Three for Three: New Year Caching

Hiroko and I headed out of Tokyo a little too late to make it back at a reasonable time so after we went up to Hossawa Falls and found the cache near the frozen waterfall we walked down the mountain and got the second cache near the village map of Hinohara. Good finds!

After that we did a bit of walking and I stuck out my thumb. A pastor passed us by, noticed the thumb, made a U-turn and came and picked us up. She took us all over the place to find a place to stay.

Finall we got a place but it was too late for dinner so we bought some stuff and a bottle of wine and enjoyed it in the room together. It was pretty darn cold in the room so luckily we could warm ourselves up in the bath next door.

We fell asleep quickly and suffered from cold drafts all night.

This morning we had a quick bath to take off the night chill, gathered for a new year breakfast, paid our bill and started walking.

We walked for a couple of hours and eventually found the third cache at Daihigan Temple. It's a temple first built in 1163 or so but no records remain to prove who the original builder was. Nice place, great cache.

We brewed ourselves some coffee, ate some cheese and a hard boiled egg and walked the half hour back to the station.

Now we are headed back to Tokyo to meet Hiroko's mom. I kept bugging her to introduce me so this is a good chance. Near her Kim's place are a few caches so maybe tomorrow we will go and look for them if the weather is fine.

It's a good holiday and the new year weather is always good in Tokyo (one of the reasons why Mayu always hated being in Fukui during the new year because it is cold, rainy, snowy and generally miserable).

I love you!



Hossawa Falls Cache



Hossawa Falls




Hinohara Area Map Cache




Daihigan Temple Cache



Daihigan Mini Temple

Cam

History Repeats Itself... Sort of.

Hiroko and I we trying our hardest to get out of the city to a
waterfall/geocache a couple of hours away but it its turning out to be
a real challenge!

Work keeps flowing in and replies are necessary.
Then finally on our way into Shinjuku as we were sitting in the train
I noticed some strange rubbery powdery things on the floor around us.
It turns out that Hiroko's hiking boots were disintegrating around us!

We made it to Shinjuku bu the soles completely melted off and we were
forced to go boot hunting. Finally we got a new pair but as you can
see in this photo continuing on our journey without getting a new pair
of boots simply was not an option.

And now I'm hungry so we are buying fake food at McDonalds....

And away we go. Again. I bet it's going to be dark by the time we get
there. Oh well, as I always say, it's the process...

I love you!

Happy New Year.

Cam

Ginza Cache Finally Achieved!!

I have been searching for this baby for a very long time. Finally
today I found it. When I did find it I thought to myself, "why the he
k couldn't I find it the other four times!?!"

As you can see, it's pretty tiny.
And as you can see the leaves in the park are still looking good.

I have to go to work today as I have been working since 9am this
morning on my non-holiday. Sigh. It's been a very long year...

But before I go to the office I need to recache this baby; however
there's a guy standing right at the cache location and he is
preventing me from .... Oh he just moved away.

Let's go!

Merry Christmas Chicken

I just uploaded our Christmas video to YouTube. It's a little bit
short, but it's full of many exciting things. Especially chicken!!!

You can view it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGlh_UInmUA

Merry Christmas
I love you!
Cam

Christmas Eve

It's a really great Christmas for me. I spent a great day with Hiroko
and we bought a lot of stuff at Diesel but it looks fantastic on our
bodies so is so worth the price. Boots, shoes, rings, watches,
bracelets, leather jackets, bags, dresses, shirts. Fantastic. I
haven't been this content in a very long time. It feels really great
to spend the day with the woman I love. Now we are finishing a
wonderful Christmas eve dinner with two bottles of wine.

Next we will go back to my apartment and get ready to visit the shrine
in my 'hood to ring in the new year and reflect on the old year. It's
the first time to ever share this tradition with another person
outside of Paula.

I now understand why Matt said he was able to decide to marry and be
with his woman after such a short time had passed. It has only ben
three short months but this is really different. And I'm loving it!

Merry Christmas!
I love you!

Cam

Cross Section of a Species

This poster represents a good cross section view of today's person
from Japan. They are either drunk (the Businessman), emailing or
tweeting on their smartphone (the Datajunkie), engrossed in their
music (the Obliviator) or gaming on their DS/Playstation (the Gamer).
The other species that is not indicated in this poster showing
dangerous activities is the Sleeper or the person who is so tired for
whatever reason that they fall so heavily asleep on the train and
drool into their neighbour's lap. But the sleeper is not a
particularly dangerous species therefore I imagine it was excluded
from the list.

Happy Holidays!

I love you.
Cam

Geocaching: 5-4-5, Part 2

This cache called Pray was in an absolutely amazing location and
totally camouflaged to the point that if I hadn't gotten the 54
previous caches I probably never would have found this one!

Take a look at the second photo and you will see what I mean.

It was a great day and now it's time for some hot bourbon (Woodford
Reserve, the best bourbon evar) and food and then a good night's
sleep. I need it after these past three weeks. And it looks like its
going to be much of the same until at least the end of February.

Geocaching: 5-4-5, Part 1

Hiroko and I went out for a good 20km bike ride today in order to get
some fresh air, exercise and adventure. We came home tonight with
entirely numb fingers and toes in spite of wearing gloves (and shoes)
but to get five of five geocaches was fantastic!

The first photo with the blue cache we got in Nichiren's temple
complex. As I wrote in the previous post it was in a totally different
place than we were searching the last time because we got the
coordinates wrong in the multicache search. I'll write more about that
another day.

It's a gorgeous place and we were so happy to be there in the daytime.

Max' Snow Ride

It's a gorgeous, clear and cool Tokyo winter day. Kanako and I are out on my bikes enjoying the outdoors after a long two weeks. We just got a geocaches that we couldn't get last time in the Nichiren temple district we visited a few weeks ago.
There are two more near here so we are going to go and look for them as soon as we finish lunch. We were both too hungry to keep going...

So as we were sipping our coffee these two photos of Max out in the great outdoors arrived. I'm envious! (but I'll bet he'd be envious of the woman I'm out geocaching with...)

I love you!
Cam
>
>

Seeking Serenity, A Prologue: Rikugi-en

It's time to make another serenity video for you folks and tonight is the night because we are heading off to a park that has illumination for December, not for Christmas, but for December. The last night is tonight but it looks like it's going to be fantastic. So here's a little history for you about Rikugi-en:

 

Rikugi-en has been counted as one of two excellent gardens of the Edo period together with Koishikawa Koraku-en. 

 

The garden was built by Mr. Yoshiyasu Yanagisawa, a famous favorite of the fifth Shogun Tunayoshi Tokugawa , as his villa in 1702. 

 

This garden is a typical Daimyo garden called a Kaiyuu pond garden with hills and ponds. Because the land had been on a corner of the flat Musashino, he dug a pond and made hills. 

 

The name, Rikugi-en, came from "six elements of Waka poems" that had been derived from "six styles of poems" written in the old Chinese poetry book "Mao-shi". 

 

In this garden, a big pond with some islands is surrounded by trees and offering imitations of famous Japanese beautiful spots such as Wakanoura in Kishuu(Wakayama Prefecture). 

 

The garden became the property of Iwasaki family of Mitsubishi group and was contributed to Tokyo city and opened to the public in 1938. Rikugi-en was appointed as special beauty spot of Japan in 1953.    

I Love You!

Cam

Geocaching with Max, Part 2 (again, in Japanese only) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r51KkqSS9cI

Geocaching with Max, part 1 (in Japanese only, sorry...) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dqy1iEY2DfE

Max' Ancient Cedar

Paula, Stefnee,

Here I am back at the ancient cedar tree near Max' place that you love so much!

I took this photo with all of my love for the two of you pouring from the depths of my soul!

I love you!




Cam

Osaka-san's New Restaurant

For those of you who remember Osaka-San and his restaurant I present
you with is remade restaurant, Oceans!

It sure is good to meet my old friends again. I'm glad he was working!
I'm going to bring Hiroko here for a buffet lunch tomorrow after she
arrives and we drive around a bit. I want to show her my old
Shangri-la.

The guy standing outside the shop is Max and the guy standing in the
shop is Osaka-san.

I love you!

In The GAP

On Rhursday I got out of the office to see a client with the other business development people We don't say 'sales' any more because clients require more than just selling; they expect the vendor to help them develop their business and take on risk as well. It is a big shift from the days of yore.

The entire train was a massive ad for The GAP. Each car was full of only GAP advertisements. The banner you see above everyone's head is actually knitted (in China of course) like a scarf!

I thought it was quite unique an idea since people are pulling out their winter wear already and bundling & scarfing up.

Time to catch my flight to my Shangri-la for the rest of the week. My bike and Masaki (and the cold rain and high humidity) are awaiting me!

