In anticipation of some B/C work in Niseko, we went to Takino Suzuran park in Southeast Sapporo on Saturday to try out snowshoeing. We caught the subway down to Makomanai and got on the same bus line that heads to the Geijitsu no Mori (art/sculpture garden). Takino is a Natonal-Government-run park offering various activities year-round. In winter there are XC ski trails, a tiny one-lift ski/board slope, a tube/sled park, and snowshoe trails. The snow as coming down pretty heavy in the morning. There was easily 10-15cm of unsettled fall overnight. The snowshoe and poles were free. They had pretty nice hardware – Tubbs shoes and BD poles! Continue reading ‘Stay out of the Moors…’
Archive for the 'Culture' Category
Page 36 of 37
If you’ve been listening to 101.1 Japanese FM, you might have noticed that they have been off-air since last week. The station blog entry for Friday the 8th. indicates that an equipment failure has renderd the station dead for the time being. Hopefully they’ll be up and running again soon.
Okay, as of Thursday 14 February morning, they are back on line. I was wondering if they were going to pull a 99.7 and just up and close without warning…
After watching the disappointing first half of the Hawaii-Georgia Sugar Bowl game, I started flipping back and forth to the one-day-late KIKU-TV telecast of the Kohaku Uta-Gassen. There wasn’t anything good per-se, but it reinforced some judgements that I had from before: Continue reading ’58th Annual Kohaku Uta-Gassen’
Hooray! Christmas has past and 101.1 FM has ceased playing horrible xmas music all day. Back to natsukashii J-pop…
SeaLaunch Odyssey was at Pier 10, Honolulu Harbour on Monday. It had been on station to launch the Thuraya-3 Satellite, but they experienced weather issues that forced them to scrub the launch. Thuraya-3 will extend Thuraya coverage into Asia beyond “the sandbox”.
Odyssey is the launch platform for the SeaLaunch system. It was built upon a very large oil drilling platform, and then supersized. Driving past on nimitz there is no way you could miss this, its HUGE. They were just in for a day to get fuel, and were gone by the end of the day.
SeaLaunch has had a difficult year. In January, they had a serious malfunction of the launch vehicle, resulting in the complete destruction of the blast shield. It was replaced in Hong Kong, and this launch would have been the first since the accident.
I’ll warn you in advance that this is going to sound mysogynistic…
Very mysogynistic.
At what age do women stop being people and become cows? Continue reading ‘Herd of Selfish Cows?’
Through the wonders of the Net, I’ve been able to watch the first episode of the live action TV series just days after it aired in Japan. I’m not quite sure what to think yet. I don’t think Hideaki Anno had anything to do with this incarnation, I believe its directed by a dude responsible for a bunch of current modern tokusatsu Kamen Rider shows. Perhaps its best going in not knowing anything and entering with an open, blank mind. But with how many versions its been through and originating from the mind of Go Nagai, how can an J-pop culture otaku not. Continue reading ‘Cutey/ie Honey The Live’
So after the Thunderbird’s show (a slight letdown as the weather hampered the performance) Derek and I hoofed it back on foot from Hale Koa to Ala Moana Shopping Center where we had parked. We knew better than to attempt to drive into Waikiki on this day of chaos what with a parade in the morning and the airshow in the afternoon. We easily beat the auto traffic going into Waikiki, and now returning the traffic was hellacious in both directions. Aside from the heat (or rather the stiffling humidty) it was an easy walk, we made it back to Ala Moana around 4:15PM. So now we pondered the question of whether we wanted to go to the Autumn Okinawa Dance Matsuri final bon dance of 2007 at the Hawaii Okinawa Center in Waipio. Continue reading ‘Traffic is Stop!’
After a quick meal at Islands Burgers, we huffed it over to the Hale Koa Hotel, where my sister had a ocean facing room. There were thousands of people everywhere, all fighting the gloomy weather to catch the final show celebrating the US Air Forces’ 60th anniversary. Started posting up some images at the gallery. It was unfortunate that the low cloud cover really limited what they could perform, but still worth the effort!
Heading out to Japan tomorrow afternoon. Yeah, I know – I haven’t posted stuff about the Whistler MTB trip yet! I got a lot of it done, but I want to put it up all at once so it’s all chronological and not broken up by other posts.Â
I’ll be catching an overnight bus to Utoro a couple of hours after my plane arrives in Chitose, so whatever I have when I get off the plane is what I’ll have to deal with lugging around the woods for the next 4 days! I’ll overnight there then head to Rausu where I’ll overnight. There will be some onsen along the way, I think some unimproved outdoor ones too! Not sure if nay of the overnight places will have onsen though. I’ll head to Abashiri the next day, then head back to Asahikawa for the night. I will return to Sapporo the following evening and fly back here the evening after.
I have a very minimal kit this time, so everything is packed in a small klettersack. I’m hoping the weather is cool so I don’t get all sweaty – I have a pair of BDU shorts in case it gets warm. I won’t have any time to do laundry when I get back to Sapporo, so I will be wearing the least stinky stuff on the plane ride back.  Â