JETAA Shinnenkai 2013

If you're in the Portland area and would like to go to the JETAA Shinnenkai, please click the link for more details on the JETAA page.

RSVP before Jan. 26th!

Great Start to the New Year!

From the month of December 2012, I am excited to announce the start of my new job at the Consulate General of Japan in Portland Oregon!!! This will mark a chapter in my life as I make the daily commute into downtown via MAX.

For those who know me, I really HATE traffic and unfortunately I must battle through both morning and evening rush hour to and from work.

Here is a little view from my office. Glad to be back on the payroll =]

Return of the Jedi

Okay, so this isn't really STAR WARS, but I think it's just as geeky if not more so. After a 12 year break, I've made my way back into the world of RC cars! Ahahaa, I'm laughing with you.

This was once a passion I had when I started it as a freshman in high school. After h.s. I graduated and then moved to Seattle for a good ol' proper UNI education. Shortly after that, I had moved to Japan and never really found the time or desire to get back into RC's. However, long cold winters mixed with boredom got me to think about doing this again and just having fun with it. Little did I know I'd be THIS hooked. I'm having a great time practicing as well as hitting up local club races.

Right now I currently have 2 fully decked out cars (with electrics etc.).
One is a Kyosho Ultima RB5 SP 2wd buggy.
the other is a Team Associated T4 2wd truck.

This blog post is to show you just how obsessed, I mean passionate I am about it I sprayed my own body. Here is the before body. This is the exact color and paint scheme that my friend Jerry is running because it's his old truck! Not bad for $100 for the roller and parts!


Here is the one that I did myself. It's a throwback to my time in Japan with the rising sun.
What do you think?!

new banner....new topic

Welcome the new banner! I figured since I was no longer in Japan, I should change the banner from my favorite surfing town to a pic of PDX. Have a look at the old banner down below.


New topic I've decided to do is food. The wacky foods I eat will now be documented.....don't forget the chicken feet and intestines! oh boy.....

Letting go.........

I had to say goodbye to a friend today and this friend I met when I was just 22. I was still a student trying to figure out my ways. You helped me greatly, you taught me never to be afraid. I will remember your face...it is not something so forgettable. I wish there was more time. But, I will never forget the times we shared. Thank you.....

Okay, so enough dorkin around. Today, I had to say goodbye to my RX-7. It wasn't the easiest thing to do, but it does have a good backstory.

So about 2 weeks ago I decided to post my car up on craiglist; Portland. And yah...I got a few emails asking basic questions like....What's wrong with it? How many miles? Is the paint faded? ARRRGH!...I was only getting the questions that could speak badly about the car and nothing about the 'goods'. Uhm....... 197,750 miles on it....... uhmmm paint is a touch faded in spots.... uhmmm well there is this and that, but it works sometimes so there is nothing really technically wrong with it (shrugs shoulders). Hey what do you expect for a car almost 20 years old?

So finally I get this email from a guy that says, "hey man im really interested in your mazda rx-7, IM the guy that would take care of it. i want a 7 that i could do the TII swap in, and this car is perfect. i would appreciate it if you gave me a call me, my name is brady. 1-541-XXX-8146. thank you. the price of $2800 is firm?" So I call him and we talk and I give him tons of good information about my car and then he tells me he wants to meet up, but can't meet until next weekend because his mom is busy this coming weekend. So I agree to next weekend but I tell him this ....I says, "You know I can't promise the car will be here next week, but I'll let you know for sure and get in contact with you if I sell it." I swear I heard the cage rattling! He starts asking me if I could do him this big favor and save the car. Really? I'm thinking to myself...either this is too good to be true and this guy is gonna be a total flake.......or.......I'm gonna sell my car for PROFIT!!!

You see, back in 2000...I bought the car from fellow Vietnamese people for a mere $2k! I drove the car 8 years and put good amounts of wear n tear on it and now in 2008, I might be selling it for $2,600 dollars! So, I crossed my fingers and just hoped that this wasn't some nut job flake boy.