I love you!
Cam

There seems to be no app for Multiply and the mobile version is rather limited. I like to be able to see the sidebar that shows us comment numbers, personal message numbers, and new post numbers without having to scroll through all of my contact posts. I can't even find easily if anyone has commented on my posts and I guess that makes access from the iPhone the least desirable. If anyone has found an iPhone app for Multiply please let me know as I don't see it in any of my searches. I love you!

aWesome iPhone 4S cOver

I couldn't resist getting this cover for my iPhone. I absolutely love
it. Actually we are supposed to be able to put our train pass between
the phone and the back of the case and then just touch the phone to
the turnstile and go. But the phone waves seem to block the ic chip in
the pass card so it doesn't work. That is a disappointment but
still.... It's so frikkin' awesome! If I were Japanese everyone would
think I was either a yakuza or a rebel. But since I'm a white dude
it's a cool juxtaposition that messes with their minds. And I like
that!

And I love you!
Cam

No Action is Good Action?

This photo is on the fence of a construction site between Gotanda Stn and my offices. They are putting up a brand new office building.

It just strikes me as funny, as I'm sure you can understand. Of course the meaning is such that the company is doing its part in reducing CO2 emissions (to 0) but still....

I love you!
Cam

P.S. The logo is really quite clever. An eco-hard hat. I love it!




Cam

Siri is amazing!

 This is absolutely amazing I can’t believe how well Siri works I’m testing it out and sending this email entirely by voice right now using the Siri program is absolutely unbelievable how much technology has move forward this is a dream come true I have thought about this for many years and thought how wonderful it would be to speak to the telephone and how to do everything for you well Siri is doing it right now of course there’ll be some mistakes in how it hears me and you won’t see the periods at the end of the sentences but just think I am recording this email by my voice and sending it out to you is that amazing or what I love you I love Siri this is fantastic technology yeah this town

Cam

Through Great Effort Comes Great Reward

SoftBank has been the sole monopoly in Japan for the iPhone since it first exploded onto the market years ago. The problem with SoftBank is that their reception has always been poor; it is the biggest complaint of iPhone users (and SoftBank users for that matter) for years.

Enter competition...

This past October au, another major carrier started handling the iPhone. Their carrier service has always been in my opinion (different from that of Jaime and Jason I think) much more reliable. Docomo I hear is the most stable of all but I have always been with au. So I thought I would give the au iPhone a go this time around.

Hiroko switched from au to SoftBank this past July on the advice of her brother but she has not been happy with the service to date. Since I switched to the iPhone it has been
More difficult to connect to each other as the iPhone system doesn't provide instantaneous push service of mail. The best you can set is 15min interval checks. Of course you can open the mailer and it checks for you but if you are waiting for a message while the phone is in your pocket and you aren't checking it all the time like an email junkie then you won't feel the buzz until your phone checks at the predetermined interval. This IS a drawback.

Also the Message system here in Japan which uses the phone number to send SMS to only works between users of the same carrier (apparently that will change in the not too distant future) so SoftBank iPhone and au iPhone have their limitations.

Hiroko really didn't like that so although she bought her phone in July yesterday she switched back to au and got a 4S. Now we can communicate with the message system instantly so she is happy.

We tried to set up her Gmail address on the new phone but it just didn't work so in the end we had to delete it and set up a new one. Also we had to transfer her extensive contact list over, set up the dedicated au email address and get her music and photos off the one phone and onto the new one.

It took us six hours to get this all done as the gmail was the most frustrating. After going back to the au shop and getting a lot of help the final conclusion was to make the new address and start fresh. It worked. But we were still limited by the 15minute push option. What to do?

The techie guy who helped us was also frustrated by all of this Gmail trouble and while researching options for us discovered something wonderful!

He found out that instead of using the Gmail setup option if you set up the gmail in the Microsoft Exchange option you will get instantaneous email push and no longer be limited to the silly 15minute push! That works great and gives us the functionality of a Japanese cellphone.

So although it took us six hours to get her phone up and running smoothly we discovered something great in the effort!

Through great effort comes great reward.

I love you!
Cam

Google Chrome Apps

Google has added some very interesting apps to their browser, Google Chrome, THAT YOU CAN USE ON YOUR COMPUTER. Apps. That's what I said. It's pretty cool, actually, that the computer is starting to blur into something like the smart phone. And I like that! 

Open up a new tab (+) in Chrome and you'll see what I mean. The "App Store" is now there, and you can download TONS of apps and use them for free. I have currently downloaded "Springpad", Canvas Rider (a really addictive "stick biker game), Full Screen Weather, and NewsSquares, an app that lets you put a bunch of your favourite news sources all in one visual place.

I also downloaded a KindleIt app which now allows me to convert any webpage I am reading into a kindle version, and then send it (via my computer) to my Kindle. To send directly to the kindle Amazon charges, but to send to the computer and then transfer to the Kindle via the USB cable is free. That's good. So now I can take a bunch of articles, editorials, etc. on my kindle as well.

The other little app I installed allows me to see how many mails I have in my GMail account by posting a little "M" in the upper right corner of the browser. When there are emails, a little number shows up over the M, informing me of the emails I have. So, I don't need to toggle back and forth any more to see if "I've got mail!"

I was surprised to see these changes. I think they may have happened either this week, or perhaps just over the past few days. Take a look; you may find something interesting.

That biking game is a blast. When the stick biker crashes, he? she? really crashes and burns. 

Time for food. The Fridge Goddess is beckoning me.

I love you!

Cam

Yes! Yes! Chiba! (Geocaching)

I got it! Finally!! The cache that I searched all summer for among the jungle of weeds. Finally I got it and logged it. And I was so close every single time... I can't believe how I missed it every time when I was right at ground zero...

I put a glowing Hello Kitty Head into this cache and signed the logbook.

TFTC!

I love you!
Cam

PS. Now I need to find that damned one in Ginza...

Claim Your Existence Today!

I haven't seen or experienced any "one-off" events/imagery that have caught my attention enough to thumb about it. But this morning on the second train to work this noice caught my attention and the following thought flowed into my mind.

If you are single and unrequieted in your love for another human being, or feeling unloved and not in control of your existence, fear not for help is just around the corner! All you need to do is take a train and your existence will be informed to the station staff or train crew. Who knows? It could lead to romance or some other great transcendental experience!

Go on! What are you waiting for? Take a train today and claim your existence! You are worth it!

I love you!
Cam

Spongebob Wants You!

Here is a great one-liner in my Medscape Daily News this morning:

Obesity Parents, Schools, Even Spongebob Recruited to Obesity Fight

By the way, do you think "obesity parents" means "parents of obese children"? Or could it be parents trying to promote and raise "obesity"? Hmmm… A little bit ("chotto" in Japanese) strange wording, that "obesity parents".

Have a great day.

I love you!

P.S. Here is an ad for a new clothing store that promotes clothing for "Over 65". Do people over 65 really WANT to dress like this? These days I see more and more elderly in jeans and runners, so I'm wondering. When I was a youngster I saw my grandma and grandpa dressing like this, but if they were still alive, they would be +/- 100 years old. My PARENTS are over 65 and I don't think they'd be caught dead wearing stuff like this. Well, Japan is Japan so maybe the J-elderly prefer to be seen as "classic"… as in Henry Ford Model-T classic…

Fw:KaiKiKan - An old Japanese Inn

"KaiKiKan" (海喜館). That's the name on the old signboard outside this tranquil spot that I pass by every morning on the way to work. It catches my eye because of the warm, refreshing, energizing feeling that emanates from between the gates. The green moss and the shade among the trees looks cool and relaxing when the sweat trickles down my neck and back as I exit the subway station and make the five minute walk along steaming concrete to my office.

This morning I decided to take a short detour to see what it was like inside the decaying walls of this spot that is located tranquilly next to the Meguro River in Gotanda.

At the office I did a bit of research on the net for some information about this run down building which turns out to be a pre-war ryokan or Japanese inn that has survived through the decades. I couldn't find a lot about the history of this inn, however I did find a blog (that wasn't blocked at the office) and will include the link here. http://hanaiti.fc2web.com/060501.html The information is in Japanese, and it is someone's opinion about their experience staying there. However if you scroll down to just a little past halfway, you will find the same photo I have included in this post. From there, you can take a look at what the inside of this venerable Japanese in looks like and see how "old Japan" (well, modern old), used to look in its heyday (sorry, no singing geisha).

I realize that I have actually stayed in ryokan around Japan that are also from this generation as the interior is very similar to what I have experienced. For those of you who like something a little more modern (modern toilets, non-stained, no cigarette-burned carpeting, baths that fit a modern-sized body, this may not be for you. But if you like to experience a certain period of Japan and feel what it really was like while immersing yourself into the building and the culture of that time, spending a night, enjoying a dinner and ambiance may be the ticket for you.

This spot is beautiful to look at on the way to work; it really gives one a sense of peace and tranquility. And in this day of hectic work routine that is filled with pressure to speed up the process, it can help develop an inner peace to start a busy, hectic day.

I love you!
Cam

Today was a really nice day. I went out to Asakusa for some geocaching, and just to wander around. I found the two caches I was looking for. Great day. Nothing as dramatic or as important as #occupywallstreet, of course, but still a good day in my books.

