From the park to the center - Old stuff

In the same area as the cool Fiat I showed you before was this coin parking area. Nice view eh?  Apparently the owners of the lot think so to and advertise it on their sign.  It says, " Osaka Castle visible Times Parking."

A walk around - flowers, parking, and bricks

 A little while ago we talk another walk that started at the park again.  All the vegetation vendors were out again in full force-

A first in Japan

Not a huge update but still important!  Chili is hard to find in Japan.   Very hard.  Good cheddar cheese for melting or already melted is ten times harder.  So you can imagine how happy I was to find some of the latter at an import shop.  Combined with some IKEA hot dogs, buns,french fries and homemade chili we had a very nostalgic dinner-

First date in a loooong time

For some reason or another both Yukino and I had the day off work.  And, Aki was at school.  This was our first time in a looooonng time to be along without him.  With a beautiful day outside we rode through the park....

New Supa

Until I came to Japan the idea of a Grand Opening was something I had only seen in movies or cartoons.  Here they are a big event.  I haven't been to one because quite frankly I don't care unless it is a Ferrari shop giving stuff away like free cars.  People go nuts for grand openings here and flock to the nearest new shopping mall to see all the shops they have probably seen elsewhere.  For a week or two after people still file in to get a look at all the new stuff.

In our case we went to the new supermarket a few minutes away that had opened a few days prior-

JHS Graduation

I am not sure how it is in other countries but people take privacy seriously in Japan and people tend to go to great measures to hide themselves and others on the internet.  It is common to see people blurring faces or putting something across the eyes.  Putting pictures up of students is a big no no and even got me in trouble a few years ago.  I would love to show everyone what it is like to work at a JHS and ES in Japan but I just dont have the time to blur that many faces.  Students who have already graduated though..... Fair game.

The ceremony was typically dry and boring as they always are.  A few speeches took place before all the students go up on stage to get their diploma.  Everyone is quiet.  Then people line up outside for all the graduating students to pass by-

This is Aki's blog too

I do post a lot of pictures of Aki but he IS the largest part of my life now so I think that is reasonable.  Here are some pics that I think I didn't send out to family-

Kanjo Racer Meeting

A new friend of mine invited me out to a late night car meeting near the water.  Hosted by Osaka JDM, the famous tuner and maker of Honda parts, a surprisingly eclectic collection of cars were there.  The main reason I came was to see a slice of Japanese history which you too can see near the bottom.

This early generation Fairlady on Osaka JDM wheels looked beautiful-

Shiga Haikyo Day Trip - not so abandoned mine and tea house

We had given up on the three places to the east.  There just wasn't any time.  We turned around and headed back with the hopes of finding just one more place.  As we were about to head into one of the many mile (or 10) long tunnels Florian asked me to stop and go back a bit.  I can't remember if he saw a sign or the actual place but we ended up here-

Shiga Haikyo Day Trip - Disappointment

The next place on the itinerary was one or two abandoned power stations over the mountains to the east.  Florian had mentioned there might be snow but that didn't mean much to me.  I had 4WD....  There are a few roads over the mountains and we took the one that would take us straight to the area we were headed to.  The road started as a one lane road.  Not a good sign.  Then it started going up the mountain with countless switchbacks.  Not a good sign.  I had to stop every ten seconds or so to remove rocks from the road.  Not good at all.  After a while we had reached the top though and found a bunch of elderly hikers doing there thing.  Even a scooter came up behind us.  Seeing people on this abandoned road made me feel better.  We crested the mountain and headed down and were immediately greeted with snow.  Just a little though so it didn't bother me.  And then more snow.  And some more.  The road was so narrow and steep there was absolutely no turning around.  We pushed on as the front lip in the bumper slowly started to act as a plow.  We passed people that I would soon curse in my head later.  We slowly pushed and slide on down the road as a cliff on the left side was trying to push me into the river on the right.  No guardrails for this prefecture!  A small barrier of snow was the only thing keeping me from sliding off.  Then it happened. We got stock.  In the middle of absolute nowhere with no reception.  I kindly asked Florian to get out and push.  After a while we did manage to get out.  I felt a little better.

We got stuck just up the road from here-