon, had some strolling around time in downtown Nagoya and then went to the nearby Aichi World Expo a train ride away, which was overwhelmingly fun, and had no idea that an expo was that large-scaled.
|
|
Party '05 Part 3: The Dudes of Aomori
Doesn't really encompass a lot of the 'dudes' in Aomori, but that's only because there's a lack of ALT guys in the Hirosaki area, and it's pretty difficult to make Japanese male friends. Person most likely to kill me after seeing these pics: Ryota (simply because he's scary-looking!)
|
|
Party '05 Part 2: The G-girls of of Aomori
These are pics taken in the past few months of some of my 'gaijin girl' friends who are living in Aomori. Person most likely to kill me after seeing these pics: Michelle or Dee
|
|
Party '05 Part 1: The J-girls of Hirosaki
A brief look at some of my female Japanese friends taken recently, mostly of loved-by-all Akiko. Person most likely to kill me after seeing these pics: Aki
|
|
Feb. 2005: Annual Winter Appreciation Month
Pics from Hirosaki's annual snow lantern festival, a snowboarding day out at Hakkoda, and a few other various ones. February is probably the month that gets the most snow around here, and this year was no exception ... and then some! It hasn't snowed like this in Aomori for 19 years apparently, so it's been a not-too-kind month for some people who hate the snow shoveling, slipping on the ice, and living in pure coldness. Maybe these pics will show the kinder side of living in 'Shiro-mori' (white forest).
|
|
Jan. 2005: Getting Rid of the January Blues
Contains pics from Mary's Aji weekend, my sayonara photos from a few of my OC classes, and the Hakkoda AJET ski-trip weekend. Enjoy the drunken ski randomness.
|
|
Dec. 2004: Late December in Review
Let's start from my birthday weekend, where we did the oh-so-typical Capricossa/Shirokiya evening. It was still very good, despite getting turned away by two other places which were full. I also liked going to the 'BEER' bar by the train station, gotta go there again! Highlight of the night was getting seku-hara'ed by Erica. Then on my actual birthday night, we went to the Rausch's for wine and merriment. Next up was sports days round 2: winter edition. Why would a school have sports events during the coldest time of the year at school in unheated gyms? Teachers all wore their winter jackets, but the poor students only had their sports seifuku to warm them. Lastly are a bunch of photos from the past week's snowboard outings. Winter is here folks!
|
|
Nov. 2004: Remembering November
Contains photos from a walk in the park in Hirosaki during 'momiji'; a night on the town for a Hirosaki private school teacher's birthday; the charity talent show event in Hachinohe and demonstration English class; A Rausch family Thanksgiving
|
|
Oct. 2004: Reyn's Belated Birthday Party
The somewhat elusive Fujisaki ALT Reyn (pronounced 'Ren' a la 'Ren and Stimpy') had his 24th birthday party recently. There was a fairly large group who went, a mix of other ALTs and Reyn's many Japanese babe friends from Hiro-dai and other Japanese peeps. The party lasted until the a.m., then more drinking ensued at a second party with just a few of us ALTs at a cool, small bar.
|
|
Sept/Oct. 2004: Tokyo/Toronto/Detroit/Tokyo
I went back to my hometown Toronto, for a 2 week visit, primarily for a high school friend's wedding but also to reaquaint myself with some western culture that I've been away from for over 2 years. There's also pics from my time spent in Tokyo's Shinjuku/Harajuku/Shibuya districts before leaving and coming back from Toronto.
|
|
Sept. 2004: Hakodate city, Hokkaido
I took a long-weekend trip up to one of Hokkaido island's most famous cities, Hakodate. It's famous for being the first port in Japan that the US forced it's way open with Commodore Perry's 'kurofune', or fleet of black ships. The American influence is still present in the very westernized architecture (i.e. the use of bricks). I had a lot fun in Hakodate, but 3 days was certainly enough for me and my wallet in this over-priced tourist town.
|
|
Sept. 2004: Misawa J-Draw / Air Show '04
This year, I drove to Misawa to catch the annual airshow, but I also joined the gaijin madness on the previous night at J-Draw, a military-dude/j-gangsta/j-girl infested dance bar that gave me a lot of 'reverse culture shock'. Tons of ALTs were there to reprazent and had a good time. Highlights of the weekend included running into a large rottweiler dog in an alleyway, and sneaking into another j-thug club through the back door, and getting to eat Taco Bell on base. Lowlight was getting lost on the way home from 'Draws and wandering the streets with Kate and Jamie until past 4 a.m., as well as a disappointing non-airshow.
