GlobeTrotter: April 2008

Hey everyone, just arrived back in Japan yesterday and I know you're all eager to see the pics.......but you're not gonna see them just yet! As you know the last few months were very busy for us and this blog was somewhat neglected, with my last real post written at Christmas. So this is going to be my last blog here, covering the winter I had in Japan leading up to our trip back home. After this I will create a new blog site for Aki and myself (coz it's no longer just about me), so I'll let you know when that happens....hopefully within the next week........

JANUARY - The new year started with a bang in Japan. This time I couldn't have the standard big night, as we were taking off early the next morning, but still had a great time. Mark and Hiroshi came down on NY Eve, and we mucked around a bit, but we were all nursing hangovers from the previous nights partying in our respective hoods (mine being our Burnin' Basketball Bounenkai), so the alcohol was going down a bit slow. After an evening of eating, drinking and watching K-1, Mark and Hiroshi headed into Tokyo to try and carry on, while Aki and I went to Yamashita Park to watch the fireworks, then went to Chinatown where Chinese firecrackers were going off like gunshots all over the place. Funniest moment of the night was on our way home, where we saw a salaryman (in his suit) sitting between two concrete blocks with his pants round his ankles taking a dump.....absolutely disgusting to shit in a public place!....anyway, after he's done he's trying to pull up his pants and walk away at the same time, only to trip over and fall into a pond! Hilarious stuff, wish I had my camera ready coz it would've been a hit on youtube.

Yamashita-koen at NY'08; Burnin' Basketball & Raja's Baseball team bounenkai

The next day we headed off with Aki's family to Yamanashi for skiing and tramping. It was the same drill and place as last year so I won't repeat it all, but still had a lot of fun.

Fun at karaoke; Hiking; Mt.Fuji & Laka Yamanaka at sunset

Brad, Stan came for a weekend. It was great fun, especially the amazing haka performed by Stan (sorry Stan, it's too funny not to show!). We went to Akihabara, which was an eye-opener for them (first time), with all the stramge characters.

The "Infamous Stan Haka"; Brad in his bowling digs

Me & Brad with some hot "chicks", Akihabara; Brad upgrades

FEBRUARY - Not too much happened in February either, as we got closer to the big day. It snowed a few times which was cool, but I generally stayed inside out of the coldness!

Snowmen get ready to take over

MARCH - With our departure looming ever so close it was time to get into action. The weather started to warm up as we headed to see Brad and Stan (for the last time in Japan) and Mark for one last weekend of drunken fun. We had a weekend full of competition, much of it disputed, but I will claim here to be the champion of tennis and bowling, while I'm looking for some rematches in chess and backgammon! The weekend after that we had an end of (school) year picnic for the toddler class. It was an awesome day and the kids really enjoyed it. We had a hectic last week of shopping, packing and other stuff as we prepared to fly out on the 22nd.........