The Lake

Several hours on a train and a short walk later left us looking down this forest path. My friend told me that somewhere down there was a valley with a lake and a waterfall. Neat! We followed this trail for awhile which ended abruptly at a stair case that led far far down, but was blocked off with "Danger! Closed due to Typhoon" signs. Woooops!!!!!

So instead of the direct path down, we had to walk down this winding road. Since cars had to drive down, it wasn't very steep and just winded its way down. Grrr! Here is a photo of lowest curve of the road that kind of zig-zagged its way down:


After complaining of the 30 minute or so walk we had to take, we finally reached our destination and saw this beautiful waterfall running down this rock wall!


A little further down the road we finally get a view of the lake. Wow!!!

All that walking made me hungry, so we went to a restaurant there to have lunch. They were serving fresh fish from the lake and here's the meal that I ordered. Pay special attention to the item on the top-right corner:
That is the sashimi dish. But what they had done was take a freshly caught fish, cut it up sashimi style, then put the sashimi BACK into the fish, and put the whole fish onto the plate! So the fish was staring right back at me as I was picking away at its flesh eating it! Yikes!

Here's a picture after I finished eating the sashimi of the remaining fish:

After Lunch, we headed down to the lake. Apparently you can rent boats and go row across it! So we did! There was a great waterfall that we rowed to:


A little bridge crosses over this narrow part of the stream. Here's a picture of the bridge from far below:


And here's a picture from the bridge of the boats below:

I have to say that THIS was a scenic place! I was really impressed. The pictures really don't do the place justice!

Fortuitous Series of Events

My carpool buddy and I like to make bets. The bet is always for who is going to treat who to ice cream that day. But mainly, it's just a good excuse to ditch work and get Ice Cream!

There's a new Costco (her favorite store!) opening in Irvine, and we had driven by the day before and noticed it was opening this week. I thought the sign said it was opening on the 9th (Saturday) and she thought it said it was opening on the 7th (Thursday).

We made a bet on who was right for Ice Cream.

So today we were leaving work late and I was thinking, "gee it's late and i have to go find some food to eat still, this sucks!" We decided since it was late anyway, we would drive by the costco to see who won the bet.

I mentioned... Oooh we should get Churros while we're there!!!! (They sell freshly baked churros at costco). But then saddly we realized, it doesn't open for a few more days :( So we knew we wouldn't be getting churros!

So we drive by, and oddly enough there are a bunch of police officers whisking cars into the parking lot with big signs that said "Costco VIPs enter here!" She gloated, "you see!!! It's opening tomorrow!!! Look at all these people already here." I said, "I dont admit defeat yet! I still haven't seen the sign yet!"

So we got to the store -- the parking lot was PACKED, and sure enough it was opening on the 7th! Damn, I guess I was buying next time :(. But then we wondered... what's going on with this Costco VIP stuff??? Can we sneak in????

So we walked up and pretended we had been invited. Just outside the door was a Coffee Bean and Tea leaf stand. They were offering free blended Mocha, Vanilla, and chocolate drinks! Neat! Even if we couldn't go inside we'll grab a free mocha!

So as we were wandering about, we figured why dont we just show our membership card and try to sneak into the store? So we kind of just strolled in through the door!

Inside, the store was brightly lit and there were free food stands EVERYWHERE. They had Meatballs, Pasta, Hot Wings, Macaroni Salad, Vegetable Platters, Carnitas, Beef Stew, Refried Beans, Spanish Rice, Tamales, Hot Dogs, Pepperoni and Supreme Pizza, Chicken Bake, Spicy Sausages, Ice Cream, Cheese Cake, Chocolate Cake, Cream Puffs, Sodas, Coffee... It was a veritable BUFFET in there!!!

Boy did we chow down! Free food! So dinner was taken care of which was great! And then what did we spy out of the corner of our eye? They were giving out free Churros!!!!! SWEEET! I didnt think we would get any but there they were... and they were FREE!

On the way out we ran into the Danon Activa people, who were handing out free yogurt. So we each got three tubs of yogurt to go! Nice!

All in all, it was a cool surprise. Had we not made the bet, or left late and decided to verify the bet, we would have totally missed out on a free meal! And it was GOOD too. Costco sells some of THE best tasting food! Yum!

So today I lost a bet, but it was worth it!

Pension Day 2

Another place we got to visit was the monkey show!!! Say hello to the lil monkey!

He can jump over stairs on his hands!

He can use Stilts!!!

And really BIG stilts!!! Wow!

After the little diversion, we were back at the pension for dinner #2. Keep in mind all the food below is included in the ~$80.00 a night room. Wow what a deal!

This time we started off with a little mixed salad with sashimi:


Followed by scallops with fried lotus root:

And a creamy soup:

Beef stew and rice:

Dessert was mixed fruit with sorbet. The fruits were just amazing!!!

The next morning, we got served an American style breakfast:

These pensions have to be one of the best deals in Japan!

A horse is a horse of course of course...

I asked my friend, "ok what's up today?"

"We're going to check out some scenery. There's this really beautiful area here to see!"

"Cool!" I said.