A week passes and guess what time it was? Yep, car selling time! Since the guy lived far away we decided to meet up at the Wilsonville FRY'S. Might as well do a lil computer shoppin too! I phone him real fast too see where he was at and the next thing I know, I'm getting waved down. The area was open and when got out of the car I saw a young freshman in highschool, a mother about my age, and two skinny white buddies and both I assume are of course .....classmates. I looked at the kid's face and honestly thought, "My God....this kid doesn't have any sort of facial hair at all! Smooth as eggs!".

I politely shook everyone's hand with name greetings and right after that, the boy wanted to know if I could pop the hood. "Yah no problem," I says. Instantly, upon opening the hood as if raising the piece of metal was magically turning on the....... "My rx7 got this removed, got that removed" comments. His friend opens his palm and puts his two hands above the engine like he was the Lord Almighty of RX7 engines! He continued rambling on about how his car had all these things taken off his engine because it robbed him of ...........4 horsepower. It was a severe list emphasized by the hastiness of his words and the serious tone in his voice.....But basically, he wanted to tell me he had nothing but the engine and alternator! That was it. 4hp increase?! Genius! I just kind of nodded along in the right places so it didn't show I wasn't interested hearing about his beat up rx7. I mean I was there trying to sell my my rx7!

I look over at the kid and he looks like he's ready to go for a test drive. I mean his palms were so wet I could smell em. Gotta make sure he likes how it drives .....right? Out of the blue he turns to me and says, "Hey are you over 25?" I wasn't sure why that question popped up out of nowhere, "Uh, yah why?" He sighed with excitement as if over enthused, "Good, cause I just got my permit and I have to drive with someone over 25 with insurance." WTF! You just got your permit? So you don't even have a valid driver's license? NOPE!!

OMG, so the kid is 15 and just barely started driving and he's about to buy my car...not what I had imagined the next owner being like. Anyways....next up.......the test drive. It's late! Time to wrap this up and sleep!

what's new......?

Being away for college and living in Japan has stolen quite a chunk out of my family time away from me. It was like everyone back home just grew up all at once in a blink of an eye. Culturally speaking, there wasn't a big huge adjustment for me moving back here. Reverse cultural shock never even set foot upon my door. Life just smoothly continues without any sort of abrupt interjections. It was like ...onne night, I close my tired eyes in Japan and the next moment I wake refreshed in America.

While I haven't suffered from culture shock, there still hasn't been a day that has gone by that I'm not surprised that I have new family members. COUSINS! For the first time in my life I find myself surrounded by young cousins I never had while growing up. The only blood cousin I had was my younger cousin, Diem, who is 4 years younger than me. Now, she's on her 3rd kid! My uncle has three kids himself, Heidi 11, Helen 8, and Hannah 4. Of course, they have cousins too so I have new cousin's by marriage and basically an extended family I'm just starting to get to know.

Family is still the same.....family, but now there is just more of them. So please say hello to a few of my cousins.

back home

Being back home here in Vancouver, WA is a lot different than being in the countryside of Japan. There is a lot to adjust to and some of the wacky American cultural differences can get to you after awhile.....just like some of the wacky Japanese cultural differences can also drive you plain loco!

Some of the bonuses about being in the States are the roads. I don't know if you have ever been to Japan before, but the roads in N.America are wide and fast! I remember that the speed limit for most of the open roads in Japan is about 40mph! So it takes a lot time to get from A to B. However, the plus side is that you were never really bored driving because you are always surrounded by Japan's natural beauty. Since Japan is so small, it always feels like you're in the heart of Japan. On the contrary to Japan, the US roads are long, straight, and very boring. The only plus is that you can blaze about 60mph - 70mph on them so you can travel great distance as long as you can stay awake. Ever try driving from Portland to Seattle via I-5? Zzzzzzzz

Another great plus about being back home is going to live shows. You've got the random live bands at bars and clubs along with a list of all different concerts and venues at your disposal. There is nothing better than seeing your favorite musicians perform live on stage in full glory and in front of a crowd of people who all share the same love of music. After being back a week, I took a trip to visit my favorite person in the whole entire world in Vancouver, BC...Yumez! We did camping, surfing, and got to check out Jack Johnson all in one weekend! It was awesome and I can't think of a better way to return back to N.America after 5 years. Thanks Yumez!