|
|
Aug. 2004: Iwaki climb - Akakusa Route from Ooishi Shrine
I went to climb Mt. Iwaki this year with Luke and Marc, going up a difficult but much more interesting and scenic route from Ooishi shrine.
|
|
Aug. 2004: Welcome Party '04 in Shichinohe
Despite there being not a whole lot of people at the party, and a lot of 2nd/3rd years MIA, it was still a very fun time and met some cool people too. The highlight of the night was getting a bear-hug from Kate!
|
|
Aug. 2004: Weekend of Newbies
I go bowling, hiking, onsening, eating, drinking, karaoke-ing, with a bunch of newbie JETs from the Hirosaki area, and Aomori city. Check out this latest weekend photo-blog.
|
|
Aug. 2004: Goshogawara Tachi-Neputa '04
I went with some friends up to Goshogawara city to see the Tachi-Neputa festival for the first time. It was pretty cool and I had a good time except for the shoving I got from obachan trying to get by me. The festival is worth seeing though because the floats are so tall and will impress you immediately.
|
|
July 2004: Onoe Bunkasai '04
This year's bunkasai (school festival) was pretty much the same as last year's version. Food stands, student art, posters, etc. This year it was fun because I got to just hang out with the students I teach, instead of teaching them! But as a festival, it could do with some upgrades.
|
|
July and August Photo Mix
Here's a bunch of random photos from most of July and the beginning of August. Parties, festivals, and more parties.
|
|
July 2004: Mt. Fuji Climb
Shelby and I went to Mt. Fuji to do an over-night climb on the highest mountain in Japan (3776m) and see the sunrise, which is the preferred way. We didn't make it to the top due to altitude sickness but I got some cool photos anyways.
|
|
June 2004: Lake Towada Trip
For the annual 'ensoku' (school field trip) I went with the 3rd grade students to lake Towada. It was nice to see the oirase gorge and hang out as friends and not as a teacher with the more mature 3rd grade students.
|
|
June 2004: Kuroishi bar-hopping
Just what the title says. As soon as the san-jikais @snack bars started happening, I left that scene. Did I miss out?
|
|
June 22-23 2004: Sports Days '04 at Onoe High School
Here's a mix of pics from the two days of sports at school. On the first day the students play the 'serious' sports i.e. basketball, volleyball, soccer etc. then on the 2nd day it's dodgeball, table tennis, and 'shogi'. I caught some good photos of the late afternoon clouds too!
|
|
June 19 2004: Anmon Falls in Shirakami
It was the weekend of Erica's and Akiko's birthdays, so we celebrated it Aomori-style: in the woods! It rained for most of the weekend unfortunately, and the bad weather brought out the 'Niseko' in some of us: i.e. the Indian Poker made a comeback: unfortunately it was Gavin's turn to be the 'Luke'.
|
|
June 11 2004: Beer Garden + Shirokiya
We loved the beer garden so much we went back the next weekend! Then to top it off, we did another karaoke session at Shirokiya!
|
|
June 4 2004: Sports Ceremony + After Party
All of the high schools in Aomori-ken had a sports ceremony in Hirosaki's athletic park - it was very sun-burning sunny day and hot but it was nice to at least get out of school! Afterwards the JET crew had a beer garden/karaoke party that was nomiho-riffic.
|
|
May 16 2004: Yokohama Rape Blossom Festival
This festival is the biggest, and only festival that Yokohama town offers of any interest. Basically it's a hanami-lite, for viewing bright yellow flowers and uhh, that's it. If you don't like the colour yellow, then don't open this album! Photographically speaking, even though it was a gloomy/cloudy day, the exposure/levels were still too dark, but I couldn't be bothered to Photoshop them up. I'm not too proud of these!
|
|
May 14 2004: Kashiwagi Rice Planting
It was only my second time visiting Kashiwagi Agricultural High School, and they asked me to participate in a rice planting event. I didn't know it was going to be a rice planting race! I rolled with it, and it ended up being a fun day. Notes to all ALTs that might be coerced into something like this: Go in barefoot (the boots, they do nothing), bring a towel, and be prepared for a lot of bending over!