So off to the train station. You know the train station is Ghetto when you actually have to walk across the tracks to get to the platform. All the real train stations have over / underpasses since trains come by so often you don't have time to get NEAR the track!


You also know you are at the Ghetto train station when there are no electric cables above it. Most of the trains in Japan are electric. These trains are Diesels!


The scenery on the train was nice. Here are a few pictures out the window. These are the horses that we ate.. *sniff*. I told my friend that I was sad for eating a horse, and he said he didn't care. I asked him, don't they look so cute there?? And he said... SO???


These are the cows that we ate. *Sniff*. OK I'll still eat them though.

So we finally arrive to where we wanted to go. And I saw this.

Uhmmm... Ok, is it me or did he just tell me that we were going to see some beautiful areas of Japan???? We ended up in a yellow field littered with horse poop, with a black lake in the middle. Uhm.... HUH???

So we look at the travel guide one more time. The pictures show this field lush and green and wonderful. What happened???? Oh we were here too early! It only becomes green by June!!!!! OOOPS!!!!!

But this made up for it. That's the horse I got to ride. He provided me with one of the best moments of the trip!


I asked my friend again... "Look at that horse. Don't you feel bad that you ate it???" He said, "Nope not at all". And I asked him.. "would you eat that horse? The one that you just RODE?" He said, "ok not this one. But I'll eat any of the others!" Boooooo....

On to the story. So throughout the ride my horse was always behind. Here's a picture through the horses ears. That's my friend Fu up ahead.

Near the end of the trip, we stopped to let the horses have a drink of water:

And then we continued out. Here is my friend Fu being really happy showing the Victory sign. That smile on his face did not last for long.

Another view through the horses ears. As you notice -- Fu is not in front of us. Where is fu?

Well BEHIND us of course. My horse decided he was going to run up ahead just at the last minute. What happened then? I heard this sound.

Tooooot... Toooot....

"Was the train driving by?"

Fffftttt. Tooooot..... BRRrrRRBbpbppbpbpbbptttttttt

"Hmmm what's going on????"

From behind me I hear, "AAAUUUGGHHGH!!!!!! DID YOUR HORSE JUST FART!?!?! O M G!!!!! *cough cough cough* AAauuuggh! This is HORRIBLE!"

HAHAHAHAHAHAhahahahaha oohhhhh that was a wonderful moment. I patted my horse on the neck and said Good Horse!!! That is payback for everything he said about eating the horses!!! LoL. My horse ROCKS.

He ran ahead JUST so he could lay a good one on my friend :D. One of the best moments of the trip!

Boot Camp!

Today was another successful Boot Camp with Vanessa! This time I brought my carpool / lab partner from work with me. She was such a trooper because lunch gave her a bad stomach ache (she was doubled over in pain while at work and continued to have it throughout bootcamp). I told her to not go, but she wouldn't quit and ran through the entire boot camp without complaints! Yikes! She's way tougher than me is all I can say!


Thanks Vanessa for inviting me to come by. Doing the exercises SUCKS royally. But I feel really accomplished every time we finish! (Although I'm itchy all over now!) It's all worth it. Plus I get to see 'Nessa and that's always a bright spot in the day!

The Second Pension

Another train ride and we arrive at Uchinomaki station. I'm finally starting to feel better now, thank goodness! Here's a picture at the station. The guy next to me is the owner of the next Pension that we went to. For $85.00 he picked us up from the train station (and took us back each day so we could go sight seeing), cooked us dinner, breakfast, and provided us a room to stay in. He did everything himself!


The pension was nestled in the middle of a beautiful forest. Here are some pictures of the road leading to the place.

A little bit further down the road:

And this is the pension itself:

I think Jordan wanted to see some beds!!! Here you go Jordan! This was our room. We were the only ones there so he gave us the largest room! It was massive with room for 5, a little living room area, and our own bathroom.
Dinner that night was great! It was also the first meal that I could actually taste after being sick. The first course is a salad dish pictured below. It was an extremely tasty salad of mixed greens, salmon, and sashimi meat. The meat tasted great. I thought it was beef at first, but after tasting it it was obvious that it wasn't beef. I later learned it was horse, which I really wouldn't want to eat :(! But it did taste good. This region we were in is apparently famous for their horse and cattle.


The next dish is the obligatory fish dish that comes with every meal:

Followed by a steak that came from the locally raised cattle. It was extremely juicy and delicious!

Dessert was some kind of pudding. Yum!

Loot!

Last week I had dinner with Cindy to return her ahem... "Goodies" and I received some goodies in return! Cindy got me a whole set of Terra Cotta warriors. This was cool because I was looking for something to take pictures of with the new camera. So here are a few of shots. You can click them for larger versions:

One Warrior Standing Tall:


The whole group of warriors and the horse:

While I was taking this shot unfortunately there was a sudden gust of wind, which blew over the guy on the right :(. He didn't survive, but at least I got this pic!


Cindy also gave me a choice of shot glasses for the olympics next year. I got the Weightlifting one!



Thanks Cindy, these were sweet gifts! I had a lot of fun photographing them. Sorry one of the warriors fell off the shelf while I was taking its picture :(.