Glorious Tokyo

Here's a few more photos from Tokyo with some brief info about each. I tried to put each caption with its respective photo, but blogger is not very user-friendly in keeping everything lined up nicely.

*First photo is just a peak of some staff from the Imperial Palace in Tokyo bringing in one of the royal carriages. This is the best pic I could snap from our taxi. They were so stealthy, it all happened really quickly.

*Next two photos are the entrance to the famous Takeshita Street in Harajuku. When you hear Gwen Stefani raving about her fashion tastes and her "Harajuku girls", this is where all of those fashions originate. On weekends you can see hundreds of kids dressed up in "cosu-pure" (or Japan-English for "costume play") - everything from club kids to anime characters to Gothic-Lolita French maids. Hey - I'm hip, I'm with it. I can jive like that, mo-fo's...

*The next two photos are taken at the main drag in Omotesando, the popular shopping area just a short walk from Harajuku. Notice all of the cho-chin (paper lanterns) and Hino-Maru (Japanese flags) hanging all down the median - these were in celebration of Culture Day, yet another national holiday in Japan. It was originally derived from the Showa era emperor's birthday.

*Next is a view of Tokyo Tower from the infamous party district, Roppongi. On any given night here you'll see gai-jin from every corner of the world. Bars and nightclubs aplenty, but watch yourself a little more closely here - this is probably one of the seedier areas of Tokyo.

*Last but not least is a pic taken at dusk of the most recognizable intersection in the world, just outside of Shibuya Station. It's a swirling, chaotic maelstrom of lights, people, traffic, sounds, and color. Kind of like the nightclub scene in the movie "Babel".

Tokyo Last Hurrah

Here's a continuation of our travels last week. We made reservations at The New Sanno, an Armed Forces owned and run hotel in Hiroo, Tokyo a couple months ago (the reservations are that hard to get!) and stayed there from Tuesday night to Saturday morning. It was great and a little sad because it will be the last time I ever stay there. We met up with our good friends Jason and Yuko and their precious daughter Kasumi who were visiting from Misawa Air Base up in Aomori for a few days. We did a lot of sightseeing as well as celebration of Akemi's birthday. On her birthday night proper we went to Outback Steakhouse, where a troupe of cutie waitresses in various costumes sang her 'Happy Birthday' - ok, that's not very Japanese, but the night after we went out to a famous izakaya in Roppongi called Gonpachi. It belongs to a chain of theme restaurants, but there is no other like this one. It really looks like an old house, and most elements of the construction both inside and out are probably from previous disassembled antique buildings and structures. Inside looks like a village square with multiple little nooks and crannies for seating along with an extensive sashimi bar on the first floor. It's very cozy and homey (no shoes), and you're just waiting for ninjas to come crawling out of secret passageways! The food and drinks are typical izakaya-fare, with some dishes having fusion Asian-Western elements (such as the tomato-tori). Most items are fairly overpriced, but that's Tokyo for you - where every night is $8 beer night! No drinkin' with Lincoln there! Also during our trip to Tokyo we explored the Tsukiji market (site of the famous early-morning fish market - which we couldn't see because it was already 10am when we got there), Yokohama, and Harajuku/Omotesando. Here's a few pics from the festivities:

Birthday With The Fujios

Hey all! There's so much to update and so little time. Let me start with this past Saturday. We had a great dinner out with my in-laws at a really swank Chinese restaurant called Sairyu at the Yokohama Sheraton to celebrate jointly my and Akemi's birthday. Afterward we went over to Cheers for a Hoegaarden. I can now say that I've tried two exotic delicacies - awabi (abalone) and shark fin soup. I don't know what all the hubbub is all about. Both were extremely bland. They're exotic only because they're rare and expensive! Not something I would go out of my way to order again. As a surfer, I'm not that fond of sharks, but in the same instant I don't like the idea of them being slaughtered off solely for their fins! That's so wasteful, cruel, and indulgent, kind of like killing elephants for their tusks. I'll get off of my soapbox and post some pics. Until my next post...

Our Work Here Is Done

So Akemi's last official day teaching Bikram Yoga in Japan was this past Friday at the Machida studio. To celebrate I met up with her and several of her students/friends at Trafalgar British pub in Machida (Tokyo). Barowners Aki and Masa Nakayama took her class for the very first time that day to see what all the hubbub was about, then opened the pub early in honor of Akemi's last day. I think they were sorely remiss that they hadn't started taking yoga before, but I think they wore mostly just sore (hardee-har-har!). Here's a couple pics. Cheers ! (oh, and "namaste")...






BTW, I don't follow baseball so closely, but congrats to the Red Sox for pulling off another World Series! That team has a HUGE following here in Japan, so it was like seeing our hometeam win. Right on!

Out And About In Y-Town

On the evening of my return from the ship, Akemi and I met up in Yokohama after she got off work for a little mischief-making. Good fun on a school night! Check it out!