The Good Ol' Barley Sandwich

This is an ad in the train this morning. I am sharing it with you today because it is an ad by Suntory for their wheat-based brew called "KinMugi". It just goes to show why lovers of beer call the beverage a "barley sandwich". Could it be the new breakfast of champions?

I love you! (I don't love happoshu - this type of "beer")

Cam

Four caches today. It was a good day. I tried for five, but got four. That's not too bad. Got to spend a few hours walking around Tokyo so it was nice rather than just going from point to point on the trains and missing everything in between. The first cache (found) was at a very old shrine that was once visited by Matsuo Basho who is famous for writing Haiku. The second and third were at parks. One park had a lot of people enjoying a festival. The last one was near a bridge. I walked along the river for a km or so, and just enjoyed the peaceful Sunday in Tokyo. TFTC! I love you! Cam

I just finished uploading hundreds of photos of my trip to Langkawi, Malaysia, to my flickr page . Feel free to zoom through the 9 sets of photos there if you are interested in seeing how gorgeous this island is. http://www.flickr.com/photos/camswitzer

Langkawi Club Mangrove Kayak tour was awesome! The photos and video will come ... eventually. Heading back to Japan tomorrow so packing up tonight. Only here to check in. See you in steamy Japan again.

Wednesday in Langkawi

Yesterday Megumi and I rented a car and traveled around the island. First we drove into the jungle to look for a geocache. We found it. BUT the location had some family dogs running around that absolutely terrified her. So much so that 1. she burst into tears to release the stress in the car, 2. she got extremely sleepy as her body kicked in to deal with the shock, and 3. she pretty much didn't talk for the rest of the entire day. I, however got down on one knee, chatted with the dogs, and they wagged their tails like good little girls and boys and where happy to lick the sweat off my arms and legs. Very nice dogs!

Then we drove around to the next earthcache, up the mountain, found it, enjoyed the history, the geology, the scenery (!). We went to the top of the mountain (850m) and there is a resort there with a tower. We went up the tower and had a 360 degree view of the entire island (and coffee).

Following that we drove back down, enjoying all the monkeys carrying their babies all over kingdom come, and kept driving around the island to the final earthcache destination. This place is designated a special geopark location, that is important for geologists around the world. A part of land has become an island due to the erosion of the rock in the area. Wonderful place. We logged that, swam around in the very warm sea, washed off with one tiny bottle of water between the two of us, then on to the next spot: cable car!

The cablecar takes one up 700 metres of steep mountain to two sightseeing platforms where you can see the entire island from yet another gorgeous angle. We even saw an "elephant woman"! The suspension bridge was really cool, and the scenery of the sea, the jungle and the mountains, stunning.

We drove home, filled the car up with gas, then had dinner at a restaurant that offered Turkish food (toilet smells funny today). Good food.

I'm waiting in the lobby right now for Megumi so that we can go and have breakfast. I'm a tad hungry after the carbs last night.

Let's see how the day goes.

I love you!
Cam

At the risk of getting harangued, I HAVE to say it: Here in Langkawi there are a bazillion different colours of people ranging from white Canucks, through crispy red lobster Aussies, Arabs in an amazing array of colours (and black, black, black), the Malays, the Chinese, Japanese Koreans... and the blacks. Whites are... well, white. But to see so many different hues and shades of brown on the black people is just wonderful. It's mesmerizing! There are really light brown people, the dark black Africans, and the gorgeous chocolate mocha colour of people with skin just like Jen's. Since we don't have a lot of Arabs and black people in Japan, it is really noticeable for one, but the colours of the black skin are simply gorgeous! I love seeing the men and women walk by with different hair lengths, colours, styles, and their skin, glowing under the sun. Just wow!

Futon Boy 2, or The adventure continues: http://youtu.be/VsOuKSabaOM

Futon Boy, Part 1: http://youtu.be/uqthdgCT6aA

IAM: Waking up with Futon Boy

Mitch felt his first earthquake last night. I'll let him try to describe it when he gets the time. I woke up at 1am when I felt it and he was up. When I woke up to leg cramps at 5am and went to get some water, Futon Boy was up and sitting on the bed. It may have been a bit too warm for him to sleep last night as he came from highs of 17C to a place that is still 31C at 8pm.

This morning I played househusband and whipped him up a whopper of a VEGETARIAN breakfast consisting of the following:

vegetable korokke (croquette)
Hokkaido mini potatoes
onsen tamago (hotspring steamed egg)
mushroom tempura
ume okayu (plum rice congee)
deep fried tofu
pickled cabbage
steamed broccoli
miso soup
and iced cafe latte.

We caught my usual 7:38 train and met my new morning train-friend nurse, Hiroko who was able to squeeze her way over to us. She chatted a bit in English with Mitch (first time to learn she speaks English). Very friendly is Hiroko (single, too). And she is a nurse so she knows well how to communicate with people and use eye contact. She also isn't afraid of body contact which is good. Hiroko got off at her regular station and we went on to Shinjuku.

I took Mitch to the two Geocaches at Shinjuku South and let him find them. Maybe I hooked him. Then I bought him coffee at Starbucks and we sat and talked about all the scenery. I took him to his platform after we bought his ticket and hugged him sayonara. He is off to the Ghibli Museum today, then to Osaka for huge hugs plus alpha from his woman.

Ah yes... last night he arrived at my station at 8pm and I took him to a Chinese place. We found some stuff with no meat.He had a shower at my place to get rid of the "flight funk", checked his mail, we chatted a bit and about 11pm called it a night. He awoke a few times during the night.

Another Successful IAM Meeting! I love Globalized Love!

And I love you!
Cam

Futon Boy and My Amazon

I gotta get home. The chances are fairly high that Mitch, AKA Futon Boy, is lounging outside my station, awaiting my imminent arrival. That is, if he found my station. You see, Futon Boy is coming to Japan today and when I shipped him a futon a couple of years ago I also promished him dinner and coffee if he ever made it to Japan.

He was set to arrive at Narita today about 5pm and I offered my lodgings and a hot VEGETARIAN breakfast. He accepted. The only catch is that as my home is on the way into Tokyo from Narita, he had to find his way home. With excellent instructions from me of course. On a jet lagged brain, that is. His.

Segue----

I finished my weekly meeting with UK at 6pm as usual and then hightailed it outta there as quickly as I could. Well who should I bump into standing at the same spot I usually stand but that extremely taal modelicious woman I mentioned in a previous post. In high heels and a short summer black one piece. With her hair up in an "I dream of Jeannie" ponytail. Typing on her iPhone.

So I walked right up to her and stood beside her, tall and proud. Then I turned to her and said,"the last time I first saw you I didn't have a chance to compliment you on your wonderfu height!" She looked shocked that some unknown person would just talk to her out of the blue (I was expecting that) and she covered her phone (I was expecting that too). Then she said to me, "Have we met before?" (I've always wanted a woman to use that line on me).

And I replied with my face alight and my blue eyes shining at her, "Not officially but if you recall last week I passed you in the hall to the sation platform and you went and stood over there." She laughed, relaxed and smiled. "I don't think I've ever met someone as tall as you here in Japan," I said to her with truth and genuine delight. Her responding laugh was like the sound of crystal chimes on a summer afternoon. "Thank you."

Our train arrived and we sat on the same bench, but I gave her some space as I didn't want to be overbearing. She continued with her phone and I finished my book. After a few stops two men got on and both wanted to sit on either side of me where I had a half space each. Fortunately for me the guy on the other side squeezed in and I scooched over next to My Amazon.

The train stopped at her station (I knew which it was as I saw her walk pas my car the last time) and I was prepared. We looked at each other and though we were side by side we gave each other a big smile and a big wave and said goodbye!

I'll be seeing her again if my timing is right.

Oh. My station. Time to go and find Scruffy Futpn Boy and entertain his jetlagged ass for the evening. It will be a balst to meet another Internet Axe Murderer!

Excuse the typos; Im in a hurry typing this on the train...

I love you!
Cam

Wow. Watch: http://www.flixxy.com/japanese-tsunami-viewed-from-a-car.htm

Saturday: http://youtu.be/hX7AIc4NSMc

Sunday: http://youtu.be/7hC99QWoT9U

Meet Yoko

Yoko lives in Nagasaka but she's from Tokyo. She's done a lot of traveling, has three children (youngest is 30) and has been divorced for 7 years. I smiled at her on the train from Nagasaka and well that was the start of a non-stop conversation about everything! She's cool. And boy is she a talker. She has a mean handshake, too. Yoko alighted at Hachioji. Nice to meet you Yoko!

Love chatting up strangers. Life is about community and communication after all.

1/3 Water Division DNF . Yatsugatake PA TFTC!

I spent a good two hours rooting around the 1/3 Water Division Cache location at Ground Zero but came up with a big fat DNF. It is a great place in the cool mountain woods to be sticking my arm up to my shoulder in unknown crevices and wondering if the poisonous centipedes are going to get me or not.

The water coming out of the ground there is cold! I washed my hands and they went numb. A long time ago that water was fought over so the people of the area built an aquifer that splits it into three streams and takes it to everyone needing it for their fields. It is impressive.

