This trip was one of the worst, not one of the worst in a year, not one of the worst in a lifetime, but one of the worst trips of all time. The original intent of the trip was to return to Hiroshima city to watch Tomoko's younger brother get married, and in the beginning things were fine.
However after the entire air traffic control system on the east coast went down, our flight was delayed two hours in Charlotte and we sat on the Tarmac. By itself, sitting on a plane two hours isn't terrible but after we arrived in California, whose system air traffic control system didn't crash, we were given word that there are no more flights west-bound. This meaning, we could fly to Japan, nor Korea, nor China, nor anywhere else, ie. we will miss Kengo's wedding. Trust me when I say, until it happens to you and you miss a siblings wedding, it's impossible to fathom how much regret, frustration, and disappointment you feel. As just one proof of point, consider, we are not in a single family photo, even a few months later as I write this, it still sucks.
We flew into Osaka and boarded trains and went directly to NIJIKAI(二次会), or second party and were able to snap a few photos.
On the way I saw something pretty interesting and only in Japan, below is a vending machine that literally sells iphones! It also contained Nintendo DS, and digital cameras, in a vending machine!
During the rest of the week, Tomoko went and visited her grandmother in the hospital down in Kyuu-shyu while I was tasked with meeting some friends and visiting the old laboratory at Hirodai. First on the list was Master and Mayo in Matsunaga. Mayo was volunteering at an enka show near the coffee shop. While Master was keeping down the fort at the coffee shop, he recently got his own coffee bean roaster and has been roasting his own raw beans.
Next stop was the old Bike shop, Ken's Cycle House. Marcos accompanied me for the journey and it made the one-hour train ride much more endurable, which was great because we had a lot to catch up on. After all the visiting in Matsunaga/Fukuyama we headed back to Saijo and picked up some Ramen.
On Sunday Asuka was off of work and so we decided to meet in Okayama. Ironically enough we ran into Mayo at the train station which was kind of funny. Asuka and I visited Okayama-castle and the famous garden which is just outside of downtown Okayama. It was a pretty quiet day filled with lots of walking a pretty severe hang-over combined with 2 hours of sleep in the previous 70 or so. Now I wish I had more pictures because the garden was beautiful but I'm not surprised when I consider how hard my brain was throbbing to get out of my skull.
Back in Saijo I hit up some Okonomiyaki at Hibiki right near the University, man it was delicious. Overall it was a pretty short trip in Japan and sadly the main reason for going was kind of wasted / lost but we enjoyed as much as we could, shit happens right.
On the way home we fly from Hiroshima back to Osaka and it just so happens that when flying this route you pretty much go directly over Fuji-san which was pretty cool. We got one view of the beautiful mountain that Hokusai couldn't even imagine.
Interestingly enough after I put it into Gimp and did a white-balance, I was absolutely stunned at how much detail came through in the image. The white-balanced version is below.
However after the entire air traffic control system on the east coast went down, our flight was delayed two hours in Charlotte and we sat on the Tarmac. By itself, sitting on a plane two hours isn't terrible but after we arrived in California, whose system air traffic control system didn't crash, we were given word that there are no more flights west-bound. This meaning, we could fly to Japan, nor Korea, nor China, nor anywhere else, ie. we will miss Kengo's wedding. Trust me when I say, until it happens to you and you miss a siblings wedding, it's impossible to fathom how much regret, frustration, and disappointment you feel. As just one proof of point, consider, we are not in a single family photo, even a few months later as I write this, it still sucks.
We flew into Osaka and boarded trains and went directly to NIJIKAI(二次会), or second party and were able to snap a few photos.
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On the way I saw something pretty interesting and only in Japan, below is a vending machine that literally sells iphones! It also contained Nintendo DS, and digital cameras, in a vending machine!
During the rest of the week, Tomoko went and visited her grandmother in the hospital down in Kyuu-shyu while I was tasked with meeting some friends and visiting the old laboratory at Hirodai. First on the list was Master and Mayo in Matsunaga. Mayo was volunteering at an enka show near the coffee shop. While Master was keeping down the fort at the coffee shop, he recently got his own coffee bean roaster and has been roasting his own raw beans.
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Back in Saijo I hit up some Okonomiyaki at Hibiki right near the University, man it was delicious. Overall it was a pretty short trip in Japan and sadly the main reason for going was kind of wasted / lost but we enjoyed as much as we could, shit happens right.
On the way home we fly from Hiroshima back to Osaka and it just so happens that when flying this route you pretty much go directly over Fuji-san which was pretty cool. We got one view of the beautiful mountain that Hokusai couldn't even imagine.
Interestingly enough after I put it into Gimp and did a white-balance, I was absolutely stunned at how much detail came through in the image. The white-balanced version is below.