Captions for the pics below, from top to bottom:

*Life is good at "Stove's"
*Me and the Captain, makin' it happen!
*Who doesn't love sake?
*Japanese salarymen tying one on at a local ramen shack
*A rarity in Japan - a near-deserted street
*Psssst...hey you...interested in buying some used underwear?
*The Evil Empire, open 24 hours
*The best night cap in the world - beef bowl at Yoshinoya!

Sailing The Seven Seas

Or actually just one sea, the Pacific Ocean. This past week I actually got to be a real sailor and go TAD aboard America's only forward-deployed aircraft carrier, the USS Kitty Hawk, for a few days as she steamed for Hokkaido, Japan. What a great experience! Being at a shore command, I often forget in the midst of whiny family members that I'm actually part of an organization that really goes out there and fights wars. I treat these guys and gals everyday and never get a chance to see what they actually do - so this was quite a treat. And when they do flight ops, they're not playing around. Watching night touch and go's was surreal. The sky was full of thousands of stars and the only artificial light was that from the planes and a handful of lights on the flightdeck along with the glow-in-the-dark vests of the deck crew. The whole affair is choreographed like a ballet - nothing is out of place because if it is, people die. I got to witness quite a few other spaces on the ship and treated some patients as well, also an interesting experience as the ship rocked from side to side. I stayed in a stateroom with four other dudes, mostly young officers, so it was really more like a college dorm room. In fact some guys worked nightshifts, so the room was constantly dark like a cave. No problem, though, as I slept like a baby with the gentle sway of the ship. Since I am departing the Navy in December I'm really grateful that I had the chance to do this. Incidentally, the Kitty will be decommissioned next July. So fair winds and following seas!

Below are a few pics from my trip (the better of the ones I managed to snap off). If I were a real plane-geek, I'd tell you what kinds of aircraft you're looking at, but you can probably tell better than I can! On my last day, I rode a helo off the flight deck back to Yokosuka so there's also a couple pics from that trip as well. Enjoy...

Chiba Surf

Last week, 10-12 October, Akemi and I packed up our dogs and the surfboards and drove out to Chiba peninsula for a 2-day surf trip. We had a really great time. Akemi booked a lodge called Pochi House, a dog-friendly summer rental cottage only a block from the beach in an area called Kamagai. The lodge was actually big enough for 10-12 people (3 bedrooms), but since it's off-season now we got a really reasonable rate and we had it all to ourselves, and it included two dinners and two breakfasts prepared by the owner who is also a farmer. So we enjoyed the freshest local seafood and produce. Only down point was that the lodge had a small cockroach problem, so I affectionately dubbed it "Roachi House". The surf was great - it was like being back in Sandbridge, Virginia Beach - no waiting in traffic, no waiting for a parking spot, free parking, and no competition over waves. There were miles and miles of surf - more waves than anybody could ask for. The water was noticeably cleaner as well. That area is all sandy-bottom beach breaks, unlike Shonan area near us which is partial reef-break and has a lot of tannic acid in the water from all the seaweed. The surf was pretty choppy, but in the waist-to-shoulder size range with enough power and speed for a shortboard. I got to put my 6'2" board to good use for once. Here's a couple pics from the lodge. Sorry - no photos of the beach because we were busy surfing and keeping the chihuahuas out of trouble...

Saturday, In The Park...

"It must have been the Fourth of July!" (cue the trumpets) Well, no, not really, but last Saturday my clinic staff did throw a little impromptu, non-mandatory, non-Navy related BBQ at one of the seaside gazebos on base. A good time was had by all! Highlights included a stunt ala Jackass involving yakitori and circling seahawks, and an informal Capoeira (Brazilian dance/martial art) demonstration courtesy of HM1 Wyche and HN Purdy, both good kids. Check out the photos...

At The Movies

Here's reviews of two movies I've seen recently through Netflix, one keeper and one stinker...


Fantastic 2005 documentary about the American Quadrapalegic Rugby Team and their fight for the gold at the 2004 ParaOlympic Games in Athens. Don't let the title throw - this is a thorough, heartfelt look at these guys confined to wheelchairs for a variety of reasons, how they've come to terms with their situation, and how they've made the best of their lives despite the fact. You don't feel sorry for them at all; what you do feel is deep admiration and respect. These guys kick ass! The "stars", if you will, are Mark Zupan, the team captain, and Joe Soares, the coach of the Canadian team, once also a star on the American team who "defected" to the Great White North after he was booted off the American team because he was getting older and could no longer make the cut. He's the film's adversary (but not really because you get to see his softer side) - and his story is bigger than life; a writer couldn't have come up with a better script if this were fictional! The movie also shows some kids with recent injuries that have permanently paralyzed them and how they make it through recovery. You'll never again take being able to bend down and tie your shoe laces for granted ever again! I won't give away the ending, so definitely rent (or buy) this one!