I then had some of the local soba (so my tummy is swollen like a pufferfish) and took the ikm downhill ride at top speed until I fount Yatsugatake Parking Area om the Chuo Expressway. I was on the To Tokyo side so had to find a tunnel going under the expressway to get to the To Nagano side. I rode uphill, parked my bike and went in search of the cache here. I found it pretty quickly, logged it, left a superball, stealthily replaced it, and just finished a coffee.

Now it is time to figure out how to get back to Nagasaka Stn and then wait for a train to Shinjuku.

A great weekend all in all!

Shuppatsu!

Yesterday was good.

I unfolded my bike and rode the up-down road to where Honoka is having her gallery. Then I visited an African art museum and after that pedaled over to an interesting outdoor gallery of which I showed you the thumb. An artist of yore bought the land and using the mountains, sky, forest converted the entire area into art. In the very middle of the place is an interesting round building of brick that is apparently a replica of an old winery in France.

I rode back to Honoka's gallery at 1715 but they had closed for the day. However she had her eyes peeled from above and called out to me from her friend's house a bit up the mountain when she saw me at the gallery. We borrowed her friend's car, tossed my bike in and drove up to this JazzBar Chandra where I made a booking to stay. It was a good 30 minutes to get here.

Both of us were hungry so we wandered to a restaurant in the surrounding woods and had a quick dinner, then came back for the Jazz. It was ... not interesting but our conversation was compelling and we probably annoyed the other guests by talking the entire time. Honoka went home about 10:30 and I had a shower and hit the sack about 11pm. As Honoka doesn't live in Japan (Bali, Columbia, NYC) I don't know when Ill see her next but I'm sure she will let me know when she is in the country again.

I'm just enjoying coffee now and then I must be off. I have to ride about 8km to the first geocaching spot. See if you can find Sanbu-ichi, Yamanashi Prefecture on google to get an idea where I am and what I'm doing. It is kind of a famous spot as there were water wars here in the past.

I love you!
Cam

Off on a mini adventure to the mountains (taking my GPS, of course!) It's going to be a culture, wining & dining, musical, mountainous, folding mini-bike, geocaching adventure.

TV Stars @ 17:50

Today I finished work @ 17:30, and left about 20 to. I decided that even though I didn't bring my GPS with me I would give "TV Stars" another shot.So I walked down to the shrine, located the stone carvings of Doraemon, Pikachu and a few other TV stars, and followed their gaze.

The cache was right at the end of their sight, totally in plain view. It makes me wonder how it can still be there. Because it sits exposed to the elements, the log paper is wet, the pen is rusted, the ziplock bags are rotting and the mosquitoes are still ferocious and unrelenting (almost as bad as Winnipeg mosquitoes, and that's saying something!)

I stealthily gathered everything up and took it to a spot where I could open it up and log it. I added a button, wrapped it up as best I could and headed back to the spot. This time when I re-hid it, I added some more cammo to keep the muggles away as long as possible.

When I get home tonight and after I have logged it I'll submit a "needs maintenance" ticket so that the owner knows to go and do something about it.

I'm on my way to the gym but I'm starving... and dead tired.

And I'm happy! TFTC!

Put another notch in my GPS!

I love you!
Cam

80s Retro iPhone

Wow! Here's an awesome idea for all you retro lovers: an 80s-style cell phone cover for the iPhone! And they only cost about $20!

If you want to see more photos, check out this site:
http://www.news-gate.jp/2011/0803/18/photo00.html

Brad, here's your chance
to carry around a hightec phone in a form that is in harmony with the computers you have at work! Go for it. You'll be the talk of East St. Paul.

I love you!
Cam

No Comment

I'm conducting a somewhat interesting (to me) experiment. I have often been heard to say (or read to write?) that Japanese seem not to have an opinion on current events, be they local or global. I don't hear people discussing current events at work, nor do they seem to have formed an opinion of any sort if I ask them about their opinion in either English class (in English), or during work. Now of course their English skill level may not be (IS NOT) high enough to express what they are thinking beyond a very rudimentary response, which is why I often attempt to engage them in their own native tongue.

One woman at work (she is in a different building now, so I never see her anymore) studied in England, loves England, and speaks English very well with no Japanese accent. She told me that when she first went to study, she was amazed how all the other non-Japanese foreigners nearly killed each other to get the chance to try and express themselves whenever the teacher would ask "What do you think?" Even though they could barely speak English, it didn't matter. The thing was that they ALL seemed to have their own opinion about topics and news. All but the Japanese students, that is, who sat there quietly. It was at that time that my coworker decided that she needed to start to form her own opinions about world events.

As I said, I have noted a very similar occurrence during my 20 years here. And so, these past two months, since I am much busier at my new job and don't have a quiet (private) spot to access news, have barely had the chance to look at what is going on. This is where the experiment comes in. I believe that were I anywhere else but Japan, global (and local) topics of importance would come to me via other people looking for my thoughts and/or opinions on the events. 

But guess what? Right! That doesn't happen here. It didn't happen in my old office, either. 

Let me give you a good example, or two.

Runner Up Example: I had no idea of the torrential flooding that occurred in Japan due to this most recent bicycle-speed typhoon that passed through until Charles posted a few articles and photos on his Facebook. Nobody talked about it. "Thousands stranded after typhoon; death toll at 41, over 50 missing"

http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/thousands-stranded-after-typhoon-death-toll-at-41-over-50-missing

First prize: I just happened to have a free minute yesterday and turned to the japantoday.com site to quickly skim the topics and see what had happened over the past few days. And guess what? I found out that we now have a NEW Prime Minister, and his popularity rating is 63%! Can you believe it? Not one single person in my office, or even in my building of probably over 500 people has even mentioned this BIG event! Total silence. Absolute and utter silence on this topic.

"Japan's new leadership wins solid backing in more polls"
http://www.japantoday.com/category/politics/view/japans-new-leadership-wins-solid-backing-in-more-polls

Blows me away.

I will continue with this experiment for a while because, in truth, not knowing the news really isn't going to kill me, though knowing it allows one to have some world knowledge, and have interesting conversations when one gets tired about talking about how hot it is, or how humid it is, or (soon to be) how cold it is. Usually.

I love you!
Cam

P.S. 
"Apple’s iOS 5 to adopt earthquake early warning function"
http://www.japantoday.com/category/technology/view/apple%E2%80%99s-ios-5-to-adopt-earthquake-early-warning-function

Geocaching Five For Five, the Video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mkd1AckCAgA

Five for Five

With the typhoon gone over to the Fukui side of the island, Megumi and I went out to ride our bikes and do some geocaching. 

Two weeks ago you may remember I went out to do some caching across the Edogawa River in Chiba. I only found one: 1st Saizeriya. The other several I tried I couldn't get. This time, things were different and well... we found five for five today! Yes!! 

The Edogawa near my place is really high from the heavy rains up river, so it was quite dirty and fast, but we crossed over with no difficulty. First of all we went to "Where Am I?" which has an old train on display in a kids playground. My GPS was going haywire the last time, but this time... well, I sat down "on the waves", and thought a bit, trusted the coordinates, reached, and there it was. Pretty simple. 

Next we rode a little further to "Earth, Peace, Futuer" (Misspelled by owner), and saw this little bronze girl standing in a tiny park (concrete) in the corner of a big intersection. I immediately found the cache. Megumi was a bit pissed because as she was getting her gps up and running, I just walked to where I thought it would be, and there it was.

After that we rode to the "Animal in Stone" location, and I showed her the animal. Just to make sure I wasn't wrong, and this wasn't some deviant stone carving of a traditional thing (as can happen here in Japan for reasons unknown to me) that is actually something else, I asked the owner of the carving (who owns a tobacco shop on the corner), if it was really what I thought it was (maneki neko). He said yes. So I put in the coordinates for the next location (this is called a multi-cache, where you go to one place, answer a question, and based on the answer get new coordinates for the next location, which might lead you to a next, and a next, and a so on... ) and we went there (155m away). 

Actually it was right where I was searching last time and couldn't find anything. BUT this time, I recalled where "1st Saizeriya" was hidden, and since the same person hid this one, I knew exactly where to look. But instead of just grabbing it, I gave Megumi some hints and she reached out... and her eyes bulged as she pulled out her first cache! "Cam!! How did you know?!?!?!?" (think like a geocache...) So, we took photos, logged it, added a sticker, and stealthily put it back. There was a lot of people and traffic so I made a bit of a diversion for her, and she slipped it back.

Then I took her to "1st Saizeriya" because she was again a bit miffed that I just found three absolutely by myself. So I gave her the same hint that is on the log page, and reminded her that it was hidden by the same person who hid the "Animal in stone". I told her to look for a similar location. 

I also told her that in the description they say "near the parking lot". So once she saw the parking lot, and recalled what I told her, she found it right away! No old lady in the too expensive (but fresh... for Tokyo) veggie store across the street to stare at us this time. We stealthily put it back and headed on.

