I Can't Think of a Good Title for This Post

We got a late start today, but eventually got around to taking advantage of our day off. Today is National Health and Sports day here in Japan, which is a national holiday. So we celebrated the healthy lifestyle by sleeping until noon and then driving around for a few hours. We ended up at a place in the next town over called Shishiku Sky Center, where they do para-gliding. You take a gondola up to the top of the mountain, where there are some restaurants and other things to do, but the main attraction is watch people hurl themselves off the side of the mountain and the peacefully glide down to the ground.

We only had about 20 minutes to hang around at the top because the place was closing for the day. But there were still people launching right up to the last minute. They'd lay out their parachutes and get everything squared away, then wait for the lady on the right to give them the all clear.



It only took a few yards of running before they lifted off and the mountain dropped out from below them. It's too bad it was a bit hazy this afternoon because the ocean only a few miles away and very visible on a clear day.





If all goes well, after a few minutes of gliding out over the town and then back towards the mountain, the gliders landed in the field at the base of the mountain.

We'll definitely be making another trip to the sky center, preferably earlier in the day and with clearer weather. I'm not sure I would want to actually give this a try or not but it looks like it must be pretty fun, and not as nutty as sky diving in my opinion.

Last night, after a few beers with some friends, I came home and was inspired to have a photo shoot in my kitchen. I'm still learning how to use the new camera, especially in manual mode. Learning might not be the right word, as I still don't really have any idea what I'm doing. Tinkering is more appropriate. Here are the fascinating results of the collaboration between me, beer, and a fancy camera.

A little side note on the inflatable airplane hanging in the middle of the kitchen. When we were back in the States last March, Chieko bought a wedding dress. We had to take a bit of care not to get it too wrinkled on the flight back, and the crew on our All Nippon Airways flight made sure it there was a safe place to hang the dress. Taking this as a sign that we were getting married (though we were already married at that point), when we disembarked from the plain in Tokyo they gave us this inflatable ANA 747 with some congratulatory messages written in English and Japanese, along with the date, flight number, and initials of the airports we flew from/to. Cool!

Other exciting things going on in our kitchen: Chieko is cooking this tonight.

Mmmmm...fish parts. She can enjoy these all buy herself. A pot full of this is currently simmering on the stove giving a definite fish stink to the apartment. Yummy.

In sports, how fun is it to watch the Patriots right now? A lot more fun than it is to watch, or even think about, for that matter, the Red Sox. They've clinched a playoff spot but I have very little confidence in this team. I know they say anything can happen in the playoffs (2004 was proof enough of that), and that playoff games are completely different than regular season, but that doesn't comfort me very much. I hope I'm wrong but nobody's looking better than the Yankees at this point, and they've got to win one more for Steinbrenner before passes away sooner rather than later.

Off to the ironing board for me.