Rocket

In one of his favorite spots.

NH 002 NRT-IAD

View from seat 7A.
[Photo pending]

NH 002 NRT-IAD

View from seat 7A.
[Photo pending]

Trip to NASPA Ski Garden, Niigata Prefecture

Shinkansen Car Diagram.

Matt-san enjoying the "Green Car" luxury.

We took a taxi to Naeba. Note the sunny sky.

Still sunny - and relatively warm. Snow was quite wet and heavy.

View of Naeba Prince Hotel and base station.

Looking across the valley.

Axe marketing display -- the "wake up service".

The display was quite elaborate.

At this point in the day, the weather deteriorated significantly, turning to full blizzard conditions with gale-force winds.

Goggles are a must!

Bus back to NASPA.

Echigo Yuzawa station. Note the wet parking lot. Many of the parking lots and even roads in this area are kept clear of snow via jets of warm water that flood the whole surface and melt the snow.

Here's a closer look:

Ahh, the Gimlet: two parts gin, two parts lime juice, shake until cold.

The bar at the NASPA New Otani was not exactly hopping. Apart from a couple and a father-son pair playing pool, and a woman who came in for one drink that was a cross between a pina colada and an ice cream sundae, Matt-san and I were basically the only patrons. Nice place though. The room wasn't too cheap, but it was huge, and the breakfast and dinner buffets were ample and reasonably tasty. Our package also came with a 'sports ticket' (ski rental or lift ticket or lesson - we got two days of rentals), and a coupon for discounted lift tickets and lessons. We paid about 5000 JPY for the Naeba daily ticket, and 2800 JPY for the Naspa daily ticket. we were going to get the 1/2 day for 3000 JPY but our coupon enabled us to get the daily pass for less.

I was disappointed that there was no public Karaoke facility.

I don't really understand what a "Parody Market" is.

It's a vending machine! No, it's an automated external defibrilator! No kids, new shimmer is a floor wax AND a dessert topping.

Thankfully Matt-san did NOT wear this to dinner.

Fish for breakfast.

NASPA does not permit snow-boarders.

Another wintry day -- not many photos. But lots and lots of powder.

In Echigo Yuzawa station, they have a food court where the sell a lot of sake and other liquor.

They also have these three guys.

The guy who's happy to have liquor.

The guy who's had maybe too much liquor.

And the guy who had too much already. I wonder if he had any gimlets?

In addition to liquor, they also sold these dried fish wrapped in rope. Really not sure what that's all about.

Matt-san charges his gadgets on the train.

Carl-san's gadgets:

Carl-san meets a new friend in Shibuya

Fun trip, easy to get to from Tokyo, and apart from the blizzard the skiing was not bad. On a sunny, colder day after one of the regular powder dumps it gets, Naeba would be fantastic; Naspa is pretty small though and you wouldn't want to spend much more than half or 3/4 of a day there.

This is probably the last long photo series on this blog -- Facebook's photo tool seems a lot easier for these quick-and-dirty albums. The "good" photos will continue to go on Snapfish.

Joetsu Shinkansen MAX Tanigawa 412 Superexpress - EchigoYuzawa - Tokyo

View from car 4 seat 1 E. A little bit of snow was drifting into the station.

Keisei Skyliner Narita Airport - KeiseiUeno

View from car 4, seat 3A.

NH 906 PEK-NRT

View from seat 3F.

Culture-specific products

This is the 'Face7' facial cleansing mask. The label reads, 'Clarify your skin to its original white'.

English Class - Beijing

On the whiteboard: 

"Side-stepping"
"CYAF - cover our ass file"
"Hey boss, Where the hell is my reply."

Advanced English, indeed!

Fast food in Beijing

Japanese, at that.

UA 889 SFO-PEK

View from seat 1A.

UA 1247 DFW-SFO

View from seat 2B.

iPod Vending Machine, DFW

What'll they think up next?

Fahrenheit 451 - Not Fiction any longer

I figured this would happen eventually.

BEIJING, Feb 14 (Reuters) - China has added ghosts, monsters and other things that go bump in the night to its list of banned video and audio content in an intensified crackdown ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

[...]

The new guidelines aim to "control and cleanse the negative effect these items have on society, and to prevent horror, violent, cruel publications from entering the market through official channels and to protect adolescents' psychological health".

It's one thing with the porn crackdown -- I get that. But Poe, Lovecraft, etc?

Electronic Still Life

With Zune and Slinky

AA 1783 IAD - DFW

View from seat 5E.

Primary Election Day

Unmanned electioneering table, outside the polls.

Babushka-Milka

Isn't this cute?

Seen at the Giant

A guy in a chef's outfit was buying this. Ten boxes penne, one bottle Advil.

Seemed funny at the time.

Must be primary season in DC

Obama sign - on the DC metro.

Champions

Some teams put up their championship banners in their home arena. The WNBA's Washington Mystics are no exception.

Three cheers for the Mystics! Attendance Champions!!

Cmon.

Valentines Treats

Don't these look yummy? But wait a minute!
Looking closer.....

Hmm, "Fido" Maki Sushi? Yes, it's all for dogs.

What a country.