After that we went to "Thousand Ginkgo" ... and this shrine is AMAZING! There is a 22m ginkgo tree there that is 10m in diameter, and over 1,200 years old. Yes, that is TWELVE HUNDRED YEARS OLD! It is huge! And gorgeous. She was fiddling with her GPS, and I turned mine on, wandered behind the tree, and realized that the directions were pointing over the high stone fence to another area. So I told her it was over there. We went over to that gorgeous area, and found even more small shrines with lots of trees. 

Very nice! I recalled what the hint said, and remembered what everyone wrote ("took me five minutes to get out..." very hard to find"... etc.) and immediately knew where to look. There were two places. I took one, and Megumi the other. It was in Megumi's spot (whew!). BUT she couldn't get it out. So I told her how to get it out, and we did. This was the best cache so far. It was a "small" cache, and not micro so there was lots of stuff in it. 

There was even a "travel bug" which is a stuffed toy with a dog tag on it that has a number. You can take the bug if you want, then log it, and have to plant it in some other place. This bug has been to the following places: Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Texas, Washington, Germany, The Netherlands, India,  and Japan. We are going to take it to... Malaysia and drop it off there in a cache on our holiday (IF we can find a big enough cache to put it in). Keep an eye on the photos attached, as well as the video you may see in a bit. 

After putting this one back, and feeling very happy, we headed toward home, but there was another one on the way. So we went to "Osu Disaster Prevention Park" and ... well, I found it right away. Megumi was having trouble with her GPS, but it was pointing in the same direction as mine. We did a bit of triangulation, I felt behind a place, and then realized it wouldn't be there because it would be too easy for the ton of muggles and muggle kids playing in this park. Then I reached somewhere else... and there it was! We photographed it, logged it, and hid it again. 

And then we went for home, and on the way stopped for some dinner because Megumi was so hungry she was feeling sick. She was rather grumpy and had to force the food down, but once we got on the road again, and by the time we got back home, she was OK. 

And that was the geocaching adventure for the day!

I love you.
Cam

Terrible Typhoon or ... Wind?

There is a typhoon slowly creeping over the island, so the humidity is up at 100%. Sleeping last night was a nightmare, as the temps don't go down when the typhoons come through. 

The funny thing is, everyone in Tokyo talks about "it's a big one! Danger! Danger!!!" They are all going to talk about it at work today, and probably some people will suggest going home early. Down at the other end of the country (Kagoshima, and the islands down there), a typhoon usually really is bad, as it causes much damage and flooding. But up here in Tokyo we get strong winds and some rain. 

Oh my god! Rain! That's another thing the Tokyoites complain about: rain. The thing is, this is the dry side, so they don't like the rain. I, on the other hand, come from Fukui where it usually rains about 3-4 days a week during the dry season, so rain in Tokyo is a blessing to me. 

However, when it does rain, those stinky Japanese men get even worse on the trains because the trains turn into a "cool sauna"... Imagine cold air blasting in the trains, and sweat running down your back, and soaking your armpits, and the nape of your neck. Then imagine the bodies of 100% of the 499 other people crammed into your train doing the same thing, but NOT wearing anti perspirant...

Bored of my Geocaching Yet? Loneliness Without You, in Shibuya: http://youtu.be/FyNeMEEhdrI

Just another 1,270 year old temple... http://youtu.be/5hCsl018KKY

Clowning Around

Oh the fashion one finds among youth. Half black half pink hair. That caught my attention.

Latest Serenity Video (X): Tonogayato Gardens http://youtu.be/nNTE68P98z8

Coming Soon to a Casket Near You!

Dracula is supposed to be a character out of classical horror fiction and our worst nightmare (well maybe zombies are worse). Since all the sparkly vegetarian vampires came on the scene vampires have taken on an entirely new ... romantic appeal among the youth of today. Lestat's coven (Anne Rice) had a sense of romantic brutality to them, but the fear was still there.

Which leads me to wonder in what direction the depiction of the King of Bloodsuckers in "Dracula the MUSICAL" will will take his career?

Geocaching: The Green Frog Home

Damn that was a tough one, so deceptively simple. No wonder some can find it in 20 seconds and others can't locate the cache at all!

I left Mayu's this morning about 8am and walked to her station, catching the train about 8:30. I had to make a transfer at (are you ready for it?) Takadanobaba station to get to Shibuya.

Like Ginza my GPS was going haywire here because of all the damn electronics everywhere. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if men living/working in Shibuya had damaged sperm from all the electromagnetic radiation floating around here!

So back and forth I went, trying in vain to triangulate closer to the goal. No luck. I was even right there twice this morning and once a while back with Megumi when we first tried to find this three star difficult microcache.

Finally I turned off the device and went analog, using my memory and my sense of touch. And I found it! It took damn near an hour hanging around Hachiko trying to act nonchalant (holding a weird thick bulky device in my palm) and be stealthy about my searches. A homeless and very dirty gent came up to me and signed the universal "alcohol?" sign to me. When I responded that I only had tea, sorry, he walked away.But thats OK because the bazillion "Shibuya Girls" milling about made up for it.

I think I might have four or five videos worth of footage to work on in the near future thanks to my wanderings on Saturday and Sunday morning. But first, to get home, do the cleaning, vacuuming, laundry, ironing AND most important of all the grocery shopping for the week!

Got a smarphone? Buy the Geocaching.com app and the next time you are ootnaboot with friends, add a little extra fun to your outing and see if there are any geocaches where you are going. You might just find a new and enjoyable addition to your already wonderful life!

I love you!
Cam

Serene Parks, Lost & Found Geocaches, Parks, Temples And Burgers

Whew what an adventure today! The park was great and I got a lot of video. Then I headed to the alleged cache site but when I turned on my GPS I discovered that the data didn't get transferred properly from the computer!!!! I spent time looking around the location anyway (google street view is a big help) but found nothing.

Luckily I had successfully downloaded another cache about a klick away so headed out to search for that one. And I did! It was a very neat location (watch the forthcoming video for more details).

I then recalled seeing an otera/temple mark (the reversed swastika - the way it was originally meant to be before Hitler polluted it, damn him anyway...) I got a bunch of photos of that place. It was originally built around 751 which makes it a pretty darn old place. The original temple is no longer there but another generation is in its place. It too is fairly old. I think the ruins are hidden in the surrounding woods.

Now I'm back at Kokubunji Station and going to wend my way to Mayu's but first I need 5:30pm lunch sustenance so Im not grumpy when I see her for dinner!

A great way to spend the day ootnaboot.

I love you!
Cam

The Thighbone's Connected to the Stomach

On the train headed to Kokubunji to make a Serenity video and find a geocache. I just started reading The Iliad and... ummmm... it's a tad confusing considering I don't have a Greek God Compendium in my brain. And all this talk about sacrificing bulls to gods, cutting out the thigh bone, draping it with meat and then roasting it in a sacrificial flame has made me hungry...

A Splash from the Past

Goran and I arrived in Fukui on the same day in 1991 and were sent to Ono City, a town of 40,000, to teach English in the two high schools. I stayed for three years and Goran for one (he moved into Fukui for another two and then to Kanazawa before heading to France for a bit and finally settling back in the USA).

The internet didn't exist back then really so most of us lost track of one another. Facebook brought us together again.

Goran came to Japan for a two week volunteer holiday, he spent the time working and cleaning up in the tsunami zone. We met tonight for dinner and a good long talk. It has been almost 20 years since we last parted ways but it was so good to see one of my old friends from the times when we were truly strangers in a strange land.

It was a great night.

The only drawback was seeing all the frothy, vomit patches along the long underground corridor to my line home. I have a weak tummy for that kind of stuff and there were more than just three or four instances when I had to engage "the far sight" and practice my walking meditation and breathing. I had no desire to leave my semi-digested yakitori around for the homeless...

Enough. I'm starting to salivate.

Thanks Goran! It was fantastic to see you again. I love you, man!

Cam

Cesium Detected in Shizuoka Prefecture

Definitely NOT good news, considering that Tokyo lies BETWEEN Fukushima and this location… It seems the French may have initiLly correct...

Radioactive Cesium Detected from Incineration Ash at Its Fuji-Gotemba Research Lab: Chugai
( Aug.22 )

Chugai Pharmaceutical announced on August 19 the detection of radioactive cesium from ash of RDF (refuse-derived fuel) chips incinerated at its Fuji-Gotemba Research Laboratories, which is engaged in basic antibody research. Although the radioactivity levels detected were significantly lower than the landfill requirement limit, Chugai suspended the operation of steam boilers used to incinerate RDF chips. According to the company, the suspension will have little impact on the operations of the research laboratories.

This article was excerpted from an article published (in Japanese) in the daily Nikkan Yakugyo and is not its full-text translation.

GIVING PAULA a BONE

On Friday after my failed attempt to find the TV STARS cache (I'll be back!), I was heading to Gotanda Station and saw this sign that IMMEDIATELY made me think of the most beautifl woman I know in Arizona, Paula! For those of you who don't know, Paula started a pet patisserie called Poochie's a few years ago. It didn't go over well, which was very unfortunate, but looking back I think that Paula can say she learned a LOT from that (mis)(ad)venture. 