MIA ......but now I'm back

Hi everyone.....Just wanted to say that I'm back home in the United States and got my computer up and running so I'll be backlogging stories for a bit here. Had to catch up and get re-acquainted with home. It's good to be home, but of course I really miss Japan too.

First SURF & Baby Shiori's Bday

Saturday marked the first day that my good friends Mitsuru and Reiko would actually try surfing. They've talked about it for a long time and things just kinda keep poppin' up ...... like for instance, a baby. Brian met them during his first season at Hakkoda Mt. and we've been friends with them ever since. Mitsuru and Reiko are amazing snowboarders. If you have ever seen them snowboard in real life, you could attest to their ultra smooth, graceful style that comes from their dedication and love for the sport. So I was super stoked when I heard they were gonna finally try it!

Since Brian and I started surfing 5 years back, we kept telling our mountain friends to try surfing........ but no one ever did. Everyone was content with just snowboarding in winter. Ha, this is exactly how I was when my friends asked if I wanted to surf! Slowly, our snowboarding friends have started creeping to the ocean and I couldn't be more happy. Seeing their faces filled with the joys of surfing reminds me of my first unforgettable season. I couldn't paddle, sit nor stand on the board, or duck dive....in fact I couldn't even swim! Now wrap your head around this for a minute.....it takes a baby infant anywhere from a year to two years to walk. It took me almost 4 years to catch waves and ride on a regular basis!!!! I was a 25 rears old then! Sure in my first 3 years I was able to catch waves and ride, but not constantly and continuously like I can now. It's a big learning process and I can't wait till they start finding their groove as well. It's gonna be so much fun to surf with them later.

On the day Mitsuru and Reiko tried surfing, it was their baby's 1st birthday. So years from now, this day will definitely be remembered and not just I got pics...."Baby Shiori, when you turned 1 years old was the first time your daddy tried surfing!" - AWESOME!

Surf or Sports day?!

My boss, Yuya, is a good friend of mine and over the course the last 2 years I've become close to his family as well. He has a cute little 5 year old son by the cool ass name of, Yuzen. I like the name cause it's got the word, zen in it ;).

Anyways... Starting from March I've been teaching English at Yuzen's kindergarten. But before my first trip to osh-kosh-land, I remember a time when Yuya and I were having dinner at a restaurant and I was playing with Yuzen before our food came.
He tugs on my shirt and says, "Why can you speak English?"
Yuya, laughed and so did I. Kids will be kids and they say the cutest, innocent little things huh?
I responded with, "Well I'm an English teacher."
He said, "No you're not, your just a normal old man." Yuya busted into tears.
"What? I'm just a normal old man?" I replied holding back my laughter.
"Yah you're not a teacher because you're not a woman," he said with a chip on his shoulder.
I guess up until now, Yuzen's teachers have all been female and no matter how much Yuya and I tried to convince him that night he stuck to his guns and full heartily believed that I was just a 'normal old man'. That was until.......... I took my first step into his classroom. I never saw a kid's eyes so bulging big. They were like golf balls.

Anyways, to make a long story short...the kids at Kanariya Kindergarten rock! They rock so hard in fact that I skipped half a day of surfing to go and watch them at their sports day (I don't like skipping out on surfing...ever!). Sometimes you gotta make the exception and just have fun doing something other than surfing.....Of course it was very cute and tons of fun. The kids were trying soooooo hard that most of them didn't know I was there until the last half hour or so. The beauty of it all is that kids are so natural at posing. They want to have their picture taken and love it. Gotta love kids!

Carlo's Car...

