moisture dessert

moisture dessert?

interesting... moisture dessert?! is actually an aloe yogurt drink mix and quite tasty. usually sold in small yogurt containers but this is a small pack with a built in straw so you can suck out the yogurt. quite tasty!

lake at the top of Hakone!

Hakone!

A quick pit stop after half a day of hard biking up the mountains of Hakone! underestimated the hills and am much needing the pit stop. Interesting thing is the lake which is almost at the top of Mt. Hakone. Is not a huge lake but a good size one with strange ferry boats shuttling people back and forth.

by the sea, by the sea!

by the sea, by the sea!

this would be about 70km into the trip on day one on the Shonan coast of Japan near Oiso long beach. A nice view of the clear blue Pacific ocean! there was a nice cycling road which we were able to travel for 5-10km which made it a nice ride!

0km point: ride to Aichi

ride to Aichi prefecture

took off for Aichi-prefecture in hopes of perhaps catching the World Expo in Nagoya. approximately 350km to go and 4 days of biking... this is the ride for the trip there, my trusty Trek mountain bike.

graveyard...?

graveyard

was out hiking in Tokyo and came upon this graveyard... miles and miles. this is just one picture but neat little rows of tombstones.

car park

car park

Tokyo is known for it's compactness and small living spaces. The city was not made for cars but was designed hundred of years ago. I guess that when some people made their garages they must have made the garage first without thinking about how big the car would be. Hence the car being too big for the garage (this is a Camry sized car...) with just the nose sticking out and not being able to close the garage door complely.

3 holes in your nose?

nose pic

another interesting ad on the subway advertising 'Rexena' deodorant...

Big Pipes!

big pipes

was at the Omotesando crossing and there were some construction men carrying these big pipes down the street... click on the picture and I think you can see a little bit better. Was a little bit late in taking the shot but you can still see the grey pipes being carried by the construction workes.

Tokyo tower

tokyo tower

Just a shot of the tower from the opposite side as I usually see it from (although it looks the same from all sides... ) you can see the cherry blossoms at the bottom. Nothing fancy, just thought it was a nice shot. Due to the angle I was not even able to get all 333 meters of the tower in the picture. It is set on a hill which makes it even harder when you are below...

raining sakura!

raining sakura!

can you see a pattern? this is a road right beside Shiba park in central Tokyo. I went bike riding around as the weather was perfect and this road has sakura trees lining both sides. There were some gusts of wind which were blowing the cherry blossom petals off the trees and making it look like it was snowing cherry blossoms. Kind of hard to see in the picture, wish I could have taken a video and posted but just another enjoyable aspect of spring in Japan.

Yoyogi park hanami

yoyogi hanami

Another sign of spring and a spring ritual is the hanami (flower viewing) sessions! people all come out, lay out the blue plastics tarps and generally socialize, chat, drink it up and just use the beautiful sakura cherry blossoms as an excuse to get out and have a good time! It was super crowded in Yoyogi park but well worth the visit especially since friends had already saved the spot since 8am. Went out and just enjoyed the party atmosphere.

rooftop futsal!

futsal

was invited to play some futsal today and was great! it's like soccer on a tennis court sized area so pretty fast paced and tiring. There are some rooftop courts like this one which are pretty cool, got some good exercise and sun, especially after the drinking/karaoke session from the night before. it's alllll good.

walk to the station

walk to station

here's the daytime view of the same street... as you can see spring is in the air and the cherry blossoms (sakura trees) are in full bloom. too bad it only lasts such a short time...

spring! night time sakura!

spring!

you know it's spring when the sakura (cheery blossoms) are in bloom in tokyo! this is a night time shot, the whole street on the way to the station is lined with sakura trees and they have hung lanterns for the max effect during this time which makes it nice to walk home under an umbrella of sakura even at night. is nice to be able to walk home and enjoy the scenery after a long work day...