The funny thing about this photo, is that although you cannot see it, the shop doesn't look ANYTHING like a bakery. It looks more like an office; a very cluttered, crowded, Japanese business office. With one overweight Japanese middle aged guy sitting behind a desk crammed full of papers, staring at me as I took this photo. In spite of looking around the entire office, there was not a single piece of pet paraphernalia, nor food, nor cooking utensils, nor even a stuffed toy dog to be found. 

So one has to wonder whether this business is so successful that it needs a separate office of this size, or if the signboard is a throwback to a former store, or if it is the name of a business that has absolutely nothing to do with dogs and baking? I don't know. But this is Japan/Tokyo, and nothing surprises me here anymore, though I have developed strong forehead muscles from all the eyebrow raising I have done these past 20 years...

So for you Paula, I salute you with... a bone! To our experiences in life! May we continue to learn a LOT from them, especially from the hard ones.

Anybody's Guess

An ad in the train for a video game. I think. Can you imagine the theme by this strange title? Neither could I. Until I went up close and read the fine print (in English to boot!)

Nobody can say that Japanes game titles are not unique... or weird.

I'm NOT a Muggle After All!!

The temperature and humidity dropped from yesterday and it has been raining all day, so I finally had a good sleep, my head is not itchy today and my hair is somewhat straight. Life is good. It's funny how it can be raining and the humidity is down to about 60%. Most people think that because it is raining the humidity is "100%" but such is not the case.

In spite of the rain Megumi and I decided to do some geocaching around Shinjuku. In Shinjuku Gyoen (Park) there are six caches (two in the free space) but because we arrived at closing time we could only confirm that one of them was on the other side of the fence. Log those for next time. If you look back to my Seeking Serenity videos you will find one on Shinjuku Gyoen; it is a gorgeous (and huge) park right in Shinjuku (\200 to enter). We'll be back for those in good weather.

Next we walked to Raiden Inari Shrine and while Megumi zipped off to the restroom I immediately found the microcache where it is supposed to be. I took a photo of the cache in front of the stone pillar with the shrine's name and chatted with the young priest who came out of the shrine after freshening it up and to lock up at 16:30. Megumi returned and showed a long face when she discovered that I had found it while she was away. We wrote in the log, added a little decal and hid it again in its spot with an uni sushi eraser (not in the microcache - too small for that).

Megumi was hungry (I'm always hungry) so we found a Freshness Burger shop (remember that restaurant, Stephanie?) had a bite to eat and headed out for the next challenge.

Next we walked to Shinjuku East Exit and using our GPS homed in on the spot. There were a bunch of muggles hanging around the location so we had to wait a bit. But finally I reached out to where I thought it might be (magnetic) and immedialy my fingers found it! I took the photo of it with the Studio Alta building in the background. We wrote in the teeeeny log book and just as I was about to return it, a woman brought her really drunk boyfriend right to the spot and sat down. I thought he would throw up but he didn't. I had to wait a bit and then I nonchalantly stood beside them. When she was looking at him and he was examining the concrete under foot I stealthily reached above them and put it back.

Megumi looked a little pale but she wanted to challenge the cache hidden at Shinjuku South Exit so we walked around the station and went to the location noted on the GPS. Again Megumi excused herself to find a restroom (apparently what she ate yesterday while out with her friends - yakisoba and takoyaki, tons of carbs doesn't agree with her so well since she started eating less carbs). While she was gone I got really dirty hands wandering around the location and touching, rubbing, poking, prodding anything I could find. Alas, I ended up with nothing but very grimy hands. Then I stood back from myself for a bit and took a different look at the area from a third person perspective... and tried something different. And I found this business card holder in a close but very different spot from what I had originally suspected. Can you see my happy face reflected in the mirror finish? I signed the log and left a little decal with a curry rice eraser, showed Megumi where it was and
put it back in the rain. As we walked away I checked to see if it was visible from a distance; if you know where it is you can barely see it's shape but you have to know exactly where to look and what you are looking for.

Yesterday was one for five but today was three for three.

Now we are havinc coffee at a Segafredo and then will head home for the night. 5:15am comes early.

I love you!
Cam

Kanda River. Departure

After finishing for the morning at Gotanda I headed back to HigashiNihonbashi for the afternoon. There was a bit of support work to do but I spent most of the four hours packing up my Educational Training Department books and documents for the big move to Gotanda next week.

As I didn't finish until about 18:30 it had turned to dusk but I was determined to find the one geocache in this area. So I changed into shorts and a t-shirt and shorts and headed out.
I had to walk for about 10-15 minutes to get to the location where the cache was supposed to be. Sumida River is one of the very old rivers that the Tokugawa Shogunate used for transportation to and from Tokyo during the Edo period. It is a famous river as it has many bridges crossing it. You can take day and night cruises down this river, starting from Asakusa, and see Tokyo from a totally different viewpoint. In fact, when Mia came to visit me for two weeks we took a cruise; it was a great experience!

The cache was supposed to be at the confluence of Sumida River and Kanda River so I headed there. When I turned on the GPS it took a while to lead me to the right spot, but since I'm getting a bit better at thinking like a hidden cache I was able to find it! It was quite a good spot where it was hidden; muggles would never find it accidentally. I doff my hat to the cacher who hid it!

Here is a picture of the cache with the brand new Sky Tree in the background. That tower is the tallest radio tower in the world at about 660m in height.

Now I'm enjoying a beer and some yakitori in celebration out behind my office. Ahhhhh it was a good day.

Tomorrow I think I'll try that sneaky microcache that is hidden in Shibuya right around the famous Hachiko (Hachi) statue where tons of people congregate. This really is a fun hobby!

I love you!
Cam

No Stars in the Sky!

After work I went to the location of the "TV Stars" geocache. I spent an hour staring at a very big, very old tree, overturning loose rocks and rummaging in the dirt. I am sure it is there as the hints lead directly to that tree. I found the stone carvings of Pikachu, Doraemon and more but not the cache. I did see something a little suspicious but as looking further would have put me in the owner's garden, right under the owner's eyes, I decided that prudence was the best course of action. I couldn't find the microcache. The owner of the shrine came out and started watching me hanging around his tree so I figured that between him and the horde of mosquitoes I was fending off I had best take my leave. It is an old shrine dating back to old Edo so there was a nice bit of history written along with some information about traditional japanese pickles made in the area from seeds that originally came from Kyoto in the 1600s!

I had to walk back to Gotanda Stn to go home and if you recall I had vowed to find the geocache there called "Platform in the Sky". I was back at the same area with fresh batteries in the GPS. I then thumbed through the settings and found a calibrate option, which I used. Then I tried again and this time I was able to get down to 0m distance! (As it turned out I was about 3m away from the cache...)

But I persevered... and then I found it! Inside was a logbook, pen, small charm, and teeny little paperclips that are designed as clothespins. I wrote in the log, added my small hotdog eraser, carefully put everything back so nobody would see what I was doing, (forgot to take a photo in the darkness and my excitement) and left.

I'm hungry! I spent about 1.5hrs after work on these caches, but as the gym is closed today for summer holidays I had planned to go a caching after work.

I 'll keep looking for the TV Stars cache, but as I kind of stand out here, and was watched for and talked with the people ther for some time, I'm going to have to be more stealthy the next time around.

I love you!
Cam

Fw:Summer Heats Upin Japan

I think I have mentioned in the past that we get a lot of heat stroke illnesses and deaths in the country. Add to the traditional trouble this year we have been asked by the government to raise our temps, and use less energy in order to avoid blackouts due to power under-availability (thanks, TEPCO) from the lost nuclear reactors, and we are seeing quite a spike in related illness and death.

http://tinyurl.com/HeatStrokeNews

It doesn't help, as one commenter said, that the government has asked us all to conserve energy, because the elderly people continue to turn off their fans, close and lock their windows, and turn their living space into a sauna. Traditionally people here don't use AC at night. Even at this modern office when I ask people, they always say they only have it turned on for an hour after they go to bed, but then turn it off otherwise they get too cold. I've tried that, and I wake up at 3am in a steambath because the windows are closed (to prevent the cool air from escaping... )

Even now I sleep at over 30C but it forces me awake every hour or so because the back of my head is soaked. If I drink a lot of water during the night and keep the fan running it's OK for now, but I admit that to sleep in the living room with the AC running would be more comfortable. But I'm not 70 years old, either. Note that a large proportion of people in this story have died IN THE NIGHT. That's when they usually end up overheating because they close everything up and turn their place into a sauna. The problem is the humidity, not so much the heat, as I have mentioned in the past. If you look at the humidex on the internet, you can get a good idea what it is like: 31C + 75% humidity + no breeze...

We have at least one more month of this kind of weather. In the morning when I wake up I have to wipe myself down (full body). Then before I get dressed for work I have to wipe myself down again (full body) because the sweat is just running, and the oils on the body make one quite itchy. At least at this new office it's nice. But even just the elevator ride up to my apartment makes me dripping in sweat. Last night, because nobody else was in the elevator with me, after coming home from a COLD shower at the gym, I took my shirt off and rode up to my home. Still... I was sticky!

