Geocaching with Jo (and Hiroko of course)

Great day out with my partner from the UK. We were ootnaboot in the
cold, strong wind enjoying the massive stones that make up the walls
of the original Edo Castle built by the first shogun of Japan.

We spent a lot of time walking around the moats and seeing the sights
and enjoying all the runners run around the palace and looking for
geo-caches.

We found three of the five we look for but we think that two of them
have been Muggled. That's the way goes the Geocaching goes I guess but
she had a great time and we got to hook her on to Geocaching. So I
hope that when she goes back to the UK Jo will enjoy it with her
husband and have a great time out on their walks enjoying the process
and just having a good time enjoying finding some little things hidden
here and there.

After we dropped Jo off Hiroko and I went off to do another three more
geo-caches on the way to Abercrombie and Fitch to buy me a new shirt.
It was cold out but we got the caches.

Thanks Jo an Hiroko for a great day! Melty Kisses to you both.

Bonus One

Hiroko and I seem to be working extremely tough weeks these months so when it's time to get into bed the next thing we realize is that it's already morning. We are left wondering what happened to the promised chats and snuggles. I guess that's what happens from time to time. Or from week to week. Or month to month.

We finally got ootnaboot on her new folding Dahon bike that we bought a month ago. It has been impossible to get out on our bikes due to the previously mentioned exhaustion.

It was a good ride and we wen to Second Street (the store where Stefnee got all her cool Japanese t-shirts) to see if they would take her Celine bag but hey told her they don't accept "super brands". They showed an entire list of the brands they cannot accept: Gucci, Vitton, Coach, Ferragamo, Fendi etc. So we were out of luck on that. She also wanted to sell off or give away a few pieces of her old dresses but they wouldn't take them as they were " too formal for the store". So we brought everything home.

But before heading home we rode around to an UniQlo in order to get me a couple more sweat absorbing undershirts and an ultralight down jacket for Hiroko.

Then we wondered what to do next as we still had an opportunity to ride around a bit. So I pulled out my trusty iPhone and ran the Geocaching app. Sure enough a mere 450m away was a cache. We followed the coordinates and grabbed the cache right away.

It has a gorgeous geocoin in it so I grabbed that and will replace it somewhere else. It really is a beaut.

We rode home with absolutely frozen fingers in spite of wearing gloves and mittens, cooked and ate nabe for dinner, enjoyed some hot wine and then relaxed by ironing three shirts.

What a great day!

Tomorrow we are going to meet Joanna from the UK and take her to the Imperial palace gardens to enjoy the sight. It's a gorgeous garden and it just happens to be on my list of Serenity spots so you know what will be in my bag tomorrow!

Oh and did I say that there are a whole slew of geocaches!

Joanna is our business partner from the UK.

I love you!

Cam

Dinner Conversation

I'm sorry but I have to share this... We are eating dinner and Hiroko told me about one of her patients today...

Hiroko is an ENT nurse (no she doesn't treat trees in Middle Earth) and today she had a really smelly patient.

The patient complained of something in her ear that seemed to be moving for TWO DAYS. Finally it stopped moving but she was having trouble hearing.

The doctor and Hiroko dug out what was in the woman's ear and it came out in bits and pieces: A leg, an antenna, another leg, etc. finally they succeeded in pulling out the entire body (in bits and pieces) of a 2cm cockroach!

She told me that this is her third experience with this kind of living thing in people's ears.... But I don't want to hear any more as we are having dinner at the moment...

Enjoy your day... If you can with that image running through your mind....

*gag*

Cam

Geocaching in Hossawa Falls: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gfygksm7aU

Geocaching in Dai Higanji: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2TCzbntT70

Geocaching in Shizuoka: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz8XRECrUJc

Hatsudai GeoCaching

Today I got to my meeting point early. I had a coffee and 45 minutes
to kill so I pulled out the trusty old iPhone, loaded up the
geocaching app and discovered that there were two caches in the area.

The first one was easy to find and was only about 500m from the
meeting point. The second one was a nano cache and was a little more
difficult to see due to its size. It was also hard to get out without
a tool. But I got it out.

The second cache is called "the inverted broomstick" and is located at
a 200+ year old ginkgo tree that is surrounded by skyscrapers and
super highways. It's pretty cool that they kept this tree around!

Considering how much I used to write it amazes me to see how little gets posted here by me. I guess I've become "twitterized" like so many other people and instead of taking time to compose blogs full of content and deep meaning I shoot off the odd update here and there. I guess working daily at the computer from 09:00-22:00 will do that as well. Then adding two hours of commuting to the pot might zap the energy. But I must say that even after two and a half years in The Big Rice Bowl I still clearly feel much more at home (and much more spiritually creative) out in the countryside. The problem is paying the bills... I love you! Cam

Geocaching in Shizuoka: http://youtu.be/Tz8XRECrUJc This was a GOOD weekend (on MANY accounts *wink wink*)

Hie Jinja Hatsumode Geocache

Our BD team came out to Hi Jinja for first New Year Prayers. After ringing the bell and praying that we pull this project off I went around back and grabbed a cache. Good spot and a nice escape from this company stuff.

Here are a few photos.





I love you!
Cam

Four for Five: by now you know what this blog is about...

And another fantastic day it was.

The clouds were out where the sun was supposed to be and it started to rain a bit at our first destination but the wind picked up, the temps dropped and the rain clouds blew away.

Today's adventure took us along Arakawa River, one of the biggest rivers flowing into Tokyo Bay. Our first stop was a really old dam sight called Komatsugawa Dam. The park was closed for. Instruction and ground zero led us directly to a lamp post where the cache should have been magnetically attached but as the lamp as most recently renewed we couldn't find anything. I left a maintenance notice on the website and asked the owner to come and check as the. Instruction may have displaced the cache. The las find was I November, a Minh before construction started.

Then we went to Arakawa Dam and found this magnetic nano sized cache tucked away. It was hard to find due to its size. Also a cigarette smoking roadie stopped for a drink and a smoke so we had to wait until he moved off. The hot bourbon we had packed was a nice distraction in the meantime.

Then we went onto the Arakawa Cycling Road which goes right down to 0km from the sea. It runs out in the middle of the river right under an expressway and simply... ends. We got that cache right away and enjoyed some more beverage in a sunny spot that blocked some of the wind.

Off to Kasai Rinkai Park where we struggled through the wind and finally got to the spot where our fourth search immediately brought us to the cache spot right in front of a giant ferris wheel (have you ever seen a tiny ferris wheel? Me either). We logged it, took a travel bug and left a travel bug and then went on to our last spot for the day near the sea and near a duck blind.

It took a bit to find this camouflaged baby but with a bit of a hint I picked it up and caught it in about 10 minutes of rifling through the underbrush. We could see Disney Land just over to our left and sat back against the pines and enjoyed some more hot bourbon.

The ride home was cold as hell but we made it back, cooked up dinner and then took a long hot bath.

Hiroko rose her mamachari today and realized how heavy those slag puppies really are compared to my Dahon (which I rode today). She loves getting out because every place we go to is something she has never seen even in her own neighborhood after living here over a decade and for her entire 4 *cough cough* years. She really is grateful that she gets to come out on these adventures with me and now wants her own bike tha is light and foldable as well.

Tomorrow is the las day of the holidays and then the hell at work begins again. I'm surprised I had a couple of days of peace in total.

I love you!
And I love geocaching!

Cam


Nano cache at Arakawa Dan


Micro at Arakawa Ground Zero


Big jewel in Kasai Rinkai Park


Can you see the cache? Amazing!