This movie is a big turd! I don't know how consistently-decent director Richard Linklater ("Slacker", "Dazed and Confused", "Before Sunrise / Sunset", "School Of Rock") managed to have taken a phenomenal book and totally destroyed it. I think the big problem is that he took a book that is essentially a documentary and turned it into a mostly-fictional drama. It doesn't work, and most of the salient points of the book are lost on the general audience. If you happened to have read the book, you may pick up on subtle points conveyed in the movie, but for the most part this film is only complementary to the book and doesn't stand on its own two legs. This movie is also bloated with big name stars (e.g. Bruce Willis, Suzanne Arquette, Ethan Hawke), which are totally wasted in trite parts. I think it was just a vehicle for most of them to say "hey, look at me, I'm vegetarian and I'm a better person than you because of it". Well, I say the acting sucked, with the exception of Greg Kinnear who can do no wrong, and the plot was a big piece of crap. Go read the book and forget that this movie ever existed! Better yet, check out "Supersize Me", a hilarious look at the horror we know as McDonalds, and "Thank You For Smoking", Big Corporate America's perspective on us, The Sheep. Both films are infinitesimally better than this steaming pile. 'Nuff said.

West Of Jesus

I just finished an incredible book that I highly recommend called "West Of Jesus" by Steven Kotler. No, this isn't some cheesy contemporary-Christian b.s. Kotler is actually Jewish. This book is about: surfing/surf movies, Lyme disease, radiohead, Eastern religions/yogic arts in the U.S., near-death/out of body experiences, sports medicine, government weather control experiments, Joseph Campbell and his theories on the "hero" archetype, Maori/Polynesian culture, and neuroscience. Confused yet? Actually, all is relative; that becomes apparent in this book. This book is essentially about the origins of spirituality, how and why we perceive spirituality and mortality, and how one journalist goes to the ends of the earth to investigate these topics concomitantly through his love of surfing. Not unlike "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell (which Kotler also references), this book totally captured my interest and imagination from cover to cover. I have never read such an intelligent piece on surfing, religion, and philosophy, and how it relates to our human condition. But don't think that you have to enjoy surfing to appreciate this book. There's so much more to it. Kotler loves, respects, fears, and is behumbled by the sport, and ultimately recovers from Lyme disease through it. I can relate to his passion for it; I love surfing too, have loved it since high school when I taught myself how to surf. Funny thing is, I was never a "surfer" in high school. Being that I graduated from a high school only 3 blocks from the beach, surfers ruled the school, and the majority of them were mean-spirited, arrogant, snotty little shits. Quentin Tarantino summed it up best in his description of the epic surf film, "Big Wednesday", in which he stated "this movie is too good for surfers", meaning that the film was so good, surfers didn't deserve to call it their own; you see Tarantino grew up in Southern California where he and his friends were tormented by surfers. But, back to the point, this book really got me thinking about why we as a culture get locked into certain mental pathways/mindsets, and what shapes our thought processes. If you like this book, you also need to watch "What The 'Bleep' Do We Know". It'll blow your mind...............dude.



(In the photo above, the man on the left is none other than Mr. Pipeline, Gerry Lopez, the man who conquered Hawaii's Bonzai Pipeline. Bit of trivia - he had small roles in the films "Big Wednesday" and "Conan The Barbarian", directed by surfer/director John Milius)

Recent Ramblings - Pt. 2

OK, so here's the second part to last week's post. Last Sunday, we took a trip to a town in Yokohama called Kawasaki. Akemi was actually born there. First, we visited an area called Kawasaki-Daishi, site of a huge temple not unlike the one in Asakusa, Tokyo. Then, we walked around a massive shopping mall called Lazona, which had just about every brand-named store you can imagine, but was a complete 3-ring circus since the next day was yet another Japanese holiday. Geez, how many Japanese holidays are there? Way more than our piddly 10 little crappy federal holidays in the U.S., the nation that actually gives it's citizens the least number of vacation days compared to the rest of the world. Wake up Americans - we're being robbed of our precious time off! No wonder so many people call in "sick" on a regular basis. The holiday on 24 September was in celebration of the Vernal Equinox. Can you believe they actually get a day off from work in observance of the planetary start of autumn? What kind of bogusness is that? Anyway, I diverge. By that time, it was beer o'clock, so we quenched our thirst at The Tavern, a Japanese chain of British pubs, then headed to an izikaya called Amataro, located on the 29th floor of an office building near the train station. Akemi had worked there many years ago and was curious to see how it had changed. I was really impressed. We had a counter seat along the window, giving us a gorgeous view of the sunset over the city. And like all technological conveniences in Japan, this place featured a personal computer tablet from which you could place your order. No need to track down a waiter if you don't need to. God bless 'em!

Check out these pics, fool!