Google Wants in Motorola's Pants

The other day I shared news about Amazon battling Apple with their cloud iApp for Kindle reader on the iOS. Today we have something even MORE astounding: Google plans to buy Motorola!

This is going to be a very VERY interesting battle, and will wind up possibly pushing Microsoft to acquire Nokia.

What's going to happen to Sony-Eriksson?

I love technology battles!
Cam

P.S. Starbucks VIA brand instant coffees are great! I've tried four to date and love them all.

P.P.S. I now know why everyone in the US, calls their Android-enabled smartphone a Droid: It's because that is the brand name that Motorola used when they put out their first Android smartphone! Pass me another Kleenex, will you?

Google's patent play: $12.5B for Motorola Mobility - Yahoo! Finance
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Googles-patent-play-125B-for-apf-1291863061.html?x=0

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Yahoo! Finance http://finance.yahoo.com/

The Mystery of the Suspicious Sucking Sound

I always enjoy wearing out my clothes to the point of being able to throw them away. It's a little perverse pleasure I have had for many years.

Mayu and I bought these Coach shoes maybe 7-10 years ago but they were never comfortable so they slept in a box. When I moved to Tokyo I took them to the office and wore them in the building every day; however I did not commute in them so they rarely saw the outside pavement.But because I wore them daily I was able to stretch the leather enough to have them conform to my feet. They feel good and are no longer rubbing my baby toes uncomfortably.

When I moved to this new building I noticed that my left shoe was always making a weird sucking motion, almost as if there was tape or gum stuck to the sole. Much to my joy I discovered that I had actually worn a hole into the left sole.

Mystery solved! So not only am I happy to discover the origins of the Suspicious Sucking Sound, I also get to indulge (soon, not yet) in my perverse little pleasure of throwing out some item of clothing that I have finally worn out! Yaaaay!!

I love You!
Cam

Tainted beef leads to grocery recalls in Kansas

Here is a bit of news that is likely not making our friend Stephanie in Stefnee, KS, very happy...

Tainted beef leads to grocery recalls - Yahoo! News

http://news.yahoo.com/tainted-beef-leads-grocery-recalls-203748704.html

Tokyo NoNo Chiba Geocaching 110814

http://youtu.be/zGFdgB_AxiA
The second geocache attempt on Monday...

Myoden Park Geocaching 110814

http://youtu.be/zYgPyp70vgo
The first geocache attempt on Sunday

Last Week's Non Discovery Location

This is a photo of last week's search spot where I ended up with a ton of cuts and scrapes that of course were tremendously itchy and went puffy on me. This gate was completely obscured by this overgrowth which I cleaned away in search of the cache. The gate comes to my waist so, for those of you who know how long my legs are, you can envision the mess here...

DNF Myoden Park Cache

Another cache we couldn't find! Megumi and I got to within a 3m radius. Considering the location we figured it had to be under the train tracks running overhead. So we spent about TWO hours touching and feeling everything possible under there. Nothing!

It was a fun way to spend the afternoon smelling all of the BBQs and listening to everyone out along the river get drunk in the summer heat.

And eat grilled meat!

At least I know my olfactory senses are working at peak performance!

I love you!
Cam

One Down, A Half-Million to Go

Megumi and I went bikini shopping in Ginza (found a really good one), geocaching in Ginza* (didn't find =DNF), bumpack huntinting in Shinjuku (discovered a good one for me) and geocaching in Shinjuku (found it!!)

This cache was hidden very well in an extremely popular place (Southern Terrace) with a ton of muggles** around enjoying beer, wine, food and discussion. We had to be quite stealthy getting it out of its location so we could see the contents and write in the logbook. Then Megumi had to run interference while I slipped it back in its location. I added a sushi eraser to the treasure cache.

After that I left Megumi, hopped on a train (Chuo Line) and headed out to Ogikubo to meet Mayu at Akiyoshi's (a yakitori place originating from Fukui). They were closed for two days of summer vacation! So we hopped on the train again and headed over to another one in Nakano (yaaay! open!! - we called first). We spent a few hours chatting, catching up and so on. I told Mayu about geocaching and how since she has a smartphone and her boyfriend is a really outdoor surfer dude kind of guy that she might have fun trying it with him. She seemed interested so maybe something will come of it.

It was nice to find that cache since I have now found three and not found four (Shibuya, Ginza, Edogawa, Gotanda). A good way to spend a bit of the day. There are a lot of homeless men living in the Ginza park where we searched. One fellow was watching me for some time root around in the shrubbery (a glorious word made popular by Monty Python)so I finally went over and explained what we were up to and told him about the concept of geocaching. He laughed and wished me the best of luck.

I love you!
Cam

P.S. **Muggles are what geocachers call ordinary people who have absolutely no idea that there are hons of hidden treasures right under their noses. I have to admit that until I started doing this it never occurred to me that in all these places jam-packed with people there are a ton of hidden things waiting to be discovered!

* This is a photo of the clock tower in the park at Ginza where the microcache we DIDN'T find is located. We plan to go back again and keep looking.

How Amazon Gets Around Apple Restrictions (for now?)

Here is an interesting article, though I wonder how different things will appear by using this cloud app, compared to the downloaded app? --->

Greg Lamm on Wednesday, August 10, 2011, 7:02am PDT
Amazon unveils Kindle cloud app in response to Apple restrictions

Amazon.com has a new web application that allows Kindle readers to access their books from the cloud or download them for future reading.

The app works with PCs and tablets, including the iPad. The Kindle Cloud Reader comes shortly after Apple put restrictions on apps sold through the Apple App Store.

The Cloud Reader HTML5 app allows Kindle customers to read Kindle books with their web browser - online or offline - with no downloading or installation required.

Included in the new Kindle app is an embedded Kindle Store button for the web browser to allow users to purchase new books.

Earlier this year, Apple put restrictions on apps sold in its App Store, requiring Amazon and others to strip their apps of links back to their app stores. The rule is designed to ensure that Apple gets its 30 percent cut of the sale prompted by the app.

Read more here: http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2011/08/amazon-unveils-kindle-cloud-app.html?ana=e_pft

Life in the Flame

"This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no 'brief candle' to me. It is sort of a splendid torch which I have a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it over to future generations."       

 - George Bernard Shaw

"To serve, and make life enjoyable for others in any way I possibly can. To share my wonderful gifts with the world, and those with whom I interact. To let everyone who desires it, enter my flame, and share my burning desire and love of life, and to gracefully enter the door to the lives of those who wish to have me enter. When I die, I want to die spent, having used all of my energy to improve the love and happiness that flows in the energy and mana of Mother Earth. And with no regrets at all. That is my idea of a full, enriching life."   

- Cameron James Switzer

"Brother stand the pain Escape the poison of your impulses. The sky will bow to your beauty, if you do. Learn to light the candle. Rise with the sun. Turn away from the cave of your sleeping. That way a thorn expands to a rose. A particular glows with the universal." - Rumi

WalMart Gives Up

Here is a great article about WalMart that will make Paula very very happy!

Wal-Mart will close its digital music store
http://tinyurl.com/WalMart-Digital
Have a happy day.

I love you!
Cam

P.S. At 5am this morning it was 37C and 70% humidity on my balcony making it an effective (jungle) temperature of 58.2C or 136.8F! Lovely, eh?

Child Imai Traffic Park Geocache

Today I went out with Megumi to the Child Imai Traffic Park about 5km from home. It was a very hot and very humid day so whenever we stopped, the sweat started pouring. Riding keeps the sweat from pouring so it's best not to stop in this kind of weather. 

We went to this great park that is only for kids; it is designed like a driver's school with lights, crossing signals, traffic lights, bridges, roundabouts, intersections and more. The children ride rented vehicles around the area (bikes, little cars, etc.) and practice following traffic rules. There is even a monorail that runs through the park, and a place to play on swings. It's a great little park.

There is a geocache here. We were using my new garmin oregon 450, and Megumi's iPod Touch with her new external GPS device. Both arrived this morning so we wanted to test them out. At first we found an old rusted zippo lighter, but that wasn't it. Then we found some old, rusted tools. Nope. Not those either. Then we looked and looked and got really dirty feeling under things, behind things, etc. It was pretty disgusting.

We had gotten to the point where both of our GPS devices said we were at 0m from the cache, but we just couldn't find it! Then Megumi was able to get a street view, and suddenly we knew exactly where it was. 

This is what was in the geocache. If you ever wondered what geocaching is all about, check out http://www.geocaching.com for a great site that people all over the globe use to find and hide treasures around the world.

Hm. Now that I have Google+ I think that Multiply will get less of my musings. I kind of enjoy G+.

I'm Your Number One Fan*

Yesterday as I was walking between stations to get to the second train that brings me home, there was a gentleman wearing a shirt that I have seen advertised in my Nikkei Weekly "New Goods" section. I took a photo, but didn't hit "save" at the time. My bad. The phone didn't save the picture. So, all I can do is give you my words, and let you use your imagination.