A buddy of mine, aka Carlo...but in the world of photoshop power gurus ....some know him as c-lo, asked me for a photographic favor. Since he was designing my web page of course I couldn't say no. Actually I was pretty stoked he asked me to shoot something for him. I'm always up for a challenge and took it kind of like a shooting assignment. If I recall, the conversation went sorta like this.
"Hey man, can you do me a favor?" he says.
I go, "Yah sure what up?"
"I need to take pictures of my car to send to my predecessor...can you hook it up?"
Exhaling through the nose I said, "Yah no prob, I'll be over in a few."
So the next thing we had to resolve was where to shoot the pictures. Since the weather was cloudy and on the grim side, I wanted to shoot him and his car in a good, positive, happy manner so that his predecessor would jump all over his Toyota Carina. When I got to his house, a few minutes later the last of the 3amigos showed up, Courtney. We all jumped in c-lo's ride and cruised for a bit. I asked him, "Hey, is there anything cool in your town so we can use as a nice background?"
Carlo looks at me in wonderment, "No."
I nodded my head in agreement because I knew what he was talking about. The inaka (countryside) towns of Japan are wonderful, but they're not the prettiest things around. This might be a bit ill of me but most of the inaka towns look the same......the biggest thing they have in common is the abundance of rice fields. So, I took the town's biggest asset and decided to work with it to see what I could produce....what did I came up with? Beautiful nature, lively green, food of choice....rice, mountains for days, and a pimpy ass Carina! Not my best work but was nice to have a specified assignment and people willing to go out and be photographed.
Anyways, this is how the story ends to date....c-lo's predecessor doesn't buy the car.....it looks like the lucky winner might be Courtney! Whooohoo!

BADASS INC. Live!

I'm a big fan of live shows. Every once in a while a friend invites me along and to check out a live venue and I never hesitate. Sometimes I just feel like I'm kook'd up in a small box when I don't get out of Tohoku every now and then. Don't get me wrong, I love Tohoku for the chill isolated laid back lifestyle, but new adventures to other remote spots are always interesting.

This time around, the lead singer of the band BadASS Inc. invited me to go check out their live acoustic show. Her stage name is 'Bon'...(no connections to Kappa)...I met her at one of my elementary schools as she was an assistant teacher. She was only there for a few months and every time I saw her she always spoke to me in English and since this is quite rare for Japanese elem. teachers.... I had to asked her why she spoke so much English. She leans over and whispers to me, "Don't tell other teachers, but I'm in a band." My eyebrows perked up, "What? Really? What do you sing? What kind of band?" She does a quick left and right check over her shoulders and said, "I like rock music, do you listen to Rock?" I had instant flashbacks my high school days where I had friends who had listened to Tool, Metallica, STP, Nirvana, Scorpions, Slayer, Iron Maiden, AC/DC etc etc.....
"Crazy really? Thats cool...I wanna check out a show," I said with a nostalgic grin on my face.

The spot was at a place called Marrs in Towada city. We got there just in time for the 1st act and instantly upon arrival I was polluting my lungs with tobacco smoke and I'm not even a smoker! Courtney was the only free soul that evening and joined me for a bit of live acoustic Towada. Unfortunately for the non-smokers, Japan is quite slow in adapting the "No smoking in public places" law, but I'm sure in a few years...ugh like 20, Towada will also fall in line. It was nice to see the cool and hip people of Aomori. Everyone seemed to be quite stylish and actually displayed a little care in their fashion attire. I guess I'm just used to seeing the Bugz Bunny jerseys and sweats in my Town!

The music was cool, but the place wasn't. Image a small room packed full of people and the A/C broken. Yah, hot and stuffy...which unfortunately, mixed with massive amounts of tobacco smoke gave Courtney a headache. I felt bad cause she looked miserable..but the show must go on....I was there to take pictures of BadASS Inc and the BadNEWS was that they were last. Fuck!

There was another photographer there who touted 2 canon bodies both accompanied with flash guns...he looked quite serious and definitely poppin' off a lot of shots all night long in between drink. It was cool to see another young photographer in the house even though his shooting style was drastically different from mine. He shot flash head on with every shot. I never would use a camera mounted flash and if I can ...I like to capture the mood of the scene with the available light. He had a nice L zoom lens and a telezoomer....I chose my 50 1.4 and up'd my ISO...no flash.

Anyways, when BadASS Inc. came on, they did covers from old school rock bands like, "Pour Some Sugar on Me" by Def Leppard, "Rock all night long" by KISS, and a few others of the same era and magnitude. I knew the words so I sang along with everyone else that was still left in the house and it was quite good fun. When the show ended, Bon was super stoked we came and wouldn't stop thanking us...and the whole time I kept thanking her for inviting us to a rockin'n good evening. We said goodbyes and left the premise only to find the pachinko parking lot gated and locked. OMG!! I couldn't get my car out! There was a white piece of paper on my windshield that said I couldn't park there. The angels were looking upon us that night because one of the entrances was still left open and we were able to go home. Next stop, McDonalds for midnight filet o fishes!

