Aussie friends

To my Aussie friends and family,
Thank you for the wonderful Christmas cards and letters that have found me at my new ACTY apartment.
It only took me 11 days to figure out how to open the letter box!!!
dah!!!!
I leave on Sunday for Sri Lanka and hope to sykpe with lots of people before then
And attend the half fast cyclists xmas party, and the YIS party and the scuba diving club party.

How many days in a week???!!!

Wishing everyone a wonderful festive season.

I miss the tropics so much, I saw these lovely orchids and they reminded me of Thailand.
Oh, and did I mention I love my new apartment, love my new neighbours because I never hear them and only 4 days to go and then 3 weeks off.

What about us???

I can't explain it, but these images attract the crowds!!!
The bear lifts the lid up and down - you gotta see it to believe it.

It's Christmas time

At night Chinatown is full of beautiful celebration images. Here is just a few from the temple.

oh, ho ho ho

It feels like Christmas in Motomachi. The young girls that played these bells were awesome. Stunning sound. And it's getting cold.

Love the weekend

Yesterday (Saturday) did 75 km on the touring bike.

Today (Sunday) another gloriously sunny day in Yokohama. Did 73 km today on the roadie just to be fair and it's all good training for Sri Lanka next week!!!

thank you.

Bike training

Gloriously sunny day. 75km bike ride this morning, training for Sri Lanka next weekend!!!
Off to Sri Lanka for 3 weeks with the bike and panniers, that's about all I know!
Haven't had time to figure which direction to turn once I leave the airport.
However I did have a good friend inform me that I will not be circumnavigating the island due to Tamil Tigers, take no prisoners!!!
Will bask in the sunroom and read the lonely planet.

Sunday 5th Dec

Each morning I check Mt Fuji - yep it's still there - and looking stunning as ever!!!


Ran the 10km Yokohama Charity fun run. Gloriously sunny day. Lots and lots of runners.
Got the t-Shirt and the medal to prove it but no pics!!!
Keep training, not for the Tokyo Marathon but just to keep the balance in my life.
Spending hours in my sunroom day and night.
During the day I feel like a happy cat and in the evening the candles and incense make me feel like I'm on holidays.

Sunroom and mountains!!!

Hey from my Acty sunroom I can see Mt Fuji - awesome!!!



Fuji was looking stunning in the morning sunlight.

Moving in

The sun shines into my new apartment (Acty) gloriously!!!
Boxes anyone???

Thurs 2nd Dec 2010

The night before the move (Thurs 2nd Dec) most stuff in boxes and the 3 bikes lined up ready for take off.
The morning of the move (Fri 3rd Dec) the weather was like a typhoon at 7am - wild wind and torrential rain.


Unbelieveably by 9am when the removalist truck arrived the storm ceased.

Hooray it's moving time

I have been hunting for a different apartment and have finally made up my mind. The desire to move is motivated mainly by the neighbours. Simple solution - move.
I love the new place and have visited twice - the paper work is now in progress. My current apartment is starting to look very disorganised as everything is making it's way into a box or 30 boxes as they case may be!!!
It's still a few weeks before the actual move but I just wanted to get started to reassure myself that it was really happening.
The pictures don't really show how great I think the new place is but it's a start.

Coco Farm Wine Festival

On Saturday 20th November after a walk, then a train ride, then a bus with 95 folks from the Tokyo Gaijin Club we reached the location of the Coco Farm Wine Festival on a gloriously sunny day in Japan.






We arrived just after 10am which was perfect timing. We eagerly sought out a great picnic spot for the day in amongst the vines with 1000's of other cheerful folk. The live music was great, the food delicious and fantastic company.
Thanks to Eddy, Kaori and Rebecca for a awesome day out.
Around 4.30pm we headed off in the bus to a great onsen to soak in the delightful hot tubs, followed by more food.

Still running

Today did a great morning run, well at least I moved forward even if not running for 18 km according to my mental calculations.
Still haven't bothered to purchase something that will in fact record how far I run. Perhaps I'd be in for a huge shock and don't at all run 18km!!!!
Not sure if I have posted this but I didn't get into the Tokyo marathon. Never mind plenty of other opportunities in life to show off my running skills .... ha ha
In fact no one I know was lucky enough to get into the event so we are planning our own event for Saturday 26th February 2011.
That's motivation to keep training.

Secondly I can't believe that I have almost been in Japan for 12 months. I arrived Jan 4th (from memory) 6-7 weeks and it will be one year. Well, time does fly when busy. So much stuff to do here.
Hoping to get some skiing done this season - day trips from Tokyo will do it just nicely.

Osezaki walk

Found the time whilst at Osezaki to go off exploring and discovered the temple. The large pond contained heaps of those hungry giant gold fish. Lovely views. Mt Fuji was shrouded in misty cloud. Great day.

Diving at Osezaki

Set off early Saturday 13th November with dive gear on the bus. Caught a train from Yokohama. Sometime later arrived at Izu Nagaoka. Whisked off in a mini van with 5 others by 9:15am and 30 mins later arrived at Osezaki Dive location.
Thanks Jim for organising a great day out. The Dry Suit which had been in the cupboard for the last 7 years (at least) flooded although due to the warm clothing I was wearing underneath it wasn't that bad and I had a great little dive. I'll get the dry suit seals replaced and be back in the water through the winter - sure!!!!






Each group at the beach carefully secures their plot by placing a blue tarp on their area. It's early winter and there were lots of divers. This place must be crazy in the summer.

Oct on the bike part 3

Tuesday 26th Oct decided to cycle home from Lake Kawaguichiko instead of doing the train thing.
At 8am loaded up and ventured off to Lake Yamanakako then on, on.
It was a great day of cycling, downhill, glorious rivers with clear water, layers of mountains, more downhill, not so much traffic along route 413, then onto route 16, and reached Yokohama around 3.30pm.
A great cycling trip with a few adventures along the way. Every time I venture out in Japan I love it.
Oh, the onsens were great - such a wonderful clean feeling, then a long soak in the hot tub.
Thank you Japan for volcanoes and onsens.

Oct on the bike part 2

On Monday 25th the sun was shining and the autumn leaves looked spectacular. Again cycled Lakes Kawaguichiko, Saiko and Shojiko also ventured further to Lake Motosuko then back to the start, about 85km. Great roads, meeting chatty people on the way, one man about to go scuba diving in Lake Motosuko to see the red salmon spawning.







The elusive Mt Fuji.