Camp!

Hej hej!

I spent last weekend camping in the mountains of Kanagawa-ken, a prefecture just south of Tokyo, with

Tomo (the grill master)

Matt (the settler and finder of hidden waterfalls)

and a bunch of friends.
From the left: Satoshi, Yoko, Aoi (happy guy in the back), me (green guy in the front), Chakko (standing in the middle), Sachi, Tomo and Matt.

Fireworks!

An intense game of Jenga.

Swimming in a river.

It was so good to be in the nature for a change. Green mountains, sunshine, a cool river and BBQ.

Not to say that Tokyo completely lacks greenery. The lotus flowers of Ueno koen are blossoming now! I passed there this morning, just by coincidence, and took these pictures.

Nice, huh?

That's it!

Take care.

Night lights

Hej hej!

Last weekend was way too busy and I didn't get a chance to take pictures or update the blog. This week was better, though we had a lab meeting yesterday that lasted 6 hours. Can't describe how much I dislike spending my whole Saturday at work... But in the evening I joined a very nice birthday party of a friend of a friend, eating and drinking at an izakaya (a Japanese bar) in Shibuya. Good good!

I've been lazy lately, taking most of the photos from my balcony. :)

This view is rather boring in the daytime. Just grey buildings. But in the night I found so many more colours. Like that.

I thought it looked so cool with the blue light around Roppongi (bottom left part).

The bears of the Medicom Toy building. I pass them every morning and every night.

That's it. Short one today.

Take care!

Kanazawa

I spent this weekend in Kanazawa, a small town on the northern side of Honshu. I've actually been there before. Natsuko and I went there in the end of February 2005 on our first trip together. There are some interesting spots that shouldn't be missed out on; the Kenroku-en garden, the Ninja temple, the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art and a small but nice fish market. The last thing (raw fish) is probably the best part of Kanazawa. It's absolutely delicious and I had a lot of it this time! :D

I took the overnight train from Tokyo on Friday night, an all together horrible experience that ended up in me only sleeping for 2 (non-consecutive) hours that night... Natsuko arrived already on Friday evening and stayed with Sayaka-chan, a friend from Osaka University who is now living and working in Kanazawa. She took care of us the whole time, driving us around to different parts of the town in her car. There is an old part of Kanazawa that resembles Kyoto in many ways, which was really nice, with several temples and calm streets.

I'm making a habit of playing around with my camera. Here's the result of that.

Me pretending to sleep in the train.

Kaisendon - sashimi on a bowl of rice.

Natsuko and Sayaka-chan sightseeing.

A meeting.

Taking a break.

Magurodon - different kinds of raw tuna on rice.
Too much, too good!

Ok, that's it.

Take care!