Tohoku Elementary School Battle!

Let the games begin! On June 19th, 2008, Tohoku Town had their annual elementary school track and field competition. The competitors were 4th, 5th, and 6th graders from all 7 elem. schools competing in 3 events....running, ball toss, and long jumping. Yah, that's it..... The athletes were separated by grades and also by gender. The leggers were able to choose from the 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1000m. The sand pit smashers got 2 practice attempts and 2 real attempts to post their longest scores. The ball chuckers got 2 practice throws and 1 real toss to flex their muscles.

It was great to see all the kids in high spirits and trying their hardest to win the prestigious crown called "Champion". Since this was my 2nd year, I knew all the students there and that made it very special to me....it was to be my last as well. I wasn't able to stay until the finals because I had to go and teach 1st and 2nd graders at Chibiki elem, but I figured that catching just a bit of it was better than not being able to go at all.

Kids grow up so fast. When I first got to Tohoku, the students that were once my small, cute, noisy little 3rd graders are about a head taller, smarter, silly and smart assy 5th graders. Two years isn't a very long time, but so much happens in a child's two years that I never really noticed before at that same age. It reminded me to value the time because you never are able to get it back....hehe, unless you look at a few pictures. Cheers for reading.

Kindergarten Visit

If you didn't know previously.... I teach at 7 elementary schools in Tohoku Town, but this year I got lucky enough to fill a few days of "Office Days" with kindergarten school visits! OMG it's so fun! The kindergarten groups the 4 and 5 year olds together and I get to have them for 30 minutes. Basically my lessons are very similar to 1st grader lessons. This consists of the basic, "My name is ____", fruits, animals, and 1-10. We practice about 10 minutes and then we get to play a game using the new English words. I don't think I've ever seen any group of kids more excited to play in my entire life!! It was a mad house!

In this video, the kids all learned animals in English and the goal was to listen and become the animal that I would say. If I said "Tiger!" then would all become little tigers. It was a madhouse! If I say "STOP!" they would all have to freeze until i said a new animal name. Check out the video and watch the classroom turn into a complete zoo! It's sooo cute!

Hawaiian style wedding

What kind of picture does your mind paint when you hear the word...... Hawaii? Tropical paradise, blue ocean, hot weather, beautiful beaches, tourists everywhere... are only a few, but probably the most common images thanks to the ever-so influencial media. You could probably throw in a few hula dancers and a roasted pig for safe measure and you still probably wouldn't stray too far from the typical Hawaiian stereotype.

You know what? Hawaii is exactly like all the pictures and movies you've seen about it. It is a Tropical paradise. It had the bluest ocean that I've ever seen in my life. There were mobs of tourists all over Oahu island doing touristy things. The white sandy beaches were nothing short of stunning and jaw dropping beauty. Even though it was a bit cloudy, the weather was still suitable for t-shirts and shorts. I even felt a bit foolish because I brought a pair of shoes. Hawaii is unlike any place I've seen before and being there showed me the true beauty of mother nature. It is magical. Okay, I didn't get to see a roasted pig but that doesn't mean it's not there!

Anyways, enough about Hawaii....if you have been there you know exactly what I'm talking about. The reason I went to Hawaii was for a wedding. One of my best friend's wedding. A few days before leaving for Hawaii, Kyle, asked me if I could do a speech in honor of their marriage. How could I refuse? Of course I accepted and instantly began thinking of what to say and knew that this wasn't something I could just wing-it and go. The wedding venue was at the Sheraton Hotel on Waikiki, but unfortunately being one of the groomsmen....I wasn't able to walk about and take pictures. Hence, my collection of photos from Hawaii consists of not a SINGLE wedding photo. SHAME on me as a photographer! Honestly, I wasn't in the mood to shoot pictures. I just wanted to relax and enjoy the surroundings because being a part of the wedding was quite stressful even though I had such a tiny role. I couldn't imagine how stressful it must be on the families.

