Nikko

Happy New Year! Well back in October, we went to Nikko with two other couples. It is a scenic town in the mountains a few hours drive from our house. It's known for its cool weather, fall colors, shrines, and temples. These photos from my camera give a nice summary of our trip.

The river right by our bed & breakfast. It had a private sauna with windows overlooking the river.


Several stone lanterns in front of a shrine.


The tallest pagoda in Nikko.


The famous "Here no evil, speak no evil, see no evil" monkeys carved into a shrine.


Mimicry at it's best.


Another shrine (or maybe it's a temple?). You can see the tall cedars as well.


In a Japanese garden. The Japanese maples produce the most unbelievably red leaves.


Orange, green, yellow...


The view from an old emperor's summer home.


An abandoned bus, which is a rare site in Japan as they keep things really clean.


Buddas galore. Looks like they're ready for some ribs with all their bibs.


A waterfall in the mountains. The trees here already lost all their leaves.


A bridge that is a union of two serpents that allowed a priest to cross the river.


The gingko. The best yellow of all the trees.


A Japanese garden. They often have a stone water container for cleansing one's hands. I like the chain link rain gutter.

Yokohama

I'm behind as usual. Two months ago we went to Yokohama with 2 other couples. We took the metro train from here, to Tokyo, then to Yokohama. Yokohama is unique in that it is more modern and more international than other cities in Japan. Highlights include:

The Landmark Tower (the tallest building in Japan) which also has the fastest elevator in the world.


The Waterfront (Landmark Tower is the skyscraper on the left)


Yes, we rode the ferris wheel.


Oktoberfest! With a real German band and super expensive beers.


With singing in German.

ROBO Japan 2008, which had all the famous robots on display with also some tournament Robowars. Below is a video of Honda's Asimo robot, which can run and go up and down stairs like a human.

Here's the winners and some other contestants from Robowars. The robots were required to be bipedal, and the strategy usually involved swinging the arms in order to knock over the opponent.


The Sankeien Garden, which was a bunch of restored historic buildings and landscaping around this large pond. Here's some of my best shots.


This plant (the Sweet Olive or Fragrant Tea Olive) possessed such a heavenly fragrance, we bought one for our courtyard soon after arriving home.


And the food and good times with our friends.

Our Courtyard

Our house has a small courtyard in front, that originally was just pea gravel and dirt. I've been waiting a while to have a small yard of my own to landscape. I appreciate the Japanese way of gardening, and I tried to model mine after it. The traditional Japanese garden has roots centuries ago with the tea ceremony. The garden was where you walk through to clear your mind or collect your thoughts or something, on your way to the tea ceremony. The plants tend to be evergreens or grasses of Asian origin and will usually mimic nature in the layout.


I built the pond, which I would estimate it to be about 200 gallons, so on the small side. I've stocked it with koi, goldfish, mosquito fish, white cloud minnows, bitterlings, Japanese dojo eels, and a couple turtles.


I didn't realize how much landscaping costs. It feels weird paying for rocks. But when you live in the city, you can't just gather some from the surrounding area. I tried to stick with smaller plants and items on sale, so it kept my costs to under $500.

Our New Car

It's called a Suzuki Lapin. It's only sold in Japan. I would call it a cross between a Scion xB and a Mini. Very cute, but not too bubbly that a guy can't be seen driving it. This will act as our car until we need 2 cars, which may be never. It depends on where Candice ends up working. Then I'll get to pick my car... fun times.


It's classified as a "mini-car" in Japan. Because of it's small size, weight, and engine (60 cc believe it or not), it gets reduced rates for taxes and random fees. But this thing can haul... a lot of packages. And WOW! Look at those rims! They've got to be 12's or something!

Married!

Below is our website we used for the invites. Sorry if you didn't get invited, because it was a blast! We don't have many pics available now, but I'll post some soon.... 'er or later.

http://www.andyandcandy.info/

Wonderful Worms

This entry is an ode to thee grand ol' worm. Whenever it rains, so many of these fantastic fellows lose their way onto the sidewalk and street. Then it's a race against time. Will they make it home before the weather turns nice?


Check out this video about an effort to save lost worms.

Wayward Worms Video

If you don't know what's going on here, you'd probably be too grossed out if I explained it.

On of the grossest things I've ever seen was this woman with a high fever in Haiti. When the body heated up, the worms started squirming for the fire exit. She started coughing up a multitude of worms that were crawling up her throat.

UNREAL!

Check this out and be amazed. You may want to turn down your sound if straight up beats annoy you. Click the center to get it started, then click anywhere to stop.

Trippin'

Japan

Just when I was getting excited about moving to Japan after seeing this video portraying their amazing talent, I found out that the Air Force is going to keep me in Korea for a couple more months. Looks like we'll be moving there in early September.

Moustach March

Here's the result of 3 weeks of work (I absent mindedly forgot of Moustach March the 1st week). It's a sorry 'stach, I know. My philtrum happens to have my blondest hair. We're all supposed to grow them. Here's my boys...

Engage

Sorry for the late post here. I wanted to write about the rest of time in Thailand, which was too daunting of a task that I kept putting off. So I'll write about it in several smaller, manageable posts. I'll start with the big news...

My girlfriend Candice met me in Thailand after my work with the Air Force. On Valentine's Day, we were supposed to be in Cambodia at Angkor Wat, which is where I planned on popping the big question. But I came across trouble at the border. The Thai immigration officials wouldn't let me across the border. Because I flew into Thailand on a military aircraft, my passport had no Thai entry stamp. Even though I had a letter from the US embassy explaning my situation, and immigration spoke with an embassy liaison, they wouldn't let me across. So with a quick change of plans, we headed back to Bangkok.

The next day was Valentine's Day, and we went and visited the old palace and a couple temples which were simply amazing. I'll talk more about that later. That evening, we got a Thai massage and went to eat at The Breeze restaurant (http://www.breezebkk.com/index.php and http://www.bangkok.com/what%27s-new/breeze.html) which is on a rooftop terrace on the State Tower. With a call beforehand, I ensured we would have a nice table, and the Breeze pulled through with our table sitting on a private semicircle on the roof's edge.


After some romantic prologue and nearly knocking over the table getting to my knee, I opened the ring box and asked Candice to spend the rest of her life with me. She was shocked, and couldn't say a word but gave me a big tearful hug. She was looking forward to this day.

We plan to have our wedding in San Diego where her family lives. It'll likely be July 19th, which is after she finishes her internship and after I finish my year here in Korea. Right after, we'll move to JAPAN!!! I don't think I've posted this yet, but next assignment will be at Yokota Air Base, which is right by Tokyo. Candice and I are both really looking forward to this. She is half-Japanese herself (and half-Chinese) and even has relatives in Japan. After my assignment there, we'll probably move back to the West Coast and finish our residencies.

On the way out, the State Tower had this huge, sweet aquarium. In it, I saw the most beautiful fish I've ever seen...