|
|
May 1-4 2004: Golden Week in Tohoku
It was the largest road trip that I've undertaken since being in Japan. I traveled with my downstairs neighbour and fellow JET Erica over 1300km through 5 different prefectures in the Tohoku region (Nothern Japan). Onsens, mountains, sushi, hiking, ramen, shrines, Denny's, museums, we did/ate it all.
|
|
Apr.29 2004: Monkey-ing around in Shimokita
Starring: Me, Shelby, Jenny and Rodney. Took a fine Saturday drive up to the 'axe' peninsula of Shimokita. We saw big Buddhas, sulfuric rock formations, fishing towns, but no signs of any supposed inhabited monkeys. Shimokita was fun, but mostly because of all the fun we got to make of Shelby! Also saw how much worse life could be for a JET, seeing tons of dinky backward towns with no sign of modernization, and even a konbini is a rare sight. Made Hirosaki look like Tokyo - some JETs say that living in inaka is the 'true' Japan, but if that's the case, I'll settle for 'fake' Japan.
|
|
Apr.24 2004: AJET Hanami Party
It was wet, cold and miserable - but somehow I was still able to have lots of fun! The planned 'drinking under sakura' part went awry, but eating yakiniku at MoMo's buffet and the constant boozing at Biru-te made up for it. Nice to see a lot of familiar JETs, even though I didn't really speak to many of them. Highlight of the night was seeing Kat falling to the ground at MoMo's and stealing everyone's drinks and seats.
|
|
Apr.18 2004: Hanami in Hirosaki
I went out to catch the cherry blossom festival in Hirosaki park on Sunday afternoon, and it was such great weather that I'm glad I went. I met up with Erica, Erica's friend Liz, Marc, Steve and Yumiko and walked around just for a bit, snapped some photos and ate some awesome corn! I left the crew early to go home though, but kinda regret it now, since the weather for the rest of this week is rainy/cold so it won't be very good for Saturday's party!
|
|
Apr.10 2004: Nate's Birthday + Jen Snowdon's Birthday
Nate invited a few of us up to his swank pad in Aomori city for his birthday. Met a few new JETs, got 'served' by Nate with his knowledge of cocktails, and then went out for karaoke table-dancing madness. The day after me and Jenny went to Jen Snowdon's b-day BBQ at Hakkoda.
|
|
Mar.20 2004: Furofushi Onsen
On a bright and sunny Saturday, I decided to go on a road trip around Aomori, and Stephanie kindly joined me. We ended up on the west coast south of Fukaura town, at Furofushi onsen. It's a great outdoor onsen that's actually free (if you don't mind not showering and changing on the beach). Great experience!
|
|
March 2004: March Madness - Random Party @ Jenny's and St. Patrick's Day
Photos from a party that Jenny threw at her little aparto (I forget what the occasion was for)... also on St. Patrick's Day, a few of us went out to Biru-te to get some Guinness in us.
|
|
Appi Ski Weekend
Many thanks to Tony and his family + the Koiwa family for inviting us to Appi! This had to be my best time ever for snowboarding! The 3 onsens in 24 hrs. helped a lot too! I can't wait to go there again! Spring ski anyone?
|
|
Jan.31 2004: Ski Owani
A bunch of us ALTs met up at Owani ski resort to check out what Owani '04 had to offer. The conditions sucked because of the sun melting the snow and turning it into ice, but the scenery was great and the funny Japanese ski-outfits were even greater! Near the end of the day, we went down to the other side of the mountain but we didn't know that the chairlifts stopped running 1/2 hr. before our passes ran out, so we had to walk all the way back to our cars for 20 mins. #$#@#!!!
|
|
Jan.24 2004: Jacob's Birthday Bash
Yet again, it was another JET's birthday, another dinner/nomihodai at the Park, and another drunken karaoke night at Shirokiya. We met the mayor of Hirosaki, drank, sung choo choo train, mmbop, drank and uhh ... I don't remember the rest.
|
|
Jan.18 2004: Let's Ajigasawa!