So, the wedding was brilliant. The bride and groom looked perfect and the day was enjoyed by all. I gave the best speech I could.... given the few short days I had to work with. After the reception, there was a short 2 hour break and then a cruise on a caterham sailboat. What better way to end the day with a 2hr cruise with all you can drink while watching the sunset into the ocean. It was way better than a Japanese work party and only 30 bucks too! The boat would bounce in the wave and get everyone wet. Just a blast to cruise and do something different.

This trip also gave me the opportunity to hang out with Kyle and Chie, but two other best friends as well...Chuck 'Puffy' Berk and Yumez. It was so good to see and hang out with them and felt like not a day has passed since I saw them last. We definitely gotta do another reunion in Hawaii a few years down the road. Love you all and congrats to Kyle and Chie!!

Strobalicious

In continuing with off camera flash...I took my work to the streets. Okay well not the streets really but to the rice patty fields. I saw a couple of photos that had a cool sunset or sky in the bg, black foreground, but with a lit subject that really tickled my interest. I wanted to mimic this and practice a bit so I gathered up my gear and drove out to the fields and set up my lights and tripod. Still, I only had 1 flash at the time connected via pc sync cord and yah........again it must have slipped off about a dozen times. Anyways after a few shots I started to get the hang of this. This is far from magic but with 1 flash and it being my first time out, I think it turned out okay. I created something I've never created before in photography and that got me stoked.

I feel like there is so much to learn. I always thought photography was simple. Find something cool, get your camera and take a picture, but I'm learning that you have to do a lot of work, studying, setup, etc........just to get 1 picture. On top of that, you have to learn the 'other' half of photography....post processing and that's never ending. Soooo, you put in all that time and you want to show it to the world right? To do this, it takes time because you have to post them on blogs or photo sites like flickr, picasa web. Get this, all this for no $$$ on the back end. Well not yet anyways. If you really wanna make $$ you have to then post your pictures on stock photos sites, submit to photo magazines and that too takes time! To wrap it up, the whole process takes a lot of time and dedication. I can see a lot of people just quiting ........not take pictures for a few months cause things get busy in their lives. The way I think about it is........photography is like a big piggy bank. You put in and put in and over time the bank gets heavier and someday, when its full... it'll break open and you'll get huge rewards. Well, who knows how big the piggy bank is though.....gotta wait and see!

Strobe'n on my mind.

Slowly, all the pieces of the puzzle are starting to come together and this off camera strobing has started to get really interesting. At the time I shot these photos, I shooting with my 40D, a Nikon SB-26 attached with a really long sync cord. I think the flash ran me about $60 bucks and the cord $10 so all in all I have 1 off camera strobe for about $110 with a light stand...not bad I'd say.

These are test shots I did in my living room just to play around and get familiar with lighting and what not. I chose to shoot in front of my living room window cuz I wanted to play around with a strong blacklit source and flash. At first I fired about 10 shots and they all looked crap. I wasn't getting what I was hoping for (although I usually never do with flash photography), but with a swift click, I set my camera on M mode (A mode was blowin the deal) and continued to play around. I was deliberately trying to blow out the background to create an all white background and use flash to fill in the face and create shadows. After about 20 minutes of running back and forth changing the power setting on my flash...I was able to produce something that I didn't mind too much.

Dood, being the camera guy and being the test dummy sucks massive ballz especially when the sync cord would just keep slipping off. Why in the hell did they design it like that? It doesn't even click in. Makes no sense. Engineers can turn 0's and 1's into digital information but can't design a plug that plugs in? Well whatever.... Stay tuned because there is more to come!

My Final Day at Hakkoda

May 3rd, of 2008 marked my final day at Hakkoda. The sun was out, the sky was blue...perfect right? The only problem was that it was about 20 degrees Celsius! OMG the snow was definitely melting and unfortunately for my two friends who came all the way from Tokyo to check out Hakkoda was misinformed with a 2 week old Hakkoda snow report. It said 105cm at the base...when we got there, there was no snow at the base! SHOCK!

