Into the Wilderness...

So, I've finally caved to the incessant pestering and switched to the new version of blogger. As such, I'll be making some changes around here. First, as you may have noticed, I've decided to embark on a trial run of using full punctuation and capitalization, saying goodbye to my trademark ... way of linking sentences. However, I reserve the right to switch back to the ... system should capitalizing and punctuation prove too tedious. I will also start tinkering with the template when I am finished with this post, at the risk, given my limited knowledge of computer workings and lackluster attitude towards expanding that knowledge, of destroying everything I have built so far with this blog. And lastly, I will start tagging my posts by theme, so that should the need arise, readers can see how limited the scope of my rantings really are, and indirectly the boringness of my life. Should I ever find myself bedridden yet with full mental capacity and at least upper-body motor skills, I may go back and tag my previous 100-odd posts, but that seems like a LOT of work.
Now, with that out of the way, let's get to the meat and potatoes. In our effort to make the most of our dwindling vacation, Chieko and I actually got up before noon today and took a drive to explore the beauty that lies just outside our doorstep here in Kanazawa. We were driving in the vicinity of Haku-san, the biggest mountain we have around here. In doing so, we ventured into the neighboring prefecture of Fukui. Prefectures are akin to states in the U.S., they just call them prefectures here. Sadly I have no pictures of Haku-san because the closer we got to it, the more impossible it was to see. But I've got some other pretty pictures of mountains.

This is a great new feature of the new blogger; I can actually center the commentary on my pictures!!

The good news we found out today is that within and hour's drive, there are ample ski areas. The bad news is that much like my home in the northeast U.S., they are hurting for snow.

We came upon this bridge over a reservoir, and I found the shadow of the bridge on the water to look at than the bridge itself.

This was taken from Fukui, and I'm not sure the name of this mountain. But it was purdy.

We ventured down a small side-road and were surprised to come upon this run-down little village. We saw one person, but I can't imagine many folks actually live here. The houses were quite decrepit.

Here's a view of the reservoir I mentioned before, quite picturesque. I've done a great job of grouping relevant pictures together!

And finally, insert your own Godzilla joke here. This gets the prize for most random dinosaur museum I have seen. Apparently they found dino-fossils in this area, according to Chieko. Funny, I don't thinks of Japan as ever having dinosaurs, despite the whole Godzilla thing.

Well, so far I'm digging the new blogger features, and tolerating capitalization/punctuation. Now it's time for me to duck behind the scenes and examine the inner workings of Casey's Bean. I have a few ideas of how I want to shake things up around here, so we'll see if I can actually bring them to life.

Tomorrow Chieko and I have to go to school for a New Year's ceremony given by the school president. Needless to say, I am totally psyched about that! So keep your eyes on the blog for continued new and improvedness!