On Sunday, I went to Ajigasawa ski resort for the 3rd time this year, and it was the best time so far. The weather was nice, had some really nice runs in the pow, and got to see Akiko in her cool get-up. Now there's a tie between her and Stephanie for biggest goggles award!
|
|
Jan.10 2004: Seijin no hi: Snowballs and Shrines
'Seijin no hi' means 'coming of age day' in Japanese. i.e. it means long weekend! I got to hang out with some cute Japanese and half-Japanese girls this weekend going drinking, getting lost in snowstorms, skiing, going to onsen, and shrines.
|
|
Dec.31 2003: A Very Jenga New Year's Eve
On New Year's Eve, Akiko invited a bunch of us to her parent's house for a traditional Japanese New Year's dinner. Her parents were very kind and prepared a lot of food for us. After dinner we all played a few rounds of 'Jenga' and then went to our fave pub and also to the pagoda temple to ring in the new year.
|
|
Niseko Trip: Day 8 - Jaa, kaerimashoo!
This was the last day of the trip, and all we did was prepare to go home, drive, and try to sleep on the stinky-ass boat ride back to Aomori. We got really bored so all we could do was play the card-toss game into a hat. We got back to Hirosaki by 9 p.m. and by then the whole week felt like a distant blur. I had one of the funnest trips I've ever been on and I'll surely never forget this.
|
|
Niseko Trip: Day 7 - Final Ski Day, JoJo's and Hank's
Since it snowed the previous night, (except for Marc and Lisa who needed some alone time) everyone went out to get our ski and board on. I stuck with Stephanie and Jamie for the afternoon (it always seemed to end up that way, which was fun watching Jamie go flying on a difficult run). Later we happened to meet Francois and went out to dinner, then it was one last stop into our favorite bar.
|
|
Niseko Trip: Day 6 - Christmas Cheer
Nothing was going to top the previous night's festivities, but we gave it a shot. First off Marc and I went on our little ski date in the late afternoon since it was the first time it snowed since the first day here, and it was decent fun. Most people stayed home to recover from last night, but then we played some more drinking games (Thumper, Kings) where handcuffs were introduced and then Luke and Jamie got extra frisky.
|
|
Niseko Trip: Day 5 - Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! X-mas Eve
This was such a great Christmas eve, so much stuff happened - but to sum it up, Luke gets completely shit-faced, pees his pants, the girls are making out with the boys, the boys are making out with the boys, and a shit-load of shots were drank, mostly by Luke. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
|
|
Niseko Trip: Day 4 - Let's Get Drunk And Pick Up Trucker Hat Girls
This was I suppose, my day to remember (or to forget). First we did a bit of skiing but the conditions were not good so it wasn't a long day. Then we had some mexican pizza dinner at Yummy's and for four of us, we had a Trailer Park Boys-style nomihodai drink-fest and I got wasted, hit on a married chick, then hit on and got digits from a Japanese girl by only saying "wa", and "here" etc. Good times!
|
|
Niseko Trip: Day 3 - Sapporo Adventure
We took this day off from skiing for a road trip to Sapporo. It was well worth it - just to see the amazing clock tower! Everything else was just bonus for me. Karaoke at Shirokiya was fun too, and we made some nice sukebe friends on the street.
|
|
Niseko Trip: Day 2 - Strap On Your Ski Boots Sally!
In the morning we all got up early (Luke was first on the lifts at 8:30) and got our ski-on! The conditions weren't superb and the Niseko Hirafu layout is confusing to say the least. I gave Lisa some snowboard lessons (and now she's awesome so I'll take full credit) and then it was a little more boarding then off to drink and be merry.
|
|
Niseko Trip: Day 1 - 10 Hours Later... We Survived!
Got up at 4:45 a.m., left Hirosaki to Aomori, got on the ferry for 3+ hours, then drove up to Niseko from Hakodate for another 3+ hours. All in all, a long-ass trip! We were all happy to get there alive and settled into our new home for the week.
|
|
Dec.12 2003: Marc's Birthday at Capriciossa and Shirokiya
Pretty much whenever one of the JETs has a birthday, we all go to Crapriciossa for their huge carbohydrate birthday feast. This was no exception. After that we went to Shirokiya, a restaurant/karaoke bar and sang the night away.
|
|
Dec.06 2003: Dance Dance Revolution
Stephanie, our red-light district-living ALT invited folks over to her place for drinks and video-game dancing. I played the 'diet' version of the game, where it counts the calories lost (I'm trying to watch the figure). Once we got the dancing out of our systems, it was off to sing at La Festa karaoke bar.
|
|
Photo Archives: [2002-2003] Look at the old photos here and get that natsukashii feeling (from the members.fortunecity.com/tamenobu website)
|