But whatever...I jumped out of the car and spoke with the head ski patrolman and asked him about the snow condition and he says to me, "Well, there is snow.....you just have to walk down when you get to the bottom half." I laughed so hard...."Are you freakin' serious?" He laughed and I could no longer see his eyes, "I'm serious. If you wanna snowboard, this is all thats left." You know, was dead right. Hakkoda is the last place to have snow before it all goes bye bye, but this season the snow melted a little faster than previous seasons and we have no one else to blame but us humans. Shame on us huh?

When we got to the top and made our way outside...The snow was still there but all the trees were visible. This was a sight I've never seen before because in winter, the trees are massively covered with snow. Hakkoda looked entirely different. It was filled with tourist wearing t-shirts and sunglasses putting on sunscreen. We set our boards down to take a few pictures and when I turned back around a Chinese tourist lady picked up my board and was posing with it! I kept thinking ........uhmmm, yah thats my board and not yours. Heh, I couldn't help but be super amused. Then the Chinese lady's friend posed with it...and then her friend. I tought about it a bit and I actually started feeling a bit touched to know that these ladies will forever have pictures of Hakkoda with my board in it. Hahaha...mark of the living legend.

We decided to strap on our boards and head down. Ski patrol told me that the Forest course was wider than the direct so thats were we headed. Surprisingly, the snow wasn't too sticky and we had decent speed. Probably about the last 1/4...the snow trail was slowly getting smaller and smaller and soon it became a tiny stream. Holy......here?!?! We unstrapped and took pictures. Unfortunately the only camera I had was my cell phone, but still I think you get the picture.

It wasn't much for snowboarding, but it does make a good story. Life is about the stories and the wacky moments you remember. This one here......my last Hakkoda day.....I'm gonna definitely remember this one for as long as I live. I'm just glad my friends had a good time. We didn't stop laughing even after 2 more runs!

April 27th, Yabusame Archery Competition in Towada

The next day, I was able to witness "Yabusame" live and in action and wow...I was super stoked to see such coolness all in one weekend. This was an all women's event that had about 30 riders. The tournament was ran in tradition style with the best riders moving to the next round with quarter, semi, and finals. Each round consisted of 3 riders with 2 passes each attempting to nail 4 targets. If the riders had the same number of targets scored, then the deciding factor was the time and average speed. YES THE SPEED WAS RECORDED!! I guess it makes sense because it would be super unfair if some riders rode really slow hitting all targets huh?

Here, let me break it down for you a bit. If you have ever tried archery, just standing still and hitting the mark is pretty hard...now mount yourself on a horse...get bucked up and down.... pull an arrow out...careful, don't drop it now... load the bow (I mean get that arrow onto the string)....then try to hit your target while blazing by. WTF!! It must take an insane amount of practice and concentration huh? I was surely impressed.

I've come to find that Towada city is a great place. Theres a lot of traditional events that promote culture and uniqueness. I was glad I stumbled upon the website that had all the good info about it...sometimes you just get lucky. Also, Towada has a lot of yakiniku restaurants! Gotta love that!

April 26th, Yosakoi festival in Towada

Dance dance dance the night away! What a cool way to end an evening and watch the magnificent tradition jazz'd up dancing of Towada's Yosakoi Yume festival. This was held on the main strip in Towada City after the towns people all gathered to witness this live dance off. I was stoked to observe and take pictures. Awesome!

There was a cool vibe in the air that night and I think it was mostly because of the timing. Let's see.....Sakura in full bloom, people out in the cold (6C) celebrating spring, festival of dreams...c'mon what a win win combination. The dance off consisted of about 30 teams from all ages wearing unique traditional festival style clothing to techno stylish poppin' like MJ's thriller....it was sweet. Did I mention this was also at night? Ooooh, what a stage.... Professional photographers, news people, amateurs, hobbyists, were all there snapping away. It was extremely hard to freeze movement but I did manage to grab a couple of banger pics that I enjoyed. To my surprise, Tohoku was also there representing true Tohoku Town pride. And they rock'd the show. In my opinion, best dance of the night!
Anyways, it was a good time had by all and I was really happy that I went and watched the show. Next time all I need is a friend to drive so I can have a few beers at the food stands. Yummmmmy!