Generous Woman

My friend and I stopped for curry in Tabito while riding. We only had two thousand yen between us. I asked the waitress if it was possible to get a curry with one thousand yen. At this point it may have been assumed that we only had one thousand yen between us and not one thousand yen each. Anyway a woman who was paying for her delicious curry offered me one thousand yen to cover us. I accepted it after pretending for a few seconds that I wouldn't.

After she left I clarified with the staff the total amount of money we had, which including all our change was now over three thousand yen. Two delicious curry sets were enjoyed. Kind people in Japan, it's not a myth.

Folding Paper

I asked a room of ten year old kids to fold a 4x4 inch piece of paper into 6 parts. It was a disaster. Half the students (the boys, excuse me) had no clue what to do. They folded the paper in half, and again, and in half again, and unfolded it to reveal eight parts. Then they stared blankly at their failure. The most blank, vacant, empty stare you could imagine. Then some of them folded the paper again to get 16 parts?

One girl was sitting upfront in the corner seat, and she'd already folded and cut out her six pieces while the boy next to her repeatedly folded his paper into eight parts, each time looking at it with the same bewildered dribbling face. It was the dumbest thing I have ever seen. And I've seen a room of 200 university graduates cheer the re-election of Obama.

Summer Day

I went on a nice ride and took some panoramic pictures with an iPhone app.

Four Years

I took this picture exactly four years ago from a hotel window in Tokyo on the day I came to Japan. I can remember exactly what I was thinking: "This looks exactly like the night scenes in Ghost in the Shell."

Cloudy Mountain

Late Saturday Afternoon

Highs and Lows

South Iwaki Coast

Views from Mt. Yunodake

Abandoned snack bars on the mountain 

Near Watanabe