The shirt is a business-casual-style shirt, made of a cotton material. It has a collar so can be worn for work during "cool biz" season. Down around the waist, right about where the kidneys are, on each side, is a built in battery-operated fan, about the diameter of a Starbucks coffee Mug. The fans run, and pull air into the shirt, effectively ventilating the body in an attempt to keep it cool.

I know that from a NA perspective, it may seem ridiculous, or "crazy", but over here, where we have to wear suits and ties in this brutal humidity, you do what you gotta do. This is often when I envy women because they can wear minimal fabric on their bodies (and a hot bra, of course) that allows air under the clothing. (Also, if you are sitting at a desk, you can spread your legs underneath and let some air circulate; something that doesn't happen when we guys spread our legs in slacks). We have to wear long pants, socks, shoes, (a necktie) and tuck our shirt in. This fashion is not conducive to good air circulation. The air doesn't circulate, and the heat "vents" are limited to the head, the armpits (or wrists) and the tiny gap between shirt collar and neck so the body really does heat up something fierce.

The interesting thing about this shirt was that the guy looked a little bit... "puffy".

I love you!

Cam

* The name of a favourite song from The Beautiful South 

Thought of the Day: Inflation

It strikes me as strange that the owner of this Hummer-branded bike would ride it to this location on a regular basis in such a condition. I have seen this bike at this intersection nearly every morning I come to work and every day both the front and rear tires have been completely flat!

Many people here ride their mamachari bikes with very low air pressure in their tires; they don't seem to know or care that properly-inflated tires on bikes, as on cars, dramatically increase "fuel economy" and safety by reducing friction and rolling resistance. Having properly inflated bike tires makes a world of difference whether you are grinding up hills, screaming down them, on an epic ride, or simply zipping to the station.

Let's embrace inflation!

I love you.
Cam

A Burg Worth Its Weight in ...

Megumi and I came to Ginza to put a downpayment on our September getaway to Langkawi, Malaysia. Charles recommended it over Bali so we changed our plans. And I think it will be well worth it. We were lucky, though because everything was booked and it was hard to get anything. The only flights we could book were leaving Tokyo on a Sunday Morning and then Leaving Langkawi on the following Friday evening, arriving Saturday at 6am to Tokyo. Extending would have been great but we couldn't. Such is life!

Also in Ginza we came to buy tickets for HP7B The End! In 3D. This will be my first 3D movie so I'm really stoked (no, not stRoked!)

But then we got hungry after getting our trip arrangements set up so we walked across the intersection to Baagu Ginza. This is a 300g burger (@1500yen) with three toppings of cheddar cheese, bacon, tomato (@500 yen). That makes it a 2000yen burg and if an American tourist came here she would be forking out the equivalent of about $25 for this baby! But you know what? With the good sized salad set (@300yen) we are stuffed.

And that's dinner. Now it's time to find a coffee shop and sit back with the crib board to have a game of crib before heading back to the movie theatre for the HP7BX-3D movie (@2000yen per).

I love you!
Cam

Would anybody like to be invited to Google+ to see what it is like, and how it differs from Facebook? They are starting off like they did with gmail; invitation only during the beta stage. I like it. There aren't 700 million people there yet, but there may be in the near future. Let me know. If so, I need an email address. You can send that to me privately.

Radiation Checks

Since the contaminated cattle (with cesium) have been shipped all over the country here, and the news got out, people are starting to take measures into their own hands because it seems that the government is inundated with requests for radiation checks, but people want more.

Here is an article that may not make it to page 1 of your news, but it's important to know just what is going on here.

Japan Nuclear Scare Triggers Run for Radiation Checks
Reuters Health Information
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/22/us-japan-nuclear-inspection-idUSTRE76L1D120110722

Japanese private research labs with radiation testing gear have been flooded with orders for checks on food and soil samples after shipments of contaminated beef deepened public anxiety over radiation leaks from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.

…

"It's ordinary households placing orders. It's your regular grandpas and grandmas who want to check if potatoes grown in home gardens are free from radiation before they feed them to their grandchildren," said Mihoko Kikuchi, president of the Environmental Analysis Research Institute.

*Steak & Bar* Huckleberry

This is a really cool cowboy bar and restaurant on the way home from the gym (bath and long soak after previously discussed 15km fastwalk-induced sore calves). They have a great bar, a big variety of meals and extremely noisy and drunk women laughing their heads off behind us.

Every Saturday (not tonight) they have a live band that plays... jazz. And bossanova *shock* I just asked and they said that they can't seem to find any country music groups to play here!!! Damn! When they first opened they had one gaijin come once or twice a month and play/sing and dress in the country style and get everyone really rocking. But these days they can't find any country rockers! That's a real darn shame.

But the place is great and this 300g cowboy steak, though typically Japanese-thin is really good! I needed some protein!

If you know any country music people in my hood let me know! I'd love to make this a Saturday night hangout.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

I went for a great 15km fast walk today.
Split @ 7.45km 1:00:34 HR 140. Total time: 2:03:00. It felt really good. I guess I prefer walking to running. Soooo I'm going to get the ChiRunning book next and see if I can learn even more that I can apply to long walks instead of runs.

Had an interesting conversation with Megumi today at McDonalds (needed food). There is a service here called GILT which is a lot like Groupon but it seems easier to use. She saw a great deal for a Brazilian Waxing and has decided to go. When she went back to get the coupon they were all sold out! (V-line, I-line, O-line @ 3500 yen regularly 15,000 yen). She checked their website and for a first time visit can still get V/I/O but has to wait until it grows out. That's not the interesting part...

This is:

Megumi did some reading up on Brazilian Waxing on the web and at the shop's website. Apparently it is not at all popular here in Japan and for a very... silly reason. It seems that Japanese guys don't like their woman waxing their pubic hair because it has an image (among Japanese guys - and this is pretty strange because Japanese porn is pretty sick) of the woman playing around and having lots of sex with different people. It seems that having a big busy --> *bushy* (ed: thank you for pointing that teeny error out, Darrell)  pubic zone kind of proves (to these men) that their women are not players.

So it is not that popular here to get your puddytat waxed.

Me? I'll take a well-groomed feline to a mangy stray any day.

I love you!
Cam

P.S. I think I'm going to have sore calves on Monday.

Just letting everyone know that I have cancelled my intrmarketsolutions.com and japanippon.com domains. This means that emails to those addresses will no longer reach me. (I don't want you to think that I've been swept away by a tsunami or succumbed to swamp crotch or anything like that so I'm letting you know in advance that emails to those domains WILL BOUNCE!) And I love you!

Lessons from the Train

There is a typhoon coming our way. And there was a train breakdown on the Asakusa line I have to transfer to. The result was such that there were so many people waiting to get on the train we all had to pile up outside the turnstiles.

Then when we finally were able to get to the platform we were piled up and had to wait.

THEN when we rammed ourselves into the train, it took longer than usual for the doors to close as people had to be shoved in.

The train kept getting more and more delayed.

Upon arriving finally at our destination (Gotanda), it was fuller than usual, but not uncomfortable. Getting OUT of the station was another matter; one step at a time was the watchword for the morning as a steady stream of heads slowly worked their way (our way) to the turnstiles. I actually went out on the other side of the street this time because the line to go up to the streets on my company side was very long, and moving along at the pace of a millipede who has lost 900 legs in a tragic meeting with a youngster.

I had two thoughts while in the very VERY crowded train this morning. Actually, I had more, but two that are particularly worth mentioning:

1) I no longer wear my business shirt to work; instead I wear just a t-shirt or a sports shirt and sweat up a storm that way. Then I get to work, wipe off and put one fresh shirt. Arriving at work in shorts one day freaked everyone out, so I gave that up, but the shirt… I'm sticking with it! As I am more than a head above everyone else, and hold on to the bars up above us (that Japanese cannot reach), often my armpit sits right about forehead level to the men crowded next to me. Thankfully I use antiperspirant (I wish Japanese men would, but they don't, and they stink!) so I know I don't stink. But I still sweat in the humidity. I had a little conversation in my mind with the businessman standing next to me and it went something like this: "I don't want to stick my armpit in your face and I know you don't want to stick your face in my armpit, so let's both work on avoiding that unpleasant situation, shall we?"

2) The other thought I had was a lot simpler, and definitely resulted from me being more than a head above everyone else. It is actually a combination of that and the fact that Japanese have very short legs. My thought went something like this: Being very tall in a train full of Japanese people can often rub a guy the wrong way." Yeah, THAT kind of "wrong way". Having THAT kind of thought running through your mind and being totally helpless to do anything about it (i.e. AVOID it happening), is rather disconcerting.

My guess is that the wind will pick up along with the rain this evening when work is over and people want to go home. I'm expecting very crowded trains home. I'll let you know about the typhoon and the situation if anything happens to unexpectedly pop up on the way home.

Have a great day!
I love you!!
Cam