Hawaii Trip - Part II

A photo taken during our drive to the North Shore of Oahu. If you look hard, you can see the ocean in the background.

A beautiful scene at Haleiwa Beach Park, Oahu, Hawaii.

While at the North Shore, we stopped at this food shack called Giovanni's. The place doesn't look like much - they sell food out of the side of a van - but the food is good, as you can tell below...

A nice plate of garlic shrimp and rice. Good food, but we definitely needed breath mints afterwards.

Hawaii Trip - Part I

In April 2007 I took a trip to Hawaii with my girlfriend and her mother. It was my first visit to Hawaii since I graduated from high school in 1996. And so I thought, What better way to kick off this vacation than with a trip to my high school? So, there I am in the picture, standing at the front gate of my alma mater, Moanalua High School. Go Menehunes!

A young pineapple, Dole Plantation, Oahu.

Me having a pineapple of a time, Dole Plantation, Oahu.

Some of the greenery we saw at the Dole Plantation, Oahu.

Shot From Above

Earlier I told you guys about how Northwest Airlines screwed up the beginning of our Hawaii trip back in April 2007. This is one good thing to come out of it, I guess: a skyline shot of the Namba section of Osaka. In the foreground is Namba Parks, a shopping mall with a lot of shops, restaurants, boutiques, and a tower full of office space.

What's Up, Doc?

We went to this ranch/farm place in Sakai called Harvest no Oka sometime in March 2007. They had a pen full of rabbits, as you can see from the picture. Now, usually rabbits are timid and shy, and they don't want to go anywhere near humans. But when we moved close to the pen, they almost brought the fence down. Once we started feeding them the animal food that they sell, it was obvious why they were crashing the fence. Cute animals.

Gero

This is me in Japanese-style clothing in a lobby at an old hotel in Gero, Gifu Prefecture, February 2007. Known for its onsen (hot springs), Gero is a nice town, but other than the nice hot springs, there weren't a lot of other things to do.

The entrance to something called Gero Onsen Gassho Mura. Inside is a park with recreations of the ancient Japanese housing that Gero is also known for. We didn't go inside though; we didn't want to pay the entrance fee.

A view of the valley surrounding Gero on our way back home.

Extreme Close-Up!!!

Me and my girlfriend (now my wife) at the ski slopes of Akakura Onsen, Niigata, February 2007. Okay, so you can't see her face clearly. You better be lucky she let me even put this picture up. That's about all you're going to get, so live with it.

Akakura Onsen

The snowy main street of the ski resort of Akakura Onsen, Niigata Prefecture, February 2007. It was only my third time to go skiing. The first two times were in Shiga Prefecture. (You can read about my first trip here.) We had fun at Akakura, and I think I'm getting better at skiing. But we were dead tired after the weekend.

A view from the top of one of the ski slopes.

Some Pics from Ishigaki Island

Me at the northernmost point of Ishigaki Island, Okinawa, December 2006. It looks so beautiful, don't you agree?

This is chanpuru, an Okinawan dish made of noodles called soumen, vegetables, and some kind of meat I can't remember at this time. Anyway, I recommend it.

Another food I recommend if you ever go to Ishigaki is sa-ta-andagii, which looks and tastes like a donut hole. By far the best place to eat it is a shop called Sayoko, about one kilometer or so upland from the harbor. We couldn't get enough of it.

More From Iriomote

Having fun on Yufu Island, just off of the coast of Iriomote Island, Okinawa, December 2006. Yufu Island is a small island with a few beaches, a lot of plants, and a souvenir shop (what place in Japan doesn't have one?).

The best way to get to Yufu Island is by carriages pulled by water buffalo, which don't mind crossing the kilometer or so of shallow water. Quite scenic. Of course, you could walk, too, if you don't mind getting your feet wet.

Another sign telling us to watch out for the endangered Iriomote wild cat.

Pictures from Iriomote Island

A few cows on Iriomote Island, a sparsely-populated island just west of Ishigaki Island, Okinawa, Japan, December 2006.

A sign warning me to watch out for Iriomote wild cats, called Iriomote yamaneko in Japanese.

A model of an Iriomote wild cat. Looks like a regular house cat to me, but I guess there are differences.

Quick Sports Takes - 20 August 2007

• I'll admit it: I'm a soccer fan. The first sport I remember playing with friends as a kid in Birmingham, Alabama, was, believe it or not, soccer. I've liked the sport for a long time. So I am a little biased. But with all the hoopla surrounding David Beckham's arrival in the United States and Major League Soccer (MLS), I'm getting tired of all of these sports talk, newspaper, and TV people attacking the sport of soccer. If they want to say that the MLS is terrible, that's fine with me. The MLS is not up to the standard of the English Premier League, the Bundesliga, and those other European leagues. If they want to say that the MLS will never be on the same level as the NFL, NBA or Major League Baseball, that's okay, too. Those sports have a long tradition, and soccer is not going to sweep them away. But these people are attacking the sport itself, saying that it is boring. ESPN's Colin Cowherd said on his podcast, "One of the problems with soccer is that the clock starts from 0:00. America is a 'wind-down' country, not a 'wind-up' country." Are you kidding me? So, soccer is bad because it is different. Ridiculous. From this point on, I'm not subscribing to the Cowherd podcast, or anyone else with ridiculous comments like that.
• Another thing I'm thinking about giving up is college sports. (I can't believe I'm saying this, considering I grew up in Alabama and went to the University of Alabama.) I'm beginning to dislike the concept of kids getting full scholarships to universities to play sports and not doing their part as students. I think it's better for someone to skip college and go straight to the pros than to go to a university and graduate on classes like table tennis and The Beatles, which makes a mockery of the university they go to. The NFL should start a minor league for these kids. (Baseball obviously already has such a system, and the NBA is on its way.)
• One thing I'm not going to give up on, though, is being an Atlanta Falcons fan, even though they're in for a bad season after all the Vick trouble. I've been a Falcons fan since living in Atlanta in the early 1990s; I'm used to bad seasons. :)

More from Taketomi Island

More pictures from Taketomi Island near Ishigaki, Japan, December 2006.

Me standing near a shii-saa statue at someone's house.

A water buffalo cart on Taketomi. They're not free; you have to pay to ride them.

My Fan Club 3

The last of the uchiwa.

My Fan Club 2

More uchiwa for your perusal.

My Fan Club

The other day, my wife noted the many free fans (called uchiwa in Japanese) that I have amassed over the past couple of years. In the summer, there are many people promoting their companies' products on street corners by handing out fans adorned with the company logo, or product information. The way I see it, though, is that it's a free way to cool off a little in hot and sticky Osaka. So whenever I come across a free uchiwa, I take advantage and grab it. I know you guys are interested in knowing what kind of fans I have collected, right? So here they are. (Actually, the one above wasn't really a promotional giveaway; I got it at an udon restaurant in Kagawa Prefecture. Udon is a thick noodle served in broth; Kagawa is famous for it.)